Are the Masked Frogs of "Antifa" Really Burning Down Portland?

We trade labels for plain talk on speech, policing, EV mandates, e-bikes, small-town growth and the fragile life of a local business. The thread is responsibility: say what you mean, accept consequences, build places worth defending and keep politics out of the shop floor.

• social media feedback, audience growth, and why labels shut down debate
• redefining terms, free speech boundaries, and social versus legal consequences
• protests, policing, and expectations for public safety
• costs, taxes, and EV mandates versus consumer choice
• e-bikes, helmets, and a license model that teaches responsibility
• small-town identity, growth without infrastructure, and downtown preservation
• fragile businesses in the age of viral reviews and how to complain well
• nostalgia for craft, vintage audio, and the human touch in a tech age
• 3D-printed homes, foam-block builds, and what AI can and cannot replace
• civic standards, retail theft, and rebuilding community norms

Thank you for tuning in to another edition of Whiskey and Donuts

Subscribe, follow, and pour yourself another round of straight talk.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Banter And Gear Woes
• 1:30 Social Media Overload And Audience Feedback
• 2:40 Politics, Labels, And Message Clarity
• 10:45 Slurs, Offense, And Intent
• 14:50 Redefining Fascism And Evolving Language
• 20:30 EU Chat Control And Free Speech
• 27:00 Protests, Policing, And Authority
• 36:30 Law, Consequences, And Public Order
• 44:00 Government Shutdown And Everyday Costs
• 47:30 EV Mandates, Infrastructure, And Choice
• 1:00:20 Bikes, E-Bikes, And Youth Responsibility
• 1:09:30 Small-Town Growth And Identity
• 1:18:00 Social Media, Reviews, And Fragile Businesses
• 1:28:10 Craftsmanship, Nostalgia, And Human Connection
• 1:35:40 AI, Building, And New Construction Tech
• 1:45:00 Civic Pride, Crime, And Community Standards

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:04

This is our first time actually pulling this young people thing off. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 0:14

Pretty much, right?

SPEAKER_05: 0:18

We're uncles that need to spend more money on uh less money on whiskey and and more money on audio equipment to do our podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

Right? I mean everyone who's who said that we should invest more and better equipment, they're exactly on point. Um they're right. We we appreciate all all the feedback. We definitely do. So thanks to everyone who has ever tuned in and listened uh to two old guys talk about nonsense. Yes.

SPEAKER_05: 0:52

Well, I guess we need to get on Twitter, is what my daughter's telling us, because like there's I guess there's a ton of people that's that are responding to our video feeds on Twitter, and neither one of us used Twitter, so those things they're just comments just setting there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13

I wish that I had the I really do wish that I had the bandwidth to do all the things, but man, it's just crazy. So much social media, right? So much of it. It's impossible to keep up and at the same time do all the real world shit that uh men have to do to keep this whole world operating. And that's one of the things, you know. I got into a imagine that I got into a fight on Facebook recently with someone. Imagine. And I said, Look, I said, look, not to get too political too quickly, but I said, if you guys want to win, and I'm talking to a he's a Democrat, he's died in the wool. I said, You have to start from a position of number one, don't even talk about climate change. Just drop, just drop that. Not a winning issue. And number two, you have to be able to say this one sentence. A an adult female is a woman. You've got to be able to say that.

SPEAKER_03: 2:09

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09

You've got to be able too hung up on this one issue. I'm like, no, I'm not hung up on this issue. I'm telling you that you have to have clarity about whatever your message is, but that's one of them. You've got to be able to say that. If you can't say that, you're just spinning your wheels in quicksand and then complaining when the majority of Americans are saying, we think that's dumb, and therefore we don't trust you on these other issues that might be like really important issues. I think, I mean, we could agree that housing, not to get, again, not to get too deep into all the weeds just yet, but we can agree that housing and healthcare are more important than whether Johnny wants to wear a dress and run a 100-meter sprint.

SPEAKER_05: 2:52

I think there's a couple things that Democrats need to do. And this was something that I also got in a fight with one of your followers on Facebook about.

SPEAKER_01: 3:00

Imagine that.

SPEAKER_05: 3:01

And I think I'd even I think I'd even made a comment to you. Like if you just keep calling me a racist because you don't like what I'm saying, or or I'm a Nazi because you then okay, fine, I'm I'm a fucking racist Nazi. Now what? Now what are we gonna do? Now can we have a conversation? Now that I've agreed that I am what you have been calling me, can we just move past that now? Because they it's one matter of fact, one of the uh Teresa just showed me one of the comments or one of the things that's getting a lot of comments on the Twitter is us talking about words, you know, the N-word or racial racial slurs. And I was like, I think I said something to the fact of once I once I get to that point, I'm gonna say it, right? And it's kind of like it it but I want it to carry weight, I want it to offend you, is what I had said, right? If I'm gonna use that word, I want it to be offensive because I want it to carry the weight that it has. Well, there was a ton of people that just got on Twitter and they're freaking I'm just an old white racist, rich guy that I guess I don't know, I don't know what the hell they're calling me, but it's it's insane. But I I feel the same way, like about the Democrats. Like, if you keep using the word, if every conversation, if I say something that you don't like, if I'm like, well, I support Donald Trump, and you're like, well, now you're just a racist fascist. Well, I'm not really a racist or a fascist, so you know, you don't you don't get to just say those things because you're just saying it to everybody that just disagrees with you. Now I disagree with a ton of people, I disagree with you on a ton of things. We're still friends. It doesn't make me a racist or a fascist just because I disagree with you. It doesn't mean I I I like you any less because we disagree on things. We just we just disagree on issues, and that's that. Not everybody's a racist, not everybody's a white supremacist, not everybody's a fascist that that voted for Donald Trump. I doubt if I doubt if there's even a percentage of those people in any group that you could say won him the elections. But according to the Democrats, if it wasn't for the white supremacist in the United States and the fascist movement, he would have never been a president. And it and it's just insane to me. So I think that they also they need to move away from the trans thing. I think they need to move away from the climate change thing, and they need to just quit calling everybody that voted for the their opponent a racist. It's just it's insane, it's insanity.

SPEAKER_02: 5:28

Um, I do see what looks like new school fascism.

SPEAKER_05: 5:36

Um but right, but well, so and they reframed fascism, right? So fascism was a thing, and now they've now if you go to Wikipedia and look up fascists, it's just the MAGA movement. Which is bullshit because if that's it's not like you can't just you can't just change things in 20 fascism's been fascism for the last 150 years, and now all of a sudden they're gonna be like, nah, we're gonna call it fascism now, we're just gonna reframe it. And if you go look at the definition of fascism, it's the mega move mega movement. So it's you you can't that'd be like me, I okay. Well now we're gonna redefine what being black is. You can't redefine it. Like it you can give it a different name if you want, and you can call it something different, but don't don't redefine what fascism is and then say that what we're doing is fascist. Because what Antifa is doing and what Black Lives Matter was doing five, six years ago is way more fascist than what the mega movement's doing right now.

SPEAKER_02: 6:36

So it's interesting. Um, you make a good point about uh a very salient point about whether about the the invention, the creation, the use of new terminology. Um and I don't actually don't have a problem with that. We've talked about that. That's actually related to what we've said with regard to uh the remaking and sort of the reimagination and the reinvention of certain fairy tales. It's like why not just simply write a new story as opposed to simply, you know, as opposed to being lazy and trying to recreate the old story. Um there's a certain laziness in using older terms uh to inflame um to um demonize uh certain groups. So there's certainly a certain lazy, there's definitely a laziness there. Um now, so that's me agreeing with what you're saying. Right. Where I push back is that by the same token, or on the other hand, words can evolve over time. For example, when we talk about slavery or enslavement, we have one thing in mind where a person is being forced to work for no pay. Yet in the modern era, although we we are aware or have reason to believe that slavery does still exist in other parts of the world, that in the US there are people who are technically wage slaves. And I do, you know, not everyone necessarily believes in that, in that concept. But if we've got a person sort of trapped in a cycle where they can't seem to spin their way up out of it, uh they have to continue to work for a very low wage. Uh they are essentially a wage slave, even though there is a wage component to it. So you're not entirely wrong, but also I would ask a little bit of leeway with regard to um allowing definitions to evolve over time.

SPEAKER_05: 8:40

I I'm okay with them evolving over time, but that's like saying, okay, now I'm gonna redefine what a Republican is because I don't like the Republican that's in office.

unknown: 8:50

Right?

SPEAKER_05: 8:51

So now we're gonna redefine Republican is is is is just fascism or is just Marxism or is just dictatorship or is just this because I don't like it. Right? So just because you don't like it doesn't mean that you get to go in and just change the meaning of it because you don't like it. Because what you're asking me to do is just accept that I'm a fascist now because they've changed the definition of fascism and I just need to be okay with it because words evolve. Okay, then and that's that's not it's not, it's not okay. It's not okay to change it, just define it. Like if you want to just say, hey, the MAGA movement is this, then okay, I guess I have to agree with that because that's what it is. Right? I don't see it as fascism, but you're asking me to compromise on whether or not it is fascism so that way the word can evolve. And I don't know if that's the way our country works. That's not you don't get to just start calling you don't get to just start calling a little boy a little girl because that fits the new definition of what a little girl is. Right? You don't get to do that because that's not what it is, right? He's a little boy dressing as a girl. So this party is what it is. You don't get to just call it fascism because you disagree with it. I disagree with the Democratic Party. So now what do we are we gonna just start calling them Marxists because that's what they are?

SPEAKER_02: 10:15

Well, so there is let's look at well gosh, I I know that I want to stay here, but our conversations they just can't sometimes.

SPEAKER_05: 10:26

Right, no, let's just we'll just go with it.

SPEAKER_02: 10:28

Well, one of the things that that I was introduced to, and I'm gonna I'll loop back to the USA in just a moment. Uh one of the things I was introduced to recently um here in Europe was something called chat control. And um I've always sort of I I when I look at social capitalism here in Scandinavia, I'm obviously very fascinated by it. Um I think that a lot of my politics align with the social democrats who are very capitalist, but also look at wanting to make sure that there's a strong enough uh social safety net for everyone to have a really good chance to to live well here, to succeed, um, and to not have a floor like the the poverty in Denmark specifically, just it's just not a thing. I mean uh I see homeless gypsies, but that's different. They're not trying to participate in society. That's not what they want to do, right? So um that's kind of how I've always thought of myself as being one of those like young-minded social democrats, right? Uh, and that's of this the Scandinavian version, not the liberal progressive left Democrat in the US. Uh but you know, I I bring that up because this chat control thing is a they're they're saying that it's about protecting minors and limiting the exploitation of minors online and also preventing trafficking and things like that. When in reality, or how that's achieved rather, is by mass surveillance of all your online activities. Mass government surveillance to me sounds like fascism. That sounds like it just does, right? So it's like it's a for whatever reason, the the left here in Europe and the EU has taken this thing on, and so the right is gaining influence because no one in the middle supports that shit. And certainly no one on the right supports mass surveillance. Sure, we all want to protect children, but how we do it shouldn't infringe upon all of our rights in the process. So I mean the fascist element of liberal politics left in liberal politics that I would I would offer is something that is it's to me it's fascist.

SPEAKER_05: 13:00

If we're at the and also you're in a different country, you don't you don't get to have the same rights where you're at that I have here because their laws are different than mine. They, you know, there are people in Europe right now that you know they're going to jail because they're saying stuff on Facebook. You know what I mean? I don't know. Like, I don't know how true any true any of that is, but those are the stories that are floating around. So you don't celebrate the same freedoms here. Just like when you're illegal and you come to this country, the left is like, well, he has rights. They don't have rights because they're not here illegally. So they don't, they don't, they're they're not a legal citizen of the United States. They don't get to enjoy the constitutional rights that a citizen of this country has. Because they're here illegally, they've broken the law, they've come here illegal, they don't get to celebrate that stuff. They don't get to use the oh, well, I have a constitutional right. You have no constitutional right because you're not a citizen of this country. No different than if I went to Europe and I started spouting off and saying stuff in Europe online that they say is against the law, they would come and arrest me and put me in jail for that because I don't get to celebrate my rights as an American citizen in a different country. It's not the way that it works. The world is just weird like that. But only the liberals here wanted to be free everything.

SPEAKER_02: 14:22

So you mentioned that. Now I did look that up sometime last year uh because I thought I'm like, uh, that didn't happen. That didn't really happen. There is at least one case, at least one, where uh someone in the UK was was arrested for what they had said online.

SPEAKER_05: 14:39

And I want to say there was one I I just seen them on Twitter. Some little kid, they just came, um they just two police officers just went to this parents, the the kid's house of told the parents that they needed her devices, and they confiscated all of her devices because of things that she was saying online. She was like nine or ten years old. They're gonna put her in jail.

SPEAKER_02: 15:01

Right. So, you know, for me, that's one of those there's certain things that I say even one case is too many. That's this is one of the issues as a as a person, you know that I'm I'm big on saying whatever the hell I want to say. I'm a I'm a free speech free speech absolutist. I can't even get the word out. Right. I'm a free speech absolutist, and then really have been for a long time. And so I've always, you know, I didn't care how hateful someone's speech was. You can say what the fuck you want to say. Um, you can't make threats. That's different. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 15:34

Well, and and actionable threats are different. Right. And well, and just because you can say whatever you want doesn't necessarily mean that you should always maybe put that shit online.

SPEAKER_03: 15:44

There you go. You know what I mean? Like I don't want you arrested for it.

SPEAKER_05: 15:47

Right. So, like if me and if me and you are sitting in my bar and there's no devices on, I'm free to say whatever I want. There's no record of it. It's just me and you. And and some of that stuff should be said like that. These idiots going on national TV and going on the YouTubes and the Facebooks and the Twitters and all of the web shit that they have saying this stuff and expecting no consequence. Nobody ever said that there wasn't a consequence to free speech. You say stupid shit, there's a consequence to saying stupid shit. Just like when you go out and do stupid shit. If you go out and drink and drive, there's a consequence to that. Right? It's against the law. Speech is not against the law, but that doesn't mean that I need to employ you. I I can I can certainly fire you from your position at my business if I disagree with what you're saying because you're representing yourself. You work for my business, and now you're representing yourself to the world, and if they know where you work, now that's my business. Right? My business doesn't stand with the shit that you're saying, or maybe it does in some cases, right? It could stand with it, and maybe you maybe you stand up and say, No, I support what that person's saying, and I'll stand behind that. But you have to be there has to be some kind of give and take there. You don't just get a go-through life without consequences.

SPEAKER_02: 17:11

I believe in consequences for sure. Uh but I don't think one of those consequences. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05: 17:16

I am also a free speech person, though. I believe that you can say all the stupid shit you want. It doesn't hurt my feelings.

SPEAKER_02: 17:22

And so for me, the you know, the fact that you know we were able to to confirm that you know someone had been arrested for an online comment uh was was very disturbing. I just didn't, you know, I'm always going to I mean we can if we if you want to shame someone for that, for what they said, that's fine. You don't like what they said, shame them. Blast them. I don't care. Arrest them, have them arrested, have them charged with some whatever this was. And I don't have I I'll apologize for not having the full context of that case and uh right before me right now, but I can confirm that it is so there's a few of them now.

SPEAKER_05: 18:03

Yeah. So it's not just one.

SPEAKER_02: 18:05

So the fact that it that it has happened is a problem. We don't we don't want that uh to exist. Um and so that's something that has been authored by this is a type of thing, a type of fascist sort of treatment of individuals that I consider fascist uh for us to, you know, try to control speech. Now you've heard me talk about your your president with regard to these like loyalty tests that they're doing and everything, and I consider that sort of authoritizing that is sort of authoritarian.

SPEAKER_05: 18:40

I don't know what kind of I don't know what loyalty test you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02: 18:43

He kind of wants people to bend the knee. He's really into that.

SPEAKER_05: 18:46

Um I mean I think that's just a left-wing talking point, but continue.

SPEAKER_02: 18:51

Could be.

SPEAKER_05: 18:51

I don't see people bending the knee. I see a I see a group of people that are just tired of dealing with the left's bullshit, and they're just tired of dealing with, oh, because I said I'm a woman, I'm a woman, or because I said I'm a unicorn, I'm a unicorn, or because I said you can't do this, you can't do this. Well, the law is the law. And and if you don't like it, you're anybody that doesn't like it, they're more than welcome to move out. They're not more than welcome to go into cities and just burn shit down. That's unacceptable behavior. When you start burning shit to the ground, there's consequences to that, just like there's consequences to saying things.

SPEAKER_02: 19:25

So this this this city thing that's kind of going on uh seems strange to me. Like what is the I've heard I keep hearing this National Guard here, National Guard there.

SPEAKER_05: 19:37

What is and then I look up and I see pictures and videos of of National Guard troops being used uh for well I don't know if this I don't know if this case the bend the knee thing that you're talking about, but you know, you have a bunch of people on the right that are tired of their cities being run by democratic people that that just allow shit to happen. So you have like Oregon's the big one right now, and in Portland, uh Antifa's there, and they I guess they've been ever there every night for months down there, and they're like right now. I today I was just looking this morning. Um they actually are blocking off streets. So if you live anywhere around the neighborhood, you have a bunch of people in rainbow hats and black face masks that won't let you drive down the street. Okay. Which is just freaking crazy to me.

SPEAKER_02: 20:29

Sounds like a local police issue, no?

SPEAKER_05: 20:31

You are frozen.

SPEAKER_02: 20:32

I'm frozen? No, you're frozen, buddy.

SPEAKER_05: 20:35

Uh what have I got here?

SPEAKER_02: 20:37

Are we good?

SPEAKER_05: 20:38

I had something pop up on the screen.

SPEAKER_02: 20:39

So we came by okay. Yeah, I can hear I can still hear their audio, though. You were good clear there.

SPEAKER_05: 20:44

Okay, so you know, there's you have these people that are doing this stuff, and you know, the the right's just tired of it. You can say the president's tired of it, you can say the right-leaning Congress is tired of it, you can say me as a right wing voter is tired of it, but I'm tired of these people just going down there threatening law enforcement. You know, there's they they're you're civilian. Like, let them do their job. If you if you disagree that I should be picking up illegals in this country, then go become a politician and change fucking laws. Change the law. Because all they're doing is the law. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean you get to call it fascism. Just because you don't like them upholding the law and arresting people that are in our country illegally, I I I don't know, I'm not saying that I even agree with all of it. I'm just saying they're doing their job. You don't get to dox these people and go find out their addresses, start threatening their fucking kids, threatening them at home, threatening their spouses, that you're gonna go kill their. That that's not that's that's fascism. That's a that's dictatorship. That's you disagree with law enforcement doing their job, so now you're gonna hunt them down on the streets when they're with their families getting a lunch and you're gonna shoot these people. That's what you're saying. That cannot exist in this country. It can't. It just I don't give a shit what side of the aisle you're on. That type of behavior cannot exist here.

SPEAKER_02: 22:20

A bunch of masked men show up at John Mack's door.

SPEAKER_05: 22:23

Somebody's getting shot.

SPEAKER_02: 22:25

Demanding whatever it is they want to demand. Are you choosing to and they're and they're claiming that they're that there's some authority, but they haven't necessarily competently uh or sufficiently to your to your standard uh demonstrated that they have the authority to demand whatever they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_05: 22:44

I thought you were asking if Antifa people showed up at my house. If you're asking if law enforcement showed up at my house, I have nothing to hide.

SPEAKER_02: 22:52

Uh a bunch of mass.

SPEAKER_05: 22:53

I'm not doing anything illegal, so first of all, why are they coming to my house?

SPEAKER_02: 22:59

That's just it.

SPEAKER_05: 23:00

So so I uh I I've broke plenty of laws. So please don't show up to innocent uh situations. When I'm walking down the street with my dog, cops aren't just stomping and saying, hey, why are you walking down the street? Because that's not what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 23:16

Uh see, and that's that's that's that's privilege speaking.

SPEAKER_02: 23:20

Not privilege.

SPEAKER_05: 23:21

That's privilege speaking on that. When has it happened? When has that happened?

SPEAKER_02: 23:24

See, stop and frisk was an actual policy that existed in the US, but we won't we won't go beyond that, right? Really quickly.

SPEAKER_05: 23:31

But but I hold on, we've already established that I've been in way more trouble in my life than you have in your life. I mean, that's I've I've gone to jail. I've I've been pulled over, I've had my car searched against my will, I've had all of that happen to me. You know why they pulled me over though? Because I was breaking the fucking law. So they didn't pull me over because I was just driving down the street. I drive down the street every day. I've been pulled over recently. You know why they pulled me over? I was breaking the law. I was speeding or I was doing something. They pulled me over, they gave me a ticket, I went about my day, they went about their day. I'm not walking down the street, and we're not talking about 1960 or 1950 or 1940 or 1930 when all that shit was happening. We're talking about today. So I'm sorry that the past happened. I'm sorry that that shit happened before 50, 60, 70 years ago. Today is what I'm talking about. When you're walking down the street today, they're not just stopping innocent people that are walking down the street. That's not what cops do. And you're delusional if you think that that is what they're doing.

SPEAKER_02: 24:36

So we're not, we're certainly not going to indict all officers and all law enforcement. We're not doing that. Nor are we going to say that you know all citizens are good actors either. We're not going to do that, either of those things. Uh but upon you mentioned Portland. Um, did Portland, and I will confess I I haven't done any amount of research on this. Did the did uh did the the mayor of Portland or the governor of Oregon reach out to the president and say, hey, we need some support here? Is that what happened?

SPEAKER_05: 25:11

No, no, no. No, they've they've actually told the police to not get involved in it. So basically, they're saying Antifa has a right to be there and do what they're doing, and the police are being directed by their local officials to not get involved.

SPEAKER_02: 25:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 25:29

Um so what I heard about recently was there was some lady that there was a matter of fact, the lady and a like a 10-year-old girl got assaulted. Like she got punched in the face or kicked or something, and then some reporter was down there, like in a uh social media reporter was down there, and they start they started like chasing her down, they beat her up. Uh I believe, and this is just the Cliff Note version. I believe she engaged with police. Uh her security had made contact with the other with the person that hit her, and they were following that person. They contacted the police, the police went over, said, Sorry, there's nothing we can do about it. And then the next day, they put out an APB for the girl that they said, Hey, we're looking for this girl. We have her picture. When they when they legitimately were standing across the street from her and would not go arrest her. And that's the type of crap that's happening there.

SPEAKER_02: 26:28

That sounds sudden, doesn't sound like that big of a deal. I don't know. Uh is it why is it not getting actual people getting assaulted on the street?

SPEAKER_05: 26:34

Hang on a second.

SPEAKER_02: 26:34

Let me let me finish, let me keep the statement out. Uh I guess I would ask, why are we not seeing uh, and maybe my social media is just a little bit dull. Why are we not seeing actual coverage of this is like this sort of widespread thing? If it's an isolated attack, uh certainly not something that's wonderful or or that should be okayed, but again, it seems like a really small kind of issue, is what I'm hearing.

SPEAKER_05: 27:01

I don't understand what you're saying is a small issue. You have to sound like a very isolated event. You have a group of Antifa people that are showing up to a iced facility for the last, let's just call it 30 days, but I know it's more than that, every night, threatening people and beating people up, not letting people drive to and from their houses. They're they're trashing the property around. So if your house was across the street from this place, your house is getting trashed. They're there till two, three o'clock in the morning with bullhorns and noisemakers and all of the crap just disrupting life because they don't like what ICE is doing.

SPEAKER_02: 27:46

Do they have a website?

SPEAKER_05: 27:48

What's that?

SPEAKER_02: 27:48

Do they have a website or a Facebook?

SPEAKER_05: 27:50

Does it Antifa have a website? I ain't going on no fucking Antifa website. You kidding me? I'm just looking for I mean I can I can sh I can send you stuff if I mean you downplaying it doesn't make it any less accurate that it's happening. But I can send you something if you would like.

SPEAKER_02: 28:09

Let's see. So Ice facility in Portland? Under siege. And it's only happening at night? They're so they're going to work in the daytime and then to do the siege at night?

SPEAKER_05: 28:26

Well, yeah, well, they they show up there to protest every night.

SPEAKER_02: 28:30

Okay. So it's not so this is different than you. Okay, so here's here's what came across my feeds the last uh last month or so. Um was that we were gonna have the National Guard in Memphis, the National Guard in Chicago, National Guard in DC, which is where they were doing the gardening and beautification work. But those were related to just general crime. But what I'm hearing from you right now, and correct me if I'm hearing you incorrectly, but what I'm hearing from you right now about Portland specifically, take the other cities out of it, we're using the National Guard there because the ICE facility in Portland is under siege by a bunch of protesters, Antifa.

SPEAKER_05: 29:12

I don't I do not know if they've sent, I know that they've talked about sending the National Guard there. I do not know if they have sent the National Guard there. I know that ICE is out there defending that space, making them like they've put up barriers now, like you have to stay on that side of the street. If you're gonna protest, you're gonna knock if you come out into the middle of the street, if you block cars, we're gonna arrest you. If you come on this side of the street onto the property, we're gonna arrest you. But I believe it's still just ICE agents that are doing that stuff. So they're so they're not National Guard showed up yet.

SPEAKER_02: 29:43

So the protesters are are deliberately disrupting and potentially So they're disrupting ICE operations there.

SPEAKER_04: 29:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_05: 29:53

But then I know somebody just got shot in Chicago.

SPEAKER_02: 29:56

So someone got so now we're back to Chicago. So sh they shot someone in Chicago for

SPEAKER_05: 30:00

I think that might that might have been National Guard because uh she was in a vehicle with multiple people and they were ramming uh IC ICE vehicles, military or they were ramming police vehicles with their car. And when they went to remove her from the car, she had a gun, and I guess she got shot.

SPEAKER_02: 30:17

So a um a vehicle, I don't certainly a gun, uh, but a vehicle is a deadly weapon, and if you're using it uh as a weapon, then you are you pose a you pose a deadly threat.

SPEAKER_05: 30:28

And so I don't know if they killed I don't know if they shot and killed her or not, but I do know that she was shot.

SPEAKER_02: 30:33

Um but I I would not have a problem if that's you know what went on. I would have no problem with law enforcement uh acting to eliminate or neutralize that threat.

SPEAKER_05: 30:42

Yeah. I don't I mean I don't have a problem with any of the crap they're doing right now.

SPEAKER_02: 30:45

Let's see.

SPEAKER_05: 30:46

So Portland I think they should have started I think they should start arresting these freaking bozos and just put them in jail because they're all a bunch of softies anyway, and if they had to spend any time locked up with real hardened criminals, they would leave uh they would leave that jail or that prison with a different aspect of life. You know what I mean? Lock them up with some of these people that they think they're defending, you know? Lock them up. I I I say you should just I'll buy tickets. We can just start sending gay people to Palestine.

SPEAKER_04: 31:15

You have to see how that goes.

SPEAKER_05: 31:16

You know what I mean? Like these people are there, you got these LBGTQX people defending hardened, they're freaking military killers, you know what I mean? And I'm not saying Palestine's right or what I don't even care. I just see that you know, you have these people, this this left-wing group of people that are defending people that if if those two people's paths actually crossed in the real world, one side would kill the other. That's just the way that that would happen. And but yet you have these people that are defending them being like, yeah, I support that. You guys are idiots. But hey, what do I know? I need to turn some lights around here. Hold on, give me one second.

SPEAKER_02: 31:56

I'm gonna have to get you a little light. Yeah. Light of mine. Um, so I am looking at a there's a video here of of a small handful of people. I'm not saying that a small handful can't do a lot of of damage and be disruptive. I'm looking at the what appears to be the DHS facility in Portland.

SPEAKER_05: 32:19

So I just sent you a link. Uh, you know, uh a guy that I like to watch, his name's JD Delay. Basically, uh he's a sobriety teacher, spent a lot of time in and out of prison. Um not right or left leaning. That's his that's his little spiel. Um, he is an Oregon native, so he was in Oregon. Uh I don't know if you've ever watched a guy or not, super cool guy. Um and then so he went out. So he took some he took his cameras and went out and offered these people like a platform to to speak, to just like give like why are you here? Not not whether I'm I'm not with you, against you, I'm not, I don't support Donald Trump, I don't support Kamala Harris type, but that was his kind of thing. I just he just has a platform, right? So he has a lot of followers on his YouTube, and uh he thought that he would just go out there and give these people, kind of give them a voice. Like, what are you what are you standing on? Why are you here?

SPEAKER_02: 33:17

Why are you here?

SPEAKER_05: 33:18

Yeah, right. Why are you here? What are you doing? Like, is is is this movement worth worth what you're fighting for? Like basically just giving them a giving him a mic. And these people started attacking him, calling him a proud boy, calling him a fascist, calling him a racist, calling him a white supremacist, because he showed up with a camera. These people don't even know him. Like you you're just you you see a uh a guy walking down the street, and you just assume because he has a camera, he's down there across he it some of them, some of the people actually talked with him. And and and you know, uh, I think there was one guy, like if you watch it's like a 20-minute video, one of the guys like talked with him for a few minutes and then asked him to not show his face and and not air. So he, you know, he didn't, but anyway, so he was down there for a couple hours. And he and and you can listen to him. He went down there, he has he has a YouTube channel, he he tells you flat out, I'm not a race, or I'm not a I'm not right, I'm not left. And he just gave an honest opinion of what is going on in in Portland, Oregon right now.

SPEAKER_00: 34:23

Okay, I will check that out.

SPEAKER_05: 34:25

It's good, you know. I think it's it's good coming from somebody like him that isn't playing one side or the other. That's good information.

SPEAKER_02: 34:34

Show me what you got. Um, what else do we have going on? Uh government shutdown. I've been through government shutdowns before. I've actually been in the government shutdown before. Um Do you have a take on that at all, or is it just simply something that's out there?

SPEAKER_05: 34:56

It's just political theater to me. You can't the problem is you can't blake believe either side, right? Chuck Schumer's blaming Donald Trump. Donald Trump's blaming Chuck Schumer. At the end of the night, those guys are all gonna go sit in the back room of whatever building they're in and they're gonna drink a whiskey together and figure out how to screw us more tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02: 35:21

Speaking of whiskey, here's uh tonight's uh offering.

SPEAKER_05: 35:25

We have um Oh, what are you drinking? I've got uh Cedar Ridge.

SPEAKER_02: 35:30

It says it says 2011, but it that's that's just the bottle number, that's not a year. Okay. Um but yeah, Cedar Cedar Ridge, Iowa bourbon whiskey.

SPEAKER_05: 35:40

Yeah?

SPEAKER_02: 35:40

That's crazy, right?

SPEAKER_05: 35:42

I know I need to get something. You got a glass?

SPEAKER_02: 35:44

I do have a glass.

SPEAKER_05: 36:06

Well okay, we'll drink this one.

SPEAKER_02: 36:15

It's got a big uh big selection there in the bar.

SPEAKER_05: 36:23

So this will be uh my little offering. Ah Dag Jr. And this is uh hundred and thirty-one proof.

SPEAKER_02: 36:33

Whoa! I ain't got none like that. Mine's like eighty proof. We're going light tonight.

SPEAKER_05: 36:42

All right, well, there we go. I wasn't even prepared to drink tonight. I love your I love your glass of cheers.

SPEAKER_02: 36:49

Cheers, my friend.

SPEAKER_01: 37:02

That's good.

SPEAKER_05: 37:04

The people are like, man, you make funny faces when you drink that, but you're saying it's good.

SPEAKER_02: 37:11

Man, life is good though. Life is good, but I will say, you know, I I what? I'm broke. John, these dudes came in and said they're gonna save us all this money. Come on now, John. We're gonna save us all this money, we're gonna do this tariff thing, and and it's gonna but we but when I say save all this money, let me qualify that. We're gonna use our Doge department to like cut a bunch of spending, save a bunch of money. Then we're gonna do tariffs on top of that, and life's gonna improve. John?

SPEAKER_05: 38:00

I don't know if it got more expensive, it just hasn't gotten cheaper.

SPEAKER_02: 38:04

Okay, we're getting it.

SPEAKER_05: 38:05

You know what I mean? Like, I don't I don't know if the price has actually gone up on anything, really. I've some prices have come down. I know like the egg thing was a big deal for a second because everybody was complaining about eggs.

SPEAKER_00: 38:16

Like that would have been a good feature for us to keep on.

SPEAKER_05: 38:23

Uh the eggs were a big deal. I know that I know the price of things have come down not as much as what people were hoping. You know, I wanted gas prices to be down a lot lower than they are, and they did get low for a while. But the problem in California is the once once they lowered those prices, once the oil prices went down, Gavin Newsom just started adding more taxes. I think we're at like 87 cents right now uh per gallon of gas taxed in California. Almost a dollar in taxes. Nowhere else in the United States, but here, California, beautiful sunshine state.

SPEAKER_02: 39:03

That's as everyone everyone's moving to uh not everyone, but a lot of people move to EVs. But I heard EVs are are actually I heard what I heard, John, and it it aligns with something that we had talked about before, I thought anyway, was that there was really a pullback from the EV push. And so is California moving forward with that that EV mandate they had, or is that the one? I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_05: 39:27

I know that I know that they were I know that they were running running with it. You know what I mean? They're the ones that kind of set the stage for the rest of the United States to be completely electric by 2030. But it's not possible. I mean, even Elon Musk says that that's not possible. We don't have the infrastructure for it. Like you can't you can't just make everybody drive an electric car. You know what I mean? But again, you know, the government pushes pushing like the 15-minute city thing. Have you heard anything about that?

SPEAKER_02: 39:59

So I like that concept. I I know generally what that concept is. Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_05: 40:03

So that fits with the with the EV thing, right? Because every every 15 miles or I think 15 miles or 15 minutes away from you, you have all of the luxuries that you need. Yeah. So, but you don't have that all the way through the country yet. You know what I mean?

unknown: 40:18

Of course not.

SPEAKER_05: 40:18

In in our area, in the Sacramento area, that 100% works. I can drive, I could drive anywhere I want. I mean, I think unless you start getting down like the middle of of California, but I'm I'm sure they have chargers out there now. But you know, anywhere in this immediate area, I can spend all day driving an electric vehicle around here. And, you know, I mean, you still pay for electricity to charge it, but I don't know. They I think the whole EV thing's just a bunch of bullshit anyway. It's just another here, here's what I think it is. Have you watched uh 1923? No Yellowstone stuff?

SPEAKER_02: 40:58

I've I've seen no Yellowstone, the series. I've watched some of that, but no, I haven't seen the Okay, so 1923, uh it's it's in the name.

SPEAKER_05: 41:06

It's 1923, United States, right? And uh one of the characters, uh, they're talking about razors for men, right? And and the wife said, Harrison Ford's the guy he's shaving. And uh the wife says, Next thing you know, they're gonna be pushing razors for women, and then they're gonna want us shaving our armpits, and they're gonna want us shaving down there, and they're gonna want us shaving our legs. And they said, they're gonna create a product to create a problem that we didn't have. And that's the way I feel about electric vehicles.

SPEAKER_02: 41:41

Terrific analogy. I love it. Um I'm uh all right, so are you uh you you prefer the legs, her legs to be to be shaved, or the woman's legs to be shaved or not shaved? Oh yeah. Yeah. Shake shape.

SPEAKER_05: 41:54

Well, what's that? Uh I always tell my wife I want that disease, uh, the the one where you're going bald lapecia or yeah. She's like, don't say that. But yeah, like hair gets in the way of everything.

SPEAKER_02: 42:05

Like it's smooth, man. There's no but that's a that's a that's a great, a great analogy. And I my thing, and I, you know, you and I were were were really in line with that, where hey, make the electric car available. We love technology, but a mandate, what the what are we talking about?

SPEAKER_05: 42:22

Like well, and it's kind of weird because as California goes with stuff like that, the rest of the country goes, because these the big three want to be able to sell their cars in California. And if they have one state they can't sell them in, if none of the other states care, they're gonna comply to what California's safety regulations are, what their fuel and all of that stuff. So that's why you end up with all of the bullshit smog stuff that we have, you know, like the diesel trucks need that that blue crap that goes in there now, and that's all just so you can sell a diesel truck in California. It doesn't, it's nowhere else in the United States, but now these people in Idaho or in Wyoming or in wherever, they have to buy this crap because their truck has to be able to be sold in California. And it's and it's I don't know, it's stupid. I heard Dodge was bringing back their uh SRT division. Um, so I don't know. I mean, I know that they had gone away from doing all of like the muscle car builds and the big motor builds, the big V8s and stuff, because they were anticipating having to you know switch to electric. So they had started downsizing some of their their bigger motors and like the high horsepower stuff. Um but I heard all of that's coming back now. So we'll see where you know where Chevy and Ford go. I mean Ford never stopped.

SPEAKER_02: 43:44

You know, for me it's you know the consumer wins when the consumer has options, right? That's how I that's how I see it. I think I say the consumer wins, everyone wins. I'm saying it's not just the consumer, the businesses win when people have options, you know. So uh I'm always gonna support that. Sure.

SPEAKER_05: 44:00

And I'm not I'm not against electric cars, some of them are really cool.

SPEAKER_02: 44:03

You know, I want them to exist, but I don't want them to be.

SPEAKER_05: 44:06

I don't I don't know if I would ever own one. Yeah, I like I like the sound of my truck, you know what I mean? I like the sound of my motorcycle. When when Harley was talking about mate going electric, they had some guy from I don't know, over on your side of the world right now, um, that was running Harley for a while, and uh they had the big uh Sturgis rally like either last year or the year before, and they showed up there after this guy said they're basically not gonna build Harley's anymore, and they're gonna get rid of the the V-twin motor, and they're switching to a whole different platform and they're gonna go electric. And that booth was as bare empty as the Bud Light booth was there the year before.

SPEAKER_00: 44:48

I'm like, wait, what?

SPEAKER_05: 44:49

No, nobody, nobody went so right after that rally, they started talking about getting rid of this guy. Um, they got rid of him and they brought in some old biker hippie, I guess, now that's running Harley. And I mean, it is what it is. But I like the sound of like I like the sounds of my motorcycles, right? Like that's why I I bought them. I I love the sound of my truck when I get in my truck and it rumbles. I I love that. I my brother builds hot rods. I love I love going into his garage or into his shop when he starts one of his cars up, and just the sound of it and the smells and all of that is just nostalgic to me. And uh if you make it go away and make it down the street, I don't know if that's the same thing.

SPEAKER_02: 45:31

I mean, you know what I mean. Would we have enjoyed the Sydney Sweeney commercial if she was driving an electric? I just don't think we would.

SPEAKER_05: 45:39

No, definitely not. It doesn't it doesn't land. It doesn't. I mean, I guess I mean I don't know, those Teslas they're pretty badass cars. You know what I mean? They're quick, they are quicker than shit. They're not top speed fast, but they'll get to top speed faster than anything on the planet, you know? They go from zero to a hundred in a freaking crazy amount of time, faster than a gas car, but it just doesn't sound as cool.

SPEAKER_02: 46:07

I'll say so. That was one of the things that when I got my EV right. I had gone now, I've actually done like the swing up when Tesla first came out. I I don't have a year in mind, but let's say 15 years ago, whenever that was. I think it was like 2012 or something. 12 like that, yeah. Something like that. I want one. So I just kind of like stuck it in my head. But of course, California, don't really have a lot of space, I can't like garage it vehicles, um, all the things can't certainly can't afford to insure an extra vehicle. I'm not really driving. Uh so it was kind of like a fantasy type thing. And so it kind of stuck with me for a long time. And then as I learned more about how you do 2003.

SPEAKER_05: 46:45

Sorry. 2003.

SPEAKER_02: 46:46

Okay. So as I learned more about the charging uh situation, and I'm like, no, I I got road trips like to get in my my truck, drive 600 miles, and then refuel. Right. I'm not doing anything where I gotta like stop and it takes 30 minutes or maybe the next one, right? Yeah, like I'm just not doing that. And so I went completely away from it. Then I was like, oh, you know what? When the lightning came out, I'm like, okay, I'll get the F-150 Lightning, and I'll just got one. Right. And so I'm like, I'll get that, but I'm not gonna be driving, I'm not doing road trips on it, I'm just gonna have it as my my daily driver. So long story short on that is that when I saw one in the wild for the first time right next door, I was like, I don't think I like this thing. Cause I saw the he was a the he was a tile guy. Yeah. And he went and he opened up the front of his I like that.

SPEAKER_05: 47:41

He was as a contractor, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02: 47:46

I was like, no, Joe, I was so mad. John, I was so mad at this thing. I'm like, I'm never doing that. And so I ended up when I when I did finally decide, okay, I will go A B shopping again, I wasn't even considered the lightning. I didn't even consider it.

SPEAKER_05: 48:02

So what made so I know a guy, uh his dad uh owns the Ford dealership here in Rockland. I think he owns a couple, one in Sacramento too. Anyway, I called him up and he was like, Yeah, you don't want that truck, dude. Like, so he bought one when it first came out, and then they towed their bow up boat up to Tahoe or something, and he said he barely made it because the charge because the the charge drains faster when you're when it's under a load.

SPEAKER_02: 48:28

Right?

SPEAKER_05: 48:29

Right so it's not like and uh and you want a truck, the reason why you have a truck is to haul stuff, right? It's not you don't have a truck, it's not a car, right? So, like if you bought a car, you're not gonna tow stuff with it and it drains the batteries faster. And if you don't have the infrastructure like what we were talking about to charge, how when you get halfway there and there's no charging stations, what do you do? Buy a generator and plug your truck into a gas generator? Like, come on now.

SPEAKER_02: 48:54

Like, is is triple A coming out to you with uh with a generator?

SPEAKER_05: 48:57

Battery charger.

SPEAKER_02: 48:58

So it's it's it's it was crazy, and so it is evolving though.

SPEAKER_05: 49:03

The electric thing is evolving. So they have some race cars out right now that I was watching, and uh their biggest hurdle, you know, like you know, they're racing 200 laps or whatever, right? 200 miles. Well, these batteries are draining really fast. So the you know, the cars come in, they get pit stops, they get tires, and they get gas, and then they go. So these are they're working on a quick change battery for these race cars. So things are evolving, right? That it the electric industry is gonna keep getting better. Before when they first came out, they you couldn't even go to the quick chargers at your local target and charge in 30 minutes. You had to go home and plug it in, right? And then you know, those things became more and more, and now they they've adapted to where you can plug in any electric car there. So it's it's really they are building the infrastructure, it will get there. And I wouldn't doubt it that at some point um they've almost completely gone away from gas-burning engines because you know, lithium poisoning the air is way better than carbon monoxide.

SPEAKER_02: 50:03

Just say it. I got you.

SPEAKER_05: 50:07

I remember cleaner vehicles.

SPEAKER_02: 50:09

Yeah. So what what they had told us also was that you could simply plug it in at home. What I didn't know until I actually got one was that the 110 charging is so slow. Like, oh yeah, it'll be ready in like four days. Like, wait, what? I have to park my car and plug it in for four days to get a full charge? That's crazy.

unknown: 50:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 50:28

But when you get the uh the 220 ends up being like an overnight, we'll charge it up for you.

SPEAKER_05: 50:33

So is that what you got?

SPEAKER_02: 50:35

Yeah, um, you just simply they're pretty easy to install.

SPEAKER_05: 50:38

I've installed them for a couple people, they're pretty easy to install. You just need to swap, put a breaker in. Usually, because the you most electrical panels are on garage walls anyway, you can just drill a hole straight through the back of the panel and just run it straight in and hook up your charger to that little charging station.

SPEAKER_02: 50:54

Yeah, it was funding to get the the home chart. It was it was life-changing. It was when I had tried to get the thing like driving around town from station to station, I got yelled at by Karen at Target. And then I'm like, wait, wait, let's use my story. Karen yelled at me at Target because I had apparently skipped the line. I didn't know it was a freaking line. I thought that you have to it was weird. I think we may have had that conversation already, but yeah. Then I was going to another one, but it's in an apartment complex and it's only for those residents. I'm like, but it's not being used. No, it's residence only. It's not being used. Residence only. Okay, fine, I leave. So then I go back to the Volvo dealership because I can get a dumper free there. Right. Only wait, John, even though it's free.

SPEAKER_01: 51:45

It's the freaking slow one.

SPEAKER_05: 51:48

It's free, but you have to be there for four days.

SPEAKER_01: 51:54

I sat there, I took a nap like an hour and a half. It went up four percent. I had enough jokes to get back home. Come on now.

SPEAKER_02: 52:06

I called the guy, I'm like, there's something wrong with the machine. I said, you know, you guys offer me free charging, which is great, I appreciate it, but it doesn't really charge, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 52:13

Do better, Volvo, do better.

SPEAKER_02: 52:15

Yeah, and it was basically, and that's what he said, it's basically just a 110. It was a charge point, but it's basically the same, you know, as my 110 at home.

SPEAKER_00: 52:25

Like, where do you do that at?

SPEAKER_02: 52:27

So make a very long story short. I called uh what was it, Ampere Electric the the following day. I'm like, hey, my brother needs a box like now. That's funny. Kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_05: 52:42

So what it is electric bikes are a thing now, though. Those kids, the kids on electric bikes, I caught myself being an old man, and then uh John, I had to stop because you know I didn't want to be a car. I it kind of pissed me off. I I like it got me going, and then I thought about it, and I was like, uh, if I was a kid right now, if I if I was if I was if I was between the age of 12 and 15 years old, I would be the kid that I was pissed off at. I'd be riding wheelies, I'd be freaking ripping that thing as fast as I could. I'd be hitting all of the jumps, all of the bumps, doing all of the things they're doing. So I can't be mad at them about it.

SPEAKER_02: 53:24

Where, okay, where were you when and just tell us tell us what happened?

SPEAKER_05: 53:30

Uh I was just driving down the street, and he he was in, you know, he was in the bike lane on the street, but he was riding a wheelie, and he's like doing the little zigzaggy thing. He wasn't like, I would have never hit him. He wasn't like out in the middle of the road, like riding a wheelie towards me. I'll run that little son of a bitch over. But he was just, you know, he was being a kid, and I was like, oh, those kids, and I got, and I was like, Oh, you're an old man right now. And I was like, don't be like that. So now and I I do think, I do think that they need to do something about it. Taking them away from the kids isn't what they need to do. I think maybe, and this is something that I talked about with my wife and with my friend Ryan, instead of taking them away, how about if you just do a license? Because they're a motorcycle, and these things are going 20, 30 miles an hour, right? So I wear a helmet when I ride my motorcycle. So the little bicycle helmet that that kid's wearing, it's not gonna help them. Make them take a class, make them go to the DMV, make them register it, make sure that it's put lights on it, do whatever, make it a make it a vehicle that they can actually ride on the streets, and then make them abide by the law. If they're riding a wheelie down the street, no different than if you're riding a wheelie on a motorcycle down the street, cops can pull you over and be like, you can't do that, and we're gonna give you a ticket, you know, but give them a chance. Don't just take it away from them because you don't like it.

SPEAKER_02: 54:48

So here's where I line up, John, is that those didn't exist, you know, 30 years ago, right? 40 years ago. I guess I mean mopeds did, but not like this, you know. Right. It wasn't right.

SPEAKER_05: 55:00

Yeah, we used to write gas-powered mopeds to school the same way we rode those, the kids are riding those things. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02: 55:07

You know, it's uh I look at it and it I see the speeds these things can travel. Um, my one experience to kind of personalize it a little bit, was with one in Portugal, wherever it was, somewhere. And the the point was that when I tried to get off it, and then something, it wanted to continue going. So I'm holding it flies up, and it almost strikes someone. Uh and it would have been it would have hurt that woman badly had it hit her. And I just thought, wow, this is a really dangerous thing, and I didn't have complete control of it, you know. Uh one of the things I've always felt, and you know, as a motorcycle rider, I absolutely respect the freedom that you get to enjoy on your bike. But what I don't like is that car versus bike simply is not a fair thing, right? And I I wish that.

SPEAKER_05: 56:12

You can't put fair on it, though. You can't, I mean, I don't know if fair is the it nothing's fair. Life isn't fair, so fair is a wrong analogy. It's definitely it's dangerous, yeah, there's a risk to it, and people need to pay attention on both sides. So people on the motorcycles need to really pay attention to the people in the cars, and the people in the cars should probably pay a little bit more attention. If what I'm gonna be a motorcycle rider, that's the way I feel about it.

SPEAKER_02: 56:35

Right? In a perfect world, there would be roads that were just for motorcycles. Oh, I'd love that. You know, where the where your only risk is gonna be like another cyclist, right? So that for me would be a perfect world where where these all these different lanes exist, where this this road system exists just for motorcycles. I'd love that. I'd be probably you're right. Um but hell John, San Diego, San Diego, like just like a week and a half ago, two bicyclists hit one another and one person died.

SPEAKER_05: 57:10

Bicycles.

SPEAKER_02: 57:11

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_05: 57:12

Well, and that's what I was saying. So, like with these, and they're wearing pro they're probably wearing proper gear. You know what I mean? They probably most most people that ride bikes now. I mean, even when I was mountain biking, I rode, I wore a helmet, I wouldn't ride without one. Um, when I ride my motorcycle, I don't ride without a helmet. I don't, and I won't even wear one of those silly little skull cap helmets. I wear a full face, I'm not, you know, not screwing around. I want to try to stay alive. So that's that gives me the best option, you know. And I think that these kids riding these electric bikes, I think that they should have to go take a class. It's it I'm not saying that it has to be like a a full-blown insurance license, registration, all of that, but but make them responsible, right? Instead of just telling them no, they can't because you as a Karen are offended that they're going 25 miles an hour on their scooter and you think and you think that it's dangerous and you wouldn't do that. Well, I do a ton of shit every day that people don't want to do or wouldn't normally do. You know what I mean? Like just because you don't do it, you don't you don't get to tell me that I can't. So let's just let's help them be responsible instead of just telling them no, right? Let's let's make a way for them. Maybe they maybe they need to wear better helmets, maybe they need to wear pants or what whatever rules you want to attach to it, to but make them responsible for their actions and what they're doing. Because that's gonna create a better human being.

SPEAKER_02: 58:35

And I haven't done like a lot of re I just it seems like I'm I'm always I'm always hearing child hit, child seriously injured, child dead on these things. Could the same child have had an accident on their regular bicycle that doesn't go 25 miles an hour? Could yes, it absolutely could have.

SPEAKER_05: 58:54

I I 100% I've been hit by cars on a bicycle.

SPEAKER_02: 58:58

Right. Um, but these things are so fast, and I'm seeing them go, I'm seeing what I'm seeing, John, is that most of the riding that I'm seeing that I'm observing, the kids are not wearing helmets.

SPEAKER_05: 59:11

Yeah, it I've seen that too. I'm seeing that's that's what I'm saying. Let's make them responsible.

SPEAKER_02: 59:16

And I'm seeing a lot of like a lot of two kids on one scooter.

SPEAKER_05: 59:22

We've seen four kids on one the other day.

SPEAKER_02: 59:24

Right?

SPEAKER_05: 59:24

You know, exactly four girls on one electric scooter just scooting down the road. I'm thinking, good lord.

SPEAKER_02: 59:31

So you know. And I don't want to be the like you don't want to be Karen, you don't want to be like the boogeyman, oh kids, you don't want to do that. You don't want to like take their joy away. And like you said, like the point you made at the very start of the segment was that look, when I was that age, I would have done the exact same thing these idiots were doing, right? Yep. And how do we teach how do we teach people to appreciate their mortality? But okay. That's me, that's a that's a that's a 50-year-old man talking, a 55-year-old man talking. A 10-year-old shouldn't think that way, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:00:07

Right. Well, but that's what I'm saying. Like, if you start teaching them younger, teach them some responsibility. Responsibility as opposed to like them responsible for their actions, then in turn you're teaching them about mortality. Like, hey, this is a dangerous thing you're doing. You know what I mean? Motorcycles are dangerous. What you're doing is you're creating a whole new generation of motorcycle enthusiasts, which I thumbs up. But teach them to be safe. You know what I mean? It's it's motorcycle world's a scary place. Because people people in cars don't see me. You know what I mean? My my biggest fear is stopping at a stoplight.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:00:48

Because more motorcycles get rended at stoplights than anything. Because you you're looking at the light, or you're, you know, you're pulling up to the your stoplight and you look down at your phone and they are just they don't see you. You know, and that's and and people I get dirty looks all the time because I split lanes and people are like, oh, you ride like a crazy, like it's so dangerous, and it's so this and so that. No, you know what's dangerous is staying next to people that are on their computers while they're driving on the freeway at 75 miles an hour, and me just having to flow into traffic with that person because they have a Tesla and all they have to do is touch the steering wheel, and now my life is in nobody's hands because they're not paying attention to me. Like, I I'd rather just not ride next to a person like you.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:36

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:37

And so, but it's a responsibility, like you know, I and I've told my kids this, I've told my wife this. If I die on my motorcycle, just know I died with a smile on my face because I love it, it's something that I really enjoy doing. And most people that ride kind of feel the same way, but you have to teach that, like you have to teach the kids to be responsible and teach them that it is it's a huge responsibility that you're taking on as a child or a parent letting your child ride these things. It's not just oh hey, just go buy it, and then they can just go wherever they want without a thought on it because it's dangerous. The world, you know, people don't see those things, and it sucks. But anyway, I I would but I would buy one if I was a kid. I might buy one now. They're expensive, they're expensive too. My grandson wants my grandson wants one, and I'm like, holy crap! Like, I was I was about ready to volunteer to buy him one, and I was like, nah, your mom and dad can get that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:38

So the um the e-bikes are are similar. The e-bikes are just way more powerful, way faster than than people think they are. I saw a kid riding one today. He was he was struggling, man. Like in Denmark, we as we know, everyone follows the rules here. He's all the way on the wrong side of the street. He's about to cause a major incident. I'm like I was gonna say, like riding a bike, but it's clear this guy probably doesn't really know how to ride a bike. Right. Uh so uh so e-bikes are are in the conversation as well as these like dangerous tools. Uh even uh a bike you know centric culture like this one. Dude, I want to see some. There's a study came out. I put it on my Facebook, something about uh people want to live in cities that are small cities, not big cities, but not small towns either. I'm like, let's build more of them bitches. Let's do it. We're Americans. We can do anything on this land that we have.

SPEAKER_05: 1:03:38

I think I think half the country doesn't like the idea, though. I I I like my little small town. I wish it was smaller. I wish I was further away from people.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:47

Small towns. I and I what I'm what I'm looking at, so one of the places I'm in has been a small town my whole life. I grew up there, right? Uh and it's now becoming a bigger town. Uh and that's happening. People are wanting to come to these these types of towns. Uh they present new opportunities uh with regard to getting into a place that's not huge, uh, so you can afford the housing. Uh they're places that are becoming attractive to you know masses, so you can find work there. Um and they're they're growing. So, you know, when I came to Lincoln, it was such a town. It was a small town uh that grew, right? And I and I enjoyed being a part of that, and other young families enjoy the same type of thing. Let's clean more of those cities, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:42

Yeah. I think the problem that I see is like when I came to Lincoln, I don't know when you moved here, I was she was 20. The first time I came up here was 2002.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04:54

Oh wow, so way before I even knew what Lincoln was, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:04:57

Right. So they were just building 12 bridges. That was like the first 65 was a two-lane freeway. It was one one northbound, one southbound lane. And uh 12 bridges was just a uh barely a paved off ramp that just went out into the middle of what used to be just be a huge field, and they were building houses out there. That that was 12 bridges, and uh we I mean we fell in love with this place, and so we spent and so my wife's cousin had moved up here uh in the 2002-2003, and so we had kind of just kind of kept popping up here and watching it kind of develop and grow, and um and then we moved up in 2006 up to this area. We moved into Rockland and then came came here via Loomis. So we went Rockland, Loomis, then Lincoln. Um, but we like so it's basically just a surround area, but I I think the problem with Lincoln is the people that grew up here didn't want it to grow the way that it grew. I think in I I think in like 2005, 2006, about right before the housing bubble blew. So when was that? Like 2000, 2008. So yeah, like 2006, 2007, um, they had Lincoln as and Forbes magazine as the fastest growing city in the United States. It was in it was like number one because of all of the housing that they were putting in. So they put in all the housing, but then they never put any infrastructure in. You know what I mean? They they're still out there by like uh what's that like the Goodyear place out there behind the railies, they have all of those uh pads that are poured because all of that was supposed to be buildings right next to where they do the rodeo. And that's been sitting there like that since 2010. Yeah, it's been like that. You know what I mean? So 15 years, it's just they never finished building it because they didn't, but they they keep building houses. I think I think they're I think they're wanted out there behind the uh behind the dump now. They're putting in like another 20 or 30,000 houses out there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:15

It's freaking crazy. We were going to the airport one day and was like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:21

You can take you can take uh Ferrari Ranch now is open all the way through. You could take that all the way out to the airport out to 99 now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:30

Yep. We came in one uh a few months ago uh from coming from Roseville um out coming fitting into uh in back of Lincoln.

SPEAKER_05: 1:07:44

It's insane back there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:45

Crazy. Yeah, so when yeah, when we got here, we moved uh in 07. Okay. It was pretty, you know, TB was was what it was, kind of kind of come. And um for me it just looked like the kind of place to raise a family, just did right away. And so um, we were very thankful to be able to get in and to uh to to to raise raise the kiddo there. Um and you know, there was that phase when it was old Lincoln versus New Lincoln, you know, then now and now, you know, almost 20 years later, we're kind of like old Lincoln now. It's like we're fully old Lincoln because we ain't got grandparents from there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:37

But we don't have we don't have that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:38

Uh but uh but I mean think about it, I moved my whole family here. You know what I mean? Now my grandkids are growing up here, they are they are Lincoln.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:46

That's that's right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:48

They've never they've never lived any place else. This is their town. They they were born and raised here.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:53

I love it, man. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:54

You know what I mean? So it's it's kind of cool. I mean, it's it's a lot different than the than the natives that were here prior to us. I I think that a lot of those old timers, I don't think they like it, you know. Um, and a lot of them have moved on, you know. A lot of them have sold, you know, what we're what they're building houses on used to be ranches or orchards, and now that you know now they're just houses. So a lot of that stuff is going the way that it goes when small towns turn into cities. You know, it's unfortunate. It's I still like it here. It still has a small town feel. We go to all the downtown stuff. Yeah, you know, it's it's beautiful down there. I hope I hope it doesn't lose that. I hope that if they build another like city type thing, they do it somewhere away from downtown, the downtown area, and just let downtown be what it is. Don't put in big buildings, don't put in big hotels, just keep the old brick facades and the old little businesses and kind of just keep that hometown feel because it's nice. Yeah, you know, we have we got a lot of businesses coming in there now, and it's cool to go downtown on on a like a Friday or Saturday night, and you know, there's just people walking around, and it's it's it's got a cool, cool feel.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:05

One of the things I really enjoy doing, and I've done it in a while now because I've been there. Uh but uh used to enjoy going downtown to grab a lunch, grab breakfast, chems back in the old chems. I loved these pancakes. Uh, and then lunch for me it was a whistle stop cafe back in the day. Yeah. Um, but I always enjoyed that. Um very thankful to count myself very, very lucky to have people who were from there uh as friends, and well as people who who were newer rivals like my like ourselves, you know. So definitely just a really wonderful community. 10 out of 10 would absolutely do it again.

SPEAKER_05: 1:10:41

Yep. I mean shit, we've been here for almost 20 years now. It's crazy. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's like next next year, next year we'll be in this area for 20 years. So you know, I don't I guess I'm just a local person now. Well, local, yeah. My business, like our business one like best of the best business. I'm like, really? How'd that even happen? I want that. Well done. Well done. So I mean, it is it's it's cool. It's cool to have a name, it's cool to have a business here and and the community that kind of supports it. It's a I would have never got that in Napa.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:13

That's what I said to to Kay was that, you know, small towns like Lincoln support their small businesses.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:23

And, you know, what's interesting, I used to be on uh this thing called uh there's a Facebook group, tell me what it was called, Good Neighbors of Lincoln. Used to be on there uh before I got banned.

SPEAKER_05: 1:11:34

Uh but uh it was all they started a new one, they started a new one for the banned people.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:41

Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, those of us who we think we're the good neighbors, we're really the bad neighbors. But um, you know, one of the things that would come up was how much do you talk about your small business experience, you know, or you know what's the responsibility of a small town to its small businesses as it relates to social media? And you know, people generally agreed that, hey, we understand that you went into this non-chain, this mom and pop had a bad experience and you want to vent about it, but universally people generally agreed, please take this initial complaint to the owner, to the person in charge of that business, rather than come on here and do things which, you know, if if a if a restaurant's only getting, you know, say 20 tables a night, and and five people see your your post and two of them decide, you know what, let me go someplace else instead, you've just impacted that business with something that may have just been a one-off or simply a misunderstanding.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:51

That that's uh that's one of Teresa's biggest concerns with with me on social media is is the business. Because we, you know, I mean, we kind of we grew our business on Facebook with with the marketplace and uh with the good neighbors thing. And that was where for years, that was, I mean, even to this day, it's probably where a good 50% of our business comes new new clients. I guess word of mouth and new clients are kind of the same thing, but uh word of mouth I think is better because that's a referral from somebody that we've already done work for that liked us, like you and your wife, you know, she refers us to all kinds of people. But I think probably 50% or more comes from just posts on good neighbors. Again, people will say, Oh, you know, they'll tag us in it, or Corey will go look on there, and then he'll, you know, he'll tag uh tag us in it, and then they they reach out, they call us, they look at our Facebook page that is completely outdated because we don't do anything with it, which is I have no idea. Uh but you know, they they still they go look and they see pictures and then we go meet them, and you know, but it's it's still I would say it's comparable to what the yellow pages used to be when I first started.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:12

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:12

You know what I mean? That was you know, I remember when when we first started our construction business in 2000, uh that was like it was a big deal. You had to be in the phone book. If you if you weren't in the phone book, you weren't you weren't in business. You weren't getting business because that's how people found you. What's and uh interesting we spent a lot of money being in several phone books.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:34

What's fine? I'll tell you got a new phone book story, but I'll say it for another time. One of the things that didn't really exist back then was the ability to give that rapid review. Yeah. Um good or bad, right? Right. So um that has really been a game changer for better or worse. And I think, you know, on the net on the downside that it can have a deleterious effect on especially a newer small business that hasn't really had a chance to sort of earn its reputation yet. And I don't know that a lot of people people are so reactionary and uh a little bit of shade here without calling any names, but some people who have small businesses themselves have also done the same thing, and then they'd be getting caught, they get called out by people in town like, hey, don't you run a small business too?

unknown: 1:15:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:15:31

How would you feel if they did this to you?

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:34

Right. Well, and with the new businesses, right? I mean, that's something that I'm like, we need like we push that really like I push it a lot because the new business is so I guess uh what'd be the word, like so it could be really affected by what you're talking about, the new business. The construction company, not so much. I mean, you're dealing with a handful of people, but this new business is like it's kind of fragile to that. And if if you start getting a lot of bad reviews and a lot of thumbs downs and a lot of bad comments, it it really affects that business. It's it's a it's a real fragile thing. So we have to be really careful with the things that I say or the things that I do, or people know who I am, or know what businesses I own, because this, what we're doing right here, you put this on out to the world, you know, there's people out there that don't like my point of view. And then they can go on and start harassing my business because of my political point of view, or my and we try to keep politics out of that business because there's no place in that business for politics. It's it's not, it doesn't matter. It's an entertainment thing. There's no reason for me to have any political point of view. I I don't push it left, I don't push it right. It just is a place to go have a good time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:02

If you want to be entertained by you or by me, you come here. This is where they entertain.

SPEAKER_05: 1:17:06

Exactly. And so, you know, and I'm even really, I mean, this is the most I've ever talked about where I live or or what I do or who we are out, you know, because it it's a it's a fragile thing. People, people are freaking, they'll say whatever they want to say. It doesn't have to be real. But if if somebody goes onto my businesses and starts leaving bad reviews or onto your business and starts leaving bad reviews because they disagree left or right, it doesn't matter. It affects my livelihood. And then I have employees, and then it affects their livelihood. It's a trickle-down effect, and then what do I do? Close the doors because people don't like the fact that I voted for who I voted for. That's just it's a bunch of bullshit. So I just, you know, you need to be careful talking openly about things, and and you know, business is a fragile thing, and the interwebs is it's very fast. Everybody has information right now. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:02

It's crazy. And so trying to, you know, how do you maintain your relevance? And I know you don't know this one, but I was watching one the other day where the the woman said, you know, I never wanted to be married and have kids and da-da-da. And I'm thinking to myself, if my wife went on there and said some stuff like that, and they got this beautiful family that they built together, I'm like, why is why is she throwing him under the bus like that? This is just um, but you wanted that clout. People get they they chase that clout, and it's like, oh, let me blow this business up with this review, this going viral, you know, review of this takedown. I'm like, but but only half of that was even accurate. Like the thing with the uh the people who were acting up at that restaurant back in uh South Carolina. And I'm like, right, this wasn't even true. None of this happened.

SPEAKER_05: 1:18:53

Yeah, it's not even a real story. You're just making it up to try to try to ruin somebody's credibility.

SPEAKER_02: 1:18:58

Fortunately, the restaurant had it was one of those places that wasn't brand new, and they had a reputation that they had earned. And so therefore, this like Yahoo who spins up this like crazy false, you know, narrative via social media ends up coming off like the idiot. It's like, oh yeah, yeah, you're full of shit, buddy.

SPEAKER_05: 1:19:18

We've only had like one person. Well, there's been three, but one person that was really, really bad that I was kind of worried that they were gonna do some kind of review for us. And uh and she didn't, and I'm glad she didn't, and we just parted ways, and I'm glad that it ended the way that it ended. Uh, but she got really nasty, like really, really nasty. And uh and I don't respond well to that stuff anyway, in in my in in the real world. And uh I I tried I tried being as kind as I could. And and even at the end, I had we had all of her kitchen cabinet doors and drawers at my house. And uh it went bad, and I I left her house to come pick them up, and she uh and then uh before I even got to the house, she was already calling and threatening me, and it got really ugly, and I loaded all of her stuff up really nicely, and I put cardboard all because we just painted it. I put cardboard between all of it, and I loaded it really nice in my truck, and I drove it to her house and I unloaded it in her living room. Nice. I stacked everything for her, super nice, you know. I I did my best.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:31

At the end of the day, you know, in your position, in my position, when you're an owner, you've got things, you've got jobs that you can choose not to take. Yep, you certainly got that that that final call, but at the end of the day, you always got to make sure you deliver professionalism. They can never say that you weren't professional. They can never say that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:20:52

Um because it would just be she might be able to say I wasn't professional, even though I dropped the stuff off. But again, you're you know, you guys' reputation I could have just drove up into her front yard and just started kicking the shit out of the back of my truck right into her driveway. But I didn't, you know. I gave I gave her I gave her a finished product, and uh that was all I could do. So yeah. I'm glad we parted ways. I'm glad that I didn't glad I didn't use her money for anything and that I of value in my life, because then I wouldn't I'd probably have to throw it away.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:27

It is interesting, you know, we liability. When you're an owner, the liability's different. It just is.

SPEAKER_05: 1:21:38

And it's not just uh, you know, it's um it is it's a weird I think the the social media thing, it's been good. It's been good, it's been bad, you know, but I think I think that it's just a weird world we live in. We we have gone through it all. We've seen all of the changes. Yeah, you know. My daughters was saying to me the other day, well, I've seen all of these things. I'm like, nah, you don't even you don't even know what an eight-track is except for something we see in a vintage store. Like you don't you you didn't see per you didn't see the progression like we've seen the progression. We were like freaking records, you know what I mean? Records, the eight-tracks, the tapes, the CDs, the everything's just video now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:18

That component system and you had like the yeah, the the real to real. Like if all if wait if everything in your system was like the same brand.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:32

Yeah, you you were money.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:34

Yeah, you had Sony or Technique. Who are the other ones? I don't remember the big ones. Mine was all like off-brand, you know.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:41

What's that?

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:42

All my stuff was off-brand.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:43

Yeah, they had all kinds of them. Matter of fact, I follow this guy on YouTube now, and uh he's a young, he's a young kid, man. I bet you he's 20, 26, maybe 27. He he seems over 23, but not 30. You know what I mean? Kind of in that that weird, I'm almost an adult phase. Uh but he rebuilds all of that stuff. Oh man. He gets the old receivers and the old amps, and he blows it all out, and he you know, changes, he puts like the LEDs in it, but he keeps it looking the way that it looked, and then just fixes the parts that need to be fixed and puts the new transistors in there, and then turns it on, and I'm just like, that is like nostalgic sound. Like that when you turn it on, it's that crack when you turn it on. Yeah, yeah. Just it's super cool. And he does all kinds of he does record players and eight-track uh players and tape players. He just restores all of it, it's super cool. I love it. Makes me want to buy something.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:40

Right? Right, you know, I'm just I'm sitting here about to go shopping on my you know, it's just have an old stereo system. You know, there's so much, and I, you know, John, not to loop back on politics, really enjoying the conversation, not talking political stuff, but there's you mentioned like you were talking earlier about like the roar of the of the engine when you start that bad boy up, you know. Right. I think those things they made us feel alive. Yeah. I get in my boring little EV and I feel like what a fucking loser, you know. Zip it around. Even though I like it, I like it because it's it's it's cheap, it is cheap to drive. Um but no, I love the rumble of a Mustang.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:24:29

And as we to go not gonna be able to put those points together. I'm I I lost my what I was really wanted to say as far as the political part was concerned, and went from culture over to other culture, which is that as this AI thing advances, we're just not gonna put it back in the bottle, right? It's gonna continue to come. What's gonna matter the most are our human connections. That's gonna be the type of thing that people are searching for because when you go to work, not you know, not all works, but a lot of work, surely one person, two people could operate, you know, could replace 20 in a bank right now. Right. Just using these little tools, right?

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:20

So Can't replace me. Can't replace me. AI, AI, AI will not replace what I do.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:28

I love it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:29

I love it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:29

It'll give you a picture of what I do, but it won't replace what I do.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:33

What I know it's you know what I'm wondering, and and they've told me that I haven't actually seen one, but they tell me they can't build, they got these things that are building now, these 3D printed buildings. I'm like, what? Yep. So I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it.

unknown: 1:25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:47

Until I see it, it doesn't exist. You know me?

SPEAKER_05: 1:25:49

No, all you gotta do is Google it, it's there. Um I don't know, I don't know. I know that they're building houses, uh, so they're building them out of cement too, which is kind of weird because there's no uh like now, especially in California, if you build like anything out of cement, it has to have a rebar in it, and it's tight, and it's all you know, it has all of this structural stuff to it. So I don't know what kind of fibers they're running in that cement to make it any type of structural, but they're they're building it just a big freaking concrete pump that just looks like a like a 3D printer, but it's big and it just lays concrete walls, it just does it by line and just keeps going around in a circle until it builds it eight foot tall, and then they come in and stack a roof on top of it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26:35

Holy shit.

SPEAKER_05: 1:26:37

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yep. They stack the windows in. Uh they know it leaves openings, so it'll stop and then pick up over here, and then they'll it leaves like an opening, and then they just go and they put some spray foam in there and they push the windows in, and all the electricals run. So like I think they come up like so like let's just call it like a foot, and then they run like the the conduit in the walls, so that way they can pull wire through everything, and it's insane. It's cool. Foam blocks. Have you seen the foam block houses that they're building?

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:12

I've heard, but I haven't seen them yet now.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:14

Those are that's a pretty cool setup. They're doing that's like a uh they almost look like uh Legos, they're like uh two, maybe three feet by 18 inches or so, and then they have so it's just flat, but they push like the foam slides up, so it's got like it almost looks like a cinder block that's filled with foam, and then that's how they lock together. They have it's a plywood box, it's got foam, and as you push them together, the the cylinders push up like two inches, and that will look that's what locks them all together. Um, super cool building techniques. Um, I talked to uh um Abdul because Abdul owns property there in uh in Africa, West Coast of Africa, and he wants he wants Corey and I to go out there and build some houses. I'm like, dude, I'm not going to Africa to build houses. Like that's that's really far away from me. But he wants us to go, and I told him, I said, what you need to look into, uh, because they build everything in concrete there. Like they're still, you know, and you know, even like kind of where you're at, they they build everything in concrete. Nothing's built like as disposable as the United States builds it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:23

And uh so I told him what he needs to look into is look into uh these these houses where you can just buy the blocks because he ships a ton of stuff back there anyway. So he could he could fill cargo containers full of these blocks and these these building supplies, and he could have a house put up in days opposed to you know the months that it's taken to build there now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:47

Well it's interesting. Sand actually wants you to come to Carolina to work on a project there as well. So that's it. For sure. You're being pulled all over the country and all over the world.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:56

I am I'm down to go to Carolina and get some more.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:00

Um yeah, that's sound that man, that's that's wicked fascinating. I've I've definitely, you know, I'm a I'm a builder. I want I want to see um, you know, whoever's in charge, I want to see building happening, whether it's the current president or whoever the next president's president's gonna be, whether it's Vance or any one of those other knuckleheads. Um right? That's not happening. I'm telling people, I'm just people get excited about him, people being on the on the left that get excited about this guy. I'm like, he's never going to win. He might. John, if that guy was if he was from Texas and had lost You would never get a guy like that from Texas. I'm just let's say that he's from Texas or Arkansas. Clinton was from Arkansas, right? If he was from Kentucky, if he was from anywhere else other than New York or California. I just don't see it, man.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:00

I hey, I I don't want it to happen.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:04

But no, either either i you know, whoever's in charge, I'd like to see more construction. We need to we've got people coming here. And um, you know, let's let's let's let's let's let's teach them to build. And and where I am with that, and you've heard me say it before, because you've been around me for a lot, a lot. My eyes are going here.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:23

I was late there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:24

You want to teach people to build and teach them in a way that helps them to understand that communities aren't simply moved into. Communities and nations are built by the people who care about what they're doing, about where they live and what they're doing. And that's what you and I talk about. We disagree on the things and the mechanics and the the whatever's, but we don't ever disagree on caring. You know, we agree that we care about where we are at, we just care differently, right? But we care. And and that's important because so many people, when we see these communities that are kind of where there's trash everywhere, there's broken windows, there's graffiti, always the first wave. Those people don't care. No. And who wants to, you're not moving there. You're not gonna you don't want to, you're not gonna move there, and you're not gonna choose to invest there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:23

You're gonna fight your entire life to get out of there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:25

To get out of there. Right? So we want to really just I I wanna I wanna do like a total national reset on that. And I'm not talking every every community doesn't need this. There's plenty of there's just this there's there's a million great communities across the US that are really unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:42

I mean, and this, I don't know. I mean, you can say who's the bad guy, who isn't the bad guy. The the problem is is you have too many people out there right now that don't value what what it is we've built. Yeah. Right? Yeah, but I mean they they wouldn't they would look at me, right? And and I know this because there's been comments made on the Twitters and on Facebook. They they they judge me because of the way they see me. And they don't know me, right? So, like the guy I got in the fight with the Facebook, I was like, he's like, you don't know me. I was like, motherfucker, you don't know me. Like you don't know where I came from, you don't know what I've been through, you don't know it, but that that go, I don't my neighbor, I don't know him, right? I don't value his possessions as much as I value my possessions. Don't come in, you know what I mean? And so then you have this this whole demographic of people right now that are they think that if they could make as much money as me or if somebody just gave them money that they would be better off and then they could have what we have, and that's not the way that it works. It's doesn't it doesn't work like that here. That's not the way this country was designed. Like you you have to work for shit, you have to build it. You have to you have to go out and acquire the things that you want in life, and then that doesn't give those people the right to kick in my front door and take it. You know what I mean? Like it I and and we have too much of that right now. We have too much of you know, if I leave my car parked in the parking lot in the wrong neighborhood, somebody's just gonna come and take it because they feel like they're entitled to just take whatever they want because nobody ever told them no when they were a kid, and they were just running the streets doing whatever the hell they wanted because nobody told them they couldn't. And then the bad behavior was encouraged, and now here we have grown men that just walk through parking lots and steal shit because they think they can. And it's it's unfortunate, you know. It's an unfortunate, so I don't know if we'll ever get to I don't know if you can do a reset. You know what I mean? Because you can't you can't take that aw out of people. It takes a long time, it takes a long time to unlearn the behaviors that I used to do to what I do now. You know, it took a long time to unlearn those behaviors and and to change the way and and to be driven. I had to find people that that wanted me to succeed and do better in my life for that to happen.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:21

So we don't have a lot of time left, unfortunately, but I hate to even get into this one. The thing that that that really bothers me, uh other than people just not getting it going into a walk greens or going into CVS, going into Target, and products are locked up. And when I say product, I'm talking about like cleaning products and lotion.

SPEAKER_05: 1:34:58

Everything's locked up now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:00

What the fuck? Yeah, and then you see the videos because people make videos of themselves carrying out these heists of like all the lotion in a drugstore because no one's allowed to stop them. What where do these people come from?

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:25

I don't know. I'm just like and the problem.

SPEAKER_05: 1:35:30

Well, where's the more so where not where do they come from, but where does that mentality come from? Where does the mentality that I can just go in and take whatever I want and nobody can do a goddamn thing about it come from?

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:41

And that and that's something that's new in our lifetimes. Now, obviously, we knew that people were stuck, I mean people were stealing forever. We know that part. We know that. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_04: 1:35:48

We know that 100%.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:50

But this idea that you're going to walk into a store knowing that no one's even going to challenge your active theft. And so you just do it?

SPEAKER_05: 1:36:02

Right. Well, well, think about this. When we were kids, and and me and my son were just talking about this, when I was when I was a young kid, and I was doing stupid shit in the wild, just wherever I was, because I was a stupid kid, uh, a man of my age now, would he he probably would have slapped the shit out of me or or stopped me from doing it. And then if I went home and told my dad, like, hey, so and so slapped the shit out of me, my dad would be like, Well, what were you doing? You know what I mean? Like, what did you do wrong? The the stranger slapped the shit out of you. Were you stealing something? Were you acting up? Were you cussing in public? Were you being disrespectful? You you probably deserved him slapping the shit out of you, right? Nowadays, if somebody slaps the shit out of my grandson for being disrespectful at target, I'm gonna load my gun. And then I'm gonna go down to Target and I'm gonna find the person that slapped the shit out of my grandson. There's a difference. You know what I mean? And that's the way society is. Like, it it's so different now. Like, even though that happened to me when I was a kid, I don't want somebody doing that to my kids. Right? And so these people think like, hey, I'm just I can't, I don't make enough money, I don't earn enough to have these things. They I'll just go take it. Nobody's gonna stop me from doing it, and they just it's just a mindset that's just changed. And because nobody's stopping the bad behavior, like what I was saying about the e-bikes, like let's teach them responsibility, like let's start teaching young people respect. But they don't.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:37

I had one I was gonna put out. I didn't put it up, but I'm going to. I think that pickpockets, we should track them with drones. Chop fingers off. And we should go Sharia on them. We really should. We're not gonna hey, you know what? Not full Sharia. We're not gonna take your whole hand off. It's only your first offense. We're gonna give you a good talking to. We're gonna show you what it looks like. So you're gonna know what's gonna happen. The next time I see you, you get none, you know. Yeah. Now, if you don't believe if you don't believe fat meets crazy, if you want to fuck around and find out, we can do that. Yeah. Because the next time I see you, you get to pick the finger.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:26

Well, and it's it's crazy though. Like, I mean, it's exactly what I was just saying about you know, old old men when I was a young boy are different than old men now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:38:38

You know what I mean? Old men, they old men back when I was a kid, those old fuckers, they demanded respect from you. And they and they earned it. They were the ones that went and fought in World War I, fought in World War II. They were the 40-somethings in Vietnam. You know what I mean? They were badasses. And they demanded respect because they earned it. So when you showed them disrespect, they they they set you straight. You know what I mean? And we don't have that anymore in this country. That's it's something it uh like Bill Mars said, I don't know if we needed, he said something about trad dads, and uh he said we don't need to go all the way back to where they were beating the shit out of you, but maybe just back to where because I said so was a good enough answer. You know what I mean? Like, don't question me. And if you keep questioning me, then we can we can take that further, but you're gonna show me respect. Why? Because I told you to. And and we have to get back to some of that stuff. And I and I hate siding with Dilmar, but the more right he goes, the easier it is for me to agree with the things that he's saying. Because he's really, you know, I think he's even said that he will continue to vote Democrat, uh, because that's what he's always done. He believes in the Democratic Party. Um, but he's having a hard time with the Democratic Party right now because of the direction that they've gone. Although I do believe that you're a lot more right than the day I met you, too.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:12

I got into a little thing with the one today, and I said that uh they were, you know, just a general conversation, but I said, look, you know, just between you and me, you can drop climate change. It's not a winning issue. You're not winning on climate change, and this is for national elections, you're not winning on climate change. Right. You know, I'm not saying that the climate and weather are not important. I'm just telling you that, you know, politically, it's not a winning issue.

SPEAKER_05: 1:40:39

Right. Well, you've been they've been they've been ringing the bell for 40 years and nothing's changed. It's the same ocean at the same level it was 40 years ago as it is now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:50

It is, right? You know, humans, humans have an amazing ability to adapt. Technology enables us to grow food more efficiently, to uh I don't want to say change our body chemistry, but our our bodies are able to be regulated by our the environments that we go into. So we're we're we're always gonna be okay. Uh new deep new diseases will always appear and we'll figure out cures for those diseases and treatments for those diseases. Those things are always gonna happen. None of us gets to stop progress and evolution, all those. Those things are gonna happen. The weather is going to change. You know, if we look back over, if if we agree that the the earth is only 6,000 years old, which would be a really small number, then oh my gosh, it's changed two degrees in the last 200 years. That's horrible. Okay. Okay. But you told me, you, Mr. Scientist and Mrs. Scientist, told me that the earth is probably closer to what, four and a half, five billion years old?

SPEAKER_05: 1:41:48

I've heard as far as six hundred billion.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:50

Six hundred billion years old. It's old. Very, very, very old. So a seemingly big change in a very small amount of time may not be a big change at all. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:05

I'm just saying, hey, me and you've had this conversation before. I I have a hard time with it. I mean, even if I gave a a hundred thousand years, I would still think, how have we progressed over the last hundred? As far as we have. If what took us, what took us nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand years to get here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:26

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:26

Right? Because I've watched the last 20 years and I'm like, wow, that's some shit. Right. And if you go back a hundred years, they were still riding horses. And look at our cars now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:38

We have electric cars that can drive themselves.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:41

Right. In a hundred years.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:44

Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:42:44

So, so where what did we do for the other 999,000 years? Like, were we just that stupid that it took us that long to get here?

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:53

We were fucking off, man. It's crazy. And that's what and that's what these carnival cruise people and Walmart uh uh uh Tide Pod theft people want to take us back to.

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:09

Did I just bring up Carnival Cruises and Donuts podcast?

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:13

You did you what?

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:15

Did I just bring up Carnival Cruises on our podcast?

SPEAKER_05: 1:43:18

I'm gonna clear. Um my skin, my skin's the wrong color if we talk about Carnival Cruises. You can talk about it all you want. I'll just cheer you on, I'll thumbs up you from this side of the screen.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:30

I simply could never um my cousin was in town last week, and and uh and his wife were here with us visiting, and we're like, yeah, uh, that's just never happening. So we're like talking about maybe doing a cruise and nothing in the carnival family. No carnival, no fair rides, nothing. Um I don't you know and we were talking yesterday, San and I were talking. I'm like, you know, I just don't I don't want to be anywhere with 5,000 people. That's just no that's not my especially especially on a boat. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:01

We did we did a cruise. And uh I'm not a fan of cruises.

SPEAKER_02: 1:44:06

Which line did you go on?

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:07

Which uh Oh, I don't know. I don't know. It might have been Carnival, but I mean it wasn't it wasn't like what Carnival is today. I don't know what it I crown something. Royal Royal Caribbean? Maybe something like that.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:21

I like the name Royal, yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:23

It was it it was cool. I got sick. So it like it's not my thing. Like, I don't know. It just it was just not my thing.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44:36

Spent a lot of money to be on a boat to go to a country, and that I don't remember where we went, but yeah, like they just had a hurricane or something, and it was everything there was shit everywhere, and it was like all just beat up and blown over, and I was like, man. So it was it was fun. The whole family went, and yeah, we all everybody had a good time. So I just don't know if I would do it again. Once once might have been enough. Off the bucket list. Been on a big boat.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:10

Well, John, it is almost 5 a.m. here.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:14

Oh boy. It's it's almost 8 here. And my dog, my dog's coming to see me right now.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:21

Love it. What a great conversation. I have enjoyed.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:24

Are you gonna say hi to Trey? Look, right here. Look.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:30

Hey, what's up? Like, she's like, I don't see no donuts.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:38

She can't she came up to get some whiskey. Oh, I don't know if she's eating dinner.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:41

Good deal. Well, great conversation as always. Um, we it's been a while since we had a since we did one.

SPEAKER_05: 1:45:48

Yeah. It's just we have to we have to get back on track with this. We have a lot going on. You have a lot going on. We have a lot going on over here.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:56

Yeah, right. A lot of things. But if this works, if this thing works, we may be able to carve out you know 30 minutes to an hour a week, I guess, if we can do that.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:07

It'd be easy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:08

So hopefully. So I will uh go ahead and get ready to sign off here, everyone. Thank you uh for tuning in to another edition of Whiskey and Donuts. Or we you know, we didn't break it up, we just simply had a long-form conversation about this is the way it was supposed to go, you know, where we just kind of this is this is what this is what our conversations normally are.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:27

Right. We're sitting around the kitchen table just talking. This is the way it goes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:31

This was the plan.

SPEAKER_00: 1:46:32

This was the plan, yes. Right.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:35

We we veered from the plan, but this was the plan.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:38

Indeed. Indeed. Well, everyone, thanks for tuning in, John. Thank you for your time tonight. And uh my best to everyone, and we'll see you all on the next edition of Whiskey and Donuts.

SPEAKER_05: 1:46:50

Good night.