052 Just Two Good Old Boys

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Transcript

Gene 0:24

Hey Ben, how are you? Did you

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 0:26

Hey Gene, I'm fine. I'm doing way better than the Java Stingray.

Gene 0:31

Java a stingray?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 0:33

Yeah, the Java Stingray. We hardly knew ye. There's a article out that the first extinction as a result of a maritime, of a marine fish as a result of human activity declared. Except, if you read the article versus the headline, you find out that this quote unquote species was only determined by a single example in a fish market, and no genetic testing was done, and none were ever observed in the wild.

Gene 1:01

Okay, so it's a non existent fish that went extinct.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:04

No, even if there's no proof that it was a distinct species, there's no,

Gene 1:10

it's a non

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:10

could have been a birth defect, right? There's no, there's no aberration here. And even even if there's no data, but. Now that, you know, let's see what Charles Darwin university has said this now it's out in the ether and it's going to be rabble, rabble, rabble, men are, man has caused XBCs to go extinct. And it's just utter nonsense. Like it should never have been a published study and then be where we're at.

Gene 1:42

That's, that's interesting. Now, where the hell did you see this?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46

I F L science. And I sent it to a marine biologist friend of mine and said, I would love to know what you think of this. And my reading was correct. It's total bullshit. And just like, this wasn't even a species. Like, some idiot said that, oh, it's a species because it's got these different features from one 60s.

Gene 2:12

wHat, in the 60s? So is this recently that this happened, or?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:15

Yes, yes.

Gene 2:18

Hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:19

Well, it's recent. 1960s is when it was declared a species. And now is when they've said

Gene 2:25

Okay, so there's at least two examples then. Because if it was, there must have been an example in the 60s, right?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:31

Yeah, that was the example in the 60s at a fish market.

Gene 2:35

Oh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:35

example in existence

Gene 2:36

Why did they just declare it to extinct now?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:40

I don't know because it wasn't really a species and no one ever thought about it and then someone said, Oh, let's do this because they're propagandists because they're because they're putting out a story that the headline will read in such a way and it will go through the ether and then become fact in the minds of the minions.

Gene 3:00

I see what you're saying.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 3:03

And anyway, I just, I was going through my science newsfeed today and this popped up and it just, after reading it and it, it just struck me as complete and utter bullshit

Gene 3:14

Yeah. How does that make it up into the science feed? That's my question.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 3:19

because Charles Darwin university said so, because the experts said so, because they are science,

Gene 3:28

Yeah. No.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 3:31

dude, it's problematic. It really is.

Gene 3:35

You know, I, I think that there ought to be a set of standard tests that are required for people with titles throughout their lives, not once upon graduating college. Because I, I think a lot of these folks would lose their I am science titles as a result of failing what they maybe had known back when they were graduating

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 4:04

Yeah, it's better just to say that screw it and do nothing but say credentialism is bullshit and let the free market do it instead of worrying

Gene 4:15

That's what's happening right now. That's the problem is the free market is very

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 4:20

Oh, no, no, we have, we do not have a free market and you know it.

Gene 4:24

Okay, so you're talking about the theoretical free market which can exist just as equally. As the theoretical, communism can exist. Neither one's going to happen in their lifetimes. Let's let's face it. There, there is always a human pressure to take anything that resembles a free system and manipulated to benefit that human

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 4:50

No, it's still better than communism and planned economies.

Gene 4:57

I'm just saying that saying we don't have a free market. It's kind of like saying that's the wrong brand of communism. The right one's never been tried. It's, it's like, no, we have the free market that humans built and we have the communism that humans built. The theoretical perfect versions of both of those aren't likely to happen in a group of people over 100.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 5:21

I, I, I 100 percent agree with you. However, that being said, we've gotten way closer with capitalism than we ever did communism.

Gene 5:29

Yeah, yeah, I'd agree with

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 5:31

And it's produced better results.

Gene 5:33

Yeah, that's that's absolutely the case. But I'm just saying that trying to gauge by a theoretical,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 5:43

Yeah. Regardless, I am quickly falling into not quickly. I've been here for years, but more willing to admit my anarchistic streak. Thanks to the like of Mr. Malice

Gene 5:57

Speaking of anarchistic, yeah, yeah, so I told you I ran into Michael Malice in the grocery store of all places.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 6:03

yeah. Did you go full fan boy or what?

Gene 6:06

No, I, I, I'm not a fanboy, so no, I did not. But, clearly, Clearly, I, you know, I did the thing that I think he was hoping wouldn't happen by wearing glasses and headphones while he's in the grocery store which is somebody saying, Hey, are you Michael Malice And I was rather insistent on it to the point that he had to acknowledge that he couldn't just pretend he didn't hear me. But no, I, I didn't really even say I listened to his show or anything, which I don't, honestly, I don't listen to his podcast, but

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 6:41

depends on who the guest is.

Gene 6:43

Okay, you listen to it way more than I do then, because I, I don't think I've heard a single episode of his podcast, but I've seen him on other people's podcasts over

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 6:52

Oh man, you, you should totally listen to the episodes with him and Alex. Those are great and him and Luke. Those are great. hE, he, depending on the guest, he does pretty well. He had Megan McCain on a while back and I haven't listened to that 1, but it's on the list to listen to because I, I want to, I, I, I really want to see how he handles Megan McCain and how the hell did he end up getting her on his podcast? Like, it doesn't seem like a show

Gene 7:24

We're not going to get him on our podcast because that was one of the things I asked and he said, yeah, no thanks. He says, yeah, yeah. I'm not doing any, anybody else's podcasts right now.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 7:35

Yeah, you, you gotta build up to that and get him to know who you are first, Gene, not just, will he be on my podcast?

Gene 7:40

No, no, no. It's that's not how it works, dude. Because you got to get people when they're unprepared, when they're not thinking straight. And they're

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 7:47

You wanted to try and get him to, you wanted to force him into the uncomfortable no or saying sure. And then you would leverage that ambiguous sure later on,

Gene 8:01

Hey, I got Luke to say yes. It's just a question of when.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:05

I don't know, uh huh, huh. That's

Gene 8:08

I could get a twofer. Get them both on the same show.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:12

uh huh, huh,

Gene 8:12

be good. But yeah, he's, you know, he is I guess he looks that way on video as well. He's a little guy.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:21

yeah,

Gene 8:21

Like, he's shorter than me,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:24

Yeah, he's

Gene 8:25

and he's probably all of about 130 pounds. Yeah, definitely a a petite type person. But, yeah, chatted with him a little bit, talked about some folks we know in common, and coming to America and all that jazz. But I said, hey when you got time, would love to have you on.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:46

Okay, cool.

Gene 8:47

hmm. He said something big's coming out in January that I should keep an eye out for. So he probably has another book he's working on.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 8:54

I think he does, yeah. That and he's announcing something else. But, yeah.

Gene 8:59

Okay, either a book or something else, I

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:01

No, no, he, he, he said it on the Tim Pool show last time he was on there. That he had something he was announcing. And I, I remember it at the time. But I, it's, it has since passed me

Gene 9:13

got a job somewhere and he's gonna be a host somewhere?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:15

at all. I, I, I want to say it was something like a Patreon or something that he

Gene 9:22

he's already got a Patreon.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:23

Or not a Patreon, what's the GoFundMe, that he had some sort of GoFundMe project or something.

Gene 9:30

Okay. I guess we'll find out when it happens. But there you go. So apparently he lives close enough to shop at the same store that I do.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:40

Okay, stalker.

Gene 9:42

It's it's funny because, you know, I go to the store maybe once every two months.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:47

Mm hmm.

Gene 9:48

And the rest of the time I have groceries delivered. So this is the one time in a couple of months that I actually happened to be at the store myself.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 9:57

Yeah, lucky.

Gene 9:59

hE got lucky, sure. But

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:02

Have you read, have you read White Pill? Oh, you should.

Gene 10:07

Should I?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:08

Yeah, you should.

Gene 10:09

Should I just maybe talk to you and get a synopsis instead?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:12

No, no, you shouldn't add it in. Especially with the doomsaying stuff you send me.

Gene 10:16

sake. Dude, I'm gonna be happy to take a break from books when I finish book 12 of the series that you got me started on.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:26

You can't though. You've got to go read the

Gene 10:29

No. I'm gonna take a break and I'll eventually get to Charlie, but I'm not gonna go from one directly to the other immediately.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:36

I've already gone through all five Charlie series and now I'm on, I just started book 12 here

Gene 10:40

did. Okay, there you go. So that's the last one of the series that I'm reading. And, and sure. It just came out, so hopefully for another year. Yeah. But it's Do you remember book 11? Because you read so damn much.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:56

Yeah,

Gene 10:57

Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 10:59

I've got a pretty decent memory. I mean, you know, it's not, can I quote it to you? No. Do I have a pretty good impression of the events and what happened? Yes. You know, have you finished book 11 yet?

Gene 11:13

No, I'm, I'm almost done with it. I think I got, like, two chapters left.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:17

I don't want to spoil stuff for you,

Gene 11:19

Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:20

A cliffhanger. Shocker.

Gene 11:22

I usually do.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:24

The bastards.

Gene 11:25

You know, the, the interesting thing I, I realized right on this book 11 is that We're on the 11th book, and it's only been nine months that have gone by.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:36

It's a little more than a year, but yes.

Gene 11:38

In book 11, he talks about it being the fall.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:43

Of the following year.

Gene 11:45

Yeah, yeah. But it started off in the winter.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:49

nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. It's over a year at this point, but yes, he, he is pumping a ton of detail into a short period of

Gene 11:58

so the,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 11:59

it may, and it feels way longer because you're not paying attention, but it's, if you go back, it's very clear the timeline,

Gene 12:06

So what, when did he go on his road trip in book one?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 12:10

It was I want to say the spring.

Gene 12:13

So you're saying it's been a year and a half.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 12:18

Yes.

Gene 12:19

Really?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 12:19

Roughly, yeah,

Gene 12:21

okay. I guess I just don't remember the previous fall.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 12:25

and he does a lot of really good work in Charlie's to kind of beat that timeline home and he lines up the timeline and Charlie's with the main series

Gene 12:35

probably has all that shit mapped out on the wall or something.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 12:38

Oh, he has to, he has to, because he, he's maintained a very good level of detail and really done. Done a lot of work. He just has done a lot of work whether it's research or edible plants or any of his strategies or talking hell, what he knows about military gear and weaponry is impressive because he, like, he'll say something about so the Russians are a far bigger element in Charlie's and he'll say something about a hind and I'm like, Okay, that seems odd, and I'll go look up the detail, because it's this niche detail about how the thermal works on the hind, and I'm like, that seems odd, let me go look, and sure fucking enough, that's exactly how the system works. And yeah, it's, it's impressive.

Gene 13:32

Well, I mean, everybody should look that shit up. It's not that hard if you're writing a book to look up. Information like that.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 13:41

Okay. I, you, when you look at the number of authors and how much hard science fiction, and I would put this in that category

Gene 13:51

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 13:52

is pretty rare. And that's part of the reason why I like this series so much is because he does get the details, right? It's not. Oh, she'll do the Kessel Run in 4. 8 parsecs, or

Gene 14:04

Yeah, man. Parsecs. Wrong unit of measure.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 14:07

Chri And then they tried to make that work in a prequel, and it's just like, you In

Gene 14:13

Wait. What do you mean they tried to do that in the prequel?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 14:17

one of the prequel movies, they tried to make that make sense.

Gene 14:21

Oh, really? I didn't watch any of the non real movies, so I'm not going to. That's crazy. Okay. Yeah. So basically, you like the books. We know that.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 14:37

Mm

Gene 14:37

You're almost done with them.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 14:40

hmm. I've got some other series lined up.

Gene 14:44

Do you know what yet?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 14:46

I've got a handful lined up of books I need to read. Um, so, one of the things to note is, while I'm reading this, I'm also Reading other things, right? This is my, this is my fiction read, but I've got. I've got some other stuff in the winds there too. But I this is the longest fiction bender I've been on shit since I went through Game of Thrones, the song Ice and Fire the first time. Which those are big books

Gene 15:18

I never read those.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 15:20

Ah, it's worth it. It's, it really is. It's, it, the books are much better than the TV show.

Gene 15:25

yeah. Usually that's a true statement for most things, but I kind of feel like I got what I needed out of it, out of the TV show I've got my, my buddy that's reading this series now, a couple of books behind me,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 15:39

Mm hmm.

Gene 15:39

He, he always reads all the book versions of anything that's the TV show or movie that he

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 15:46

Mm hmm. Yep.

Gene 15:47

I, I'm not one of those people. I, I guess I kind of get why people wanna do that, but to me then I wouldn't bother watching a TV show. I would just read the damn book. It's

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 15:59

I, I, I prefer to do that myself, i, I have a couple series that I need to catch up on. They've released new books since I've been reading this. And I need to go in and finish Red Rising. Books, book six, I got to do that one. I've got to do five years after, which is the one second after

Gene 16:18

Yeah, I did buy that one. That one's on my to-do list as well, so I gotta do that one

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 16:23

And there's some other series I've added. Generally like audible is fiction. And there's that sort of thing in there, but you know, as far as the other books I've been reading, I've been doing John Lovell's new book that he put out. It's warrior poet way. It's kind of a full, his philosophy. Philosophy sort of thing. It's nah, eh, but like, it, it, it's, I can only take it in short snippets. I wanna finish it just to finish for him, but not the best writer,

Gene 16:56

John Lovett.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 16:56

John. Love level, level.

Gene 16:59

Okay. Got

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:00

The other book that I'm reading, what was it? The, I just finished at Chip. The

Gene 17:06

have a book

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:07

Glenn Beck.

Gene 17:08

that you have publicly available.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:10

Yeah, I set up a book list just kind of a, not not everything, but some books that I thought were, you know, worth recommending to people.

Gene 17:20

Yes.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:20

the only thing that's on that reading list is really stuff that I would recommend someone to read. I'm not gonna put a book I don't like on there or don't think much of.

Gene 17:31

Nerdy of you, but what's the link?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:33

iT's namedben. com slash reading dash list.

Gene 17:38

Perfect.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:40

Yeah, and if you just go to namebid. com, there's a, under links, there's a reading list and shit, there's a, there's a couple hundred books on there probably.

Gene 17:49

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 17:51

And they're broken down mainly into two categories, sci fi slash post apocalyptic and then political, religion, philosophy. And there, there's a pretty good amount of book on there, books on there. So like, for instance, On Civil Disobedience or Ayn Rand's Anthem, those are under political. Plato's The Republic On Liberty, John Stuart Mill, Road to Serfdom, and then if you jump up, there's Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez, or Starship Troopers Behind Line, or Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut, and yeah.

Gene 18:26

Yep. Yeah. It's it's a very, very long list and it does certainly cover a lot of books I've read in the past, but plenty of ones that I've never read as well.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 18:35

Oh, really? Which one?

Gene 18:37

I, I'm not looking at it, but I just glanced at it earlier this morning and I just kind of thought, yep. Yep. Yep. Nope. I haven't read that. Yep. Yep. Yep. Nope. I haven't read that. You know, there's a few,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 18:48

Okay, yeah, I, I would highly recommend I really need to break it out, and one of the things I think I'm gonna start doing since I've set up this little blog and everything to kind of go along with the show and kind of be my own show nuts and handling things the way I want. I think one of the things I'm going to start doing is little quick book reviews when I'm done or something. But yeah

Gene 19:08

you could also do them on the Amazon and then put a affiliate link to the book on Amazon and then you know, have that page actually be affiliate links for you as well.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 19:21

yeah, all the, the book list is all affiliate links on there.

Gene 19:26

There you go. So you're, yeah. You're already doing that. Good for you.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 19:30

yeah I got kicked off the affiliate program and had to go back and redo it.

Gene 19:34

What, what was the what did they give you a reason at all?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 19:37

Yes, but I call BS

Gene 19:41

Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 19:42

so I did root domain. So like, for instance, named ben. com or just two good old boys. com is places I would be posting.

Gene 19:51

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 19:52

And they said that I didn't have all my websites listed and those are the only places that stuff has been posted publicly.

Gene 20:01

Hmm. So yeah, this is something that I remember vaguely them bitching about because back when I used to do affiliate stuff with Amazon, I did it mostly from videos. So I was doing review of product videos and then posting those. And so it was, I think the link that I gave them was just my YouTube channel for doing that and they were perfectly happy with that for years and then all of a sudden it was kind of like. You need to update your link site to your main website, which includes all the legal terms and conditions and shit and disclosures. And I'm like, I don't have that shit, so I never did anything, and eventually they just shut down my account.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 20:46

Yeah. So I had to go through and I pushed an appeal, but. They went ahead and just killed the account, so I had to start a new account, which means all these links, all the affiliate links that I had set up, which is well between the reading list and some of the other stuff I've posted under links, it's, it's hundreds and I had, there, there is no, there is no automated way to go through and change

Gene 21:11

No the way the professionals do this is they actually create a link to their own domain, which then to the Amazon link so that you can change where it's forwarding without affecting the link that's publicly posted.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 21:30

Either way, I'd have to go touch the back end and

Gene 21:34

You can just,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 21:36

the only place this stuff has been posted so far is on my website. So the only way that that's an advantage is like posting in an RSS feed that's going to get picked up by something and held. So there, there's an advantage there, but you know, if you go to click on the going home book or no agenda book or whatever dog stars, which, Dog Stars is a great book, but if you click on that and it takes you straight to the Amazon page, if I, if I were to post that link somewhere else that is out of my control, yes, that would be beneficial. Or if I were to post something in multiple places, then I would have one place to change it. But just on the link page, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, I've got to go touch all of them anyway.

Gene 22:17

Yeah. And it's not like we're getting a shit ton of traffic on, on that side anyway.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:22

Not at all.

Gene 22:23

Yeah. But it is

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:25

we've had in a day is a few hundred,

Gene 22:27

that's actually more than I would expect.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:29

Oh yeah, the, the average is around 50 or so, and then it, you know, whenever I do a big post or something, it jumps up the most I've seen on it's in a single day is about 450.

Gene 22:42

Oh, God damn it. There's a fruit fly that just walked on my keyboard.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:46

Speaking of posts,

Gene 22:48

Hmm. Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:51

We didn't do a Christmas episode because you had gout and slept in.

Gene 22:56

Sure. I thought that we weren't going to do one anyway.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 22:59

Yeah, we said we were on Saturday, but anyway,

Gene 23:03

oh, on Saturday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're right. We were going to do it a day early and I totally spaced it out. Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 23:10

so

Gene 23:11

And then Darren got sick and I didn't do that show this last Friday. So I had the whole week off basically.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 23:18

well, and CSP came up with a good idea for us to try and stream,

Gene 23:23

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 23:24

we need, we need to get on the agenda stream regardless.

Gene 23:26

you want to, I really don't care one way or the other, but if you want to figure out how to do that and talk to the powers that be, you're more than welcome to. I've asked and I didn't get the info once, so I'm not gonna ask again.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 23:39

I think what we'll do is not necessarily stream live, but stream the recording once a week, just so that it's. You know, we have a show and can push it and do, but anyway since the last time we talked Colorado,

Gene 23:56

live on Twitch right now, just FYI.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 24:00

Twitch or Twitter

Gene 24:01

er, sorry, we're streaming live on X right now. Goddammit, all the supernaming. Yeah, it's we probably could be streaming on Twitch as well. Nobody'd watch because there's no moving hot girls in the, in the video.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 24:15

We could have AI just have the belly dancer going.

Gene 24:17

That's true. Have you did you, are you aware that Twitch recently changed their terms of service to allow nudity?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 24:27

Okay. So they're going to compete with only fans.

Gene 24:29

It sure seemed that way, but it has to be artistic nudity.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 24:34

So they're going to compete with only

Gene 24:36

So here's what you have right now, is you have a slew of artists who are female in the early 20 something vicinity who are drawing, painting, sketching sans clothes. Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 24:56

Yeah, so I was gonna take us to Colorado and Maine.

Gene 25:01

Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 25:03

Yeah, I guess finish your twitch

Gene 25:05

I did. That's it. That's it. It's done. It's just, I thought it was interesting that for so long they've been trying to, you know, go against things because there's a whole, like there was a whole thing called the hot tub streams that happened a while ago because somebody figured out it was a loophole to be able to stream with absolutely minimal amount of clothing and bikinis on by just saying Hey, I'm just doing my stream from a hot tub. That's totally legit. Right. And so you had a bunch of. Anyway, so I watch Twitch occasionally for video games, but after watching video games for a while, you see what else is up, and then you realize, oh, okay, so they've loosened up their sandwich a little bit. Alright, anyway, that's the whole story.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 25:53

Since we

Gene 25:53

and Maine.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 25:54

yeah, so Colorado removed Trump from the ballot saying in a 4 2 3 decision that he violated the 14th amendment, which is Not possible, but

Gene 26:06

I would say, if that's the grounds anyone wants to do it on, it's, it's not possible because No court has decided that

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 26:14

that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. Does not matter. If you read the 14th amendment first of all, Congress shall have the power to enforce this amendment through appropriate legislation provisions of this article that has not been done. And then secondly the other relevant bit is without the so the 14th amendment, if you read it, says without due process of law. So there has been no due process. Therefore, he cannot be removed. They're violating the 14th amendment in their own decision. And then it the relevant section here, it says no person shall have shall be a senator representative in Congress or or elector. Of president vice president or hold any off or hold any office, civil or military under the United States or under the any state who having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States or as a member of any state legislature or as an member of Congress. Executive or judicial officer of any state to support the Constitution of the United States shall be engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by two thirds vote of each House, remove such disability.

Gene 27:35

yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 27:35

And then later on it says Congress shall have the power to enforce this.

Gene 27:39

so the way they're reading

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 27:40

isn't listed.

Gene 27:41

it is the way they're reading it, it is the executive of the United States that would be the

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 27:46

that does not say anything about the executive of the United States

Gene 27:50

It does. Read it. Read it

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 27:51

doesn't says the executive or judicial officer of any state

Gene 27:57

Keep going.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 27:59

that that that's it. What do you mean? I've read it. People can go read it. There is no mention of the executive. Officers of the United States are appointed members, not elected members. The 14th Amendment. As far as I'm concerned, a, should not, we, we, first of all, it was not legitimately ratified, it was done during Reconstruction, it's one of the Reconstruction

Gene 28:23

now you're just,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 28:24

let's just accept it for what it

Gene 28:26

accept it as our, as

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 28:28

it does not fucking apply to the President, and it is up to the Congress to enforce this through appropriate legislation, period. Otherwise the amendment never would have been passed.

Gene 28:45

yEah, but. But no, I disagree with you on that. Congress by two thirds of each house can remove such

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 28:54

Keep, keep reading. Keep reading. Under the very last sentence in the article, the Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Everything before it is only enforceable through Congressional legislation.

Gene 29:13

let, let me ask you a hypothetical question. Let's say there was somebody. We could go back all the way to the Civil War, or the the After this was passed, right, let's say there was an actual person that this qualified to. In your opinion, could a state keep that person off the ballot if they were found to have been an insurrectionist?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 29:40

E. Lee himself wanted to, or better yet because I don't think Robert E. Lee is a particularly good example, but if Jefferson Davis decided to run for president of the United States under this article, no state at the time should have been able to stop him.

Gene 29:57

But is it not up to the states to determine their electoral procedures? I'm playing devil's advocate,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 30:05

but they, they, they have to, they have to equal protection under the law. They have to allow for it. They, Trump has met the requirements to be on the ballot in Colorado, Maine, and others, and they're trying to remove them. By the way, a book I need to add to that reading list that everyone should go read that has any question about what I'm saying on whether or not. Davis would have been removed from the ballot. You need to go read, Was Davis a traitor? Because it is lined out because they expected him to be tried for treason. He never was. Which is interesting, because this is parallel to Trump in some ways. He never was, and was Davis a traitor is the case outlined by his lawyer and was going to be his defense. And it is brilliant, and it is well done, and even if you think he was, it's worth going and seeing what the other side had to say. Anyway, so since Colorado has pulled this bullshit, which if you go to named band.com and you go to the story, I've got a bunch of stuff listed here, including the I've embedded the PDF of the 213 page decision and written a bit

Gene 31:16

That's a long decision,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 31:17

It's an incredibly long decision, and it was four to three. I've read the vast majority of it. Yes, there's

Gene 31:24

know, there are currently 26, or lawsuits rather I should say, in 26 different states to get Trump off, including Texas, to get Trump off the ballot. So I think we're going to see at least 10 more states that follow suit on this.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 31:37

well, and Colorado has stayed its decision, but only up until whether the, if the Supreme Court picks it up and says, no, he has to be on the ballot or. Or they do not pick it up fast

Gene 31:53

let me ask you this. Does it matter? Because my understanding is, is that people don't elect the president anyway. Mm hmm. The Electoral College does. So why would the Electoral College need to even bother having a president on a ballot in a state, they can just make a decision and do it that way?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 32:13

First of all, you have state laws that say the electors must vote for who the state

Gene 32:18

but only in some states.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 32:20

only in some states, but that has become the norm actually post civil war

Gene 32:24

idea,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 32:24

it, it first of all, I 100 percent agree the electoral college has been slowly neutered over the last 150 years. But theoretically, what, what I think is going to happen I think we're going to have the election of Lincoln all over again,

Gene 32:41

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 32:41

and let me explain what happened with the election of Lincoln and how I think in the modern day, it will go. Lincoln did not win the popular vote. He did not win the anything but a plurality.

Gene 32:52

Bill Clinton.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 32:54

long story, but Bill Clinton got to 270. Lincoln was a little bit different path. Now here's the thing. We're going to end up in an election where Trump is removed from the ballots in a lot of states.

Gene 33:11

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:13

Whoever the Democrat is, is going to be running. And I don't think it's going to be Biden, but neither here nor there. Kennedy is going to be on the ballot.

Gene 33:23

hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:23

And I think the Republican party will actually put

Gene 33:30

how will Kennedy be on the ballot?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:32

hE, cause he's qualified. What do you mean? He's running as an independent. Qualified in a lot of states.

Gene 33:37

But hold up. How is he qualified in all these states? Cause I, I thought,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:41

And what's her name? Who's also running?

Gene 33:44

which one?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:45

She was on Tim pool.

Gene 33:47

Oh, Marion

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 33:48

Marianne Williamson. She'll end up running as an independent as well, most likely. And she'll be on the ballot in a bunch of states. So my point is you're going to have a bunch of people on the ballot. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump is listed as an independent on the ballot and the Republicans put up somebody. Probably Nikki Haley,

Gene 34:05

They could also put up nobody.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 34:08

No, they'll put up somebody. I guarantee it. They'll put up somebody. So what you're going to have is no one's going to get to 270.

Gene 34:16

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 34:17

And as a result, when the election cannot be certified for an individual on January 6th, 2025, it will go to a congressional vote. And I think there's a good chance Trump wins the congressional vote because it's by delegation and it is the, so each Each congressional delegation gets a vote. What that means is each state gets a vote. There are more Republican states theoretically than democratic states, at least as far as state

Gene 34:54

Yeah, but they're, but the senators are split.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 34:57

that doesn't matter because it's by delegation.

Gene 35:01

What do you mean? It doesn't

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 35:02

it's not a, it's not every member of Congress. No, no, no, no. They, so let's say there are 26 states that are Republican. And there are 24 states that are Democrat, the vote will be 26 to 24 each state, only it's by delegation, not by representative.

Gene 35:20

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 35:21

So your senators and your Congress critters all count as one regardless. I think what you're going to have is whoever wins the 2024 election, it's going to be a constitutional test for us. And the majority of the country is not going to see whoever it is. As a, as a legitimate president, this by, by the very nature of what we're doing. And this was part of the reason why the South seceded after the election of Lincoln. It's not that they, Oh, hated Lincoln. It's not that, Oh, he's an emancipator and that's the way it's going to go. No, no, no, no. In fact, Lincoln was not some big emancipator before the civil war at all. At all. And I can back that up with many of his statements, quotes, and everything that he did up until his election as president

Gene 36:13

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 36:14

and then post election as president, the majority of the country did not see the election of Lincoln as legitimate, Oregonians people from Oregon. Didn't see it as legitimate. The Western territories did not see it as legitimate. The South did not see it as legitimate.

Gene 36:32

Yeah. Yeah. Bill Clinton, the one with 43 percent of the popular vote.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 36:36

Yes, but he hit 270 of the electoral college vote. That's the difference is I'm saying we're not even going to get to 270. We're not going to have a clear winner on election day. It's going to have to go to a contingent election is what I think is going to happen.

Gene 36:50

So you're, you're basically agreeing with what I said four years ago, three years ago

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 36:54

okay.

Gene 36:55

which is that if the Republicans want to run Trump, then

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 37:00

think it would matter who they ran. I think you're going to have this

Gene 37:04

I don't know. I think, I don't know about that,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 37:07

no, we're, we're at, we're at that inflection point in history where if it wasn't Trump, it would be Vivek. If it wasn't Vivek, it would be Rand Paul or someone else. The fact of the matter is this, this, this country is not a cohesive unit anymore and hasn't been for a while. And we are seeing the devolution of our society to the point where civil war is becoming more and more likely.

Gene 37:58

well, of course it is. There's a movie coming up.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 38:01

I'm not even talking about that. Did you read the post I put up on the 29th? A couple days ago. Okay.

Gene 38:10

What'd you

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 38:11

You should.

Gene 38:13

What'd you

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 38:14

Oh, just asking where the line is, and where the line is for people, and putting out their stuff. Yeah, yeah. You know, putting out stuff that I'm kinda hesitant to say, but at the same time, somebody's gotta

Gene 38:26

lose your job, man.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 38:27

You know what?

Gene 38:30

Ooh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 38:31

No, I'm serious. We're coming to a point where If I don't stand on my principles, if I don't at least say to the world, Hey, yeah, this isn't right, and I'm not willing to be uncomfortable for it, We are gonna go to a violent war, and that's not something I want to see, Because I don't think that The odds are in my favor. So I would rather keep it peaceful if possible, but I don't know that that is possible

Gene 38:59

I don't think it's possible.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 39:00

I go read my post. I very much say that.

Gene 39:04

Hey, guess what? We're doing a podcast for people that didn't read your post. So what did you say in your post?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 39:10

I don't wanna read it exactly

Gene 39:12

just summarize it then.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 39:13

the summary is, I think that we do not live under a I don't think I'm free. We live under a system of laws that very much goes to the Soviet idea of give me the man and I will give you the crime against him.

Gene 39:30

Absolutely.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 39:31

So far this government has been more or less benevolent unless you've been in a certain subclasses.

Gene 39:37

prison than any other country on the planet.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 39:39

Yeah, like I said, unless you're in certain subclasses. And I don't think it's a racial division at this point. I think it's economic. And, anyway, my, my hope is that we can Get to a point where enough people wake up that we have a hope of changing course of this country.

Gene 39:59

Oh, I think when the bullets start flying, people will start waking up.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 40:03

Then it's too late.

Gene 40:04

Maybe.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 40:05

Then we lose.

Gene 40:06

But that's how countries change.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 40:09

Yeah, and generally not for the better.

Gene 40:12

No, sometimes for the better. But you got to look at the history remember it was only what one and a half percent of the population that Was it three? Okay, three percent of the population was responsible for the our war of independence Now

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 40:32

the post by a quote from Reagan's A Time for Choosing, which was part of the 64 convention with Goldwater, which I'm a big Goldwater Miller fan. I actually have a couple campaign buttons from them, and I like Barry Goldwater a lot. I think this country would be in It is anyway I don't know that he ever public he wasn't publicly Jewish or practicing Jewish. But anyway the, the point is. Reagan gave this speech at the Republican National Convention in 64, and it's interesting that it, you know, A, it's that old of a speech, and then if you listen to the speech, it could definitely apply to today. And I actually linked to the speech below, but the quote from it is a pretty good story about a Cuban refugee. It reads, not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman, who had escaped Castro in the midst of the story. One friend turned to another and said, We don't know how lucky we are. And the Cuban stopped and said, How lucky you are. I had some place to escape to. And in that sentence told the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.

Gene 41:47

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 41:49

believe that, man. If there was another place to go, I'd be there. I would be out of this place in a heartbeat, but I can promise you there isn't one better.

Gene 42:00

Probably not for the average person for sure. Yeah. I will tell you a lot of my friends that are more affluent than me are buying properties in several countries right now. One of

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 42:14

That doesn't mean your friends who are more affluent have the same desires or freedom, living nature that I do.

Gene 42:20

no, not at all. It just, it means they're also nervous about what's happening in this country.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 42:27

Absolutely. I think

Gene 42:28

planning on being able to not be here ever if it comes down to it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 42:33

Mm hmm.

Gene 42:34

But one of those is Portugal. Which I've still never been to and I still want to go. It's, it's always Like at some point I gotta get out there kind of on my list, but

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 42:43

we should start planning some South American tours, Gene.

Gene 42:47

yeah, yeah, I'm up for that. South America is good. I like the I like the climate more than I do European climate. That's for sure. But yeah, it's it's certainly seeming like things are going to get to more of a pivot point. But I also guarantee you there's another podcast being recorded right now by some liberals where they're talking about how You know, like, it looks like nothing that they're trying to keep Trump off the ballot is working. And there's a real possibility that there might be a civil war if Trump comes to power.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 43:29

And you know what, maybe it's time

Gene 43:31

and that was my point.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 43:34

I, if, if, if there is then

Gene 43:38

Maybe this country just got too big.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 43:40

to go. Oh, I've been saying that for decades.

Gene 43:44

didn't listen to the Georgia Guidestones, now here we are.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 43:46

No, no, no, no, no. It's not about that. It's about the representation. First of all, Congress should have never been allowed to cap its number. Senators should not be directly elected. And then the other thing is the United States should have never expanded past the Mississippi. It should have, like, what Thomas Jefferson wanted was actually past the Ohio, but he, he, at his time, and you have to remember, this is someone who was involved in the Louisiana Purchase.

Gene 44:13

mm hmm,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 44:15

What you have to remember was that he did not want Western expansion for the United States, even though he was involved with it. He thought that purchasing this territory and setting up daughter democracies and daughter republics was what would happen. That they will, the eastern seaboard, the original 13 colonies, maybe plus a little bit would be the United States and that other countries would be spawned out of the United States, not this inevitable Western expansion and growth that we've seen.

Gene 44:45

right?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 44:46

And that, that's the problem.

Gene 44:49

But, again, I think this is coming back to my point about humans maximizing personal interest in any system they exist in.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:01

Mm hmm.

Gene 45:01

And so, somebody Somebody that understands humanity should understand that given the possibility of expansion, humans will always expand to fill that possibility

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:15

Yeah, to an extent.

Gene 45:17

It's inevitable. You know, in some ways, and I know you're not a fan of this of the federalization of massive amounts of land.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:28

No, it's not constitutional.

Gene 45:30

right.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:32

BLM, Bureau of Land Management, should not exist.

Gene 45:35

Yeah, and I generally agree with that, but also from a psychological standpoint, that's probably the only way to keep that land from being utilized.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:43

Mm hmm.

Gene 45:44

Now, whether that's a good thing or whether that's the appropriate way to keep it from being utilized, that, that, those are

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 45:49

still being utilized. This is why the Bundys and everybody else fought, right? Because that was grazing land and that, there's lots of issues there.

Gene 45:58

yeah, but it, but it's not being built on, is, is my point because it, it, it would be otherwise.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 46:04

me, that's the way out of our national debt issue is sell all federal lands that are not military bases, armories post offices, and government

Gene 46:14

the biggest buyers of that land have been China and Bill Gates, and I don't want either one of those to be the buyer.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 46:20

They can buy it all they want. Yeah, Yeah. So what you do, is you sell the land, and then you say any foreign national or, you know, Bill Gates cannot own land and repatriate it.

Gene 46:34

you're pro communism, at this point you've gone full circle. Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 46:38

I'm just one of, I'm pro fucking the CCP and Bill Gates.

Gene 46:41

Uh huh, huh. You realize they're, they're going to be buying the land with our money.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 46:47

yeah. No, I gotcha. No, if we get this out of debt, even if the Chinese and Chinese nationals want to own land here, that's fine.

Gene 46:56

I don't, I think Mexico's got the right idea. I think you, you can only own land as a citizen, but you can lease land for 99 years as a foreigner.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 47:05

yeah, I'm, I'm fine with, and that's where I was going that I'm fine with that sort of provision or something that would require a constitutional amendment though. But yeah, I, if you make some sort of provision or that. Even as part of the land grant. So if you go back to how Oklahoma was settled and everybody else, if you look at

Gene 47:25

I like that. Oklahoma settled in quotes.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 47:29

what do you mean

Gene 47:30

entire state was literally an Indian reservation.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 47:35

There was land grants anyway,

Gene 47:38

I know

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 47:38

where the whole boomer sooner term comes from. So for those of you who don't know the Oklahoma Sooners those are the people who cheated and went too soon. Boomers waited for the actual firing of the cannon. So Sooners are cheaters.

Gene 47:53

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 47:55

Um, anyway you could put a provision in the land grant that you have to be a U. S. citizen or a U. S. citizen has to be 51 percent ownership or something like that.

Gene 48:08

Speaking of U. S. citizen and not U. S. citizen last estimates I read was that in 2023, there were seven and a half million people that came in as undocumented illegal aliens.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 48:22

I, and that's a low estimate.

Gene 48:24

Yeah. And that's yeah, so somewhere probably between seven and ten million. And that, that is about half of the total illegal population estimates. That came out in the late nineties.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 48:39

Yeah.

Gene 48:39

So we are now adding per year, roughly 50 percent of the total

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 48:45

What was a decade? Yes.

Gene 48:46

existed back then. That's insane. I Don't think I want that many legals, frankly, and we're talking about zero controls over people coming in, like what's the point of having border patrols at all? Why wouldn't I just. When I go on

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 49:07

Somebody has got to lift the barbed wire, Gene.

Gene 49:10

yeah, yeah, you know who's doing that the border patrol. That's who's doing

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 49:13

Exactly. Somebody has got to lift the barbed wire.

Gene 49:16

huh Someone's got to destroy the actual fences being built on private property in Texas Because it's illegal to have a fence within 50 miles of the border apparently now What a crock of shit, man.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 49:29

All I can say is anyone who has land across the southern border of the state of Texas should immediately put in exotics and a high fence. And even a double layer high fence to keep those exotics in. And if and when Border Patrol takes your fence down sue them for the loss of those said animals.

Gene 49:53

Yeah. Don't we have some kind of, like, desert toad to protect or something here? Around the border? There's gotta be some kind of critter that's being stomped on. is such bullshit, man. It's, it, it's just, it is a mockery of the country. Because the first and foremost responsibility State is to protect its borders. That is the first reason for having a government versus an anarchy

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 50:26

And when you say state, you mean the not so a lot of people don't

Gene 50:31

state country. Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 50:34

Yes. Not a province, but a free, independent state. Capital S. Mm

Gene 50:41

reason that people actually give up some of their rights to the government is so that the government protects the border. That's the first. Goal of any government that's that there's zero reason to have a government if that function isn't done. Would you agree?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 51:04

Yeah, more or less.

Gene 51:06

Because without the border, you're not a state. You're just a, a wondering people.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 51:12

do I put this? Without enforcement and rule of law, there's no point in having a government.

Gene 51:25

Yeah. But even before the internal law, like what's the first thing that happens? On the kibbutz in this series of books we're reading,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 51:36

What about it?

Gene 51:37

they set up a patrol point along the road to their neighborhood, to their community, that is manned 24 7 with guns.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 51:48

Mm hmm.

Gene 51:49

first thing they do is set up a border.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 51:53

Mm hmm.

Gene 51:54

Because there has to be a border between us and them in order to call yourselves an us. Without a border with free flow of people back and forth then you're just gypsies. You're just a wandering people with no borders

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 52:10

No, I don't disagree.

Gene 52:13

So I I just if there's a reason to impeach The current president, there's no better reason and a legitimate reason than that one.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 52:25

Yeah except high crimes and misdemeanors, right?

Gene 52:30

Yeah, that is a high crime, literally not doing the first job of the government.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 52:36

I think you're gonna have a hard time finding that legal precedent.

Gene 52:40

I Think I'm going to have a hard time finding the balls in Congress to do it. That's the bigger issue.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 52:45

mean, do you want Cackling Camel, Camelot Cackling Cameltoe Camelot

Gene 52:50

I think you just keep impeaching them until you find somebody that's willing to actually do the first job of government, which is to enforce a border.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 52:59

Yeah,

Gene 52:59

I don't, I don't even care if it's a Democrat or Republican. When they find the first person that's willing to say Yep, we need to have a border, we're gonna start patrolling the border, we're gonna build a wall.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 53:11

Okay.

Gene 53:12

Okay, good, now you're on the right track, because right now,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 53:14

so you're gonna vote for Trump? So you're gonna vote for Trump?

Gene 53:19

I told you that a long time ago. First, I'm voting for Trump, but I'm, but I can vote for Trump and I can still talk about the problem that Trump causes.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 53:28

I don't disagree. You know, at the same time, who's gonna be better?

Gene 53:34

I think Vivek would be better, frankly, if, if, if it was a perfect world, Vivek would be there instead of Trump, in my opinion.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 53:42

Maybe he'll be there as vice president

Gene 53:45

Yeah, yeah, which would set him up to run, you know, after four years, but I don't, if, again, perfect world, if it was up to me. I, I'd sooner have him be in the president's lot sooner than later, because I think he is smarter than Trump. I think he is closer in terms of the ratings of things that are important, like freedom and Mm

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:12

Here's the interesting thing. If it does go to a contingent election,

Gene 54:16

Mm

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:18

there is no part, there is no combined ticket. They will be voting for the president and vice president and like, so whoever the winner's running mate is isn't necessarily who the vice president is gonna be. We're gonna go back to old school

Gene 54:35

So we're going to have Adams and Jefferson.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:37

pretty much potentially

Gene 54:38

that'll be fun.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:40

very. Yeah, plus assassinations, you know,

Gene 54:45

Hey, let's bring back duels while we're at it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:49

dude. Hey,

Gene 54:50

I've always thought that that was so stupid to

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:53

has You you can engage in combat in Texas legally

Gene 54:58

That's good.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 54:59

as long as there's no major physical harm Both parties agree and it is done publicly

Gene 55:04

That sounds like an MMA fight.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:06

pretty much

Gene 55:07

Yeah, but I'm talking about duels. Like that should have not become illegal. There's nothing wrong with two grown men. Making an informed decision and having one of those two walk off the battlefield.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:20

I I think we've just removed violence too much from our

Gene 55:23

We have! We need more violence, goddammit.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:25

we do we do There are a lot of people who need their Asses handed

Gene 55:30

Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:31

and then they wouldn't act the way they do. 100 percent believe that I, society has allowed sociopaths and psychopaths to run a muck because there is no check

Gene 55:44

posted about that earlier on Twitter today.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:46

Used to be, if you behaved a certain way, and crossed certain lines, you got your ass kicked.

Gene 55:53

Yep. We got to bring the asylums back, man,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 55:59

You gotta bring what back?

Gene 56:00

the asylums that way too many people that don't belong in the street on the street today.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 56:06

Yeah, I think there also just needs to be some ass kickings. But, you know,

Gene 56:10

Oh, yeah. Yeah, there'll definitely be some massacres.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 56:13

Speaking of stuff, did you look at our stats over the last year?

Gene 56:18

No

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 56:20

I, I posted about it. What shocked me, the, the big, the download number, you know, that's, that's actually pretty hard to To figure out, especially given all the aggregators and everything. So I don't look at the download number, but out of all the podcasts hosted on our post, we were in the top 25%, which is just sad to be.

Gene 56:42

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 56:43

Because we're not, we're, we're, we're not that big of a podcast. So

Gene 56:46

damn small podcast

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 56:47

tells you how many just absolutely nothing podcasts there are.

Gene 56:52

Right, right. And and this is a not a cheap host either. This is this is like something that You know, Joe Schmoe, Candle Making Podcast, probably not gonna bother to pay the money for it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:05

but what did interest me, and I don't know if you've looked at it, is the countries.

Gene 57:11

No, and what, tell me.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:13

So we, we were downloaded in 75 different countries.

Gene 57:18

Cool.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:19

The top ones are the United States, obviously. That's, that's the vast majority. Then you've got Netherlands, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Australia, and Egypt.

Gene 57:30

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:31

Then Norway. And Ireland round out the top 10 there.

Gene 57:35

Wow, that's pretty cool.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:37

It's, it's pretty interesting. And if you look by region, most of it's North America and Europe. But Africa has a decent number. And so does Asia,

Gene 57:48

hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 57:48

And then Oceania because of Australia, but yeah, South America, we don't do shit in South America, but we don't, we're an English language podcast,

Gene 57:56

Yeah, yeah, there's no, no hablando en español here.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 58:00

Por que no, tu no hablas espanol,

Gene 58:04

See, you should do more of that. Maybe we get to pick up some voters. Some voters, some listeners.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 58:09

No, I, my Spanish is terrible. And not only that, I speak Castilian.

Gene 58:13

Yeah, but they'll still understand you.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 58:16

did I ever tell you the, what happened when I was working for the oil

Gene 58:19

Uh uh. No.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 58:21

So it was a cold winter day. had some workers who were up from some Latin American country, I can't remember which country they were from. And I walked outside and they were getting ready to go work on this pipeline. And I, I was managing the SCADA systems and it for this company. And anyway, I, I walked out and just by this group of workers who were up and from Latin America and I said, ah. Which as far as I'm concerned in Spanish, ah, it's cold outside. I need it's freezing. I need a jacket.

Gene 58:58

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 58:59

To them, I was saying it's cold outside. I need a condom because that's the slang. Right. So yeah, there's things like that, man.

Gene 59:09

nice.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 59:10

And check out the also jacket can mean to jack off

Gene 59:14

Yeah. There you

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 59:15

there's various slangs there. So, yeah, yeah. Anyway, this is wise, you know, Spanish. So I

Gene 59:24

We'll probably pick up one Spanish listener after this show.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 59:27

Yeah, I, I learned Castilian, right? Spaniard Spanish. Vayises vosotros, you know, a very different conjugatory set up,

Gene 59:37

Did you get to utilize any of it when you were in Spain?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 59:41

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm very conver I, I, I'm moderately conversational still in Spanish.

Gene 59:47

Mm hmm. That's good.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 59:48

Yeah I, I like languages. I took a lot of Spanish and a lot of Latin. A little French Turkish from a friend of mine. And Vietnamese are the main ones.

Gene 59:58

hmm. Nice. I can read Greek.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:00:04

Oh I can read Greek too. I took Latin and Greek as classical

Gene 1:00:07

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:00:08

I, when I can,

Gene 1:00:10

Not conversant.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:00:11

yeah, no, but yeah.

Gene 1:00:14

Yeah. No, it's it's neat to be able to do that, and I think some people,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:00:22

What a classical education I'll do for you.

Gene 1:00:24

yeah, yeah, classical education which, frankly, most people don't get, but neither should they. I think, I was talking to somebody else about this topic, is I think it's high time that we just phase out. Universal university education. I think we need to get some high quality trade schools going that provide the type of knowledge that people can actually utilize as part of careers and, and do it in a way that that competes. What's what's available at universities. There's no reason that you need to go to Stanford to get a good engineering or computer science degree. Like both of those should be in

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:01:15

No one would hire an

Gene 1:01:16

trade schools.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:01:19

Stanford isn't a major engineering school. They may be in software engineering and stuff like that, but like mechanical or maritime or electrical Stanford is not.

Gene 1:01:31

They're generally listed right after MIT on the list of engineering schools. So

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:01:36

okay.

Gene 1:01:37

I'm just saying, I think that there's a there's no reason that those, those particular degrees shouldn't be of better quality from single focus trade schools.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:01:52

Mm hmm.

Gene 1:01:53

And the idea that somehow you'd need the integrity of the bureaucracy of a university to get a good degree like that, I think is unnecessary. So if you want to still get your degree in underwater basket weaving, lesbian, English minor, then yeah, go to college. But if you want to learn how to program, you really don't need to go to college.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:02:20

I, I, I think the vast majority of careers today should not require a college degree. And I think you're, actually, this is one of the positive things of the and this is the one of the only times I'll ever mention or say anything positive about DEI. But. DEI for the last couple of years in it's seen as advantaging minorities which is why it's happening. But you know, DEI is basically allowing you know, companies to go through and say, and get rid of their, their degree requirements for positions.

Gene 1:03:02

I didn't realize that was one of the outcomes. That's interesting.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:03:04

Yeah most of the fortune 300 ish have done that either officially or somewhat unofficially hell, even when I was at the utility, which is a couple of years ago now that was a big HR change and push and as, you know, someone who was hiring people and leading a fairly large team there I, I can even remember when HR came out and said that, Literally all the way to the CEO, they're removing all degree requirements from every job, including council and things like that, which is interesting because I don't know how you do that.

Gene 1:03:40

Said that quite a while ago and, and he I know I actually had communication with the with SpaceX some job listings that listed degrees and I said, what, what's going on here, guys, you're listing degrees as requirements on the job post but didn't Musk say that he sees people with degrees as actually a negative versus somebody without a degree, but with practical experience. And they replied back saying, yes, that that that's correct. We've updated our job listings. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. So clearly somebody had put together the job rec that had experienced in a traditional company and then HR didn't go through and tweak it per the SpaceX standards.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:04:27

actually, it was probably HR who did the job recs and then the hiring manager didn't do it right.

Gene 1:04:34

Whoever it was, the point is they, they let it slip

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:04:37

so typically the way it works, especially in any. Is HR has a series of standard jobs that you then modify and change to go through and get a from scratch new job listing that's all new copy, new, totally new position, never been created before in the company without just editing something else is generally a bureaucratic nightmare. Like it's far easier to take you know, this how do I put this, this IT manager one and modify it to be ICS OT manager one and, you know, but they're pure. So this is, you spin it differently. It's just, that was the part of managing large groups of people that I hated the most. And when, when I was at the utility, I had employees that directly reported to me and then 30 contractors.

Gene 1:05:37

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:05:38

I had a pretty good team.

Gene 1:05:41

Yeah. Hiring

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:05:42

reports is a lot of direct.

Gene 1:05:46

don't know. I think that's probably about right. Once you get much past that, then it gets a little like, yeah, I've got one company I've been working with before the sales managers got 22 people that report to him directly. And I was like, this is not, yeah, he's not providing the level of support that he needs to be to his staff. Yep.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:06:07

and, even at remember, 8 was the direct report employees, and then I had a bunch of contractors too. And theoretically, the contractors don't take as much, because you're not doing the HR work for them and everything else, but at the same time, you're directing work, so it just

Gene 1:06:21

Yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:06:23

Didn't work.

Gene 1:06:24

definitely the case. I, I really. My rule of thumb is that ideally you have four people at most, and then they have four people, and then those people have four people, so you have a more hierarchical structure. A lot of companies bought into the whole, like, minimized hierarchy bullshit that seemed to become popular back about 15 years ago.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:06:48

Yeah, you know who you

Gene 1:06:50

we're a flat organization. That's unfortunate for you. yEah, I can blame the the people that gave women the vote.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:06:58

No, no, no, no, Mackenzie and co because I I was involved with a big bankruptcy back in the day and Mackenzie and co who are evil evil sons of bitches if you ask me but if you look at who they represent and where all that came from, it came directly from McKinsey and co and then spawned from there came from the fortune 100 and went out from

Gene 1:07:25

Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:07:26

that was their standard consulting answer of how to reduce overhead and was reduced middle management,

Gene 1:07:31

Yeah. Which I mean, to be fair, there was like, if you want to hide someplace in the company, middle management's a good place to hide.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:07:39

which, Oh, I, I, I don't know about that because if you're, yes, if you want to hide and not do anything, sure. But if you're trying to get anything done, it's the

Gene 1:07:49

that's not, yeah that's not hiding dude. I'm talking about just collecting a salary and doing the least middle management's pretty good place for that. So I get it. However you know, if you're doing management by objectives or something I'm sure you've all, you, you, along with all the people listening, you have seen the movie office space.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:07

Yes. Yeah,

Gene 1:08:08

What do you do? I'm a goddamn people person. What's that guy's name? The,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:15

yeah. No, I take the orders from the customer and give it to the engineer. Why can't the customers just give it directly to the engineer?

Gene 1:08:22

No, I have my assistant do that.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:24

But no, no, no. But here's the thing. There actually does need to be that person.

Gene 1:08:29

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:29

Absolutely. The, the person who interfaces with the customer and not be the

Gene 1:08:34

The engineer.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:35

the technical work cannot be

Gene 1:08:37

Nope. Different personality types.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:39

one. You have to have someone to manage the account. You

Gene 1:08:42

Mm

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:42

lots and lots of things there.

Gene 1:08:45

But it was a great movie.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:47

It's a very good movie.

Gene 1:08:50

I think I was one of Jennifer Aniston's best roles.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:53

Mmm, yeah, back

Gene 1:08:55

She's been in some crappy movies, man.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:08:58

shE also is just a crappy person.

Gene 1:09:01

What? What do you mean? I like her.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:05

Okay.

Gene 1:09:06

Back, back in the day of that movie, I think she was super hot.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:11

I'm not saying she's not a She is attractive, don't get me

Gene 1:09:15

Oh what are you talking about then?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:18

Just like her and Charlize Theron or whatever, name it, they're in whatever, just not great people.

Gene 1:09:25

They're actors.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:27

Okay?

Gene 1:09:28

They're not people.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:29

Okay. I don't know.

Gene 1:09:32

It's a kind of a subset of humans. Um,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:37

You should read, you should read Treason by Orson Scott Card.

Gene 1:09:43

Should I? Yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:09:44

first book so keep that in mind. But basically he I, I'm going to spoil it a little bit. The entire premise of the book is this group of rebels is exiled to this planet. And they've been there for a long time and they start to evolve. And they evolve based on the characteristics of the first person's job. If the first person who was exiled was an actor, their descendants evolve these characteristics for the actor guild, or, and so on and so forth. And it goes all the way through, and it's very interesting to see what attributes he equates to each group.

Gene 1:10:33

Ender's Game was his first book.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:10:35

no, no, no. Treason was his first book. Enders Game is not his first book at all, actually. Orson Scott Card's a pretty prolific author. Everybody remembers him for Enders Game, but he's written quite a bit. The Empire Series is really good. But yeah, I, when I, I, I was reminded a lot of, a lot of it going back through my reading list.

Gene 1:10:55

treason was 88 it says treason was 1988

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:00

It's been around,

Gene 1:11:00

and Orson and Ender's Game was 85.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:06

so it may have been published in 88, but it was his first novel. not have been published, but it was the first novel he wrote. It may, it may not have been his first published novel, but I remember reading in the forward, him apologizing about

Gene 1:11:23

So he's got two, one called treason and one called a planet called treason.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:28

Okay.

Gene 1:11:29

Which one are you referring to?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:31

I just know it as treason, but I think it's the same thing.

Gene 1:11:34

treason came out in 88, planet called treason came out in 79.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:38

Yeah. But anyway, I think there, it's just a republication of the same thing.

Gene 1:11:43

Yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:11:46

his first book is what I'm talking

Gene 1:11:48

yeah, I read a number of his books. I liked his writing style. But I mostly read them when I was, you know, younger, like in college and stuff back when they, like, I read them when they first came out. So, uh, or not too long thereafter, I guess. I remember Children of the Mind, I remember that.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:10

Yeah. Anyway Empire is really good. It's about the second American civil war and it's it's well done.

Gene 1:12:19

Yeah. So add it to the list, I guess.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:22

Hey, I've, I've got a list together.

Gene 1:12:24

Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:25

and by the way if people are listening and want to help out you know, and I, since I'm having to restart this whole Amazon thing, Okay.

Gene 1:12:34

Send us your blankets, your water.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:37

Just click on a link and buy something.

Gene 1:12:40

Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:41

You don't even have to buy the thing on the link. You can just go to somewhere else.

Gene 1:12:44

send money. The, the whole

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:47

know, actually, I don't even really care.

Gene 1:12:49

lately guys.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:12:50

I really, I don't care about that. I just, I need some help to get the couple purchases through the thing to just get this. Damn set up approved and then it can just sit there for forever as long as I care, but that way it's just at least set up. But yeah, until they find another reason to

Gene 1:13:13

yeah, exactly.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:14

which you know, it's

Gene 1:13:15

don't like your topics.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:16

You know, it's bullshit.

Gene 1:13:17

What?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:18

They canceled my account, but the link still work.

Gene 1:13:22

Oh, totally. Yeah. Amazon always does that. Yeah, you can.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:26

that's some bullshit. That's some bull

Gene 1:13:30

I look, it goes right along with the fact that if you're a seller on Amazon they will get a return on your product and then just notify you that they're subtracting out the cost of the return, but you don't get the return back.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:43

Yeah, I don't know why anyone agreed to this.

Gene 1:13:47

because they're the big gorilla, man.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:49

now, but why did they why did people

Gene 1:13:51

They did this one step at a time. Did you hear the latest from Amazon is now they're going to start putting commercials into prime video.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:13:59

Yeah while increasing the price

Gene 1:14:01

No, no. The price theoretically is the same, but now you're going to have ads. Now, if you want to opt out of ads. It's 20 more expensive.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:14:10

Anyway it it's ridiculous and we use prime video actually a lot

Gene 1:14:15

Yeah, I do too. I'm not a, I'm not at all happy about this. Because if I see an ad, I'm going to make a decision, and that decision may be to just not pay for Amazon Prime anymore. Because they're going to lose out on let's just be realistic, tens of thousands of dollars of my purchases if I once again have to comparison shop outside of Amazon and not just default shop at Amazon because of free delivery. But I will stop paying for the free delivery if they fuck with my video.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:14:46

Yeah we'll see. You know, we, we use it a lot for kids stuff and if we're going to buy movies that's generally where we, you know, cause there are some movies, especially from my childhood that you can't get streaming for free. You have to purchase and

Gene 1:15:01

but you know, you're not ever really purchasing if you're not getting physical media because they can yank that shit anytime they

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:15:08

They can yank the license.

Gene 1:15:09

get the money back.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:15:11

Yeah, and this is why I highly encourage people to make offline copies of your licensed media.

Gene 1:15:17

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That's,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:15:20

and for instance, anyone with an Audible account, if you're not using Open Audible, then you don't know what you're doing.

Gene 1:15:27

Reminds me. I got to rerun my, my newer books through that. I usually do that once a year.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:15:33

Yeah, I, I, I have a perpetual license for it. I support the guy. And you can do it for free, but he, he does a good amount of work. It connects to your Audible account, automatically downloads them. You can convert them. I personally just download them and leave them because I can convert them at any time. But yeah,

Gene 1:15:53

Yeah, I agree.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:15:54

but yeah, having an offline copy of your account. So for instance Audible has made some interesting choices. On some of the things that they've done. And I'm glad that I have offline copies of things. They make it very hard to get some of the content you purchased years and years ago.

Gene 1:16:15

Oh yeah, I lost, I probably lost about a hundred books when Audible was acquired by Amazon.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:16:21

Mm hmm. And you didn't properly merge your

Gene 1:16:24

exactly, I didn't, I like neglected to follow their emails in a timely fashion. I didn't think about it because it was, shit was still working. And keep in mind, unlike some people, I don't ever reread my books. So it's really more of a I paid for it. So I should have a copy, not like I'm going to be rereading anytime. Or read, listening to it anytime. But still I went through my audible about two, three years ago. And I was like, God, there's way fewer books than I thought I had in here. What the hell? Cause I remember certain books that I bought and listened to that are not in the list. And sure enough, I went back through my Gmails. I was like, yep, that's when they stole those books for me because they, they. What they should have done is just maintained the,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:17:16

logins.

Gene 1:17:17

yeah, the logins. And even if it, if that login had no options other than one button, one button that says list of books, convert to new account, if you don't want to convert, here's your list so you could just see what you had, you can't download them anymore, but you'd know what you had. And if you want to convert, then you get them all. But instead of doing that, they just shut down the site and anybody that didn't convert within whatever time period it was, it's probably six months to a year, but still like, I get it. It's my fault for not, you know, complying with their emails, but still, it's just one of those things that's annoying because I literally paid for a hundred books that I don't have now.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:18:00

Yeah, that should have been a class action lawsuit.

Gene 1:18:03

Yeah. Yeah. I guess not enough people did what I did. But also to be fair. You know, I, I did like basically donate 20 boxes of books when I moved to Austin from Dallas because I didn't want to move the books with me and I got, those were all books I paid for that they don't, don't

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:18:22

I wish I would have known you then. I would have taken

Gene 1:18:24

yeah, and, and I was looking for friends that wanted them, but nobody wanted books cause they're heavy.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:18:30

I, like, I need to buy another

Gene 1:18:33

although you may have had quite a few of those copies because the majority of my books fell into two categories. One was science fiction. And two was science. It's like those were the two largest single categories of books that I, that I had in physical form.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:18:50

Yeah, I need to go through and I need to purchase another bookshelf for my office. I, I have one spot under my TV that I could put a bookshelf. That's in my office and the, the problem is it can't be a full wall height bookshelf like the rest of them. It has to, but I want it to be

Gene 1:19:10

You could do like Tai Lopez and put, put a bookshelf in your garage next to your Lamborghini.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:19:15

Yeah, anyway I've got a spot for the, another big bookshelf that I, I would like to find one and put there. Because I've got an increasing number of books that are not on the shelf that I would like. Oh, by the way, Christmas present. I got a great Christmas present. A couple of them actually.

Gene 1:19:32

You got NVDs.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:19:34

No I did get a body armor panel for my EDC backpack,

Gene 1:19:38

Okay,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:19:39

which was cool. Then I also got a bottle of conspiracy bourbon.

Gene 1:19:45

Oh, Alex Jones.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:19:46

Yeah, yeah, and then I also got two signed copies of his latest books given to me.

Gene 1:19:52

Nice.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:19:53

Yeah,

Gene 1:19:55

Very good. And he signs those himself. I watched the video that he did talking about how he signs all the books, for real.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:20:02

yeah I, I've got his latest two books signed, so that's neat. I, I have a whole section of my books that are signed.

Gene 1:20:10

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:20:11

I like it.

Gene 1:20:13

I've never gotten into that whole thing. I, I, I've signed a few books for people, but generally like I've never collected signed books. I've never done anything weird. In fact, I've got a book that you may be the right person. This may be your Christmas gift.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:20:33

Jesus Christ, Gene.

Gene 1:20:34

I just thought of it cause it's a book that I got,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:20:38

Mm hmm. Mm

Gene 1:20:40

that I don't have physical books anymore. So it's one of my few physical books. aNd it was worth about 750 bucks. So it's a first print autographed by what's his face? Um, uh, Teddy Roosevelt's kid. So it was a book about his adventures in the outdoors with his dad.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:21:08

Okay.

Gene 1:21:10

So, but you know, original publication a hundred years ago. And so I, somebody gave it to me. An appreciation of some stuff I did and I was like, okay, cool, I guess. How

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:21:30

I, I, I have some rare books, but very few I would love to get a first edition signed copy of The Screwtape Letters. cannot and will not spend the amount of money

Gene 1:21:45

much is that going for now?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:21:47

Thousands.

Gene 1:21:49

Like how many thousands?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:21:51

I, it's been a while since I've looked. Way, way, way too much.

Gene 1:21:56

There, CS Lewis was pretty famous by that point, right? So his first edition would have handled quite a few copies.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:22:03

right, but finding finding the signed is part of it.

Gene 1:22:09

Yeah, that makes sense.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:22:10

So if we go on Abe books, which by the way, if you haven't been on a books, that's pretty awesome.

Gene 1:22:17

What books?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:22:18

Abe, A B E

Gene 1:22:20

No, I've never been there.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:22:21

com. Yeah. You, quite frankly, if you want to sell something, that's where to look.

Gene 1:22:27

I don't want to sell anything. I'd rather just give it to you.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:22:31

So I can put in an author, ISBN, all that, and I can say condition, any binding, any first edition signed. So, uh, C. S. Lewis, this is not because the way they do first edition is not necessarily, I don't want it. Anyway it's pretty interesting. So here's the space trilogy.

Gene 1:23:04

Yeah, 50 grand.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:07

You

Gene 1:23:07

I, I look for the same thing.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:09

Yeah. Signed copies of the space trilogy. 50 grand. yEah. An autographed letter by him. 46.

Gene 1:23:15

Yeah, great divorce, 40k.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:18

That hideous

Gene 1:23:19

30, 000 for screw taped letters. That's a nice Christmas gift. Ha ha ha ha

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:24

I'd rather have the 30k, but yes.

Gene 1:23:28

See, now the truth comes out.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:29

But that's the truth, is I would rather have the 30k to

Gene 1:23:32

yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:33

other things, even, even though the Screwtape Letters is my favorite book, like, if you ask me what my favorite, what, one of the most meaningful books I've ever read in my life, what affected me the most as a child, it would be the Screwtape Letters, and C. S. Lewis is my favorite author hands down.

Gene 1:23:50

Interesting.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:51

mY mom

Gene 1:23:53

My, my favorite book is

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:23:54

to me at, like, Five years old,

Gene 1:23:57

my favorite book, my, my one book to have on a desert island is much cheaper.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:24:02

Mine is two because I can get a cheap copy of it. I don't need a 30 grand copy on a desert island, that's for sure.

Gene 1:24:09

No, no, that's but I think even, even an autographed copy of that book is way cheaper.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:24:18

What's that?

Gene 1:24:18

It's Fancies and Good Nights by John Collier.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:24:24

I'll know it.

Gene 1:24:26

Yeah, I don't think anyone actually read the book except for me. It's published in 1952. But it is a collection of short stories. And is some of the, the, just The happiest, most interesting rating that I've ever read.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:24:47

Hmm.

Gene 1:24:49

Uh, it's, it's chock full of genies and magic and just sort of things that are just as we would used to see in, in Twilight Zones, just outside of your normal perspective. Things on the edge of

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:25:11

Edge of reality.

Gene 1:25:14

so it's, and it's a thick book. And so it would take a while to to read the whole thing. If stuck on a desert island but yeah, it looks like it looks like a 450 bucks is the most expensive one. And then there's a lot of them cheaper than that. For first editions.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:25:39

Did you see Nikki Haley get nuked by the Civil War question?

Gene 1:25:45

I did. I don't think her answer was as bad as everybody seems to think though

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:25:50

I don't think it was bad at all. I think actually her avoiding the bullshit of slavery was a good thing, but that's my perspective.

Gene 1:25:57

so I was like first of all, who asks that question Who asked that question without trying to get some crazy answer from her like that's not a question. That's relevant to anybody

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:26:11

disagree.

Gene 1:26:12

Let me ask you a historical question that has no bearing on any modern Election.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:26:18

buT here's the thing. The reason why the Civil War happened, and, you know, a lot of people like to point to slavery, but that is, that may have been a cause that was used during the war, but it was not the reason for the war. You have to remember that A, Lincoln was not some great emancipator before that happened, and then B, the other thing you have to remember is, All the South had to do, if they wanted to keep slavery going, was not admit any new states. Because the constitutional amendment to ban it would have never happened, and they're just, they could have continued on in perpetuity.

Gene 1:26:59

I think slavery is the excuse used by the North.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:27:05

And

Gene 1:27:06

the North wrote

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:27:07

South used, the South used it as well, and slavery does appear in a lot of the articles of secession.

Gene 1:27:14

Yeah, I think all of them actually when I read through them.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:27:16

And that is, that is the influence of the planter class and the planters were definitely influential. They were the richest of the rich, but.

Gene 1:27:25

peanut farmers.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:27:28

Um, you know, but what it comes down to is the abominable tariffs, right? That was a big deal that there were the elections that happened. There were so many things that were predicates and prequels. If anyone wants to read about the causes of the Civil War, what you should read is South Carolina Expositions and Protests by John C. Calhoun, who was a Vice President of the United States when he wrote that.

Gene 1:27:59

Yep,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:00

Had the Civil War been fought in the 1850s, the South would have

Gene 1:28:03

by the way. That's a great book

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:04

Expositions and Protests?

Gene 1:28:06

Yeah. Yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:08

Anyway, there's lots of things.

Gene 1:28:12

totally.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:13

Anyway, but yeah, it it was an interesting gotcha question and the way it's playing out in the media is. B. S. to me. There's lots of reasons to not like Nikki Haley.

Gene 1:28:24

Yeah, so But it's obviously being played up as like, oh that's it. She can't be president She didn't even realize that there was slavery and because the cause of the Civil War So it for better or worse. I do I do think that that probably took her off the ballot at this point.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:43

Ironically enough she's polling fairly well still. I

Gene 1:28:48

Yeah So

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:28:50

but who are the neocons gonna put up? It can't be Vivek. And it's not gonna be Chris Christie.

Gene 1:28:58

No, it's not Krispy Kreme.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:00

Who's left but Nikki Haley?

Gene 1:29:02

Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:03

DeSantis? He's already done.

Gene 1:29:05

I'm just, I don't know

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:06

think they're gonna, they're gonna force DeSantis down on us?

Gene 1:29:10

They're probably, yeah. More money to him instead of her. She does have a better story than she does anyway. Because Florida's done quite well. And look, her She's not qualified, first of all. She's completely unqualified for that role.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:28

There are no qualifications for that rule.

Gene 1:29:30

There are, if you're an intelligent human being voting for a presidential candidate. You don't want some buffoon in office.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:39

And right now I totally disagree.

Gene 1:29:41

You want a buffoon in office?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:29:43

Yes. In all the offices, make them totally impotent and ineffectual. Yes,

Gene 1:29:47

okay. Okay. From a yes, I can see your point from a anarchist standpoint. Yes, absolutely. I would like to at least have the fucking government protect the border. Okay. So I'm not looking for a buffoon right now. I'm looking for somebody with some balls to have the border actually protected. And incidentally, that means rounding up all these folks and shipping them back out.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:30:14

yeah, yeah.

Gene 1:30:17

And not pretending like, Oh, it's all right. You know, we got an extra like 7 million people a year coming in. There are 10 million a year coming in, but we'll, we'll just stop now, but we'll keep all these. No, nope. You got to fix the mistakes of the previous administration. The fact that, that we have a president who is willing to allow this country to be invaded willfully, how does that not disqualify him from serving another day in office? I'm just. Flummoxed.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:30:51

Mmm, you're something.

Gene 1:30:53

Mm-Hmm. what did you send me? You sent me something with a diagonal Linux monitor.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:30:58

Yeah this seems usele look, useless to me, but everybody's making a big deal out of it. Linux becomes the first operating system to support diagonal monitors. Yay?

Gene 1:31:10

you know what this is, right?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:31:11

No, I don't! I don't get it! It seems absolutely useless

Gene 1:31:15

this is the, the stereotyping of the lazy, unkempt Linux user whose monitor stand breaks because he leaned on the monitor and the monitor fell to the point where it's now tipping on one side and the other side is higher and the solution to that problem that this person comes up with. It's to recompile the kernel with a new direction for the video driver to solve the monitor stand being broken. That's what it is. I guarantee you.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:31:50

You Probably, or not too far off, unfortunately.

Gene 1:31:54

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:31:55

That's funny, yeah. When are you switching to Linux, Gene?

Gene 1:31:59

It looks hilarious. My stands can support 300 pounds. Thank you very much.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:04

Eh, you've tested it.

Gene 1:32:05

Oh, yeah. I bought them special.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:09

I want to be able to sit on my monitor!

Gene 1:32:11

Exactly. No, cause who doesn't lean on their monitor occasionally, right?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:16

I just don't understand, there, I see no utility in this, at all. I don't understand why you would bother to do that.

Gene 1:32:24

I you, you just heard why that's the best reason that I can come up

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:28

And, unfortunately, I think you may be right.

Gene 1:32:32

This is, this is like, I'm God of this universe. I can make this work.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:39

Goddammit, I do not want to straighten my monitor!

Gene 1:32:41

No, it's, it's, it's kind of like coming up with a way through the engine control systems. To change the fact that you fucked up something in the engine

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:32:54

Mm hmm.

Gene 1:32:55

you're just going to control your way through it instead of fixing the faulty part.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:33:00

Or you have a design flaw that you can't do that, so you have to mitigate it in some way.

Gene 1:33:05

Yeah. That would be impressive. Like if, if this monitor was, for example, on a, a spaceship that was, you know, 600, 000 kilometers up and there was no way to get a new stand up there. And, and, you know, even though you could just Velcro it to the wall in any position you want, but you know what I mean? I

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:33:28

no, no, no. If

Gene 1:33:29

It's that kind of thinking,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:33:30

just reorientate yourself.

Gene 1:33:32

right? So you could float that way, exactly. That would be the best solution. Just float sideways or diagonally. Which they kind of do, except this is, this is funny. Have you seen the interior of the Chinese space station?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:33:45

I've seen some of what has been released. I don't know that that's what it really looks like.

Gene 1:33:51

Okay. But sure. Fair enough. But, it appears to be very different from the ISS. Because in the ISS, there's really no up or down or anything, you know, things are just kind of strewn through the thing through with the expectation that you can just change your body orientation to use something.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:14

You mean logically,

Gene 1:34:16

space station is clearly laid out like it's built for gravity. Like every, there's a distinct. Floor

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:25

which makes no

Gene 1:34:26

and there's a distinct ceiling and it makes no sense at all because neither,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:31

I've got a theory for you.

Gene 1:34:33

okay, go ahead.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:34

It's fake.

Gene 1:34:36

Yes, of course, but, but they do have a real space station. We've seen the videos it's

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:40

Well, maybe it's not habitable though. Maybe it's just something orbiting up there to look like a space station and they don't putting people up there cause they can't make it work. And they're filming on, I

Gene 1:34:51

people up and then they're, they're taking them back down. So it's not like they're just killing the people up there.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:56

don't know,

Gene 1:34:58

I don't know. I don't know, but it,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:34:59

station.

Gene 1:35:00

maybe, maybe. But it does seem to be built. In a way that doesn't really make sense for a space station. And I noticed this early on and I, I thought this, this can't be right. This has got to be fake, right? And then I saw the photos of astronauts inside the space station in China. And I'm like, God damn, they did build it this way. Maybe, I don't know, maybe they're planning on introducing artificial gravity at some point. Maybe they already have artificial gravity, we just don't know about it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:35:36

There's so many things about that that I don't want to get into, but okay.

Gene 1:35:41

I don't know. I've been in a kind of a space mood lately. I've, I've gone back to

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:35:47

So do you think humans can get used to normalize centripetal force as artificial gravity?

Gene 1:35:53

I don't know that humans need gravity. I'm, I'm of the proponent that, that gravity is unnecessary.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:35:59

your lymph system.

Gene 1:36:01

Yeah, don't need it. Don't need bones, don't need limbs, don't need to worry about eyes, don't need any of that crap. When we're in space, we evolve into a new species of basically human worms.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:36:15

many things wrong with what Gene just said. But okay yeah, so you should really like the Expanse series then, huh?

Gene 1:36:22

I do like the Expanse series, yeah. Yeah, I think it's a fairly true. Now you're so you were asking about centripetal gravity. I think people can get used to it. I think the biggest issue is

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:36:35

note, when we're saying centripetal, that's the actual term.

Gene 1:36:40

right

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:36:41

Because a lot of people talk about centripetal

Gene 1:36:44

since God damn it. Sorry about that. I bumped the mic with my watch.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:36:50

Yeah, no centrifugal motion, but it's centripetal force.

Gene 1:36:56

I think from my understanding, the biggest issue is with the diameter because the smaller the diameter, the greater the difference between the top of your head And the the bottom of your body where your feet are and the disconnect between the felt gravity between the two causes nausea as well as some other feelings.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:37:21

Yeah we'll see. I don't think we have any evidence that points to humans being able to at any But we haven't built it potentially big enough, so maybe that's the answer.

Gene 1:37:33

Yeah, and, and there was a company that

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:37:36

Babylon 5 size station to be able to do it.

Gene 1:37:39

I don't, how big is that station? I've still not seen Babylon 5 by the way.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:37:42

Oh my god, what is wrong with you? It's five miles

Gene 1:37:45

I'm not, I'm not done with the house yet. iT's five miles really? Holy cow. That's and it's a, it's a, a ring.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:37:53

it's a drum.

Gene 1:37:54

Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that's certainly big enough.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:37:57

Yeah, you should totally watch Babylon

Gene 1:38:00

Yeah, I know. I.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:38:01

really

Gene 1:38:01

I don't know how I managed to miss it when it was actually live because, you know, I was always in sci fi, but Somehow I managed to not catch it in season one and then I never got around to watching it in the reruns But I just know that everybody bitched when it was canceled.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:38:19

Yeah actually, I think it, the, the last season isn't great. I think they would have been better off just ending actually just a little after the beginning of the last season, season 5. Like, they should have done the transition, and you'll get it when you get to the storyline. But I actually think they took it a little too long. And they replaced some of the main characters. That or they could have gone a very different way with the story arc. Five, I think.

Gene 1:38:51

There's a totally real image of Chinese Astronauts for you. Does

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:38:55

mhm.

Gene 1:38:57

that look totally authentic and real?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:00

What are you sending me?

Gene 1:39:02

Check your signal.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:05

Authentic and real in that they're being held up by wires? Sure.

Gene 1:39:11

But look at it. It literally has a floor, a ceiling, and a bunch of equipment

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:16

Yeah, and it literally looks like they're standing on their tiptoes.

Gene 1:39:21

I think it's hilarious. But you know, the Chinese Space Agency is doing some amazing things.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:28

Huh.

Gene 1:39:30

wIld. Wild and crazy.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:33

We'll see. We'll see. Did you see the new movie that's coming out, ISS?

Gene 1:39:38

I have not seen it. Is it out?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:40

you should look at the trailer. It's World War III on the Earth, and nukes are flying, and then

Gene 1:39:46

I thought you meant, did I see the movie? Yeah,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:39:49

stupid reason.

Gene 1:39:50

Historically, there, there have been at least one gun on the Soyuz capsules. I don't think the Americans were bringing guns up there,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:05

Why one gun?

Gene 1:40:07

Because the Soyuz can be landing in Siberia with grizzly bears. And so there is a defensive weapon aboard for if the guys need to fend themselves off of wild predators.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:25

Yeah, and I I believe there were not any offensive or defensive weapons in U. S. space

Gene 1:40:34

Yeah, I don't think there was.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:36

There, there was a time during the Cold War when they were given cyanide capsules and stuff like that.

Gene 1:40:42

Oh, really?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:43

yeah, because

Gene 1:40:44

On the space shuttle?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:46

Not on the space shuttle, no, only I said during the Cold War.

Gene 1:40:49

The space shuttle flew during the Cold War.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:40:51

Okay I'm talking about during the early development because like, I think it was even on some of the Mercury missions where they didn't know if they were going to make it back and wanted to

Gene 1:41:01

Oh, yeah, cause in case they, they land the on reentry, they ended up landing in Russia or something.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:07

No, no, no, or it wasn't because of that. Actually, the rationale for publicly forgiving this is if you were lost in space and there was no way for us

Gene 1:41:16

Oh, then you could just not worry about suffocating.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:19

Exactly.

Gene 1:41:19

that's a good idea. I'm a big proponent of cyanide, although I'm kind of immune to it, but I think that there ought to be more opportunities for use of it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:29

You saw that Futurama's prediction is becoming truth in Canada, right?

Gene 1:41:33

No.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:34

The suicide booths?

Gene 1:41:35

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. So I know a lot of people think that this is the sign of complete collapse of Canadian civilization.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:45

No, that was electing Trudeau, multiple times.

Gene 1:41:48

That happened, what, like 22 years ago now when he got elected, whatever it was.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:41:52

I was talking about Castro Jr., but sure.

Gene 1:41:55

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Not his dad. I'm talking about, you know, I was just making a point that he's been in an office forever. It seems

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:04

Yeah, it's stupid.

Gene 1:42:06

it's been way too long. But but it's not up to the people to change him though. Right. Cause he's. Elected by the Parliament.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:15

This is part of the problem with the parliamentary system.

Gene 1:42:17

Mm hmm. And,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:20

he can cobble together a coalition in the parliament enough to have enough votes, he can do it.

Gene 1:42:26

Honestly, that's how Hitler got in.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:29

You're making my point for

Gene 1:42:31

I know. That's why I'm trying to substantiate your point. Exactly.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:34

one of the things I will say is one of the books that Audible took away from my account that I'm a little miffed about was a specific translation of Mein Kampf.

Gene 1:42:46

They took that away? How dare they?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:48

100%. They should.

Gene 1:42:50

You can upload a PDF file to your Audible account. Or, sorry, no, not Audible. I'm thinking of the other one, the Kindle account.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:42:59

Yeah, I I've got, anyway, it's fine. I've got offline copies of

Gene 1:43:03

Did you have a copy of Mein Kampf voiced by Hitler?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:43:06

no, it was the Ford translation, which is very controversial

Gene 1:43:10

Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:43:11

it actually, you know, anyway, there's lots of dip, there's lots of controversies around translations, especially translations that, you Go back and correct a lot of the mistranslation.

Gene 1:43:23

Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:43:24

Which is kind of interesting. Yeah, anyway not a fan of Hitler, but I think everyone ought to read what bad people write, you know?

Gene 1:43:34

Yeah, I'm not,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:43:35

everyone should read Industrial Society and its future. Mmm,

Gene 1:43:40

You're talking about good people now.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:43:43

Unabomber, you know, killed a bunch of people. Yeah, I like Ted Kaczynski's politics in a lot of ways, but he also killed a lot of people for

Gene 1:43:52

Yeah, but I'm gonna blame the the experimentation done to him. Completely unethically that led to that. I'm not gonna blame the dude for it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:44:02

Yeah, so I ran across a Reddit post that I thought was hilarious. Which of the gun tubers do you think is most likely to be fed and would be least surprised by if it came out that they were, Got the most votes?

Gene 1:44:17

Brandon? No? Who? Pinhead?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:44:22

It was tied between grand thumb and risky. K Christy?

Gene 1:44:26

Yeah, I believe it.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:44:27

Yeah. Risky. K Christy's the one that screams it to me. In fact, we had a conversation about that a little

Gene 1:44:32

Mm hmm. Yeah, I think a lot of them haven't really said they're not.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:44:39

I never said I wasn't a fed Geez.

Gene 1:44:42

because that, like there are people that that I've talked with that used to work for the CIA and, you know, used to is an interesting term when in that context, it's like do you really ever stop working for certain government agencies? If you work for those government agencies ever.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:45:08

the answer to that is no.

Gene 1:45:10

You do eventually when you're dead. Yeah, it's a it's a lifetime appointment.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:45:16

So we had a family friend, I've got a bunch of family friends that were in very interesting positions throughout my life. And one of them was former CIA and anyway, when he was our family friend and family doctor and everything else, he was at 79 years old, still going to Latin America. Doing stuff.

Gene 1:45:42

dude Adam Curry's Uncle uncle Don was still doing shit in the 70s as well Like, you know, I think his thing was South Korea if I remember right

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:45:57

Yeah, it was Korea. But regardless, it just, that's the modus operandi of, Hey, you're gonna work for us and do stuff for us until you're no longer useful.

Gene 1:46:09

And the flip side of that is I think that they only hire people who have that attitude of Like they, they don't see that as a burden. They see that as a something that they're totally signing up for.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46:24

All I can tell you is when I, I don't know, anyway, I, I would not make that deal personally.

Gene 1:46:31

He didn't want me, unfortunately. iT'd be fun to do that, but

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46:36

no thank you.

Gene 1:46:37

I'm, I'm way,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46:38

that deal.

Gene 1:46:38

way too unpredictable.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46:44

Mm, yeah

Gene 1:46:47

That's, that's always been a the risk factor with my psych profile. No, I, I look in terms of having interesting jobs.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:46:58

uh

Gene 1:46:58

Uh, I think that working for the CIA would certainly qualify.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:47:03

Yeah, I think we should try and get some people on the show.

Gene 1:47:07

Yeah, I'd love to get some folks on the show. I think it'd be fun.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:47:10

We should try

Gene 1:47:12

all right. That's fair, fair enough. I've got a, a few people I can ask. I don't know what the answer's gonna be, but I can certainly ask.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:47:21

we should try that in the new year and see where it goes.

Gene 1:47:25

You gotta realize that there, there are certainly people whose current role of being a retired CIA agent is doing podcasts.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:47:36

Oh,

Gene 1:47:36

that is what they do though.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:47:37

Hello, Operation Mockingbird know, I, I, it's so astonishing to me as people wake up and people like Tim or others think that they're discovering something new and, oh, look at this. And this is what they've been. It's like, hello, where have you been? Like, literally the. Hello None Dare Call It Conspiracy was literally written in the late 60s, early 70s. What the fuck, dude? Where you been? Oh, the, the Federal Reserve is actually private. No shit.

Gene 1:48:13

Yeah. It's big news. Just people finding out. I think this is the price that's always paid by being on the bleeding edge of things, whether it's technology or information or whatever the topic is. It feels like, why the fuck is it always take people so damn long to get to the point where you were a long time ago? And you know, it's, unfortunately, I think it's a consequence of being on the leading edge is that you're always having to deal with delayed reactions of people. I've felt that most of my life.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:48:53

Yeah and you know, at a certain point, the problem is trying to catch people up, it gets very difficult because when you are so down the rabbit hole, and so when you're a big enough expert on something, and this goes for any topic, and someone is a new novice coming in,

Gene 1:49:11

Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:49:12

it is hard to remember all the prerequisites along the way that led you, especially when it's Not a straight line, but you have so many prerequisites that lead you to the assumptions and everything. So when you, when you go and say something like Alex Jones saying 9 11 was an inside job, that statement very well may be true.

Gene 1:49:35

Mm hmm. Now, isn't he a convicted insurrectionist by this point

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:49:39

no, no. But to go through and line out everything that gets you there takes a lot or to sit there and say that there's issues with fluoride.

Gene 1:49:50

But, but I will say it's also a form of shorthand because when you say 9 11 was an inside job and the other guy goes, yeah, no shit. Okay. Now you can skip over a whole bunch of pre conversation.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:50:03

yeah, now you don't have to go through and explain building seven, you know, and things like that. I, I, I get it. But my point is. To the uninitiated, it's very difficult. And it's very difficult for the initiated to go through and remember every little thing that led you to that. Especially someone like me that literally grew up with this stuff, dude.

Gene 1:50:27

Yeah, exactly.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:50:29

Like, my parents were reading The Creature from Jekyll Island and None Dare Call It a Conspiracy and lots of things as early as I can remember. And You

Gene 1:50:42

Bedtime

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:50:42

I remember

Gene 1:50:44

Ben.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:50:45

I remember watching Bush's State of the Union where he flat out said, A new world order. And my parents and a lot of other people around us going, What?

Gene 1:50:55

Mm hmm. Right?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:50:57

Wait, what? He's saying the, he's saying the quiet part out loud? What?

Gene 1:51:02

Mm hmm. Yeah, he really thought that the country was at a point where they could just start, you know, telling the truth.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:51:11

It wasn't just him, it was Clinton afterwards. You gotta remember what Janet Reno did under Clinton. Between Ruby Ridge and Waco, how there was not a fucking civil war then, I don't understand. And maybe that's why there won't be one now. But, I, I, like, I do not understand how people could

Gene 1:51:30

Yeah, but all, look, all they're going to do is if there's anything that happens that is similar to Ruby Ridge or to Waco, they're going to instantly label the, the people as extremists, something they're going to become, you know, some kind of a, Oh, these were, these were Hamas members. They're pretending to be Christians, but they're actually Hamas members, so they have to be dealt with by the government.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:51:57

Yeah, we still don't have an explanation of that explosion in Virginia. At that house.

Gene 1:52:03

No, we don't. I almost forgot about it. That's a good point. We still haven't heard any official blurb about what they discovered, because that was absolutely an explosion, not a collapse of a house.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:15

I don't know. The fucking couch went flying, dude.

Gene 1:52:19

That's almost cartoonish.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:22

Yeah.

Gene 1:52:23

Huh.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:24

By the way, oh last, last point I want to To make, and then we can wrap it up, but have you watched South Park CRED yet?

Gene 1:52:32

No, cause I didn't realize it was out.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:35

watched it?

Gene 1:52:35

So it's out.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:36

Yes, it's out.

Gene 1:52:38

Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:39

And Randy starts an OnlyFans.

Gene 1:52:42

Oh gosh. Okay. This should be good.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:45

And Sharon decides to get back at him and starts her own.

Gene 1:52:49

Nice. Nice.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:52:50

hilarity ensues.

Gene 1:52:52

Yeah, no see, I wish those guys had a regular fucking release schedule. I can never keep up with when shit's coming out. Cause I don't watch regular TV, so I don't

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:53:02

about influencers and the state of our society and it's, it's, it's, it's funny. It's, it's South Park is done very well, yes.

Gene 1:53:13

South Park, I'm glad to see that they're staying topical and recent, but they've always done that. The problem is right now, I think they're just so full of money that they have very little incentive to do anything on any kind of regularity. It's just sort of like when they get around to doing something, then they crank out an episode.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:53:35

Mm hmm. I

Gene 1:53:37

So as a consumer of their content, I'm not super thrilled about their schedule.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:53:43

mean, it's kind of the way we do things.

Gene 1:53:45

Yeah. Hey no, what do you mean? We do a show every week. We've done 51 shows now, by the way. This is our 52nd show,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:53:53

Yeah. Under just two good old boys. We were doing stuff under Sergine Speaks for quite a while.

Gene 1:54:00

But I think we've done 52.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:54:02

Done a year's worth of episodes.

Gene 1:54:04

done a year's worth of episodes in just over a year. I think this, we started doing good old boys, like in end of November, beginning of December. So in just over a year's worth, so it's pretty good. It's, it's about as regular as what I've been doing with Unrelenting.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:54:20

Yeah.

Gene 1:54:21

So not many shows skipped or missed a few here and there, but for the most part we're, we're on weekly. So let's get that audience growing. And remember this is something I, I always forget to say, but I should say in every episode the best thing anybody can do for us costs zero money. And that is to leave a review on Apple podcasts.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:54:43

Or on Rumble or some, push it. Push out the rumble links, actually, that's growing pretty good.

Gene 1:54:50

is it

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:54:51

one we put up, I only had 25 views, second one had 68 episode 50 had 92 and then just over nine days old and this is in the holiday week 51 had 88. So

Gene 1:55:02

and that's

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:55:03

looks like we're getting right around 90, we'll call it extra listeners on rumble right now.

Gene 1:55:10

And the whole point of doing a rumble as well as streaming live on X is to get people that are not already currently subscribed.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:55:18

well, and that

Gene 1:55:20

it's, it's really just it's kind of promotion or marketing to have somebody click and go what is this? And then they're interested enough in what they hear that they will end up actually subscribing as a podcast.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:55:32

that's where people going into rumble playing the video, liking it, even if you don't listen there or whatever, just play it long enough to count as a view and things like that can get, you know, cucking the algorithms as certain

Gene 1:55:45

I think it's, it's, it's like four minutes. It counts as a view or something like that.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:55:50

Whatever, but the view number isn't really what I'm looking for there, like

Gene 1:55:53

Yeah, looking for the thumbs up,

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:55:55

if we can get in the trending ever on something on Rumble, that'll just explode the audience, but,

Gene 1:56:02

but even, even if we're not trending, if they do a search for a certain topic like politics or something we're going to pop up in that list, maybe towards the bottom, but you know, that's why we want those thumbs up on the videos to get higher up on the list.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:56:19

Mm hmm.

Gene 1:56:20

And again, same reason that I want to, even though we're not doing cameras, but I still want to have something live on X because they, now that I've, I'm paying for the fricking access to have these tools to be able to do live, live streaming videos on X, I might as well use it, even

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:56:41

we get, until we get banned.

Gene 1:56:44

I don't, I don't see X banning anything in video form.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:56:50

Okay, we'll see.

Gene 1:56:51

Yeah, we'll, we'll see. But I just, I think that on that platform, like I had already a post that that was banned, but then I appealed it and then they, they took the ban away. Because as long as you're doing things in the context of describing people, places or events then it should be fine to discuss pretty much any topic. If you move into the realm of planning something, or trying to convert people into something, that could get you a ban.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:28

Okay.

Gene 1:57:31

And we don't do medical advice, legal advice, or any other kind of advice. Although we do sometimes give some gun advice.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:39

And some books. Yeah.

Gene 1:57:40

Oh, that's a book advice. Yeah, that's that'll probably get us banned right there. Books

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:43

Mm hmm.

Gene 1:57:44

you know?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:47

I am looking at another gun purchase.

Gene 1:57:52

Oh. Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:53

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on the hunt,

Gene 1:57:56

Which gun?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:57:56

The Tavor 7, I I,

Gene 1:57:59

7 is a fine weapon.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:58:01

I looked at a couple others, including the Kel Tec and the Desert Tec, and the Desert Tec has a lot of appeal for me,

Gene 1:58:12

It looks

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:58:13

even more expensive than the Tavor 7 and doesn't necessarily have the track record, The

Gene 1:58:19

really that, that's more of a custom gun. I think Tavor has been utilized in military operations for quite a while now.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:58:28

7 less but yeah, it, it, it, it. Shares a lot of the it's just an upsized and shares a lot of the design characteristics. So it should be okay. But yeah.

Gene 1:58:38

And it is an improvement, I think, on the original Tavor.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:58:42

Anyway, I've got I've got two auctions I'm watching on a gun broker to see how they end. One of them ends in three days and one of them ends in seven.

Gene 1:58:50

Yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of curious about that as well, because I own one of those, so I always like to know how much stuff is worth. That I have but I, I really like that gun. I think it's the lightest recoil rifle in 7. 62 that I have, 7. 62 NATO. So

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:59:10

with you

Gene 1:59:11

yeah, it definitely has a good design from what I can tell. iT doesn't have as many accessories, obviously you can't customize it quite as much as you can the AR platform, but it's I don't know. I think. Customizing for the sake of customization is not necessarily my thing. If I think if you can get that vore for anything under two grand, it's, it's a good deal.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:59:40

And let me tell you this part of the reason why I've settled on the DeVore and the Caltech is just absolutely out is magazines.

Gene 1:59:48

Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 1:59:49

You know, the Kel Tec uses the FN magazines. I don't have an FN. I don't have any other FN guns. I know if it used the M1A or the AR 10.

Gene 1:59:59

Yeah.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:01

Yeah. FN. Nope. Done.

Gene 2:00:04

The the fn. It's interesting that they would use their magazines because the. I had a couple of those FNs and actually no, which FN are they using? That's a good first question. Which, which gun are they

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:17

The Galil.

Gene 2:00:20

No, no, no, the which FN magazines like from which gun?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:25

I want to say the Galil.

Gene 2:00:26

Galil is an IWI gun.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:29

The FN Ver Oh, God. Let me go look.

Gene 2:00:34

Yeah. Cause that's.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:36

the FN 308 magazines and I think the Khalil used that same magazine if I'm not mistaken.

Gene 2:00:41

No, the Galil, the Galil is a

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:43

it's the SCAR magazine. Sorry, that's what I

Gene 2:00:45

There you go.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:00:46

It's the FN SCAR magazines that they're

Gene 2:00:48

Yeah, those mags are definitely different. You can't use regular mags in that gun in the SCAR, and they're expensive. Yeah, that's true. Yeah mag compatibility is a big thing, and that's why I think it's always cool when they, somebody comes out with a gun that uses Glock mags.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:01:08

Mhm.

Gene 2:01:10

It's just a better universal way to go.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:01:12

Which dude, I Every time I shoot my my PC carbine, I am thrilled with it for what it is. Like, it No, it's not a go to war gun. It's a great truck gun.

Gene 2:01:25

Mm hmm.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:01:26

for my use case and, yeah, it's, it's phenomenal. And I got some surplus magazines, which by the way, if anyone sees surplus Glock mags from South Korea, buy them. Dude, I'm serious. I got these Glock mags 33 rounders for 12 bucks

Gene 2:01:45

It's pretty good.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:01:46

on Lucky Gunner. And they're normally a 50 magazine and they were brand new.

Gene 2:01:51

To be fair, no one actually sells them for 50. You can still get them new for about 35.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:01:56

Okay, still. Less than half

Gene 2:01:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good deal. Yeah. They've probably either never been used or just stored somewhere and then

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:02:05

No, these were either they had to drop them in a sonic cleaner and really clean them up, or these had never been used. Like there was nothing on the follower. I disassembled the mags, there was nothing.

Gene 2:02:18

Oh, you did? Okay.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:02:19

Yeah.

Gene 2:02:20

One other thing I forgot to mention is I've, I've posted this and those in the social and there's a few folks that said they're going to do it as well. So I'm starting my 10 day fast on the 2nd of January. It's something that I've done, I'd say about three out of four years. I've occasionally skipped it for one reason or another, but I've, I've tried to do a fast every beginning of the year for about a decade or so. And I just find that it's a good way to enter the new year kind of. I've refreshed a little bit fasting has a way of clearing your mind as much as anything else. It's a so even aside from weight loss related topics, which it certainly helps you lose a few pounds while you're fasting, but it's a good way to just kind of reset and clear your mind as well. And you're thinking how are you going to, you know, aren't you starving your brain of, of, of energy when you're fasting? The reality is no, because your liver goes through and creates energy out of the fat that your, your body already has. And I'm fairly confident I can say this without knowing the people listening to the podcast. I'm pretty sure 100 percent of the listeners have sufficient fat to go for 10 days. That's kind of a no brainer.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:03:39

Yeah.

Gene 2:03:40

honestly, 10 days is probably about 5 pounds of fat. Energy wise.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:03:48

Should probably be more than that, but

Gene 2:03:50

you know, you'd think it would be, but yeah, it doesn't seem to be the case. nOw you will lose more than five pounds over the course of ten days when fasting, but a lot of that is water weight loss. So it's not, it's not like you're melting fat at a crazy pace, it's just you're, you're melting some fat, but you're also you also don't need as much water in your body when your stomach takes a vacation. And you're no longer processing and your gut takes a vacation because it's no longer processing anything. So I would certainly I don't want to use the word encourage. I would say if you're already considering doing it and you want to do the same time as a few other folks, myself included, we're starting January 2nd, just because January 1st is still kind of a holiday atmosphere. I may want to go to Fogo de Chão on the 1st and have a nice meal. To kind of kick off the the fast on the next day. I, I'm not even sure yet if I'm going to do that, but I think I did that last time I did a Fogo de Chão thing. But anyway, so the next episode we'll be recording will be during the fast. And I guess you all can tell me if I, if I'm any different on the show while I'm fasting versus not.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:05:11

We

Gene 2:05:11

gonna fast, Ben?

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:05:13

Probably not. I've got enough restrictions. I'm already. Doing that. I'm probably going to break here in the new year. So I'm, I may do a fast at some other point in time, but I already

Gene 2:05:25

You can, you could do like a day or two. You don't

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:05:28

I've got enough going on. Gene,

Gene 2:05:31

Yeah, okay. Fair enough.

GMT20231231-155854_Recording_separate1 2:05:33

you

Gene 2:05:33

try and guilt you into fasting or anything. It'll be good for you though. Alright, that's all I got then.