Just Two Good Old Boys

071 Just Two Good Old Boys

Subscriber Episode Gene Naftulyev Season 2024 Episode 71

This episode is only available to subscribers.

Just Two Good Old Boys +

Get access to our entire back catalogue

Send a text

Want to hear old episodes? All subscribers have access to the full back catalog of episodes and specials! Just Two Good Old Boys (Just Two Good Old Boys +)

Communicate with us directly on x.com by joining the Good Old Boys community! https://x.com/i/communities/1887018898605641825

Can't donate?
Listen to Amy Clare Smith Music

Check out Gene's other podcasts -
podcast.sirgene.com and unrelenting.show

Read Ben's blog and see product links at namedben.com



Gene

Hey Ben, how are you doing today?

Ben

Dude, I am doing all right. I I finally updated the blog and posted something, and for the first time in a while. Namedben. com.

Gene

com

Ben

That's correct. And I'll apologize now for my audio. We're apparently still having some issues. I'm sending the Motu in to see what it's gonna cost me to fix, so

Gene

you haven't sent it in from last time yet?

Ben

No, I haven't. It's, it's been a busy week. And I'm, my happy ass is getting on a plane to go to to the D. C. area Sunday.

Gene

God damn, everybody I know is flying out there now. All you agency people must have a big meetup.

Ben

Who else do you know that's going?

Gene

few other people?

Ben

Yeah, no, I'm going up there for a cyber security conference.

Gene

Huh. story.

Ben

yes, actually, it is.

Gene

That sounds like a fun boondoggle trip. What when, when are you back?

Ben

Theoretically, I will be flying back Wednesday evening, but given what's been going out of DCA, who knows?

Gene

Yeah, that's a good point, that's a good point. And I'm gonna be traveling the one week from now. So, we probably won't have a show at that point.

Ben

Yep if we can sneak another one in after some time has

Gene

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben

yeah.

Gene

Exactly. So, yeah, what's been happening, Ben? I got a few things I can bring up, but I haven't talked to you in a while. See what you got going on.

Ben

I'd like to save the big story from yesterday for a while, but, And we're recording this on Friday the 31st, by the way. So, everybody knows what

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

about. But you know, I, I Listened to part of you and Darren talking this morning, man. Yeah.

Gene

What were we talking about? I forgot.

Ben

Apparently you're going bankrupt over spaceships.

Gene

Oh, yeah, spaceships. Don't, let's not talk about spaceships.

Ben

No? Fuck. Oh.

Gene

Nope. Sales over. Over done with. Don't need to think about it anymore.

Ben

Huh.

Gene

That's the game company is now raised 700 million. No,

Ben

Off this one sale.

Gene

no, no, no. Total.

Ben

Ah, gotcha.

Gene

that would be a hell of a thing off of one sale, man. But given that the game hasn't been released yet. That's pretty good.

Ben

You know, I mean, Trump based off of since you don't wanna talk about that, we can go into this, but Trump raised$800 million in one go on

Gene

hmm.

Ben

on the news of his conviction.

Gene

Yeah. Yeah, it's I think a lot of people are seeing this conviction as a good thing. I'm kind of there with Alec Jones. I don't think this is actually a good thing. Because people somehow think that This A is gonna get people that wouldn't have voted for him to vote for him, It's not gonna do that. And that be that this, this is like the end. This is all Democrats had. And now they've shot their what, and neither of those is true. This is the continuation. If not the beginning the next year to fall will be that he will go to prison. He's not going to get any kind of. leniency or bypass the New York Supreme Court will end up reaffirming the sentencing and say there was nothing wrong with the proceedings. So there's no reason for a mistrial on that. So I think realistically how long he ends up in prison is a question, but they're, they're pushing for four years

Ben

And that would be the maximum because this would run. Concurrently, not consecutively. So

Gene

unless they quickly up and pass a new law in New York to change that.

Ben

expos, facto, but

Gene

Not, no, New York doesn't have an ex wife fax to the law.

Ben

Yeah. They

Gene

how they get the mob. See, New York has a lot of laws that other states don't because they were specifically tailored around the mob and the mob was very good at hiring Jewish lawyers. And so in New York, they've actually passed laws to circumvent a lot of process that would be normal in other states.

Ben

Mm-Hmm.

Gene

So, I mean, honestly, I don't understand why Rush Limbaugh lived in New York. I don't understand why Trump lived in New York. I would never want to live in New York. It seems like one of the worst places on earth. And somehow yet people like pay tremendous amounts of money to be there. How much would you have to get paid to live in New York?

Ben

I would have to be, I, you couldn't pay me enough,

Gene

Exactly. That's my point. It's, it's just not worth it. It's like, Hey, how much would you like, how much would be enough money for you to be willing to go to hell? Give me a number. Give me, give me a number.

Ben

Let me be, you know, tormented for the rest of my life. No, thank you.

Gene

yeah, yeah,

Ben

from New York is you know, astonishing. Yeah,

Gene

idiots for having lived there in the first place. Unless you were born there and then you did your darndest to escape. I just don't understand the mentality. It's a place that takes way more of your income than most other places. You'd have to go to San Francisco to find a place worse. It's a place that has horrible gun regulations. It's a place that has a lot of crime and violence on the streets. Not to mention a lot of race relation issues. And on top of just paying high prices from a high cost of living all the services and all the federal related things are of a worse quality for more money. The view isn't great either. You know, the view is much better if you go North or South. view in New York is not a great view.

Ben

New York and L. A., you know, are just these sprawling metropolitan areas that have no beneficial

Gene

LA is a lot more sprawling than New York, but

Ben

I mean, New York and, you know, Newark and all that is one metroplex, to be honest with

Gene

And, and they're all always pointing or mentioning Central Park and how great Central Park is, you know, in the rest of the country, the country is Central Park and the cities are the little diamonds in the middle.

Ben

Mm-Hmm.

Gene

It's just hilarious how they, they look at this little artificial square of greenery surrounded by concrete and steel. And then point to this idea that, Oh yeah, it's a great city. We got everything. You don't have shit, man. You don't realize it. Then maybe you deserve to live in New York.

Ben

Yeah. I would not want to live there. But, you know, it, it's interesting'cause one of the things I talk

Gene

don't mind visiting though.

Ben

I do, I just like dc I don't really wanna go to DC this weekend because of everything that's going on. I, I think it's likely to be a,

Gene

the only thing I would say is if you go to DC this week, just leave your credit cards at home and leave your cell phone at home.

Ben

Why?

Gene

The last thing you need is to have a record of you being in DC during protests.

Ben

I'm gonna be in, I, I have a work reason and I'll be

Gene

Huh. Yeah. And I'm sure they'd love to hear that on your trial. Mm

Ben

Yeah I, like I said, I don't, I don't disagree with you in that I think it will be a, there will be issues, manufactured or otherwise, and yeah, I don't think it's gonna be A good thing, that all. I, you know, what they're, what they're doing to Trump, the fact that this guilty verdict came out the way it came out I think it was a foregone conclusion. I think we all know that. But at the same time, it's still just so in your fucking face, especially after the testimony and everything that was seen. It's like, how, how can any reasonable person Yeah,

Gene

this is a normal occurrence in a lot of countries, like North Korea, for example, where they routinely sentence people that are politically misaligned with the man in charge. With some Latin American countries that every decade or so seem to have a revolution and with a good chunk of African countries in Central Africa, Somalia and Sudan and other surrounding countries. I mean, it's like what the United States is moving towards has existed for many years. It's just seems to be the wrong direction if you're trying to improve, but we're clearly going to become the largest banana Republic in the world if we're already not there. And frankly, I think we kind of are.

Ben

I, I, I think we are. You know, one of the things that I wrote was my justification of why I believe that the system is broken and broken irrevocably. And, you know, one of the things I would say is the system has been broken my entire life. The jury instructions that the right is making a huge deal of are standard jury instructions. It happens in Texas every day where you do not have to agree. This isn't a thing about Trump. This is a thing. This is an indictment of our judicial system, not just the judge in this case. This is a problem for the entire judiciary and the way our judges are running running these trials. It's a problem.

Gene

Yeah, it's, it's based. The instructions are basically if there wasn't overwhelming evidence of innocence, then you must convict.

Ben

Which is contrary to what we've all been taught and know to be the right and moral

Gene

Yes. But Ben, those are just fairy tales. That's not how this country operates.

Ben

Okay. I would like to go back to how the country

Gene

Yeah. So you, you meant, you replied to one of my tweets that basically said, you know, next time the the South decides to take up arms, it, it shouldn't just be in, leaving, it should be in taking over the North. Because if North, the North is left alone, they end up doing what they're doing right now.

Ben

Yeah I,

Gene

I correct me if I'm wrong, but I, I think that there was an awful lot of like, we can do this peacefully kind of, thought in the South that they just wanted to leave and be left alone because the North was fucking them. And I think the lesson learned there should be that. No, the South should have gone on an offensive immediately.

Ben

Had the South marched on D. C. after the first battle of Appomattox, They would have won. There,

Gene

that march up through Maryland and New Jersey and into New York.

Ben

there would have been no need to. The, the, the North,

Gene

York should have been burned, just like Atlanta.

Ben

eh let's not go down the road of following Sherman. You know, Sherman was a bastard. There's no need to follow

Gene

No, we should have done it beforehand, should have predicted, predated that. My point is that the, the, the people that seem to think that the other side. It has has intelligence, has decency, has morality generally end up getting their ass kicked because the barbarians have something that the civilization doesn't, which is. This, this ability to not perceive your enemy as being equal to you. And this is a common problem when you have civilizations and that encourage or encounter rather than encourage that encounter barbarian is it started, you know, probably before Rome, but it's certainly notable with Rome, but a lot of the European countries during the Mongol invasions during the Ottoman attacks, there was this attitude that you, you fight them just like we fight each other as civilized nations. And you cannot have that attitude. You can't line up in lines with weapons drawn and then wait for somebody to give the order to shoot because you will be mowed down if you do that, because the other side's not doing that. They're riding horses and shooting arrows.

Ben

What I would say is, and, you know, the title of my post that I put out today was The Men Who Just Want To Be Left Alone. And I think there are a lot of us in this country that still feel that way. And, you know, I, I'm, after watching what's been, and I, I've been thinking about how to phrase this and write this post for a couple weeks now. Maybe it's just stuff going on in my personal life. Maybe it's just something in the ether, the way I put it there. And what I'll say is. This is my attempt at a Thomas Paine moment, not that I'm any sort of Thomas Paine, right? But, you know, Thomas Paine wrote over and over again, essay after essay about, if not now, when?

Gene

hmm.

Ben

And that is, that is, we're far past the point, and you know, people can talk about the founders would have done this, the founders would have done that. But the reality is they suffered a long time while they could before they got to the point of this is no longer a tolerable situation. And part of the point I want to make on this judicial system portion of this is that this is each and every one of us. If the government wants you, they will get you. It is show me the man, I will show you the crime time

Gene

Absolutely.

Ben

We are at a point where if the government wants to make your life hell, not only can they but will they, you are facing a state that has virtually unlimited resources and they will own you. You know, people give a lot of the Trump former associates a lot of grief for taking plea deals and everything. But when you really stop to think and look at what has happened to Donald Trump in this case, How could they not?

Gene

Oh, if they had balls, they wouldn't.

Ben

Okay, they may not have the money to. And that,

Gene

What does that mean? What do you mean they may not have

Ben

so they're gonna say, no, I'm not taking your plea deal and I'm going to not only entrust a retarded jury, but a retarded public defender

Gene

Yes.

Ben

and then just fall on their sword. I, I, I hate to say it, but I don't think most people have those moral convictions,

Gene

They don't. I agree with you. And this is the problem with the people that Trump surrounded himself with.

Ben

I, I don't think, I don't think you or I would have the testicular fortitude to do that, facing what some of these people are facing.

Gene

I think that if I was working in politics, which clearly I'm not, and I had a job that was a Based on the conviction first and finances secondary, meaning it's not a punch in punch out kind of environment, but I'm there to actually impact the American country. Then I would absolutely have that conversation. And look, if, if literal criminals can do this, why the hell can't people that are getting half a million dollar a year salaries and more, if I'm running an organized drug organization. A distribution network. I absolutely expect not all the guys, but a very large percentage of the guys to fall on the sword if the time comes, that's part of the deal. If you want to surround yourself with a bunch of guys that are going to flip and turn at the first opportunity that a black car pulls up behind them, then you're not going to last very long. In the drug distribution business.

Ben

All right. I'm, I'm not suggesting that. What I am suggesting, however, is that we are at a point where people have to realize that it is time to stand up. It is time to say, you know, this far, no farther. This has to stop. and realize what that means. But what I'm suggesting is that it is not a straightforward or easy task to suggest, okay, you just lost the election through whatever circumstances you want to say. And as a result, you're being prosecuted, persecuted, whichever

Gene

not being prosecuted or persecuted because you lost the election. That's happening because you have an interest in the next election.

Ben

Okay, I think that's more or less the same statement. But regardless

Gene

no, if Trump would have lost the election and said, yeah, I'm done with politics. I'm just going to focus on golf from moving forward. You know, whatever I did, I did whatever I could. And I've, I've served my time for the country and good luck to y'all. If he would have done that. Yeah. I don't think most of these lawsuits and accusations would have been flying. They would have still made fun of him with the orange man and the, the hair and everything. They would have talked about how horrible a president he is. But I don't think that he would currently be looking at four years in prison. Yeah. This is, this is a, this is not a punishment. This is a warning.

Ben

to others,

Gene

Oh yeah. And that's a big part of it is it's not just Trump. It's anybody that thinks like Trump, Hey Vivek, how'd you like to go and be in prison? You're a little Brown man. How long do you think you're going to last?

Ben

There's

Gene

sure you want to get into politics? Yeah, that's, this is, we are dealing with a mob mentality on the left militarized and funded. And if the right or any other group doesn't start acting like that's who they're dealing with you know, then just get comfortable bending over cause that's all it's going to be for the next 60 years.

Ben

We, we aren't there yet. I think that,

Gene

Everybody says that,

Ben

okay.

Gene

that the people whose neighbors are getting rounded up still say we're not there yet.

Ben

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're, you're misunderstanding me. I'm saying that we're not at the place where we can, Just bend over and take it. We're at a place where we still have a chance to avoid that.

Gene

Yeah. I mean, I think that the way that, that the authoritarians win is by segmenting the population into small minority groups. Not necessarily ethnic, but just small slices, slivers of society.

Ben

Us versus them

Gene

And then it's pointing at one of those slivers at a time and slowly progressing through each of those slivers or layers to a point where over half the population is either in prison or working for the authoritarian. Regime.

Ben

didn't read my post, did you? Yeah, I'll quote from it here.

Gene

Go ahead. Quote yourself. I know you enjoy that.

Ben

Gee, thanks man. I understand that most of you are not ready for this. You're scared, as am I. I implore you to understand you're a slave, a slave to a fickle master whom you're enough to, whom you're nothing. You're beholden to their will, and when they decide to come for you, you'll have no recourse to, but to submit as many others have. I, I would like to avoid that future please.

Gene

Okay. I mean, that sounds good.

Ben

Yeah, so I think I think where we're at and you know what I talk about is we're at the breakup of the United States That's the only peaceful path that's left to us is We have to dissolve

Gene

going to be a peaceful path, but yeah,

Ben

I it's the only possible peaceful path left.

Gene

the amazing

Ben

guaranteed violence

Gene

the amazing part is in, in less than a year time, since I read going home, it feels like we're infinitely closer to the society described in that book.

Ben

Yeah, yeah great series by the way

Gene

When's this next one coming out this fall?

Ben

Yeah. And for those who are fairly new to the podcast or didn't know, we we, I got Jean to read 17 books in the Going Home and Associated

Gene

would take me about five years.

Ben

Right. But this is damn good series. And it's like, you can't put it down, dude. It's crack.

Gene

yeah.

Ben

But the Going Home series by A American links are on the reading list on the website and they're good books.

Gene

yeah. Thankfully they're not super long either. They're normal length, but they're not like crazy long like Tom Clancy books or anything. Makes it a little easier to digest. But yeah. It's a I think that the real solution will come from people, people, not states or even cities succeeding, but it will essentially come from people. And I, I'm going to use the word because I think it's both funny and accurate. We're going to start kibbutzes popping up. We're going to have people that end up moving in close physical proximity and having a distribution of labor. Where different people do different tasks and jobs with the exclusion of use of us dollars inside the the kibbutz and with a effectively a private little city slash enterprise still exists within the confines of the United States or a state. They don't send their kids to public school. They don't use public services. I mean, it's kind of like what the Amish are doing, except with technology rather than without technology.

Ben

Yeah. You know, we'll see.

Gene

And, and if a bunch of those form, then they can start organizing amongst themselves. And now you're talking about a possibility of a true secession because you know, as much as it's fun to say, yeah, Texas should secede. The reality is that 46 percent of Texas is against that

Ben

okay.

Gene

and they're not going to just say, oh, okay, I guess we don't live in America anymore.

Ben

percent is for it.

Gene

Yeah, exactly. 54 percent is for it, but of the 54%, how many are willing to kill the 46?

Ben

Oh man.

Gene

Very few.

Ben

you know, I, I think when you look at what happened in the Dave Phelan race and the Brandon Herrera race here in our runoffs, it, it's, It's a scary thing. I had relatives that are very much diehard Democrats. They, they don't have a great thought process here, but they went and voted for Dave Phelan who, for those who don't know, Dave Phelan is the Speaker of the Texas House and an absolute rhino would be the best way to describe him because he, he has done more for the Democrats in Texas State Legislature than anyone else. There was a very concerted effort to primary him and get him out of there. And unfortunately he survived his primary by a couple hundred votes. and then Brandon Herrera lost his by, I think like 400 and something

Gene

it was a very small number. I am seriously considering just renting an apartment down there. In September. And then voting Democrat. Just to take that Gonzales motherfucker off of the ability

Ben

Democrats not going to be any better.

Gene

Doesn't matter. The not better you know is better than the lying piece of shit. I, I will put a Democrat above a rhino any day.

Ben

Okay I, I, I would rather just see, you know, Abbott call a special session of the Texas state legislature and say we're leaving.

Gene

And that will do nothing.

Ben

I think it would do a lot. If there was actually a vote or a law passed that called for that to be on the ballot this fall, I think that

Gene

Oh, I think it could be on the ballots. He can definitely do that. I don't think he's going to run again. So he doesn't really have a big reason to, but he could, he could do that, put it on the ballot, but from a practical situation, there's no way in hell, any state, including Texas is going to secede without massive bloodshed.

Ben

I don't know. The Soviet Union broke up relatively

Gene

they're a little ahead of the curve then, aren't they?

Ben

I, I think we're not far behind where the Soviet Union was in 1990, dude.

Gene

think we're right about where the Soviet union was in 1914. Yeah,

Ben

We're way further down the dissolution path than they were.

Gene

I don't know, man. It's I, I, I just don't see it. I think way too many people care more about where their next paycheck is going to come from than what state they live in or what country they live in. That they, if their paycheck is threatened and it will immediately become at least portrayed as, even if not. Based on facts threatened, but certainly a lot of people realistically, their paychecks will be threatened if Texas decides to secede there's a lot of companies here that, that are here for one reason only good tax conditions. That's it.

Ben

And when you say here, you

Gene

in Texas, they have no great love of Texas for any other way. Samsung's, I think their third largest campus in the world is being built in Texas right now. Apple

Ben

outside of Austin, yeah.

Gene

yep, yep, Apple has the second largest Apple presence in the world here in Texas, after California. California is their

Ben

wouldn't change with Texas.

Gene

It would absolutely change

Ben

Why?

Gene

because the U S government would say anybody doing business in Texas will pay a tax. And all these companies like, all right, that was good to be there. But we're out of here. Same thing with Oracle. Same thing with. All these towns basically anybody who has an office in Austin is gonna leave. Austin will be a ghost

Ben

wrong. And here's why. Because if, as soon as one state leaves, it will be the dominoes falling just like the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It will not just be Texas. It will be a breakup of the country. It will not just be Texas leaving. It will be Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, the entirety of the South, the most

Gene

And how did I go last

Ben

their way. I, I, I think we are looking at something very different this time because it is not a group seceding over one political issue. It is a full division of the nation. It is the North wanting to leave just as bad as the South.

Gene

I think the, no, I don't, I don't think that's true. I think it's the North wanting to run things. Which they are absolutely running things.

Ben

Just to wrap up this bit on Trump, I think the only way to see a I mean, I don't think that's the best way to backpedal of this. The only way the Democrats can back off of this, which I think this is martyring. Even if you believe Trump is Hitler, let's, let's just think through this for a second. If Trump is Hitler, why are you giving him a similar storyline? Why are you making him a martyr? Right? the

Gene

wait till he writes a book.

Ben

he already has, but he'll write another one, but no, this, this is Hitler after the bear haul push in prison, if, if, if you think, if like, that's the parallel in the story. So why would you give him that? Why would Kathy Hochul not come out and say, you know, I can't do anything yet because his sentence hasn't been, Handed down, but as soon as it's handed down, I'm going to commute Donald Trump's sentence, commute, not pardon, because that, a commutation does not wipe away the felony, but it basically says you're not going to do any jail time. You're not going to do the, the punishment

Gene

and something

Ben

And that's their only way out of this. Otherwise I think Trump's

Gene

Darren brought up, which I also thought of before he brought it up, but I didn't mention it, so he gets credit is they could use this as a huge PR publicity thing by having Biden Pardon Trump.

Ben

Biden can't pardon Trump because this is a state charge. He has no jurisdiction.

Gene

They could federalize. I'm sure they could federalize it somehow.

Ben

they cannot. And that's why I said Kathy Hochul. So Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York would have to either

Gene

so, hold up. So, so the president can only pardon federal criminals.

Ben

correct.

Gene

I wasn't aware of that, but I thought that was just first of all, we're in the constitution to say the president can pardon nowhere. So I thought this was just one of those made up things that people all went along with is that you're the president. You get to pardon people.

Ben

It's because he's the head of the executive branch

Gene

So all the people Obama pardoned, like the, the 1800 people, he pardoned

Ben

All federal criminals.

Gene

federal criminals. Jesus Christ. That's crazy. Yeah, in that case, yeah, she could, but she doesn't have a neat, like if Biden did it, it would be a very interesting political act saying, look, I'm being accused of all these things, but I'm even letting the guy out who's running against me. I'm the good guy here.

Ben

Mm hmm.

Gene

So that there's some spin possibility, but if you can't do it, then it doesn't work that way. Yeah, it's, it's a idea that the state of New York can go after somebody for things that they didn't do in the state of New York. Is it also ridiculous?

Ben

That, that's the entire right wing argument against these charges for Trump in the first place is it's a novel legal theory that this is a felony to begin with and not just a misdemeanor. And it's a, because basically they're saying he did this in furtherance, furtherance of another crime, yet he's not being charged with another crime. And we don't know what that other crime is. And that, that, that's semi problematic, right? It's, it's an add on charge and an enhancement that typically can't be done

Gene

It's like finding pot in the vehicle. That you had no reason to stop in the first place.

Ben

Exactly. Yeah. And you, you know, one of the things I'll say is I think that Trump is likely to win on appeal. It may have to go all the way to the Supreme Court before he does. But.

Gene

nine months to a year for that to happen. You'd be in prison already.

Ben

we will see. I think that Trump's legal team has a hell of an argument to actually skip a few things because the, the Supreme court can basically take up any case that they want.

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

And, you know, basically I, did you read shit, not Dan Patrick. Who's the Paxton, Ken Paxton's letter on this. So Ken Paxton's already put out a statement basically saying that this is interference in the federal elections by New York

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

and that this is problematic.

Gene

And what are they gonna do about it? Nothing.

Ben

he, he may sue the state of New York for this.

Gene

And how'd that go last time?

Ben

If he's doing it beforehand instead of ex post facto and pulls up the original

Gene

standing. They're saying there's no standing. You, no state has standing in the matters of another state's election. A

Ben

not true. And that's the problem

Gene

no it is because that's what the Supreme Court said.

Ben

that they did not take up that case. And if you read the dissents by Thomas, the

Gene

Dissents don't matter.

Ben

it does. So I, I

Gene

You don't use dissenting opinions when forming lower court opinions. You, you,

Ben

you, you absolutely can. And one of the things I would say is that just because they. Found against the standing for Texas V Pennsylvania after the election. I think had they sued before the election there would be likely a different outcome. And I, if I were the, the lawyer making the argument, I would say, look, we know you found against this on standing here, but this is beforehand. We see this as tortious interference. You know, we're going to go down that road now. They could still kick it out, but make them do it.

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

Look, remember, there's only a handful of ways out of this, and we've already

Gene

No, I think there's only one. I just, I don't think there are other few ways. I think there's only one.

Ben

The ways to keep yourself out of this are the, you know, the soap box, the jury box I forget the fourth one, the church, and then the cartridge box, right?

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

So we're, we're quickly running out of options,

Gene

I think we have one option.

Ben

and that is

Gene

You can guess what that is and I'm not gonna say it because I don't want to be in prison. But I, I can predict the future without calling for it to happen.

Ben

it'd be a, it'd be a good weight loss regime for you,

Gene

You think? You think it'd be like a, like a fat camp thing?

Ben

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of, I saw the South Park documentary

Gene

Yeah, yeah, I, that was a pretty good deck, man.

Ben

Yeah, yeah. The Cartman playing you was great.

Gene

Cartman's been playing me for many years.

Ben

For those who don't know, South Park just came out with a new episode and it's all about Ozempic and Cartman's trying to get the drugs to lose weight. And it's hilarious. I loved Lizzo's reaction to them using Lizzo as the body positivity

Gene

what, what was the reaction?

Ben

Oh my God. I sent it to you a long time ago. I'll have to find it again, but basically she's appalled that they're using her name like that. And I thought it was fucking hilarious.

Gene

not a great name to begin with. Yeah, it's, it was I mean, I call it a documentary because honestly

Ben

because it's about your life. I understand.

Gene

It's mostly true. There's not, there's not a whole lot there that they've embellished like they typically would. The reality is that there are a ton of rich white women that consume this product Ozempic and other products the semaglutides that are like it. And these products definitely work. The, they, I mean, this was found as a side effect as the whole weight loss thing, but they're also not new. Like I remember the first time that I ran across this was about seven years ago and it was at a plastic surgeons clinic and they have this, this novel weight loss program thing.

Ben

they're, they're wanting to get the utility out of it before the patent runs out is the problem here.

Gene

There there's really no patent man. And the patents are purely for the delivery mechanism. Because you, you can't patent something that is a naturally occurring substance.

Ben

But it's not. It's the artificial version of

Gene

and it's, it really isn't.

Ben

Dude, look at Monsanto's patents. Yes, they can and yes, they have.

Gene

of it.

Ben

That's what I'm

Gene

The patents are never for the actual substance. The patents are either for delivery mechanism or production. Yeah,

Ben

Regardless, the point is they're making a big push. I had dinner with a buddy of mine recently. I, you and I talked on the phone about this a little bit, but we

Gene

you lost a bunch of weight.

Ben

Dude, so this guy is, he's gotta be like 6'5 Like he's up there with Darren,

Gene

a couple inches taller than me.

Ben

More like a foot taller than you, Jimmy.

Gene

Oh, whatever.

Ben

Anyway Oh, the jokes I want to make right now. Anyway, but he's lost well over a hundred pounds coming up on like almost 200 pounds.

Gene

Jesus.

Ben

the guy is 6'5 and was pushing 400 and something pounds and he's in the 100s now.

Gene

Wow. And what, what, and he's taken that the Ozempic.

Ben

he's taking the Monjaro and, but he, he, he is, he is diabetic. And he's very pro all of this because he's now off of insulin,

Gene

Right. Which is great. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And,

Ben

I don't know that I'd want to do it, given having to be on any drug for the rest of my

Gene

oh, it's not the rest of your life. It, you, you don't need to be on for the rest of your life.

Ben

Actually, what they say is, through this, it stops your natural production. Much like being on insulin, once you're on insulin, you're pretty much on it for the rest of your

Gene

yeah, but you don't have to be it, all of these things are exaggerated, which is very typical. There's a ton of drugs that they want you to be on. I want you to be on for the rest of your life. Like there, there are people that have taken anti what do you call them? No, no, no. The crap that clogs up your blood and stuff.

Ben

Oh yeah. Blood thinners, yes.

Gene

No, not blood thinners. The,

Ben

Cholesterol

Gene

yeah, that there, there are people that have been on cholesterol medication now for 50 years and they still have high cholesterol.

Ben

No?

Gene

It's, it's, it's a marketing thing. It has nothing to do with reality. Okay.

Ben

there's very little evidence of Dietary ingestion of cholesterols to, to the

Gene

Yeah, like none, literally the production of cholesterol is happening for a reason. So the real question is, why is your body

Ben

brain food.

Gene

Yeah it's, it's brain food also. All the hormones, including testosterone are made out of it. So, gee, I wonder why American bodies are producing excess cholesterol because maybe your hormones are out of whack because of all the plastic and shit you eat and your body's trying to fix that and compensate

Ben

Mm-Hmm.

Gene

and it can't. So yeah it's, it's funny even I was talking to my dad the other day, it was in his eighties He, you know, he's always been very much a science kind of guy. We actually taught physics for a while, but he, he said that he never really took homeopathy seriously, but there might be something to it. That's as far as he was willing to go. But it's like Jesus, you know, it's a guy that for basically over 80 years would have laughed at anything homeopathic. So yeah, there's an awful lot that the modern drug industrial complex would like people to believe they figured out the reality is the, what they're best at. Is

Ben

And you know, just the way you know what they say about their own. Drugs is, I, I think a perfect example of this where, you know, Hey, this is, it's believed to do this. What do you mean? It's believed. Don't you know? No, they don't. And that, that's part of that problem is that there is a lot of drugs, you know, just like the semaglutides are a perfect example. They believe that it's working this way, but they don't really know. And the fact is, when you get to a point. Where you're making assumptions, the unintended consequence risk factor goes way up, right? If you look at game theory, when you don't fully understand things, that's where things get really dangerous.

Gene

That's not, it's absolutely true. And then there should be informed consent. And that's one of the other things that we're not very good at is making sure people understand the risks involved. They understand that anything that's. Being relatively new has a much higher percentage of risk. Just think of what if all the DNA versions of vaccines that came out would have come with a large warning that says this is a brand new, you know, unexperimented on. Vaccine. So there will very highly chance be side effects that we've not run into during the limited testing we've done.

Ben

Yeah,

Gene

Instead, they covered that shit up and they pushed it as this is the safest possible thing that you could be doing.

Ben

I mean, you saw where which one was it? The AstraZeneca vaccine got pulled from the market.

Gene

hmm. Exactly. So, yeah, it's it's interesting. I will say though that from personal experience, the Mount Jaro totally works. It it pretty much makes you forget about eating.

Ben

And it slows down everything. One of the things that my friend was saying, you know, because we went to the Brazilian steakhouse. He was being very picky

Gene

yeah, I bet he was. Yeah, exactly.

Ben

he was doing because he's like, this is going to be with me for a while. It's like, okay, that does not sound good. That's not sound pleasant.

Gene

But I mean, it's just, I don't know that it's bad either. It all depends on what else you're eating. you know, you, you digest a lot more of meat than you would of any plant manner,

Ben

Yeah,

Gene

there's a lot less leftover to poop out when you're eating meat. And so there's a, the speed with which it's not like the length of your gut changes if you go to a carnivore diet. It still has to travel the same distance. It's just going to take longer. It's going to take several days for it instead of one day. So yeah, I mean, there's I would, I would definitely say that I would be on Munger right now as the fucking insurance covered it.

Ben

Which, given your, you know, medical conditions, I'm surprised they don't.

Gene

Yeah exactly. It's like, diabetes, hello.

Ben

again, this is why the entire episode was a documentary on your life.

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

Cartman tried to, you know, get the whole

Gene

Stealing my damn drugs. Yeah, all these rich white women stealing this, this drug. You know, what's funny too is I, you know, when I went to Mexico, I picked some of that stuff up. So when that chick pulled out the injectors out of her handbag when she came back from Mexico, I thought, oh, this is hilarious. You know, they, and they,

Ben

some, I got a pass customs.

Gene

they sell that at the airport in Mexico. Yeah,

Ben

at the airport in Mexico, anything you want to get.

Gene

absolutely. And somebody was saying, oh yeah, you gotta be careful. You know, you can't be traveling with drugs from Mexico or, or no, they were saying, yeah, you still need a prescription if you want to get. Legitimate legal drugs in Mexico. No, you don't.

Ben

Most of the pharmacies will refer you to a doctor who will sell you a prescription.

Gene

Yeah, there you go. I didn't even have to do that. I just showed them a list on my iPhone and said I'm looking for this.

Ben

No, no, no. The pharmacies don't require the prescription. It's if you get caught with them in

Gene

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I suppose.

Ben

So you can get a prescription in Mexico for Yeah.

Gene

of things.

Ben

Exactly.

Gene

Yeah, so it is ridiculous the, the fact that The price is so high in the U. S. The price in the U. S. Is roughly 10 times higher than across the border in Mexico for the same drug. Not just that one, but most drugs in Mexico are about a 10th of the price that they are in the United States.

Ben

Part of the

Gene

the way they justify it is that they have a cost of living adjustment that they do for different countries.

Ben

Yeah. Part of, part of that though also is the lack of ability of you know, Medicare, Medicaid to negotiate and Trump was working on fixing that. And that was one of the things Biden undid once he got in office,

Gene

I honestly, you know, it's very un libertarian, but fuck those guys at this point. But I think it's a very easy problem to solve if somebody truly wanted to solve it for the benefit of Americans. And that is simply that Any company that prices its drugs at a ridiculous price, and we can define what that means, obviously will pay a an additional excise tax on the sales per each drug sold in the United States.

Ben

I, you know, what I would say is screw the drug companies and where they're at and what they're doing, so not opposed to it.

Gene

It, yeah, it's, it's I think the drug companies in a lot of ways are very, they're carnivorous. They're carnivorous, or not, not carnivorous, they're

Ben

Cannibalistic.

Gene

Yeah, cannibalistic is the word I was thinking of. You're exactly right. They're cannibalistic because what they're doing is they're essentially saying we have a pretty good high quality of living in the expensive lifestyles in the United States. So let's charge more for drugs here because Really, the only true cost of a drug isn't manufacturing, it's the research, it's the R& D. You're, you're just recouping the R& D and after that you're making pure profit. The oh this is too funny, I'm seeing an ad for tree grubs and the ad is of a grub held in CHOP6. That's too funny. I guess they must be good for you or something.

Ben

Huh.

Gene

Anyway the, the idea that they're essentially doing the same thing as insurance companies analyzing what the market will bear and where's the maximum profitability point. And then pricing it that way, that's fine, but I think that there ought to be a disincentive to doing that, right? The, the, in a completely free economy, which would be without medical insurance at all, what regulates that is the complete lack of use of their drugs by the people. So it's a,

Ben

afforded. So

Gene

can't be afforded. And again,

Ben

free market pressure to adjust the price, but in

Gene

create something that works, but you But you price it out of the market to where nobody could afford it. Then guess what your profits are? Nothing because you didn't sell any. And, but instead what we have is this kind of half ass convoluted system where it's third party payer. So somebody else is paying, but also they get to decide what you're going to take because they're footing the pill. In a lot of ways, the insurance companies act like parents. They're like you can have this, but we don't think you really need this. So let's hold off and see if you die or not. Then if you die, maybe you need it after all. And if you don't die I guess you didn't need it. That's kind of their attitude. they don't want you to die too early because then you're not going to be paying premiums. But, they also don't necessarily want to keep you alive and healthy. Because they're actually making money off of you being unhealthy. And everybody is in that. The doctors are making money off being unhealthy. The insurance companies are. Drug companies are. Everyone's making money off of Americans being unhealthy. Not just Americans. Everybody. For this context, Americans and, and incidentally the things that make you unhealthy are also things that Americans are really good at, which is making cereal. I'm kidding. Obviously it's not just cereal. It's most processed foods. It's like, Hey, make shit that tastes really good. But it's really bad for you.

Ben

Speaking of

Gene

watch that South Park documentary.

Ben

Yeah, speaking of though, what do you think of the Libertarian Party committing suicide?

Gene

I kind of talked a little bit about that on the, my show with Aaron. It's

Ben

I didn't listen to

Gene

Yeah, you should, everybody should,

Ben

What was this morning? I haven't

Gene

it was this morning. I know, but yeah, I mean, they can go fuck themselves. First of all there is no libertarian party as far as I'm concerned at this point, because a libertarian party. Which I was not only a member of, but was a you know, I ran as a libertarian multiple times. I was in the state level, libertarian party governance. I was very involved during the time period when the libertarian party worked really hard to get itself from that, like, you know, miscellaneous party status to an actual. a legitimate party status to be on the ballots. Like we spent a lot of time trying to do that.

Ben

yeah, you were literally a big L Libertarian.

Gene

I was a big L libertarian. Yeah. And so in the late eighties, early nineties, and it was a, it felt like we actually accomplished, like we moved the needle, like there's progress being made to move the libertarian party forward and the idea. Of liberty combined with accountability is something that is gaining traction and popularity and that people are going to start to realize that this is a much better alternative to the other political parties out there. That was the delusion we were under apparently because the Libertarian Party a few days ago picked an Antifa gay Socialist to represented instead of Trump, but they didn't have to pick Trump if they had somebody that

Ben

could have picked RFK.

Gene

I don't want to call him libertarian really either

Ben

but he would have been a better choice. They, if they would have, if they would have picked Trump, they would have potentially won the presidency. If they'd have picked RFK, they would have had a percentage of the votes in all 50 states, a substantial percentage. Instead of getting 3%, they would have gotten 20%.

Gene

So there, there's no, and, and when I said on that show, I'll repeat it here again, is I, I will never again call myself a libertarian, either small L or big L or any kind of L. The, the term libertarian at this point means the same thing as terms like Nazi or you know, take your pick. It's like words that have lost their meaning completely and mean nothing. Something completely different now. So if you call yourself a libertarian now, you're basically saying you're pro Antifa, pro communism, and pro pedophilia. And I'm none of those things.

Ben

I don't know. I, as a libertarian, I don't know that little L libertarian, just like little L Republican.

Gene

Yeah, and I, no, fuck that. I'm done with all that shit though. And I think you were moving in the right direction by calling yourself an anarchist, frankly.

Ben

Oh, you know, I'm working on it.

Gene

Huh, just, you know, don't be half assed about it. Go full in.

Ben

Oh, go read my blog post.

Gene

Do I have to?

Ben

Yes.

Gene

Okay. I'll, I'll retweet it too. So get, get those couple of people that follow me, but not you

Ben

Oh, I don't have shit for followers on Twitter, dude.

Gene

No,

Ben

No.

Gene

probably cause you refer to it as Twitter,

Ben

I don't have shit for followers on X,

Gene

but I'm pumped. Yeah, either way, I mean, it was, it was embarrassing is what it

Ben

you, did you see Chase Oliver's ad that came out?

Gene

No.

Ben

It's, it's all been all over Twitter. He literally has him holding a rainbow don't tread on me flag. And this is, was posted by the Libertarian party that said, you ain't gay if you don't vote for me. Like,

Gene

I mean, it's creative. I think it's funny.

Ben

right. But it's, it's, it's mocking Biden,

Gene

It is mocking Biden, but you know, it's kind of mocking itself more than making Biden. Yeah.

Ben

Yeah. And I mean, when you've got Filavante, when you've got a lot of

Gene

I didn't know Phil was gay.

Ben

I didn't say that,

Gene

Oh, I thought you were talking about gay people.

Ben

then I'm different sentence, different paragraph moving on, you know, No, when, when, when you've got Filavante and others coming out and just trashing the Libertarian Party, people who are pretty prominent Libertarians, and when you have Chase Oliver himself coming out and saying this is the end of the Ron Paul Libertarian Party, holy shit, you

Gene

bet it is.

Ben

you, I mean, you're not even shooting yourself in the foot, you're shooting yourself in the head.

Gene

Yeah, totally. Absolutely. No, the part that they're done there.

Ben

the Mises Caucus, the Mises Caucus is going to vote for Trump. You know, there's that meme of the porn star getting railed and everybody changed it to Libertarians saying, you're gonna make me make America great again so hard, you know.

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

The entire Mises caucus is going to

Gene

this is what happens. I mean, I think this is a somewhat natural progression that happens to where any good idea giving a sufficiently long enough Amount of time will get bastardized and that's what's happening with the Libertarian Party And I think it it certainly what happened with the Republican Party It's frankly what happened with the Democrat Party too because they didn't used to be socialists.

Ben

let's be clear. The Republican party has never been good.

Gene

Okay fair enough

Ben

The, the, the, the last Republican president, the last president that was really a good president outside of Trump, which Trump has his problems,

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

was Eisenhower.

Gene

I don't know that he was a good president either

Ben

Okay. We can go back to Buchanan if you want.

Gene

Yeah, I mean, I kind of like Teddy Roosevelt.

Ben

The National Parks were such a socialist movement, it's not even funny.

Gene

Yeah, I know I know but I still like him. Yeah. That the reality is most politicians suck. It's just a question of do they suck more from you or from somebody else? And yeah, and it's yeah, the, the, the, the, as far as the libertarians just to wrap that whole thing up, I just, they're dead to me, man. There, there is no libertarian party. There is no such thing as libertarianism. All of it is dead. I I've spent way too much effort and energy making that party be something to see it turned into this. I'd rather kill it myself and bury it. It

Ben

I don't

Gene

has nothing to do with the guy being gay. It's the complete package. That is the problem.

Ben

Yeah, it's, it's the socialism. It's every bit about it. I, I, I agree. I don't have a problem with someone who's gay being running for office. But it's one of those things that I

Gene

I don't have a problem with a socialist running for office either. They would just should never get voted in. They can run. But I certainly don't want to associate myself with them running for office. But yeah, so at this point, if somebody asks me which, what's my political affiliation, it's objectivist. That's it. And if you don't know what that is, then fuck you, go figure it out.

Ben

yeah, or you could use the Mises caucus

Gene

Nah, I don't like those guys either.

Ben

Why?

Gene

Because most of those people are spineless weasels. Mm

Ben

Tell us how you really think

Gene

hmm. Yeah, I'm, I'm not happy with seeing things that actually meant something being chucked in the garbage. Mm hmm.

Ben

and how do you think the Mises caucus is doing that? I,

Gene

you know what? They didn't really overhaul the libertarian party today.

Ben

I don't know, you know, I think that

Gene

They're either

Ben

hold on, no, no, no, hold on, because the, the, the, the Libertarian Party, the problem with the Libertarian Party is the real Libertarians, the people who are true, die hard, Libertarians, the way you and I have meant the word for a long time, are not joiners, they don't want to be involved in the party, they're not going to be involved in the party, and as a result, this Homosexual, trans, gender affirming socialist sneaks in and is able to win, but he was able to win because of some moves that happened. But here's the thing, I think the Mises caucus halfway through the the balloting realized they were not going to get the candidates they wanted. When Dave Smith bowed out, that was kind of the end of

Gene

like Dave Smith either.

Ben

Yeah I like him a hell of a lot more than Chase Oliver.

Gene

Fair enough.

Ben

Anyway, I think that they realized they weren't going to get who they want. So who can we put up that's going to be the absolute worst candidate possible for Joe Biden? And they did that.

Gene

I, I think you're over reading what happened there. I think that the people that are currently running that group just simply got kicked out of the Democrat party. Like they're too, they're, their values aren't perfectly matched with the current socialists. They're socialist lite. And therefore now they're part of the libertarian party. It's the whole over from the window moving. And it's been talked about by a lot of people, but it's very true. I think that the, a lot of the people are exactly of the same beliefs that they've always been, but how they're perceived and how they're described is what's changed. And this guy would have never been described or perceived as a libertarian 20 years ago. Yeah. But he is today.

Ben

And for those who don't know, the Overton window is a marketing term that's been used. It's basically the window of things that the public will accept. And the way you move the Overton window is by pushing on one side or the other to move the window either to the right or to the left of the social acceptable norms.

Gene

Thank you. So, it's Yeah, I, I,

Ben

Where were you introduced to that term first?

Gene

Words in the window? Let me think. I think it was probably I don't think it was something I read. I think it was something I saw. But I want to say it was about 20 years ago.

Ben

Yeah, literally, my introduction to The Overton Window was from the Glenn Beck book, The Overton Window. Which actually, you know, Glenn Beck has a couple of novels out there that are really pretty good. And that would be one of them.

Gene

Yeah. Yeah apparently The term came about In the early 90s. I don't know. Yeah Joseph Overton. Yeah, I don't know, I don't think I heard it in the 90s. I think it was probably in the early 2000s that I first

Ben

Which would have been about the time I heard it from,

Gene

yeah, and, and certainly it, it was utilized a lot on No Agenda for a while as well.

Ben

Okay. So we got a request from the audience.

Gene

We did, yeah. I'm glad you remembered because I almost forgot.

Ben

Yeah. So when you going to give us a review of your thermal,

Gene

Yeah, so,

Ben

I, you, I don't have any more night vision to review right now, but you have something new that you really haven't told us about. So,

Gene

I thought I did. I so I didn't really do a proper review. Yeah. I fucked around with it. And so what I got is one of the cheapest current high generation thermals out there. So it's a it's a model that just came out in February. And cheap is a relative term because I think I paid about 4, 000 for it, but it is pretty good, pretty high quality. It's a 640 sensor. Anything bigger sensor than that, you're talking over 10, 000.

Ben

Even some of the six forties get up into the seven, 8, 000. Yeah. Pretty easy.

Gene

So this was a, a cheaper one. The, the size is great. It's roughly the same size. As a NVG 14 it's, it's helmet mountable, or you can use it. You can get an adapter and use it on this as a scope as well, but it's basically a one X, so it's really best for a helmet mount. I finally got a helmet, thanks to Ben finding one and then saying it's pretty good, so I didn't have to shell out all the money for a Team Wendy one, which is originally what I was going to do.

Ben

Yeah. The, the hardhead veterans helmets. Pretty nice. Isn't it?

Gene

I don't, I don't know that I can rate it, because it's not like I have a bunch of experience with different brands of helmets and how good they are. They are or not like, I mean, it looks fine. It fits fine. I don't know what more to say.

Ben

My, my point is if you're after nothing but a bump helmet, all that matters is, is it comfortable and does it have what you want it to

Gene

right. And I will say though, like even a bump helmet is not cheap. It

Ben

a good one.

Gene

yeah, it was a few hundred bucks, which is about what I paid for a, an Arai motorcycle helmet back in the day, which was a much better helmet. In terms of, you know, comfort. So, I don't know, it's, but it's way cheaper than the Team Wendy, which is a 800 bump helmet or a 800 ballistics helmet.

Ben

Yeah. One of my one of my friends that I have kind of hung around a little bit he, he rides a bike all day, every day, right? And he, I, he saw my bump helmet cause I was playing around with it at the kebab shop. And anyway, he, he ended up ordering one to use as a bike helmet, just to be able to mount lights on, to

Gene

I thought they had actual bike helmets that they sold, too.

Ben

Yeah he wanted the accessory rails and a couple other things. But, anyway he is, you know, the price compared to, like, some of these quote unquote nicer bike helmets is very comparable, apparently, and much better.

Gene

I remember I had a bike helmet poo, what would have been this, probably 2, 000.

Ben

and I mean like a pedal bike, not a motorcycle,

Gene

I know. Yeah, same here. I had a pedal bike helmet as well. And

Ben

not for a pedal bike. You had something else.

Gene

Fuck you. I totally had a pedal bike. I I, I had a, I had a pedal

Ben

kind of, yeah, there you go. There you go. It was not a bike.

Gene

yeah, and it was a it's five grand when I bought it. Dude, this is a serious piece of bike. I had a shipped from, had a shipped from Australia. then I

Ben

had it shipped from Australia?

Gene

sold it for 1, 500 bucks.

Ben

It cost you five grand. You're going the wrong way, Gene. Gene.

Gene

I mean, you know, it was five years old at that point. Before that, I, I used to ride on a bike a lot. I had a couple of different Cannondales over the years. And I used to do a lot of mountain biking. And that's all before I got married, which, That all went downhill. But yeah, bike helmets were generally back then. So 20 to 30 years ago, bike helmets were in the a hundred dollar range. So I could see how they'd be over 200 now,

Ben

Yeah.

Gene

but a motorcycle helmet. Yeah. You could get a cheap one for 80 bucks, but like, if you want to get a nice one, like the ride I had, that was started about three 50 and go up to 500 bucks.

Ben

Regardless, the, the point is there's a couple of things that you can get. The thermal that Gene got, you know, good luck. You can't see see through a windshield at night,

Gene

Oh, for fuck's sake. No one needs to see through a windshield at night.

Ben

Huh.

Gene

The point of it isn't to be sleeping on your neighbor sitting in a car. The point is to see something that is alive and a meeting a meeting. God damn it. I can't say the word

Ben

Immediately.

Gene

Yeah, I'm getting heat at night in an area where they shouldn't be, meaning in your backyard or in the woods or in the forest, not sitting in a car. What you're going to see with this thing is you're going to see a very hot object from very far away. That's a car

Ben

Regardless, I

Gene

and a car with its lights off. Incidentally, you will see from very far away. Unlike with night vision.

Ben

yeah, I, I think that there is utility in both. If I were going

Gene

that was the setup that we, that was a setup. We kept talking about is like the ideal thing costs way too much, which is a single unified combo unit. Those are like 20 grand.

Ben

The, you know, infra a has some that are kind of interesting. Some of the clip longs are kind of interesting, but I, I, it's not quite there yet. One, one thing I did get recently that I'll give a little bit of a plug to make no money off of it, but I'll still say we all have, you know,

Gene

How Christian of you.

Ben

UV five Rs sitting around right.

Gene

No, I have actual Yesus sitting around, but go ahead. Mm hmm.

Ben

Okay most people have some cheap 25 little radios sitting around. Same price point, but has waterproof, dustproof, and, you know, they don't have some of the accessories available, but it's a pretty decent upgrade from a form factor

Gene

hmm.

Ben

Durability is the UV9R Pro. So, it's

Gene

Who makes that?

Ben

dustproof bow thing.

Gene

Oh, it is. Okay. And it's so it's like a new model they have or what?

Ben

It's been around for a while, but I finally got one and picked it up, and you know,

Gene

Your interest in ham radio for a guy that refuses to get his license is very interesting.

Ben

Huh, says you you, you know, whatever.

Gene

What, says, what, am I wrong about you getting your license? Did you get it and just didn't tell me?

Ben

Maybe, who knows? Eh,

Gene

I think you'd be talking about it.

Ben

I don't know that I would.

Gene

I'm pretty sure you would.

Ben

Cause if I give out a call sign, that's easily looked up and identifying, you know, me pretty directly, so,

Gene

Yeah, that's true. That is a good point. Mm hmm.

Ben

you know, Yeasus have some of the same problem on accessories as far as like finding good push talks that'll work with military based headset, things like that. The, if you are, because it doesn't use like the Kenwood style adapter on the 9R that the UV5R and even some of the Yeasus quite frankly use because it's using its own kind of proprietary adapter plan on if you're using a non civilian headset. So if you're using something that requires NATO wiring and either amplified or not, depending you're going to be going to eBay to get a push to talk, by the way, or you're going to Comgear Supply because Comgear Supply does have a push to talk with a pigtail for 30, the pigtail's 30, but the push to talk is like 200.

Gene

Mm.

Ben

Just Be ready for shit like that. But if you want a waterproof, dustproof radio to knock around that's cheap, it's,

Gene

Yeah, it's, it's interesting. It's

Ben

I offered to make you an antenna the other day and

Gene

yeah, you did. Yeah, don't, don't need one. It's interesting that I don't know. I, I think, That there's some utility to having a radio that can be, that can transmit on a bunch of different frequencies for sure. But also being a ham I will say that unless you're really into just talking with random strangers what's much more convenient is a cell phone. And a cell phone works. Damn near 99. 9999 percent of the time. It's very rare. The cell phone doesn't work. And if you're in situations where you run into a cell phone not working, there are satellites based alternatives that work damn near 99. 99999 percent of the time. And that are also, I think, better. For better for actual communication than a ham radio, a ham radio is, it's, it's a way to take what is essentially a backup function and turn it into a role play game

Ben

That, or you can use,

Gene

insulted all the hams,

Ben

yeah, you can use FRS and you know, the, the bow fangs I'm talking about have FRS frequencies that do not require a license. And you know, if you're out walking about or hunting or something, you

Gene

Yeah. Like they're, they're use cases for this. If you're riding a motorcycle in the group, if you're going hunting, there are definitely use cases for this stuff.

Ben

but more than that, the other thing is that if you get into an emergency situation, the FCC allows for you to use any frequency in the event of an emergency. So it doesn't matter what

Gene

Yeah, but not to lallygag, just to very specifically notify the people that, that are gonna need that information.

Ben

That's fine.

Gene

It, it's, but I don't know, man, I just, I like a satellite phone. It's better.

Ben

Okay.

Gene

And you can reach anybody else on it, like not just other people that have ham radios. But if you're talking about FRS, I actually was very impressed with that Motorola set that I use with your parents.

Ben

Yeah. FRS, if it's in the right circumstances is you know, it's kind of the way CBs used to be in a lot of ways, but it's on a better frequency range. So you're going to get more oomph out of it

Gene

Yeah. And,

Ben

on a handy talkie at least. And

Gene

totally bullshit you on the range numbers cause they're in perfect ideal scenarios from peak to peak with a valley in between. But yeah, it was, and no, and no weather.

Ben

Yes.

Gene

And so ideally you might get 20 miles, but realistically it's probably more like three or four. But the quality of the sound was perfectly clear as we were just driving down the highway with two different cars. And then even the walking around that little festival event thing. Where, you know, I was probably a mile or more away from your folks. I could talk to them and they would hear me and I could hear them very, very high quality. And there's quite a bit of encryption shit built in. So you're, you're, it's possible, but you're not horribly likely to cross over somebody else trying to communicate with the exact same settings. It was basically over 10, 000 combinations, which is, I know, not a whole lot for encryption, but it is for just a product that's really meant to live on a public frequency.

Ben

right. It's something that's not going to. Casually be listened to,

Gene

Yeah. Not unless somebody is intentionally wanting to do that. Exactly. So it does work pretty cool. And it actually even ties into your cell phone over Bluetooth. Two things. One is you could use a Bluetooth headset with it, so then you don't need any kind of pigtail bullshit thing. You just have a basically. A wireless solution for having a headset. And the other thing is it'll wirelessly through our Bluetooth talk to your phone so that you can send map coordinates through the walkie talkie, which is kind of a neat function. I thought it was one of the reasons I bought this particular model. Is its ability, you know, if you're on a hunting trip or something to be able to do what we had to in the past by a rhino for, which is like five, 600 bucks to communicate our positions out in the field with another unit. But now you can just do it with a 100 Motorola walkie talkie.

Ben

It's a hundred dollars per radio,

Gene

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is way cheaper than the 600 to 800 you'd pay for a commercial one.

Ben

sure.

Gene

It's the same Motorola commercial radio with a slightly more power, slightly bigger Battery and a a black case cost like five to eight times more.

Ben

And on that note, This Week in Ham was brought to you by

Gene

Yeah, exactly. I wish, I wish I was getting something

Ben

Why?

Gene

No, I mean, I wish I was getting sponsored by somebody. I don't know, even if it's Ham Radio.

Ben

I mean, reach out to Mike Liddell, you know, he threw out a MyPillow

Gene

you should do that. You're good at reaching out to companies.

Ben

No, negative.

Gene

really? I, I, I could reach out. Sure. They're like, yeah. And how many listeners do y'all have? Probably like 10.

Ben

Yeah, which we need to

Gene

They all want pillows though.

Ben

Yeah, we need to talk about that. If you're listening to the sound of my voice right now,

Gene

Hmm.

Ben

please share. We realize you may not want to admit to listening to this show, but do it for the good of your friends. Ben and gene.

Gene

Two things. One is we would like to thank the people that are monthly donors, first of all,

Ben

Yes, absolutely.

Gene

those guys are fully covering any portion that Ben would be providing. That only leaves the portion that I'm paying, which no one's covering. But we appreciate the fact that those guys are contributing on a monthly basis because it means that, you know, less cost means less objection to doing the show. Ben's more likely to do a show if he doesn't have to pay for it.

Ben

well, and you know, you are getting that podcasting 2. 0 money. So

Gene

What podcasting 2. 0 money?

Ben

You're the one who has the index listed and going to your lightning node.

Gene

Oh yeah. You, you, you think people are donating? You kidding me? Nobody donates in lightning.

Ben

We've gotten a couple on Fountain, but not many. But right now we've got the five subscribers, and I'm just gonna kinda anonymize this, but David B Gentee Keith B, William S, and Tim H.

Gene

Yeah. Thanks

Ben

appreciate that.

Gene

So that's, that's item one. Item two is we did seem to have a dip in listenership that has. I've just checked, so it could have happened earlier, but it looks like certainly compared to six months ago, we have fewer downloads. So though that could be a number of things could be people not liking what we're talking about. Could be people that tried us and then lost interest. Could be people that I don't know, aren't using podcast apps to download or you change your app and you never re got it. But for, if you are listening to the podcast and you're at this point, which is toward the end of the recording. Please do us a favor. And one, the best thing you can possibly do is send us money. But if you don't want to do that, leave a review on Apple podcasts for this podcast, that seems to have a pretty big effect as to what randomly gets recommended. In a lot of different programs. So give it, getting a review on Apple podcast for the podcast is awesome. If you don't want to do that, then yeah, just tell somebody else about us. I routinely do that. I tell people I have a podcast and they should check it out and see

Ben

they look at you and go, of course you do.

Gene

Yeah, exactly. They're like, yeah, you look like a podcaster. Oh, thank you.

Ben

I'm, I'm looking at you, Tom. I expect some reviews. So.

Gene

There you go. So do what you can to help propagate. Cause obviously we're not, you know, we forget to ask for money most of the time. And,

Ben

I, I'm less worried about the money that I am getting the word out,

Gene

yeah, exactly

Ben

why I put the post up there today, the reason why Gene and I do this is because we have opinions that we're not so conceited or selfish to think that are necessarily worth hearing, but we think need to be heard and need to be said by somebody. We say some unpopular

Gene

bottom line is we're going to say him anyway. Right. So you might as well have more people hearing them

Ben

Yeah, it, it, it at least makes makes us feel a

Gene

because if we're talking to ourselves, that kind of makes it like. We, we, we should be in a padded room.

Ben

Speaking of,

Gene

Mm.

Ben

Hell of a segue here, but what the fuck is Biden smoking?

Gene

Oh, I don't know.

Ben

Did you see, you saw

Gene

not, no.

Ben

you didn't see the press release that came out right after Trump's,

Gene

the the plans to bomb Russia?

Ben

that you can now, you know, hit Russia with US weapons?

Gene

Right, right, right. Yeah, I,

Ben

It's totally fine. Go ahead.

Gene

Okay.

Ben

Good, good job.

Gene

I mean, But the British have said that a long time ago. They, they don't care if their British weapons are used to hit Russia. So all we're doing is just joining the rest of NATO.

Ben

Yeah.

Gene

Yeah.

Ben

I, I, I still think

Gene

There's nothing like a nuclear war to separate the chaff from the wheat. Mm hmm.

Ben

And unfortunately, I think that's, I mean, I won't say that's where it's headed, but it is like, just fucking with, it's just, it's the wrong thing to do. Like, Russia hasn't come out and said, hey, we're at war with the U. S. and we're formally declaring war on

Gene

That's why they're doing it. Cause it's a God damn it. Russia still hasn't come out and said that.

Ben

But I, my point is, if, if you keep fucking around, at some point you find out.

Gene

Yep. I agree. But it sounds like they have formally now as I don't know if it's done through a executive order or how it's done, but it does seem like we are now officially including women in the reserves in the what was that thing called the program? The

Ben

The draft.

Gene

No all the, all the men over 18 had to fill out their selective service. That's what the word I was looking for. So they have, they have now officially expanded it to women

Ben

Where did you see that? Because I haven't

Gene

on Alex Jones.

Ben

Eh, I don't, okay.

Gene

What? You don't believe Alex Jones, Olson?

Ben

Dude, the dude has

Gene

right

Ben

right, and he's been right way too much, and he has been way forward thinking, and, you know, like my dad said, he's had the balls to say shit, but I have not seen that

Gene

We can, we can Google that, but it sounds like they're, they're, they're Which is a good move. I'm all in favor of that, frankly. I think that There are too way too many people that think they're immune from reality. That need a little bit of a taste of reality.

Ben

As of January 2016, which is the Selective Service website's last update, there has been no decision to require females to register with the Selective Service.

Gene

It's not what Alex Jones said.

Ben

That or you're misinterpreting what he said, or paraphrasing something, or you're getting it wrong.

Gene

alright. Whatever. Anyway.

Ben

Yes.

Gene

I was so I was gonna mention Alex Jones here, too.

Ben

Sounds like they're gonna shut him down, man.

Gene

yeah, it sounds like it.

Ben

So what, what we're referring to there is the bankruptcy court has basically said that He is not going to be operating any longer there, even though he's solvent and making payments and things like that, they, they want him shut down, or he can pay 85 billion to the Sandy Hook families and take a couple of them on a board of directors for his company,

Gene

Yeah, exactly. It's

Ben

which, I mean, first of all, for him to have to pay those fuckers, anything is just insanity.

Gene

insanity.

Ben

But to sit there and say, oh, and we're going to force them on the board of directors to make this deal, it's just, wow.

Gene

Yep. It is crazy. Either way, I saw, I was watching him earlier today. And unfortunately, this is part of his live stream, so I'm sure there will be this segment cut out and post it at some point in time, but I've never seen anything more hilarious than a couple of flat earthers on Alex Jones show telling him that the earth is flat. There's no such thing as nuclear bombs. And see what was a few of the other ones. No,

Ben

Alex Jones's opinion. This was the

Gene

no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. It was the guests. It was the guests opinion, right? Is that two guys who are dead serious about this? Like they weren't smiling and kidding. And so Alex Jones was in the position of having to be the same man in the room defending and say, you're crazy. What do you, what do you, what do you mean? How, how can they're, they're showing him, you know, the typical flat earth pictures, like Yeah. You know how in the further north you go in the summer, in the the, you can see the sun 24 hours a day. There's no such thing like that in the southern hemisphere, right? I mean, they're, they're literally insane. And and Alex is like, no. And, and their other thing was that there was a great civilization that existed and that all the large, huge structures that we see. We're built by that civilization and we're just are being told that they were built by the humans and

Ben

pyramids or

Gene

what you would think you would think like pyramids, no skyscrapers like they're literally talking about things that were made in the last 100 years as Oh, it's just a cover up. They weren't actually made a hundred years ago. They've been here for thousands of years. They were made by these advanced

Ben

Have they never been to a city that had a large construction project going on? Yeah.

Gene

They, the, one of the guys said that he's from Connecticut and he hasn't seen 90, 90 percent of the state of Connecticut. Which, to me, is like, you're disqualified as a, a person.

Ben

if you, if you have not, if you live in

Gene

It's one of the smallest states in the

Ben

exactly, exactly, like, and you've never left your state, or haven't seen the majority of your state,

Gene

Yeah.

Ben

the fuck.

Gene

Yeah. The fuck. Exactly. And

Ben

know, the same thing could be said about me, because I have, I haven't seen the majority of Texas.

Gene

Right. What? Haven't you?

Ben

I mean, depends, West Texas is really fucking big, dude.

Gene

It is, but you've been to West Texas places, like you know what West Texas looks like, right?

Ben

Yes, unfortunately.

Gene

Have you seen the, the huge cities in West Texas that we inherited from our prior civilizations? Yeah. Yeah. And Alex Jones like, I, I, I have what do you say? Oh, I have diaries from my grandfather that, that talk about moving here to Mexico and the land grants. Yeah. Like he, I can't do his voice.

Ben

Not without blowing No.

Gene

yeah, not without blowing something exactly.

Ben

To do a CSB, but worse.

Gene

oh god, oh yes, please get us banned with CSB like my other show is banned

Ben

You know what? Hey, he made fun of my audio. I'm, you know, I'm doing

Gene

make fun of it, he pointed out the fact that you suck.

Ben

Ah, fuck you.

Gene

That's not making fun, man, that's just an observation.

Ben

I am, I am doing the best I can with a full time job and a lot of other

Gene

Oh,

Ben

so.

Gene

that's the sound of the smallest violin in the world crying for Ben. How about this, Ben? Get good.

Ben

Heh,

Gene

That's what I hear in video games all the time, man.

Ben

huh, yeah, cause you suck as a noob.

Gene

not necessarily.

Ben

uh huh, huh, the truth comes out.

Gene

Good, good.

Ben

Yeah, this is why Gene is buying all those spaceships, he's trying to compensate.

Gene

This is Spaceships that have nothing to do with the quality of my gameplay. I just like to, you know, be comfortable. Kick my feet up when I fly. Be on the chase lounge when I fly. But yeah, it's Alex was very entertaining. He was doing his darnedest. To try and just not laugh continuously at these people, but actually try and bring up facts to them like he would say, but, but you can see the big dipper up in the sky and you can see as the earth is moving that it's moving as well. And they're like, yeah, but if the planet was truly moving, like they say it is. We would see totally different stars all the time, or we'd see like stripes instead of dots.

Ben

Oh, Jesus Christ. You

Gene

It was hilarious. I really hope somebody clipped it or they officially put it up as the Alex Jones flat earther segment, because this was like live maybe six hours ago.

Ben

yeah, on X, I, I,

Gene

was hilarious.

Ben

You know, one of the things I'll say is that, Here's the thing. There's an old saying in cybersecurity, you can't patch stupid.

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

This is right there, man. You just can't do it.

Gene

I mean, there's a lot of wise old sayings like the the what was the, how'd it go? The error is between,

Ben

PIBCAC,

Gene

which stands for

Ben

problem between keyboard and chair.

Gene

That's right. Yep. That's what it is.

Ben

Yeah. Trust me. I have worked in the IT and tech area long enough that I know all of them.

Gene

Yeah. And they're true, generally.

Ben

Yeah. And

Gene

Which

Ben

the old ID10T errors.

Gene

you tried, yeah, have you tried turning it off and on again? It sounds ridiculous, but it's also totally true. Because most people have not tried turning it off and on, and turning it off and on fixes an amazing amount of problems.

Ben

Windows, man, has gone downhill tremendously.

Gene

You say that as though it was at any point up the hill.

Ben

Yeah, there were some good Windows operating systems that were well beyond what anyone else was doing for a long time.

Gene

What, NT4O?

Ben

NT4O, Windows 2000, Windows XP, even into that era, like OS X couldn't

Gene

XP had an awful lot of DOS code in the band.

Ben

Yes, but by the time Service Pack 2 rolled around, it was a damn good operating system. And what I would say Yes. And what I would say is that OS 10 didn't come out till after service pack one, I believe. And, you know, OS 10 really didn't get really any useful utility till after they got away from the power PC

Gene

Mm hmm.

Ben

they,

Gene

Yeah I mean, OS X is basically

Ben

it's free BSD is

Gene

it's FreeBSD, exactly. It all came from the acquisition of Jobs old company,

Ben

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, not true. Not true. Not true. So free BSD and the kernel that it's, or OS 10 is based off the free BSD kernel. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a Unix variant, but, and some of what they used in the UI came from Next, but the core of the operating system is open source.

Gene

I don't think that's true, dude. I don't have the infos in front of me here, but NeXT was based on FreeBSD. Mm hmm. And next was what was the core. Of Apple's next generation operating system, which became OS 10.

Ben

Mm hmm.

Gene

It was next step. So it's true to say that OS 10 is based on FreeBSD, but it came through next.

Ben

Okay. I won't argue argue. I, I think they stole a lot from BSD, but

Gene

I, I, jobs stole everything from everybody. The whole Mac interface came from Xerox.

Ben

Yeah. The, the mouse came from Next. Xerox.

Gene

No, the whole Mac interface came from Xerox. The windows, the icons, the idea of a desktop, all that came from the Xerox park research. Where Steve jobs had a tour

Ben

Yes.

Gene

several years beforehand. Yeah, it was a research

Ben

And you, you know, people don't realize Xerox's role in modern computing, like we think of'em as a copier company, but ethernet, you know, the first bus Ethernets with like, you know, thick net, thin net was really developed around Xerox and their networking. Like there's a

Gene

There were, there were a lot of companies in the Palo Alto area at the time like, Becker and Bell, Bell and Howell Xerox that had a, I don't know where it came from, but they had a very standardized research department budget allocation. Like it was assumed that if you were a successful company. That you had a research arm had a budget of anywhere between five and 10%. Of the revenues coming into the company because innovation is one of the things that distinguishes a successful company from a, you know, fly by night company.

Ben

Yeah. Do you remember IPX

Gene

Yeah. Oh yeah. IPX,

Ben

on the CCNA the first time I took it and then you had Novell netware instead of Active Directory back in the day and, oh, yeah, I'm, I'm getting old. The fact that

Gene

you are getting old. I am old.

Ben

millennials were, were aging out. So

Gene

Yeah. You know, the alphas are coming in.

Ben

yeah, my, my kids are alphas. My kids are gen alphas.

Gene

It's going to be interesting to see what happens. But one thing we know for sure is both the boys and girls will be in selective service. And on that note, Ben. We'll go ahead and wrap it up.

Ben

Alright, let's end early then, Gene. See

Gene

Wait, what do you mean end early? We were ending on time.

Ben

Alright, Gene. We'll catch you in a little bit.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Unrelenting Artwork

Unrelenting

Gene Naftulyev & Darren O'Neill