027 Just Two Good Old Boys

Good morning Gene, how are you?

Oh, I'm all right. Getting up a little late, but other than that, pretty good.

Yeah, well, we we chose the wrong week to skip last week.

Well, it wasn't a random skip.

No, it was just because you had taken your time while processing things. Yeah,

Yeah. Packing. I needed to pack before I went on my trip and that the making the podcast, but,

yeah. How was your trip to Arizona?

Oh, it was great. Yeah. Arizona's a good, good, fun place to be. It's hot there.

The desert, hot. Hm,

Yeah. Although I will say in the mornings beautiful.

Yeah, I've got some friends who live in Arizona and they love it, but man, that's just...

Yeah. I couldn't stand not having water around. But other than that, it's, and, and the difference too, between the wet heat and the dry heat, like here in Austin, I would not say that we're particularly humid as a general rule. It's not like Houston, but it's still more humid than Arizona. Mm-hmm.

Well, there is a massive difference in that, and you can easily end up with nosebleeds and you know, pretty dehydrated really quick when you're in hot, dry temperatures. But

You don't, you don't really feel yourself sweating. Mm-hmm.

no. Well, because it's just evaporating off of you. But like right now... It is, let's see what temperature is it right now it's 76, and it is 87% humidity here. So,

Uhhuh,

oh,

80 sevens. That, that's a, that's Congo. That's Brazil,

yeah, well, Southeast Texas.

Mm hmm.

Anyway, so, we missed last week. Tucker got fired.

He did.

Don Lemon got fired.

He did. I would love, I mean, this ain't gonna happen, right? But I would love to see a little one minute YouTube collab those two guys would do.

Yeah. Well, I mean,

as hell, and they would get so much publicity if they did that.

so Tucker did a show on CNN back in the day, didn't he? With,

he did.

Yeah, I mean, that would very, yeah, yeah, and that would very much be in the same line as Hannity back in the day with, what's his face,

combs.

Combs, Hannity and Combs, that's right,

Mm hmm.

which, Combs, boy, his career tanked after that.

Well, he died. Yeah.

Well, I mean he was alive after yeah, is he really dead? I don't

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he died just a few years after they split up, couldn't handle the separation, I guess

like a Heartbroken

dog

after the yeah.

or that. Yeah.

Anyway, so some interesting things have come out. There have been some leaks Some people think some of these leaks are deep fakes some people think they're actual

I don't think there's any chance they're deep fakes because a Fox filed a injunction or they filed for injunctive relief.

Yeah, well, it's I think it's Fox leaking them, first of all, and

I would have thought that until they actually went to the courts, cause they're not suing themselves.

well, They very well may be to try and cover it up because the, the leaks do not portray Tucker the way the Daily Caller is trying to make it. So, at

No, he's, he's coming across as a very self aware kind of guy.

Yeah. Believe it or not, Steven Crowder did a pretty good breakdown

Yeah, I don't believe

Alex Jones. I don't know if you saw that one.

did that. No, that wife beater. Hell no way. I'm not watching him.

That was another thing that got leaked, is some ring video of him. So, which to me, he sounds completely reasonable, actually.

like a dick man I I think he may have a point and I will definitely say that but there are multiple ways to get what you want and sitting on your ass smoking a cigar with your leg crossed over the other leg and Telling your pregnant wife That she's being a dick does not make you look good.

Well, no, but it very well may be the case.

No, it certainly, and like I said, he may very well have a legitimate point, but the presentation style is

hmm. Oh, I'm not saying he made himself looked look good,

Yeah, it's what he was trying to portray daily wire as being a bunch of, you know, big, big con, bunch of fat cats sitting around smoking cigars, not giving people any money. And then you combine that with all the, the now more and more employees of his coming out and saying, he's the worst boss ever. He abuses employees. He's totally unfair and he's the one that builds contracts that nobody else does in the business. So it's, I guess it's not unexpected because he is a product of Hollywood.

I don't think he's ever said

He's such one of the biggest anti Semites out there as far as I'm concerned on the right

how

Oh, dude, you just got to listen to him. I can't believe people didn't watch him at all.

I mean, I

And then,

him regularly I listened to him on a couple of things here this last week because I ran out of podcasts,

and, and now of course, his ex employees have a show on

semitic

well, you got to just listen better. And then his employees have now a new show on The Blaze, which is hilarious. So, I think Crowder just worked himself out of a a much more lucrative future by having all this shit happen all at once.

So did you see the news about the hundred million offer to Tucker?

I watched the actual thing live when it happened.

So I did not. You want to

I'm not a fan of that dude, by the way. I know a lot of people like him.

Is the dude?

is it, Ben Mike or whatever, Ben, Ben Joseph, whatever the hell his name is. He's a he is a former finance dude. Like he made, you know, hundreds of millions in finance. He is originally, like he's got a great story. He's... He came to the United States as a refugee from Iran and became successful. He's conservative and

Which guy is this again?

the guy that gave the 100 million offer to Carlson.

name.

Something been something. Do you want me to look it up in real time? I can, I can look

Patrick bet

Yes, that's the one. That's exactly. Which, by the way, does not sound like a... Iranian name kind of sounds more like a Jewish name, but Patrick doesn't sound like either Jewish or

the, yeah, he, Tim was on his show the

yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's the

it, but you know, I've watched some of his stuff. He's not, I don't know

I think

like about him.

I think he's crappy. Not, not anything that he's not his stances. I think he's a poor interviewer. He's like a bull in the China shop. He, he doesn't. Ask people questions and then probe deeper. He says shit that he is thinking at the time. The first hour of Tim's interview was not about Tim. It was about Vice.

I mean, I just started watching it and I am like, I put the, put it on this morning, I'm 22 minutes in. And they're just now starting to talk about Vice. The first bit was all about Tim and his narcissism

it was really not. No, no, no. But, but they'll talk about Vice for an hour. It's, anyway, and I've watched, I don't know, maybe six or seven of his interviews. I haven't watched a, a ton of them. they are a couple hours or longer each. Which is good, but I just feel like he's not, maybe this is all it is, but he doesn't seem to be asking questions that I as an audience want to hear next.

Mm-hmm.

He's asking questions that are kind of like, dude, you could literally read this in his Wikipedia page. It's maybe that's exactly what it is. Maybe he just doesn't bother reading the wiki page on people before the interview. And so he's asking him questions that, that are super easy that are on the wiki itself. Which you would think that information is the starting point. That's what everybody knows.

so since Patrick has made Tucker a hundred million dollar a year offer,

No, it's

Or, what was it? Was it 100 million a year? Was it over amount of time?

five years, 20 million a year.

Eh, it's not bad.

That's basically less than what the Crowder would have gotten.

Yes, but it's more than Tucker was making at Fox.

he's making 24 million.

Okay.

It's the last number I heard

I don't think so. But,

24 million a year.

because Hannity's making that. I think Hannity's making more than him, but.

Tucker was the number one guy on Fox for ratings.

Well, regardless, it's been very entertaining to watch that slot, time slot's ratings just tank.

Not just that ex Fox slut. What's her name? One yeah, that one not a

Gene at SirGene.

a fan at all, man. She slept her way to the top and then decided to leave when she was too big for her britches. And by the way, she figured out this is, this is always shit always happens, man women cut their hair when they think they're in charge. And they grow their hair out long when they realize they're not.

Mm hmm. Okay.

A woman with short hair loses all the power that she garners as a female. She, she's no longer attractive.

Yeah, so back to Tucker.

So back to Tucker with his short hair. Oh, actually, Tucker's got kind of long hair. But so she went through cause she, you know, she's not a fan of Fox either.

Mm

and she did a lot more probing than all the other hosts on ratings. And what she found was not just that that slot has lost 55%, no 59%

hmm. Mm hmm.

its viewership.

All the key demo

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The key demos, but even the next slot, which is Hannity lost 42% of their audience. Fox can't stay in business with a 42% drop in its number one host, who's still there.

Well, I mean, people... It's very apparent people were coming to watch Tucker, and then stayed for

Exactly. Exactly. And so... Now, you know, Fox has kind of been put in the same box as Bud Light.

Gene, did I lose you?

No, can you not hear me?

No, I... You silenced when you said Bud Light, and it kind of just cut off.

I wonder what happened. Yeah, I think Fox and Bud Light kind of are in the same box right now.

Yeah which, that's another story, but what do you think Fox is going to do to get out of this?

I think Fox is going to do exactly what Fox has always done. And that is do absolutely nothing and wait for it to blow over. And meanwhile, they're going to bring

will it?

well, that's a different question. I mean, their ratings have steadily been going down. But they're going to bring Kelly Mcnaney in for that slot.

Hmm. You think?

Now they ran and then I'll say, yeah. And, you know, it's, it's a potential break for her. The problem is she was wonderful as a spokesperson for the white house. Much worse as a. On air talent, I thought,

Well,

I don't know if she can run

I, I don't know that she'll, I mean, unless they've announced something, I don't know that they'll bring her in. But even if they do they're not going to have,

they've announced it.

Okay. Well, they're fine. They're not going to get the ratings that Tucker had at all. And, you know, here's the question they've gotten almost a billion dollar payout off this dominion suit. And we can say, regardless of whether or not that was. Something they should have fought more or not, but they've got a billion dollar payout and then they have this lack of ratings Man, I I see fox headed for bankruptcy

Well they will only be handed for bankruptcy if they also, if, if that billion dollar payout is completely depleted, their their coffers.

well, even if it's not it's going to be a very Hard thing to overcome. I mean, I don't care what company it is when you have a Billion plus dollar write down it's going to hit hard.

Yeah.

So

Yeah, for sure. But I mean, there's there, I think they're still worth more than CNN.

I well my and I I don't know I mean, they just, CNN and MSNBC, when they had what's his name? Guesting or coming in for Tucker beat Fox in that time slot. So, you know, you, you have this confluence of events where you have a huge financial hit and then you take another huge financial hit

Mm hmm.

your, your ratings, which is ultimately your ad sales. I, I think that's pretty bad. So, I mean, hopefully Kaylee can come in and turn it around for him, I guess. I, I, I don't watch Fox News anymore. I haven't for a long time. And I don't know who

haven't watched Fox News in 12 years.

So where do you think where do you think Tucker lands after this? Do you think he does his own thing?

I think Tucker's got a non compete, so he's not going to land anywhere for a while.

I

They paid out his contract apparently, which means he's got a non compete. And

no.

well, they wouldn't have paid him out otherwise. The only, the only reason to buy out his contract is to keep the enforcements in, which would be the... Predominantly the non compete.

There has to be extra consideration given. And,

is the buyout of the contract.

no, because he has a contract, they can't just terminate his contract.

Oh, they could have, cause they could have terminated them for cause. They, they negotiated a deal where it wasn't for cause.

I highly doubt that that would have held up. But, okay. What cause would they have used?

You don't think that there was a cause to terminate him with all the stuff going on with the lawsuit?

No, not at all.

Hmm.

Especially when he

well, we'll find out.

He had said to Sidney Powell, you know, bring me proof, bring me proof. He, he pushed back. So actually, I think he was evidence against the defamation claims of Dominion. First of all, that lawsuit was just trash and should have never been heard to

I agree with that.

So, no, I, I think there is no way, I think if they would have tried to use that as cause, he could have sued the living crap out of him, because no, that

He could have, but then he'd be unemployable. So I think that

I, I disagree.

How many people do you know that have sued large companies that still have jobs right now?

I don't see the issue there.

there, there is something beyond just getting legal justice, which is burning your reputation. You burn your reputation. You're not going to get employed. If you don't want to get employed, like Crowder, for example, that's fine, but you're stuck just doing your own thing at that point. So my, we'll find out, I mean, this is all going to unravel, but. My suspicion is that Tucker has a non compete that's still going to be in force for about a year.

Boy, that really takes him off the board for the 2024 elections.

And again, I could be totally wrong. This is just based on what I would have imagined with a high profile person like that and the contract that he would have had. So if they, if they don't have that compete with them, they didn't do their job. Right.

someone didn't do their job right if he accepted some of those clauses that you're suspecting, but...

It's all viable, dude. It's the way it's, it's like the steps that Crowder skipped. You get a contract like that. You say, well, I don't want that. Okay. What's that worth to you? How much do you want to negotiate from that? Okay, no non compete. It's 20 million less over the life of the contract

So where do you

most people would just say screw it I'll take 20 million and I'll take a vacation for a year after I'm done. Sorry. What did you say?

So where do you think Tucker ends up? Let's say he sits out for a year.

I well, there's the where I would love him to end up which is on YouTube I don't want him to be on a major network because I think he'd be a lot more relevant if he was making YouTube videos But, you know, he may not want to work that hard. So, who else is there and has money? Maybe, I mean, it could be something sideways too. It could be like, he, Tucker, gets a show on HBO, kind of like Bill Maher. And he does like a conservative talk show. With full no restrictions.

Okay.

I don't know. It's hard to say dude, but who else is there? He's not gonna end up on CNN. He's not gonna be on MSNBC. He's not gonna be on any other network What do you think he's gonna end up?

mean, I would like to say he would do his own thing, but I can, I, again, to your point of whether or not he's going to want to work that hard. I Glenn Beck has already said something about. him coming to the blaze you know, that he would like that, you know, Jeremy boring is sitting there thinking, you know, daily

yeah, I'm sure they've got an offer out Yeah,

Yeah.

not gonna do it publicly like David Ben, whatever

yeah. So I, I think that those offers are there and a possibility. So to your point, if he doesn't want to work that hard, I, I see him going to one of them.

And I mean, I could be not YouTube But actually rumble which didn't rumble do a deal with Crowder for way more money than they should have

I don't know if they did it for more money than they should have, but there is a deal between Crowder and rumble. And he's really pushing to build up his own thing, man. He's he's hustling.

choice. No one's going to hire him at this point.

Right. But I mean, are you aware of what he's doing to really?

He's doing Mug Club like he's has for the last 10 years.

Yeah, but he's doing Mug Club in a very unique way. Any, if you send him a receipt from any, any conservative streaming platform,

Mm hmm.

Wire, WPN, in any of them, he'll give you three months for free.

Yeah, that's called desperation.

I, I think that's, I don't think that's desperation. I think that's a huge way to potentially steal people away. Or add your stuff into the mix.

Mm. Yeah, I know. I'm not seeing it that way. I think when you're, when you're trying to compete by giving away the products, this is one of the, one of the things I've heard so many times over and over in marketing is never give away the product. Whenever you do some kind of an add on thing, it's, it always has to be different than your product because when you give away the product, it devalues it.

Okay. Value for value would say otherwise,

I don't think he's got value for value. Wow.

because you're literally giving the product away for free

Well, you're not giving the product away for free. I mean, that's, you're not selling anything with value for value. What you're doing is you're saying that. If you, it's a guilt, I mean, let's be honest, value for value is guilt driven.

to an

It's saying, I, I like this so much that if I don't send them money, I will feel bad.

Well, my point is I think Crowder is doing something smart there because I wouldn't join mug club. But given what all's going on and some of the content and some of the guests he's had on lately, I mean, he's had Alex on repeatedly.

Be on anything else. I

what do you mean?

well, Alex is banned by YouTube. So anyone that has them on YouTube has to be very, very careful the way that Tim Cass has in making sure Alex doesn't say something that he can't say. So. I mean, I, look, I like that he is Alexandre, but

So, one of the other things that Crowder's doing that's pretty smart, I don't know if you've watched his show on YouTube versus Rumble, but they literally have this interruption on YouTube when they're getting into areas where it's a little much for YouTube, and they just, you know, please stand by if you want to see the full version of this go to Rumble. Brilliant. Instead of avoiding the

has been doing for five years. Which is what Ben has been doing for five years.

Ben Shapiro, I don't watch Ben Shapiro, I can't.

clearly. But

not a big fan of

that, that is right from their show. They just do it for a different reason. It's not censorship. It's that, that's, they save those bits for the paid audience. The same thing that TimCast

yeah, but what I'm saying is that the way he's doing it is it's in the freeform show It's where you can go see it And I think it's actually a fairly creative way of doing it to point out the censorship of YouTube and you know I I I

But again, Tim cast, which you do watch has been saying, Oh, well, we'll have to get into that on the after show without the censorship on

instead of doing it in the after show or anything else Give me the ability to go to rumble and watch it

So they're just putting a black screen on YouTube. You're saying,

more or less. Yeah,

and there's nothing, there's no audio or

there's music. There's hold music

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I did not see that. I did watch maybe five episodes of his show on YouTube, but I didn't see that

a very creative way of doing it and so basically on there it just says go to Rumble if you want to see this. I think that's very

Yeah, they're going to get kicked off YouTube before too long. As that's gotta be bordering terms of service, because if all you do on YouTube is advertise the competitor of YouTube, if it's not against terms, it will be next year. Because

Yeah, absolutely.

that's it. It's a private fucking network. They don't have to have anybody on. And if literally your channel is about promoting a competitor, why in the hell would YouTube helmet

Well, but, you know, as far as YouTube's concerned... So, here's the thing. Rumble still sucks. It's gotten better,

that's gotten better? I agree it

it still sucks.

it's not that rumble sex, it's the UI of Rumble Software. Sex.

That's what I'm saying. It's not the content, it's the app. So...

think it's a backend, like I don't have issues with stuttering or anything on the Rumble,

No, no, it's just the, again, the UI in the app and the, the, the ability to, you know, cast to a TV or something like that, that YouTube is just very slick and integrated.

Totally.

So, they still haven't it managed there. Crowder still gets a shit ton of views on YouTube. Why would YouTube give that up? And if he's censoring himself so that it's not, if it's not violating their terms of service or demon, you know, violating where they're going to be demonetized, I let him do it because I'm still getting that money. I'm still getting that revenue.

I think they do the math. And then the moment that it becomes more of a problem to them, more of a headache, they, they pull the switch.

Yeah,

rumble keeps growing the way it has been, YouTube is going to start having to see them a lot more as a real competitor.

yes,

They're not quite there yet. They

but Rumble doesn't make the money on ads that YouTube does, that's part of the problem there.

don't, which is why I, the fact that they're paying Crowder. And I don't remember how much somebody probably listening wouldn't know. I don't know, but. But I think it was somewhere around like 10 million a year or something to be on, on his platform. So I, you know, I, I didn't think they had the money to do that. Apparently they do. Do

Well, I mean, at some point, Rumble's gonna have to become a subscription service.

You think that would work?

Yes, I think so.

Not without a good

Well, that's that's the point. I think that they're gonna have to stay free until they can get the content and the UI stuff down and then as Google Google has a choice then to continue its censorship and ad based model or rumble switches then to a Hey everybody's here, you know and really rumble would need to be See, the problem is, you already have so many conservative streaming sites like Daily Wire and so on.

I think that would limit them more than they want to be. Cause I think they want to just beat YouTube because the rumble algorithm I think is it's not as optimized for money. It's more optimized the way YouTube's used to be,

Right, but, but how do you make a business model out of Rumble? My point

Well, rumble is I mean, it's saying it's just a copy of YouTube.

yes, but because of the content, they're not going to get the ad sales.

I don't know why they wouldn't. I mean, if. You know, if, if

Brand safe.

if Bud was smart, that's exactly what they would be doing is buying ads on Rumble and conservative shows saying, no, really, Bud Light is not woke.

Yeah. Well, but they've proven that they are,

Mm hmm.

which getting into that topic, just store sales of Bud Light is down over 20%.

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing, huh?

Bud Light is having to give distributors beer to keep them in business.

Mm

I think Anheuser-Busch InBev just, if they do not recover from this very quickly,

hmm. Mm

I think Bud Light's done as the number one beer out there.

I think you're right. I don't think anybody outside the U. S. drinks it either, do they?

Yeah. They, it's the number one beer in the world.

Right. But isn't, I just kind of assumed that was because the U. S.

No, it's all over, dude. At the Dubai airport, they had Bud Light on tap.

Oh my God, that's, it makes me think Dubai is not all that anymore.

Well, I'm just telling you that Budweiser is out there and all around the world. It just is.

Well, well, I don't know. I guess I, it's hard for me to really comment on a topic. I don't really know. I don't drink beer in general. We've had this conversation. I'm if anything, I drink a Corona.

Well, like I said, I'm, which is owned by Anheuser Busch and Beth. Yes. So, I normally, I, I, I don't normally drink Bud Light, but I did drink a Anheuser Busch product. And when I went through that, and I was at Sam's the other day, I had a choice to make. And I decided to buy a Miller product instead.

Is that the only two options?

You've got

better beer? Why don't you get a good beer, like from Europe?

Well, I do have good beers, as well. But, you know, sometimes after you mow the lawn or you're doing something outside and it's hot, you just want a, you know, lighter beer. And that's why St. Arnold's Lawnmower is a perfect example of that. You know, it's it's a little heavier than I want to.

Rolling Rock,

Oh God, no.

college beer?

Oh

you know, Rolling Rock may well be responsible for me not drinking beer. Because that's what every, all my friends drink down in college.

Odd.

Yeah, really? You know, that's like a cheap beer.

So in college, for me, it was always Keystone light that everybody drank. Cause it was the cheap beer for my college days. My dad, you know, it was Lone Star when he was a kid and

God, I haven't had a long, long start in a long time. Yeah, I, I don't know, man. It's a, I'm just trying to think. It's did I dislike that beer? I don't,

well, regardless, they are really. getting hit hard, and since they are not standing, here's the thing, they're getting a double whammy, because not only the conservatives saying, hey, yeah, until you apologize and really roll this back, no, screw you, and the fact that the conservatives, and there has been such a backlash. Among the average working person is amazing, but here's the funny thing since they have said, you know, Oh, well, this was a mistake. This was an outside ad agency.

Oh, my God.

So, literally, they're getting hit from both sides.

And this is why companies hate this shit.

Well, and quite frankly, this is why I think Bud Light as a brand is... And potentially, you know, Anheuser Busch and Bevis big enough that I think they'll survive it,

self respecting gay man would drink that? I

what do you mean?

mean, it's a shit beer. Like I can't see anybody like standing up for drinking a shit beer.

I mean, but dude, it's literally the most popular beer in the world.

The fact that it tells you something about the world. The fact

A lot of people like cheap beer.

the fact that Dylan would be seen, you know, dead with a Bud Light is. It must've been a lot of money because I can't imagine that

I actually, I don't think it was. I think it was a little bit of money, and he's an influencer. I hate to say it, but whore that just anything, you know, and I think he...

You can't call him a whore dude. He's not promoted that many products.

I think his entire transition is him getting attention.

Attention. Yes. Attention whore or fine, but not like a promotion or did there's people on tick tock promoting like a product a day

Yeah, well, okay. I mean, I guess it depends on

to tick tack.

the level of prostitution you want

that's not even, he's nowhere near horse status.

I mean, he's not a streetwalker, okay, fine. He's a little higher end call girl, sure.

Yeah. The Kardashians have him like they run circles for promotion

Again, okay, not a streetwalker, cool.

I, I think this, this very well was a lesson to Dylan as well, because I think this is

he didn't, he, he didn't say anything for weeks. He went dead silent for weeks. Which is shocking.

of being a fake girl. I picked the bad beer to advertise.

Whoopsie!

Huh.

Well, you know, I think it, so, there was a a YouTube channel that popped up that you may be familiar with, that I was listening to last night, and this guy's making a case that You know, the conservative backlash is coming, and he's somewhat fearful of what that means, and so on, but it was an interesting analysis, but I

the channel name?

I'll have to look it up on YouTube, but I, I think that that's right. I think that we have pushed things to the point where we're getting very close to a jump the shark moment where, you know, this is just not okay.

Well, it'll be interesting if it happens. So 2023 is supposed to be the pivot year according to a book written by a friend of mine.

What if all this, alt hist, or, yeah, what if alt hist.

Oh, that's the, no, I don't think I watched that one. Or maybe I have, I'll have to see the, yeah, when I look at the logo, I'll, I'll remember. But so about 10, 12 years ago a couple of guys that I know wrote this book called Pendulum and kind of chronicles a a shift between two polar opposites with an 80 year cycle. So it's,

which is pretty much the four turnings, thoughts, everything.

It, it, yeah, it's a little different but it's like they're not,

JCD has talked about this 80 year cycle as well.

yeah, I've sent him a book. I've sent him a copy and Adam a copy of the book years ago. JCD was supposed to be writing a book like this, which is one of the reasons that I sent him a copy of this one, so he could actually read it and, you know, either quote from it or just talk about how he disagrees. But in that book, the, the year of the edge of the pendulum is 2023. And 10 years ago, reading this, this seemed like crazy, like what the hell could possibly be happening in 2023?

hopefully we can get back to post World War II days. That would be nice.

Yeah. Well, and that's, that's the thing. So, like the, the polar opposite edge of in the individualism was 1983 and I definitely go along with that because I remember in 1983 and it was a decade of individualism and certainly in the early eighties you know, the, the, the, It was, I think individualism in a lot of ways equates with free unbridled capitalism, and it certainly was that.

Mm hmm. Well,

it's a long way to go.

we can hope.

Yeah. Yeah. So that that's, here's the two thoughts. So according to that theory, then that's good for America, right? Because people are finally fed up enough. They're starting to push back and we're going to go away from the current direction of this country, which is very much trying to emulate China.

Mm

Um, however, if this theory does not hold and America keeps going the way it is going I think it's it's literally just a matter of time until there is a dissolution of the United States because the, the difference in mentality of California and Texas, for example, or Florida and New York are further apart now than they even were during the the civil war, I think.

hmm. 100% agree. And you know, I, I, I really think that we are heading for very dangerous times, and I think this this video I was watching, which I'll, I'll send to you, was making some very interesting points right along that Same thought pattern of, hey if things don't turn around, if the if, if there isn't a swing in the opposite direction, you're going to end up with a breakup of the country. I mean, there's no two ways about it.

I like the way you said that.

Because what, what it comes down to is, there are people like us who are definitely straining against the bounds of this societal pressure that we feel. And, you know, we're older you know, we're not twenty

I am you're, you're young yet.

Well, but I'm not twenty something that, dude, the rate of male virginity has gone through the roof.

Yeah,

That is a scary thing, and if you don't realize why, you know, some prudes would sit there and go, Oh, well that's a good thing. No, it's not. No, it's not. You want to see a revolution? Take everything away from young men. And on top of that, make sure that they have no alleviation of any testosterone levels. Guess what? It's not going to go well. Well, you know, I say that, but Jesus Christ, the testosterone levels in these kids are so low that maybe it doesn't.

Yeah, I, I agree. And, and I think I've mentioned this before that if it wasn't for the continuous illegal flow of immigrants to the U. S. The U. S. would not have nearly as good of a age curve. As it does right now.

Yes, this is very true.

So yeah, it's, it's definitely a problem, but I don't know, I guess I've just, I've spent so many years, well, a decade now watching this pendulum getting edging closer and closer and closer to to the, the, God, why am I forgetting that word again? Not, not socialist. It's a collectivist to the collectivist side that I've almost forgotten what it looks like when it's going the other way.

Well, I look forward to it going the other way. So,

I forgot to turn my phone off. Sorry about that.

Charles Coronation.

I didn't see it.

Well, I didn't watch it either, but I did find it hilarious. Did you see the giant penis that someone mowed into the lawn in front of where he was getting coronated?

I did not.

You should Google this, because it's hilarious.

Okay. I'll

Like it, they, the, so the UK said, Hey, no protests on coronation day. You cannot, you know, protest the coronation of our King. No. So again, it comes down to those. You can't silence people when you do things like this happen. And it's hilarious. So I encourage anyone to like Google just. Charles, Coronation, Penis. And you will see this big cock and bollocks literally mowed into the lawn in front of where he's going to be coronated.

Mm. Yeah, that's hilarious. So, I'll dig out the photo. And then, so he's coronated, he's officially the king now and everything? Mm. Mm.

What's her face is now Queen Consort.

Right, because that was the promise that she would never be queen.

Well, she, she can't be. She, the lineage is through him. So if he dies, I mean... Then she has no power. She would just be the queen mother.

Well, okay, so then Diana would have been the same thing? I thought there was a distinction that they were trying to make between Diana or she can't be, I guess she, she wasn't princess. That's what it was. She could never have been princess, but she, she can be the, the consort. Okay.

You know, I am not a Royal watcher, so I very well may be wrong on this. I just found the image of the dick, which I think Charles is hilarious.

no, I think that is hilarious. There's a, I watched a really funny British comedy show they, they had about the Royal family called the Windsors. If I, I think it's on Amazon, I don't know, maybe it's on something else, but they had three seasons, but you know, British seasons are like five episodes. But they had, they, they did started it prior to the redhead getting married, the black chick and then kind of finished up with that wedding. So it, it was really funny.

Good to know.

Yeah. Like how Charles is completely. So removed from reality that, you know, he, he has, he has his own town and

Oh my god.

makes ridiculous rules for that town based on, you know, environmentalism. It's funny. It's a funny series. I recommend people check it out. And it's again, episodes are short, a series is not very many episodes, but it is pretty damn funny.

eh. Well, I think that it's gonna be interesting to see where the UK goes with their new monarch.

Probably nowhere is my guess. Yeah. I think it'll be a bunch of nothing. I'm more interested in what will happen with the next monarch.

Well, will there be another monarch?

What, you think he's gonna have to, er kill the whole monarchy?

I I mean, he's pretty damn unpopular, dude.

William?

No, Charles.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I know Charles is, but I think William's pretty popular.

Okay, but does it survive Charles?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it'll thrive Charles. There's only two ways to get rid of the monarchy. One is to have a monarch who is willing to kill off any future for his kids. And then two... Is the, the British public does what the French are doing right now and burn the streets down saying we're not going to pay taxes any longer to keep these people living a luxury lifestyle.

Yeah, well, I, I don't know, I think the UK is pretty,

I don't think the government is going to do it. I don't think the politicians are going to defund the royalty anytime soon.

I don't know. We'll see. So, hey before we get into a couple more serious topics just another little light thing here. So... Have you looked at the Flipper Zero at all?

I had, but not for a while.

Okay, so it's been out for a little while, but they've been backordered and basically if you wanted to get one you had to get on eBay and spend over double. Well, they finally got back in stock and I picked one up to play with. Especially if you load, which it's very easy to load some of these other firmwares on there that you know, maybe don't follow country restrictions and things like that. Holy crap, is this a useful little

Really?

Yes,

Okay.

so for instance, I immediately cloned my security badge for work and used it and it worked.

First step.

You can also jam things and do lots of things and it's it's got IR on

it lets you flip lights too, does it?

it lets you do all sorts of stuff so Any it allows you to clone garage door openers or whatever you can even add on wifi or Bluetooth if you want, well, Bluetooth is built into it, but well, you can add a wifi module. You can control it from your phone which is pretty nice, or you can use the interface. It's got a built in universal remote. So there was something on that was annoying. I can turn off the TV at a restaurant or whatever. But anyway, the, the badge cloning,

watch used to have that feature.

I'm sorry,

My watch, I used to have a watch that had that feature.

right. But one of the things that I found so interesting was how easy it was to clone my badge and it actually work.

Why wouldn't it be?

well, because there's, you have to do some nonce collect, there, there, there are some steps. So, I'm just saying. In, and we've seen RFID cloners and things like that in the past, but this is a consumer grade piece of electronics. This is something you can go buy off the shelf and, anyway, it, it's a very useful little pen testing tool. That's all I'm saying. I, I am very happy with that purchase.

Cool. And how much are they?

They were like a hundred and something bucks.

Oh, that's super cheap. I didn't realize they were that cheap.

Yeah. That's my point.

Yeah, I've seen the video of a guy changing like traffic lights for that thing.

Depending on if it's a traffic light that has like an IR signal or you know, some frequencies depending on, you know, police vans or things like that. Yeah. But it's got a sub gigahertz radio in it. That's pretty cool. You could. Actually do quite a bit with it. So, I'm going to continue to play around with it and I'll let you know.

Yeah, that's, that's very cool.

Yeah, anyone who was on the fence or thinking about getting one and wanting to play around with it while they're in stock and you don't have to pay the two, three times a mark up on it. I am very happy that I got one because it's a, it's a cool little toy.

Who, who makes it? Is it the

their own company.

Oh, it's not the 5x5 guys or whatever?

No, it's not hack five.

Tech5.

Man, hack five makes a lot of cool stuff too, though. And they

I remember when those guys first started, I, I never, never would have thought that they would turn into a company.

Well, I mean, they are actually a pretty serious security training company if nothing else.

I know, but they like the, the, it was like two guys and a chick and they were like, dorky,

Yeah, but they were, but they're actually fairly decent hackers.

Eh. And okay. Okay. So back, this is.

And by the way, it's 1. 69.

169. That's still reasonable. Yeah, I, I thought they were very much on the light hacker side back when they started. That was also when I was running my, my,

they've gotten into ShmooCon repeatedly. I mean, they've shown their chops. And a lot of what they build out, their hardware is really pretty cool.

And that's, I think that's where I met him the first time with Smukon.

yeah. So, I mean, back in the day, the Wi Fi pineapple, which I still have was a fantastic little device. The USB rubber ducky. It was a fantastic little device. There's lots of stuff that they've put out over the years and now with some of the Bash stuff the Land Turtle, I mean, they're, they've got, they've just continued to evolve. They've continued to update the Wi Fi Pineapple to make it even better. You know, they

I'm impressed. I mean, that's, that's very cool. Cause. Like I said, I just, know, I, I just did not think that they were going to have a real company out of it, but good for them.

So, we've had some incidences here. Do you want to talk about the one that happened last night? Or do you want to talk about New York?

What happened in New York?

So, New York subway three people restrained a guy, ended up, he ended up dying because he was held in a chokehold too long after he had come on the subway and started threatening people.

Oh, so you deserved it.

Well, I don't know that he deserved to die, but he engaged in threatening behavior to a car of trapped people and when three people Decided to restrain him because of his behavior, which one of the people Restraining him was black and the guy filming it was Hispanic. So to say that this is racially motivated. I do not believe it's true

This is a black guy.

It was a black guy. You know, him being held down, people are like, Oh, well, the Marine, you know, he should have been trained or he was trained to do whatever. No Marines are not trained to subdue people.

No, they're trying to kill people.

And what it comes down to is this guy, I, I, I'm not going to say he deserved to die because I don't think he did, but he, through his actions, put his own life in jeopardy.

That makes sense. I think was he mentally ill? Do we know?

He was homeless. He'd been arrested arrested over 40 times.

Wow.

you know, he, he was not some, Innocent. And here, here's the thing, the AOC has come out immediately, and said you know, he was murdered, which is just, there's no evidence for this. And you know, I, I think, you remember the kid that CNN and everybody said was in the face of the Indian and it turned out that he wasn't, I can't remember his name.

I remember.

Okay, well, he, he got defamation suits through that ended up getting him a decent amount of money, if you remember. So, I, I think very much this Marine is going to be able to sue the crap out of AOC if he wants, based off of her rhetoric.

Well, where did she say it? If she said it on the floor of the house, then

No, she said it on an interview on YouTube. It is not protected

That's the kind of shit you have to say for the house.

Yeah, that means save it for the House floor, sure,

Yeah, and that's, if anybody doesn't know, this is one of the little rules they came up for themselves. Is anything said by a member of the house on the house floor,

it's constitutionally mandated.

it's a bullshit rule.

No, it's not.

I think it is. I think it's a bullshit

No.

Can we say what the rule is or are you just going to keep saying no?

okay. Okay. So, what the rule is, is that congressmen and women are politically immune. They have how do you want to phrase it? Indemnity. Whenever they are traveling to or from A session of Congress, and during a session of Congress. Literally, and this goes back to if you remember during the, some of the stuff leading up to the Civil War, there was a guy nearly beaten to death on the House floor and no charges were brought, because guess what? They have political immunity.

Yeah. So,

a congressman

they can say anything they want, they can lie outright, and nobody can sue them.

they can kill someone and they cannot be charged

I'd love to see that demonstrated, but

I mean we have a case from the 1800s of someone literally beating someone nearly to death and not getting charged

1800s were a different time.

Yes, when I should have been born.

I don't know dude, I suspect, had you been born in the 1800s, you'd be talking about how great the 1700s were, and how you were born at the wrong time. Thank you. When all the great men lived in the

I probably wouldn't have lived very long let's face it

Ah, you would have lived long enough to say that.

Back in my day. Yeah, So, you know,

I want to live in the 2700s. That's my preferred time period.

the, the whole point is the, the coroner you know, ruled this a homicide, which means somebody caused a death, which is true. But again, I, I

Whitey going down.

I'm sorry,

Whitey's going down.

well, you know, we'll see. I don't think he did anything wrong. I really don't. I think, unfortunately, the guy who lost his life put himself in jeopardy.

And had this happened in Texas, that probably would have been the case. But given that it's not. Yeah,

yeah, given New York City, it's it's going to be a. Very big fight, 100%. Now, the other thing I'll say is The cops, this was a 15 minute encounter. The cops didn't respond in that time.

That's to be expected, I think.

I, I think that's a little ridiculous. I mean,

fast do you think the cops are?

thought the cops, you know, regularly had Officers stationed at subway stations.

Mmm, I'm surprised the cops ever responded. New York is one of those cities where I think the cops are either working for the mob or they're only going to show up after everything's cooled down just to take statements.

Well, the cops, the cops in New York did not arrest anyone involved. So... You know, the mayor has already backed off some of the rhetoric that has been put out there because I think this is a pretty clear self defense, defense of others case. So,

a case where some black dude got killed or something and then Obama came out and talked about how this needs to get prosecuted? And then it turned out the guy was, you know, a criminal.

Yeah, and you know, I will say this, I don't like the way, this is all very much being compared to George Floyd and Derek Chauvin. And, I will say this, as much as I, I, you know, how I feel about police force and how I think they go way too far sometimes, given everything we know now about George Floyd. What was going on and what happened.

Mm hmm.

I don't believe Derek Chauvin should be in prison right now, much

Not for that.

Yeah, not for that. I'm not saying he's a good guy. I'm not saying I don't know anything about him. But I think the amount of force that he used during the encounter with Floyd was, in fact, he would have probably been better off. He would have been better served by using more force and using a taser on Floyd instead of doing what he did.

Yeah, he should have punched him out and put him in the back of the squad and left him in there.

Well, I don't know about punching him out, but tase him, and get him in there,

Yeah, metaphorically.

yeah, anyway, my, my point is, we have a situation in this country that is really the worst possible combination. One, we have... Police being less and less supported in these blue areas, which is going to make violent encounters with the police far more likely because, you know, cops are going to feel persecuted, so they're going to be on edge,

Yeah, of course.

then you have civilians that are seeing it. More and more crime escalating and escalating, you know, in, in, we see 20 some odd people be pushed onto the tracks in New York City over the last year.

Holy shit.

Yeah, exactly. So, if you're on the subway and someone's threatening violence and saying, I'm ready to die and all this.

Hmm.

Hey, I'm going to take that seriously. So now you're going to see what people will see as vigilantism. But I don't think that was the case here. I think this was defense of others. You know, subduing this guy and holding him

Help, help me clarify something is vigilante ism simply any time that a civilian non officer takes a legal action into their own hands or is vigilante ism only when it's done in retrospect, because I have this,

is very much in the eye of the beholder.

you're not really helping that.

What do you mean?

Well, I mean, so it could be anything is what you're saying.

The way the left has used it, if I defend myself and end up. Killing someone who's attacking me, that could be seen as vigilante justice. The way I would personally define it is if I am wronged, I go to the cops, they're not doing anything about it, and I go out and do something about it myself. That would be vigilantism to me. Which may or may not be a bad thing, in my mind.

Yeah. Cause it, it, I had this impression that it's, it's basically somebody that's going out. acting as a law enforcement official without having the the authority to do so.

Again, I'm wrong. Something has happened. And, you know, let's say someone stole something from me. I report that to the police. They're doing nothing about it. So then I say, okay, well, I'm gonna go do something about it.

All right. I guess that's what it is. And I, I think that there's nothing wrong with that as long as while you're doing that, you're not breaking other laws.

Give me an example.

Well, so let's say that you've got somebody that just robbed the store and you're watching it happen. And then. You are in a position to and choose to tackle the guy as he comes out of the store and then hold him down, lean on his neck until you know, real authority show up. Like to me, that's vigilantism is you're taking the law into your hands. You're acting as a law enforcer at that point in time. But

So essentially what these three guys did on the

Yeah, I don't think you're, you're breaking a law or you shouldn't be anyway, breaking the law by doing that. Although I'm sure that the the perpetrator of the crime or the victim of your crime, if there is one, is gonna argue that it was illegal arrest or whatever.

Unlawful imprisonment.

Arrest, yeah. To me that seems, that's the kind of shit that from common sense, it should be allowed, is that... If you're a witness to a crime and you're, but there's also a difference, right? Between taking and tackling somebody and bringing them down to the ground and holding them there or just beating the crap out of them. And they, they die as a result.

Well, you know, AOC compared this to lynching. So, there you go.

Yeah, I mean, that's, but I, I think that's just a, like a, a big example or a extreme example, I would say that would be lynching.

Well, I, I think it's an incorrect, you know, comparison. I, I think that, again, by going... On yelling, screaming, throwing the fit that he was throwing, threatening people. Those choices put his life in danger.

Isn't there a first amendment issue then? Since when did words become violence?

Okay, he was, my understanding is there was violent action taken. Like pushing, shoving,

I didn't see the video, so I don't

And, and in New York in New York Threats of violence can be considered assault under New York State law. So

But should they though?

I'm not here to make that argument.

So we'll see what happens. My guess is that the white guy ends up in jail

I wouldn't be surprised.

because I don't think they're going to let that go.

Yeah, so just to use his name, Jordan Neely was the guy who died and I'm not gonna use the Other people involved because I don't think he was I I don't believe they should be found at fault he was again arrested many many times so And on some violent crimes, he's been arrested for assault and other things. So 40 arrests

but somebody's

prior assault, disorderly conduct, you know?

that would just go towards character, but it, just cause somebody has been arrested doesn't mean that you could just really beat them up and kill them.

No, but I'm, I'm here. Here's the thing. I think it's a. Very strong statement to say that he was arrested 40 times, you know If he had been arrested once would that say anything about his character? No, but you know since he's been arrested that many times He's obviously

and I think this goes to my argument for reopening asylums. Are

You know, I I that thought crossed my mind

you growing, are you growing on my argument?

Well, this is obviously someone who should have been taken care of in some way shape or form now and I don't think that asylums are Mental wards should should just totally disappear, but I, where you and I differ is what is the level that we go to as a, how do I put this, as a bar for entry. Right.

I don't know that, why we would differ. I'm just saying that anybody ought to be able to not be committed involuntarily.

All right, say that again.

I, okay, I said that poorly, but I'm not for involuntary commitment. I am for commitment though.

Okay.

So what that means is you can't just talk to a shrink and say, yeah, this guy's crazy. We need to commit them. I think you need to have a court case that decides that.

Mm hmm. Okay. So, how, what, what would the initiation of that court case be, though, is

Well, the initiation I think would be just like what's been in the past historically which is that. You know that there's a I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Actually, I guess I have to say that I've not been involved in any of these. I don't have any personal experience with them. So I'm not sure what the initiation would be, but I think that there ought to be a method to have a jury of your peers be able to judge you mentally.

so that, that's another important thing, is it should be a jury, not a judge.

It should be a jury and not a judge and not a doctor.

Okay.

Like the doctor should be showing the jury why this person ought to be committed. And this person should sure as hell be able to speak in their own defense as to why they shouldn't,

Mm hmm.

if they want it to speak in their own defense.

So that I can agree with. What I can't agree with is the way menstrual institutions were used throughout the 1900s and up until the 1980s

Yeah. Yeah. And in other countries, all the time, even now

well, I mean, one flew over the cuckoo's nest is not totally out of the realm of reality here, unfortunately.

Yeah, that was a good movie. I should rewatch that. It's been many years since I've seen Jack Nicholson at his peak.

All right. So next tragic story we've got to talk about what happened in Allen, Texas

Yeah. What the fuck dude? I've been at that mall.

I have not. But yeah, so eight dead seven injured as of right now. And I want everyone to really think about this. I haven't looked to see if this mall would, but a lot of the malls do pause post 30 out five, 30 out, six, 30 out, seven signs. This is absolutely an argument for people to carry.

Mm hmm.

That, there is, had someone been armed right there and involved, we would have seen less

And, and again, there's an example of vigilantism

Well,

shut back,

the, the reason why this person only shot and killed as many as they did, was because a cop was nearby, happenstance, heard the shots, and engaged and killed the shooter.

So do we know anything about the shooter? Is this another tranny or what?

I don't know anything about the shooter. As far as I know, his name hasn't been released. This happened literally yesterday evening.

Yeah. So I'm kind of surprised they haven't released the name yet.

Yeah. And you know, we're saying him, we don't know.

Speaking, it's probably a transsexual male. I'm

you say this, but anyway,

saying it with a smile on my face, but it is likely a male. I mean, it's very few female shooters out there,

yeah. Well, we will see.

that's a Texas specific thing, but yeah,

It is a Texas specific thing, but this shooting also happened specifically in Texas, so.

Well, and I, I generally only carry in the sense that I have a gun in the car. I almost never have one on me, especially if I'm going shopping. Partly because it it's well now I actually don't have an excuse cause I have a gun that's small enough, but generally the guns I've preferred shoot have been full size. And I've never liked the,

It's not comfortable to conceal a full

yeah, it's it's, it's basically unconcealable, like people know that one side of your body is sticking out more than the other side for whatever reason, it's not hard to figure out what that reason is. So while I've, I think there's a benefit having a gun in relatively close proximity in the car. I've not been particularly good. Like I wouldn't have done diddly squat in this scenario because if I would have been shopping, I wouldn't have had the gun on me.

well, and actually I'll send you a video, but John Lovell warrior pro society recently did a video kind of changing his mind on open carry and. I think this is a perfect scenario where I, I personally will not open carry because I want the advantage of people not knowing that I have a firearm. That said, thank God for the people who do. And I think we need more of it because it does set a different tone. And

open carry

yep.

and there's a reason fewer crimes are committed in the presence of a cop. It's not because people are afraid of cops. Because people are afraid of guns,

Well, they have the ability to exact force immediately if need be. So anyway.

everyone who carries. Is

Yes, it is a shame that this person is dead. I am not a fan of the trend that we see where shooters are just shot dead

there a reason why you don't think it's a good thing?

Yeah. I wanna see a trial. I wanna see.

It saves the state so much money. These trials are multi million dollar trials.

Yeah. We also need to understand what's going on and why, you know, what was this person's motivation? I, I don't wanna see something like,

You don't think we'll find that by looking at their bedroom?

I'm sorry,

You don't think we'll find that by looking at their bedroom?

maybe, you know, look at what happened in Vegas. We still don't have an answer or motive prescribed to that. So, I don't think that's a great place to be.

no. I agree. But I, I think the Vegas thing really looked like a gun deal gone wrong.

That is my favorite pet theory as well, but, again, the official answer is, Gee, we don't know why he did it.

The biggest problem with what happened in Texas. Now it's kind of selfish to say this is that I can no longer stay in Vegas. Casinos and carry a gun.

Okay. Well, I don't know what I didn't know you could before.

Yeah, absolutely used to do that all the time. You know, that, that front side, the firearm school that as a member of you know, I used to be out there a couple of times a month and sometimes I want to stay closed, but a lot of times I would say in Vegas and then after the, you know, after we're done,

Yeah, I have no idea what Nevada's laws are, and I don't know how they've changed them.

yeah, well, I had a Nevada concealed carry permit.

Okay, so why can't you take it into a casino

because casinos now will actually x ray luggage. And if they find the gun, whether you declare it or they find it, that gun will be put in the safe until you leave.

Really? So, you're going through a metal detector and luggage x ray when you go into a casino

Apparently, cause there's been multiple videos on people that have very innocently anticipated, just, you know, they're not, they're not doing anything weird, they're literally just stopping over in Vegas, maybe on a trip or something and the issues that they have. And across all casinos. It's not just one casino to avoid.

Interesting. Well, you know, I, I'm not a fan of that. And I'm, so it's interesting. Cause I had that experience in Qatar where going into the hotel, I was walking through a magnetometer and my luggage was x rayed and that was just anathema to me. It was okay. I don't want to ever stay here again. Oh, that's not just this hotel. It's all hotels.

I kind of actually don't mind that. And that, that was,

a

was my experience in in Russia as well. I don't know. I mean that as long as everyone's going through it, I don't mind.

Well, I I mind because I, again, like freedom.

Yeah. Fair enough. But it, it, you know, it's a private business,

I I don't care, I still like freedom. Heh.

but you know, one of the things we have in Texas here is that a lot of businesses like to in fact post is to say we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone

Yeah, and I don't think that's a real thing.

it is.

It's not.

I'll look up the law. Good. Keep talking.

Anyway, it's a, it's a tragedy. I feel very bad for the people who lost their lives. And,

Eight people.

the left is already using this to make gun control arguments and everything else. And

Well, of course they are. It's, it's unfortunate, of course, that it happened in Texas. But I think in the grand scheme of things, if you look at the amount of people that actually die to this type of shooting, your odds of dying in a car accident are much higher.

yeah, absolutely.

So, it is what it is, but I have been to that mall when I used to live in DFW. That was one of the places to go to buy. You know, name brands for cheap,

Yeah, it's an outlet mall

cheap being relative

Right. Last year's

25% cheaper

Well, one of the things I'll, I'll say, and then we can kind of move on to whatever else. This was a case where a good guy with a gun could have really helped out a lot. And unfortunately they had to wait several minutes for the officer to respond. Thankfully, a single lone officer did. When you look at what happened in Uvalde

where nobody

opposite of that, and I don't know that the officer's name has been released, but whoever he is that, that's a good cop, doing what he should have done.

It's absolutely, I mean, that's, and, and to your point, it's what anyone that had a firearm should have done

Yes.

regardless of being a police deputized or not. So I am curious to see what this turns into. Now, the last few shooters, it seems have been lefties. So I'm curious to see if this is yet another lefty lefty with a gun. Because, honestly, this is, this is my biggest worry about Austin, is there's a lot of annoyances in Austin, but my biggest worry about Austin is a leftist with a gun. Because we have way more leftists here than anywhere else in Texas.

Well, we'll see. I, I think that,

one, I hope not to see. I'm hopefully going to move out of here before I get to see anything with a leftist with a gun.

well, you better get to moving, Gene.

I know I'm, I'm, you know, I'm looking, I'm looking, I have a, I have a an idea of what I want. The area is fairly sprawling. You know, I'm not set to any one particular area. I'm shockingly impressed that in the middle of nowhere, Adam has five gigabit fiber

Well, he's not in the middle of nowhere, though.

re relative middle of nowhere.

I, I don't think Fredericksburg could be qualified as the middle of nowhere, but

If, if you drive to his house, it's the middle of nowhere, dude. It's like ranch land around him. It's not really he's not in the middle of Fredericksburg. He's kinda on the peripheries and obviously close enough to get fiber, but you would be surprised that they bother dragging fiber out there, given how few houses there are.

Well, cool.

But it's, yeah, I mean, it's a year ago when I went to probably been close to a year when I went to buy rabbits to my rabbit dealer and that's not code for anybody. It's actual rabbits. But my rabbit dealer dealer was literally in the middle of nowhere in not even on the outskirts of a city. He's on the outskirts of a village and he still had either a gig or two gigs out there which surprised me at the time.

Well, I think that should be your assumption.

Mm hmm.

You know, what it comes down to is there are, I mean, they're putting in fiber or lots of places. Here in call station, we're getting fiber all over the place. Brian's

Mm hmm.

You know,

Where does that all shit, where does all that shit connect to? Because I know what the big cities did years ago, but what about the smaller cities, like College Station? Did they, do they have a fiber loop?

Oh yeah,

When did they get those? When did those originally get put

oh, there, there are data centers in college station. Brian cost station.

Yeah, like, when did that happen, you know?

Oh, oh, oh, long since before I was here. Yeah.

Really? So before you were in college.

yes.

Hmm.

Part of that's because of the university and everything else. You have to remember that the internet was literally built for the universities. So, there's internet 2 connections here and everything else.

Yeah. But that took a while. I mean, I, I got to imagine that there were plenty of colleges that were on shitty T1 lines back in the

sure, but not Texas A& M, which is one of the premier colleges, universities in the nation. Same reason why Austin has the infrastructure they have. Same reason why Lubbock has the infrastructure they have.

Lubbock has an infrastructure.

Sadly, yes.

I do not know this.

Yeah, Texas Tech you know, there's

that where Texas Tech is? I actually know a guy that went there. Yeah, I should probably know that.

yeah, yeah, the, I'm, I'm, don't get me started on the Red Raiders. Don't,

Is that a sporting team?

Yeah, it's the Texas Tech. And get your guns up! Yeah,

hmm.

anyway. Waco, same thing. Waco has a lot of infrastructure because of

I always just think Waco is bigger than all these other places.

What do you mean?

I don't know if I think of

than Bryan College Station.

if I think of like big college towns, I think of Waco before I think of college station.

That, I don't know why Waco Hadn an existence before, well, not really before, but you know, Waco was a big community outside of the University College Station. Literally, this town did not exist before

So they just built a town on cheap land. Is that the deal?

No, they literally, the reason why it's called College Station is literally, it was the train station for the university.

but why did they build the university? There's my question.

Texas A& M was a land grant school. The state

So it was cheap land.

well, yeah, it was six miles south of Bryan, you know, at the time.

Mm. Texas tech had 40, 000 students. Holy shit. That's much bigger than I would have expected. How big is how many students does A& M have?

I'd have to look it up, but when I was at A& M, there was over 44, 000 students.

Oh, damn, that's pretty good size. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I just. I didn't realize these schools were that big. I just assumed they were like, you know, 10, 000 students or something. So, yeah, I, it's probably more than anything. I'm just showing my

000 students, right, this year.

So it's about the same size as the university of Minnesota that I went to,

Yes, 70, 000, and then, let's see, about UT Austin.

Yeah.

So, here's the thing. I put in it's a, it's a funny thing. I, I put it in reverse. So,

Hmm. Oh,

yeah, Texas A& M is actually larger than UT Austin. UT

000. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's about right for us. And I would have imagined it'd be relative. Okay. I did. I just didn't realize A& M was bigger.

when you look at the number of students in the three main Texas universities, it's

hmm. Mm hmm.

pretty damn big,

What's A& M stand for? Agriculture and mechanical. Okay. That's what it is. Is that still a big thing there?

what do you mean?

Do people get degrees in agriculture?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the ag school is huge. We have a vet school. We have one of the best vet schools in the nation. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a big deal. One of the things I'd also like to point out is A& M was founded before TU.

Before the University of Texas?

Which, by the way, you know, anyway, always called it TU instead of UT.

1866. A& M. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting.

Yep, A& M graduated their first class before UT. And it was 1876, by the way.

Oh, they, they funded it in 1866 and it was named in 1870.

The 1871 was the first classes and so on.

Now I'm looking on their site here. Yeah, that's, that's very cool. I just did not realize it was as big of a school. I thought that the University of Minnesota was way too big. I would have enjoyed it much more had it been a smaller school.

well, it was a smaller school when I was there. But A& M also has... Three well, technically four plus campuses at this point as part of not the system, but actually the A and A Aggie school that gets the ring including, you know, Galveston and Qatar. So we were one of Qatar. Yep. A Doha.

That's hilarious.

Why?

I think it's funny as hell on that. Okay. Any American university with an overseas campus is funny.

I mean, Georgetown has an overseas campus.

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Why?

Hey, it, it just is. I don't know. I can't explain ridiculous dude. That's just funny.

Okay.

It's just, you know, it's like American university. They're, they're just, they're cranking out spies or state department people, at least. No, I think it is pretty, pretty damn funny. The you know, Working in a, how do I phrase this?

Are 15 American universities with international campuses,

there you go. There you go. So that's, that's the 15 where the CIA has its recruitment offices.

dude. Robert Gates was president of Texas A& M when I was

Mm-hmm. makes sense. Oh, who are the other, do you have a list or just number? Mm-hmm.

there. I'm just looking at it right now. So, it's, it's fairly interesting. John Cabot University has one in Italy. McDaniel College has one in Budapest. American Business School, Paris. American University of Beirut. American University of Dubai. American University of Paris. New York University has a Florence, Italy campus. Franklin University, Switzerland. St. Louis University, Madrid. Schillner International University, multiple locations, not listed. Anyway, Duke has one in China.

I knew that.

Duke has one in Singapore. Georgia Tech has one in France. St. John's has one in Italy and yeah, then A& M. And that, that can't be an exhaustive list because I know that there are some different ones that have overseas campuses, but it's actually quite a few, so.

Interesting.

According to Wikipedia, it's actually 28,

28th. Okay.

which looks more like it to me.

More likely. Yeah, I agree.

Cause like Georgetown is actually listed. They have one in Doha, Texas A& M is listed, obviously one in Doha. So.

Cool beans.

Yeah, A& M's Qatar campus actually was founded the year before I started at A& M.

Why isn't that convenient?

Okay, why is that convenient, Gene?

Oh, we'll just let people know they, they, they, they can make up their own minds.

I mean, I never went to the campus in Qatar, so

Sure. I buy

trip I ever made to Doha was here recently,

That's right. Of course. Naturally.

Anyway, alright man anything else we need to cover?

I don't know. It's been kind of a heavy week. I'm just trying to think other than the Bud Light stuff, if there's anything going on. Oh, do you have any book recommendations? I've got a book anti recommendation. Does that work?

Sure.

So, a book I've been reading lately, and by reading I mean listening,

Mm

my method of reading these days. What is this called? James Roscone's series, Into the Battle, Into the Stars, and there's one more. It's space sci fi.

hmm. Mm hmm.

I thought it looked pretty good. I bought the three of them. Not very good. So it's an anti recommendation. So if you see into the bell, into the stars or the other one by James Russ, Russell, R O S O N E Russ one, Russell, I don't know. So you can skip it. It's it has the right parts for what should be interesting. It's basically a future. Maybe a hundred years in the future, civilization finally develops faster than light travel through warm through a warp drive and,

Alcubierre Drive.

and finds a earth like planet somewhere, and it turns out that it's actually inhabited. And so there's aliens that look surprisingly like the avatar aliens. They're tall and blue and have braids of hair, but they also have four arms, which they make them. a little different from the avatar ones, I guess.

Mm hmm.

But you know, they're the bad guys and then the earth has to reunify and mobilize against saying it's just the book feels and maybe this is a pet peeve for me, but it feels more like you're watching a TV show or a movie, maybe we're in the TV show because it skips over a shit ton of details that I would have preferred in the book or even the TV show, which has more time than the movie.

You're invested at this point.

yeah, I mean, and they're short, they're 10 hours each. So they're not particularly long books, but it's just one of those things where you, it's you know, it's like diet soda, like you want a soda, you don't want the sugar, you drink a diet soda, and then you go, yeah, I should have just had an iced tea because diet soda just doesn't taste as good as real soda.

Yeah,

But I don't really want the real soda either. I don't really want that sugar. So I'll just, I should just get a nice tea.

Mm kay. Well, I do have a book recommendation.

got one to recommend. Go

Yeah. So, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller which apparently he's a fairly popular author In the NPR class, it's a pretty good book, it's set in the near future, a super bug goes through and wipes out a bunch of people, and there's some after effects, and it's just post apocalyptic,

I buy it?

I'm sorry?

Should I buy it?

Yeah, you'll like it.

2012. Looks like

yeah, it's not a new book in fact they may or may not develop a movie around it that's still up in the air it was popular enough that it looks like there might be.

10 hours, 41 minutes. All right. I bought it.

It's what?

10 hours and 41 minutes.

it's, it's a quick read. But it's compelling enough, it definitely left me wanting more. You know, I wish it would have been a longer book. There were some story arcs that I think could have been explored. He definitely could have written a sequel to it. You know, it, The characters were compelling enough. It's definitely a character driven driven read.

Hmm. That's well, I bought it, so it'll be on the list. 87 more books before it. Mm-hmm.

yeah, it, it, it's very reminiscent for me of The Earth Abides or Lucifer's Hammer or any of the, you know, good post apocalyptic books, one offs that you know. I, I, I think Jerry Neville could've written way more on Lucifer's Hammer, you know? Like that, that book should've been like a five book series.

not read that. What was that about?

What? You have not read Lucifer's Hammer? Are you kidding me? By Jerry Pornel?

I

You know,

is, but I haven't read the book.

oh my god, you, this skips to the top of the list, dude.

Oh, it was Larry Niven and Jerry

Larry Niven and Jerry Pornel,

I haven't read this, cause I've read a lot of Larry Nivens stuff.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pornel, anytime they team up, the books are fantastic. The Moat and God's Eye, all of it.

let's fix this right now. I'll get it right now.

So, the Lucifer's Hammer is about an asteroid or comet impact and the fallout. And there's even stuff about diabetics and insulin and the things that people don't think about in there that's just fantastic.

There we go.

Yeah, that, that is a phenomenal book, and absolutely should jump the line a bit. Mm hmm.

Yeah, I, I can move that up. Yeah. I, I, I just kind of. I've been reading a lot of space sci fi lately, or I, let me rephrase it of the of anything at all, but I've been reading that's fiction. Most of that fiction has been space sci fi lately. And I think not even, not, I'm not even necessarily in the mood for that. It's just that I bought a shit ton of space sci fi over the last few years.

hmm.

It makes up the bulk of my back backlog,

Yeah. I mean, how many, how many books do you have in Audible?

like total books. Let me look there. Does it tell me 269? Boy, how many do you

Hold on, let me look

have? So now I'm going to make you look.

now you, you have to remember, I also get the Kindle version and do all that.

Well, you can't double count.

No, I'm

but keep in mind that Audible at some point lost a bunch of my books that I bought pre Amazon acquisition of Audible. I don't know how I missed this, but somehow I did not merge my accounts. so this represents the number of books purchased Since Amazon

open audible to download everything

I do now, but I did, I didn't 10 years ago.

Yeah.

So I've actually lost books that I used to own.

I definitely have I don't know if I lost any when that happened, but I've a member since well before the purchase as well. So in my audible library right now I have 468 books,

So you got about double.

but you know, I, I go through roughly depending on, you know, certain things I go through about a book you know, a book or so a week

Yeah. And I,

that adds up quick.

like I, I read two books almost completely. So one and three quarters of a book last week on my trip, like there's nothing better than listening to an audio book when you're in a plane,

I tend to agree

it's, it's better than staring at your iPad, watching the movie, which is. You know,

Why

like not the right size screen. I'm not a fan of watching stuff in small screens. So, but an audio book, you just shut your eyeballs off, put them into park and just listen

Yeah.

and then your plan lands.

Oh man, we get some thunder and lightning

I heard that one, dude. That's that's actual thunder. That's not a TV set. Your wife turned on.

No, that's that's thunder. So,

that's nuts. All right, I'm going to send you a link to a a video that is a very impressive demo of where we are now with with game engines, because it looks like a movie.

I think you've, I've seen it.

Oh, have you?

Yeah. The unrecorded one or whatever,

Unrecorded?

where it's, it's not a pre rendered thing. It was a live render.

Yeah. Well, so this one's cyberpunk ish. I don't know if you've seen this one or not. I'll send it

Hmm.

But there's... Right now, there are very few games actually available on Unreal Engine five, which is the current version of Unreal, but the demos that are available. And there's a lot of demos they're literally movies. It's movie level quality in real time. It's amazing. It's, it's revolutionary. And I know, and forget about the fact that it's a video game. It's just a reality engine.

over the noise gate?

I do. I know it's loud.

Yeah,

Yeah. So which way is it moving east or west?

I'm sure it's coming

It's usually moving.

north northwest.

Yeah, there's a big dip happening right now. I know I looked in the big weather map of the whole country and it looks like we've got a lot of Canadian air pushing down to Louisiana right now.

Yeah, it's actually coming from the southwest, interestingly enough.

So we got a low pressure zone over there,

All

but I don't have anything else, dude. That's, that's about it. You know, it was nice to we did take a break last week, but I actually, there was a new show uploaded because I was really slow in uploading. So there, the show from the previous week get uploaded last week. So we're back in schedule now.

Well, it was good to talk to you again, Gene, and we'll we'll catch you next week.

All right. Take care, Ben.

Bye.