0072 Sir Gene Speaks with Dude Named Ben

Sir Gene: 0:14

Good morning. This is sir gene with dude named Ben named Ben. How are you been,

Ben: 0:20

I'm doing good, Gene. I'm doing good. Just got back from Tulsa. So given this week's events, it was a interesting trip. Yeah. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 0:30

What are you doing out there? Work or pleasure.

Ben: 0:33

old work as meeting

Sir Gene: 0:34

you love Tulsa.

Ben: 0:35

Yeah. I actually, you know, that was my first time going to Tulsa. and I've been to Oklahoma city, plenty. But this was my first time in Tulsa and Tulsa was a neat little town.

Sir Gene: 0:45

And what's neat about it.

Ben: 0:47

W one it's a green city in Oklahoma. So that's different than what I'm used to. And then two, it's just a, it's a neat little downtown it's kind of a mixture of, you know, the fifties and the seventies and then fairly Martin modern architecture. So there's just, you know, a different mix and it's not, you know, it's not like Dallas downtown and it's not like Austin. And, you know, there were a couple of homeless people around, but it wasn't anything like what a similar size city in Texas I would expect to have seen

Sir Gene: 1:24

They still have nuclear families.

Ben: 1:27

seemingly. So yes. And the Oklahoma with the recent law changes that they've made and everything else it's it's pretty Interesting. The ways they're going, they've liberalized their alcohol laws and then they've banned abortions pretty much fully, except for in very rare cases.

Sir Gene: 1:46

Interesting. I didn't know anything about their alcohol laws. What happened?

Ben: 1:51

So it used to be that cold beer. Couldn't be above 3% alcohol by volume. And that, I mean, they had a lot of, lot of blue laws and they've changed a lot of that recently. So now they actually have,

Sir Gene: 2:05

On Sundays.

Ben: 2:06

exactly they, and they, I don't know if they sell liquor on Sundays. but the, the micro brewing community up there has just popped a lot. And, you know, I, it's been a pretty big shift, apparently

Sir Gene: 2:21

Hmm. Yeah. A lot of states still have these relics of the past. Never made any sense to me whatsoever, but having no car sales happening on Sunday, what the hell is up with that?

Ben: 2:36

well, the blue laws still exist in Texas, too, you know? And what, what always struck me about Texas blue laws is that it can be down to the precinct. So not even the county, but the precinct and the county can have separate laws. And that just, that doesn't make any.

Sir Gene: 2:53

No, but I mean, liquor is one thing, right? I mean, I can see, I don't agree with it, but I can see where it came from, which is you should be going to church, not getting drunk, but car sales, what the hell was that a thing back in the day where you couldn't go buy a horse on Sunday?

Ben: 3:11

Well, it Sunday's a day of rest.

Sir Gene: 3:14

Well, Saturday is actually they arrest, but sure.

Ben: 3:17

Yeah. Okay. So we found out that gene has a seventh day Adventist background.

Sir Gene: 3:22

No that's called Jewish.

Ben: 3:24

I understand, but it's also anyway, nevermind

Sir Gene: 3:28

Yeah. All you new fangled religions that are less than 3000 years old. I don't even know what you're talking about,

Ben: 3:34

indeed.

Sir Gene: 3:35

boy. That bacon sure was good anyway. Yeah. The,

Ben: 3:38

a kosher,

Sir Gene: 3:40

exactly kosher bacon. I'm sure that you can probably find something that says that on the package at that. Ah, I don't know, man. I don't think there is such a critter

Ben: 3:50

just, the dietary laws, you know, outside of historical reasons, never made any sense to me as far as why a modern person would keep it, you know, especially a Christian. Why would a Christian keep dietary laws so mean.

Sir Gene: 4:07

like a lot of other commandments you know, the dietary laws were a way to put a story around observation based science.

Ben: 4:19

Right.

Sir Gene: 4:19

Yeah. We have a lot of people dying, eating bacon or pork. Really? No bacon. Maybe we should not eat that anymore. Dad said don't eat pork,

Ben: 4:28

Well, and the shellfish and everything else, you know, red tides and yeah. It, it, it, like I said, it makes sense for the time and I get the reasons for it and I get the religious reasons for it. But again, the Christian and living in modern times, you know, it, your view should be that Christ came to fill the law and that the new covenant and the new commandments are in the new Testament. And there is no dietary restrictions in the new Testament. So, you know, anyway,

Sir Gene: 4:58

Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure Chris was eat bacon.

Ben: 5:02

I certainly do. Did speaking of gluttonous access, did you see the gas prices in Oakland,

Sir Gene: 5:08

I did not know what are they at?

Ben: 5:10

$9 in change,

Sir Gene: 5:12

Well, remember I predict 18, so we still have a ways to go.

Ben: 5:15

man, I it's going to get bad here quick. It really is with this stuff, keeping on

Sir Gene: 5:22

I think if anyone needs to upgrade their phone or computer, you better do it right now before that pipeline shuts down.

Ben: 5:28

That the supply of tech is definitely going to be interrupted, but I'm more worried about the supply of food. When you're looking at gas and diesel prices, the way they are,

Sir Gene: 5:38

Yeah.

Ben: 5:39

man you know, w when my dad, when I was younger, my dad was a shrimper and the price of diesel, how much that affected them in any big operation. It's just, you know, that hits hard and farmers are no no no different, you know,

Sir Gene: 6:01

Well, speaking of diesel now, I was listening to Biden's speech the other day, and then

Ben: 6:07

which one,

Sir Gene: 6:08

kind of assumed that he just forgets things and mispronounces things in general, but did it, it sounded to me like what he was saying is by getting Europe to shift off Russian oil, that will drop the price of oil and America can start buying Russian oil. Again

Ben: 6:28

I didn't hear that part and maybe I missed something,

Sir Gene: 6:31

that seemed very strange to me. That's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're actually admitting that we're going to throw Europe under the bus in order for us to buy Russian oil, because we don't make any more here in the.

Ben: 6:44

Well, you know, he, he's the

Sir Gene: 6:46

Then I, I saw that link. You sent me about the no more refineries being built in the U S

Ben: 6:51

yeah. I mean, that's the CEO of Chevron saying that I mean, that's a hell of a statement. The CEO of Chevron saying he doesn't see a path for a refinery to be built in the U S going forward. Holy shit.

Sir Gene: 7:04

Now he's building a lot of refineries right now.

Ben: 7:06

China, India. Russia.

Sir Gene: 7:08

India is right. Cause they're they're the Europe has gone on record saying they will buy Indian oil and we know where India is getting their oil. They sure as hell aren't drilling it.

Ben: 7:21

well, yeah, in Modi's some of the statements in the past there have been pretty interesting. Now, man, this is all flexing out geopolitically in a way that is somewhat unexpected Germany talking about their military expansion. I don't know. Last time Germany talked about military expansion. it. didn't go very well for the rest of the world. Just

Sir Gene: 7:42

Oh yeah. And Japan threatening China though.

Ben: 7:44

out. Well, I mean, that's because China has been such a belligerent to Japan China,

Sir Gene: 7:51

that has been bullied into a lot of places.

Ben: 7:54

well, Taiwan there were 20 Chinese military aircraft that breached Taiwanese airspace.

Sir Gene: 7:59

Yeah. I don't know if there's.

Ben: 8:01

well, Chinese military aircraft or Taiwanese airspace.

Sir Gene: 8:05

Yeah, I mean, it's a Republic of China, so, you know, it's all one country.

Ben: 8:10

It? No, no. And I, I hate the one China policy and it's something that should have never been agreed to. And quite frankly, what should happen is the Brits should go and look at the treaty and say, Hey you know, this,

Sir Gene: 8:24

dude. It's all done. Will get whatever they want. There's there's the collective west can't do anything about Ukraine, they sure as hell aren't going to do anything about Taiwan.

Ben: 8:35

I actually, I think Taiwan. is far more strategic importance than

Sir Gene: 8:39

You're going to have your children die to save Taiwan because that's what the choices nukes.

Ben: 8:45

but I don't think

Sir Gene: 8:46

I don't know any Americans willing to do that.

Ben: 8:48

I w I don't know. We like our technology quite a bit. And if

Sir Gene: 8:52

No, but that's my point is the technology will get cut. You will lose not just all technology. You will lose all shipments from China, which means no food, no products.

Ben: 9:02

Well, China actually imports quite a bit of food from us, so

Sir Gene: 9:05

No. From Russia. No, no, no, no, no. Russia is no longer exporting food to Europe and China is getting all of it.

Ben: 9:13

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 9:14

So China, India, Russia, South Africa and Brazil bricks. Bricks is self-sufficient. And they're now going off of the dollar, which is why we're getting the hyperinflation getting tanked. So honestly, you know, Russia may have a good military on the ground. China has the U S and pretty much every other country by the balls right now.

Ben: 9:41

Because of manufacturing, but not because of military.

Sir Gene: 9:44

Because what do you think that there's something? Well, no, you're absolutely right. It's not because of their military, but it is because it's their manufacturing. So is the U S prepared to invade China because that certainly won't happen again. China has nukes

Ben: 10:00

I, I think that China is not self-sufficient the BRICS nations, China specifically requires Western trade. And they have a hell of a merchant Marine, but quite frankly, they don't have a Navy to protect it.

Sir Gene: 10:16

they require Western trade, just like Russia requires European purchases of its natural gas and food, Is to say when that goes away, it's should.

Ben: 10:26

No, because there hasn't been the sanctions on China that have been on Russia, Russia. I mean, quite frankly, had we imposed what, what has been imposed right now a decade ago? It would have absolutely been crippling to the Russian economy, but I think that they've fortified and made other arrangements and moved well, I don't think that China has made that same sort of move, but I could be wrong.

Sir Gene: 10:52

American has been underestimating China for 50 years in my humble opinion.

Ben: 10:56

Completely agree. I think Nixon should have never gone to China and opened that can of worms up.

Sir Gene: 11:04

Yeah. I mean it's, well, I don't know if that alone would have prevented this from happening, but certainly the U S policy towards China basically treating them like a, a dumb little Chihuahua and giving them helping them in a sense by outsourcing things from here to there has created an economic powerhouse. There've been multiple well actually a couple of people with economics degrees and then a bunch of people in general that have talked about the real academy versus the the economy that's published by the official government bodies. And if you look at the real academy, which is to say, including. Looking predominantly the trade happening between different countries borders, whether it's a legal or illegal China's academy right now is about two and a half times bigger than the U S.

Ben: 11:59

well,

Sir Gene: 12:00

Now us makes up a large chunk of Chinese economy for sure.

Ben: 12:04

so,

Sir Gene: 12:05

But U S totally underestimates China.

Ben: 12:08

so we, the U S did this with Japan in the eighties, right? Everything was made in Japan for a long period of time. Then by the early nineties, Clinton years and everything else, we started shifting towards China, China, China, well, the manufacturing base and the wealth transfer that is given there is just tremendous, you know, and Japan is a decent ally. And part of the reason why we did that will transfer from the fifties till pretty much the 90 or late eighties for Japan was rebuilding of Japan was building up that ally. I know you don't necessarily agree that they're a good ally, but I think that they are out of all the Asian countries. I think they're the closest natural ally to us because they are very, very different than the Vietnamese and the Chinese and even the Koreans and their attitudes. So.

Sir Gene: 13:07

Yeah. They've historically been very inward.

Ben: 13:11

Well, regardless, China, I think does require the U S and the rest of the west. And I think They don't have the Navy to protect their shipping. And while the belt and road initiative is

Sir Gene: 13:24

They have nukes. Everybody forgets about nukes. So why does everybody forget about nukes? Nukes will be used within our lifetime. I guarantee you, and probably sooner than most people think.

Ben: 13:34

I hope you're wrong.

Sir Gene: 13:36

I hope I'm wrong too, dude. I really do. But I've been calling a lot of things, right?

Ben: 13:41

Yeah. Well, I mean that,

Sir Gene: 13:43

You can't stop a, you can't blockade China shipping and not expect a response.

Ben: 13:50

but what do you think that was response would be?

Sir Gene: 13:53

Well the first response will be the disappearance of Hawaii

Ben: 13:58

Yeah, I don't, I don't think

Sir Gene: 13:59

because it's far enough away from the U S that the, the thought there will be, this is a warning guys.

Ben: 14:04

yeah. Why

Sir Gene: 14:05

you keep pushing the rest of you will go away.

Ben: 14:08

why not Guam? It's a us protectorate. It's closer. Not

Sir Gene: 14:13

I don't think that sends a strong enough message,

Ben: 14:15

So

Sir Gene: 14:17

but Hawaii is remote enough that the nuclear fallout isn't going to affect the main.

Ben: 14:21

yeah, my, my thought there though is you're cutting your nose off to spite your face. So I, I go back

Sir Gene: 14:28

no. The U S is cutting its nose off. It's already done that with Russia. It's going to do it with China. If it tries to black gay Chinese shipping,

Ben: 14:35

Carol Quigley and tragedy and hope. Really outlined how

Sir Gene: 14:40

the day.

Ben: 14:41

and now, I mean, this is a book I've mentioned before. I've got a different book for the day, but tragedy and hope, really outlined how proxy wars would be the thing that there would not be a world war three because of this globalization and economic India. And co-dependence we're

Sir Gene: 14:56

That is the globalist agenda for sure. That is what I've been saying for years.

Ben: 15:00

yes. And outlined in tragedy and hope in great detail. I mean, it's a 1200 page book, that's it? We're seeing the dissolution of that. And we were seeing when I say the disillusion of that, I mean the globalization. So when you have people at the world economic forum and so on talking about moving away from globalization and back towards national economies, that is so first of all, I'm like, okay, this is scary. They're doing something I want them to do. Why? I think we are moving into a paradigm where war becomes, especially between the great powers, more and more likely that said, I don't think anyone wants to have nukes going off

Sir Gene: 15:51

Oh, the U S does. Why, why else are they shipping missiles? Ukraine that can hit Russia

Ben: 15:57

well, because

Sir Gene: 15:58

they want

Ben: 15:58

and no, because social justice warrior idiots have been told us, this is the current thing go for the current thing.

Sir Gene: 16:06

But told by whom

Ben: 16:09

Yeah. Well media in

Sir Gene: 16:11

that are running the country.

Ben: 16:12

Hmm. But

Sir Gene: 16:14

like it or not stolen election are not the people running the country. And I don't mean Biden. I mean the actual people running the country, they think that they're going to win a hot war.

Ben: 16:26

and I think there is a good chance that we would, and

Sir Gene: 16:28

Nobody wins a hot war.

Ben: 16:30

Aye, man.

Sir Gene: 16:31

The planet wins a hot war, I guess if you're a super greeny

Ben: 16:34

So here's what I'd say as the only country that has ever actually used nukes in a belligerent fashion,

Sir Gene: 16:41

yep.

Ben: 16:43

man,

Sir Gene: 16:43

so. But yes.

Ben: 16:46

don't, I actually disagree. I

Sir Gene: 16:47

okay. Interesting. Okay.

Ben: 16:49

I don't think we should have bombed Japan the way we did. I think we didn't even need to invade Japan at the point where the Marshall Islands and everything else were taken man, you, you had it there, you, the sinking of the motto, the, the battles in the Pacific, you could have had Japan totally contained and left them to their own devices. There's no

Sir Gene: 17:13

I dunno, man. Anna was talking about his uncle that served in the, in that war, in the Pacific, talking about how the nuke was the thing that saved tons of American lives.

Ben: 17:25

Yeah. And that's, that's what was argued a lot was we're we're going to just, but I mean, yeah, if you wanted to go in and invade Japan traditionally, absolutely. It would cost a lot of lives, but I'm arguing that you've never had to do that. You didn't have to go to that

Sir Gene: 17:42

So just a blockade and let them start

Ben: 17:45

Not necessarily let them starve leave. Don't liberate China. We might not have some of the issues we have today, you know, leave Japan just contain

Sir Gene: 17:55

I mean, sure. It was a re w w what you would have, if you didn't liberate China is a much larger Russia on the Eastern side

Ben: 18:03

yeah.

Sir Gene: 18:04

mentor. It would go back to Russia.

Ben: 18:06

Parts of it. Yes. But I think Japan would have held on to parts of it. Eh, my, my entire point in this though

Sir Gene: 18:11

They're not going to lose the war on the east and then keep winning it on.

Ben: 18:15

I'm sorry.

Sir Gene: 18:16

Why would Japan lose the war in the east with us, but he keep winning it on the west

Ben: 18:23

I'm not saying they could have, I'm not saying they could have won it. I'm saying that I think they could have held on to parts of China and mainland China

Sir Gene: 18:30

Okay. But for how long?

Ben: 18:32

If the hostilities between the us and Japan had more or less ceased, I think they could have held parts of it to this.

Sir Gene: 18:40

No, you're insane, dude. How they would have been pushed off the mainland guarantee. There is no, there is no possibility of Japan on the mainland

Ben: 18:48

Why is that?

Sir Gene: 18:49

because the billion people that live there, see them as invaders who perpetrated worst atrocities than Hitler.

Ben: 18:55

A hundred percent. I and,

Sir Gene: 18:57

That's why

Ben: 18:58

okay, so

Sir Gene: 18:59

China and Russia can both keep throwing people at them until they win.

Ben: 19:03

Yeah. the here's the problem though. So, one of one of my family, friends, his, his family fled the Japanese invasion, took a bunch of gold with them and got out of China.

Sir Gene: 19:16

Hmm.

Ben: 19:17

So the aristocrats in China, for lack of a better word, anyone who was anyone who could get out, did you had a bunch of peasants and you didn't have a manufacturing base in China, and you didn't have a bunch of arms in China. The Japanese had a dominating military advantage. In fact, the only reason China was able to hold back the Japanese as long as they did is because we were arming them. We were doing the same thing with China that we were doing with great Britain. We were arming them. We were putting pilots over there. I mean, there's a fricking John Wayne movie, the flying tigers that it outlines exactly what was going on. The foreign Legion in China was what was keeping Japan at bay at. Otherwise Japan would have rolled right over them.

Sir Gene: 20:08

oh

Ben: 20:10

So you could make the argument that after hostility, seas and the USSR arms, Mao and Mao tries to overthrow, I can see that. But I

Sir Gene: 20:20

China would have China just had the people available. Russia had the military base because remember, by this point in, in the war Germany or AFL, Russia had won world war two. And so that entire manufacturing based,

Ben: 20:35

world war II. Yes.

Sir Gene: 20:37

well, no Russia won world war II. They allies came in right afterwards.

Ben: 20:41

Yeah. So,

Sir Gene: 20:42

Anyway, the, the military base production facilities that were manufacturing several tanks, every hour were no longer needed, so they could stop production or they can shift those tanks on the Trans-Siberian railroad

Ben: 20:59

yeah, but here's the

Sir Gene: 21:00

other side of

Ben: 21:01

here's the. piece you're missing gene, the two manufacturing bases that were the least damaged up until the point of the U S dropping the bomb was the. U S and Japan,

Sir Gene: 21:13

Well, the U S was not damaged at all because there was no mainland invasion.

Ben: 21:17

And there was no mainland invasion of Japan either. And until we started that last bombing campaign, they, their manufacturing base was not hit. And they had all the

Sir Gene: 21:28

lines were in Japan does not have the natural resources

Ben: 21:32

But that's why I'm saying if they were on mainland China, they would have the resources to defend. Anyway, it's it's academic. It's what could have happened.

Sir Gene: 21:40

I've played a game of risk and I'm pretty sure Russia kicked Japan's ass.

Ben: 21:44

well, you know, roll the dice at all. So

Sir Gene: 21:47

There are, there are the generator ING generator predicted it

Ben: 21:52

yeah, by the

Sir Gene: 21:53

So my, my point is simply that yes, Japan can. I mean, they are an ally of the U S for now, but there's, I don't think Japan is going to be holding back China, again, I don't think China's wants to be involved in the military war if they can utilize their finance and trade to affect things positively for their.

Ben: 22:18

yeah, I actually, I think that the odds are that Japan is not going to hold back China in any way, shape or form. I'm not delusional in that, but I think that the U S presence there and our Navy has a hell of a cap capability that is quite frankly unmatched, even by the rest of the world, combined

Sir Gene: 22:39

Oh, yeah. Us has the biggest Navy in the world by far.

Ben: 22:43

the, the Naval power that the us has is so outside, out of anything that. Pretty much every major country could ever put together. Even in an Alliance against us, we have a very strong capacity to influence how global trade works. And if China is willing to new COHI. Quite frankly, man, I don't know. I think if China new to Hawaii, there would not be any delay in retaliation. And I think Beijing would be gone. I think most of China would be gone and

Sir Gene: 23:15

I don't think so.

Ben: 23:16

oh, I do.

Sir Gene: 23:17

Somebody's got to do the math. Do you want to trade the rest of the U S for Hawaii or net? And the answer is hell no,

Ben: 23:23

know, but, but the math is on the Chinese side. Do we want to take out Hawaii? And let's say this happens in, let's say this happens after 2024 and Trump and or DeSantis are in office. I, you, you don't think that Trump wouldn't nuke just launch everything in China, wipe China off the

Sir Gene: 23:44

Well, I mean, he could, but that's suicidal. Thinking out Hawaii is not suicidal.

Ben: 23:50

I disagree. I think we could take out anyway. This is the Chinese military is nothing but manpower and that's the so,

Sir Gene: 23:59

It's the third largest nuclear stockpile in the world. What are you talking

Ben: 24:02

but it's very antiquated.

Sir Gene: 24:04

But it's the third largest in the world.

Ben: 24:07

okay. And

Sir Gene: 24:07

It, the stockpiles that we had in the seventies were enough to take out Russia, China, and the U S we're not a single person lives. And we've built more since then. So we're about a third more, well, we have way more nukes right now than there's necessary to wipe all three countries off the plate. The planet

Ben: 24:28

the point is China does not have the technological, the technological advantage here. The U S still does. And while that is true, while the U S has that advantage, I don't see China using news is China catching up to us? We're rapidly. Yes. Look at their space program. Their space program is a

Sir Gene: 24:48

see. This is why I think you're, you're not right about the, the U S having an advantage with nukes because our nukes are sitting in top of rock is designed in the eighties. China is you. W where do you think those rockets they're using for their space missions?

Ben: 25:03

I'll

Sir Gene: 25:04

first and foremost design is a ballistic missiles. Yeah.

Ben: 25:08

Well, you have to understand that we have the Merv technology that is not easily replicatable. Getting an ICBM up in the air is not the problem. It's getting the warhead to survive reentry, accurately, and on target. That is, and China has been playing at this for the last. Decade and a half. But the U S has been doing this since the fifties and sixties. I think the maturity of the technology and the reliability of

Sir Gene: 25:40

Oh, I, I totally, I agree with that,

Ben: 25:42

and day difference

Sir Gene: 25:43

but right now the Russian ones have more more nuclear projectiles inside the U S ones and the U S keeps pushing Russia towards China, who they naturally were hostile

Ben: 25:58

and if

Sir Gene: 25:58

35

Ben: 25:59

and if Russia and China become great allies and Russia share some of their ICBM technology with China and gives China a boost, then yes, in the next five years. we could be at parody. We, I, I'm not saying we have a huge advantage. I'm saying today that if it came down to it, I think barring the Russia and China going to war against the U S that is the U S is worst case scenario, barring Russia and China going to war against the U S as full embed allies, either one, the U S can handle quite frankly on its own. And if we have allied support will be great, but I think we can handle China and Russia on an one-on-one right now. I don't know that that will maintain and be true in five years.

Sir Gene: 26:51

Yeah. And I don't know that there's even a theoretical possibility of one-on-one anything anymore because of all the alliances everyone has.

Ben: 26:59

Well, so the economic dependencies really come into play here. So that's what

Sir Gene: 27:04

well, that's what we thought. And that's why we decided to sanctuary ourselves into a recession.

Ben: 27:10

Again, I think Russia has made a lot of moves to be independent that China has not. I

Sir Gene: 27:15

Now, would you have said this a year or two ago that Russia has made a lot of moves to be independent?

Ben: 27:21

yes, absolutely.

Sir Gene: 27:22

Okay. Well, that's fine. I believe you. But most people did not say that one or two years ago, they kept seeing Russia as the country and TV in 1998. Right after the collapse of the Soviet union, where people were starving and they didn't have heat in the winter because there was not energy for them. And I don't think a lot of perceptions have changed in the U S

Ben: 27:45

Well, so mine actually has. Again, family, friends who have done mission trips over to Russia and things like that. And just paying attention to what Putin and others have said publicly. And me being the anti globalist, I am, I'm like, holy crap. Why do I like what this man is saying in some senses? And, you know, I I've been saying for years now that Russia and the U S are two countries passing each other in the night because ICS moving more and more towards socialism and the communistic state of some fascist state of some kind. I don't know what it'll end up being, but it's not going to be a country I'm going to want to live in much longer at the rate we're going. And then I see Russia liberalizing quite a bit and changing their ways. Are they where I want them to be

Sir Gene: 28:31

But not well, liberalizing, liberalizing through a rational standard.

Ben: 28:36

Liberalizing in the classical sense, granting more and more freedoms. I think their, their current some of the current gun laws are crap. I think some of the, the required dash cam for insurance stuff, and there are lots and lots of things in Russia that I could even

Sir Gene: 28:56

But we wouldn't have all the cool Russian dash M crash videos. If we didn't have that.

Ben: 29:00

Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, my point is there's a lot about Russian legal system that I do not like that. The U S at a, you know, the, the, here's the thing, the U S legal system, if actually followed, if the constitution were followed, we would be in a far better position than we are that said we would've been far better, never adopting the constitution. We would've been far better under the articles of Confederation and staying a loose association of free and independent countries. So when California, or, you know, New York goes and wants to do something, they're not trying to enforce it on Texas

Sir Gene: 29:40

Right. Yeah. That's true. And it'll be interesting to see how that model, which is what you're both supposed to be. Also the EU, how that plays out when some of these states like hungry, just stop going along with your, in their insanity and say, you know, we don't want to completely kill our economy. We're going to continue trade with Russia.

Ben: 30:04

well, leaders will be assassinated is what's going to happen.

Sir Gene: 30:07

Yeah. That'll be interesting to watch. Yeah. I think you may be right.

Ben: 30:10

So Hungary has a, and I, we talked about it a little bit earlier, but the German moves on their military. That should be a threat to the rest of the. And if it's not seen as a threat to the rest of the EU, then people are not paying attention. Germany is the largest economy. They are tired of this and they are getting ready to be in a position to dictate to the rest of the EU.

Sir Gene: 30:34

Well, and I've joked for a long time that, you know, the U is really nothing more than the continuation. That Hitler's original dream of the

Ben: 30:42

right? Yep. Absolutely. In, in lots of ways. I completely agree with that statement. You know, what's interesting and what's going to be interesting is as we see the collapse of the west and I, and I tied disarmament into that. So the moves that Justin Trudeau is making on handguns, it's this absolute irrationality that is becoming the pervasive norm of the west that I'm seeing as the problem. So, you know, you want to ban handguns or whatever, depending on your rationale, okay, it's your country. You do whatever you want. I, I would be in a very different mood and position if I lived in Canada.

Sir Gene: 31:28

Oh yeah.

Ben: 31:29

Now that, that said the rationale being that a AR 15 was used in, you have all the Texas in a shooting as being the impetus to say, we should. Suspend the sale and purchase of handguns in Canada, a different country is insanity

Sir Gene: 31:51

Yeah. Well, they already suspended the purchase of air fifteens long time ago,

Ben: 31:56

in 2020. But, and they already have very,

Sir Gene: 31:59

I thought it was like

Ben: 32:00

Nope, 20, 20, Nope, 2020. They already have very strict handgun laws. So literally

Sir Gene: 32:06

look this up because I, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I could have sworn that you couldn't buy those about 5, 6, 7 years after the U S ban went into effect.

Ben: 32:15

well, it may be that they were, the sale was paused and then the buyback program started in 2020. But according to the last Lauren Southern video I watched, which makes me a Canadian expert, obviously.

Sir Gene: 32:27

oh yeah. Lawrence is a cool dude, man.

Ben: 32:30

I didn't know she was dude,

Sir Gene: 32:32

Yeah. Yeah. She legally changed her sex in Canada about five years

Ben: 32:37

I I'm, I'm making a joke. Okay.

Sir Gene: 32:39

No. Okay. Well she, she,

Ben: 32:41

between her and Blair white damn.

Sir Gene: 32:43

her driver's license says dude.

Ben: 32:45

Ah, gotcha.

Sir Gene: 32:46

Yes,

Ben: 32:47

Yeah. Regardless,

Sir Gene: 32:49

She is, a dude with a womb, I guess. Cause she had.

Ben: 32:53

Hmm. Yeah. I, I was making a joke, but yeah. Anyway, the irrationality that follows is, you know, just whatever. Oh, by the way, since I wasn't Tulsa, when the shooting happened, I got to watch lots and lots of Local TV

Sir Gene: 33:08

Local news. Yeah. I bet.

Ben: 33:10

And, you know, right after it was happening, I mean, you know, I was in offices, people are turning on TVs and stuff like that. First of all, this guy had a back surgery and was in a lot of pain and on opioids. And the doctor refused to see him, refuse to see him, refuse to see him finally saw him again. He didn't get any cessation of his pain that he was in, and this was not a, I'm going to go to the hospital and just shoot a lot of random people. This was, I'm going to kill that motherfucker. That's what this was. It was a targeted killing, and people got in his way and they died to it. He was there to do nothing, but take him out.

Sir Gene: 33:49

No, he killed two of them though. Right?

Ben: 33:51

but he was only going after the doctor that does back surgery. It's very, very clear in the communications to his

Sir Gene: 33:57

how bad could a surgery have been? If he can still aim accurately?

Ben: 34:01

Well, so if someone's in chronic pain that, you know, whatever it may be, he's supposed to, it has a very low pain tolerance. I don't know if this is insanity to go

Sir Gene: 34:12

Yeah. You don't

Ben: 34:13

the resolution to your back pain is to go kill your doctor.

Sir Gene: 34:16

Yeah. You don't kill them. You Sue.

Ben: 34:18

Exactly. But obviously the man was not mentally stable. This was not someone that was of sound mind and body that we're talking about, the, who went and committed this crime. But the fact of the matter is it literally from the first from the first nine 11 call till he shot himself and ended, it was four minutes. So he went in there, took him out and then popped himself off. So I don't know, he, I don't know what kind of pain he was in that he felt that this was the right

Sir Gene: 34:51

You know what? I would be very curious to you, not what kind of pain he was in, but what kind of pain pills he was on?

Ben: 34:57

And that's my point. He was, he w they, they, the new local news said he was on? opioid painkillers. Don't know which one don't know what, but he was on opioids. He was in pain. This is not someone who's of sound mind. And maybe he had enough of reaction to the painkillers that set off whatever psychosis that he had. But all I'm saying is people are just focusing on the shooting and they're not focusing on any of the other stuff at the national level. The local news was interesting. There was also another mass shooting event in a black town, not too far from Tulsa that the local news literally the local news coverage was residents of this town are upset because they're shooting. Isn't getting attention.

Sir Gene: 35:44

Jesus.

Ben: 35:45

Yeah, and it was a domestic dispute. There were several people injured. Only one woman was killed by her ex. And, but the fact that the local news coverage was they're upset that they're not getting attention. I

Sir Gene: 35:59

Yeah, I know. That's so

Ben: 36:00

is wrong with you.

Sir Gene: 36:02

Okay. So I was looking up Canadian firearms law while we were talking. So what I was referring to was the firearms act, which was that 1995 in Canada. And it, it mandated registration of all firearms and licensing for new purchases, national registry for all owner's background checks,

Ben: 36:22

Well, and continuous background checks. So it Canadian law, and this is what's insane to me. Why anyone would ever submit to this Canada? You fucked up, you went the way of Australia. You should have already used your guns quite frankly, because the continuous background check system. So the way I get a license for a handgun, because I haven't committed any crimes, I go get in a bar room brawl and I get arrested because I'm in a bar room. Brawl don't even get charged. Don't even get convicted. I now have my, the Canadian system would remove my weapons from me.

Sir Gene: 36:56

Yep.

Ben: 36:56

insanity

Sir Gene: 36:57

So in, in 2012 they eliminated the registration of firearms and raced the data from the registry in 2015. They relaxed controls and restrictions on the prohibited weapons, or you could buy, they are 15, again in 2018, they reinstated the requirements to keep records. In 2020, they banned more than 5,000 models by name.

Ben: 37:21

Yep. Including the

Sir Gene: 37:23

So they have basically a about eight year period of relaxation followed by even the harsher restrictions and now a complete ban on the handguns.

Ben: 37:34

Well, you know, and this is a case of your boy Tim Timothy pools, one of his favorite things. Yeah. Gonna start doing that to you.

Sir Gene: 37:43

fucker.

Ben: 37:44

Yeah, well, you know, he talks about the, a rat experiment, you know, where they throw them in a bucket and let them drown takes about 15 minutes. But if they stop short and pull them out, dry them off, let them rest, catch the breath, throw them back in that they'll swim for 60 hours. I think we're seeing a lot of that exact psychological manipulation happening on the gun front, on the monkey pox front on all of it. It didn't say entity,

Sir Gene: 38:11

yeah, yeah. It's the trick to drowning rats is you have to hold them under water. You can't just let them.

Ben: 38:17

you're missing the point. By the way, call out to a call out to on or linting. I totally sent you a link in the chat, by the way, to the original laser laser shoot, Larry, that you can install it, run on your computer

Sir Gene: 38:31

Oh, my God,

Ben: 38:32

So I am in full support of Daren's idea.

Sir Gene: 38:37

Me playing seizures, Larry, while we're doing so.

Ben: 38:40

Yes. I mean, if you're going to play a G it's such a perfect game for you.

Sir Gene: 38:45

When I was like, way, way younger. Yeah. And didn't care about graphic quality.

Ben: 38:51

I mean, dude, the storyline though, it could be your life in so many ways. And besides, instead of the laser suit, it's just The track suit. Right? If it was track suit, Larry, you'd be all over it.

Sir Gene: 39:03

Oh my gosh. Yes. Oh, and by the way, speaking of call-outs, we have to think where's my email of, of, of we got some money in that's my point. Yeah, here it is. We got$26 and 25 cents from a Joshua McClain.

Ben: 39:20

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 39:21

Yeah. You're a friend of mine. So thanks Josh. I have no idea what that number signifies. If anything over, that was just the balance of your checking. We know you've had some expenses recently,

Ben: 39:34

Yes, indeed.

Sir Gene: 39:35

so totally not necessary, dude, but much appreciated.

Ben: 39:39

Absolutely.

Sir Gene: 39:40

Yeah. We got to get Josh on the show, man.

Ben: 39:43

Yeah. he, he so Josh is an old buddy of mine and he's a, actually a history major. So he he's literally going through right now and working on yet another degree and really focused on history of the west military history, things like that. Pretty sharp dude.

Sir Gene: 40:01

Yeah. I've enjoyed conversations with them. So I think it'd be fun to have him on the show as well. And in fact, I'm pretty sure he's, he's kind of planning on doing that cause he's been asking and looking at different audio gear.

Ben: 40:17

Well, actually his from what I understand his desire on audio gear is because he wants to start his own podcast going through historical topics.

Sir Gene: 40:25

Well, yeah. Which is awesome, but he gets some practicing with us,

Ben: 40:29

Sure.

Sir Gene: 40:30

you know, an amateur out here.

Ben: 40:31

Yeah. Well, Hey, all I can say is this mode two interface way better than what I had, even though it's the cheapest interface,

Sir Gene: 40:40

Well how much was it? 300

Ben: 40:41

200 bucks. and

Sir Gene: 40:42

So that's their cheapest model.

Ben: 40:43

cheapest mode motu that's out there. The and it is night and day different than the PreSonus model I was using. That was 150. I mean, it it's night and day. So

Sir Gene: 40:58

you you're you're volume level seems to be much better as well.

Ben: 41:02

levels are good. Less clipping, a cleaner, a cleaner sound as far as any harm or anything else. It's got a decent amp in it. Jean has sold me on the motu products. I tried to do some of the others and they just didn't work.

Sir Gene: 41:16

Well, it's, you know, you, you went much faster. I think it took just a few months to sell you on it. It took me about three and a half years to sell and I'm on it

Ben: 41:26

Yeah. I, I, for the record, I would have the ultra light if I

Sir Gene: 41:31

if it was available.

Ben: 41:32

Yes, but I'm not paying, you know, full retail for a used one or double retail for a used one. I'm just not doing that.

Sir Gene: 41:40

Yeah. Well, and that's kinda how I feel about the the iwi.

Ben: 41:45

Yeah. Which

Sir Gene: 41:47

I want to get it and I have an order in for it, but I'm not paying double just to get it today.

Ben: 41:53

I was actually looking at the iwi nine millimeter today. because I'm

Sir Gene: 41:59

The handgun

Ben: 42:00

yeah, I'm

Sir Gene: 42:01

I'm not at all familiar with that model.

Ben: 42:03

Oh, Yeah, So I'm I'm, I'm looking at it. There's a few things about it that are interesting. I hate clocks. I've never been a Glock fan. I, I want a I want a slide safety then I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this.

Sir Gene: 42:16

I'm one of those.

Ben: 42:17

it's just the way I've trained. I, my thumb.

Sir Gene: 42:20

So is that the Masada? Is that mine or the Jericho or which

Ben: 42:23

My Massada

Sir Gene: 42:25

You don't like the Jericho? That's got a thumb safety as well.

Ben: 42:28

yeah, but it's not a polymer it's metal, so anyway. Yep. Anyway, it just looking at a few things. I like a thumb safety. It's the way I draw an index out of the holsters, the type of holster I use. So the type of Holser I use requires you to, you know, it's a locked-in holster, you have to index as you're pulling out the gun to hit the release, to pull the gun out. And I have literally seen people with Glocks and similar holsters, their finger ends up in the trigger as they're

Sir Gene: 43:00

poorly trained.

Ben: 43:01

Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. But it's just a safety thing. So if I am drawing from my holster in my muscle memory, is that I draw from my holster and I'm, let's say I'm shaky. Let's say I'm in a situation

Sir Gene: 43:14

the safety on that? I'm looking at the gun. I don't see a safety on the outside.

Ben: 43:17

Left-hand side.

Sir Gene: 43:18

I don't still don't see it.

Ben: 43:20

it. has an active safety option. I don't know the one you're looking at, if it, I think there, they have several different options, but

Sir Gene: 43:27

Oh, they have models with them without external safety.

Ben: 43:30

they also have threaded barrels. They have ready

Sir Gene: 43:33

Yeah. That's the one I'm looking at. That's the one with

Ben: 43:35

lots of different things.

Sir Gene: 43:36

anything.

Ben: 43:37

Anyway, it seems like an interesting possibility,

Sir Gene: 43:40

Okay, cool.

Ben: 43:41

so, and it's only like 400

Sir Gene: 43:43

with the the safety

Ben: 43:46

I'm sorry. Say again?

Sir Gene: 43:48

Send me a link to the photo of the one with the safety. Cause I don't see it.

Ben: 43:51

Yeah. So if you go look at Palmetto state carries it a big daddy carries it.

Sir Gene: 43:58

Literally on IWS website, I don't see it

Ben: 44:01

Okay. Maybe the new model doesn't have

Sir Gene: 44:04

some kind of aftermarket mud.

Ben: 44:06

No, no, no, no. The, the, literally the model I was looking at heads, a slide log and a mechanical safety

Sir Gene: 44:13

paste that link?

Ben: 44:14

Sure. I'll even send you the Hickok 45 review where the, he, there has the

Sir Gene: 44:19

talks about safety.

Ben: 44:20

Yes.

Sir Gene: 44:21

Yeah. What, what is that guy famous for? I watched a few of his YouTube videos and he seems to be decent, but

Ben: 44:27

he's fucking grandpa. I love Hickock 45. I've been watching him for forever. Like when I first went through and set up my reloading. His reloading, like here are the decisions to make and things like that. Him and a family friend Ben Dacey, who is now deceased another dude named Ben, but, They had such a huge influence on me. Man, I got to tell you some stories about Ben Dacey. Sometime this is a guy who went over to Afghanistan in the eighties and the nineties and was moving some product. We'll just say,

Sir Gene: 45:08

Hmm.

Ben: 45:09

and some of the stories to come out of that were very interesting.

Sir Gene: 45:12

Very interesting. Okay. Yeah, definitely. We'll have to have that on the, for the after hours show for supporters only.

Ben: 45:21

Yeah. For, for The F the, the, the fans only. thing,

Sir Gene: 45:23

Yeah. The fans only. Exactly. And

Ben: 45:26

I said, I said to you that me, you know, Amber heard the time is now

Sir Gene: 45:30

yes, yes, yes. I forward that, that was, that was, I, I think that's totally real.

Ben: 45:36

I dude, they would love it. She would be good at it.

Sir Gene: 45:41

you'd be making the Buku buck.

Ben: 45:43

She could actually pay Johnny back.

Sir Gene: 45:45

She couldn't make all that money and give Johnny some money, which she clearly doesn't want to do. So I was going to say a Mac military Amaris channel. Is that for me, I've been watching that channel for probably 15 years. Like literally since they started,

Ben: 45:58

Yeah, I take issue with some of his stances though.

Sir Gene: 46:01

I don't agree with them on a number of guns, but I still really like the guy. I would totally buy him coffee.

Ben: 46:06

absolutely. And so again, I don't have to agree with someone all the time to enjoy their content. I have enjoyed a lot of it.

Sir Gene: 46:14

example for me right there.

Ben: 46:16

Well,

Sir Gene: 46:16

You're wrong a lot, but that.

Ben: 46:18

Well, like his, his commentary on the new six, eight our six, eight by 51, the fury. I think he's totally wrong. We're talking about a gun that. in its design is going to have less recoil impulse than an AR 10.

Sir Gene: 46:33

Yeah.

Ben: 46:34

All I can say to anyone out there, if you can't handle that recoil, impulse, you don't know what you're doing.

Sir Gene: 46:42

Well, but what about are, are under 120 pounds, elite soldiers out there that are female.

Ben: 46:52

I didn't know they existed.

Sir Gene: 46:54

Oh, should I get rid of the word leads or which word do I need to get rid of? I mean, that, that is a serious consideration like that a woman shooting a 3 0 8 was going to become less accurate after just a couple of shots.

Ben: 47:11

yeah. And what I would say to all of this is in the situations where you would be using full auto. Those should be far and few between three pretty much. Yeah. I mean, suppressing fire. They're very, very, very few cases. Quite frankly, I don't even see the need for three round burst as someone who

Sir Gene: 47:34

neither did Eugene Stone.

Ben: 47:36

and how right was he?

Sir Gene: 47:38

I'd say he probably knew pretty well until he was pushed into it.

Ben: 47:42

Yeah what I would say is that you can, semiauto is really all you need as much fun as fall auto fire can be. Quite frankly, if I'm going into a situation where I need my weapon, I can't carry enough ammo for a full auto gun.

Sir Gene: 48:01

Why we ought to be using the plastic rounds as well, but

Ben: 48:04

Anyway, it's a cool round.

Sir Gene: 48:06

F what's the funniest fill out or your shut.

Ben: 48:08

Oh man. Mack 10,

Sir Gene: 48:10

Okay. So

Ben: 48:11

just because of the design open bolt and just, you know, it's, that's just a cool gun.

Sir Gene: 48:17

And nine millimeter. Yep. So I think my favorite was a full auto Tommy gun shooting. 22 caliber rounds,

Ben: 48:28

that, that would be fun.

Sir Gene: 48:30

500 rounds in a drum going at insanely fast rate of fire. And it was, it was light enough recoil that you could easily control the recoil and you could actually draw a circle with it on the target.

Ben: 48:45

Have you ever looked at the American 180? So the American 180 a family friend had, and it's a, it was designed in the 1960s and it was designed as a the idea being to and I'll drop a link to the Wiki in the chat. And they're pretty damn rare because I don't think they ever went into full production if memory serves, but it's a 22 automatic with the idea of being, being able to put literally 10, 20 rounds on

Sir Gene: 49:18

Oh, yeah, that looks very similar to the time again. Yeah.

Ben: 49:21

Yeah. Yeah. That is a fun gun.

Sir Gene: 49:25

Hmm. Less than 10,000 built. Let's small production run.

Ben: 49:30

Yeah, exactly.

Sir Gene: 49:32

Oh yeah. There you go. 1500 rounds a minute. Yeah. That's that's about the same as what I remember.

Ben: 49:36

Yeah. It's literally in 22 long rifle. I mean it, the idea is for closing quarters combat and not using the mass of the bullet, but multiple impacts. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 49:49

Yeah. Lots of holes.

Ben: 49:51

Yes.

Sir Gene: 49:52

Have you so I've been watching a lot of videos because they keep coming up and recommendations for me on YouTube about the new M five.

Ben: 50:00

Yeah. That's what we were just talking about.

Sir Gene: 50:02

Yeah. And so everyone's got an opinion everyone's going to take in it. Very few people actually have it to demonstrate. I

Ben: 50:11

looking at Grantham's video. He did a good one.

Sir Gene: 50:14

yeah. Yeah. He's got a different issue though. He has head's too small. It just, I can't, I can't unsee it, man. His head does not fit his body.

Ben: 50:24

Yeah, yeah,

Sir Gene: 50:25

just a small headed dude. He's a big guy, but he's small headed. But no, he's funny. I like him. There's a bit, there's been a bunch of them and some of them are definitely more technically proficient and some are more from the Hey I used to be in the military for five years and I have an opinion.

Ben: 50:41

yeah.

Sir Gene: 50:42

And then there's plenty of, I've never been in the military and I hunt and here's my opinion of this thing. But the thing that's interesting in one of the videos I watched the guy said just, you know, there are guns that shoot longer range there, guns that shoot harder, much more massive bullets. There are guns that shoot faster rounds, even though that one is quite fast, but the M five seems to like get to the 75 80th percentile ish in all categories across

Ben: 51:13

actually that was backfire. I think that did the comparison.

Sir Gene: 51:16

Okay. Yeah. I don't even remember the name of the channel, but probably we saw the same one and they, I think that is right there to me, the biggest selling point that the army probably made the right.

Ben: 51:27

Well, and not only that, but at the 80,000 PSI range. And what people have to realize is that the military grade rounds that they're talking about producing A SIG has

Sir Gene: 51:39

a hundred thousand.

Ben: 51:39

105,000 PSI rounds, which to give you a point of reference that is literally 40% more energy than 5, 5, 6 is capable of producing regardless of projectile, regardless of anything else, just the PSI rating, a four or five, six is around

Sir Gene: 51:57

So what would be the, this would be an interesting question. What would be the, the ballistics of the 5, 5, 6 round at 105,000 PSI.

Ben: 52:05

So, okay. So here, here's the problem that you have. And I'm going to use an analogy here and I'm sure people will want to roast me on this and say, that's not exactly how it works, but this is as close to now. Knology as I've ever been able to come think about skipping a rock on on, on, on a pond. You don't go grab a pumice stone, the lightest rock you can grab and fling it as hard as you can, right. That doesn't work for you. What'd you do is you find the right stone for as hard as you did the right amount of throw that you're going to give it. That's about as good of an analogy to ballistic efficiencies. I can give you, you can take a teeny projectile and accelerated super, super fast, But, it's going to get pushed around a lot. You're going to have a lots of issues there. You can take a big, heavy projectile and not push it as fast and you're going to have drop issues. So it's a balancing act is the entire point here of the analogy. So the 5, 5, 6. Yup.

Sir Gene: 53:05

yeah.

Ben: 53:07

I mean, if they took the same cartridge design and did a 5, 5, 6 by 51 with the steel casing And started putting, I mean, you could be talking 4,000 feet per second, pretty easily for a 55 grain bullet.

Sir Gene: 53:18

And is there, how does that speed difference, translate into advantage or disadvantage? And when the bullet leaves the muzzle.

Ben: 53:27

okay. So kinetic energy is one half MV squared. So the, when the mass doubling the mass doubles, the Connecticut energy doubling the velocity is the square of that. So. The point is doubling. The velocity ends up with a lot greater kinetic energy. Here's the problem you're going to have one inertia is a property of mass. So the less mass you have, the lesson nurture you have, which inertia can be easily defined in this circumstance as resistance to change in motion. So what that means is it's harder to accelerate a big object and it's harder to decelerate a big object than it is a small object. So while that 5, 5, 6 would be faster at the bore, it would be slower down range and still only have the same mass also

Sir Gene: 54:16

would be faster than the current 60,000

Ben: 54:20

absolutely 100%

Sir Gene: 54:22

right. But there will, then, then there is another issue, of course, which is friction with the atmosphere

Ben: 54:28

with the atmosphere Coriolis effect in the barrel. And you also have the problem of just ballistic coefficiency, which is how much the wind is going to push it around. So the couple things on this gun I think the military is moving back to a battle rifle style gun, and I'm okay with that because of the types of guns. I like personally that said from

Sir Gene: 54:53

even own the 5, 5, 6, 5 recall.

Ben: 54:55

as correct, the smallest caliber AR I have is the six, eight SPC, which that was because I have a bunch of two 70 stuff laying around and it's something I can reload.

Sir Gene: 55:06

And you like the two 70, if I remember.

Ben: 55:07

Yeah. I'd love the two 70. Yeah. So the 2 77 fury, I will not be a purchaser of currently because I can't load it. I can't hand load it. The ammo is expensive, But that gun, the way the mechanics of that gun in a 3 0 8 or, you know, really a 3 0 8 or even a six, five grand old. If I had six, five, I would go six, five grand. And that gun all day

Sir Gene: 55:31

perform as well at 500 meters. If you look at the charts

Ben: 55:35

Compared to what

Sir Gene: 55:36

compared to the six, eight.

Ben: 55:38

the six, eight. by 51. Correct.

Sir Gene: 55:41

Yeah.

Ben: 55:41

But it's reloadable and I can hand load it. I can't do that with the S the, the, the six, eight by 51 is with that bi-metal case. You, you can't reload it.

Sir Gene: 55:52

You know that the, the ball ammo doesn't come in the bi-metal case

Ben: 55:55

No, actually the soft point ammo doesn't come in a ball Mount a bi-metal case and it's operating at lower pressures. And at that point, why not just have a six, five? Yep.

Sir Gene: 56:05

Yep.

Ben: 56:06

So

Sir Gene: 56:06

Yeah. I thought it was ball ammo. It's not ball IMO.

Ben: 56:09

no, it's the soft point.

Sir Gene: 56:11

What the hell is the difference?

Ben: 56:12

The soft point has a lead soft point that deforms and creates a the, well, let me put it this way. The soft point is banned by the Geneva convention,

Sir Gene: 56:23

Okay. So it's not a military around.

Ben: 56:25

correct. It's a hunting around.

Sir Gene: 56:27

I see. I see. Okay. Got it. Got it. That's a good explanation. Yeah. Cause shape wise, they're the same, right?

Ben: 56:32

More or less, I mean the soft point is going to have a lead tip that's flat at the end. The, ball ammo is going to be a full metal jacket, copper jacket. That's you know, you know, literally, almost,

Sir Gene: 56:45

the high speed ammo is actually a it's a ballistic tip.

Ben: 56:51

Actually doesn't matter. Any

Sir Gene: 56:53

they're showing in photos, let's

Ben: 56:54

does doesn't matter. The, the, the re the for ammo and epistle loaders will know this, you know, you can do lead slugs in pure lead slugs in a pistol, because it's a lower enough philosophy. If you try that with a rifle, it would literally spin apart. That's why we have copper jacketed ammo that copper just keeps the spin rate and the centripetal force together.

Sir Gene: 57:19

Yeah,

Ben: 57:20

Anyway, now that we've nerded out a little bit.

Sir Gene: 57:23

well, no, this is good. This is, I think people appreciate the fact that we're one of the gels that doesn't just talk about computer shit, but we talk about gun shit.

Ben: 57:32

Oh, I, I, Hey, I like both, man.

Sir Gene: 57:34

They go hand in hand and you happened to have had a link to leisure suit. Larry, you ha

Ben: 57:41

After I heard you and Derek talking about that on Friday on unrelenting, I was like, I bet you, God has that. And we were, we had talked about that last time we

Sir Gene: 57:50

Hmm.

Ben: 57:51

and I've found it and sure enough, they did. So I sent it to you. Yeah,

Sir Gene: 57:55

Yeah, no, that's a, that is a good, anyway, I think it's a cool gun. I do think that I also

Ben: 58:02

operated.

Sir Gene: 58:04

yeah, which I like it's got a folding stock. It doesn't have to have a fucking spring and buffer in the back.

Ben: 58:09

Yep. because the buffer is all internal and the really coolest part of this gun, which I hope they make a civilian model that I don't have to register as an SBR. Cause I, I really do want one of these guns in like a 3 0 8. One of the coolest parts of this gun though, is the technology that's used in the suppressor. So it is a flow through suppressor design, which is

Sir Gene: 58:30

Yeah. Talk about that. And I'm going to pour myself a cup of.

Ben: 58:33

okay. So the flow through suppressor designs are historically have been crap at actually suppressing the report of a weapon. The advantage that the SIG has is that they're using modern manufacturing techniques of 3d printing to be able to change the baffled design in a way that they otherwise would not be able to do to not only prevent gas back in the operators face, but to allow a greater reduction in the report or the rifle and the suppressor for this that's going to be issued with a rifle is pretty damn cool. The one choice I really questioned the military on, on this entire rifle project is the optic. I don't know if Gene's back yet or not though. Since these genes turning into the four AkaMy divorce, got to let the dog out.

Sir Gene: 59:23

been talking the whole time. I'm just on mute. That's all DOR, please. My chase, Lance. Doesn't squeak on like his

Ben: 59:31

yeah, I think the weakest part of this decision by the military is really the optic

Sir Gene: 59:35

yeah. Which I would totally want. I want that optic for my other guns too. It is very cool.

Ben: 59:40

is cool. but man, I hope they can deliver on the promises.

Sir Gene: 59:45

Well, although

Ben: 59:46

a Vortec hater. I mean, I, let me say this every first gen Vortec optic, I purchased, I have gotten rid of, I have two out of all the objects that I have. I have two Vortec objects. I have one on my, a 3 0 8 bolt gun and I have one on my SOCOM, 16.

Sir Gene: 1:00:04

Hmm. I always just thought they suck in general, but whenever

Ben: 1:00:08

The iBox the iBox on the so I've got the PST on my 3 0 8 bolt gun. The iBox socks on that scope, if you have it adjusted right for you, it's tolerable and it's okay. And it's half the price of the comparable Leopold. so there's that. But what I'd say, what I have on my 300 rum is a very different optic. anyway, and then the other vortex that I have is a one by six variable power scope that is on my SOCOM, 16, which is a sub 500 yard gun. And that optic, I love, I actually, that, that it's a perfect application for that optic in that gun to me, I

Sir Gene: 1:00:55

I need to find, okay, knee may not be the right word here, given that I've spent way too much money on toys lately, by the way, they'd tell you about my watch. I told you about my watch that I got for myself for my birthday, right?

Ben: 1:01:08

a new,

Sir Gene: 1:01:09

Oh. So it is the tactics model from Garmin,

Ben: 1:01:15

Hmm,

Sir Gene: 1:01:15

which has a ballistic calculator in it

Ben: 1:01:17

yep. Yep. You'd be a bit the big square one.

Sir Gene: 1:01:20

And now it's round big, big round wrist size looking thing.

Ben: 1:01:25

okay. And you'll have to send me the link.

Sir Gene: 1:01:26

I will, I'll send you it. I got it. Mainly because I was getting sick of charging my apple watch every day, which is a stupid thing that they make you do this watch goes for, depending on what you're using on anywhere from five days to 30 days. And if you put it into watch only mode without all the wifi and Bluetooth and shit, it can go almost a year.

Ben: 1:01:52

Hm. So I, my my watches, I have two that are my main watches. I've got a Casio pro Trek that's solar powered, and, you know, it's got a compass and barometer and shit like that. Go ahead.

Sir Gene: 1:02:10

I said, yep.

Ben: 1:02:11

But I I, I I never, I never charged it. It's just, it is, you know, it's just I can walk out into the woods and never have to worry about this watch again. And then I have the smartwatch version that similar that I can get about two days out of, depending on. my GPS use, it's really a hiking watch and stuff like that.

Sir Gene: 1:02:29

But who makes up?

Ben: 1:02:30

I'm sorry,

Sir Gene: 1:02:31

Who makes up?

Ben: 1:02:32

Casio,

Sir Gene: 1:02:33

Oh, it is a cancer. Oh, I haven't looked at their watches I guess. And sufficiently long enough to

Ben: 1:02:37

Th I, this watch is two or three years old. It's nothing new

Sir Gene: 1:02:41

I am probably looked at them in five.

Ben: 1:02:43

Yeah. but I mean, at the same time you can download local maps. It has GPS and gloss, nos you know, lots of fun functions. You know, that that is sufficient for me. Ballistic calculators you know, the, what I would say there is they are good for being a baseline to generate your own dope, but the quite frankly, the ammo is so variable for store-bought IMO. And if you're doing your own

Sir Gene: 1:03:09

I am or you're buying remember?

Ben: 1:03:11

no, it doesn't. I'm sorry. Even magic. Great ammo is very, the ammo I produce versus MatchGrade ammo is night and day difference on consistency.

Sir Gene: 1:03:22

All right. I may be willing to sacrifice a box of my new plastic grounds for your tests.

Ben: 1:03:27

Okay. Well,

Sir Gene: 1:03:28

bucks around

Ben: 1:03:30

ah, gene that's

Sir Gene: 1:03:33

well, they're, they're supposed to be the most accurate rounds you can buy right now. Like their consistency is exactly identical from romp around.

Ben: 1:03:42

well, and with eliminating the variability in case weight, they could manufacture, they could have a manufacturing process where the variability in case weight is, is sufficiently accurate enough that they can be very accurate in what is actually in the round and kick out The rounds that are over or under. So part of the problem in mass manufacturing of ammunition is that, you

Sir Gene: 1:04:08

The word mass.

Ben: 1:04:10

yes, exactly. You know, the,

Sir Gene: 1:04:12

That was a double entendre.

Ben: 1:04:14

the, the case normal, just copper, you know, normal, just brass casing has sufficient enough variability. I mean, if you take an accurate scale and you weigh your cases, you can see 10 to 20 grain variability in the cases. So as a manufacturing process is going through your primer, weight, your case, weight, your projectile weight. Those all have to be very, very, very precise because the powder weight behind it has to be very, very, very precise. And when you have variability between case primer projectile, you, you can't even begin to

Sir Gene: 1:04:56

Oh, and the inside dimensions have to be identical. I mean, that's the other big

Ben: 1:05:00

dimensions or less Evan impact as overall weight. And the reason why is because if you're trying to get, let's say you're trying to get a powder throw in there that is consistent within between two and five grains of each other. The other three components combined have. to be. Less than that in variability and they are inevitably not. And the casing being one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle here from mass standpoint eliminating the variability there with plastics, because I think you can probably do that better than you can with metal is probably you know, where they're gaining that

Sir Gene: 1:05:39

Well, so you can 3d print, 3d, print them yourself.

Ben: 1:05:42

Yeah. And while You were gone, what I was talking about was the 3d printing of the SIG suppressor.

Sir Gene: 1:05:48

Well, I didn't realize I was 3d printed. That's very cool.

Ben: 1:05:50

Yeah. So the new M five suppressor, the what's really cool. about it is that it's a flow-through suppressor and usually flow through suppressors. Don't Have that great of a DB reduction, but they end up with less gas back in your face. What's really cool. Is that because of the baffle design that they would otherwise not be able to do excepted this 3d printing process, they've actually gotten a really cool balance there from all accounts, like significant DVD reduction in noise and no gas back in your face. But part of that is also the gas piston system. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Sir Gene: 1:06:28

well, no, I'm finish your thought. I got someone on a related question.

Ben: 1:06:33

That was the finishing of the thought that the gas piston system and the flow-through suppressor combined is why you're not getting a gas.

Sir Gene: 1:06:40

got it. Okay. Have you seen the the Tesla.

Ben: 1:06:44

So the Zencaster wouldn't let me on mute there for a second. No, I have not.

Sir Gene: 1:06:48

Oh, okay. So, it's designed for a fluid valve that Tesla did that prevents backflow,

Ben: 1:06:58

Hmm,

Sir Gene: 1:06:59

And it just by the shape of it basically,

Ben: 1:07:03

interesting.

Sir Gene: 1:07:03

but free flowing in one direction and creates eddies and currents in the opposite direction,

Ben: 1:07:09

So

Sir Gene: 1:07:09

doesn't completely eliminate, but it prevents, you know,

Ben: 1:07:13

so it's, a fluid diode.

Sir Gene: 1:07:15

Yeah. It's, it's, Lamor going in one direction and completely you know, full of eddies and currents in the opposite direction.

Ben: 1:07:22

Yeah. Interesting.

Sir Gene: 1:07:23

I just saw, I was curious to see if anybody had made a you know, baffles that were based on that design at all.

Ben: 1:07:30

I would have to look at the design, but not that

Sir Gene: 1:07:32

I'll send you a link

Ben: 1:07:33

So the flow-through design is really, I mean, quite frankly, you could almost call it a linear compensator the way flow-through suppressors work. So what that means is you're targeting the report of the rifle versus suppressing the report of the rifle. and by the way, you can buy a linear compensator without the paperwork, just for the.

Sir Gene: 1:07:56

and then it doesn't affect the south coast.

Ben: 1:08:00

So the report that the linear compensator reduces the amount of heard report that the operator would hear. So think, think of it. as a, like a shape charge. It's focusing that sound wave towards the target.

Sir Gene: 1:08:18

Got it. And this is the, Target's going to hear it after the bullet arrives. It doesn't matter. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah.

Ben: 1:08:26

Yeah. And Ooh, you knew where I'm shooting you from

Sir Gene: 1:08:30

squeeze that into about roughly the diameter of the cone of the bullet, that'd be even better.

Ben: 1:08:36

well, so the, the problem you have there is like any accuracy and firearms, right? We'll say, well, we'll measure an MOA since that's most popular, even though I'm partial to radians, but you know, you let's say you have one MOA rifle, great. You're shooting one inch circle at a hundred yards. Well now at a thousand yards, that's a 10 inch circle

Sir Gene: 1:09:03

Yeah.

Ben: 1:09:04

without any wind, without anything else, you are perfect conditions, the best possible accuracy you're going to get out of that

Sir Gene: 1:09:13

to get there. So that's a lot more complexity.

Ben: 1:09:15

Exactly. when you start taking into count gravity at Coriolis, a wind, you know, which direction is your rifle twist rate? Anyway,

Sir Gene: 1:09:28

Yeah,

Ben: 1:09:29

so this weekend guns, I'm sorry,

Sir Gene: 1:09:31

That's what the watch is for

Ben: 1:09:34

again, for a base for based data to start your dope card. sure. But I prefer just shooting the ammo and knowing it and writing down the dope card.

Sir Gene: 1:09:46

sure. Sure. I just think it's, it's cool. Even if I never use it, it's just cool having that in the wa and it talks to a laser range finder.

Ben: 1:09:55

So do you know why I like radians versus MOA?

Sir Gene: 1:10:00

Y

Ben: 1:10:01

So radians you take whatever unit of measurement you want to put it in. So let's say yards, meters, feet, whatever, and you do some multiplication and division and you come out with a right answer regardless of the unit of measurement you were in whatever unit of measurement you're in. That output is going to be the same. You can't say that about MOA.

Sir Gene: 1:10:25

yep. Well, radiance, I kinda green. You know, I'm not a math on science or anything, but I do agree that it, it seems more logical. It's like, I don't know. It one is just historically based on the number sets that we've inherited from Paso realizations and the other one just makes more logical sense.

Ben: 1:10:47

Okay. So science and guns are the only places that I've ever accepted the metric system into my life fully

Sir Gene: 1:10:57

That's funny. Of course I was born with the metric system and then I had to learn the

Ben: 1:11:02

the Imperial Yeah. So it, I mean, it's, it's funny because I'm, I'm exactly the opposite. You know, I was born into the Imperial system and when it came down to learning how to shoot and when I say learning how to shoot my, my first exposure to guns was at five years old, my dad started taking me, dove hunting with him, and I had a pop gun that he had made me. And it wasn't a toy. I wasn't allowed to play with it. It was only when we went hunting and I had to treat it like a real gun. If that cork was in the end of the barrel, I had to treat it like a loaded gun and I had to unload it before we went inside. And I, you know, everything Draeger

Sir Gene: 1:11:43

way to learn the process.

Ben: 1:11:45

It is.

Sir Gene: 1:11:46

Well, being dangerous.

Ben: 1:11:47

Exactly and okay, son, this is your gun. This is how you treat it. That's the way he taught me. So I, I mean, I learned pretty early on shotguns

Sir Gene: 1:11:57

this is your rifle. This is your gun.

Ben: 1:11:58

yeah, there are many like it, but this one is mine. Anyway. The, the treatment was such that, you know, my, my first rifle was a 22 long rifle that my grandpa got me. And it was, you know, I would walk up and down the slew picking off snakes, and I know this hurts Eugene, but that shit, man, I would empty boxes of ammo at copperheads and watermarks.

Sir Gene: 1:12:26

Were there that many water moccasins around. I thought they were pretty reclusive.

Ben: 1:12:30

oh shit. You talk about the slews and Southeast Texas, are you getting me and water moccasins? They mate, Right? So what would you have with water moccasins as you'll a smell them before you see them and, and during the spring weather, there's one, there's two I

Sir Gene: 1:12:49

Well, I just liked the way they float on the water

Ben: 1:12:51

Oh God, they're

Sir Gene: 1:12:52

by little, little moving turds.

Ben: 1:12:54

Yeah. They are a nasty creature that there's nothing redeeming about a water moccasin in my eyes, but that's because I grew up in Southeast Texas and.

Sir Gene: 1:13:02

they control the rat population. Doesn't mean that alone should be.

Ben: 1:13:05

I don't know. You gotta spend out spend enough time in the marsh of Southeast

Sir Gene: 1:13:08

it's in rats,

Ben: 1:13:10

I mean, the, I, I don't think you understand the amount of population of watermarks and copperheads that

Sir Gene: 1:13:16

but that means there's a lot of rats getting killed,

Ben: 1:13:18

It does. And it's not just when you, when you talk about rads, it's not just about your little normal house rat. The nutria population is a whole thing.

Sir Gene: 1:13:29

Yeah. This is where I think the pythons would do well.

Ben: 1:13:31

Yeah. So people who don't understand a nutria rat is you know, 30 pounds.

Sir Gene: 1:13:37

That's like a possum size rat.

Ben: 1:13:39

Yeah. It's bigger than that.

Sir Gene: 1:13:41

You think it's bigger than bottom?

Ben: 1:13:43

nutrient can get pretty damn big. Part of the way my dad actually paid for his college education was trapping nutria, which nutria is used as a substitute for mink for. So, anyway, regardless, so I

Sir Gene: 1:13:59

pretty nasty.

Ben: 1:14:01

a horrible animal, horrible animal destructive, absolutely destructive.

Sir Gene: 1:14:08

Yeah. Possums are way better.

Ben: 1:14:10

Well, they as the only north American marsupial. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:14:15

Well, I just loved their defense mechanism.

Ben: 1:14:18

Play dead.

Sir Gene: 1:14:19

Yep. And also Musk to smell like you're not just dead, but you've been dead.

Ben: 1:14:24

Yeah did I ever tell you about my dad's buddy? He said who I grew up hunting on his land. And so my dad's buddy said had this this what's the other animal. It must as a defense skunk. There you go. I, I, I don't know why that escaped me. So he had the skunk that he had dissented as a pet and he was dating this girl and this gunk liked to sleep behind the toilet and he took her over to his place. And she went to use the bathroom and she was sitting on the toilet and all of a sudden this cat, like object comes out, rubbing against her and everything else. She looks down and it's a skunk. And she ran out of that toilet with her pants still around her ankles and just, you know, freak it out and it was descended and everything else. And anyway, it's just been a story that's been laughed about forever.

Sir Gene: 1:15:16

that's funny. I don't think I've ever touched the skunk. I've seen plenty of them, but I've never actually come close enough to pet one.

Ben: 1:15:26

Well, I wouldn't pet one. that wasn't dissented

Sir Gene: 1:15:29

I don't mind the smell. I,

Ben: 1:15:32

get sprayed, and then we'll

Sir Gene: 1:15:33

that, that, well, fair enough. But that's smell. I've been around plenty of skunks. But that smell reminds me of German toys

Ben: 1:15:43

Yeah. It's summer captain.

Sir Gene: 1:15:45

from the seventies,

Ben: 1:15:46

Yeah. So the skunk smell, paper, mill smell, tire, factory smell, or all a Merck captain chains. Yep. If it say same, same carbon chain, it just depends on how many carbons in the chain on how stinky it is. But it's a more captain. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:16:05

Hmm. Interesting. So I was right then that is the same smell. Cause that's what the memory is from is like,

Ben: 1:16:11

Yeah. From the plastic I'm sure. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:16:13

German. Yeah. German, like a model, railroad trains and things. And they all smelled just like that.

Ben: 1:16:21

Yeah. Depending on the plastic manufacturing process, it would be the same, literally the same chemical, depending on the number of carbons on the chemical chain

Sir Gene: 1:16:30

Interesting.

Ben: 1:16:32

and the more carbons the stinkier, the mercaptans

Sir Gene: 1:16:35

many carbons the skunks use?

Ben: 1:16:38

oh, hell I don't know. I'd have to Google that. Let me Google that for Eugene.

Sir Gene: 1:16:43

cool stuff. What else is going on?

Ben: 1:16:46

The only other thing I really, even broach to talk about would be this, you know, people are comparing what Biden is proposing to the former assault weapons ban. The biggest difference that I want to call out for everyone that I personally see is the former salt weapons ban said, okay, we're going to ban manufacturing. We're going to change these things. Okay, fine. But right now they're, they're pushing for our national registry.

Sir Gene: 1:17:19

Yeah.

Ben: 1:17:20

And I, you know, I, I see lots of memes online. I see lots of people sitting there saying, wow, I lost them in a boating accident. That is the, I'm going to couch what I say here. Cause I don't want to, I don't want to have an Alex Jones moment of being calling for violence or anything like that. And I don't want to fall into the trap that some liberals did on the NRA stuff. But what I would say is if you're hiding your weapons, why do you have them? And that's really, my last thought for today is if you are unwilling to use your weapons in a moment of crisis, if you don't see a need, if you're willing to, oh, I have my precious and I'll hide it now. I lost it. I don't know why you want me to register it. I lost it. Or I sold it or I did this or I did that.

Sir Gene: 1:18:12

Yeah, yeah,

Ben: 1:18:13

Why do you have it.

Sir Gene: 1:18:15

yeah. Yeah. Well, and I think the honest answer is most people have it for recreational.

Ben: 1:18:21

Most people have it because most people are LARPing.

Sir Gene: 1:18:24

Yeah, but that's what recreational purposes is. It's role-play is recreation,

Ben: 1:18:29

Yeah. Fully agree. Okay. So Lark, all you want, but what you're on to

Sir Gene: 1:18:35

action. Role play is what that means. If you don't know what LARPing is.

Ben: 1:18:39

I mean, you take it to the range. What are you going to do? Oh, look at this cool gun that I have. Ha is that registered? I mean, all you're doing is keeping it at that point. So

Sir Gene: 1:18:49

yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 1:18:51

I would say,

Sir Gene: 1:18:52

I understand what your what your point is, and I don't disagree at all, but I also practically speaking, know that most people who have guns, Y you know, like from the circle of people, I know most of them fall in the category of there's nothing wrong with guns. And I enjoy my hobby. That's it

Ben: 1:19:14

that's, fine. Then register your guns. But those people who will sit there and say, I lost them in a boating accident. I fail to see the logic in that.

Sir Gene: 1:19:22

I've never understood the boating accident part at all ever.

Ben: 1:19:26

Oh, I lost the middle. Have them anymore.

Sir Gene: 1:19:29

I mean, what, how did the odds of a gun being on a boat to begin with enough to lose

Ben: 1:19:36

a joke. It's an absurdity.

Sir Gene: 1:19:38

is absurdity. Yeah. And I, I don't, I mean, the saying that you might as well say I hit it somewhere, go look for it.

Ben: 1:19:45

Yeah. I mean, well, or I sold it or whatever you want to

Sir Gene: 1:19:49

At least selling it. There's more feasible,

Ben: 1:19:51

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:19:52

and I've done that. Like I've sold a shit ton of weapons.

Ben: 1:19:54

Well, and, and for those who don't know in the state of Texas with which both Jean and I reside in, if I want to sell Jean a gun, there is no requirement for me to give a background check or anything. Now, if I know gene to be a felon and I sell him a gun, that is a crime, but let's say I know Jean, and I don't think he's a felon and I sell him a gun. It's the same as selling him a lawnmower or a toaster,

Sir Gene: 1:20:21

Yeah.

Ben: 1:20:21

no receipt required. Yeah, absolutely. And people who want to close the background, check loophole as it were, and that off that stupid. So some of the proposed legislation would, if we're at the range together and we're shooting us a, Hey man, this is a cool guy. And why don't you try and shoot it? I think you'll like it. And I hand it to you. Some of the proposed legislation would make that a crime because that would be a transfer of a weapon from my possession to yours.

Sir Gene: 1:20:49

Right.

Ben: 1:20:50

And without a background check.

Sir Gene: 1:20:52

not a transfer of ownership and they're using possession in there.

Ben: 1:20:56

And that's the thing is that the definition of possession versus ownership, it also some of the proposed legislation would make a lot of the trusts for NFA items illegal. So that that's actually a bigger deal. It impacts a smaller minority of the population, but if you have a trust for an NFA suppressor or short barreled rifle or anything like that, the transfer of possession, the fact that they're using the word possession versus ownership is

Sir Gene: 1:21:23

Yeah, no, that's, I really am hoping that people have learned a lesson and remember how stupid and crazy the band was in the nineties. And that all it really did was raise the price of guns and

Ben: 1:21:37

feature set.

Sir Gene: 1:21:38

and they did not at all positively or negatively affect the amount of gun violence out there because those people that commit gun violence crimes do not pay attention to what the laws say. And this has always been the main argument in my eyes is if you make laws that are targeted specifically at addressing criminals, then you're just forcing the other 99.99, 9% to bend over backwards for something that the intended people will never comply with.

Ben: 1:22:13

So the biggest effect of the the nineties assault weapons ban was the arise of the thumb hole stock. I don't know if you remember that, but my mom to this day still has an Egyptian Maddie that has the thumb hole stock in it. So it's not technically a pistol grip, but it's the exact same hold and effect of a pistol grip.

Sir Gene: 1:22:38

Yeah. Well, it's, it's kinda like the the, the current very popular way of getting shorter barrels

Ben: 1:22:46

Yeah. Well the shooting brace shooting brace versus a

Sir Gene: 1:22:49

to a pistol with a brace.

Ben: 1:22:50

Yep.

Sir Gene: 1:22:52

Which, I mean, honestly, I'm somewhat shocked at how long that's been going out and no one's managed to

Ben: 1:22:58

The fact that the ATF says, yes, it's a shooting brace and shouldering. it, does not matter. So literally you're using it as a stock.

Sir Gene: 1:23:07

but if you have short arms,

Ben: 1:23:09

Well, the whole repeal, the NFA repeal, the NFA abolish the ATS.

Sir Gene: 1:23:16

I want to own my goddamn cannon.

Ben: 1:23:19

I have a Canon. Yeah, actually. So my my grandfather was an artillery officer. I, we can end on this. My grandfather was an artillery officer in Korea and he was fascinated by artillery of the past. So he had out of a bronze, made a miniature of one of his favorite artillery pieces. And anyway, I've inherited it over the years and it's fully functional. So yeah, I have a Canon,

Sir Gene: 1:23:50

That was very cool. I wonder if Adam had donated his machine gun yet?

Ben: 1:23:57

I didn't know you had one

Sir Gene: 1:23:58

Yeah. He had a his, that, that uncle that was in world war two. I don't know if it's, maybe it wasn't grandma, uncle, I don't know. Maybe, I don't know. Anyway, a relative, a male relative of his, that was in I think he were Jima and a few other conflicts during world war II. He had a Japanese machine gun and that ended up getting passed on to Adam. And then when Adam and I went to the museum of the war of the Pacific I know he talked to the museum about donating it to them.

Ben: 1:24:33

So, from mutt, same grandpa, I have a Japanese air SACA that he had recalibrated or chambered into three or three and field

Sir Gene: 1:24:43

Hmm.

Ben: 1:24:44

and the corresponding bayonet. Yeah. the law. Lots of cool stuff, man.

Sir Gene: 1:24:49

Yeah. And so I know you want to end on this, but you can open up a topic here. So as far as conquests souvenirs,

Ben: 1:24:57

Huh?

Sir Gene: 1:24:58

let me ask you this before I tell you my opinion. Is there anything wrong with having conquests souvenirs, including souvenirs years from Germany in world war II?

Ben: 1:25:11

I don't think so. No. I mean,

Sir Gene: 1:25:13

So I don't either. I think that that like, to me,

Ben: 1:25:17

part of warfare

Sir Gene: 1:25:18

yeah. So to me, like if you have a collection of German metals or swastika on a a knife

Ben: 1:25:28

or a Luger.

Sir Gene: 1:25:30

or Lugar, right.

Ben: 1:25:31

I mean, what's the

Sir Gene: 1:25:32

things that have swastikas on them and German symbology. I see nothing at all wrong with that because these are natural souvenirs. They're war trophies. They're, they're the things that all my relatives would have post world war two, as a memory of the people, the other relatives that died during world war

Ben: 1:25:54

Well, what I would say there is that the swastika is not a German symbol in any way, shape or form. It's a lot older than that. So let's not blame the symbol,

Sir Gene: 1:26:03

it is, but they flipped it around to point the other direction.

Ben: 1:26:06

Yeah. Okay. Whatever cool. I let's say I have a signed copy of mine comp by Hitler.

Sir Gene: 1:26:13

Oh, that'd be worth a couple of bucks

Ben: 1:26:15

Oh yeah. Well, and regardless, does that make me a Nazi or does that make me the owner of a very valuable piece of history?

Sir Gene: 1:26:22

being a straight white male makes you a Nazi so we can stop.

Ben: 1:26:26

I like how you assume I'm straight Jean.

Sir Gene: 1:26:29

Hm. Well, true enough, but it's, as long as you were, as straight

Ben: 1:26:32

about as straight

Sir Gene: 1:26:34

know how straight he was.

Ben: 1:26:36

anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry. It's just a joke.

Sir Gene: 1:26:38

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I assume your gender too?

Ben: 1:26:41

yeah, you did. You did. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:26:44

God damn. And I'm a lesbian, non white female in a straight white male body.

Ben: 1:26:50

Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, if you can be transgender, why can't you be transracial?

Sir Gene: 1:26:57

Well, that's the thing. I just don't think the people of the other races particularly like it. I mean, look in the end. Most of us are actually, and I, I hate the word race should not apply to the color of your skin because we're all the same genetic human race, like a Chimp is of a different race.

Ben: 1:27:17

I Chimp is of a different species.

Sir Gene: 1:27:20

Yeah. Well, but species race.

Ben: 1:27:23

So just from a biology standpoint, the difference would be, can you breed and produce viable offspring?

Sir Gene: 1:27:31

Exactly. And you can't do that with a Chimp. I'm pretty sure people have tried. That's why we got Hades

Ben: 1:27:35

Yeah, the Russians tried pretty hard.

Sir Gene: 1:27:38

reading with chimps. Yeah.

Ben: 1:27:40

Yeah. During the fifties, there was an entire Russian program on trying to develop a super soldier. Right.

Sir Gene: 1:27:46

Yeah. I think that's called American profits.

Ben: 1:27:49

Okay.

Sir Gene: 1:27:50

Super soldier made of chimps. Right. But the if you're gonna use the term race to identify Asians, blacks, whites, whatever then there are very few people that have just a Amano DNA that live in the U S

Ben: 1:28:10

Almost none.

Sir Gene: 1:28:11

there are people in different countries that can certainly have that, like, you know, a bunch of Norwegians pre the migrant population of Norway. It is very very likely you will find 95 plus percent of the same kind of genetics there. But I did my DNA analysis many years ago now using both 23 and me and the, whatever the other company was,

Ben: 1:28:35

so the CIA has your record.

Sir Gene: 1:28:37

oh, dude, they've had my record since the seventies I'm sell. Don't care about that stuff. I'm not inconvenient. Everybody knows exactly who I am. So what was interesting though, that I found out was that I had roughly 1% Pacific Islander, nobody in my family tree acknowledges anybody being from that part of the world. So I'm very curious about that. And it's ever since I've legitimately because of the DNA profile, I have adopted my heritage. As a Pacific Islander

Ben: 1:29:12

Yeah, so that whenever you start to do DNA analysis, you start to get into an interesting arise in statistical variation of non paternal events. Huh?

Sir Gene: 1:29:26

and statistical bullshit ability.

Ben: 1:29:28

Well, you, you have these non paternal events that have apparently happened throughout history. Apparently a lot of our ancestors were CUCs and didn't know it.

Sir Gene: 1:29:39

Yeah, that's true. Or maybe they didn't know it. Maybe. Maybe they did that.

Ben: 1:29:43

possibly, by the way, I sent you a Wikipedia article on the humanity experiments that the USSR conducted as early as the 1920s.

Sir Gene: 1:29:52

Ah, yeah. Yeah, no, you got to believe everything in Wikipedia. That's for

Ben: 1:29:55

Not at all bad, but I thought it was funny.

Sir Gene: 1:29:58

Huh. Look up moon landing on Wikipedia while we're at it. Let's look up a world trade center on Wikipedia to

Ben: 1:30:05

WTC seven, I actually, so I had I had an interesting encounter with a glowy, probably the glorious person I've ever met. And by the way, I've had some very direct talks with former directors at the NSA. So, the, the guy who married my parents was a former CIA officer who during a rain Contra was involved in let's say just flights. So when I say this person was pretty damn glowy, they're glowy. But yeah, it was an interesting, it's been an interesting week, Jane.

Sir Gene: 1:30:40

Okay. That's all you're going to say on that.

Ben: 1:30:42

Well, Hmm. So w we're we're at a bar and this person works for the same company I do. And I'm just looking at the background and LinkedIn and everything just, shit's not adding up, you know, it's just one of those things. This is

Sir Gene: 1:31:03

Running the background and fingerprint analysis in this guy. I got a, just a hankering that this guy's up to. No. Good.

Ben: 1:31:11

so you've run into these people that are extremely. Cognizant of what they're doing extreme, always very controlled and tight in various ways. Very cognizant of what they're doing. They have a funky background. I mean, this is how you play spot the spook.

Sir Gene: 1:31:29

The word purposeful.

Ben: 1:31:30

exactly. Very deliberate, deliberate on absolutely everything. Anyway. So we're sitting there talking and the subject of Russia actually came up during this conversation and I said you know, you can't buy into half of the cyber shit. That's attributed to Russia. Well, why not? Well, one attribution is fucking impossible if you know anything about cybersecurity and then two, even if you trust implicitly the agencies that are handing you information, how can you say that they are being the one you can't say that they're being accurate and two, why would you trust them when we've been lied to all along? You know, and this, that, and that anyway, WTC seven came up And oh, well that's just conspiracy theory. No, no, it's a building that fell that wasn't impacted by a plane. And it's the only the only skyscraper to ever fall just from fires. So, no, that's not a conspiracy theory. Something happened there, a

Sir Gene: 1:32:34

not a fire. The downstairs floors.

Ben: 1:32:36

Yeah, I, conspiracy theory would be saying that the Pentagon was struck by a missile, but I have some pretty good evidence for that too, if you want to talk through it anyway just this person's agenda on pushing, especially on some recent developments, I AKI a pipe dream and saying, Russia, Russia, Russia, man. I, I just don't see it. Okay. There's a really characters in the code. What the fucking do have you heard of WikiLeaks vault seven? You know, and in fact that got brought up and then that got into the conversation of Snowden and Assange and whether or not they're

Sir Gene: 1:33:13

Hero or villain

Ben: 1:33:15

And you know, going back and forth with this person. I don't know, just certain timings and we'll talk about it offline a little bit more, but you cannot trust your government. I don't care what government you have, whether it's absolutely benign or not. You cannot trust your government because, and the old adage that power corrupts is absolutely true.

Sir Gene: 1:33:40

yeah. It's it reduces the cost of your decisions.

Ben: 1:33:44

And to take stolen that his word one man's death is a tragedy, a millions, a million man. Death is a statistic and that's the order of operations of government is you remove it from the personal, into the statistical.

Sir Gene: 1:34:00

Yep. That's absolutely right. And it's this is why also I've been a big fan over saying this for many, many years that the, the best port system, the best Blease that we will ever have are going to be not people but machines.

Ben: 1:34:23

I, well, I will disagree with you there because I think the best court system that we can have the best is a grand jury versus a prosecutor. I think it's, impaneling a grand jury going through some things dissembling. It, reassembling it with a different group of people over and over again, so that it's not a profession, but the average man judging the average man.

Sir Gene: 1:34:48

Yeah.

Ben: 1:34:48

when I say, man here, I'm using proper English and not knowing the sex and assuming the masculine.

Sir Gene: 1:34:56

Yeah. I, well, I don't disagree with you, but I just think that if laws are intended to be a bade, then relying on humanity to interpret things is a flaw.

Ben: 1:35:08

Well, so do you think laws are intended to be obeyed,

Sir Gene: 1:35:12

That's a separate question.

Ben: 1:35:13

but it's, it's

Sir Gene: 1:35:15

I think laws ought to be well, and here's the. If we had a legal system driven by machinery by computer, essentially the laws would apply equally to rich people, poor people and politicians,

Ben: 1:35:33

I guess I would

Sir Gene: 1:35:34

there's nobody to bribe or co ERs or push or sway because it's logical rules. They're making determinations.

Ben: 1:35:43

Yeah. I would say differently. I would say that if a law is sufficiently violated, it probably shouldn't be a law.

Sir Gene: 1:35:48

I agree with that. I totally agree with

Ben: 1:35:50

A perfect example would be like marijuana restrictions, actually.

Sir Gene: 1:35:55

If we would have had the death penalty for marijuana, we wouldn't have the marijuana problem we have today.

Ben: 1:36:01

I don't think we have a marijuana problem today.

Sir Gene: 1:36:04

Okay. So you're not going to think that bait. Okay. Fine at dammit. Yeah. It's if you're going to bother spending the effort to pass a law, I don't like laws being passed just to be speaking points for politicians to use in their next campaign. If it's going to be a law, then it ought to be applied. And if it's a bad law, kind of like we have with prohibition, then people are to say that it's a bad law, pushed back and change it. Even if it's part of the constitution now, because of the.

Ben: 1:36:39

Yeah. So what ended up happening in prohibition and what's happening today in the war on drugs while somewhat analogous? One of the things you have to realize is that prohibition did not, did not make a criminal out of the consumer. So if you, it was only the manufacturer and distribution of alcohol that was illegal during prohibition. So if you had alcohol And you were drinking it, you were fine.

Sir Gene: 1:37:05

And that's where they realized that this isn't sufficient enough and decided for future morally crimes, you need to punish the consumer as well.

Ben: 1:37:13

and that's what they have absolutely done during the war on drugs.

Sir Gene: 1:37:17

The war on drugs is the war on the American people.

Ben: 1:37:19

The war on drugs is the war against the sovereign individual. It's saying you do not have the ability to make decisions on your own. And who are you to decide what you put in your own body?

Sir Gene: 1:37:30

Yep. And so this is actually, we might've even mentioned it or maybe I brought it up on unrelenting, but one of the analogies that I thought was very good about us interference in Ukraine, that's happening right now with providing weaponry, providing satellite imagery is what exactly is there to stop either China or Russia from selling weapons and satellite imagery, data to the Mexican drug court.

Ben: 1:38:01

Well,

Sir Gene: 1:38:02

Because they're clearly trying to fight against the American government, which as America says, Russia is our enemy. So clearly Russia ought to be helping enemies of the United States.

Ben: 1:38:14

well, and in for those who don't really realize that Mexico is a failed state, Mexico is a narco state. At this point, the Mexican government has no ability to control the cartels. The cartels do have the

Sir Gene: 1:38:28

I don't know how much

Ben: 1:38:28

the

Sir Gene: 1:38:29

they have, frankly. Either.

Ben: 1:38:31

Well, they're bribe not to. The cartels are purely in control of Mexico at this point. In fact, I think the only reason why we got any cooperation out of Mexico during the Trump era was because of the cartels being somewhat strategic.

Sir Gene: 1:38:48

Yeah. They're not stupid

Ben: 1:38:49

well, yeah, so my point there is that they saw that Trump was willing to militarize the border, willing to do things while we don't want him to go that far. So we'll act like it on our side. We'll stop the flow of illegal immigrants, but we'll be strategic about the flow of drug, well, drugs. and people, but not just people coming to look for work. You know, the sex trade being a big part of it. So I think they prioritize their top money. Earners is what I'm saying here.

Sir Gene: 1:39:20

Yeah. I think they're acting rationally.

Ben: 1:39:22

Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:39:23

agree on that. They have violent means, but they have rational thought.

Ben: 1:39:27

Yeah. So to answer your question, what would stop Russia or China from doing that? Absolutely nothing. In fact, I w I would say that China is impacting the U S border situation through the production of fentanyl.

Sir Gene: 1:39:40

Yep.

Ben: 1:39:41

So while they're not necessarily giving money or arms to the Mexican drug cartels, the fentanyl that they're giving them is just as lethal.

Sir Gene: 1:39:52

Yeah. They're providing supplies. I think that's exactly right. And I mean, and that's the thing it's like right now we're discussing the the FBI and other agencies, anti Mexican cartel operations. As, as though these cartels were, you know, like individual little crime gangs, but I think you're absolutely right. Cartels right now is what holds Mexico together. It's the, the bribes in the system. It's the politicians they put in place. The cartels really are Mexico. Right?

Ben: 1:40:31

Yeah. I think that the only, the only caveats to that are the tourist areas. But I think That's of mutual agreement. You know, I, I think that the, the entire us border anything within a hundred miles of the us border caught all the entire swath, there is completely controlled by the cartels. There is not a police officer that is not bought and paid for in that section of Mexico, that the cartels don't own in you. The reason why is because if someone refused, they'd be dead

Sir Gene: 1:41:10

Yeah. Do you watch the Kerio?

Ben: 1:41:12

I'm sorry.

Sir Gene: 1:41:13

Did you watch the movie? Sicario

Ben: 1:41:15

No.

Sir Gene: 1:41:17

so there's two of them, the original one, a few years back. And then the last one just came out recently, maybe last year. They have been each adult Dora in them. Very good. And they're basically about this topic that we're discussing, which is the drug trade the FBI war against that and the, the cartels basically controlling everybody.

Ben: 1:41:44

Well, all I can say is if you look at operations like fast and furious and the way the us tried to handle that, and oh, we're going to track this, that, and the other bullshit on what you're doing, but let's just take the department of justice at its word on what their intended consequences for fast and furious were and what they were trying to do.

Sir Gene: 1:42:05

Yeah,

Ben: 1:42:05

to tell you this, but there are more guns coming into America than are going from America into Mexico.

Sir Gene: 1:42:12

well, they're manufactured a lot of them in America first.

Ben: 1:42:15

Yeah. but my, my point is That the entire idea of fast and furious as well, we were going to track the gun's

Sir Gene: 1:42:26

was a bullshit

Ben: 1:42:27

Bullshit.

Sir Gene: 1:42:28

nobody ever intended to really do. Yeah. That was basically just buying favors from one cartel. You fight another cartel and this is also another, well, this is in the movie TV show, but Ozark I think is another, have you watched it or not?

Ben: 1:42:44

I have watched some of it. I have not watched the latest seasons. I've watched the first couple of weeks.

Sir Gene: 1:42:50

It is really good. It's probably Jason Bateman's best work, but also really the first non comedy he's done, but just as a snaps is for people that haven't seen it. It's a very typical upper white middle-class family in Chicago and the show starts. And then in the first episode, You find out that the dad who was very mild-mannered accountant was actually an accountant for a, a laundering money for certain illegal alien elements.

Ben: 1:43:26

for the cartel.

Sir Gene: 1:43:28

Well, eventually, yeah. I mean, they didn't find that out until later, but basically he takes the family on a bit of a run because not only was he laundering money for the while it ends up being the cartel, but he was also delivering off a percentage of that for himself. And then, so now

Ben: 1:43:49

partner at the time was taking an even bigger percentage and his business partner in the first episode ends up dead. And he Yeah. he convinces the cartel to spare his life because he can do this great money laundering operations in the Ozarks.

Sir Gene: 1:44:05

yeah. And and then he, basically the location, is this sort of almost a, you know, a 1960s picturesque, white trash kind of, lake setting

Ben: 1:44:20

Well, let me rephrase south south Western, Missouri, and Northeastern Arkansas is the location.

Sir Gene: 1:44:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is very pretty down there. I've spent time down there as

Ben: 1:44:31

Gorgeous part of the country. Arkansas is. a beautiful state. Unfortunately, the Clintons are from there.

Sir Gene: 1:44:37

Yes. Well, Hillary isn't those, she, I thought she was from the east coast,

Ben: 1:44:42

The, well, I mean, I'm just saying bill, governor of Arkansas, the ties

Sir Gene: 1:44:48

yeah,

Ben: 1:44:48

know, they're there MENA Arkansas and some of the drugs stuff that was going on there. And then you had the Tyson chicken sta I mean, there's just lots of

Sir Gene: 1:44:59

there's a lot of stuff and that's a, and you know, Arkansas well, and really Southern Missouri had a lot of mob activities that people think of the mob as being in New Jersey, but there's a lot of mob in the meat business and you know, a lot of

Ben: 1:45:14

when, when you have the term arc inside as a as a thing, I think that kind of says it all,

Sir Gene: 1:45:20

that's all, let's tell the random,

Ben: 1:45:22

sure.

Sir Gene: 1:45:24

what else could it be? I mean, it couldn't be anything

Ben: 1:45:25

totally random yet. Totally linked to the same group of people over and over and over again.

Sir Gene: 1:45:30

What bad luck, what horrible luck, those people that became billionaires must have,

Ben: 1:45:36

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:45:37

you know, I mean, it's like on the one hand you get to be a billionaire. On the other hand, everybody knows death as bad, bad luck right there. We're talking about the Clintons in case anyone's wondering But it's a good show. It's it's a cool setting. Julia, Garner's in it. Who's one of my absolutely favorite actresses. I love her and everything she's been in. He always plays a very interesting character. Her Marie most recent role was in like a five-part series about Anna and something. I can't remember her last name, but basically this fake Russian heiress,

Ben: 1:46:13

and I Corona?

Sir Gene: 1:46:15

no

Ben: 1:46:15

No.

Sir Gene: 1:46:16

different Ana.

Ben: 1:46:17

Okay. That's the only Ana brush and arrows that comes to my

Sir Gene: 1:46:20

this is, this is a modern, like a, it's a it's it's based on a real true story. I camera, I think it was on Amazon. There's something I don't have Netflix, so it must've been on Amazon, but Jennifer Garner, if you look up her I'm to be, she's got the, literally everything she's been in, I've really enjoyed and she's done a great part in, and she, she is one of the main characters in Ozark and plays one of the hillbillies or, well, I can, you can't call them hillbillies. Certainly white trash plays. One of the trailer, living residents that are native to that community.

Ben: 1:46:57

Yeah. So you're talking about the curly hair blonde that, Yeah, she She's very sharp in that show. She plays kind of the idiot savant, if you

Sir Gene: 1:47:06

Yeah. Well she's she. who's clearly got a high IQ, but brought up with three little school.

Ben: 1:47:12

Yes, exactly. Exactly. So speaking of television so I haven't watched the Orville yet, but that's on the list.

Sir Gene: 1:47:21

that's great. You'll love it.

Ben: 1:47:22

I think I will like season three, but star Trek, strange new worlds, man. Talk about bringing it back. You, you torrent

Sir Gene: 1:47:31

I'm waning. I don't, I just don't want to pay 10 bucks for one TV show every month. I want to wait until all the episodes are done, then I'll pay for a month and watch all of

Ben: 1:47:41

well watch all of them And then also watch Lord X, but the, so you remember the Gorn from the original series. So the big lizard that Kirk fights, so they've taken the Gorn, which was just a monster of the week and made it into the great new enemy of the Federation. They've done a fantastic job. Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:48:02

think green.

Ben: 1:48:03

You don't, I haven't watched last week's latest episode, but in the introduction you never actually see them. It's just their ships. And that's building up this mythic of, you know, lots of people have seen gore and very few have survived to tell the tale, that sort of thing. And anyway, strange new worlds, good show. Definitely some fuckery with Canon as far as timelines and, you know, having medical transporters and some things like that. But whatever I think at this point were as far we're far enough divorced from the 1960s to take some of these liberties and I'm not mad about the liberties that are taking, so there's that. But yeah, that's been good.

Sir Gene: 1:48:43

guy kind of grew on me too. Cause I, at first, I didn't think he looked anything like him, but the sounds just like him.

Ben: 1:48:49

he? He has. So again, Yeah. he's not learned Nimoy. He is not a Lennar knee Boyce body double or stand dead, but he is playing the character the way Leonard Nimoy did. He is being true to that character. And by the way, we got spoiler alert, some background into Spock's marriage that, you know, comes out and tos and pawn far and all that. We, we got a little bit more background in there and I'm really liking it, man. The biggest gripe I actually have is on the intro talking about the enterprise's five-year mission. That was in its command of Kirk, not pike. And you've got some timeline problems with that, but I'm probably one of a few thousand people in the country would notice something like that and much less would gripe about it.

Sir Gene: 1:49:38

Oh, you'd be surprised. Have you gone to a convention?

Ben: 1:49:42

I have gone to many conventions of which do you personally speak?

Sir Gene: 1:49:47

Well, the last time I was at a convention with with what's his face, captain Kirk,

Ben: 1:49:51

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:49:52

The questions from the audience,

Ben: 1:49:54

Oh yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:49:56

like what, 50 years after the show was on, are still about details from the show.

Ben: 1:50:02

Oh yeah. For those who haven't seen it, go watch galaxy quest.

Sir Gene: 1:50:06

Oh yeah. Galaxy quest is awesome. That's that's part of the cannon too, I think.

Ben: 1:50:11

Oh Yeah. It's absolutely mocking the culture, but yes.

Sir Gene: 1:50:15

Yeah. And that was there. There's a YouTube video. If you have seen galaxy quest and you enjoyed it, there's a YouTube video. I think it's called whatever happened to galaxy quest. And it's like an hour long documentary that has a ton of background scenes that has talks about, or with the actors and characters talks about the history, like how difficult it was to make and how it was promoted completely wrong. It was promoted as a, you know, a kid's movie, which it clearly was that, and a lot of the, the adult scenes had to be removed from it. And when that was released like with Sigourney Weaver And it was clearly an adult movie, but they, there were plans fairly quickly of turning it into a TV series and all that fell through. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that didn't happen, but if you enjoyed the movie, then I would definitely recommend the, a YouTube documentary about it.

Ben: 1:51:11

I'll, I'll have to look at that because I definitely did enjoy the movie.

Sir Gene: 1:51:15

I saw that in the field.

Ben: 1:51:16

yeah. I,

Sir Gene: 1:51:17

You were, were you born yet?

Ben: 1:51:18

Yes, I was born yet?

Sir Gene: 1:51:20

I know

Ben: 1:51:20

So book recommendation, we haven't done Booker for Monday, so I just started reading a fantastic fiction series called red rising, and it's all about oppression, classism, and you know, it's set in the Saifai environment, but it's my God, is it good? And it, it it's really pitting. I'm sorry.

Sir Gene: 1:51:43

sounds like non-fiction

Ben: 1:51:44

Well, that's happening on Mars and there genetic differences between the classes and shit like that. So some of them have 12 fingers, you know, the basic human is the oppressed person. It's all the augments that are the leaders.

Sir Gene: 1:51:57

now it sounds like

Ben: 1:51:59

It is in very many ways. So you have the goals, the goals are the top of society and they're these gods of genetic perfection. And then you have the basic human that's, the red, that's the underground miner and producing for everyone. I mean, you could take it back to HG Wells and you know, the Molex versus whatever. I forget the novel,

Sir Gene: 1:52:23

Yeah.

Ben: 1:52:24

same sort of concept, but writ large and told in a very good way. And the opening scenes of the book are about this hell, diver, this minor, and he's a human and he's very capable and he's all this, that, and the other. And he's 16 and married and, you know, the, the relationship between him and his wife and she's pushing him to be more of a rebel. And, you know, it's a very brave heart ask and that she died.

Sir Gene: 1:52:50

we'll do that.

Ben: 1:52:51

Yeah, well, she dies in the first four chapters of the book and pushes him on to bigger and better things, but a very well-written novel. And I'm, I I'll probably finish the first novel tonight and the series I'm looking forward to. I mean, it, it impressed me enough in the first five, six chapters that, that I ended up purchasing the

Sir Gene: 1:53:13

a little bit like altered carbon to

Ben: 1:53:15

Altered carbon. Yeah. I I've got. I haven't read the books. I've only seen this the series and I've just got some execution issues with the series.

Sir Gene: 1:53:26

th the series compared to the I've read the books, but the series is very PG rated compared to the books.

Ben: 1:53:33

Well, have you ever, ever read much like Peter Hamilton? So you would like Hamilton a lot? You know, the whatever star series, the, the continuum series that he has, I think

Sir Gene: 1:53:46

I have eight more credits available in audible.

Ben: 1:53:49

oh,

Sir Gene: 1:53:50

So I'm looking for you to fill those for me.

Ben: 1:53:52

Yeah. Get some Hamilton. Yeah. It's Peter of Hamilton. A lot of his books, the Commonwealth series is where I would start with him. I think it's Pandora star or something like that is the first book. You've got this concept of, you know, you've got neural link essentially before neural link was a thing and avatars

Sir Gene: 1:54:12

star I'm buying it live as we're recording this show.

Ben: 1:54:15

like 40 hours long on audible, but it's a, it's

Sir Gene: 1:54:18

It is 37 hours. 21 minutes.

Ben: 1:54:20

There you go. Yeah. Very not PG by the way. So this is not a book to get for your kids.

Sir Gene: 1:54:27

No, nothing on this podcast for a year.

Ben: 1:54:30

no, no. Well, and, you know, I was talking to someone about that the other day, you know, I've read iron Rand and Heinlein and like 12 and 14. Hmm. No impact here.

Sir Gene: 1:54:43

I think that's about the right age. Honestly. I think 14 is about right for those, because

Ben: 1:54:49

12, some of some of this I like, I read, I read the Fountainhead at 12.

Sir Gene: 1:54:55

yeah. See that to me seems like for most people that would be a little too.

Ben: 1:55:00

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:55:00

Some of the concepts, you have to understand the bigger picture of, but by 14, 15, you're developed enough independent and self. What's the word I'm thinking of? Yeah. Self awareness that you are distinct from your parents, from your friends, from everybody else that you are somebody that is different in the entire universe from everybody else. I think when you're, you know, even at like 11, 12, I, I, I think for a lot of people, you still haven't developed that yet.

Ben: 1:55:33

Yeah. It's just going back and rereading things as an adult. And comparing my memories of how certain scenes impacted me to how they impacted me as an adult. It, it, it, I think is pretty drastic.

Sir Gene: 1:55:50

I did that with Atlas shrugged and I just found the writing to be way worse, reading it as an adult.

Ben: 1:55:57

Well, so the problem with Rand in everything except Anthem Anthem, as the only exception to this is she says the same argument 20 times throughout the book,

Sir Gene: 1:56:10

Yup.

Ben: 1:56:11

Anthem is a novella. So she kept it short it's succinct. It's great.

Sir Gene: 1:56:19

well,

Ben: 1:56:20

Atlas, shrugged, and Fountainhead. And we, the living, we, the living has issues of it was her first English, low light language novel, and she didn't speak very good English. But beyond that, yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:56:34

Well, let me, let me share a little bit of the depth of influence here, where I read Atlas shrugged. When I was in high school I recently had received as a gift. Although a gift is a loose term for it, a spaceship in in a game called star citizen. And the gifts that you receive is a gift that you get for quote, donating on quote funds to continue to develop into the game.

Ben: 1:57:06

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:57:08

So you technically, you're not buying the ship, but you get the ship when you've spent money. So for people that play this game, you will know where a gold 600 and I is in the game. Not, not I as in like on your head, but I, as in the letter, I 600, I it is the the top here donate our prize.

Ben: 1:57:34

Okay. So it's Jean being the big baller of star citizen.

Sir Gene: 1:57:38

that's exactly what it is. Yes. And I'm, I'm very hesitant to even mention the amount of money. So I won't, but you can look it up yourself.

Ben: 1:57:46

I I'm the w w I'm going to ask after the podcast.

Sir Gene: 1:57:49

Yeah. You you can ask and the ship along with other expensive ships in the game even though this is a quote, unquote free ship can be named, and the name is a unique name, which means no other ships in the game can have the same name and the name of this most unique, the ship, you will see the absolute least of, I haven't seen another one in the year in the game, but it doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means I haven't seen him is an rant.

Ben: 1:58:21

Interesting.

Sir Gene: 1:58:23

Yeah. And then my, the largest ship you can currently fly in the game, which is a pleasure yacht that I have is called John Galt.

Ben: 1:58:34

Well, that was a Securitas path. But what I would say is that I've always identified far more with Roark and rear ribbon. You know, I'm not the hero of the story by any stretch,

Sir Gene: 1:58:49

Well, and I I've been, I think a film that the Y's probably closer to the pirate,

Ben: 1:58:56

Ragnar Dennis scale. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:59:00

But I also kind of appreciate mitis and what he's done.

Ben: 1:59:04

It, so I think if you can stomach the repetitiveness the overall story and the point of the story of both Fountainhead and later in Atlas, shrugged is a good one. I think objectivism is a good philosophy in lots of ways.

Sir Gene: 1:59:23

Which incidentally she wrote lots and lots of non-fiction books about objectives, philosophy. You'd like, you don't need to base it based on her fiction books. It's just the fiction books demonstrate that philosophy.

Ben: 1:59:35

Yes, So in her essays, she, she is a much better SAS than she is an author. I will absolutely. she's up there with Paglia actually in lots of ways.

Sir Gene: 1:59:46

Yeah. Yeah. Camille's good. I've been following her since the nineties.

Ben: 1:59:51

Yeah. Camille is a well thought out person. She's hard to listen to if you hear her speak, just because of how well and how fast she talks. She's she's up there with Ben Shapiro and

Sir Gene: 2:00:00

I

Ben: 2:00:01

like this as fast as she

Sir Gene: 2:00:01

speed. Cause I listened to everything at twice. Speed. That's my normal intake.

Ben: 2:00:06

okay.

Sir Gene: 2:00:07

But,

Ben: 2:00:09

I don't want to sound like a chipmunk, so

Sir Gene: 2:00:11

is a character. We be on sound like it doesn't affect the pitch. It just affects the speed,

Ben: 2:00:16

Okay.

Sir Gene: 2:00:16

it is hard listening to bench bureau twice.

Ben: 2:00:19

Yeah. Well, cause he's talking six times as fast as a

Sir Gene: 2:00:22

I, don't know if you were listening to a no agenda back then, but for awhile there was a number of episodes where Adam kept poking fun at the fact that while, and really acting very pissed off at the fact that I dare listened to the show at and high speed.

Ben: 2:00:36

I don't think he specifically called out you, but he was saying certain listeners or something

Sir Gene: 2:00:41

Yeah, it was me.

Ben: 2:00:42

Well I absolutely, I mean, I've been listening to no agenda since I, I want to say within the first 200 episodes. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:00:53

So this was maybe a couple of years back,

Ben: 2:00:55

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:00:56

but yeah, it was I think it was because I was, I was at, at his house and then I pulled up the show or something. Cause I wanted to play a clip that was funny. And my default speed was like 1.7, five X. And he was like, what the hell?

Ben: 2:01:11

what the hell? are you doing?

Sir Gene: 2:01:13

Like, yeah. You know, if I wanted it, listen to that speed. I would have recorded that speed.

Ben: 2:01:19

I mean, okay. But at the same time, whatever your listening preferences are at, as someone who's producing the content of this, which whether it's listened to or not is irrelevant to me. It's me and Jean having a good conversation. However you want to listen to this conversation. I don't care personally.

Sir Gene: 2:01:37

Yeah, no, that's true. But there is a suggestion in every single episode of this show that says, listen to 1.2, five.

Ben: 2:01:43

Yeah. Okay.

Sir Gene: 2:01:44

Because when I started recording this, I was doing the acceleration and software for people.

Ben: 2:01:50

Hm.

Sir Gene: 2:01:50

So it was, everything was run through 1.2, five X.

Ben: 2:01:54

And why

Sir Gene: 2:01:55

then that was really like, Adam was really miffed about me even doing that for my own show. I was like, why are you doing that? Don't do that. Let people decide.

Ben: 2:02:03

Eh, what I would say is that, you know, I'm not the audio file that you And, Adam are by any stretch of the imagination. That's not where I put my,

Sir Gene: 2:02:13

and we're just appealing you name it files.

Ben: 2:02:16

okay.

Sir Gene: 2:02:18

We have opinions they happen to be right. But that's where it

Ben: 2:02:20

Yeah. I'm going to compare this to Jean and John being foamers, just have different sorts. I'm going to kid, I'm going to continue with you being the buzzkill.

Sir Gene: 2:02:31

I I'm okay with that. I like John, John has been very helpful at many times. He's always got a wine recommendation ready for me. He's a.

Ben: 2:02:42

I have followed the for a. long, long time. So I actually ha I actually have a a signed photo of Kate Battelo and Leo LaPorte from the screensaver days. I was, yeah, I was I was on one of the episodes way, way back in the day as a kid.

Sir Gene: 2:03:04

Really you were one of those nerd kids.

Ben: 2:03:06

I was, I was, yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:03:08

I don't mind saying you're still in there kid.

Ben: 2:03:10

I'd

Sir Gene: 2:03:10

No, that's cool. Yeah. I remember I used to read, read John's articles when I was a teenager.

Ben: 2:03:17

Oh Yeah. PC mag. I, I, in fact when my parents moved back to Texas from Idaho, they got rid of my PC mag collection, unfortunately.

Sir Gene: 2:03:27

And it's like I was saying on unrelenting, I got rid of my Playboy collection.

Ben: 2:03:31

yeah, you get rid of a couple of grand worth of books there. It sounds like.

Sir Gene: 2:03:35

Oh, I got rid of, I don't, I can't even put a value on them. I was almost at the point where I'd have to pay somebody to get rid of them. But as far as how much I paid to get them. Yeah. Probably an average of 10 bucks a book. Can I get rid of thousands of bucks?

Ben: 2:03:49

Yeah. I, I liked my book.

Sir Gene: 2:03:52

Yeah. I just hope somebody like, cause I just, you know, left cases of these things at the bookshop. I hope somebody read them and didn't just burn them for firewood.

Ben: 2:04:04

Well, I think in American society, very few people would actually burn bound books, you know, burning marketing material or something

Sir Gene: 2:04:14

you know, they cut your gas off.

Ben: 2:04:16

Well, fair enough. Personally, I'm going to run to the Hills of east, Texas, and you

Sir Gene: 2:04:23

I remember in books. Gotcha.

Ben: 2:04:25

no, not necessarily burn books, but gasification is part of the plan and several other things.

Sir Gene: 2:04:32

Yeah. I'm curious to see what Adams ends up building.

Ben: 2:04:35

Yeah. I, I I asked you

Sir Gene: 2:04:37

That's an Adam Curry, no agenda podcast. Anyone curious? Who's not a listener of that show that listens to us, which is nobody.

Ben: 2:04:45

yeah, exactly. There is no one who listens to us.

Sir Gene: 2:04:48

I dunno, man. We're growing at about a very steady 5% per episode,

Ben: 2:04:52

That is that's good, man. I mean, if we can keep that up then. Great. And

Sir Gene: 2:04:57

10 years from now, you know, just think we'll have 10,000 listeners.

Ben: 2:05:01

Yeah, if that, so what I would say though, is that feedback, feedback, feedback. I, I tried to get it done by this time, but I. Flight to catch and then delays, which by the way, the whole pilot shortage thing reality on my way back. Oh man, my flight was delayed by two and a half hours. My, the last leg of my flight and the guy at the the the gate said, well, you know, it's a weather delay. And I said,

Sir Gene: 2:05:30

yeah.

Ben: 2:05:31

this plane literally flies between this city and the same back and forth

Sir Gene: 2:05:36

Yeah,

Ben: 2:05:37

bullshit.

Sir Gene: 2:05:38

but you know why they say weather because then they don't have any

Ben: 2:05:41

Liability. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:05:42

liability for it.

Ben: 2:05:43

Well, and anyway, they ended up redirecting another plane. It was a whole big thing and got in several hours later than I was expecting, but Yeah. it, it was it was fun for sure.

Sir Gene: 2:05:55

Somebody else I just talked to recently that had a flight back to Austin that got canceled and he was, oh, it was my buddy Peter. So that got canceled. And then he was coming back from California. Then they Bri booked them for a flight a day later

Ben: 2:06:13

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 2:06:14

and he had stuff to do, man. So he was like, well, this is no, he was on the phone with the travel agencies or whoever does the booking and his wife was looking stuff up. And then as he's walking by and it's him telling me this story, he's walking by and he overhears a guy getting like heading over to a flight to San Antonio that was going to be leaving soon. So he's like, let's go find out. So he walks over to that. He asks same airline and says, Hey, I just got bumped from this flight to Austin. They can't fly me out until tomorrow. Are you guys full? Can you still stick me on standby or whatever? And they're like, oh yeah, flight's not full. So he got on a flight like half an hour later, then he would've had the canceled Austin flight, but their automatic reaction was just to rebook everybody for the first available Austin.

Ben: 2:07:08

Yeah. well, so, so I had a layover in Dallas because I was flying in and out of college station, which only flies to Dallas. And you know, the, the bump in the flight was sufficient enough that I said, well, fuck it. I'll just drive. I'll get there at the same time. And that's, if that flight doesn't move from the bump.

Sir Gene: 2:07:28

that before as well.

Ben: 2:07:30

Yeah, No cars, literally no cars. So I checked every rental agency at DFW airport. No one had one way cars available.

Sir Gene: 2:07:40

Yup. Yup. You know, you could take up to eight, a round trip card and just drop it off here as well. I mean, they it'll charge, you they'll charge you, but it may, if you have to do it, you can still do it. I've done that before,

Ben: 2:07:54

Yeah. They definitely will charge you a fee

Sir Gene: 2:07:57

50 bucks a day, extra on top of the normal rent.

Ben: 2:08:01

Anyway but there, there were no cars, no cars available. There was a little bit of weather coming into DFW, but nationally there wasn't. And anyway, the long story short is you have Delta, you have KLM, you have lots of these airlines announcing that they're canceling legs of trip. Proactively fact of the matter is we have a pilot shortage. We have an equipment shortage. American just announced that their American just announced that they're grounding over a hundred planes because they don't have enough pilots.

Sir Gene: 2:08:31

United said that same thing, a hundred, a hundred flights are down.

Ben: 2:08:35

I'm not talking about flights. I'm talking about planes.

Sir Gene: 2:08:39

Oh, right, right, right,

Ben: 2:08:39

American is grounding over a hundred planes. That's not flight that's planes. That's, you know, however many flights a day on average. It's insane.

Sir Gene: 2:08:50

point. Yeah, because each is probably does three, four flights a day.

Ben: 2:08:54

Yep. So, I mean, It's tremendous the, the lack of this, and this goes back to earlier comments in the show about hyperinflation and where we are heading. The picture does not look good. That's being painted for us and, and not only that flight costs. So, you know, you traveled a lot. for work. I'm traveling a decent amount, you know, I'm, I'm around quite a bit and average cost of a plane ticket right now, pretty much anywhere in the nation for me is, you know, five, 700 bucks. Trump era it would have been three to 500. So flight costs in two years of approximately doubled.

Sir Gene: 2:09:41

Yeah.

Ben: 2:09:42

Now we're still way down from where they used to be.

Sir Gene: 2:09:47

Well, it depends on for bank. You go.

Ben: 2:09:50

My lifetime. So I mean, flights in the early nineties were really peak charges that I can personally remember. It was, I mean, 700 up,

Sir Gene: 2:10:00

They weren't, there were super cheap.

Ben: 2:10:02

Well, 700 bucks for a domestic flight would be considered, you know, on par in the 1990s.

Sir Gene: 2:10:10

I don't know where the hell you were flying to. I was flying from back then from like Chicago to New York and in coach, that was about 500 bucks.

Ben: 2:10:21

Well, that's Chicago to New York. I'm talking anywhere in Texas to Washington DC, for example. So from Houston to DC was around a$700 ticket.

Sir Gene: 2:10:32

but here's the difference. And back then planes would fly on schedules, not based on.

Ben: 2:10:39

Yes.

Sir Gene: 2:10:40

And so the average flight that I did from Chicago to New York was about a third full. You, you always had a road to yourself if you were in coach and you had two seats to yourself, if you were in first.

Ben: 2:10:55

Well, and the leg room availability was drastically different,

Sir Gene: 2:11:00

Yeah. Yeah, no, they've, they've definitely scrunched planes, more like sardines that's for sure. I would say the peak of my airline experience was in the late nineties and what I mean by

Ben: 2:11:12

with continental,

Sir Gene: 2:11:14

Yeah, it was so continental. I was mostly flying on continental and KLM,

Ben: 2:11:19

and everybody else,

Sir Gene: 2:11:20

And then what's the airline to Asia. That was oh, I can't. No, no, no. It was a cafe Pacific

Ben: 2:11:28

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 2:11:29

cafe. Hadn't the best service I ever had. So, so starting. Yeah, it was probably, I think I started flying first class in 97 and I've pretty much been, just been flying first class since then.

Ben: 2:11:43

Hmm. So I still fly a lot of coach especially now that, you know, I no longer have really any status left with anybody. That said, I'll tell you the worst flight experience I ever had. And it was with American and this was in the early early two thousands. I was still in college and I was flying back home. My parents were living in Idaho still, and we were supposed to land in Spokane Washington while Spokane was fogged in and they didn't have the appropriate landing equipment. So they diverted us original a to Las Vegas. Well, I'm 17 at the time. And there's Dick, you can do on your own 17 in Las Vegas. So that sucked.

Sir Gene: 2:12:31

Yeah. You got to go to a good prompt to do that.

Ben: 2:12:34

Yeah. So anyway, what ended up happening is we spent two over 24 hours in Las Vegas. They couldn't. So they moved us to Seattle. We landed at SeaTac, which see techs, one of the worst airports in the nation, especially then in my opinion.

Sir Gene: 2:12:49

It's grown lot.

Ben: 2:12:51

yeah, yeah. Anyway, Well, grown in a very awkward way

Sir Gene: 2:12:56

Well, the little, the fast trains, they got really make it better now than they used to used to be. It could take you half hour to walk across the damn airport.

Ben: 2:13:03

Well, and the first iterations of trains that they had in the underground and everything else was just tedious anyway. So where they fly us into Sea-Tac and then bus us to Spokane because they could not land in Spokane because of these days where the fog and everything else. Anyway, it was just,

Sir Gene: 2:13:24

This was before radar was invented, apparently.

Ben: 2:13:26

Yeah, apparently anyway, it was just one of the worst experiences I've ever had with a airline. And so in, in, in Texas, our two main airports, DFW and Intercontinental are United and American hubs, respectively, and man any chance I get to fly United, I'll take United over American, but I miss continental.

Sir Gene: 2:13:47

Oh yeah. Kano is great. I, I, that's why I started flying back in the nineties. It was very good. Airline flew, lot of was it Northwest airlines, they were partner KLM. They were a partner with them and speaking of worst experiences of mine was very recent last year.

Ben: 2:14:06

Hm.

Sir Gene: 2:14:07

And that was American, but it was, I mean, they certainly take some of the blame, but not, I don't want to pile it on too bad for them, but they definitely had part of the blame here. And the, the, the summary of the experience was it took me five days to get from Austin, Texas to Seattle, Washington.

Ben: 2:14:25

Yeah. So this last trip on American, I was supposed to, I was actually scheduled to leave Tulsa at like six o'clock at night and not get back till almost 11. O'clock well, that last leg I sh I fly out on Monday. I'm supposed to fly back on Friday. I fly out Monday. By the time I land, my last leg of my flight Friday has already been canceled and I've got to reschedule the whole damn thing. Luckily ended up getting done early at the client and it ended up not being a big deal, but immediately that last flight of the day into college station was already canceled, had to move stuff around and then this ends up late and everything else, and just, you know, painting the assets for pain in the ass. And not only that they're pushing the flight capacities so much. So on my flight to Tulsa, I had a$200 offer. You know, change my plans on the way back, I had a$600 offer, almost the cost of the ticket to change my plans.

Sir Gene: 2:15:32

I've I've seen him calling for more than the price of a ticket. I've seen him doing a thousand bucks.

Ben: 2:15:36

have to, but I mean, these are I'm flying, so I'm flying the planes I'm on right now that we're talking about for this trip, our little, little commuter jet from college station to Dallas, Dallas to Tulsa, Tulsa

Sir Gene: 2:15:49

embers or what did they find?

Ben: 2:15:51

The one in the college station is the, I forget what the, Yeah, it was a bigger plane from Tulsa to Dallas, but regardless, I mean, we're, we're, we're talking something that should never rise to this occasion. Okay. Typically in previous flight experience, you might get something on a busy, busy week between big major cities, right?

Sir Gene: 2:16:15

flight is overbooked right now.

Ben: 2:16:16

And that's my point, but the fact that you're overbooking these commuters, which are where pilots are starting, which is where you have the most entry-level people, the most availability of pilots, and you're this stretched, then that's scary

Sir Gene: 2:16:30

So I don't know what they currently make. I have not known anybody that

Ben: 2:16:33

song and a dance.

Sir Gene: 2:16:35

I knew a guy in the mid nineties, probably 9 95 ish that went into it after being a pilot for a few years and working in one of these computer things. His salary as a pilot was$17,000 a year in 94 95. So that's probably like, that would be the equivalent of 60,000. Right now.

Ben: 2:17:01

Well, I just Googled that for you. And according to ZipRecruiter, a regional, a regional airline pilot average annual salary is 66,000 a year,

Sir Gene: 2:17:10

There you go.

Ben: 2:17:11

which is, you know,

Sir Gene: 2:17:13

Not enough to live on.

Ben: 2:17:14

no. Well, I mean, it's, it depends on what

Sir Gene: 2:17:16

Well, if you're a bachelor, you could live on that.

Ben: 2:17:18

Yeah. I mean, but it's the same sort of thing that other than getting a pilot's license and the high skill that, that takes, I can go get a Cisco CCNA and, and, you know, make it easily equivalent of

Sir Gene: 2:17:31

Yeah. Went from 17,000 to making 50,000

Ben: 2:17:34

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:17:35

or like 120,000 these days.

Ben: 2:17:37

I,

Sir Gene: 2:17:38

Yeah, that's totally true. But just to finish off my story on my crappy flight, and then we can wrap up like a good hour after you said we should wrap up. It was

Ben: 2:17:48

wife and kids went to the pool anyway at grandma's house. So.

Sir Gene: 2:17:51

There you go. Yeah. So last year I was flying out, my mom had a stroke and then she was in the hospital and so I'm like, yeah, we'll get the first flight. So I went out, bought a, I think it right away on the first flight got to the airport. And that was the weekend. It was, it was the few days before the 4th of July weekend. So it was like on a Thursday or something. And got there, everything's fine. Got on the plane. And then we sat on the tarmac for a good 45 minutes because they had weather issues. And then after 45 minutes, they pulled back to the gate and they said, we're going to try again and in an hour. So if you guys need to use the restroom, go buy some snacks, do whatever. And then we got back in the plane an hour later

Ben: 2:18:38

So they actually had y'all D plane.

Sir Gene: 2:18:40

We had as deeply.

Ben: 2:18:41

Wow.

Sir Gene: 2:18:42

And then wait. And after coming back in an hour, we played up again and after about half an hour sitting at the gate, they said, yeah, we're canceling the flight. You guys are re booked for tomorrow.

Ben: 2:18:58

I

Sir Gene: 2:18:58

well, that's sucks, but okay, whatever weather. Right. So next

Ben: 2:19:03

had y'all D plane that's unusual.

Sir Gene: 2:19:06

them to do that. I hate sitting in a plane for an hour and a half,

Ben: 2:19:09

I, I don't disagree, but I'm just saying for them to actually have you deplane and not cancel, the flight is very anew.

Sir Gene: 2:19:16

it is unusual. I agree. Definitely. So the next day didn't even get to the airport. I got a text on my phone saying flight's been canceled. You've been automatically booked for the next day. Now we're in the third day. So I get to the airport early, get on the flight. So this flight, the only available flight that I could get rebooked on went to Seattle via Chicago,

Ben: 2:19:39

Oh, my God.

Sir Gene: 2:19:40

is not a straight line by

Ben: 2:19:43

And, and,

Sir Gene: 2:19:44

dog dogleg.

Ben: 2:19:45

and any connection in O'Hare is subject to fuckery

Sir Gene: 2:19:49

But it was either that, or wait until Sunday of the 4th of July weekend to fly. So I'm like fine. It'll take twice as long. It's normally a five hour flight from Austin to Seattle. It'll take 10 hours, but whatever. So get on the flight flight sitting up. We're waiting on a passenger to show up passenger shows up, then there's some weather that's coming through. We're waiting for that. Finally left. We're leaving an hour later, but we're leaving.

Ben: 2:20:19

which by the way, they no longer extend that courtesy, like at all.

Sir Gene: 2:20:23

Yeah, exactly. So we're, we're flying out to Chicago. I'm checking. I'm like, man, this is going to be close. I'm going to have like 15 minutes between when we land instead of an hour and 15, I'm going to have 15

Ben: 2:20:33

Hmm

Sir Gene: 2:20:34

to get to the flight. So I'm like, God, I hope they, they let them notify. I talked to the stewardess like, oh yeah, we, we sent the list of all the people, you know, they're on this flight that have connections. They're connecting flights, letting them know when we're coming in Atlanta and Chicago, I'm rushing like, man, man, luckily the gates only 10 gates away. So it's not that far.

Ben: 2:20:55

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:20:55

So I'm getting there. It is like five minutes before that flight is supposed to be leaving. I'm like, okay, thank God I made it. I would get up to the gate and the doors closed. I'm like we just landed. They were going to let you know we're coming in late, but it's still before the flight leaves. And you're like, oh yeah. That's like, it looks like they decided to leave five minutes ago. Like, what do you mean? Like, well, they close the door. Once the door is closed, you can't reopen it. That flight as officially left five minutes ago, I'm looking out the window. The plane's still sitting there. I'm like, it's still sitting there. It's like, yes, the plane is there. But as far as the flight is concerned, that flight has already. Well, I wasn't going to win this argument. Cause my wife, my ex-wife had actually gotten to the point of getting kicked off a flight like that before, when I was outside, trying to get on the flight, that door was closed down and she was already on the flight because I was running late. And and they said, well, if you don't want to be on this flight without your husband, would you like us to remove you? And she said, well, if you're going to remove me and open the door, why don't you just let them in? At which point they removed her. And then both of us had to take the next flight.

Ben: 2:22:06

And this is how Jean got on the original no fly list.

Sir Gene: 2:22:09

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, and that was a crazy flight too, cause I I've had a few crazy flights, but anyways, this one, so I get to Chicago now I'm stuck in Chicago overnight.

Ben: 2:22:21

Well, at least you could go see

Sir Gene: 2:22:23

talk to the airline. I'm like, okay, so what are you going to give me a voucher? What are you paying for here? They're like, oh yeah, no, we got you here on time. So unfortunately we were not gonna pay for anything

Ben: 2:22:33

and you missed your flight.

Sir Gene: 2:22:34

and I missed my flight. So I had to pay out of my own pocket to then fly out. Finally on the literally fifth day after the original flight that I bought for full price, it was a$1,500 ticket that I bought. Finally got me to Seattle five days later. My dad was not a happy camper. Cause he's like, he thought I was being a Dick for not flying sooner. I'm like, look, if I would've known it would take five days. I would have driven.

Ben: 2:23:03

yeah. And this is flying first-class too,

Sir Gene: 2:23:07

Yeah. It's

Ben: 2:23:07

mean, this is not a coach

Sir Gene: 2:23:09

First-class ticket

Ben: 2:23:10

Yeah. The, the the airline industry has definitely had some hiccups

Sir Gene: 2:23:17

nine 11 is when it started. My best flight experiences were in the late nineties. When, when you were in first class, you had a three-course meal in first-class

Ben: 2:23:26

Well, not only that, but you could walk your friends and loved ones to their gate. And

Sir Gene: 2:23:32

literally meet people at the gate.

Ben: 2:23:33

yeah, I, I remember my grandparents flying in or us doing something and meeting them at the gate and everything else and, you know, yeah, I mean, it's totally different.

Sir Gene: 2:23:44

always carried knives with me when I flew always. That was a standard thing.

Ben: 2:23:48

Well, I, I have flown in recent memory and forgotten stuff in my backpack and TSA and I picked it out, which by the way, I don't know if you do this or not, but I refuse to be on TSA, premier global entry, because I just refuse. And I'm the guy who I asked for my free massage every time.

Sir Gene: 2:24:08

Huh.

Ben: 2:24:09

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 2:24:10

I yeah, no, I did global entry. I don't mind all that shit cause I'm in every list anyway already. So I don't really don't care about. but I forgot to renew it just cause I don't fly enough. I used to fly every other week now I fly three times a year

Ben: 2:24:24

Right, right now for work, I'm flying probably three or four times a month. Remind me, and I will tell the story next time. So this is going to be a spoiler for next time, but I'll tell the story of flying a without identification and then be taking the free massage while on a certain medication for the fun of it.

Sir Gene: 2:24:42

All right. There you go. I just sent you a reminder. Cool.

Ben: 2:24:46

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 2:24:47

You know, asking somebody to remind you is like giving them work. So I'm just giving it right

Ben: 2:24:51

I understand, but I'm just trying to spoil it. I bet We, forget to even tell it, but that said

Sir Gene: 2:24:56

you know, if we get a donation that says it's a reminder, we probably won't forget.

Ben: 2:25:01

store, the, the fact of the matter is I've got some entertaining stories about flying that yeah. Getting through TSA without an ID is possible, but man, is it not worth it?

Sir Gene: 2:25:12

Yes. That's, I've done that once. And but I buy also like back when I was in college, I also got into bars by just showing a business.

Ben: 2:25:21

Well, Yeah. So I actually had, I told this story earlier this week, so, here in college station, we have a very famous bar called the Dixie chicken. And it's, it's one of the ANMs famous college bars. And I had known a bunch of people there. And in Texas, when you turn midnight, when you turn 21, you can go get a beer. So it's midnight on my 21st birthday. And I walk up to the bartender at Dixie chicken and I say, Hey, man, what time is it? And he goes, ah, it's 1201. That's a great, fantastic. Why don't you get me a beer? And he pours me a beer. And I said, dude, you're not even going to have. He goes now you're in here all the time. Well, ID me, man. So he did not handed in my ID and all I got was you son of a, I had been drinking there for about three years, but this is back in the day. So I was an Aggie bonfire and everything else. So it was really what group you came in you know, who got ID and who didn't and you, you start going to a bar regularly enough for long enough. And you've just always been there and the bartenders get lazy, you know?

Sir Gene: 2:26:27

yeah. Yeah. Well, they know that you're not going to go crazy anyway.

Ben: 2:26:31

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you've, they know you well enough that it's not going to be a problem either way, but Yeah.

Sir Gene: 2:26:36

I think the last time I got Aidid was just a couple of years ago

Ben: 2:26:39

Oh shit, man.

Sir Gene: 2:26:40

I had to I, I. So the girl I'm like, oh, thank you so much. This just makes, it brings a smile to my face. I'm standing there with a white beard. It's like, I'm pretty sure I'm over 21.

Ben: 2:26:53

shorter

Sir Gene: 2:26:54

Huh?

Ben: 2:26:55

you look like Gandalf, but shorter.

Sir Gene: 2:26:58

Fuck you. Again. was a disproportionately wrong height. They should've actually been my height, but it's you gotta remember how short the actual what do you call this guys? The little habits were they weren't like five feet. Like they were in the movie the little, little, small little guys.

Ben: 2:27:18

Anyway, I'm just messing with you, dude. I'm just doing it. It was more reference to your beard,

Sir Gene: 2:27:22

Well, and my beard

Ben: 2:27:23

beautiful, big manly beard.

Sir Gene: 2:27:26

it's it's what happens when the man doesn't actually put a knife to his face?

Ben: 2:27:30

Yeah. no, that is not what happens when a man doesn't put a knife to his face because I tried for many throughout COVID and I can grow a goatee. I can, I've got some facial hair, but the sides of my cheeks, I look like a chemo patient.

Sir Gene: 2:27:44

Well, I would just say try harder.

Ben: 2:27:46

Yes. I will focus my effort on

Sir Gene: 2:27:49

as we say in video games, get good. Anytime someone starts complaining about something. G I T G U D.

Ben: 2:27:59

yeah. So on the next episode of unrelenting, I expect to see Liza,

Sir Gene: 2:28:04

we'll see about that. I'll see. I'll I'll I'll try it. I'll see what it looks like.

Ben: 2:28:09

I mean it's 10 bucks, so

Sir Gene: 2:28:11

no promises, wait, I gotta pay 10 bucks.

Ben: 2:28:14

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 2:28:14

Oh, well fuck that. I thought it was free. I thought you sent me something that was going to give me the game for free.

Ben: 2:28:19

no, no, no. It's it's Gog. It's Gog. So it's

Sir Gene: 2:28:23

Someone wants to donate back self played, but I ain't doing it for free.

Ben: 2:28:26

it's 9 99.

Sir Gene: 2:28:27

Yeah. Yeah. I got plenty of games to be played here. 9 99, who the hell has time to waste money in video games in the first place.

Ben: 2:28:37

Nah.

Sir Gene: 2:28:38

All right. I think we better wrap it up before we go another

Ben: 2:28:41

we, Yeah. exactly man. We're we're at a, we're at two hours and 40 minutes. This is a long

Sir Gene: 2:28:46

like an hour and a half ago, you said, Hey, I think we're about ready to wrap it up.

Ben: 2:28:50

Well, I mean, we've been trying to keep it between an hour and a half and two hours,

Sir Gene: 2:28:54

We're not, we're not doing great on

Ben: 2:28:56

Now we're not

Sir Gene: 2:28:57

All right guys, hopefully you enjoyed this episode. We certainly enjoyed making it as was evident by our phone conversation. And we'll be back in about a week.