Sir Gene Speaks

0088 Sir Gene Speaks with Dude Named Ben

October 06, 2022 Gene Naftulyev Season 2022 Episode 88
Sir Gene Speaks
0088 Sir Gene Speaks with Dude Named Ben
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Weekend Gaming Livestream atlasrandgaming onTwitch
StarCitizen referral code STAR-YJD6-DKF2
Elite Dangerous
Kerbal

Podcast recorded on Descript and hosted on BuzzSprout

Story Images and Links are only visible to Podcasting 2.0 Apps - see all the ...

Sir Gene:

Once again, joining me is there dude named Ben? Named Ben? How are you, Ben?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Better than I was last night.

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

This is the third time we've had this conversation.

Sir Gene:

well. I don't mind having the same conversation over and over. It it's totally normal.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah, it's all good. So, We started this conversation right when the Nord Stream tube blew up. You and I had a phone call and started talking about, Oh, holy shit, what's going on? Last night we tried to record the podcast, but it, was too late and just didn't work out for a few different reasons. One of which, me being inebriated after a day of football.

Sir Gene:

You wanna admit to that? That's fine. I was gonna say we had technical issues, but, Okay.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. Yeah. Hey I'm a open and honest guy, and people who

Sir Gene:

dollars donation to us. I'm gonna send you a copy of that conversation. right. Next.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

dammit.

Sir Gene:

Why, Hey man, this is how you get donations. You give people something they wanna hear. So we've had this conversation a few times, but now we're having it recorded and everybody's feeling good. So

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

yep.

Sir Gene:

the pipeline

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

supposedly in Mexico,

Sir Gene:

I am in mix. I'm on vacation. I'm enjoying Mexican indication right now.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Uhhuh,

Sir Gene:

Yes.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Drive vehicles for some reason.

Sir Gene:

I don't see how that makes it, there's cars of all types in all countries, so Matter at all. And either way, I'm, I'm sitting out here in the sunshine and enjoying life. That's what I'm doing. Not thinking about the impending nuclear war at all.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, the, the thing is, I, it seems that every time I turn around we are inching closer and closer to that

Sir Gene:

Feels like it, doesn't

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

thing.

Sir Gene:

it?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

it does, it feels like it's a inexorable march towards World War ii. Like, it? is so. It's done. This is what we're going to be doing now. I don't see much turnaround,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. and it really sucks cuz I've still got another like nine months before my nuclear war products are ready. So it's bad timing all the way around.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

nine months that long.

Sir Gene:

Oh dude, are you kidding? From design to actual availability on Amazon, nine months is short.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, all I can say is we're being gas lit. So. US Media and Congressman even, Glenn Beck said Glenn Beck was going, Hey, we did this because you know what, it's pretty fucking obvious that the West did this. It was either the United States or It, was. Those are the only two realistic options to say that Russia bombed their own pipeline is just asinine.

Sir Gene:

it seems fascinating. So since we tried recording yesterday, I actually watched another video this morning and I posted that note on social with one of the military retired folks, I can't remember his name. That has been. Popping up here and there and talking about where we are. And he was, he's not been bought by the the current administration. So he is actually talking reality. And I thought it was very fascinating that he thought that it's 100% not Russia did this. There's certainly some possibility the US did this. There's also a pretty good possibility that Poland did this.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Poland, I don't think has the capability

Sir Gene:

the only one spreading the Poland message here now.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Do you think Poland has the capability though? I mean, we're talking fairly deep and you know this was not a trivial exercise. This pipeline

Sir Gene:

to, this is the trap that people always get caught in. When dealing with governments, both US government and internationally, is this idea. It was like, did Poland do it? And most people are thinking, Okay, so Poland's gonna have some Polish Special forces divers going down there to plant some minds. No, it was probably done by freelancers. So any country could have paid for this, literally any country on the planet because if you do something like this and including if the US did it, and including if ER did it, there's no way in hell you're gonna use your country's military forces to do this. This is a freelance operation, and given that it's gonna

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Just for plausible deniability.

Sir Gene:

Any country hell, any rich billionaire that wants to do this could do it. It really doesn't matter because you're never going to utilize official government employees to do something like this, ever. So yeah, plausible deniability because then you can sit there in front of Congress three years later or whatever and then. No. We are not at all spying on US American citizens because we're not, because we have five eyes and we have every other country spying on Americans

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah, we're not, but the UK

Sir Gene:

because it's all in how they use the language. And this is why, I mean people, let's give credit where credit is, do at least. The NSA was smart enough. We had enough lawyers talking to them to say, If we wanna do this, we certainly have the technical capability to do it, but we can't have our fingerprints over it. Now here are some legal actions that we can take to be able to spy in Americans and not spy in Americans, and that is by providing access to our super high end snooping equipment to other friendly countries. And then having them spy in the Americans, which technically allows us to answer that question. Negative.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

And then shared the information across.

Sir Gene:

Well, of course. But the point, it'd be bad if the NSA was spy in Americans, but I think it's kinda worse having that outsource to some third rate European countries.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah, to an extent. But at the same time,

Sir Gene:

I'm gonna get spy on, I'd rather have my own country.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

eh, I'd rather just not be SP on though so

Sir Gene:

Fair enough, but given the no choice to not be, It's like if you wanna get advertisements popping up, would you rather get ads in English or Chinese?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I just block the ads.

Sir Gene:

But if you can't,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

At point taken, man, but it, what it comes down

Sir Gene:

trying to say, obviously it's better to not have the ads and it's

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

What it comes down to is I don't think either of us believe that Russia bombed its own pipeline.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, AKA's Razor says there's no way they did it. There's only one possible way that they would've thought of doing that, and that is if they thought that there was enough other countries that would believe that the US would do it to be able to. Essentially do it just to put blame on the us. But I don't think they've got that mass of countries that are ready to flip flop and go to the Russia side right now. And that's yet another thing that makes me think there's no way in hell they did it. Because it is, the example that I've used before is it's literally like shooting yourself in the foot in your own foot because you're too lazy to take off your shoes. And then this example of taking off the shoes is simp. Flipping a freaking switch to cut the gas flow. Like they have the control of this stuff. They can start and stop at any time they want, and instead they choose to blow up the pipeline. What?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah, the only argument that I've heard is using it as something to basically as a rice dog moment to, as a rallying cry. But it, that would've made sense before the mobilization, right? So If this had happened before the mobilization and then this is the impetus and the excuse for the mobilization, then that argument could possibly make sense. But right now

Sir Gene:

It's just so unlike. Yeah. It just makes very little sense.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I do like the theory and we talked about it when this happened that Tim Pools actually come out with now as well, but you And I, talked about it first, granted in private, but of so we have no proof,

Sir Gene:

No recording didn't happen.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. But, Well, I don't know. You may have a recording. You record everything, right?

Sir Gene:

fair enough. Used to, I don't know, man. Some of that gear is just starting to break down, like all the microphones around the house, everything. Everyone knows what works anymore

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, the other possibility that's in this outside of the US doing this to motivate

Sir Gene:

or Poland.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

well, China doing it to put Russia and the US on this collision course that we seem to be on.

Sir Gene:

Which is good for China. I mean, China, I've

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, it pushes Russia towards China.

Sir Gene:

It's the big benefactor in this whole mess that we're in right now, because it's not focused on them, gives them a lot more leeway and it gives them an opportunity to even look benevolent as they're trying to say. China's official statement on this right now is that they hope that the two sides can come to some type. Of negotiation of an agreement and end this. I mean, they're totally playing that card right now.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, and as they should if your Chinese China is doing exactly what you want your government to be doing in

Sir Gene:

yeah. Which I think they're doing a better job because they're providing that sort of formal like, Hey guys, you should really. Fix this about yourselves

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

hey guys, knock it off.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, exactly. Hey guys, knock it off. Meanwhile, and another video that I posted this morning, there was a clips of I can't even remember who it was, Somebody from the White House. So, one of the by the administration folks talking about how this is a good thing that the pipeline, So this is already after Biden and Victor Newman got they were on video months ago talking about how yeah, if Russia invades, they on these pipelines are gonna get turned off permanently.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

in February, Biden said, if Russia invades the Nord Stream, two won't happen. The reporter said, Well, how you, you don't control it? Germany and Russia do? And he said, Oh, we have our ways. So I mean

Sir Gene:

And there's a similar quote from Victoria Newland from that timeframe, and now today this guy, or yesterday from the administration comes out talking about how this is a great thing, that the pipeline is shut off. It's another, nail on the coffin of Putin and. It just bring us that much closer to victory over Russia.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Nailing the coffin of many Europeans.

Sir Gene:

Well, yeah, fuck they, you apparently, but,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Here's the thing. Even if the US didn't do it, by making those statements Newland and Biden opened the door for us to be just scope, scapegoated And blamed. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

And they're not. That's my point in this is that they're not helping themselves cuz they keep coming out with more statements about it that makes it look like this is something the US has always wanted and has got. And it made me think too, in, in there's something I didn't bring up when we were trying to record yesterday that I think makes a little bit more sense now, is so. This definitely fucks over Europe a week. Europe is not a bad thing for Russia, but it is a great thing for the US and so I really started thinking about it as well. US isn't in any, there's no negative effect on the US if Europe fails, if Europe goes down. In fact, some of the best times for the US was post World War ii. When they were doing land lease deals with all the European countries when they were making loans. These are not grants, these are loans to Europe in order to provide them basic life necessities. Like, US was shipping grain, they were shipping durable tools. They were shipping things that Europe had lost during World War ii. and if there's one thing that can keep the US economy afloat, given our current situation, it is, Well, there are two things. One war, two, having a Europe that is fully dependent on the US for its livelihood. What better way to ensure that the dollar remains at least somewhat

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, I mean, if we engaged in a Neo al plan as you're describing, through liquid natural gas farm goods, especially with the Netherland Netherlands backing off and everything else. I don't think it would just be lip service. I think the dollar would stay very dominant and, it would be a huge boost to our economy, to the point where

Sir Gene:

the cost of Europe.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

It would stave off youth, the disease, and I can't pronounce that word, trap with China. I mean, we would outpace China at that point to the point where,

Sir Gene:

the US has to be the factory and I use that term loosely because not everything is a manufacturing thing, but if the US has to be the engine for Europe to get Europe back on its feet, Post this awful, explosion of the pipeline that clearly Russia did well, US is coming across as the savior of Europe and saving the US dollar in the process. So that I think is a very reasonable possibility right now as to why the

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I think you nailed it,

Sir Gene:

it is

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I think you nailed it because I think that's what they're going for. I think they're going to push Russia to the point of. Just short of World War ii, if that's the case. But then, the gamble that you're making is. that by blowing up this pipeline, you haven't crossed a Rubicon with Russia to the point where Putin's gonna say, Yeah, no, fuck you, fuck your globalism.

Sir Gene:

Well,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I'm here to, kick ass and chew gum and a ma

Sir Gene:

even if the US blew up the pipeline I mean, I don't know if you heard, Putin's response was, We, it was actually quite similar to to this General's re or this politician's response, or the, sorry military dudes that I was watching respond, which is, the best thing we can do, and I'm paraphrasing Putin right now, is just investigate the situation and not make any hasty decisions. And I've said this before, and it continues to be the case over and over almost on a daily basis here. Putin is the most moderate guy in Russia, and it's amazing how the US keeps wanting to portray him as this totalitarian dictator alternating between Hitler and Mu. But the reality is that Putin is the guy that he, in some ways, he's like the anti. He is never unpredictable. He's always measured. He is always looking at the options and not wanting to make a choice that could get him into a position he can't back out of. And that's he is adhering to Suns art of war whereas the sort of off the cuff reactions that are happening in the West are dis. so I don't know, man I really just started thinking that maybe this has nothing to do with Russia, really for the US It just has more to do with getting Europe to become a dependent state, much like it was post World War ii. So whatever we need to do, let's just get there.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. And that's definitely possible. Just real quick before we move off the pipeline stuff, Billy Bone sent us a note with the disruption in the Nord string pipeline, he

Sir Gene:

Oh, the book,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

a book. Yeah. Yeah. So

Sir Gene:

very interesting.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

2034, a novel from the Next World War. He sent this to me on Friday. I started it, but, I haven't gotten very far, obviously, but looks to be a pretty interesting book, especially in, conjunction with everything that's going on. So, thanks Billy for the recommendation. Definitely. Digging into that.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. And I'll put it on my list as well, but I guarantee you're gonna finish it. Well before I started, so I know how fancy you read. I did actually start. Rereading a book. Cuz it's been about, I don't know, 15 years since I read something like that called the Company is a, I think in my opinion, it is the best written spy novel out there.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

about the cia. I take it,

Sir Gene:

it is, yeah, it's historical fiction and starts during the 1950s at the. The postwar sort of beginnings of the Cold War and it goes all the way up until the 1990s.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Robert Little.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was lael. Is it little?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Little Lael hire.

Sir Gene:

But awesomely written very good writing, very realistic. Oh I've been told, and it's a it utilizes actual historical figures, which is great. So without giving any of the plot line away, Putin is in the book.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Interesting. Now I, Is this Putin the politician, or Putin the a KGB Officer.

Sir Gene:

You'll find out when you read it.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

All

Sir Gene:

Yes. In the$400 donation, I'll give away the ending. Oh. Here's a little trick for you guys that

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Gene goes from not wanting to do donations or anything and feeling

Sir Gene:

Well, I checked, yeah, I checked my bank account. I'm like, Yeah, I need to either get a job or get donations coming in. So yeah. Here's a little trick to save some money. So if you buy, if you wanna buy, and it's not just this book, it's a lot of books. Not every book, many books. If you wanna buy the book as an audio book on. There's a whatever price for it. I think this one happens to be 26 bucks or something like that on Audible.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

29. 39.

Sir Gene:

you go. 29.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

now, and there's another one that I, that's 2203 and I'm trying to see what the, difference

Sir Gene:

here's the trick. Here's the trick.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Uhhuh.

Sir Gene:

If you go to the Kindle store, you can buy it for four bucks or three bucks. I think three bucks right now. And when you buy it for three bucks on King Amazon upsells you the audible version for just seven more dollars.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Huh?

Sir Gene:

get both for 10 bucks instead of one for 29 bucks. So,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I always go the other way.

Sir Gene:

Try this way because it, I think this is a better discount if you start with the kind. And then they upsell you the audiobook versus buying the audiobook and then getting the Kindle upsell.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

So I always do it when, whenever I'm getting something, I always get the audio book and the Kindle because that way I can go back and forth. And one of the great things about that is they do the whisper sync between them, Right. So you can be reading, it's got your place, you pick up the audio book, or you're going to bed or whatever. You're listening to the audio book. It's right where you lift.

Sir Gene:

Well, I picked up a new Kindle. In anticipation of sitting on the pool and reading. So I've been doing some of that. And it's it's

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I sent you a list of countries that have right hand drive cars and Mexico's

Sir Gene:

Kindles have those than the, But either way, it's this is my new thing and I'm inviting anybody else that wants to join me in rereading well, or just reading it for the first time this book, because as I'm not a super fast reader like Ben, so I'm not gonna be finished by next weekend. It'll.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

fast reader.

Sir Gene:

It'll probably take me a month or more to get this book read. And so as I'm reading in and if anybody else wants to start from the beginning of that book and read as well, post your comments, theories, questions, ideas, or whatever, we can have a little discussion about it. No agenda social.com. And. Talk, talk as we're reading through, cuz it's been long enough that I vaguely remember what happened in the book, but I couldn't really summarize. I just remember it was a very well written book. It was a great historical fiction book and it dealt of, I think, fairly accurately with the activities going on both sides of the air.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, at least we can, Hopefully it depicts the CIA as a bunch of bumbling idiots, because that's my impression of them.

Sir Gene:

Well, it, they're not that flat of characters. I mean, they're pretty well developed characters then, but,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Okay. It's interesting cuz my the judge that married my parents and family friend, he was former CIA and, he made no bones about it. You never leave the CIA. You don't you, the company called him up multiple times for trips to South America sort of thing. And he's in his, sixties as a judge and quote unquote retired. So Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yep. Well, it is more of a calling than a job.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Or more of a mob than a job. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, Yeah, same thing.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I mean, the mob and the ca the only way else in a body bag, so, Okay. Interesting.

Sir Gene:

But it's, anyway, so that's enough of a pitch on that. If somebody does start reading it, just let me know and then I'll

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Oh, I'm gonna read Billy Bone's book first, but I'll I already bought the other one there

Sir Gene:

You did. Okay. And you've never read it before. Right. Okay. I'm curious to see what you think and given how long ago it was written, I think it does a very, it's still very applicable. It does a good job of covering these topics that may be useful for people that are younger, that haven't experienced Sort of, topics or issues with the the, in the Soviet Union in the past Russian Now and the US when things were flaring up? I certainly wasn't around during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy situation, although I'm sure plenty of people think I was. But I do remember when things got pretty heated in the eighties, in the early eighties, and it kind of seemed. Nuclear war was. Yeah. Like nuclear war. It's, Yeah. So a few years before the collapse, like we were getting really close to it. So, yeah, it's I think for a lot of people that grew up under Bill Clinton and then George Bush, and their only impression of danger is terrorism. Like that's the only. Bad guys in, in, the post Cold War era. And I think the US is aggressively trying to change that image.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. Well, we're certainly about to change it, aren't we?

Sir Gene:

It sure looks like it

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

and we're, and like we're still in Syria we still have. About a quarter of the country occupied by the us. There's no mention around anything. There's no reports from Syria on tv. Nothing's happening. But the US is taking about a quarter to a third of Syrian oil stealing it. Some people would say but in the US controlled territories, all that oil is getting pumped out and being sold off by the.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah, so interesting thing. Russia grew.

Sir Gene:

Yep.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

I mean, man, that's a huge shift.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. You mean added territory? Yeah.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. I mean now that the dom bass and those four alus or however, whatever the Russian word for it is are now part of Russia.

Sir Gene:

means region.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Yeah. It's administrative state or whatever. Yeah. It's not as strong of a term as state. That's why I didn't wanna translate it to state, because it's more like a county as far as. Governmental power is my understanding at least.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. I mean, they're gonna have representatives in the Duma which is the The Russian version of the, Congress?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

So well, why don't we start with this cuz I'm not sure I fully understand Russian Federation governmental system post communism to the degree that I should.

Sir Gene:

Sure. Well, the Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. It was actually started pre communism. So it was the, it was first organized in a,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

the czar.

Sir Gene:

well it, at the very last days of the Czar, it was one of those sort of compromised moves. Like, we're gonna have representation.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

So if I may, it's equivalent, I think it's more equivalent to the House of Commons in the

Sir Gene:

Yeah, exactly. Well, Fair enough. But it wasn't the Congress based on the house.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

To an extent, but the way Congress is organized, especially from a parliamentary standpoint, is drastically different. So, yes, it is the people's house. It is supposed to be the representation of the common man, the way our system is done is not as parliamentary system, but as a Congress that we have two houses. One that is supposed to represent the people and one that is supposed to represent the states that no longer does, but.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So there's another much less frequently mentioned part of the Russian Federal Assembly, which is the Federation Council. Which as the. The other house. So the Dumas, the like, I guess the equivalent to the house, and then the federal council would be like the Senate. I mean, they're all slightly different, but they're all kind of similar. It's a bunch of people sitting around and talking, bickering, whatever.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Voting.

Sir Gene:

yeah, voting,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

to annex territory currently in dispute.

Sir Gene:

Well, no, I mean voting to recognize. Legitimate vote of citizens of a territory that had declared its independence and desire to rejoin. Sounds very similar to Texas, doesn't it? How Texas used to be part of Mexico and then there's some

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

We actually fought a war.

Sir Gene:

and

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

We were free and independent nation for a while too.

Sir Gene:

And then

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

And then we made the biggest mistake of our lives

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So maybe these four regions are gonna think exactly the same way. It's like, Hey, we could have been free and independent. Why the hell did we join Russia?

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

So, so here's the thing. The vote in the dom bass, every fricking region was over 90% to rejoin Russia?

Sir Gene:

There was some in 87 I saw.

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Okay. 87 Whoopty. I mean, here's the thing. If people are like, Oh, well,

Sir Gene:

a surprise? Because it

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Wait. So here's the thing. If Russia were faking these elections, Those wouldn't be the numbers.

Sir Gene:

eh, I don't know if I agree with that. During Soviet times,

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Oh, during Soviet times? Absolutely. Oh, absolutely.

Sir Gene:

felt 1% was enough to give the other guys. Everybody else agrees. And that was so clearly fake. It's like, Oh, come on, why even bother? I, Here's the thing that people I have to keep in mind does that these regions aren't someplace that Russia came and occupied and now is forcing to join it. These are regions that have literally been bombed. The country whose government was overthrown for eight

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

bit. Go back a little bit before that, before, was it Cruise? Jeff? This was part of Russia, right? It. yeah. It was well, not all of it but

Sir Gene:

no, all of

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Crimea do. Bass was Russian.

Sir Gene:

Ukraine is just a territorial name. It is not a state. So

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

Well, I mean, parts of Ukraine we're Russian, Parts of Ukraine we're Polish, and it,

Sir Gene:

over

2022-10-02--t05-00-55pm--guest194154--ben:

it was created by the Soviets.

Sir Gene:

no, it wa Well, Ukraine was created by the Soviets. Yes, that's absolutely right. But that area, which you mentioned and correctly had been Something that has moved back and forth. The Western, really Western Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine has very solidly been part of Russia, but western Ukraine had been at times controlled by other countries. Like, was it lava or Lithuania? I can't, I think it was Lithuanian. So, Lithuanian and Poland controlled it for quite a long period of time. There's a period of time when the the the connet, the, Angus k relatives controlled it. There, there was various points in time where it controlled, but for most of the history of that region it was controlled by the same exact people on government that was controlling Moscow. So, whether you wanna call'em Russians, whether, Ukraines want to. It's I guess to some Ukrainians they would say that Russia started in the region of Ukraine and Kiev and then expanded out and then separated from Ukraine. But really and incidentally, Kiev, I think was really where the Russian Empire started. So if anything, I think that's a more of an argument for saying Kiev is one of the oldest Russian cities always has been. And that the term Ukraine, and I've said this before, means borderlands. So as the border has been invaded near that part of the of the current Ukraine, that region has been owned by different countries or ruled or conquered or whatever. I think it was. And I, it's either Lot Means or Lithuanians, I can't remember. I think it was Lithuanians. Maybe I'm wrong, but they control it for quite a period of time. Poland controlled it. Obviously Germany took over that region right, pretty early on in World War ii, that, that was their path to Moscow was going through Ukraine. So there, there've been, and then like the the ConEd states like Genus Cons, relatives, they controlled for a while. So there've been a number of different parties have controlled it. But historically, if you look at the history of Russia, which is about a thousand years or so so it's still a fairly new country compared to some of the other countries like China, for example. But it's been around that region for a long time. And so what happened, I think as you were pointing out, Ben, is that the Soviet Union had sort of created Ukraine as a distinct region. And I've talked about this as well, maybe not on our show, but possibly with Darren, that if you look at most of the Soviet era, leaders of the Soviet Union the premieres, the guys that actually controlled things, they were not from Moscow or St. Petersburg or Central Russia. They were mostly from southern Russia, either on the side, which would now be, I guess once again in Russia, but at some point in Ukraine. And Stalin, who's probably one of the best known of the Soviet leaders in the us. He was from Georgia. So there, it this Russia was not a bunch of North European Russian dudes running things during the Soviet era. Now, during the the time of the, the sars, they absolutely were North European because the last are Russian Nicholas the second was a cousin of the King of England. Was it Edward? What was the guy's

Sir Ben:

Yeah, there

Sir Gene:

They were

Sir Ben:

interbreeding of the European royal families is insanity.

Sir Gene:

Like in Russia 300 years ago, and they started marrying off the Russian males to German females. That there was a big incentive to really get

Sir Ben:

The King of England has relatives that were Nazis. Let's just put it that way,

Sir Gene:

Well, everybody did that. I mean, that's the thing the Greek royalty Nazis, the Russian royalties, Nazis, I mean, it's, this is also why Hitler instantly, I've read this and I, I believe it to be true, did not think that there would be a big response against German expansion from either Russia or England. Is

Sir Ben:

Well, actually, the Hitler went further than that. He thought that the English and the United States would

Sir Gene:

with joint yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So,

Sir Ben:

that's straight out mine comp. I mean, he flat out said that he thought that the US and England would be allies. And quite frankly, the only reason why we had World War ii, and this may be why we have World War ii is because we had an incompetent head of state that chose war. And that was Winston Churchill, by the way. If you go back and read Churchill's war or anything, you realize that the man was not only a absolute drunk. And this is coming from someone who says, I, I enjoy alcohol, I mean, he was a bumbling drunk and broke. Part of the reason why he pushed and did what he did, he was a fraud. He still sold counterfeit paintings. I mean, the Churchill is not the guy when you really dig into who he was, he is not the way we portray him in modern US

Sir Gene:

he's not a great statement. Well, come on. Now. Everybody thinks he.

Sir Ben:

No, I mean, he was apparently so drunk at some point that the actor that did the voice of Winnie the Poo on for the BBC did some of his radio addresses.

Sir Gene:

I thought that was the Chinese guy.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, well,

Sir Gene:

The winning the poo.

Sir Ben:

I mean literally he, anyway and he, Churchill did lots of things. He knew that they were going to bomb an area because they had broken Enigma and chose not to evacuate the area as to not reveal that they had broken Enigma. But

Sir Gene:

Well, that's a trolley problem. I mean, that, that comes up for most politicians at some point in their lives.

Sir Ben:

yeah, I mean, I think there are some other solutions around that,

Sir Gene:

9, 9 11 is a good example.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Well, nine 11 wtc, seven, man, it just,

Sir Gene:

But even outside of WT seven, I mean, if you know that those buildings are gonna get hit, which they. Then you have to make the decision to not evacuate them and not let people know.

Sir Ben:

And the decision to plant demolition charges.

Sir Gene:

Well, fair enough. But I don't even wanna go that far into the, because there, there's a lot of people that automatically dismiss as soon as you start mentioning those, but ignoring

Sir Ben:

but

Sir Gene:

if they didn't exist. The fact is we do know for a fact that the Bush White House knew of the plan of that airplanes hitting. Now you can argue about whose

Sir Ben:

And they found the

Sir Gene:

Arabian plan, was a US plan? Was it,

Sir Ben:

magically found the passports. But anyway, what it comes down to is I was a denier for a very long time. I didn't wanna believe that our government could do something like that. And then the NTSB report, Or not ntsb, The n report rather n came out while I was a student in college and I started reading it and I looked at the physics and the material science of it, and I went, This doesn't make sense. So I took it to a professor of mine and I said, And an xr. And I said, Does this make sense to you? And he said, No, this is a completely wrong. And when I showed him what it was from he went, Oh, And it was silent after that. It was one of those things that the temperatures that they are saying had to have been achieved or not physically possible from jet fuel. It's just not. The building was literally designed to take an airplane strike. No building has collapsed, no skyscraper before or since. Sure, sure.

Sir Gene:

So you don't think thermite just spontaneously appeared out of a jet plane?

Sir Ben:

No, I don't.

Sir Gene:

Okay.

Sir Ben:

For, first of all, you, the thermite is aluminum and iron

Sir Gene:

totally possible. Could

Sir Ben:

where's the iron oxide coming from?

Sir Gene:

building itself.

Sir Ben:

So the building is rusting away internally

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Sir Ben:

and it magically happens in the right proportions.

Sir Gene:

well twice, not just once.

Sir Ben:

Exactly. And by the way no no skyscraper before or since has collapsed from fire. So there's that. And then you've got building seven, which is just so blatant. Anyway, regardless of that,

Sir Gene:

Yes. You just completely derailed our topic and now people are going, Oh, brother.

Sir Ben:

Huh. Well, anyway, World War ii Churchill not a great guy. And when, what happened, the reason why I'm bringing any of this up and looking at this is because when this started, I flat out said that the west is set. And this goes to your theory about, the Marshall Plan and everything else is that we are setting hi Putin up to be the next Hitler because we have a region that was part of Russia, just like, the hinter lens. We're part of Germany and that's been taken away and we have a genocide going on.

Sir Gene:

Yep.

Sir Ben:

And that's something that people are ignoring is that po not Poland. Ukraine was attacking this area repeatedly,

Sir Gene:

Yep.

Sir Ben:

so,

Sir Gene:

It's it works out, I think for the US if you do the math because as long as they can stay on this side of nuclear weapons, use Ifs are used, then all bets are off. Cuz it's a brand new world at that. Because nobody really knows where it goes, where it ends. Learn long term effects. I don't just mean medical effects. I mean all long term effects of that. When we have had large volcanic explosions, Europe has gone dark when we've had Cher Noble, which was just well I think it was two reactors that went unstable. Europe damn near went dark. I mean, that, that place, if there are even tactical NUS used, can get beyond recovery become beyond any kind of short-term recovery. So I think that there's a lot of lip service being paid. So from the Russian side, and again, I don't have any information that nobody else does, it's just I can read more than one language, but I don't think Russia is going to be the first to use nukes. That will be the us.

Sir Ben:

Really,

Sir Gene:

Yep.

Sir Ben:

I see no scenario where the US goes first strike without a threat to US territory.

Sir Gene:

Well then we're in

Sir Ben:

saying is nukes aren't gonna, get used.

Sir Gene:

we're not gonna have nukes used then.

Sir Ben:

Can totally see Russia using artillery or something in

Sir Gene:

Well, that's the impression you're supposed to have. So what Russia is absolutely going to start doing is to stop only focusing on military targets and also start focusing on infrastructure targets and command and control targets, which includes Kiev. So will Kiev start getting bombarded? I think about a 95% chance, yes.

Sir Ben:

I, yeah. I don't, I, yeah. I wouldn't even quibble over the 5%. I would say that they are

Sir Gene:

well there, there's always some percentage.

Sir Ben:

I, so I

Sir Gene:

they're gonna start using thermobaric weapons routinely because they have a lot of'em. They're going to start doing things with the US is going to be condemning nonstop over and over. And like, we really, we need to put a stop to this. The, these Russian actions are completely unacceptable, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Sir Ben:

Of Putin's speech, I think that there's going to be somewhat of a grace period to allow Kiev to try and reign it in if they want to. But short of that I think they're going full out.

Sir Gene:

yeah. the, you said, Well, I don't see the US using weapons. Well, again, here's the thing. Us need needs pla deny the plausible deniability. So the US isn't going to say, Hey, we're gonna start newing Russia. But what the US absolutely is likely to do, given that they were a provided chemical agents and biological agents to Ukraine, is they're going to start providing nuclear material to Ukraine.

Sir Ben:

All right. Now, what chemical or biological agents have we provided to Ukraine?

Sir Gene:

There's a shit ton of labs, dude. That,

Sir Ben:

Man, the LA labs. Okay,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, where do you think they came from? They were literally built by US contractors and material being sent from fort in Maryland there. Dietrich. Yeah. I mean, this is, again, this is like documented publicly. This is not some secret operation.

Sir Ben:

The, so the true source of Covid 19

Sir Gene:

well, Covid 19 very likely did also come out of Fort Dietrich via China, because that's where Fauci had his little play lab. The guy is dirty, man. I just, I can't believe that he isn't in prison. anyway, getting back to the Russia thing is if Ukraine detonate a dirty bomb either on the new Russian territory or the old Russian territory, then yes, Russia will use nukes.

Sir Ben:

So

Sir Gene:

Ukraine has no nuclear material. So if they do it,

Sir Ben:

well they do they have power plants that have radiological material in them, including trenoble,

Sir Gene:

that, Well, how many plants do they have that are under control of Ukraine right now? Cause I thought Russia took control of all the plants.

Sir Ben:

trenoble.

Sir Gene:

That's not still active,

Sir Ben:

It doesn't matter. There's still radiological material there.

Sir Gene:

it? Never get disposed of.

Sir Ben:

Absolutely not. It's in the sarcophagus. Are you kidding me? The elephant's foot, all that.

Sir Gene:

Okay. All right. Fair enough. So they're, they've got access to Trenoble sarcophagus.

Sir Ben:

App, they, if Ukraine wanted to build a dirty bomb, they have access to radiological material that could be used to do that. And by the way,

Sir Gene:

if they do, there will be nukes used,

Sir Ben:

Yeah, the, just for everybody's edification, because there may be some people who don't know what a dirty bomb is, they've just heard the term dirty bomb is basically taking a conventional explosive and wrapping it in radiological material to spread that radiological material.

Sir Gene:

Yep. So it is essentially, it's not on nuke, but it is a bomb created to spread

Sir Ben:

bomb is meant to harm humans through

Sir Gene:

Yeah. It's, and you could even detonated in the at. What's the term I'm thinking of at a pretty high up so that it spreads with the wind and everything. Yeah. Airburst it exactly. So that it's not even gonna harm a building, but it will make people that are in the path of that be completely contaminated.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, it definitely dirty bombs have been put out and theorized one has never been used, but they've been talked about as a terrorist weapon. So yeah.

Sir Gene:

So that's one thing. Now another thing we talked about, I vaguely recall last night, is the the Ukrainian application tomato.

Sir Ben:

Very interesting timing because does this trigger Article five automatically if we admit them?

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And my thought was, well, first of all, I think you were thinking that it's not very likely that they're gonna be admitted.

Sir Ben:

no I don't think there's any way they're admitted.

Sir Gene:

yeah. And I, my thought is, I think there is a chance, I wouldn't give it a super high chance, but let's say a 20% chance that they are admitted. Because nothing, I mean, ultimately the rules are created by the same countries that are in nato, and they can change those rules at any time and say, Well, yeah, we're gonna admit Ukraine, even though they are in the middle of a conflict.

Sir Ben:

But it's a treaty. So for those rules to change, at least from a US standpoint literally what would have to happen is there would have to be a amendment to the treaty that would then have to be ratified by the Senate. That is not just a trivial process. It's not like NATO's governing body could just change things.

Sir Gene:

billion to Ukraine willfully. You don't think they're gonna sign document like this?

Sir Ben:

The US Senate may, but I think I, quite frankly, I think Turkey's gonna save us from suicide here. I think there's no way in hell Erdogan, especially with his ties to Russia in the way Turkey has been riding

Sir Gene:

likes to play both sides against the Minal.

Sir Ben:

Exactly. So I don't see him doing that.

Sir Gene:

Well, but he was also pushing back and saying there's no way that Finland and Norway are gonna get admitted

Sir Ben:

And they haven't been yet.

Sir Gene:

and then, or did after a few weeks of kind of back and forth said, Okay, well we've had a conversation and now they are, Well, they haven't been yet, but but Turkey dropped their opposition. They got what they wanted, whatever that was.

Sir Ben:

I don't think turkeys really dropped their opposition. I don't think the vote has been tallied yet, and I don't think that they are likely to end up in nato. But we'll see. The EU and the Shing zone is an entirely different thing.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I meant they know. No, you're right. I said to you I, Nate on that. Yeah.

Sir Ben:

Now I will say this, I, Erdogan is not someone I. Want to heat praise on, I think very poorly of the man. I told you last night about my friend, so you know that's a whole thing. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, you had a, So you had a college buddy that got killed by him.

Sir Ben:

Well one of my, one of my best friends was Turkish guy his dad and them came over from Turkey. He was very very political as far as he was involved with. Turkey being the secular country that it was through the, sixties and up until recently when the Gists and the Muslim Brotherhood started in his view and in my view, tearing Turkey apart and making them n into a radicalized country versus a a secular one. They were bringing, two different versions of Islamic Jihadism too. Turkey and radicalizing Turkey which is the Goins and the Muslim Brotherhood are very much opposed. Erdogan is Muslim Brotherhood, Fatel and Goland obviously other side of that. Anyway, they moved back to Turkey and My friend Bora who is sadly passed now was part of protests. They were trying to fight. His parents were very involved and then all of a sudden at 30 he dies of a heart attack in his bed and it takes over six months to get the autopsy results back. Anyway, needless to say, I don't think my friend had a heart attack and died.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So. I guess your point is just somebody that, that is running that kind of government may be the only thing that

Sir Ben:

Yeah,

Sir Gene:

from happening.

Sir Ben:

sadly enough. And I think that the reason why he will not vote for NATO's expansion into Ukraine is because exactly what you said, he likes to play both sides. It's interesting cuz Turkey is a country that is a member of nato, yet uses some Russian weapons, which is actually in defiance of the NATO treaty. So, Yeah. Couple other interesting things outta a Putin speech that I thought was interesting is, he talked about the transgender movement in the US and what we're doing to our kids and call the satanists and I'm sitting there thinking he's not wrong.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I guess if you're of the religious variety, that's an interesting question is would you take it to that extent? I've mentioned before that Russia seems to be statistically anyway, more of a Christian country than the US is in terms of a population that believes in Ghost Church on a regular basis. So I, I'm not horribly surprised that Putin would say this, but how does that, like what's your reaction as a Christian type.

Sir Ben:

Well, I think we've taken our secularism to an N degree and, I really liked, I forget who put it this way, but you wouldn't affirm a bulimic or an anorexic, right? You would say, Hey, you've got something mentally wrong with you and you need help. And, for some of the gender dysphoric, transitioning, maybe somewhat beneficial at some point in time, but to do what we're doing to children and allowing this to happen to children

Sir Gene:

Yeah,

Sir Ben:

is insanity, huh? Yeah, exactly.

Sir Gene:

refuses to get a boob job. I mean, look at what he had to go through.

Sir Ben:

Exactly the streaming wars of South Park is just hilarious, by the way. Was

Sir Gene:

yeah. I liked how they come up with the big streaming service of PPE Plus, which they're running on Paramount plus. I mean, they're literally just talking about this bullshit. And there a whole episode, I mean, there's a lot of topics covered. Sorry to change the focus here, but I just watched it. But they're talking about how there's too many streaming services and most of'em are gonna die off. And then clearly the kids got into trouble because they're putting their products on too many streaming services and giving everybody an exclusive deal, and they're not supposed to. And it's literally what South Park did. They had an exclusive deal with hbo and then they did an exclusive deal with Viacom, which is MTV, where it used to be. And now they've got two exclusive deals, So they can't show any of their old stuff on Viacom, but they don't show any of their new stuff on hbo. It's just like, it's confusing. And their own website is owned by hbo, so none of these new things are available anywhere online, out outside of the new network that they've got a five year deal with which is Viacom. So, yeah, it's pretty crazy. So they literally, they just made it and it's not even the freaking episode and you have to buy it. Like, there are only two options of watching the New South Park which used to be free is and on Hulu is either you have to buy each episode for 10 bucks a pop, which is a crazy price they've set, they're selling part one for 10 bucks and part two for 10 bucks. Or you have to join the the, what you would call it plus, what did I just

Sir Ben:

Paramount Plus.

Sir Gene:

Plus, Yeah, that's your other option. And then you can watch'em for free.

Sir Ben:

Well, and to be honest though, you should do Paramount Plus

Sir Gene:

a horrible network. I hate giving money to those guys.

Sir Ben:

Ha. Have you watched Lower Decks?

Sir Gene:

Watch

Sir Ben:

Lower Decks? Lower Decks?

Sir Gene:

No, but I saw it's on there and you rave about this kid's show, so I'll watch it.

Sir Ben:

It's not a kid show. It's actually good track. It really is. They were making fun of Deep Space nine

Sir Gene:

they stole my idea. That was originally my idea back like 20 years ago.

Sir Ben:

What was your idea?

Sir Gene:

To have a Star Trek that isn't about the captain and the Upper Echelon crew. It's to have a Star Trek where all the storylines revolve around people that are actually in low level positions.

Sir Ben:

Yep. Well,

Sir Gene:

I Bought it.

Sir Ben:

Voyager did an episode about the lower deck characters and I think t and g did as well. So I don't know, there, there were definitely some episodes in there

Sir Gene:

there were, I mean, they would bring on some characters that would eventually disappear. And I feel like Orville's gotten more of that. Like they've taken minor characters or, not officer class characters and incorporated them more into the show. But it's not I don't know. Well, we'll see. I'll watch lower deck. That's fine. I'll check it out. What else were we talking about? What did I interrupt you? I interrupt you. You were talking about, you were on a rant about something

Sir Ben:

Ah, it's all good, man. I don't even remember at this point.

Sir Gene:

that was literally five minutes ago. How bad is your memory? You're currently recording?

Sir Ben:

yes.

Sir Gene:

Okay, just

Sir Ben:

good. My short term memory loss, isn't that complete yet? I'm not Joe Biden level yet. Okay. No. CSB has been going off about your Russian healing friend. Lied. There are no nukes in Poland.

Sir Gene:

well, literally publicly available information. We'll have a, we'll have a footnote here with the episode when I publish it, showing exactly where those nukes are. Yeah. And again, I think some people just are, and CSB is a good example of it. They're just rhos, Like, it's not an issue of communism, it's not an issue of anything else. It's a, they just have a thing for Russians and

Sir Ben:

so in, rightfully so, I mean, the Soviet Union

Sir Gene:

rightfully

Sir Ben:

pretty fucking nasty for a long time, dude

Sir Gene:

well, not, okay. Look I know what you're, you are saying and I know what you mean, but what practical aspect can anyone name that led to a negative experience for that person personally from the Soviet Union? Now, if you lived in Russia, Okay. There's a lot of bad shit happening. I'll even give you Poland cuz that was part of the Eastern block. So anybody living in the Eastern block, there was Yeah. Anybody living on the Eastern, but for an American or a Brits or anybody in, France, like what the hell exactly was bad for you as a result of the Soviet Union. That's why I'd like to.

Sir Ben:

It, I think it's just people associating. I think there's a, there's this tendency to be disbelieve that the Soviet Union actually broke up. So, people think, Oh Putin great example. He was kgb. He's gotta be bad, he's gotta be kgb. I, I don't think he's a good guy.

Sir Gene:

Bush was cia. So what difference does that make?

Sir Ben:

Well, George Bush is a horrible human being, and I'm glad the wizard's dead, but, hey, Like, seriously, I when George Bush Senior died, I was like, Yay, finally.

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Sir Ben:

But anyway, anyone who thinks highly the Bushes read Bush family of secrets and go from there. They literally a family that tried to overthrow the US government. So, yeah. Not great people, so not a good example there, Gene. But Putin's

Sir Gene:

but I, But

Sir Ben:

he's a nationalist. He is a Patriot and I don't like him. I don't think much of him. I, but he is a Russian patriot.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I think he is. He has certainly made plenty of money over the years undeniably so, so has pretty much all of Congress and Senate.

Sir Ben:

Nancy Pelosi.

Sir Gene:

yeah, Nancy Pelosi made a shit to, and still continues to, That's the best part is like she continues to profit off the stock market insider information because she can.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Beats out Warren Buffet on her trade deals.

Sir Gene:

but I will say that in, in terms of Putin being a Russian patriot I think that's always been true. I think it's the reason that he ended up in the kg. Is it was, he wasn't going to the KGB because he was gonna make more money. He was gonna work for the KGB because he liked his motherland. And I think it's the same thing that led to him working for Yeltsin in the early days. And the same thing that led to him becoming the the president of Russia is that he wants to guide along Russia and he had during its weakest time, which is right after the breakup of the Soviet Union and his I think this is where the, there's some disconnect comes, is that he has said that he has no interest in trying to recreate the Soviet Union. He. Talked about many faults of the Soviet Union, but also he says that the, when the Soviet Union broke up, the mistake that was made by the then people in control, by the the who I'm sure it wasn't one dude, it was a, probably a committee that was handling like, how we're gonna do the breakup. The mistake that was made was that they took what was a country and split it into its composite states based on really what are state borders. And he has a very good point about that because, for example, Eastern Europe, which was under the behind Iron Curtain, it was under the full influence, full control, if you like, of the Soviet Union. But countries like Poland, like Yugoslavia, like, hungry, they all should have and did have their full independence and could do whatever they wanted after the breakup of the Soviet Union. But the country of Russia predates the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire, the monarchy of Russia held a much greater territory than what is today, Russia. And so his point is it wasn't the Soviet Union it wasn't theirs to split like that into regions. What they should have done is just the Communist Party should have resigned and they should have had new elections, elected new government, and the size of Russia should have stayed what it was pre Soviet

Sir Ben:

I, that's, I don't see it that way, so

Sir Gene:

Well, that's the way he, I'm describing what he said, not what I think

Sir Ben:

and what he said during this last speech is that the fall of the Soviet Union was a bad thing, which I disagree with. I get his

Sir Gene:

did not say that is a mischaracterization that is not in his speech.

Sir Ben:

He lamented the fall of the Soviet

Sir Gene:

Nope, not at all. That's a mistranslation

Sir Ben:

Okay. Well, the translation I was reading from, that's certainly the impression I

Sir Gene:

translations that are inaccurate cuz he did not say it. I

Sir Ben:

I asked you for a translation of the full speech, But, I.

Sir Gene:

And I provided it.

Sir Ben:

Anyway.

Sir Gene:

to an article that had it. No, and that's that.

Sir Ben:

Are I read about three different transcripts and there are differences.

Sir Gene:

incorrectly for a specific political effect. So when he says, That the Soviet Union in fact, I think he even mentions the fact that the Soviet Union clearly needed to go away to collapse, to change. It wasn't working like it was starving, its people. Right. But when that happened, that the mistake that was made was not in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The mistake that was made was in the breakup of a country that was one single country into composite states.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. And if those composite states wanted to stay in one country, they would've, So the fact the matter is, They didn't want to, and that's why they didn't. So I don't think that, breaking up and staying in a federation that had abused its people across multiple regions and so

Sir Gene:

But here's the problem, dude.

Sir Ben:

was going to

Sir Gene:

The practical problem. So emotionally, you're absolutely right. So a lot of people felt like they got fucked over during Soviet Union days, right? So, there was a lot of animosity towards Moscow and Moscow being the capital of the Soviet Union. But here's the problem with that type of breakup is you have the same kind of a dispersion of regions there that you do in the us. So I'm gonna use the US as an example. So you have the Midwest that grows a lot of corn, a lot of grain. It's really the food belt of the United States. You have the south where you grow totally different crops and you have oil, and you have. The Northeast, which grows nothing but consumes a lot of things. If you split off the United States into, I think it was five or six regions that Russia got split into or after ussr that what was Russia became the US Sr. And then when the US Sr split that split into smaller states is that each of these relied on the others and doesn't have the resources to survive on its own. that was very evident here as well.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, the problem is when you have like the Hall of DeMar and so on, it's just, I don't know I just don't see a way for that to stay together. I, I get what you're

Sir Gene:

Yeah, the whole and by the way, the whole divorce since you brought it up, is also a great little propaganda term because what happened was and look, this is not a good thing. This was stone, right? But what happened was, and stone was in power, they needed more hard currency. The only real export that the USSR had in the in the fifties was grain. And so what they did is they started exporting for a number of years, exporting way more grain than they should have. And not leaving, not enough to feed the population. So that was not exclusive to Ukraine, to that region at all. The entirety of the Soviet Union experienced hardships with food. The reason that Ukraine kind of claims haul the Moore is because that's where most of the grain grew. That'd be if the US started exporting all the grain and not leaving enough grain for people to eat. The states that mostly produce grain, which would be the Midwest, they're the ones that are seeing all this grain growing and then going away, and nothing in the grocery stores. So they feel as like, Wow, we are really getting fucked. Well, everybody else's too. It's not like anybody else's grocery stores have grain and yours don't. It's just that you grow this stuff, and so that's why it's like this big thing. It's like, Oh no, they were starving. The Ukrainians, no. They were starving. Everybody in the Soviet Union, they were just growing the grain in Ukraine.

Sir Ben:

Yeah I don't know enough to challenge you on that. All I can say is that central planning doesn't work.

Sir Gene:

Communism doesn't work.

Sir Ben:

No, it does not yet. We seem to be headed there every fucking day.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Which is very sad. know I've sent you a few articles here between our shows of like people getting mail saying they have to register their gardens because the government needs to, know what you're doing,

Sir Ben:

And

Sir Gene:

control what you're allowed to.

Sir Ben:

if you register your garden I pity you. I mean, who the, even if there have, at what point? Do we see people go, Okay, enough of this and stand up. And I, I'm afraid I'm deathly afraid that we're not going to that we are going to just keep marching down this road. People are not ever going to stand up. People are not ever gonna say yet, No, I'm not doing that. And we're, we're gonna get to the point where we do have communism in this country. And, you can, the old saying, you can vote your way to communism, but you have to fight your way out. So I don't know.

Sir Gene:

No, that's very true. But that's the thing is I think if we take the example, let's say somebody wrote a fictional book, right? So about the next. 50 years of the US and the US keeps going the way, and that, let's ignore the whole Ukraine situation for now so that we take away the risk of nuclear war. But in that

Sir Ben:

Kurt. Kurt Vette beat us to it.

Sir Gene:

well, let's let, I don't know that he beat us to the same conclusions. So, in the next 50 years, you guys continues to get a lot more communist than states like California and Massachusetts. Actually have majority communist legislatures in them. That's the new party that, that has come out in power, that they've shed their pretense of being Democrats and they've genuinely come out like Bernie Sanders and just said they're actually communist. And this continues

Sir Ben:

don't know what you're doing, but there's a lot of mic noise.

Sir Gene:

Oh, really? Oh, that's not good. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, and see this proves I'm Mexico, that's why there's mic noise. Otherwise, everything would be just fine Anyway. So, there they would be those states would become more communist. Some states, let's say Texas as an example, would try it and resist that. But everybody's still a part of the us and the US overall is becoming more and more communist. And then there are things that happen in the US like a crop failures in the Midwest because of the green agendas that the communists have adopted is saying that that we're planting way too many consumable crops. We need to plant trees for every crop that we plant and we end up running out of food. Country goes through some tough times, and in the end, finally there's a civil war or at least the most peaceful version of a civil war, where different regions agreed to no longer be bound by the American contract. Right? Unlike the Civil War in the 18 hundreds in the us, the Civil War in the two thousands is something that happens without major bloodshed, maybe just some short skirmishes because the regions just say, Look, it's, this is not gonna work. Where we need to part ways. So when that happens, these regions break off from each other. We have the West Coast, which is Oregon California, Washington state. We have the Southwest, including Texas. We have the Southeast, we have the Northeast, we have the Midwest. Each of these regions has different production, different supplies, and different consum consumption needs. Either they start figuring out how to live together and work together, even though they just split off from each other, or they're gonna become a lot more insignificant and have to depend on overseas foreign powers, Trade

Sir Ben:

Yeah, but that's never gonna happen. The next civil

Sir Gene:

wasn't ever gonna happen in the Soviet Union either, but it did.

Sir Ben:

the, this is a very different scenario. The next civil war in the United States will actually be a real civil war. So the conflict that erupted in the conflict that erupted in the 1860s was a war between was really a revolution. The South said, Hey, we're gonna go be our own country now. And the North said, No, you're not. It was, the south was not trying to take over the government of the United States. They were trying to just leave the United States. What you're gonna have in the next Civil War is you're not going to have regions breaking apart because. We're too interbred, if you will. There are conservatives living in all 50 states, and there are liberals living in all 50 states. And the political ideology, there is no Mason Dixon line today. The, what was what was it? The comedian said Mason Dixon line goes through grandma's bedroom. Right. And yeah, actually, correct. Correct. Good, sir. Yes. This will be a true civil war. What Americans think of as the Civil War wasn't. What happened in Spain wasn't what happened around the world. We have never seen a true civil war in this country, and when it comes, it's not gonna be good.

Sir Gene:

Okay. Well, it doesn't really change my premise of my book though. But that my point being simply that different regions have different productivity and different consumption needs, and that when they're all a part of one country it makes it easier to be able to fulfill all those needs from all of those products when they're split. Then you have to get into a lot more a spider web of relationships, but it's still possib. But immediately after they split, when emotions are running high, there's a strong desire to not work with the people that you just physically split from, even though you're literally across the border from them. And I think this is what happened with Ukraine as well along with couple other territories where they logically, rationally, there's every reason to have close working relationships. Even if you have a separate government, that's fine because you're producing things that your neighbor needs, the neighbor's producing things that you need. You can do trade, but the emotions creep in and say, Well, we feel abused by our neighbor and therefore fuck them. We're not gonna do any trade with them. And this is the danger of letting emotions govern politics.

Sir Ben:

Well, yeah, emotions shouldn't govern politics. You should actually be rational. But you know that's hard for people to do. And the fact of the matter is people are irrational all the time. This is not something new. So I, Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. It's it's the case, but I just think that this is, I'm just trying to make a distinction of people that have a Russo for whatever reason, which is just a an emotional distain for Russia

Sir Ben:

Well,

Sir Gene:

versus people that are looking

Sir Ben:

Vic set themselves up for.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, they, I mean, this is. There's no, nobody arguing that the communists were the good guys here. They were definitely the bad guys. But I think the distinction, if you don't make the distinction between an ethnic group of people like Russian and communists, Communist Russia, the Soviet Union where those people lived when it was governed by communists, then you're doing the

Sir Ben:

And there is a conf. There is a conf.

Sir Gene:

let me finish this then. Then you're doing the same thing that Hitler did with Jews, which is not distinguishing German Jews from Jews that are ethnic Jews. There's a difference in people beyond their ethnicity, and I think this is the mistake that's happening right now. It's for a lot of people and it's unfortunate. I don't like to see it in any direction. I don't like anybody just being simply thought of as. Representative of the place that they were born.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, I mean, again, then I've said this, I don't know how many times, I'll say it again. The right level of analysis is always the individual. You CSB sits there and says, You're a Russian heath. Well, you are a heath and you are Russian. So he's not wrong, but

Sir Gene:

technically correct. Yeah, exactly.

Sir Ben:

100%. Anyway the right level of analysis is always the individual and that's what you have to focus on. At least in my opinion. But it is hard for people to disambiguate Russia and, the ussr It has been very long in our memories that those two things were one, and it's, it takes a lot. I mean, even when I was growing up, I mean, when the Soviet Union fell, I was just a kid, but it's something in my memory. So yeah it's a thing.

Sir Gene:

it's almost 30 years, so I don't know, Maybe it'll take a hundred years, but it, I'll tell you what, it sure seems like people weren't equating Germans with Nazis a lot faster.

Sir Ben:

I disagree with that. I think,

Sir Gene:

think in the 1970s people were looking at Germany and the products that they manufacture in going Yeah, a bunch of Nazis live there.

Sir Ben:

Not necessarily, but what I can also say is that during that time period, the Germany was occupied, the, I think the big difference is that Germany lost, was occupied and I, it means, it's like the Japanese, We don't think of the Japanese as the empire, but that's because that we're under occupation for a long time. So I, I think that's the

Sir Gene:

according to Putin, both Germany and Japan still are occupied,

Sir Ben:

I, In what way is Japan occupied?

Sir Gene:

well, a lack of self-determination, lack of real military of its own and the permanent us.

Sir Ben:

Okay. Yeah I can get that argument. The point is Russia and the SSR just gave up and there's this thought process. It's a head fake. I think is the way a lot of people approach it, that, Oh, they really didn't, They're really not communist. They're really not communist anymore. They're still, they're still communists. There's still this, there's still that. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Either that or people just didn't really understand what communism were and they just assumed that communist meant you were Russian about it. It's, it is weird, man, because I think there's plenty of things that people can talk negatively about the Russian government end, but clinging onto this idea of like, they're just rebuilding the Soviet Union. Retarded. It just shows a complete lack of understanding of the history of the world.

Sir Ben:

Well, it's just not gonna happen. But what I would say is that, and I think I've said this multiple times on this show, is that I really think Russia in the US are two ships passing in the night. In a lot of ways. I think that the US is going way, way more communistic than I would've ever thought. And I think, Russia is going the opposite direction. I think that they are moving towards more freedoms. I don't think the Russian state is a good state. It's not a free enough country where I'm, expatriating to by any stretch of the imagination. But if I'm looking at trend lines it's to me going in a better direction than we are. And that's very scary and sad.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, I think one of the. Problems right now with Russia that I really don't like, and I've talked about this and noted in the social outcome as well, is that I think they ought to be embracing full on freedom loving capitalism and while they're doing what they're doing. And an example of that is not making protests against this war illegal, like I thought that was a mistake. I had said it on day one. I think this is gonna bite'em in the ass, is that you have to sell the benefits of the war on its face. You can't simply say nobody is allowed to protest against it, because that does make you seem more like what the west is trying to portray you as, which is a dictator chef.

Sir Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

so that's a bad move on their part. And it, Putin doesn't just make laws by executive order unlike some people think. So a lot of this is actually coming out of the Duma and he is as I've said plenty of times, he is fairly moderate when it comes to Russian politics. There are a lot of people in Russia that want to go a lot further and a lot faster towards regaining the Russian Empire Territories. A lot of people that would love nothing better than things completely illegal that they dislike religious.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Well, and One of the things that I think you've pointed out a few times is that there is, since the fall of the Soviet Union, and since religion religious freedoms have come back a bit in Russia. You do have a huge resurgence in the Russian Orthodox Church that was totally suppressed under communism.

Sir Gene:

and it was a shock to me. I did not expect that many people to all of a sudden just get religion.

Sir Ben:

why is that? I mean, it was driven underground by communism, but I think it was always there. I don't think it ever went

Sir Gene:

They weren't practicing, they weren't doing shit. It was always one of those things that,

Sir Ben:

well. I mean, quite frankly, I think that the resurgence shows that they were.

Sir Gene:

No. No, I don't think so. I think the resurgence chose. People are very open to it and it's a new thing for the vast majority of Russians. Well was a new thing 30 years ago. No, no longer a new thing and that a lot of people liked what they started experiencing. It was the first time for a lot of people of going to church. It was the first time for a lot of people of having to even think about this topic. And I think an awful lot of them enjoyed it, started seeing benefits from it, whatever. They saw it as a positive thing. I don't think it was ever like, Oh, there was millions of churches that were underground in Russian. No, that didn't exist, dude.

Sir Ben:

well then that's even, I mean, I would say in the US we are going through what I would call, a new great awakening. But it sounds like Russia beat us to it on that, and that's nothing but good news to me,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And it. I don't know that it's necessarily good news to me, but it is interesting. It's been interesting to observe and it means that the and I've talked about this before as well, is that my realization later in life has been that for an awful lot of people, majority of the people out there, religion serves a useful purpose. And that is not something that I would've said 15, 20 years ago.

Sir Ben:

Well, I mean, you have to have faith in something.

Sir Gene:

Do you,

Sir Ben:

Yeah. You

Sir Gene:

don't know, man. I don't know.

Sir Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

you could be an nihilist.

Sir Ben:

Well, but ni that, that's the great danger, right,

Sir Gene:

I don't think nihilists see that as a danger.

Sir Ben:

Well, that's because I don't see anything as a positive either. Well anyway yeah, nihilism is definitely something to be avoided because that's when you become dangerous to not only yourself, but the rest of mankind. So,

Sir Gene:

I, yeah I thought the Nihilists and the big leki were very well portrayed.

Sir Ben:

I've got new information. Oh man, that movie

Sir Gene:

that was such a great movie.

Sir Ben:

perfect movie in so many

Sir Gene:

Classic movie. And that was, I think they just

Sir Ben:

dude divides, I'm sorry,

Sir Gene:

even it was, they just had either the 20th or 25th anniversary, I can't remember, of that movie.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, I just want my rug back.

Sir Gene:

Just held the room together. Exactly. So what else going on? I'm trying to remember. Well, I think I mentioned I bought a gun,

Sir Ben:

You did it came out in 1998, by the way.

Sir Gene:

98. So that What does that make it? 25 years? Yeah. 24 or I thought it was 25. Okay.

Sir Ben:

Not quite

Sir Gene:

yeah, I guess, I guess not quite there. Soon enough I must have watched something that was the 20th anniversary then. I just didn't see it for the last few years Cause it was like a behind the scenes thing for it. Yeah, so I, I finally got that six five grl that I was kind of thinking and getting. So I ended up getting it.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. What you think so

Sir Gene:

It's, well, I haven't shot it yet, but it's probably the most normal gun I've bought recently. Nothing folds, nothing flips, nothing moves. It's a regular ar There's nothing fancy

Sir Ben:

disappointing. Gene

Sir Gene:

Well, I know all my other guns are transformers. This one is not at all. So I'm looking forward to taking out the range. Do some shooting at, I gotta buy some of that buck around ammo first though. Jesus. Oh, incidentally, did you know that you, the, I just saw in one of the mailings, I get that PM CMO was selling for, I wanna say it was 32 cents, around 31 or 32 cents around right now at

Sir Ben:

For what Caliber?

Sir Gene:

Nine millimeter, sorry, nine millimeter PMC thousand rounds for right around 32 cents around,

Sir Ben:

huh.

Sir Gene:

Which is, and I did the math. I was curious. So I looked it up almost exactly equivalent once you take inflation into account to what? I was paying for it in the early two thousands, which was 20 cents around.

Sir Ben:

so interestingly enough I've been looking at inflation and just looking at reported numbers, not even, but

Sir Gene:

Stats. Yep.

Sir Ben:

yeah, but just based off of reported numbers, cuz I was thinking about, growing up and what my parents were making in, the eighties and what that would be equivalent to now. And it's, it's interesting. So if you, I was born in 86, so if you take a hundred grand in 1986, So the family making a hundred grand in 1986, what do you think that's equivalent to?

Sir Gene:

So that is equivalent to$286,000.

Sir Ben:

286. Did you just put it into a calculator or are you guessing?

Sir Gene:

no. I just know these numbers off top of.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, it's not quite, It's 252, but still, So a hundred thousand dollars income in 1986 is equivalent to$250,000 income today.

Sir Gene:

I think it's a little more than that. It depends which site you use,

Sir Ben:

Okay. Well, regardless,

Sir Gene:

either way, it's right around

Sir Ben:

a huge evaluation of the dollar that, that's an inflation rate of 152% anyway,

Sir Gene:

Yeah, there's the, in the last what did I look at the last 15 years? It's it's about 60%, which is really huge. So if you made a hundred grand 15 years ago, you would need to be making. Over 150 grand today, no, 160 over 160 grand today to buy, to have the same buying power,

Sir Ben:

Yep.

Sir Gene:

which is pretty bad. I mean, that's given that the government basically has been reporting forever, that we have no inflation. That's right around one or 2%. And that, for that, for the last 20 years bank accounts have paid less than 1% interest on their checking and savings.

Sir Ben:

Yeah all I can say is if anyone has a variable rate loan right now you really better get that consolidated down.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, no that's a good point, But

Sir Ben:

in the 1980s when my parents bought a house, they were paying 20% interest rate. We're we're gonna do one of two things. We're either gonna head back towards that and, stabilize our rapidly inflating currency. We might have an out with a new, rebuilding of Europe, but we'll see. Or, the fed's going to back off and not get this under control and it's gonna go really bad, really quick. I mean, we could end up with hyperinflation. Overnight. When you go back and look at what happened in the Imar Republic it wasn't something that came on slowly. It's something that came on overnight.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. No, that's,

Sir Ben:

And you pointed out last night that you know, China's selling their dollars.

Sir Gene:

They are, Yeah. That was something that I actually heard at in Mexico here, where I'm at.

Sir Ben:

Does China have Right or left hand drive

Sir Gene:

I wouldn't know.

Sir Ben:

Okay. Anyway, go on.

Sir Gene:

Anyway, so the China right now doing a do a buyback of yoon by selling dollars is reinforcing the Chinese currency while destabilizing the US currency. And no one's talking about it in the media because everyone's so focused on Ukraine.

Sir Ben:

Well, and this goes back to, China being a potential bad actor as far as the pipeline is concerned. It's definitely in their interest to destabilize the US. Now, I will say that out of all Western currencies, the dollar is the strongest. But that's because we are the, we're going, we will be the last one to fall as it goes. But yeah the pound sterling and the and the Euro are not doing too great right now.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, no, it's it's definitely heading in the wrong direction, but I saw a lot of other currencies, like I saw this morning that the the New Zealand dollar down to I think 58 American Cents.

Sir Ben:

The dollar due.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, they've always been under one US dollar, but I don't recall them ever being close to half a US dollar in the past.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. And now you have, I mean, you have the pound almost parody with the dollar,

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Sir Ben:

so

Sir Gene:

Yeah. It's It's definitely happening. No. Two ways about it. So I don't know. I mean, again I think it's the same messaging that we've had for people in the past. Just try to be more self sufficient, have chickens, kinda like Tim Pool, That's always a winning solution.

Sir Ben:

Here's the thing, and this is what I, when I had a conversation with some people who are not very political and not paying attention. I just said, go to the grocery store, get a little extra food. Worst case scenario eat it over the next few months. Here's the thing. Anyone who's paying attention is going to be better off than those who are not. And the sad fact is the majority of people are not paying attention. We are closer to nuclear war right now than we were during the Cuban missile Crisis. And the big difference is during the Cuban Missile crisis, every American knew it. Every American was paying attention. Every American was doing something and preparing for it. Now no one is.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And we're I don't know, man. I think most people don't really think that if all we do is just send some money to Ukraine, how that could possibly result in nuclear war.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, well, when that money is in the form of weapons and dead Russians, I mean, that's how.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And it's I. It's hard to say. It's interesting times. That's the Chinese pro, right? We're living in interesting times.

Sir Ben:

Well, it's the Chinese curse,

Sir Gene:

Well,

Sir Ben:

right? May you live in interesting times.

Sir Gene:

They, they've definitely applied that

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Well, Jean, anything else?

Sir Gene:

well. I don't know man. I mean, I felt like, is there anything else going on? We spent most of the episode just talking about Ukraine stuff and I'm sure there are people that are getting kind of tired of us cuz they're getting hit from every direction on

Sir Ben:

yeah, I mean,

Sir Gene:

anything good happening. Anything in Interesting. I've been enjoying sitting by the pool and relaxing, just having good time

Sir Ben:

Uhhuh. Uhhuh, sure you are. Well, I think that There haven't been a lot of great things going on, but I think there's definitely some funny things with Biden and some gaffs there. Kamala's gaff at the de militarized zone was

Sir Gene:

Oh,

Sir Ben:

especially hilarious.

Sir Gene:

That was funny. She didn't even notice it.

Sir Ben:

No, she's totally oblivious. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, she didn't say, Oops, I meant south,

Sir Ben:

Yeah. So anyway,

Sir Gene:

but even funnier. So there was a a map that I stuck up on No. In social, like, that has kind of an image of the countries that they have nuclear weapons And on that map they, they have North Korea with whatever they, our estimate of their nuclear capability is. But the place that's actually highlighted on the map is South Korea. And somebody pointed themselves like, Hey, this map has this backwards, then somebody else not. Chimed in and says, Hey man, didn't you hear Family Anderson reverse those two? Like, that's not where they are now. The names are changed. The North Korea is in the south and South Korea is in the north. Get used to it. This is our fun administration that we're living with.

Sir Ben:

yeah. The administration is, I mean, there's just no, it, it's clown world. There, there is no excusing it. And the press secretary, whatever her name is just so absurd. The gaff the

Sir Gene:

Claude Vandam.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. The gaff that Biden had the other day about the dead congresswoman and all, she sits there and says, Well, she was top of mind, not, She was on the top of his mind. I mean, just incomplete sentences, ludicrous thoughts, not just saying, You know what? He's tired. He had a bad schedule and he forgot. I mean, just that simple admission. Why not? Why can't they admit that?

Sir Gene:

because they don't think that if they, or rather they think, if they don't admit it, then people can't say that there's something wrong with the president.

Sir Ben:

Well, I mean, it, but to deny it, it makes it even

Sir Gene:

pretend that it's just a quirky speech pattern than to say, Oh yeah, he forgot.

Sir Ben:

I

Sir Gene:

I. think for a lot of these people, the idea of saying anything negative about Biden is admitting that we have a lame president in the office. We have somebody that is more lame than even Roosevelt.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, I see what you did there, Ge. I see what you did there.

Sir Gene:

Uhhuh.

Sir Ben:

for those who don't get it Roosevelts couldn't walk and being lame anyway. Lame like a horse. Yeah. I, I don't know. I mean, I think that it, they're making it worse by not admitting it though. really do. I mean, I look at it and go, Okay, so basically what you're telling me is he's senile and you don't wanna say that. Right? Because people can misspeak, people can forget things, people can, whatever. But it's just

Sir Gene:

Yeah. You can cover for it or you can lean into it.

Sir Ben:

and they are leaning in hard.

Sir Gene:

When? No, I think they're leaning out I don't think they're leaning in. Leaning in would be saying yes. Yes. He made a mistake. The guy's 84 years old, what he expect? He's working hard on this Ukraine stuff. He's up all night thinking about it.

Sir Ben:

What I'm saying is they're

Sir Gene:

That would be laying in.

Sir Ben:

that. He's okay,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. They're doubling down on these. Okay. Exactly.

Sir Ben:

and here's the thing is I don't

Sir Gene:

see here. Nothing to see.

Sir Ben:

but I don't understand that. I mean, at what point is the 25th Amendment actually going to be on the table and Kamala becoming president?

Sir Gene:

Yeah. I don't know, man. I think maybe the actual powers in charge are thinking that she's too stupid to be put into that role. And I know that Hillary's definitely been campaigning on that side of the argument. It's like, no. You can't possibly. Contemplate having her be the president, cuz Hillary still wants to be the first female.

Sir Ben:

Well, she could be the first female elected.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. It's different.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. don't think

Sir Gene:

And that requires more work.

Sir Ben:

yeah I don't think that there's any chance of Clinton getting in, but that's,

Sir Gene:

I don't either, but who the hell knows? I mean, right now, given the state of everything, know, On the one hand no, no country ever changes its president in the middle of a war. So they may be trying to go along those routes and get into a conflict so that ensures Biden gets reelected. On the other hand the word that they. Seemingly trying to get into doesn't really have a winner.

Sir Ben:

Yeah I see zero chance of Biden being reelected. There's just e even during a war time I don't see him hanging onto office just because of the economy. I mean, when you have Cardi B coming out and bashing Biden on the economy, there's just no way he survives this,

Sir Gene:

Who's she?

Sir Ben:

A really degenerate rapper.

Sir Gene:

Okay. Got it.

Sir Ben:

I use the word degenerate there purposefully. I can't stand this person, but

Sir Gene:

yeah. What does she do? The one that played the fluke.

Sir Ben:

no different one. But anyway, it, it's, regardless. She's some women see her as empowering. I see her as nothing but absolutely. What is wrong with. The modern feminist movement in so many ways, but that's neither here nor there.

Sir Gene:

Well, I thought you just said she criticized by them,

Sir Ben:

She did.

Sir Gene:

so what's wrong with that?

Sir Ben:

I, That's my point is that she is even criticizing Biden. I do not think very highly of her, though.

Sir Gene:

oh, okay. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, you're, you were not seeing highly of ADON either, but it seemed

Sir Ben:

I, I can still recognize when someone's doing something right. Yes, absolutely.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Huh.

Sir Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Something like that.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Something like that.

Sir Gene:

So I don't know. And we talked about the book, so I'll be going through and kind of posting my thoughts as I'm reading the company. You're gonna talk about the other book next time, which you probably will have either finished or gotten through a good chunk of,

Sir Ben:

I don't know if I'll finish it, but I'll at least get

Sir Gene:

you're like a

Sir Ben:

more started. I, you keep saying these things, it's like you being in Mexico, it's just simply not true.

Sir Gene:

takes me, Oh man. The only time I was reading Fast was during Covid, when I had Covid, cuz then like I could get through a book in like two days. Generally I, if I'm reading the book, it's gonna take me weeks.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, I mean, it just,

Sir Gene:

Cause I only do like 20

Sir Ben:

much time I'm going to devote to it

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Sir Ben:

and it's whether or not it's a good book or not, that's a huge, If it's not a good book, it takes me way longer to read it.

Sir Gene:

Whether it sucks you in. Yeah, no, I get that. I'm very much the same way. All right. Well, I don't know man. I think that's probably good enough. We talked for quite a while. If we missed any topics

Sir Ben:

gonna have to edit it together because of some technical difficulties.

Sir Gene:

It'll be seamless. So this will have to get edited out, so no one will notice. That's been edited, but thank you for mentioning that. So I'm giving me more work. But yeah, it's just cuz we talked about this stuff like for the third time now I keep thinking there's something missing that we previously discussed that I can't remember.

Sir Ben:

I'm sure there is, and I'm sure the first time we talked about it was probably the most brilliant and we screwed up, but

Sir Gene:

never. Let's never talk without a microphone.

Sir Ben:

Well, well we rarely, We've talked twice with a

Sir Gene:

twice in how many years?

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Handful.

Sir Gene:

Uhhuh. Oh. Did you see Adam and Alex?

Sir Ben:

I watched the entire thing. That was great. I'm glad to see him going on there and doing that. I know he did it a while back, got some threats, backed off on it. It's good to see him going back. It looks like Alex is starting a new site that's not going to be controlled by the bankruptcy court for his funding. So everyone needs to be looking at that. So 50% off,

Sir Gene:

What's it called?

Sir Ben:

50% off.

Sir Gene:

That's a great name. 50% off.com. Yeah. I think he'll recover just fine. He's got plenty of people that like him.

Sir Ben:

Well, I mean, he's essentially today saying, Infowars is gonna become a zombie run by the bankruptcy court, and there's not much he can do about that. So, yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And

Sir Ben:

But he's selling all his old products and everything on the other one. So, and hey,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And I, from my understanding, the products are decent, right?

Sir Ben:

He's got a lot of good stuff. I, at least I, Hi historically have used some of his supplements and so

Sir Gene:

Oh, the libido ones. Got it.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, actually the Super Vitality not for libido, but just energy. And then the one I really like is the real red pill that's phenomenal. So 100%. It's a predone supplement, so I do lots of hormone precursor supplementation is what I like. So I've been taking iodine for

Sir Gene:

then, or what?

Sir Ben:

No predone is, So your thyroid uses two main ingredients to make pretty much every hormone in your body That's And pregnant alone. So by doing that, you promote natural, healthy hormone balance.

Sir Gene:

It's a cholesterol

Sir Ben:

I'm sorry.

Sir Gene:

is? It's a cholesterol one.

Sir Ben:

No, it's what the thyroid uses to take cholesterol and make into different hormones.

Sir Gene:

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Got it.

Sir Ben:

So it's a precursor.

Sir Gene:

a

Sir Ben:

Yeah. And I, so, those are my main two supplements and then vitamin D, and it's

Sir Gene:

And he sells vitamin D as well.

Sir Ben:

He does, I don't use his vitamin

Sir Gene:

Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, I got some of the stuff years ago and I don't recall either good or bad.

Sir Ben:

I, His toothpaste is good.

Sir Gene:

Tooth base is good. Interesting.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. Yeah. He's got a couple different toothpaste out there that are actually what I use daily, just because I don't like a fluoride toothpaste, but that's me.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I should reach out to those people.

Sir Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, I used to run a supplement company

Sir Ben:

let me, Yeah. But okay. You're gonna reach out to them and do what?

Sir Gene:

Talk about helping them.

Sir Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

You help print?

Sir Ben:

Next gig, working for Infowars.

Sir Gene:

Well, it's

Sir Ben:

unhireable after that.

Sir Gene:

wouldn't be in for, but it

Sir Ben:

It'd be 50% off that kind.

Sir Gene:

yeah. Where do you work? Going outta business.com. You remember that? New York store? Oh, there's a, actually, that was brilliant. There's a, an electronic shop that was set up in New York that was the, like the name of it was going out of business sale, people that didn't realize that was the name of the shop were thinking that it

Sir Ben:

it was going out of business. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

And they really lean into that so that everything looked like it had some, high price that was crossed out and like take 50% off. So it, But that was their business model just operating like that?

Sir Ben:

Okay. I was totally unaware.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, that was a real thing. It was not just a Saturday nightlight night live sketch. Oh. Did you hear Saturday Night Live? It looks like may be going away.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, I did. I I know they've gotten rid of quite a bit of the cast and so on, but,

Sir Gene:

or eight people.

Sir Ben:

Yeah. But I mean, they also had a pretty big cast Saturday Night Live, man, I, they have done some funny bits here and there, but I've, I, it's never been for me and my generation, I mean, if particularly funny bit, I'll catch on YouTube at this point, but other than that, it's not something I'm watching.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. They've gone through plenty of ups and downs In terms of cast, I think the original cast was just brilliant. Then they kind of went through a little bit of dry spell and they had another resurrection cast that was very good, that like guys like Norm McDonald were on. I,

Sir Ben:

Yeah. And if Saturday Night Live. Where to not be live and just be a YouTube channel doing sketch comedy. They'd probably be fantastic.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, Funny Or Die basically was. It was alums from Saturday Night Live. But yeah, I don't know. I think the live aspect has really lost a lot of the appeal, although really if they were doing it live, it should be on Twitch, not on YouTube.

Sir Ben:

Well, whatever.

Sir Gene:

But, and I bet you if they put Saturday Night Live on Twitch in real time, that they would get a record Twitch audience.

Sir Ben:

maybe,

Sir Gene:

I think they would. I really do. It'd have to be funny though, like it couldn't be bad.

Sir Ben:

That's the thing is they've gone so woke, and stayed there that

Sir Gene:

You can't keep making fun of old white dudes by having actor who's an actual murderer playing old white dudes.

Sir Ben:

Oh, shots fired. Yeah. He allegedly,

Sir Gene:

Well, he is been charged you.

Sir Ben:

he's been charged. Charge charging is not proof of a crime.

Sir Gene:

key away, as far as I'm concerned.

Sir Ben:

Well, I mean, And what we're talking about

Sir Gene:

him if he wasn't guilty.

Sir Ben:

but Okay. What was the what was the Brennan Okay. Brennan presumption of innocence until yeah.

Sir Gene:

Uhhuh. Well, in case of Hollywood

Sir Ben:

see. This is why people don't like

Sir Gene:

go along with that. Why is that?

Sir Ben:

No presumption of

Sir Gene:

Because we, Yeah, because we're ironic. People don't like irony. Is that what it is?

Sir Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

That is a cultural phenomenon. And every Russian has ironic, sarcastic, ironic, you name it,

Sir Ben:

Okay. Well anyway, yeah. So Alex, Bald Baldwin's been charged. I, Yes,

Sir Gene:

Okay. What do you think it is?

Sir Ben:

I, Irony is something that happens. Sarcasm is generally a statement.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, so the difference is whether you're laugh or not,

Sir Ben:

Ah, okay.

Sir Gene:

doesn't depend on humor.

Sir Ben:

Now, irony can be tragic.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Sarcasm depends on humor. It could be dark humor, but it has to be humor. But anyway, so what were we saying? Something about something

Sir Ben:

So where's your short term memory now? What?

Sir Gene:

I, No, not at all. My memory's good. I just wasn't listening.

Sir Ben:

Well, just Alec Baldwin being charged in the rush shooting.

Sir Gene:

You think he didn't do it? Because Tim thinks he did it on purpose this

Sir Ben:

I don't know that he did it on purpose, but he definitely pulled the trigger and caused the gun. Didn't go off magically. That's, guns don't do that. And, if it were dropped and went off, okay, sure. Being held stable in someone's hand, that doesn't happen. Just doesn't.

Sir Gene:

a gun and another person while pulling the trigger. Regardless of what you think is in the gun, is always dangerous and you are always responsible for the consequences. That's

Sir Ben:

Absolutely. Well, in, in, in most scenarios, my understanding is when people are acting, usually they will do it at such an angle. So it looks like they're pointing the gun at someone, but they're not actually pointing the gun at someone. I think that says a lot. This entire picture, there was a lot of strife. There was a lot of angst and animosity on the crew. I, the armor definitely

Sir Gene:

12 years old.

Sir Ben:

well and inexperienced and needs to be questioned and looked at. His defense of, well, someone gave it to me and, I'm not supposed to know bullshit. Dude, you, Alec Baldwin's been in enough pictures

Sir Gene:

of movies with him. Handling guns.

Sir Ben:

Yes, He, And here's the thing. If you hand me a gun, regardless of the scenario, we're at the range. You hand me a gun, first thing I'm going to do is eject the magazine, check the chamber, see where I'm at, put it back in. Unless I watch you do that, I'm going to do it myself.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And I would never hand somebody a gun without the slide.

Sir Ben:

Yeah, exactly. And I mean, that, that's absolutely what you should do, right? It's good etiquette. But the fact of the matter is, this is a revolver. He could have thrown the cylinder open, saw that there were bullets in there. And since he's going to pointed at someone, it would

Sir Gene:

Well, and he's rehearsing, he's not shooting. So if he sees bullets in a gun for rehearsal, he should take them out and hand them to an assistant to take off stage. Then do the rehearsal, then bring the bullets back

Sir Ben:

Well blanks,

Sir Gene:

blank. Right? Fine. Blanks.

Sir Ben:

But I mean,

Sir Gene:

when you're

Sir Ben:

a blanket at

Sir Gene:

you don't have blanks in the gun when you're rehearsing, dude.

Sir Ben:

No, not at all.

Sir Gene:

And the fact that they were using the same gun for general fun plinking in the evenings is just, That's asinine.

Sir Ben:

Well, I mean, it's fine. So

Sir Gene:

no, it's not. That gun is a prop. It should

Sir Ben:

No, it's not it. So this is the thing. They were u they were not using a prop gun.

Sir Gene:

No, a

Sir Ben:

gun would not have a barrel that could fire a weapon. That could fire a projectile.

Sir Gene:

a prop. Gun is not necessarily a gun that can't shoot a prop, gun or otherwise. Is anything that it's used in the production of a movie, that's a prop.

Sir Ben:

Okay. My point is, was a real firearm. They were using it as a prop and for fun. I have no problem with them shooting in the evening and enjoying firearms because I think that's great. Why, if you're, if you have proper firearm handling etiquette on no bullshit, because if he had done what he was supposed to, there's no way in reality that this is an accident. I'm

Sir Gene:

I don't think it's a good idea to do that with any preps. I wouldn't want people if your movie involves fast cars. I don't want people in the evening after done shooting, taking off and taking the car down to Laguna Beach. No, don't do shit that can endanger somebody the next day. Don't place additional risk where it doesn't need to be.

Sir Ben:

That, but that's not what happened. The risk was not introduced by them shooting the gun. The risk was introduced by them mishandling the gun.

Sir Gene:

What Baldwin did is totally unrelated to what I'm talking about. I'm saying in general, once something becomes a prop, once there's a specific use for this item in the course of shooting a movie, don't use that same item for non movie related stuff until you're done with using it for the movie that's. That's just risk management. You don't want to have to replace the brakes on the car you're using in, there's a movie cuz somebody was fucking around having fun running that same car all over time in the evenings, you don't wanna have to do anything that compromises the potential risk of an item that is a prop. So it should only be used during the movie. And that, I mean, goes through for everything. Chairs, tables, doesn't matter what it is, if it's used in the course of a production and it is a prop, it has been paid for by the production company. Don't fucking use it for anything else until the movie's over and all that shit get sold.

Sir Ben:

I think Gene's saying that he speaks from experience here. Something bad happened

Sir Gene:

Well, I was a producer in the past, so there's, I

Sir Ben:

not just of they know agenda show

Sir Gene:

No, I mean like an. Movie producer, but it's not a, it's not proper etiquette to do that. And they were doing it. It had nothing to do with Baldwin's actions. I just don't like them doing that.

Sir Ben:

Fair enough.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And Baldwin, I mean, I don't know. I somehow think that 20 years ago when he was a little younger, I don't think this would've happened unless it was intentional. Right now, Tim thinks it's intentional. I think that it's probably more likely just neglect on Baldwin's part

Sir Ben:

Well, here's the thing. Regardless of intent, he shot the woman. At the very least, it's manslaughter.

Sir Gene:

Oh Yeah, absolutely. No, He, killed someone there. Now you can argue about was he a murderer? That implies some intent, but he's absolutely a killer

Sir Ben:

Well, you cannot say even that this. Accidental. Right. He intentionally pulled the trigger. There's an intentional act there. Now, he may not have thought that the gun would go off or whatever, but through his negligence it did.

Sir Gene:

Yep. And he bears responsibility for that. And I, he may not be the only person that bears responsibility, but he's certainly the main person that bears responsibility.

Sir Ben:

Yep. So we'll say Hollywood justice we'll see.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. I just, I wonder if we're gonna see a repentant crying Alec Baldwin

Sir Ben:

No, he's gonna say it wasn't his fault the entire time.

Sir Gene:

You think he's just gonna stick with that? Yeah. Okay.

Sir Ben:

He has no remorse. He doesn't think he did anything wrong.

Sir Gene:

that was a good movie. Yeah.

Sir Ben:

Okay. Unintentional. But No I don't think he thinks he did anything wrong. He's the victim here in his mind.

Sir Gene:

You think that he's been coaching to that or you just think that he is

Sir Ben:

no. I think that he, with, he's coached himself into it. So he is very much in a liberal mind space, right. He really is. With his depiction of Trump, everything I think he's gone down the victimization rabbit hole as it were. And, I, if he intentionally did it, then what I'm saying is wrong, but I'm not going to assume that he intentionally did it. Cuz I think, if he wanted to kill someone, he could have it done in different ways. He's worth enough money that, if he wanted her dead, she'd be dead and

Sir Gene:

Well, I think

Sir Ben:

way that he would be.

Sir Gene:

I think Tim's argument is that he thought that this would be a great way to get away with it because he had a inexperienced Armon said he blamed us on and did blame on, and he could act his way into convincing people this was totally not his fault and not have to pay any consequences for taking this woman out.

Sir Ben:

But that assumes that he wants to be the person who ends this woman.

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Sir Ben:

And I'm not willing to make that assumption yet.

Sir Gene:

Really? Haven't you ever wanted to end some somebody's life.

Sir Ben:

I mean, I've wanted to kick the crap outta someone multiple times in my life,

Sir Gene:

You remember these people in Hollywood. They're such narcissists.

Sir Ben:

Again, it's just, we'll see. We'll see what ends up happening. Hopefully there's an actual trial and

Sir Gene:

I think he probably will end up on trial, but I think he's gonna get the velvet glove treatment.

Sir Ben:

I don't think

Sir Gene:

gonna get, I think he's gonna get whatever the minimum that they can end up selling to the public. And saying, Look it's totally all these other people's fault, but also he should have known better and he made a mistake that ended up in this woman losing her life. And, we're gonna teach him a lesson for that and it'll be like two years.

Sir Ben:

So you actually think you'll see jail time.

Sir Gene:

No, I think that's what's gonna be handed to him in the fi in the judgment. I don't know if he's gonna ever be in jail or not, but, it could be. Yeah. But

Sir Ben:

he does, it'll be Martha Stewart. Ask.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, exactly. It'll be it'll be jail time on Martha's Vineyard He'll be spending his time teaching English to the the Mexicans that showed up from Florida.

Sir Ben:

What a good troll. What a good troll.

Sir Gene:

Yep. That was very good.

Sir Ben:

all right, man.

Sir Gene:

I gotta get some vacationing down here, so I gotta run. But

Sir Ben:

You enjoy your staycation.

Sir Gene:

I'm not staying anywhere, dude. I'm gonna do all kinds of activities out here. Got a full schedule.

Sir Ben:

Well, you have a good one, Jean. It's been good talking to.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And we'll see you all back in a week.