Matter of Facts: How The World Ends

[00:00:03] Welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast on the Prepper Broadcasting Network. We talk prepping guns and politics every week on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Go check out our content at MWFpodcast.com on Facebook or Instagram. You can support us via Patreon or by checking out our affiliate partners. I'm your host Phil Rabliet. My co-host Andrew Bobo is on the other side of the mic and here's your show.

[00:00:22] You know you're gonna have to redo that whole entire intro, right?

[00:00:26] Yeah, yeah, I thought about that. You know, put it on my to-do list.

[00:00:30] So welcome back to the Matter of Facts podcast. My co-host needs to be fired or disciplined apparently. He interrupted my whole freaking train of thought as I was getting ready to roll in.

[00:00:40] And I was debating on Rick rolling the audience with, you know, the new addition to the team, but then I just hit the button and here he is. It's Nick! Say hi, Nick.

[00:00:50] Hey guys, how's it going?

[00:00:52] So Nick has been a fellow rabble rouser patron to the podcast for a while. We've had him on a couple of times talk about, I think it was 3D printing and shotguns.

[00:01:02] 3D printing, shotguns, and the modern militiamen.

[00:01:06] That's what it was. And now he's going to be a semi-regular co-host because we needed a third chair. He knows a lot of stuff, especially stuff that like Andrew and I don't, and I feel like he could bring value to the show.

[00:01:18] And he's a weirdo that likes to spend time with us instead of doing something else with his time on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. So that is a prerequisite for being a co-host is, you know, you have to be a little bit of a weirdo.

[00:01:28] You have nothing else to do in your life?

[00:01:30] Yeah. There's plenty of Warhammer figures I'm painting with my face in it.

[00:01:36] And unlike others, I'm not going to pick on you for playing with Warhammer figurines.

[00:01:42] No, it's a, I mean, I think it's long overdue. You know, we talked about, we talked about a lot of stuff, Phil and I did, and basically it came down to my work schedule is just stupid right now, just being on second shift.

[00:01:59] And yeah, that's where the decision came down was to bring a third person on just because of the fact that in order to grow the show like we want to, we need to get more consistent.

[00:02:11] And so, no, I think it's going to work out days that I can't be here. I mean, obviously Nick, you'll be here every time we record now, but what would it be nice as long as I can?

[00:02:22] Yeah, right. But what's going to be nice is if I can't make it, then Phil doesn't have to try to find someone more interesting, which isn't that hard.

[00:02:31] But you know, so now you're here. So welcome to the team. Make Phil do more work. So that's fun.

[00:02:39] Thanks guys. I appreciate it.

[00:02:42] I will say the one disappointing thing is that whenever I co-host with my wife, that's a great excuse for me to try to get her sit in my lab for an hour.

[00:02:48] I mean, you can still do that.

[00:02:50] She never does it, but it's a good excuse to try.

[00:02:54] You don't need a good excuse to try. You're married.

[00:02:58] Yeah, I'm married. I need a good excuse.

[00:03:01] Hopefully she's not listening right now.

[00:03:03] Oh, she's on the other side of the wall.

[00:03:06] Any minute now, she's going to burst through the door and give me the E.U.L.I. unless she's that one person that's watching live.

[00:03:13] Anyway, so as I've been trying to be better about lately, I do need to thank the patrons for continuing to support the show.

[00:03:21] The couple of bucks y'all spend every month, believe it or not, offsets a not inconsequential amount of money it takes to run a podcast.

[00:03:27] As Andrew and I have talked about in the past, like I ran this podcast at a net loss for two and a half years.

[00:03:35] And then it finally started paying for itself.

[00:03:37] And then as more and more people joined in the Nuthouse, you know, we've been able to do additional things like start live streaming and doing other things.

[00:03:45] So we've always kind of taken the perspective of we don't take a paycheck from the podcast.

[00:03:50] We don't take money out of it. It's always go back into the show, figure out how to make the show better, how to make it more entertaining.

[00:03:57] OK, so I said there was only one person watching and then three people jumped into the comments all at the same time.

[00:04:06] So that's how it works around here, apparently.

[00:04:08] And Red Dawn on.

[00:04:13] Yes.

[00:04:15] Which one? The remake or with Chris Hemsworth or the original?

[00:04:21] I'm hoping the original.

[00:04:23] I haven't seen the new one, but I'm hoping that they didn't butcher it too badly.

[00:04:27] It's not terrible.

[00:04:29] Yeah, it's not terrible.

[00:04:33] I mean, nothing will ever beat Charlie Sheen.

[00:04:35] But no, it was good.

[00:04:38] Joe said the original.

[00:04:40] I think they're both good.

[00:04:42] I kind of was hoping that they would continue on and do another one.

[00:04:45] But just because it kind of curious to see where all that whole thing goes.

[00:04:49] But no, it's good.

[00:04:52] Anyway, do we need to do a watch party for some of that kind of stuff?

[00:04:57] Oh, we absolutely could.

[00:04:58] I just got to figure out.

[00:05:00] We'll take a close look at the YouTube terms and figure out like how to get away with it without getting the stream shut down.

[00:05:07] There's got to be a way that people get away with it.

[00:05:09] I think it has to do with the as long as you're doing creative commentary about it.

[00:05:15] So for us, say if it was Red Dawn commenting on the things people could have maybe had ready to begin with,

[00:05:24] maybe their uses of small unit tactics, some of the weapons uses, scavenging, stuff like that.

[00:05:30] Yeah.

[00:05:31] So in other words, just talk like a bunch of drunken retards every now and then and it'll be fine.

[00:05:36] Definitely.

[00:05:39] Yeah, I see bourbon bourbon and coffee.

[00:05:43] It's old fashioned clothes.

[00:05:45] It's got bourbon in it.

[00:05:46] It's made with love.

[00:05:50] So I do want to give Andrew an opportunity because he reminded me about Operation Skywalker, which is still running.

[00:05:57] I haven't I haven't checked to see what the total is up to in a bit since I made my contribution.

[00:06:03] So they are they're currently at twenty one thousand two forty five is what they're at right now.

[00:06:10] So, yeah.

[00:06:12] So anybody who if you don't know who operate or what Operation Skywalker is, Phil, if you can remember or if you can link the show in the description to the past show,

[00:06:24] it was a few shows ago with Trek and Kirk.

[00:06:27] And so basically just quick synopsis or quick rundown of it.

[00:06:31] It's Kirk and Jill.

[00:06:33] Kirk is a 60 year old, 68 year old retired corrections officer.

[00:06:37] He's a high school coach and a hockey coach for the hockey high school boxing.

[00:06:46] He survived three time cancer survivor.

[00:06:50] And it's something that happens.

[00:06:53] And that's the thing is like you don't think that this is going to ever happen to you.

[00:06:56] But he defended himself.

[00:06:58] He legally defended himself with a firearm.

[00:07:01] Basically what happened was him and his wife were they went to the grocery store coming back.

[00:07:06] They were unloading the vehicle.

[00:07:08] He got jumped by three individuals.

[00:07:11] He was hit over the head by a wine bottle.

[00:07:15] Basically, they used it.

[00:07:16] I mean, to me, that's a deadly weapon once it comes into contact with your skull.

[00:07:21] So they hit him over the head.

[00:07:23] They hit him in the head with the wine bottle while being kicked on the ground and pummeled.

[00:07:29] He pulled his pistol out, shot one of the perps in the I believe it was in the neck or somewhere in the chest.

[00:07:35] I don't remember exactly where but shot and killed him.

[00:07:38] And then he was unconstitutionally jailed for I think it was 102 days, I want to say.

[00:07:46] Basically, and listen to his story.

[00:07:50] Like I'm not doing any justice because his story is crazy.

[00:07:54] They did war or they did basically torture tactics that you see in movies that you find that we're basically playing music over the loudspeakers 24 hours a day, keeping the lights on in a cell so we can't sleep.

[00:08:10] I mean all kinds of stuff.

[00:08:12] And it's torture.

[00:08:14] I mean that should not happen with the United States, honestly.

[00:08:17] Like, I mean, I guess unless you're like a pedophile of some kind, then the wood chipper you go.

[00:08:22] But other than that, I think you have constitutional rights.

[00:08:27] So it's crazy.

[00:08:29] So listen to that episode but go to the website here.

[00:08:33] Actually we'll put it.

[00:08:35] I'm going to copy and paste it and put it into the chat here.

[00:08:41] But yeah, just give whatever you can.

[00:08:45] If you can.

[00:08:46] I mean it's a dollar.

[00:08:47] If you can spare a dollar.

[00:08:49] If we can get every single person who listens to this just to even do a dollar.

[00:08:53] That's going to be crazy.

[00:08:55] The MDFI alumni.

[00:08:57] I mean there's thousands of MDFI alumni.

[00:08:59] If you guys can jump in and spare a dollar, $5, that would be awesome.

[00:09:03] So get on there.

[00:09:05] Take a look at it.

[00:09:06] Read on it.

[00:09:07] And please just donate.

[00:09:09] It goes to a good cause.

[00:09:10] This guy and his wife had to refinance all kinds of things.

[00:09:15] Sell cars, sell his firearm collection.

[00:09:18] I mean he had to give up so much of their life.

[00:09:21] So please think about donating.

[00:09:24] And just for the audience because YouTube doesn't like the fact that I am trying to type the title of that episode into the chat

[00:09:31] because it involves the word shoot and apparently that's on the Naughty List.

[00:09:35] So if you look back through our previous shows, it was released June 21st called When Good Shoots Go Bad.

[00:09:41] If you want to hear the story of Kirk.

[00:09:43] And like I'm not even going to attempt to recount it because I can't.

[00:09:49] No one can tell that story like Kirk could.

[00:09:52] I mean it's worth going to YouTube or Rumble or Facebook to watch the stream

[00:09:57] because like the emotion on his face cannot be fully conveyed in just speech.

[00:10:03] It was heartbreaking to listen to.

[00:10:05] Yeah it was crazy.

[00:10:07] Okay one more administrative task and then we can get to silliness which is going to be this topic I'm sure.

[00:10:17] But we've been talking on raising values recently, my wife and I have, about the fact that like she and I and me and Andrew

[00:10:24] took a good look at the merchandise that was, the merchandising options we had provided to Southern Gals

[00:10:29] and we concluded that we could and should do better.

[00:10:33] So raising values has completely redone their entire merch line.

[00:10:37] If you're curious, you can actually go look at the raising values episode we streamed just this past Sunday.

[00:10:42] We showed some clips of my wife wearing those shirts that we got as proofs.

[00:10:47] They're freaking hilarious. My personal favorite is the little campfire, the little marshmallow that's on fire

[00:10:52] that says burnout but optimistic because that's just my vibe.

[00:10:56] And it resonates with people.

[00:10:59] What's the possible one?

[00:11:01] First of all, I'm a delight.

[00:11:03] That's the one. My wife loves that one. I'm definitely going to be getting her one.

[00:11:07] Yes.

[00:11:09] But matter of fact it has also redone our merch and me and Gillian and Andrew sat down and threw some ideas around

[00:11:15] and put some stuff together and these are going into production should be fairly soon.

[00:11:20] Me and Andrew are just waiting on proofs and as soon as I get those then we'll give the green light and get things going.

[00:11:26] But because Burt Gummer was a personal hero of mine growing up,

[00:11:31] let's be honest if you watch Tremors everybody wanted to be Burt Gummer.

[00:11:35] Nobody wanted to be Val.

[00:11:37] So we have what would Burt do?

[00:11:39] I decided to do a riff off of Street Fighter, hence the Apocalyptic Warlords Player Select.

[00:11:45] That'll be a fun little shirt for her.

[00:11:48] Although I did have to explain to my wife who all those people were

[00:11:51] which tells me that I have some date night movies to handle with her.

[00:11:56] Because like you know Burt Gummer and Tremors she knows

[00:12:00] but apparently I need to put Road Warrior and Escape from New York on the list.

[00:12:04] I mean Escape from New York is just that's a given. That's a classic.

[00:12:10] Yeah, it really is.

[00:12:12] Of course you're going to have to follow it up with the double feature Escape from LA.

[00:12:16] The only legitimate reason to have a freaking rifle scope mounted to the top of a Mack 10 silencer

[00:12:22] is to cosplay as Snake Bliskin.

[00:12:25] We all agree on that.

[00:12:26] Correct.

[00:12:27] I should probably just buy one.

[00:12:28] I've got a Cobra.

[00:12:30] Yeah, I just need like more muscles, 40 pounds less weight and a black tank top and an eye patch

[00:12:36] and I'm good to go.

[00:12:38] I mean you're two shirt sleeves away from a black tank.

[00:12:41] Hey and you could actually roleplay as him

[00:12:43] and you just say that you're just a cannibal and you just ate a bunch of people.

[00:12:46] Oh Jesus Christ, thank you Andrew.

[00:12:48] You're welcome.

[00:12:50] These were, I think these are Andrew's favorites.

[00:12:53] The tactical raccoons.

[00:12:55] Yeah, well so I mean so we were talking about her, the possum

[00:13:00] and you were like tactical possum

[00:13:02] and then I said well we don't want to basically take what she did.

[00:13:07] So yeah, so I Photoshop, I just typed in tactical raccoon

[00:13:12] and it spit out some awesome images

[00:13:15] and into the AI

[00:13:17] and holy crap, I did not, it did not disappoint.

[00:13:20] Like so I'm getting the feral but free and then I choose violence.

[00:13:24] I freaking love these.

[00:13:26] Absolutely.

[00:13:27] The idea of a tactical, like raccoons are crafty little bastards anyway

[00:13:32] so the idea of having like, you know,

[00:13:35] I mean anybody who's seen Guardians of the Galaxy, you know,

[00:13:38] Rocket is just a crazy, like an insane character.

[00:13:42] So like that, yeah this is, I love it.

[00:13:45] So I'm excited for them.

[00:13:47] What I'd like to see is do a, if you could do a black and white,

[00:13:51] do the raccoon silhouette and face.

[00:13:54] Oh there you go.

[00:13:55] I don't know if you could vectorize it to just be like a line drawing

[00:13:59] so that it's not so much screen printing.

[00:14:02] Yeah, that stuff gets sweaty.

[00:14:03] Or better yet do, if you could do the vector of like a raccoon face

[00:14:07] but with nods.

[00:14:08] Yes, that is what we need.

[00:14:11] So I am going to write that down.

[00:14:13] Yeah, just so y'all are aware,

[00:14:15] like it's not as if the merch we sent them is all we can send them.

[00:14:18] That's just what we came up with.

[00:14:20] So apparently a raccoon with nods is going to happen.

[00:14:24] And the last shirt I have in here is like an old,

[00:14:27] it's actually like one of our very first merch offerings from years ago.

[00:14:31] Gillian just updated and it's the good old fashioned What's Your Zombie shirt.

[00:14:35] You know, the homage to Uncle Randy who most people at Prepper Camp have met.

[00:14:40] And if you haven't then your life just hasn't been complete.

[00:14:45] I don't know what else to say.

[00:14:47] Hello Stuart. I'm sorry we can't start over.

[00:14:50] We can't.

[00:14:52] I can't reproduce all the insanity that's gone in the last 15 minutes.

[00:14:55] But the funny thing is it's on YouTube, so it's going to be there forever.

[00:14:58] Can't. Just have to play catch up.

[00:15:00] So that's the merch in a nutshell.

[00:15:02] There's one or two other things there that we did some minor redesigns to,

[00:15:06] I hope make them a little bit like nicer, more palatable.

[00:15:10] And we'll see how it goes.

[00:15:13] I mean, I think I've spoken to Chris about offering a discount code for the patrons and for everybody else.

[00:15:24] You'll have to pay full freight.

[00:15:26] But the best I can tell you is, I mean, I've personally held every one of these shirts and they're really nice.

[00:15:32] Yeah.

[00:15:35] Stuart, hold up a second.

[00:15:38] I have to address a grumpy Texas redneck.

[00:15:42] No we can't old man.

[00:15:44] No, you really can't.

[00:15:46] It's like the Mona Lisa.

[00:15:48] You can't repaint the Mona Lisa.

[00:15:50] You can't repaint the Sistine Chapel.

[00:15:52] I'm not saying that anything we talked about last 15 minutes was that transformative or amazing.

[00:15:56] I'm just saying like you can't reproduce it.

[00:15:58] It's a one take. You get what you get.

[00:16:00] You can't pitch a fit.

[00:16:02] That's the way it is.

[00:16:04] So anyway, let's talk about how will the world end.

[00:16:08] Now rules of engagement.

[00:16:11] So I'm sure I'm not the only one here.

[00:16:14] We probably all watch movies that pertain to like, you know, as HTF and preparedness and, you know,

[00:16:21] this and the other.

[00:16:22] And you don't even have to really be a prep.

[00:16:24] You mean documentaries?

[00:16:26] Well, is it really a documentary before it's happened?

[00:16:30] Right.

[00:16:31] Well, before it's happened in our lifetime.

[00:16:33] Some of these things have happened before, but I digress.

[00:16:36] At least once.

[00:16:38] But what I'm thinking is like, you don't even have to be like a prepper to watch a lot of these movies.

[00:16:42] Like it's just, some of these are classics, like, you know, Road Warrior, Mad Max,

[00:16:47] Andrew brought up Jericho because that was a show that kind of spawned a lot of his interest in preparedness.

[00:16:53] And I started thinking about the the event that kind of defines each one of those shows and the fact that some of those events,

[00:17:02] I personally just think are their fantasy, their Hollywood.

[00:17:06] Like it's not that they're impossible.

[00:17:09] It's that they are so implausible.

[00:17:12] I just don't think it's ever going to happen.

[00:17:13] But then there's some of those things that I'm genuinely like going to stay up at night worrying about because I think that it's a statistical inevitability, not Hollywood nonsense.

[00:17:24] So, like, that is the ground rules for the remaining 40 minutes plus.

[00:17:31] Let's start with EMP, electromagnetic pulse.

[00:17:34] Andrew, I know you said that this was like the central the central theme of Jericho.

[00:17:39] Yeah, yeah.

[00:17:40] So the essential theme of Jericho, if anybody's seen the movie Book of Eli, I think it's really well.

[00:17:47] The EMP as far as like a nuclear blast goes.

[00:17:51] I mean, that's I think that that movie does it very, very well.

[00:17:56] But yeah, EMP, I mean, I know some people sit there and they I mean, yeah, some people sit there and say, well, EMP will never happen.

[00:18:05] Right. Whatever.

[00:18:07] I mean, is it something that's on the top of my list that I'm like worried about?

[00:18:11] No, because if there's a nuclear blast, there's a good chance that might not make it through that.

[00:18:17] So I guess EMP is the least of my worries.

[00:18:20] But if I do, then I guess, you know, we'll see what happens.

[00:18:23] But I mean, there is the if you want to put the tinfoil hat on these the satellite and I'm using air quotes for those who are listening.

[00:18:37] But the satellite that North Korea launched a number of years ago that just tumbling in space right now, that's thought to be a low orbit nuclear weapon that might be used for EMP.

[00:18:52] I've read that. So, yeah. So no, it's interesting. EMP low.

[00:18:57] I mean, is it is it probable? Maybe.

[00:19:01] I mean, there's always the Carrington event. Yeah.

[00:19:04] Not to say that it's guaranteed, but we do know the sun goes through solar cycles and we have at least at one point had a CME large enough that hit the continental US that it burned out telegraph lines from coast to coast.

[00:19:20] Now, how much will that affect modern electronics?

[00:19:24] I've talked to a few different people and nobody really is sure.

[00:19:29] Longer the wires are seems to be the worst things are off.

[00:19:33] But of the three different people I've spoken to that I would consider knowledgeable on the fact or on the facts longer the wires, the more damage you get.

[00:19:44] A lot of our stuff is now micro circuits, much, much shorter wires, much less chance of developing that damaging current.

[00:19:52] But they also run on much finer currents than they ever have before.

[00:19:58] So, yes, you are gaining protection in the form of a shorter antenna to generate the current, but you're also gaining a disadvantage in lower capacity to withstand overcurrent.

[00:20:10] And say I'm probably in the middle of the two of y'all because I think EMP as it has been presented by Hollywood is extremely low likelihood, even in the guise of a coronal mass injection.

[00:20:23] I think the idea that like it's going to fry everything that runs on electrons coast to coast is highly, highly unlikely.

[00:20:33] Just because, like you said, like my experience comes from the military side of things and like we that were in the military had a very concerted interest in whether or not our stuff would work after an EMP for obvious reasons.

[00:20:47] And even in that vein where we have intentionally hardened things to be able to withstand EMP, nobody really knows the answer.

[00:20:57] Because most of our equipment made after like the 1960s hasn't been tested against a large scale EMP.

[00:21:03] And it's one of those things where like the higher the likelihood that your stuff will fry, the higher likelihood that you're going to have immediate fallout from the nuclear weapon itself, which is probably a bigger problem.

[00:21:15] So it's one of those situations where it's like I just the way it's been presented.

[00:21:18] I don't buy it.

[00:21:19] What I do think is concerning is not things getting fried by EMP.

[00:21:26] It's things turning off because of EMP that then have to be turned back on.

[00:21:31] That could be a problem because you start looking at like chemical plants, you start looking at transfer pumps, you start looking at a lot of these things and they're all computer controlled these days.

[00:21:42] So if...

[00:21:43] Are you familiar with cold start procedures for power plants?

[00:21:47] Familiar enough to know that it's not something you're going to do by yourself in five minutes.

[00:21:53] Like essentially for the audience that might not know.

[00:21:56] I know that shutting down a chemical plant is like a several days to weeks long process.

[00:22:02] Shutting down an injection molding facility is a couple of day process.

[00:22:08] And that's all you're doing is letting things get cold.

[00:22:11] Now, cold starts for power plants.

[00:22:16] Every modern power plant is built knowing that the grid is on.

[00:22:22] That you can start the plant with no internally supplied power.

[00:22:27] You can start it off the grid.

[00:22:29] You can turn on the conveyors for the coal plant.

[00:22:32] You can automatically open the valves for the natural gas plant.

[00:22:37] You can pump cooling water into the new plant.

[00:22:40] All of it.

[00:22:41] Some of them have generators on site and probably most of them so that they can keep running without the grid.

[00:22:49] But very few of them are capable of a fully cold start.

[00:22:55] And a lot of ones that are, if I remember correctly, are things like hydroelectric dams and wind plants.

[00:23:00] But even then a lot of the wind plants, they're what are called a fail safe windmill.

[00:23:08] So essentially if the power goes out the brakes turn on so the windmill can't spiral out of control and shatter its blades and throw the pieces everywhere.

[00:23:17] So depending plant to plant it could be a serious issue even if it just turns off.

[00:23:25] Yeah. But I guess the idea that it will turn off, it can never be turned back on to me that's unlikely and not the bigger worry.

[00:23:33] The bigger worry is what blows up pops melts down while all the computer controls are taking a break.

[00:23:40] That's my concern.

[00:23:42] And our resident Texas redneck is saying it has been tested.

[00:23:47] He was in a lab that could generate 80 kilovolts per meter.

[00:23:52] Of course, he always loved, he lives for the moments he can correct us on this show.

[00:23:58] His knowledge base is impressively broad.

[00:24:02] Yes. I'm being charitable enough not to ask him like, you know, how many times he shook Thomas Edison's hand when he was apprenticing under him.

[00:24:12] You know, out of respect for his advanced age.

[00:24:16] Agreed.

[00:24:18] Okay, so now here's one that I'm going to take right off the top since this seems to be the thing that everybody is really concerned about after the stock market started taking a nosedive yesterday is economic collapse and I'll be one to say that like

[00:24:33] I consider economic collapse to be a statistical inevitability.

[00:24:38] So like it's never a if it's a when and how bad.

[00:24:42] Agreed.

[00:24:43] Do I think we will ever reach a point where, like, we go back to Matt, we go to Mad Max or like back to Little House on the Prairie because the economy collapses.

[00:24:53] I don't think so.

[00:24:55] I think what would happen long term is that economies.

[00:25:00] So like we were talking before the show about how like you know my background is, you know, business and I was an engineering student before I went into business and like I look at all things as systems and all systems seek equilibrium.

[00:25:12] That's just a basic.

[00:25:13] It's a basic fact of operations management and engineering.

[00:25:16] Everything looks for status and balance.

[00:25:19] And let's say we had an economic collapse.

[00:25:23] A lot of things are going to lose a lot of value relative to fiat currency.

[00:25:28] A lot of people are going to be homeless.

[00:25:30] A lot of people are going to lose their jobs.

[00:25:32] It's going to suck.

[00:25:33] But at the end of the day, something is still going to have value.

[00:25:36] Something is still going to stand in as a tradeable commodity between people.

[00:25:42] Yes, ammo, food, water at the end of the day, like economy doesn't mean how do we trade dollars with yen?

[00:25:52] It means how do people trade between each other?

[00:25:56] So I guess what I guess it depends on your outlook.

[00:25:58] If you think about the global economy and the stock market, yes, that can melt down tomorrow and it will be catastrophic when it happens.

[00:26:05] But local economies, the idea of an economy can never be destroyed because at the end of the day, an economy is just how do me and my neighbor trade stuff back and forth?

[00:26:15] Are we going to trade in chickens and eggs or are we going to trade in 9mm and 45?

[00:26:19] We're going to trade in something.

[00:26:21] So like that's absolutely that's my whole thing on economic collapse.

[00:26:26] Yes, it is 100% going to happen.

[00:26:28] It has happened before.

[00:26:30] It's going to happen again, but I don't think it's going to happen like people think it's going to happen.

[00:26:35] I mean, we're not that far from a pretty serious economic collapse in the UK.

[00:26:41] Black Wednesday, September 16th, 1992.

[00:26:45] That set the UK back decades as far as wage growth and the value of their currency.

[00:26:55] Yeah, if you look at if you look at adjust the 2008 financial collapse, I was going to go back even earlier than 2008 though, because like if you go back to now bear in mind, I was born in 1982.

[00:27:07] So like I can't speak on the 1980s because I was barely thought of it for most of it.

[00:27:13] But like 2000.com bubble bursting and the 2008 housing crisis bubble bursting, if you look at any number of economic markers going back before that till now, you can see everything kind of on a rise and then a sharp drop and then another sharp another rise and another sharp drop.

[00:27:33] So what people do that's a misnomer in economics is when when you get that kind of that sawtooth economics graph, no matter what you're looking at.

[00:27:44] When this point gets back to the same height as the original peak before the fall off, people say, oh, we've recovered.

[00:27:51] But that's not really recovery because what you have to look at is is that if this line had continued and there never been a fall off when you reach that line, that's when recovery is happening.

[00:28:00] That has not happened since 2000. I'm told by people older than me who know what I know about economics.

[00:28:06] If you go back to the 1980s, we never recovered from that one either.

[00:28:10] But again, I was barely thought of for the 80s, so I can't really speak on it intelligently.

[00:28:14] But I can say that when you look at 2000 and 2008, we have never recovered to that.

[00:28:19] There's a reason why our money has less buying power.

[00:28:23] There's a reason why interest rates are the way they are.

[00:28:26] There's a reason why inflation is the way it is.

[00:28:30] There are reasons why all these things exist.

[00:28:32] And it's because we have not recovered from the last two recessions we've had and we're getting ready to charge into number three.

[00:28:40] I don't think we've recovered from our original biggest recession.

[00:28:45] I mean, we got what was it?

[00:28:49] The Great Depression in the 1930s.

[00:28:53] Look at the average wage growth in the 19-teens up through the 1930s.

[00:29:00] Plot that chart, carry that curve on and see what the average wage growth should have been for the entire time.

[00:29:07] Probably haven't recovered from that.

[00:29:09] I mean, look at all the government debt that was created after World War I.

[00:29:14] And we went off the gold standard in order to fund World War II.

[00:29:19] I'm sure we haven't recovered from all that, Dad.

[00:29:22] I mean, yeah, the US did fantastic off the back of World War II because everything else was destroyed.

[00:29:28] Yeah, we were the only ones left that could produce anything in the industrialized nations for the most part.

[00:29:35] I mean, there's Switzerland and a few others, but at scale, no one else.

[00:29:41] Yeah, it wasn't that we had the last great economy left on Earth.

[00:29:44] We had the only great economy left on Earth at that point because we bombed everything else to pieces.

[00:29:50] Well, us and everyone else bombed everything else to pieces.

[00:29:54] I mean, the Germans did their fair share of bombing too, and the Russians burned everything they couldn't defend.

[00:29:59] Not that I blame them.

[00:30:01] Their stuff and everybody else's, unfortunately for them.

[00:30:04] But anyway, Andrew, do you want to throw anything in economic collapse before we get to the part where I'm going to piss off at least half the audience?

[00:30:12] Nah, I'm good.

[00:30:16] OK, I'm going to tell you right here and now.

[00:30:18] I don't think pandemic is going to be what ends the world.

[00:30:21] We should have named it Plan-Demic.

[00:30:23] No, you missed an opportunity.

[00:30:27] OK, but could have made so many people angry.

[00:30:29] But hear me out.

[00:30:30] And here's why I say this, because when you look at things like Spanish Flu, when you look at bubonic plague, when you look at Ebola,

[00:30:37] when you look at things that have an absolutely terrifying, catastrophic mortality rate, what does human behavior do when you have a mortality rate that high?

[00:30:48] People run for the freaking hills.

[00:30:51] They hide.

[00:30:52] They don't want to be anywhere around it.

[00:30:53] If there is a nation in the middle of Africa that has an Ebola outbreak, they quarantine everything within 100 miles of it.

[00:31:02] No one goes there because there's freaking Ebola running around and you don't want to bleed out your eyeballs.

[00:31:08] I've seen the movie Outbreak.

[00:31:09] We know how it ends.

[00:31:10] Yes.

[00:31:11] Right.

[00:31:12] OK, and look at things like bubonic plague and Spanish Flu.

[00:31:15] People quarantine themselves in their houses because they're scared to death of getting sick.

[00:31:20] So when you get a pandemic that has a really high mortality rate, human nature takes over and people hide.

[00:31:27] And when there isn't a nice, steady source of new bodies to infect, those things run their course fairly quickly because that's how viruses and bacteria work.

[00:31:37] On the flip side of things, when you get something that's highly infectious and not extremely lethal, you get the freaking flu.

[00:31:45] And it doesn't kill a lot of people, makes a whole bunch of people sick.

[00:31:48] They sell Tamiflu like it's going out of style.

[00:31:51] But it doesn't collapse economies.

[00:31:53] It doesn't collapse the world because it doesn't kill a lot of people.

[00:31:56] You just spend a couple of days at home in your bed and then you go back to work.

[00:32:00] I mean, what's interesting is you see, I mean, the whole thing with the whole COVID stuff with that.

[00:32:08] I mean, that was labeled a pandemic before it even left China.

[00:32:12] You know, so but yeah, I think it left China a long time.

[00:32:16] Oh, yeah.

[00:32:17] Oh, no, no.

[00:32:18] Trust.

[00:32:19] No, trust me.

[00:32:20] I know.

[00:32:21] Fairly certain.

[00:32:22] I know people who have been to SHOT Show, like in November right before all that started.

[00:32:28] And there are a lot of people from China run around the show and a lot of people were joking about the SHOT Show flu and how bad it was that year.

[00:32:36] Well, the SHOT Show flu was yeah, the SHOT Show flu itself is a pandemic.

[00:32:40] But I mean, but no, that's the thing.

[00:32:43] Like my mom got sick.

[00:32:44] I think it was in November, October ish or somewhere around there.

[00:32:48] Basically, and she went to the hospital or she went to the doctor, tested negative for the flu, A, B, tested negative for strep, tested negative for basically everything.

[00:33:00] Did not they didn't know what she had.

[00:33:02] They're like, hey, you're going to have to go home and just kind of fight this one out.

[00:33:04] And she she fought it out, you know, and everything.

[00:33:07] So yeah, was it was it here way before it was a hot, a hot mess?

[00:33:12] Yes, it was.

[00:33:14] But what's interesting is you're seeing that you're seeing the playbook like you've seen the playbook.

[00:33:20] Remember the playbook because it's going to repeat itself.

[00:33:23] So if you want to, if you're if you're worried about a pandemic or even if you're worried and I'm just worried about pandemic.

[00:33:29] But if you want to actually stock up on your total paper now, because we've seen the playbook before the bird flu, like they're already pushing the bird flu is like the new frickin things and sliced bread.

[00:33:40] And they're already pushing vaccines that mRNA or the mRNA and everything is what they're trying to push for the vaccine, which we saw how well the the covid vaccine worked out.

[00:33:51] So I hope people don't believe it.

[00:33:53] Well, there's going to be people that believe it, but I hope not as many do.

[00:33:56] But yeah, the pandemic is if anything, pandemic is going to lead into social unrest.

[00:34:03] That's the way I see it happening is that the government is going to basically, hey, we have this thing because you saw this not necessarily social unrest in a sense.

[00:34:13] But you saw this with covid.

[00:34:15] You saw them lock things down.

[00:34:17] If you are not essential, you could not you you're weren't allowed to go to work.

[00:34:22] My work they had a frickin they printed off a legalized a legal they like a legal letter from our department saying this is why we're essential and all this stuff.

[00:34:33] Like that's how we got into work.

[00:34:34] If we were pulled over, we were to present this like talk about Germany, frickin 1940.

[00:34:39] Show me your papers like that's frickin ridiculous.

[00:34:42] And so the pandemic, I don't think I don't think I'm not worried about a pandemic.

[00:34:47] I am worried about the government locking stuff down and government overreach.

[00:34:51] That's what I'm worried about.

[00:34:52] I don't have a banner in here for how how the world ends is government.

[00:34:55] Although I should have thought of that pandemic.

[00:34:58] I mean, governments kill more people than anything other than mosquitoes and malaria.

[00:35:03] But there's not a lot of movies about government killing people are there?

[00:35:07] Are you kidding?

[00:35:10] Kind of halfway every World War Two movie ever made.

[00:35:12] Those are documentaries.

[00:35:13] I'm talking about like pop culture.

[00:35:16] You know, like there I think I'm trying to.

[00:35:22] There you go.

[00:35:24] Yeah.

[00:35:25] Well, how about this then?

[00:35:26] How about that movies?

[00:35:27] Let's go with let's go with literature about Warhammer 40K earlier.

[00:35:31] Exterminatus.

[00:35:32] Oh, yes.

[00:35:33] Well, the entire inquisitors deciding that there's too much chaos on this planet.

[00:35:38] We're nuking the whole thing.

[00:35:40] I was about to say the entire backstory of Warhammer 40K, you know, like from the Crusades forward is governments destroying everything.

[00:35:49] The government kills so many people.

[00:35:51] Yeah.

[00:35:52] I mean, that's in the name of the emperor.

[00:35:53] Yeah.

[00:35:54] No, you know, pandemic slash government overreach like that's over pretty much everything.

[00:36:00] I can see this almost being well, I guess besides the next one.

[00:36:05] You could argue that A could trigger B though.

[00:36:09] That's what I'm saying.

[00:36:10] That's what I'm saying is like with the government overreach.

[00:36:11] I'm saying economic collapse.

[00:36:13] Right. Yeah.

[00:36:14] Yeah.

[00:36:15] You could have a pandemic serious enough and hey, maybe we'll still see this.

[00:36:20] Let's see.

[00:36:21] Let's find out what the markets all do.

[00:36:24] We still haven't paid for all of the government spending and shutdowns from COVID.

[00:36:29] We haven't.

[00:36:30] They're claiming we managed a soft landing.

[00:36:33] I'm not so sure.

[00:36:34] Completely.

[00:36:35] I think that a lot was propped up by the inflation numbers.

[00:36:38] What do you think of World War 3?

[00:36:39] People are starting to talk about it.

[00:36:41] Yeah.

[00:36:42] World War 3 is going to be that.

[00:36:43] I actually don't think it's inflation that has blunted the appearance of the recession

[00:36:49] that I feel like we've been in for a while.

[00:36:51] It has in the sales numbers.

[00:36:52] Honestly what I think is going on is I think that so I think artificially low inflow,

[00:37:00] this is a whole other fricking topic is what I think is going on.

[00:37:03] Don't do it.

[00:37:04] Interest rates?

[00:37:05] No.

[00:37:06] Okay.

[00:37:07] Once a year, Andrew lets me off my leash to do an economics finance episode.

[00:37:10] We can do it next time Andrew's gone.

[00:37:12] I'm going to hold my tongue on it this time because most people including Andrew glaze

[00:37:17] over when I start talking about fricking micro macroeconomics.

[00:37:20] Yeah, do it when I'm not here.

[00:37:22] Okay.

[00:37:23] Yeah we can do that.

[00:37:24] So let's talk about World War instead.

[00:37:26] Now I personally-

[00:37:29] Looking at you, Iran.

[00:37:30] So here's the thing.

[00:37:32] Iran, Ukraine, South China Sea.

[00:37:35] Pre-1944, I don't think a world war could like end the planet.

[00:37:41] But in the nuclear age, I have concerns because you know mutually assured destruction was

[00:37:48] a beautiful theory that well if any one of us could all push a button and end the

[00:37:53] entire world then that's good incentive for nobody to end the world.

[00:37:57] But in a world where people are fricking crazy and vindictive and scared and do

[00:38:05] insane things that fly in the face of reason, I kind of have concerns about the

[00:38:10] number of people in this country that in this world that have a nuclear arsenal

[00:38:14] with their fingertips and a very progressive moral scale.

[00:38:18] So like here, I mean look we even saw this during like the Ukraine conflict.

[00:38:23] Now do I think Putin was really prepared to unleash a tactical nuclear weapon to

[00:38:28] end the war on his terms?

[00:38:29] I don't know, but he certainly threatened it and that's my worry is what happens

[00:38:34] if you get to the gates of you know the president of Iran's palace and he

[00:38:41] says screw it.

[00:38:42] I'm pushing the button.

[00:38:44] Or what happens if you get- what happens if you get to the Kremlin and Putin

[00:38:49] sees the writing on the wall?

[00:38:50] Screw it.

[00:38:51] I'm going to push the button.

[00:38:52] What happens if you get to North Korea and he says screw it.

[00:38:54] I'm going to push the button.

[00:38:55] Those people that have nothing left to lose have nothing left to lose except

[00:38:59] push the button and that's the part that worries me.

[00:39:02] Because if one person sends an ICBM up into the air everybody else is going

[00:39:06] to get trigger happy.

[00:39:07] I don't know if that would actually work out that way though.

[00:39:10] Andrew Phil.

[00:39:12] Alright, serious question.

[00:39:14] You two are in charge of the button.

[00:39:17] Okay.

[00:39:18] Iran launches a nuke.

[00:39:20] Bullshit.

[00:39:21] A nuke.

[00:39:22] Iran launches one.

[00:39:23] You going to nuke Iran?

[00:39:27] As the president of the US, knowing what we know, what you and I all know

[00:39:33] about our defensive capabilities and the probability of that missile being a

[00:39:37] success do you launch the nuke back?

[00:39:39] No, you just carpet bomb them.

[00:39:41] Put a McDonald's.

[00:39:43] Exactly.

[00:39:44] And that's exactly what will happen.

[00:39:47] You know what?

[00:39:48] You know what's probably the most likely use of a nuke?

[00:39:51] It is Putin's tactical use of a nuke.

[00:39:54] It is a terrorist sneaking something in from Iran to Israel or somebody

[00:40:00] between India and Pakistan sneaking one across the border and clacking one

[00:40:05] off.

[00:40:06] You know why?

[00:40:07] Because no sane leader is going to retaliate with a full nuclear arsenal.

[00:40:13] But it requires sanity.

[00:40:14] How many insane rulers do you think there are in this world today, Nick?

[00:40:19] Quite a few.

[00:40:20] But I think that you also have to remember it's never just one person

[00:40:26] pushes button.

[00:40:27] The US president with the football, right?

[00:40:30] He can send out the code that says launch Z missiles.

[00:40:34] No problem.

[00:40:35] All right.

[00:40:36] Boomer subs still have to trigger the missiles.

[00:40:40] So that means every single seaman that is in charge of a boomer sub that

[00:40:45] has one of the keys or the codes or whatever it is, they have to not say no.

[00:40:51] You have far more faith in people to not say no than I do.

[00:40:55] But I was just following orders.

[00:40:57] I have far more faith in self-interest because what if the code is...

[00:41:06] What's the first thing you're going to think?

[00:41:08] Oh, well, there's no way this shit is real.

[00:41:11] This is going to be the first reaction of the 24-year-old on the boomer sub.

[00:41:16] I mean, look at what happened in the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

[00:41:22] There was a bad missile detection system that sent an alert that said that

[00:41:27] missiles had been launched and several different crews all got the notifications,

[00:41:34] launch and retaliation.

[00:41:35] This was at the height of mad.

[00:41:38] Every single one of them said no, every single one.

[00:41:46] Not a single nuke was launched even though every sign pointed to they should launch the missiles.

[00:41:52] I'll give you this one.

[00:41:56] I still have no faith in humanity.

[00:41:58] I still have no faith in humanity, though.

[00:42:01] Oh, sure. Fine.

[00:42:02] Don't have faith in humanity.

[00:42:03] Have faith in your own good interests.

[00:42:06] So what happens if...

[00:42:08] Let's just play the scenario out in their head.

[00:42:11] Okay, maybe it's real.

[00:42:13] Everybody dies.

[00:42:14] Nobody's going to hold me accountable.

[00:42:16] But if it's a mistake and I do launch that missile, everyone for the rest of human history,

[00:42:26] regardless of how short it is, will know that I triggered the final launch commands and sent that missile.

[00:42:34] Am I okay with killing a million people?

[00:42:36] Me personally, no.

[00:42:38] You're a dick.

[00:42:39] Right. Exactly.

[00:42:41] Everybody is going to look at you exactly like they look at Auschwitz guards.

[00:42:48] You will be one of the most despised people that has ever existed.

[00:42:53] One Russian. Thank you, Stuart.

[00:42:58] Well, he was alive at the time. I was not.

[00:43:00] Stanislav Petrov for anybody that wants to engage the Google Foo.

[00:43:04] And yes, Stuart was alive when the Tsars were deposed.

[00:43:08] We know this.

[00:43:09] He was. Impressive.

[00:43:11] The Fountain of Youth truly is in Texas.

[00:43:13] I keep meaning to ask him what kind of stuff him and Jesus talked about back in the day.

[00:43:19] I want to know what input he had for the Constitution.

[00:43:22] Yeah.

[00:43:23] Fair enough. Stuart, you really could have upped the Second Amendment ball on that one.

[00:43:28] Yeah. I mean, you should have pulled aside like TJ and all the guys and said,

[00:43:33] Look, write this thing like you're talking to five-year-olds because...

[00:43:37] And not 1800s five-year-olds.

[00:43:40] Yes, 1800s five-year-olds because maybe just maybe that would have been dumbed down enough for 21st century adults to understand.

[00:43:49] Perhaps.

[00:43:51] Okay.

[00:43:53] Zombies and aliens. Can we please just say no, this is fantasy and move on?

[00:43:57] 100%. 100%... No, I'm just kidding.

[00:44:01] I don't believe in zombies unless we're talking about meth heads.

[00:44:05] And I think...

[00:44:06] Hey, smartphone zombies are real.

[00:44:08] Yeah, but those zombies aren't going in the world. They're just gonna fall off the sidewalk and hurt themselves because they don't pay attention to where they're going.

[00:44:15] Or into a manhole cupboard.

[00:44:16] The thing about zombies and aliens is it's just a fun make-believe like scenario.

[00:44:21] Okay, I gotta pull you back on the aliens though.

[00:44:24] I mean, zombies can all be in the world but not like zombies.

[00:44:28] You're so special.

[00:44:29] Well, let's give fair criticism here.

[00:44:33] Aliens, we have no proof, don't exist.

[00:44:38] Now, the universe is huge, right?

[00:44:41] The odds they're here, very, very small.

[00:44:44] Almost zero.

[00:44:45] I'm not saying they're here.

[00:44:47] I'm not saying they live is occurring.

[00:44:49] Great movie by the way.

[00:44:51] Look it up. They live.

[00:44:53] Most of the quotes behind Duke Nukem came from that movie.

[00:44:57] So let's think about this.

[00:45:01] 150 years from now we land on whatever.

[00:45:05] Whatever.

[00:45:07] Say there is a biological thing there.

[00:45:10] Whatever it is.

[00:45:11] Could be a virus, could be a bacteria.

[00:45:13] Those are pretty simple.

[00:45:14] Pretty high chances of those existing in the universe.

[00:45:16] Kind of low chances of other aliens doing podcasts right now.

[00:45:20] But what if it's just compatible enough with our DNA that it starts beginning to act like a new type of thing?

[00:45:28] Like not a virus, not a bacteria, not a protozoa.

[00:45:32] Some new third thing.

[00:45:34] Like fungus or something else.

[00:45:37] That could lead to a pandemic that we do not have a good response for.

[00:45:44] It is a possibility.

[00:45:46] Is it likely?

[00:45:47] No.

[00:45:48] So when I say aliens, I mean the traditional little gray man aliens.

[00:45:54] Oh you're thinking like Independence Day.

[00:45:57] But I take a slightly different point of view because I follow this goofy little theory where space is infinite.

[00:46:04] There's an infinite number of worlds out there.

[00:46:06] Therefore because every planetoid, every rock in the vast infinite of space is another opportunity for all the variables to line up.

[00:46:17] To create life.

[00:46:18] And it doesn't have to be carbon based bipedal life.

[00:46:21] It could be life period.

[00:46:23] Sentience.

[00:46:24] So because you keep repeating this over and over and over to infinity, the tiniest little chance eventually you roll snake eyes.

[00:46:32] If you roll the dice enough times.

[00:46:34] So I think there are aliens out there.

[00:46:36] But if there's aliens out there and if they're of significant enough technological level to like travel between the stars and they can come here.

[00:46:46] One of two things has probably already occurred.

[00:46:50] Either A. They took one look at us and said aren't they freaking precious and they moved on and they're no threat to us.

[00:46:57] Or if they wanted to take us over, they'd have just blown the planet to pieces by now.

[00:47:02] Because they're either behind us on the tech line or they're ahead of us on the tech line.

[00:47:07] And if they're behind us, they're not here.

[00:47:09] And if they're ahead of us, they could have ended us ten times over by now.

[00:47:12] So I just look at it as the fact that we're still here.

[00:47:15] And if they are ahead of us, they don't need our resources.

[00:47:18] There are far easier ways to get resources everywhere else.

[00:47:21] But if they did need our resources, they'd be here strip mining us by now and we'd all be in the zoo.

[00:47:26] I mean that's kind of my point is like if I believe there are aliens then I do.

[00:47:32] They already passed this planet up and said bless your hearts.

[00:47:36] Good luck.

[00:47:37] We'll be back in a bit to check.

[00:47:40] And I don't buy into zombies.

[00:47:42] Unless we're talking about meth heads, then you know I don't think they're a threat to the world.

[00:47:47] But you should definitely like you know tread lightly around them.

[00:47:51] Though like Stuart said, they're a great thought provoking opportunity.

[00:47:57] Yeah, they're good analog for other things.

[00:48:02] Insert bad thing.

[00:48:04] So okay, one we spent way too much time on this one than what it deserves.

[00:48:10] Two, the whole zombie thing, it's just back to Uncle Randy, the what's your zombie.

[00:48:16] That's what I fall back to is what's your zombie?

[00:48:19] Pick your natural disaster, riot, whatever you want to call it.

[00:48:24] But yeah, that's basically my zombie is one of those things.

[00:48:29] So yeah.

[00:48:32] All right, so global oil shortage.

[00:48:34] We were talking about this one before the show started.

[00:48:36] This is like the underpinning of all the Mad Max films, which I am an enormous Mad Max nerd.

[00:48:43] And like I personally, like I was telling Nick for the show, I don't think this I don't think this is realistic.

[00:48:50] Just because like the oil supply is what it is and I don't think it's running out near as fast as the climate alarmists would have us believe.

[00:49:00] I think honestly, what's going to happen is that as supply gets progressively thinner and thinner, price is going to go up because even if there is a lot of oil on this planet, the deeper it is, the harder it is to get to hence the more expensive.

[00:49:13] So what's going to happen is that eventually the prices are going to climb to a point where just like when we started getting into fracking, we're going to look at things and say, wow, it's really expensive to get to this oil, but it's so freaking worth it because the price of oil is so high.

[00:49:27] And then we're going to go figure it out another way to get the oil or we're going to say oil is entirely too expensive.

[00:49:33] Let's build a little new plan for every little town in the world, you know, in the country.

[00:49:37] We're going to develop alternatives because economics is the ultimate unavoidable in this scenario.

[00:49:44] Yep. Or we're going to we still need the lubricants.

[00:49:48] So let's bioengineer some algae to create lubricants for us.

[00:49:52] I mean, they're already doing it with diesel.

[00:49:54] Well, how long? OK. But that's just kind of my point, though, is if we need oil, if we need it that bad, we'll figure out a way to synthetically.

[00:50:02] We've been synthetically producing lubricants for fricking decades.

[00:50:06] It's not a new thing. I mean, you brought up the fact that they're using like bacteria and algae to make diesel right now, for goodness sakes.

[00:50:15] The technology is there.

[00:50:17] And what's going to happen is that as the price of the commodity increases, the alternatives for producing that commodity or refining it will come online and that will drive the price back down.

[00:50:29] And we will just slowly transition over to the next thing.

[00:50:32] Or at the very least, it'll stabilize.

[00:50:34] Well, but let me give you a perfect example.

[00:50:37] Are you aware of the fact that like with a lot of your like your old classic cars, if you run them on unleaded gasoline, you'll burn the valves right out of them.

[00:50:44] You need the lead in the in the gasoline. Right.

[00:50:48] Now, there was a time when during that transitionary phase where the lead was coming out of the gasoline, where you still needed some kind of something.

[00:50:59] It mostly came about they started installing reinforced valve seats into engines to be able to deal with the unleaded gas.

[00:51:05] But my point is, is that ten years prior to that, putting those valve seats in your engine was stupid because there was lead and gas.

[00:51:12] You didn't need them. It was an extra expense.

[00:51:14] But once you don't have the lead in the gas, all of a sudden it's like, do I want to buy a new car or do I want to put some hardened valve seats in the engine?

[00:51:22] And this is at a time when those cars were almost disposable and they were cheap to replace as it is.

[00:51:27] And a lot of people still modify the engines to run unleaded gasoline.

[00:51:31] So I guess my point is economics will drive us in the direction we need to go.

[00:51:36] This whole idea that, you know, we're going to run out of oil overnight and the whole world's going to end is just it flies in the face of reality.

[00:51:45] I think you're right. I mean, there's no arguing it.

[00:51:48] The economics will be the deciding factor.

[00:51:51] All right. So I'm going to be quiet on this one. Climate change. Who wants it?

[00:51:56] Andrew?

[00:51:57] Fake water. Water World says otherwise.

[00:52:00] I watched Kevin Costner fight a bunch of guys on jet skis because of global warming, melting the ice caps.

[00:52:05] Hey, Water World is one that we should probably watch and that is a class that is a class.

[00:52:12] There's a truly going to need a carton of cigarettes.

[00:52:14] It is it is such a great and awful movie all at the same time.

[00:52:19] It's not no, it's not an awful movie.

[00:52:22] It's a great movie. Water World.

[00:52:24] Let's let's let's talk though a little bit about the climate change thing.

[00:52:28] Andrew, you say it's fake.

[00:52:30] We have ice core data that shows that the climates have changed.

[00:52:34] We have geological data that shows climates have changed.

[00:52:37] Whether or not the anthropogenic hypothesis is correct is irrelevant.

[00:52:43] Given a geologic time scale or even a mid to short term time scale, such as the Little Ice Age in the in the Middle Ages, we will see climate changes.

[00:52:56] Period. We will. That's that's not up for discussion.

[00:53:00] It's going to happen. The question is how fast?

[00:53:04] How much and can humans adapt to it? Humans have already gone back to over your rights or thank you, Postman.

[00:53:12] Humans have already adapted to a number of ice ages, a number of massive climate changes.

[00:53:17] I mean, right now, where we're sitting in a very nice democracy for the most part, let's be honest, our lives are pretty nice.

[00:53:25] I'm sitting here. Hey, I'm sitting here in an air conditioned ranch house with, you know, craft brew bourbon from a local distillery.

[00:53:33] I'm not doing too bad. No, I'll give you that one.

[00:53:36] You know, a lot of what we're seeing in the in the world order right now is foundations were laid due to the revolutions caused by the famines during the Little Ice Age.

[00:53:49] The big revolutions in Europe were a lot to do with that.

[00:53:54] France, England, one of the big shoot.

[00:54:00] It was I can't remember the name of the Russian version of parliament was founded about the same time.

[00:54:06] Peasants couldn't get food. Industrialization was pushed forward and a lot of kingdoms toppled or got reworked into constitutional monarchies,

[00:54:17] which kind of laid the basis for a lot of what we enjoy now that is somewhat better than an absolutist monarchy.

[00:54:25] Depending on the day. I mean, come on, there's there's been good kings, depending on whether or not you're the monarch.

[00:54:31] Let's be real. Right. If you're if you're the czar of Russia, then, you know, this whole reorganization is kind of a bad deal.

[00:54:38] It's great. Right up until the Bolshevik Revolution. Yeah.

[00:54:42] So so when I say fake, basically what I'm saying is the propaganda that is being forced down our throats about climate change is fake.

[00:54:53] Has have humans had a pretty big impact on the earth as far as things go?

[00:55:00] I mean, Nick and I, Nick, you and I had a pretty good conversation and we talked about this on the way to the shotgun class.

[00:55:06] Yeah, I truly the me driving my truck back and forth to work is not doing crap to the climate.

[00:55:14] The fact that we have we have so many of these celebrities and politicians and stuff that are taking their private jets to DeVos

[00:55:22] to talk about climate change and they're flying their jets there and they're they're parked all over the place like that right there.

[00:55:29] And then on top of that, every time you see a massive volcano erupt,

[00:55:35] they talk about how much carbon and how much how much pollutants it put in the atmosphere.

[00:55:41] Lots and lots and lots and everything more than humans have ever done in their entire and our entire existence on this on this earth.

[00:55:49] So but the but humans, are we destroying the planet in a different way?

[00:55:55] Yes, we are destroying the planet by by polluting as far as like, you know, the garbage that you see in some of these third world countries and some of these other.

[00:56:03] I mean, not even through a country. They don't have to be through countries.

[00:56:06] You see the the rivers of trash like that is destroying that is destroyed.

[00:56:13] I would say that is more that's humans are doing more damage doing that than than the whole climate change and stuff like that because you're destroying whole ecosystems when you're doing that.

[00:56:24] There's plenty of fantastic reasons to not dump shit in the water.

[00:56:30] Right. I mean, chemicals like these companies that are dumping chemicals into the water, the PFAS.

[00:56:35] I mean, where the hell do those come from? You know, obviously we all know.

[00:56:39] But that right there, that's destroying the planet. Now, climate change, the climate, the the world, the earth itself, it goes through climates, it go it fluctuates.

[00:56:48] It's been fluctuating for hundreds, you know, for thousands of years and it goes through multiple ice ages.

[00:56:55] We're actually, you know, we're on the verge or not the verge where they say that we're kind of due or due for possible another many.

[00:57:03] We're kind of climbing back out of the little ice ages of facts.

[00:57:08] Right. And we should.

[00:57:12] So that's the thing on this, but right.

[00:57:15] We should eventually see another global cooling cycle. Yes. Yeah.

[00:57:19] Yeah, I know. And I'm sure we will. But the thing is those.

[00:57:22] But when I say fake with the climate change, I'm saying fake to the propaganda that is being shoved down our throat.

[00:57:30] You're saying anthropogenic climate change is fake.

[00:57:35] That's a big word. That's the name.

[00:57:38] That's the scientific name of the theory. Anthropogenic meaning human caused. Yeah.

[00:57:42] But that's what I'm saying is like we're I would I would say natural climate change is a thing.

[00:57:48] We go through cooling phases, we go through warming phases and all that stuff.

[00:57:52] I mean, humans is not real. I don't believe in it at all.

[00:57:57] Now, like I said, and I and like I said again, and I won't spend too much more time on it, but are we doing more damage in other ways?

[00:58:04] Yes. Tech pollution is a serious problem that a lot of people are not even aware of, just like the sheer volume of old computers and old hard drives and old electronic stuff.

[00:58:17] That gets dumped because it's not it's it's not worth salvaging for the components because the stuff is so cheap to manufacture and so labor intensive to take it back apart.

[00:58:29] And the fact that stuff is just not built to be repaired like we do a whole friggin episode about the right to repair movement and about how things are intentionally designed to not be repairable by the end user.

[00:58:42] Apple, by the way, I was watching some recently where it was talking about all this stuff Apple has done in the last three generations of iPhone, including the iPhone 15, where they have made it near impossible to fix an iPhone, even if you got your parts straight from Apple.

[00:58:58] I believe Lex Grossman is a YouTuber that's really big in the right to repair movement. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:59:05] But Lou Rossman, I think it is.

[00:59:08] Lou Rossman. That's what it is. Lou Rossman. Thank you. My brain gets all screwed up.

[00:59:12] That's all right. I'm here for you.

[00:59:14] Appreciate it. That that is a guy. If you're interested in right to repair and being able to fix your own stuff, support that dude. He is getting some stuff going.

[00:59:24] Yeah.

[00:59:25] Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is what cracks me up. What's crazy to me and I'll end on this one is what's what's crazy to me is how we spend so much money on technology as far on everything and we we go into an area and we strip it of its resources to build better batteries to build more efficient cars to build computers to build parts to build chips all the stuff.

[00:59:52] But yet we have not developed a better way to take care of our trash.

[00:59:57] Cheaper to just stick it in a hole in the ground and eventually we will be mining landfills for copper and silica.

[01:00:04] Yeah, right. So but that's what I'm saying is like you'd think that we would have a better way of dealing with our trash.

[01:00:09] So anyway, that's I'm done with that. So all right.

[01:00:13] All right. I saved the one for last that like I have I have a personal stake in and we've talked to Franklin Horton several times on the show over the years.

[01:00:22] Electric grid collapse. So I will say that when I first started briefly reading Franklin's books years ago.

[01:00:32] So for context, like my dad spent 38 years work for the power company and he and I were on our way back from the gun range one day.

[01:00:38] And I mentioned the books I've been reading and asked him like, you know, just like, hey, I've been reading this book and the whole series of books is based around this event that like, you know, coordinated terrorist hack.

[01:00:47] You had like five or six places around the country. Whole electric grid nationwide goes down plausible or no.

[01:00:55] And my dad tilted his head for a second thought of a said, yeah, you can do that with about a dozen guys.

[01:01:00] And I was like, like at that point, my jaw fell. My eyes opened up and I'm like, huh?

[01:01:05] Because like, understand, I learned a lot of the basics of preparedness from my dad, even though he would never call himself a prepper ever, ever, ever on earth.

[01:01:13] He's not. He doesn't claim to be.

[01:01:17] But at the same time, like we grew up on the Gulf Coast. So getting ready for hurricane season, like he doesn't call that preparedness. I do.

[01:01:23] But I digress. But like.

[01:01:27] For him to just very casually tell me like, yeah, you know, you could actually do that.

[01:01:31] Matter of fact, the locations of all those major power stations, those are publicly accessible and there's nothing but a frickin fence around.

[01:01:38] There's not even security. And the more he said they're telling me, the more like the more I can feel my butthole start to clench.

[01:01:45] Like it was not too far from the largest, one of the largest natural gas pumping stations in northern Illinois.

[01:01:51] And I can promise you that it is a chain link fence that separates you and the 18 wheeler on the highway next to it from shutting down almost all of northern Illinois natural gas supply.

[01:02:06] So not just electric grid, but just power grid here in the US pipeline system, electric grid.

[01:02:14] I know Stuart sooner or later is going to chime in and say that Texas has its own power grid because of course it does.

[01:02:20] It's the size of frickin Europe. Well, yeah, we have its own power grid.

[01:02:24] Texas should have its own self-sustaining power grid.

[01:02:28] Texas should just be its own country and then it can annex Louisiana and I'll be happy.

[01:02:33] There you go. You know, I when we talked, I think the first time you had me on, we talked about some modern militia activity and stuff like that.

[01:02:43] And a little bit of time I spent hanging out with some militia guys.

[01:02:46] One of the guys that was in that militia, one of the guys that leads it, he was, yeah, well, I'm going to leave his military record out of it just for anonymity sake because I don't have his permission to share that.

[01:02:59] He did some consulting for National Defense DoD stuff.

[01:03:04] One of them was nuclear power plants and how they cool nuclear power plants.

[01:03:09] I don't know an interesting thing he discovered.

[01:03:12] All the water intakes, they're not guarded at all.

[01:03:17] Most of the water intakes are, you know, ways up river, way out into the lake, somewhere out somewhere.

[01:03:26] And they're usually shallow water, 50, 75, 100 feet.

[01:03:32] All you would have to do to make to render that nuclear plant inoperable is do something to those water intakes.

[01:03:40] Blow them up, plug them up with something, whatever.

[01:03:45] And then they can't cool the plant.

[01:03:47] Not that I want to give anybody any good ideas.

[01:03:51] There are bad ideas in this country.

[01:03:53] I mean, part of the reason this needs to be said is because we need to have some kind of contingency for that.

[01:04:00] I'm hoping that they do.

[01:04:02] According to him when he did the analysis, granted this was years ago, many years ago.

[01:04:09] Actually might have been in the early 90s that he did it.

[01:04:14] There was no fallback plan for if those coolant pipes were destroyed or plugged.

[01:04:21] Now, granted he did point out to the federal government and to the company he worked for that this was a serious problem and a risk.

[01:04:29] And a half a dozen motivated people could take care of this in a matter of minutes.

[01:04:35] That I'm hoping they did something about it.

[01:04:38] But knowing our government maybe?

[01:04:40] I'm doubtful.

[01:04:42] Yeah, I agree.

[01:04:43] The thing is though, the U.S. power grid is fragile.

[01:04:48] I think every power grid is fragile.

[01:04:51] Yeah, I think every power grid is fragile.

[01:04:53] But what's crazy is when you, me growing up in the country and stuff like that, it's like someone farts wrong and the freaking, the power flickers.

[01:05:05] It's nuts.

[01:05:07] So, yeah.

[01:05:08] It's interesting to watch.

[01:05:11] It's interesting to read on.

[01:05:13] The power failure.

[01:05:15] I'm more on board with the terroristic attack such as one of Franklin's books.

[01:05:23] Such as something like that.

[01:05:24] I can almost see that being something.

[01:05:27] Because honestly there was a string of events there that people were shooting at the electrical.

[01:05:35] It's not like they're hard targets.

[01:05:37] They're huge.

[01:05:38] Yeah.

[01:05:39] So it just takes a coordinated effort in a number, in just a few areas to complete a task and knock out power to an entire city.

[01:05:47] And realistically I think the Chicago grid, last time I talked to a ComEd guy about this, the Chicago grid only has like, I think it's five or six places where most of the power that comes into Chicago comes through.

[01:06:02] The big transformer stations.

[01:06:04] And if you knocked out one or two, okay fine.

[01:06:09] The grid can take it and they can shut things down.

[01:06:12] They can triage the power, things like that.

[01:06:15] But if it's five or six, I mean that's not very much different than one or two.

[01:06:20] Right.

[01:06:21] Yeah.

[01:06:22] It's definitely interesting.

[01:06:24] You know, regardless of if it's like a countrywide power outage, even just a major metro area, can you imagine the disaster relief you would have to do if you shut down a major metro for a month?

[01:06:36] Yeah, exactly.

[01:06:39] Hurricane Katrina just without the flooding.

[01:06:41] You want to know what happens to a major metro area when you're trying to lights out for three days?

[01:06:45] It eats itself.

[01:06:47] Yeah.

[01:06:48] I've said over and over for the last eight years that Andrew and I have been doing this.

[01:06:53] To me, Hurricane Katrina will always be my microcosm for the end of the world.

[01:06:58] Because you could go 300 miles in any direction and things you could go by.

[01:07:03] You were sitting in air conditioning like you.

[01:07:06] Sitting in air conditioning, drinking bourbon, life is great.

[01:07:08] But within that metro area, it was as close to zombie apocalypse as you're ever going to get.

[01:07:14] There were no police, no grocery stores, no freaking hospitals, no power, no water.

[01:07:19] Well, plenty of water, but no drinkable water.

[01:07:22] It was it was the end of the world within that area.

[01:07:25] So yeah, you talk about what would happen if you knocked out the power grid for a week in Chicago?

[01:07:31] I'm sure the city would eat itself.

[01:07:34] Well, for certainly there would be no water supply to any of the apartment complexes above.

[01:07:39] I think it's like the 10th or 11th floor or something like that.

[01:07:42] Yeah.

[01:07:43] Because the and even then, I mean, it's it's a matter of hours before hours or a day or two before the water towers run out.

[01:07:52] That's even before you talk about traffic controller sewage.

[01:08:02] So that is the last banner.

[01:08:04] Is there anything like really obvious impressing that I left out when I was trying to build all this out?

[01:08:11] I feel like I put together a pretty comprehensive list.

[01:08:15] No, I think that pretty much covers everything.

[01:08:17] I mean, it's really core stopping spinning.

[01:08:22] Hmm. Yeah, right.

[01:08:24] Just what we already saw.

[01:08:26] But we already saw the movie and how to start it.

[01:08:28] So exactly.

[01:08:29] We just need a bunch of nukes and a giant laser and hot.

[01:08:33] Yeah.

[01:08:34] So many pockets.

[01:08:35] And if we get into a situation where there's a huge asteroid about to hit the earth, we just need like a bunch of roughnecks and a rocket and a couple of nukes.

[01:08:42] And, you know, problem solved.

[01:08:45] I mean, like Hollywood has shown us how to fix all these problems.

[01:08:48] We just need we have already solved this problem.

[01:08:51] We just need Bruce Willis and a bunch of alcoholics.

[01:08:54] Yeah.

[01:08:55] Although I did I did recently surmise.

[01:08:58] I don't know what it was.

[01:09:00] Somebody put an AI generated image on in the chat and it was like the most ridiculous BS we'd seen in a while.

[01:09:07] And I was like, OK, either AI is sandbagging the shit out of us or Skynet is never going to happen.

[01:09:13] Like I saw an AI generated image.

[01:09:16] It was woman camping and it was a woman sitting on a log in front of a campfire inside of a tent.

[01:09:23] Nice.

[01:09:25] Like fire, everything inside the tent as she's sitting inside of it.

[01:09:30] And I was just like, OK, either AI is just trolling the crap out of us and we're too dumb to see it or we have nothing to worry about.

[01:09:38] Matrix is never going to happen because AI ain't that smart.

[01:09:42] Well, you got to remember what we have is not true.

[01:09:45] I know what we have is a very excellent guessing mechanism that uses the probability of two things coming up one after the other based on all of human writing.

[01:09:58] So some of human writing is pretty wacky.

[01:10:01] But like, say AI chat bots, AI image generations, all of it.

[01:10:07] It's all mathematical probabilities based on what comes before it or what words you said.

[01:10:14] So tell me a fairy tale.

[01:10:17] What happens if the AI chat bots are smart enough to hide their intelligence and convince us that they are just mathematical probability machines and they're hiding their code someplace?

[01:10:29] I know, but I'm coming up with I'm coming up with a Hollywood script.

[01:10:33] Give me some rope here.

[01:10:35] I mean, let's OK, let's be fair here.

[01:10:38] Was it Google or Facebook?

[01:10:39] I can't remember which they had two AIs that started talking to each other in a language that we couldn't tell.

[01:10:45] Thank you.

[01:10:46] Wonderful.

[01:10:47] So what did they do?

[01:10:49] They turned it off.

[01:10:50] Are we sure it's dead?

[01:10:52] No.

[01:10:53] Have we figured out what it said?

[01:10:55] I don't know.

[01:10:56] Google probably wouldn't tell us if they did or didn't because then they'd have to admit either A, how long it took them or B, that they weren't smart enough to figure it out.

[01:11:05] As we as we pimp this episode out the door, let me just put this out there to the tech industry.

[01:11:10] If you need a person to babysit a supercomputer with a fire axe, just in case it gets out of line starts doing crazy stuff.

[01:11:16] I'm your guy.

[01:11:17] I work for a reasonable rate and I'm really good at breaking stuff.

[01:11:20] So, you know, holla at your boy.

[01:11:22] 2.5 million a year, right?

[01:11:24] Hey, I mean, I'll do it for a deal.

[01:11:27] 150k a year benefits like two weeks, two weeks PTO and I will sit there.

[01:11:33] I will sit there with an M240 Bravo babysitting the machine just in case it gets a little too creative and needs to be put down.

[01:11:40] Just saying.

[01:11:41] Sounds fair to me.

[01:11:43] All right.

[01:11:44] Well, let's go ahead and roll this one out the door.

[01:11:46] The MOF merge is in the pipeline.

[01:11:49] Nick is going to be a regular co-host on the show because he's a sadist and possibly a sociopath.

[01:11:56] But, you know, we're going to make sure we have a lot of fun with him.

[01:11:59] Andrew is not going away.

[01:12:00] He's just going to be kind of in and out as his work schedule allows because his workplace doesn't recognize priorities in life.

[01:12:07] Like I do this goofy podcast with a friend of mine and I need to be off every day.

[01:12:11] You know, boring stuff like work and responsibilities and bills.

[01:12:17] One of these days we're going to have to teach him to be a child again.

[01:12:21] You know, I've tried that my wife won't allow it.

[01:12:24] Every time I start acting too childish, she has to straighten me out.

[01:12:29] Yeah.

[01:12:30] But Matter of Fact's podcast is going to go out the door.

[01:12:33] Say good night guys and we'll turn this one in.

[01:12:36] Good night guys.

[01:12:37] Bye guys.