Matter of Facts: Whiskey and Politics

[00:00:06] 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 Ravelet, Andrew, Nick are on the other side of the mic, and here's your show. And I think I got that intro just a little bit cleaner than the last time. It wasn't quite

[00:00:35] as jarring. I think I might need to tweak the volume, but sooner or later... A little high, a little high on the volume. Not bad. Sooner or later, I will find a way to mimic true professionalism. I mean, we are endeavoring constantly to fake being a professional. Yes, definitely fake being a professional because my worry is always that if we got too professional, we would take this way too seriously and then it wouldn't be fun anymore. No, no, absolutely not. I refuse to have yet a fourth job.

[00:01:04] Yeah. Well, I mean, that's been my whole rationale behind, you know, intentionally half-assing as much of the show as possible so that I don't take it too seriously because I've already got a full-time job, part owner in one business, a nonprofit to run, and another podcast that due to peer pressure and bullying might be getting resurrected in the near future. Ooh. This is matter of fact, I'm probably not supposed to tell you all this, but she's not around

[00:01:32] to tell me not to until she kicks that door like the Kool-Aid man. But anyway... You need a security door. I should probably put a lock on that deadbolt on that door. Yeah. Yeah. But Mrs. Matter of Facts actually talked to me just the other day about the potential for resurrecting, raising values. Oh, my wife would love that. Which in no small part because of all the bullying from the patrons on the summer camp trip. It was good-natured cajoling at best.

[00:02:02] Hey, y'all bully me and I'm buying shotguns. Y'all bully her and starting podcasts. I mean, it's just, that's the way this relationship works. But, welcome back to the Matter of Facts Podcast. I'm Phil. This is Nick. Andrew's not here. Andrew is petitioning the White House for Pam Bondi's job. And Nick and I both agree that that would be an excellent idea at this point. I have seen rocks convict more pedophiles. I mean, I think a ham sandwich should do a better job than she's doing lately. But you know, that's just me.

[00:02:29] This whole having things on your desk and then they don't, you know, exist. That's a little odd. Little sus. You know, I have a lot of things on my desk and so far all of them exist. Not entirely sure how she worked out the opposite, but I mean, okay, but let me just be double as advocate for a moment. I know people who shall remain nameless without, because I have a very short memory and they're in permanent witness protection,

[00:02:56] who have things in their gun safe that absolutely do not exist. Yeah, but that's just good old American traditionalism. I mean, we've been having things in our safes that shouldn't probably exist since longer than this country has been around. Oh, Kyle's excited. He wants a new boss. Well, Kyle, I do have good news for you. No tax on tips and overtime did go through the one big beautiful bill. With stipulations.

[00:03:24] With stipulations. I mean, it is a tax credit, so. And it's looking like it's capped at like 25K a year. 25K a year for Mary Jo Folley jointly, which is nothing to sneeze at. Oh, it's nothing to sneeze at. 25K a year is a chunk of anybody's budget, I guess. So that would buy a lot of 12K shells. Oh, yes. Yes, it would. In fact, that's almost enough to buy that belt fed AR upper that I'm not allowed to have. You're not allowed to. You got to buy night vision first.

[00:03:53] Actually, no, you got to you got to do two bathrooms in the kitchen. Then we can. I'll start. I'll start working on Rachel. I have finished all of the demo. Well, most of the demo for that one bathroom. But so but finishing the demo wasn't the agreement. I worked hard to try to get you the night vision. I know. I know. But that I'm working on your little. Your little lady is like she is like stubborn as I am. She has to be. Oh, yeah. To keep you honest. Most definitely.

[00:04:23] OK, five minutes in, we're still B. S. So we got to do the admin work. We got to thank the patrons, the patrons of the Matterfacts podcast, the psychopaths who join us on the camping trip hip the last month. The people who give us bad ideas, the people who are in our signal chat every freaking day. The people that risk getting a cannon for Christmas. Yes. And by the way, the the arms race for Secret Santa has now officially begun.

[00:04:49] Like you, you, you, you, you screwed up the whole over time window for Secret Santa. Thank you, by the way. Hey, I kept it within the budget. I just happened to have a late. Yeah. You just happen to have a late. I do. And my Secret Santa had to make do with a disaster coffee, coffee mug and some coffee, of which I thought was like a pretty cool heartfelt gift because coffee is never bad. But then you got to one up all of this with a coffee is like your whole deal.

[00:05:17] Well, I'm a machinist. I make the things anyway. But if you're interested in becoming a patron, I highly recommend it. I can introduce you to some people who will waste your retirement money faster than you can say felt multiple felonies. Oh, yeah. In the best way possible. Yes. And if you're more if you're less into multiple felonies and more into merch, there's shirts, there's koozies, there's stuff like that.

[00:05:44] It's all available in at the link in the show description from the Southern gals. I've met the Brandon's in person and they're a they're exactly. So I have to say, Chris is exactly who you think he is in person. Like that does not surprise me. But you know how like you meet a person and after you talk to him for a while and like they're not at all like that you thought they were. Yeah. Chris is exactly that guy in the best way possible. We are cool.

[00:06:12] And his daughter is a hilarious little spitfire. Her dad is her daddy's going to have his hands all kinds of full in about eight or nine years. Good. That's how parenting should be. Yeah. But the merch supports a small family owned business and they will appreciate it. And so will I. And frankly, our T shirts are hilarious. You should consider them. And they're really nice shirts. Yeah.

[00:06:36] Well, that was I have to admit that was like one thing that I was very insistent with when I talked to Chris and Tiffany initially was I'm like, hey, guys, like I am like we can collaborate on designs. I am if there's something y'all want to throw out there, like just let me look at it and make sure it's our vibe before you put it out for sale. Yeah. But the one thing I was emphatic about was we are not using like the cheap, skinny Chinese itchy T shirts like I want. I want something that feels nice and it looks like quality and they nailed that. So I have no complaints.

[00:07:06] Yeah. Yeah. And Cyprus survivalist. So one get ready event North Shore down one quarterly event, which was not what we initially planned, but due to weather and some other things, we pivoted it into a small intimate get together at the Raveli house, which was fun. And our next event, we're probably looking for like, I don't know, beginning of winter, very, very, very, very end of fall after hurricane season when it starts to cool down a little bit.

[00:07:33] We're looking to do it a camping trip, but me and the other board members need to get together and figure out when to pull the trigger on that. We're we got some things we got some things to look at, but for anybody that's in. You're going to need a couple months notice for people, at least I would think. Oh, yeah, that that's that honestly is probably something that we're going to be starting announcements in the next week or two. Nice.

[00:07:57] But but, you know, so for anybody that's in like the vicinity of southeast Louisiana, depending on how far you want to drive for a camping trip with a bunch of weirdos, you know, it's going to be kind of kind of sort of like the matter of fact summer camp. It's going to be a we're going to be here. You all make your own reservations and we're really just going to hang out. It's going to be an opportunity for the people who have camping gear to come out and camp with a safety net of other people that are very experienced at it.

[00:08:25] It's going to be a good opportunity for people to kind of compare and contrast their gear to somebody else's. And it's going to be an opportunity just to sit around and hang out, visit and get to know each other, which is always kind of been the underpinning of soccer survivalist is to get to know the other preparedness minded people in your area. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't help you to know me because best case, I'm 14 hours away. If all needed, it helps. It just doesn't help in the in the way that's most helpful.

[00:08:54] Sometimes don't help get a tree off your roof. That's for damn sure. No, it absolutely will not help with that. Kyle, the only person who can share a sleeping bag with me is my wife. Sorry, don't don't mean to break your heart, Bubba. So it look if I was going to share a sleeping bag with any man, you definitely be on the list. But no, he seems like a cuddler. He might be, but I'm I don't know.

[00:09:23] I'm not a not a cuddler, I guess. Anyway, so let's let's get to the topics. Let's start with. Where's the effing list? Where is the list? I'm guessing it's in the exact same place. It's always been some federal government employees. Little black book of blackmail. Yeah. Well, this image that's on the screen right now, and for those of you listening in audio, you can't hear it.

[00:09:52] So you'll just have to go to our Instagram page and that links in the show description as well. So you can go take a look at it. But this is an angry looking raccoon saying, where's that goddamn list? And that's kind of where I'm at right now with this whole all these freaking shenanigans.

[00:10:08] Either there is no list and we've been lied to for like, what, 10, nine or 10 months by the Trump administration, by multiple appointees of the Trump administration before and after the actual inauguration, before and after the actual election. And personally, this is me, Nick. You know, I don't indulge in conspiracy theories that often. No, not really. Well, I'm being kind of tongue in cheek because I do, but they usually come true. But anyway. Or have been proven true.

[00:10:37] Yes. Been proven true very often. But if there is no list, then this is the only time in human history that anybody alive can remember in which a man hung himself for no freaking reason, in air quotes. Yeah. And a woman is still in prison for trafficking no one to nobody. Yep. This whole thing is like a freaking LSD dream.

[00:11:04] It's it's we are literally, dude, we are having our faces peed in and being told it's raining. Oh, absolutely. In the most literal way humanly possible. Absolutely. This is, I think, the single most bipartisan issue in the news regularly. Can you think of anything else? I mean, heck, I have an insanely liberal coworker who he's a good guy. His heart's in the wrong place.

[00:11:34] Even he is phenomenally pissed. The guy hates Trump more than a couple of our patrons possibly ever could. And he came up to me the other day and said, can you believe what Trump said? And I said, probably not, because you're probably going to lie to me. And he said, he said that there's no list, that there's never been a list. I said, what list? He said, the Epstein list. I did not hear that. I said, he said, well, aren't you mad at Trump now? I said, well, yes. The man was trafficking children.

[00:12:05] I mean, Jesus fucking Christ. I do not care if Mother Teresa's on the list. I want it. And I want to make damn sure we end the political careers and monetary careers of every single person that was ever involved in the trafficking of children. So I'll go one step further than that. I would like to think I'm a fairly level-headed person.

[00:12:30] Somebody in the audience is snickering very loudly at that assertion, especially given that, well, this is. So you remember I told you I brought home a bottle of the smoked maple. Oh, yeah. Knob Creek. Yeah. That's. Ooh. So I am known for being level-headed and not drinking before a podcast. But indulge me. I cut my whiskey with moonshine today.

[00:12:54] I kind of feel like if anyone's name is on that list and is confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that that person should be freaking tarred and feathered in public. Yes. I'm talking about freaking blood, blood, blood wing them, Viking funeral while they're alive. I don't care. There is no penalty too great to have participated in this disgusting behavior and the cover up of it. The cover up's the worst part, in my opinion. I can understand.

[00:13:23] I can understand mentally ill people doing mentally ill things. They are disturbed. Okay. Maybe they didn't have full control over it, but they did it. Sorry. Don't care. Exactly. But the people that covered it up had to take an exceedingly long series of actions knowing what they were covering up. And again, don't care. Don't care whose name is on it. I don't care if it's Republicans.

[00:13:53] I don't care if it's Democrats. I really care less than none if it's the Pope. I don't care if it's Mother Teresa to your point of view. I don't care if it's freaking Elvis. I don't really care if it's the British royal family. I don't care if everyone on the list is already dead. I want to know so we can tar their reputation for all of eternity. But here's my problem is that if everyone on that list was dead, we'd have it by now. No, we wouldn't. You don't think?

[00:14:19] No, everyone involved in the Kennedy assassination that was part of the U.S. federal government's been dead for 20 years and they just now released it. They wait until like it got cold enough. Yep. Until their bodies were so cold that even the extremely enthusiastic would not be involved. Well, suffice to say, like there are a ton of wild theories going on right now about why this is.

[00:14:44] Like there's the theory that says that everyone's on the list on both sides and that's why neither one can release it. That's plausible. I'll go there. There's the theory that like, you know, Trump's hands are clean in this, but it's it's an intelligent. It's blackmail to using its other country. So it's kind of like the one ring analogy. If you've heard this, it's like he's got the one ring he could throw into the fire, destroy it, but he'd rather use it. I'm certain some of it is blackmail. But here's my problem.

[00:15:13] I do not care. The tiniest, most insignificant little bit. I don't give a shit. I don't give a damn who's on the list. I don't give a damn what the justification is. I do not care. I am here to say that this man and this administration should stand on business. This was a plank in their platform to release this. This was part and parcel to the reason he and his people were elected.

[00:15:39] They were sent to Washington because we wanted this unwound and we wanted this released. And it is time to either make good on your promises or enjoy the next three and a half years of your entire base cutting each other's throats, looking for opportunities to get rid of you. Because I'm going to tell you that right here and now I'm looking at social media and I am watching people bifurcate in the Republican Party in two chunks.

[00:16:06] You got the people who are fairly principled who are saying, time out, hard stop. This is not what we voted for and we're not okay with it. And then you have the other crowd that is so freaking captured, so ideologically contained and so dishonest that they are rah, rah, rah for Trump no matter what. Which is unacceptable for any politician in any political party. Personally, I don't think anyone should be that behind any single candidate or party.

[00:16:35] I don't think that's – now, total soapbox moment, but I think it's kind of an American tradition to distrust your politicians. Like me, not that I'm God's gift to anything or I'm anybody special. This is just my weird freaking personality. But I could literally vote for a man or a woman or an alien. I don't care. I could vote for somebody. Five seconds after they walk down the stage of shooting everybody in the bird and say, I got the ring, I immediately go back to distrusting that person.

[00:17:04] Because five seconds ago, you were just a human being like you and me, but now you're a politician. So now I cannot trust you again until you leave office. Because that is the only way we ever keep them in line is by watching them like a hawk and calling balls and strikes. And right now, I'm here to tell you that Donald J. Trump, I have nothing to defend him. I have nothing to defend his administration.

[00:17:29] They have completely and totally screwed this thing up. And there is no excuse for it. And there's no saving it either. Like, find me that one person that is still, I'm not saying like you leave the Trump camp over this one thing. But at least be honest that it's a complete screw up. At least give me that. It is. I do believe it could be salvageable if they admitted, hey, look, we fucked up. We fucked up. We should have given it to you right away. Here it is. Go.

[00:17:59] I mean, either that or convince the American public that the list never did exist. And if you're going to do that, then you have to go back and admit that you screwed up all these other times you said it was a thing. So, well, to me, it's kind of like I don't think you can ever convince them that there isn't a pretty good idea of who is involved. But time out. There are some people who will never be convinced regardless. You have to discount. But I'm talking about the majority. I'm not talking about like the people that believe the earth is flat.

[00:18:28] I'm talking about people like you and me, Phil. I think that you're a fairly critically thinking person. I do. I've met you in person. I've talked to you for credit. No, but you do. You do. When I give you a good argument for something you disagree with, you can consider it and concede the point if it's well made and if it's well founded. Kyle was asking, do we think Elon Musk has a copy of the list? No, I don't think they I don't think that they would give that to him. I think if he had a copy of it, it'd already be on the Internet.

[00:18:57] I don't think so. I don't think so. I think he would. No, God, no. I think he would manipulate it to better to benefit his business interests. I think Elon Musk is probably a sociopath. He's he's a useful sociopath. But I don't know that he would care enough about people. Generally, he very much cares about things. He's not a people person. Does that make sense? No, that makes perfect sense.

[00:19:25] And, you know, the God's honest truth of the situation is, is like I, I am not in the position of I think there's room for there not to be a list that you would have a hell of an uphill fight to convince me of that. All I'm saying at this point is that, like, I, I personally will not let go of this. No, and I know a lot of look. People have been saying for how many years Epstein didn't kill himself at every. I mean, it's a freaking meme at this point.

[00:19:54] Like people will not let go of it. This is not going to make it go away. This is just going to make it worse. It was less of a suicide than that guy tied to Hillary Clinton that shot himself four times in the back. We should do an episode on all of the all of the what do you call the Clinton body count? The we should do an episode on Clinton. There's a wiki page for the Clinton body count. It's quite extravagant. We'll go over one of these times.

[00:20:22] Nick, I don't group here is saying that there's probably not a Hollywood. Style madam list. But I think he's right. I don't think there is a little black book of this person likes 12 year olds. This person likes 15 year olds. No, but I guarantee you there's plain manifests, which we know exists because some of them have been released. There are probably like, say, credit card receipts or business expense reports.

[00:20:52] Look, man, you cannot walk six blocks without being on somebody's fucking ring doorbell camera. You're telling me that there isn't video evidence of this? People getting on and off the planes? And see, I think it goes further than that. I think that if if the true purpose of if the true purpose of the of Epstein was one gigantic honeypot and there's there's there's there's something there's some things there to suggest that might have been what it was.

[00:21:21] It would not surprise me if he was not. And it would not surprise me if he was an intelligence asset for either the CIA or another foreign nation. And if he was, then what we what is being held from the American people and from the world is literal. Like 100 percent irrefutable evidence of people trafficking children. Yes. 110 percent.

[00:21:44] Now, the problem is and I've said it before, and I think I doubt you're going to disagree with me on this, but it's like if that causes governments to topple and the world to burn, then the world. Your terms are acceptable. Yeah. Yeah. And because at this point and, you know, somebody somebody posted this on social media and it's it's very succinct and dark, but damn it, it's right on point. But they were like, you know, like we were at a point.

[00:22:09] I actually I think I might have been Tucker Carlson and I don't I don't usually pay attention to Tucker Carlson, but this time he was really dropped the bomb right on the target. But it was something to the effect of like we are at it. We are at a crossroads in American history where either this travesty, this cover up gets uncovered, gets corrected, or we will forever surrender the moral high ground of the truth. Agreed.

[00:22:34] There will be no because if you can cover this up for any reason, for any for any purported good, then there are no limits anymore. Personally, I don't think it is possible to have an outcome that stems from the trafficking of children that is in any way acceptable.

[00:22:57] No, I think the only I think the only solution to not make this better, but I think the only solution here would have been to like just let the list out, let the cards fall where they may dump every single bit and bite of data. To the Internet. But you know what?

[00:23:16] If if I were to get into a self-defense shooting today, if if I were to walk out my front door, be assaulted and shoot somebody, I guarantee you every single doorbell camera, every single Wi-Fi signal. All of it would end up on on CNN. But you're not a British royal or a politically. No, no, I'm not. Why is it that you and I can be tried in the court of public opinion, but we can't try the government rules for the but not for me.

[00:23:46] And people wonder why I hate the government. People wonder why. I don't know. People wonder a lot of things about me, but some of y'all just have to use your imagination. Suffice to say that the world has made me jaded. I used to be a young and bright eyed and bushy tailed and quite an agreeable person. And then the world showed me how much the world sucks. And now you're just cynical and bushy bearded. Cynical. That's a teacher for you. Sarcastic.

[00:24:15] Cynical and bushy bearded.

[00:24:45] Cynical and bushy bearded. Is in charge and is hurting their feelings. So that's a good one. Yeah, you can thank Reddit for that one. That's good. Mango Mussolini. That's pretty good. But yes, California wants to seed. I've heard this before. How are they going to deal with the water problem that they get from everywhere else? Don't know. How are they going to deal with the crippling debt that that state is in because of all their social welfare programs?

[00:25:14] So there was a I want to say it was Grant who said something like this. And I would like to say get the quote right, but I'm going to paraphrase. Essentially, what he's saying is that when you were admitted to the union, the union spilled blood and treasure to safeguard you. You no longer get to just leave. Look, I mean, that is the argument that was used to justify the Civil War, by the way. I realize that.

[00:25:44] And you know what? There are a lot of places that want to succeed. Secede. Texas wants to secede. I don't know that secession would accomplish anything for them. I agree and disagree, though, because we're where this topic of state secession comes up. I've traditionally been on the side of like the country's going to balkanize anyway. Screw it. Let's just roll the dice and get it over with. I think you're right, though. I think we will go the way of the USSR eventually.

[00:26:13] Well, I mean, if not the USSR, we're going to go the way of we're going to go the way of multiple places in Eastern Europe that used to be one whole country and then they bifurcated. And it always happens because, you know, like there's the argument that happens across racial lines or religious lines. But the truth, the truest definition of the reason most of these places bifurcate is because it happens across ideological lines, cultural lines. Yes. People in A and people in B don't want to live together. So they go and they make they make two countries out of one.

[00:26:42] The trouble for California is that it is just as bifurcated as the rest of the nation. I have a solution for that. You'll like this. Hmm. Lesser California and greater Oregon. Don't beat me to the punchline. So here's the thing. You know that one of the things I pride myself on is intellectual honesty and consistency. Like if I'm going to take this position in one place, I'm going to try to take it across the board. And if I can't take it across the board, that tells me that my idea was wrong and I need to revise it because it doesn't apply everywhere without tradition.

[00:27:12] Well, there are certain. Yeah, this is semantics. Never mind. Ignore me. Yes. Well, I have traditionally been in favor of state secession. If the whole state says, F you guys, I'm out. OK. I'm kind of like, I'm going to let them go.

[00:27:28] So I had this thought about California and I thought to myself, OK, in the name of intellectual consistency, if the state of California gets all their gets all their they their they thems and Zers together and they all decide we don't want to be part of the United States anymore. In the name of intellectual honesty and consistency, I have to support that.

[00:27:47] But I also know that California is the least homogenous state in the entire country when you look at landmass and that the populations of San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles heavily skew the rest of the state's politics and social platform. And if if we did this on a county by county basis, ah, now I found out how to make this work.

[00:28:13] So if a county wants to secede from the United States of America, get your boats together and go forth, do great things, have a party. You go off and form California stand or whatever. But all of those red freaking counties all throughout the rest of California that don't want to be part of California today would probably happily join Oregon or some other state or make their own state and stay in the United States of America.

[00:28:37] And then Los Angeles and Cal and and San Diego and San Francisco can have their own little hippie commune until they crush the collapse under their own little weight. You know, I can understand that. And that's that's reasonably fair. But doesn't it sound like a good idea, though? It's a social experiment. We should try it. I could see it being amusing. It would just be like it would be escape from L.A. 2.0. Your terms are acceptable.

[00:29:04] I know we just need more leather jackets and eye patches. Kurt Russell. Yeah, we need Kurt Russell and a wall. Can we clone Kurt Russell's and buy more leather jackets? What if what if a 21st century Kurt? Oh, actually, I think those movies took place in the 21st century. They were said it was like a year 20, 25 or 23. Let me look it up.

[00:29:28] What if a modern reboot instead of having Kurt Russell with his flowing hair and his clean shaven face had a bald man with a lustrous beard to to rule over Los Angeles? I mean, we can do that. All I need. OK, so in the year 2000, a massive earthquake struck the city of L.A. That starts the timeline. Let me see. Give me give me the rest of the timeline. I need the juice here. God, you are failing me.

[00:29:57] OK, so what I need is a sleeveless black shirt, an eye patch, some boots and a Mac 10 with a silencer and the like 10 inch long scope for the time. I mean, I'm a Mac 10 with a silencer. You've got you've got me. That's like right in my 80s action heart. OK, we'll take that as an action item going forward. So it looks like we need to set in the year 2000.

[00:30:27] So we need to wall off Los Angeles and put all the hippies in there. And then I don't know. I'll just get dropped in and cause mayhem, I guess. Jesus Christ. Phil, how much do you think they spent on that movie? Impress me. Fifty million dollars. Ooh. I mean, wow. It only film it in Los Angeles. Yeah, they did. The box office take was significantly less. This was not a successful film.

[00:30:55] That's why there wasn't any further escape from. Escape from New York was definitely. Well, that was the first one. Escape from L.A. was. Oh, yeah, that's right. Escape from New York. If you need if you need a nice, sweet rom-com to watch with a lady, that's not it. But if you want a cool movie to watch with your friends and some drinking involved, that's definitely one to put on the menu. Escape from New York is the better one, though. It definitely is. Escape from L.A. was meh. But New York was good.

[00:31:24] Then if you really want another one, what was it? Demolition Man. That's a fantastically terrible action movie. Demolition Man is fantastic. Yeah, so when it comes to terrible action movies, there's this really thin line between terrible and terribly awesome. And Demolition Man is like right on the side of terribly awesome. But then the original Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone is like right on the other side of just terrible. It is, yeah. But did you see the newer Dredd that had Carl Urban in it?

[00:31:54] Fantastic. Loved it. Dude, tell me. Tell me that man did not channel Judge Dredd. Oh, yeah. I mean, he was Judge Dredd. The whole movie from start to finish should just be like played on repeat in police academies around the country. Fantastic. Fantastic. Police brutality? Yes. I'll show you police brutality. All right. Now it's time to I've had my rant.

[00:32:22] Now Nick gets to have his. 3.3 trillion dollars in spending. The additional spending. The big beautiful bill is really freaking big. In additional spending on top of what the government already spends. Now, Phil, I don't know if you remember some of Trump's campaign. Do you remember when he talked about Biden's irresponsible, extravagant spending? I recall a word or two about that. Yes.

[00:32:51] I recall that being a pretty big talking point. Almost as big of a talking point as Biden losing his mind. Yeah. I mean, it was kind of like neck and neck between those two. Oh, it really was. Between between border wall, which there's money in there for the border wall again. We'll see what happens with that this time. We got some of wall. Walls usually need to be finished, but fuck it. Whatever.

[00:33:16] You know, conservatives have, for as long as I can remember, have tried to claim themselves to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Time out. Time out. Time out. We have to agree to terms before you indulge in your rant. So there is a big C conservatives and a little C conservatives. Just like there's a big L and a little L libertarian. I am talking about the Republican Party. Okay. That's big C conservative. We're going to big C.

[00:33:44] Not little C like the you and me who actually believe in conservative principles. Yes. Continue on ahead. I have my glass in hand and I'm like, oh, I had a whiskey. So let's go. Oh, well, you should have poured more. So the Republican Party for a long time now, as long as I can remember, has claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility.

[00:34:04] How in the flying pig fuck is 3.3 trillion in extra spending on top of the extra spending that we've been doing ever since COVID? Any kind of fiscally responsible. This is an even deeper deficit. Do I play this straight or do I just go straight to sarcasm? No, it's entirely fucked.

[00:34:25] Well, no, you see, Nick, if you were if you played 4D chess like, you know, the the orange orangutan does, then you would understand. I am totally pissed off all of our Trump voters by using all the left's friggin verbiage about him. Hey, I am fine with that. You know what?

[00:34:42] If he wanted to be taken seriously, he would and his party would craft a budget that sticks to a fucking budget and doesn't raise the goddamn deficit by 3.3 trillion dollars. But now Donald J. Trump, it is worth pointing out.

[00:34:58] He has claimed that in the far off future, years from now, that the the economy will be so roaring and so awesome that it will offset that that that that additional deficit that is being accrued. You know what? If that happens and I am wrong, fine. I've been wrong before. I'll be wrong again. You know what's pretty much always wrong? Spending 3.3 trillion dollars more than you earn.

[00:35:27] I was going to say government is usually always wrong. Pretty much only ever makes things worse. Yeah. Matter of fact, only ever makes things worse. The simple addition of government to most things automatically makes them worse. Yes. If we had government on this podcast, I'm sure it'd make the podcast worse. Well, we would probably have to have an HR department, in which case the near constant harassment I give you would probably get me fired. HR departments also make everything worse.

[00:35:55] They do problems get solved when you have workforces that are comfortable, like whooping church assets behind the woodshed. Correct. Like, isn't that just so much better when you and John, there's a John at your workplace, there is, whether his name is John or not, but like when you and John have a spat and you're like, why don't you come out here behind the shop and we talk about this? And you come back in and one of you always had an attitude adjustment?

[00:36:19] There used to be a large section of trees in between us and the nearest road that was extremely convenient for settling disputes. And it didn't require an HR department, did it? Nope. No HR department required. Stern words? Off camera? Absolutely. Percussive maintenance, maybe? Occasionally. Very rarely.

[00:36:43] I mean, the thing is, is that we hit wildly absurd spending during COVID. All right. Emergency situation. I can understand some more spending. I will disagree with you on that point, but continue. Well, what I would say is there should have been cuts and then divert the spending to the medical things that we needed. I agree and disagree with you on that, but continue.

[00:37:13] Well, my point is we have escalated the spending wildly in the years after 2019. We are continuing to escalate the spending in a parabolic curve, it looks like to me. Yes. Where does that end, Phil? Well, you know, Nick, there's this funny thing about interest-bearing debt, and it works the same, by the way, with 401ks, which doesn't apply here.

[00:37:40] But, you know, things compound, and once you get to a certain point, that nice, gentle slope turns into a vertical line. And once that happens, there is literally no fixing the situation. And we're – it's starting to really turn straight north. I mean, I would argue that we're already in a near vertical ascent of debt. We are.

[00:38:07] I mean, if you look at it from the beginning of the country to today, on a reasonably scaled graph, you know, say a 10-year plot, it's a damn near vertical curve now.

[00:38:21] Well, we're at a point in monetary policy where the only two paths forward, because at this point, even if we like – so if we were going to employ austerity measures to try to right-size the thing, we should have been doing it right now and not doing this. Yes. But I digress. Like, let's move past that for a second. But at this point, there's only two ways this ends.

[00:38:49] Option A is with a freaking world war. Yep. Option B is all of the nations of the world all agree together that it's just a number on a balance sheet and nobody gives a shit, and we all just keep lying to each other. Option C, we revalue our currency like the British did in the 80s. Which will cause a world war. 35 years. No, it won't cause a world war.

[00:39:16] Or it'll cause a collapse of the major world economies, which will cause a world war. Okay. That's my point. That's my point. There's two more steps there, bud. Oh, wow. Thank you, Nick, for correcting me that. We have to crush the world economy first. Then we can have the world war. I mean, realistically, unless we cut our spending down – I mean, we can't even afford just the interest payments right now. Realistically. No. Honestly, what we would have to do – dare I throw around the C word?

[00:39:46] We would have to look at this country in constitutional terms, and we would have to return to only that spending, which is statutory. And we would have to unwind a whole lot of entitlement programs. Cut the military 50 percent. Cut Social Security entirely. Cut Medicaid entirely. Right. Cut welfare spending entirely. No one will ever do it.

[00:40:06] But I would argue that if you cut the military 50 percent, the Militia Act is right there to ensure that the common man has all their own shit to act in the common defense. That was the whole point of it being there. That was the whole point of it being there. But I digress. The point remains is that it's political suicide, and no one's ever going to do it.

[00:40:24] Listen, Nick, I will bite a chunk out of this highball glass if a politician ever seriously manages to end a major entitlement program. I just can't – I cannot see it happen. You're right. It is a guarantee that you will never be elected to power again. In anything. Yeah.

[00:40:50] You will not be president of an HOA after you do that. You're done for life. You probably get shanked to be – actually, you did get CIA'd. Probably. I mean, you know, this is the problem that I think a lot of democracies have inevitably. Is the populist realize that – well, it's a republic, but it's a form of democracy.

[00:41:15] But the – any kind of elected body, any kind of electorally controlled country is going to have the same problem. Eventually, the people realize they can vote themselves benefits. Well, wasn't that – was that Jefferson or Franklin that said that the death of democracy follows shortly behind the public realizing that they can vote themselves largest from the treasury? Yep. I am totally butchering that.

[00:41:43] I mean, this was a full glass before I started. And I am never prepared to quote things that I've read that were very, very insightful. But if you Google that, vote themselves largest from the treasury, you can tell me who said it and you can correct me and get a gold star. Yeah, and that is, I think, the inevitable downfall of this country because, look, I paid into Social Security. You paid into Social Security.

[00:42:13] I do not honestly think that I will end up receiving any benefits from it. I mean – It will collapse long before I get there. Even if it doesn't, they're going to frigging curtail the benefits so severely. Oh, it'll be so worthless, it won't matter. Even my financial advisor told me, he said, look, a lot of people want to count on Social Security. I take Social Security entirely out of your equations because you never know what the government's going to do.

[00:42:41] And if you get it and it's at the same rates that you're projected to get it now, it's a nice little bonus you guys can go on three extra cruises a year. Yep. And if it's not there, then – Then you're fine. As long as you assume you will have to care for yourself. But here's where I fall on Social Security and same place I fall on the Epstein list. Type both these things, Gary, with a knot before we go to the last topic. Go for it.

[00:43:08] I don't believe we will ever see the Epstein list because the people who would stand to lose something from that exchange would sooner burn the world to ash. Oh, absolutely. Than to be inconvenienced. Not killed. Not exposed. Not exposed. Just to be inconvenienced for the briefest of moments. Those sons of bitches would rather turn the world to freaking ash. They would rather turn the entire world into post-apocalyptic hell.

[00:43:38] They'd rather nuclear war. They would rather anything that doesn't inconvenience them for one millisecond. You know what the perfect example of this is, Phil? Just let me get it out. Let me get it out. Go for it. Hold on to what you got. Hold on to what you got, bud.

[00:43:52] And I think that the people who are relying on Social Security, and by that I mean the people who that is their only source of retirement income, and the politicians who are writing that, they would sooner see the entire country just broken economically forever before they would ever admit that program doesn't work.

[00:44:13] So what you have here is you have a bunch of selfish bastards who would sooner turn the entire country into a wasteland than admit that they screwed up. Agreed. Kyle said it earlier that the government never admits they made a mistake. Oh, absolutely. The government does not admit they made a mistake. They do not admit wrong. Because if they do, that's the end of their political career. And God knows that their political career is way more than their paycheck.

[00:44:41] It's the parties they get into, the influence they wield, the money they're getting under the table, everything else they're getting under the table, and apparently plane rides to islands with miners. Yeah. And not the kind of miners that work in mines. But anyway. Perfect example of this. Are you familiar with what they did for the Climate Change Summit last year? Or was it the year before? Extol me. Okay.

[00:45:06] They cut down several thousand acres of rainforest to make runways and highways just so that they didn't have to wait in traffic. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing a bunch of crunchy tree-hugging bastards would want done? Mm-hmm. They're going to a climate summit. Thousands of acres of pristine old-growth rainforest. And did any of them fly coach? Nope. No. Private jets all the way. One of them private jets all the way.

[00:45:35] One single trip in that private jet is more carbon footprint than I will generate in my entire life, even driving my V8 Ram 1500. Yes. Some people will try to justify that. I just say that you're not being honest with yourself or with me. But anyway. Last topic. Three bullet points in a row. The tech stamps are going to zero. Is this winning?

[00:46:01] First and foremost, the text of the bill says that this does not go into effect until the start of the first quarter, 90 days from the signing of the bill. So from the day the bill was signed, which was a couple of days ago, 90 days, and then the start of the first quarter. Well, guess when that is? 2026. Yep. I was going to say, it's got to be after Christmas. Yeah. So everybody was like, yeah, free tech stamps.

[00:46:31] Guess what? But you can either let it sit in NFA jail until next year or you can pay the frigging tax stamp because I probably would on principle. Why on earth would those freaking bastards give us our win early? Mm hmm. Just just just stretch the paint. Well, you know, here's the thing that I I think what this is is an attempt to placate the pro gun Republicans. I don't think it worked, Nick.

[00:46:58] No, I don't think it did either, because if you know what happened the day this got signed. Well, that's the next bullet point. Don't let me don't don't don't beat me to that. So I'm just going to say, you know, I tried to stay off social media. Social media is based like digital brain cancer. But every now and then I have to go to social media and I have to go to Instagram to the right wing space on Instagram, of which there are not many. And then I go to Reddit. So I get the other side of the aisle. And here's the funny part.

[00:47:27] Literally, everybody is pissed off about these tax stamp dollar dollar amounts going to zero. But they're still on a red street. Literally, everybody left, right and center that is even remotely pro gun is pissed off about this. Why in the world should I have to register it if there's no tax? Yes. Yes. I mean, you got to give the Trump administration one thing between this and the Epstein thing.

[00:47:54] They have managed to piss off everybody. Every person I know is mad about it. And here's the thing of it. But uniting this country as friggin fractures we are, that is a hell of an accomplishment. You have got to give that to Donald Trump in his administration. If he's attempting to unify the country by making people mad at him, he's on a roll. I mean, keep fucking up, bud, I guess. I mean, that's not even 4D chess at this point. That's like 8D or something. It's like 1D. It's like, I don't know. Maybe it's checkers. Not everybody pissed?

[00:48:24] Slide to the right. Maybe it's checkers. I don't know. But it's definitely winning. But yeah, I mean, tax stamps go to zero. I don't call this a win. And I find that... It could be eventually. Hold on. You stopped on me earlier about there's two more steps before we get to World War. Oh, I know. So I have to stop on you about where we could get eventually. But the truth of the matter is, like, this is not winning. And I find it very interesting that...

[00:48:52] It's a slap in the face is what it is. But if you watch your favorite influencers right now and watch where they fall on this, because the ones who are like, rah, rah, rah, Donald J. Trump, I'm going to give you side eye from now on because this is not winning. This is cuckoldry. This is an extra padded chair to sit in the corner while your wife has fun with somebody else. This is cuckoldry. Oh, it absolutely is.

[00:49:18] We as a voting bloc sent this idiot to the White House and sent his people to the White House specifically to do certain things. And one of those things was we wanted gun rights restored in a meaningful way. And that did not include the pittance of here's your free tax stamp. How about no freaking tax stamp? And I don't know. How about you refund every tax stamp you've ever required to be paid because it was unconstitutional? From the start.

[00:49:48] Hmm. With interest. Hmm. I'm just saying this whole argument I keep hearing people about the Senate parliamentarian and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, I'm just like, I don't give a shit. Fire the freaking idiot wench and get this done. And like, I don't expect a single as a single subject bill. So yes, the NFA is unconstitutional. We hereby rescind it. Done. Yeah.

[00:50:16] And quite frankly, like I fully expect that the Democrats on both in both houses are going to scream bloody murder about that. Well, let them stand on their friggin. Let them stand on their voting records. Yep. Let them stand on their voting records. And as soon as that bill doesn't pass, turn around and tell the American people, these are, this is the names of all the people you need a primary. And if you want to like, listen to my left wing friends out there, and I know I have like three of y'all, but just hear me out.

[00:50:44] I'm not suggesting you have to vote for Republicans because I know that that's a bridge too far for some of y'all and that's okay. I'm not mad. I'm not even disappointed, but you can at least, at least get involved in your freaking primaries and you can vote for people that aren't freaking morons about fire or about gun rights. Yep. I know it's a really weird thing that I would say we don't need the wedge issue, but truthfully like gun rights are universal rights. Men, women, black, brown, purple polka dots. I don't give a shit.

[00:51:13] Everybody has a right to defend themselves. I do not care. This should not be the bald headed bearded white guys club. It should be everybody from 80 year old granny to, you know, 18 year old has a right to have a firearm to protect themselves. And this discussion has to end at that point. And I don't want to hear this nonsense about, we don't trust that person or we don't trust them in that place because the people who you should be concerned about having guns already have guns in all those places.

[00:51:42] They're not supposed to have guns. Yep. So the gun laws are not doing their stated, their stated job. What is happening is that you have people who don't want to spend their life in prison abiding by them and they're not able to defend themselves. And that's not fair. That's not right. Well, you think I could get you to agree with Karl Marx? You know, a broken watch is right twice a day. So there's a possibility.

[00:52:07] But I'm pretty sure you're going to go to the whole working man should never be denied the ownership of arms. Under no circumstances should the workers of the world be debarred the use of arms. Karl Marx. Broken watch is right twice a day. Hey, man. I mean, look, you cannot defend yourself without the technology to do so. Well, but to Karl Marx's point, you cannot overthrow the bourgeoisie without arms.

[00:52:37] Right. And you cannot defend yourself from government tyranny without force of arms. And for those of you in Internet land, take a moment and digest the fact that, yes, I can speak that language. I studied sociology in college because, you know, Sun Tzu and know the ways of your enemy and all this, that and the other. I read Marx just to disagree with people more vehemently. Yes. I also read Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince because he was a genius. He was a sociopath. Oh my God, yes. Absolutely a sociopath.

[00:53:06] But my God, the results. Also, I mean, look, I'm just saying I've read a lot of that literature. I can understand kind of where they were aiming, but I don't agree. I don't agree with their positions or their ideas. They discount some of them heavily discount animalistic nature and evolutionary drivers. Yeah, you can't. That's a whole nother podcast. Raggle, we don't we don't restart the show for Stuart.

[00:53:34] We're not going to restart the show for you, bud. No, but the cool thing is it's on YouTube for literal ever unless they kill the stream, which they haven't so far. So today. So I blame the old intro. You were going to say it earlier. Gunners of America is giving me a gigantic man crush right now. Like I am. I am on the verge of being truly aroused. Mm hmm. Just watch what they're getting ready to cook off.

[00:54:04] Love FPC. I have to admit, I am usually an FPC guy just because, you know, fuck, you know, is just the most beautiful political statement humanly possible. The only argument I require. But GOA, GOA, they have some savages in their court and they want they want blood over the friggin over the NFA and their position. I mean, the argument being lodged is perfectly rational. I wish I had full faith that that will actually lead to something good.

[00:54:34] But the argument is the the NFA has been defended by the Supreme Court multiple times because it's a tax measure. It's revenue generating. So it's not it gets neatly around that whole issue of how you can't enact a tax for regulatory purposes. Right. But if the tax amount is zero, you can't defend it that way anymore. Like it's no longer regulatory generate. In fact, it's a net negative. Yeah.

[00:54:59] Because now you have now it costs money to run the program and run the registry and manage all that. You have personnel that are staff to do it and systems set up to do it. But they're not collecting any money. It's it makes the entire argument that has predicated the NFA for decades. It makes it just ridiculous on the like facially ridiculous. It reveals it for what it's always been. Yeah. But here's here's here's my worry.

[00:55:27] So I I have to say I love what GOA is doing. You were you were all rock stars. If any of you want to come on the podcast and talk about the work. Love to have you on. You have an open microphone any day, any day. Don't care. Reach out to us. I don't care how you get a hold of me. But that being said, cynical Phil was back behind the microphone.

[00:55:45] Cynical Phil has heard absolute shenanigans perpetrated in courts of law that state things like even though, you know, that like the interstate commerce clause is being used to regulate suppressors because they're sold across state lines. But then when a state says, OK, well, we're going to have these suppressors that don't cross state lines. Interstate commerce doesn't apply. They suddenly frickin change the standard by which they operate.

[00:56:10] And I have I have personally I have watched two supposedly supposedly. Pro second amendment opinions come out of SCOTUS, one being Heller, the other one being Bruin more recently. And both times I've seen cuckoldry perpetrated upon the gun owning public by this body who takes a halfway measure to begrudgingly admit.

[00:56:37] If it was a halfway measure, they would have just said it was straight unconstitutional. Yeah. To admit a pittance, a pittance of a law was unconstitutional. But at no point in time will these frigging nutless wonders. And I'm applying that to the ladies, too. You enjoy that. That's called equality. You bunch of friggin idiots. Not less everyone. But you nutless wonders will not take a friggin stand on the plain wording of the Second Amendment,

[00:57:04] which plainly says that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, period. In discussion, in paragraph, in sentence, nothing else. Nothing in small print. Nothing in parentheses. No, nothing else there. Shouting to be infringed. Discussion over. You can't even admit that gun laws are unconstitutional on the face of them. That the federal government or any government has no right to regulate the use of arms and the carry of arms by law-abiding citizens. Discussion over.

[00:57:32] And until any one of you idiots is willing to stand on business and admit that, I don't have any faith in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I have less than any. I have less than no. I have nothing for any politicians. Hell, I'll trust the CIA further than I trust them. At least their drugs are real. At least they're honest about the fact that they're scumbags. But my point is that none of these freaking people will stand on business and admit what we can read for ourselves. Like a freaking... I have a brilliant child.

[00:58:03] She's about to start the eighth grade. She wrote a freaking paper three years ago talking about gun rights. I didn't coach her on it. She did her own research. She's going to be a terror in college, man. She's going to drive her professors crazy in the best possible way. I hope I have prepared her to fuck their lives up. But my point of view is very simple.

[00:58:30] We can all read what the law says. Unlike modern law that requires a law degree to unravel the Second Amendment, the original amendments to the U.S. Constitution are fairly simple to understand. They were written in common speak so the common man could understand them. And they say what they say.

[00:58:49] And so anytime somebody wants to try to convince me or blow sunshine up my behind at Mach 6 about how the Second Amendment is not an unlimited right, it says so. So is the freedom of religion an unlimited right, Phil? Does it say otherwise? Nope. Is the freedom of speech an unlimited right?

[00:59:13] Except when it's directing people to acts of violence, directly insinuating violence. Does it say otherwise? In fact, no, it doesn't. That's a rhetorical question. So that would mean that all of the rights in the Bill of Rights are not limited rights. Here's another question. Is there any amendment to the Bill of Rights that was intentionally drafted to restrain the rights of people? Nope.

[00:59:43] They were all written to restrain government. Yes. So why would the Second Amendment be the one that is meant to specifically grant the government the right to keep and bear arms when most governments already have plenty of arms? Standing army and all this, that and the other. Because the government do be cucks. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, GOA is going for the juggler. Gunners of America wants blood on the back of these tax stamps going to zero.

[01:00:13] I am all here for it. I look forward to throwing them dollars and supporting their efforts. I wish, I really wish, I could have a positive outlook on this. I live to be proven wrong. I live to be proven wrong. I just, I can't, I can't emotionally get there. No, I agree. And the problem is, is exactly what's been pointed out on numerous other podcasts, numerous other YouTube videos.

[01:00:37] Look, if they did it with a continuing resolution bill to drop it to zero, they can up to $20,000 just as easily. Yeah. And at that point, that's the end of it. This is why I find multi-focus bills or omnibus bills or continuing resolutions entirely unacceptable.

[01:00:58] I want a single topic in a single bill voted for or against by people that understand the full consequences of the thing they're voting on. Oh, you're such an idealist. Oh, I absolutely am. I, I would love to see a constitutional amendment that says no one bill, one topic, one vote. End of discussion.

[01:01:23] But Nick, that would require that senators and Congress people actually show up more than part-time. They would have to, they would have to be in DC and do their jobs. I have to show up to do my job. You have to show up to do yours. They can show up to do theirs. But you're not a Congress person or a senator. I'm pretty sure that there's some legalese somewhere buried in the, in federal law that specifically says that they have special privileges and rights that we don't have. Like the ability to work part-time and makes it well into the six-figure range.

[01:01:53] Plus all the insider trading. Oh yes. I always, I always forget about Nancy Pelosi beating the stock market. I am accusing all of Congress of insider trading. 110%. Sue me. So is this a, is this a rhetorical question about does compromise work? Like I'm going to be the first to say that like me personally, I've heard every argument about get, we can get, we go back for more later.

[01:02:18] And I understand the argument to that point that that is how anti-gun forces have gotten as much as they have is that the mouse gets a crumb and comes back for the rest of the cookie later. I understand all that. Sure. But I'm also at a point where I don't, I am tired of playing politics with these assholes. I am, I am, I am looking at, I'm looking at the body public and the majority of people are not single issue voters.

[01:02:48] And that's, that's, that's whatever. I'm not mad. I'm not disappointed. But interest balancing is understandable. But a majority of the populace is pro-gun to some degree. They may not be like rocket launchers and IEDs pro-gun, like pro-arms, like I am. They may not be like, you know, turn your toward into a technical pro-Second Amendment like I am. Not mad, not disappointed. We're not all there. It's a spectrum, kind of like autism. Everybody works on a budget. Yeah.

[01:03:16] I'm way over here on the tisming side of autism and some of y'all are just at the ADHD part. That's fine. That's, I will build stamping dies to roll out AK flats. Yes. But I, I have seen in the last 20 years, a sea change. I've seen not only the pro-Second Amendment community expand dramatically. I've seen a lot more minorities. I've seen a lot of women join.

[01:03:42] I've seen a lot of, I've seen a lot of groups that traditionally do not join the Second Amendment movement like traditionally Democrat voters, dare I say it. But I volunteer to T as part of Operation Blazing Sword. Do you know what that is? I've heard of it. You'll have to remind me exactly what it is. So after the Pulse nightclub shooting, this got started to get LGBTQ plus AIP, whatever you want to call yourself, folks into the gun community.

[01:04:09] You volunteer your ammo, your firearms and your range time. You don't have to pony up a penny. Somebody that knows firearms and knows how to use them safely will teach you how to use firearms, including giving you the ammunition to do so. I will teach anyone in any safe location at any time to use firearms safely. I do not care who you are. I do not care what you think.

[01:04:38] You deserve the right to defend yourself. Based as hell. Look, your question here, does compromise work? Compromise only works when you have two parties that are both coming to the table in good faith. Which I don't think applies here. No, the government is not coming to the table in good faith. Well, and more than just the government, but like the other side of this issue does not come to this in good faith.

[01:05:03] Their idea of compromise is, well, give us something we're asking for and then we'll come back for more later. And I just, you know, like I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, I'm just at the point where I'm like, no, no more compromise. We, we, we as a community of compromise since 60 years before I was even born and it has gotten us literally nowhere.

[01:05:25] And the only bright spot in my gun owning life was when the 1994 assault weapons bill sunsetted. And that was not because somebody had a change of heart. That was literally, I remember that in 2004. Dude, there was a, that was a hard fought thing to let that sunset. There were people literally burning political capital as fast as they could shovel it into the fire, trying to get that made permanent. Yes.

[01:05:52] And the screaming, the blood and murder, the, Oh, it'll be anarchy in the streets. It was as history on it as I've ever seen it in my life. And what happened? Nothing. The crime rate went down, which is what always happens because the crime rates been on downward trends since the 1980s. Yeah, absolutely.

[01:06:12] And that's, I think there's a fairly good argument to, uh, to show that that's largely down to removing lead from gasoline and lead from paint. Turns out when you stop poisoning people's brains, they stopped doing really stupid shit. So what does that say about, uh, the amount of microplastics that are building up in people's testicles now? Testicles are not your brain, Phil. Testicles are not your brain, Phil.

[01:06:38] I mean, for males between the ages of 16 and 25, it kind of is. All right. Let's, let's, let's, let's be honest here. Their decision making has not improved or, or gotten worse in the last 200 years. Wait a second, Nick, Nick, how old are you again? 35. Aren't you about the age group that brought us eating Tide Pods as a TikTok challenge? That is accurate. Yes.

[01:07:06] So roll, roll, roll that statement back through me one more time. Do you know where the Tide Pod challenge thing came from? No, I don't because I'm an adult. All right, Phil. I was already an adult when it happened. A little secret. I'm going to let you know a little internet secret here that you probably didn't find out about because you were getting mortared. Have you heard of 4chan, Phil? Yes. All right. I've been on, I, I, I love how you love to simultaneously throw things out there.

[01:07:35] Like I wasn't around for them. And at the same time say, but you were, you were way too old to have been around for this. No, I'm just saying you were probably, you were being mortared at the time when the Tide Pod challenge thing got started. I mean, you do know that I was on the internet in like 1998, right? Oh yeah. No, I'm not saying that you didn't have the internet. I'm saying you were busy being a soldier at the time. No, that might be fair. All right. So the Tide Pod thing is the, came from the same people as the free bleeding feminist movement. It came from 4chan.

[01:08:03] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Have you not heard of this? Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you mean free bleeding? Okay. So Phil, you know how, uh, you know, menstrual cycle ladies take care of that pads, tampons, that sort of thing. You have a wife. Yes. So 4chan at one point decided that it'd be funny to convince people much like the ice bath challenge, that it was a challenge to eat a Tide Pod.

[01:08:30] They also decided to start spreading on feminist forums that using menstrual products is the patriarchy repressing women and that they should just bleed into their pants. Tide Pods, free bleeding, flat earth. The huge growth in all three of these things can be tied directly to 4chan. I've broken Phil.

[01:08:59] I have fulfilled my purpose. I suddenly feel the urge to pull all my 401k distributions out immediately and buy more ammunition, free-scribed food. Dogecoin, all of it, Phil. To the moon. It'll be fine. No, no, I, I, up till this, up till that exact moment, I was still holding out some hope that humanity was smart enough to survive what was coming. And Nick just like stamped that out like a boot heel on a tiny baby chick. It all started in 4chan.

[01:09:28] I mean, flat earth has been a thing for a long time, but 4chan decided a while ago, much like the Tide Pod challenge, that it would be funny to pretend that they believed in flat earth and spread it all over the internet as much as they could to try and convince stupid people that the earth was flat. And they have much, I say, it is autism on steroids. Yeah. No, no, Radical Frankl.

[01:09:56] I have to disagree with you because autism is fun and cheeky and sometimes inspires, you know, wondrous, wondrous outbursts of, you know, hilarity and havoc. It doesn't make people eat Tide Pods. Gen Z was eating Tide Pods. My wife corrected us. So that's fine. So it wasn't my generation. So you two are still millennials. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. I was born in 1990. Where does the where's the cutoff for millennials?

[01:10:26] I was born in 82. So I'm like, it's like 82 to 93, something like that. I don't know. Let me actually look that up. I don't know. I'm just I'm thinking of myself because like I was born 1982. My wife's born 84. So she is like 81 to 96. Oh, so essentially they reached adulthood around the turn of the millennium, which is bullshit because 96 you'd have been for. Well, not to mention like 81.

[01:10:52] I mean, you're still a social media generation that still grew up with the Internet. I mean, like I don't remember a time where the Internet didn't exist. I do. It was a pretty cool time. Yeah. I would imagine. You're labeling two computers together to play frigging Doom over. OK, to be fair, we still did that. It wasn't Doom, though. It was Halo or it was CSGO.

[01:11:21] I am old enough to have played the original to have played MechWarrior 2 on DOS, which is by far the best version. And by the way, you're on DOS is fantastic. I emulate that now and then. And I completed the. Oh, what was it? The wolves wasn't the Jade Falcons. Who's the other faction in there? Brain do stuff.

[01:11:48] Yeah, I'm not. I remember they were the protect. I remember they were the warden faction. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, the client, the clan wolf. I completed their their campaign. I fell just a little short on Jade Falcon. It was like the last the second to last mission. I just couldn't get past for some reason. But boy, did I have some real fun with the whole customizing your mech thing? Because like, absolutely.

[01:12:15] I built I built some of those mechs that were literally just like. So nowadays you would call them a mean mech. Oh, but like I do. I built stuff that was all the missile pods. Oh, yeah. For friggin LRM 20 batteries, no armor. Or no. Like I literally would take all the. I put a whole bunch of extra jump jets on it. Take all of the armor off. Add all the missile pods. Take all the armor off one leg and put it all on the other one.

[01:12:43] Because, you know, if you lost both your legs, your mech blew up. Right. But as long as you had one leg. You only need one. And you could jump jet around, you were good. So I had like lots of jump jets, lots of heat sinks, four LRM 20s. And I would use them like a close combat weapon. So it was just like boost, boost, boost until I was up in somebody's throat. And fires the missiles. All four of those LRM 20s linked together on a button. Nice. And I would literally just like boost in somebody's face, dump 80 friggin missiles into their face. And they'd just boost away.

[01:13:14] That's fantastic. Oh, dude. It was the stupidest things that I would build. But it never got old. That and do you know what happens when you put four Gauss rifles on a button? Oops. Yeah, you can you can blow a Warhawk's leg off in one hit. And when you can do this with something like a medium mech, like a Mad Dog, it is hilarious. Nice.

[01:13:41] Problem is, you only had about six shots before you ran out of ammo. But, you know, just aim really well. They only have two legs. Well, that and you'll either that or you just wax my in the cockpit and be done with them. And four Gauss rifles will do that. Oh, yeah. Right to the cockpit. Absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, we've gone completely off topic like we used to compromise doesn't work. Compromise doesn't. It can work, but you have to have good faith.

[01:14:10] Arguers theory. Well, OK. When you find some good faith anti gun people, you let me know. I actually know one. I should get him on the show. You should. He should be inebriated before he shows up. Oh, I will have him here drinking my whiskey at the time. He's good people. He means well. His heart's in the wrong place. PCG says you are not OG unless you've died of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Bro, they had that in my like elementary school classroom computer.

[01:14:41] Yes. Yeah. If you read so many books, you got a free Pizza Hut pizza. And if you read so many more, you got an hour to play Oregon Trail during the middle of school. It was great. I ate so many pizzas. Yeah, I never managed to own. I've never managed to get across the river with my wheels cocked without the damn thing tipping over. Ever. But I couldn't help myself but try every single time. Raggle, I have not bought Helldivers 2.

[01:15:10] I have been on a Skyrim remastered kick lately or an Elder Scrolls remastered kick, I should say. I haven't really been much into like hardcore gaming for a very long time because I started playing with satellite dishes and nerd stuff. And that's kind of absorbed the majority of my free time. One of these days I will buy Helldivers, but I keep forgetting and getting into different games.

[01:15:37] Like they re-released Oblivion again and that's right in the soul. I had to have it. But yeah, I actually saw something pop up the other day about emulating the original Doom 2. And I thought about it just for the vibe and the nostalgia of it because like... It's not complicated to do. I know, but it's just... I don't know. It's one of those things where it's like I avoid time sucks because then I'll wind up time sucking to them.

[01:16:06] You can beat the game in like 14 hours. Yes, but you can't like close combat, you know. You can't knife bite only beat the game in 14 hours. That's true. You still with me, Nick? Or okay, you wrote about it for a second. Oh, my bad. There's probably a storm going on upstairs right now. Yeah, it's about time for us to call it anyway. We have actually crushed all the topics. I did run out of whiskey. Me too.

[01:16:36] I don't know if I'm going to have another one. I'm off work tomorrow though, so I could have another one. And I'll ask my wife twice as much tonight. I'm sorry. Extra tomorrow. That sucks. I have to work on Saturday. Unlike congressmen, it matters if I do my job because y'all can't buy random plastic shit if I don't make the mold. So, well, whoa, whoa, whoa. It matters if congress doesn't work.

[01:17:02] If they don't work, how will they ever manage to lie to the American people? And do insider trading? Yes, and do insider trading. That's fair. I'll allow it. That's fair. All right. Matter of fact, this podcast is going out the door. I have no earthly idea what we're going to talk about next week. I didn't know what we were going to talk about this week until the entire federal government decided to lose their goddamn minds. And that gave us plenty of things to speak about.

[01:17:26] So next week, I don't know if you have if you have things you'd like to put in the hopper and you're a patron, you know how to get in touch with us. And if you're not a patron, you should consider being one. But if not, you can just leave comments on this video or you can leave us comment on Instagram. The website? I would say the website. I would say Facebook, but I don't check into Facebook super often because it makes my head hurt and it makes me feel old. Yeah. Yeah. On the rare occasion that I go on Facebook, people upset me or I buy tools.

[01:17:55] Which upsets your wife? Well, it depends on how much the tools cost. Yes, but the really fun ones cost a lot. Or fix the bathroom. If the tools help fix the bathroom, she's probably happy about it. Uh, that sounds like man math. Yes. But it cuts into your night vision budget. The entire house cuts into my night vision budget.

[01:18:20] But buying tools, but buying expensive tools to do things cuts into the budget more. Have you tried paying a contractor lately? I am the contractor, Nick. Like, buddy, I like my bathroom budget would have to go up almost like seven times. I mean, pay to pay some other guy to fuck it up. To be fair, the reason that I'm going to be in the driveway working on my wife's Jeep this weekend and it's not going to a shop is because I work for free. Exactly. Yeah.

[01:18:50] If I don't see y'all next week, it's because I died of heat exhaustion. Otherwise, hopefully the Jeep will have some new shocks and struts underneath it. Liquid IVs and shade, man. Yeah. Shade injuries are a choice. Shade. Beautiful thing to look for in a driveway when it's 92. You know what? There'll be shade in the wheel. You have a pop up. There'll be shade in the wheel wells. That'll work. There you go. That'll work. All right. Matter of fact, it's going out the door. Good night, everybody. Stay out of trouble. Take care of each other. Don't commit felonies.

[01:19:19] And if you do, don't get caught committing felonies. And by all means, proceed to harass the hell out of all your local politicians from now until kingdom comes. About where is the goddamn list? Because we really would like to know. Toodles. Bye, y'all. Good night, everybody.