LLP Ep137: The Trump Slump: Guns, GOP and Your Wallet

Ask us a question. We will answer it on the podcast.

Show sponsors:
Allegiance Gold
844-790-9191
AllegianceGold.com/LLP
Get Up To $5000 In FREE Silver

The "Trump Slump" might sound like political commentary, but for the firearms industry, it's a documented economic phenomenon that occurs whenever Republicans take control of government. When gun owners feel their rights aren't under immediate threat, they stop buying firearms, cease supporting gun rights organizations, and generally disengage from Second Amendment activism – precisely when they have the greatest opportunity to advance favorable legislation.

In this candid conversation, we examine how political complacency affects everything from gun sales to training regimens. We explore why certain companies like Smith & Wesson consistently weather these slumps while others struggle, and how ammunition prices reflect these political cycles. The current ammunition market, having stabilized from COVID-era price spikes, demonstrates how quickly these dynamics can shift based on perceived threats to gun ownership.

Beyond the economic impact, we delve into more philosophical territory, questioning the moral flexibility required in various organizations – from government agencies to criminal enterprises – and how circumstances shape ethical boundaries. Drawing surprising parallels between seemingly disparate groups, we consider how environment and necessity influence behavior across organizational structures.

Throughout the episode, we return to a central theme: vigilance matters regardless of who controls government. Supporting gun rights organizations, maintaining training regimens, and staying politically engaged shouldn't depend on which party holds power. Your rights and safety deserve consistent attention, not just reactionary concern when threatened. Don't let political complacency undermine your readiness or your rights.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome back, everybody.
This is Eric and Matt, and thisis Life, Liberty, and the
Pursuit.
Your beacon of freedom and theAmerican way of life.
Tune in every Monday for a newepisode as we dive into the
world of liberty and what makesour country great.
Alright, everybody, welcomeback.
This is Eric and Matt here withLLP, your home for all things
normal in a world gonecompletely freaking mad.

(00:22):
Here we are, your beacon offreedom in this crazy black hole
of craziness that we live in.

SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
On this ball of water and gas rotating through
the galaxy.

SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
Yes, flying through space quickly on a course to
hell, apparently.
And uh I tell you, we got a goodepisode today.
We're gonna be talking about theTrump slump.
All right, what do we mean bythe Trump slump?
Well, today's episode, you know,we're we're really discussing

(00:58):
how um this is gonna, we'regonna be talking about
complacency with the Republicanvoters when it comes to guns.
Um, so we're gonna be talking alittle bit about the firearms
industry and how things alwaysseem to kind of take a dive when
Republicans are in charge.
We're gonna talk about thatparadigm and kind of what causes
it and hopefully get people toget away from this complacency

(01:18):
that they seem to have.
And it's it's always a naturalprogression that happens when
Republicans are in office.
So we're gonna discuss that andalso some other 2A stuff.
Just have a good, fun episodeand uh and with the Trump slump
being the sort of the vehiclewhich drives today's
conversation.
So uh before we get started, Iwould like to thank our friends
at Allegiance Gold.

(01:39):
Have you ever noticed how golddoesn't get much airtime until
the system starts to shake?
Well, here's what nobody istalking about.
Starting July 1st, Basel IIIglobal banking rules classify
gold as a tier one asset, thesame level as cash or U.S.
treasuries.
This is huge.
It means that central banks willnow treat gold as the highest
quality form of capital.

(02:00):
They're not just doing this forfun, they're preparing for
something.
If gold is good enough for theworld's most powerful banks and
governments, why wouldn't it begood enough to protect your
retirement?
This may be the moment we've allbeen waiting for.
Gold could reach levels we'venever seen before.
Whether you've got 5K or 5million to safeguard, now is the
time to act.
I've seen plenty of goldcompanies advertise and come and

(02:20):
go, but I chose to partner withAllegiance Gold because they
actually care.
They care about their pricing,about integrity, and about doing
the right thing by theirclients.
They make it simple to move partof your 401k, your IRA or
savings into real physical goldand silver.
As a veteran, you may qualifyfor up to$5,000 in free silver.
Call 844-790-09191 or visitallegiancegold.com forward slash

(02:46):
veterans.
That's 844-790-9191 orallegiancegold.com forward slash
veterans.
It's smart, secure, and simple.
Call today.
Check them out.
And a big thanks to AllegianceGold for being a long-term
supporter of Life Liberty andthe Pursuit.
Um, this podcast, Matt and Ihave been cranking at it for

(03:07):
quite some time.
We did take a bit of a hiatus.
Uh, we had a lot of things goingon in life, but I'm glad that we
brought the show back.
And I really appreciate all ofyour support.
Uh the viewers, you always haveso much to add, and we really
appreciate you uh tuning in andlistening to some of our uh our
being our muse, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 (03:24):
Our in unhinged commentary.

SPEAKER_00 (03:26):
Unhinged and unadulterated content.
Uh how's your week been going?
Everything good?

SPEAKER_01 (03:31):
No, it's great, man.
You know, it's uh my I justrecently had to change my
daughter's school.
Um, so that's kind of been aninteresting fiasco.
It just wasn't uh you know, justto kind of give the viewers a
quick insight into the personallife.
Um, you know, my my daughter isa uh a high achiever, as you

(03:53):
would say.
Um, you know, she is anaccelerated class, so she's
working a grade ahead, she's inthe gifted program, um, and she
works very hard.
She's a she's a almost afull-time athlete, but she also
studies.
So it's really like study andathlet athletics.
Like those are the two thingsthat she does.
Like, we don't spend a lot oftime doing other stuff.

(04:14):
Um, and that works for her.
She she enjoys it.
So we s we recently switchedschool to like a charter school,
but it was supposed to be like aa STEM school for like high
achievers.
This proved to not be the case,Eric.
So we I we enrolled her.
Um and you know, I'm veryinvolved with her education.

(04:38):
So like I'm I'm following, I'masking questions, I'm asking uh
asking questions, you know,questions.
Um and you know, the to theteachers were weren't giving me
the answers that I wanted.
They're being a littleconvoluted, a little vague.

SPEAKER_00 (04:50):
Are charter schools are those are the kind of
schools where the parents prettymuch fund the school?
Like it's the public uh publicfunding.

SPEAKER_01 (04:59):
It's in between a public and a private school.
So basically they still get theystill get funding from the
county.
So it's still it's still a uh aFulton County school, right?
But they don't have to play ahundred percent by the the
county rules, so they can runtheir own curriculum as long as
they're upholding the samestandards, they don't have to

(05:20):
use the same curriculum.

SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
So sometimes they exceed the standards, sometimes
they exceed a lot of timescharter schools probably from
more gifted kids and stuff likethat.
Is that the idea?

SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
It can be, it can be.
So lots of times that's the wayit is, but then they would
usually just go private and thenthen they don't have to follow
any of the rules.
They're like, we just do what wewant.

SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
Yeah, private schools at the parents premium
pay for everything.

SPEAKER_01 (05:42):
So charter schools, they they are kind of like half
and half.
So this particular school issupposed to be uh for a little
bit higher achievers, gifted,and then it just wasn't the
case.
I think it was uh a false billof goods, and we were noticing
that you know, hey, all thestuff that you told us about,
all the test scores, all this,it was all bogus, man, because

(06:03):
there's no way that these thisschool was producing.
My daughter would come homeevery day, like, this is an
eight-year-old girl telling you,like, hey, this is not what this
is.
Not challenging.
Yeah, no, not.
She's like, I learned this stuffin like second grade, third
grade.
I'm like, all right.
And then I would ask them aboutit, and they just kept giving me
the runaround.
So I just pulled her out and puther back into her previous

(06:24):
school, which is a publicschool, by the way.
However, very, very good publicschool, like 10 out of 10, like
they're able to really um helpthe growth of that student.
Um, which is, you know, I had noproblem with that school in the
first place.
I just want to try somethingnew.
Sure.
So put her back in.
So dealing with that wholething, um, daughter's much

(06:45):
happier.
She comes home, she's like, Yes,the work is way more
challenging.
It's way, it's exactly what I'mlooking for.
I'm like, good.

SPEAKER_00 (06:52):
And how cool is it when a kid is happy to have a
challenge?

SPEAKER_01 (06:55):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (06:56):
That's refreshing in this in this society.
I'm not gonna say they are youngpeople today don't like a
challenge.
They do.
There's a lot of gifted youngpeople out there that um, you
know, have done really good.
But it's always refreshing whenit's your eight-year-old girl
saying, Oh, I want a challenge.
Like, okay, girl, because it'snot boring.

SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Yeah, she would come home from school like bored.
She's like, I'm like, what didyou do in school today?
She's like, boring stuff.
Like it just wasn't like there'sa point in time where it
becomes, you know, monotonous,right?

SPEAKER_00 (07:23):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (07:23):
Um, so yes, that's what I would have been dealing
with.
And now we're we got thatsettled.
We're we're back on schedule andwe're good.

SPEAKER_00 (07:30):
I just got back from a trip to Florida, went down to
do some fishing.
I see you're extremely dark,pretty much, yeah.
Yeah, lost and burning stuff,but I went down to get some
fishing in, hang out with thedog, and have a good time, and
it wasn't bad.
You know, the fish weren'tbiting good, but you know, it
doesn't even matter.
No, it doesn't, man.
Went down down to the island,hang out, camped out on the
island, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (07:48):
The island, yeah, I like it out there.

SPEAKER_00 (07:50):
So it's always neat, you know, look at the stars at
night and enjoy some peace andquiet.
And it's always uh good to havesome time to reflect and
everything.

SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
You shore the boat, huh?
You shore the boat, so like oncethat water goes out, man.
Yeah, yeah.
Once that water's out, you'rein.
You're on.
You can't get out.
You're there.

SPEAKER_00 (08:04):
Yep.
Uh I actually end up getting theboat stuck.
Oh no.
I had to call some help to getme out.

SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
SETO.

SPEAKER_00 (08:11):
Yep.
Yep.
But luckily, uh my insurancecompany covers it 100%.
So I get free toes.

SPEAKER_01 (08:17):
Underrated, dude.

SPEAKER_00 (08:18):
Yes, so that was highly uh highly welcome.
Because if you're not a memberof CETO and you have to get a
tow, it's like$1,500.

SPEAKER_01 (08:25):
Easily, dude.
For them to come.

SPEAKER_00 (08:27):
Easily.
And it's a good payday for them.
It's like it takes them probablyabout an hour to come out there
and get you and come right back.
It's like, wow.

SPEAKER_01 (08:32):
Yeah, that$50 premium paid dividends, boy.

SPEAKER_00 (08:35):
Premium on that time, you know.
But anyway, all in all, greatweek for me.
And uh, we're gonna talk aboutthe Trump slump.
So, what do we mean when we whenwe discuss a Trump slump?
Well, it's a it's a it's a termthat has been coined in recent
years, you know, just because ithas a nice little ring to it, I
guess.
It rhymes.
It refers to situation wherewhen we have

(08:56):
Republican-controlled House andSenate, no matter what majority
it might be, even if it's a slimmajority, and let's say a
Republican president, it alwayscauses gun owners to get into
this kind of weird complacency.
And we call it the slump, theRepublican slump, or in this
case, a Trump slump.
And anytime you have that typeof situation, people tend to

(09:17):
kind of not focus on guns asmuch.
They don't buy guns quite asmuch, they they quit buying
training and ammo quite as much.
Uh, politically, they don'treally focus on the laws that
are going through, and theydon't really, they're not as
politically active.
Uh, they stop supporting some oftheir favorite gun rights
organizations, you know, when aRepublican's in charge.
So it's kind of weird becauseit's almost like we put

(09:39):
ourselves out of a job when wefight hard to fight against
legislation and we earn ourrights back and we beat these
people in court, and you have abig gun rights organization who
needs lots of money to operateand they have to go and be able
to lobby on the hill andeverything like that.
You know, it's like they workthemselves out of a job.
You know, they achieve theresult they want, and then

(10:00):
people go, all right, well, nowthat that's not a problem
anymore, I'm gonna stopsupporting these people, which
you would think that they wouldcontinue to support no matter
what, but that may not always bethe case.
And I'm not talking about thisjust in terms of gun rights
organizations, it's alsoindustry-wide.
You know, yeah, there are somegun companies that are doing
well right now and that haveintrinsically always done well,

(10:21):
whether it's by virtue of thediversity of their product or
the price of their product, it'sjust kind of like in that
Goldilocks zone of pricing.
Like a company that comes tomind is Smith and Wesson.
Smith and Wesson seems to alwaysdo well, no matter what.
No matter who is in charge, nomatter which end of the
government, which end thependulum swings, Smith and

(10:42):
Wesson always maneuvers and doesquite well.
And and they typically always doreally well.
Henry always does well, right?
There are certain companies thatseem to sort of break the mold
of the slump, the Republicanslump.
But people selling ARs rightnow, you know, AR companies or
black rifle companies or youknow, certain areas of the

(11:06):
firearms industry can be areally tough nut to crack when
Republicans are in charge,because people associate, let's
just say, certain products with,okay, well, I, you know, I was
thinking about buying an AR, butI didn't because, you know,
maybe money was a factor, or ormaybe I didn't buy an AR
because, hey, the Republicansare charged, and I'm not worried

(11:27):
about losing my gun rightsbecause Republicans aren't going
to go after AR.
So, well, in their mind, they'vebeen putting it off for this
long.
They'll just put it off anotherfour years until the next scare
comes along.
And then, yeah, you'll see aboost in people purchasing ARs
and AKs and black rifles andcertain pistols, things like
that, right?
And then you got this group ofpeople who they were putting it
off when the Democrats were incharge, and they're definitely

(11:50):
putting it off now that theRepublicans are in charge.
And for some reason, it seemsthat despite all the crazy
things happening in the worldright now, you would think that
people would go out and armthemselves because the world's
getting obviously a much morescary place.
But even despite the things thatare going on in our country and
some of the political upheavaland some of the uncertainty and

(12:11):
definitely some of the violencethat's occurring, yet some
people choose to still sit onthe sidelines and not arm up,
not be politically active, notsupport the gun rights
organizations, and not taketheir rights uh seriously.

SPEAKER_01 (12:27):
It's it's a simple, you know, a simple law of supply
and demand.
Like whenever there's aRepublican in office, whenever
the majority of the, you know,of Congress in general is um,
you know, Republican, there's nodemand in order for people to

(12:47):
rush out and buy any type ofwhether it's firearms or
ammunition.
I mean, look at ammunition rightnow.
It's it's you know, fairly closeto what pre-COVID was.
I mean, nine millimeter boxes,boxes of nine millimeter, like
what 30 cents around, maybe 20like is pretty, pretty pretty
comparable, like a far cry fromthe dollar a shot you were

(13:08):
paying for nine mil.
Um, you know, dang, like five,five, six buck fifty.
I mean, it was insane.
Now it's starting to become alittle bit more reasonable.
Well, a lot more reasonable.

SPEAKER_00 (13:20):
Some cartridges.
Yeah, yeah.
Nine seems to have gone backdown.

SPEAKER_01 (13:23):
Nine.
Um, I mean, obviously, youalways have your your vanity
cartridges, like 300 blackouts.
Um, and I call them vanitybecause really that's what
people their their flexes,people pulling out the the the
integrally suppressed 300blackout at their range, you're
like, oh my god, you justdropped like 2500 bucks on that
thing, man.
Like, um, but outside of that,um, there's not really a high

(13:48):
demand for it because there'sno, I would say, there's no
danger right now.
So people are just kind ofrelaxing.
They have their cruise controlon.
That's true.
They're just chilling, hangingout until something happens.

SPEAKER_00 (14:02):
Yeah.
Kids are, you know, kids are outof school for vacation, you
know, vacation season's windingdown.
We're getting into fourthquarter.
You know, you probably will windup seeing an increase.
I mean, fourth quarter istypically sort of the consumer
uh-oriented quarter of the ofthe year, you know.
Like a lot of businessesfiscally are turning over their

(14:22):
taxes.
What in September, I think, iswhen corporate taxes are due, or
October or something like that.
So corporations pay their taxesat different times of year.
There are many financial reasonsfor why people spend the way
they do at the end of the yearversus the beginning of the
year.
Obviously, you have Christmasand holidays, people are taking
off vacation, enjoying theirholidays back home.

(14:43):
People get into this sort ofhomey environment, they start
spending money.
I mean, it's just this is thetime of year when people start
spending more than they probablywould during the summer.
On this, in the summer, they'regoing on trips with the family,
they're going on vacations, um,you know, they're doing more
things, they're, they're,they're uh prioritizing
experiences over merchandise,over things.

(15:04):
Right.
And I think we're gonna see asituation moving forward.
And it's also because of allthis as a hedge against, you
know, not really a hedge againstinflation, but as a reaction to
all of this uh this fractionalbanking system we have and all
this overglorified moneyprinting and this and
inflationary money practice thatwe seem to have accepted as

(15:28):
being normal when it's not.
Well, we see all this man-madeinflation, not to mention
literal inflation, that is justa result of the fiscal policies
our country has been doing,whether it's tariffs or any
other type of debauchery.
I mean, you know, I think it'sfunny how we have tariffs, but
then we still have income taxes.
So you really slip that in onyou, right?
Like everybody was like, ohyeah, we'll collect our money

(15:50):
through tariffs, yeah, butthey're still gonna collect your
money through taxes.
So it's like the American peoplegot stuck holding the bag, an
extra tax, essentially.
So money doesn't go as far as itused to, a few even up to a few
years ago.
I mean, the dollar lost, Ithink, another 10% of its buying
power just in the last year.
So, you know, consumerconfidence is not very high.

(16:12):
That can that can make peoplenot want to buy things as much,
buy goods, right?
They're gonna prioritize.
The point is, they're gonnaprioritize uh experiences over
things.
And I think that's what we'rewhat we're really seeing.
People are gonna go on tripsmore often, they're gonna go to
the park and hang out with theirkids, they're gonna go to the
lake and go enjoy a picnic.
Like, that's a cheap way to havea great experience and not have

(16:36):
to go spend a bunch of money andthings.
So I I think people areprioritizing experiences.

SPEAKER_01 (16:40):
Well, that, yeah.
I mean, outside of that, oncesince you bring that up, like
going to let's just say, forexample, you're going to the gun
range, right?
Let's say there's four of youguys going to the gun range.
It used to be pretty economical.
You could go and you could notspend a lot of money and you
could have some fun at the gunrange shooting, but now it is

(17:03):
true, like the inflation hasgone a little bit.
Like you go to the gun range andyou rent four firearms, you have
to drop ammunition for four fourpeople.

SPEAKER_00 (17:13):
You you gotta peel off a few hundred bucks a day.
250 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 (17:16):
You only drop about a hundred a piece, like a
hundred a piece for that.
Um, four hundred bucks, andthat's about in an hour's worth
of time.

SPEAKER_00 (17:24):
I've I I've noticed that, all right, even with my
with my YouTube videos, allright.
You you guys might notice ifsome of you follow my YouTube
channel, I've been posting a lotmore shooting videos.
Okay.
I went out the other day and Ihad a great shotgun day.
I did a bunch of shotgunshooting, did some reviews.
I put out a video on the Breta1301.
I cut a video on the Breta A300,uh, Ultima Patrol, I cut a video

(17:46):
on a newly SBSed Mossberg 990.
I cut a video on an SBS 14-inch10-gauge Browning VPS shotgun,
which is cool.
So, you know, I was able to cutsome videos and I had to go buy
10 gauge the other day because Iran low on some 10 gauge ammo.
And holy crap, just for a25-round box of bird loads and

(18:07):
about five boxes of slugs, Ithink I spent like almost$350
freaking dollars just for a fewrounds of 10-gauge ammo.
Now, granted, 10 gauge isexpensive cartridge to buy.
And yeah, a box of a fivefive-round box of slugs is like
$16.
That's a lot of money.
Now, granted, 10 gauge is anexpensive cartridge, but still,

(18:28):
I was thinking, wow, I mean,like for me to go out and make
YouTube videos, it gets more andmore expensive for me to afford
to be able to go out and buyammo just to make make YouTube
videos.
And I know that everybody thinksthat these YouTubers are getting
sent, you know, pallets ofammunition.
And look, I'm not gonna lie, hashave companies supported me in
the past with ammo before?

(18:48):
Have I gotten a care package forammo?
Yes, I have.
Yeah, one time Federal sent me ahuge pallet of ammo.
I requested a certain amount ofammo and they sent it.
And and yeah, I it took me yearsto burn up that ammo.
And I was glad to have it, but Iuse that ammo to make the videos
to help entertain people andeducate people.
So it's the ammo went to gooduse.
It's not like I went out andburned that ammo up in my spare

(19:10):
time just for fun.
No, I only use it for video, youknow, and that sort of thing.
So, yes, companies havesupported um, you know,
YouTubers before with ammo.
I know Federal's always been onethat's been pretty good to most
content creators, and I digress.
I'm not trying to get off onthis subject.
Point is, I know ammo's beenexpensive, it's been out of this
world because I just had to gobuy a bunch.
I was like, whoa, by the time Ibought my hominy and watermelons

(19:34):
and good old hominy.
The money I used to make on someof these videos, and I wind up
actually being in the hole moreoften than I actually make a

(19:57):
profit on the videos.

SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
Or the content, guys.

SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
One thing I want to mention, and I'll I'll leave
this subject here in the in thedirt.
But um, you know, I noticed thata lot of people send me super
thanks.
Uh at the end of the month, Ialways get a report of the uh
super thanks revenue that I getsent.
And it's crazy.
I'll have my YouTube revenue andthen they'll add in a certain
amount of super thanks, and Igo, wow, I didn't even realize
those were there until the endof the month, they tally them

(20:21):
up, and I've got my viewerssending me like an extra 600,
700 bucks a month and superthanks.
So I just want to say that ifyou are one of the people who
loves my content and you sendover a super thanks on occasion,
those do add up.
And I appreciate you guyssending me a super thanks.
If you want to drop a tip, goand click that super thanks link
and it'll take it right out ofyour YouTube Red account.

(20:42):
So if you already have YouTubeRed, whatever cards you have on
file, the super thanks will comeout of that card.
If you want to send me a tip,hey, I'm not gonna complain with
some ammo money.
Hey, just saying, it is notcheap to produce gun videos
anymore.
And if you're feelingsympathetic to the cause and you
want to send Daddy E a$5,$10little super thanks, I'm not

(21:03):
gonna complain.
Let's just put it that way.
But to get back to the point ofthe video, yes, it is more
expensive to get out and shoot.
100%.
It costs a lot of money, andtrust me, I know I've been
producing more content, whichI'm so happy I get to do because
I know viewers love gun content.
I did some armor tests.
Luckily, I had some of the ammoalready laying around.
I didn't have to go buy it.

(21:24):
So I've been digging into the uhIvy 8888 secret squirrel stash.
Uh, but that has been helpful tohave a stash of ammo.
And again, maybe that will bringto the next point would be when
I tell people to buy cheap andstack deep.
You know, if ammo's on sale andyou can afford to buy more, buy
it while it's cheap becausetoday's expensive price is

(21:46):
tomorrow's cheap price.
Yep.
You know, it's rare for ammo toincrease in price and then go
back down to some previouslyestablished level.
That's not normal.
Usually, ammo, once they decidethey can get 59 cents a shot for
nine millimeter, it takes a lotof political pressure and let's
just say economic pressure for acompany to bite the bullet

(22:08):
literally and go, all right,well, we were getting 59 cents a
shot.
People, the market won't bearthat anymore.
Let's lower the price back downto 29 cents a shot.
Now they're still making goodmoney, of course, but it takes a
lot for them to bite that bulletand finally lower the prices
back to where they previouslywere, or in some cases lower.
So if the prices are low and,you know, yeah, you're looking

(22:29):
at nine millimeter that's brasscase nine for twelve dollars or
thirteen dollars a box, I'dprobably bounce on that and buy
as much as you can reasonablyafford without, you know, going
broke.
I mean, I'd yeah, I'd I wouldbounce on some nine mil at
twelve, thirteen dollars a box.
I would bounce on some five fivesix at 40 cents a shot if it's

(22:50):
that low, if it's good stuff.
Or if you're out and about atyour surplus shops or gun stores
or gun shows or something, andsomebody's got some Lithuanian
Triple G 556 and sealed spamcans, and they're selling it for
500 bucks a can for a thousandrounds.
I'd bounce on that for 50 centsa shot.

SPEAKER_01 (23:08):
Yeah, I'd probably take two cans.

SPEAKER_00 (23:10):
I'd probably take a, you know, I bought mine
originally for$3.99 a can, but Ialso bought 16 cans of it to get
it for that rate, and I went andpicked it up in person to save
myself on shipping.

SPEAKER_01 (23:21):
Nice.

SPEAKER_00 (23:22):
Now, I know not everybody can can afford to pop
that much money on ammo at onegiven time.
Luckily, your boy was up here alittle bit.
Okay, I was living a littlelarger, had a little more money,
and I was like, okay, I'm gonnabuy some 556.
And I've been shooting on that556 for years.
That Lithuania.
That's the black tip?
Uh no, it's the unpainted SS109.
It's the plain tip.

(23:43):
Um, did you say plain tip?

SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
No, I said a black tip.
Black tip.

SPEAKER_00 (23:47):
Yeah, not black tip.
It's the it's it's green, it'sit's green tip, but it's
unmarked, yeah.
Unmarked green tip.
In my opinion, shoots better.
Because if you look at at greentip, you shoot through your AR,
right?
The chamber does inevitably sortof rub the cartridge a little
bit, and you'll notice you getbits of little green fallout in
your in your chamber.

SPEAKER_01 (24:06):
Yeah, a little bit of fouling in it.

SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
You get a little you get a little crud from that
cartridge tip.
And I I feel like the unpaintedSS 109s actually shoot better
because I think the paintprovides sort of like an uneven
bearing surface for the wind.
And I know this is nerdy, but Iswear that paint causes some
inaccuracy.
I feel like the the unpaintedversion shoots better.

(24:30):
I mean, my SS 109, theLithuanian contract, is full
power and it shoots the livingdaylights out.
I have an 18-inch SPR.
At 300 yards, I can get like subthree three-inch groups.

SPEAKER_01 (24:43):
That's really good.

SPEAKER_00 (24:44):
For ball ammo.
What better does it need to do?
And it's ball ammo.
I've killed coyotes with it,I've killed hogs with it.
I don't shoot deer with 556, butI'll shoot hogs with it.
And I'll tell you what, Ihaven't had any walk away from
me.
It works great.

SPEAKER_01 (24:58):
Never mind.
We need to get back out thereand we need coyote some hog
hunting.
Some hog or coyote?
One of the two.

SPEAKER_00 (25:03):
Yeah, we need to do some hog hunting.
We'll we'll go back down, we'llgo hang out with Rick and go
call some coyotes.
It'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 (25:08):
You got the old integrally suppressed with the
thermal on it.

SPEAKER_00 (25:11):
Yeah, you know, you really need to try that rig out.
Now we haven't really, you know,shot anything in anger in a
while.
We we need to go do some coyote.

SPEAKER_01 (25:17):
I put the machine gun lower on it and went to the
room.

SPEAKER_00 (25:19):
Remember the time I took you to the look, remember
the time I took you to the farm?
Remember when you shot yourfirst first coyote?
Yeah, yeah.
Remember that?
Yeah, was that a fox or was it afew years?

SPEAKER_01 (25:27):
No, it was a coyote and it was with the uh the bull
pup.

SPEAKER_00 (25:32):
It was with that MDR.

SPEAKER_01 (25:34):
MDR, yeah, 308.

SPEAKER_00 (25:35):
And we had the thermal on it.
Remember?
And I remember I ran the call,and it wasn't 40 seconds after
that call came on.

SPEAKER_01 (25:43):
He came to do it.

SPEAKER_00 (25:45):
And he got close to us, and I remember I was like, I
was looking with the spotter.
I was like, man, he right there.
And I tapped you, and you werelike, Where, where, where?
And I was like, in the middle ofthe road, right there.

SPEAKER_01 (25:53):
Yeah, it's like right there on the road.

SPEAKER_00 (25:55):
And you I remember he was just like, he was just
looking, you know, and you shothim, and I was like, dang, that
son bitch was close.
Yeah, and I was we called thatthing within, he had to have
been 50 feet from us.

SPEAKER_01 (26:08):
And here's the thing with thermals, he didn't smell
us, we were downwind.
Yeah, the thermals, you don'tyou you don't really get a super
good picture of what it is, andwe were praying that it wasn't
the dog.
We're like, oh man, we hope toGod that wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 (26:21):
He was so calm that I was worried it was somebody's
dog.

SPEAKER_01 (26:23):
Well, that's the thing.
Like, we were like, is that theneighbor's dog, man?
Just like trotting down theroad.

SPEAKER_00 (26:28):
No, and then when I saw him acting skittish, I was
like, yeah, that's not.

SPEAKER_01 (26:32):
Yeah, he started kind of like he was mousing, he
was kind of like jumping on amouse.

SPEAKER_00 (26:35):
Once we knew he was mousing, that's how we remember
that.
Dogs don't do that.
Dogs don't mouse, you know, likea freaking uh fox or a coyote.
When when we say they'remousing, they kind of hop around
and dislodge the grass in anattempt to like get a mice
facility for fuel mice.
So once we saw a mouse and we weknew, you know, it was a pretty

(26:56):
big coyote.

SPEAKER_01 (26:56):
Yeah, that was nice.
A little offhand shot there.
Yeah, it was a good, good shot.

SPEAKER_00 (27:00):
But anyway, we do need to get out and do some
coyote hunting.
Yeah.
But the Trump slump, it doesmake people want to have those
experiences, not not want tohave experiences.
It I think that the Trump slumpcauses people to, you know, not
quite prioritize um buying gunsand ammo and accessories or
taking training or being, youknow, let's just say politically

(27:23):
active.
Um, but people put that on theback burner.
And I'm not saying it's atravesty or a terrible thing,
but I guess what I would try toencourage people to do is to try
to not have that mentality.
Like be politically active, evenwhen things are going, at least
the way you feel, that thingsare going your way, you should
still make an effort to supportyour gun rights organizations.

(27:45):
I mean, look, it's think of itlike paying your dues.
I mean, just because things aregoing perfect doesn't mean you
shouldn't still try to slide afew bucks towards your favorite
gun rights organization.
I mean, if you can afford it, byall means, pay your dues.
Let's help keep the trainrolling to help, you know, fight
for our rights.
And we are in probably the bestsituation we've ever been in

(28:09):
society, you know, in terms ofour society and in terms of
these uh uh gun rightsorganizations and the uh you
know lobbying efforts that arebeing put forth.
We've never been in a bettersituation to take back uh lost
ground.
And when Republicans are incharge, you should take that as
an opportunity to take back lostground.

(28:32):
And I know it seems like thefreaking Republicans don't want
to do anything for gun owners.
And I know some of their votingrecords seem to indicate that
they don't really give a crapabout gun owners.
And I know it seems like it's anuphill battle dealing with the
Republicans on guns.
They say they're pro-gun andtheir voting records show
something different.

(28:53):
I understand the frustration.
I really do.
Pam Bondi is not exactly themost pro-gun AG we could ever
have.
We expressed our concern aboutsome of Pam Bondi's past, about
some of the, you know, what redflag confiscation that she
supported, you know, this wholeuh not allowing um, you know,

(29:13):
18-year-olds to buy black riflesand and wanting to raise the age
to buy rifles to 21, whichbasically means ARs.
Let's face it, they don't careif uh if an 18-year-old kid has
a hunting rifle.
What they really mean, theydon't want an 18-year-old having
an AR.

SPEAKER_01 (29:29):
Then they have to raise the recruiting age to 21,
then.

SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
Well, you know, they're not gonna do that.
I mean, so the the truth is PamBondi has a past of not exactly
being the most friendly towardsgun owners.
And I think it's it it that thatis absolutely a you know
unshakable fact that that hasall the stuff backing up.
I mean, she supported thosethings in in Florida.
So we may not exactly have thebest AG, right?

(29:55):
Some people have been very youknow scrutinizing of the FBI and
the way they've Handled thingsand I think that Cash Patel bit
off a lot more than he couldchew, Matt.
I don't think he realized justhow deep the rot was.
I'm not gonna sit here and saythat Cash Patel was not a good
guy for the FBI or that he's nota morally sound guy.

(30:15):
I don't know enough about him asa person to judge him as a
person, so I'm not going to.
I think that him and Dan bothgot under the hood and realized,
wow, this this needs some work,right?

SPEAKER_01 (30:29):
You know, yeah.
I will say that that Cash Patellooks a little lost when he's
doing these um Senate committeehearings, or he's doing any he's
being um questioned.
He always has no, don't get mewrong, he answers very
vehemently, he has a goodanswer, he responds very good,

(30:53):
well.
I agree, he responds well, buthis eyes look lost, like he just
kind of has like this weird,like he's he's like computing
what's going on, and and and hebut he realizes like man, this
is this is a lot, it is a lot todeal with.

SPEAKER_00 (31:09):
If you're in the hot seat, you're in a Senate
committee hearing, or you know,whatever, congressional hearing
of some sort like that, andyou're in the hot seat.
I mean, yeah, you know you'rethere amongst colleagues, but
but it's stressful.
I mean, you got all the camerason you, and they're on, they're
on you.
You're gonna ask you a question,and then they're all gonna lean
in and like, you know, yeah, Ican imagine how you know you
gotta have some pretty thickskin to be politically involved

(31:31):
in that sort of a role when youare essentially responsible for
a very large, scrutinized,highly scrutinized, uh, highly
controversial law enforcementagency, yeah, who's been
involved in some dark stuff overthe years, and and people know
they've been involved in somedark stuff, and whose mission to

(31:54):
some people may be deemed asquestionable at best, and
wonder, you know, what's reallygoing on here.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot ofsecrecy and there's a lot of
misunderstandings and a lot ofredacted information.
And of course, there's all thesethings that whether it's because
they're trying to protect, youknow, law enforcement as uh
investigations that are ongoing,or maybe they're trying to

(32:14):
protect people who deserve to behemmed up, but they're not
getting hemmed up because of whothey are.
No matter what the circumstancesmay be, the bottom line is that
there's a high degree ofscrutiny that surrounds this
work.
And that's a very tough thing torespond to.
And I think that cash may beseeing, like, wow, like this is
a stressful job.
Like, I didn't realize it wasgoing to be quite this crazy.

(32:36):
And I think that there is acertain amount of that that's
going on for him right now, andperhaps Bondi too.
Maybe Pam Bondy is realizinglike, wow, the rod is deep here.
Do we really want to believethat there's some far-reaching,
further reaching plan to correctmany wrongs that have been done
in the past by these people?
Or are we led to believe thatthey are simply just towing the

(32:58):
narrative line and simply doingnothing uh behind closed doors
in order to just allow the samething that's always happened to
just perpetuate?
I mean, we won't really knowthat.
Yeah, and you can say And it'sfour years long enough to do
that.

SPEAKER_01 (33:13):
Not really.
Not really.

SPEAKER_00 (33:15):
These investigations take a long time.
And when these investigationsoverlap between administrations,
that's even worse because thenlet's say the next
administration, if they're aDemocrat administration, what do
you think they're gonna sayabout these investigations?
If it involves them, they'regonna go, oh no, no, no, shut
that down.
Y'all aren't y'all aren'tfocusing on this anymore.

(33:35):
You're focusing on littlegrannies inside the Capitol,
you're focusing on parents' PTAmeetings, you're focusing on
these conservatives, like, andthen the FBI goes, okay, well,
that's our job.
What am I supposed to do?
Say, well, I don't agree withthat, and and I'm gonna turn in
my$85,000 a year cushy job withits all its luxuries and and

(33:56):
nice perks, right?
Or are they gonna I mean, youknow, they're gonna they're
gonna do their job, you know?
And that's a difficult placethat we're in right now.
It's like there are good peoplethat work for these
organizations, there are goodpeople in our government, there
are honorable good people whowork in our government, who want
to do the right thing, they careabout the betterment of society,

(34:18):
they they have goals that andpolitical leanings that line up
with you and I, right?
But the problem is it's likewhen you have some scumbag
telling you to do something,it's like what are you gonna do?
You're gonna resign over it?
I mean, yeah, some did, but willall of them do that?

SPEAKER_01 (34:33):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (34:34):
No.
Now, at what point are theycomplicit?
I know we discussed it, we did awhole podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (34:39):
We did a whole episode on that.

SPEAKER_00 (34:40):
We did a whole episode on that.
But at one what point is anaction complicit in the carrying
out of very terrible things thatyou know are bad.
So it's like at what point doyour morals take over and make
you decide, you know what, Iknow this isn't right, and I
refuse to do it.

SPEAKER_01 (34:58):
But they don't do that, they continue to accept
the paycheck and that's becausethey can vote on their own
paycheck, and as if theirpaycheck keeps going up, there's
no reason for them to leave.

SPEAKER_00 (35:09):
A friend of mine, we were having a discussion about
this uh a few days ago, and it'sit's actually kind of wild to
think.
Um and this, all right, I'll askyou the question that I was
asked.

SPEAKER_01 (35:19):
Shoot.

SPEAKER_00 (35:19):
All right, do you hate the cartel members just
because like do you think thecartel people are evil?
Or do you think that they'rejust a victim of circumstance?
The people who work for thecartels, uh Mexican cartels?
Yeah, you think they're evil, ordo you think they're just it's
just they're doing what theygotta do to survive?

SPEAKER_01 (35:36):
No, they're evil.

SPEAKER_00 (35:38):
You think they're evil?
Yeah, I I have a more nuancedapproach.

SPEAKER_01 (35:42):
I think they're I think they're evil.

SPEAKER_00 (35:43):
I I I don't think they're evil at all.
I think okay, yeah, maybethere's some of them deeply
ingrained that simply have noempathy and don't give ever
loving crap about who they hurt.
And yeah, there's always gonnabe people who love to hurt
people.
There's sadistic people outthere, the soldiers, some of
those soldiers, yeah, they loveto kill people.
They love to hurt people.

SPEAKER_01 (36:01):
But I oh wait, you're talking about the normal,
like low-level cartel manager.

SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
Low-level guy on the ground.
He's a coyote.

SPEAKER_01 (36:11):
Yeah, those that's circumstance.

SPEAKER_00 (36:13):
I was thinking like he's running people, he's
running drugs.
You know, maybe he's not a userof these things.

SPEAKER_01 (36:21):
He's just the low-level facilitator.

SPEAKER_00 (36:23):
The low-level guys, yeah, because he has no choice.

SPEAKER_01 (36:26):
Yeah, the low-level guys, I would agree.
That's like, hey, that's whatthey that's what they can do.
Like that's what that's whatthey do to make money.

SPEAKER_00 (36:32):
I don't even know if even some of the high-level
people are truly evil.
I mean, maybe they are becauseof the the scale of things that
they know when they know it, andthey know people are getting
hurt, they know people aregetting raped and trafficked.
You have to be a certain kind ofsadistic to be involved in that
business and be okay with it.

SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
That's the thing.
You have to be okay with it.
Right.
Like to them, it's just a normalthing.
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (36:52):
To them, it's just normal.
Oh, we're we're peddling flesh.
It's like, wow, you or I wouldthink, no, we would never want
to hurt someone like that.
But they, they had that theirstandards are much more fluid
based on the amount of moneythey're getting.

SPEAKER_01 (37:02):
Yeah, selling little kids.

SPEAKER_00 (37:04):
Yeah, exactly.
Of course, I'm not saying thatthat's normal or should be
normal, and I'm not saying thosepeople are morally in any area
to think that that's okay, thatI would ever sympathize with
someone that engages in thatactivity.
However, the conversation withthis person, and what I guess I
want to nail in here, is likethe on-the-ground person, it's
like, imagine that you're born.
I guess what I'm trying to sayis you're born into this world,

(37:26):
and all you know is that yourgrandpa did it, your dad did it,
and they did really well at it.
Like you had an okay upbringing,you weren't poor.
Maybe you you actually did okay,like you survived okay.
And imagine your dad tellingyou, look, this is this is what
we do, okay?
Like we're foot soldiers forthese guys, we do this, we do
that.
This is the business.
It's like, you know, that's thefamily business of these guys.

(37:48):
Some of these people have beenin this for for generations.

SPEAKER_01 (37:51):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (37:52):
They're born into it, it's all they know.
Hey, uh, daddy, I'm hungry.
Right?
What are you gonna tell youryoung kid who's hungry?
You know, what are you gonnatell your wife who needs clothes
and you gotta pay the bills?
I mean, everyone has bills.
And I guess what I'm trying tosay is the same person who would
take that cushy hundred thousanddollar a year job from the FBI.

(38:14):
Are they really any differentthan the cartels who are doing
the same type of thing wherethey're they're taking a job
that, yeah, they may not, theyprobably wish they could do
something else.
They don't want to be engaged,they don't want to hurt people,
they don't want to do XYZ, theydon't want to break the law,
they don't want to commitcrimes.
Maybe they're religious, godlypeople who pray every night for
forgiveness.

(38:34):
You know, who knows?
Do we really think that aboutour own people too?
I mean, are there people withinour own government who, you
know, maybe they feel the sameway?
Maybe they feel like, wow, Ireally don't agree with what
these people want me to do, butI have to do it because I don't
have a choice.
I mean, I don't know how to doanything else, I don't have any
other skills, and I don't knowhow to weld, I don't know how to

(38:56):
be a plumber.
I mean, yeah, there's plenty ofother ways to make money, but
it's like, is it because of theelitism in their head that they
think, well, I'm the anointedone who is put in this position
because I am who I am and no oneelse can do it?
And maybe they have this sort ofovergloring, overglorifying view
of their own abilities, and theythink, well, I'm the person for
the job no matter what, becausereasons.

(39:19):
Or do they have some deeperempathy for the world around
them and realize, like, well, Irealize what I'm doing is wrong,
but I continue to do it becauseI don't have anything else I can
do to make a living.

SPEAKER_01 (39:30):
I mean, what do you think?
No, I I think that if you takeit one step further, you see you
see that more at the proverbiallower level with like police
officers.
Like when you said that, likethat's what it reminded me of.
Like a guy gets pulled over, hecalls for backup, he starts the
the police officer starts doingsomething, you know,

(39:50):
unconstitutional, and the backupjust stands there and doesn't do
anything.
And he just he's basicallycomplicit in and the reason he
doesn't say anything is becausehe needs his job.
Like he's not gonna, he's notgonna argue, you know.
You see it all the time on likethe the body cam footage that
comes out.
Three, four police officers justyou know what that one cop is

(40:10):
doing is wrong, and the otherthree are just like okay with
it.
Right.
You know, that's what I imaginewhen you say that.
I agree at the at the lowestlevel.

SPEAKER_00 (40:18):
But that conversation, it it made me
think of that, and I thought itwould be interesting for us to
talk about to compare like ourown intelligence agencies to
even criminal agencies, becauseat the end of the day, there is
a there is a flexing of moralsthere.
There there is there is amalleable moral area that you
have to operate in.

(40:38):
Your morals have to be somewhatflexible in order to go, oh
well, my job requires me to dothis, and it may be against my
my views, it may be against whatI believe in, but I'm required
to do it, and it's almost likethat's part of the job for your
your morals to be a little bitflexible.

SPEAKER_01 (40:55):
Here's a good one.
How much of it is optics, right?
So, and this is gonna blow yourmind probably.
Nice.
So we have the the cartels, wehad the conversation about the
cartels, the cartels are uh forall intents and purposes, like
mafias, right?
So you have like multiple mafiasthat control the control that

(41:15):
country.
Um, and when America is you notokay with that.
Like, okay, no, that's bad.

SPEAKER_00 (41:21):
Cartel's bad, or we're taking bribe money from
them.

SPEAKER_01 (41:24):
Or then you have, let's say, the Taliban.
The Taliban in the Middle Eastand Afghanistan.
Taliban, bad.
They, you know, they do badthings, they control the
country, you know, we were atwar with them.
We're not okay with that, right?
Everybody loves Japan, Japan's anice country, but yet they have
the same thing with the Yakuza.

SPEAKER_00 (41:43):
Nobody talks about Yakuza.

SPEAKER_01 (41:45):
Nobody says Yakuza, bad, but yet very similar.
They control the crime, like thelack of crime, like they control
like the taxes, the police havea gentleman's agreement with the
Yakuza.
Nobody still, it's like it'soptics, right?
So I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 (42:03):
Like, but the Yakuza also operates a lot more
honorably than some of theseother people do.
I mean, yeah, they do they dothings, but they're always gonna
be pretty exacting about whythey do it.

SPEAKER_01 (42:13):
But but they still do bad things.

SPEAKER_00 (42:15):
You don't want to kill someone unless they
absolutely have to, but theystill kill.

SPEAKER_01 (42:19):
So this is like it's like this like moral dilemma of
like, all right, you know,Taliban, bad.

SPEAKER_00 (42:25):
How good can a bad guy be?

SPEAKER_01 (42:27):
Exactly.
All right, yeah, Taliban, bad,cartels, bad.
Yakuza, ah, you know.
We'll give them a passion.

SPEAKER_00 (42:34):
How good can a bad guy be?
It's funny.
I I had a very similarconversation with someone
recently about the whole idea ofthe anti-hero.

SPEAKER_01 (42:42):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (42:42):
Right?
And and sometimes bad people dogood things.

SPEAKER_01 (42:47):
That's like Homelander from the boys, right?

SPEAKER_00 (42:49):
I mean, some sometimes people who are bad
inevitably go out of their wayto do good things for some
reason they can't explain.
And I'm not saying it itabsolves them of wrongdoing.
Right?
Bad people are still bad people,but you know, it's like this
anti-hero philosophy.
I mean, you look at like Game ofThrones, a character like the

(43:10):
Hound.
Yeah.
You know, that the Hound, hejust does things by his own
personal moral code that mightbe very disastrous to some
people and maybe neutral at bestto others.
And then maybe in tiny littleinklings, he has his own version
of good that surpasses the moralcode of he may do good for a

(43:34):
reason that someone would belike, Well, why are you gonna
risk your life for this?
Yeah, why are you gonna, youknow, you're such a bad guy.
You've you've you've slainpeople on the battlefield, you
you you you punch kings in theface, like you don't care about
your own life.
And like, why are you gonna takea risk for something like this
girl you're trying to protect?

(43:55):
Or that, you know, he had noreason to protect that girl.

SPEAKER_01 (44:00):
So here's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 (44:01):
But he felt like in that moment that it was the
right thing to do, and anddespite putting himself in a lot
of damn danger to do it.

SPEAKER_01 (44:08):
Yep, and he he went out of his way.
He did have his own code ofhonor, and he was protecting
little Arya Stark and all that,but and and people would even
say, like, oh, he was anhonorable guy, but this is the
same guy.

SPEAKER_00 (44:22):
Brianne was totally the right person to have Aria to
take her back and protect her,but he fought her anyway.
Like he he could have easilyjust said, Well, you are okay,
you're the person charged withtaking care of her.
I've got her to here.
Well, all right, take her.
But he didn't.

SPEAKER_01 (44:38):
He was like, so everybody liked him as the
honorable guy, which I liked himtoo, but he still killed that
family in the farmhouse and tooktheir silver.

SPEAKER_00 (44:48):
Yeah, he still did bad things.
It's like, at what point insociety do we look at the bad
man who occasionally does goodand we go, well, it's like, are
they a necessary component oflubricating the gears of
capitalism?
Of lubricating the gears of theunderworld.

(45:10):
I mean, I'm not gonna sit hereand say that we shouldn't do
something about these peopleoperating.
Like, I don't agree with all thefentanyl that crosses the border
and kills a bunch of Americansall the time.
I don't agree with all theillegals coming in and causing
problems and tanking up Americanhousing.
I mean, all these housing costshave been going up, yeah, it's

(45:30):
because we're housing 50 millionpeople we didn't have before.
So it's like we've got all thesepeople here who are not supposed
to be here.
And if that is because ofactions of the cartel, well,
then yeah, I don't agree withthe cartel.
Like, obviously, stop that crap,you know, deport these people,
you know.
I agree with that, deport thesepeople, you know, yeah, get the
drugs off our streets.
I mean, should the governmentmaybe be a little more lax on

(45:50):
some things and strict onothers?
Maybe so.
Right?
Fentanyl is extremely dangerous,you know, it kills a lot of
people, and and you know,obviously there's some bad stuff
out there that's hurting people.
We I don't like, I don't want tosee our countrymen get get
hemmed up.
I don't want to see people onthe streets, you know, high and
and they're just laying aroundon the road.

SPEAKER_01 (46:09):
Doing the zombie walk, whether acting like
zombies.

SPEAKER_00 (46:12):
I mean, I don't want to see my people like that, you
know.
But at what point do you go,well, yeah, the cartel, evil,
you know, uh uh Taliban, evil,Yakuza, evil.
Well, at what point do you lookat your own government even and
think, well, well, damn, they'repretty evil too.
You know, they they do a lot ofthe same stuff too.

(46:33):
And it's like, you know, they'rethey're engaging in usury,
they're engaging in, you know,charging interest, they're
engaging in, you know, using thepolice to come and threaten you
if you don't do what they say.
That's it.
Do oh, it's law enforcement.
Oh, really?
It's law enforcement.
Okay, really.
That that's what you say, butwho makes the laws?
I mean, the the the this thisoverseer makes the law.

(46:56):
So it's like you want to believethat you're being represented.
You want to believe that youhave some sort of participation
in that, that you are you know aparty to it.
And and maybe locally, yes, youare, but federally.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's just kind of adifferent animal.
You look at all the federal lawsand the things they'll do to hem
you up, it's like at what pointdo we consider these people
their own little cartel too?

SPEAKER_01 (47:17):
I mean, well, that's that's kind of what they say,
man.
The the government cartel.

SPEAKER_00 (47:21):
I mean, it's a business, and and you're just
kind of a product of that.

SPEAKER_01 (47:27):
Like you're you don't know who the customer is,
it's you.
All right, like if you're justlike that's that's the rule of
thumb.
If you're trying to figure outwhat a product's customer is or
who it is, it is you.

SPEAKER_00 (47:41):
It's an interesting point to think about.
Yeah, that's why I want to bringit up in today's show because I
thought, you know, we always aretaught to believe that all of
these other movements withinother countries are so bad.
And oh, we should topple thisgovernment, we should we should
stop these people from doingthis.
And and again, I'm not trying todraw some moral distinction
that, oh, well, the cartel'sgood people and God fearing.

(48:04):
I'm not trying to say they'regood or bad.
I'm just trying to get people tounderstand that that some people
are victims of circumstance andthey must be put in situations
that they're in because theyhave no other choice.
You know, yeah, is that a copout maybe to some people?
It may be, but I do trulybelieve there probably are a lot
of people who are, you know, putinto these situations probably

(48:27):
by no choice of their own.

SPEAKER_01 (48:28):
You know, they're forced to say, you know, to say
otherwise would be disingenuous,it would be a complete, you
know, yeah, it would be toignore that these people didn't
grow up in a third worldcountry.
So yeah, it's it is true.

SPEAKER_00 (48:44):
I think if we're willing to say that maybe
there's some people who arevictims of circumstance and all
of these other underbellyillicit uh groups of people that
maybe in our own very owngovernment there are people who
it's like, well, they they theysaw an opportunity to get
involved in politics.
And and you know, again, I'm nottrying to say that we should be
lenient on these people.

(49:04):
Like some of these folks havedone some really bad things to
us, and I think we should bevery clear and like we should
make these people pay, weshould, we should punish them
for what they've done, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (49:15):
If there's a certain group of Americans they can
claim something is currentlyholding them back that happened
over 400 years ago, then I wouldsay that it is completely
plausible that things thathappened within your lifetime
affected you more immediatelythan something that happened 400

(49:36):
plus years ago.

SPEAKER_00 (49:37):
Right.

SPEAKER_01 (49:38):
So if one can argue, which I'm not saying it didn't,
I'm just saying if one group ofpeople can use that argument,
sure, more than one person ormore than one group of people
can use that same argument.

SPEAKER_00 (49:49):
Life is hard.
And you know, the humancondition has been surrounded by
violence and death way more thanit has peace.
Peace is a rare thing in thestory of the human, the human
story.
When we look at recorded humanhistory, we've been fighting
each other way more than we'vebeen at peace.
Oh, yeah, collectively.
And I think it's one thing thatwe can always point to in a

(50:12):
freaking human condition, isthat men will reach a point in
their life where they have toconquer and control and achieve.
And that's part of being a manis wanting to achieve.
And sometimes that achievementcomes through hurting others,
and sometimes we we have to beokay with doing what's
necessary.

(50:33):
I think the moral dilemmabecomes that at what point do we
decide as normal, average,God-fearing, law-abiding people,
that picking up the sword isnecessary versus all right,
maybe there's a group of peopleout here who've decided the way
of the sword is the way of lifeand that they've just accepted

(50:54):
that that's their fate, youknow.
And they say that if you youlive by the sword, you will die
by the sword as well.
And you know, maybe they're okaywith dying by the sword.
They're okay with living ashorter life, but knowing that
their profession is dangerousand have a limited amount of
time on this earth.
You you're you're playing withborrowed time.

(51:14):
Some men are okay with borrowedtime.
So some men are okay with thedangerous path, knowing that
that dangerous path is a shorterpath.

SPEAKER_01 (51:23):
So but it's the path to glory.

SPEAKER_00 (51:26):
I mean, right.
But I think that it's a story,like literally, dude, as old as
time is that you know, men havealways, you know, approached a
dangerous level of achievement.
That, yes, I mean, like that wasthere a point that Genghis Khan
decided, I'm gonna settle downand quit.
I mean, this is crazy.
We've been doing all this, we'vebeen conquering, conquering.

(51:47):
No, it became a drug for him,and he followed it for his
entire life, you know, and hiskids did.
And it's like all they knew waswas wow, we feel so alive right
now.
We feel so alive doing this andriding into the next village.
I mean, there there's somethingto be said for people who are
not afraid to do that.

(52:07):
And, you know, America is acountry that's that's been built
by and for people who aren'tafraid to pick up the sword, you
know.
And and we we've have been awarrior culture, and and you
know, we've definitely been aculture of rabble rousers and
people who aren't afraid tochallenge a status quo.
And I think that does speakhighly about who we really are.

(52:28):
If we can really say that thatis a a group of people who's
honorable and good, I mean, Isuppose I'll leave that up to
everyone to consider.
Um you know, it's just aninteresting talking point.
Yeah.
I know we went down a differentroad here, but the Trump slump,
it does put those things in mindwhere when people get
complacent, that complacencybreeds a lot of things like the

(52:50):
Taliban or or you know, thisdark underbelly of society that
we would call a cartel or aprofessional criminal
organization or something.
Complacency breeds thosemovements.
Complacency breeds new politicalparties, it breeds uh strange
and unreasonable laws that youhave to be subjected to.

(53:13):
These things breed in the dark,right?
And and if we're complacent whenwe think things are going
normally for us, Matt, and we'recomplacent, I think it's a
breeding ground for these thingsto happen.
And I think that's just worthnoting, worth worth looking at.

SPEAKER_01 (53:28):
You know, I was looking it up, and uh you
mentioned Genghis Khan, and itwas like he killed something
like, or he didn't killpersonally, he was responsible
for like killing 10% of Earth'spopulation.

SPEAKER_00 (53:44):
Like and he never stopped, didn't he?
Did it till he was an old man?

SPEAKER_01 (53:49):
Holy cow, that is a lot of people, man.

SPEAKER_00 (53:51):
And it wasn't he like a frail old man when he was
finally done, and he's stilllike yeah, still going in battle
even when he's old.

SPEAKER_01 (53:58):
And they, you know, when he when he died, they like
buried him, and then they, youknow, this from what they say,
they never found his gravebecause they redirected River to
go over his grave, so you'llnever find it.
Uh it's just crazy, man.
Like, but I I would say uh thatis correct.
The optics of how people viewall of these different things,

(54:22):
it can be a little bit skewedbased on how we feel.
And I think that you know, usingthat I think Japan is probably
the the best, you know, lipnesstest for that because everybody
loves Japan, like they'rethey're allies, they they we
have a great, you know, uhrelationship with them.

SPEAKER_00 (54:43):
Very organized society, very orderly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (54:46):
But at the same time, very peaceful, generally,
but also very racist.
You know, like they are probablylike they're I mean, I'll call
it, man.
Like I organized crime,organized crime is acceptable,
racism acceptable, right?
You know, like gambling,acceptable, like all of these
things are accepted and they dohave some really strange rules

(55:08):
though, the Japanese.

SPEAKER_00 (55:09):
Like if you're a foreigner, like when you visit,
there's certain things you gottaknow.

SPEAKER_01 (55:13):
Like, so like I can't if I was to go to Japan,
like I didn't go to Japan, mywife and the and like all her
friends and her family, mydaughter, they all went to
Japan.
Yeah, I didn't go.
Uh but if I did, I wouldn't beable to go to like most of the
like uh on sends or like thebathhouses because you know I
have tattoos.
Yeah, I can't go to a lot of therestaurants there.

(55:35):
Like if you have tattoosshowing, you can't go.
So you have to be literally likewear everything to cover it up.
So, like, and that's it, that'sjust part of life because
they're like, oh, that's Yakuza,like Yakuza has tattoos.
Right, they do it.
It could be like a little likehello kitty, like tattoo on my
arm.
Yeah, and they're like, notYakuza, like man.

SPEAKER_00 (55:57):
Okay, so so right here, right now, you you're
gonna reveal before we endtoday's show.
All right, who's the betterAsians?
Koreans or Japanese?

SPEAKER_01 (56:08):
Oh man, we know Koreans.
Is it the Koreans?
It's the Koreans, man.
Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 (56:13):
Y'all get a bit out of shape over that shit, don't
you?
Like the Koreans always arelike, we're Korea bitch.

SPEAKER_01 (56:19):
I'll I'll tell you, man.
Like, I come on, hit us, hit us,tell us.
Like, it's it is wild how youbring that up because man, like,
my mom.

SPEAKER_00 (56:27):
There's a lot of competition between like the
Japanese and the Koreans and theChinese, like they're all like,
we're the we're the one.

SPEAKER_01 (56:35):
There has to be some context to that.
So, like, my mom absolutelyhates Korea, uh, hates Japanese
people, like it doesn't matter,and and you know, and and it's
not that she doesn't have goodreason.
So, like her mom, mygrandmother, uh, was actually uh
kidnapped from Korea and takento Japan.

(56:56):
She was taken as like a youngwoman to be an officer's like
comfort woman slash wife, a compcomp.
Yeah, in Okinawa.
So my grandmother was kidnappedfrom Korea, taken to Japan, and
like basically indoctrinated andbrainwashed to be Japanese.

(57:17):
So they were when they were whenshe returned to Korea, she
didn't actually speak Korean,she spoke Japanese, she only uh
wrote in Japanese, she only readin Japanese, she everything was
like it she identified withbeing Japanese.

SPEAKER_00 (57:32):
So there's a lot of deep-rooted reasons why many
Koreans maybe don't get alongwith the Japanese Chinese, and
they don't get along becauseit's so fresh.

SPEAKER_01 (57:40):
You gotta think of my grandmother, right?
So, like my mom.
That's like one generation notthat long ago.
So that could have been thatcould have very easily been my
mom that that that happened.

SPEAKER_00 (57:50):
She missed it by or one could say that if things
took a crazy enough turn that itwouldn't happen again in the
near future.
So it's kind of hard to believe.
It seems like they're they'veturned a corner, but you never
know.
I mean, they go back their oldways.

SPEAKER_01 (58:02):
So can you blame them?
Like I I I'm American, I kind ofstay out of that whole thing.
I mean, unless the World Cupcomes along and you have like
Korea versus Japan, you're like,yeah, you're you're gonna be
cheerful.
Yeah.
Um but you know, and thatquestion comes up a lot, and it
have and it's a very normalquestion.
And like the older generation ofKoreans, you have to they have

(58:23):
to understand that's a lot ofresentment there for them.
The the younger generation, Idon't really think they care
that much.

SPEAKER_00 (58:29):
All right, let's say that I could only visit, I only
have money to visit one Asiancountry.
Should I should I go to SouthKorea or should I go to Japan?

SPEAKER_01 (58:36):
I think it depends on what you want to do.
You honestly could go to both.
There's a there's a ferry thatruns from Pusan, Korea, and that
happens as a day trip.
So a lot of Koreans will go toJapan and then back, and a lot
of Japanese people go to Koreaand come back.
So there's a ferry that runsbetween them.

SPEAKER_00 (58:52):
Really?

SPEAKER_01 (58:52):
Yeah, you could do both.

SPEAKER_00 (58:53):
How far away?
Is South Korea that far awayfrom Japan?

SPEAKER_01 (58:56):
Um, it's like Japan is like off of the coast.
The ferry's like, I think it'slike a three-hour ferry ride.

SPEAKER_00 (59:01):
Oh, really?
It's that close?

SPEAKER_01 (59:02):
Yeah, it's not far.
Really?

SPEAKER_00 (59:04):
I didn't know it was that far away that close.

SPEAKER_01 (59:05):
Yeah, it's not far.

SPEAKER_00 (59:07):
Shows how much geography.
I guess I I guess I figuredgeographically they're they're
rather far apart.

SPEAKER_01 (59:12):
Nah, they're not too bad.
Because you can get to the youcan get to the coast of Japan
and then you take the train upto the sounds fine.
So I mean, because Korea is moreit depends on what you want to
do.
Korea is more known for like ifyou want to do like if you're a
woman, like beauty supply, likethey do a lot of makeup, a lot
of surgery, they do a lot oflike plastic surgery and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (59:32):
Is there a lot of like cool temples and stuff,
like culture stuff to visit,like any pyramids or any weird
stuff?

SPEAKER_01 (59:38):
I mean, there's there's temples and stuff.
Uh last time I was in Koreawhile I was like a little kid, I
was training for the the juniorOlympics when I was there, which
I always tell my daughter aboutbecause she doesn't believe that
I was good at anything.
And I'm like, I'm a two timejunior Olympian, okay?
Leave me alone.
Um but I was I was trainingthere for a while, and then uh,

(59:59):
you know, some some.
Interesting stuff.
I definitely think when it comesto uh like more notoriety, Japan
definitely uh wins that culturewar.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:09):
They they certainly do seem like they've they've
really built a successfulsociety around tourism.
I mean they do rely on tourism alot, they get a lot of money
from tourism.
And you know, Japan, they theythey have kind of mastered that
of mastered, I guess, like thethe idea of making their their
culture seem like very eccentricand quirky and cool and like

(01:00:31):
people are curious about it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:32):
Well, okay, before you go further, I will say
before anybody jumps in, Koreais racist as well.
All right.
I'm not I know people are gonnajump in that comment section and
they're gonna be like, oh yeah,Korea's racist.
Yes, absolutely.
Korea also is like no foreignerswho's placed.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:52):
So out of all the Asian cultures, who's the most
racist?
Japan?

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:56):
Um, honestly, all are racist, really.
Yeah, they're all racist.
China too, Hong Kong, mainlandChina, all racist.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:05):
Well, you know, the thing is if I visit Japan,
they'll take your money.
I don't care.
Like, I'm I'm just gonna enjoymyself and well, that's the
difference.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:13):
You go into these countries understanding that
this is another country, andthen you have to abide by their
rules and their culture, andthat's okay.
Like, I don't care if I go toanother country and they're
racist because that's theircountry.
I'm just a visitor, man.
All right.
That's it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:27):
Yeah, man.
Well, uh, you got anything elsebefore we head on for the day?

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:31):
No, but that was a that was a pretty funny subject.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:33):
It was a funny subject, yeah.
But uh, you know, we wanted todiscuss the Trump slump because
I know that um, you know,there's a lot of people
thinking, like, oh man, youknow, gun sales are way down.
It seems like there's a lotless, you know, paperwork being
processed.
And and look, I just want peopleto know that it's a normal part
of a Republican administration.
It's always a tough four yearsfor the gun industry anytime a
Republican's in office,especially when there's a

(01:01:55):
majority in the House andSenate, you know, people feel
less threatened.
They tend to just engage lesswith firearms.
I mean, unfortunately, that'sjust the point of it.
And the only point I want toreally drive home in today's
show is don't allow yourself toget complacent.
Don't allow your safety to bedeferred to others.
You know, carry a gun every day,train every day as much as you

(01:02:17):
can, train on your draw, train,you know, carry medical
supplies.
Do not get complacent justbecause you feel like society
has, you know, their wind andyour sails.
Like that's not a good enoughreason.
We we have to stay engaged aspeople, and we have to make sure
that we are closely followingthings that are going on around
us, no matter who is in charge,always scrutinize their actions

(01:02:40):
and treat every person asindividual.
That's my thought.
I hope you all have a wonderfulweek.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
Many more episodes on the wayhere on LLP.
Thanks so much, and we'll seey'all next week.
Remember, we post every Mondayat 9 o'clock Eastern Standard
Time here on the YouTubechannel.
You can see us in video form onIRAC Veteran8888.

(01:03:00):
Also, follow us and download theshow uh in audio form in your
favorite podcast form, such asuh Apple Podcast, Stitcher,
Spotify, etc.
We're out there, we're all overthe place.
Leave us a good rating so thatwe show up further in the search
results.
So thank you all very much.
Many more episodes on the way.
We'll catch you soon.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:18):
Bye, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:20):
Thanks for listening to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit.
If you enjoyed the show, be sureto subscribe on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, and anywhere elsepodcasts are found.
Be sure to leave us a five starreview.
We'd really appreciate that.
You can support us over onBallistic Inc.
by picking yourself up somemerch.
And remember, guys, dangerousfreedom.
Have a good one.