138 What Happens When We Stop Saving People From Their Own Choices

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Howdy Ben, how are you today?
Doing good, Gene.
I got to fly first class twoways.
It was amazing.

SPEAKER_03 (00:07):
Oh, nice, nice.
Long, long flight, or notreally?

SPEAKER_01 (00:11):
No, to Atlanta, only an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_03 (00:14):
Well, that's yeah.
I mean, I guess that's stillgood, but it's uh better to have
longer flights than our firstclass, obviously.
That's like me flying firstclass to DFW.
Not quite.

SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
That's like a 30-minute flight, dude.

SPEAKER_03 (00:32):
It's less, I think it's literally 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 (00:35):
Yeah, yeah.
From from Houston to DFW, butyou know, they spend more time
on the taxiway.

SPEAKER_03 (00:41):
They still charge the same amount for the upgrade.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
So yeah.
So you were in Atlanta doing alittle talk at a thing.

SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Well, I so I wasn't I wasn't scheduled to speak, but
what happened was we had one ofour guys that was going to go to
this conference couldn't makeit.
So I last minute said, I'llokay, I can do it.
And as a result, the owner ofthe conference who's known me
well, this conference has beengoing on next year, it will be
their 25th anniversary.
It's the oldest OT cybersecurityconference, you know, out there.

(01:16):
And I've been going to it forthe majority of that time.
And this is the first conferenceI ever spoke at, you know, stuff
like that.
But anyway, the owner of theconference saw my name come up
on the roster, and I'm on theplane heading up there, and he
texts he's texting me, Hey, wantto be on a panel tomorrow
morning?
You know, it's like, sure, sure.

(01:39):
So yeah, it was it was good.
It was good.
Good, good.
You know, it it actually I haveto say that is one of the
biggest compliments I think I'veever gotten in my career.
Just stuff like that, you know.
Hey, you know what?
You're gonna meet here.
Want to speak?
I think it says a decent amountabout me.

SPEAKER_03 (01:59):
Yeah, you're very available.
That's a good thing.
And and this is why we'refriends.
Exactly.
Because who else would say that?
Exactly.
Yeah, no, that's that's a goodthing.

SPEAKER_01 (02:17):
I mean, I but it was good to run into a whole bunch
of people and see see some newfaces, but uh uh a lot of very
familiar ones too.

SPEAKER_03 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah.
And and I we when I looked atthe picture, I'm like, oh, I
think I know the guy on theright.
He looked very familiar.

SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
But yeah, from Kansas City.

SPEAKER_03 (02:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (02:37):
Yeah.
Water authority guy in KansasCity.
So yeah, we were having somegood conversations.
Oh, what were you up to, Gene,last week?

SPEAKER_03 (02:47):
What was I up to when?
Last week?
Last week.
You know what?
There's I don't know, I had a alunch with a a guy who's fairly
new to Austin.
I'm gonna go show him aroundsome of the sites here next
week.
He's a multi-entrepreneurialtype guy, like he's started and

(03:12):
sold a bunch of businesses, sobut seemed like a very cool
dude.
What else did I do?
Played some video games?
Played some Battlefield 6, whichis you know, fairly recent
thing.
Well, didn't do too much else.

SPEAKER_01 (03:29):
Did you uh have some trick-or-treaters come by?

SPEAKER_03 (03:32):
So on Halloween, I actually the the short answer is
no, because I wasn't home.
But I found out that one of theguys that I watch on YouTube
that does the college, you know,here's a sign, and then argue
with me about it type stuff, washere in town.

(03:55):
Uh the guy who I watch.
And he was at UT University ofTexas, four miles down the
street.
Cam Higby.

SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
I have no idea who that's.

SPEAKER_03 (04:07):
I may have forward some videos to you, but he he
is, yeah, I know in fact for afact I have because after the
Charlie Kirk assassination, Isaid, I can't believe Cam is
still doing these.
Because he is like a you know avery small production young dude
in his early twenties, butbasically just doing it, you

(04:27):
know, same thing as Charlie was,except with way less budget,
just going university touniversity, setting up a table
and saying Islam is bad forAmerica.
Prove me wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (04:40):
And the thing is, he's not wrong.

SPEAKER_03 (04:42):
I know, I know.
But I mean, and that's just oneof the topics.
I mean, they've he's got a wholebunch of things.

SPEAKER_01 (04:47):
Let me clarify.
Islam isn't necessarily bad.
What is bad is Islamists who goto go too far.
Well, fundamentalists aregenerally not good.

SPEAKER_03 (05:08):
Yeah, I mean, fundamentalists, you can
certainly make that argument.
I would say Islam is justincompatible with uh principles
of uh Western society.
Yeah, pretty much.
And and when they've met, whenthey've clashed, it's always
been violent.
And we're starting to see therise in violence in the UK

(05:28):
because it is Islam is as we'vetalked about previously, is
definitely taking over the UK.
And it interestingly enoughreally started in London and
then is spreading.
So it's a it's metastasizing.
Yeah.
So yeah, it was kind of neat.

(05:48):
It took took me a while tofigure out because I didn't know
where the location was becausethey didn't really announce it
for safety reasons, right?

SPEAKER_01 (05:56):
But that's kind of antithetical.

SPEAKER_03 (05:58):
If you're gonna go do something like that, then
well, no, because remember, thedeal here isn't to gather a
large group of supporters, thedeal is just to be a table at a
college with a bunch of studentswalking past you who may have
never seen you or heard of you.
So it's not it's not a meetup,right?
It's a a table with acontroversial opinion that you

(06:22):
are interested in interactingwith college students on.
So I had to kind of track itdown by dead reckoning, and just
about the time I got there, theuniversity showed up and said,
Yeah, you all have to leave.

SPEAKER_01 (06:37):
See, that's such bullshit.
Was he in one of their quoteunquote free speech zones or
not?

SPEAKER_03 (06:42):
No, he wasn't.
He was on the on the mall wherethere was a ton of other stuff
happening, but all of thosegroups had gotten you know their
permits.
Yeah, permits for it.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah, so when I was at AM, I actually fought against
that inside student governmentsaying that this was absolute
bullshit.
Yeah, because they would onlygive permits to the people they
approved of.
And then if you didn't, then youhad to go to this parking lot
way over there, and that's yourfree speech zone.

SPEAKER_03 (07:08):
Well, the free speech zone at UT is off campus,
so they that's my point.

SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
It's it's the same sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 (07:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So pretty much once I got there,we had to pick up all the shit,
and I helped out there and justkind of track over to the very
edge of campus, right on a justa regular sidewalk street, and
then set up there.
And I I think the location wasactually I think it was a better
location, frankly, because it'son the edge of the university

(07:39):
and the uh commercial areasurrounding the university, so
there's a lot more people.
So that if they frankly shouldhave just set up there from the
get-go, but it was one of thosethings that I guess they just
didn't anticipate that theywould be kicked off campus just
for having you know a tableasking questions.
But yeah, it was kind ofinteresting to watch.

(07:59):
I man, I tell you, from apersonal standpoint, the hardest
thing is standing there and notchiming in with my opinions
because holy shit, I clearly hadbetter opinions than everybody
else there, you can imagine.
So keeping that locked up, I'msure that's your opinion.
Well, it's absolutely my opinionbecause it's the correct

(08:21):
opinion, and and I tend to havethose.
So it was difficult to keep mytongue in place and let other
people.
I mean, yeah, I wasn't there togo and you know hog the mic or
anything else.
I'm there to watch these guyslive that I normally watch on
YouTube.
So I was going there just as ameet and greet kind of thing,

(08:42):
you know, give him a donation,uh, gave the guy a hundred
dollar bill, and then just to Itold him this is the the first
hundred from his 7,000 that'scoming his way.
And Jesus.
Well, I mean, that's what Massadis assigns for everybody that's
doing a good job.
You know that.
Uh-huh.
So it it was uh it wasinteresting to watch, but the

(09:07):
thing that I I definitely it'snot like I didn't know this, I
knew this, but that I hadreaffirmed is just how
simplistic and dumb collegestudents are.
And it's not like they're notgonna grow out of it.
I think most of them will growout of it.

SPEAKER_01 (09:25):
I don't know that.
I think we've lowered theadmission standard so far in the
standards, the overall standardsof college so far that no, I
don't think these people aregonna grow out of it.
The arguments I think themajority of people who go to
college, hell, I think themajority of people who graduate
high school, like high schoolhas become meaningless.
Yeah, right?
We not ever it used to be noteverybody graduated high school,

(09:47):
everybody graduates high schoolnow.
Yeah, in fact, sometimes it'sthe smarter people who don't
graduate high school becausethey go and do other things,
like go to college, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, like it's just insane.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (10:03):
Yeah, it's it like the arguments for socialism were
so basic that you would probablyyour kids could probably uh
provide the uh answers aboutthem.
And when I say your kids, I meankids your age, your kid, your
kids' age.
It's just very surface level,not thought through, you know.

(10:26):
Well, but you know, insocialism, we just we don't have
to worry about that all thosegreedy people taking all the
profits away from the workers.
It's like, have you seensocialism?
The the whole point of socialismis that somebody owns the

(10:51):
product of your labor, not you,and they will decide who gets
the benefit of the product ofyour labor, not you.
That that's socialism.
Socialism is a group ownershipphilosophy, whereas capitalism
is an individual ownershipphilosophy.
Socialism is closer to slaverythan it is to capitalism, and

(11:15):
people don't seem to understandthat.

SPEAKER_01 (11:17):
It's so the idea of socialism or communism, which is
what we're really talking about,is that there is a collective,
but collectives never actuallyhappen, and they don't actually
work in except in small groups.
The only place communism trulyworks is in the family unit, and
communism seeks.

SPEAKER_03 (11:37):
I'll send you when it's up, I'll send you a link to
me literally saying exactlythat.
Right.
I did jump in and talk to themin front of the mic for a little
bit, and that was one of thethings that I pointed out.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (11:52):
Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 (11:54):
But that's also not a guaranteed.
I mean, quite often the familyitself does not work.

SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
Correct.
So like the unfortunately, butsocialism in the family doesn't
work.
Yeah.
You usually that's becausesomeone has somethingary
tendencies.

SPEAKER_03 (12:11):
Or they want to overthrow the family's
hierarchical structure.

SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
Yeah, or you know, the amount of narcissistic
people we have these days.
I think we're number one in theBP.

SPEAKER_03 (12:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:25):
It's really insane, dude.
And I think a large portion ofit is because kids haven't been
spanked.
100%.
Because, quite frankly, becausemen aren't allowed to hit women
anymore.

SPEAKER_03 (12:41):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, there's a it's justI sent you a link to a video, I
think, three or four days ago.
I don't know if you watched it,of Matthew McConaughey talking
in an interview about growing upin Texas, and he said that you
know, his dad absolutely usedcorporal punishment, and it was

(13:04):
always immediately after he didsomething wrong, it was always
quick, and you know, you can'tmake uh a fuss about it because
then you're just gonna getspanked more.
And it it was one of thosethings where he said, you know,
I'm not gonna give you a timeout because time is the most
precious thing in the world thatyou can't get any more of than

(13:25):
you have.
But I'm absolutely gonna makeyou remember not to do something
like this, right?
So the the idea of spanking isbad for kids is about as stupid
an idea as that socialism isgood for humans.

SPEAKER_01 (13:45):
And and it's not just that, it's this idea of no,
we need to talk to the kids, weneed to we need to reason with
them.
Depending on what it is, sure.
If you can reason with them,yes, do it.
Great.
But guess what?
If my son is, you know, beatingup on my daughter because she

(14:07):
ticked him off, no, I'm gonnastop him, I'm gonna spank him,
and he's not gonna do it.
Yep.
And then if, you know, or ifshe's trying to bite him or
whatever, because yeah, kids,you know, siblings, they do
shit, then I'm gonna stop herimmediately and I'm gonna spank
her.
Or if they're doing somethingthat could end up with
themselves getting hurt.
Exactly.

(14:28):
I'm I'm not gonna just let thatcontinue.

SPEAKER_03 (14:30):
Yeah.
The part that's important, Ithink, is making sure that the
kid knows why they're beingpunished.
But yes, absolutely.
You know, other than that, I Ithink that it's not only is an
appropriate form of teachingyour kids, contrary to what a
lot of these feel-good softyparent types think.

(14:54):
I think it's something that alsois good for kids because it
prepares them for unexpectedevents in life that they have no
control over later on.
Like, there are things that youwill do as an adult that you
will get punished for a lot morethan just the spanking.
And if you've never even beenpunished by spanking as a kid,

(15:15):
you're wholly unprepared for theconsequences of the real world.
Like, you know, the old sayingof fuck around, find out.
Well, we've seen, I mean, notjust you and me, but everybody's
seen tons of videos of peoplefucking around and finding out.
And the reason those videos arefunny.

(15:35):
It is, it is.
But the reason those videos aregenerally funny is because like
you should know better.
Why are you fucking around likethat?
Has nobody ever spanked you, andthat's what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
Well, and that that's the thing, is you know,
people here, here, here's thething: most of the time, society
is right.
Okay, that's why society andcivilization exists, that's why
people have a fear of speaking,and because anytime all eyes are
on you or you're outside of themajority opinion, most people

(16:09):
are generally wrong.
It takes people of decentintelligence and conviction to
stand outside of a crowd and beright when everyone else is
wrong.
And unfortunately, now we'regetting into this period where
society is really wrong.
And yeah, so I'm speakinghistorically, and we're there

(16:30):
are more and more of us standingoutside going, no, this is
wrong.
But the problem is when societydegenerates in the way that it
has, people are fucking around,no one's correcting their
behavior until it's somethingabsolutely egregious.
And the way you nip this in thebud is you you nip it in the bud
when it you start when it'ssmall, yeah, you spank when it's

(16:54):
something small but needs tostop, not letting it escalate to
the point where a kid hasantisocial behavior that now
they are not going to grow outof.

SPEAKER_03 (17:05):
Exactly.
Yeah, and and I think thatthere's been so much pushback.
Spanking is violence, you can'tdo, you know, not just you can't
commit violence against women,but against anyone.

SPEAKER_01 (17:18):
That's the other thing.
This the telling generations nowthat violence is never the
answer.
No, violence is the answer.
The qu the question is when.

SPEAKER_03 (17:31):
It's just it's that's well, and then there
seems to be a completemisunderstanding or or
forgetfulness about violence,it's not binary, right?
There is degrees of violencethat can be well that that
exists, right?
So you can have violence as oneslap, or you can have violence

(17:54):
that is a shot with a shotgun.
Okay, that's not the same levelof violence, and it it needs to
be proportional violence, Iguess is the way I would
describe it, for the action thatyou're trying to not have
happen.
But just simply saying violenceis never the answer, that's

(18:15):
something a woman says, and it'sjust wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (18:20):
Well, and I think especially for men, violence has
to undergird male relationshipsbecause there's only so much you
can do before I sit there andgo, yeah, no, we're not doing
this.
Yeah, and people may not likeit, but it's true.

SPEAKER_03 (18:40):
Right.
And violence is something thatagain, it's just the connotation
from violence by bad peopleseems to have tainted the
entirety of the word.
You know what I mean?
It's like we're it's it's kindof like saying that there is no

(19:04):
good use for a gun other than tokill innocent people.
That's kind of where the wordviolence is right now.
There is absolutely goodviolence.
Okay, yes.
Well, I I I'm just saying thatthis is this is a an issue that
in our present time that we'redealing with is the the changing

(19:29):
of a lot of definitions ofwords.
It's recategorizing words thathave always had a meaning.
Like, oh, I don't know, say theword woman.
It's always had a meaning.
And somehow in the present dayand age in the Western culture,
there's this insistence that weshould just redefine words to
mean other things to make iteasier for us to argue.

(19:52):
No, you can't do that, you can'tjust redefine your way toward
making your point.
You've already lost an argumentsince you start redefining
words.
So, yeah, I think this is sothis is where we are.

SPEAKER_01 (20:10):
In this culture war, as we go through and fight it,
one of the things we have toremind everybody of is to go
vote.
Tuesday's an election.
Have you voted yet, Gene?

SPEAKER_02 (20:23):
No.
No.

SPEAKER_01 (20:24):
Are you aware?
Have you looked at the 17amendments to the Texas State
Constitution that are beingproposed?

SPEAKER_02 (20:29):
I have not.
No.

SPEAKER_01 (20:31):
You should because there are some ones that we
definitely want and some that wedefinitely don't.
Okay.

unknown (20:36):
Good.

SPEAKER_01 (20:36):
Yeah.
Like there's an amendment toban.
So Texas currently doesn't havea capital gains tax, but this
would put it in the Texas StateConstitution that they can't
ever raise one.
Stuff like that.
So there's some good stuff.

unknown (20:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (20:50):
Yeah, I do need to.
I know as far as the thecandidates, I mean, living where
I live, my my vote is a littleless.
It's gonna make less of adifference.
Yeah, but the amendments, you'reright.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (21:06):
I'll send you actually a Houston TV channel uh
did a good breakdown.
Okay, yeah, of all 17.
Nice.
There's even an amendment toreally push on illegal voting.

SPEAKER_03 (21:23):
Really?
Okay, interesting.
Good.

SPEAKER_01 (21:25):
So codifying in the Texas state constitution that
only citizens can vote inelections.
So this would prevent likeAustin from allowing illegals to
vote in city elections.

SPEAKER_03 (21:36):
Which I'm sure they do right now.

SPEAKER_01 (21:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (21:39):
Yeah, I'm sure that's happening right now.
Yeah, good, good.
Yeah, I will take a look at thatand planning on coming out.
But as far as like the localoffices and stuff, I honestly I
don't even know which whichcandidates are realistically

(21:59):
have a chance of winning againstthe uh the current politicians
in office because Austin,obviously, like a lot of large
cities, tends to be extremelyskewed into the liberal side.
But you know, sometimes thereare surprises.
It does happen.

SPEAKER_01 (22:18):
Yeah.
Well, I so I think there's somepretty good stuff afoot that is
making for some massive, massivechanges.
Did you see what Trump did withArgentina?

SPEAKER_03 (22:34):
Well, I saw some stuff.
Tell me what you're referring tospecifically.

SPEAKER_01 (22:38):
The currency swap.

SPEAKER_03 (22:40):
No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 (22:41):
So Trump just gave Millet a huge bailout in the way
of a currency swap.
And he is doing this veryanti-China belt and road.
So he's using the stick withVenezuela and the carrot with
Argentina.

(23:02):
Yeah.
Where because he has a right,but he has a reasonable person
in Millet in Argentina versuswhat's in Caracas today.
Right.
So there we are seeing the Trumpversion of the great reset play
out.
And I I I don't know how anyonecan look at what he is doing and

(23:26):
not see a a neo Monroe doctrineunfolding, and B, you know, hey,
we're gonna cause some regimechange in Latin America, and
we're gonna own the Americas.
Like it's going to happen.
People have to realize we areonly 10 months into a Trump

(23:49):
presidency.

SPEAKER_03 (23:50):
I know everybody feels like it's been years of
Trump presidency.
Because he's gotten so much shitdone.
He really has the thing, dude.
Yeah, exactly.
No, that's absolutely the case.
And I and I think I think theDemocrats don't want to think
about just how many more yearsof Trump there are, and not even
talking about Vance after that,but just Trump himself.

(24:13):
Like, we're not even a year in.
It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 (24:18):
And you know what?
I never thought I'd say this,but I am looking forward to
voting for Vance Rubio in 2028.

SPEAKER_03 (24:24):
Hmm.
You think it's gonna be Rubio?

SPEAKER_01 (24:28):
I do.

SPEAKER_03 (24:29):
I don't know, man.

SPEAKER_01 (24:30):
I think Marco has come a long way.

SPEAKER_03 (24:33):
I still think it's gonna be his buddy that got him
that job.
Who?
Vivake?
Revoswami, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (24:42):
Maybe.
I mean, I wouldn't be opposed tothat, but I think it's more
likely to be Rubio.
Now, if if Vivek ends up beinggovernor of Ohio and doing a
great job there, then maybe.
But I don't know.
I've seen too much scuttle buttabout Vance Rubio.

SPEAKER_03 (24:59):
So yeah, I don't think that means anything.
It's too early.
We'll see what happens.
I guarantee you people will bedisappointed in Rubio.
That always happens.
There's gonna be somethingpeople will be all up in their
arms on.

SPEAKER_01 (25:11):
I don't know.
So far he's done an excellentjob and really changed his.

SPEAKER_03 (25:15):
Well, certainly a better job than a lot of other
Trump appointees.
I would I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 (25:20):
Uh from the previous administration, yes.
The only Trump appointee I havea problem with right now is
Bondi.

SPEAKER_03 (25:26):
I don't like Bondi.
I don't like what Bon Gino'swent into a complete black hole.
We've seen nothing from him.
I don't like what um I disagreewith that.
Well, but lay them away.

SPEAKER_01 (25:41):
Like they've done some pretty good crime
crackdowns.
Now they're not doing exactlywhat we want them to do, but
they're they've done a lot.
They've re the FBI has reopenedthe whole pipe bomb thing from
January 6th, and I think they'regonna get to the bottom of that.
You know, we've we've seen a lotof that.

SPEAKER_03 (25:59):
Yeah, that's not what I wanted the FBI to be
doing.
What I wanted is to have the FBIbe fired and then brand new
people brought in.
Like that would have beenactually doing what they talked
about, both of those guys, bothBangino and the Indian dude.
You know what?
The if you watch both of thoseguys' appearances on shows prior

(26:24):
to their announcements of theiroffices, you you tend to get a
feel for oh, well, this is whathis big hot topics are, that's
what he wants focusing on, thisis why Trump wants to bring him
in, and instead, what you get isbasically we're just gonna do
what the previousadministration's been doing.

(26:45):
There are more loyal exactly thewhole damn FBI could have been
fired by now.
There have been more court caseswhere the current
administration's Department ofJustice is trying to fight for
the policies of the previousadministration's ATF.

(27:06):
Like, why didn't they just dropthose suits?
Why didn't they they keepbringing in lawsuits to try and
get rid of of the uh the theresetting triggers?
They got lawsuits for thatagain, they've got lawsuits
against bump stocks again.
What the fuck?
Which administration are weunder here?
Because the Justice Departmentis basically being run as though

(27:27):
it's still run by the previousadministration.
I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 (27:32):
Well, there is a duty that you know.

SPEAKER_03 (27:37):
If you have a bad lawsuit, you have no duty to
keep pushing on it.

SPEAKER_01 (27:42):
Well, or you do it in such a way that the good guys
end up winning and then you geta subtle precedent.

SPEAKER_03 (27:52):
The precedent should be them filing with courts for
dismissal and the fact that theywere wrong previously in the
previous administration.
It it is ridiculous that they'repushing on policies that are
contrary to what the people thatelected the president believe.
It'd be the same as basicallyTrump running on the marijuana

(28:13):
is not a bad thing, it's allgood, and then he's in office,
but his department of uh foodand drug administration is out
there trying to increase thenumber of people caught and
sentenced for marijuana.
Really?
Because that's who elected you.
So I'm not a happy camper onthat.
I think the ATF today isabsolutely identical to the ATF

(28:37):
a year ago.
There's been zero change, eventhough allegedly, you know,
they've come in to clean housebecause that's what they were
all talking about.
Okay, well, they're either doinga shitty job or they lied to us.
One or the other.

SPEAKER_01 (28:56):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (29:02):
This is too important an issue just to say,
well, they're just doing theirjobs.
They're just, you know, they'rejust sticking with what they
need to do.
No, bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 (29:19):
Well, we'll we'll see.
But I really hope that we seemore people get fired from the
government through thisshutdown.
Like that's what I would reallylike to see, and I don't
understand why we haven't seenthat.

SPEAKER_03 (29:39):
Well, that's another thing.
Yeah.
I totally agree with you.
Because right now the I all Ikeep hearing is that no one's
losing their jobs.

SPEAKER_01 (29:49):
Uh the the thing about the shutdown that I think
has really woken everybody up isthe number of people on Snap
benefits.

SPEAKER_03 (29:57):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (29:59):
Yep.
Well, you see them at the likefive million people.

SPEAKER_03 (30:03):
If you actually go to the grocery store, you see it
all the time.
It's the people that have twocarts with them when they're
checking out.
Always.
Every time.
That you wait, you're behindsomebody who's got two carts you
go through and they're payingwith snap.

SPEAKER_00 (30:16):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (30:17):
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know, man.
It's it's what?

SPEAKER_01 (30:25):
You're siloning.

SPEAKER_03 (30:26):
Uh-oh.
Well, that's not good.
Am I still siloning?

SPEAKER_01 (30:32):
Yes.

SPEAKER_03 (30:34):
Well, let me pause it.
I don't know if the if it'srecording that way or if you're
just hearing it that way.
Alright.
So sounds like I'm not silentanymore, right?

SPEAKER_01 (30:44):
We fixed it.

SPEAKER_03 (30:45):
Yeah, hopefully.
I'll say that.
Fixed.
So, yeah, what were we talkingabout?
Oh, just the slow pace ofprogress.
I'm not super happy with.

SPEAKER_01 (30:56):
It's slow in some areas, very fast in others.

SPEAKER_03 (31:00):
Yeah, like I like the speed with which Trump is
signing executive orders.
I generally like the directionthat things are moving.
I'm not a fan of specificagencies moving way too slow to
reform.
Yeah.
And that's where I feel like alot of like.

(31:22):
And I I I honestly think thatthis is just the people in those
agencies being much better atdragging heels than the people
that came in with Trump are ableto control them.
You know, we're we're seeingwe're basically seeing the deep

(31:45):
state, if you want to call itthat, or just the professional
bureaucrats, whatever way youwant to describe them, of doing
a much better job of just actinglike a like a union who's been
given a work slow order.
You know, like they're stilldoing their jobs, but they're

(32:06):
just not listening to whatthey're being told to do.
This is the same kind of shitthat was happening the first
administration with Trump, wherehe was telling his military
advisors and generals they needto figure out a way to pull out
of Afghanistan.
And they were telling him, yep,yep.
And meanwhile, no one wasactually doing anything about

(32:27):
it.
There's nothing being preppedfor that pullout.
Like they knew they were justgonna ignore Trump.
I feel like that's stillhappening in a lot of
administrative off departmentsright now.
Okay.
Not good.

SPEAKER_02 (32:42):
Agree.

SPEAKER_03 (32:44):
Not good.
So what else happening?

SPEAKER_01 (32:53):
Well, the Dodgers apparently won and the city
burned.
Yeah, I thought the world wassupposed to end when that
happens.

SPEAKER_03 (33:00):
No shit.
Right.
Yeah, that is crazy.
Speaking of cities burning, youwant to talk about Mundami?

SPEAKER_01 (33:16):
Sure.

SPEAKER_03 (33:17):
So I told you I think my position on Mundami is
I'm absolutely a big supporter.
I think he needs to win NewYork.
I think there is no faster wayto make New Yorkers start seeing
the light than to put him incharge.

SPEAKER_01 (33:38):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (33:39):
What's your take?

SPEAKER_01 (33:45):
I don't think he's gonna burn it down like that.
Really?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (33:50):
But what do you think?
You by putting in city-ownedshops to control food by locking
in all rental properties to berent controlled moving forward,
you don't think that's gonnamake a change in New York?

SPEAKER_01 (34:04):
I don't think he's actually gonna do that, though.

SPEAKER_03 (34:07):
So you just think these are all just things he
says, but he won't actuallyimplement, so it's not gonna
make a big difference.
Well, if he's not gonnaimplement them, then who cares
if he's in?
It's not gonna make a I mean,you know, like I don't see a
negative for him winning here.
Either he's gonna really fuckthings up, which is good, or

(34:27):
nothing will change in New York,and it doesn't really matter who
the mayor of New York is becauseit runs by itself anyway.
It's certainly not gonna be aRepublican that wins.
It's not gonna be anybody that'sgonna reform New York for the
positive that's gonna win.
So given that, I think the bestchance of New York actually

(34:52):
getting how do I phrase it?
Fuck around, find out find out.
The best chance of getting thatis going to be having him in
office.
Well, we'll see.
I I I know you've said thatthree times now.
We'll see.
Yes, you have an opinion aboutthis?
You don't think he's the rightguy?
You you agree with me?

(35:12):
What's your take?

SPEAKER_01 (35:16):
What's my take on what?

SPEAKER_03 (35:18):
Do you agree with me that Modami is probably the best
person to be elected in NewYork?

SPEAKER_01 (35:25):
I think he'll tear it down in a way, but I don't
think he's gonna be as drasticas most people think.

SPEAKER_03 (35:32):
You think he's gonna be more like an Obama?
Correct.
Who was not nearly as sort ofliberal-minded as the people
that thought they were votingfor somebody like that.
Like Obama was very centrist,not as much as Bill Gates.
Bill, I was gonna say BillGates, as much as Bill Clinton.

(35:52):
Bill Clinton was about ascentrist a president as we've
ever had.
There's definitely plenty Icomplain about him on, but also
compared to even compared toObama, but certainly compared to
his wife and her policies, BillClinton was really pretty
moderate.

SPEAKER_01 (36:13):
Well, Bill Clinton, by today's standards, is a
conservative.

SPEAKER_03 (36:18):
Well, yes, that's true too.
That is a good point.
But he was he was absolutelyless liberal in his policies
than the last liberal presidentwe had before him, Jimmy Carter.

SPEAKER_01 (36:30):
Agreed.

SPEAKER_03 (36:32):
So I don't know.
I I think that one of thelessons that you teach children
with is that if they insist onsaying that dirt tastes like ice
cream, and you're saying don'teat dirt, at some point you say,
okay, you think dirt tastes likeice cream?
Go ahead.
Eat the dirt, you'll find out.

SPEAKER_00 (36:56):
Okay.

SPEAKER_03 (36:57):
So I don't know.
Most people would say that's apretty out there take, but
sounds like you're actually onthe same same wavelength as me
on this one.

SPEAKER_01 (37:11):
I I I don't know, man.
I just I'm ready to see it allburned down.

SPEAKER_03 (37:16):
Yeah, and that's what I'm saying is that like
when when we're the onespreventing them from burning
themselves down, maybe it's timewe stop trying to prevent them
from burning themselves down.

SPEAKER_01 (37:28):
I okay.
You're not gonna get a bigargument from me on that.

SPEAKER_03 (37:33):
No, okay, well, good, good.
I mean, I just I want something.
I want the either an agreementor a disagreement, but you're
kind of like, yeah, we'll see.
We'll see.
Yeah, we will see.
We don't know.
That's you know, we're justwe're I think we're pretty good
at predicting, but we're notgreat at predicting, so we will
see.
We don't know what's gonnahappen.
But I just I don't want to tryand argue against Mandani.

(37:57):
I I think this is what New Yorkwants.
Let New York have it, let themfigure out what the end result
of having it actually is.
What I don't want to do is stepin and save New York after the
fact.
It's like, oh, you guys dug yourhole, now dig yourselves back
out of it.
We don't need to come in andrescue your ass.
Just like California.

(38:18):
Like, we don't need to spend anymoney on California.
Fuck them.
They've made their mess, theycan figure out a way to pay for
it.
I'm I'm a you know, let letpeople live the way they want
to.
As long as they don't expectanything from me.

SPEAKER_01 (38:38):
Well, but that's the problem.
They do, and they will.

SPEAKER_03 (38:40):
Well, they do, but it doesn't mean you can you have
to give it to them.
Yeah.
You know, it's kind of like thesame thing with people that
insist on building houses in afloodplain.
Like, you know, you can buildthere.
I'm not I'm not gonna tellpeople that they can't build in
the floodplain.

(39:01):
I'm just gonna say no one'sgonna bail you out.
So it's your risk.
If you have the money to build awhole a home in a risky area,
but you really like the way itlooks, I don't see a problem
with that.
Do it.
Just don't expect somebody tobail you out.

SPEAKER_01 (39:21):
Agreed.
I I again I think that we oughtto we ought to allow people to
do whatever the hell they wantwithout any expectations from
us.

SPEAKER_03 (39:35):
I exactly and so that's kind of my my rationale
for thinking Mondani actually isthe right person to run New
York.
Because that's I I think thisallows them to do all the things
that they've been saying.
Well, if only we could do this,then we'll have a better world.

(39:59):
Okay.
You want a socialist, you want aMuslim, do it.

SPEAKER_01 (40:03):
I I just I don't want to but these are the same
people saying that realcommunism has never been tried.

SPEAKER_03 (40:10):
Yeah, so let him try it.
I'm all for it.
Let's let's say he is a realcommunist and let's have him do
it.
Let's do it.
What I am opposed to is peoplefor national offices being
radicals.
Like if he ran for Senate, Iwould absolutely be against it.
But if he wants to run for NewYork City, I'm all for it.

SPEAKER_00 (40:31):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (40:36):
Okay, I'm I'm I can't disagree.

SPEAKER_03 (40:39):
Yeah.
Well, it's uh we'll see if ithappens.
I suspect there's there's been alot of articles about how you
know, oh, he's got all thesenegative things that are
happening.
Uh I still think he's gonna win.
I I really think he's way toopopular with the average person
that's gonna vote in New York.
He's way too popular fornumerous reasons.

(41:02):
One, he's brown looking, two,he's a socialist, he's not
afraid to use the same word thatBernie uses.
Three, he's a Muslim, which ofcourse everybody knows that
Muslim are the smallest, mostthreatened group in the world
that everybody needs to save.
So, for those three reasons, Ithink he's a shoe in.

SPEAKER_01 (41:26):
Okay.
Well, we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 (41:29):
Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (41:32):
We will.
I I think he is a shoe-inbecause I think the other circum
split the vote, and I don'tthink that's gonna make any
difference.
So, yeah, I agree with you therethat he's a shoe-in.
I don't think he should be.
I think this is ridiculous.
I don't think he's gonna doeverything he says, but you know
what?
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe he goes and doeseverything he says, and if he
does that, then you know, likeone stat I saw in New York, the

(41:57):
top one percent pay fortypercent of the tax revenue in
New York.

SPEAKER_03 (42:02):
That's why Rush left.

SPEAKER_01 (42:04):
I mean, it's gonna that will destroy New York
overnight.

SPEAKER_03 (42:07):
Yeah.
Well, it's I think New York hashad a habit of losing companies
and people for many years.
I don't know much about theirfinances.
I know that New York courts areextremely crooked, but you know,
that may be one way to fund thecity is simply to have your
courts extort people for massiveamounts of money.

(42:31):
But certainly I can't imagineanyone wanting to live in New
York if they make any any kindof real money.
Of course, I say that, and and Ihave friends that live in
California, and I have relativesthat live in New York.
So what the fuck?

(42:52):
I can't imagine why either groupdoes that, and I've told them
both, you know, if you left,you'd have so much more money,
but I guess they just like thescenery.
And the bagels are pretty goodin New York.

SPEAKER_01 (43:06):
I don't know why anyone would want to live in New
York.
Like the New York has zeroappeal to me.
I hate every time I go there.
Yep, yep.
But you know.

SPEAKER_03 (43:16):
Yeah.
I mean, like, yes, the pizza'sgood, yes, the bagels are good,
but that ain't enough.
You're paying such a crazy wagefor that.
And I don't just mean financial,like the quality of life is
worse there.
Everything's worse there.
Uh traffic, dude.
When I when I was therebeginning of the year, I didn't

(43:37):
realize that the frickin' speedlimit in all of Manhattan is 25
miles an hour.
How?
How do people live with a 25mile an hour speed limit?
That's basically walking speed.
You know, I mean, it's crazy.
No, it's not, dude.
It's it's not.
I know it's not, unless you'rean African athlete.

(43:58):
But still, it's it is super slowbecause it's not just 25 mile an
hour speed limit, it's also thaton top of that, there's usually
like 20 out of 24 hours in aday, there's also traffic, which
slows it down further.
So your your 40-minute Uber ridetook you four miles.

SPEAKER_01 (44:18):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (44:19):
That and I'm not exaggerating that.
I literally took multiple onesof that from Manhattan to
Queens, and it was usually abouthalf hour to 45 minutes to go
four miles.
If I was in better shape, Iwould just fucking walk.

SPEAKER_01 (44:36):
Well, you know, that's that can certainly be a
problem.
I mean, but it unfortunatelyit's not just New York that has
stuff like that.
Like, I was just in Atlanta lastweek, and Atlanta going to the
airport at 3:30 in the afternoontook an hour from Buckhead.
It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 (44:57):
Yep.
Yeah.
And that's this is this is againpart of that whole liberal
agenda of like, well, we need toget people to use cars less.
So you do that by just slowingeverybody down so everything
takes longer?
Is that the idea?
It's crazy.

(45:18):
I don't uh I don't understandit, but you know, again, this is
like a preference thing.
I get it.
Not everyone's gonna have thesame preferences.
I I prefer to leave to live in astate that has a lot more
freedom and much higher speedlimits.
Not everybody does, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 (45:40):
So I like the 80 mile an hour speed limits in
Texas.

SPEAKER_03 (45:44):
Yeah, I mean they ought to be 100, but yeah.
Let's talk about Texas.
So Texas has a new law that'salready been passed and
everything that kicks in January1st that is an ID law for
purchases of apps on your phone.
Are you aware of this?

SPEAKER_01 (46:04):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (46:05):
Yeah.
So that's the Texas ageverification law.
Starts on January 1st, requiresID for purchases of any apps
from an app store on eitherAndroid or Apple or any other
platform.
It's a clearly a law designed tokeep children safe and to ensure

(46:27):
that uh anyone that has accessto applications is at least 18
years old.
It's uh SB2420 if you want tolook it up.
Actually, why did we allow thatto pass?
I sent you a link to it, Ithink, earlier today.
So you can find it in there.

(46:47):
Why did we allow it to pass?
Well, I'd not heard of it forone, up until I saw that this
article today.
So I wasn't even aware of it.
I totally understand why theydid it, is because it's not an
article.
Good point.
But you could look up the SB2420Texas, and it should pull it up.

(47:13):
But it's a.

SPEAKER_01 (47:44):
What's gonna happen is a kid's gonna get their
parents' ID and just scan thatin.

SPEAKER_03 (47:49):
Yeah, and what it's meant to do is basically to say
if you're under 18, you can onlydownload apps by using the
parental group.
Or what I don't know what it'scalled in Android, but you know
what I mean.
Like you can have an accountthat has shared apps that you
can select which ones otherpeople have access to.

(48:09):
Family plan, whatever the hellit's called.
Yeah, so that's what it's meantfor.
I'm sure there was a specialinterest group that was driving
this that was all about protectthe children, you know, save the
children's.
That's what a lot of laws getpassed under that guys.
I'm not a fan of thistechnology.

SPEAKER_00 (48:27):
Oh well, someone think of the children.

SPEAKER_03 (48:29):
Yeah, but this is but this, I think, is right
along in line with Texas havinga requirement for adult content
websites to also validate IDsfor anyone that goes looks at
porn in Texas.
The problem is, not all websitesare complying with that.
All the big ones are.

SPEAKER_01 (48:54):
We can have that conversation offline.

SPEAKER_03 (48:57):
No, uh people are uh people want to know, they want
information here.
Really?
Do you think there's websitesthat are not complying with
this?
Uh I yes.
Without using a VPN, correct.
Like, okay, I I haven't seen anyeverything I've seen, not that I
go to a whole bunch of pornsites, but you know, I go to a
couple, but there's you know,they instantly know if you're

(49:18):
coming in from Texas based onyour IP address, and they will,
or I guess on your phone, ifyou're coming in from your
phone, they they have other waysto know where you're coming
from, and they will pop up thelittle you have to register or
sign on or approve age.
Again, not a fan of laws likethat because these are laws that

(49:43):
are meant to keep kids off theinternet, but at the same time,
they are okay.
I see Ben is starting to providelike a list of 25 porn websites,
so don't check it.
Good to know, Ben.
Holy shit, that's a long list.
Oh my god.
Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_01 (50:00):
I did you too.

SPEAKER_03 (50:02):
Yes, let's call that two, shall we?
Okay, fine.
Yes.
Ben Ben just told me one site atthis point, uh, but yeah.
Anyway, point I'll have to gothrough that list later.
Point being that there's like weall know how these things
happen, right?
People do the old, well, this isthe only way we can keep kids

(50:24):
safe.
So the little trouble that youhave as a result of it is worth
it.
If you can just save one childfrom seeing porn, then all the
adults should have to prove whothey are.
The problem with it is that howdo you prove who you are, right?
The only way to really dupe toprove that you're an adult is

(50:45):
with a document that shows yourage and can be validated.
And I'm not aware of anydocuments that have an age that
would be a validated typedocument that doesn't have all
the other information about you,right?
Like your name, McCloven.
So from Hawaii.

(51:06):
So consequently, if you'rerequired to prove your age,
you're basically providing allactual personal information to
that party.
Not made up bullshit phonyinformation, which you can use
if it's not a validated thing,but they're basically, and by

(51:27):
the way, X is doing this aswell.
If you want to get a We areheaded to the ID and
requirements, yeah, we'reheading to internet ID is where
it's going, and it's obviousit's gonna go there.
And this is, I think, a naturalevolution of the internet.
I was around in the very earlypre-private internet days, and

(51:47):
then saw it change from that tothe commercialization to the the
period that Ben always likes toremember back of all the porn
pop-up ads when in his youth,which must have been it was bad
enough for adults like me, butit was must have been just
horrendous for kids, becauseyou're just getting bombarded
with stuff that you really haveno business to be looking at.

(52:09):
You know, in my day, like havingone of your buddies say, Hey, I
got a I got a copy of a Playboy,and then like that's gonna get
shared amongst a whole bunch ofboys to look at because it's so
rare and hard to get your handson it, is very different than
what Ben experience said thatsame age.

SPEAKER_01 (52:29):
I I was exposed to way too much, way too early.

SPEAKER_03 (52:32):
No doubt.
Right.
So consequently, now thependulum's swinging the other
direction where you know they'recatching up with all of that and
then going well beyond to apoint where, oh, did you want to
use the internet?
Okay, here, just put yourfingerprint in here so we can
validate that you actually arethis adult person and you have

(52:56):
paid your taxes and everythingelse, and you're now allowed to
look in the internet.
This is the direction we'regoing.
It's it's eerily similar to whatChina has: a social credit score
type system based on which youwill be either allowed or denied
access to a variety of things.

SPEAKER_01 (53:14):
And this is why we need better discoverability
inside the Tor system.

SPEAKER_03 (53:21):
Sure.
Even though the Tor was alwaysset up by the US government for
tracking, but okay.

SPEAKER_01 (53:26):
Sure, but they're not going to admit to that.

SPEAKER_03 (53:32):
They've all been admitted to it, dude.
I mean, there have been so manyarticles published about this.
It's it's funny.
It's funny.
All it all Tor does is create asecond internet layer for people
that like to think that they'rebeing sneaky.

SPEAKER_01 (53:50):
That's really okay.
I mean, as long as you're notdoing something downright
illegal on there, I'm justsaying.
Well, that's my point.
We should normalize the use ofthat as an alternative to these
states.

SPEAKER_03 (54:03):
It just adds all this extra bandwidth and sl it's
fucking slow.
That's the other issue.
Like, you're not gonna bebreaking any speed records going
through Tor.
It's basically dragging you downto speeds of the internet 20
years ago.
So I'm not a fan of Tor.
I I think that I I have too manymemories of the old internet to

(54:31):
want to use the alternateinternet because the current
internet is fucked up.
So I don't know.
It's pretty bad.
What else you want to talkabout?

SPEAKER_01 (54:52):
Well the government shut down.
We haven't really touched onthat, but yeah.
I've gone through is IAH isshutting down all but two
security checkpoints as oftoday.
Okay.
So for instance, if I my luckilymy trip to DC got canceled, so

(55:13):
I'm not going traveling nextweek.
But you know, if you let's sayyou're flying United, which is
the main carrier outside of, youknow, out of Houston, I have to
go to C to check my bag, andthen I have to go to terminal E
to go through security.

SPEAKER_02 (55:32):
It's a pain in the butt.

SPEAKER_01 (55:33):
Only A and E will have security.
And let me remind everyone thatthe Senate has voted multiple
times to pay the military, airtraffic controllers, TSA, and to
fund SNAP.
And the Democrats are stillsaying no.

SPEAKER_03 (55:52):
Yeah, because they're they're gonna just I
mean, I'm I'm very two-minded inthis.
One one is they're they're justfucking over their own base.
The flip side of it is I lovethe fact that it's the Democrats
that are the ones responsiblefor curbing government services.
Because I think curbinggovernment services is a good

(56:14):
thing.
Oh, I agree.
I'd love for this to just go onfor a year.
Just just nah, let's just shutdown the whole government for a
year, see what happens.
Do we really need a governmentif it's shut down for a year?

SPEAKER_01 (56:25):
This is this reminds me of privatize TSA and air
traffic.

SPEAKER_03 (56:29):
There you go.
This reminds me of somethingthat happened in when I was
living in Minnesota.
You remember Jesse Ventura, theuh wrestler turned governor of
Minnesota.
He was he was kind of a bull inthe China shop in in certain
ways, not super effective in alot of things, because again,

(56:50):
the you know, the local deepstate in Minnesota had known how
to keep him from messing withtoo much stuff.
But one of the things that hedid was very interesting.
So Minnesota was a leader inimplementing ramp meter lights
in its state.
It did it first, it did it toeverything.

(57:13):
So when you have an entry ontothe highway, a ramp on the
highway, every one of thoseramps had a little light.
And you still have these inCalifornia, you still have these
in quite a few places, to wherethis was a traffic management
system basically that wassupposed to be monitoring the
level of traffic on the highwayand then modulating how many

(57:35):
people are allowed to enter thehighway at per hour by having
these red, yellow, green lightson traffic on the highway ramps
that would then change the speedwith which they would allow cars
to enter the highway.
You've got to have beensomewhere where they have these,

(57:56):
right?

SPEAKER_01 (57:57):
Yeah, it was just in Georgia and Atlanta, they have
it.

SPEAKER_03 (58:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So a lot of states got them, butMinnesota was one of the first.
They started doing this in the70s.
And by the time Jesse Venturawas in office, which was in the
90s, they had these on literallyevery single ramp on the
highways and between highways.

(58:20):
So when you exit one highway toget onto another highway,
generally you had to stop andthen accelerate again on the
ramp because there was a lightthere anytime you switch
highways as well.
And this was considered to be agood thing that helped keep
traffic moving.

(58:40):
So one of the things that Jessewas always this was one of the
things he complained about whenhe was campaigning to run for
office, was that this was stupidand this whole government system
is, you know, the the trafficcontrols are they all they do is
make things worse.
And so he managed to get thelegislature during his term to

(59:02):
pass a bill that would require atest of the system that he then
signed into law, which wouldshut down all these traffic uh
signals, all the uh the ramplights, I should say, not
general traffic, but shut downall the ramp signals for a
one-month period and thenmeasure the traffic levels on

(59:23):
the all the highways.
Democrats all thought this is agod-awful idea, it's gonna cause
collisions and catastrophesalong the routes.
The Republicans, for the mostpart, were agreeing with the
Democrats, but saying, look,it's probably worth a test,
right?
The last test we ran was in the70s, it's been 20 years, let's
do another test of the system.

(59:45):
And much to not really asurprise to me, what they found
was when they deactivated all ofthose, a number of things became
obvious.
Number one, the duration oftraffic on highways.
Was cut by about half an hour inthe morning and about 40 minutes
in the afternoon.
Which means that your speedsunder the speed limit on the

(01:00:11):
highway became were for ashorter duration per day than
they had been with the lights.
That was one of the things theyfound.
The second thing they found wasthat when you don't have these
artificial slowing down kind ofbarriers in place, people can
more effectively judge whichroute is the fastest to go from

(01:00:34):
point A to point B.
And when the highway startedgetting busier with traffic,
people simply took the serviceroads.
Yeah, more people just went ontothe service roads.
If you have no idea what thehighway is like, because you're
sitting at a forced light to getonto anywhere, no matter what,

(01:00:55):
more people just tended to juststick to the one highway and not
go on any other service roads.
And so it actually decreased theamount of traffic that people
experienced overall.
And the net effect of this isone of Jesse Venture's legacies,
is that after that test wascomplete, they started taking

(01:01:15):
down these lights, and it was amulti-year process to get rid of
all of them.
But I think what was left was ahandful, maybe 20 or 30 of these
traffic control lights at likearound the airport and a few
other areas.
But for the most part, theyprobably got rid of several
thousand of these ramp lights asa result of that test.

(01:01:35):
And this just goes to show youthat sometimes common sense can
win, but it has to be given achance to compete.
And I think this is somethingthat we need to not forget in
Texas as well.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:50):
Well, I think again, this is why it's important to
vote Tuesday, regardless of whatstate you're in.
I I will say that common sensethe only way we keep the
politicians in check is byvoting and making sure that we
support politicians that likeBrandon Herrera.

(01:02:16):
I I truly think he will be oneof the good ones when he gets in
there.
And unfortunately, what we needto remember is what the election
that's gonna matter for him isthe primary next year.
So everybody's gotta go out.
You know, if you live in thatdistrict, please vote for him.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:39):
Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:40):
I would love to, but no, I don't want to live in
that.

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:45):
I I should really look at more carefully on what
the uh actual border area of hisdistrict is to see if there is a
place that would that I couldmove to.

SPEAKER_01 (01:02:56):
I mean, what do you mean?
You don't want to be in SanAntonio?

SPEAKER_03 (01:02:59):
Well, I mean San Antonio here's the thing.
San Antonio is certainly cheaperthan Austin, but it's not that
cheap.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:05):
And no, it's not, and it's not it there are parts
of San Antonio that are great.
I know people who live in SanAntonio.
I have spent a lot of time inSan Antonio.
I I just don't like any bigcity.

SPEAKER_03 (01:03:20):
I would totally move to San Antonio for a job.
I don't have anything againstthe city, but moving there just
for a vote for somebody, I wouldrather I'd rather do what I
discussed, which is totallylegal.
I checked into it, right?
I can get a second residence andthen make that my primary
residence and still keep thisresidence.

(01:03:42):
You can own more than one housein Texas.
You just have right.
So, and I wouldn't even mindliving there more than well,
more than half a year.
But the point is, you know, if Iwas to just move to a single
other place in San Antonio, Iwould have to tie that somehow
to financial gain, like a jobthat would pay me a decent

(01:04:04):
amount.
Or like uh, even if I'm acontractor, right, for a client
that's in San Antonio where Icould benefit from being at that
client's location for anextended period of time and not
just somebody I work with forthree months and I'm done.
Like I would have no issues atall moving to San Antonio, but
you know, I don't want to justgo through that rigmarole purely

(01:04:31):
to take a vote or to vote oncefor for somebody in the primary.
Well, I guess twice.
I vote for them in the electionas well.
But yeah, Republicans kind ofwin those elections anyway,
there.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:41):
So oh whoever wins the primary is gonna win the
election.

SPEAKER_03 (01:04:44):
Yeah, yeah.
Now, related to his electionthere, I don't know how much of
this is true or not, but onething we do know is that there
does seem to be a little bit ofa a little eyebrow-raising
something going on with TonyGonzalez, the guy he's running
against, because we found out anumber of months back that a
staffer for Tony Gonzalez hadset fire.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:07):
What?
A married staffer.

SPEAKER_03 (01:05:09):
Yeah, yeah, she had caught fire.
Which was a bizarre story,regardless of where this person
was, but given that it turnedout to be she was a staffer for
Tony Gonzalez, and now there areallegations that they were
having an affair, it's veryinteresting, and I hopefully
this is something that can helpBrandon as well, even if not any

(01:05:32):
more real information comes out.
Just the whole question of likewhat the hell's going on, what
what would cause somebody tocatch fire?
That's not a that's not a commonscenario.
Not yet, not so far, but younever know, right?
Now, of course, I know what theuh the current Republican Party

(01:05:54):
leadership, like Nick Fuentes,would say.
Well, clearly she had a Jewpager.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:59):
All right, now what else could it be?
Nick Fuentes is the Republicanleadership.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:04):
It sure seems that way if you're on X.
I mean, that's that it's itfeels like he's the new head of
the Republican Party.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:10):
I don't know, man.
You know, here in Texas, guysare getting sheriff's
departments going to people'shomes for posts they put online.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:17):
As well, they should.
Absolutely.
If your post is I'm going tokill this person and everybody
out to go kill them, I thinkthat's probably worth checking
into.
And I've said for a long time,we need more asylums.
We need more advisors.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:35):
What's that?
The agricultural secretary saysthat he's been directed by Trump
to use the emergency, the fivebillion dollar emergency fund to
pay SNAP benefits.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:45):
I don't uh I don't think that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:48):
Well, it may be politically.
If Trump can take credit, theycan't.

SPEAKER_03 (01:06:54):
You're gonna have black people basically saying
the damn Republicans are theonly ones paying us and the
Democrats will pay us.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:00):
Yep.
I I taking away their voter baseone at a time.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:04):
Ah, I'm just not a fan of that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:06):
It's normal, but I think that's the play.

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:10):
Yeah, I guess.
I guess that makes sense, but Ijust I don't like that type of
scenario.
Yeah.
So that was just now, okay.
Well, well, I guess once again,we shall see what that brings in
terms of end result.

(01:07:30):
And I'm sure that there've beenpeople that have done all the
predictability.
What is what's that website thatthat has all the betting stuff
going on?
They seem to always know theanswer.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:41):
There's several of them.
What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 (01:07:42):
The I don't know.
There's a big one that everybodyfollows.
Like it, you know, they takebets for literally anything, and
so you can kind of figure outwhere the mood swings of people
are.
Polymarkets.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:56):
So I'm curious to see what polymarkets what
there's also call she andothers.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:02):
I don't know that one.
Polymarkets, the only one thatI've seen consistently be
mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:07):
Polymarkets, call she, and predicted are the big
three.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:11):
Okay.
I I'm only aware of thepolymarkets one, but I'll have
to check out the other ones.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:17):
Yeah, so there's a right now, like Polymarket has
when will the governmentshutdown and the leader there is
November 4th to 7th, basicallysaying as soon as the election's
over.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:32):
Oh.
Huh.
I guess I could see that.
I don't I don't see how that's awin for Democrats, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:40):
We'll see.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08:42):
I mean, it's kind of like what'sthe do they really think that
that not having the governmentoperating is going to make more
people vote Democrat?
I don't see how that helps them.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:00):
Well, it it depends.
See, so far, the average personhas not had any impact from
this.
Now, with the stuff like isgoing on at IAH, it's gonna
start impacting people, andpeople are gonna get pissed off.
So then it becomes okay, who dothey blame that on?

(01:09:20):
Do they blame it on theDemocrats or the Republicans?
Yeah, yeah, I could see that.
So we'll see.
Yeah, so it was interesting.
While I was at the conference, Iwas talking uh dinner and
saying, you know, I actually thegovernment can stay shut down
for as long as it wants, as faras I'm concerned.

(01:09:40):
And this guy who works for CISAwas like, Well, I would
eventually like a paycheck.
And I said, Well, then work forthe private sector.
And young liberal guy, and heand I started going off.

SPEAKER_03 (01:09:50):
Um that that would be fun to watch.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:53):
Well, the one of the guys at the table said, Y'all
should have recorded this as apodcast.
Like, there were people watchingus going back and forth, like
when I was debating the worstpresidents with him, you know,
what the states' rights andeverything else.
Civil War came up, but all thetalking points.
So it was it was interesting.
He he did agree with me thatGeorge W.

(01:10:14):
Bush was a bad president, butfor totally different reasons.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:18):
Okay.
Well, so was there a point hewas making about the shutdown
one way or the other?

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:25):
No, he he he just wants his paycheck, dude.
Oh, okay.
He deserves his paycheck.
Work for the private sector.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:32):
Yeah, I mean, why would he get a paycheck if he's
not working?

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:39):
Well, he is working.

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:41):
Is he?
Why is he working for free?
That doesn't make sense either.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:46):
Well, the what do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 (01:10:49):
Well, either he's working or he's not working.
If he's working and not gettingpaid, then he's working for
free.
Why would you work for free?
Because you want unemployment.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:58):
Well, except they're furloughed, not fired.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:02):
So furloughed means you're not working.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:04):
Or you are considered essential working for
CISA, and you have to.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:10):
Well, then you're not furloughed, then you're
working.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:13):
Correct.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:14):
But if you're working and you're not getting
paid, that's illegal.
No, it isn't.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:19):
TSA.
TSA is working and not gettingpaid.
The U.S.
military armed forces are notgetting paid.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:24):
They are getting paid.
They're they have deferredpayments.
Nobody's like working and notgetting paid.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:30):
You're right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:31):
They get no one's just working for free and not
never getting paid for it unlessthey're a moron.

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:38):
But he's not getting his paycheck on the regular
basis.
Right.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:41):
So he has delayed paychecks, is what he's
complaining about.
And is he blaming the peoplethat he voted in for that?

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:47):
He didn't vote for I guarantee you he didn't vote for
Trump.

SPEAKER_03 (01:11:51):
Right, but it was not Trump's fault.
It's Democrats' fault.
That's what I'm saying.
Is he blaming the peopleresponsible for this or not?

SPEAKER_01 (01:11:59):
Or is he assuming it's Trump's fault?
He's assuming it's Trump'sfault.
He's totally got TDS, dude.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:05):
Yeah.
You can't you can't objectivelysay that it's Trump's fault,
because first of all, Trump hasnothing to do with agreement or
disagreement in the House.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:18):
You mean in the Senate?
The House has passed.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:20):
House has passed?
I thought the House is where itwas tied up.
No, it's the Senate.
Oh, okay.
Well fine.
The Senate.
So you like that's pre-Trump.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:28):
Yeah, which is why Trump is wanting them to go with
the nuclear option right now.

SPEAKER_03 (01:12:33):
Mm-hmm.
So I yeah.
It's funny.
But yeah, I mean, I get it.
Look, I've got a good friendthat uh that that works in the
Pentagon, same thing there.
You know, he's still working 12hour days without getting
getting this paycheck, which isannoying, I'm sure.

(01:12:57):
But it's not like he'll neverget paid for that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:05):
Well, it's uh And he absolutely is blaming the
Democrats.
See, I like I I'm even thepeople who are furloughed are
gonna get back pay.
Yeah.
Which I just cannot stand thatthat is the case.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:19):
Yeah, yeah.
It's it basically it's just paidvacation with a delayed payment.

unknown (01:13:24):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:13:24):
On top of all your other vacation that you're
getting anyway.
It's not it certainly isn't thesame thing as just being
expected to work for no money.

(01:13:48):
No.
That's that's my issue with it.
It's like it's it's thelanguage.
Again, it's just like redefiningwords.

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:57):
So did you see that Trump put uh additional
sanctions on Russia?

unknown (01:14:02):
No.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:02):
I but I'm not surprised.
I mean, what what else are theygonna do?
They they have no otherleverage, there's nothing there
they they can do.

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:10):
So well, the they have now they've now put
sanctions on the two additionaloil companies.
And they're about to dosecondary sanctions as well.
So I don't know.
I am shocked that the uh peacedeal in Israel is still holding.

SPEAKER_03 (01:14:31):
Well, it depends who you talk to, right?
Because depending on who youtalk to, a lot of people say
that it's been violated over andover since day one by Israel.
Because they keep shooting backwhen people are trying to shoot
at them.
It's amazing how that happens.
Yes.

(01:14:52):
So I don't know.
There's a there's a lot ofunhappy Israelis right now, I'll
tell you that.
There's also a lot of unhappyIsraelis with Vance.
Why?
Because he said something that Ithink isn't supposed to be said.
I mean, I don't care if he saidit, I have no issue with it, but
uh a lot of people seem to.
Which is that first of all, hesaid that he didn't deny that

(01:15:20):
Israel controls the USgovernment which I guess he was
people thought he should have.
I don't know.
That was a thing.
The other thing was that andthen he said, but this president
isn't controlled by Israel,implying that all the others

(01:15:40):
were.
And then the other thing hesaid, and uh you know, to get
this peace deal in place, Trumphad to uh push on the Israelis
to do what we told them to do,which I think is actually a good
thing that he said that, becauseit demonstrates something that's
I think 100% true.
Yeah, that's been always true,is that for as much as people

(01:16:02):
think you know Israel iscontrolling the US, it's always
been the other way around.
Like Israel always will do whatthe US wants Israel to do, and
that has been the case for 40years.
They may grumble about it, butthey'll freaking do it, they're
not gonna ignore what the UStells them to do.

(01:16:23):
And so there's certainly a lotmore truth in saying the US
controls Israel than saying thatIsrael controls the US.
But but Vance said this part outloud, and I think for a little
bit of the Israeli pride outthere, they didn't like hearing
that, and so there's like, well,you know, that's not a that

(01:16:46):
that's not something we want.
We don't want some other countrycontrolling our government.
So there's definitely somepeople pissed off at his
statements.
What's that?
Then be independent.
Exactly.
And and I wrote a thing, and I Ithink I afford you a copy of
what I wrote as well, uh, thatbasically said that is that you

(01:17:08):
know, I kind of talked through alittle bit about anti-Semitism
and what it is, and then I saidthe best thing that Israel can
do is stop buying Americanweapons because that's the only
part that US grants go towardscovering.
So the money that is quoteunquote going to Israel never
leaves the US.

(01:17:28):
It's just money that basicallypays US military industrial
complex for weapons that areshipped to Israel.

SPEAKER_01 (01:17:35):
Yeah.
We got a listener note.
Which one's this?
I it just came in.
It's on Mastodon.
So weenie wawa sent in a note.
It's been a while since we'veheard from him.
He writes, what can we do to getthe podcast back on the stream?
I never listened, I neverlistened to that, so I have no

(01:17:55):
idea why it was pulled, but it'simportant that it to be on
there.
Let Gene know I bought his robotCD music, and it doesn't sound
like any it doesn't sound anydifferent than any any music
with no soul currently made.
Exactly episodes behind.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:10):
He's absolutely right.
It is identical in sound toanything else out there, and
that's why I think it's great.
So I'm not claiming it soundsbetter, I'm just saying it's no
worse.

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:19):
You gotta you gotta at least one album.

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:21):
So yeah, awesome.
You know, it'll take 60 days forme to see what kind of payments.
Really?

SPEAKER_01 (01:18:27):
Is that long?

SPEAKER_03 (01:18:28):
Yeah, yeah, that's standard in they don't give you
any numbers up front becauseremember, it's not actually no,
they they don't.
It's all based on you knowaggregated monthly sales, and
then it's a month delayed afterthe end of the month, huh?
So it'll be a while, but I'm I'mgonna keep making them.
I enjoy the process, man.
And I think honestly, you know,I've said this to Ben privately

(01:18:51):
too.
I was like, dude, I can make ahundred albums off the Bible,
like there's so much materialthere.
It's it's a it's gonna getnumbered when you get down to
numbers.
It's a non-copyrighted work.
I know, right?
Numbers is gonna be aninteresting one, but it's a
non-copyrighted work that thathas a lot of poetry out there
too that you could do, and ithas a lot of uh built-in uh

(01:19:14):
interest, right?
So it's not an unknown book.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:18):
So I think it's a natural popular book ever
written.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:22):
Yeah, uh second only behind Atlas Shrugged, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (01:19:25):
So I think I think it's a copy of the Bible and
sold in any other book by a longshot.

SPEAKER_03 (01:19:31):
Well, if you consider the entirety of the
lifespan of the Bible, but uhthe for a period of time there
in the 60s, uh the AtlasShrugged outsold the Bible.
But anyway, neither here northere.
The point is it's a great sourceof material.
That's all I'm trying to say.
As far as off the stream, sothis is contentious because

(01:19:51):
there are people that are sayingthis is bullshit, we were never
pulled off the stream, we'restill on the stream.
There are other people saying wewere pulled off the stream, but
it wasn't CSB's fault, and thatDarren lied to Gene.
There are other people sayingthat Darren never said that we
were pulled off the stream orthat it was CSB's fault.
So there's a lot of confusion.
Here's my take is I almost neverto the stream listen to the

(01:20:15):
stream.
The only time obviously I don'tlisten to the stream enough to
know whether or not we've beenpulled off.
I'm going off of what peoplehave told us, and what they told
us is that we are no longer onthe stream.
And then when I asked Darrenabout it, he said that uh, you
know, it was must have been CSBthat responsible for that.

(01:20:36):
And I I don't know, and I don'tlike I'm not mad at CSB or
anything either, and I think CSBtotally denies that he's
responsible for anything, but uhI know he and Darren have now
gotten into a very contagiouskind of position where they I
think Darren's blocked him onevery platform now.

(01:20:57):
So, you know, drama drama.
Well, because CSB got mad at himfor saying that it was his
fault, and it's like I don'tknow.
All I know is CSB sends memessages to pass on to Darren.
I pass them on, I don't care.
You know, I I had blocked CSBfor a year if you remember back
on the other platform.
Yeah, yeah, and it was it was itwas because he got very

(01:21:20):
personally insultive when thewhole uh Ukrainian war started.
I was like, dude, I can argueabout the pros and cons of the
war and the history of thatregion, but I'm as soon as you
switched to just insulting me,there's no reason for me to
communicate with you.
It doesn't add anything to theargument.
So, you know, and that's why hewas blocked for a year, and I

(01:21:42):
unblocked him and he said thathe wouldn't insult me
personally.
And I was like, okay, fine, thenI have no problem talking to
you.
So, so first question is topeople that are listening to
this, do you even listen to theno agenda stream at all?
That's question number one.
You can all reply back to ususing the link in the podcast,
like you don't have to send usmoney, it's just the link.

SPEAKER_01 (01:22:04):
I I think people are thinking of it as a discovery
mechanism, but it's really theway the way people a lot of
stuff's been tried, but the waypeople find podcasts is by
someone telling them about thepodcast.
Exactly.
I listen to this and I reallyenjoy it.
And you know, so the best thingyou can do is go tell people
about the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 (01:22:23):
And all the podcast apps have a mechanism to send a
link to a podcast to somebodyelse.
Like you can for like if Idescribe, oh, I'm listening to
this right now, you should checkit out.
I don't have to just leave it upto that person to go and search
for it.
You can just use whatever appyou use for podcasts, and if
you're listening to ours, justthere's gotta be some button

(01:22:44):
there that you can click, somesome menu that you can drop down
that has a forward link to it.
Every app I've looked at hassome variant of that, and then
you just forward a link to thosepeople and say, Yeah, you should
check out this podcast.
Once they open up in theirs,then their own app will say, Oh,
did you want to subscribe tothis or just listen to us?
And that really is the best wayto spread it because uh a lot

(01:23:07):
more people are gonna beinterested in listening to
something that is personallyrecommended by a friend than
just some random mechanismthat's trying to shove something
into their face that they don'tknow anything about.
So good good point of that.
But anyway, my question was ifanyone listens to the stream, or

(01:23:27):
if you don't listen, let usknow.
Two, if you do listen, have youstill been hearing our podcasts
on the stream?
Yes or no?
And again, even that's notcategorical because people can
listen at times when it's notbeing played, so who the hell
knows?
So I guess the third question isif you've heard any of our
recent podcasts on the stream,then let us know that because I

(01:23:51):
don't listen enough to thestream.
The only time I usually have thestream running is during no
agenda, if I'm not doingsomething else when no agenda's
playing.
So I really don't listenotherwise.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:02):
I always just listen after on download.
Yeah, I don't do art.
I'm I it's you know not atconvenient times for me.

SPEAKER_03 (01:24:11):
So yeah.
So it's really even if we're noton there, it's just not that big
a deal.
But I also can't saycategorically that we're not on
there, it's just based on whatother people have mentioned.
So there you go.
There's that issue taken careof.
What else?

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:32):
Man, after traveling a lot and everything, that's
pretty much all I got.
All I can say is I I will giveone takeaway from the
conference.
It was nice not having a bunchof government people there
talking because of the shutdown.
So they had to cancel a bunch oftalks, which is fine.

SPEAKER_03 (01:24:51):
Oh, okay.
Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 (01:24:53):
Because normally at this conference, you've got a
lot of people from three letteragencies and everything else
around, right?
Like NSA directors have spokenat this conference many times
and stuff like that.
And I've had plenty ofcontentious arguments with them
at this conference.
It was nice because there was asudden lack of FUD.

SPEAKER_00 (01:25:14):
Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:16):
That's funny.
Like there were a couple peoplestill spouting the same
bullshit, but it was so reduced,it was noticeable.
Oh, it was it was refreshing.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:28):
I can't imagine security conference without FUD.
That just seems like they gohand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:32):
I'm not saying it was totally absent.
I'm just saying it wasdrastically reduced.
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:37):
Uh-huh.
But I'm sure people know what itis, but in case you don't, it's
fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

SPEAKER_01 (01:25:44):
Yeah.
It's it's something people do tojustify their job.

SPEAKER_03 (01:25:51):
Yeah.
At least it's it's interesting.
I uh I was talking to somebodyelse uh recently about security,
I'm trying to remember thetopic, but it was it's the whole
the whole security area I thinkis going to become a lot more

(01:26:17):
interesting as the use of AI isramped up for hacking purposes
because the the traditionalvectors that are protected are
going to be less important asthe use of AI increases.

(01:26:38):
I think that the socialengineering aspects of using AI
is going to make security somuch more difficult for people
because you're going toliterally have thousands of
people, well, or even let's sayforget thousands of people.

SPEAKER_01 (01:26:55):
Imagine having AI is never gonna go out and do a zero
day.
A hacker may be able to use AIto programmatically searching.

SPEAKER_03 (01:27:05):
AI is not gonna do shit itself.
I'm just saying hackers using AIwill greatly enhance the amount
of vectors that are hit.

SPEAKER_01 (01:27:16):
One of the best talks I saw at this conference
that I thought was really goodis you know, we've been spending
a lot of money on tools, andthis is true.
And a lot of it ends up asshelfware or not really
utilized.
And you know, what we reallyneed is a way of finding what is
working, what isn't,highlighting that and spending

(01:27:37):
smarter, not more, right?
Yeah.
And talking about the importanceof setting up those KPIs and
actually doing it.
And many years ago, one of theone of the CISOs I know for an
oil and gas company, when was Iwas talking to him about you
know a product.

(01:28:00):
And he said, I don't needanother way to document my
incompetence.

SPEAKER_03 (01:28:07):
That's that's a fair point.

SPEAKER_01 (01:28:10):
Uh and I I just the way he said that, I I just
cracked up, and you know, he's afunny, funny guy.
One of the funniest people I'veever met.
And and just very sharp and onon top of it.
So his big thing was okay, I I Idon't need something to document
my incompetence, so how do Iguarantee that we're going to

(01:28:32):
operationalize this and makethis work?

SPEAKER_03 (01:28:34):
Yeah.
And that that is a variant of anargument I've heard for 25, 30
years of I have a bunch ofpeople wanting to charge me
money to tell me what I'm doingwrong.
What I really want to spendmoney on is action that fixes
the things that I'm doing wrong.
So it doesn't matter if it'slike in security, in finance, in

(01:28:56):
other areas of business, butthere's a a lot more people that
can come in and tell you whatyou're doing wrong.
And I'm hey, I'm raising my handright here.
I've done that for the majorityof my life in consulting.
But there are fewer people incompanies that can come in and
actually do the remediationwork, actually fix the problems

(01:29:18):
that you have and not just tellyou what they are.
Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:23):
And that's the difference between my company
and like the big fourconsulting, right?
Actually, put hands on keyboardsand do stuff.

SPEAKER_03 (01:29:31):
Yeah, yeah, which is very cool, which is why I think
that you guys are way biggerthan you ought to be.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:39):
What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 (01:29:40):
Well, I mean just the amount of work you're
getting.
It's it's like huge.
You're you're winning shit leftand right.

SPEAKER_01 (01:29:46):
We we are, and we it we are growing tremendously, and
it's I I I we are competingagainst the big four and
winning.
We are competing againstspecial.
Contractors like who would haveever thought going in putting a
bid on a defense contractor anddoing cybersecurity, and I'm

(01:30:07):
going up against Booze AllenHamilton and I win.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:10):
Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:11):
Like fucking hate, right?

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:14):
Yeah, no, that's that that is awesome.
It's a it's very impressive.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:19):
And you know, as long as the canoes don't buy us.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:24):
Yeah, it it's ever since you started working there,
and I've been hearing more andmore about you know what what
success you guys are having.
I'm like, damn, you got yourselfa good place to work.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:36):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (01:30:38):
Very cool.
And there's plenty of goodcompanies out there, but it it's
it definitely sounds like thisone's doing things a little
differently.

SPEAKER_01 (01:30:48):
Yeah, we are, and part of that's because you know,
my VP was brought in to reallychange the way this is run.
And then he, you know, one ofthe first things he did was went
out and got a handful of leadersthat are cap, including myself,
that are capable and want topush, and so that's what we're
doing.

SPEAKER_03 (01:31:08):
Yeah, that's very cool.
And you know, hopefully thatmeans you continue to advance
and grow.
And but it's not to say we don'tneed your help and support,
guys.
We appreciate everybody whodonates money, even though Ben's
making hand over fists thesedays.
I am not making any more than Iwas before.
It's just hopefully you have toget a good bonus.

(01:31:30):
Like, yeah, exactly.
Hopefully you get a good bonus.
But we do appreciate people thatdo donate.
You know, every penny that wereceive from donations is 100%
put back into paying for theinfrastructure.
So the hosting, the uh AIgeneration of stuff.
I know there have been a coupleof people, and I I do want to
mention this to interrupt my owncall for donations here.

(01:31:55):
We've had a few people mentionthat the that the time sink is
off between what you hear inaudio and what is on the
transcript.
So I've opened up a ticket withBusRoute for that.

(01:32:17):
They went through and showed methat they're not off, that the
times are adjusted exactly towhere they should be after the
intro is played.
So what I told them I would dois I would ask for every anybody
that seems to have noticed thatthere's a difference between
what the app is showing you fromthe the transcript of the show

(01:32:40):
and what you're actually hearingin the show.
Anyone that sees that, take ascreenshot, send it to us, let
me know what the app actuallyis, and then I can forward that
information to them so theycould do further testing.
But from what they what they didand what they showed me is that
there isn't supposed to be anydifference between the

(01:33:01):
timestamps on the transcriptbecause the obviously when we
record the show, we don't havethe opening music in front of
it, we don't have the littlereminder in the middle of the
show that's recorded livetelling you to go ahead and
subscribe to it or tell for yourfriends about it.
All those things are added inpost.
And so the timeline, the timesync numbers for the transcript

(01:33:26):
are supposed to be updated toinclude all of those extra bits
of audio.
And if they're not, let us knowwhat you're using so that they
can test with that software andmake sure that it is because
from what I saw, it looks likeeverything should be updated
properly.
So, but anyway, I say thatbecause I just remembered it,
but it was kind of in the middleof my saying we appreciate the

(01:33:49):
support.
I think we have 11 peoplecurrently that are donating
anywhere in the range of threedollars to ten dollars a month,
and uh we certainly appreciateall that, and that helps us pay
for all the services becauseobviously the the less work we
do, the longer we're gonna keepdoing this because just not, you
know, it's just like a normalconversation with Ben on the

(01:34:09):
phone.
It I don't have to do a wholelot extra, and neither does Ben
to get this out in podcast formbeyond just us talking via
signal to each other about theexact same topics we just talked
about on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 (01:34:22):
And I will say I am pretty proud of the number of
people that we have donatingrelative to overall
listenership, it's pretty nice.

SPEAKER_03 (01:34:31):
I I will agree with you on that.
Like we could definitely get alot more listeners, that would
be great.
We'd love to see that.
But in terms of the percentageof people that are actually
supporting us compared to theoverall listeners, you know, the
the industry average everybodysays is if you get anywhere over
three percent, you're doingreally well.
Well, we're definitely gettingover three percent, guys.

(01:34:52):
So we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 (01:34:53):
We're getting around five.

SPEAKER_03 (01:34:54):
So yeah, we appreciate that.
Very cool.
All right.
Well, with that, I I don't haveanything else.
We can uh wrap things up, Iguess.

SPEAKER_01 (01:35:04):
All right.
Well, and since I'll be homenext week, we'll probably have a
longer episode next week.
Perfect.
Talk to you then, man.
See you, Gene.

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138 What Happens When We Stop Saving People From Their Own Choices

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