Join us on Now We Consume. Take in the knowledge.
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Why suffer through the existential crisis of
life alone when you can do it with us? And now
we consume. This is not meant to be a conspiracy
episode or podcast, but we make over some topics
that dance that line like a toddler dances on
their mother's last nerve. This podcast is rated
I. For immature audiences only. Welcome to the
Now We Consume podcast, everybody. I'm your host,
Pip. Tonight, here with me is my co -host, Gibbs.
Hi! Gibbles is off tonight. He's taking a little
bit of a breather. And before we get too far
into this, I wanted to kind of bring something
up. Have you had a chance to... Do any of the
AI -guided health measures? Like, have you used
chat GPT to kind of get health advice? What?
No. What? Huh? Okay, so this is something that's
becoming kind of popular with rising medical
care costs and everything. So here's the situation.
I wasn't really feeling that great earlier in
the week, and my doctor was out on vacation,
so I couldn't do a telehealth appointment. Here's
the issue, though. Um, we talk about AI a lot
on this show and I, I was kind of hesitant about
this, but I decided to use one of the new chat
GPT based medical advisor apps. So I described
all my symptoms and everything and the advice
it gave me put garlic in my butt. Well, now I
was a little leery at first, but I figured, you
know what? This AI has the collective knowledge
of all of mankind. There's no way that this is
bad advice, right? So here I am. It's a few days
out. I don't really feel all that much better.
I smell terrible. My butthole hurts and it smells
like an Italian kitchen when I fart. However,
I don't think I need to worry about any gay vampires
anytime soon. So there is that. How do I do a
vampire accent for, oh, that's a cave. I can't
go in. No, I do not want to enter your cave of
wonders. Wow. I am allergic. Why is it spicy?
Why is it spicy? I gotta give you credit. That's
probably, I was just as confused from start to
end on that one. That was good. Awesome. That's
my goal. I could not have guessed where you were
going. You could have given me a six -month lead
on that one. No clue. No clue. Oh, my Lord. Shoot
for the moon and aim for the face, right, buddy?
But welcome to the show, everybody. Tonight,
we're going to go down some of the world events
topics. We know the world's kind of catching
fire a little bit again. So we're going to talk
about some of the issues going on there and about.
Right now, you look around and the world's kind
of unrecognizable compared to just a few weeks
ago. We have our military forces forward deployed
in active combat once again. We've got some state
primaries that are in the books. And for the
first time in decades, there are now no limits
on the world's nuclear arsenals. That's kind
of a terrifying thought. We're not going to sit
here and give you the left versus right diatribe.
We're going to sit here and look at what's going
on behind the scenes a little bit. Kind of reminds
you of the early 2000s with a lot of the rhetoric
getting tossed around immediately post 9 -11
with some of the immediate feel. I hate to say
it, but it feels like it's out of the same playbook
we've been using since Korea. Yeah. Before we
go too far into the notes, there were some things
that we were talking about, and I do want to
bring this stuff up early, just because it's
going to tie into some of the stuff we're going
to talk about later. As of yesterday, we're recording
this on Sunday the 22nd, so as of yesterday,
the president has threatened Iran's power grid
if they don't open up the Strait of Hormuz. the
president from his post on Truth Social. If Iran
doesn't fully open without threat the Strait
of Hormuz within 48 hours from this exact point
in time, the United States of America will hit
and obliterate their various power plants, starting
with the biggest one first. And that was written
on Truth Social on Saturday night. So Iran would
have another, what, 24 to 36 -ish hours as of
right now from time of recording. So I do want
to point out that under the Geneva checklists,
attacks on objects indispensable to the survival
of the civilian population are technically prohibited.
And you had made a very valid point, if you want
to redo that. Yeah, so if you want to read between
the lines here, it's the destruction of something
like that, of infrastructure like that, is technically
against the Geneva Convention. My thought would
be, don't destroy the power plant, you just destroy
the lines coming off of it. They could say, I
didn't destroy anything that's illegal, I just
destroyed the lines. They're not maintaining
their lines or not, whatever. You can read between
the lines if you want. I guess my point is, we're
in kind of the situation where, unfortunately,
we're kind of committed to this. Our foot's in
the door. And unfortunately, just like we saw
with Afghanistan, we saw with Iraq, we saw with
everything else. We're committed to kind of seeing
this thing through now. Regardless of left, right,
we agree or disagree. So with this case, he could
definitely start attacking power infrastructure
and that would quickly shut things down. The
catch is, oh man, the international backlash
is going to be huge on that. If you just start
dropping bombs on power, immediately people are
going to say, oh my God, you're costing the lives
of millions of innocent people. You're affecting
people, affecting economies jobs. So it's one
of those things where. He needs to be careful
how he does this. If it just harms the immediate
infrastructure and leaves the power station intact,
then it says, hey, you're going to go without
power for a few days or a week. This is a warning.
And I will just keep doing this. So, like, knock
it off. That would be one thing. But if he just
completely destroys the power station, rebuilding
infrastructure like that takes months, if not
sometimes years. Because really, there's a supply
shortage, really, globally for a lot of that
heavy -duty power infrastructure. So, and especially...
no one's exactly going to prioritize shipping
it to Iran. Right. You know, let's face it. So
I hope that they're just being careful and understand
that there are options more than just, you know,
going with the big, the biggest button, just
be like, ah, destroy it all. Let's, let's, you
know, use a scalpel. Let's have a little bit
of subtlety here. You know, there are other options.
Yeah. But speaking of the biggest button, I do
want to reiterate that nukes have actually been
threatened at this point. Yeah. It came more
or less after the gas field attacks when Israel
kind of went after Iran's gas fields. And then
Iran, what was it? They retaliated against Qatar.
Yeah. But didn't Trump also say that like he
was annoyed with Israel? Yeah. Doing those strikes
as well. So it's kind of it's this cluster of
like people doing stuff without having any sort
of organization. And they really got to kind
of talk the stuff through. Like if we're going
to be working with them hand in hand. You know,
you guys got to really kind of communicate hand
in hand before you just go start willingly bombing
shit. Yeah. He had made the comment that Netanyahu
doesn't care how the midterms turn out for him
because he's not the one in them. Yeah. So the
president obviously does care about the midterms.
So and, you know, we're going to talk about the
whole war versus the elections and everything.
So. In fact, that's the first section of our
notes here. The midterm madness with the 2026
shift. Can I do a quick shout out before we get
too deep? Absolutely. I want to say congratulations
to Brandon Herrera for winning Texas. He's going
to be winning that. Now, granted, it has to go
to the official vote. But if anyone wants to
look up the horrible story about Tony Gonzalez,
his opponent, look that up because holy crap.
I have never seen somebody implode their own
campaign as quickly by being an absolute POS.
So bad for him. Good for Brandon Herrera. He's
a big YouTuber, a big Second Amendment guy, but
also someone that's just very level -headed,
which I think is something we kind of need because
it seems like everybody's absolutely insane who's
in Congress. It's like, are you insane and old?
Yes, put him in Congress. It's like, great. On
that, insane and in Congress, I can't believe
these words are going to come out of my mouth.
And suddenly his name just Zoidberg'd off my
head. The bald guy out of Pennsylvania that everyone
thought was Dutz always wearing tracksuits. Oh,
Fetterman. Fetterman, yes. I cannot believe the
level of level -headedness and logic that is
coming out of that man. I will be the one that
has to say it. He's the most logical Democrat
I've seen, and he has brain damage. The fact
that Fetterman is now the voice of reason in
Congress is terrifying, but it also confirms
We are on the idiocracy timeline. Yeah. Because
holy shit. He's the only one that's calling out
both sides and not being tribal about it. I guess
that's like a slight aside. I think that's what
a lot of people especially, I think under the
age of like 45 or 50, a lot of us that have been
around enough that have been like, for instance,
in my lifetime, we've always been at war in the
Middle East. And it gets to a point where it's
like, we're all just fucking sick of it. We're
all over this. Well, there's almost no justification.
And I'm not saying I'm not saying Iran doesn't
deserve it because they do a lot, a lot of really,
really bad stuff. They funded national terrorism.
Yeah, they do a lot of things that are horrific.
But it's sitting here looking, going, God damn,
there's another stupid war for another stupid
reason. More of my tax dollars. It's like it's
like that infamous meme from the Ukrainian war
of like. My tax dollars from the enemy missiles
and somehow my tax dollars that are also from
our missiles. It's like at the end of the day,
we keep paying for it. Yeah. At the end of the
day, we're the ones that lose. Yeah. I don't
think that Trump wants to see this conflict go
for very long, which is both good and bad because
good. I don't think he wants to see an expensive
extended commitment. True. Bad because I don't
think he'll pull punches to see it ended quickly.
And the other problem, too, is like we're not
going to win the culture war. So the problem
is we might win militarily in terms of destroying
and or incapacitating their military. But culturally,
the problem is, are we just going to do the same
thing like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we just
create more terrorists, more rebels that are
going to view us as the enemy in the Western
world again? The problem is, are we just going
to be again doing the same thing that the CIA
did in the 80s where they armed? You know, the
Afghanis and in the Middle East in the 80s and
then in the early to mid 90s, we had to invade
and clear them out. Is the same thing going to
happen again is my big question. So don't be
surprised if in a few presidents they say, well,
you know, Iran is really unstable and there's
all these different fighting factions and then
they invade again. And we're back in we're back
in the sandbox. We're back in this boat, you
know, so it's possible. I don't think he's really
going to actually solve anything, unfortunately,
because there's really no pressure to, you know,
because think about this, what, what pressure
after we leave, no one's going to hold anything
accountable. Nobody's, nobody's going to say
this, this has to happen or that has to happen.
So I think the biggest thing that they're wanting
to come out of this is they want to remove the
oppressive leadership and all of the, well, yeah.
And all of the people that support that regime.
And let the people of Iran kind of put it back
to how it was and the direction it was going
back in the 70s. But I guess the catch is, will
those people win? Because we've failed. We're
like 0 for 5 in the Middle East right now. Yeah.
Because we've absolutely fucked over Libya. We
absolutely fucked over Afghanistan. We absolutely
fucked over Iraq. Yeah. We've not been successful
at this. I know you're not old enough, and I'm
barely old enough to really remember reading
about Iran back in the 70s, but it was a place
that was very much up and coming. It was going
the route of Dubai without the threat and oppression
of Islam. That's exactly where I was going to
go with that. Before the overtake of Islam in
the government, it was wildly considered one
of the most prosperous and really... one of the
wealthiest countries in the Middle East. So it
had a lot going for it, but unfortunately, once
a religion took over the government, it started
going to a more oppressive regime, and that's
the direction they chose. So I agree with you.
Hopefully it can go back to that. The question
is, will it? Because, again, you're not changing
the culture of the country, and you're also not
putting America in a very good light. It would
be one thing if we were doing... I guess it's
a... bit of a problem with semantics too of like
how do you necessarily change that country without
causing the people that live there undue harm
and inconvenience yeah and then the problem is
in order for us to make it better to spread western
influence that would mean a boatload of money
that even i can't guarantee it goes to the people
it could just go back to the government to fund
more terrorists so it's like how how do you actually
you really have to have this all this stuff in
order like for the next 10 years yeah before
you do it and i i hate to say it i don't know
if they really thought this through i wonder
if it was a knee -jerk reaction like well i guess
we got to do this and they did it and it's going
well it's going i'd rather at least be in and
out rather than another 10 or 15 year war where
we lose you know trillions of dollars and tens
of thousands of lives i take this as the alternative
but it's like hopefully they've thought this
through yeah i think if they are able to secure
a military victory like quickly they would then
have to install a set of leadership authorities
to help the people get things up and running
quickly to the point where they could get people
pulled out quickly and just leave support infrastructure
and communications so that the people that are
taking over and getting things up and running
can still get help when and if needed. I wonder
if here's my question to you is I don't know.
I haven't done as much traveling as you have.
I'm not quite aware of some things. What if we
just made it a territory? Kind of like Guam.
Yeah. Because that could establish us as a permanent
presence of the Middle East. That gives us a
lot more control. Also access to oil with us
having control of Venezuela as well as there
as well as Alaska. That puts us on the global
stage better because one of the biggest problems
we hit we've had. The reason for that invasion
in Venezuela as well with Iran here is the fact
of if China had influence over those countries
and had control over the oil, same with Russia,
they could have crippled our economy. So really,
unfortunately, this whole war has been about
the control of oil and natural resources, as
it usually is. You know, America, we smell oil.
We're there in five minutes or less. We could
take over your oil quicker than we could deliver
a pizza. We are efficient at that. Oh, yeah.
But because that's where that's coming from,
I wonder as long as we maintain that control
over those resources, if there's a way of making
it a territory or at least a much closer ally,
that might help stabilize the region. But I do
not know enough to know how we could do that.
Yeah, that's a little outside of my realm, but
we should look into that because that is like
not the worst idea, maybe. Um, or here's my other
alternative. How expensive would it be to buy
a property there right now? Very, very cheap.
Cause hear me out. What if Americans just got
together, bought literally entire cities over
there and kicked everyone out and just moved
in and be like, you know, America didn't take
it over, but like we're here. So like we're bringing
KFC and McDonald's and I'm sorry. I don't think
they're going to say no. Yeah. They were like,
Oh, well, you know, that's cool. They're weird.
You know, Americanized stuff. They're bringing
the Western world, you know? Yeah. To be fair,
vacationing in Iran would be a little weird,
but you know. Yeah. I'd give it a try. Maybe.
Yeah. I guess it'd be pretty pro -2A over there.
You would think. Once everything is settled down,
yeah. And maybe not for nothing, maybe a bunch
of Americans moving over there that are pro -2A,
that are very structured or rigid, maybe that
would really shape things really quick. Yeah.
Oh, I do want to get into the notes, but I did
want to ask you. No, no, that's fine. Mark Wayne
Mullen. What are your thoughts on him? Because
he's got that spunk and spirit that a lot of
people like. Because he was ready to throw hands
with that one senator, but. or congressperson
whatever i like the passion uh -huh i just i
don't know the voting record well enough to have
a firm opinion i just i'm always very concerned
i guess with it if there's any senator representative
anyone in office that has that much passion i
appreciate it but i hate to say it i don't trust
what they say i trust what they do and what they
vote on absolutely and i do not know i have not
done enough research to know exactly and from
what i've heard most of the voting record i would
probably agree with but i'm that i'm that nerd
that actually watches c -span so i would want
to kind of look through and see what if uh if
he gets confirmed i he's going to be one that
a lot of people are going to be watching it very
closely it's a chance so but we'll have to see
we'll have to see because who who the hell knows
oh yeah with the way with the way things are
right now yeah but uh To get into the information
here, the primary results from the March 3rd
primary in Texas was a GOP runoff between Senator
John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton.
And on the Democratic side, the consensus candidate,
James Tallarico, did beat out the opponent, Jasmine
Crockett. That was a... Kind of a funny thing.
She went off the handle. Well, so do you know
some of the story behind that? I actually happen
to know a bit about this one. Please. So local
news. So I don't know if you know that there's
an actually interesting law that says that if
you interview or give airtime to a candidate,
you have to give airtime equivalent to their
opponent. Right. It's per the law. Well, fun
fact, James and Jasmine, they're both Democrats.
So what they did is they gave all the airtime
to him. And then to her and they said, well,
it doesn't violate any FCC guidelines because
they're not opponents. They're just both in the
same party. So what was funny is there were all
these interviews with him. They never mentioned
Jasmine Crockett and her her ratings tanked because
everybody forgot she was there. Oh, wow. So it
was this kind of weird thing where. James Tarika
was almost kind of installed by the Democratic
Party just to get her the hell up because she's
such a controversial person. And to be fair.
Duly noted, if you want to see some absolutely
crooked bull crap, look up some of the stuff
that she's done. She's one of the most despicable
people. I think the entire Democratic squad is
gone. I think they're all gone now. Well, I know
there's stuff. Omar might be getting hit with
some fraud charges here soon. What a shock. She
just got caught trying to launder some money.
I think that was a blurb I saw. how do i say
this politely there's many things you should
probably be tried on so yeah it's only a matter
of time yeah yeah um i i don't believe it was
uh bananas and rice either uh but had nothing
to do with her brother huh okay no so um i i
don't know if the people that voted uh against
jasmine crockett were just looking for better
values or if they were looking for someone that
was more palatable, you know, or anything like
that. But we've also got things coming out of
the SCOTUS. There's a ruling pending on the viability
of mail -in ballots. I know I'm very on the fence
about mail -in ballots because I use those. Going
to the public polls on voting day absolutely
freaks the shit out of me. Public masses, crowds,
I have a hard time with that. So mail -in ballots
for me are the absolute way to go. They're changing
the early voting rules for a lot of states. So
that's going to be an issue as well. So it's
going to be an issue for a lot of people. I'm
hoping they keep some mail -in ballot options
available. But I understand why they're trying
to rein it in. Well, it's always the catch of,
you know, understanding the people that are voting
are actually people that are mailing it in. You
know, there's always been a problem of ballot
harvesting. I don't know if you know what that
is. Oh, yeah. They've had people caught on video
pulling up to drop boxes and just stuffing them
with boxes and boxes and boxes of ballots the
night after the election. I mean, it happens
every freaking election. Not only that, but so
in the process of what's called ballot harvesting,
the other thing they'll do is they'll send representatives.
Usually what happens is usually Democrat representatives,
and they'll go to large apartment complexes,
very urban areas, and say, hey, you know, voting's
coming up soon. If you want, I can fill out this
information for you from the party that we can
put your ballot in for you. And it says, oh,
great, awesome. And then they just verbally fill
it out with the person and then close it up and
submit it for them. However, one of the problems
is there's no guarantee necessarily that that
ballot is submitted correctly or that that vote
is properly counted for. So what happens is they
will go to usually urban left -leaning areas
and they will, now granted this part, this is
the alleged part, because I can't say this officially,
but effectively they will pick and choose which
ballots go in. Oh, yeah. So there's been a couple
things that have been confirmed. Some of the
envelopes that they send those in with, If you
put everything in the correct way, you can see
the choice. Yeah, which is ridiculous. That should
be illegal. That should be illegal completely.
Also, there have now been on video recordings
of people purchasing signatures and information
to get people registered to vote. That is completely
illegal. I don't care what side of the aisle
you're on. If you're doing that, 100 % illegal.
should go to jail all signatures harvested should
be invalidated they're really because they're
doing it to the homeless well that that's part
of the problem is they're taking advantage of
people and they're not letting them exercise
their constitutional rights number one number
two the problem is that there needs to be a system
in place for a verification of not only identification
but of also of your vote but there's no easy
way of doing it without without making it i guess
um an undue burden to the average person unless
unless we make it an official holiday which i
really feel like it needs to be it should be
a two -day federal holiday it's really what it
should be in my opinion but i mean at least one
day and things like um bus services taxi services
uber lyft whatever should all be just free if
you're going to vote yeah but then The company
uses it as a tax write -off. What I would do
is basically say that anybody who uses that for
that, a company like Uber or Lyft, they get to
write that off in their taxes, so therefore it
offsets it, basically. When you vote, in other
countries, it's big in the Middle East, when
you vote, you show your ID, and then they fingerprint
you with indelible ink, so it cannot be easily
removed. you've got that ink print and it's on
your ballot as well so why we're not doing fingerprints
on our ballots i i don't know that seems like
a fairly simple thing oh no a fingerprint registry
that means people could get caught when they
commit crimes oh no anybody that has a firearm
you know you have your fingerprints on the registry
anyway exactly if i if i have to put my fingerprint
in a registry especially someone i used to teach
at a school so i got fingerprinted for that and
firearm owner i got fingerprinted for that it
doesn't i i don't care fingerprint me every time
i vote i don't give a i'm already in the system
number one but also number two if i have you
fingerprinted to express my constitutional rights
then to have a firearm then there's no problem
for me doing it to vote yeah no problem and in
the rare In the God forbid rare situation that
someone has a problem with that, there should
be an alternative. But I would have the opinion
of unless it's like a medical reason you can't
do it, you should be able to do it. But if we
just had it as a holiday, it wouldn't be a big
deal. Everyone could go vote. It would not be
hard. But unfortunately, it placed some people
that can't take the time off. And there's some
people that work jobs like if you work 100 %
of the day during it. what can you do you can't
do anything and there unfortunately are some
cases where some employers will give you a lot
of shit or calling out you know leaving earlier
coming in later doing whatever because i have
to go vote it's like i've seen it unfortunately
yes it's illegal for them to give you shit for
it but it's like they still do it yeah and people
are too afraid to turn them in so or sometimes
it's what are you going to do it's he said she
said you know oh yeah but uh so yeah the uh the
mail -in ballot stuff, if that restricts access
with everything starting to ramp up and get near
the midterms, that could kind of create a perfect
storm for low turnout in the midterms. Low turnout
typically favors Republicans. True. So we'll
see if this turns out that way. Also, midterms,
generally tend to favor the opposition. Just,
you know, kind of how things go. You get two
years to see how the administration is doing.
Everyone gets pissed off and goes, Oh, we don't
like this guy. So they want the other people
back in office. And then it's two years of stalemate.
So we'll see if this is a case of anger and change,
or if it's a case of low turnout and historical
repetition. It'll be the bigger case of we will
see if Democrats choose to be more on the moderate
side, I feel like they could sweep it in the
midterms. But if they decide to be more progressive
or more extreme, they won't. Yeah. Because there's
a lot of people that are moderates, I'll raise
my hand on that one, that are sick of both extremes
and sides. So, you know, just give me someone
that's fucking reasonable. Yeah. And like I said,
I can't believe that Fetterman is sounding like
the voice of reason out of the Democrat Party.
So with the Iran escalation, Operation Epic Fury.
I love how these things always have these ridiculous
names. We are now, what, 21 days into this thing?
Yeah. The Pentagon has reported well over 1 ,000
deaths. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called
last Sunday the most intense day of strikes yet.
We did manage a double -tap strike on an Iranian
school that killed 170 -plus schoolgirls, which
the U .S. claimed was being used as a human shield
by the IRGC. We still, a week now, we still have
not been able to confirm any side of that story.
The START treaty, the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty, expired on February 5th. And U .S. and
Russia did not re -up their agreements to that,
which means we are officially in an era where
the U .S. and Russia have no binding nuclear
limits. Cold War II, let's go! It'd be World
War III now, but, you know, the spicy World War
III. So I do want to kind of reiterate that.
The two largest nuclear powers in the world have
no agreed on cap to their weapons stockpiles.
This with the earlier mentioned that nuclear
weapons have been threatened and the talk of
taking out the gas fields with like a level of
devastation not yet seen. I am personally concerned
that even low -yield nuclear weapons could be
used in an operational strike like that, a strategic
strike. I personally would rather see us deplete
our entire stockpile of MOABs before we start
looking at nukes. Especially in a war like this,
nukes are really not necessary. This is not...
Yeah, they're not. I mean, yes, we could probably
drill through the glass, but at the same time...
The MOABs and all of our other heavy ordnance
would be just fine. I thought Pete Hegseth just
wanted another $200 billion to restock what we
spent anyway. So it's like, number one, we don't
need nuclear weapons for something like this.
Also, number two, I don't really worry about
necessarily the US and Russia having no limit
to nuclear weapons because we already have enough
to blow up the world 20, 30 times over. Even
if they double, triple, quadruple, it doesn't
matter. At this point, the numbers really don't
mean anything. I hate to say it, but if they're
going to blow up the world, they already have
the power to do it. And no one's going to be
honest. Nothing's ever going to change with that.
The issue I guess I have is I'm always concerned
about nuclear proliferation in the case of other
countries getting access to it. Because America
and Russia have the understanding with the MAD
program of mutual destruction. If anybody launches,
we all go kaboom. But... There are some countries
that are dumb enough or brave enough, whichever
way you want to look at it. Determined enough.
Yes. They will just do it because they can. So
the only reason this concerns me is not the U
.S. Russia having them, but other countries getting
them. Yeah. And I look at this whole Iran situation
as a situation where if they are pushed up against
the wall far enough or hard enough and they have
access to even one. I feel like they will use
it just as a last -ditch effort. If they know
they are going to go down, I worry that they
are going to fire it off just because they don't
care. And then what? Because they're not an ally
with many people. I know China kind of supports
them. They have people that are sort of allied
with them that are also allied with China. I
don't know how that's going to turn out, because
especially if it's a rogue kind of situation,
even if it's like the Houthis, or Iran tries
to push the blame onto the Houthis. Well, then
what? It's just, oh, they managed to get a hold
of a nuclear weapon, and now it's a tragic situation,
and we just go after the people in the caves
again. Oh, yay. We're going to circle back to
the same thing we've been doing. Exactly. Before
we move on, I did want to ask this. Do you feel
that changing to Department of War and the renaming
of the Secretary of War away from the defense
names was a pivot to a more aggressive posture?
So, yes, it is a more aggressive posture, but
the problem is I almost feel like maybe it's
because of my reading of dystopic books when
I was growing up. jesus christ does this feel
like a um uh not super troopers a space trooper
or whatever it was the starship troopers starship
troopers yeah where it's like the department
of war it's like all right it's two on the nose
at this point and i guess my other issue is with
with the way we are perceived around the world
it makes us seem much more like the aggressor
rather than being on the defensive and i know
it probably doesn't change what we're doing militarily
but It looks like, or it has the perception of
us being far more of the aggressors and far more
aggressive as a country. I think overall internally,
it's not a bad idea, but externally to everyone
else outside the country, I feel like that's
really stupid. You should always downplay, you
know, what you have rather than overplay it.
And Trump as, you know, per his nature is the
exact opposite. So I get their reasoning for
it. I just disagree with it. And I think it unfortunately
kind of promotes a far too aggressive posture.
I look at at least this is just my two cents.
I look at modern militaries far less like a hammer,
far more like a scalpel, where the idea I would
much rather be a country that, you know, we will
avoid war if at all possible. But if it happens,
it will be overnight over a weekend. Everything
will be gone. You won't hear anything, see anything.
It just it's done. And that's it. And that's
the scope where only take out military targets,
only take out what has to happen. There were
troops on the ground overnight. All of a sudden,
snap of your finger. It's all done because we're
the only country in the world that can do it.
And after what we saw in Venezuela, you know,
we can do it. It's just the catch of, do we actually
commit enough to do it? And unfortunately, I
hate to say this. He's committed with that name
to being aggressive, but. not as decisive as
I would have thought. I would have thought if
he named it Department of War, it would have
been like in Venezuela where over a weekend,
we would have been done. Everything would have
been gone. Every single aircraft, tank, ship,
everything. It would have just been completely
gone. You know, tens of thousands of bombs dropped
and hundreds and hundreds of stories. And all
of a sudden, it's done. That's it. They have
nothing. Well, their entire Navy is now gone
or mostly gone right now. We'd have changed ownership
of the waters with them at this point. We have
the top half of the water. They all have the
bottom half of the water. So. Congratulations,
you've been upgraded to submarines. But I guess
that's my thing. To loop it back in thing. It's
stupid to rename it. I understand why they did
it, but I think it's kind of dumb. Yeah. So with
everything going on, and you mentioned this.
strategic aspect iran is not necessarily being
as strategic or if they are they're just being
extremely careless with their attacks because
they're hitting population centers and they're
even threatening now to go after tourist centers
and destinations so how do we combat that because
that's not our doctrine well it's it's a matter
of perception i really feel like and what Okay,
so the problem that I have seen, at least this
whole thing, is Trump and the Ministry of War,
Secretary of War, has not been proactive in terms
of the media and in terms of what the demands
are, what's going on, as much as they should.
We're hearing about stuff way too late after.
What they should be saying is, hey, we are asking
for Iran for an immediate surrender. Here's our
conditions. Here's what we expect. Here's what's
going on. They are trying to target these centers.
They are trying to kill civilians. We are specifically.
only targeting military assets, and we're going
to great lengths to make sure we limit civilian
casualties as much as humanly possible. If they
were to be way more out front with this and frame
it correctly, I feel like this is something that
wouldn't be as big of an issue. The problem is,
and I understand OPSEC or operational security
is very important, but at the same point, we
have taken out so much of what Iran has that
they're not really that much of a threat to us
at this point for a lot of things. On that. what
was just a day or two ago they demonstrated potential
capability and i'm i'm saying that very guarded
uh potential capability for longer range missiles
or missile strikes than previously thought by
launching a couple missiles towards diego garcia
now neither missile made it anywhere near where
it was supposed to but it did confirm that they
have farther capability than we had thought but
they still had access to at this point in things
especially. But I would like to point out that
given what is stationed and held at Diego Garcia,
if they really want to poke that hornet's nest,
then they are going to get exactly what comes
their way. I don't know if they know exactly
what's at Diego Garcia, but it is one of our
most important forward bases in that region.
The fact that they just shot something at it
is very akin to the USS, what was it, the Iowa
that took a hit and damaged or scuffed the deck
of the ship and it turned full broadside in World
War II and got very upset and unleashed hell
and tried to delete a grid square. Are you talking
about during the Korean War? Yeah, yeah, it was.
I think it might have been the USS Texas. Maybe,
yeah. I think it is, but is that the one where
they purposely flooded one side of the ship to
get more? Yes. I think that's it. I could be
wrong, because I don't remember everything, but
I think that's the USS Texas. Another ship actually
responded, temper, temper, was their response,
because it was literally like someone hit them,
and it was like a scuff. And it was the equivalent
of them looking at the ship like, that's our
boat. Fuck you! You would think after what we
did to Japan that they would learn, don't touch
the boats. Do not touch the boats. Like HLC says,
don't touch the boats. But it is definitely the
case of, I understand they still have some weapons
and some capability. But we should be focusing
on shutting down things like the internet, shutting
down their access to the power grid, shutting
down literally everything we can, putting as
many... And I know people are going to disagree
with me on this, but I feel like we need special
forces on the ground to deal with certain areas,
certain avenues, certain military targets, disrupt
all communication as much as you can, make it
so that they effectively cannot function anything
else other than just small terror cells. And
at that point, once we have some control, what
we really need to do is call in the UN and NATO
at that point to have them take over and be like,
hey, this is a peacekeeping operation. Offset
it to them. I mean, hell, we already fund half
a NATO anyway. Might as well offset some of that
cost. My money's already there anyway. Didn't
we stop paying? We still pay into it. I don't
think we pulled 100 % of our funding. Okay. What
we did is we pulled it back to proportional funding.
Oh, okay. Because we used to be paying 50 % of
the entire bill. but we pulled it back to being
proportional because for like, for a while, I
think it was like Denmark or Sweden or something
like that had like 0 .02 % of their budget fund,
like putting it towards like, come on, come on
guys. You know, you gotta, you gotta foot the
bill at some point. Yeah. But I don't think we're
officially out of NATO. But that being said,
even if we are, you know, if they're going to
start attacking bases where there are NATO soldiers
that somehow are deployed there, they're attacked,
you know, I'm not saying to set it up, but it's
like, you're going to have to at some point get
other people involved because if it's just us
we always look like the bad guy yeah and we're
the most capable but still we shouldn't be doing
everything by ourselves when other people use
the areas that we're trying to keep open as well
like the streets well that's what i'm saying
it involves everybody you know that that involves
literally every western country i can think of
yeah so so while we've got uh all this going
on the stock markets are going ape shit um The
president is out golfing as usual and hinting
at a regime change in the Middle East. Do you
think that this is more of a strategic show of
business as usual, or is it sort of a terrifying
disconnect from a world on the brink of major
war? I guess, again, as someone that grew up
watching the politics of the 2000s, it's kind
of infuriating watching that. Again, another
president that's too busy doing other things,
all of a sudden leading another war, watching
the stock market go all over the place. I see
a lot of people that are very stressed about
it because as soon as it was announced that oil
might hit $200 a barrel, then it went way down,
then it went way up. The markets have been all
over the place. There's a lot of uncertainty.
It's the problem of it's very hard to support
a... presidency when there's this much instability
and this, this much against what his first, you
know, presidency was, you know, at the end of
it, at the end of Donald Trump's first presidency,
he signed several historic peace deals. The economy
was doing great. A lot of people I knew were
doing, aside from the COVID stuff, a lot of people
I knew were doing really well. I'm like things,
at least you might disagree socially, but at
least economically, it was really good. Now I,
under that, this is not helping us in any way.
Like this is not. at least with venezuela with
all the extra oil if he at least chilled out
for a little while let that kind of come into
the country let us get a couple refineries going
drop that price let the goods come down use that
to prop up the economy for a year or two and
then did this maybe a different story maybe we
had more time to get more gather more intel get
more agents involved you know really be able
to do it so by the time he did get involved it
could be a lot smoother but it just seemed like
for some reason there was a time crunch where
We took over Venezuela and quick. We got, we
got to move. I don't know if there's another
external factor we're unaware of that. Maybe
there's something else going on in the background
where there's a ticking time bomb. There's a
ticking clock. I don't know, but that's the kind
of sense of urgency. I, at least from somebody
that's completely uninvolved with military intelligence,
that's the kind of vibe I get, or it's the catch
of they're using this war to prop up the economy,
get enough moving around to where it kind of
masks did align issues that we're having, which,
It's possible. So while you were doing that,
I went ahead and looked up the price of oil right
now. At this moment, and I'm looking at the United
States Oil Fund, the ETF on the markets, the
USO ticker is sitting at $122 .70. Three months
ago, it was at $80. So it's not terrible. We've
had worse, but the crude oil futures sitting
on the New York exchange is 98 .52. I guess what
concerns me is we're heading into the summer,
where usually oil prices go up somewhat considerably.
Home heating oil, I don't know about anybody
else, but... I just paid $540 the other day for
100 gallons. So like, yeah, yeah, trust me, the
depression. So it's one of those things where
if this continues and this becomes a long -term
engagement, a long -term problem, a lot of Americans
could be hurt by the economy from this. So he's
got to put some other things in place. Like we
have to open up channels. deliver oil from Venezuela.
We have to push for more refineries. We have
to push for more drilling just to keep the economy
rolling because there's so many other things
that are really compressing the middle and poor
that if he doesn't open that up economically,
a lot of people are going to get crushed by this
because this could get a lot worse. Well, so
the issue in Venezuela is not the oil itself.
It's the lack of infrastructure to get the oil.
A lot of that was suppressed and dismantled by
Maduro. Yeah. So for some people to know, there's
a little bit of background history here. We actually
invested in Venezuela back in the 80s. There's
a lot of oil rigs that our tax dollars and our
American companies paid to have built there because
back then that was the jewel of South America.
That was the wealthiest country. But once it
became socialist and they took it over, they
actually stole it from us in the early to mid
-2000s. So we lost all that money, all that tax
revenue, all those companies' money that was
put into those. And now that we're there... They
are not running as efficiently as some of them,
not even operational at all, simply because it
was socialist, communist takeover. That's kind
of how that happens. So hopefully we can get
that going, but that needs to be a priority.
I wonder, are we going to turn Venezuela into
a territory or something like that? Are we going
to end up doing something with that? I feel like
if that happened, it would probably be more.
uh likely or more positive than iran oh yeah
so i don't know but so uh we have all this stuff
going on and if you want to take this section
uh you you're more than welcome to oh sure section
three so there is so this section is called the
narrative filter basically who who owns the story
who owns what's going on here who is controlling
the information that's getting out what's being
said and what's being disseminated to people
Now, before I get into the notes, the issue that
we're seeing, this has been a problem really
since the Ukrainian war, definitely a problem
in Venezuela, but really a problem with the Iranian
war right now is the lack of transparent media
information. And it's gotten bad, especially
with the proliferation of AI. It's gotten even
worse. And holy fuck, did we not call this shit?
It's almost like we listen and we learn and we
talk about things. I say this again. We are apparently
fucking prophets because we said last season,
the next big conflict with the proliferation
of AI, there's going to be so much false information
and generated videos. It's going to be impossible
to say what's real and fucking look around. I've
seen some very convincing videos of like bombs
being dropped. Supposedly. on us fobs forward
operating bases and it looked like at first it
made me do a triple take and i'm somebody that's
pretty well versed in ai stuff i even had to
do a triple take it was like wait a minute that
looked real but once i saw that like people would
suddenly disappear or clothing would change or
like little small details you realize oh that's
ai but jesus christ was it convincing especially
if i was just scrolling through tiktok or like
threads or something yeah like it's so easy to
control the narrative so the ai videos of net
and yahoo When the whole theory of him may be
dead, the man had six fingers on his hands at
one point. His teeth were disappearing. In another
video, he had a ring on his hand that was coming
and going. Why are they putting these videos
out if he's not dead? I don't even know if he's
done a live interview. I actually heard the official
sources on that. It's because they were using
it to edit. He is still alive and he's still
out there. But apparently they were using it
to edit and, like, piece a couple of different
interviews together for different parts. So,
like, according to what I've heard from official
sources, he's still around. It's an AI video,
but it's a poorly edited one. Okay, so why aren't
they putting him in front of a camera? I think
it's all optics right now at this point. I think
they want him out of the spotlight because they
know... I have to tread on these words carefully,
but there's a lot of anti -Israeli sentiment
right now. So from what I have heard from people,
they're just trying to keep him out of the spotlight.
Now, granted, is it possible that something happened?
Maybe. But I guess I would assume that if something
happened to him, that would be not world -ending
news, but it would be darn near. That would be
probably the biggest story. in the last 20 years.
Well, I know there was an image circulating earlier
in this week of him being dragged out of some
rubble. Now, it was obviously AI generated. You
couldn't fucking tell first glance, even second
glance. You had to really look. Like, people
had to start running it through an AI detection
software. And even then, it's getting to the
point where sometimes those don't always work.
Yeah. So keep that in mind. Everybody at home,
like... you really, my best advice would be to
talk to people that are, that are involved in
this kind of stuff and that really watch it.
Um, and feel free as well. And either in our
discord or comment section or anything like send
stuff to us and be like, Hey, have you guys heard
this? Because I'm somebody just so you guys know,
I, I listened to several different like, um,
independent journalists almost every night. So
for me, it's, I don't listen to mainstream. I
listen to independent people and they actually
can, you know, source. You know, that cite their
sources, cite their people, cite their contacts.
Not saying that I know everything that I know
perfectly, but I'm pretty well informed for the
most part for a lot of things. And I know so
is Pip. So, I mean, generally we will answer
either. Yeah, that's real. That's not. Or like,
hey, wow, we don't know. Maybe we should all
look into it just because. And right now we have
to all work together to see what's real or not,
because Jesus Christ, you can do. I have even
a couple of times been fooled and woke up the
next morning going, wait a minute. I'm an idiot.
Let me look at that. Be like, oh, crap. I mean,
it goes all the way back to when Charlie Kirk
was murdered. And we still don't know what's
going on with that. And there's more and more
coming out about that whole situation. And I
believe we're going to be doing an episode on
that soon. I am going to sound like Alex Jones
on that episode. I'm going to lose my shit on
that one. There was an AI video of that within
30 minutes that was circulating around. So, I
mean, there's... That level of bullshit going
on. But anyways, let's look. I had something
when you were saying all that. No shit. I lost
it. It was important to. Oh, this is not a sponsored
section, but ground news. If you want to get
as clear and uncut and unbiased news information
as you can. I finally decided to check them out.
I'm not paying for it. They are not paying me
or us or anything in any way. This is me giving
my own feedback. Ground news will show you where
the articles are coming from and if they're biased
one way or the other. And from there, you can
make your own choices. I like them as well as
straight error news. That's another one as well
that I like. Yes. So this is not like Raid Shadow
Legends. No one is sponsoring us. Ground News,
give them a look and see if it's something that
you like. They cover the same stories. They just
remove the bias filters. Do they show you? Because
I use Straight Arrow News more than Ground News.
Does Ground News show the biases and different
ones, like how many different, like the right
covers this topic, the left covers that topic,
here's the middle ground? Yeah, like they have
one right here. U .S. economy, rising gas prices,
may offset larger 2026 tax refunds. 84 sources,
and it's got a Democrat or liberal bias to it.
Okay. So more left -leaning sources are covering
it than right, but it is still getting covered,
and they show things from both sources, from
both sides. That's good. So, yeah, check them
out. It's your cup of tea. Yeah, don't let yourself
be misled by biased sources because it's difficult
nowadays. It is. Very difficult. But anyways.
Yeah, keep going. No worries. So I know the media
outlets have been very divided on what's been
going on, you know, in this war. There was some
quote -unquote Tomahawk missile footage of a
drone strike, a school strike, while other people
have been focusing on Iranian drone carrier that
the U .S. Navy just sank. The problem has been,
again, like we previously discussed, is the footage
real? Has it been edited? Is it AI? Anything
like that? It seems like there's kind of a...
a tale of two, two wars going on where, you know,
you have kind of the, the moderate to moderate,
right. Looking to find a ways to justify it.
And you have the moderate to moderate left looking
for ways to denounce it. And I think it was both
kind of, it's kind of a middle ground thing.
It's not necessarily a hundred percent rights
on a hundred percent wrong. You know, there's
a lot more nuance to it than just, you know,
good or bad. Yeah. This is a point in time where.
If you've never seen the movie called Wag the
Dog, I think that's what it is, Wag the Dog or
Wag the Tail. Yeah, I think it's Wag the Dog.
This is a time to go watch that movie. It's about
a small film production crew that literally makes
up a war via film and sells it to the American
public. How have you never mentioned this to
me before? Cause I just kind of thought you had
seen it. It's one of those. Oh, okay. That looks,
that looks, that I, I know what I'm doing tonight.
Hold on. I literally was looking for a movie
to watch today. Cause I just got done watching,
uh, end game and, um, infinity war. And now every,
the Marvel movie disappoints me. So, yeah, but
yeah, it's, it's from the nineties, but, uh,
really? Okay. Yeah. It's a, it's a De Niro movie
and it's De Niro and Hoffman. Oh, wow. Prime
De Niro. Okay. All right. Wow. Yeah, it was good.
And I think even some of the older movies like
that can harken to current events in ways that
people never imagined. Good point. Good point.
Anyways, so there is a phenomenon happening right
now. It's called addictive information loops.
Basically, we're being fed specific versions
of the war, specific information, data, statistics,
even true and or false video images, depending
on, I guess, kind of your political leanings,
depending on which state you live in, or even
possibly whichever country you live in. I've
heard a lot of rumors that different countries
have been reporting wildly different things about
the war. This one was weird to me. I went down
this rabbit hole the other day. that there was
one country i think it was in germany that were
they were reporting like there was a mass casualty
on american soil but they were shipping soldiers
over to germany like massive hospitals they were
bringing in thousands of americans i was like
you know american soldiers are pretty transparent
about posts and stuff online i'm pretty sure
if something like that happened we would know
but it was weird that other countries were reporting
on stuff like that so keep it in mind now granted
it could have been all ai who knows at this point
right So if you start hearing shit like that,
then I would say get a VPN and start moving your
location around the world and looking up local
news sites. That's a good point. I never thought
about... VPNs are still accessible right now.
Or now. Yeah, they better not go away. Yeah.
I never thought about... I wonder how the news
would be in Switzerland or something like that,
a country that's completely neutral and something
like this. I might have to look that up later.
I didn't think about that. Enjoy your rabbit
hole. That's my problem. I'm that person that's
up until 2 a .m. going, you know, nothing matters.
You know, just absolutely tinfoil hatting. Do
me a favor. When you break out the corkboard
and red string, send me a picture. I will. I
have a fresh wall that's ready for it. Nice.
I do eventually, a little side note, I have...
a wall that's purposely free now that i have
because i rearranged my entire office i eventually
want to have one where i can put like photos
and different stuff from the podcast to make
like a collage of all the stuff we've talked
about specifically so in some videos i could
do you know the alex jones like the turn of the
frogs gay i wanted to be able to do like a gif
thing like it's all a conspiracy and it just
shows a peanut butter thing what You want to
do something with peanut butter? No, I said,
you know, like the Alex Jones, like the viral
clip of like the term. Well, you said with a
gif thing and gif is peanut butter. Oh my God.
Stop. So a gif thing. Yeah. But, but you, you
know what I mean? Like how like that, like reaction
video. Yeah. Cause I think there's so many times
in this show, I'm just like conspiracy theory
going nuts. But anyways, I'm sick and tired of
putting the shit in the water and turn to the
fricking frogs. Gay. You know what's crazy? I
would love to... If only he didn't do the Sandy
Hook thing, he would still be around and doing
stuff. He is still around. It's just nobody cares.
You can't find his stuff, too. You have to go
to Rumble. I do like Rumble as a platform, but
it's a shame that you can't hear people anymore.
So many people have been un -person on the internet.
Yeah. Anyways. The World Trade Center. Sorry,
what? World Trade Organization. World Trade Organization.
Yes. I lost my track. Yep, there we go. While
we were distracted by the airstrikes, the World
Trade Organization is preparing for its minstrel
conference in Cameroon from March 26th to the
29th. I don't really know much about what's going
on with that meeting, to be honest with you.
I don't know if you know any details. It's a
very big conference that the WTO puts on every
year. They discuss a lot of, like, world finance
things. So we have all this big war shit going
on, and they're going to go and sit there and
sip tea, eat rare cheeses and bullshit, and just
be rich assholes and talk about how they're going
to put everybody else down. Oh, it's like the
Davos thing. Yeah, basically. You know what?
I guess as I've gotten older, the amount of rich
people that go to things like conferences. Talk
about stupid things and then they go home and
do nothing. It's unreal. So weird. Anyways, the
WTO meeting is where the real long -term roles
for e -commerce and agriculture will be written.
Likely while the world is busy watching for the
bombs fall on Tehran. Now, it is kind of a weird
point that they all meet up and discuss. Oh,
yeah, so we have to put a 5 % import tax on this
and move this economy around and do these things
and that. That way we can... But it's like, it's
just a bunch of people trying to find ways to
get rich and do things that benefit themselves,
you know. Oh, yes, indubitably. We must have
the import tariff on this other item. Yes, exactly.
All stupid. Yeah. It's all rich shit that us
poors are never going to be worried about. No.
I don't have a yacht to park, so I'm not invited.
No. The only yacht I park is spongy and bruised.
I mean, the Spirit's still willing. We're moving
on from that one. I'm not addressing it. Nope.
Nope. Uh -uh. Nope. Not here. Nope. So we have
a widening budget fracture in the ever -growing
issue of The Wallet vs. The War. We have state
revenues rapidly declining. Many are cutting
taxes to win midterm votes. While at the same
time, the war is driving up military spending
and energy costs. Mr. Hegseth just last week
requisitioned $200 billion to continue paying
for things. In the grand scheme of things, $200
billion for war effort is not a lot of money.
that's a resupply is what that is. At the same
point, though, you keep talking, I'm going to
look at what the GDP of Iran is. Okay. So, $200
billion to continue funding for the war effort
and the combat stuff. Yeah, go ahead. Dude, Iran's
GDP is $350 to $430. So, like, we have literally
spent... A million or a billion? A billion. So,
we have spent... we have spent half of their
gdp blow it up some of it i think here's here's
the problem i see is in terms of a deal this
is not a good deal that's a shit ton of money
we've spent also not for nothing we have not
dropped 200 billion dollars worth of bombs or
ordinance no but you have to think about uh running
expenses like funding the ships paying the military
even yes but we spent what was it like 10 trillion
for the middle east and that was for what 20
years 25 years of yeah and we've spent 200 billion
in 21 fucking days like i know inflation's bad
but fuck yeah christ almighty i think is i think
inflation is maybe worse than people realize
but dude also that's like basically a trillion
that'd be like three trillion dollars a year
yeah that's about right like we literally can't
afford it like we just straight up like that's
We don't have to worry about affording it. We'll
just print the money. It's okay. We've talked
about this. It's okay. We already solved that
problem on the podcast. Unfortunately, the government
is not listening to us on that one. We still
need to go on Truth Social, post our episodes
there, and just at the president. It boggles
me that we're spending way more than what we
should for bombing them. Oh, yeah. 200 billion?
Yep. It's a lot. So, yeah, the war is driving
up military spending and energy costs. Speaking
of energy costs, this is just a very random Zoidberg
thought. The largest data center in the world
is due to be built here in Ohio at a cost of
$40 billion. 3 ,700 acres. and will use 10 gigawatts
of power, which is a third of the Ohio power
grid. Jesus! Are they getting their own nuclear
power reactor or something like that? I think
they're supposed to, because I think that was
mandated recently, that new data centers have
to have their own power. But I just saw that
today, and that just kind of hit me. Can your
water supply support that? They may have to just
drain Lake Erie or something. I don't know. That's
a problem. And it might just be the Erie Basin.
That's going to be a fucking problem because
a lot of places are reporting water issues with
those data centers. Yeah, I know. Also, it's
going to be really weird in 10 years' time when
AI becomes like a 100th of the draw once quantum
computing comes out and there's going to be these
empty warehouses that were data centers. Yeah,
well, we can just turn them into 3D printing
warehouses and... just print single -use items
for the war effort. Absolutely. Did you see what
I shared the other day? We'll talk about it off
-stream. Okay. I don't want to get in trouble.
Yeah, I know. I know my limits. I know. So the
average person is going to get hit by the ancillary
ripples. of all the rising costs. It's going
to be all the non -government organizations that
are going to be supporting the various war efforts
because as oil goes up, shipping costs go up,
which is going to be groceries and living expenses
are going to be going up. And that's just going
to trickle down into higher rents, higher taxes
on things like property taxes. If you live in
states that have personal property taxes, like
on your cars and such, Fuck those assholes. They
will increase those to help cover things as well.
So this is going to trickle down and hit literally
everybody that it can in some way or another.
So the private sector is starting to sound the
alarm on the looming humanitarian crisis for
all of this. And even in places like Colombia,
they had an election back on March 8th. It was
completely ignored news -wise, I believe, because
of Iran. So we have the government is starting
to target tax cuts to win a seat in the House
of Representatives, but gas in some areas is
starting to spiral up towards six, seven bucks
a gallon, California, because of the Persian
Gulf blockade. So in that case, who's really
winning? Nobody. for somebody who cannot realistically
do anything about the cost of living increase
when it's just the market responding to the conditions.
No sitting president or congressperson or senator
can realistically affect real change for those
prices. That's the market. Not immediately and
not directly. Now, we can do things like institute
more drilling, institute... other technologies
to do things like biofuels and uh ethanol type
stuff i know there was a thing with uh corn and
and well knowing that i want to point out that
in formula one currently they're using 100 man
-made fuel for all the cars oh that's cool so
i know at some point there will be the case we
can make fuels that we can just synthesize that
we can make yeah or 100 renewable we already
can but i mean look at the kid down from georgia
he's he's proving that with his plastiline. The
catch is it'll be cost -effective at some point,
I guess what I'm getting at. Yes. We're already
there. If Trump was smart, by the way, before
he did this whole Iran and Venezuela thing, so
people don't realize that the U .S. government
is the one that actually approves drilling and
approves fracking and everything else for oil.
We only have a handful of refineries. Why the
fuck didn't they greenlight more refineries being
built and more drilling that way to offset all
of this? I guess that's the part that kind of
pissed me off. Like, it seems like it's very
short sighted. It's like, if you know, you're
going to do this or, you know, this is what's
going to happen. You're greenlight all this before
then. That way you can also undercut those countries
while we're doing it. So you can lower the amount
of money they have an income they have. So it
makes their defenses even worse. And especially
countries like Iran and Venezuela, who like 70
to 80 % of their export is oil. You can bankrupt
them and say, oh yeah, by the way, now you don't
have soldiers to pay. So it makes this whole
thing a lot fucking easier. Granted, I'm just
an idiot. But, you know, come on. Rub the brain
cells together here, guys. If Rick Sanchez can
collapse a galactic economy by setting a one
to a zero, we can sure as hell defeat a sand
people economy by running their oil out. I mean,
come on. My favorite meme I saw the other day
was like, it just is literally a rad. It just
is a Tusken Raider instead of the gun. It's just
a barrel of oil. I saw that one. I hate to say
it's true, but you would think, though, that
the U .S. government would have had enough. Now,
granted, I know what I'm saying is a joke here,
but you think they would have had enough foresight
to say, if we're going to be seeing this through
in the next few years, let's make preparation.
Because right now, nobody, I'll be real, nobody
I know is happy with the current administration
for all this. Not even the people that voted.
No, I have not found a single person that's like,
yes, I support this. Yes, I'm happy with the
outcome. Because at the end of the day, everyone's
already struggling. I don't know anybody that's
not being hit by the economy right now that's
like bitching about it all the fucking time.
Everyone I know. Shit's expensive, man. People
are having to like pool their collective resources.
We've talked about it on the show before. I just
hit myself in the face with my mic. We've talked
about it on the show that. People are combining
households because they have to. And it's just
going to get worse. So this is just going to
make it an even more emphasized point. And unfortunately,
with the loss of the American dream, people aren't
going to be voting for people like Trump if they
can't afford to do basic shit. Yeah. Another
Zoidberg thought, did you see that they're trying
to, and I don't know if this is just a troll
or something, but. They're trying to put forth
a new amendment that a president can serve more
than two terms as long as the three terms are
not done consecutively. Oh, that'd be stupid.
I disagree with that. Yeah. As it is, there should
be term limits for people in Congress. All of
them. The fact that we have people that serve
for 30 fucking years I think is insulting. So
what it should be? It should be two years for
a senator. That way, because there's six years,
so it's 12 years total. It should be three terms
for a representative. That would be six years.
That way it offsets. That way you have two and
the other one's three, but that way it kind of
rotates. So that way you don't get the same groups
switching all the time, like all Democrat, then
all Republican, then all Democrat. It would be
mixed. But it should be that. That simple. But
no. Yeah. Term limits would be great, but I don't
know that anyone's going to vote themselves out
of a job. It'll take something big. It'll take
a citizen effort, I think. Or somebody on their
way out of office. I was going to say Trump literally
should be, you know what you should do? He should
do a, basically an executive order where the
next budget bill can't pass unless that has it
in it. Just sign that, dot it, there you go.
Have a nice day. Or something stupid like that.
Because quite frankly, it's ridiculous. No one's
job should ever be to be a senator for 40 years.
Fuck that. The fact that somebody like Pelosi
was in office longer than I've been alive, come
on. Yeah. I'm 44 fucking years old, and she's
been in politics longer than I've been alive.
Yeah. She's not the only one. There are many
of them. Oh, yeah, no. Schumer and all those
other asshats. And I mean, what, cocaine Mitch
McConnell? Oh, God. He's just as bad. God. he
looks like he is befuddled everywhere he goes
now he is so old it's like oh it's just everything's
a new experience to him like in a way it's kind
of endearing it is because he it it is because
he can't remember anything yeah exactly that's
you know oh god he just looks like a turtle that
lost his shell years ago and just i mean he kind
of did i i just can't it's i i guess congress
is now the new retirement plan for americans
We can't afford to retire, so we just go into
public service and work there. I feel like I'm
at the point where almost Vermin Supreme is seeming
like an actually good candidate. If anyone who
doesn't know who Vermin Supreme is, look him
up. Is he still wearing the boot on his head?
I hope he is. If not, I'll buy him another one.
I will get him one. Don't you worry. I'll give
him a saddle, too. I got like five of them out
in the barn. Good old Verbon Supreme. The only
serious candidate we have left. That's terrifying.
Because I can't wait to do an episode about the
upcoming election, because good luck figuring
out who's going to win on this one. Good luck.
All the debates are going to be fun, though.
I will say. Yeah, I have to cover the governor
debates and elections very closely. Because we
have the lady that shut down the state during
the pandemic. And probably Vivek Ramaswamy, who
ran for president. Yeah, he's controversial for
some good, some bad. Yeah. But I wouldn't necessarily
vote for her either. I don't know. She's a raging
lunatic. Oh, that bad? Yeah. If she gets into
office. Ohio will probably turn into one of the
more restrictive two -way states very quickly.
That'll be fun. You'll be a suburb of Illinois,
basically, at that point. Yeah, because gun violence
is a health crisis, by the way. Not in Ohio.
Oh, no, everywhere. But she'll be in a position
to do something about it. All right. How do I
say this without pissing people off? It's only
a problem in areas with... certain demographics
so like in 90 of ohio you're fine so yeah well
but that's uh that's what we're dealing with
so yeah well you uh you want to take the last
section close this out oh sure uh the u .s china
trade negotiations are set for july Russia is
marking another anniversary of the Ukraine invasion.
Oh my God. How many years have we been in Ukraine?
What? Three years now? Three or four. Yeah. God
damn. If the midterms flip the house of the opposition,
does it actually cool off the war or does it
trigger an insurrection act? Given the president
emergency powers to stabilize the country during
a conflict. So there's been actually a bit of
an update with, with some of this information.
So I don't know if you know this. But there are
many prominent Democrats that are talking about
if the House is flipped, they want to indict
anybody that's currently in the Trump presidency
or did work with him. The issue I see is if everything
flips, you're going to have a government that
is plagued with the inability to do anything.
And then people are going to get more and more
mad at the situation. I think the problem that's
going to happen is you're going to have bureaucratic
lockdowns basically where. Everybody, both sides
are so mad to lose any sort of power, any sort
of control, that effectively they're all just
going to be sitting there saying, no, you should
be arrested. You should be arrested. You should
be indicted. Rather than actually do anything
to help people, it's going to be the case of
you did it, he did it, he did it, just placing
blame everywhere else. And the bad thing is we
already saw that towards the end of Trump's first
term. And people forget. Yeah, except now it's
going to be way worse because now that he won't
be able to be back in, and I think a lot of the
people that supported him. are leaving like so
here's some breaking news i don't know if you
know this but um he just had one person resign
um in his administration and tulsi gabbard oh
yeah because uh and they they didn't support
the iran stuff and tulsi gabbard i guess is her
next the next person leaving in the next few
days oh okay yeah i didn't know that yes but
she was a huge big win for moderates like myself
so one of the problems that's going to happen
i think is a lot of people that are more moderates
are jumping ship and you're going to get this
problem of near the end of his presidency, he's
going to come under fire from both the left and
the moderates. And the consequences of his administration,
as much as I do not feel warrant being arrested,
I think unfortunately it's going to further this
political divide, and it's going to be much worse.
I think especially when it comes to depending
on who the Democratic candidate is and who the
Republican candidate is, I'm hoping that... Tulsi
Gabbard takes this chance and maybe runs as a
moderate or independent and can maybe be the
level -headed solution. Because I don't agree
with everything she does, but at least she's
far more moderate and willing to work with people.
But if that doesn't happen, we might be close
to the Bolshevik type of revolution where they
just jail the entire previous presidency and
nothing. It stays the way that we're used to.
It could upturn everything. And I know everybody
says, oh, this is the most important election.
Well, unfortunately, what happens is every year
it seems like the pendulum swings worse and worse
and worse to the point where eventually it's
going to knock over the whole machine. So just
keep it in mind that, you know, watch the debates,
pay attention to what's going on, and listen
to the things that people in power are actually
saying because... It's getting to a point where
it's not just political differences. It's literally
like cutthroat. They want to not just win their
election, but they want to remove the person
they're working against. Yeah. And as things
start to ramp up, be wary because the supporters
are getting more and more rabid on both sides.
And I worry that we're going to see more and
more political violence going forward. Oh, yeah.
So I think the problem we're going to see is
going to be way worse than like the George Floyd
riots. And the other problem we're going to have
is false flags where because of AI generated
media and everything else, you're not going to
know what to believe. And there will be entire
riots spawned with things that never happened.
So we will be entering the era of political strife
where unless you physically see it in person,
you don't know what to believe. Yeah. So just
keep that in mind. I think things are going to
be getting a lot crazier. Don't get spicy. Well,
I just advise people on a serious note, listen
to a lot of people, ask questions, talk to people,
and make sure you're communicating effectively
and not just taking people at their words. I
hate to say it. I don't care who they are, whether
they're the president or a journalist or your
best friend or whoever it is. It's going to be
very hard to know what's real and what's not
going forward. It's only going to get worse.
And people will use this stuff to justify their
beliefs. Or their actions. Exactly. And it might
get way worse than what you think. Yeah. Especially
if you're talking about, like, president emergency
powers. I guess my concern is going to be, what
if, you know, shit hits the fan, and then now
you truly enter an era where the next president
never leaves? You know, what if? nothing has
to be believed what if history is rewritten yeah
so my other bit of advice to people right now
is for any history that you have that you know
um you know if you happen to see old history
books or if you happen to see it's a printed
media i'm not one to collect books i have some
i have like a small collection of history books
like maybe 20 just from different countries that
i thought was kind of cool but this really might
be the time to start writing things down saving
documents on your computer from wikipedia saving
down entire encyclopedias and libraries because
I have a bad feeling that the next incoming administration,
no matter who it is, from here on out, facts
are going to be very subjective. History could
become fluid very quickly. That's a good way
of putting it. That is not a good thing. Yeah.
This is the Orwellian hellscape that I never
thought would come to pass. That's why we really
should ban AI. We should ban AI from generating
media. It's one thing to do text documents or
data, but I think media is something that we
got to get rid of. Or it has to be under an approved
media creation company that's paramount or something
like that for movies or entertainment. Didn't
they try that with the Department of Truth? I
know, right? Oh, that's terrifying. But yeah,
on that happy, uplifting thought, I think that
wraps us up for tonight. Yeah. So, you know,
hold your history books tight and keep your buttholes
puckered because these next, I think, 24 months
are going to be interesting. Oh, yeah. Up until
the next election, it's going to be wild. Yeah,
I think interesting is really putting it mild.
I want to be wrong about a lot of the things
that I feel and hope and wonder about. But I
worry that I'm right. Yeah, we're just kind of.
Our podcast is kind of Nostradamus was overweight.
Like we're right way more than we should be.
That's kind of unfortunate. Because I'd much
rather be wrong on a lot of this. But so far,
we're damn near batting 1 ,000. I mean, I don't
know if there's anything we've predicted that's
been 100 % false. Yeah, no. That'd be great for
the listeners to go back and, you know, check
us on. Yeah. There's not a lot. I can't think
of anything off the top of my head. of our heads
that we were like oh we were like way off outside
of the uh the singularity stuff uh but i mean
we were going off of news articles and everything
else that we had at the time we're not that far
off from it though we're really not we still
have i think another year yeah um and it's spiraling
at us because we were talking about like end
of 2027 yeah or singularity stuff i mean if we
don't see it till 2030 then i will admit hey
we're wrong but I want to be wrong on that. I'm
okay if we are. Well, I don't know what that,
what that, what that data center coming up in
Ohio, who the hell knows that might be the, uh,
that might be ground zero, buddy. That, that
could be Skynet's, uh, mainframe. Yeah. That,
that Ohio could be grounds. All the internet
memes are right about Ohio. Ohio will be our
downfall. Yeah. I mean, Anduril did secure the
contracts for the military and the AI stuff.
Did you? They are building. Holy shit. Did you
see the new stuff that Anduril's doing? Uh -huh.
Yes. Anduril has a facility near me, okay? It's
not that far away. I have to keep an eye on Anduril.
So for viewers and listeners to understand, they
ended up with an AI -integrated surveillance
system that can look at people and then pull
up the license plate number, pull up the person.
pull up social media information where they're
going, establish patterns, establish tracking,
and you can just click it to monitor without
human observation. It will fucking monitor that
person. Anduril is quickly becoming a very black
mirror company. And I wanted to pursue employment
with Anduril until I started seeing all this.
To be fair, if they pay enough... It's one of
the few places that I could go to that would
be a pay increase for me. Because with my line
of work, there's not a lot of... Because I don't
have a college degree. And with the way things
have panned out, I've been very lucky and fortunate
to get where I am and with what I've got. But
Enderil, if I was lucky enough to get hired there,
it would be potentially a pay raise. It could
be lateral, but I don't know. With all the shit
they're doing, I don't think I could justify
literally working for the Terminators and Skynet
or what's equivalent to Skynet. Maybe Legion
on the new timeline. I know. It's horrifying
if you look at all the stuff that they're doing.
They've got contracts with OpenAI. Well, imagine
a private company that's able to track you wherever
you go on the planet. Yeah. We have done far
too many episodes about that type of shit. And
it's just like, okay, this is starting to come
true. And it's just getting worse. So I can't
do it. Especially there's no government oversight,
no government overreach. There's no permission.
It's, hey, they spot somebody they want to track,
they can track them. It's that simple. Oh, it's
worse because they actually have contracts with
the government now. Yeah. So they don't need
oversight. They have government backing. God.
So no oversight needed. On a side note, if we
could get a Blackwater group to work with them
and kind of hunt terrorists internationally,
you know, get a little side gig going. Well,
then it'd be okay. Then they could just let loose
the robot dogs of war, and this whole Iran situation
would be over in like five minutes. Yeah, I'm
saying. Or just drones. No. No. Gibbs, I just,
oh my God. Like, mental nuclear bomb. They make
goat drones. They make drones that look like
goats, and they send them over to the Middle
East. And the problem will solve itself. I don't
know if I can make this joke on stream, but.
Oh, my God. Do it. Oh, my God. I just read the
headline of, you know, mass amounts of Islamic
men missing their genitalia in the Middle East
because of the goat drones blowing up. Oh, yeah.
Oh, man. But. but no seriously if andrew were
to combine with another like drone company it's
well they make their own drones so it doesn't
matter oh yeah but like i'm saying even now like
you they could yeah they could topple entire
governments in a matter of hours so yeah so i
mean the the the goat drone thing works because
drones don't have hr departments so there's nothing
to worry about Take me to your HR department.
I'd like to file a complaint. Oh, man. That would
be hilarious if you called him a wireback and
then you get fucking sent to robot HR. We don't
appreciate your tone. Oh, shit. Oh, my God. I'd
have a good laugh. Yeah. But then this is all
going to become a flip thing when they officially
label sentient robots as people. We have a limited
window to send these suicide drones, and after
that, they're done. Yeah. Because at that point,
we can't make drones that detonate on impact
because that's murder. Double murder, I guess.
You know. It all depends if abortion is still
legal. That's going to be kind of a... Wouldn't
that be funny? If you're in a state where abortion
is legal, like Colorado, up until the last day,
using drones isn't. Or vice versa. Using drones
is, but the other ones not. We live in a weird
world. America's a silly country. Yes, it is.
And with that, I think that's going to wrap us
up for tonight. Thank you all for listening.
I hope you guys enjoyed the show. I know this
kind of material tends to get a little dry. We
try to keep it nice and moist and ready to play.
But, you know, it is what it is. So don't look
at me in that tone of voice. You know what it
does. This is the only tone I have to look at
you with. Oh, boy. Yes. No. But anyways, we hope
you guys enjoyed the show and will join us next
week. Hopefully Gibbles is feeling better and
is able to come back and join us. So live show,
we're getting a little bit closer to that. We're
about April, May, June, July, August. We're less
than six months away from the live show. That's
a scary thought. So we hope you guys can join
us for that. That'll be fun. Other than that,
it should be a really good time. Good conversation,
good company, good drinks, great atmosphere,
and we'll start pumping details out like that,
like a teenager on a prom date. So we'll get
that out to you guys soon. Thanks again for hanging
out. We love you all, and we'll see you all next
time. Bye! Bye!