Life Liberty and the Pursuit
Welcome to the Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit podcast. Come join Eric and Matt who are freedom-loving, meat-eating, gun-shooting American guys as they discuss a broad spectrum of topics ranging from States' rights, culture, and the 2nd Amendment to scotch, bourbon, and cigars. Eric & Matt are both former US Army combat veterans who served together while deployed to Iraq during OIF III. Eric is most notable for his YouTube channel Iraqveteran8888 which has over 2.75 million subscribers currently as well as his outspoken and no-compromise stance regarding the 2nd amendment. Matt, founded Ballistic Ink, a branding and merchandising company that serviced 2A content creators and the firearms industry. He also is a partner of Alliance jiujitsu Roswell located in Roswell GA and trains daily and competes regularly. He is very passionate about the 2nd amendment and freedom. Come along for the ride!
Life Liberty and the Pursuit
LLP #114: Tribalism & The Geopolitical Chessboard: From Ukraine to China and Beyond
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The world stage has become increasingly tribal, with nations forming alliances, drawing battle lines, and engaging in complex power plays that affect us all. In this riveting exploration of global geopolitics, we unpack the hidden tribal dynamics driving today's most pressing international conflicts.
Trump's tariff strategy emerges as a masterclass in economic leverage, yielding immediate results as countries rush to the negotiating table. When he announced a 90-day pause on tariffs (except for China), the stock market responded with an explosive 10% overnight gain—generating over $300 billion in profits for those bold enough to invest during uncertainty. This perfectly captures the American spirit of calculated risk-taking that has defined our economic prowess.
We offer a fresh perspective on the Russia-Ukraine conflict that challenges mainstream narratives. Rather than simply viewing this as a war between distinct nations, could it more accurately represent a civil conflict between ethnically similar peoples with shared history? Understanding these complexities provides crucial context for making sense of a war that has raged since 2013.
China's economic vulnerabilities tell another fascinating story. Behind the gleaming skyscrapers of Shanghai and Beijing lies a nation struggling with ghost cities, rural poverty, and unsustainable construction projects like Evergrande. Their Belt and Road Initiative reveals a desperate bid for global influence through predatory infrastructure deals with developing nations.
The Israel-Hamas conflict similarly demonstrates how tribal allegiances shape public perception and political responses. Both sides claim rightful ownership of the same land, creating a moral landscape too complex for simple good-versus-evil narratives. Meanwhile, media outlets race to break stories first, often at the expense of accuracy, fueling tribalism through confirmation bias.
Looking at these conflicts through a lens of critical thinking rather than tribal loyalty gives us a clearer picture of global politics. Join us as we navigate this intricate chessboard where economic might, military power, and information warfare converge to shape our collective future.
Welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt and this is Life, Liberty and the Pursuit, your beacon of freedom and the American way of life. Tune in every Monday for a new episode as we dive into the world of liberty and what makes our country great.
Speaker 2:Alright, welcome back everybody. This is Eric and Matt here with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit, your home for all things. Freedom in a world of craziness and debauchery and all things that are just wild in this little planet that we're spinning around on here.
Speaker 3:Man just just a green sphere circling the sun every 365 days.
Speaker 2:Green and blue, green and blue I hope everybody's having a great week and thanks so much for tuning back in. We've got a lot of cool stuff that we're going to be talking about over these next coming weeks. And remember we post every post every Monday here on the IRAC Veteran YouTube channel, as well as all the places that your favorite podcasts are served Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, etc. Etc. Also, make sure, if you want, you can send us an email. There should be contact forms there. You can drop us a message. If you have questions or comments that you would like for us to read on the air, we would love to have your commentary, so always feel free to drop in and send us a note. So yes, today the discussion is going to revolve around tribalism and sort of the geopolitical sphere and the complexity of the geopolitical sphere that is present right now in the world. I mean, there's a lot going on okay.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things going on. There's a lot of differing opinions. There's a lot of differing, you know, motivations that people have in the world and governments have in the world. And then some of these motivations are also where the people who live in certain countries are at odds with the motivations of their government. That can cause a problem, and we're seeing some of that in the US. There's sort of a little bit of a balkanization occurring in the US with the right. Okay, it's a known thing. Okay, it's a known thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, in fact, several podcasters and influencers were just sent over to have a meeting with the prime minister of Israel about this very subject, about how the right has been very divided. So we're going to discuss a lot of things in this particular episode. So I want to kind of just prepare you. We're going to talk a little bit about Russia and Ukraine and what's going on over there and that that struggle. We're going to talk about China. We're going to talk about Israel and everything going on. We're going to talk about how things are going here in the US, what people's mindsets are, and we want to discuss this and use this podcast as a vehicle to provide, hopefully, some context on what it means for the average American, because I think that, matt, that's another thing that I think people tend to be very disconnected about is most people are ingrained in just the daily struggle of living and they don't know about taxes and tariffs and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:So we're going to discuss a little bit about these tariffs. Trump, let's just kind of dive in, I mean there's a lot to talk about.
Speaker 3:There is and there's a lot of things that are affecting the US on the world economy Right now, the elephant in the room is tariffs. That's what we were using as that driving vehicle to get to the negotiating table. For the longest time, america it wasn't fair across the globe as far as trade. We were running trade surpluses. Other countries were instituting tariffs on US products going in. We had either no tariffs or extremely low tariffs for products coming in from other countries. Granted the US, we are one of the largest consumer nations on the earth. I think there's one other larger consumer and we know who that is and Trump came into office. He said hey, this isn't fair, we're going to change it up, we're going to institute these tariffs.
Speaker 3:Some people didn't agree and I think you really said something that resonated with me was you have to look at it from the view of the average American. The average American with all the fear mongering that was going on about oh, everything's going to be super expensive, everything. Prices going up. Listen, the prices are going to go up, are gonna go up. They did go for a short time. They came back down today. Actually, it was yesterday, but it went into effect.
Speaker 3:Today, he uh, trump put in a 90-day stay of execution I'm going to use that terminology on existing tariffs, except for china, which he increased to 130 percent, hundred or you in retaliatory tariffs. But he said, hey, all the other countries at least picked up the phone. That was that driving motivation the threat of punishment. So think about this as a parent when you want to punish your child, you punish them. When you want to punish your child, you punish them. But if you know that the effect of that punishment has worked, then you could end that punishment early. You got the desired result. The desired result here was to get those other countries to pick up the phone and say, hey, what can we work out here, what do we need to do to get this trade back on track? And that's exactly what happened. All those countries that he instituted tariffs with picked up the phone and because of that he ended it early, at least for 90 days. He said all right, you guys did your part, you're willing to negotiate at the table. We're going to end the tariffs for 90 days on you guys.
Speaker 3:But China, you guys put in retaliatory tariffs. We're up in the game, rightfully. So I have a huge problem with China, especially with trade. They don't play by the rules, they play dirty. I think that we should probably increase it to way more than 130%. We can live without Chinese imports. There's a lot of other countries that can step up to the plate to take a lot of that pressure off of us. Mexico can do a lot. A matter of fact, a lot of the textile manufacturing is moving from China to Mexico. One is closer for us as a country to import. You can come over land. Two, the cost of labor is a little bit more fair, granted, not as low as China, but it's more in line with what you would closer in line to what you would see in the US. And then you know the skill. People will argue oh, the skill gap is different. No, mexico and their skill gap is very high. You can get some really good products coming out of Mexico, just like China, if you go to the right place.
Speaker 2:I think that there's a very unique bargaining chip that is on the table with Trump, and I know a lot of people have highly criticized Trump. And look, I get it. When you're the leader, essentially the free world, you're going to draw a lot of criticism and, believe me, I've been a director of that criticism. You know I have not always agreed with everything that Trump has said and everything he's done, but I think that if you're not, you know gathering some enemies as you go, you're not doing anything effective. So the fact that Trump does have some opposition from within his own circle, I think is a healthy thing, cause I think that there should be people on your own team that go oh well, wait a minute, now you, you said you would do this or do that and we're not really seeing that. But sometimes you have to make a few enemies and, uh, and and and. Look, sometimes in life, uh, it's more of a blessing to find your enemies than it is to lose your friends.
Speaker 2:That's right and as much as I hate to say that that seems like a cold and calculated way to look at the world, but, but the truth of the matter is is that Trump is playing hardball. He's forcing the Chinese to the negotiating table and he's doing it in a way that, um, you know, shows American might and American power, not only our physical power, but our economic power, and this is something that hasn't been talked about in a while. But they're also taking back the Panama Canal. Yes, you know they're not asking. They're kicking the Chinese out of the Panama Canal because they've abused their Panama Canal privileges. Why allow them to? So the Trump administration has shown interest in literally taking back the Panama Canal privileges. Why allow them to? So the Trump administration has shown interest in literally taking back the Panama Canal, and I don't know if it'll be militarily or if we'll just cut a check or you know whatever has to happen. I mean, look at Greenland, right, you know a lot of citizens in Greenland want to be a part of the US. You know Norway's not happy about it and, of course, russia's not happy about it, because the Arctic Circle is a highly contested area. So, again, when you look at the geopolitical consequences of everything going on in the world. It all is like a chessboard and everything moves around precisely in a way that it needs to to play the game. And Trump is playing the game, and I commend him for what he's done.
Speaker 2:I will say that China exports a heck of a lot of food from us. Okay, you know, the thing is, china needs us. We may not need China as much as they need us, I suppose, is what I should really say, that's not to say that China is not relying on us and that in some way, shape or form, we're not relying on him. You know, I would say that, generally speaking, uh, my girlfriend and I were were, um, just making this, um, this point the other day, and I and I, I I find it to be very funny, you know, we we've been fixing up the house a bit, actually a lot. You saw and, uh, and we went. We like to go to home goods, you know, and, um, we kind of have a little tradition where we, you know, if there's a home goods nearby, we're going to stop by, like if we're out and about some days we'll just kind of go and explore all the different home goods around the city, right, and then there's a chain, you know whatever. Anyway, that's not a shout out for home goods, but the point is we like to always go and just check them out, because they have some cool stuff and every store has slightly different stuff.
Speaker 2:But she made the comment the other day she's like wow, look at this, this is capitalism. Like when you can walk into a place and there's goods from all over the world. They're priced cheaply, they're available, there's selection, there's things to choose from, there's a cornucopia of choices and people have disposable money and they've got their buggies full of crap and they're buying things. Like that's capitalism, when you can work hard and make money, and the money that you make, you know, yeah, it's not just what your basic needs are. You can pay your mortgage, pay your bills.
Speaker 2:In theory, I mean, some people are struggling. Look, I feel for you all If you're struggling. We've all been there. But the truth is that capitalism provides a lot of plenty for many. And when you see all these things, all these goods from all around the world, you think that somebody had to pick up the phone and work out a deal. And oh, I'm going to order this stuff from India. I'm going to order this stuff from India. I'm going to order this stuff from China, I'm going to order this stuff from all. So you have all these goods from all over the world in one place, at your convenience, priced as cheaply and efficiently as possible for you to be able to put it in your house, buy it and consume. The consumer mentality and I think Americans are the most consumer oriented people probably in the whole freaking world we are the most consumer oriented people, probably in the whole freaking world.
Speaker 2:We are so quick to just be like oh, let's go home goods and look at random crap and before you know it you've got a buggy full of gummy bears and pasta and probably a bunch of things you don't even need.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:But I suppose the point really is that Trump is playing hardball with these tariffs and I think that he's doing the right thing. I mean, the other countries quickly came to the negotiating table To, and I think that he's doing the right thing. I mean, the other countries quickly came to the negotiating table To your credit, matt. You mentioned Mexico, and their capabilities actually are quite good, and I always hate to bring these types of examples up because I know this is primarily a gun channel and most people are here for firearms and more of that sort of stuff. I always bring up the music thing. Like you know, fender has guitars produced in Mexico as well as California. Of course, the American produced instruments are way more expensive than the Mexican produced instruments, although the prices of the Mexican instruments have been going up in value quite a bit. You know they've been going up in price, but some of the Mexican produced guitars are just as good, if not maybe even the same quality as an american produced model, but they're way cheaper. So is that to say that? Is there a skill gap between the workers in corona, california, producing the american made stuff, and the workers down in mexico making the mexican produced stuff? I don't think so. It's the same cnc? I don't think so. It's the same CNC machine, it's the same program. You just hit a button and the dang thing spits out a roughed in body and a neck and whatever part, and then it's hand finished and assembled or whatever it is. Does a CNC machine know if the person hitting the button is Chinese or Mexican or American? It's kind of like the AI of machinery, if you think about it.
Speaker 2:There's this video that's been floating around of this really pissed-off professor and he's in his college, he's teaching college and he goes up to the podium. He's like you guys used AI to map out this whole curriculum and lesson plan that I'm trying to teach you guys and it's like here's the answer to the test questions, here's all the information right here. It's like what do y'all even need me for? He's like you know what I'm retiring the hell with it and he just walked out. It's like that was his red pill moment.
Speaker 2:But is that to say that we still don't need teachers? It's one thing for AI to tell you how something works, but it's another thing, in this case, for a person with years of experience in the field to teach you. So okay, I understand his point. Yeah, he's correct, ai can lay out this perfect roadmap of information for you, but that's still not quite the same as being taught by somebody who's a master at what they do.
Speaker 2:So anyway, not to sort of go off the rails there, but the point is that we as a society have to recognize that the skill sets when we look at skill gaps and skill sets and differences between people in different countries non-English speaking country, whatever, it doesn't even matter, right, whoever is performing labor for an exchange for money in any part of the world when we look at that difference in the skill sets and things, we have to remember that with the ever-flowing change of information and the rapidly occurring exchange of information, and in addition to AI and CNC machinery and all these things, what we have to remember is that with these things, it is a complex situation where people can get a lot smarter, a lot quicker and they have much better abilities to gain the skills necessary that might have been harder to get in the past right and I would.
Speaker 3:I would even argue that you know, it's simply a cost of labor, uh, difference that you're going to see, I mean granted a lot of. If I don't know much about musical instruments and how they're created, if they are done, the majority of it is done with cnc machine. That's the only other, that's the only other factor there. Uh, now, I mean, I understand, if they're, you know, hand laying something and they're sitting there with a plane and they're they're hand planing the neck of a guitar, like, okay, different story here um, but I would imagine that the majority of fender guitars are not made by like hand, you know. So, um, just like many firearms are not made by hand, it is a cnc process. So they're putting in the machine gets spun up with that said, um, you know, I would argue that not just the tariffs that people are upset about there, and this is, this happened within the last 24 hours. It was the stock market. Uh, so the stock market. As soon as trump said, hey, we're putting in a 90-day pause for tariffs, the stock market absolutely exploded. It was up 10 percent overnight, like it. It would, could you imagine, and I was thinking about this.
Speaker 3:So America was built around, taking risks, even coming down to the very first. You know the pilgrims coming to the U? S. That was a humongous risk. They risked it all for you know they don't have so they wouldn't have religious persecution. They left the country, came into a new world. They weren't going to survive. The cards were stacked against them. They were still willing to do it. America has always favored the bold. What was the bold move? Buy when the stocks were low. That stock market was on the way down, down, down, down, down down. Some people said you know what, I'm willing to risk it. I'm willing to purchase the stock at the low in hopes that it goes up. Trump announced pause on tariffs. Boom, instant 10% return on investment. There's people that are upset about that, like, oh, I can't believe that they bought stock. I can't believe they made money. Well, why they were willing to risk it? They risked their money to purchase this stock. It just so happened to go in their favor. That's what America is about. Is capitalism Over?
Speaker 3:$303 billion in profit was made in the last 24 hours and if you were willing to put it on the line, you got a return. You cannot be mad at people that were willing to risk their own money just because you missed out. I did not buy any stock. But I'm also not complaining about the people that made money. I understand that. Hey, that was their choice. They took that risk and they reaped the rewards. Fortune favors the bold, that's right.
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Speaker 3:You have to talk the talk. You got to do it all in a river, walking around in cold water, like he trains judo. He was like in, he was in another country like doing a judo competition. When you think and again, guys, I'm not a fan of Putin, but if you just look at how they're framing it and saying, hey, our leader as if I was a Russian, I'm not they're like our leader is a strong, vitalis guy that has tons of energy, versus biden that can't walk up a set of stairs, um and like falls over all the time. I mean it is optics at some point, like you have to look at it. And then you know trump comes in. He's playing golf every day, like granted, I get. Some people are like, oh, he plays, he plays too much golf, but he's doing something, he's active. The people see that he's not, you know, just stuck in a chair. He's not falling over.
Speaker 2:He's not some geriatric.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's not a geriatric patient. So I mean again, optics play a big role on how the world perceives you on the world stage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true. So since you mentioned Putin, we'll kind of switch gears a little bit. I know because we were talking about you know, the whole point of this discussion is tribalism and the geopolitical landscape, and when we talk about tribalism, you know what really is tribalism. When we think about the term tribalism, we know it has a definition, we know we can look up and say, hey, this is what tribalism means. But what is tribalism really?
Speaker 2:I mean, if you think about it, we are all guilty at fall under a banner. I think what humans want, the most human beings want to belong, and when you threaten what they belong to, when you threaten the group of people that they belong to, they take it offensively. They take it as an offense of the whole collective, as their offense, even though the offense may not have been directly related to them exactly as a person, or even if the offense doesn't even apply to them as a person. We're all guilty of it. I mean, remember the BLM and all the riots and everything that was going on, and what was the left super turned on about over BLM and racism and white supremacy and these hot pocket sort of keywords that were thrown around to try and create a narrative that would lead you to believe that all the things that they were saying were absolutely, inexplicably, true. Okay, and that's tribalism.
Speaker 2:And what we see now? Okay, now that there's been, let's just say, a minor color revolution, okay, okay, trump won. Now we've got more Republican control, a different flag on the poll, so to speak, different leadership, but does that mean that we're still not falling victim to tribalism? Oh, we absolutely are. So now it's like oh well, we went from BLM and this woke stuff. Now there's the woke right, right that now, oh, it's anti-Semitism, it's this, it's that it just becomes one dog whistle from another dog whistle. It changes into a different tune, but the overall underlying context and consequence of tribalism is still the same. We fall victim to the same issue of not thinking like individuals and not being individual free thinkers and being very critical of the people that are put into office. Just because you voted for somebody doesn't mean they're your best friend. You can call them on the cell phone and they're your best buds. Oh well, I voted for this person. So obviously it means that they're going to do whatever I want them to do.
Speaker 2:Well, guess what? That's not how it works and, again, it's a form of tribalism. Voting is a form of tribalism where you go okay, we're all going to put our card in the hat for Donald Trump, hurrah, he wins, my tribe won. But at the end of the day, though, someone is still going to lose, even if you still voted for the person. Inevitably they're still going to do something you disagree with. They're still going to do something that affects you very negatively. They're still going to do something that has an extremely negative consequence to you. And if we allow that pendulum to swing back and forth and progressively get lower and lower, and we don't recognize that it's a pendulum, okay, then the the torture never stops. It never. It never comes to an end, and I think that we have to really be more independent and free thinkers, think more critically about the things that are going on in our world, and I think that's where the tribalism comes into play.
Speaker 3:I would agree. And just so our listeners and viewers have a. Just in case you don't know what the actual term tribalism is, I'll just read the general overview Tribalism refers to a strong allegiance to one's own group social, ethnic, political, et cetera often prioritizing its interests over others, which can lead to favoritism, discrimination and conflict. I would say that's pretty spot on. You know, mainly because you're prioritizing your own interests over others. So you're saying, hey, this is what I want and I agree with this. So it's like the example of you know, you're going to vote by color. You're going to say, hey, I'm either red or I'm blue and I don't care who it is, that's who I'm voting for. So that is probably, for our listeners, the easiest way to to envision. That is like I'm voting blue, no matter who, or I'm voting red. You know, even if there are Rhino, I'm voting red. So now that we understand what that is, I'll give you a good example of you know how it works and you know America.
Speaker 3:When you say tribalism in the US it's a lot bigger problem because America is so large and everybody, all Americans, stick together. The example I was going to use is like when we were in Iraq. Iraq, you would say, oh, they're very tribal over there. Oh, absolutely they are, but they're very small tribes and that one tribe could absolutely care less what happens to another one. So you're over there and you're like, oh hey, these guys need help. They're like I don't care, they're not part of our family, they're not part of our village, they're not part of our tribe, they could care less. That's what made it so hard to govern over there. So even if they have their own established leaders, they could never establish control because they literally do not care about anything outside of their little tribe.
Speaker 3:In the US it's a lot different, because our tribe is everybody. We have two tribes Well, technically three and that makes it a little bit easier to govern. It makes it easier to vote and it makes it easier to put out specific agendas, which is good and bad. So, and it just depends on your own moral values. At that point I think you made a good point of you know, if you're voting for somebody who vote by who do you? Who do you agree with more than less? And that's essentially what I think of it. I might agree with you a hundred percent, but I don't have to. I just have to agree with more of your agenda than the other person.
Speaker 2:Right, right, or we always prioritize what we want to place the most emphasis on as being important to us. I mean, for instance, you know, I'm very big into firearms and firearms are a very big part of my life, and I think the Second Amendment is extremely important. So, obviously, if Trump, for instance, you know, bans bump stocks which he did I'm obviously going to take great issue with his choice to use executive orders to ban bump stocks, because I'm a one issue voter. When it comes to the Second Amendment, now, does that mean that there's still not a lot of things within his platform that I agree with? I think he's doing the right things with these tariffs. I think overall, he's winning. That doesn't mean that I'm going to, you know, paint a black eye with his accomplishments just because there's a few things that I disagree with. Now, that's a huge disagreement for me. It would normally be a deal breaker, but in the case of Donald Trump, I give him much more of a pass because you know his other wins. You know I'm not going to say it's okay what he did Now. It ended up going in our favor in the Supreme Court, but he didn't know that, for all we know, it can still be banned and he would have been okay with doing that and sacrificing that for whatever political ploy he needed to at the time, if that's what it really was.
Speaker 2:So, again getting back to Putin, I know we kind of got off Russia for a second there, but it was important to discuss tribalism because I think tribalism is a really important thing to consider in this conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Now, listen, I'm probably going to draw some scrutiny here. Ok, my views, in case you don't know, my views are not always necessarily in line with the mainstream. It's a known thing. Line with the mainstream, uh, it's a known thing. And recently, okay, like on twitter, if you follow me on twitter, I mean, look, I I've said some things are rather incendiary and and that some people don't agree with.
Speaker 2:Now, obviously, when we discuss tribalism, yes, there are a lot of people that are going to agree with me. Maybe not people who would traditionally agree with me, especially as a white southern gun owner, meat eater, christian, like, definitely not the kind of person that would, especially as a white southern gun-owner, meat-eater, christian, like, definitely not the kind of person that would garner the sort of support that I've gotten from a vast amount of people, and I think it goes to speak volumes about the true nature of how people really do view the world as Americans, because I have followers, especially on my Twitter page. I have followers from all different walks of life Democrat, republican, independent, libertarian, black White, all races, all religions, you name it. Different countries and different education. You know different levels.
Speaker 2:I mean, I have doctors that follow me. I have a lot of, you know, politicians that follow me. So the way that I deliver my views seems to resonate with some. So one would say, well, maybe they're following you to laugh at you, or following you to scrutinize you, or they're following you because they agree with you. And.
Speaker 2:I think that the majority of people that follow me are down with the message. The point that I make is that when we discuss Russia and Ukraine, you know the media and the American government has really tried very hard to and the Ukrainian government obviously has done a very good job at trying to win the information campaign, which wars involve a few different, distinctive things. You have the psychological campaign, you have the media campaign, the war of information, you have the literal campaign. I mean, yeah, we have to deal death to each other, we have to fight each other until someone gives up. You kill the enemy until the enemy gives up. That's war.
Speaker 2:War in of itself is a war crime. All war is a crime. Okay, the loser committed a war crime. That's how war works. Okay, there's no ifs, ands or buts about it. And you know everyone wants to talk about, they want to support Ukraine or some Americans support Russia. You know, I think if, even if you don't pick a side, even if you just look at it from the bare bones, you know just, let's just say logistical reality of what is going on in that part of the world right now, is that ethnically ethnically, it wasn't that long ago that Russia and Ukraine were the same place, ok, and we're talking, it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 2:The same place, okay, and we're talking, it wasn't that long ago. If you take a landmass like Russia and Ukraine now, granted, it's a big, big place. But let's just say, let's pretend that we just superimpose what's going on in Ukraine and we move it over to the United States. Okay, let's say that you've got half the United States wants to do one thing and they're this landmass, and then half the United States wants to do one thing and they're land mass, and then half the United States wants to do one thing and they're in conflict. They're in literal war or conflict with each other. Does that mean that just because they want to branch off and each one do a slightly different thing, or have their own country, or just decide to split, does that not mean that they're still not ethically the same people? Ethnically the same people? Yes, america is a mixing pot of cultures, so it may not be the best example, but the point is, russians and Ukrainians are more ethnically similar than they aren't.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:And I think that if you really want to pin this war down, it's really a civil war. You know, call it what you want. Ukraine can raise a flag and say they're Ukrainianraine can raise a flag and say the ukrainian. Russia can raise a flag and say they're russian. But at the end of the day, if you put some drops of blood in a freaking vial and test it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:They got the same they came from the same place very, very close and I I'm picking up what you're putting down and I would say that you know that's one of the main differences between the us any other country, uh, in the world, and that was one of the what was one of the points that you know people will use when they are discussing why is it that, like countries and this comes up a lot and I'm going to go back to it real quick this comes up a lot when they start talking about like, oh, socialism, like when you're looking at like Norway, and like how, how those governments work, um, how they're like semi-socialist, Um, and it's significantly easier for them because one that would they. A lot of people would argue that it's not true socialism, but, uh, they're a very homogenous people, they're all of the same race, they're all. It's a very small country and I'm not just using Norway in general, I'm just saying like those Nordic countries, overall, the population for the entire country is what you would find in an average state in America. It's very easy to institute specific programs and for them to be semi successful with such a low population and also a homogenous group of people. That's very important because they're all the same in America.
Speaker 3:America was built around people from other countries. There's nothing wrong with saying oh, if you come from another country and you legally take the test, become a US citizen, you're American. Great Welcome to America. That's the way it should be. But we're not a homogenous people. We're all from different backgrounds, different walks of life, different countries.
Speaker 3:Originally I myself, second generation, my parents came here. They immigrated from another country legally. And then, second generation, I parents came here. They immigrated from another country, um, legally, Uh, and then, second generation, I was born here. My child, my daughter, third generation, born here.
Speaker 3:When we ask her it's interesting that we're on this subject when we uh ask her what her race is, cause she's eight and she's going through this like in school, like, oh, they're learning about different countries and she'll come home to school and she's like, oh, hey, I learned about this country and that country. I'm like, oh, so what are you? She's like I'm American. Eight year old girl she obviously, if you looked at her, she's not the spitting image of what you would imagine an American would look like. She's three quarters Asian and a quarter percent white. But she's three quarters Asian and a quarter percent white. But she's like I'm American, Good, good job because she is, and that's how we raise her Um and I'm proud of that and I and hopefully that, moving forward, anybody else that comes into this country would do the same. I agree.
Speaker 2:Wow, man, I mean that's a perfect example of what we're talking about. And you know I hate to draw such a distinctive and divisive conclusion about the way I look at the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I mean, okay, is that to say that Ukraine doesn't have every right to want to be their own country? I mean, I suppose so right, if they want to be their own country, that's fine. I'm not arguing whether or not Russia and Ukraine should be one nation or not, or whether or not they shouldn't fight each other. I'm literally not picking a side here necessarily. All I'm saying is geopolitically and just the struggle, as the way I see it, is more of a civil conflict than it is a war between two nations. You know, maybe once someone wins, we'll, I guess we'll know the lines are drawn at that point, and then that you know it's kind of a little more official, but you know they've been fighting each other since 2013. So I mean, this has been a while.
Speaker 3:It just hasn't really evolved into what it is now until recently well, they really punched up on that decision to yes, I think so. Um, they and I don't. I don't understand, like, hey, I think everybody has the ability to fight for their freedom. I mean, hell, america did it, um, a long time ago and we would do it again in a heartbeat. But, man, when you make that decision, that was a I I really.
Speaker 3:It makes me wonder, like what was going through zensky's mind when he made that decision. Like, dude, that is a. If you just look at it on a map and you said this country is going to fight this country, bro, that's a no-brainer man. Like, I understand they had a lot of support, especially from the US, but I'm very curious how that's going to go now with the new administration. And I feel bad for you know one. As soldiers, like we understand how hard it is to be out there, like to be fighting on the line, to be in combat, to make sacrifices, to lose brothers, and to be in combat to make sacrifices, to lose brothers and to be out there. And then you know what's going to happen in the next two or three years, especially with what's going on with between Trump and Zelensky.
Speaker 2:You know anyone, anyone, it's anyone's guess at this point, but I can tell you it's, it's probably not going to go well, imagine how hard it is, um you know, to think that as hard as that war is to fight with the supply.
Speaker 2:Uh, being the way it is now imagine when the bombs stop coming, when the support stops coming. You know, imagine knowing the feeling is like help's not coming and it's like, well, you know, the next wave of russians could, could knock us out. I know that's got to be a scary thing for them and, uh, and I do feel for the average guy who's just on the ground trying to survive.
Speaker 3:I mean, I really do, because I war's hell dude, have you seen those videos of um them grabbing conscripts off the streets? Dude, and the dude's girlfriend is like what do you do? Like where are you taking them? Like I I don't know how much of that is propaganda, but at the same time, like dude, that's wild man. Like just snatching dudes off, like like fighting age males off the street, like we need boots and just taking them. And that's wild, yeah dude, it's absolutely wild.
Speaker 2:Uh, we're gonna change gears and uh, we're gonna switch to a different part of the world for a few minutes. We'll talk a little bit about China and Taiwan. I mean, like there's been a lot of saber rattling with China, and especially now, I think, that China is going into this election. I think China was really kind of sitting back to see what would happen, you know like if Biden was going to get elected again, they were probably thinking oh heck yeah, because that's the best thing they could hope for is to have four more years of him.
Speaker 2:When Trump won, I think they expected it, I think they knew Trump was going to win, but I think that they've sort of sat back to lick their wounds and kind of go. You know, hey, we have to really think about how we're going to approach this Taiwan issue, because they've been building these super landing carriers and these super landing craft. You look in World War II and you see a Higgins boat that holds a couple of dozen dudes or something. Okay, that's one thing. We're not talking about some Higgins boat. We're talking about a landing craft that can land like a battalion of troops in one.
Speaker 2:It takes like tanks, like everything, man I mean China has really stepped up At least what they want the West to believe is that they've stepped up their capabilities and production capabilities of producing watercraft of different types. You know battleships and aircraft carriers. China does lack aircraft carriers, which is probably good in the big scheme of things. I mean, you know our allies. You know in the area Japan has always been a solid ally of ours since the war, and kudos to them. You know they didn't complain and bitch, they just dusted themselves off after the war and they rebuilt and they didn't complain. We helped them and you know I have respect for that. You know I know that a lot of people have differing views about the Japanese, but overall I think they're good allies and I think they will continue to be good allies of the US for a long time.
Speaker 3:Well, in contrast to that, look at the countries, and I'm going to use Japan, andapan and korea as an example of of what can happen. So america really dug in and supported japan and korea, both like monetarily, um with government assistance, with equipment, with people engineers, expertise educators yes, and they're thriving.
Speaker 3:I With people, engineers expertise, educators, yes, and they're thriving. I think they have probably the top two economies in Asia. What country has Russia or China supported that can even come close to that? I can't even think of one. I can't even think of one. So, like America built these two, two economies and those are probably the two strongest allies that we have in asia, if not the strongest allies in asia. Big difference japan only has a self-defense force due to the world war ii treaty. Um, and they kind of skirted the lines there. They built these helicopter aircraft carriers and China was like no, you can't have these, these are aircraft carriers. And Japan's like no man, these are for helicopters. Like you see, they're for helicopters. And then, as soon as they acquired these F-35s, they took the helicopters off and they were like now you can use a VTOL F-35. And now they're all stacked with F-35s. So they didn't exactly lie, but it worked out very well in their favor that.
Speaker 2:F-35 is a bad boy man, that's a bad boy. It is. Hey, man, if you know how to fly that thing, that was a death machine boy.
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Speaker 3:It is definitely not. But but Japan has them. I can easily see why China is upset about that whole carrier situation. What I will say about China is that they have far more to lose in this trade tariff war than the US does. You know, nobody likes to pay more for things and I understand the normal American's adversity to like adhesion, even to like paying more for something. But it's just a fact that the average American is significantly more wealthy than the average Chinese citizen and I would even say that you know I'm not saying that makes paying more for something is okay, it definitely doesn't. But when you look at the grand scheme of things, if we can wait it out, they are going to crumble way before the US.
Speaker 3:You're talking like where in America do you go that you have a dirt floor and no electricity and no running water. That is the predominantly large area of china. When you get outside in the, at least in mainland hong kong, everything is good. But you go into the mainland outside of those major hubs, dude, you're talking horse and buggy. You're talking like walking everywhere no power, like you're scavenging for food, like you don't see that part. You see, like these big cities, like Shanghai, beijing, shenzhen, like the, the, the trade hubs, the industrial hubs, the industrial hubs of China. But China is so big man and you start getting outside of that. They're using water wheels to, they're still using, like water wheels to generate power for stuff, and those people they can't, they're not going to be able to take it. They're not, they're not in a good position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what sucks about it, you know, is that the Chinese are going to, you know, sort of play triage with their own people and they're going to go well. These people are the least useful. Therefore, you know, I hate to to say it, but the allocation of resources them is going to be slim to none well, they're already in a bad way with the evergreen debacle.
Speaker 3:So they have a huge problem right now in china with construction. They that, because of the way the government is set up communist the government has to create work for this construction company and there was a big documentary about it. You can look it up. It's called Evergreen and they just kept building. They kept building and these Chinese families are buying these condos as investment properties and then they just built another one next to it and eventually it all crashed and the government owned all of this property and they owed the bank billions of dollars and essentially, the only way that their economy is even going is because they're continuing to build. These cities are ghost cities. Nobody lives there. You'll go and see this humongous. Imagine driving into a city like New know, new york and nobody lives there. It's completely empty. That's the. That's the status in china. When you see ghost cities, um, that's wild, it is, it's crazy, and that's the only way their economy is is going, and trump knows this. The us government knows this and guess what they're about to find out.
Speaker 2:Yep, you know, napoleon Bonaparte said that an army marches on its stomach. What does it mean by that? Well, what Napoleon means is that you can only move so fast as logistics allow you to move. And fighting wars is 90% logistics. I mean, yeah, you have to have the might and the brawn and the will to win, but if you don't have beans and bullets you're not going to win.
Speaker 2:And part of the issue of China is that, yes, okay, do they have a large military? They do. Do they have a lot of capabilities? They do. They got a decent amount of equipment, a lot of people, but how are you going to feed them? How are you going to transport them? How are you going to care for them? How are you going to tend to the wounded? How are you going to work on weapons that are broken? How are you going to maintain your vehicles and fleet maintenance? I mean, how are you going to keep that machine rolling? I mean, the larger your military is, the harder it is to keep it rolling.
Speaker 2:Especially, I mean, imagine, everybody talks about, well, china wants to go to war with Taiwan. I mean, okay, could China, you know, take Taiwan? Easily? Probably. Why haven't they? Why haven't they yet I think that they know that the greater geopolitical play in place is that, if they do, they're going to anger all of us and, believe me, this is more economical than you could ever believe.
Speaker 2:It's more economical than military in terms of the way that that situation is being handled. China could easily militarily take Taiwan. They don't care how many people have to lose to do it, but the problem is they know that the political and economical capital that they're going to expend to do that is far, far more worse than any amount of human life they could ever lose. They stand way more to lose by pissing us off than they do by gaining that territory, or at least in their mind, they already treat it as their territory, which you know. Of course, taiwan claims independence, as they should, right. So Taiwan number one, yes, number one, okay, you know so, and I don't really want to get into the conversation about you would mention nation building, and what have countries like China and Russia done? One thing that China is doing is they are working with Afghanistan to build highways in Afghanistan, but that's not because they want the Afghans to be able to get around easy. It's because they want to go in there and strip mine for lithium.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:And they want to take all that lithium and have a nice, convenient highway to get it back to china. So that you know, you always have to look at truth and consequence and and everything has consequence, everything has an underlying reason for why something's being done. So they're not doing that out of the goodness of their heart. They want those, uh, lithium deposits. There's trillions of dollars of lithium in Afghanistan.
Speaker 3:So they do that in other countries. The most recent was in Africa. So China actually calls that the belts and roads initiative. And what they do is they go in and they offer these countries to build out their infrastructure. Everything they say we're going to build your ports, we're going to build your roads, we're going to build out their infrastructure. Everything they say we're going to build your ports, we're going to build your roads, we're going to build your dams, we're going to build all your infrastructure. And what you're going to do is you're just going to pay us money every month. We're going to have control of the ports because we built them, so they get there.
Speaker 3:It's almost like a sharecropper kind of thing yeah, yeah, you could say sharecropper. Or just like a long term lend lease act where they're saying, hey, we're going to build all your infrastructure, you're just going to pay us a residual every month on top of your from your GDP, which might seem like a good deal, but it's not GDP. Which might seem like a good deal, but it's not, because the big problem here is the uh, the actual quality of the work. So in Africa there was a lot of big problems with the craftsmanship, the electrical power stations that they were building were failing. Um there, everything was collapsing.
Speaker 3:It doesn't help that they go and strip the copper out of them for scrap either, so they just they're just not. The level of craftsmanship and quality isn't where it needs to be, and so they're not really getting their money's worth out of it. But yet they still have to pay them. They're still owed money, right? So they're going to all these different countries, and the name of the company in china was called ever grand I apologize, I just had to look that up because I knew it was close Evergrande, and it was $78 billion that they defaulted on from the Chinese government, and the Chinese government had to step in and take that hit to do the same thing, offering free labor, free work, and what you're seeing is, honestly, a lot of that stuff is from what I understand is not just Chinese labor but also North Korean labor, so they're bringing in a lot of North Koreans as a labor force. For that. It seems like North Korea is just kind of becoming this cannon fodder across the board, whether it's for Russia or labor for construction.
Speaker 2:They've been bringing in a lot of North Koreans to fight in Russia. Oh, yeah, yeah, they have Whole battalions, yep Now in Taiwan.
Speaker 3:I think that there's probably going to be a move there, and I'm very curious to see, because the US will absolutely not allow that to happen. We rely, and that's one of the problems that started this whole thing was that the government realized that we don't have the ability to manufacture what we need to, that's most important to us Semiconductors, computer processors, things of that nature. And that's really where you start to see the difference in manufacturing. So there's a reason that the US doesn't manufacture. You'll see people say, oh, we don't manufacture textiles, we don't because we used to, and then we moved on. So the countries that are the most successful right now outsource that the lower level manufacturing textiles, stuff like that, and they moved on to semiconductors, computer processors, something that's really more high up on the technological scale Consumer electronics, consumer electronics.
Speaker 3:But here's the problem. The US kind of sat back and said well, we're just going to import all that stuff, and now we're suffering the consequences and we have to get back to doing something. We need to manufacture something. We can't rely on everybody else. That's true. So hopefully we get back to a point where and granted, we're not asking the US population to start manufacturing everything, the, the us population to start manufacturing everything. But we need to manufacture something, something that can help alleviate some of that pressure from importing goods from other countries for sure.
Speaker 2:Now on the geopolitical you know spectrum as well, you know we we can talk briefly a little bit about israel and hamas and everything going on with that. I mean, they obviously have a heck of a fight on their hands with what's going on and you know there's a lot of saber rattling going on in this situation. There's a lot. There's a huge disconnect with the right Really, the left has always generally not been a fan of the Israelis and there's a disconnect now to where there's a lot of on the right too that are beginning to be much more open in their criticism for Israel and everything like that.
Speaker 2:And so, whether or not you support Israel or not, or whether or not you support Hamas or not, or whatever, I mean, I think that people again, with this tribalism, they are guilty of being thrown into this meat grinder of where someone says, well, if you say something that is contrary to what the greater discussion says about, let's say, the Israelis, well, you must be an anti-Semite, you must be pro-Hamas, you must be pro-Palestine, this or that, and of course they're going to use that dog whistle Again, it's a dog whistle. And just because you have a problem with the actions that some of the Israelis are committing primarily, you know, blowing up hospitals and killing kids and things like that. If you bring up something like that and you, you know, scrutinize that, oh well, you're, you're anti this, you're, you're pro this. It's like they're never going to look at the actual fact and say, oh well, you know, they're not going to explain their actions, they're not going to explain why they think that's okay. You know, trump just endorsed this. Randy Fine fella, you know, out of Florida.
Speaker 2:I think District 6, or maybe District 8, I don't remember which district, but anyway he won. But you know openly, uh, zionist, pro Israel, this sort of thing, jewish, whatever, that's fine, okay, uh, but sharing, you know information on his social media about, oh well, the streets of Gaza are going to run full of blood and showing pictures of dead children, and so, and using that as a as, a, uh, a political, let's say, trope to run for office on, to use it for political gains and to try to drum up support from his constituents for someone who endorses this type of behavior, you're going to use a picture of dead children as a political statement. How awful. And you want to ask yourself why do these people hate us so much?
Speaker 2:And that's why, because here you are, you're supporting this, and you know it's just really wild to think about Now the greater geopolitical play, whether or not you support Palestine or Israel or whoever, there's really no side to pick. Necessarily, you don't have to pick a side to understand the geopolitical situation that is occurring, and that is Iran, I mean. So, really, what this is all about is trying to draw Iran into some form of conflict with us. Right, that's what this really all comes down to? Because who do you think is going to be fighting a freaking war with Iran?
Speaker 3:Hopefully not us.
Speaker 2:Well, that's their damn plan. I can promise you that, and that's what gets me so much about all this. When you look at the geopolitical landscape of combat and war with the United States over the last 20 years, and this war on terror especially, you know you've been told that these people are the boogeyman, they're the most awful thing ever. Now, in some cases, they prove it. Okay, we know, yeah, some of them have been capable of some really heinous things, and you know, of course, but holistically, you know, are they really as bad as they make it out to be? And I think the answer is just, it has to be no. If you're being logical, you know people are people, no matter where you go in the world, and there's good people and bad people no matter where you go. Is that to say that you look at some meme or trope online about Muslim people or Jewish people or Christian people and all of a sudden, that makes every person that falls within that meme that stereotype of that meme. Are they that meme?
Speaker 2:No, they're not Like you were saying earlier, not every Jewish person is an orthodox crazy little hat, curly hair, stereotypical image of an evil, cackling Jewish person right now.
Speaker 3:But that's the image they have in their head.
Speaker 2:But that's the image that people have in their head, and the same generalization can be made about hamas. The same generalization was made about the taliban. The same generalization is made about isis, and so on and so forth. Whatever boogeyman movement the cia decides to create and fund, they want to, they'll paint that picture that they're all evil. And you know, there are palestinians that are christ all evil. And there are Palestinians that are Christians. Are they evil? I mean so there's a lot of people that get left in the cracks, and that's the issue, and it's certainly not the kid's fault.
Speaker 3:Absolutely not the kid's fault. But when you look at it as a whole, what's going on, you could say the same thing was happening, you know, in the us when the vietnam war broke out, because there was a ton of war protesters. And why were they? Why were they protesting the wars? Because they were sending back footage of like, hey, it seems to be like kids is the hot, hot point. It's like nobody wants to see children die.
Speaker 3:And when you start seeing that and that was like, especially a parent, like in Vietnam, you would see like the, the infamous, like baby killer, like trope, when they're, when they're talking to Vietnam soldiers, when they come back, um, anytime, you see that and that seems to be the, the way that they get people on their side. Like, hey, these children are dying, dying. And you're seeing it in like the whole palestine, israel war, like they're. That seems to be the, the main images coming out to win you over, and and it on both sides, on both sides, and it might. But then you start looking at you know, and I don't have a dog in this fight, guy, I am neither, uh, israeli, jewish or palestinian, obviously, as you can see.
Speaker 3:But when you start looking at the big picture. They're like hey, why if they had six hostages? Right, the Hamas and Palestinian people have six hostages. Why do they require Israel to trade a hundred people that were in jail for three hostages Like, and two of them are dead. So you're getting back the remains but you. That's not a very even trade and it took a month to negotiate that. I'm not saying I'm on anybody's side, I'm dead, I don't. I could care less, quite honestly.
Speaker 2:The optics are definitely bad.
Speaker 3:But it makes you wonder, like all right, so how much of this is whose fault? You know, if one side is willing to trade and the other side isn't, but you make the trade so lopsided that it doesn't really make sense. How do you look at that and say both of these people are putting in a fair effort. A fair effort, you know it would obviously look like Israel is putting in bringing way more to the table if they're willing to trade a hundred people for three or four, but at the same time you have you have them bombing hospitals and stuff like that, when obviously that's not something that you want to do. Up for the optics.
Speaker 3:It's tough, man, like we've been to war, we've seen like the things you have to do, but at the same time, like America is almost complicit in it, because they're and I and I use that, I use that term and I use that saying you know the way it is like America's complicit in it. They're giving money, they're giving technology, they're giving weaponryry, that's what it's being used for. America doesn't get to just walk away and say, hey, you know, we don't have anything to do with it, when in actual fact those are us ordinance being dropped especially when you know apac and the israeli lobby has such a strong foothold in the American government and basically, essentially, our destinies.
Speaker 2:And I take issue with that. I really do, because you know they, they really have a lot of power and they own all the politicians. And after a while you think, well, whose government is it? And there's a lot of geopolitical things going on, there's a lot of tribalism and again you could, you could view that as tribalism. Where on, there's a lot of tribalism and again you could view that as tribalism.
Speaker 3:That's a really good example of tribalism.
Speaker 2:The Israelis swear up and down that they have the right to that land. The Palestinians swear up and down that they have the right to that land. Well, guess what? That's what war is. War is fighting the enemy until they give up, and I'm not picking a side here. I'm just saying that the reality of the situation is both of them claim to have a stake in being there yeah and you know I'm not saying any sides right or wrong.
Speaker 2:Well, I I think that israel's definitely done some really nasty things and um, but that's not to say that the other side hasn't either. Okay, I'm just trying to be fair and logical here. But war is war, war is war and and the truth is it's a very ugly war and but I think it's going to have greater lasting implications that you know they're trying to get iran involved and then trying to get us pulled in with all that. So you know so many things to talk about. This podcast could go probably a whole nother hour if we wanted it to, but we are reaching towards the end of today's show. Let me know, guys, what you think about this show today.
Speaker 2:I know we kind of jumped around the world a lot and jumped around a lot of different subjects and, look, we're trying to really speak in generalizations. We're not really. You know I don't want to pick a side necessarily, although it does become a point in life that you do have to pick a side. I'm not saying don't have a side. Everyone has their morals and values and who they're going to line up with. But all I'm saying is understand, the greater play, the greater consequence that is unfolding With this interconnected world we have.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of people with different views and the exchange of that information and those opinions is so much easier now with the internet and instant communication just makes things makes us all considerably closer right and look at X as being sort of the de facto town square. More people are turning to X than ever for their news and information and to have open discourse with, even with people they disagree with. So when you look at that open forum where you can go on and criticize world leader right there on X if you want to, it really does make the situation more delicate because the exchange of information is so rapid and so instant and so gratifying to you.
Speaker 2:Instant gratification and so instant and so gratifying to you. Instant gratification, that dopamine rush that you become sensitive, let's just say, to the risk of falling victim to complacency and falling victim to usury, and just the idea of you're always having to check and obsess yourself with this monster that is social media. But is it really, um, how we're meant to operate as people, this tribalism? Is it really natural for the human condition? That would be my overall argument that perhaps social media does more harm than good.
Speaker 3:I think the big thing is people are looking for confirmation bias. They want to know that when they look at any news coming out, any big story, any new information, they love to think in their head I was right, or that's what I believe. So they're strictly looking, especially if you're just looking at it from a tribalism standpoint. They love to know that they were on the right side of the newsreel, like, hey, that's that's what I was telling everybody, that's what I felt, that's what I believed. Strictly, confirmation bias. They want to be on the winning side and and I would say, unfortunately, the speed at which the news can arrive hurts that, because it's not always the most accurate. How many times have you and how many times have you seen a news break come out and then you go back the next day and if you really pay attention, you'll have to look for the correction. But they're not required to like. The correction never gets the same traction as the original story, it's true, and that's. Everybody's in a race to get that first news break.
Speaker 2:And again, unfortunately it's not always true or it'll have, uh, some mistakes in it, and then that gets repeated out into the echo chamber and then that wrong news story is circulating around yeah, and then all the tribalism comes into play and people go, oh, I was right, I was right, and they all want an aha moment, that sort of thing, the gotcha moment, and uh, I get it. But look y'all. Thanks so much for listening in on today's show and if you're watching, thanks for watching. Uh, remember we post over on youtube. Uh course you can find us all over, where all your favorite podcasts are served Stitcher, spotify, apple Podcasts, etc. We're out there.
Speaker 2:Make sure to download the show if you want to listen. I know some of y'all are listening on your way to work and home, commute and that sort of thing. So, thanks so much for the support. Let me know in the comment section below what do you think about today's show'd love to hear your feedback. If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them down in the comment section below. We can do some qa and some future episodes as well. So thank you all very much. Many more episodes on the way.
Speaker 1:We'll see y'all next week bye, everybody thanks for listening to life, liberty and pursuit. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on apple podcastss, Spotify and anywhere else podcasts are found. Be sure to leave us a five-star review. We'd really appreciate that you can support us over on Ballistic Inc by picking yourself up some merch and remember guys, dangerous freedom. Have a good one.