Life Liberty and the Pursuit

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

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

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

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

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

SPEAKER_00:

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. Alright, everybody, welcome back. This is Eric and Matt here with LLP, your home for all things normal in a world gone completely freaking mad. Here we are, your beacon of freedom in this crazy black hole of craziness that we live in.

SPEAKER_01:

On this ball of water and gas rotating through the galaxy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, flying through space quickly on a course to hell, apparently. And uh I tell you, we got a good episode today. We're gonna be talking about the Trump slump. All right, what do we mean by the Trump slump? Well, today's episode, you know, we're we're really discussing how um this is gonna, we're gonna be talking about complacency with the Republican voters when it comes to guns. Um, so we're gonna be talking a little bit about the firearms industry and how things always seem to kind of take a dive when Republicans are in charge. We're gonna talk about that paradigm and kind of what causes it and hopefully get people to get away from this complacency that they seem to have. And it's it's always a natural progression that happens when Republicans are in office. So we're gonna discuss that and also some other 2A stuff. Just have a good, fun episode and uh and with the Trump slump being the sort of the vehicle which drives today's conversation. So uh before we get started, I would like to thank our friends at Allegiance Gold. Have you ever noticed how gold doesn't get much airtime until the system starts to shake? Well, here's what nobody is talking about. Starting July 1st, Basel III global banking rules classify gold as a tier one asset, the same level as cash or U.S. treasuries. This is huge. It means that central banks will now treat gold as the highest quality form of capital. They're not just doing this for fun, they're preparing for something. If gold is good enough for the world's most powerful banks and governments, why wouldn't it be good enough to protect your retirement? This may be the moment we've all been waiting for. Gold could reach levels we've never seen before. Whether you've got 5K or 5 million to safeguard, now is the time to act. I've seen plenty of gold companies advertise and come and go, but I chose to partner with Allegiance Gold because they actually care. They care about their pricing, about integrity, and about doing the right thing by their clients. They make it simple to move part of your 401k, your IRA or savings into real physical gold and silver. As a veteran, you may qualify for up to$5,000 in free silver. Call 844-790-09191 or visit allegiancegold.com forward slash veterans. That's 844-790-9191 or allegiancegold.com forward slash veterans. It's smart, secure, and simple. Call today. Check them out. And a big thanks to Allegiance Gold for being a long-term supporter of Life Liberty and the Pursuit. Um, this podcast, Matt and I have been cranking at it for quite some time. We did take a bit of a hiatus. Uh, we had a lot of things going on in life, but I'm glad that we brought the show back. And I really appreciate all of your support. Uh the viewers, you always have so much to add, and we really appreciate you uh tuning in and listening to some of our uh our being our muse, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01:

Our in unhinged commentary.

SPEAKER_00:

Unhinged and unadulterated content. Uh how's your week been going? Everything good?

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's great, man. You know, it's uh my I just recently had to change my daughter's school. Um, so that's kind of been an interesting fiasco. It just wasn't uh you know, just to kind of give the viewers a quick insight into the personal life. Um, you know, my my daughter is a uh a high achiever, as you would say. Um, you know, she is an accelerated class, so she's working a grade ahead, she's in the gifted program, um, and she works very hard. She's a she's a almost a full-time athlete, but she also studies. So it's really like study and athlet athletics. Like those are the two things that she does. Like, we don't spend a lot of time doing other stuff. Um, and that works for her. She she enjoys it. So we s we recently switched school to like a charter school, but it was supposed to be like a a STEM school for like high achievers. This proved to not be the case, Eric. So we I we enrolled her. Um and you know, I'm very involved with her education. So like I'm I'm following, I'm asking questions, I'm asking uh asking questions, you know, questions. Um and you know, the to the teachers were weren't giving me the answers that I wanted. They're being a little convoluted, a little vague.

SPEAKER_00:

Are charter schools are those are the kind of schools where the parents pretty much fund the school? Like it's the public uh public funding.

SPEAKER_01:

It's in between a public and a private school. So basically they still get they still get funding from the county. So it's still it's still a uh a Fulton County school, right? But they don't have to play a hundred percent by the the county rules, so they can run their own curriculum as long as they're upholding the same standards, they don't have to use the same curriculum.

SPEAKER_00:

So sometimes they exceed the standards, sometimes they exceed a lot of times charter schools probably from more gifted kids and stuff like that. Is that the idea?

SPEAKER_01:

It can be, it can be. So lots of times that's the way it is, but then they would usually just go private and then then they don't have to follow any of the rules. They're like, we just do what we want.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, private schools at the parents premium pay for everything.

SPEAKER_01:

So charter schools, they they are kind of like half and half. So this particular school is supposed to be uh for a little bit higher achievers, gifted, and then it just wasn't the case. I think it was uh a false bill of goods, and we were noticing that you know, hey, all the stuff that you told us about, all the test scores, all this, it was all bogus, man, because there's no way that these this school was producing. My daughter would come home every day, like, this is an eight-year-old girl telling you, like, hey, this is not what this is. Not challenging. Yeah, no, not. She's like, I learned this stuff in like second grade, third grade. I'm like, all right. And then I would ask them about it, and they just kept giving me the runaround. So I just pulled her out and put her back into her previous school, which is a public school, by the way. However, very, very good public school, like 10 out of 10, like they're able to really um help the growth of that student. Um, which is, you know, I had no problem with that school in the first place. I just want to try something new. Sure. So put her back in. So dealing with that whole thing, um, daughter's much happier. She comes home, she's like, Yes, the work is way more challenging. It's way, it's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm like, good.

SPEAKER_00:

And how cool is it when a kid is happy to have a challenge?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, she would come home from school like bored. She's like, I'm like, what did you do in school today? She's like, boring stuff. Like it just wasn't like there's a point in time where it becomes, you know, monotonous, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so yes, that's what I would have been dealing with. And now we're we got that settled. We're we're back on schedule and we're good.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

The island, yeah, I like it out there.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's always neat, you know, look at the stars at night and enjoy some peace and quiet. And it's always uh good to have some time to reflect and everything.

SPEAKER_01:

You shore the boat, huh? You shore the boat, so like once that water goes out, man. Yeah, yeah. Once that water's out, you're in. You're on. You can't get out. You're there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Uh I actually end up getting the boat stuck. Oh no. I had to call some help to get me out.

SPEAKER_01:

SETO.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Yep. But luckily, uh my insurance company covers it 100%. So I get free toes.

SPEAKER_01:

Underrated, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, so that was highly uh highly welcome. Because if you're not a member of CETO and you have to get a tow, it's like$1,500.

SPEAKER_01:

Easily, dude. For them to come.

SPEAKER_00:

Easily. And it's a good payday for them. It's like it takes them probably about an hour to come out there and get you and come right back. It's like, wow.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that$50 premium paid dividends, boy.

SPEAKER_00:

Premium on that time, you know. But anyway, all in all, great week for me. And uh, we're gonna talk about the Trump slump. So, what do we mean when we when we discuss a Trump slump? Well, it's a it's a it's a term that has been coined in recent years, you know, just because it has a nice little ring to it, I guess. It rhymes. It refers to situation where when we have Republican-controlled House and Senate, no matter what majority it might be, even if it's a slim majority, and let's say a Republican president, it always causes gun owners to get into this kind of weird complacency. And we call it the slump, the Republican slump, or in this case, a Trump slump. And anytime you have that type of situation, people tend to kind of not focus on guns as much. They don't buy guns quite as much, they they quit buying training and ammo quite as much. Uh, politically, they don't really focus on the laws that are going through, and they don't really, they're not as politically active. Uh, they stop supporting some of their favorite gun rights organizations, you know, when a Republican's in charge. So it's kind of weird because it's almost like we put ourselves out of a job when we fight hard to fight against legislation and we earn our rights back and we beat these people in court, and you have a big gun rights organization who needs lots of money to operate and they have to go and be able to lobby on the hill and everything like that. You know, it's like they work themselves out of a job. You know, they achieve the result they want, and then people go, all right, well, now that that's not a problem anymore, I'm gonna stop supporting these people, which you would think that they would continue to support no matter what, but that may not always be the case. And I'm not talking about this just in terms of gun rights organizations, it's also industry-wide. You know, yeah, there are some gun companies that are doing well right now and that have intrinsically always done well, whether it's by virtue of the diversity of their product or the price of their product, it's just kind of like in that Goldilocks zone of pricing. Like a company that comes to mind is Smith and Wesson. Smith and Wesson seems to always do well, no matter what. No matter who is in charge, no matter which end of the government, which end the pendulum swings, Smith and Wesson always maneuvers and does quite well. And and they typically always do really well. Henry always does well, right? There are certain companies that seem to sort of break the mold of the slump, the Republican slump. But people selling ARs right now, you know, AR companies or black rifle companies or you know, certain areas of the firearms industry can be a really tough nut to crack when Republicans are in charge, because people associate, let's just say, certain products with, okay, well, I, you know, I was thinking about buying an AR, but I didn't because, you know, maybe money was a factor, or or maybe I didn't buy an AR because, hey, the Republicans are charged, and I'm not worried about losing my gun rights because Republicans aren't going to go after AR. So, well, in their mind, they've been putting it off for this long. They'll just put it off another four years until the next scare comes along. And then, yeah, you'll see a boost in people purchasing ARs and AKs and black rifles and certain pistols, things like that, right? And then you got this group of people who they were putting it off when the Democrats were in charge, and they're definitely putting it off now that the Republicans are in charge. And for some reason, it seems that despite all the crazy things happening in the world right now, you would think that people would go out and arm themselves because the world's getting obviously a much more scary place. But even despite the things that are going on in our country and some of the political upheaval and some of the uncertainty and definitely some of the violence that's occurring, yet some people choose to still sit on the sidelines and not arm up, not be politically active, not support the gun rights organizations, and not take their rights uh seriously.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's a simple, you know, a simple law of supply and demand. Like whenever there's a Republican in office, whenever the majority of the, you know, of Congress in general is um, you know, Republican, there's no demand in order for people to rush out and buy any type of whether it's firearms or ammunition. I mean, look at ammunition right now. It's it's you know, fairly close to what pre-COVID was. I mean, nine millimeter boxes, boxes of nine millimeter, like what 30 cents around, maybe 20 like is pretty, pretty pretty comparable, like a far cry from the dollar a shot you were paying for nine mil. Um, you know, dang, like five, five, six buck fifty. I mean, it was insane. Now it's starting to become a little bit more reasonable. Well, a lot more reasonable.

SPEAKER_00:

Some cartridges. Yeah, yeah. Nine seems to have gone back down.

SPEAKER_01:

Nine. Um, I mean, obviously, you always have your your vanity cartridges, like 300 blackouts. Um, and I call them vanity because really that's what people their their flexes, people pulling out the the the integrally suppressed 300 blackout at their range, you're like, oh my god, you just dropped like 2500 bucks on that thing, man. Like, um, but outside of that, um, there's not really a high demand for it because there's no, I would say, there's no danger right now. So people are just kind of relaxing. They have their cruise control on. That's true. They're just chilling, hanging out until something happens.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Kids are, you know, kids are out of school for vacation, you know, vacation season's winding down. We're getting into fourth quarter. You know, you probably will wind up seeing an increase. I mean, fourth quarter is typically sort of the consumer uh-oriented quarter of the of the year, you know. Like a lot of businesses fiscally are turning over their taxes. What in September, I think, is when corporate taxes are due, or October or something like that. So corporations pay their taxes at different times of year. There are many financial reasons for why people spend the way they do at the end of the year versus the beginning of the year. Obviously, you have Christmas and holidays, people are taking off vacation, enjoying their holidays back home. People get into this sort of homey environment, they start spending money. I mean, it's just this is the time of year when people start spending more than they probably would during the summer. On this, in the summer, they're going on trips with the family, they're going on vacations, um, you know, they're doing more things, they're, they're, they're uh prioritizing experiences over merchandise, over things. Right. And I think we're gonna see a situation moving forward. And it's also because of all this as a hedge against, you know, not really a hedge against inflation, but as a reaction to all of this uh this fractional banking system we have and all this overglorified money printing and this and inflationary money practice that we seem to have accepted as being normal when it's not. Well, we see all this man-made inflation, not to mention literal inflation, that is just a result of the fiscal policies our country has been doing, whether it's tariffs or any other type of debauchery. I mean, you know, I think it's funny how we have tariffs, but then we still have income taxes. So you really slip that in on you, right? Like everybody was like, oh yeah, we'll collect our money through tariffs, yeah, but they're still gonna collect your money through taxes. So it's like the American people got stuck holding the bag, an extra tax, essentially. So money doesn't go as far as it used to, a few even up to a few years ago. I mean, the dollar lost, I think, another 10% of its buying power just in the last year. So, you know, consumer confidence is not very high. That can that can make people not want to buy things as much, buy goods, right? They're gonna prioritize. The point is, they're gonna prioritize uh experiences over things. And I think that's what we're what we're really seeing. People are gonna go on trips more often, they're gonna go to the park and hang out with their kids, they're gonna go to the lake and go enjoy a picnic. Like, that's a cheap way to have a great experience and not have to go spend a bunch of money and things. So I I think people are prioritizing experiences.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that, yeah. I mean, outside of that, once since you bring that up, like going to let's just say, for example, you're going to the gun range, right? Let's say there's four of you guys going to the gun range. It used to be pretty economical. You could go and you could not spend a lot of money and you could have some fun at the gun range shooting, but now it is true, like the inflation has gone a little bit. Like you go to the gun range and you rent four firearms, you have to drop ammunition for four four people.

SPEAKER_00:

You you gotta peel off a few hundred bucks a day. 250 bucks.

SPEAKER_01:

You only drop about a hundred a piece, like a hundred a piece for that. Um, four hundred bucks, and that's about in an hour's worth of time.

SPEAKER_00:

I've I I've noticed that, all right, even with my with my YouTube videos, all right. You you guys might notice if some of you follow my YouTube channel, I've been posting a lot more shooting videos. Okay. I went out the other day and I had a great shotgun day. I did a bunch of shotgun shooting, did some reviews. I put out a video on the Breta 1301. I cut a video on the Breta A300, uh, Ultima Patrol, I cut a video on a newly SBSed Mossberg 990. I cut a video on an SBS 14-inch 10-gauge Browning VPS shotgun, which is cool. So, you know, I was able to cut some videos and I had to go buy 10 gauge the other day because I ran low on some 10 gauge ammo. And holy crap, just for a 25-round box of bird loads and about five boxes of slugs, I think I spent like almost$350 freaking dollars just for a few rounds of 10-gauge ammo. Now, granted, 10 gauge is expensive cartridge to buy. And yeah, a box of a five five-round box of slugs is like$16. That's a lot of money. Now, granted, 10 gauge is an expensive cartridge, but still, I was thinking, wow, I mean, like for me to go out and make YouTube videos, it gets more and more expensive for me to afford to be able to go out and buy ammo just to make make YouTube videos. And I know that everybody thinks that these YouTubers are getting sent, you know, pallets of ammunition. And look, I'm not gonna lie, has have companies supported me in the past with ammo before? Have I gotten a care package for ammo? Yes, I have. Yeah, one time Federal sent me a huge pallet of ammo. I requested a certain amount of ammo and they sent it. And and yeah, I it took me years to burn up that ammo. And I was glad to have it, but I use that ammo to make the videos to help entertain people and educate people. So it's the ammo went to good use. It's not like I went out and burned that ammo up in my spare time just for fun. No, I only use it for video, you know, and that sort of thing. So, yes, companies have supported um, you know, YouTubers before with ammo. I know Federal's always been one that's been pretty good to most content creators, and I digress. I'm not trying to get off on this subject. Point is, I know ammo's been expensive, it's been out of this world because I just had to go buy a bunch. I was like, whoa, by the time I bought my hominy and watermelons and good old hominy. The money I used to make on some of these videos, and I wind up actually being in the hole more often than I actually make a profit on the videos.

SPEAKER_01:

Or the content, guys.

SPEAKER_00:

One thing I want to mention, and I'll I'll leave this subject here in the in the dirt. But um, you know, I noticed that a lot of people send me super thanks. Uh at the end of the month, I always get a report of the uh super thanks revenue that I get sent. And it's crazy. I'll have my YouTube revenue and then they'll add in a certain amount of super thanks, and I go, wow, I didn't even realize those were there until the end of the month, they tally them up, and I've got my viewers sending me like an extra 600, 700 bucks a month and super thanks. So I just want to say that if you are one of the people who loves my content and you send over a super thanks on occasion, those do add up. And I appreciate you guys sending me a super thanks. If you want to drop a tip, go and click that super thanks link and it'll take it right out of your YouTube Red account. So if you already have YouTube Red, whatever cards you have on file, the super thanks will come out of that card. If you want to send me a tip, hey, I'm not gonna complain with some ammo money. Hey, just saying, it is not cheap to produce gun videos anymore. And if you're feeling sympathetic to the cause and you want to send Daddy E a$5,$10 little super thanks, I'm not gonna complain. Let's just put it that way. But to get back to the point of the video, yes, it is more expensive to get out and shoot. 100%. It costs a lot of money, and trust me, I know I've been producing more content, which I'm so happy I get to do because I know viewers love gun content. I did some armor tests. Luckily, I had some of the ammo already laying around. I didn't have to go buy it. So I've been digging into the uh Ivy 8888 secret squirrel stash. Uh, but that has been helpful to have a stash of ammo. And again, maybe that will bring to the next point would be when I tell people to buy cheap and stack deep. You know, if ammo's on sale and you can afford to buy more, buy it while it's cheap because today's expensive price is tomorrow's cheap price. Yep. You know, it's rare for ammo to increase in price and then go back down to some previously established level. That's not normal. Usually, ammo, once they decide they can get 59 cents a shot for nine millimeter, it takes a lot of political pressure and let's just say economic pressure for a company to bite the bullet literally and go, all right, well, we were getting 59 cents a shot. People, the market won't bear that anymore. Let's lower the price back down to 29 cents a shot. Now they're still making good money, of course, but it takes a lot for them to bite that bullet and finally lower the prices back to where they previously were, or in some cases lower. So if the prices are low and, you know, yeah, you're looking at nine millimeter that's brass case nine for twelve dollars or thirteen dollars a box, I'd probably bounce on that and buy as much as you can reasonably afford without, you know, going broke. I mean, I'd yeah, I'd I would bounce on some nine mil at twelve, thirteen dollars a box. I would bounce on some five five six at 40 cents a shot if it's that low, if it's good stuff. Or if you're out and about at your surplus shops or gun stores or gun shows or something, and somebody's got some Lithuanian Triple G 556 and sealed spam cans, and they're selling it for 500 bucks a can for a thousand rounds. I'd bounce on that for 50 cents a shot.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'd probably take two cans.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd probably take a, you know, I bought mine originally for$3.99 a can, but I also bought 16 cans of it to get it for that rate, and I went and picked it up in person to save myself on shipping.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, I know not everybody can can afford to pop that much money on ammo at one given time. Luckily, your boy was up here a little bit. Okay, I was living a little larger, had a little more money, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna buy some 556. And I've been shooting on that 556 for years. That Lithuania. That's the black tip? Uh no, it's the unpainted SS 109. It's the plain tip. Um, did you say plain tip?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I said a black tip. Black tip.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, not black tip. It's the it's it's green, it's it's green tip, but it's unmarked, yeah. Unmarked green tip. In my opinion, shoots better. Because if you look at at green tip, you shoot through your AR, right? The chamber does inevitably sort of rub the cartridge a little bit, and you'll notice you get bits of little green fallout in your in your chamber.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, a little bit of fouling in it.

SPEAKER_00:

You get a little you get a little crud from that cartridge tip. And I I feel like the unpainted SS 109s actually shoot better because I think the paint provides sort of like an uneven bearing surface for the wind. And I know this is nerdy, but I swear that paint causes some inaccuracy. I feel like the the unpainted version shoots better. I mean, my SS 109, the Lithuanian contract, is full power and it shoots the living daylights out. I have an 18-inch SPR. At 300 yards, I can get like sub three three-inch groups.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really good.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

Never mind. We need to get back out there and we need coyote some hog hunting. Some hog or coyote? One of the two.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we need to do some hog hunting. We'll we'll go back down, we'll go hang out with Rick and go call some coyotes. It'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01:

You got the old integrally suppressed with the thermal on it.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

I put the machine gun lower on it and went to the room.

SPEAKER_00:

Remember the time I took you to the look, remember the time I took you to the farm? Remember when you shot your first first coyote? Yeah, yeah. Remember that? Yeah, was that a fox or was it a few years?

SPEAKER_01:

No, it was a coyote and it was with the uh the bull pup.

SPEAKER_00:

It was with that MDR.

SPEAKER_01:

MDR, yeah, 308.

SPEAKER_00:

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

SPEAKER_01:

He came to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

And he got close to us, and I remember I was like, I was looking with the spotter. I was like, man, he right there. And I tapped you, and you were like, Where, where, where? And I was like, in the middle of the road, right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's like right there on the road.

SPEAKER_00:

And you I remember he was just like, he was just looking, you know, and you shot him, and I was like, dang, that son bitch was close. Yeah, and I was we called that thing within, he had to have been 50 feet from us.

SPEAKER_01:

And here's the thing with thermals, he didn't smell us, we were downwind. Yeah, the thermals, you don't you you don't really get a super good picture of what it is, and we were praying that it wasn't the dog. We're like, oh man, we hope to God that wasn't.

SPEAKER_00:

He was so calm that I was worried it was somebody's dog.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's the thing. Like, we were like, is that the neighbor's dog, man? Just like trotting down the road.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and then when I saw him acting skittish, I was like, yeah, that's not.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he started kind of like he was mousing, he was kind of like jumping on a mouse.

SPEAKER_00:

Once we knew he was mousing, that's how we remember that. Dogs don't do that. Dogs don't mouse, you know, like a freaking uh fox or a coyote. When when we say they're mousing, they kind of hop around and dislodge the grass in an attempt to like get a mice facility for fuel mice. So once we saw a mouse and we we knew, you know, it was a pretty big coyote.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that was nice. A little offhand shot there. Yeah, it was a good, good shot.

SPEAKER_00:

But anyway, we do need to get out and do some coyote hunting. Yeah. But the Trump slump, it does make people want to have those experiences, not not want to have experiences. It I think that the Trump slump causes people to, you know, not quite prioritize um buying guns and ammo and accessories or taking training or being, you know, let's just say politically active. Um, but people put that on the back burner. And I'm not saying it's a travesty or a terrible thing, but I guess what I would try to encourage people to do is to try to not have that mentality. Like be politically active, even when things are going, at least the way you feel, that things are going your way, you should still make an effort to support your gun rights organizations. I mean, look, it's think of it like paying your dues. I mean, just because things are going perfect doesn't mean you shouldn't still try to slide a few bucks towards your favorite gun rights organization. I mean, if you can afford it, by all means, pay your dues. Let's help keep the train rolling to help, you know, fight for our rights. And we are in probably the best situation we've ever been in society, you know, in terms of our society and in terms of these uh uh gun rights organizations and the uh you know lobbying efforts that are being put forth. We've never been in a better situation to take back uh lost ground. And when Republicans are in charge, you should take that as an opportunity to take back lost ground. And I know it seems like the freaking Republicans don't want to do anything for gun owners. And I know some of their voting records seem to indicate that they don't really give a crap about gun owners. And I know it seems like it's an uphill battle dealing with the Republicans on guns. They say they're pro-gun and their voting records show something different. I understand the frustration. I really do. Pam Bondi is not exactly the most pro-gun AG we could ever have. We expressed our concern about some of Pam Bondi's past, about some of the, you know, what red flag confiscation that she supported, you know, this whole uh not allowing um, you know, 18-year-olds to buy black rifles and and wanting to raise the age to buy rifles to 21, which basically means ARs. Let's face it, they don't care if uh if an 18-year-old kid has a hunting rifle. What they really mean, they don't want an 18-year-old having an AR.

SPEAKER_01:

Then they have to raise the recruiting age to 21, then.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, they're not gonna do that. I mean, so the the truth is Pam Bondi has a past of not exactly being the most friendly towards gun owners. And I think it's it it that that is absolutely a you know unshakable fact that that has all the stuff backing up. I mean, she supported those things in in Florida. So we may not exactly have the best AG, right? Some people have been very you know scrutinizing of the FBI and the way they've Handled things and I think that Cash Patel bit off a lot more than he could chew, Matt. I don't think he realized just how deep the rot was. I'm not gonna sit here and say that Cash Patel was not a good guy for the FBI or that he's not a morally sound guy. I don't know enough about him as a person to judge him as a person, so I'm not going to. I think that him and Dan both got under the hood and realized, wow, this this needs some work, right?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, yeah. I will say that that Cash Patel looks a little lost when he's doing these um Senate committee hearings, or he's doing any he's being um questioned. He always has no, don't get me wrong, he answers very vehemently, he has a good answer, he responds very good, well. I agree, he responds well, but his eyes look lost, like he just kind of has like this weird, like he's he's like computing what's going on, and and and he but he realizes like man, this is this is a lot, it is a lot to deal with.

SPEAKER_00:

If you're in the hot seat, you're in a Senate committee hearing, or you know, whatever, congressional hearing of some sort like that, and you're in the hot seat. I mean, yeah, you know you're there amongst colleagues, but but it's stressful. I mean, you got all the cameras on you, and they're on, they're on you. You're gonna ask you a question, and then they're all gonna lean in and like, you know, yeah, I can imagine how you know you gotta have some pretty thick skin to be politically involved in that sort of a role when you are essentially responsible for a very large, scrutinized, highly scrutinized, uh, highly controversial law enforcement agency, yeah, who's been involved in some dark stuff over the years, and and people know they've been involved in some dark stuff, and whose mission to some people may be deemed as questionable at best, and wonder, you know, what's really going on here. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of secrecy and there's a lot of misunderstandings and a lot of redacted information. And of course, there's all these things that whether it's because they're trying to protect, you know, law enforcement as uh investigations that are ongoing, or maybe they're trying to protect people who deserve to be hemmed up, but they're not getting hemmed up because of who they are. No matter what the circumstances may be, the bottom line is that there's a high degree of scrutiny that surrounds this work. And that's a very tough thing to respond to. And I think that cash may be seeing, like, wow, like this is a stressful job. Like, I didn't realize it was going to be quite this crazy. And I think that there is a certain amount of that that's going on for him right now, and perhaps Bondi too. Maybe Pam Bondy is realizing like, wow, the rod is deep here. Do we really want to believe that there's some far-reaching, further reaching plan to correct many wrongs that have been done in the past by these people? Or are we led to believe that they are simply just towing the narrative line and simply doing nothing uh behind closed doors in order to just allow the same thing that's always happened to just perpetuate? I mean, we won't really know that. Yeah, and you can say And it's four years long enough to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Not really. Not really.

SPEAKER_00:

These investigations take a long time. And when these investigations overlap between administrations, that's even worse because then let's say the next administration, if they're a Democrat administration, what do you think they're gonna say about these investigations? If it involves them, they're gonna go, oh no, no, no, shut that down. Y'all aren't y'all aren't focusing on this anymore. You're focusing on little grannies inside the Capitol, you're focusing on parents' PTA meetings, you're focusing on these conservatives, like, and then the FBI goes, okay, well, that's our job. What am I supposed to do? Say, well, I don't agree with that, and and I'm gonna turn in my$85,000 a year cushy job with its all its luxuries and and nice perks, right? Or are they gonna I mean, you know, they're gonna they're gonna do their job, you know? And that's a difficult place that we're in right now. It's like there are good people that work for these organizations, there are good people in our government, there are honorable good people who work in our government, who want to do the right thing, they care about the betterment of society, they they have goals that and political leanings that line up with you and I, right? But the problem is it's like when you have some scumbag telling you to do something, it's like what are you gonna do? You're gonna resign over it? I mean, yeah, some did, but will all of them do that?

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Now, at what point are they complicit? I know we discussed it, we did a whole podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

We did a whole episode on that.

SPEAKER_00:

We did a whole episode on that. But at one what point is an action complicit in the carrying out of very terrible things that you know are bad. So it's like at what point do your morals take over and make you decide, you know what, I know this isn't right, and I refuse to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

But they don't do that, they continue to accept the paycheck and that's because they can vote on their own paycheck, and as if their paycheck keeps going up, there's no reason for them to leave.

SPEAKER_00:

A friend of mine, we were having a discussion about this uh a few days ago, and it's it's actually kind of wild to think. Um and this, all right, I'll ask you the question that I was asked.

SPEAKER_01:

Shoot.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, do you hate the cartel members just because like do you think the cartel people are evil? Or do you think that they're just a victim of circumstance? The people who work for the cartels, uh Mexican cartels? Yeah, you think they're evil, or do you think they're just it's just they're doing what they gotta do to survive?

SPEAKER_01:

No, they're evil.

SPEAKER_00:

You think they're evil? Yeah, I I have a more nuanced approach.

SPEAKER_01:

I think they're I think they're evil.

SPEAKER_00:

I I I don't think they're evil at all. I think okay, yeah, maybe there's some of them deeply ingrained that simply have no empathy and don't give ever loving crap about who they hurt. And yeah, there's always gonna be people who love to hurt people. There's sadistic people out there, the soldiers, some of those soldiers, yeah, they love to kill people. They love to hurt people.

SPEAKER_01:

But I oh wait, you're talking about the normal, like low-level cartel manager.

SPEAKER_00:

Low-level guy on the ground. He's a coyote.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, those that's circumstance.

SPEAKER_00:

I was thinking like he's running people, he's running drugs. You know, maybe he's not a user of these things.

SPEAKER_01:

He's just the low-level facilitator.

SPEAKER_00:

The low-level guys, yeah, because he has no choice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the low-level guys, I would agree. That's like, hey, that's what they that's what they can do. Like that's what that's what they do to make money.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't even know if even some of the high-level people are truly evil. I mean, maybe they are because of the the scale of things that they know when they know it, and they know people are getting hurt, they know people are getting raped and trafficked. You have to be a certain kind of sadistic to be involved in that business and be okay with it.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the thing. You have to be okay with it. Right. Like to them, it's just a normal thing. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

To them, it's just normal. Oh, we're we're peddling flesh. It's like, wow, you or I would think, no, we would never want to hurt someone like that. But they, they had that their standards are much more fluid based on the amount of money they're getting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, selling little kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, exactly. Of course, I'm not saying that that's normal or should be normal, and I'm not saying those people are morally in any area to think that that's okay, that I would ever sympathize with someone that engages in that activity. However, the conversation with this person, and what I guess I want to nail in here, is like the on-the-ground person, it's like, imagine that you're born. I guess what I'm trying to say is you're born into this world, and all you know is that your grandpa did it, your dad did it, and they did really well at it. Like you had an okay upbringing, you weren't poor. Maybe you you actually did okay, like you survived okay. And imagine your dad telling you, look, this is this is what we do, okay? Like we're foot soldiers for these guys, we do this, we do that. This is the business. It's like, you know, that's the family business of these guys. Some of these people have been in this for for generations.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They're born into it, it's all they know. Hey, uh, daddy, I'm hungry. Right? What are you gonna tell your young kid who's hungry? You know, what are you gonna tell your wife who needs clothes and you gotta pay the bills? I mean, everyone has bills. And I guess what I'm trying to say is the same person who would take that cushy hundred thousand dollar a year job from the FBI. Are they really any different than the cartels who are doing the same type of thing where they're they're taking a job that, yeah, they may not, they probably wish they could do something else. They don't want to be engaged, they don't want to hurt people, they don't want to do XYZ, they don't want to break the law, they don't want to commit crimes. Maybe they're religious, godly people who pray every night for forgiveness. You know, who knows? Do we really think that about our own people too? I mean, are there people within our own government who, you know, maybe they feel the same way? Maybe they feel like, wow, I really don't agree with what these people want me to do, but I have to do it because I don't have a choice. I mean, I don't know how to do anything else, I don't have any other skills, and I don't know how to weld, I don't know how to be a plumber. I mean, yeah, there's plenty of other ways to make money, but it's like, is it because of the elitism in their head that they think, well, I'm the anointed one who is put in this position because I am who I am and no one else can do it? And maybe they have this sort of overgloring, overglorifying view of their own abilities, and they think, well, I'm the person for the job no matter what, because reasons. Or do they have some deeper empathy for the world around them and realize, like, well, I realize what I'm doing is wrong, but I continue to do it because I don't have anything else I can do to make a living.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, what do you think? No, I I think that if you take it one step further, you see you see that more at the proverbial lower level with like police officers. Like when you said that, like that's what it reminded me of. Like a guy gets pulled over, he calls for backup, he starts the the police officer starts doing something, you know, unconstitutional, and the backup just stands there and doesn't do anything. And he just he's basically complicit in and the reason he doesn't say anything is because he needs his job. Like he's not gonna, he's not gonna argue, you know. You see it all the time on like the the body cam footage that comes out. Three, four police officers just you know what that one cop is doing is wrong, and the other three are just like okay with it. Right. You know, that's what I imagine when you say that. I agree at the at the lowest level.

SPEAKER_00:

But that conversation, it it made me think of that, and I thought it would be interesting for us to talk about to compare like our own intelligence agencies to even criminal agencies, because at the end of the day, there is a there is a flexing of morals there. There there is there is a malleable moral area that you have to operate in. Your morals have to be somewhat flexible in order to go, oh well, my job requires me to do this, and it may be against my my views, it may be against what I believe in, but I'm required to do it, and it's almost like that's part of the job for your your morals to be a little bit flexible.

SPEAKER_01:

Here's a good one. How much of it is optics, right? So, and this is gonna blow your mind probably. Nice. So we have the the cartels, we had the conversation about the cartels, the cartels are uh for all intents and purposes, like mafias, right? So you have like multiple mafias that control the control that country. Um, and when America is you not okay with that. Like, okay, no, that's bad.

SPEAKER_00:

Cartel's bad, or we're taking bribe money from them.

SPEAKER_01:

Or then you have, let's say, the Taliban. The Taliban in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Taliban, bad. They, you know, they do bad things, they control the country, you know, we were at war with them. We're not okay with that, right? Everybody loves Japan, Japan's a nice country, but yet they have the same thing with the Yakuza.

SPEAKER_00:

Nobody talks about Yakuza.

SPEAKER_01:

Nobody says Yakuza, bad, but yet very similar. They control the crime, like the lack of crime, like they control like the taxes, the police have a gentleman's agreement with the Yakuza. Nobody still, it's like it's optics, right? So I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, but the Yakuza also operates a lot more honorably than some of these other people do. I mean, yeah, they do they do things, but they're always gonna be pretty exacting about why they do it.

SPEAKER_01:

But but they still do bad things.

SPEAKER_00:

You don't want to kill someone unless they absolutely have to, but they still kill.

SPEAKER_01:

So this is like it's like this like moral dilemma of like, all right, you know, Taliban, bad.

SPEAKER_00:

How good can a bad guy be?

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. All right, yeah, Taliban, bad, cartels, bad. Yakuza, ah, you know. We'll give them a passion.

SPEAKER_00:

How good can a bad guy be? It's funny. I I had a very similar conversation with someone recently about the whole idea of the anti-hero.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? And and sometimes bad people do good things.

SPEAKER_01:

That's like Homelander from the boys, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, some sometimes people who are bad inevitably go out of their way to do good things for some reason they can't explain. And I'm not saying it it absolves them of wrongdoing. Right? Bad people are still bad people, but you know, it's like this anti-hero philosophy. I mean, you look at like Game of Thrones, a character like the Hound. Yeah. You know, that the Hound, he just does things by his own personal moral code that might be very disastrous to some people and maybe neutral at best to others. And then maybe in tiny little inklings, he has his own version of good that surpasses the moral code of he may do good for a reason that someone would be like, Well, why are you gonna risk your life for this? Yeah, why are you gonna, you know, you're such a bad guy. You've you've you've slain people on the battlefield, you you you you punch kings in the face, like you don't care about your own life. And like, why are you gonna take a risk for something like this girl you're trying to protect? Or that, you know, he had no reason to protect that girl.

SPEAKER_01:

So here's a good one.

SPEAKER_00:

But he felt like in that moment that it was the right thing to do, and and despite putting himself in a lot of damn danger to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, and he he went out of his way. He did have his own code of honor, and he was protecting little Arya Stark and all that, but and and people would even say, like, oh, he was an honorable guy, but this is the same guy.

SPEAKER_00:

Brianne was totally the right person to have Aria to take her back and protect her, but he fought her anyway. Like he he could have easily just said, Well, you are okay, you're the person charged with taking care of her. I've got her to here. Well, all right, take her. But he didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

He was like, so everybody liked him as the honorable guy, which I liked him too, but he still killed that family in the farmhouse and took their silver.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, he still did bad things. It's like, at what point in society do we look at the bad man who occasionally does good and we go, well, it's like, are they a necessary component of lubricating the gears of capitalism? Of lubricating the gears of the underworld. I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and say that we shouldn't do something about these people operating. Like, I don't agree with all the fentanyl that crosses the border and kills a bunch of Americans all the time. I don't agree with all the illegals coming in and causing problems and tanking up American housing. I mean, all these housing costs have been going up, yeah, it's because we're housing 50 million people we didn't have before. So it's like we've got all these people here who are not supposed to be here. And if that is because of actions of the cartel, well, then yeah, I don't agree with the cartel. Like, obviously, stop that crap, you know, deport these people, you know. I agree with that, deport these people, you know, yeah, get the drugs off our streets. I mean, should the government maybe be a little more lax on some things and strict on others? Maybe so. Right? Fentanyl is extremely dangerous, you know, it kills a lot of people, and and you know, obviously there's some bad stuff out there that's hurting people. We I don't like, I don't want to see our countrymen get get hemmed up. I don't want to see people on the streets, you know, high and and they're just laying around on the road.

SPEAKER_01:

Doing the zombie walk, whether acting like zombies.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I don't want to see my people like that, you know. But at what point do you go, well, yeah, the cartel, evil, you know, uh uh Taliban, evil, Yakuza, evil. Well, at what point do you look at your own government even and think, well, well, damn, they're pretty evil too. You know, they they do a lot of the same stuff too. And it's like, you know, they're they're engaging in usury, they're engaging in, you know, charging interest, they're engaging in, you know, using the police to come and threaten you if you don't do what they say. That's it. Do oh, it's law enforcement. Oh, really? It's law enforcement. Okay, really. That that's what you say, but who makes the laws? I mean, the the the this this overseer makes the law. So it's like you want to believe that you're being represented. You want to believe that you have some sort of participation in that, that you are you know a party to it. And and maybe locally, yes, you are, but federally. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just kind of a different animal. You look at all the federal laws and the things they'll do to hem you up, it's like at what point do we consider these people their own little cartel too?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, well, that's that's kind of what they say, man. The the government cartel.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's a business, and and you're just kind of a product of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Like you're you don't know who the customer is, it's you. All right, like if you're just like that's that's the rule of thumb. If you're trying to figure out what a product's customer is or who it is, it is you.

SPEAKER_00:

It's an interesting point to think about. Yeah, that's why I want to bring it up in today's show because I thought, you know, we always are taught to believe that all of these other movements within other countries are so bad. And oh, we should topple this government, we should we should stop these people from doing this. And and again, I'm not trying to draw some moral distinction that, oh, well, the cartel's good people and God fearing. I'm not trying to say they're good or bad. I'm just trying to get people to understand that that some people are victims of circumstance and they must be put in situations that they're in because they have no other choice. You know, yeah, is that a cop out maybe to some people? It may be, but I do truly believe there probably are a lot of people who are, you know, put into these situations probably by no choice of their own.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, they're forced to say, you know, to say otherwise would be disingenuous, it would be a complete, you know, yeah, it would be to ignore that these people didn't grow up in a third world country. So yeah, it's it is true.

SPEAKER_00:

I think if we're willing to say that maybe there's some people who are victims of circumstance and all of these other underbelly illicit uh groups of people that maybe in our own very own government there are people who it's like, well, they they they saw an opportunity to get involved in politics. And and you know, again, I'm not trying to say that we should be lenient on these people. Like some of these folks have done some really bad things to us, and I think we should be very clear and like we should make these people pay, we should, we should punish them for what they've done, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

If there's a certain group of Americans they can claim something is currently holding them back that happened over 400 years ago, then I would say that it is completely plausible that things that happened within your lifetime affected you more immediately than something that happened 400 plus years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So if one can argue, which I'm not saying it didn't, I'm just saying if one group of people can use that argument, sure, more than one person or more than one group of people can use that same argument.

SPEAKER_00:

Life is hard. And you know, the human condition has been surrounded by violence and death way more than it has peace. Peace is a rare thing in the story of the human, the human story. When we look at recorded human history, we've been fighting each other way more than we've been at peace. Oh, yeah, collectively. And I think it's one thing that we can always point to in a freaking human condition, is that men will reach a point in their life where they have to conquer and control and achieve. And that's part of being a man is wanting to achieve. And sometimes that achievement comes through hurting others, and sometimes we we have to be okay with doing what's necessary. I think the moral dilemma becomes that at what point do we decide as normal, average, God-fearing, law-abiding people, that picking up the sword is necessary versus all right, maybe there's a group of people out here who've decided the way of the sword is the way of life and that they've just accepted that that's their fate, you know. And they say that if you you live by the sword, you will die by the sword as well. And you know, maybe they're okay with dying by the sword. They're okay with living a shorter life, but knowing that their profession is dangerous and have a limited amount of time on this earth. You you're you're playing with borrowed time. Some men are okay with borrowed time. So some men are okay with the dangerous path, knowing that that dangerous path is a shorter path.

SPEAKER_01:

So but it's the path to glory.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, right. But I think that it's a story, like literally, dude, as old as time is that you know, men have always, you know, approached a dangerous level of achievement. That, yes, I mean, like that was there a point that Genghis Khan decided, I'm gonna settle down and quit. I mean, this is crazy. We've been doing all this, we've been conquering, conquering. No, it became a drug for him, and he followed it for his entire life, you know, and his kids did. And it's like all they knew was was wow, we feel so alive right now. We feel so alive doing this and riding into the next village. I mean, there there's something to be said for people who are not afraid to do that. And, you know, America is a country that's that's been built by and for people who aren't afraid to pick up the sword, you know. And and we we've have been a warrior culture, and and you know, we've definitely been a culture of rabble rousers and people who aren't afraid to challenge a status quo. And I think that does speak highly about who we really are. If we can really say that that is a a group of people who's honorable and good, I mean, I suppose I'll leave that up to everyone to consider. Um you know, it's just an interesting talking point. Yeah. I know we went down a different road here, but the Trump slump, it does put those things in mind where when people get complacent, that complacency breeds a lot of things like the Taliban or or you know, this dark underbelly of society that we would call a cartel or a professional criminal organization or something. Complacency breeds those movements. Complacency breeds new political parties, it breeds uh strange and unreasonable laws that you have to be subjected to. These things breed in the dark, right? And and if we're complacent when we think things are going normally for us, Matt, and we're complacent, I think it's a breeding ground for these things to happen. And I think that's just worth noting, worth worth looking at.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I was looking it up, and uh you mentioned Genghis Khan, and it was like he killed something like, or he didn't kill personally, he was responsible for like killing 10% of Earth's population.

SPEAKER_00:

Like and he never stopped, didn't he? Did it till he was an old man?

SPEAKER_01:

Holy cow, that is a lot of people, man.

SPEAKER_00:

And it wasn't he like a frail old man when he was finally done, and he's still like yeah, still going in battle even when he's old.

SPEAKER_01:

And they, you know, when he when he died, they like buried him, and then they, you know, this from what they say, they never found his grave because they redirected River to go over his grave, so you'll never find it. Uh it's just crazy, man. Like, but I I would say uh that is correct. The optics of how people view all of these different things, it can be a little bit skewed based on how we feel. And I think that you know, using that I think Japan is probably the the best, you know, lipness test for that because everybody loves Japan, like they're they're allies, they they we have a great, you know, uh relationship with them.

SPEAKER_00:

Very organized society, very orderly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But at the same time, very peaceful, generally, but also very racist. You know, like they are probably like they're I mean, I'll call it, man. Like I organized crime, organized crime is acceptable, racism acceptable, right? You know, like gambling, acceptable, like all of these things are accepted and they do have some really strange rules though, the Japanese.

SPEAKER_00:

Like if you're a foreigner, like when you visit, there's certain things you gotta know.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, so like I can't if I was to go to Japan, like I didn't go to Japan, my wife and the and like all her friends and her family, my daughter, they all went to Japan. Yeah, I didn't go. Uh but if I did, I wouldn't be able to go to like most of the like uh on sends or like the bathhouses because you know I have tattoos. Yeah, I can't go to a lot of the restaurants there. Like if you have tattoos showing, you can't go. So you have to be literally like wear everything to cover it up. So, like, and that's it, that's just part of life because they're like, oh, that's Yakuza, like Yakuza has tattoos. Right, they do it. It could be like a little like hello kitty, like tattoo on my arm. Yeah, and they're like, not Yakuza, like man.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so so right here, right now, you you're gonna reveal before we end today's show. All right, who's the better Asians? Koreans or Japanese?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh man, we know Koreans. Is it the Koreans? It's the Koreans, man. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00:

Y'all get a bit out of shape over that shit, don't you? Like the Koreans always are like, we're Korea bitch.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll I'll tell you, man. Like, I come on, hit us, hit us, tell us. Like, it's it is wild how you bring that up because man, like, my mom.

SPEAKER_00:

There's a lot of competition between like the Japanese and the Koreans and the Chinese, like they're all like, we're the we're the one.

SPEAKER_01:

There has to be some context to that. So, like, my mom absolutely hates Korea, uh, hates Japanese people, like it doesn't matter, and and you know, and and it's not that she doesn't have good reason. So, like her mom, my grandmother, uh, was actually uh kidnapped from Korea and taken to Japan. She was taken as like a young woman to be an officer's like comfort woman slash wife, a comp comp. Yeah, in Okinawa. So my grandmother was kidnapped from Korea, taken to Japan, and like basically indoctrinated and brainwashed to be Japanese. So they were when they were when she returned to Korea, she didn't actually speak Korean, she spoke Japanese, she only uh wrote in Japanese, she only read in Japanese, she everything was like it she identified with being Japanese.

SPEAKER_00:

So there's a lot of deep-rooted reasons why many Koreans maybe don't get along with the Japanese Chinese, and they don't get along because it's so fresh.

SPEAKER_01:

You gotta think of my grandmother, right? So, like my mom. That's like one generation not that long ago. So that could have been that could have very easily been my mom that that that happened.

SPEAKER_00:

She missed it by or one could say that if things took a crazy enough turn that it wouldn't happen again in the near future. So it's kind of hard to believe. It seems like they're they've turned a corner, but you never know. I mean, they go back their old ways.

SPEAKER_01:

So can you blame them? Like I I I'm American, I kind of stay out of that whole thing. I mean, unless the World Cup comes along and you have like Korea versus Japan, you're like, yeah, you're you're gonna be cheerful. Yeah. Um but you know, and that question comes up a lot, and it have and it's a very normal question. And like the older generation of Koreans, you have to they have to understand that's a lot of resentment there for them. The the younger generation, I don't really think they care that much.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, let's say that I could only visit, I only have money to visit one Asian country. Should I should I go to South Korea or should I go to Japan?

SPEAKER_01:

I think it depends on what you want to do. You honestly could go to both. There's a there's a ferry that runs from Pusan, Korea, and that happens as a day trip. So a lot of Koreans will go to Japan and then back, and a lot of Japanese people go to Korea and come back. So there's a ferry that runs between them.

SPEAKER_00:

Really?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you could do both.

SPEAKER_00:

How far away? Is South Korea that far away from Japan?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, it's like Japan is like off of the coast. The ferry's like, I think it's like a three-hour ferry ride.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, really? It's that close?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not far. Really?

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't know it was that far away that close.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not far.

SPEAKER_00:

Shows how much geography. I guess I I guess I figured geographically they're they're rather far apart.

SPEAKER_01:

Nah, they're not too bad. Because you can get to the you can get to the coast of Japan and then you take the train up to the sounds fine. So I mean, because Korea is more it depends on what you want to do. Korea is more known for like if you want to do like if you're a woman, like beauty supply, like they do a lot of makeup, a lot of surgery, they do a lot of like plastic surgery and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there a lot of like cool temples and stuff, like culture stuff to visit, like any pyramids or any weird stuff?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's there's temples and stuff. Uh last time I was in Korea while I was like a little kid, I was training for the the junior Olympics when I was there, which I always tell my daughter about because she doesn't believe that I was good at anything. And I'm like, I'm a two time junior Olympian, okay? Leave me alone. Um but I was I was training there for a while, and then uh, you know, some some. Interesting stuff. I definitely think when it comes to uh like more notoriety, Japan definitely uh wins that culture war.

SPEAKER_00:

They they certainly do seem like they've they've really built a successful society around tourism. I mean they do rely on tourism a lot, they get a lot of money from tourism. And you know, Japan, they they they have kind of mastered that of mastered, I guess, like the the idea of making their their culture seem like very eccentric and quirky and cool and like people are curious about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, okay, before you go further, I will say before anybody jumps in, Korea is racist as well. All right. I'm not I know people are gonna jump in that comment section and they're gonna be like, oh yeah, Korea's racist. Yes, absolutely. Korea also is like no foreigners who's placed.

SPEAKER_00:

So out of all the Asian cultures, who's the most racist? Japan?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, honestly, all are racist, really. Yeah, they're all racist. China too, Hong Kong, mainland China, all racist.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you know, the thing is if I visit Japan, they'll take your money. I don't care. Like, I'm I'm just gonna enjoy myself and well, that's the difference.

SPEAKER_01:

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

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, man. Well, uh, you got anything else before we head on for the day?

SPEAKER_01:

No, but that was a that was a pretty funny subject.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a funny subject, yeah. But uh, you know, we wanted to discuss the Trump slump because I know that um, you know, there's a lot of people thinking, like, oh man, you know, gun sales are way down. It seems like there's a lot less, you know, paperwork being processed. And and look, I just want people to know that it's a normal part of a Republican administration. It's always a tough four years for the gun industry anytime a Republican's in office, especially when there's a majority in the House and Senate, you know, people feel less threatened. They tend to just engage less with firearms. I mean, unfortunately, that's just the point of it. And the only point I want to really drive home in today's show is don't allow yourself to get complacent. Don't allow your safety to be deferred to others. You know, carry a gun every day, train every day as much as you can, train on your draw, train, you know, carry medical supplies. Do not get complacent just because you feel like society has, you know, their wind and your sails. Like that's not a good enough reason. We we have to stay engaged as people, and we have to make sure that we are closely following things that are going on around us, no matter who is in charge, always scrutinize their actions and treat every person as individual. That's my thought. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thanks so much for tuning in. Many more episodes on the way here on LLP. Thanks so much, and we'll see y'all next week. Remember, we post every Monday at 9 o'clock Eastern Standard Time here on the YouTube channel. You can see us in video form on IRAC Veteran8888. Also, follow us and download the show uh in audio form in your favorite podcast form, such as uh Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, etc. We're out there, we're all over the place. Leave us a good rating so that we show up further in the search results. So thank you all very much. Many more episodes on the way. We'll catch you soon.

SPEAKER_01:

Bye, everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks for listening to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, 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.