2142 On Being Persuasive

Tango Tango Papa 2142, August 16, 2024.

Have we seen the actual reality of a monster's crime?

Or merely an illusion, the product of a tortured brain?

Tango Tango Papa 2142, August 16, 2024.

I've had, God, the first one dates way back into the, I'd say to the mid-2000s.

And then, I don't know, I bought a second one, kind of a, you know, the better model.

And I'm not even sure what they're, I guess they still sell Zoom recorders.

Haven't looked in a long time, but this one,

was, you know, it was a very similar model, but it was, you know, somewhat more sophisticated.

They have a lot of options, there's quite a few options.

And actually, the recording quality is actually pretty good.

I'm using the built-in microphones to record this with.

So, you're probably, I know you're going to,

end up with some ambient noise, because I'm sitting on my back deck right now.

The air conditioner is, now that's off to my left.

Now, I'm not sure how that's going to end up in the final recording.

But, to describe my deck, it's like an 8x16 deck with a roof over it.

And so, I'm sort of sitting.

I would say, more or less, towards the center of the decks where my chair is positioned.

And off to my left would be the, you know, the air conditioner slash heat pump compressor,

which is running, because it's, I think it's going to be hot again today.

Right now, what time is it?

It's probably, I'm guessing.

I'm guessing, well, it's 1145.

So, I don't have to guess.

I've got my phone here.

So, it's 1145 central time.

So, not too bad yet from a temperature standpoint.

I'm guessing at this point, it is sunny.

So, it's probably going to get up into the 90s before the day is over.

You probably heard, maybe you heard the road.

There was a vehicle going by on the highway.

Out in front of my property.

So, you know, but right now, it's pleasant.

I'm kind of sitting out here.

And, you know, you're probably going to hear some, you know, birds.

And, you know, it's primarily birds.

And sometimes you'll hear some insects making noise.

So, see.

Let's see how this goes.

So, anyway, I've got a couple of files that I'm going to be playing.

One of them, the first one is from Joel.

And I've listened through both of these.

The first one is from Joel.

He sent this, like, I think it was the next day following my most recent podcast.

And he's, primarily, he's talking about, you know, his hiking.

And I think, you know, attempting to get more exercise.

And he's lost in excess of 100 pounds.

And congratulations to you, Joel.

I know that's not, it's not easy.

And.

You know, and then I've also, I don't know what that was.

Now, that was interesting because, or sound-wise,

I don't know if that's going to show up in the recording or not.

But all of a sudden, the sound changed in my right ear.

I've got some earbuds plugged into this recorder.

So, I don't know what happened exactly.

Yeah, not sure why that changed.

But it did.

So, in any case, I also got the file from Jeremy.

And he goes through several different subjects.

And so, before I do that, I want to, you know, I, most recently, I had,

and I don't know if I talked about it.

I can't remember if I talked.

I probably didn't talk about it now that I think about it.

I had this friend.

That he, at one time, he was married to my dad's youngest sister.

Okay.

So, his name was Morris.

And dad's youngest sister, her name's Shirley.

And so, they were married for, I think, about 25 years.

And then, it's been, you know, 25 years.

Probably back in the, probably early 90s, he divorced her.

You know, in any case, they divorced.

And didn't hear from him for a long time.

And then, eventually, I think I saw him at, whenever my grandmother,

at my grandmother's funeral on dad's side.

That would have been Shirley's mom.

And Shirley's my dad's youngest sister.

So, I'm at a funeral.

And that's the first time I'd seen him in quite a few years.

And then, I think, not, I don't remember exactly year-wise.

That would have been around late 1999.

And, you know, so I hadn't had any contact with him then.

And then, but later, I think.

And I don't remember exactly when.

But briefly, Morris and Shirley got back together again.

And so, that ended up kind of bringing me into contact with Morris once again.

You know, and now, at this point, Morris, you know, it was,

he was living in Northwest Arkansas.

He'd moved to Northwest Arkansas.

And he'd been here for probably, I think, even, you know, since the, you know,

whenever, you know, in the late, or 1999, whenever grandmother's funeral.

I think he was, he was living around here.

But in any case, I think that whenever she briefly got together with him again,

that's when I kind of got into contact with him.

And then also, he, then he showed up at my, another aunt's funeral.

Aunt Barbara would have been one of,

dad's, dad's sisters, and Shirley's, one of dad and Shirley's sisters.

And so, there was a couple of times where I saw him,

and I was able to have a conversation with him.

And I always liked Morris.

So, in any case, probably for the last 10 to 12 years,

we really got together.

And usually, whenever I would come home for,

you know,

time off, I would take my time off.

You know, I'd be off for,

usually I'd take five days off.

Once I went to work for Crete,

or Schaefer,

I would take my five days off,

and then I would

meet several different friends,

and sometimes relatives,

to eat.

And so Morris,

we fell into this routine where

I would eat,

I would meet him,

and two different times

while I was home for the five days off

per month.

And this went on and on and on.

And so,

we come up to July the 8th

of this year,

whenever I retired.

And I was, you know,

once I got home and I retired,

and maybe made the last podcast,

the most recent one,

and then,

you know,

I'd met,

I was able to meet Morris once to eat,

because I've got other friends

that I kind of meet,

but I've really decided I had to,

you know,

one of the things I have to do

is really watch my,

you know,

I want to watch my money, obviously,

and so eating out is,

you know,

I'm trying to

severe,

you know,

kind of,

you know,

severely cut that back,

you know,

to maybe once,

if I can do that,

you know,

like,

if I meet a friend,

like,

once a week to eat,

maybe at worst twice,

but certainly just once a week,

then,

you know,

pick one of these friends

and eat with them once a week,

then that

falls with,

you know,

kind of falls within my budget,

and then all of the rest of the meals

just eat at home.

So,

that's,

that's what I've been attempting to do.

So,

in any case,

I met Morris once

after I'd retired.

So,

I've been retired now

for a little over a month,

but,

so we go back,

oh,

now,

yeah,

so we go back about a,

or close to a month ago,

three,

three weeks to a month ago,

at least three weeks ago,

I'd have to look at the calendar now,

got a call from Morris,

got a call from my aunt,

and he,

you know,

so in the meantime,

you know,

Voxer,

Morris was one of the people

that I talked to on Voxer,

and so I would,

usually I'd talk to him

at least like every other day,

or,

you know,

or sometimes a few days would go by,

but,

you know,

then sometimes it was,

you know,

every day,

and so it would just vary,

but I,

you know,

I just kind of stayed

in close contact with him,

so I had taught,

on a Wednesday,

I'd talk to him,

you know,

it was around noon,

I'd talk to him,

and he seemed fine,

well then the very next day,

it was on a Thursday,

I was with,

I was with my parents,

my parents are up here from

South Texas,

they come up for the summer again,

and so I was with them,

we,

you know,

they were,

you know,

I was driving them around,

and,

you know,

we were on our way,

we were on our way back,

where they're,

they have their travel trailer

parked at,

at my youngest brother's house,

so,

got this call from my aunt,

and it was,

you know,

I had really poor cell service,

but I was able,

you know,

to get out of it,

that Morris had passed away,

he just suddenly passed away,

and,

which was kind of a shock,

you know,

he was,

he was just days away

from his 80th birthday,

and,

so that was,

that was kind of a shock,

but anyway,

you know,

once we,

you know,

because we were,

you know,

so I,

the call was kind of

really chopping up,

and so I told her,

you know,

I told her I'd,

I'd call her back

once we got,

you know,

the few miles on to,

you know,

where my parents' travel trailer is

at my youngest brother's house,

so I called her back,

and then was able to,

you know,

kind of have a more,

you know,

much better conversation,

and,

but in any case,

kind of fast forward a little bit,

a few days,

his funeral was in Wichita, Kansas,

and so we,

you know,

or my aunt actually rode up to Wichita with me,

and this was his ex-wife,

and of course they,

in the later years,

they were able to sort of bury the hatchet

and get along,

even though they couldn't really,

you know,

there's no way that they could go back

and be husband and wife or whatever,

you know,

that was,

you know,

because both of them had been married,

you know,

kind of afterwards,

you know,

and so they just didn't really,

they wouldn't able to be,

you know,

to be able to get along

in a sort of a domestic situation,

so that,

you know,

each one of them had their houses,

and,

you know,

but they were able to,

you know,

they'd call,

you know,

talk on the phone like once a week or whatever,

and of course they have two kids,

or two,

now they're adult,

I say kids,

they're adults,

children,

you know,

so they were able to kind of peacefully,

let's say peacefully coexist,

and so,

you know,

they were able to kind of peacefully,

let's say peacefully coexist,

and so,

so she rode up there with me,

but they couldn't live together,

she rode up there with me

to the funeral,

and the reason I'm telling you all this

is because I've been told consistently

by my Aunt Shirley,

as well as

both of my cousins,

you know,

their sons,

that,

that I had a lot of influence over Morris,

and I'm,

you know,

I'm thinking,

well,

why,

you know,

and I kind of knew that I had some influence over him,

but why,

that,

why was the big question,

you know,

because,

and I'll give you a little further backstory,

Morris was a Boeing executive,

he was a retired Boeing executive,

he retired at age 55,

so he ended up being retired about,

a total of 25 years before he,

you know,

his recent death,

and it was just days away from his 80th birthday,

and so he,

you know,

we're talking about a man that

did not have a college education,

he,

all he had was a,

you know,

he graduated high school,

and he went to,

you know,

went to work for Boeing,

or he was in the,

you know,

he was in the Navy for a while,

and then I think,

you know,

and then he went to work for Boeing sometime after he got out of the Navy,

and he had this long career with Boeing,

where he actually worked up to the point,

when he,

you know,

he was one of the plant managers at,

there's a Boeing Philadelphia area facility,

he was a plant manager for a few years,

and that's really unusual,

because he had no college education,

he didn't,

he wasn't a,

you know,

he wasn't an engineer,

but he was very intelligent,

and he,

you know,

obviously he,

you know,

he was driven,

as a leader,

he was,

he was very driven,

and,

you know,

so he drove himself,

he put,

really pushed himself,

and he was,

you know,

let's face it,

somebody like that is bossy,

you know,

and that was one of my aunt's complaints,

that he,

you know,

he was just too,

he was really bossy with her,

well,

it's interesting,

he was never that way with me,

and in fact,

it was sort of like the opposite,

he always made,

you know,

kind of deferred to me,

you know,

where are we going to eat at,

you know,

it's up to you,

you tell me where we're going to eat,

is what he'd tell me,

and,

uh,

you know,

and then there were,

there were just quite a number of,

uh,

ways that I ended up influencing him,

you know,

and they,

one of the things that they had,

you know,

that my aunt,

and,

uh,

two cousins attribute to me,

is the fact that in recent years,

he sort of,

uh,

really became interested in the Bible,

and,

uh,

he,

you know,

in recent years,

you know,

he had like 22 different Bibles,

uh,

you know,

each one was sort of a,

you know,

kind of a different translation,

and he,

he would spend,

he had this routine that he went through every morning,

where he,

he would spend a couple of hours reading through each one of those Bibles,

and,

uh,

so I was still kind of,

you know,

I've been thinking about that,

why was,

why did I have influence over him,

you know,

and he,

you know,

he repeatedly stated that he looked up to me,

you know,

why?

And,

uh,

you know,

it's not because,

you know,

and I never tried to,

you know,

persuade him or tell him,

you know,

what to do.

I would tell him what I would do,

you know,

if he was looking,

if he needed some sort of advice or something,

you know,

about,

let's say some,

you know,

like what kind of computer to get or whatever,

I would tell him what I would do,

but I,

you know,

I never told him,

uh,

you know,

I never,

never told him what to do,

ever.

But,

uh,

but I was thinking about this last night.

I think the,

to the extent that I had influence over him,

which I did,

you know,

I kind of acknowledged that I did have,

you know,

probably,

you know,

more influence over him than anyone else.

Uh,

especially in recent years.

I believe the reason that I did was because I was genuine with him and I'm,

you know,

and I've talked about this quite a bit in this podcast over the years.

Uh,

and I think that's the key to,

it really is the key to,

if you want to,

you know,

have as much influence in the world or positive influence in the world,

that you can.

It's not going to be through necessarily.

You might persuade people,

you know,

and with arguments and what have you.

But the problem with that is you,

if you have to,

you know,

the,

the biggest factor is you have to be genuine.

And that means you have to be genuine with yourself.

You may think you're being genuine with yourself and it's,

it's,

it's very easy.

As we all know,

it's incredibly,

if you're honest with yourself,

it's,

it's very easy to deceive yourself.

You know,

self-deception is a very real problem for human beings.

So,

but I think,

uh,

to the degree that we can be genuine,

you know,

try to be as genuine as possible with ourselves,

uh,

then,

and,

as possible with other people,

uh,

then you have the possibility of actually influencing people.

And I think that's,

that is the key,

is to be genuine.

But you have to be,

you really do have to be genuine with yourself.

And,

uh,

people can see if you're being genuine.

You know,

especially,

especially even with yourself.

You may not be able to see if you're being genuine with yourself,

uh,

to whatever extent,

but certainly other people can see that.

Other people are able to see that.

And so that,

that is the,

I think the,

the key reason that,

uh,

I had influence over Morris was because,

uh,

I was genuine with myself and genuine with him.

And what that ended up doing was,

uh,

you know,

it,

the reason that that had influence over him is because it caught,

you know,

he had,

he had his own conscience and it caused him to,

uh,

you know,

his own conscience to sort of activate,

let's say,

or,

you know,

you say activate in sympathy.

So,

and I,

you know,

I know some people think that conscience is just some sort of social,

social construct and what have you.

I believe,

you know,

and,

and there could be a social construct of a conscience,

you know,

sort of a false conscience.

But,

you know,

with people that aren't being genuine with each other or with themselves,

that certainly can be,

can be the case.

But,

I think that if,

you know,

if you're the genuine,

if you can be the genuine article and really find

conscience,

you know,

it's,

isn't it a weird thing that you're able to ask yourself a question and then,

you know,

kind of come up with an answer?

You know,

if you can sincerely ask yourself

questions regarding your own behavior,

isn't that kind of weird that,

you know,

you,

you come up with an answer

and it may not be the answer that you want?

You know,

I don't know.

An example of that would be,

am I,

you know,

ask yourself this question,

am I

being the best person that I can be?

And if you really ask yourself that question,

honestly and,

and genuinely,

probably the answer that comes back is no,

you're not.

Look at all these different ways that you could be a better person.

That's your conscience.

And I believe that that,

you know,

and this is my personal belief.

I believe that's God.

You can think of that conscience as God talking to you,

God directly communicating with you.

And,

that's not,

that's not an original concept that's been around for,

you know,

for long,

you know,

forever,

you know,

as a concept.

But I think it's,

I believe,

I believe it to be absolutely valid.

And so in order,

you know,

to,

if you can be genuine with yourself,

really genuine with yourself,

and then you're genuine with other people,

you're going to end up with,

potential reaction.

You know,

let's say in the case of Morris,

where all of a sudden it,

he started,

you know,

it really kind of ended up causing him to become genuine with his own conscience.

And then,

you know,

because he was,

he was,

you know,

he already had,

you know,

at least a partial relationship with his conscience.

He didn't,

you know,

it went,

you know,

let's say in terms of,

work,

he didn't want to lie.

And he really talked about how he didn't like people that lied,

and especially politicians.

But,

you know,

and it's easy to kind of fall into a sort of a dichotomy trap where it's,

you know,

it's the people on the outside,

you know,

they're falling short and we can see it.

But we sort of gloss over our own shortcomings.

And,

but another way of putting this is,

you know,

he responded,

you know,

he saw something in me that he also was able,

you know,

it sort of inspired something within him.

And so now on the,

at the,

on the other side of the coin,

uh,

you know,

I've,

uh,

you know,

and I've discovered this,

uh,

sometimes it's to my,

you know,

it's,

it can be kind of shocking,

but,

uh,

you know,

with me being just as genuine as I can with people,

all people,

and saying what I think,

uh,

and,

and kind of saying why I think that way,

it can cause a very negative reaction in certain people.

Uh,

you know,

they just,

sometimes,

it's almost like you're,

you know,

a violent reaction where they,

you know,

I've had people call,

you know,

like,

uh,

people call me names and just really,

you know,

kind of a violent reaction type of thing.

And,

uh,

you know,

but,

and I'm,

you know,

that's just the,

that's the way it is,

but I,

and I'm willing to put up with it.

I will not,

uh,

you know,

the,

the only thing that we have really is,

and the thing that we are most intimate with is conscience.

That is it.

That's the thing that you,

that,

you know,

is,

uh,

you know,

we're ha,

you know,

as a conscious creature,

I'm having this experience of,

you know,

and I,

that,

you know,

that they came up with this,

uh,

term qualia,

you know,

you're having this,

you're,

as a conscious creature,

you're having this,

you know,

sort of,

uh,

quality,

uh,

there's a quality to the experience that you're having,

and,

uh,

this,

you know,

this aware,

conscious experience that you're having,

and then I have to assume that other people are having a similar type of experience,

you know,

because I could also believe that it was all just,

uh,

sort of fake,

you know,

and,

uh,

I was creating,

you know,

I would,

I was creating the experience,

well,

that's,

you know,

that's ridiculous,

I'm not creating this experience,

uh,

other people are,

I re,

you know,

other people have,

are having conscious experience in the same way that I am,

uh,

you know,

it's probably,

possibly from a,

a different viewpoint,

but they,

they're still conscious creatures having their own conscience,

conscious experience,

so,

but what is it the root of it,

what is it,

what is it that makes us conscious,

and why is it that I'm always thinking about what is the right,

what is right,

what is wrong,

what is appropriate,

what is not appropriate,

uh,

as I go about my existence,

and that thing that we're,

that makes us conscious,

is also the thing that,

uh,

we're sort of measuring our behavior,

you can think of it this way,

we're sort of measuring our,

uh,

behavior against,

so,

in a sense,

you can say that,

uh,

whatever this conscience,

conscience is,

whatever that force is,

is giving this,

giving us this conscious experience,

but it's also,

the thing that we measure,

our behavior against,

you know,

if that makes any sense,

so,

but going back to my,

uh,

earlier point,

if you want,

to have,

positive impact in the world,

the solution is to be as genuine,

as you possibly can,

and that means being genuine,

as you possibly can,

with yourself,

because it stands to reason,

if you're gen,

if you're as genuine as you can be,

from moment to moment,

as genuine as you can be with yourself,

then,

by definition,

you're going to be genuine with,

as genuine as possible with other people,

you know,

because it,

it doesn't work the other way around,

because if you,

if you're lying to yourself,

if you're,

if you won't,

you know,

if you won't,

uh,

interact properly with your conscience,

and you're,

by the way,

your friend,

your conscience,

should be,

you know,

you,

that you should be able to be friends,

like best friends,

the best friend with your conscience,

because that's the thing that you're most intimate with,

that's the thing that's giving,

that,

uh,

gives rise to this conscience,

conscious experience,

is conscience,

and so,

therefore,

uh,

instead of feeling,

you know,

guilty about it,

because the con,

your,

this conscious,

conscience,

is sort of,

uh,

providing a blueprint,

you know,

uh,

as far as what,

what is right and what is wrong,

and we have to sort of wrestle with it,

and that's what the word,

uh,

Israel means,

those who wrestle with God,

and that's what we're doing,

if we're,

uh,

especially if you're really being genuine and honest with yourself,

then,

uh,

that's what you're doing,

is constantly having a,

kind of a back and forth with conscience,

but you can,

you know,

you,

again,

you can kind of think of it as a blueprint,

you know,

what's the right thing to do,

and,

and it's going to vary from one,

one,

uh,

situation to the next,

you have the ideal,

the,

the sort of the blueprint,

but then you,

you have to figure out what's,

you know,

what,

what's practical,

what is really the best for the,

you know,

for actual existence,

and it's not just,

it's not simply a,

an idyllic blueprint,

you know,

you've,

uh,

given the example before,

you know,

there's the idea of a perfect circle,

you know,

you can have this,

you know,

it's kind of an idea,

whatever an idea is,

and you can imagine that there's such a thing as a perfect circle.

Well,

that's just an idea.

In the physical world,

there's no such thing as a perfect circle.

You can come close,

but there's no such thing as a perfect circle,

and so you can have,

uh,

rules about behavior and rules about right and wrong,

but at the same time,

it,

you know,

you,

then you have the concept of the,

the letter of the law,

versus the spirit of the law.

The spirit,

uh,

really takes precedence.

The,

the spirit,

uh,

comes up with,

you know,

you can come up with a letter sort of based on,

uh,

the metadata regarding,

you know,

the spirit.

So,

if that makes any sense.

So,

in any case,

that,

uh,

I wanted to talk about that because that,

uh,

you know,

because I genuinely was curious as to,

you know,

why I had influence over him and over Morris,

my friend Morris,

and,

uh,

that was why,

you know,

had to give you a little bit more background.

At one point,

uh,

you know,

of course he,

he divorced my aunt and then he had this other woman.

I think he had probably been,

uh,

I don't know this,

but I think he had probably been already been,

uh,

kind of interacting with this other woman,

uh,

that he ended up marrying late,

you know,

shortly thereafter.

I don't remember the time gap,

but,

uh,

he ended up marrying her and then,

uh,

they were married like 13 years and then eventually she left him.

And,

uh,

I think after,

you know,

probably before and then for some period of time after this second wife left him,

he really,

you know,

he really became kind of,

you know,

you could probably say he was an alcoholic.

You know,

I wasn't around him at this point.

I had no interaction with him at this point at all,

but I think he really,

you know,

jumped into drinking and whatever else and,

you know,

and he probably,

had he continued down that path,

he would have probably died,

uh,

quite a few years ago.

But,

uh,

at some point,

you know,

he kind of was able to,

to get some degree of control over himself.

And then,

uh,

you know,

he started,

you know,

some,

some level of rational,

rationality.

So he always did have a conscience,

but he was,

uh,

you know,

I think he was sort of,

uh,

still at that point sort of fighting it.

You know,

but,

you know,

and I'd say the last 10 years,

he really,

uh,

sort of changed,

you know,

he kind of really changed his behavior and changed his attitude and,

and everything else.

And,

uh,

and it was because he grew closer to his own conscience,

is really what,

is really why,

that's why,

that's the why,

is because he,

he,

uh,

grew much closer to his own conscience.

You know,

and that's,

that,

that can be a painful process too.

Because,

uh,

you know,

when you do,

when you move closer to your own conscience,

it,

uh,

really reveals your shortcomings.

And we all,

believe me,

we all have shortcomings as human beings.

We,

we all fall short.

Absolutely.

And so you,

you move,

the closer you move to your conscience,

the,

the more the flaws and,

uh,

the more that the flaws are revealed.

And that,

that can be quite,

uh,

painful.

But the key to dealing with that,

of course,

is to don't resent it.

That's where,

uh,

one of the major places where we as human beings fall completely off the rails.

Where we re,

you know,

really fall short of the mark,

uh,

is if,

you know,

by,

in resentment,

we're essentially kind of playing God in our own mind.

As if we could hurl a mental thunderbolt,

uh,

against,

uh,

people,

places,

and things that,

uh,

you know,

and,

you know,

strike them dead or strike them out of existence with our thoughts.

Uh,

make people suffer with,

uh,

via our,

our thoughts.

And,

uh,

that's,

it's exactly 180 degrees the opposite.

Uh,

the only person,

if you resent people,

places,

and things,

the only person that suffers is you.

Primarily.

Now you can,

you can,

obviously you can make other people suffer as well,

but,

uh,

you know,

you,

you want to be,

uh,

in charge of hell,

go for it.

See how that,

see how that goes.

Probably doesn't,

it's probably not going to work very well.

You know,

as far as trying to,

trying to force other,

force suffering on other people.

You know.

But the key to,

uh,

being genuine with yourself is to,

to give up resentment.

You,

you know,

figure out,

realize what resentment is,

and then,

uh,

stop doing it.

Stop that behavior.

You know,

and if you can,

uh,

become friends with your conscience,

genuinely,

and only you can know that,

if you can do that,

then,

you know,

it doesn't make you perfect,

but it,

and it doesn't,

it's not going to guarantee that,

uh,

life is just,

everything's just going to go perfectly smoothly,

but what it does,

sort of guarantee is that,

uh,

you know,

that,

that relationship with,

between you,

whatever,

let's say,

whatever I am,

and conscience is,

that that relationship,

uh,

cannot be penetrated,

and it,

uh,

you know,

and I am,

uh,

sort of,

uh,

perfectly happy to consciously engage in that relationship,

with conscience,

you know,

and that,

that,

uh,

another,

the way the Bible describes this,

and,

excuse me,

uh,

peace surpasses all understanding,

because there's all this crap that's going on,

and it's,

there's even more crap that's going on in the world,

and,

uh,

paradoxically,

I'm perfectly at peace,

so,

anyway,

uh,

I think next I'm going to play,

uh,

Joel's comment,

and I'll be right back.

Hey, Tom,

Joel McLachlan here.

I'm going to be coming from the woods,

haha,

I'm on a hike right now.

It's kind of what I've been doing in the morning,

since the weather's been good.

I much prefer to do my exercise in the woods,

and this will probably be the last week that I will get an opportunity to push hard prior to the Mammoth March,

and I don't know if that's all already been on the show here.

But I'm doing this event here in Southeast Ohio called the Mammoth March,

and it's a 20-mile hike around Baroque State Park.

Specifically,

Baroque has a lake in the middle of it,

and we're going to be,

if I had to guess,

because they set the official track,

for the hike out,

uh,

last weekend.

If I had to guess,

if you're looking in the app,

like AllTrails or something like that,

it would probably be the Lakeview Trail.

So it's about a little bit under 20 miles,

actually.

But,

that's kind of what I've been doing is,

instead of going to Planet Fitness in the morning,

uh, since the beginning of this month,

I've been coming over to this metro park.

It's,

I would say,

probably less than a mile from the house.

So,

and I'm here

dodging tree roots as I

go on the lower part of this trail here.

I,

I'm on a trail on,

it's about 1.9 miles.

I've posted many pictures

on Facebook.

So I'm going to try and probably get over here tomorrow,

or tonight,

to just get some extra stuff in.

I'm down about 101 pounds right now.

I did go down briefly,

down to 103, 104,

lost from my heaviest.

But,

I had a

few stressful days,

as you can imagine,

the CrowdStrike stuff.

Uh,

Friday,

the weekend too.

I'm also taking my master's degree program.

The current course I'm in is statistics.

And I'm going to tell you right now,

I hate it.

Not my favorite class so far.

So, I think my favorite class was my first one.

But, uh,

anywho,

this week I'm planning on

getting in as much as I can do.

And then next week,

since it's the week of the hike,

I'm probably going to do

less than I usually would do.

Just so that I'm well rested

prior to the event.

And I have the Friday before the event off.

And I'm going to

stay at a cabin down there.

And I had to double check at that.

A friend of mine at church,

he's the one who

paid for it. And I said, well,

you know, do you need any money?

He's like, no, don't worry about it.

I'm like, okay.

But then we found, I found out like

a week or so ago that he's

had to back out of the hike.

He did get somebody else

to take his spot.

So, we're still going to have a group of

four guys, counting myself,

doing this

together.

And, uh,

I just need to figure out the cabin specifics.

Because if that's

not, you know, if he doesn't want

to hold the cabin, or I don't know

how I'm supposed to get into it,

because it's a

Airbnb.

I would have loved to just stay

right there

in Burr Oak.

But they were forcing me to do

two nights. And I only

wanted to do one night. Because the event's on a

Saturday. And

what I want to do is I want to go down there

and do the event.

Drive back and go to church

in the morning with my

medal around my neck.

Because this is something I've never done before.

You know, and, uh,

yesterday,

Saturday,

Sunday or yesterday, I can't remember

which day, we have a, we switched,

we used to do a group text

for this boot camp group I'm in.

And, uh,

I said,

in that, it grouped

me, is what we're using now,

but in that group

me, I said,

you fail at 100%

of the things you don't try.

And look

at me now.

Because I've been pushing

hard since February

to just lose weight

and, uh,

do lots of

practice hikes.

My longest so far has been 10. I'm gonna

try and go 11 or 12

this weekend.

And, uh,

that'll be the last long one

before the event.

And, uh,

I've never

been able to do this kind of thing before.

And I like to say,

like,

I went to Carnival

or, you know,

that's what did it for me.

Right now, it's mostly

common sense.

And, like, last couple days had a little bit

of an uptick.

So,

today I went to have a salad for lunch instead

of a sandwich.

So,

and things like that, and, uh,

no

chips.

I buy, when I buy chips,

and I do buy them, I still eat them,

I buy them in single-turb

bags instead of

the big bag.

That way,

I eat one bag, maybe two,

and I'm done.

So, today I might

not eat any. So, we'll see.

Today is early.

But,

just wanted to tell you, though,

since I turned the show off, I'm actually in the

middle of your latest.

But since I turned it off,

it's morning, but

it's sounding very much like your video.

So, uh,

enjoy your

retirement.

I just thought of something, too.

You said you're probably not the kind of

person that, uh,

wants to sit down and

do nothing the rest of your life.

You're retired from your

primary vocation.

Maybe

you sign up for DoorDash

or Uber

and

do food deliveries or something like that.

I don't know if that's

an option where you live.

But it might be.

So, I'm climbing up the hill.

Last hill

on the trail before I head to the car.

Take care.

Okay, thank you, Joel.

So, uh,

couple of things there.

Now,

so, congratulations

again on, uh, losing the,

uh,

100 pounds, or in excess of 100 pounds.

And as

I said, that's not, uh,

easy.

And, uh,

but,

you know,

at one time, you know,

like, this would, this dates back to

like 2000, 2001.

At my,

you know, at the worst, I was about,

uh, probably

235 pounds.

And that, and I'm, and at that point

I wasn't, I was kind of avoiding the

scales.

And that was when I, uh,

quit

the, uh,

eye clinic and went back to

truck driving.

And, you know, after

that, and, you know, and the reason,

you know, whenever I worked at the eye clinic,

they,

you know, it was mostly women and they

had cakes and cookies and candies.

All, you know, there were always cakes

and cookies and candies.

There was candy everywhere and

then somebody was always bringing, uh, candy.

Cookies and cakes

and donuts and whatever.

Uh,

it was constant.

Especially the candy.

And, you know, once

I started with that, with the

candy, I couldn't stop.

Uh, so I was just constantly

popping candy in my mouth,

among other things.

So,

but I know that I was

at least 235 pounds

at that point. Maybe even more.

I don't know.

Uh, like I say, I was kind of avoiding

scales at that point.

Went back to driving in truck and I ended

up losing about 40 pounds.

So my weight dropped, you know,

and then it was about, stayed

for years, it was like 185

to

190. And it would vary a little bit.

Uh, but it was, you know, it was mostly

around 185.

And it stayed that way

until, uh,

uh, I guess it's

been about, well, five years

ago.

Maybe even more at this point.

Uh, it's probably approaching six years.

I'd actually have to go back in my records

and look and see when I

actually did, uh,

decide to

go on a, you know, kind of a more

low-carb diet.

But, uh,

and then once I

went on the low-carb diet,

uh, five or six years ago, then,

uh, well, it's going to

be coming up on six years.

So let's say right now it's five and a half.

Roughly.

Uh,

and that's just kind of guessing without looking.

I know it's been at least five.

But, uh,

then I lost another

roughly, let's say

roughly 40 pounds over that first

year. And I stuck with it.

But, uh,

the way I did it, and it wasn't

really through exercise, uh,

obviously, because, you know,

driving a truck, you just, there's no,

there's really little

opportunity for exercise.

The most exercise I got

as a truck driver was walking, uh,

from the truck

into the truck stop and back, and then,

uh, you know, kind of across the parking

lot. Sometimes I'd make a lap

or two around a parking lot, but that's,

that's a really dangerous thing to do.

As you get, you know,

there's high probability that you're going to

get run over.

So,

and then I didn't have, you know, I was

really pressed for time, too. So I,

I really didn't have time for that.

But, the way I lost,

you know, I cut out pasta, potatoes,

rice, and bread. And so I

was primarily eating meat,

salad, and,

uh, vegetables.

And I was

pretty strict with myself.

And, uh, so my weight

now

sort of bounces

in between 145,

146, and,

uh,

150. So let's say between

145 and 150.

And that's

consistently through this day. I weighed

this morning, and I think, what was it,

146.4,

I believe, is what I weighed

this morning.

And, uh, so my,

right now, I have kind of

increased the carbohydrate intake a little

bit. So

I have, uh,

my weakness,

obviously, is, uh, pasta.

And, uh,

but, and so I

have kind of

reincorporated

some degree of

pasta. Not making a big

habit of it. Primarily what

I'm eating right now,

since I'm cooking at home most

of the time. This morning I had, uh,

half

a pound of, uh, hamburger.

That I cooked in the air fryer.

And I, uh,

ate

that before I came out

here on the deck and, uh, started

recording this podcast.

And right now

I'm not hungry at all.

And I'll, you know, I'll eat

something, uh,

later today. But, uh,

let's

say I eat in a Mexican restaurant,

I might, uh,

like the other day I met my parents,

uh,

and we ate in this Mexican

restaurant. And I, you know, I, uh,

the thing that I did eat that was really

kind of off

my diet was, uh, I did

eat the beans. It was, you know, cause it,

the meal came with, uh,

rice and beans. I

didn't eat any of the chips

that they brought before the meal.

But, uh, I did eat, uh,

uh,

some rice and, uh, I didn't eat the rice

but I did eat the beans.

And then the rest of it was fine. I didn't

eat any tortillas.

Uh, and then

yesterday, was it

yesterday? The day before yesterday

I met this other friend

and ate in a

different Mexican restaurant. And,

uh,

you know, I,

let's see, did I eat the beans?

I might have eaten the beans and then

I ate like three or four of the

chips.

With a little bit of the salsa.

But,

so right now my

diet is still mostly,

uh, you know, especially

cooking here at home, meat and

eggs.

So I do eat, uh, some eggs.

Uh, like, late last night

I was a little hungry before I went to bed

and so I cooked three,

three, you know, made

them into scrambled eggs and I, that's

what I ate. Uh,

late last night I was a little bit hungry.

So,

but, you know, kind of

the way it works in my mind

is that, uh,

if I'm gonna eat

carbohydrate, you know, any kind of

carbohydrate that, you know, like,

uh, let's say it's a piece

of bread, it could be like a

roll or something, which I've, you know,

I have eaten here recently.

Uh, if it's gonna be something

like that, then I'm consciously aware

that I'm eating it and that, that

that is carbohydrate, you know,

kind of a concentrated carbohydrate.

Because there's a

little carbohydrate in salad

and there's a little carbohydrate in, uh,

various

vegetables.

But whenever I eat those,

I, you know, those are, you know,

I don't really think about

those as being, you know,

even though they are carbohydrate,

you know, salad and vegetables,

they're very limited.

But whenever, if I eat a,

let's say I eat a chip

or I eat a, uh,

plate of

spaghetti, then I'm consciously

aware that I'm eating,

you know, lots of carbohydrates.

You know.

And it's not, uh,

I'm not making a habit of it.

Now, recently my, uh,

parents celebrated

their 70th wedding

anniversary.

And so I, of course,

I attended that and, uh,

what did they have?

Uh,

uh, to eat there?

Uh, lots and lots of, uh,

desserts.

You know, so I did eat, uh,

several pieces, you know,

like a piece of cake and I don't

know, I, I ate, uh,

several, several, uh,

things that I would normally never eat.

And it

turned out to be no big deal.

And, of course, I'm not,

absolutely not making a habit of it.

And I may, you know,

I may go days, uh,

in between where I eat

zero carbohydrates.

Now, uh,

you know, so I,

I'm kind, I'm,

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm very

conscious. If I'm eating, uh,

something that's,

that I consider to be a con, a

concentrated carbohydrate,

I'm very much aware

that I'm eating it. And I'm not,

uh, just kind of mindlessly,

uh,

scooping

it down. And I'm absolutely,

uh, am not making it

into a habit.

Because it's very easy, uh,

once you make something

like that a habit, then it,

it, it's, it's incredibly easy

to just fall right back into, uh,

old patterns.

Old behavior, uh,

old behavioral patterns.

You know, I

watch this guy sometimes on, uh,

YouTube, and this, there's this, uh,

interesting guy, uh,

the name of the channel

on YouTube is, it's just liver

disease.

And so there's this guy, he's, I think

he's in his mid to late 40s.

And

he was, uh, an

alcoholic, and he admits that he was

an alcoholic for, you know,

you know, quite a number of years

he was an alcoholic. And he,

and he, he puts out a video every

day, it's about a 30 minute video that he

puts out every day, day in and day out.

And, uh,

he kind of talks about,

uh,

being an alcoholic

and, and, you know,

how he had tried to quit

drinking, and then

finally he ended up with, he was diagnosed

with cirrhosis of the liver,

and he had pancreas, you know, really

pancreatic, severe pancreatic

problems.

And he was finally

able, you know,

right on the verge of dying, he was able to

stop drinking, but of course he's got

all kinds of, uh,

ongoing, uh,

medical,

physical

issues that,

uh, were

brought on as a result

of the alcoholism.

Kind of extreme

alcoholism.

And, uh, but he,

he's talked about, uh,

you know, in the

one, you know, prior to him really

becoming, uh, you know, ending up

with, uh, severe illness,

where he's, you know,

you know, with the liver disease,

you know, cirrhosis of the liver and

pancreatitis and what have you.

Prior to that, he, he

would, uh, decide he was going to stop

drinking, drinking alcohol.

And he would

stop maybe for a few days or whatever

and then he'd think, well, I've got control

of this now. I can just

have this one, I can just

have this one drink.

And then one drink would become

two drinks and then before, you know,

he knew it, then he was right back at the,

you know, the same old familiar pattern

even worse.

So, uh,

and I think the same thing is true with,

uh, food.

You know, the wrong kinds of food.

Because

if you think about it,

what,

uh, do you really, you know,

are potato chips nutritious?

No.

Uh, are the chips

that they serve in Mexican restaurants

really nutritious? Not

really. I mean, you could live on them if

that's all there was.

For a time, you could live

on them. They'd keep you alive.

But, uh,

that's a, that's a

not a, you know, that's not really a very

it's not a

sustainable diet long term.

Whereas if all

I had to eat was hamburger,

that is

sustainable over a long period of

time. It may

not be the best, but that's,

that is, that is a

much more sustainable

type of diet.

If that's all there was, if that's all there was,

that I had to eat, then I would,

I would, uh, survive on it.

No problem.

But, uh, cookies?

Could you live on those for a few,

for a while? Yeah, you could.

But it's not a sustainable diet.

You'd become ill.

Uh-oh, phone's ringing.

Nope.

Reject that.

You could live on something like

that. It would sustain you. It'd keep you

alive for a while.

Same way with, uh,

you know, you could

live on rice and beans.

That might be a little more sustainable.

Because there are people that

I don't know how long you could live

on rice and beans.

Kind of long term, there'd probably

be some, uh,

consequences, you know, physical

consequences to that.

And certainly,

my intuition tells me

that rice and beans would be, uh,

not as bad as, uh,

you know,

the consequences of eating just a rice and

bean diet wouldn't be as bad as,

uh,

having a cookie diet or a

Mexican chip diet or a

potato chip diet.

Or,

let's say, you know,

a Twinkie diet.

You know, you could exist for a while on

Twinkies, but, uh, there would be

severe consequences if that's all you had to eat.

So you,

I don't know,

I guess what I'm saying is that you have to

take these things into account.

You know, so like when I was at the,

at my parents,

uh, 70th wedding

anniversary, yes, I did eat some

of the cake, and they had these

other, uh,

dessert type goodies, and,

uh, yeah, they're not,

they're not the greatest, but I did

eat them, and, uh,

with no consequence, really.

Because they didn't,

they didn't cause any weight gain,

but that was just, that was a special occasion,

and that was the end of it.

You come to my house

right now, uh, all I

have, uh,

I think I do have some cans of soup in the,

in the cabinet, just in case,

but otherwise

I have, uh,

a freezer full of beef.

Maybe some, with some chicken mixed in,

in the freezer.

It's actually two freezers.

I've got a, like a five-foot, uh,

one of those five-foot, cubic-foot,

uh, deep freezers,

the small ones,

and then a, you know, then the side-by-side,

uh, refrigerator,

you know, with the, the,

the, uh,

freezer on the left

with, you know, with the water and ice

through the door.

And, uh, you know,

those are,

you know, those are

mostly full of, uh,

beef,

frozen beef.

And,

I, you know,

that's what I, that's basically what I have in the house

to eat, and, uh,

you know, I'll probably

buy some more spaghetti,

you know, and cook it here

at home, if, you know,

that's,

seems reasonable as long as I

don't, uh,

I'm not making that every

meal like I used, you know, cause I used

to be, uh, I would eat pasta like

every meal.

Obviously a bad diet,

because I, you know, I was 40 pounds

heavier.

So.

But, uh,

in any case, I, I, I sort of look

at those, and I'm, and I'm

really conscious, you know, and I, some,

and I'd never,

I don't know, I'm not drawn

to eating potato chips, or,

uh, you know,

um,

really desserts, or anything like

that. It's not something that I just,

you know, I'm not craving it,

I don't constantly think about it.

Uh,

the way

I'm eating now, uh,

it's like I'm hungry, I've got,

I'm either gonna eat some hamburger,

or I'm gonna cook some eggs, cause I do

have eggs as well.

Cook some eggs, here at,

and eat here at home, saving money,

and, uh,

you know, I ate the

half pound of, uh, hamburger this

morning, and it cooked in the air fryer,

and I'm, uh,

probably, uh,

don't know exactly what I'm gonna eat later,

I may,

this afternoon, I may end up

going out, go over and hang out with my

parents.

Uh, possible.

And if I do that, then,

uh, I may end up eating

something, you know,

some more carbohydrates than I would

normally eat if I just, you know, if I just

hung around here at home, I probably would just,

uh,

eat the other, the other, uh,

half a pound of hamburger and make

possibly some eggs

if I was still hungry.

If,

you know, if I was just to hang out here for the

rest of the day.

At home, so.

Now, as

far as, uh,

what to do,

you know, what should I be doing,

uh, still been, you know,

kind of been thinking about that,

and I did consider, you know,

well, I could do Uber,

I could do, uh, Lyft

type of thing,

or the Door Dash, because that is a thing

around here, you know, this,

this area, there's probably, uh,

the last, uh, census there was

about in northwest Arkansas,

so it was about, uh,

let's say

550,000 people,

and that, there's still people moving

into the area, so eventually,

you know, if this keeps on,

uh,

you know, it's going to continue

to, it's been, northwest Arkansas's

population has been growing,

uh, continuously for

decades at this point.

So there's in excess of half

a million people that live in this,

in this area.

So, uh, we've

got all of the, you know,

the Ubers and the Lyfts

and the Door Dashes and all that stuff

exists here, so I could easily,

uh, do that.

So I did

consider that, and I thought, you know,

well, I'm just going to wait.

But, again, I've kind of been thinking

about it, uh, do I have

to necessarily be doing

something in

exchange for money?

Because, uh, a different

way that I thought about it in the last

few days,

uh, since I've

been retired,

and not, no

longer working, I've

had a couple of days where I sort of felt

aimless.

You know, that, like I really

wasn't aimed at anything.

And,

that's an

interesting way of thinking about that,

that I didn't have an aim.

And so,

you know,

I don't know

if you follow, uh,

listen to any of the Jordan

Peterson stuff, but

Jordan Peterson has come up with, uh,

well, he's been

talking about it for a long time, and it's been

in the works for some time, uh,

Peterson Academy.

And,

uh, it's basically an

online, he's developing

an online education

platform.

And, uh, so they

sent out invites, because I had

signed up for, you know, to be kind of

notified

whenever they were gonna be

put, you know, releasing this thing.

So they sent out these invitations,

and, uh,

so, I don't know, I guess

it was a couple of days ago, I received, uh,

like, you know, like a beta

type invitation, you know, to

sign up for this.

And so that's what I ended,

I looked at the website that they have

set up, and, uh, it's not,

I think it's gonna

become live, actually, on, uh,

August

the 28th, which is,

uh, still

a few days from now.

Uh, but they've

got a bunch of,

uh, curriculum set up,

and, uh,

I signed up for it,

and,

you know, the thing looks really interesting,

and I

think, you know, my intention

is to

sort of, uh,

you know, spend several hours a day

kind of jumping

into that, uh, cause you pay,

uh, this, you know, basically

a single fee. Now, right now,

because I signed up

early, the fee was like, uh,

$449,

which is pretty reasonable for what,

you know, for the, uh, content that they're

gonna have.

And I don't think it's, it's not gonna be just

easy content.

And I'm not doing

it in

any,

you know, I don't really have any goal

with that other than

I think it's something really

in, that interests me to

aim at. And so I think that,

that's potential to, you know, kind of

give me really something to aim at

that I

find, uh, personally I find useful.

So, I signed up for it.

Now, once it, uh,

is completely open to the public,

and not to people that just,

you know, sort of the beta, you know,

people that signed up to be notified initially,

once

it's opened up later on a little bit

to the public, then it's gonna go to,

to, uh, $499. So,

it's like a $50 discount or whatever.

But, you know, since Jordan

Peterson is involved in it, I think

it, and his, uh, daughter and his

son have been involved in it,

I think that it's probably

gonna end up being very

worthwhile, because I've watched, uh,

a few, you know, a ton of the Jordan

Peterson content, including

the, uh,

initially what he put, he posted

on YouTube was, uh,

recording

recordings of him giving, of him

giving lectures, uh,

when he was, uh, still at, like

at the University of Toronto.

And then

even prior to that, uh,

when he was at Harvard,

you know, he recorded, uh,

all of his lectures, and he

posted them on YouTube, and they're very,

I find them very interesting.

So,

but what he's done with this Peterson Academy

is he's got, uh,

uh,

he's kind of carefully selected these

different, uh, professors

from various places

to, uh,

you know, come up with, uh,

video lectures and curriculum

that, uh,

you know, and what they've, you know,

what they have posted on that website right

now is very interesting.

So I think these people are gonna be very

engaging.

So, uh,

and then, but you pay

the, you know, like you pay an annual

fee, like, you know, like $4.49

or $4.99

once it's open to the public

to just anyone that wants to

sign up, you have

full access to all of

the different courses.

And, you know, there's,

I don't know, I didn't count them, but I,

I'm guessing there's probably like 12 of

them on there so far.

And I believe with more

to be added. So, uh,

I think that will, uh,

give me, you know, at

least for now,

in the interim, that's gonna give me something

to, uh, really aim myself

at.

As opposed to, uh,

simply being aimless.

So now I'm gonna play the file from Jeremy.

So here is

Jeremy.

Jeremy, I'm

here in the middle of the night

through Pennsylvania

and Ohio, essentially.

Uh, to Wisconsin.

But, um,

a lot of construction here

on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

But not as terrible as it could

be, I suppose. Especially in the

middle of the night, there's not much traffic. So,

it's not really holding

back too much. I'm pulling

through, uh, Somerset,

Pennsylvania, heading west.

And I just went through the

Allegheny, uh, tunnel there.

And it was a little bit surreal.

They had one side of the

tunnel closed, so there was two-way traffic

in the tunnel. But there were

no markers. They didn't

have any codes or markers in the middle

lane. And it

occurred to me that it would be

really easy for somebody to just forget

that it wasn't, uh, one-way

traffic. And

potentially make their way over to the

right lane if they wanted to try and make

it past somebody or something like that.

Even though you're not supposed to switch lanes in the tunnel.

Um, I thought it was

kind of odd that they didn't have any kind of divider

there. So, I'm guessing

it was just some kind of overnight work, but

uh, still kind of weird.

There was a lot more traffic westbound,

so it was pretty steady.

Um, so I guess it probably wasn't

much risk for us,

but going the other way,

you know, or

for the people coming the other direction

is what I meant. But it would be

very easy for somebody who is heading west

and not seeing any oncoming

traffic to potentially get

careless and restless and try to go around

somebody in a head-on collision.

Um, so

that was a little bit odd, and

just a weird feeling. I've been through that tunnel

so many times that it just

felt strange having two-way traffic there.

But, anyway,

um,

so I just wanted to check in and

congratulate you on your retirement.

I know last time I left America,

I think you were just talking about

thinking

forward to when your last day would be,

and I listened to your last

podcast where you, uh, I think you called it

something like, I'm not bored yet, or something like that.

Which, uh, you know, made me

feel happy that you're

staying busy and

staying engaged and staying interested.

Um, I'm not

I'm getting into my fifties

now, so I'm not really thinking about

retirement just yet, but I'm thinking about

sort of the next day

and all that stuff.

Um, you know,

just kind of noodling through, like,

what I need to set aside.

Just watching my money get

more and more worthless

with every day that passes.

The inflation gets worse, but

I guess it's not like we haven't

been through these sorts of cycles before.

And, uh, it all seems to

wash out at the end.

But, um,

I found myself thinking about, uh,

about your trucking career.

And I thought I would ask,

and if you're interested in sharing,

if you were going to go back and do it

again, I'm curious as to what you think

about doing what you did,

which is, I believe, like, um,

sort of working

for the company

that you drive for as an

employee, as opposed

to possibly being

an owner-operator.

And with the potential

stress, but I guess maybe it

would be an additional opportunity

for profit there, but

I don't know, like, I guess it takes

a certain kind of person

to take on that level of

making your own business

and creating your own leads

and doing your own dispatch

or whatever. I'm not even sure how that all works.

Maybe you can shed some light on that.

But I'm curious, if you were to go back

and start over, if you would possibly

take another route, or if you think

you would just, uh,

do all the same, make the same decisions

this time

around, and

just

go with the company,

go with a reputable company

and just settle in.

I'm curious as to what you

think about that.

Okay, well, thank you, Jeremy.

So, hopefully I'm going to be able to get

through this. I don't know, I'm kind of all

choked up right at the moment.

Sorry about that.

So, um,

kind of eyes are watering. I don't know

what's going on, but

sometimes that happens.

So, anyway,

I'm going to

break this up in kind of two parts

because the first part you're talking

about, uh,

trucking, you know,

working for a company like I did

versus

owning

your own truck,

and, uh,

early on I decided

that it would be much

better,

you know, and this was after

I was already a truck driver, I decided

it was just much better for me

to, uh,

just be an

employee

as opposed to trying to,

you know, have my own, my own

truck. Uh, you know, there

are people that do that,

and they do it, uh,

fairly

successfully. Some of them are

very successful, and some of them are,

there's a,

quite a number of them that try

it, and they may try it more

than once, and it sort of,

they give up, and they sort of go

back to being a company driver.

Uh,

you know, and so kind of fail

at it, basically. Fail at,

uh, being an owner-operator.

So,

you know, if you're gonna be an

owner-operator, you have to be

very,

if you're gonna be successful at it, you

have to be very,

uh, business-minded.

And, uh,

I would say that probably requires

a, a great deal

of, uh, self-discipline.

So,

you know, you can have an owner-operator,

and they're, you know, trying to

find their own loads, that

kind of thing does exist.

And then you have,

uh, a bunch

of them that, uh,

well, like with Crete, for example,

Crete Carriers, Schaefer Trucking,

they

could own their own truck, and, and

the company even had, like, a lease purchase

type of thing. They didn't really push it

much, but, uh, they did have a

lease purchase, uh,

plan that was available.

You know, where you

could, uh, you know,

kind of lease slash purchase

a truck from them, and, uh,

they would still dispatch

you, but then,

you know, and you get paid more, but then

as, uh, they take

a percentage of each load, but

then, uh,

you would get paid

more, but then you're

responsible for the, uh, truck maintenance.

You know, so,

I, you know, I just

always preferred

being an employee. If something

went wrong, then I could just, you know,

call somebody up and tell them, hey,

uh, such and such went wrong,

I'm on the side of the road, please send help.

And that does happen

from time to time.

And so,

you know, you've got a mechanical thing

like that, it is going to break down.

Uh, periodically.

So,

you know,

that's just a responsibility that I didn't

want.

Uh, you know, I was happy to

follow whatever, you know, the company

policies, you know, because a company like

that, they've got a,

they've got to, uh,

set policies, various policies

to, you know, sort of best practice

policies in order to, to

make a

long-term, sustainable

business

that is functional.

They have to,

uh, you know, and so they set the policies

and I was happy to follow their

policies

as a company driver

slash employee,

but, uh, you know,

I think at best

an owner-operator

is purchasing, they're buying their own

job, is basically what they're

doing.

And,

depending

on the way they look at it,

individually, that's, it can either

be a poor job,

uh, not very

lucrative job, or it can be,

uh, something that they really,

really like, but

regardless,

you know, even as a,

uh, an employee,

I had

to really want to do the

job.

I had to really be driven to do the

job, no pun intended.

Uh,

cause it's not, driving

a truck over the road is not,

uh,

doesn't really fall into, like,

a nine to five, uh,

or eight to five, uh,

work at the factory, go

home, uh, job category,

because you're gone,

you're driving over the road, you're gone

for, uh, weeks at a time,

and you are wherever that truck

is.

So you have to be able

to primarily enjoy it,

that, kind of enjoy the, the, uh,

ensuing lifestyle that results from

that, and, uh,

you know,

and not be,

uh, wanting to be home all,

you know, all the time, or whatever.

So it's more of a

lifestyle

that you have to really want

to, uh, engage in.

And I'm specifically talking

about over the road driving, truck driving.

It's more, you know,

you have to look at it more of a, as,

as a lifestyle that you really

want to be engaged with.

Which, you know, I was.

And, uh,

but I didn't,

didn't want to be buying

my own job. I was happy to just work

for them, and, uh,

you know, and again, if something went

wrong, then, uh, find,

find Dandy. They were responsible for,

uh, get, you know,

getting the thing working again, and,

and, uh,

getting,

you know, kind of

providing the, uh,

continuing to provide the assets that

would make me

able to, uh,

be a productive

employee.

And so,

you know, and, and

the result has worked fine. I, you know,

I've, uh,

got money saved,

got everything paid for,

uh,

you know, I can

live on the social security,

and by the way, so far,

uh, it's been a little over

a month since, uh,

you know,

I've, you know,

I last worked, and so, and I've,

I found, you know,

for years I used, uh, if you remember

the Microsoft money.

It was sort of, it was a

piece of software put out by Microsoft.

It was sort of like a personal finance,

uh, software.

And eventually, Microsoft,

Microsoft dropped that.

They quit producing it.

Uh, another one that was kind of

similar was Quicken, uh,

you know,

and all of those now

are, you know, or at least

Quicken is still around in some form,

and they've all kind of, uh,

seem to

go, and there's been other competitors

that came along, you know, so it's all

kind of, they want to tie into your bank account

directly, and,

uh,

you know, and it's all sort of,

you know, put the data in the cloud,

and, uh, you know,

you'd be able to

use it on your computer, and your phone,

and your, uh, like a tablet

or whatever.

And I kind of experimented

with that a little bit,

I don't know, a few years ago, and I decided

that really didn't work very well.

So I got to digging,

and, uh, so in the, uh,

you've got

like Windows 10, or

I think, or certainly Windows 11,

uh, got to digging

in the Microsoft

Store, on Windows 11

in particular, and I found this program called

Money Point.

And, uh, Money Point

is kind

of reminiscent of, uh,

Microsoft Money,

in that it

runs on the local, you know, like

one local machine,

and, uh,

you know, and it's pretty

simple, you have, you just

enter your transactions,

you know, like a daily transaction,

you just enter those in, and,

uh, initially you just

you put in, like,

you know, what's in, how much money,

exactly, is in your savings account,

how much is in your checking account,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,

you know, or if you have credit card

balances, how much those balances are,

uh, or if they're zero, or

whatever, and then you

start, at that point, you start

entering individual transactions,

and so I've been doing that,

uh, for more than a month now.

Did that right after I retired.

Started that.

And, uh, so as a result of that,

it works really well,

because I don't, you know, I just have,

some days

I may not have any transactions,

and then, you know, there's days where I have

one or two, you know, maybe I buy some

gas, gasoline, or

or like if I eat

somewhere, or I buy

something at, uh,

Sam's Club, or Walmart, or

wherever,

you know, might have two or three transactions,

and then that's, that's that,

and then, uh, enter that into

the, the

program, into the, into the appropriate

account area, and, uh,

and the reason I'm telling you this is because,

uh, I, I've ended up with,

uh,

you know,

it's got a cash flow, and it shows

you, like, the cash flow for the last,

you know, for each month,

you know, it's like, so for the last month,

and I,

you know, even with that

first month, which I ended up with

some, uh,

extra expenses that I probably wouldn't

be part, that wouldn't be part of

a normal month,

uh, I ended up

several hundred

dollars below

the, uh,

Social Security income,

you know, the monthly Social Security,

that, the amount that I get.

So,

uh, that

looks promising, that I, you know,

that I'll be able to, uh,

you know,

really make an attempt

to stay, you know, to really watch it,

you know, kind of be frugal

with my money, and

basically, uh,

live on the Social

Security, the monthly Social Security,

with money, with some money left over

each month.

You know, and eventually the, you know,

other things are going to come along,

you know, because maintenance has to be done to vehicles,

and, uh,

you know,

you know, and there are big insurance bills

and that type of thing.

So that all has

to kind of be taken into account as well.

So, uh,

but,

in any case, uh, to get back

to what, you know,

to the answer that Jeremy is looking for,

no, I, I've

never ever seriously considered

becoming an owner-operator, and I wouldn't,

and I, I kind of,

you know,

I've told a number of people over the years,

uh,

even up until, you know, and I tell

them that right now, if they ask me about,

well, do you think I should become an owner-operator,

I would,

uh,

I wouldn't just try

to discourage them,

but at the same time, I would, uh,

attempt to get them to face reality.

And the reality

is, at best,

you're sort of buying your own job,

and

depending on, you know, how

business-minded you are, it may not be

a very good job, you know, there are plenty of

owner-operators that probably, uh,

you know, uh,

may or,

depending on how they've handled their personal

finances, may or may

not be, you know, they probably aren't

in as good a financial position

as I'm in right now,

and I'm not saying I'm in a

wonderful financial

position, but, uh,

you know, it's

not bad, you know,

like I say, I've got everything paid for,

and, uh,

expenses are

pretty low, the taxes here in,

you know, in Arkansas,

or, you know, I'm out, live out

in the county area,

they're, uh, very

low, compared

to many other places,

and, uh,

you know, and plus, I

I've got, uh,

401ks, and then

plus, uh, a substantial

amount of money in a savings account.

So, you know,

my intention is to, you know,

not dip into that, into any

of that money unless I absolutely have

to.

Is that, like, at present, like

I say, I am able to, uh,

so far so good, exist

easily,

uh, on the, uh,

monthly social security

amount.

Now, one thing that

possibly is

gonna enter, you know, kind of

throw a monkey wrench into the, uh,

well, it is gonna throw a monkey wrench

into the works,

you know, up in, you know,

I've had solar panels, uh,

for a number of years now,

and those solar panels,

you know, I was building up a, uh,

kilowatt hour credit with the, uh,

electric company.

You know, and they give me, like, a one for one

exchange.

So, at one

point I had in excess of 11,000

hours worth of, you know, kilowatt

hour credits. And that was,

you know, but

a couple of years ago when I got this heat pump,

I got,

and stopped using, uh, propane

gas to heat the house with,

but

instead started using the heat pump,

then, uh, I really started

digging into those kilowatt hour credits.

So,

got rid of the propane bill,

but, uh,

or mostly, I still have a propane tank

that I, and the only thing I'm using the propane

for now is to cook with,

which that's not a whole lot,

but, uh,

that did,

and it

is digging into the

kilowatt hour credits, and of course since I've been

home, this air conditioner's been running,

uh,

it's been hot, and it's

kind of, during the day, it's sort of

non-stop running, and, uh,

so I figure by the end

of the year, I'll probably

have used up all of those kilowatt

hour credits.

Now the, uh, solar

panels are still, they still

mitigate,

you know, they're still, like right now, it's

direct sunshine, middle of the day,

they're, uh,

probably generating, let's

say, I don't know, probably around

five, um,

5,000 watts, sometimes,

it depends on the time of day, at most

it may go up to 5,500 watts,

because I've got this little,

uh, meter

device that shows me, uh,

what is being

currently generated,

and so right now, I'm

without, I'd have to go in the house and look,

but it's probably around 5,000

watts since it's midday.

That's what's being fed in,

back into the, uh,

electrical system, but,

the, uh, air conditioner

is running,

and that's,

you know, gonna be sucking

at least, I'd say, 4,000

watts, you know.

So,

uh,

the meter, if I went out there

and looked at my electric pole right now,

the meter might be

sort of trickling backwards,

slowly.

So I am,

at this point, I'm generating

uh, you know, another way

of looking at it, I'm generating

the, uh, a little

bit more, right at the moment,

generating

a little bit more than the, uh,

air conditioner is consuming.

But,

you know, overall,

you know,

looking at the, the bill and the rate

that the, uh, credit is going down,

like I say, by the end of

the year,

that is probably gonna be

I'm gonna be out of kilowatt hour

credits, but it's still, the

solar panels will still be, uh,

mitigating the

bill, but since I'm

relying entirely on the heat pump for

cooling and heating, the

house, uh,

the electric

bill, I am gonna start paying a

bigger electric bill. There's no

way around it. And it's either

that or, you know, like when I had the

propane furnace,

uh,

you know, sometimes the propane, the

price of propane can be really

volatile, and there were a couple of times

over the years where it really spiked

up, uh,

ridiculously high,

and it became very expensive

to, uh,

you know, keep the house heated

with it. So,

it's kind of a trade-off, uh,

so my, in other words, my electric bill

is gonna go up, and so I'm just

gonna have to stay on top of this

stuff, which I intend to do.

So anyway, after all of that,

uh, long-winded response,

uh, here's the rest of Jeremy's comment.

Um, on another

front, I've been following along with,

along with you, I've been following the, uh,

Trump assassination news,

and, um, it's really interesting

to me to watch Trump react,

um,

he seems very keen to not

try to blame

someone, which is interestingly

not very Trump-ish,

and I'm wondering if it's just because

it's the Secret Service and he's

anticipating, like, if they got,

if he crossed them,

you know, the kind of damage they could do to him

or his family, so I'm guessing it

maybe is like a calculation on

his part to just make sure that he

errs on the side of not

pissing off the, the people

that potentially could be

assigned to him, but, or if he

genuinely does admire their,

their behavior on that day, which

I don't know, the more I hear about

it, the more it seems that

um, there is something

strange there,

and I know that that already seems

apparent, but more,

even more information came out, I heard,

uh, I forget the name of the

congressman whose preliminary report

came out today, where they were

even saying that, um,

that

the initial shot that was taken by

one of the local cops

that actually didn't kill the shooter, but actually

shattered his gun,

the stock of his gun, and caused

injury to his, um, to his face,

and then the

second shot that came from actual

Secret Service snipers

was the one that kind of put him away and killed him,

but apparently there were two shots

after the eight shots from the shooter where

I don't know if the eight shots was like

him emptying a clip,

or what happened there, but anyway,

so, uh, it also

was very strange to me that

they, I think ten days in,

decided that it was okay to just

cremate the body, uh,

so now all they have is photos of

the crime scene, they also

opened the crime scene up

to the public three days after

the incident,

and this was all apparently

okayed by the FBI,

um, even though they knew that

Congress was going to be investigating,

uh, independently,

so it just seems like there's some

real shenanigans there,

uh, and it just doesn't look good

in addition to all the other stuff coming out about the

Secret Service, and you just imagine this

you know, with what

it seems like it's happening so often

now, where you have these

organizations that people just say, like,

I've always heard since I was a

kid, you know, like, oh,

these are the heroes, these are the people that

we should look up to, and these are the people

that put their lives on the line every day, and it

just doesn't seem that way, and the older

I get, the more I just can't

stand, uh, law

enforcement, I can't stand

the FBI, I can't stand

government, any government agencies,

it just seems like they're just in it

to just destroy people's rights

to privacy, and the rights

to own guns, and acquire firearms,

and just exercise basic

constitutional rights.

It's just really getting tiresome,

and, um, and we're constantly

having to claw back every

little bit of liberty that we

want to keep,

and it just, the instincts for government

are just terrible, and

I don't think that I'm, like, saying anything

new or interesting along the

both lines, but I'm just,

if Trump does win, like,

there's, he has to just,

it can't be, like,

a scalpel,

it has to be, like,

a hammer that they take to government

and just destroy

some of these institutions that have become

so, so large

and unwieldy,

and nobody knows who's in charge,

and nobody's ever held accountable when something

goes wrong, there are just too many layers,

and I'm tired of hearing, well, this

is an active investigation,

so we can't, we can't comment,

or this is a personnel matter,

and so we're not going to discuss that.

It's just the same, uh,

evasion tactics over and over again,

and nobody's ever held

accountable, and it just comes from

this government being so bloated and out of

control. So I'm ready for all that

to be just, um,

you know, just dismantled.

And all that stuff that is a part of

the executive branch, Trump should

just say, we're done.

You know, I'm, I'm, I'm

shrinking the size of my cabinet to be,

you know, the Department of Defense,

uh, Department of the Interior,

um, and Department of,

maybe the Department of Transportation,

you know, because we do have some interstates

we need, but we don't need

the IRS, we don't need,

uh, we, frankly,

we don't even need the Department of Justice

anymore, um,

because they're just straight garbage.

And we don't need the CIA, like,

all these things that are becoming, like, just out of

control, need to be completely

dismantled. And

we need to go back to the military

being, uh, civilian

military in charge of defending

the United States, and

the rest of it just

being, uh, completely

gone. So,

I really hope that Trump,

maybe he'll appoint somebody like

or somebody like that, kind of has that

same, um, inclination

to shrinking the size of government.

Anyway, before it gets too

political, I'll wrap this up, because I don't want

the boxer to cut off

my, my message, but

as long as you check in, maybe I'll check in later on

if I think of something here while I'm driving through

the night. Uh, but, uh,

good to check in with you, Tom, and

hope things are going well with your retirement.

Again, congratulations,

and looking forward to hearing more from you and your podcast

and beyond. Okay, well, thanks

again, Jeremy. So,

the Trump assassina- attempted

assassination.

Geez.

Uh, so I've been,

you know, these

body cam videos, I guess

maybe Butler, you have a

Butler Township and then Beaver Township.

Uh,

those body cam videos, you know, they had

the body, the police body

cams, and then they had the,

the, uh,

dash cams

in the police cars, and a lot of that

stuff has been released.

Uh,

excuse me, a lot of that

stuff has been released now to the

public.

And, uh,

very interesting, because, you know,

there are people that, like, uh,

there's this, uh, one of

the video channels I follow on

YouTube is called Peak Prosperity.

Dr. Chris

Martinson, and he's been

very good at, uh,

sort of, you know,

looking at the analysis of these,

uh, all of these

different videos, cell phone videos,

as well as the

body cam videos

and the, uh,

dash cam videos.

And a lot

of the stuff on the, that happened on the

exterior of the building

that the shooter got on,

a lot of that stuff has been,

uh, you know, kind of

sleuthed through,

and a lot of the, a lot of the stuff

has been nailed down, but,

uh, it's, I don't know

uh,

you had three different

police organizations that

kind of had been put in place

to be responsible for that, uh,

just

that AGR building,

you know, and I don't think

they really worked very well together,

you know, because, you know, whenever the

shots were fired, and even

prior to that, and then certainly after

the shots were fired,

you could tell that

nobody was really in charge

and it,

you know, it's just utter chaos.

Uh, you know, of course this is sort of

Monday morning, Monday morning

quarterbacking,

you know, they shoulda done this and they shoulda

done that,

but when you're in a situation where you're,

uh,

full of all, you know, you've got a bunch of

adrenaline that's just all of a sudden

has just been dumped into your system,

you don't know what you're gonna do.

Uh, my,

and I've, I talked about this, this is,

this happened probably, I don't know, a couple of years

ago, I was in, uh,

it was about 10

30 at night, I was in, uh,

I think

a little sliver of West

Virginia along Interstate

81 there, uh,

I was going to this, uh,

warehouse,

and I was actually very,

just within a few miles of it,

couldn't, you know, couldn't be there,

uh, you know, it was one of those

places where they didn't have overnight parking,

so you had to kind of arrive,

you know, no more than an hour or so,

or 30 minutes ahead of the appointment time,

but in any case, it was

raining. It wasn't

raining super hard, but it was raining hard

enough, and it, like I say,

it was dark, it was 10 30 at night, everything

was really wet. The

road was really wet.

So that, going through that

little sliver of West Virginia on

Interstate 81,

uh,

between Virginia

and, uh, Maryland,

it's, uh,

three lanes going each way.

And so I was in the far right lane

going

south on

Interstate 81,

and there was, there was

traffic, there wasn't a whole lot of traffic,

but there was this car that was ahead of me,

but all of a sudden it

started spinning.

And so

I ended up with an immediate

adrenaline dump.

And

so I, I didn't

even look, you know.

Didn't even look in the mirror.

I started moving to the left.

And so I moved into the left,

or into the middle lane,

and that car was continuing to spin,

getting into the

middle lane, and then I moved,

without looking again, this happened

just within just a second,

just a couple of seconds, I moved

into the far left lane

expecting

something might happen, but

uh, you know, that car would come into

contact with my truck, but thank God

it didn't.

And, you know, I was able to,

and nobody, and fortunately,

also thank God, nobody was in

beside me or in that left

lane. Like I say, there wasn't that much

traffic.

So, but, you know,

because of the adrenaline dump,

I didn't, you know, I really

failed, I didn't look in the mirror,

because it just, I reacted, just,

you know, I mean, just lickety-split, I reacted.

And,

uh, that

wasn't the, in hindsight, that

wasn't the wisest thing to do,

I should have at least looked, but

uh,

when the adrenaline dump happened, I

just started moving to the left.

And, uh,

you know, pretty quickly

to the left, obviously without

jackknifing. So,

you know, and

after I passed it, I looked in the mirror,

and the car was, uh,

ended up in the

breakdown lane,

going the wrong

way.

And I was able to go on down,

you know, however, two or three, four or five miles

to the exit where I was getting off,

and go to the warehouse,

and unload the truck, and

it took

a while for the, you know, for the

adrenaline to work its way out of my system.

You know, I, that's a, once you get

one of those adrenaline dumps, that's

uh,

you know, it's

difficult.

And I'm sure most people have probably

experienced something like that.

But, you know, just

the guy, you know, the policeman,

you know, he pulled up, you know, cause he

he pulled up, the one with the body

cam, pulled up,

and they also show

his, I think they all, that may be

the one that they also show his, uh,

dash cam,

one of the ones that was released first,

but anyway, he pulls up,

he'd been back by that water

tower, and he was notified that there was something

going on on the roof, and so

he pulled up,

you know, and I think

maybe he saw the guy at a distance

or whatever, but he pulled up, and then he,

this other guy, he got jumped out of the car,

and this other

policeman helped him, uh,

you know, kind of boosted him up on the roof,

and

from his point of view, which was,

the body cam was, uh,

you know, kind of probably in the middle

of his chest, so we don't,

we can't see the shooter, but his head,

his eyes would have actually been at least

a foot or more,

uh, you know,

a higher vantage point, he saw the

shooter, the shooter was pointing at him,

and this was seconds before the shooter

started, uh, firing shots,

the first three shots,

uh,

he, you know what happened,

he ended up with an instant

adrenaline dump,

you know, and he probably had adrenaline

to start with when he saw the guy

before he started pulling forward,

and parked in the, there in front

of that door,

he probably got an adrenaline, an immediate

adrenaline dump, uh,

when he first saw the thing, you know,

that somebody was on the roof, and then he pulled forward,

and he jumped up on the,

had that other guy boost him up,

and then he got the

gun pointed right at him,

and he immediately dropped back

down,

because there really wasn't anything that

he could do, he was almost, he could have pulled

himself up on the roof, you know, I imagine

his waist,

he was at the point

where he could pull himself on,

up, you know, on up on the roof,

and he saw that guy, the

gun, you know, the crooks had

the gun pointed right at him,

and he dropped back down,

you know, so he got a big adrenaline

dump at that point, and then he,

you know, there were things that he could have

probably done, he should have, you know,

because people are saying, well, he should have fired his

weapon, uh,

just fired it into the ground to alert

everyone that something was going on,

uh, get, you know, get Trump

off the stage, or get him,

at that point he was on the stage,

but get him, uh,

secured,

but he didn't, you know, he wasn't thinking that way,

he ran to the, I think he ran,

initially he ran out to the left

to see if he, see what he could see, or

whatever, and then he ran back, and

you know, and it was

just not long after that that the

crooks fired the

first shot.

So, uh, now I hadn't

heard yet about, uh,

because I knew that there was, uh,

one of the, you

know, and they really haven't talked much about it, but

you know, you had the

first three shots, and then you

had five shots, and rapid

succession,

and we don't even know where

those, what was the trajectory of

those other five shots, they may have been

just wild,

but certainly the first three shots,

the first shot is the one that grazed

Trump's ear,

and, uh,

you know, probably those other two shots,

uh,

you know, were more or less

kind of aimed in the vicinity of Trump,

but then the, uh,

those

five shots, those five

rapid shots after that, I,

you know, we don't know what the trajectory of those

was, and they were probably

just wild shots at that point, possibly.

But, uh,

and then there was a shot that

was taken by one of the

local police units,

and you're saying that one was, and I

hadn't actually heard that yet, I haven't

kind of jumped into the videos today,

but, uh, at all,

so I'm kind of looking forward to

that, but, uh,

you're saying that it kind of shattered

the gun, the gun

stock, and, uh, maybe

you know, injured his face.

So that would have been after,

I'm assuming, well that would have been after

the, uh, eight

shots that Crooks took, so he did,

Crooks did not take any more shots

after that.

But then that, you know, that was followed

by the Secret, the

Secret Service, one of the

Secret Service snipers was able

to

locate Crooks and, uh,

take him out with one

shot.

And so all of this, all of these

cameras, uh,

you know, back during the days of JFK

you just had the Zegruder film and that was

kind of it.

And, but nowadays, you know,

everybody's got a camera.

You know, you can just assume

that you're going to be on camera. If you go

out in public, you're probably on camera.

And there's, there's

security cameras and then, you know,

everybody's got their cell phone cameras

and all kinds of things end up getting

recorded.

So if you can kind of put those things together,

uh,

you can get a pretty accurate

picture of what went on. Now, what we

don't have, at least up until this

point, is

what went on inside the building.

Why did the,

you know,

one of the, uh,

the local snipers,

we know his name because

they've released it. His name is Greg

Nickel. Why did he

leave his post? You know, because it

said that he, uh,

not long before, he saw

Crooks and then not long,

and then he left his post and

you know, kind of went downstairs to,

you know, and the story is he's going to

notify somebody that, uh,

that

he'd seen him and he didn't know where

he was going or whatever. You know, why

couldn't he use his, you know, didn't he have a

cell phone or a radio? Why do you have to

come all the way down? Why didn't he

stay put?

So there's

a number of what, what went

on inside the building and I think

there's a fair amount of CYA that's

going on between those local, uh,

those local, those three

local, the three local agencies.

You know, you had the highway patrol but then

I think the, uh,

the Beaver County

people and then the Butler County people.

And, uh,

you know, so they weren't

really that well

coordinated, uh,

you know, and that's, that's Monday, like I

say, that's Monday morning quarterbacking

and I think it was just,

uh, because they weren't very well

organized that, uh,

Crooks was able to do

what he did. I don't think it was a conspiracy

on the local police part.

Now, you know,

and I don't think it was really

a conspiracy on the, uh,

at least the, the

Secret Service people that were there.

I don't think they were really conspiring.

Except, you know,

the, you know, maybe

I think if there is

a conspiracy, there was

a conspiracy with the Biden administration

to, they repeatedly denied

increases in, uh,

you know, they wanted

more assets on the ground for the

Secret Service

at the Trump rallies.

The people that actually did it,

they were, uh, they had repeatedly

asked for more resources and they were

repeatedly denied. And I think that, uh,

probably

the Biden people or whoever

and maybe the top

Secret Service leadership

thought, well, if we just sort of

deny Trump, uh,

it's possible that, uh,

something's gonna slip

through. And, uh,

you know, and if it did

then they would be happy about it.

And many of them,

you know, there's been many of the

leftoids on

Twitter or X

and other places

even on television that have said as much.

You know, why, you know,

they were mad because, uh,

they wanted the

shooter to do a better job.

You know, which is just disgusting.

So,

but, uh, so I think there was

a, there was a conspiracy to

keep

the, you know, the

security

level with Trump

as low as possible.

You know,

but at the same time I think that the

people that, uh, you know,

whoever did the, you know, the

missile scouting thing

obviously should have put a

bill, you know, should have put one of those snipers

instead of having them on those two buildings

put one of them

because they were basically covering the same

areas.

Instead, put one of them, it was

obvious to put one of them on that

AGR building and then the other one on

the building that they were on.

You know,

the one that actually took the kill shot.

That was a, that was the

correct building and then the other, the other team

should have been on that,

or somebody should have been on that AGR,

you know, just on the building itself.

So somehow that never

happened and, uh,

I think that, you know, there may

be somebody possibly in the Secret

Service that allowed, that kind of

ended up making that happen.

Because, you know,

there are, uh,

there, in one of those body cam

videos, it does have, some of them have audio

and some of them don't,

one of the policemen was, he was

right after the shooting happened,

he was saying, why, you know,

and he used a bunch of F-bombs,

they should have been on the, why weren't

they on the roof? Well, they said that they were

gonna, they were,

you know, we had the meeting and they

said they were going to, uh,

the Secret Service would

be responsible for the roof of the AGR

building. And that we

weren't.

Somebody, if they just had somebody

standing there, you know,

and of course it was hot that day,

and that's another factor, you know, those

buildings are hot.

You know, uh, like,

I've got a metal roof, it doesn't matter

if it's a metal roof or just a shingled

roof, like right now, direct sunshine,

guarantee

you my roof, uh,

cause I've got, basically I've got

a metal roof over, you know, the

house came with shingled roof,

and if you remember a few

years ago I had, uh, paid somebody

to, this company to put a metal roof

on the house over, you know, and they left

the existing shingles in place and just put the

the metal roof

on there to kind of eliminate,

you know, kind of eliminate the need of

ever having to replace the shingles.

I guarantee

you if you were up on that metal roof

right now, it would be hot, especially

if you were laying down on it,

uh, attempting

to, you know,

be in a shooting position, let's say.

Uh,

you know, so that, it would be hot.

Or, yeah, it would be hot just standing on

a metal roof, like

that.

But, you know, they could have rotated

people in and out, uh, there's a,

you know, but somebody should have been on the roof.

I mean, it's just so obvious,

so stinking obvious.

So,

this needs to continue to be investigated

because I think someone

may,

there may have been some, you know, one,

one or two people that conspired

to allow this to happen,

and Crooks himself may have been,

uh,

sort of,

uh,

enticed into doing it

because the, the CIA,

you know, if you remember the,

and I'm not sure which

agency it was exactly,

uh, you know,

the conspiracy to kidnap

Governor Whitmer of Michigan.

That was an entirely

government-inspired thing,

you know, where one of these agencies,

uh,

you know, kind of

ginned these people up and kind of

got them to participate

in this stupid plot to,

to, uh, kidnap Governor Whitmer.

And

that was all just, it was a government

thing that, that jerry-rigged

the whole thing. It wasn't, it wasn't something

that somebody, you know, that these people

independently planned. They were sort of,

uh, hoodwinked

into it.

You know, so

as possible, you know, you take somebody like

Crooks that was obviously, you know,

potentially mentally unstable to start

with, and then you start, you put him,

put him in a

situ-, you know, like a

,

excuse me,

a situation

where it's like a false friend

type thing.

You know, and they, they start,

uh,

you know, kind of

getting them to, uh,

you know,

in the right mindset and,

uh,

you know, to, uh,

do something like this.

So I think

that is a possibility. I don't think

we should rule that out.

But, uh,

I don't know. I, with all

of this, you know, these cameras

and everything, I think eventually,

you know, we've got this every,

this summer, there's

been, you know, it's just, you know,

revelation after revelation after

revelation of things happening,

uh, things being revealed.

And I think that's going to continue.

Uh,

but as far as, what is the

solution?

The solution,

ultimately, I mean, you can play

around with government structures or whatever,

but the, and that's it, the government structures

are important, leaders are

important, but

the real thing

you know, it's like I was talking in the beginning

of this podcast, uh,

if you really want to be effective,

be an effective human being,

you have to be genuine, and that starts

with being genuine

with yourself. If you, you know,

because if you're not genuine with

yourself, then, you know, if you're, you're

you're sort of lying to yourself,

then

you've sort of lied to everybody

else, and everyone starts

sort of reinforcing the lie, and you

end up with a totalitarian state.

Something like

Nazi Germany, or, uh,

you know,

or the old Soviet Union,

uh, a lot of those communist,

communist countries, you know,

where everybody, you know, you've got the big lie,

and everybody has to

sort of

express the big lie, and they can't,

they can't be genuine and express the truth,

you know, so it's as if,

uh, being genuine is,

uh, outlawed.

So, at the same

time, if you just have, it just

takes, I think it can, it can boil

down to one person just being really

genuine

with themselves, and I think that's

certainly the case, like, uh, with

uh, Solzhenitsyn

in the, the Soviet Union.

So, uh, Solzhenitsyn was

really honest with himself, and, uh,

he's kind of

credited with, uh, kind of

helping to bring down the Soviet Union.

You know, and that, but that really,

that's what you have to have, isn't,

you know, you have to have key people

sort of being

really genuine with themselves,

at the same time

not resenting

what they see around them.

You know, and

if you can, if you, and the thing

is, if you're really,

really genuine with yourself,

if you're really honest

with yourself,

and again, that's

only something you

can experience.

I can't experience it for you,

you can't experience it for me.

But,

if you can be, really be genuine with yourself,

then that

is going to inspire,

potentially inspire other

like-minded people

to be genuine with themselves.

And that's how, uh,

things get turned

around.

Because if you're, if you're really honest with yourself,

you can't, you know, I, you know,

you can't be immoral.

You know,

there's no way,

I'm not saying this because I'm a good person

or whatever, and there's no such

thing as being a good person,

that's whatever, uh,

but,

if you're, you know, being really

friends with my conscience,

I can't lie,

I can't steal,

you know, and rape

and pillage and all of those things,

I can't do it. It's not because I'm

good, it's because I can't.

Because I, I don't

want to violate

the

relationship that I have with my conscience.

And again,

that's a, that's a direct relationship.

That relationship with conscience

is the most

intimate thing that we're familiar with

as conscious creatures.

It's at the, the

conscience is at the, is at the very

root

of our

conscious

experience.

You know, and you can distance yourself

from it, or you can try to,

drive a wedge between yourself and your conscience,

good luck.

It doesn't, tends not

to end well, if you keep doing it.

But that's

really what it's gonna take, and, and

what can cause

people to become genuine with themselves.

Well, there's

one thing that I know suffering

can do it. You know, sometimes,

you know, I've said this many times, you know,

people can suffer, like the guy I was

talking about with the

liver disease

YouTube channel.

You know, he, uh,

what

caused him, or sort of almost

forced him to be, start to become

genuine with himself,

was

the fact that he, he,

he almost died, more than once.

And

that caused him to, uh,

really, uh,

start,

you know, coming into direct

contact,

listening to,

becoming friends with

his conscience.

Now, I don't know, I've never talked to the guy,

I don't know if, how he would react to that,

but it's

pretty obvious just watching him that, uh,

he has,

uh, it has caused him to

kind of become

real with himself.

That would be another way of putting it.

Becoming

very genuine

as a human being.

As a, as a conscious creature.

And

that's really what it takes.

You know,

and it, and it doesn't have to be all of us,

but it's got to be a substantial portion

of people that, uh,

become genuine, and, but suffering

can do that. And, you know, and a lot

of times suffering, uh, we bring

about our own suffering. As in

his case.

He's brought about his own suffering, and he's, uh,

he's still suffering.

He's got cirrhosis of the

liver, uh, and pan, and

pancreatitis.

Plus probably other

things.

That are very serious, serious

physical ailments. Brought about by,

uh, all of the

drinking.

And the drinking is directly related

to, uh,

...

being at odds with

his conscience.

So I think it's possible

that, you know, enough people suffer

that, uh,

it's gonna cause, it will

cause some people to become genuine.

Now there are other people that are just, they'll just

die in the gutter.

And if that happens, if it happens,

it happens.

So.

Anyway, I think this is probably gonna

end up being a long podcast.

I haven't, uh, really kept track of the time.

I've talked a lot.

So.

What time is it now?

We're getting

into the, it's 2.16, so we're getting

into the afternoon now. It's, uh,

I don't, what's the temperature? What does it say

the temperature is?

What does it say?

It says it's 93.

On the front

of the phone. Yeah, 93 is what

Google says. So, 93

degrees and it's probably like

50...

1% or something

humidity. So it's kinda hot and

you know, kinda humid.

And I'm just sitting here

and I'm, uh,

sweating a little bit, not bad.

But I'm in the shade.

So.

Anyway, bringing this to a close,

hope everyone is having

or has had a great week.

Hope you have a great weekend coming up.

And I will catch you

later. Remember, Trucker

Tom is like Visa.

He's everywhere you want

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