Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 133

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Rapid Fire Q and A to finish off the week: 1. If Donald Trump is not elected are we looking at "another insurrection" 2. Where the hell did the Cleared Hot Black Rifle Coffee go? Where can I find it 3. Am I out of line for keeping my sister in law at arms length 4. Thanksgiving - what I am the most thankful for Enjoy

Good morning, everybody. Today's episode is brought to you by Dayquil, because I'm feeling like shit right now, and Dayquil is the only thing that's keeping me going. I came down with the heart plague of 2022, if you don't know. I don't know what to tell you. If you do know, then you know. But I digress. Shall we get into this? It's a Friday. It's going to be Q&A. Here we go. Full Auto Friday 133. And we're off. Close now. All right. We're up and running. This thing is coming out the day after Thanksgiving. So I hope everybody, first and foremost, had a great Thanksgiving. And given that it's a holiday weekend, I guess, because I'm assuming people got Thursday off. And then Friday, Saturday, Sunday, what kind of dick would make you come in on a Friday and work in between? That you don't want to spend too much time listening to a podcast. So I'm going to keep this as short as I possibly can. Three questions and then some thoughts on Thanksgiving in general.

Question number one. Hey, Andy, recently there was an arrest of a North Carolina man who threatened to kill FBI agents and put out a call to his followers on social media to kill federal law enforcement agents. The FBI wanted to talk to him because he made threats against an organization who he thought was anti-Donald Trump slash MAGA. Do you think that if Donald Trump either runs for president and doesn't get elected or does not end up being one of the presidential candidates, we will have an insurrection from his loyal followers like this guy? Thanks for the podcast and have a happy Thanksgiving. So, two-part question, I guess. One would be the, you know, do I think that there would be an insurrection or will people like this continue to take actions like this? I'll answer that second. And the first question that I actually had was, what the fuck is going on in this situation? So I had to find it because I was curious. I was curious about the individual. So I looked it up a little bit and I found it. I'm going to go ahead and read what I could find because I think it really lays the foundation for my answer. A North Carolina man was arrested for threatening to kill a federal borough of investigation, officer,

and vowing to execute members of a fact-checking organization if they didn't cease and desist, defamation, and slander of MAGA Republicans and former President Donald Trump. According to the United States District Court, a complaint was first filed on September 19, 2022, when Stephen Jike Williams emailed the Good Information Foundation, a nonprofit organization. He demanded them to cease and desist all defamation and slander of Maga Republicans and Donald Trump. Williams from Stocksdale, North Carolina, wrote that if they don't or didn't, it would treason an act of war. And we would treat you accordingly. He wrote, you are hereby ordered by we the people under the laws of the Constitution to cease and desist all defamation and slander of Maga Republicans and Donald Trump.

The message read, according to the command. This is treason, an act of war, and we will treat you accordingly. You have till the end of the month to print a retraction, whistleblow on yourself, or I will shut you down personally. The email continued, lethal action will be necessary if any physical detainment is attempted when I shut you down. Leave peacefully or your children or forget who you are. Authorities discovered that Williams' email to the Good Information Foundation was in response to a TikTok video made by a social media influencer that was asked by the organization to produce anti-Trump rhetoric. The U.S. District Court reports that on October 3rd, a female FBI special agent and a male task force officer attempted to interview Williams at his home when they arrived.

Williams ran off his porch and towards the TFO's vehicle shouting curse words for them to get off his property. Williams screamed and spit at the female agent and threatened her, according to the report, going to take you out, Williams told the agent, according to the report. When the TFO asked him what he meant, he said, You know what I meant. And we could kind of go on and on. What else did he? He created a complaint or there was a complaint submitted because he was threatening to kill FBI agents in a TikTok video.

The video was entitled, Fuck the FBI. And on and on and on. It's probably enough of that to paint an accurate picture of what happened, although it's, you know, I guess it's one-sided because I'm not hearing from the individual in and of himself. the reason I think it's important to bring it up is it speaks to the type of individual that takes these actions. I don't care where people land politically. I really don't. If people think that Donald Trump is the savior of democracy, I have questions for them

that I would love to ask. I have concerns about perhaps what they think of democracy, but I am in no position and I am nobody to tell them that they are necessarily wrong. I believe that people should be able to feel how they want to feel, say what they want to say. And to me, the First Amendment, freedom of speech, is more about what I will tolerate from others than it is my ability to stand on a soapbox and scream about what I believe. the first amendment the way i look at it is somebody's ability to sit there and scream things that i am diametrically opposed to and me not shutting them down because we have that amazing right in this country then there's the other side of the coin so if you have the maggie people would be

the other side um and as anybody listening or watching can tell i'm already like at the the the limits the front edge of my skis when it comes to talking about the political environment so the other side, the left. I don't even know what the far end of the left-hand spectrum is. I don't know if it's the woke ideology. I really don't know what it is, but let's just assume there's a far end of the spectrum and everything in between. People who do things like the individual that was arrested. To me, it's a lot less about Donald Trump. And, Maga, then it is about that person. I have questions about this person's life. I have questions about where they are in life and what led them to where they are in life. Are they a happy,

successful, well-engrained a society individual? Or are they an isolated person that feels a sense of resentment against society and views people who perceive to have it, you know, better than them in a negative light? I don't know. And I don't have a value judgment on. on either of those positions. I'm just curious where this person sits. You know, if you're going to be, if you're going to be spurned, spurn, is that the right word? If you're going to be motivated to take action based off of a TikTok video to the point where you're going to threaten federal agents and organizations, you're going to, somebody's going to cash that check at some point. You're writing that check and somebody is going to cash it. If you're spitting it federal agents and you're

threatening to take action against them, physical action or lethal action against them, there are consequences for that, right? The First Amendment, freedom of speech, it doesn't give you freedom of consequences to your actions. So, again, roundabout way of saying actions like that, to me, are more about the person perpetrating that action and less about necessarily the organization that they are espousing their allegiance to. What's the politest way to say this? I'll say that they're not generally the most settled and sane of individuals.

And I'll leave it at that. Now, to answer the actual question, do I think that if Donald Trump either runs for president and doesn't get elected or does not end up being one of the presidential candidates, will we have an insurrection from his loyal followers like this guy? No, I don't think we're going to have an insurrection. Is it possible that other individuals who may fit the, I don't remember, I? say stereotype because that's not the right word, but they fit the template of the person that we're talking about. Is it possible that they could do things that were similar? Sure. But those individuals who would do things like that also get very attached to religious causes sometimes. Or, you know, aliens have come and invaded the United States or the world and have captured them.

You know, my point being somebody who is susceptible to taking actions like this, it goes, well beyond the political spectrum. So I don't think that we're going to have this massive tsunami and tidal wave of things like this happening because I don't think that there are this many or that there are that many of this type of person. But regardless as to whether or not, whatever happens with Trump in the upcoming election, because he did just, what was the exact term that they use? He just essentially said he's going to be running for president again in 2024. So regardless of what happens, you know, are people like this still going to exist? Yes, they are. And if it's not Donald Trump, it might be four years from now. Actually, I guess it would be six years from now when the next election cycle comes out in 28. They could attach themselves to somebody like that. Or in between them, they could attach themselves to a variety of different causes. Like I said, I don't think it has much to do with Trump. Specifically in this situation, yes, obviously there is a direct tie. But I would recommend people look a lot closer at the person than necessarily that the individual they are just espousing their blind and loyal support too. Unfortunately, people who meet this template

or fit this template, they're not going to go anywhere. And they're looking for an outlet. But I'm not worried about an insurrection. Question number two. Let's go to a softball, which is exactly what question number two is. A couple of quick questions. Are you no longer offering your black rifle coffee flavor? Haven't been able to reorder it. It's delicious, by the way, from your site, though the icon for it is still there. And I'll answer this question before going to the second one. Unfortunately, I am out of coffee. So I cannot put coffee up for sale on the website because I don't actually have anything to offer, which is why I've taken it down. I didn't realize that I left the icon up, though, so I will be correcting that probably before this episode comes

out because I can take care of that in like 30 seconds on Shopify. Where you can find it, though, is going to be on the Black Rifle Coffee main page. They actually just did an initial run, I think if it was, it was of another thousand bags. And if you're on there, email list, an email went out because I believe they did it as part of a Black Friday sale. Now, I hate to tell you, spoiler alert, if you go looking for it on their website, if you go to the Black Rifle Coffee website and put in cleared hot and hit enter, it's going to show up. You'll see the bag of coffee, but it's going to say, notify me when it's back in stock because those thousand bags got vaporized because it is delicious.

It's actually, I am more of a fan of colder coffees than I am warmer coffees. and I'm a fan of that because I can consume more volume as opposed to burning the inside of my mouth and having to drink slower. It is the single best blend of coffee that I've used to make cold brew with. It is very chocolatey. It's very delicious, but I'm going to warn you. If you let it sit too long and seep, you're going to need to be prepared to do two things. One is shit your pants because it's powerful. So you might want to, if you let it go over a 24-hour seat, you might want to drink it on the toilet.

and then two, be prepared to travel through space and time because you are going to feel like you are in the Millennium Falcon as it's jumped into Hyperdrive, and you're going to get shit done for a little bit of time, and then you're going to get kicked off of the Hyperdrive. So just be cautious. But that's where you guys can find it from likely here on out. I'm headed Black Rifle to have a meeting with Evan in early December to talk about the next few years going forward. If that changes, and I can put it back up on my site, I probably will.

but thinking about it, you know, and thinking out loud, most people already have a coffee subscription through Black Rifle. That's where they're going to buy their coffee. That's where the advertisement reads that I do are trying to lead people. You don't need to go to two different places. So perhaps it's a better home for it as it is. Two-part question. Also, on one of your podcasts, you talk about some kind of delicious sandwich. Maybe peanut butter and bacon. Maybe it was honey. I can't remember and I cannot seem to find that episode. Can you please remind me of what that was so I can give it a try. Yes, I can remind you, and this sandwich was mastered during my hunting tenure with the one and only John Dudley. It was peanut butter and honey to begin with. Now, there's a

couple ways you can make this. You can lay out two pieces of bread and completely slather both sides of them with peanut butter, and then you just put a huge amount of honey in the middle and kind of seal it up with your fingers, so it's like a little honey surprise, and it's going to soak through the bread and that's how you know it's time to eat it. Or another way you can do it, and I actually kind of prefer this way, is you whip the two together. So this is going to require a little bit of pre-planning, but let me just tell you right now, it's worth it. So you whip it together and then you just put it on the bread. Again, it's going to soak through. And if you can wait long enough to you can start seeing that honey soaking through the bread, let me just tell you, you're in for a

delightful surprise. Now, the coup de grace, the cuta-graw, the top of the pyramid on this was when somebody suggested making bacon crumbling it up or cutting it up and then putting that into the mix and quite frankly i don't know if it could get any better so that is where i have settled on my favorite hunting snack slash calories peanut butter honey and bacon give it a try takes a little bit of prep time a little bit of prep work and you can thank me later again developed over a few years of hunting with John Dudley. And because I'm such a good hunting buddy, I would, of course, make one for John too. All right.

Question three. Rapidly and drastically shifting gears here. We're going to get a little bit outside of the culinary space. About five years ago, my step-sister had a baby. I didn't grow up with her, parents divorced, and remarried in my 20s. At the time, she was heavy into the drug scene. despite her use while pregnant, she knew she was in no place to care for a newborn and left the baby with my wife and I. We ended up adopting the baby.

Fast forward to four years later, she has another baby. We were more than happy to welcome our daughter's biological sister into our home, but unfortunately her biological aunt, my other step-sister, interfered and took the baby with her. She's an unmedicated bipolar that hangs around with her drug addiction. addicted sister and her friends. At the time of the conversation of why she wouldn't let us take the baby, she told us we were terrible people and she was concerned about her niece's safety and well-being in our home.

Totally outlandish claims, according to anyone that knows us, we haven't seen or talked to either older sister since. Our daughters and the other baby's birthday are close together in its birthday season. The bipolar aunt recently expressed to the two other family she wants to reach out to make things right. I don't trust her and can't forgive her for the things she has done and said to my wife in the past. Biological mom has been clean for about six months. I might be open to a conversation with her, but even then it would be limited. Am I out of line for telling both my stepsisters to fuck right off? Or should I extend the olive branch? Thank you for your time and I really appreciate your podcast during my work week. So shit. Hell of a question. And let's start with

the fact that you and your wife were able to welcome a baby into your family, a newborn into your family, that wasn't the product of you and your wife, and then adopt that child is fucking awesome. I think it speaks volumes to you and your wife and your character, and I wish that this situation was repeatable for other newborns that were in that situation. I think it speaks volumes about you guys, and it warms my heart to know that there are people out there who are willing to do that. So it sounds like the drug addict step-sister, right? I mean, that's a pretty self-criticking space. The unmedicated bipolar, I mean, is this a suspicion or an assumption on your part? Is this a diagnosis from somebody who's actually a doctor? if it is a diagnosis from somebody who's actually a doctor and this person is also hanging out with her drug addicted sister and her friends, I feel like if you wanted to, you could push it and do something about that.

And my other question is, where's the rest of the family? You know, where is the rest of the family in this situation to try to step in and create a better situation for this second newborn? because I am not a doctor. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. But somebody who is bipolar and is not taking the steps necessary to manage that and then choosing to hang out with a drug addict and that social circle is not what I would consider to be a healthy environment for a child.

And I have no doubt that you can't trust this person or forgive them for what they have said and done to your wife in the past. And this is something that I've said before. and I'm going to continue to say it again. You know, what is family? A lot of people will define family through terms of biology. But what are the people that you are biologically connected to, the ones that you share DNA with are the ones that treat you the worst? Why do we tolerate that?

And the answer, most people will fall back on is, well, their family. And that's all well and good. I don't think we're designed to go through life alone. I think families are important, but what if families are the biggest anchor on your life or people in your family are the biggest anchor on your life? You know, I don't think that you should tolerate behavior from somebody that shares a genetic tie to you just because of that if it was behavior that you would never tolerate from somebody else. To me, in my own personal opinion, I love my family very deeply. But the definition of family to me is much more about how people treat you than where they might actually fall in your family tree. Because sometimes I think what you need to do is get out the arbor kit and saw off some branches.

Otherwise, you know, this excuse of, well, they're family, so I guess we have to put up with it. It's just this perpetual, you're on a ferris wheel or a merry-go-round. It's just going to keep coming by the same place over and over and over again. So do I think that you are out of line by telling both your stepsisters to fuck right? off. No, not necessarily. I think it's important to at least take a moment to try to view the world through their eyes. And I, in saying that, I am in no way, shape, or form excusing any of their behavior. I don't know anything about being bipolar, let alone being an unmedicated bipolar person trying to work my, navigate my way through life. I don't know anything about being

a drug addict. And I know actually very little about drugs. I have seen the impact that it can have on individuals and just this uncontrolled descent into chaos. And the number of times that I've seen people make their way back from that is small. I don't think it's impossible. Probably fair to say it's not even improbable, but it's extremely, extremely difficult. And the only reason I say take a moment to view the world through their eyes is not to judge them, but just, you know, to remember at the end of the day, they are people. They're probably not living their best life. They're probably not living the life that they want to live. But at some point in time, they may recognize that and they may do everything they can to course correct. And I don't know

what's possible when it comes to the bipolar aspect of that. The drug aspect, I think, you know, I wonder, again, this limit of my medical knowledge. I feel like bipolar is a lot more genetic in makeup, drug addiction, you know, although some people probably have genes that make them more susceptible to that. I think it's something that you could correct through things you can control. I'm not so sure that's the case with bipolar. I'm actually pretty sure that's not the case with bipolar. Point being, they're people, they're also family to these two newborns as well.

And having said that, I'm not telling you that you should jump back into the bucket with both feet. I'm not even saying you should extend the olive branch. Just make sure that you don't dehumanize them to the point that that's exactly what they become in an inanimate object. That it is the biological mother of your child. Your child has a sibling. And I would like to think that there is a way that they could navigate life together. Even though they both started life, it seems like in pretty shitty circumstance and situation. What I'd say is, if you do extend an olive branch, before you do that, talk with your wife and determine exactly what your boundaries are going to be.

And do not deviate from your boundaries 1%, half a percent, 0.01%. If the criteria is for communication of any kind that your child's mother is clean and sober, then that's exactly what that means. You don't tolerate any behavior other than that. because if this person's mother actually wants to be in their life, they can use that as consistent and perpetual motivation to do so. Again, I don't know fucking anything about drug addiction other than relapsing is common. And from the people that I have spoken to, the desire to use again is incredibly strong at times.

And, you know, I'm trying to think of an example of my own life. I guess an example in anybody's life is the choice, between a good decision and a bad decision. If there's something leading you towards that bad decision, for me in my life, at least the best way to steer away from that is to have something that motivates me or drives me or fuels me towards the correct or better decision. So hopefully your daughter could actually be that for the mother,

which is a totally fucked up mathematical equation to lay out there, but it is what it is. That's the situation that she has put herself into. I don't think you'd be wrong at all for, telling both of the sisters to fuck right off because you have your daughter's best interest in mind. And I don't think you'd be wrong at all to extend an olive branch with boundaries in place because they are also part of your daughter's life. And I would hope, and I think you're probably writing this because you want to have a way and find a way for the siblings to have a relationship

with each other. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I would just say use with extreme caution. The two people that you mentioned in this situation, the stepsisters, they're on shaky ground at best. Again, I don't know shit about being bipolar. I've heard some horror stories about the swings and behavior, more from people growing up with a bipolar parent and not, you know, they never knew if they were going to get jackler or hide. That's another conversation. And, you know, the drug addict side of the house that struggled to maintain, you know, the clarity of mine to realize that your life is actually going to be better off of whatever substance it may be. So there's no right or wrong here. I would just say make the decision or when you come to these decisions that you need to make,

think about them from the best interest of the children's perspective and try to put aside any pain and frustration that you and your wife may have. And that's a, that's a tall bill. Easier said than done because it sounds like you've been treated like shit quite a bit and somebody's out there talking shit about you. And that sucks, but it doesn't actually impact your life. It's tough to hear. It'll eat away at your, at your ego a little bit. It's tough to tolerate and not re-engage back in that, but re-engaging back in it or letting it change your behavior, it's not going to help your daughter's life at all. So just move beyond it if you can or do the best that you can and make the decisions that you are going to make based off the best interest

of the most innocent parties, which are the two babies. And that's the best advice that I I can give you. So that was the three that I said we were going to do. How long have I been talking here? See, it's shit. I'm almost at a half hour again. All right. So Thanksgiving just occurred yesterday. And I think I did this last year. And if I didn't do it last year, I'm definitely going to make an effort to do this in the future. But it was to discuss a little bit the things that I am the most thankful for because I've had a few conversations recently about this. And I think it's a great topic. And for me, and thinking about it recently, I was trying to list the things that I am the least thankful for. And at the top of that list are the things that I have, like physical possessions, like they're cool to have sometimes.

And don't get me wrong. Like I like to have cool, flashy shit just like the next person does. But if I think about in my head, what am I the most thankful for in my life? It's not those things. And it's not any accomplishments. It's not any titles or jobs. I can be proud of those things, but I'm not thankful for any of the jobs that I used to have. And then when it comes to the things that I value the most, that I'm the most thankful for, it is the people in my life.

The people in my life that I choose and am fortunate enough to spend my time with because I think that is the most valuable asset that I have. Yes, money to a large degree makes the world go round, but no amount of money is going to get you another extra second of time in the grand scheme of things. And I think it's really easy to get lost in the trappings of money because it sends you back down what I started with, the things that I care the least about, actually, if you look in the bigger picture. The things that you have are the things that you did. It's the time and the people that we choose to surround ourselves with. And I was asked the other day, do I regret being married? And I thought about it for a minute because the easiest answer, I think, for a lot of people, especially if the divorce was contentious and you do not have a good relationship with your previous significant other, the easiest answer is going to be, yeah, fuck yeah, I totally regret it. I should have never done that. But that's actually not how I think that I think about it and that's not how I feel about it.

Because when I think of the things that I am the most grateful for, what I land at as an equal next to the people that are in my life are the mistakes that I've made in my life and the bad things that have happened to me. And by bad things, I don't mean things that like I was ambushed with, bad things that happened through my own behavior, bad things that happened through my own actions, the mistakes that I have made. and my marriage is a perfect example of that, my first marriage. I was married for 19 years and 11 months, and it would be, like I said, extremely easy to just try to put that in my rearview mirror and talk about it in terms of, well, it was a catastrophic mistake, should have never done that. I don't like that person. It was all their fault.

And the reality is that time in my life has made me into the person. I am today. The challenges and the difficulties that came with that. And when I say that, I'm owning all of those. I am not blaming that on anybody else because relationships are two people. And of course, there are situations where one can be substantially more responsible than the other, but that's not what I'm saying about my particular situation. Instead of viewing that 19 years and 11 months as something that I wish I could take back or something that I regret, I have been viewing it as a period of my life that has afforded me the opportunity to learn and to grow. My relationship with my kids is better now because of the mistakes that I made in that relationship.

I wish that I could take them back. I wish I had not said some of the things that I had said. I wish I had not done some of the things that I had done. but they have made me the person that I am today. Being married to Leah now is such a different experience because of what I have learned from my past. And specifically, I'm talking about my mistakes and the things that have happened to me. The challenges and struggles of my life are actually the things that I feel the most thankful for because they shape me. And they have allowed me to grow.

They have allowed me to reinvent myself. And I think they have allowed me to become a better version of who I was. And don't get me wrong. I'm as far from perfect as humanly possible. Anybody who's ever spent any amount of time with me will tell you that I say some ridiculously inappropriate shit from time to time. I can be crass. I can be rude.

I can be all the things that everybody can be. But I'm trying to be the best version of myself that I can be. And the only way that I can do that, is to acknowledge the mistakes that I have made in the past, learn from them and grow from them. So that's what I'm the most thankful for. I am the most thankful for the people who are in my life, who care about me and treat me like family, whether they are genetically tied to me or not. I'm incredibly thankful for the experiences that I've had in my life, the negative experiences, the mistakes that I have made and the opportunity to grow from them.

And I'm thankful to anybody who takes the time to either listen or watch this podcast, this podcast for me has been an incredible outlet of exploration of myself, my personal beliefs. I had no idea what it was going to be when I first started. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I have an idea of what it's going to be next year or the year beyond that. But it is by far the most enjoyable thing that I do from a professional perspective. And the fact that I get to share it with other people and hopefully people can learn from my mistakes and short circuit their learning curve to me, I can't think of anything better

than that. So on that note, go enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend. See you guys all on Monday.