Unsubscribe Podcast - The Crazy History of Sprite and Government Fraud | Unsubscribe Podcast 246

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Ronnie Adkins is here to talk Funker530 and the importance of preserving war footage, and our boy Trout is back to tell us about his recent content deep dives! FOLLOW  @AmericanMarks   @king_trout�� Watch this episode ad-free and uncensored on Pepperbox! https://www.pepperbox.tv/ WATCH THE AFTERSHOW & BTS ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/UnsubscribePodcast 👕 Merch & Shoes https://bunkerbranding.com/pages/unsubscribe-podcast 🔋 Energy Drinks https://drinkechelon.com P.O BOX: Unsubscribe Podcast 17503 La Cantera Pkwy Ste 104 Box 624 San Antonio TX 78257 ------------------------------ THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS! BLUE CHEW Get 10% off your first month of BlueChew Gold with code UNSUB—visit and learn more at https://BlueChew.com MANDO Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @shop.mando and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code UNSUB at https://mandopodcast.com/unsub ! #mandopod THE PERFECT JEAN Get 15% off The Perfect Jean with code UNSUB15 at https://theperfectjean.nyc/UNSUB15 #theperfectjeanpod RIDGE WALLET Upgrade your wallet and get 10% off at https://www.Ridge.com/UNSUB with code UNSUB. ------------------------------ FOLLOW OUR SOCIALS! Unsubscribe Podcast https://www.instagram.com/unsubscribepodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@unsubscribepodcast https://x.com/unsubscribecast Eli Doubletap https://www.instagram.com/eli_doubletap/ https://x.com/Eli_Doubletap https://www.youtube.com/c/EliDoubletap Brandon Herrera https://www.youtube.com/@BrandonHerrera https://x.com/TheAKGuy https://www.instagram.com/realbrandonherrera Donut Operator https://www.youtube.com/@DonutOperator https://x.com/DonutOperator https://www.instagram.com/donutoperator The Fat Electrician https://www.youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician https://thefatelectrician.com/ https://www.instagram.com/the_fat_electrician https://www.tiktok.com/@the_fat_electrician ------------------------------ unsubscribe pod podcast episode ep unsub funny comedy military army comedian texas podcasts #podcast #comedy #funnypodcast Chapters 0:00 Welcome To Unsub! 7:00 The Toilet Paper Debate 12:45 Funker530 & It’s Mission 31:24 Ronnie’s X Controversy 38:25 Canada Is Weird 42:14 Ronnie’s Cyber Security Career 1:08:32 Poop Stories 1:16:50 DNA Tracing 1:26:35 Trout’s Content 1:34:40 When Jaguar Went Woke 1:45:03 ’Shmoozing’ In Government & The 2nd Amendment 2:04:12 Ronnie’s TV Show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two in the top, two in the bottom, one in the fucking lets go. My day is ruined. Crucify him. This white man's having a good time. Get him! If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots. Oh, God. What did I get myself into?

Say Eli, he's racially ambiguous, and Brandon, his hair is fucking fabulous. Donut. and there's a fat electrician We'll come to unsubscribe I can't I know This is where I have a gap in my knowledge What did you do with Rudy? What showed you do with Rudy?

Yeah, so root Oh yeah, well before we do that Yeah, let's go ahead and Ready? Cool, there we go Oh am I supposed to crack something? Yeah, yeah, grab a can, quick! Three, two, one

Hi, everyone and welcome to the unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli Double Tap Mr. Ronnie Adkins, future congressman Brennan Herrera, and myself, Donut Operator. I done it. I missed him. You look fantastic. Did you think you. You got a new haircut? Yeah, shaved the beard, got a new haircut, lost a hundred pounds of muscle.

You don't want to know. It's too early in the episode on YouTube for me to say what I put in my hair. If you've seen... What's that movie? Harry Met Sally? No. Something about Mary. Something about Mary.

Yeah. That was that. The secret ingredient. It takes me about four minutes to get my hair product ready. Don't. It's a long time. Wait a brag. It depends what video I'm watching.

I have infinite hair product. Infinite money glitch. After the fourth application, it starts running a little low, you know, but. Real quick. What's up? You bitches? This is after Christmas right before New Year's, I believe. Probably.

I don't think so. Hi. Did you make any New Year's resolution? Stick to them. I'll go to the gym. weeks and then give up. I'm going to love you. I'm still pretty sure you can go to jail for what that suggested.

What is up? Welcome to the podcast, buddy. Thanks for having me, man. And we got King Trout too. Oh, dude. Well, Donut. I was actually surprised when I walked in here. You weren't like passed out on the couch over there or something, to be honest.

We all have our proclivities. I just know the audience right there was like, oh my God, that is King Trout and not donut. I just saw Brandon and see how long it took. You just be. Brandon's not here for this episode. Hi, everyone. Hi, everyone.

The amount of times, dude, it happened several times in the live show, meet and greets. Yeah. Like, there was one of the guy, I'm not going to shout him out because I don't know if he wants his name attached to this, but came up and started talking. He's like, you really helped out a buddy of mine. You know, you covered his case in a video, whatnot. I'm visibly confused. And I realized like, do you think I'm Cody? And he just goes,

fuck. Dude, the embarrassment on his face to me. He's like, I'm so, oh my God, I am so sorry. His buddy's laughing at him. And then another guy came up and introduced himself wrong. All right. Introduced himself wrong? He was like, God bless his soul.

He was very nervous. But he was like, hike, I get it. Donat. And we're like, what's your name? He's like, oh, he's. you're having a great time. Like, he just, like, forced reset. He's like, my name is Jeff.

My name is Jeff. My name is jenn. The funny part is we're all just around. We're hanging out. We're having a good time and, like, just making jokes. So, like, we'll just barrel into that

and make them feel more nervous. Like, not in a mean way, but just like, you're really fucking this up, buddy. Let's keep moving it along. You're going to remember this for the rest of your life and I'm going to forget about it in 30 seconds. You know that thing you think about when you're trying to fall asleep

and you can't. You know, just wake up. this is going to be it. We're thinking about it. It just reminded me of that time. It was a range day like two years ago. And I was staying at your house because I still lived in Indiana at the time.

And we were just so peopleed out because you guys know how it is. It's like constantly talking to people all day long or whatever. And we stopped at a gas station. And you were like, I'm just so fucking tired. I just want to go to bed, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, well, you know when we stop at this gas station,

we're going to get out of the car. And somebody's going to be like, Brandon Herrera? And he's like, please don't don't put that on me. Gets out, that exact same thing happened. And then I was standing by the gas pump.

I went in, got a pack of cigarettes and came back out. And a guy comes up and he goes, bass. And I'm like, what? And he goes, bass. Bass guy. And I'm like, what the fuck?

Like, I literally did not put two and two together. And he was so con, do you remember what I'm talking about? Yeah, no, I have a vague recollection of this. He's like, Bass guy. You're Bass guy on Facebook. And I'm like, I don't have a Facebook. I can't like what it. And it was like, oh no. Like, yeah, I do have a fish theme name and I'm on the

internet. But I was like, he just pointed out and he's like, bass. What the fuck are you talking about it, dude? Fish man. I love it. At least he tried. Yeah. He's in the neighborhood. It's like, oh, oh. There's the amount of times that that's happened. There was one, I feel kind of bad about it, but I was in kind of like a shitty mood. I don't remember what was going on. But I was at a bar somewhere, like a restaurant bar kind of thing. And, uh, some, somebody is shouting from across the bar, Don't it! And I'm like, I know what he means.

I'm not responding to that. It's draining. People that is a good word. I think it happens really quickly, and unless you've experienced it, you have no idea how draining it is at times. You're like, yeah, because nobody in our audience is introverted.

Yeah. Now times that by like a hundred. 500,000. I consider myself like a pretty like outgoing, like sociable person. But like when when you're doing that nonstop for days at a time, it's like you reach a point where you're like, okay, I think I just want to lay down on the couch and look at my phone for an hour. No, I tell people that all the time. If we're in, if there are, you know, hundreds of people in a room with me, I'm in the back corner with a beer in my hand or something. Yeah.

Being on camera is my opportunity to be social. It's like being the wallflower at the high school dance, except in the. this scenario it feels what much better so awesome i just want to pet the dog at the party yeah can i pet that dog yeah so we just wrapped up uh what the last of the live shows thank god we got two two we got both of you have stories now you started your youtube and like crushing it and now you're on pepperbox and then you have what tv show youtube and then uh and then a pepperbox channel that we launched this year as well yeah oh shit yeah dude it's been a lot of fun You guys have been awesome.

I've known the crew here for quite a few years at this point through the work at Funker 530 and most people that have been on YouTube for a while know what Funker 530 is. But I joined the team a little bit late. But having the chance to come down here, you guys threw a wrench at me right out of the gate. I'm a big self-improvement kind of guy. So little battles every day this morning. I had the battle of you assholes running your toilet paper in mullet mode versus beard mode. holy f***. What kind of heresy has their toilet paper in mullet mode? I literally just turned around

the one roll upstairs. I took a shit like 20 minutes ago. I tweeted it. I was like, oh my God. I had to turn it around. I left it because I left it. I'm not fixing that problem. That's not what I'm here to do. But I appreciate the daily battle, right? Something that I can overcome and I made it through this morning's post coffee event. think of all the problems our ancestors battled 500 years ago. It's like, my day is ruined. The toilet paper was facing

the wrong direction in an air-conditioned home. I am the offspring of those men and I know they would have complained about it. We're a very bitter, bitter, petty people. Give me my poop rope. Why is the poop rope? I did spend an inordinate amount of time

staring at it like, why the fuck would you do that? Why? Because then it rolls underneath and you can't quite get... Yeah, like bunches of things. up and then it flips over and you got to like you got a finger f*** it to try and grab the next piece. I'm just, I'm thinking of you just staring at it with the slow

pan of the camera getting closer, the tinnitus noise getting louder. I like that the idea just holding, like having a poop rope like old 1600s and just confusing the shit out of people like whoa, whoa, do I use that? I was reading about the poop rope not too long ago. He doesn't even know how to use the three C

shells. Somebody did a diagram of like instructions for the three C shells and I still don't I think I understand it entirely. Unless you just use one as a scoop. I think that's what it is. But what about the other two seashells? What do you do with the other two?

I'll be honest. I don't know how bidetes work. Spray it, clean the bow. It's like a power washer. Yeah, but like, are you going like hands in with soap and shit? No, you just do the, it just sprays your asshole. How do you know it's clean? You wipe afterwards.

Oh, okay. Yeah. You just, dude, it just makes the wiping easier because you just, Like if you go out and clean your truck or your vehicle right now and there's dirt on it, if you go like that, just moving dirt around. You spray it first and then I don't know what you're wiping the technique is, but I'm not smearing. I just take a shower immediately afterwards. Every shit, immediate, hop in the shower. I would be taking eight showers a day.

Really awkward. We're on road trips and you're just like take a shit, walk outside with the hose next to the gas station. You ever take a shit so hard? You feel it splash on your balls. Oh, man, we started off weird. Oh, I love it. Welcome back, gentlemen. I know.

We're all exhausted. I was like, oh. We've had great travel experiences, but yeah, now we're here. It really wasn't too bad this time. I heard New Jersey was great. I heard that got interesting. Delayed, and then an hour and how long was the delay on the way home? From Jersey?

I didn't think that one was too bad. I slept and woke up. All of us did. I had a coma. Was that the one to Boston? No, that was the one from Jersey to San Antonio. We got delayed, and then when we sat on the tarmac for about an hour and a half. That's been happening a lot lately.

It's like these northern states are not prepared for the idea that it snows the same time. It snows every year. People are going to be like, this is the same story they told last time. It's like, no, this is a brand new story. This is a brand new story. It just sucks every time. Everybody's like, oh, Texas doesn't, South Texas doesn't know how to handle snow. It's like, yeah, we never get it.

You guys get it like half the year. Yeah. How is this a surprise? And yeah, we had a great time in New Jersey. Well, we're going to hold that one so then we can all talk about it together because we all had completely different experiences for, well, the venue learned a very valuable lesson. Don't be dicks. And it was wild the entire time as the things. that were occurring, we're occurring.

Me and you were just reading our texts on stage, like still like doing the show and everything, but just like seeing the notifications pop up. Or it's like, what's going on backstage? Yeah, and then, hey, we're having to watch this person. It's like, what the fuck is going on? This is not when I want to be focused on well doing the live show. Having, yeah, and having show basically say,

or show and Sab say like, yeah, you know how we normally like hang out in the green room and chill afterward and like everybody has a good time? Not here. Let's go to the hotel immediately. all of our shits already packed up. We're leaving. We're just out instantly. It sucks.

That's how we ended it. But the audience was amazing. They were loud. Loud. Yes. The audience was loud. So thank you to the audience in New Jersey. Fuck you, Wellmont.

I mean, as simple as that. I only have sparing details, but it was a little bit infuriating. I have a couple of the behind-the-scenes details. I can't wait for you guys to talk about that as a crew. But instead, we would love to talk about you. as our guest. Well, that's going to be a super boring show. I mean, for otherwise, starting out, I mean, what's, what's Funker 530? Well, Funker 530 is actually something that I'm very excited to talk about and finally get a chance to really help explain what its original design was versus what

its perception was over time and then what it is that we're hoping that it turns into in the future. Right? That's what I mean by it being boring. Me personally, dude, I don't do anything. I sit in my basement and I research ballistics. That's long range shooting is what I've always wanted to do. I've been competing in marksmanship since I was in high school. But Funker 530

that's where we start getting into my career path. And what its intent was, so not a lot of people know this, but Scott, the founder of Funker 530, first of all, Canadian infantrymen. He was a machine gunner, spent time in Afghanistan. He wanted to share footage of his

deployment with his family. So he put up, he created this YouTube channel and was like, hey family, here's what a patrol looks like in Afghanistan. This is what it looks like for us to have to return fire. This is what it looks like and it's one of the, one of the most viewed videos we have. This is what it looks like for me to play dirt bikes in the sand because we're bored. In the early days of YouTube, clickbait was a big deal. So that, the title for that, if I recall correctly, was like, Afghan Taliban. ambushes Canadian infantry, but it's just Scott playing with his fucking dirt bikes in the sand. Anyway, that's what it began with. And that was like 2007, 2008. That's like the, that's the early

days of YouTube. YouTube. One of the first channels to achieve a million followers, right? So there were, yeah, one of the first. I don't know where exactly that falls, but it, it just blew up. And that's when that's when conceptually Funker 530 became a thing. Right. That was like late enough. Well, I guess it was just early enough that there was like no money involved. Yeah. It was not a thing you could do.

It was established prior to the YouTube partner program. Yeah. So the YouTube partner program came after Funker 530 was deployed. Right. But what it kind of drew attention to is just how much people wanted to better understand things in their raw format rather than be reliant upon the media. Right. I don't think I need to beat that dead horse.

too many times, media and its agendas that come along with it. So over the course of time, the YouTube channel grew to include submissions from the community. So there's a lot of footage that was exclusively provided by people that were actively engaged with an adversary saying, I want people to see what it's like. And we have people ripping that stuff all the time, but it was exclusively provided to us to try and be a little bit of a loudspeaker for that story. And then we ended up starting another channel. So this is all actually before I got there. The team that still exists, all the same team, ownership has never changed, same group of dudes.

They started another channel on the Syrian Civil War. Right. And all of that is a, that is mud to try and wade through the amount of different factions and organizations and how they change allegiances, like day to day dependent upon, I don't know, whose goat is owned by who. Wasn't there a point in time when the U.S. was supporting like two opposing factions? Yeah. All the time. Yeah. Which time in history?

One of our programs was supporting one group of factions, another one of our programs was supporting another. So it was that meme where it's like my tax dollars, somehow also my tax dollars. And in between raking in all the big bucks was Toyota. Today we're talking about Bluchu. Oh, me. Blue Chew is coming at you with a brand new innovation called Blue Chew. gold. This ain't your grandpa's little blue pill. Why do you know what pills your grandpa takes? I steal his pills. This is the 4-1 beast that's setting the gold standard for performance.

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Visit BluCu.com for more details and safety information, and we thank Bluechoo for sponsoring the podcast. Thank you so much, Bluechew. Thank you. I've got to run. Connor is rigging that mortis. Toyota Thon looks sick in the Middle East. Let me just put it that way. I just bought my wife a Toyota Sienna, and that's the coolest fucking van I've ever seen in my life.

Low bar. It's sick. I don't care. I grew up with one of those, like, silhouette-looking rocket ship vans. The Chrysler-Town and country? No, no, it was, I don't even know if the brand is around anymore. But it looked a lot like a rocket ship, and it broke down, like, in the middle of the highway, trying to cross the highway.

And one of my earliest memories is my dad trying to get it back into, gear and my mom like screaming at the, because there's cars coming, that's the piece of shit. I know exactly what you were talking about. You know which one it is. Right. Is a, was it a mercury? I don't know. This is so, I know, it was white, but so it looked exactly like a rocket. We called it the rocket ship. I was getting, my mom had to take me to the police station one time, not to derail from Funker 530, but I was going to say I derailed. Yeah, well, I'll never forget that van because I played, so I played lacrosse in high school and a buddy of mine lived close to the local dump.

I am not proud of this story. Let me just be clear. Like, there is a progression of trying to be better every day and we're still working on it. He lived close to the local dump. And one day, my mom had dropped me off over there and he said, do you want to go drive bulldozers? I was like, yeah, dude. Absolutely. I was like 14.

So anyway, there I was at Mr. Hemeyer. So we go over there. Anyway, we end up finding a big. What's the one with the big arm? An excavator. It was a Kamatsu and I'll never forget that. Mr. Hemeyer's house in it. And it had the key in it.

So we drove that son of bitch all around the dump and we crashed it when we put it that way. Well, my mom drove up to, in the rocket ship to lacrosse practice. I was a freshman in high school. Might have been a sophomore. And she was like, did you drive a bulldozer? and I'll never forget, I was like, yep, and I sat all the way back because she couldn't reach me back there. Well, eventually that other guy was getting hemmed up for stealing a cop car, the laptop, a laptop out of it, and a gun, and then using the gun to shoot the laptop. So somehow they were trying, they were actually trying to connect me to that, and I got there and I was like, let me be clear, I drove the big piece of machinery.

I only stole the bago, which is a big thing. objectively the most expensive thing in that story, but I'm just saying. Anyway, so, yes, I bought my wife this Toyota Sienna, and where did we end up on the Toyota Sienna? Afghanistan, Syrian Civil War. So we had stood up, Funker 530 had stood up this channel for the Syrian Civil War, and we were starting to archive footage there. Archive is an important word. We were archiving it there, trying to help people understand just the absolute goat rope, as much of that pun is intended. as you want to take it, that is these factions in the Middle East that are fighting against

each other, sometimes alongside each other. We actually just had a pretty big incident with two soldiers killed in Syria, right, because of these weird factional loyalties where... It's all like really like localized tribal shit. It's... Culturally speaking, it's difficult to wrap your mind around, but, you know, something I talk about a lot is, you know, where you stand is... subject to where you sit, right? So anyway, we had stood this channel up and then YouTube just

deleted it one day. Like three strikes, boop, boop, boom, boop, gone. And we were like, oh, shit, we need to have a way to archive this war footage off of social media. And from a perception perspective, with that being reality, from the outside looking in, it's like, oh, you're just putting up like war footage. Well, we sent Hemingway and Hollywood directors to World War to. So we sent them in there to try and bring back some semblance of understanding, primarily only because we needed to sell war bonds, though. So the stuff that they brought back was like, rah, rah, go get them, boys. But what happened to all of this stuff in between that? Right. So that reality that is war, and I'm not necessarily an anti-war guy. Sometimes it is

necessary to shoot somebody in the face, you know, organizationally, that sometimes you have to do that. But if we can, if we can better understand. it and make decisions around it from an informed position. That is the design of Funker 530. So everybody that is a member of our writing staff is a veteran, right? Two of them are Purple Heart recipients. So you got Will and you got Josh. Josh Brooks is a published author.

Hell of a dude. Absolute giant of a human being and I hate taking photos next to him because I am not a short man. I am 5'10. Josh is a giant. So if we can stop using that as a comparative, you know, kind of thing, I'd appreciate it. Five tens above average height. Just throwing that out there. So you got Josh, machine gunner, 0331. You got Will. He goes by Will Kilmore, which is sick. A sick

fucking name to go by. But he was a mortarman, 11 Charlie, saw some of the worst areas of Afghanistan and described to me what it looks like when a human being is shot with a 50 cal and he said it turns them into spaghetti. And I can't get that out of my head now. That's in my head movies to see spaghetti. Anyway, then you've got, we've got a space cop. So he's an Air Force guy,

but he's also a federal law enforcement officer for an agency that deals with space. I don't know how, I don't know whether I was even supposed to say that or not, but that's what he does. He covers a lot of our law enforcement footage. Some force that deals with space. Thankfully,

there's actually at least two. There's at least two. So we got the space force. So the other one. Man, I would hate. to be the person responsible for making sure you say nothing in an interrogation. Not going to go well. I'm an Intel guy.

I am not some C or C graduate. Let me put it that way. And then we've got... They just need to give you a coffee. You guys... This guy, six ounces of Elijah Craig. He starts spilling the fucking beans. Have you guys ever seen the photo of the Marine with a PPSH clearing the stairwell?

Yes, actually. It's one of the most iconic photos from like early G-WAT. What about the Marine dropping... Dropping the grenade? vibe check. Yep. One of our writers, both of those Marines

are his Marines. No shit. No, yeah. Were these like photo op kind of things where they were fucking around? No, there's a BPSH report. These are legit.

So there was a reporter that was embedded with them and the fun story I'll tell on the PPSH thing is they had just been instructed or excuse me within 24 hours of the PPSH photo being taken.

There was an embedded reporter he was taking photos of them. They were instructed not to use the enemy's guns to clear. houses. Well, the reporters had taken that photo prior, but then that got put out to the... Oh. So anyway, so Cam, Cam, Fallujah, 2004 veteran, when it comes to, like, mechanized warfare

and, you know, what it is you're actually looking at when you see what we're dealing with right now in, like, Ukraine, for example, or even a lot of this stuff coming out of Israel, with Israel driving through Gaza and how exactly mechanized warfare works. Dude, it's some of the best writing you've ever seen. Josh, walking you through. what a near side ambush looks like, linear ambush, L-shaped ambush, you know, beaten zones with machine guns. The intent and structure behind Funker 530 is designed to archive this from a position of knowledge rather than for the purposes of it being just war. We're going through a lot of really cool shit really quick. The PPSH-41 picture, like going back to that, because I don't

know, if you're like me, you've seen that a hundred times. So that was completely unironic. They were just, the dude was using it. The dude was quite literally clearing that stairwell with that PPSH. So when I first thought about it, I'm like, this has to be a meme because like in the modern age of, you know, modern military equipment, you know, M-4s, ACogs, whatever. I'm like, there's no way I would use it PPSA. 72 rounds of 762 by 25 at Mach fuck. Actually come to think of it. How much is a way? It's heavy. I don't think it's that heavy. I mean, for modern standards.

For a subgun, it's modern. Fair enough. Yeah. It's always the hard part. It's awkward to hold. Yeah. It's kind of similar like a Thompson. So, especially with the drum. So if you have the drum on it, I've only ever shot, I think, 9-mill versions of it, but that's the one. That's the one. Yeah. No, he's... Does he have any other guns on his back? Yeah, he's a, he's got an M-16 on his back. So with a loaded drum,

It is 12 pounds. That's heavy. Yeah, I guess it is heavy. That's still lighter than the new SIG. Wasn't the last episode when we were just talking about the SIG? We just talked about that. I don't know when. I don't know.

It's one of my favorite topics. So if you want to dive into it. Do that. I was reading the stats. We were talking about it. And then the biggest thing that stood out to me, I was like, man, that sounds heavy as fuck. And then you read all the soldiers complaints.

This is heavy as fuck. I don't want to, it's four pounds heavier than your standard. AR or M4 fully kidding. It beats you up to the XM7 or the M7 no. Right.

Six eight. The six spears. Six eight by two seven. Two seven. Two seven fury. Six eight by five one is like that NATO designation for it, but it's the two seven seven fury. I've been told that the, and I don't want to misquote this, but the new, it's

the M7A1, the new model of it. The 13 or the chopped down version? Yeah. They're like, oh, it's far too heavy. so they're like, let's shorten the barrel and do a bunch of, like, they took the weight off in the weirdest places. That's it.

Dude, I think they, oh, and when they reweight it, I was told, pretty sure I could say this. When they reweight it, they weighed it without the optic and without magazine and everything else. They're like, look at how my, oh my God, it's actually technically lighter

than the M4 because they had the M4 with the optics and everything on it. And yeah, so they pushed it to high brass saying that like, oh, look, it's actually really light. And we fixed all the problems, which they, they tricked the system with, I will tell you the first thing you start doing overseas, stripping everything you can of weight. You're like, I'm going to lug this shit around all day.

50 cow, we brought on one mission. You know why? Because it's heavy. You guys humped a 50 cow? One time. Dude, these M14s. I know you told the story about the AT4. Oh, you're talking about like a Barrett.

Immediately fire it so you don't have to carry around the fucking rocket anymore. Exactly. I imagine you guys hump in like a like a Ma Deuce or something. You're talking about the Barret. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, you guys are gangster. You fucking carrying that around. But the AT4 story is funny because that's like the opposite of military doctrine.

Like never in never initiate an ambush with either a rocket or an open bolt machine gun. Correct. Because chunk a, uh, f***. And now everyone like if you're. If you engage ambush with one of those You start it with it. You kick it off.

Open bolt can just fall forward And then you just made the loudest like clonk And it's like Because a lot of times People won't rack it enough So nothing's racked So it's just a fucking

Huge metal click Now the enemy's turn Start shooting wherever They heard that Or 184 is just I mean we missed Like flow fucking And then it went up

Ben hit the house behind it Dude Uh oh Shoot. If anyone at the Hague is watching, it did not hit the house behind. Well, this has been very revealing for me. I had the chance to shoot a live AT4 once, and it was all the way back in basic. I was like that one kid that they let fire the live rocket because, you know, I mentioned

this earlier. I was a part of my high school's marksmanship team, so I shot expert. I actually wasn't the first choice because none of them liked me. Some chick shot expert, and she was supposed to. be the first choice. And she didn't want to do it. So it had to defer to me by the rules. So the drill sergeant was like, don't fuck this up, dude. Like you had better, we have one live round. I was like, bro, I'm going to nail this. This is fine. There's a difference between confidence and hubris. Okay. So I had been nailing the nine. The thin line. I had been nailing the little

nine millimeter like testers. Just stroking them every time. And I look at the guy with the live round and And I'm like, bro, if I aim center mass with this, is it going to hit? And he was like, yep, not a problem. So I said, okay. Backblast area clear. And everybody screams, oh, clear! And I push the button. And for a split second, nothing happens.

And it's not even a split second. It's a fraction of a second because there's a delay. Yeah. And I didn't know that. So I'll never, I'll never forget this. So as I'm sitting there and that delays happened, and I go to look at them like this, like just that little bit. Oh. And that thing just.

comes out, pings off the top of that thing. And you can see it the whole way in it. Pings off the top of the tank. And I don't know, it probably went into some fucking grandma's backyard or something. Landed in the chicken coop. I don't know where it went, but I need a, I need a redemption. So if somebody out there can give me a redemption on my one live AT4 around. And if you got a second, I'd also like to shoot it. But no, I was at an undisclosed training ground at one point. and they had just fired AT-4s there I don't know how long ago but they had done it at one point

and they had to shut off an entire area of forest because they had dude shooting AT-4s at targets all day blowing shit up and one dude just sailed one just they went and everybody waited to hear the explosion nothing sent another zip code at that point nothing not a damn thing

is gone I'd be like fuck it those are As you said, it was, sorry, it was big on, hey, it's weighs less when you just have the tube. Oh, yes. Let's always just shed weight when we walk out to missions and we have to go back. This makes a lot of sense. We cut water. Like everything we'd bring out on those OPs is like get rid of, make it as light as possible, hope for an engagement. So you're like kicking rounds off, shooting, getting rid of everything.

And then walking right back. Also, Chase or Fent, make sure that my hand gesture was off camera for that. because I can't wait to see that screenshot all over here. Yeah, this one? Yeah, that one. That's make sure that was off too because I'm in frame for that. Do you ever struggle with tiny toiletry bottles? No. Well, with Mando, struggle no more. I would not want to spread whole body deodorant on you, Nick.

It's gonna get all clumpy on my chest hair. But it looks like I've been rolling around in mashed potatoes. How well does it lubricate? It's developed by a doctor and It works for 72 hours. Show some respect. I'm gonna tell that to everyone at the Magic the Gathering tournament. I wish I was there when they figured out that it wasn't good for 73 hours.

I like to imagine just a fat guy on a treadmill for 72 hours straight. He's turned. Time to shower finally. Fatty curdled. Thanks to Mando. It's also named after Mount Fuji. Really? Mine's bourbon and leather because I'm a Mando.

Jesus Christ. Couldn't even get through an ad without a pun. What? Do you want to sell the deodorant or not, Brandon? I'm just waiting for the sweet release of death. It's not going to come for at least 72 hours. Listen, we did a lot of meet and greets during the live tour. Y'all motherfuckers could use some man, though. For a strong, independent woman, you can do everything a man can do.

You can still use some mando. The cops are coming. We've got 72 hours to hide the body before it starts to smell. Actually does smell pretty damn good. This one smells like the body wash smells actually really good. Bourbon leather. Anybody find the body? No, but that ditch over there smells delicious.

There's no way there's a body over there. You said we can ad lib. Jokes on you. We're into that. This isn't your average deodorant. Our antiperspirant. You can try Mando's starter pack.

It's perfect. It comes with absolutely everything. Stick deodorant. Cream deodorant. Two free products of your choice, like a mini body wash or deodorant wipes. And free shipping.

As a special officer, offers you'll get 20% off site wide with our exclusive code unsub. That's code unsub over at shopmando.com. We need to go actually. It would not be the first time I've been called a Nazi in the last like three weeks and the last time was because I drive fired on my back porch. I actually wanted to talk about that. I wanted to talk about that because man that was the most innocuous video ever. You're just like, man, I'm loving life. I'm drinking bourbon. I'm grilling steaks. I'm so happy people that understand what I would there are people that understand what I was posting on that. That's what just before we started recording, I was, I brought that up and I was like, no, we got to wait. We got to wait till cameras are pointed at us because the story I was going to tell you was I woke up. It's like 7.30 in the morning and I open my phone and I just go through like each app. I read the news or whatever. And then I open up X and you know how it has the like trending or whatever? It says Ronnie Atkins receiving, I can't remember what it said.

Yeah, what's eating backlash over dry firing pistol. And I was like, oh, God, what do you do? And I watched the video. It's so fucking innocuous. I remember watching or looking at it because I only saw it through, through quote tweets. Oh, nice. Like, I didn't even see the original video.

I just saw the quote tweets and people screenshot it or whatever. And I just look at it. I'm like, wait, hold on. Why are the septum piercing's mad at Ronnie? Yeah. Dude, you're what? You're eating steak, smoking cigars, and doing dry fire drills?

The amount of insults I had to Google. Like, I know I'm stupid. Like, nobody knows how stupid I am more than I do. I had to Google so many insults. What are your favorites? Camp. Camp? Camp.

How you spell it? Camp. Like C-A-N-B. Somebody said, this is so camp and something, something. And actually, that's the one that- I mean's gay, doesn't it? That's the one that Cody retweeted. And I commented it to Cody.

I was like, Cody, I don't know what that is. That means, bud. Cody retweeted it to spite you? No, no, he was like, why are people mad at this? So the original intent, and there's actually an, it's not interesting story. Are you going to tell us what camp means? I still don't know what it means. I think it means gay.

No, it means something else. Hold on. I got this. What is? I got a content. Urban dictionary camp. So bad it's good, except it's gay. That is the.

Yeah, I was saying, I thought. I've heard gay guys call things camp. The irony behind that is very, very interesting to me. I'll just put it that way. Nobody tell us a wife he's gay. Or my three kids or... Well, everybody measures their man. I don't like weird shit now.

They're like, if you don't do this, you're not being a real man. I'm like, well, I got three kids. I'll do whatever the fuck I want. I just love that they're like, my man's on his own property, drinking bourbon, grilling steaks, and dry-firing a handgun. And they're like, clearly a homosexual. That was kind of inadvertently their point is like that I was performing this to show how much of a man I am.

Well, first of all, I almost brought my roller skates down here to dry fire in rollers. I don't give a fuck, what you think? I used to jive skate for competition. I don't give a, oh, yeah. Like, this was a thing. We both had the same. What does that mean? Like, you know, like the roller skating rinks, big afro, dancing on four-wheeled skates.

I was horrified. That's what you thought. Yeah. That's what I thought it meant. No, that was all the... Rollerblades and then the N-word. No, that's crazy. If you, if you, excuse me, Stootis.

If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots. Okay? So, I... The story behind that is actually a really interesting one because I was at a gun show. So the Dulles Expo, they actually stopped doing the biggest gun show in Virginia. My family's been in Virginia since like 1624. I'm very proud to be a Virginian, and I will fight tooth and nail to stay in Virginia, first of all. I thought you said he had three kids.

What? So you have three kids, but you're a Virginian? Yeah. Oh, I hate that I know the joke. Oh, my God. I just told you. I was stupid. All right?

So I was at this show, and there was a relatively, you know, that joke sucked. small company that was like, hey, will you try our holster? And I was like, fuck yeah, dude. And they only wanted 60 bucks. What was that? Dunder. It was thunder hooking.

God was very unhappy with what just happened. God hated that Virginia joke. It was that bad. That's the line. It was that bad. So I got this brand new holster for this new Glock 45. I had just bought and used, first of all. So I bought a Glock 45.

I didn't even have a holster for it yet. And I was talking to this local company. They gave me this holster. So I got home and I was home alone. And I'm carnivore. So of course I'm going to be cooking a steak. That's all I eat is meat. Right?

Well, at least 90% on the diet. I'm understanding the campy part now. So I was like, oh, I'm going to throw a steak on the fucking grill. And then I'm sitting there. I'm like, okay, well, I got this new holster. I'll put this holster in and I'll give this thing a shot. You know, I suck. But I'm going to try it.

And then I realized, oh, I'm still home alone. You know, I'm out of here on the back deck. It's a beautiful night. I'm going to have a glass of bourbon. So I have a glass of bourbon. And then I'm like, bro, this is a fucking awesome night. I am having a great time. And I hope the boys will appreciate this kind of night that I'm having.

So I literally prop my phone up on the bourbon glass. And I was like, this is my night, guys. And then I made it into some discord somewhere. And it turned into this absolute. chaos of quote performative masculinity I didn't know what the fuck that was this white man's having a good time

get him I got that guy it would have been hilarious ending that video it's like whiskey that dry fire sucking a d-o it just hard just that man I was like oh oh wait

all you had to do all you had to do was respond to one of them like one of the bigger ones just like well I am gay and then they would have all been like oh shit we're accident we're queer bashing our team

yeah yeah it just what made it distressing for me is I actually that one got Eli well I just the flashbang of you been

like after just normal drag fire technique well that's why I pretend to be gay on the internet so everyone would be like

oh what the fuck was that Mr. Edkins can I have one of your space sins yeah thank you sir These are nine. They're nines.

You know a fun story about these. So these are actually my favorite. Not sponsored by Zone, but I could be. Just saying, well, it's technically Canadian. What's fun about these, though, is these are illegal in Canada. So they export these only. Zone 9- They're made in Canada.

They're made in Canada, but they are illegal in Canada. So I was under the new American Marksman brand. We were up there spectating King of Two Mile. and I was talking with some of the competitors. I was interviewing one of them and I was like, hey, you want one of mine? And he was like, I can't have that. Those are illegal. And I was like, first of all, I can't have that.

I'm a, I was like, first of all, maybe. Like, you can have it. Trust me. I'm not going to tell on you. But what do you mean they're illegal? Yeah, these are made in Canada. Yeah, it says right there, made in Canada, but illegal in Canada. And I didn't, it clicked.

My first time to Canada, I went up there and I took a rifle. and I forgot to bring Zins or any nicotine really at all. I had like one pouch or one of these and I ran out. So I went and I stopped at the gas station. The highest that they'll go is four milligram. You cannot find other than four. I stopped at like five different gas stations before I realized that that was the legal limit of what you could get. And realistically, everybody only makes them in threes below four.

Like there's not like a four. There are sixes. Three and sixes were for the longest. But I mean like below four. So, like, really, like, with Zins, they only make three. You had had threes. Yeah, correct. You wouldn't have fours.

You would have threes. So what's the fuck? So I was hunting around for him. And at, like, the, I don't know, fifth or six gas, I was like, I'll just, I'll just, like, quad, quad rip these things. Two in the top, two in the bottom, one in the ass, and let's go. All right, Tucker, come down. So come to find out later, yeah, they have a legal cap on that. And so another problem, I take in, like, 13.

This is, this is not okay. All right. I'm pouring it out for you. I take it like 1,300 milligrams a day of caffeine. It is a ridiculous amount of caffeine and it's not okay. Well, it's okay because that's what I want to do and I do whatever the fuck I want. America.

Well, as it turns out, all of their energy drinks are half-caffeinated as well. Yeah, Echelon is illegal in Canada, if I'm not mistaken. I think that's 50 one is. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. That was like the place we were staying didn't have coffee or anything.

So that was like our energy in the morning. We were getting up early because we were flying to the top of the Rockies doing all kinds of crazy. Fucking coffee? Imagine being babyed by your nanny state to where they will tell you you can't have nicotine or caffeine. Wild. Or guns or social media with free speech. The entire time. I'm under-caffeinated.

I am under-nicantinated. I have just not enough of money. Not to say the same day. not enough of my substance abuse am I able to achieve in Canada the second time I went to Canada I drove a tank though

so at this point I feel like if I feel like if I go back too many times I'm just going to end up prime minister right first time I took a gun and second time I drove a tank and then afterward you can pork down Katie Perry

yeah a lot of money I don't even know that nine's hitting my palms are sweaty dude the six when I first got into sixes I was like oh and then I just stopped forever Sometimes I fall asleep with nines in my face still.

Are you serious? Yeah. Oh, tear, Lord. Yeah, it's bad, dude. Like, it's not okay. Nobody knows how bad I am other than me. I think that's just called passing out. You didn't go to sleep.

You just fucking lost consciousness. I fell asleep with my clothes on in my urine. Yeah, it's a stimulant. Yeah. Yeah. Feel it. Oh, my God. It's the perfect genes.

Right? I can leave. Running. Get on his shoulders. Up here, big boy. Try the perfect jeans out as earmuffs. Brandon, how perfect are they? Feels like the perfect jeans.

They're so flexible. I'm fat. I can actually do squats on them. Usually as an issue. I'm not kidding. I'm picturing you doing squats in the gym with these jeans. They are like... Eli's just mauging on the audience right now.

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It's real denim, but not the heavy stuff. I just like how they finally say that we can say, fuck your khakis, which is works great pretty much everywhere except for Boston, I'm sure. just means the valet is quitting. For a limited time, our listeners get 15% off their first order plus free shipping at the perfect gene. Or Google the perfect gene and use code unsub 15 to get 15% off.

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Connor loves perfect jeans. He does. They fit him really nice. Oh, pants. Completely off the reels here. We started a conversation just before camera started rolling. You're on a television show. Yeah.

Well, sort of. Well, I mean, it's not. I would feel like that's like a half-pregnant thing. Like you either are or you're not. Yeah, so I did get a chance to do his show. And it was because it's because of the work with Funker 530. Because what we started doing, I host a live show for Funker 530 every Friday, right? I'll give you, I'll work backwards from there.

So every Friday, what I do, rather than just show you, here's a video of some poor bastard running from a drone while he looks back at it. What I try to do is, A, not cover too much of that shit. It's been documented. We understand the capability that drones bring. The real conversation... That's not just war porn. The real conversation... Correct.

That's the intent, at least. The conversation I have about drones is that they really transcend all of our warfighting functions. You know, when you look at logistics, intelligence, fires themselves. So actually kinetic strikes. Drones are what are being used.

In Kazivak, right? They're putting casualties on, unmanned ground vehicles and taking them out of the battle space. So when we have one of those transcendent things with drones, that's when I cover that stuff. I mean,

speaking of which, just a couple days ago, Ukraine took out that Russian submarines. Like a half billion dollar sub. They took out with an underwater drone. Yeah.

Yeah. So an underwater, they actually just released, I was looking at it right before we started some satellite photos. And Russia currently, this is like classic Russia,

is saying, uh, but they took satellite photos before and after and all the other subs have been moved except for that one. They were like, no,

see, it's still there. It just happens to be a floating dead sub. We're still there because it's a f***ed whale, you idiots. So, I mean, drones themselves, they transcend everything, all war fighting functions. The entire crew just got sleepy. They're fine.

The subs on its side because it's taking a nap. So the live show every Friday, it's meant I actually give you like a geolocation of where this video takes place relative to the flot, the forward line of troops. And I say, look, man, this is where this video takes place. This is the general operation that's taking place around it. This is, you know, at least my assessment as an intel deweeb. I'm the most pogged dude to ever peruse the internet. Trust me.

Meanwhile, Russians are watching your live stream like, it's weird now? Oh, dude, I got, I got dossed by Russia. No shit. Yeah, my whole home network got taken down multiple times when I first started a live show. No, that's. Yeah, it was my own fault, but. What'd you do? It's kind of hard to say because it was a distributed denial of,

service this gets into my civilian background. So I was a cybersecurity guy for like 14 years in the intelligence community. But I was live streaming one of our first live shows. Is that hail? No, it's just rain. It's just rain. And we were doing so much website traffic that our website crashed. And a cloud flare, which is one of our at the time hosting services, I guess, sort of popped up, a cloud fair message popped up with my IP. So my external interface IP in the middle of the live show, I've got like 20,000 concurrent viewers. My whole home network just dropped, right? So, I mean, being a former cybersecurity guy, like he used to conduct digital forensics investigations into like, you know, child, stuff like that.

Like I used to really be active in cybersecurity. I took a look through my logs. And it's difficult when it's a distributed denial of service because that means it comes from many, many, many different places. an overwhelming majority of the IPs that were hitting my forward interface were all Russian. So, but you could be in fucking California and hire a DDoS service.

There used to be what's, the nerds out there will know, the high orbit ion canon, that shit that anonymous used to use or that became popular with like the 4chan, the script kiddies and stuff. Anyway, I still believe

that it was either somebody that was just fucking around, which is a high likelihood, or it was quite literally, you know, just a state-sponsored actor, which is something I dealt with for, I did cyber counterintelligence. I dealt with foreign intelligence entities getting placement and access into that monitor and that computer down there and a supply chain level. That was my focus. What would you have done that would have pissed off the Ruskies? I don't know, really, because it's really about just conveying

what's happening. So you weren't even like delving down into like the partisan nature of it. I actually don't care much about that, to, you know, to be honest. As Russia looking at how. they present themselves or even North Korea is a good example they try to present we are winning we are strong if you have oh we can access a VPN watch American news and then you have an individual breaking down their their failures at a military level now it's causing discourse in their own home country it's like oh we're not as good as we think we are fuck we've been presented we're unstoppable well in those early days Russia was just what Russia was just taking ground like

within the first couple days dude they had made it all all the way to Kiev, right? And there are, one of the most watched videos on Funker 530 right now is a video of a Russian saboteur team making its way in with a, in an armored personnel carrier, and they just start taking fire from all over the place in Kiev, right? Those early days, Russia in that very kind of like, I wouldn't say, Blitzkrieg-esque, but more or less just barreling in, they made a lot of ground. And eventually they were pushing in, taking airports. Like, They were, they were. So the siege of when they took Ostermel is, is what that is, right?

So they, their intent was to have a launch pad from Hostomel to be able to funnel more combat power into and eventually force a capitulation early. That's the airport where the Spets and Os took. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the wildest footage, right, having, you know, really about a decade worth of combat footage review, because even before I was with 530, I was doing like initial analysis on ice. releases when I was supporting the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency at one point. And when ISIS would release their footage, one of the things that you try to do is geolocate stuff.

And you say, okay, what's the skyline look like? Can I triangulate this? Like geogessor type shit. Exactly. Yeah. He will not divide us level like. What? Are you familiar with that?

Yeah. Not to derail, but it was like the Shial above. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you had 4chan that was looking at like the fucking flight patterns in the sky. They would find it within 12 hours. Autism. Weaponized autism.

So I was doing that for a few years. And then, you know, now at 530 it's something I just kind of continue. And going back, the intent was to take Ossimel, right, were able to then funnel more combat power in. But that position became untenable because they had like five different fronts they were advancing on. They came from Chernobyl in Bernouz, not Bernouz, excuse me, Belarus. They pushed to try and establish the land bridge between the Dombas and Crimea, which they were successful in doing.

That land bridge is now established. That was a sub-function or a sub-goal of theirs. But they had all of these different fronts, and it just functionally was not a tenable position for them. So early on, I was helping people kind of understand some of those nuances to what, at a strategic level in operation like this looks like. That's the that's all source intelligence is really supposed to be able to describe things at a at a 30,000 foot level and distill them in a way that makes sense, right? It's only as good as the analyst though. So I've met half of my platoon way

back in 2007 that went through AIT got thrown out for coke abuse. So intelligence is less about the what's the term that they use where it's it's the job title not the description right so but that's the the Funker 530 live shows I try and I try and place it in time and space for you as best as I can from a if you if you take things up to a larger perspective I think there is some level of value in debasing our adversaries there has to be an end state behind that to a certain perspective like there has there we have to know when that's gonna when we're not that's that's no longer tenable for us. And I don't claim to know enough to know when that is.

My goal and my job at 530 with the live show is, this is this video, this is the technique that you're seeing. This is how it fits into an overall strategy. This is where it takes place in time and space. Let's move on to the next video. When you say adversaries, do you mean adversaries of the United States? Absolutely. Yeah. So we do have adversaries. A lot of people that don't believe that we do. 13 years in the intelligence community and everything from counterintelligence to threat intelligence. I can tell you that there are big four that are out there that are actively and 100% at all times positioning themselves against the United States. Russia. Iran.

North Korea. North Korea. Yeah. North Korea actually has a really capable cyber program. Good job. They are their cyber program is fucking, that's where they spent a lot of their resources. Yes. It's like, hey, we have to develop these individuals and this is how we're going to make money since we're restricted.

on fucking everything. So, which is learn to hack, learn to crush. No, they, they like. No, no, I'm just saying, I was going to say this is, that's very entertaining to me, considering we were wiping them off the board with that early on because they were attempting it.

And we were just like, oh, dude, they're running like 30-year-old windows. So if you think back, North Korea actually crossed a boundary that nobody had before, right? So back in my day when I was still doing this, I can't believe I'm old enough to say that. Which is when? I left.

Fulst-time cybersecurity work in 2022 when I did the TV show. No, no, no, no. So that's actually where it gets interesting. I dropped into the organization that would eventually become U.S. Cyber Command when I was 20 years old. My entire career in the Army is, that's why I say I'm the most POG to ever be. I am King POG and you will not unseat me. We can even fight about that if you'd like. But my entire military career has been Army Reserve.

So in parallel, and I've got a old diatribe that I go into about like using solely your military service as a measurement of your value on, you know, back to the world. But in parallel, my civilian career was progressing much faster. By the time I was 20 in 2009, 2010-ish, I joined an organization that would eventually turn into United States Cyber Command, co-located with the NSA. I was also Army Reserve, so I had yet to deploy. I didn't deploy until 2013 with the Army Reserve. So by that time, I had moved into cyber counterintelligence. We were investigating foreign intelligence entities that were actively compromising, like, critical networks and stuff that we use.

I even did some liaison work for the agency. Starts with the C ends with agency. I moved under the DHS umbrella eventually. I started moving into management a little bit out of the technical, but that's where I started to get into a little bit of digital forensics. So long story short, he knows exactly what you watch during those four minutes that you're getting your hair gel. Dude.

Concert's hair gel sponsor starts now. Hey, what's up? That's actually what pushed, so moving, that final move. Running low on our pre-order inventory, so I'm going to need some gatorade. This guy likes blondes. Just with one scoop. That last move.

is what pushed me out of the government. I'm going to be honest. So once I got into kind of insider threat type stuff, like misuse versus insider threat, that's when it became like, holy fuck, growing up, I thought that the government

and their employees were supposed to be the best of us. So being exposed, being exposed to the actual investigations that are being done behind the scenes, we investigated everything from child, to drug use with government laptops, to drug sales with government laptops, government laptops. Now, I'm not, that's not me saying there are absolutely good people that are

working in government. I mean people that wake up every day in their sole job and function is to serve the people of the United States by fulfilling a role within government that they want to. But the hypocrisy that I ran into of holding government office, they are most certainly not by and writ large the best of us, in my opinion. No, I'm going to ask you a question that may I was like my be cut. My break lines are currently being cut as we speak. Cody. Cody.

Cody. Cody. Cody. Hmm. You remember the big wallet I had that was leather and crusty? The one that hurt your back, it was so big. That one. Hmm.

Guess what I got now? A little wallet? Yes, by Rich. It was one of many things that hurt your back because it was so big. Brandon's wallet blew his back out. You've been cheating. But now we have Ridge Wallet. Tyler, how do you like your American Ridge Wallet?

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Head over to RIDGE.g.com. Get up to 47% off your order. Almost 50% off your order at Ridgewallat.com. This is by far the biggest discount they've given all year. That's rich.com to get 47% off. After your purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and let them know we sent you. I'm going to ask you a question that may have to be cut from this,

but did you ever run into a scenario where you're investigating one of these things and somebody came from higher up and told you, yeah, you're going to drop that. No, yes and no. So we ran into a couple of investigations where, so, a lot of what we worked, I'll use an example outside of like childbirth or anything like that, right? I'll use an example of like classified information spillage. We worked a lot of those. That happens a lot where you've got, so you've got these.

Especially on War Thunder servers. Oh my God, dude, don't let me go. That discord. So it sucks being on the outside looking into a lot of these things because there are layers to things that I can be involved in from a conversational perspective. but this is actually really interesting. Well, I shouldn't say interesting. It's interesting to me. We ran into a couple of instances where egos got in the way of holding people accountable

for potential loss of actual national security information. And what I mean by that is you have this, there are absolutely still organizations out there that have this factional understanding of like the contractors, because I was a contractor for all of my time. So I was considered a cybersecurity subject matter expert. they would hire us to come in to do the real technical nuance. And I did that for many different companies for, again, almost 15 years. Well, we were the dirty contractors and we weren't allowed to be the ones to say,

hey, government, you know, SES, whatever position that you hold, GS-15, you fucked up because you printed on an unclassified printer that has access to an unclassified system using your classified system, which means that that is technical. technically now stored on a classified system. You you fucked up and we have to write that up. So there are, there were situations that we ran into where somebody was like, I don't work for you and I'm going to make sure that you guys have problems with your contract in the future. And it's like, what do you, are you threatening like our business because you had a security violation right now, dude?

Like that's not how this works at all. There's actually one of the organizations I support it, and I'm not going to go too far into this, but it just hit the news not too long ago. It starts with an F and it ends with emergency management agency. I'd recommend you go and Google some of their cybersecurity organization that was recently fired. I ended my career with that organization. That was the one that I stepped away from to step into the TV show, actually. Just because they were bleeding out? Well, it wasn't necessarily just that.

after about 10, 11, 12 years worth of doing this, I started to realize I'm an inside dog, or I'm an outside dog stuck inside. I am not meant for corporate life. That's not my, this is not my game. I need to find an exit strategy. And that exit strategy came primarily a Funker 530, but when I got brought onto the TV show, it was like, this is it. I'm done. So feel free to tell me to fuck off. But was that about the same time as like the Appalachian hurricane relief stuff? Or no, no. So this is actually more recent than that. It's fun. Oh. It's interesting because I got a call from actually the lady I hired to be, well, I didn't, I brought her back. So I deployed, there's a whole story that goes along with, you know, you Sarah rights. So uniform services employment and reemployment rights act. If you deploy for the military, they have to hold your job for you. And you have what's called the escalator clause. The escalator clause means that if you left for a deployment or even if you voluntarily, chose to sign up for the military, say you were supposed to automatically receive a promotion

in two years. And for some reason, you got back at two and a half. You get that promotion and you get your job back. That's called the escalator clause. When I left for my first deployment, second deployment, excuse me, I was in the task order lead position at the time. There was not a program manager position. Task order lead, like 15 or so employees ran a security operation Center. One of the guys that I hired as like one of my employees was who they chose to backfill me as the task order lead. And then they hired him as the program manager while I was gone. And when I came back, I had to work for him. Right. So eventually that work, that problem worked itself out. That is not how USERRA rights works. So if you're watching this and you're dealing with a USERRA

problem, make sure to reach out to ESGR, employer support to the Guard and Reserve. They will, they will hook you up and help you out. Amazing organization. So the lady that I put that I ended up really handing the reins off to, I had brought back because she was just so good. She called me like two months ago and was like, hey, I want you to Google FEMA and click on news right now. And basically a good old boy system got torn down.

And it was that last straw for me that was kind of like, dude, I can't do this anymore. Like, I need to work for myself. I need to have nine jobs or something to pay the bills, which is exactly how it worked out. And I work more now than I ever have for way less money. But that's why I drink Elijah Craig. But, you know, I'm getting long-winded about it. But you get these, you fall into what is considered like a dream career and you're like,

wow, this is going to be amazing. And then through exposure to just absolute bullshit and politics and corporate life, you just realize that if you have a dream and my dream was always to do what I do now, give it a go, dude, seriously. Now we're afloat, you know, my kids are fed. My oldest daughter is playing for our state's Olympic selection team. So the Olympic development pool just got that message like while we were live that she made the like most recent cut. Hell yeah. What's more? Soccer. And I know, I don't know, fuck all about soccer. Do you know. I know, no, nothing. about soccer.

No, Americans typically aren't good at it. Somebody's going to yell at me for calling it's soccer. Football. Anyway. Yeah, so you live of the dream and still drinking Elijah Craig. Well, so, man, I've just got nothing but stories tonight. Holy shit. Because you had mentioned, you said that there was a reason why you'd brought Elijah Craig.

I did. I actually brought this for you guys. And then now I'm the only one that's drank any of it. What's funny is I drank some of it before you guys even got here. No, if that's it. So Elijah Craig, I'm more of a bourbon enjoyer than a knower, but there are some people that consider Elijah Craig to be the father of all bourbon. So he was born in Virginia. I mentioned being a Virginian earlier. I don't know if you remember. Yeah. So he was a Baptist. I swear we hear thunder. God hates that joke. He was a Baptist preacher, but he wasn't like, it wasn't like certified or whatever the right word is for that. Or dang. Yeah, but this is like 1760s, something like that.

1789, it looks like on the bottle. Well, that might be when he started it down in Kentucky, but he was born in like the 1730s in Virginia. And in my hometown, I live in a town near a town called Culpepper, Virginia. And what's your address? Yeah, it's... It looks at his watch to determine his address. Yeah, I don't know.

How much more time do we have before I get asked what my social security number is? Anyway, he was actually jailed in Culpepper, Virginia. And every year they do this awesome little celebration in Culpepper about that. And the propaganda 100% sold me. It's also cheap and I'm poor. So that's why I drink it. What to go to jail for? For preaching without having the appropriate certification to do that as a Baptist.

So that's why he was put in jail. It was a big religious liberty kind of thing for him. I should be able to preach. Free First Amendment then? No. Well, actually, that would have been. That certainly would have been, actually. I keep looking at 1789.

I'm like, well. No, so because that was when he would move to Kentucky and established, you know, his distillery, right? 1789. Anyway, yeah, that's why I drink it. It's pretty good, you know, I enjoy it. It's always wild back in the day. I'm like, how did people know? It's at home.

It's a two-week ride. Okay, I'll trust him. I'm just like, f***ed off. I'm not going to. check records for that shit back in the day. I'm just, I'm blown away by that. That's just like such a British. Oh, you got a license to preach.

Yeah. I'm just spreading the gospel. You got a license for that license. Like, motherfuck. Also, Trout, what you've done in the last few months, what has been your favorite video you have covered for your conspiracies and then? That's amazing. Man, what an interesting video idea.

Dude, really? That's amazing, dude. Where does he get his inspiration from? That's a thing. Most riveting section of the podcast. He lost weight, right? James is just going to cut to one and then back to it. It's like, oh, hey, I'm here.

Fucking, oh, so North Korea's, their GDP, 13% of it comes from cybercrime. Dude, it's so bad. From cyber crime? That's what I'm saying. I never even finished. I got on the back in my day thing. I don't know why. Like a squirrel, you know.

Squirrel. Could it be the 9 milligram Zins and the 1,300 milligrams of caffeine? My wife is a wonderful patient woman. I'll put it that way. So they actually crossed the first boundary, right? So back in my day, they called it computer network exploitation versus computer network attack, right? So exploitation being, imagine the online version of the Cold War, where you're doing it solely for the purposes of espionage and intelligence gain. Right.

Attack being something that's so much more harmful. You're destroying information. You're taking information down. Actively going on the offensive. Yes. Just trying to penetrate networks. So Sony, when they released the interview, which prominently showcases. an actor acting to be their dear leader.

Great movie, by the way. It's a fantastic movie. I love that movie. As much as I may not like Seth Roken. Their servers were hacked into and things were deleted. So that crossed the boundary from exploitation or espionage online into attack because they were destroying information. And that was, I wouldn't say like an epiphany or a revelation of any kind.

because the difference between espionage or, you know, gathering something for intelligence value and for the destructive intent is solely intent. Right? So it's the same level of placement and access. If somebody wants to take your router down, if they just want to collect on you, they're going to gain the same level of access to do that. So all the difference is between espionage or exploitation and attack. is intent. Do you think we should airstrike them because McDonald's made billions of dollars last year? Sure.

I don't care. I know somebody who agrees. There we go. He's gone. I know. Oh, my God. Now I've got to pee. All my pee pee peeve is gone.

The bet. A thousand pounds later. Dude, on stage when you have to hold it is the worst. I've only left stage once during a live show and I was like, this morning, this morning I just told, Brandon, I had a dream this morning. It was like fucking 7 a.m. 6 a.m. I had a dream where I pissed in my dream and I did not piss in real life.

Oh. That's got to be the first time that's ever happened. Dude, that happened a lot when I was a kid and it's always that's like you wake up. I would always have to pee really back. Did you wake up and you're, yeah, I patted myself down and I'm like, oh, and then sprinted to the bathroom. Dude, I used to do that. It was the dumbest shit in the world, but yeah, I had a dream where I was pissing at a urinal. One of my favorite Charlie Classic skits is the.

Are you like falling asleep and you had to poop? And then you wake up and you don't. You're like, where'd the poop goes? Your body reabsorves it. Yeah, exactly. Everyone's like, why don't have to poop now? You have to take a shit so bad that you like, you have to hold it in whatever situation you're in. And then it just goes away.

And you're like, where did it go? Anytime. But dude, one of the last live shows, that was I was actively watching the timer as it's getting close. It's too close to run to the pisser. And I'm like, and I look at Nick and he's like I have to piss up and I was like okay cool I love everyone

let's give a nice round of applause and I'm like okay and it's like oh you have to give away the flag I'm like oh the love yeah we whole ass forgot to do that in Jersey I didn't know that was why throw it y'all got to put a tablecloth in front

and then it just have empty milk jugs real awkward for the people taking photos backstage dude I was like and thank you Put it down. Me and Nick are sprinting to the first restaurant. In Boston, I played it fast and loose on the flight there with that airplane food.

And I am dead serious. I was about to shit myself on stage. I was eating airplane chili. It was, I was in the restroom. This sushi sounds amazing. Have you ever shared? Odd choice. Like, legit.

Like in public, like full on shit yourself? No. Just like. No. Knock on wood. What about your head? Oh, yeah. I've had, I've told my poop story when I got super shit.

I was home, so I was good. I came to damn. I was a contractor and I was working on somebody's house who's actually a fan of the show. I worked on your house. I can't remember your name. I love you and your wife. And I was in a small town and there's one gas station. And I'm just like working on their house.

It was like, oh, no. And I get my truck and I just left my tools all over the front yard. and I gun it to this fucking gas station. I get there, and it's middle of winter. It's like January, and I got my bibs. And so I'm, like, literally taking them off as I'm, like, running into the gas station. But it's hard. It's way harder than normal to take them bibs off at that time.

And they got a want. So it's like, you go in. Fire motor skills are all. There's a, oh, God. There's a urinal, and there's a stall. I kick in the fucking door. I unhooked my fibbs. As I'm running in, I'm, like, unzipping them.

And I was probably wearing this sweater because this is my cold winterwear. and I unbuckle my pants and is one of those ones where like you're squatting down and halfway there it's there. Two seconds later

two seconds later do do do do do the stall and I was like sorry buddy and I just hear through the fucking stall door he goes

oh god oh so when you hear poof noises and it's like there's only a year or not a year or not

today was my day not your day. We bet it all on black and we've been this close. Like a full on shit yourself. It was enough for me to realize that's not a fart. And so my wife watches a lot of what I do. I said my wife watched it. So she's involved.

She just doesn't know it. Oh, is she about to discover this? Yeah. Yeah, this is the first time I've ever, she doesn't know this at all. So sorry, Mrs. Well, so my wife is actually my high school best friend's younger sister, first of all. I've known her since I was a teenager. And she was eight. I changed her death. That was inappropriate.

I mean, she was 13 when I met her. So it's not that far off. I just wasn't, you know, I was also a young teenager. So this is last week. Anyway, I'm pretty sure. I'm like, I don't know, eight years older than you are actually. Well, probably. Yeah. I mean, how old are you? I'm 36. Yeah, so six years.

Yeah. Fair enough. So I was on my way to take her on one of our first dates and I'm driving down the road. And let's just put it this way. At one point in time, I was obese and did not have the best, like, diet. Which shocked the shit out of me when we were talking about this off camera. Oh, yeah. I had no clue.

I have more stretch marks than my wife, and she's had, she has given our family three beautiful children. So you said you weighed at your peak. You were what, 270 you said? I was close to 270, yeah. Shit, no shit. Yeah. So I know we haven't talked about the fitness challenge shit in a long time.

You too could look like Ronnie. Yeah. I mean, that's like an entire, entire thing that I talk about all the time is if my stupid ass can figure it out, you can. You lost a human being's worth of weight. I over 120 pounds at my at my lightest so I got all the way down to like one one 558 one something like that so um I was fat when I went into basic training and then I blew up when we had our first baby like we both just really enjoy cake I still enjoy cake so much dude like I like a way into I have a sugar problem I'll just put it that way um but I blew up dude I got all the way up again close to two seven and I have a couple pictures. There's really only two or three pictures that I have of that time.

And it's really about like little lifestyle changes, you know, like small changes that you can make that don't send you down a path of something that's going to contend every day with you. Right. So the simplest change that you can make, and I know people are going to laugh at this because they're going to say, well, that's just as bad is stop drinking sugary sodas. and switch to like zero calorie sodas. Yes, it is fucking bad for you. I understand that. What's your goal? Is your goal to be holistically healthy?

Then don't drink fucking either of them. But if your goal is to lose weight, cut that part of the sugar out, right? So make that small change. And then you can make the small changes like moving from simple carbs to complex carbs. But losing that amount of weight just teaches you so much over time.

And how did we end up getting on my weight loss? Oh, my, I shit myself. That's how we ended up here. Anyway, this was a time of my life that I was fat and I was eating really dog shit foods. I was on my way to take my wife out for one of our first dates. And I got the bubble guts. And I was like, yeah, it's fine. It was not fine.

Things were not okay. And I realized right away. And you know how you kind of like sit up a little bit? You're like, whoa, bud. That came close. Well, it wasn't close. So I had to pull off on the side of the road. And for some reason that day, I was wearing whitties.

I'll never forget that. And that's, that is, nine? No. I don't know why. That's what I was wearing white. Did you have the intention of, exactly the statement? I'm like, were you nine? I'm having sex with your wife?

I know you were just going on a date. No, actually, but no, we were. That was not the probability. you're just going in completely unshavened whitey tides. Yeah. Yeah, I was wearing wighty tides. But I don't longer... Let me put it this way.

I no longer have those whitey tides. They ended up in some random person's driveway trash can. I go to be so pinchie put them another. Listen, if you can't admit to shitting yourself, if you want shit yourself, you need to... Fair enough. I will say, yeah, if you've shit yourself on up to it. Yeah.

I mean, everybody's had that moment where you trusted a part a little too much. But you know, you kind of do the swipe to just feel if it's a little bit. Y'all are fucking disgusting. No, there's, I've not shit myself since I was a child. But I thought you were talking about, like, actually like, shit yourself, shit yourself. Well, there's, there was definitely poo.

Oh, well, that's not great. It's a downhill. No, and what you missed, it was on the way to take my wife on one of our first dates. So I had to pull off into somebody's driveway and figure, figure that out. No, so you just free one. Because there was nothing between, we lived in the sticks by then, you know. There was nothing between it. There was no bathroom anywhere between my location.

in hers. That farmer went out to take the trash out in God's me. The weirdest surprise ever. Huh. Honey? Or the wife found it. I don't care. Why does it, why does it say R. Adkins? He's got his name written. It probably, it actually probably did because this is like post basic, well, no, this wouldn't have been, it might have been post-basic training. Thinking about the vehicle that I was in. Yeah, it probably was. Actually, so that means I would have had my last. four written on there like you know an absolute dork because for some reason so they make you write like you're the last four of your at the time it was social but now you have your dod ID number that you can use in your underwear yeah you have to write that on fucking everything so like out of just habit like all of my shit used to be labeled with my last initial first

the last four of my social so it probably did have like some identifying mark on it now that You could list those four numbers. What would they be? 9988. Yeah. Mother's maiden name? Adkins. Your parents are related?

They weren't married. I'm actually a weaver, to be honest with you. So my... So her maiden name is... That first joke is like... Yeah. Wait, what? Yeah, that's a, that's, that's a lot.

Let me put it that way. Like, we were adopted into the Adkins name. Like, I've got no relation to it. You know, I'm technically a weaver. Oh, okay. So, like my, yeah, no, that's a lineal name, but you adopted your mother's name. Yeah. Okay.

Yes. Yes. I love how you immediately just saw, you knew what he meant, but you saw the kill shot for an ass joke. Nope. Thanks, man. You know, what part of Virginia? Exactly.

Is there a West in that somewhere? How far are a West? Actually, a lot of my family is from West Virginia. Yep. The Atkins part specifically. No, actually, I have no relation to the Adkins' name at all. I'm surprised. My sperm donors carry the name Weaver.

I just have very little interaction with that side of the family at all. But that's actually the name that we traced all the way back. the adkins we actually know have no idea where that where that comes from because we were adopted into it my grandfather was adopted into the adkins name and no shit yeah yeah so like the closest thing that i've got either ellis's or weavers hmm i got really into like the ancestry thing at one point i paid for like the top tier you know not the one that's like you we'll give you a couple hints i mean like though the spendy one where it's like, we will tell you everything about your, like, your articles and shit.

Yeah. They exhume your great, great grandfather and mail him to you. It's actually amazing. You know, it's super expensive. It only worth it if it really matters to you. And it's not necessarily that it does, but I did try college at one point in time. And it was like, you know, they wanted you to write an article about your history. I was like, I don't know fucking shit about my family's history.

I'm adopted into this name. but I ended up being able to trace my family back to Martin's Hundred and being an indentured servant at Martin's Hundred. Where from originally before that? So it's like English and Scottish, I guess. And then the other side of, so the weavers married the Bow Myers, which are French. So we traced them back to a small town in France to like a, I don't know, like a priest or something like that. But it's so interesting being able to trace that.

And then we also did the same thing for my wife. Like she's like Scandinavian. She's a fucking Viking. Dude, I'm punching like nine weight classes above my, above my weight at the moment. Let me put it that way. And still shitting yourself on the way.

Still shied myself on the way. Figuring that out. It's day to day. Getting revenge for 700 years ago. It's all seed of the pants, but it's got to be different pants every day because I keep shit myself. It's a history joke.

I love it. I say I paid for the same thing with the, yeah. Where you get like news articles and shit. Yeah, dude, it's true. I don't want to discuss it because I don't want people to be able to figure out who I am. But, yeah, you can find, like news articles about your great, great grandpa and shit. And I traced all my shit all the way back to like 1602. Can I, can you at least tell the story with your, uh, your sister?

Oh, yeah. My little sister did, uh, she did, um, 23 and me or one of those or whatever. And she gets her results back, which I was like, me and all my siblings kind of agreed, like, we don't want to do that. We don't want our fucking DNA out there because they outsource it and they sell it to different people. No, they don't.

Different groups. Anyway, my little sister did it. She gets the results back. And so, like, genetically we're, you know, 85% British and then what's the difference? 15% Scandinavian. And she's like, I didn't know we had Viking blood in us. And I was like, I don't know if you've cracked open

a history book. but she's like oh that's so cool and you're like oh no that ancestor didn't think it was so that yeah the joke that I've made since then is I come from a long line of very strong men and very slow women

that's a good shirt you shouldn't do that I think that's called probable cause but I think there was that one because I've talked about this with my dad and stuff like that

is that there was that one crime that got solved, which like objectively good that the crime got solved, I think it was a homicide or something. No, you were talking about the California police officer that was a serial. I don't know. He had nothing. No, this is, he like a shit ton of it.

But it got solved by 23 and me because they used that for, they had their database and the government cracked it open to, not cracked it open, like they hacked it. The eye something, eye tin killer? I don't know. Oh, I just heard about it. this recently yeah I know enough to know what happened I don't know enough to know any

relevant details like a serial killer who got caught original nightstocker the East area and the Golden State killer he was the exact same individual but um that's truck driver no he's a police officer fuck that's why he never got caught because he was like oh I just got to do this and then I can never get hide everything that the police are going to look for and I'm good So, and it's crazy because it was 51 R words. I hate, I can't say that. Fucking so stupid. What is it?

R words forced encounters. Oh, 13 murders, 51. I, isn't it wild looking, but, hey, there's 13 murders. That's so. 51 R words. That's so fucking retarded that you can't talk about. You cannot. And you can say that one.

You can say retarded. I could say 51 retarded. You can't say fucking Hitler, you can't say Nazis. You actually, those last two you can say. Really? Yeah. Oh, what are we talking about like on you for YouTube? YouTube.

Yeah. Where it's like, there's no rule against it, but they, they hate it. Yeah. History is being fucking abridged. Oh, and like I made that video where I was talking about this like horrific, horrific story where there was this fucking guy who is just like the one of the most egregious. of all time. And that shit got age restricted

because you cannot talk about not once did I say oh, you know, kids is great. By no stretch of the fucking imagination. It's like, no, this is a horrific thing that people should be aware of.

This guy was, he was a politician, he walked away from everything, he was a egregious fucking p-bill. Sorry, whoever's editing this. You're going to have to bleep Chase have fun. A lot of this. Sorry, Chase, Orfan, whichever of you.

He just clips the one part. It's like, can't fucking kids. It's great. No, it's not what I mean. I said that out loud. I was like, let me shut the fuck up before I get myself in trouble. Somebody's going to clip that out. That video was like it was the pre-Ebstein.

It was like the Epstein before Epstein. It was the Epstein case before the fucking Epstein case. It was exactly the same we've seen it before. That was like the quote unquote joke I made an intro. And it was so that killer, the Golden State Killer, because of forensic genetic genealogy.

Lawrence King Jr. Lawrence King Jr. was his name. But one of the family members did a genealogy test, and then it was like, FBI was like, yo, hold up. Wait a minute. This DNA is very close. And then it's like, oh, that's our grandpa. And it was the individual that was doing it.

And then everyone was surprised because it was a police. officer. And they're like, what the cops can be bad people too? Weird. Weird. So you did a so with how was the the new information? I know you had a Pee-P and then I had a P-Pee-P, everyone

pee-ped. But what was your favorite story in the last couple of months like with the deep diving you're doing? Favorite one was this is obscure. I know everybody has that like this expectation that I'm like the conspiracy theory guy or whatever. But I I love just having a random-ass question in my mind. We're going about daily life.

Oh, no, I know where this is going. Yeah, yeah. Like, why this? Why that? Like, good questions. Why, how can that, blah, blah, blah, blah. Did that today. How does fiber optic work?

Oh, that's, something like that. Still convinced that was brought to us by aliens. Fiber optics? I know how it works and it still destroys my mind. The glass two blinky light. I know. I was like, but how dada? I'm like, ha,

light get here. That's what I know. Why can I watch Interstellar? I will never be able to rebuild humanity. It's the meme of traveling back in time trying to explain electricity to medieval peasants. And you're like, yeah, no, but like, fucking. Look, I looked at this little brick and it had light on it

and I got depressed. It works, man. Hard cut to a kite This guy in a key I think this is what he did This is what he did I don't know how it gets But so this like recurring theme

That would always come up with like My boys back home that I've been friends with Since we were in fucking seventh grade Is I love Sprite I love Sprite soda And every time I would see an advertisement for Sprite It was always targeted towards African Americans It's all basketball themed

It was like LeBron James Is their spokesperson person for forever. Every time a commercial comes on, it's just always black people in Sprite commercials. And I'm like, that's weird. Like you see a Coke commercial and they do the, you know, the same thing like Netflix does where it's like, oh, here's, you know, a person of every race and, you know, a transgender, they, them.

It's for everybody. Yeah. But then every time I saw a Sprite commercial, it was like exclusively black people. And I'm like, why is Sprite like marketed exclusively to black people? and so I dove into that and that was like a shockingly popular video apparently a lot of people were interested in the answer to that question bro I'm asking that question I'm like man

because everybody knows I need you I need you to continue because I'm and then I get a new change it to me at this point yeah because you're not wrong he's not wrong and you think back to just about any advertisement for for Sprite well it started out like back in the 1960s well well before then like 1950s I'm trying to this was like two months ago I made this video so if the details are foggy I apologize you can watch the actual video over at the king trout YouTube or pepperbox or pepperbox crucify him he's wrong but back in the like 1950s there was

this guy down here in Texas and he made this or he made a a group of sodas that he called Sprite and it was just fruit flavored sodas kind of similar to Fanta, but he brand named Sprite. The origin story behind Fanta will get to another day. Yeah, which I made a joke about that. Everybody's heard the fucking origin story. It was the Nazis and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Wait to hear about Volkswagen. Yeah. Similar story. Dude made Sprite. I was just going to invent a random company to throw under the bus. Like, oh yeah, same with, you know, Desani or whatever the fuck. You're going to fucking hate to hear the story about Bayer. as you get killed by big pharma just for the implication here now

Zyclone. He didn't work. Let's try something else out. So this guy made this brand of, yeah, God doesn't like that joke. I was just about to make that joke when it happened. Multiple, like, fruit flavored sodas didn't really pan out. Coke wanted the brand name Sprite. For what reason?

I don't know. they bought it and then they had this lemon lime soda to compete with 7-Up because 7-Up is independent. Same with Dr. Pepper. So there's Pepsi, there's Coke. And then there's also Dr. Pepper and 7-Up. A lot of people think Dr. Pepper and 7-Up

are owned by either Pepsi or Coke, but they're their own fucking thing. I thought Dr. Pepper was Pepsi, yeah. No, Dr. Pepper's the one I do know. It's just like... It's his own animal. It's doing his Texas thing. I played a lot of their game,

growing up, the Heads Up Seven Up game? Yes, I remember as well. You put your head down? He looks really confused. Yeah, that... We're not going to explain Heads Up 7 Up. You can watch that in my next video where I explain Heads Up 7 Up. Anyway, that's related to the company?

No. It's a children's game. I figured. I was just like, wait a minute, hold on. You drop in lore here? No, it's like hide and seek, but when you're sitting at a desk. Oh, yeah, brand new is homeschool. Never mind.

Oh, fuck off. People are going to shit on me because they're like, If you never finish a story, I get interrupted all the time. How high was that Stonewall? Yeah. Do that again in your arm, Mr. Congressman. I could end that career. It's like Nacho Libre trying to keep the mask on.

So, Coke wanted, seven up was coming up in the rankings, and Coke wanted competition, so they bought the name Sprite. And then they're selling essentially a seven up clone. It did okay. It was just, it's a very neutral soda, whatever. Long story short, it gets to this point where they own this brand, Seven Ups doing all right, Sprite is also doing all right, but they realize there's this untapped market of the urban youth hip hop.

So nobody, none of the big soda manufacturers are like targeting this market. And they're like, oh, well, we have this soda that's like, underperforming, what if we made that like the black soda? Like the, this is the soda of the, of hip hop culture, basketball, etc. But so it's clear.

I guarantee that was one of the first marketing. Problems with. I can sit in that fucking you know that was the first thing somebody says. It's the most like, I recuse myself. It's the most astro-turf

shit. And I genuinely like, feel bad because of like how astro-turfed it was where there were just like like they they saw this untouched market of just like African-American youth culture in the country because this was the early 90s like rap is just becoming a thing you got biggie Tupac fucking snoop dog the didler snoop dog yeah basketball is becoming more popular this is like peak Jordan era and they were like oh how can we sell soda to the colors And they probably got to blur that. Why?

That's what I... What? I think that's fine. That's literally that message. This is a whole bunch of white people. Would you be like, the Mexicans, the... What do we do for them?

Same thing. They were co-opting, they were co-opting like an ethnic culture. Yeah, I don't take that back. I don't take back what I said because it was, like, genuinely, they were just co-opting this culture that was, you know, it was just African-American urban culture at the time, especially in like New York City, Chicago, L.A. And they were like, oh, we're going to exploit them

to make money off of this fucking soda. And here we are 20 years later. And it worked. Well, it just goes to show that if you have enough money behind something, you can pretty much astroturf any sort of cultural message into any people group, unless you're Kamala Harris. Eli is his hander? Yes, sir.

Jagwire. I got to watch Dude that is one of my favorite stories now I was just watching how that one commercial Just fucking Because Jaguar was like You know what? We're going to throw money at this

We're going to hire a media team They're going to produce this amazing commercial Well I think there's a difference between Targeting a specific demographic And just having a bad idea But they target a specific demographic Might be a little too specific We all know

The trans genders do have a few hundred thousand dollars of loose cash floating around to buy a luxury British vehicle. Famously. The they-thems are in the market for Jagbar. What's crazy? Why are you slowly murfing into Sam Elliott? I watch the sunset every day. The they, what's crazy is that individual that did come up with that. He handed off to a marketing team.

And then, but that is the dude that created the Land Rover, the Range Rover. Like, he had home runs under his belt. After that commercial, fast forward, five months. Did they just, like, pull him into a back room and hand him a sword? Oh, dude, they fired. So he was fired. The CEO was fired. And the best thing is you had June of 2024, they were averaging 1950.

vehicles sold a month. June 2025. Guess the number. What was the first number? Sorry? 1, 1950. Per month? Yeah, per month.

I actually thought it would be more than that. I'm going to go 825. I'm going to go 500. $1, Bob. $49. Oh, my God. Yeah. Closest of that going over.

49 is what they started averaging per month, starting April. May. And they're like, huh. Well, they neutered the brand. Dude, and they thought it was, they literally thought this was going to take off for them. They're like, oh, we got it. This is what we need to do.

We'll do this. And then it is Elon's tweet, don't y'all just sell cars? There was no car in that advertisement either. Nope. Change. My dream car is a Jag E-type, 1964. The car literally looks like a penis. But gorgeous penis.

That's why I love it. Yeah, that's why I love it. That's why I want to suck that car off. Yeah, same. If I find you wrapped around the tailpipe of a Jaguar E-type. Put that grill in my mouth. What did I get myself into? Welcome to unsubscribe.

They like, they got to kill that brand and they're still alive because of Land Rover is the only reason. Land Rover's doing great. And they're like, what did you do? It's fucking brand, homies. It's just like Bud Light. They're like, oh, yeah, no, our target demographic. And the people who buy our beverage is frat boys and rednecks. Dylan Mulvaney's who we need.

Pivoting to Shane Gillis was the smartest marketing move. Yeah. That's the only way they could have bounced back from that. Dude, and it's wild that you get to see this, the hundreds of billions of dollars that are spent on it, on like a marketing campaign or a new identity. and you're like, but why? It was lying.

This is not, I don't think this. Boss, because there's going to be a few. It's like, I told you that was a shit fucking idea, bro. Well, I'll counter, Eli, 2% of the population does identify as transgender. So. Well, like, 49 cars. You said, I don't think 2% is that high. Oh, no, yeah, it's like, 2% is gay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because like, yeah, transch is way, way lower. Probably point. to... It's impossible to calculate. Yeah. However... I just... I don't understand...

I don't understand that methodology. But now they're trying so hard to go the other direction. You've got Post Malone. You've got... Shane Gillis. They're sponsoring UFC. Like, they're going overly masculine now. They're like, see, see, we're not gay.

Would you say it's performatively masculine? I don't know. They're not dry firing on their porch. I mean, look at it. Hollywood is an example. You can see how that's working out. But Jaguar watching that today and then reading about it. I was like, bro, if my billion dollar company went down to 49 cars a month, I'd be terrified.

You're saying internationally they sold 49 cars. The entire Europe theater. All of Europe. Oh, my God. 49 cars. That's so few cars. This is Europe. This is where Jaguars home is.

I sold more t-shirts than that last January. And that it was the biggest thing was like, well, the advertising were doing this new brand shift. Then I did not know this. They had nothing in between. They're like, we're going through this new change

and we're not going to sell you any old cars and you have to trust us for the new car. By the way, it's electric. It's going to be about a year and a half gap. And then here's the advertisement that. Oh, so then they had to ride it to. Dear Lord. Am I lying?

Brandon? Am I lying? Their stock price high of this year was just shy of $34. $33? Do you know what it is now?

What was it last year? I'm looking at the high of this year was... Go five years. Watch five years. Five years. Five year... Oh!

Eli knows where dad is going to show. It's like, If you've ever heard of the dragster of the roller coaster. Yes. Holy shit. 700 grand. Doesn't it sound like I'm making this up? Yes.

No, yeah, that graph is insane. No one's going to sell 49. And you're like, no, no, no. 700 grand. The current stock price is $1.22. I call that BRCC. Cut that. I can keep it.

Oh, that is, keep that. Isn't that fucking wild? They went like all electric, did they not? So they, the 52 week high was $33.25. So like just that little metric there. 3325. It is now trading at about a buck 30. They're also a holy British company, so they're getting cooked by their government.

No. So Land Rover is now the main brand that's carrying everything. And they're doing fun. Rovers, they're breaking records, but that is their secondary company and they're like, where are Land Rover's manufactured though? Yeah, they're in Europe. Britain. Oh, really?

I believe so. They're in English country, so one of the. UK. UK, England. Where let's find where it is? Where is a Jaguar? Yeah, they're British. No, I know, but I think Land Rover's are manufactured elsewhere and I think Jaguars are,

manufactured. Same country. It's a parent company. Landrows is the parenting company for Jaguar. Oh, I thought they were manufactured like in. Yeah, they're British too. United States. U.K.

Manufacturing occurs globally, including the UK, but also Slovakia, Brazil, India, and China, depending on the model. And dude, what sucks is that the marketing campaign they ran with was change or don't be, what was it, do not be original? Or be original, I think. Don't be original. Be everything. Just blended.

I think it was... Well, they originally lost 97% of their stock value. What they got, they source that from the original owner and the creator of Jaguar. He was like, oh, this is one of his quotes. It said, be original. And they're like, we got this, bro. Yeah. I'm sure that Gritty...

One veteran wanted a bunch of fucking transgender they-them's to march and not show a fucking car in the advertisement. I'm just imagining. the bony skeletal fist breaking out of the fucking just like a trench knife in its hand

like smashing through dude 1922 is when I was created dude reading that shit because it sounds unbelievable for a company that big to be like now we're down to 49 now poor guy survived Flanders fields

just to have this happen to his company oh man that sucks so bad you know an E type right Yeah. Yeah. It's just a hot fucking car. Also, I am, I permanently have a mental association now between those older model Jaguars and Mad Men.

Like the show? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Even the newer ones, I fucked with them. The E-Tuck. I'm like, those are gorgeous.

The F. Pace. I sat in one of those. I was getting schmused for a defense contractor gig and they, they absolutely did like that, if, you know, if you join our team, you'll get to ride in this. So I wrote in one of those, and I've always wanted an F-PACE after that. I was talking to somebody the other day that... Oh, if you wonder why this one fell, that was the 2026 model that they were trying to sell to people.

I can't see that far. And he's shaking his phone, too. Oh, fuck off. The Chrysler 300? That looks like a cyberpunk mod. Just like a vehicle you'd see on the road. It looks like my PlayStation rendered. Well, when you talk about...

The PlayStation render of the Chrysler. 300. It smells like PS2 rendered weed smoke. Like it, dude, oh my, my, Connor, like, next to a human, it looks fake. Oh my God. Yeah, it looks like a fake car. Yeah, somebody made that on PlayStation.

And now they're suffering. Like crash bandicoot PlayStation. But when you were talking about like the schmoozing of government contracts and shit like that, there was somebody that I was talking about, or talking to about that exact thing earlier where they're like, you'd be surprised. when it comes to like working with Congress, how much like Air Force and people like that will just be like, but I'll take you on a ride on an F-16.

Yeah. And then suddenly they get more funding. It's like you really hope these people aren't that dumb and gullible, but sure enough. What's been super revealing on that for me has been the last couple years. So I mean, like I mentioned earlier, I wear a lot of different hats. I have quite literally five different jobs. Like I have to, taxes are please don't give. me started on taxes. But

I sure we had a little worse time. I don't even want to imagine. If I know how frustrating my life is, I don't even want to imagine what your life is like when it comes to taxes. Oh, yeah, all the money that we have to change. My steak too juicy, my lobster's buttery. I know. But what's been the most revealing has been the last year and a half or so

working in like the gun rights space on just how much. Thank you for everything you've done in that. that regard as well. You know, I'm, I solely work in the gun rights space for very selfish reasons. And I want to, it's because I want to better understand what the landscape is like. So, you know, I mentioned growing up shooting, being a part of my high school's marksmanship team. I mentioned that to who was here earlier. What was the guy's name that was here earlier?

Finn. I mentioned that to Finn. I was like, hey, dude, you know, we were just chatting. And I was like, yeah, I was part of my high school's marksmanship team. That's why I am trying to stand up American marksman now. And he was like, what's that? And I was like, what you just said is exactly what I'm trying to do. So about a year...

But before we go too far off the rails, we were talking about the government contract. Yeah. No, I'm getting there. So the problem that I've run into over the years is just not truly understanding how our political structure works. And I still cannot, I cannot say that I truly understand it. But when it comes to, like, gun rights and what those mean to us is a core foundational right that we have, that regardless of what the, the, the, the Constitution says, which is ultimately just there to affirm that, right? It's a limiter more than it is a grantor. It guarantees you your rights. It does not grant you your rights. Right. So I have come to

find out just how much of that bullshit happens, right? And I already had some level of understanding. I mean, I've had to brief Congress and staffers on like national security topics before and things like your contract have come up before. I'm like, what the fuck does that matter to me? I am a cybersecurity expert here to tell you what's happening and you're telling me about my contract. Like that's not my scope. Like my left and right limits on my fire lane right now do not include the contract or agreement that you might have with my CEO of my company. But the amount of schmoozing that does generally speaking take place is fascinating to me. I will say that there's a lot that I didn't understand in the gun rights space before I started working in it that I didn't

truly understand what lobbying meant. I thought it was like paying people off. You know what I mean? But that's not it, especially not with like a... It's not always it. Not always it for sure. I can understand that. I'm the industry guy first and foremost at National Association for Gun Rights. So my job is like kind of connecting the industry with the gun rights space. So we've got a bunch of industry, you know, gun manufacturers that are supporting us in cases. So I help coordinate their data that helps us try and prove common use, things like that. So there are actually some gun rights organizations that people think they have an understanding of where they stand that might not necessarily. I don't want to speak too far into that. But I will actually say on that note,

there's a lot of gun companies that are very gay when it comes to stuff like that, that have really worked against gun rights on a lot of shit that they really shouldn't have. It's a two-way street, man. But there are a lot that have stepped up. Yeah, I will give, a lot that have a history of not stepping up that are like, Yeah, you're right. It's time for us to step up and understand what our real market is. And with those being active cases, I'm not sure if that's something I'm allowed to talk about. Well, so the one that I'm referencing right now is an active case that we have, like, that we are actively where, you know, it's. I want to give, I want to give kudos where it's due, but I don't know if we can. Right.

Yes. Is that public information? It's, it's, it's tough, dude. Okay. I won't. I will say that information will make it, will, will come out. we were talking about this before the podcast but the individual that was pulled over oh yeah it was a representative so it was a congressperson

25th district so that was the one I was having a discussion we were always discussion it's like a lot of people don't realize we're like 2A is extremely important to all of us and if something bad happens to anyone it is like yo what the fuck happened

dude it's isn't that wild brin I'm looking it up to see if that's if he's state or federal. While he's doing that, just to close the thought, you know, there are so many cases. That's why I don't know. There are so many cases across the United States

that are actively being pursued by a lot of gun rights organizations that aren't the NRA right now. Just I'll leave it at that. But there are an innumerable amount of them. And ultimately, what I chose to do is kind of of it's literally work for one so I could better understand what that looks like because I became a member of the NRA back when I was like I don't know 19 20 something like that like it's always mattered very much to me you know we ran around in the woods with a 22 when I was 12

you know not saying that's the best thing that you can do but I've just been firearms have been aligned with my life since I can remember so seeing the the general erosion of that over time. I was like, well, I need to better understand what the landscape is because I don't understand it. So, I mean, some of my fondest memories growing up is like being a teenager running around in the woods of my buddies. Yeah. With, you know, a 12-gauge shotgun or like a little like 22 AR or something like that. And like that's, that's something that there are a shocking percentage of people in this country that want to do away with that. And it's not to be too juvenile about it, but it hurts my fucking feelings. The first living thing I ever shot was a squirrel and I

ate it. And I didn't like it. Just first of all, my mom did know how to cook it. So she just panseered its hind legs. Oh. And I like took a bite out of. I was like, can I have chicken nuggets? I don't like this. But no, I just, I chose to, I need to better understand that landscape, right? This is like, what is it, what does it mean to fight for gun rights? And there were so many misconceptions that I had about the gun rights space, you know, like there, there is a, there are a lot of differences and similarities, kind of both ends of the sword, between the different gun rights organizations that are out there. There are employees that are shared between them, but they do have different means that they choose to go about doing things. Generally speaking, most of them that

aren't the NRA, to a certain perspective at least, are working towards the same end state. They just have a different design with exactly how they want to achieve that. And I understand the differences between them. And I feel like we're talking around a lot of things right now for the general audience. But I understand how they want to go about things. I just wish that there would be more collaboration for sure. Between them. Because there's certain times where, and correct me if I'm wrong,

it seems like everything's a quest for donations, which I understand. Donations are what makes these perpetual fundraising. Very expensive legal battles happen. Oh my God, dude. But my biggest issue is that they're all pushing for the same thing, the same court battles, the same things to happen,

but they're all rushing to be the first to file. They're rushing to be the first person to file a lawsuit, whether that's the best lawsuit we could have had for this case or not. They're trying to be first because if they get the one that's first to file, then they get to use that in all their fundraising emails. And I understand the incentive behind it, but it's not good for us. I get it. This is quite literally one of the reasons that I chose to just work for one.

at least for, you know, five, six, seven years, however long it is that I'm here. And I picked one specifically and purposefully, and that is, like I mentioned, N-A-G-R. And that's largely because they were just my friends. They took me out of my first long-range expedition. You know, I learned how to run a castrol with them. I learned how to hit it a mile with them.

I've worked with those guys for years. So, I mean, they're shooters, right? Yeah. So that mattered very much to me. It didn't feel like they were sitting in their high tower in a leather chair saying, and we're doing right for gun rights. It was like, they shoot.

Wayne Lepier. Excuse me. There's a reason. He said it out loud and I just inferred it. That's exactly what I was inferring is Wayne LaPierre. That's the vision in my head until I chose to work for one that I had when it came to, you know, gun rights organizations. You mean that when I try to donate to a gun rights organization or when I try to do good work for them, I don't want it to all immediately go in the pockets of a guy who's using fundraiser money to pay for a $10,000,

suits and his mistress in New York City. Sorry, I just know some of the companies and then different orgs and how they've done. Good stuff, but also bad stuff. Like, NRA, you can have both sides of the coin on that one where they've fucked up royally. So, like, how is that? Yeah, and there's a lot of good stuff that the NRA's done over the year.

I'm still a life member of the NRA, but I'm disappointed because of people like Wayne LaPierre, who thankfully's gone from the organization. And I really hope they can turn over this new leaf that they're trying to do. but man, there's a lot to overcome there. I think that's the biggest thing is addressing it. A lot of companies, it's like, oh, sweep it out.

Like, he's gone. Look, we're going to do new, but it is, hey, here. I mean, there are misses that end up happening. So even in the pursuit of doing the best thing possible, it turns out that the foresight just wasn't there. And it turns out to be just something that didn't work out in the best possible favor, right? So you look back at like the NFA changes that we've got that are about to take place on January 1st. The best ideal outcome is that things were just removed entirely. But now

what we have is, yeah, we no longer have to pay a $200 fee, but I'm still registering something on a basis that doesn't make any sense because the entire basis around it in the first place was the tax. And specifically because the Supreme Court in 1937 deemed it constitutional only the NFA with like the registration, $200 registration, tax stamp and everything behind suppressors, short barrel rifle, shore barrels, shotguns, and machine guns. The only reason they allowed that to be constitutional was because it wasn't a registration of the weapons. It was the registration that you paid the tax.

Because Congress has the constitutional authority to levy tax, not register weapons, register the tax. And now that you've removed the tax, it should be unconstitutional. Presumably, if by definition, the purpose was solely for that to be able to say, hey, yes, this person has paid the necessary tax for this, and then you remove that tax, suddenly you have no other reason to have the registration associated with it whatsoever.

So it's in the most vulnerable position that it's ever been. And there aren't many years left between now and the next cycle where we really have to pay, where there's an opportunity now that is probably first of its kind, at least in my generation, to enact permanent change. Permanent change is one of those things that is a once in a lifetime opportunity, in my opinion. And I won't claim to be the most astute when it comes to legalities, politics.

Again, I'm the industry guy, and I know firearms, I know ballistics. I know like, yes, this is a good gun. Yes, this is one that we should probably give away because people are going to enjoy this firearm. You know, we're giving away a scar. The scar is either beloved or hated. I love it. I'm a scar apologist.

I think it's a piece of junk. I'm just being honest with you. You're probably correct, but I just, it's a got such a soft spot in my heart. That's only because it's too expensive for me to own. Let me just put it that way. Oh, so you're just coping then. Okay, well, in that case, opinion disregarded. But I did spend, I did get myself like a dream gun recently, which is a Baird Emmerad, though.

Which we were talking about that earlier. The Emrad is, was an investment because that allows me to, like, just change. change barrels and calibers whenever I need to. So if I'm going out on some long range thing and I want shoot 65 Creedmoor, throw in the Creedmoor barrel, if I want 300 Norma, throwing a 300 Norma barrel, 338 Lapua, I mean, 7 PRC, just anything I want. And I don't have to have a new gun every time. A lot of people associate that with like the Mark 22, which is the new ASR, advanced sniper rifle or PSR system, precision sniper rifle for the military. But the Mark 22 is actually, actually a different production line and has differences from the civilian MRAD.

The civilian MRAD. It's like a military Humvee versus an H-1. Yes, certainly. With way fewer differences, you know, it's obviously still. How about that's the barrel swap? I have the, right now what's the both the Desert Tech, MDR. The cover. The barrel swap actually is on Pepperbox.

You can go and watch that. I did a vlog of my first day out with the, with the M-Rad. It takes no more than a minute, to be honest with you. I was wondering about that. What's funny is, is like, I was still learning the system. The entire premise around American marksman isn't that I'm the best shooter in the world, is that I'm trying to figure out how good I can be. So I was- Which I love that approach to content where it's everybody feels like they have to be a fucking expert in something to make content.

Like, dude, all you have to do is be somewhat either charismatic or entertaining or whatever and just learn along with the audience. I don't know that I'm in you. Literally learn it. That's all you have to do. you can show, because that's most of what your audience wants to do too. Yeah, because then it shows, oh, I can do this too as long as it takes this much time, or this dude did this in this much time, I can do that. Everybody wants to be hot shit with the biggest dick and, oh, I can fucking change his barrel out in two seconds.

Well, where that gets really interesting is there's, there's, it's actually, I use this term a lot, but I think it applies here. There's a, it's a double-edged sword and that's that humility around your content, right? So there's a difference between confidence and hubris, but we have this, or, confidence and arrogance. We have this habit of forced humility as well, right? You'll see it online all the time. Like, wow, I'm a retard. You know, it's like, you're self-deprecating. But what the path that that leads that down is, you know, as an eventuality, you know, self-hate, you know, like I, maybe I actually am an idiot. Maybe that's just me. I'm just being transparent here.

I there's a way to be confident in the things that you're good at and also knowing the limitations of what you what you aren't or knowing what you can do versus what you can't I am confident in what I can do which anything inside of a mile I'm on it in in in two rounds or less if we are inside of a mile two rounds or less I'm putting rounds on that right that's that's my confidence level when it start when we start to get outside of that is the differences between like extreme long range and long range and extreme long range and extreme long range changes when it goes past the math and into the art, where you start to talk about transonic and the changes that are necessary to use like Doppler radar measured curves on things.

That's a discipline that only time is something that I can truly understand. There's also the difference between knowing your particular proficiencies and understanding that you're still God's silliest warrior. I love that. You can just be... Oh, for sure. You can like... It took me a second to process that, but, yeah.

You can not take things so seriously, you know. I'm not saying that you do. I'm just saying in general. Get that entirely. So again, earlier, I mentioned nobody knows that I'm an idiot more than me, right? But I do also know that nobody will be my biggest advocate more than me. Right. And if I am not ready to advocate for myself, then who should I expect to do that?

I experience that in the comment section all the time. And it just, it's funny how like your mindset shifts. because I can't, I am very bad and my friends know this. I'm very bad at taking compliments. Or if anybody tries to advocate for me, like, oh, he's this, he's that. I immediately, I'm like,

I'm so uncomfortable. Like, you guys don't understand, I'm a retard. And then all of a sudden, if somebody's like, this guy doesn't have the qualifications to talk about X, suddenly I remember every accomplishment and everything I know about that topic. I'm like, well, hold on.

Pause, motherfucker. It completely depends on how it's approached, you know? No, I mean, Shifting all the way back. Gun rights is complex because you've got, you've got legislative changes. So you've got political lobbying that does need to take place. It is a large part of it, political change. But then you've also got courts being in the courts.

And what I liked was this was an organization that did both, right? So they've got the National Foundation for Gun Rights, the National Association for Gun Rights, two different organizations, still generally under the same structure, not unlike GOA, right? Very similar. They've got their foundation. Two great groups for the record. So, interesting enough, interestingly enough, one of the guys on the team that I work at, that I work with is a former GA employee.

The guy that used to hold the job that I fill there, it's a little bit different in its duties. We've reshaped that to, you know, for my skill set. He now works for another organization. So I mentioned earlier that it's, you know, they have their different approaches when it comes to achieving an end state, but they are all, at least the ones that I frequent with most of the time, they all have the same desired end state. And that is that gun laws themselves are fundamentally infringements. That is by definition what they are in infringement, and its definition

is a barrier or an impediment. And that's not how it's supposed to work, right? So it's just the approach that they take, they choose to be a little bit different on the way there. And just needed to better understand what that looked like because it's mattered my entire life and seeing the conversation with Fent, like I mentioned, what is a marksmanship team in high school? It's like, well, the fact that you don't know is why I needed to be a part of it. So when we stood up American marksman, it was, okay, so how can we, after having the experience on the television show, there's a whole other story about that

that in about six more months once a contract runs out and I'm allowed to speak about it, maybe I will. So what you're saying is we booked you six months too early. Told you the TV stuff was fun. I don't. You were extremely helpful

and the amount of foresight that you had into what I ran into is we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. It blew my mind. Because if you were called, one of the first conversations we had was it was three, four years ago. I was like, dude, I got this TV show. It's going to be amazing.

This is going to be it. I grew up watching mail call. It's going to be on the same channel. Oh. It's going to be awesome. And you were like, just give me a second, dog. Let me help you understand my experience. Yours might be different.

But here was my experience. And here's, here's dumb Ronnie. with the not truly understanding the difference between confidence and arrogance. And I was like, I got this. I'm good. And I'll tell you what, bud. Why would they ever fuck me over? Humans don't do that.

And you're like, not saying that. Not. Why would this multimillion dollar corporation hurt my feelys? It's almost like there's a certain clause that prevents you from doing any sort of disparagement. I always warn people for anything like that. I hope that there's like a like a nice zoom in slow. Because you always, you're expecting the best. You're putting your best foot forward and you're expecting them to do the same thing.

And all the promises and everything is going to happen. And you're like, dope. That was such a sick experience though, right? Like you, like you, you grow up, I grew up in like a trailer. And that was one of the, the few channels that we got. And I watched that in Dragon Ball Z. That was it. That's what I watched coming home. It was was was the history channel and Dragon Ball Z. So getting that phone call saying, hey, we found one of your videos on the history of pirate cannons because the free Syrian army was using

a fucking pirate cannon. So I did a video. Which was rad. I know exactly what video you're talking about. It's cool as shit. So that's one of the one of the the best videos I've ever done. done. I was actually arguing with Josh Brooks. I mentioned his name earlier because he made a joke. He was like, Ronnie, not all cannonballs. Well, he said all cannonballs didn't explode. And I was like, well, I'm going to make a video now because there was, you had all different kinds of shot. You had round shot. You had a canister. Canist. Spherical shot. Then he started to get into shrapnel, which was a dude, right? He was a British officer, if I remember correctly. So shrapnel was a guy. people think that like fragmentation is it's colloquially called shrapnel but it's actually

frag and you have primary frag versus secondary frag so primary frag is like you have a hand grenade and all of its perforations on it that's primary frag it's designed to come off of the hand grenade and just do bad things then you have secondary frague secondary frague the famer of the dude in front of you exactly bone rock wood just shit that gets that gets that gets that gets thrown by that. A secondary frag. So I lost my train of thought. But the History Channel show was an experience in and of its own growing up and

watching that and watching Ermi on mail call. He fell into that role, just like he fell into full metal jacket. And he fucking killed both of them. I remember playing hooky from school watching Arleigh Irmy. Dude. Like just rip it. Hitler's boss. Like that whole.

I still do. I still do like my live. So I host a live gaming stream Tuesdays and Fridays, and it's solely for the purposes of raising money to buy custom gaming PCs and send those out to veterans. We've done about 70 grand worth of those since I started that. Fuck yeah, man. And the ending of every night is it says, good night, ladies, good night, sir. And it's from full metal jacket. Ermi is like a hero of mine, dude.

Seriously. So getting that phone call for this video I did on pirate cannons, they basically, they basically, basically said, hey, will you come and do that for us? That video that you made, will you come and help us do that? And it was originally supposed to be called Battle Vision. And it was, it was, that is a fantastic name. Give me a second. Trust me. The design around it was, let's use actual historical footage. So you can see to connect with Funker 530 already. Let's use historical footage, let's use historical images and tie these things to time and space history for people to understand battle, for people to help contextualize war. It was bringing history back to history. And brother, I was like the old school 3D graphics where you're like battlefield from the

top. Yes, I was on board with it so fast. Initially, I was supposed to be an expert wit, or not expert when, excuse me, thinking about a different career path ahead. I was supposed to be an expert. So Cappy was involved as an expert. Preston Stewart. So Nick Irving was an expert on the show. We had a ton of expertise. Well, I got a call one day and they said, hey, will you be a, will you actually host it? And I was like, what do you mean host it? And they were like, yeah, well, our other hosts kind of fell through. I was at the bottom of this list. bro like I mean I mean I was in the nosebleeds of the list of the hosts but I was like fuck yeah dude let's do it they're like we need you to do a a what's what's the term I'm sorry

no it wasn't a sizzle real it was audition it was an audition but with Rudy right so my the co-host with me Rudy Reyes generation kill the finest looking human being that I've ever seen in my life and the one man that under most circumstances, men would absolutely list as their one time they would. I love how you say, like, yeah, Rudy, you know, from Generation Kill. I'm like, also the thing Generation Kill was based on. There was also that. Well, he, that's so, that's such a huge part of it, too. So you have, like, Ermi, then you have Rudy. They played themselves, basically, right? So Rudy played himself in Generation Kill. And that's, which is super cool. Fascinating.

Irmy was there as, if I recall correctly on like full metal jacket, was there as just like a consultant. And he just lit, if I recall the story correctly, just like lit into somebody one day and they were like, hey, well, you do that on camera for a second? It was Oliver Stone. Yeah. No, no. Who's the one who did? Stanley Kubrick. Thank you.

Yeah. And so, yeah, he was hired as like a technical advisor. And then he was like lighten up the guy who was supposed to play the role of the, um, the, um, showing how it's done. Yeah. He was... Drill Sergeant. He's explaining to the drill sergeant like,

no, here's how you do it. You blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But he came with the intention of taking that role. A lot of you millennials will remember him from the Geico commercials. He literally went in to take the role, which is hilarious. He's like, I'll just show this dude up. And then Stanley watched him yell at that dude. And then he's like, no, you have to do it like this.

And went down and started yelling at people. And being a drill instructor, which he was done. And he was like, it's like rich five, ten years from now. That guy is, we need that one. Take the job. Yeah. And then after that, a movie I've definitely seen. Have you not?

I've never seen that part. Chemistry test. Watch the first half of the movie. I mean, how old is that? Now that I think about it. You've never seen full middle jacket? No. I don't give a shit about it.

Seventies or 80s? Yeah, no. Fair enough. You care what you care about. I don't know. Like 80s. Because you look at like, I didn't realize we, I think we were talking about, 2001 Space Odyssey came out before we landed on the moon, which is fucking wild.

And I was like, that's why a majority have never seen that movie. That's what fueled a lot of theories. Fuck, I'm not having that conversation. No, I'm just, I was just venting to Brandon about this when I drove him to the airport earlier, but no, I'm not having that conversation about Stanley Kubrick. Can we do it on the after show? Should probably transition there anyway. I like it.

How long? Not like Jaguar, but, you know. How long have we been going for? Yeah, we're good. Oh my goodness. Is that what that says? Is that a long? 14 minutes.

Yeah. It's been 14 whole minutes we've been talking. You ready for another two hours, buddy? I could do this all day. I can't. I can't. I got to pee again. All right.

Well, what does he say? Thank you for watching the unsubscribe podcast. Yeah, you're going to go for it. Thank you for watching the unsubscribe podcast. As always, I've been joined by Eli Double Tap, Mr. Ronnie Adkins, future congressman Brandon Herrera,

and myself, Donut Operator. Ronnie, where can we find you? That's a loaded question. There's a lot of places, but right now the best place to find us is going to be American Marksman, Just about any social you'll find us on that and as well as pepperbox primarily pepperbox all of our exclusive content most specifically and then Donut where do we find you As Donut operator you can find me on on YouTube if you search King Trout

That's where you find out and on pepperbox and on paperbox where I swear I say words such as piss shit f*** I hope it cuts right Just right there Just right there As you can find me The fucking south park

Yeah exactly Thank you guys Love you guys Love you bitches