Bullet In KIRK ASSASSINATION Does NOT MATCH Says Court Filing

Summary

Timcast IRL – Podcast Summary

Date: March 31, 2026
Episode: Bullet In KIRK ASSASSINATION Does NOT MATCH Says Court Filing
Host: Tim Pool
Guests: Jeremy Ryan Slate, Ian Crossland, Phil Labonte, Carter

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Episode Overview

This episode of Timcast IRL tackles two major stories dominating media and political discussion: the latest developments in the Charlie Kirk assassination case—specifically a court filing stating the bullet that killed Kirk does not match the alleged murder weapon—and the firing of an NBA player due to anti-Pride comments rooted in his Christian beliefs. The episode includes deep dives into the influence of public perception, conspiracy culture, the “return” of Woke ideology, demographic and political shifts in the U.S., and heated debates about gambling, AI acceleration, and the future of American governance—all woven into comparisons with the fate of the Roman Empire.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Charlie Kirk Assassination Case: Bullet Does Not Match Rifle

• Court Filing: The defense claims the ATF cannot match the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk to the rifle allegedly owned by suspect Tyler Robinson. (05:03)
• Implications for Legal Proceedings:
  • Raises substantial reasonable doubt, heavily amplified by conspiracy theories and online speculation.
  • "I believe the popularity of these conspiracy theories is going to create so much doubt in the public. That alone is enough to get Tyler Robinson acquitted." — Tim Cast (07:36)
• Media and Public Influence:
  • Waves of public “evidence” submissions in support of Robinson, largely driven by podcasts and media personalities (notably Candace Owens).
  • Challenge of finding unbiased jurors due to the case’s high profile and internet reach.
  • Discussion on whether jury members may lie about knowing the case to sway the outcome ideologically.
• Technical Forensics:
  • Filing reports 20,000+ files of digital and physical evidence provided to the defense.
  • DNA evidence is complex, with multiple contributors detected—requires lengthy expert analysis.

"What does unable mean? Does it mean they were constrained by bureaucracy... or does it mean they tried and failed? If they tried and failed, that's huge." — Tim Cast (09:14)

2. Conspiracy Theories, Grief, and Public Mistrust

• Hostility Toward Victims and Survivors:
  • Erica Kirk, Charlie’s widow, faces bizarre online attacks—accused of being robotic or inhuman because of her public demeanor.
  • Grief is misunderstood by the public, often used as “evidence” in conspiracy videos (e.g., claims of “crocodile tears”).
• Wider Trend of Distrust in Authority:
  • The COVID-19 pandemic engendered a segment of the population who reflexively distrust anything from the government.
  • Rise of mainstream conspiracy thinking post-pandemic.

“People don't understand how grief actually works and how people respond to it.” — Jeremy Ryan Slate (16:30)

3. NBA and the Return of "Woke"?

• Jaden Ivy Firing: The Bulls waive Jaden Ivy after social media videos in which he expresses Christian beliefs and criticizes Pride Month, though he made no slurs or direct disparagements. (22:10)
• Shifting Woke Landscape:
  • Tim theorizes "Woke" is not dead but merely lying low; Democrats are reportedly strategizing to rebrand with a moderate, straight white Christian candidate for 2028 while retaining far-left elements for after a victory.
  • Phil discusses the broader push to restrict homeschooling, reflecting ongoing culture war issues tied to leftist/centrist political playbooks.

“Woke is going to come back. They’ve gone underground like Gollum in Lord of the Rings…” — Tim Cast (24:44)

4. Demographic and Political Trends

• "Blue" Migration: Liberals from restrictive states are moving into places like West Virginia, bringing their voting patterns with them despite dissatisfaction with more radical policies.
• Free State Project in New Hampshire: Debated effectiveness; surrounded by blue states, its impact is blunted compared to a potential move to places like West Virginia or Wyoming.
• Data Center Boom: West Virginia’s economy is about to be reshaped by tech investments; potential benefits and drawbacks for local populations.

5. Rome Comparisons and American Decline

• Guest Expertise: Jeremy Ryan Slate draws parallels between late-Roman Empire and America, highlighting
  1. chronic inflation,
  2. poor border control/immigration policy, and
  3. declining political virtue.
• Executive Overreach: Congress abdicates responsibility; the President increasingly rules by decree.
• Cultural Fragmentation: Discussed as a factor hastening internal decay and possible balkanization, referencing similar outcomes in Rome's provincial breakaways.

“When you lose a unifying culture, that is a bigger piece of a society actually falling apart.” — Jeremy Ryan Slate (46:39)

6. AI and Technological Acceleration

• Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): Belief that "we've already reached AGI," but most people aren't noticing the societal impact as implementation is lagging culture.
• Implications: Mass job loss and economic transformation loom, especially as AI-driven creation (music, movies, web-design) outpaces human capabilities.
• Changing Youth Attitudes: Unlike older generations, today’s youth are accustomed to diminished privacy and tech mediation.

"Movies are over. Music is over. Like the transformation. It's already here. And we are culturally lagging." — Tim Cast (71:35)

7. Loot Boxes, Pokemon, and the Gambling Wars

• Legal Moves: NY and WA state attorneys general suing Valve for loot boxes in major video games, claiming they constitute gambling (79:19).
• Gambling Definition Debate: Extended analogy—if loot boxes count as gambling, so might Pokémon/Magic: The Gathering booster packs, since both involve paying for a chance to get valuables.
• Role of Casinos: Expansion of brick-and-mortar gambling leads to pressure for regulatory capture, aiming to sideline any alternative form of wagering, including trading card games.
• Collector vs. Player Value: Discussion about how booster pack systems manufacture scarcity, raising questions about the fairness and legality of “pay to win” models and collector gambling.

"If all of these things, including chance, make it gambling, then literally all of these things are gambling." — Tim Cast (119:31)

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Notable Moments & Quotes (w/ Timestamps)

• Doubt in the Kirk Case: "I believe the popularity of these conspiracy theories is going to create so much doubt in the public. That alone is enough to get Tyler Robinson acquitted." (07:36)
• Defense & Forensic Evidence: "What does unable mean? Does it mean they were constrained by bureaucracy... or does it mean they tried and failed? If they tried and failed, that's huge." — Tim Cast (09:14)
• Conspiracy Culture: "People don't understand how grief actually works and how people respond to it." — Jeremy Ryan Slate (16:30)
• Erica Kirk’s Public Scrutiny: "It's the weirdest thing how they make these videos ... when she's literally just kind of normal and boring." — Tim Cast (14:16)
• NBA/Woke Comment: "Woke is going to come back. They’ve gone underground like Gollum in Lord of the Rings…" — Tim Cast (24:44)
• Rome/US Parallels: "When you lose a unifying culture, that is a bigger piece of a society actually falling apart." — Jeremy Ryan Slate (46:39)
• AI Acceleration: "Movies are over. Music is over. Like the transformation. It's already here. And we are culturally lagging." — Tim Cast (71:35)
• Loot Boxes & Gambling: "If all of these things, including chance, make it gambling, then literally all of these things are gambling." — Tim Cast (119:31)
• Strategic vs Tactical Thinking: "It's the difference between strategic thinking and tactical thinking. Tactical thinking, you're trying to solve just one situation where strategic. You're looking at doing something more long term…” — Jeremy Ryan Slate (64:00)

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• Charlie Kirk Case Deep Dive — 05:03 to 21:43
• Conspiracy, Grief, & Media Discussion — 12:45 to 17:54
• NBA Player/Pride & “Woke” Topic — 22:10 to 26:22
• Political & Demographic Trends, WV Discussion — 27:34 to 34:20
• Rome Parallels to U.S. Politics — 36:47 to 49:12
• AI, Cultural Lag, & Job Disruption — 66:05 to 79:19
• Loot Boxes, Gambling, & Trading Card Debate — 79:19 to 105:57

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Tone & Style

• Candid, energetic, irreverent, and skeptical.
• Frequent jokes, tangents, and heated debate, especially around politics, cultural changes, and tech disruption.
• Appeals to both “normie” and conspiracy-aware audiences, emphasizing independent thinking and mistrust of elite authority.

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Conclusion

This episode is a wide-ranging, high-energy conversation weaving together the themes of institutional decline, public mistrust, and rapid technological transformation. It uses the headline-grabbing Kirk assassination case and loot box lawsuits as springboards into deeper commentary on American politics, the persistence of cultural “wokeness,” and the existential questions posed by AI and demographic realignment, all set against the cautionary background of Rome’s collapse.

Listeners will come away with:

• A nuanced update on the Kirk case and its place in today’s conspiracy-saturated media environment.
• Insightful analogies between modern America and late-stage Rome.
• Substantial arguments about tech, culture, and the future of both justice and fun (from movies to card games) in a rapidly changing society.

Transcript

[Tim Cast]

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today in a new court filing from the defense in the Charlie Kirk assassination case. The defense argues that the ATF was unable to identify the round used to kill Charlie Kirk to the rifle. We're also learning from this filing who the prosecution intends to call in this in this preliminary hearing, which includes the parents of Tyler Robinson, of course, many people already, as this story is breaking, are claiming this proves it. Well, it doesn't really prove anything. It's a claim made by the defense. So we're going to analyze this breakdown what it really means. But of course, because of the massive popularity of the Charlie Kirk assassination conspiracy theories, I would argue, and many do, Tyler Robinson is likely to be found not guilty because of the massive amount of attention given to alternate theories, especially with statements now from Joe Kent. I think they are going to use all of this and they've stated they will use the filings from the ATF to make their case and try to create reasonable doubt. It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out. And then onto the big news, my friends, the Bulls, they just booted a player for speaking out against these Pride events because he follows Christ. They're basically saying you're fired, which is absolutely nuts. Many people are saying Woke is coming back. Now, it may be dead for now, but it could be sleeping and not dead. Democrats are saying they need a straight white man for 2028 if they're going to win straight white men. But if they do, speculation is that Woke will come back with a vengeance behind the scenes. So we'll talk about that and a whole lot more before we do get a great sponsor for you guys. It is true Gold Republic, my friends, having sound money and financial independence is important. Hard assets are extremely important. That's why you should Check out True Gold Republic. Look at the world right now. Active war, NATO's under pressure. The dollar is being weaponized. We got $36 trillion in debt and rising. We've printed so much money since 2020, your savings are worth less every single year. By design. Gold can't be printed. It can't be sanctioned. It can't be developed by a press release. Central banks are buying it at record levels right now. The people who run the system are hoarding the one thing they cannot print. That should say that that tells you everything. Insert True Gold Republic. Real physical gold and silver. Not paper, not ETFs. Metal you can hold. Check out their independence bundle, a physical gold starter kit. One on one with their experts and bonus pressure, precious metals on top. The cast is not coming, my friends. It is here and y' all know it. Go to trugoldrepublic.com Tim to claim your independence bundle or call 1-800-628-GOLD. That's truegoldrepublic.com Tim. And my friends, you gotta go to Casper.com. we got a big March sale. Luck of The Sheamus is 20% off. We also have aluminum bottle pool water. If you ever wanted to drink pool water, something is wrong with you. But if you want to drink pool branded water, because it's funny, you can pick up these bottles@cast brew.com as well as our Cast Brew Vault. Black cold brew concentrate. You get these little bottles, splash in a cup and a little bit of water and cream. Bang, you got some delicious coffee. Don't forget to smash that like button, my friends. Share the show with every single person you have ever met right now. Joining us tonight to talk about this and so much more, we have Jeremy Ryan Slate.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Hey, I'm Jeremy Ryan Slate. I use my three names because I had the same name as an actor. I have a company called Commander Brand. For the past decade, we've been booking our clients on great podcasts. Also host two YouTube channels. Hidden forces in History. Look at the forces behind history as well as the Roman pattern. Looking at civilizational collapse with Rome as a model. And I also host a podcast for the fastest growing book club on Substack, which is the Athenian Book club. We look at great works in history.

[Tim Cast]

I look forward to talking about Rome, the Roman Empire again. A lot of fun. Ian is too. He. He really wants to.

[Ian Crossland]

I was just watching a video about the conquest of Britain a couple of nights ago.

[Tim Cast]

And I mean the modern one with the Muslims. No, no, I mean the old one with the Emperor Claudius.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, Emperor Claudius allowing his general to go do a form and then taking, you know, taking the kudos after it succeeded.

[Phil]

The kudos, Yes.

[Ian Crossland]

I want to talk about the Romans. I want to talk about the changing

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

of the world order.

[Ian Crossland]

Thanks to.

[Tim Cast]

Indeed. We got Carter producing. Pressing the buttons up.

[Ian Crossland]

Everyone.

[Tim Cast]

We. And Phil.

[Phil]

And Phil is here, of course, wearing Tim's jacket. Things sick. Mine's on the way.

[Tim Cast]

It's made of. Made of copper.

[Phil]

It's made of copper.

[Ian Crossland]

I got.

[Tim Cast]

I. I saw it from Palmer. Lucky had one on Joe Rogan.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

And I was like, I gotta get one of those.

[Phil]

I got one in black because I think it's gonna look sick under the stage lights.

[Tim Cast]

But it looks like comic book shading. It does. It's crazy sick.

[Phil]

Is it heavy?

[Tim Cast]

Crazy? No, no.

[Phil]

It's heavier than normal jacket. But it's not like one of those

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

bands used to wear when golfing so that your joints don't hurt or something like that.

[Tim Cast]

Maybe a coat Ian would wear because he's scared of emf, you know, frying

[Ian Crossland]

his brain to get one of those.

[Phil]

Now they can't. They can't get into my brain.

[Tim Cast]

This is better than actually. It amplifies signals like a dish. Oh, this aluminum hats don't work. All right, all right, all right. Let's get this news. We got the story from the Daily Mail. Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did not match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson. New court filing claims the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk did not match the rifle. According to a new court filing. Defense attorneys are arguing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, quote, was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson. The defense team may now offer the ATF firearms analysts testimony as exculpatory evidence, they said in motion filed on Friday to push the preliminary hearing back at least six months. It also notes that DNA reports. Excuse me. Filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and atf will take time for the defense team to analyze because reports indicated that several different DNA were found on some of the evidence, quote, as some. I'm sorry. As these cases indicate. Determining the number of contributors to a DNA mixture is. And determining whether the FBI and the ATF reliably applied validated and correct scientific procedures is a complicated process which requires the assistance of various types of experts, including forensic biologists, geneticists, system engineers and statisticians, all of whom must review and evaluate several different categories. Robinson's attorneys added that they have received about 20,000 electronic audio files, videos and Written documents that prosecutors have presented as evidence in the case. So right away, my friends, let me go and ask, is it normal, and it might be, for the suspected assassin of a prominent public figure to have the masses sent submitting evidence to assist the alleged assassin?

[Phil]

I don't think that it's generally normal. There are times where, you know, like, people that are murderers have especially like the. If there's a male murderer that women like for some reason decide they want to throw themselves at him. But I've never heard a situation where there are people actually submitting evidence to help someone who is accused of murder in. In this type of fashion. I'm sure that there's been some but this kind of magnitude, I don't think. I don't think that I've ever heard of it in my lifetime.

[Tim Cast]

So I'm just pointing out that with the massive amount of attention brought to the Charlie Kirk case and dote doubt, dote doubt sewn about. That's what I was trying to say from the prominent podcasters, namely, of course, Candace Owens. There is a massive audience that believes this man is innocent. So of course they would submit what they view as evidence to assist the defense in this matter. I believe the popularity of these conspiracy theories is going to create so much doubt in the public. That alone is enough to get Tyler Robinson acquitted. But you add on top this statement that they were unable to identify the bullet to the gun. Now, that may be typical, but you combine that with the public evidence, like the story and the narration and the perspective, you are easily going to get jurors who are like reasonable doubt.

[Ian Crossland]

Look how this is in this story Will. So reasonable doubt, it says that the bullet did not match the alleged rifle. Now, they didn't test it, so they couldn't match it. It wasn't like they tested it and it was the wrong bullet. That's a different form.

[Tim Cast]

What do you mean they didn't test it?

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, they said that they were unable to identify the bullet in general, so that is.

[Tim Cast]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Identify the bullet to the rifle.

[Ian Crossland]

Right? That's different than saying it's definitely not the rifle. They didn't. They didn't rule out the rifle. We haven't been able to identify it yet, guys.

[Tim Cast]

Well, they say yet either. Yeah, but the court finally just says unable to identify it to the bullet. So we need to see exactly what the ATF said in this regard. But let's not add words to what the claim.

[Ian Crossland]

I just, I don't want them to make it seem like they tested the bullet and it's not the right bullet to the gun. So it was the wrong gun there for Tyler Robinson.

[Tim Cast]

Like what does unable mean? Does it mean that they were constrained by bureaucracy so they did not do it or does it mean they tried and failed?

[Ian Crossland]

I don't know.

[Tim Cast]

So if they tried and failed, that's huge. That's going to present reasonable doubt.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, I read a little bit down in the story. I think that they said they really couldn't do, really even able to recover the bullet.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, I think one of the bigger problems you have to worry about too is whether he's proved right or wrong. You're going to have a mistrial of some sort with all of that going into it. That's. How are you going to get a jury that's even fair?

[Tim Cast]

I mean, you're going to be a problem.

[Phil]

You're going to hope that the jury is actually sequestered and that they don't get any of this information, all of the stuff.

[Tim Cast]

But there's no jury yet. Well, yeah, by the time this goes to a trial, I don't see how they're going to find any human being who honestly is going to say, I have no idea about this. And then what I fear is that you're going to get people who are going to be motivated by ideology who will lie in court and say I'm totally unfamiliar. And then as soon as they get in, they'll be, they'll be playing Candace or whoever else and they'll be saying like, I'm going to vote not guilty no matter what.

[Phil]

Yeah, I mean, look, it still is a, a narrow segment of the population that pays very close attention to this stuff. But it is also worth, you know, considering the fact that this is such a high profile thing and there's so many people that are on, you know, on X or that, you know, I'm sure this stuff goes on Facebook. I don't, I don't have a Facebook account, but I'm sure that this stuff is happening on Facebook, these discussions are happening. So the, just to come up with an actual, you know, a jury that's not been tainted already. I don't, I don't know that they're going to be able to do that. And that's terrible because I tend to agree with you, Tim. I think this is. The guy's going to walk because they can't actually get a non biased jury.

[Ian Crossland]

The Internet has changed the way our legal system, our courts work in such a drastic way.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Even the question I Would have. They're saying 20,000 pieces of, of evidence. But at the same time, are they also just pulling social posts too? Because I'm like you said, people may have submitted things, but I'm sure it's a lot of. It's social posts they're pulling too. Yeah, because those things are getting insane reach right now, especially on X.

[Ian Crossland]

This is good for their defensive defense because at the very least they're going to string it out. I think they said they're going to string it out another six months as they.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah, let's just longer detain a jury then.

[Ian Crossland]

Longer to. Yep, so it'll take longer to get the jury, which means more people are gonna be tainted ahead of time. And then I mean as far as this defense guy, he's probably like, let's just make this case go 10 years and make sure Tyler can rest comfortably in a jail and not have to.

[Tim Cast]

Well, so the. One of the reports Fox News we have here talks about the prosecution's intention. They say the filing made by defense attorneys on Friday states that prosecutors intend to call Robinson's parents and his roommate and romantic partner Lance Twiggs testify at the preliminary hearing. Robinson's defense team is also asking the judge a minimum of six, a six month delay for the preliminary hearing, which is currently scheduled for May 18. In the filing, they said that they did not, they were not given adequate time to analyze much of the forensic evidence that is going to be presented by the prosecution. Again, whatever your thoughts are on this, it is, it is massively lined up for an acquittal for whatever reason that may be.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, the bigger question I would have as well is the concern I've had. I believe he's the guy that pulled the trigger, but I do think there's more associated with him. And if he gets acquitted, we don't find out about that. That would be the thing I'd be concerned about.

[Tim Cast]

More associated with him.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, there's maybe there's an antifa group or other groups.

[Tim Cast]

I think there's more people involved and they're covering it up.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

And at the same time you have YouTube and other places aren't censoring a lot of these things, they're allowing them to happen. So you have to wonder, it's the same way with DA's being funded and things like this. Is it also a one hand washes the other type of thing?

[Tim Cast]

What do you mean? Like how does that work?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

So if they're allowing this stuff to come through. Right.

[Tim Cast]

How Doubt you mean?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Doubt if they're allowing doubt to happen. And YouTube's also allowing it visibility. While they'll crush other things.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Does it help? Whatever. Cause they're trying to also push forward by not allowing some larger group to get discovered.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah. YouTube has explicit rules against conspiracy theories, like explicitly phrased conspiracy theories, things that go. You know, they only allow authoritative news sources when you search. But when it comes to this story, this one's a special, special example that they'll allow anybody to just say whatever they want. And it's kind of nuts. The amount of content accusing Erica Kirk of being some freaky demon, monster, robot, reptile, whatever it may be, is weird. I have met that woman several times. She's been here, like, completely normal and unassuming.

[Phil]

No horns, no tail. No.

[Tim Cast]

It was funny because, I mean, you know, just to kind of be a little candid here, when we went to Turning Point after Charlie was assassinated, you know, Jack was like, we're setting up the show. And he was like, hey, Erica's.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

You want to.

[Tim Cast]

You want to. I don't know if you want to meet up with her and just say hi or anything. And I was like, yeah, sure. And then, you know, we walked over, and then she was playing with the kids, and then she came over and she's like, hey, Tim. And I was like, hey, nice to meet you. He goes, we've met before. And I was like, oh, oops. Like, I've been to your house. And I was like, sure. Okay. I meet so many people, and it's like, it's fine. And I'm like, totally normal. It's the weirdest thing how they make these videos that are edited to slow down certain points to then zoom in on her face, and then they just tell you she's doing something wrong when she's literally just kind of normal and boring. It's the weirdest thing ever.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

They accuse her of being a robot. Man.

[Ian Crossland]

If she hadn't taken that role as CEO of Turning Point, I don't think this would be happening to her.

[Tim Cast]

I disagree.

[Ian Crossland]

You think so? You think she'd.

[Tim Cast]

Yep.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Really?

[Tim Cast]

Yep. I think that's just. She's. She's. She's. The issue with Erica in this. In this story is that she did pr. She spoke at Charlie's memorial. That was it.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

She had to. She appeared in interviews talking about how she felt. They did not like the way she acted. Like, that's the craziest thing to me,

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

that I do PR for a living. You have to fill the vacuum. You can't just let Nothing happen.

[Tim Cast]

Well, I mean, I suppose the question I have for you then, as someone who does pr, Would you advise Erica to cry on TV and, like, really be emotional? Or would you ask. Would you. Would you tell her to be composed and to deliver a message? Like, how would you advise?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I would say it's more about being composed, because at the same time, if she cries, then people are gonna say that's a put on. Right. So it's.

[Tim Cast]

You have to.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Have to. You have to at the same time, be who you are at all times. And I think in a situation like that, especially after somebody passes under those conditions, people. People want to feel safe, and they want to feel like the organization's strong, not like it's something that's not going to last. You have to inspire confidence.

[Phil]

She did cry.

[Ian Crossland]

They accused her of putting fake.

[Phil]

Yeah, I was just gonna say, like. Like she. And when she doesn't cry, they're saying, oh, this is totally weird for someone to grieve this way. Look at, look at. She's hugging her friends. She's laughing there. She's not grieving. Oh, you know, she was definitely involved in the. In the. The murder. And then when she does cry, they're like, oh, you know, she's just putting it on. Those are crocodile tears. And people are motivated to disbelieve because. And I personally think this has a lot to do with COVID There are so many people that got duped by the narrative with COVID and they're just essentially like, I don't trust anything the government says. If it comes out from an official source, then you have to disregard it all the time. You can't believe it. And it's more likely that if it comes from the government, it's probably got a kernel of truth or some truth. And there are things that the government doesn't want to give out to the public and stuff like that, but I don't the idea that if it comes from the government, you have to disregard it. I think that motivates a lot of people.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I think people also don't understand grief either. My mom had a stroke in 2013, and she's still able to barely walk. She doesn't have a lot of her language skills. And first thing I did was start packing for the hospital, called my boss and told her I wasn't gonna be at work. Like, all of those things. It took three years to hit me. And I think people don't understand how grief actually works and how people respond to it.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah, I also don't understand what people expect. They expect her to appear every day, every time, just to be crying nonstop 24 7. Like, at a certain point, you have to live. Her kids and her were in the office. Her kids were playing. Those kids just lost their dad. What do you think the kids are going to do? They're going to just do their childly things and then what are you supposed to do? Just cry non stop and just not do anything? Yeah, the kids, it was weeks after this, they were accusing her of doing wrong by doing interviews. And they were claiming that her face didn't look right.

[Ian Crossland]

And it's like, guys, she's in a.

[Tim Cast]

Her.

[Ian Crossland]

Their daughter. Their oldest daughter. Gigi was at Turning Point. I met Erica and Gigi there. And like, Gigi, I'm just going to. I'm talking kind of outside. I. I don't know what's going on in her brain, but I don't think she quite understood.

[Tim Cast]

Children don't.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. And so Erica's in a position where she has to walk that line with Gigi and with the organization and with the government who's probably getting her on testimony and stuff. It's like. And it's just. Oh, God, I don't know, man. We got a guy. We got this guy in custody who is very much likely the shooter of that rifle. His dad's gonna testify against him.

[Tim Cast]

Like, I think they're gonna. They're gonna. Well, he's gonna testify and we'll see.

[Ian Crossland]

We don't know what else turned him in, so we'll see.

[Tim Cast]

I really do not believe there will be a scenario. I mean, guys, they're gonna call the father to testify, they're gonna ask him, and he's gonna say exactly what we already know. Like the reality where the dead comes and goes. I never turned my son in. Is just zero.

[Ian Crossland]

Hey. Turned him in. His kid had his rifle. I think. Is it Garrett? I don't know if that's the rifle.

[Phil]

I think it was his grandfather's.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Grandfather's?

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

I suppose then one could argue the whole family was created by the CIA and it's all one big op. And the dad is actually part of it. And it's all fake.

[Ian Crossland]

I think it is a cut and dry. Tyler Robinson will be found. I mean, he's innocent until proven guilty, but with the evidence I've seen. But the thing is, the defense will drag this out as long.

[Tim Cast]

No, I think. I think. I think there's a. I. If someone asked me to gamble, I would say that he's gonna be found not guilty.

[Ian Crossland]

Really?

[Tim Cast]

And I think the reason is that you've got a mass formation psychosis. I am not saying I know that Robinson did it. I am not saying that it's proved to be on a reasonable doubt. I'm saying that so far in the public, we have seen a preponderance of evidence. The idea that the FBI, the family, the news media are all in on one big, massive assassination plan. While these things are possible, it's just substantially less likely. So I would argue that probability dictates this is likely. The guy. I do believe that the evidence we've seen in the public also dictates there are others involved and they are covering that up, or at the very least, not trying to investigate. But again, that being said, based on the social media stories, one thing you must understand is that perception is reality. And so long as Candace and others in that space argue that Robinson is innocent and that a foreign nexus did it, you will get people who will be called for jury duty. And we've seen this with the left. They. They'll either be marched in with people screaming at them, and so they'll just vote however they're told to vote, or they'll march in and say, I have no idea who Candace is. Wink. And then when it comes time to vote, they're gonna go, I know he didn't do it. And then they're going to comment on Candace's own channel. Be like, I did this for you, or some other, you know, nonsense. Ideology matters more. Perception matters more than what is presented. If you've already tainted the well and told everybody that this is not a real story, that the evidence is fake, then the prosecution's gonna be like, here's the gun. And you're gonna be thinking in your mind, that's not real. Doesn't matter what they show you.

[Ian Crossland]

Maybe it's too little too late. That what I'm about to say about. Because I already kind of mentioned it. Gigi, you know, their kid, that daughter, Charlie and Erica's daughter. She doesn't know what's going on or didn't seem to, but she can feel what everyone around her is feeling, and that's how she's living right now. So for Erica to intentionally not espouse grief is understandable. She doesn't want to send her child into a desperate depression, Confused depression. So she's trying to be normal. That doesn't mean that she did it or was in on it, like she's trying to protect the kids.

[Tim Cast]

I. I'd like to see this. This. This Trial public. The defense is also trying to have it not be public. I think it should be public. We should see it. And then I can just say to anybody who thinks it was untoward or conspiracy, let's just agree to see what the evidence is presented and whether or not it sways our opinions on the matter. Because I would say this. If. If in court, the defense says, and it's on tv, you did not match the bolt to the gun, and the ATF guy goes, we couldn't. And when they say why, they'll be like, it didn't seem to match, then I'm gonna be like, whoa, that's huge. But if unable to, just means the bullet was damaged, so it's not possible, then I go, well, I mean, that's not good. But it doesn't prove anything.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

So it really just depends on what this means and what they present in court. So I want to see that the public. No, we have to.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I think the bigger part of it, too, is people have been through in the last couple years, especially post pandemic, is they've seen they've been messed with in so many different ways. They don't want to believe a lot of things. Conspiracies almost become mainstream, and people don't want to believe things. And that's actually a very dangerous position to be in. I look at history, it's one of the main things I look at, and there's enough strange things that happen in history that are true that you don't need to really kind of go down a lot of these rabbit holes.

[Tim Cast]

Let's jump to this next story. We got a big one from espn. Bulls wave guard Jaden Ivy after anti gay comments. Heavens me. Anti gay? What could he have possibly said? Let's. Let's listen.

[Ian Crossland]

The world can proclaim lgbtq,

[Tim Cast]

Right?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

They have. They have.

[Ian Crossland]

They proclaim Pride Month in the NBA. They proclaim it. They.

[Tim Cast]

They show it to the world.

[Ian Crossland]

They say, come, come, come join us for Pride. For Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness. They proclaim it.

[Tim Cast]

They proclaim it on the billboards.

[Ian Crossland]

They proclaim it in the streets.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Unrighteousness. So how is it that.

[Tim Cast]

That one can't speak righteousness. How is it one that.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

How.

[Tim Cast]

How. How are they to say that? You.

[Ian Crossland]

You.

[Tim Cast]

Man, this man is crazy. I'm not. I'm not the. The J. I used to be, but the OJ Is dead

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

in Christ.

[Tim Cast]

You know, the basketball setting is, you know, I'm born again, the Holy Spirit,

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

and I've been saved by Jesus Christ.

[Tim Cast]

There is a massive Christian revival going on, that's for sure. So this dude has the mildest of criticisms. He did not disparage anybody. He didn't use any slurs. And he gets waved because of this, they say. The news came after I posted a series of videos ranting about religion. Ranting about, really? That was like one of the most measured statements I've ever heard. Honestly, if I saw a video from a communist who calmly was just like, I have deep concerns about how capitalist structures will accommodate people when AI and industrialization takes place. And that's why I believe I wouldn't call that ranting. I would be like, well, that's an argument. This is a guy who's expressing his views on Christianity and pride. And this is what like waving is. They fired him, right?

[Phil]

Yeah, well, they, they waved and they say that. I don't think they fired him, they just benched him, I thought.

[Tim Cast]

Right, that's what it means.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, waves a release.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Put somebody on waivers. They have a certain amount of days where another team can claim him or whatever it might be. Not. He's a free agent.

[Tim Cast]

Is there, is there a team that's going to be like, yo, that's fine. Can we, can we, can.

[Phil]

This guy doesn't like the gays, bro.

[Tim Cast]

Woke is going to come back. Yes. My, my, my theory is we've largely routed Woke and the Bud Light, the target stuff has proven how ineffective, but not only that, how damaging it is the Democrats brand. So they've gone underground like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. You know, all just nasty and disheveled. But they, they're not gone. You don't just like, ideas don't just stop being the people who hold these ideas, don't just give up on them.

[Phil]

Yep.

[Tim Cast]

So right now the play is going to be win back the White House. The House. And then they're slowly gonna bring all of this WOKE stuff back. To be honest, they still defend dei, they're just keeping it quiet because they know it's gonna cost them an election. They wanna win the power first. This proves it. See, they're keeping it quiet, but when this dude steps over the line, you see how they go.

[Phil]

I mean, look at what happened in Virginia.

[Tim Cast]

Right.

[Phil]

Spanberger just basically she was running as. I'm a very centrist Democrat, I'm middle of the road, et cetera, et cetera. And as soon as she gets into office, all of the left wing policies that, the far left wing policies, they all come flooding in and she's signing bills that are passed by the Democrat House or by the Democrat legislature.

[Tim Cast]

Have you guys seen the population map for West Virginia? No. This country is good.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

We had a similar problem with Mikey Cheryl in New Jersey, where I live. And Brandon is very centrist, very moderate and one of the things she wants to do now is we homeschool. She wants to do psych evaluations for homeschooled children. So it's like, it's getting kind of crazy. They use one side to get you and once they have it, they show the true face.

[Phil]

Absolutely. I mean, look, the, the left doesn't think that you should be allowed to homeschool your kids. Right? They, they think that your children are their property. And I mean, I've got a, you know, I've got a five month old and I have absolutely no intention of sending him to state schools at all, period. That's just not happening. I'm not giving my kid to a public school so they can indoctrinate him and try to make him into what they consider to be a, a good citizen. That ain't happening. The left is going to do everything they can to, to either limit your ability to educate your kids at home or to downright take away your right to educate your kids at home. And I mean, there's a lot of parents groups that are very against this. But if parents are not vigilant, the left will take that right away from you and they will say you have to give your kid up. And they will say if you don't. And, well, they'll say if you don't, then you have a, then this is, then you are doing. You are. You know, we're going to call Child Protective Services because it's not about whether or not you want to give your kid up, it's that you're harming your kid by not giving your child to the state to educate them. Yeah, and that's just, I mean, that's totally unacceptable.

[Tim Cast]

So this is West Virginia population growth over the past decade up to 2021, to be honest. And you can see that the blue areas doesn't mean Democrat. Those are just the areas where the population is growing. And they're also all Democrat areas. And the other parts of the state are just collapsing. West Virginia is the second Trump most Trump supporting state in the country and it is massively expanding in areas that are controlled by Democrats. And it's presumed like where we are right here, it's the eastern Panhandle, Berkeley and Jefferson County. It's presumed to be that people from Virginia are fleeing these psycho lefty policies. But the people who are coming here are liberals.

[Phil]

They're not sufficiently right wing.

[Tim Cast]

They are liberals who are going to come here and say, well, look, I mean, Spamberger's crazy. We don't want what she's doing, but we are voting Democrat. And then they bring their problems with it. You know, I'll quote t' Challa from Black Panther, a great icon of black culture, when he said, you can't let these people in because they'll bring their problems with them. Well, that's what t' Challa said. I mean, you know, they love Black Panther, so it's true.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, maybe the kind of the opposite problem in New Jersey, where New Jersey and New York is kind of the tri state area for me. And the pandemic policies were so harsh. People just moved to Florida, which just means for the most part we've lost all of our red voters. They even redistricted our congressional district which used to be one of the reddest in the state. And we've had a. Josh Gottheimer's been our congressman for I think three terms now.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Because we don't have representation, even though it's the reddest area in the state.

[Phil]

Yeah. I mean, it's a similar thing happens in, or had been happening in New Hampshire the, the Free State Project. The right wing right wingers of the Free State Project are very aggressively anti left and they've been doing a lot to scare the, for lack of a better term, scare the left wingers in, in New Hampshire. They're very pro, pro liberty and they're very much right wingers. It's not the same kind of libertarian that a lot of people think of when they think of libertarian. It's very, like I said, it's very right wing libertarian in New Hampshire. And the legislation, the legislature in the state is all Republicans because the Free Staters have been running as Republicans that

[Tim Cast]

New Hampshire was a mistake.

[Phil]

It's just because it's.

[Tim Cast]

The Free Staters should have moved to a state where they had a, a statewide stronghold. Like they moved to a blue state surrounded by blue states and said everybody moved to New Hampshire. We're going to take it over and be free. And it was largely effective, but they're still surrounded by Democrats and in a Democrat split state. So even then they still lose state power in a lot of regards. If they went to West Virginia, they'd own the whole state. If they went to Wyoming, you'd be. West Virginia would be centrally located close to D.C. with a man, you'd actually have a libertarian member of Congress.

[Phil]

I'm not sure what their, what their calculation was, moving to New Hampshire, but

[Tim Cast]

I mean, some libertarian guy moved there and then said, I wish my friend friends were here. That's what happened. Because Luke was like, you got to move to New Hampshire, Tim. And then I was like, why? He's like, it's the free state. You know, it's a free state project. And I was like, bro, you are surrounded on all sides by the far left. And, and, and, and don't get me wrong, water. And then the far left, and he's like, no, I'm telling you. And then he moved to Florida.

[Phil]

Yeah, I mean, look, the, the biggest reason why I stay in New Hampshire is because of the fact that my family's in Massachusetts and in Massachusetts and it's an hour away from me. Otherwise, you know, I don't see a significant reason to stay.

[Tim Cast]

West Virginia is going to turn to a giant data center anyway, so not sure that it matters. The governor keeps announcing all these big data center projects all over the state, which will bring a ton of money into the state, which is good considering the state is sparsely populated as it is. That might actually be pretty great. Like, no one really cares. They're, they're like, the problem with data centers is their big eyesores that consume a lot of resources, drive up prices, and in urban areas, to come to West Virginia, put a data center in the middle of, like, rural West Virginia, where very few people live, sure, it might be disrupting to the people who live there. So, you know, to them, I sympathize. The big picture for the people of West Virginia is they're going to get billions of dollars in state funding for, you know, infrastructure improvements and things like that, and you're largely not going to see the data centers.

[Phil]

So, yeah, I mean, even if they, the way that it looks now, a lot of the companies that are trying to build data centers are also building. They want to build the power generation along with the data centers. And the argument for that, the, the pro argument for the people that are, you know, oh, they're going to rate, our cost of electricity is going to go up and blah, blah, blah. If these companies do build data centers with a power generation station there, the amount of power that a new data center will take is so, so much more than a city will be. Say, for instance, it's 1500 megawatts to run the data center. Your average city runs at about 80 megaw. So you're you're talking about 5% of the power. So the people that. So the company that generates the power will likely give the power to this, to the town for dirt, dirt cheap, because they're already generating. And the amount of power that they're. That's left over for the, the needs of the town is basically a rounding error.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

So I think our power grid is archaic anyway, though. We lose so much in transmission. I think that's. Even the bigger problem is, you know, people have been made to be scared of nuclear and other other sorts of energy generation. But the bigger problem is looking at our grid, how it works, how it transfers power and how it generates power. And these things aren't as big of a problem if we handle that.

[Phil]

Yeah, that's true, but it is, it still is better for the companies that actually want to generate the power to build the power plant for its own use because. Because the power is right there. There's no transmission issues. And then again, over, over production or whatever, because they need, they need a specific load, right, for the, for the, the data center, the. Whatever's left over going to the town. You know, making the power for the, the town cost nothing. That'll. That will make people far more amicable to the idea of having a data center in that town. Right now. People are really, really against the data centers because they have these idea that it's going to drive their electricity costs up. But that doesn't do anything positive for the people that want to build the data center, right? Like, if they come into town and they piss off the town, like, that does nothing good. All it does is make the people that are in town hate the data center. And so they're going to want to be like, hey, how can we make this a positive thing for the town and for us? And if they're, if they build a power generation station with the data center and they're just like, look, we'll give you free power, give you power, you know, whatever a cent for, for whatever, you know, where you're paying $0.10 or $0.15 now, and they're just like, we'll give it to you basically for free. That'll. That'll do a lot to move the needle when it comes to people saying, oh, we don't want a data center here.

[Ian Crossland]

21st century booms, boom towns. Like we used to have the steel towns, the rubber Boom in the 50s, and Firestone in Ohio. That's where I'm from, actually, Akron, you know, the gold rush, where these towns pop up around an AI data Center, a big power plant, all jobs. And then a technology will shift and it will require like 10 million times less electricity to run these things. Everybody will move out because they can work locally, elsewhere and then you'll have a ghost town.

[Phil]

Eventually you're likely to see data centers in space.

[Ian Crossland]

Yes, for sure.

[Phil]

That's, that's, that is where six, six, six, nine months ago this was a crazy idea. As soon as must started talking about

[Tim Cast]

it, what I predicted it. Did you? When I talked about the grandfather with his kid looking up and saying what are those gigantic black things in the sky moving left and right? And he's going to say oh that's the, the machine we built it, you know.

[Phil]

Oh hey, I didn't say. Well the, they were, they were. For a long time they were, they were like that's crazy and stuff. But as soon as Musk started seriously working on the infrastructure for it, it became a normal thing.

[Tim Cast]

Now let's jump to this story from axios. Some Democrats 2028 strategy. A straight white Christian man. It's about time. They are purging the far left. They are dumping money against them. They are trying to moderate and they outright have said their 2028 candidate needs to be a straight white Christian man. That's why they're promoting James Talarico in Texas. I believe the play is this woke is bad for the brand. They know it, they still want it. But you can't sell people something they don't want to eat. You gotta steal power then force it on em. So likely what's gonna happen is you got Joe Rogan ragging on Trump and MAGA saying there's a lot of MAGA dorks, some are genuine patriots. But they gotta deal with these dorks. The Trump supporters do not, not all of them, but many of them do not want to hear that Trump is losing support over the Iran war in the Epstein files. But it is true. Democrats are going to try to capture these guys who are off and moving away from Donald Trump. And we talked to him. We got people in our discord who are saying that they're, they're off over the Iran war. Democrats are going to try and capture him. Now I'll say this, I ain't voting for the likes of Adam Schiff, nor am I going to vote in any way to help that guy get power. So I don't know who the Democrats think they're going to run. But if the Democrats do purge a majority of the far left and we start seeing more like Tulsi Gabbard types running. They're moderate, anti woke Democrats. You will actually start seeing. I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Rogan endorses the Democrat in 2028.

[Ian Crossland]

I wouldn't be surprised if I do it because this.

[Tim Cast]

Well, no one will be surprised by that.

[Ian Crossland]

War machine just doesn't have party affiliation right now. It's got control of the Republican Party. The liberal economic order, the technocracy has control of the Republican Party. Four years ago they had control of the Democratic Party instead. So I just want some consciousness. Like I don't want people naming airports after themselves and putting their signatures on the dollar bills and getting us into wars that they told us they weren't gonna get us into. But I've never seen a politician.

[Tim Cast]

No, Ian, like we've been talking about it for years. We were, you know, I remember in 2024, we were all sitting around this table just talking about how we just needed a president who would start a war with Iran. You just are misremembering, I think that

[Ian Crossland]

the name was Two wars, wasn't that?

[Tim Cast]

That's right. New wars. Yes, yes, new wars.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. Yes, new wars. Or he might have been like, no, new wars.

[Tim Cast]

I was wearing my mega beanie at the time, my bright red mega beanie. And I was, yes, new.

[Ian Crossland]

That's people like, we want world peace. And he was like, no, new wars. And they've misinterpreted him like, oh, this

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

has been the strategy for, for how long There was that. I'm trying to remember which general what that had the.

[Ian Crossland]

Wesley Clark.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Wesley Clark. Thank you. The West Clark. 7. Basically we're going to go through all these seven countries and then we're going to end up in Iran. So it's been, no matter what party is, it's been the policy since 9, 11 that they've wanted to get Iran. So it doesn't matter who it is.

[Tim Cast]

The question for you is how is this not like Rome? That's the hard part. Because the better question is, does this track alongside anything in Rome?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

So the three key things I look at are inflation, immigration, meaning poor border control, and then lack of ethics of people in political position. They don't kind of look at the future, they look at what's now.

[Tim Cast]

We got all that.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

We have all three of those things. And that's why when people often ask me, you know, are we a republic anymore? Are we an empire? I really look at not only an empire, but we're an empire that's fading a lot of ways because we're destroying our Money. We don't look at what the real inflationary number is. If you want to look at it from 1790 till now, rather than year over year, it's probably somewhere between 3 and 5,000%. And we're not giving people real numbers. But at the same time, our politicians are too concerned about fighting each other, and they're less concerned about who's coming into their country as well. So there's so much love of Brutus. I think Trump's way passive, a Brutus, I think. Because if you look at it, we haven't. And this is one of the things we did, the culture war episode a few years ago, I talked about. We haven't functionally been a Republican a very long time. The presidential office has gotten more and

[Tim Cast]

more and more power. Well, he just tried paying TSA by decree.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

And it's funny because this creates a weird conundrum for Democrats where I can't remember which Democrat went on. I think it was like Meet the Press. And he was like, trump can't do that. It's illegal. And so now they've created this position where they have to argue that Trump can't use executive authority to alleviate a problem everyone's about.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Really puts them in a difficult position, because people are gonna go, no, I'm happy Trump is just doing it. But that's. People are gonna be saying, I'm happy we have a strong executive to just do it.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

But you look at it. George W. Bush executive order, Barack Obama executive order. Joe Biden executive order, Donald Trump executive order. It's not governing. And what happens is the next president just gets rid of those executive orders to put in his own. It's not policy, it's not law, it's not structure. It's by executive order, by dictate.

[Tim Cast]

So do you think Trump should sign an executive order that makes Baron Trump the baron, and he just rules Overall

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

be a great idea. But no, in all honesty, I think it gets back to Republicans actually worrying about legislation, and that's not really what we're doing. We're worrying about winning the next midterm or winning the next election.

[Tim Cast]

Also, a big factor in this is the cultural fracturing.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

So we don't have a unified moral system either.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That's correct.

[Tim Cast]

So it doesn't matter what our politicians are doing. To be honest, I was about Caesar.

[Ian Crossland]

Like, I feel like it was the moral fracturing of the Senate that led towards their fear of Caesar and then their inevitable ultimatum to Caesar of give up your property or. And Caesar's like, you leave me no other choice now I'm going to invade and take the control.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Like, the problem is everybody was doing it. The trope about Rome in office was your first year was to get out of debt, your second year was to build wealth, and your third year was to avoid prosecution. So you need at least three years in office. So everyone was doing it. He just kind of did it harder than everybody else. And the Senate resisted him so hard, they caused the fall of the Republic.

[Tim Cast]

The Senate won't even pass the SAVE act, even though it's popular. Congress is wholly dysfunctional. We all know it. They're all just serving themselves. And it's because there is no unified culture. There is no public mandate. The public is fighting itself. So members of Congress are like, okay, quick, grab as much China as you can on the way out. What's. I feel like the end result is just going to be, you know, some. We've talked about the idea of civil war, but it could just be Balkanization.

[Ian Crossland]

I thought that when Caesar, when. When Trump, I mean, was running for office in 2020. Yeah, if they had, like, they. They prevented him or whatever happened. He didn't get into office in 2020, and then they were trying to arrest him and make it so he couldn't run again. If that had succeeded, that would have been like Caesar, and he probably would have crossed the rub economy.

[Tim Cast]

What do you mean? It was.

[Ian Crossland]

If they had legally been like, you can't run, Don. He'd been like, you know what? You can bet I'm in power. Like, he could. We could have seen a demagogue go real. But instead it worked out. He legally ran. He legally. Bro.

[Tim Cast]

The court cases aren't done yet. Have we even gotten a ruling from the appellate court on the. On the criminal case in New York?

[Ian Crossland]

Well, only that his hand wasn't forced in 24. I feel like if he'd been it arrested, somebody's hand may have been forced in 24 to do what Julius Caesar

[Tim Cast]

did when he crossed the line.

[Ian Crossland]

It didn't happen.

[Tim Cast]

I wonder if all of this is just emergent and predictable, that all societies will go through these ebbs and flows naturally for a variety of reasons. Meaning we talk about immigration, inflation and all of these things, political corruption, but these are just inevitabilities based on, you know, it's one plus one equals two. One domino falls over. No matter how advanced your society is, these things will start happening.

[Ian Crossland]

You know, they say you gotta kill the white tailed deer, you gotta hunt them, because they'll overgrow they'll eat indeed. And then they'll starve themselves out.

[Tim Cast]

This happened here a few years ago.

[Ian Crossland]

Do humans go to war inevitably when the population gets so big?

[Tim Cast]

We've never gotten to that point.

[Ian Crossland]

You know it's like World War I was not a population issue.

[Tim Cast]

Well all of these things do somewhat relate to it. We've not gotten to a point where like red tailed deer as a planet but certainly there's been tons of resource wars if not all of them. And I will say the funniest thing is how many people the East India Trading Company killed because they wanted black peppercorn on their steak. Which I get our national good stake man.

[Ian Crossland]

We read an ad at the top of the show. It was like 30. We're 36 plus trillion in debt. We're 39 trillion. And that was, it's getting worse. Was like six months ago. I don't see another path right now other than a world war that slaughters 30%, 15% of the population. I just don't see another.

[Phil]

How does a world war of. You're saying that we have to have a world war to deal with debt.

[Tim Cast]

Not that we have to, but that it's an inevitability like 30,000. So, so here's, here's the thing. Like World War I and 2 basically reset Europe and restructured how their governments functioned. They're talking about their health care system for instance was wholly a product of World War II.

[Ian Crossland]

Upward consolidation of wealth after World War

[Tim Cast]

I and, and population reduction eliminates a large portion of the population.

[Ian Crossland]

Obviously it's like young men that want to change the world go out there and they fight and they sign up for us.

[Tim Cast]

Let's do a throwback. Should we be trending alongside comparable to Rome? What's next for us?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well I think the biggest thing is handling the currency because people often talk about Constantine being the guy that brought Christianity into Rome as a legal religion. It's what he did in 313. But the thing that he does that he doesn't get a lot of credit for is in 314 he mints less than 100 gold coins. And every year until he dies in 336 he's going to mint gold coins. And if you look at the Eastern Roman Empire it's going to go till about the year one from around 313.

[Tim Cast]

Sorry, real quick, what does that mean? Mint 100 gold coins.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

So he gradually over a 20 year period puts them on a gold standard and from that year 300 until about 10 I think it's 1054. It goes to that point without inflation. So he actually one of the main reasons that the Eastern Roman Empire survives, besides the fact that Constantinople is so hard to attack, is they have a currency they can stand on. And if you look at why the west fails in the 270s, Aurelian mints a new silver coin that's much more pure than all the silver coins, even though they've been debasing. But people didn't trust the money anymore. So Constantine brought back gold, forced taxes to be paid in gold, and that forces gold into circulation, and then the currency actually is valued as well.

[Tim Cast]

That's what Trump is doing with the petrodollar. Maybe the war in Iran is largely about dominating petro, the petrodollar, the oil system, as well as natural gas. We went over this great thread that basically breaks down everything the US has been doing with Venezuela, with Iran, and the play with Iran is you remove Iran from the chessboard and put their oil production into Western influence and natural gas. The US will control 45% of global natural gas and oil. China and Russia will never stand a chance.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

A solid currency isn't the only solution, but it's the solution that will buy you time to fix all of the other things.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Because if you have a currency where you can actually function as a society, people can actually pay for things. They can actually handle their families maybe

[Ian Crossland]

and bought a bunch of that.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

When it buys you time to handle the ethics of your politicians, it buys you time to handle your borders. But if you don't handle currency, you can't fix anything.

[Ian Crossland]

What are the other two things?

[Tim Cast]

You said that currency and population.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Right, population. But handling your borders. Because in the third century, Roman emperors are basically raising an army, declaring themselves Emperor, fighting each other, and the strongest becomes the next emperor.

[Tim Cast]

Does Trump need to be like, have babies. We need more babies.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That is a big part of the problem as well. Right. Because if you look at even how population is rising, it's rising by people coming across the border rather than people being born here.

[Tim Cast]

Yep. And you can't replace your managers with Honduran farmers.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Correct. Because there's this. The famous Roman armor people know is the Lorica segmentata. It's the three piece Roman armor that they wear. The third century, they didn't wear that. They wore things that looked more like barbarian armor. And that's because the culture had changed. And I think that's the biggest piece you have to look at. When you lose a unifying culture, that is a bigger Piece of a society actually falling apart.

[Ian Crossland]

The Internet has caused such a strain on liberalism. I think the American culture has been bombarded by strange and wonderful and new and horrible ideas constantly in the heat of the. It's just the culture. I don't know. It's nice to have a superstar come. Come across. But then when the superstar plays for the Chicago Bulls and they're part of the circus, they can't speak out against the circus. They get. The gladiator gets, you know, ostracized. I don't. I don't know what are your.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That's one of the reasons I care about great works of Western culture, because most people at this point in time haven't read them. You know, they haven't read a lot of the works that would have been a major part of people's schooling. They haven't taken a classical education. There's a push out there for something called the. I think it's the classical education test or something like that. And it's really pushing for getting classical education back in school. Because people don't understand history. They don't understand true grammar. They don't understand a lot of the things that a culture is built on. And because of that, it's much easier to control people that will go with whatever's popular at the time.

[Phil]

Most people can't. You know, they can't read at grade level. You know, whatever grade they're in, they're usually years behind.

[Tim Cast]

So I'm gonna go ahead and just say this. Please don't be blackpilled by it. But the presumption would be that we are tracking for, like, a dissolution, like a break, like a breakdown or something. Right?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, so the third century, and that's. You've talked about civil war, and there's been discussions of national divorce and things like that. And if you look at what happens when the center gets weak, that's when the edges start to break away. In the third century, Rome has two different breakaway empires. They have a Gallic empire in the west that breaks off the Palmyran empire in the east. And that was only because they were looking at, we're paying taxes to a center in Rome that can't defend us. They're no longer sending troops. And Postumus, who's the general in the west, decides he's just going to form his own empire rather than trying to take over Rome. And that is what you see when an empire starts to fade, is the edges start to break off because they know the center can no longer support them. So that discussion coming up is a big point of showing how people feel about things.

[Tim Cast]

It's hard to see anything other than that. And it's because our Congress is corrupt, doesn't do their job. So the president just says, I'll do it myself, and no one can stop him. He's just paying the TSA by decree. Who is gonna do anything about it? He can just do it. So the presumption that there is a system of legitimacy by which we cooperate is out the window. Now. It's just Trump's in charge. If Trump. Honestly, I don't even know what would Happen if come 2028, Trump appointed J.D. vance by decree. Like, honest question at this point, if Trump just said no, the results of the election are immaterial. We are going to give J.D. vance the presidency. File a lawsuit against me. They'd have to file a lawsuit. And then if you. And that could take, like, imagine what would happen if Donald Trump said, the results of 2028, 28 are called into question. My FBI is investigating these. We are not. We are seizing these ballot boxes. Thus, the vote count is now in question. Then what? Someone's going to sue? We thought something like that would happen in 2024. It did not. I'm just saying, at this point, what would anyone actually do? Are Democrats going to know? They're going to complain on tv.

[Phil]

You have another no Kings protest and complain about how.

[Tim Cast]

I just. I feel like if Trump truly did listen, the idea that Trump can decree to pay TSA, like, imagine if that happened 70 years ago, the people in this country would freak out.

[Ian Crossland]

I hope that if he were to appoint someone or try to appoint someone, that the deep state would step in, like the Roman Praetorian Guard, you know, the security state, and stop the psychopath from. Well, there's a lot of ways you could do it.

[Tim Cast]

The problem is, let's say there's an election in 2028 and Trump already don't trust elections. That's my point. So Trump comes out and says, we got a lot of fraud in California. Look at this. And then they show a bunch of data and they do Mike Lindell times 20. And then they say, you know, Cash Patel comes out, or if he still FBA director and says, we have seized these voting machines to analyze the data because we have evidence of foreign intrusion and potential fraud. So these can't be counted towards the totals, which calls California into question. And then the vote then goes to a delegation instead of a popular vote. The delegations are then based on Congress and they vote in the Republican. The Democrats then say, no, it's not possible. We've speculated on these things before, mind you. But my point ultimately is if we ever come to that point, if the deep state did come out and try and stop Trump, it would enshrine him as king for life. Imagine Donald Trump saying, look, I don't really know entirely what's going on. Our FBI says they found evidence of fraud. And then the CIA takes a shot at the king, and Mrs. Trump will then rise before the Senate and say, the attempt at my life has left me scarred.

[Ian Crossland]

That's what.

[Tim Cast]

That's.

[Ian Crossland]

He already did it. That's what happened. We took it in the air and now he's full gung ho. But like, the Praetorian Guard doesn't miss. Like, you look at Roman history. They do, do they?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

They do at times.

[Ian Crossland]

What, like, what percentage of it? I mean, I guess it's history rights.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, if you.

[Tim Cast]

Oh, they. Whoever shot at Trump missed. Well, that was two emperors got rid

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

of the Praetorian Guard for that reason and then put their own men in it. You have Septimius Severus in the, in the early second century.

[Tim Cast]

Right.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Rid of the Praetorian Guard because of course, he realized that was going to be a problem for him. He put his own men in and Trump's.

[Tim Cast]

Trump's trying to do that now with getting his guys in these institutions. Isn't it wild?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Constantine got rid of it all together, dude.

[Ian Crossland]

Our White House is a Roman building.

[Tim Cast]

Like, it looks like they would have been. Well, the, the founding fathers wanted to have, like, the Roman style architecture for a lot of buildings in George was I. It just, you know, honestly, like, literally, the writers of Earth Season 12 are just out of ideas. And they're like, just do Rome again. Let's do a remake of Rome. And people loved it.

[Ian Crossland]

Rome, but like, with some Viking action. Like, guys that'll crawl through the mud with a sword.

[Tim Cast]

No, they're like, let's just do like, you know, they brought in. They brought in JJ Abrams and he's like, listen, look, it's not complicated. Just redo Rome and add new action. And they were like, okay, so, you know, like, God's up there being like, all right, let's. Let's go with Rome for 2020.

[Ian Crossland]

We are Roman. I don't know. I often will say, like, we're like a blend between the Romans and the Vikings. We kind of coalesced in England in the early, you know, 1100s.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

And then our founding fathers wanted it to be a combination of republicanism, monarchy, and, you know, other forms of government

[Tim Cast]

that makes something better than council of elders walk around. I forgot what it's called. There's a word for it. But basically, the Founding Fathers were brilliant because they said, instead of doing just one government, why don't we do three at the same time? And unfortunately, now all that really matters is the executive branch. And every day that Congress doesn't do their job and just fights for political. Just pickle. It's political bickering for donations. Trump is just given leeway to do literally whatever he wants. I mean, the. Listen, allocating funding for TSA by decree is nuts.

[Phil]

This is all.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

But how do you fix Congress? Because you look at it and even they just care about the next midterm or they care about the next election cycle.

[Phil]

That's why they don't want to take any votes. Any, Any, any significant votes. Because if they, if they, if they give the power to the President, they can say, well, you know, the President has the authority. It was. I didn't vote for that. You know, we can't do anything about it. And that's really what they want. They want to be able to be in Congress and get all the benefits of being in Congress without actually having any of the responsibilities. That's why they gave the President the power to, you know, the whole. The military author, the authorization for use of force when it came to the war on terror, because they didn't want to have to actually say yes or no. You know, they didn't want that responsibility.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I look at their loser next election.

[Ian Crossland]

Congress is a verb, means to move together. Gres meaning to move con with you. Move together. And that's the whole point is they are moving together. They are congressing.

[Tim Cast]

No, no, no, Ian.

[Ian Crossland]

Oh, yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Do you know what progress means?

[Ian Crossland]

Move forward. Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

And pro and con means.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, con can mean not or with.

[Tim Cast]

It's a joke. Ian, calm down.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, you say hilarious.

[Tim Cast]

What does pro and con means? Pro means good, con means bad. What does progress means? Like, oh, to advance, move forward. What does Congress mean? EVERYONE laughs.

[Ian Crossland]

I think the inception was to move together as a decentralized, you know, autonomy. And we could do that again. It doesn't have to be the 1700s version of it, because the US is

[Tim Cast]

falling, it's changing, it's transmuting, but literally can't be.

[Ian Crossland]

We still need to Congress.

[Tim Cast]

We just got to figure out it's not going.

[Ian Crossland]

What do you mean?

[Tim Cast]

It's just not going to happen.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, it will happen. Whether you're a part of it or not.

[Tim Cast]

That's not correct.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Nope. I'm building suspense. I'm just. I'm just saying I'm waiting a little bit so that we get into it before I actually say, you will never have two men stand side by side locking arms when one says, chop off a child's genitals and the other is a Christian.

[Ian Crossland]

I don't know, man.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah, pretty sure I do know.

[Ian Crossland]

Union dude in the World War II, like, you find alliances, you don't have to be your friends. No, no, no, no, no.

[Tim Cast]

The communists all died and are gone. There's a big difference.

[Ian Crossland]

Allied with those people for a short period of time.

[Phil]

The only reason we allied with them was because they were fighting the Nazis. We weren't allied with them because we had some kind of similar world.

[Tim Cast]

But, but, but hold on. We barely allied with them. The Russians, bro. The Russians invaded Poland and the US Was like, well, they can take half of Germany. Will take the other half. We were never friends.

[Ian Crossland]

No, no. Friends and allies. And then talked about this with Dan Holloway. Friendships and alliances are not the same thing. You might hate the person you're allied with, but you have.

[Tim Cast]

My point is Congress cannot function when the moral worldviews of the two political ideologies are so distinct from each other. Now, if the Democrats, as their play is to start excising the whackaloon lefties and you end up with Tulsi Gabbard versus, like, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr vs. JD Vance, we're good because they're going to be like, ah, those guys are great. They're my friends. But we disagree on certain policies and we're going to get along. But you have to excise the fringe psycho element of the left. The whackaloon, tax the rich, chop off kids balls faction that can't exist. There will be no cohesion between a regular American who wants to just go to work and the people who are like children should get sex changes.

[Ian Crossland]

I could see Marco Rubio working with a moderate Democrat. That'd be interesting.

[Tim Cast]

I can tell you they're doing it right now. RFK Jr. And Tulsi Gabbard are in the Trump administration. If, moving forward, the Democrats embrace, like you have the Trump admin, and it breaks into two. A left Trump and a right Trump. Everyone's good.

[Ian Crossland]

This is I.

[Tim Cast]

You know, we get along. We're all friends.

[Ian Crossland]

You asked Jeremy, like, how do we fix Congress? I don't. I don't see.

[Tim Cast]

Because they get bribed.

[Ian Crossland]

You know, there's 7, 450 of them. They're such easy targets to bribe. It's so easy to tweak. And I just want to Congress, like, as American people, I don't, you know, technology is such that we don't have to rely on sending someone to Washington, D.C. to hope that they do it for. For you anymore. You can just kind of interface through the Internet, through television.

[Tim Cast]

I really think that that was never the point of what the. The point was literally to not have democracy. Quite literally. It was quote, right to have better men. That was an actual quote from the Founding Fathers. So when you elect a representative, you were choosing someone whose job it is to facilitate. It was not so that the collective wishes of the community be manifested democratically. They did not want democracy. The 17th amendment was. I'm sorry, the reason people say to repeal the 17th Amendment is because initially, when it came to the appointment of senators, the idea was that you would elect a state senator or a state rep, who would then vote among a group of people a better man who would go to Congress to represent the state.

[Ian Crossland]

My question on that, just a clarification. Are the better men just the senators, or were they the reps as well? And the senators.

[Tim Cast]

The reps. The idea was, you're a farmer. You don't understand the affairs that are going on with foreign policy, taxation, and national policy. Do you trust me, I will go. And the values I hold, I will bring to D.C. you know, it really is. You say you do it, buddy. I hire you to do the job.

[Ian Crossland]

And with the age of education, it's like, do you still want to live like that? Where you must suffer as a poor farmer and hope that that guy who's probably dumber than you is going to do it better because he's more charismatic?

[Tim Cast]

Don't vote for a guy who's dumber than you.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, most of the people in Congress are dumber than me. No offense, but they're just. Actually, I think they push.

[Tim Cast]

Ian, do you. Do you know what Dunning Kruger means?

[Ian Crossland]

I've heard of it, yeah. Where you think you're smarter than you are.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah. The members of Congress are all smarter than you. Now, I'm not saying they're the smartest people in the world.

[Ian Crossland]

Sorry, dude.

[Tim Cast]

It's a fact.

[Ian Crossland]

Not. It's impossible to quantify.

[Tim Cast]

But Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is a smart person.

[Ian Crossland]

I really.

[Tim Cast]

That and anybody who's capable of manipulating a system to get them into that position of power is smart.

[Ian Crossland]

They're charismatic and they're wealthy. A lot of times they're good.

[Tim Cast]

They are better at calculating their plans and odds and future decisions than you are.

[Ian Crossland]

Just.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That's not necessarily intelligence. That's the ability to observe something, take a bigger risk than any of us would take.

[Tim Cast]

My point is it doesn't. You know, I'll say this. It doesn't matter if you're smarter or not. They are in a position of power over you, and they figured out how to get there, and you did not.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, I know. So we're living in this poor farmer, 1778 legal system where I'm for it completely. You love, obviously. It's doing so well. Why not just, oh, I'm not in

[Tim Cast]

favor of the corruption and the degradation. But I will just stress, Lord help us if someone like you had political power. I do have political power.

[Ian Crossland]

So do you. We have a tv.

[Tim Cast]

You don't vote. Tell people to do something like, you don't vote Congress. You don't go to Congress and pass bills. You think you're smarter than everyone in Congress. That's insane.

[Ian Crossland]

I didn't say I'm smarter than everyone in Congress.

[Tim Cast]

You said.

[Ian Crossland]

I think you said that you have people in Congress. I think Thomas Massie's way smarter than me.

[Tim Cast]

Okay. You think you're smarter than most of the people in Congress. That's just true.

[Ian Crossland]

I had to see that those people are geniuses in Congress. I would love to see, really, intelligence leading the way. It's charisma.

[Phil]

However, it doesn't have to be that they're geniuses. And not to say that they're smarter than you, but most people in Congress, most of the time, when people get frustrated with people in Congress, it's not because they think they're actually dumb, which there are some people in Congress that actually, I think that are. You know, when Cori Bush was in Congress, I think she was. I don't think Cori Bush is particularly intelligent.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Jasmine Crockett's terrifying.

[Tim Cast]

What is that quote? It is the plight of man that the ignorant are so confident and the smart are so doubtful. Something to that effect.

[Phil]

But most people in Congress are, you know, they. They're fairly intelligent. And just because they don't do what we want, a lot of times that's not because of the individual. It's because of the way that our system's set up. Like, I've talked about how, like, you know, nobody likes how the sausage is made, right? Like, nobody likes to see how you actually have to do business in D.C. that's the way that it is.

[Tim Cast]

There are people marching down the street with no Kings signs. And they will tell you that Donald Trump is a stupid person who was there accidentally. And they will say that Elon Musk is a trust fund kid whose dad owned an emerald mine. Emerald mine. And that's why he's rich and powerful by chance, and he's actually really dumb. And if you ask them, do you genuinely believe, having not studied any of the work these men have done, having not built anything comparable to them, or even understanding the basic mechanisms of an llc, an Escort or C Corp, that you are smarter than they are? And they will go, of course. That is the plight of man. And that is why Democrats as a party have existed the way they have for so long. Because with all due respect, they're not wrong about. About dunning Kruger. The fact that they have Hunt, what was it, like 3 million estimated across the country at these no Kings protests. These people genuinely believe they are smarter than the world's richest man who has brought, was it now? Three companies, over a trillion dollar net worth. And they're like, I'm smarter than him. It's like the dude is landing rockets. He is bringing rockets to space and then landing them on platforms in the ocean. You are not smarter than this man. And they're like, yes, I am.

[Phil]

My favorite cope is. Is they'. Well, you know, he doesn't actually do it. It's other people that do it.

[Tim Cast]

And then you talk to people, hire

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

those people that know how to do it.

[Phil]

Well, not, not only that, but you talk to people that work at SpaceX and they're like, no, he's an engineer.

[Tim Cast]

It's not working all the time. It's that Elon goes to three guys and he says, you know, one of the biggest problems with rockets is we have to keep reusing all of it. It's very expensive. It's hundreds of millions of dollars. So the idea is, how do we implement a landing system for reasonable rockets? And then one guy goes, well, I think we should make it out of moon cheese. And he goes, that's a bad idea. The point is he brings 10 engineers before him and he says, what's your plan? And the guy goes, A, B, C, D goes, those plans are bad. You make it work. Then he gives that guy money and that guy makes it work. It's not that he is going to actually write the code, build the materials, it's that he's going to listen to all the ideas and in his brain is connecting the dots, saying, Your idea will not work for these reasons. Your idea is too expensive. That actually might work. Let's try that one. And then it does. And he does it over and over and over again. Because the simple thing about being smart is being. It's. It's recollection and being able. Being able to utilize that recollection to connect dots, to make future predictions. And Elon has that in spades.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

It's the difference between strategic thinking and tactical thinking. Tactical thinking, you're trying to solve just one situation where strategic. You're looking at doing something more long term, and that has more moving parts to it.

[Tim Cast]

And there's just. It's wild to me that, like, you know, we'll have somebody on this show usually when it's contentious and they're a lefty. And I always just ask, like, you've not googled this, you've not read anything about it, nor listened to the quotes from the individuals involved. Do you actually believe you are correct? And they'll go, of course. And it's just like, okay, well, that person's going to vote to blow the country up. So do you think, like, the founding Fathers did not want direct. Direct democracy? That's for sure. And I'll tell you this, Democrats don't even want that. The reason why Republicans won't pass the SAVE act is because they don't want any of y' all voting for that reason. Because there. There's a Republican right now, like, John Thune is sitting in his, like, hideaway cabin, like, hiding from everybody, and there's someone going, senator, why won't you pass the SAVE Act? And he goes, are you watching this, Tim Cast irl? This dude said he was smarter than most of the people in Congress. That's why we don't want them to vote.

[Phil]

I mean, I can't even get into the SAVE Act.

[Tim Cast]

I don't think people in Congress are the smartest people on the planet. I think many of them are underachieved and they go to Congress because it's the best thing they can attach to for some kind of legacy or notability. That being said, it is extremely difficult to succeed to get into Congress. It is not something anyone can just do. It takes clever planning, hours of, you know, working overtime nonstop. It is very, very difficult to accomplish. These are not necessarily all good or honest people. They're not going to solve complex equations, but they are certainly smarter and a lot smarter than the average person. You can call them evil, that's fine and dishonest, but they are smarter than the average person, they have figured out the mechanisms by which they can build a system and get into a seat of authority and power.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

And they're also willing to do the things that the rest of us aren't willing to do.

[Tim Cast]

You know, that's something else.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

They will work hard in a gray area or something that's even illegal to be able to push what they want to push. So they're willing to do things that a lot of us just wouldn't be willing to do.

[Tim Cast]

Indeed, my friends, I know we, let's see, we got, we got a couple stories pulled up and let's jump to, you know, we talked a lot about the Roman Empire already. We were going to talk about Desantis naming the airport after Trump, but it kind of played into what we've already discussed with Trump ruling by decree and all that stuff. So let's do this. Let's do this. We've got this post from AT Jason and we got a story from the New York Post. The New York Post reports AI dangerously close to solving tests that only the brightest minds on Earth, human expertise still, Earth could. Human Expertise still matters. Jason says the truth is we've already reached artificial general intelligence. We just haven't implemented it broadly. Millions of jobs are being lost as we speak. Entire careers are being retired. The rich and powerful investors and founders who implemented AGI will get bizarrely rich beyond what makes sense. It will break people's brains on both sides. It's going to suck a lot of our friends and family for a lot of our friends and suck. Suck for a lot of friends and family who aren't obsessed with their careers because things are moving so fast they won't have even left the starting gate.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

By the time the awards are handed out, we're going. We're going to have to solve for a lot of second and third order effects, some of which will suck job loss and some of which will be awesome. AI will create free treat free cheap energy for education, cheaper and better food, homes that build themselves and medicine that makes you as healthy as a 30 year old when you're 100. Change is hard. But humans are the most adaptable species nature has ever created. We can figure it out. I saw a UFO the other day. Took a picture of it.

[Phil]

Really?

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. Where?

[Tim Cast]

So what? Exactly what Owen Schroyer described seeing. I saw something similar when I was driving in West Virginia. I bring this up because I'm wondering if these sightings that people are reportedly seeing, like the drones and stuff, are actually just a Function of advanced technology. We have already reached. It's not out of the question that someone's flying a drone over a farm. So that's why I'm, like I say ufo, but I'm just being kind of shocking. But I wonder if there's just degrees of technology that have advanced so far. Regular people aren't catching up to this. My point. Andy was telling me, my boy Andy works here, that late at night, he'll see. Actually, I think it was Andy saying this. You'll see lights in the sky just like you'll see UFOs flying around like crazy. No one cares. Why? Well, it's drones, probably. They're just drones flying around at night. What do I care? However, there are a lot of people who. This advancement in drones has come so quickly. They see these things in the sky and they freak out and you get reports of UFOs. So as it relates to the artificial intelligence stuff, I think it's very likely that we are substantially more advanced in AI than anyone knows. But the implementation is happening only in key areas. For instance, there's a big story right now where they've got AI cow herding. The cows all wear collars, and the farmer looks at his phone and he draws a circle as the. As the grazing area and the cows all get a. Like a. That makes the cows start moving to the appropriate area to graze. He no longer needs dogs to do anything. These kinds of things are happening rapidly. But a plumber doesn't know this. So one day he sees a cow with a collar on going. And it's talking. And then he sees the cow walking down the street and he goes, what is that thing on that cow? Is this alien? And the device is going. And then the cow's moving and he's like. So my point is technology is advancing faster than human culture can adapt to it.

[Phil]

There's a. There's a phrase that they use in AI. They say that AI has jagged edges because there's a lot of capabilities that artificial intelligence has, but that doesn't mean that there's an adoption of it. So there's a lot of things that your AI could do, but it hasn't really filtered out into the population yet. So the adoption of AI is actually lagging compared to what the capabilities of most of AI.

[Tim Cast]

Exactly. I agree. And I think. Guys, have you seen the Black Snape versus Snape UFC match? Oh, God, dude. AI video is just. Is. Is. It's. My mind is ridiculous. The acceleration, it's real. It's indistinguishable that's why they're attacking Iran.

[Ian Crossland]

They have attack. They got the. You notice how quiet element has been the last three months? That's.

[Phil]

No, it hasn't been.

[Ian Crossland]

Why? You haven't sensed the void.

[Phil]

It hasn't.

[Ian Crossland]

There's an intentional.

[Tim Cast]

It has not been quiet.

[Phil]

Opus.

[Tim Cast]

Check this out.

[Phil]

Anthropic released Opus.

[Tim Cast]

Let me. Let me turn the volume down. But watch this. Watch. Quiet at all. Watch this. This is crazy.

[Ian Crossland]

They really want to put people in pods, man. Just entertain them.

[Tim Cast]

It's like the spaghetti meme. It's getting so crazy good.

[Ian Crossland]

I don't know how you protect people's biorhythm.

[Tim Cast]

They made Joe Rogan black or is that somebody. I don't know. No, that's what Joe Rogan was wearing.

[Phil]

That's another announcer that they point is

[Tim Cast]

in the next year with Sea Dance 3, they're talking about generating 17 minute short films in 30 seconds.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Movies are over. Music is over. Like the transformation. It's already here. And we are culturally lagging.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Ian Crossland]

So it's so funny. Like we used to make movies in the future. They'll be like, God, they used to actually stand there and do all the talking themselves.

[Tim Cast]

What did.

[Ian Crossland]

They used to take the letter and hand deliver it. Walk all the way across town too.

[Tim Cast]

On horseback.

[Ian Crossland]

Before they called on phone.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Ian Crossland]

And now AIs. It's gonna just be.

[Tim Cast]

So now my neuralink is networked to yours and I can just think something to you.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, I just used Claude cowork last week. Cause I needed a new media page on my site. I gave it my brand standards, it asked me for a few photos. It built the whole page out, did all the search engine optimization. Then it looked terrible on mobile. So I said, hey, fix it for mobile. It fixed it on mobile. So I can't imagine what it does

[Tim Cast]

for even web designers and SEO, we have a job availability for a film producer because we always have these ideas. I have a great idea for a little black mirror type mini. It starts with Ian playing video games and he's playing like civ or something, and then he gets a text from Phil. And Phil's like, hey, buddy, you know, I'm gonna. I'm coming in a little bit early. You want to grab a bite to eat before the show and like you know, just, you know, shoot. Shoot the ish. And then Ian's like, oh, yeah, for sure. But I got to finish work, so let me. Let me see if I can take a break. And then he looks over at Claude and it's just running these crazy programs. And he's, he's seeing a money incrementer go up and then he's like, eh, it'll be good if I leave it for a little bit. Then he goes to grab lunch with Phil before the show. And then Phil's like, yeah, yeah, no, I'm still at work right now, but I figured I'd take some lunch. And then he looks at his phone and Claude is just doing all of the work for him. It's like doing. And then you're seeing a money increment or go up. And society basically has a digital versions of everybody that works in white collar jobs while you do whatever you want. Right.

[Phil]

Right now, the way that like young people can actually become, at least for the next, you know, probably decade, 5, 5 years, 10 years can become extraordinary. Well, extraordinarily wealthy is learn to trade.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Phil]

Like if you're an electrician.

[Tim Cast]

Oh yeah.

[Phil]

And you get a job. Speaking of, of Optimus, bro. Well, I think, I mean, I do think that that'll, that'll be eventually.

[Tim Cast]

But the thing about artificial general intelligence is that when, if, if we are at this point, let me put it like this, you guys know about time dilation, obviously, right? Old sci Fi trope. The idea was that if we created a spaceship to go to Alpha Centauri, load up a bunch of humans on it, and then said it's gonna take 100 years to get there, they're gonna accelerate as fast as possible, at the halfway mark, start decelerating. By the time they're halfway there, another spaceship full of colonists will fly past them. Because technology will have advanced so much due to time dilation back on Earth that they will be going slow and you'll fly past them and go, wow, the old colony shit. That's what's happening now with Optimus bots. AI is by the time we get to AGI in full implementation, it's going to be like, you wasted all your time designing Optimus. I'm going to give you a schematic for a perfect human Android and go, here's how to build it.

[Ian Crossland]

I thought that's why they closed Sora, because they're like, that's old technology now.

[Tim Cast]

They can't compete. It's advancing way too quickly. And they've got to put their resources somewhere else.

[Ian Crossland]

It was costing them a million a day. They had half a million users. Nobody, like, relatively nobody was using it.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Phil posted something last week. It was a Spotify link and it was like, oh, this it's pretty good, but it looks like an AI band. Like, I can't even imagine what this is going to do to the music industry because it's, you know, you can tell if you listen, but, you know, eventually it's going to be even better.

[Tim Cast]

Now we're already past that point. Personally, I think we're already past that point.

[Phil]

The music industry was cooked when, when Spotify came out 20 years ago. But that's just me.

[Tim Cast]

The, the, the issue is if you are a music producer and you break down a song, you'll notice where things are AI but the average person will absolutely not, absolutely not notice. I've got a bunch of. So first. First and foremost, all instrumental music is over. So I knew a guy who used to sit in his room all day writing songs that were instrumental and he would upload them to various music databases. Then he would get paid per month, per how many songs he had in the database. So he would just start cranking out songs. And there were orchestral compositions. They were like dance beats because people would license the songs for their media projects. That job is gone.

[Phil]

Yep.

[Tim Cast]

So we've like, we've done a few projects. Need music. Pop up in Suno. Type in ambient, eerie horror soundtrack. Done instantly. You get two versions, you try them out, don't like them. Generate, generate, generate, play. You're done.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, here's the question I have though. Does the pushback come where people start demanding more humanity because they don't like that being taken out of it?

[Tim Cast]

I don't think so. I think you might have some hipster dump type stuff like vinyl records, but I think young people. There's a funny thing. I saw this comedian, Elon Musk retweeted this. There's a comedian who was like, everybody is scared of automatic cars. Don't be scared. Let me explain. When you go to the grocery store, the door opens and you've never thought twice. But would you rather there be two guys standing there grabbing the door and opening it and closing it every time you're walking through with your family? Nah, we're okay. And then Elon point. I think it was Elon who pointed this out. Or he retweeted someone who did. Elevators used to be manual. You would go in and a guy would pull a lever to make it go up or down.

[Ian Crossland]

A bellhop.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah, he grabbed. They still have bell hop. The bellhop, you know, bellhop still exist. And they grab your suitcase and they bring it in for you.

[Ian Crossland]

Bellhop's not the guy that would run the. That was A whole other dude that would just stand there all day.

[Tim Cast]

So he'd have a lever. Elevator operator. Yeah. You'd go in the elevator and he'd pull a lever back and then you'd go up and he would drive it for you. No one's ever complained about automatic elevators. So I think kids are going to grow up with this being normal and they're just going to be like, what do you mean? Music is whatever you want it to be.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

So is it just the idea that we get further away from the change and the next generation doesn't care because they haven't experienced it the other way?

[Tim Cast]

Indeed.

[Phil]

That's. That's one of the. You'll notice that when, when it comes to like, privacy issues. Right. Like, people, my generation and older, they actually care about privacy. They're like, oh, I don't know if I want this. I don't want. When, when Xbox360 first came out, like, when they first did the update, it was like, it was a big deal that it was always connected to the Internet and it had a camera that could watch you. And I was like, I'm not getting that. I don't want that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and then I got an iPhone and it's like, you know, I mean, it's always watching. It's over. You know, it's over that. And so young people, people that are in their 20s and younger, they, they don't have the same concept of privacy that older generations do because they, they live in a world where there are cameras all the time, where they're, they're constantly taking pictures and loading with the Internet and stuff, that the idea of privacy just has gone away. So it's not a situation where people are going to be like, oh, you know, I don't, I want, I don't want to lose my privacy. It's like they're not really going to have the same attachment to privacy that older generations are going to. That have.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah, because I know for me, like, I'll. I'll be 40 in a year. And that's. I remember when you went into Windows, you had to type in W I N to get into Windows of the Ms. DOS prompt. And it's. I've had enough experience of life the other way. And I guess not having that life experience, you wouldn't know what you're missing.

[Phil]

Yeah, I mean, look, I, I don't put pictures of my kid on the Internet. Like, I don't. His face isn't up on the Internet and stuff. And I'm sure that by the time he's a teenager he's going to be like, I don't care, whatever, you know, but until he is old enough to make the decision, like I'm not going to do that for him. But I, I strongly suspect that he's going to be like, look man, hey, there's always videos, there's always camera. Dad, you're always watching me or you know, through somehow or what have you. So I think that young people are just going to have it, have a, have a different relationship with privacy than, than older generations.

[Tim Cast]

Let's jump to this story. We've got this from Technology Law fkks. So you may have heard the story broke last month, but there's a lot of a lot moving, a lot moving. Right now. New York and Washington are taking on loot boxes in video games. Letitia James, the Democrat AG from New York has filed a lawsuit against Valve for hosting illegal gambling. We've got this from her website from the end of February. Basically saying that Counter Strike 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 enable gambling by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value. In Valve's most popular game. The process resembles a slot machine with an animated spinning wheel that eventually rests on a selected item. The randomly selected virtual items have no in game functionality but can be sold online for money with one of them reportedly being sold for more than $1 million. I believe new York and Washington are going to win. Valve is going to lose. The end result will be that loot boxes and anything comparable is gambling. And the reason why is that casinos are opening everywhere. New York just announced three new gaming licenses. A Hard Rock they've got. What is, what is it that they're doing? A Bally's in the Bronx, a Hard Rock somewhere. They've already got Resorts World. They're gonna have I think four casinos in New York City.

[Phil]

Four.

[Tim Cast]

Wow, four. Now these casinos are probably going these big corporations to Letitia James to Washington saying we will open these casinos and you will make bank off of your tax share from gambling only if you eliminate any competition. The reason I think Letitia James is going after loot boxes is not a coincidence that it's happening around the exact same time. New York just issued three gaming licenses to major casino operators. So what they're arguing is, let me put it like this, the first slot machines, the reason why they have cherries, lemons and bar is because gambling was illegal. You'd put a coin in, you'd pull the lever, it would go bar, bar, bar, and a bar of gum would fall down. A vending machine. You would then take that bar of gun next door to a different business that purchases gum. You'd hand them the gum, they'd hand you cash. So that's how you were legally allowed to gamble. It was a workaround. Loot boxes are. They're arguing do the exact same thing as the OG slot machines. You. You pay some kind of money or value that allows you to then use virtual currency or to actually spin the lot the slot to get your rare item, which can then be sold for money to somebody.

[Ian Crossland]

It can be, but so can everything.

[Tim Cast]

So the argument is, what's that? You are wagering money not on a definitive item. The argument she's making is it doesn't. It doesn't matter after the fact. What matters is you are giving money for a chance at something, not for something.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, the difference here is that there's no organization that's encouraging to buy your product back from you at a profit. So there is no, like, quid pro quo where you're going to go next door and sell the loot box back. And they need to prove that these items are of actual value. Just because some rando and from China will give you $1,000 for a red hat in a video game doesn't mean that the red hat in the video game has any actual value.

[Tim Cast]

And what if these gaming companies open a secondary business that purchased these items?

[Ian Crossland]

Oh, then shut them down.

[Tim Cast]

But.

[Ian Crossland]

And they're praying off at children.

[Tim Cast]

How do you. How do you prove that?

[Ian Crossland]

We just prove it. I mean, is there evidence that. That if you.

[Tim Cast]

If you open a company that buys and sells secondary items on Dota.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. Those are generally illegal anyway, like buying World of Warcraft gold with real money. There was a lot of.

[Tim Cast]

There's something illegal about you having a company that will buy second items on the secondary market. Is it illegal for me to buy Magic the Gathering cards and sell them?

[Phil]

No.

[Ian Crossland]

No.

[Tim Cast]

So think about the system.

[Ian Crossland]

But if I. If I. If you had a business where you were gathering away magic cards to one and then your other business was, I'm buying them back next.

[Tim Cast]

Magic the Gathering knows there's a secondary market that drives the value of their cards for purchase, which is why they have what's called the reserve list. Do you know what the reserve list is? No. Let me learn y' all something. Booster packs are gambling. They have never been properly adjudicated because the arguments in the 90s over Pokemon booster packs as gambling were thrown out not on the merits but on standing. Arguing that the people who exchanged money for a booster pack received a physical product. Therefore there's no formal gambling loss. However, Hasbro I believe the owners of Magic the Gathering have something called the reserve list. These are cards they will never reprint. And this is because there is a secondary market and these cards retain their value. The secondary market makes their booster packs valuable and people will buy them. Which guarantees the sell of booster the sale of booster packs. If there is no secondary market, cards are worthless. Print a million of them. People can buy whatever they want. In fact, Wizards of the Coast Hasbro could just offer up on their website direct sales for 50 cents. I would like the rare card because I want to build the best deck. Okay. You can purchase all all cards for 50 cents. Right? Why not do that?

[Ian Crossland]

Because they probably make more money selling you a four dollar booster pack with a bunch of seven cent cards in

[Tim Cast]

it where you're hoping you will get the card that you need. And you have to buy more and more and more in the chance you might get a card that you need. No pro player of any of these trading card games buys boosters to get the cards they need for their decks. They buy singles directly from a card shop on the secondary market. And the secondary market exists because Magic has created a reserve list to guarantee the price of these cards so that people will buy at random chance and then try and resell them to a shop for the secondary market. They know exactly what they're doing. Loot boxes are going to be found to be gambling. The ancillary effect will be precedent will get booster packs banned as well. And I think this is largely because casinos want to control all wagering. That's a big.

[Ian Crossland]

That'd be like banning baseball cards.

[Tim Cast]

Agreed.

[Ian Crossland]

I don't think you can ban baseball cards.

[Tim Cast]

The difference with baseball cards the secondary market is limited because there's no function to the baseball cards. They're a collector's item for being collector's items. The issue with Magic the Gathering is that players need specific cards which are in limited print. Which drives up demand guaranteeing secondary market

[Ian Crossland]

value only if you play with them.

[Tim Cast]

And because standard play requires you to use the best cards and they limit the production of the best cards. Meaning everybody knows is about magic. I can't speak for Pokemon or other card games. The the new deck comes out for standard and you want to win $600 on the spot to buy all the cards you need. If you don't have $600, congratulations. You are not winning tournaments. Now, how do you get those cards? Well, it's 600 bucks for direct purchase. You're not going to spend a grand on random chance packs. So there are people who will buy boxes of boosters. The moment they come out, crack them all open, hoping that they will get a slightly EV plus on their on their return. And this will set the value of rarer cards that are in limited print specifically because they know the function of the game requires people to buy them.

[Ian Crossland]

That's the function of gaming shop. They do that.

[Tim Cast]

Agreed. Buy boxes. They'll open at the shop and then they'll sell them. Card shops are illegal.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, like they should be illegal.

[Tim Cast]

No, they're literally illegal. Here's the law in West Virginia. I pulled it up. Here it is, WV 6110 4. If any person bet or play at any such gaming table, bank or device as is mentioned in the first section, or if at any hotel, tavern or other public place or place of public resort, he play any game except bowls, chess or backgammon, drafts or a licensed game, or bet on the sides of those who play at any game, whether the game be permitted or licensed or not, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fine. Not less than five or more, 100. Blah, blah, blah. The point is, there is no formal licensing of TCGS in West Virginia. Games that are licensed are games like three Card Poker at a casino. And the casino gets a license to play via Shuffle Master or otherwise. Pokemon Magic, Yu Gi. Oh, Lorcana. These other games, they are not licensed games. The law predates the existence of these games. I do not think they should be illegal. But the point is this. If they go for loot boxes, which they are, they are going to attack this whole space. And I think it's fair to say. Let me put it like this. I'm gonna ask you guys a question in the comments. Tell me if I'm wrong. If there was a vending machine and you could walk up to it and it said buy a Pokemon mystery box for $20, in it you will find a card potentially worth 10 or up to $200. You don't know what that card is going to be. Is that gambling?

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Here you go. I have one right here. This box from a vending machine at Apple Valley Mall. You. I don't know. I don't remember what the exact price was. It might have been 20 or 30 bucks. And it says on the back, one graded Pokemon card valued between 10 and $200. Who will you discover? Disclaimer Mystery Pack Con is very. Each pack contains one graded Pokemon card. No player who needs to get the Pokemon cards for their deck is buying these for the card they need for their deck. People are buying these in hopes that your 30 purchase will net you a 200 value. And in fact the card that I got is only worth $7.

[Ian Crossland]

What card is it?

[Tim Cast]

It's Ultra Necrozma GX.

[Ian Crossland]

It sort of sounds like old video arcades where you'd win tickets and then the tickets aren't worth anything. But you could trade them for something.

[Phil]

It came in that box and it came in the, the plastic piece when you. The plastic protector.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

You bought it.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah.

[Phil]

I mean that, that right there shows that, that the value of the rare card or what have you is exactly.

[Ian Crossland]

They are not supposed to be dollar value on that.

[Tim Cast]

You're not cracking this open to put in a deck. Yeah. You are not trying to get a random card to play in a deck. It's not the purpose of it. The collector value is the purpose. And they sell this. Guys, I'm sorry. This is gambling like there is no skill involved. It is strictly a purchase, a money wagered for a chance to get a high value prize. It literally says between 10 and 200 bucks on the back. Children go to the mall, Apple Valley and they gamble on this stuff. Booster packs is gambling. Wagering money to play a card game is gambling. All of it is gambling under the law. They've just operated under a gray area. Here's my point. They're. Letitia James is going for these loot boxes. Washington state is going for these loot boxes. And I guess Washington is going for Kalshi as well. The reason why is because casinos are, are, are buying, are buying out land everywhere. Miriam Adelson, one of Trump's largest donors, has been trying to get a Sands Co. Casino. I believe it's Sands in Texas. I don't remember what she owns. Venetian or something. And Texas has been blocking her. Now the Lodge card club got shut down. And the conspiracy theory from a lot of people, I'm not saying I believe it because I like Ken Paxton. Ken. So the TABC shuts down the Lodge Ken Paxton then a week later flies to meet with Trump. And now the reporting is that Trump may endorse Ken Paxton. The conspiracy theory among poker players in Texas is that Miriam Adelson went to Trump and said, get me my casinos in Texas. Trump said, ken Paxton is a friend. He'll do me a favor. Ken Paxton goes to Meet with Trump and Trump says shut down these card rooms and get these casinos in. Because when the casinos come and they are coming, these card rooms are competitors and we don't want it. That's the conspiracy that I don't know necessarily is true. But, but after the lodge got shut down, which is the largest card club in the world, the speculation right away was that Ken Paxton was meeting with Trump, needed the endorsement and said, what do you want from me? And Trump said, miriam Adelson wants casinos in Texas and wants these card rooms out of the picture so that gaming is controlled by them. Loot boxes from Letitia James. Exact same play again, I'm not saying I know it's true, but I don't think it's a coincidence that they're trying to list things as gambling, which would put them solely under the control of the casinos. Imagine this. You want to. Do you want a loot box for Dota? You gotta, you gotta, you gotta go through Caesars first. How do you, how do you get your new, your new Random Chance skins? Valve signs a license deal with Rivers Casino and then says the Rivers logo appears and 10% of all of the loot box bins go to Rivers because they own the permits. I'm not saying I know it's going to happen, but it's not a coincidence that, that all of these states are now filing these gambling charges against a bunch of players at the same time. Casinos are popping up everywhere and within two and a half hours driving of right here, there are nine casinos.

[Phil]

That's incredible.

[Tim Cast]

Is coming. It is taking over. And Gen Z are gamblers like crazy. Sports betting, online apps, live streaming. This is the play they are making and they will own it all.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Every sports podcast I listen to is sponsored by a gambling company of some sort.

[Tim Cast]

Here we go. Yeah, it's gonna happen.

[Phil]

Yeah, I, I mean I, I don't know how this is a positive thing for, for society. I don't think that people should be prevented from gambling and stuff. But the idea that just because you're buying a. Well, it's really a perversion of what was initially 10 intended to be fun for games, right kid? Like Magic the Gathering and collectible card games. It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be cosplaying.

[Tim Cast]

No, no, no. The first straight. The first trading card game was gambling Magic. The Gathering was the first trading card game ever. And the first edition included ante where you had to actually wager a card of value to play the game. And the winner really card of value it was gambling outright, but it was. And so they, they had, they were forced to remove ante from the game because they were being threatened with illegal gambling.

[Phil]

Wasn't it still geared at kids though?

[Tim Cast]

No, no, no, no. It was geared to young adults. It was. Richard Garfield was trying to make a board game that was targeting young adults largely based on like the D and D fandom and things of that nature. But they couldn't afford a full board. They wanted a board with cards. So they said just do the cards. And it was the first trading card game ever made and explicitly included a gambling element. There are even cards that allow you to swap your ante mid game, which was a crazy trick. You'd be like, I'm going to ante up a very rare card, a mox. And they'd put up a mox. Then mid game you draw a card and says, I'm swapping the ante out for this dummy card. And they'd be like, you son of a. And now even if they win, they get junk. But if you win, you get their rare expensive card, which at the time was still only 10 bucks or whatever. They had to get rid of that element.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

You could play in the Coliseum, but it's our Coliseum indeed.

[Tim Cast]

And that's what's happening right now. So I, I've gone to war with a bunch of 14 year olds by claiming that Pokemon is gambling. It's not that I actually believe Pokemon is gambling, but it's that under the law Pokemon is gambling. It just operates in a gray area to determine whether or not something is gambling. There's something called a predominant factor test in most states. This has never been applied to loot boxes nor Pokemon, Magic Lorcana or any other card game. It has never been tested. I believe with the expansion of these casinos, card rooms are going to start asking the question if we own the rights to all card games. Where in a tournament you've, you, you make a wager of cash. Why don't we own this? So what's going to get weird is that the first question I have for everybody who doubts this is do you think the multi billion dollar multinational corporations being told they can win this court case, would they give up a multi billion dollar card industry like Pokemon if they could lay claim to it? The other question is if according to the law, any game you can't, West Virginia says you can't even play a game doesn't even say wager on it says bet or play. In Texas it says wager money on a game of chance. For a chance to win prizes. Do you believe that the casinos will not try and get the predominant factor test to placed on these games? I believe the answer is absolutely they will. What's going to happen is they are going to make the argument these children have a card game. They are putting money forward playing a card game with of chance. They've not determined how much chance. It's just chance to win cash prizes. We have the exclusive permit in this state for that function. And if the state allows that function to exist outside a casino, the court, the casinos could lose future cases. This is exactly what I've been working on with various AGs and discussing with them about if Pokemon Yu Gi oh Magic allow tournaments where children will put money up front, play a card game and then win cash. This is threatening the the exclusivity that casinos have over other card games like hold them, pot limit Omaha, etc. The casinos absolutely will try to take this or at least get it banned.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I wonder how long that is before that happens in professional sports. Because you even watch a baseball game now and they're giving you betting lines and things throughout an entire game.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah, but hold on. The casinos already own it. If you want to make a sports bet, it's either through their casino app or in a casino. They don't allow a random person to open a sports book down the street. Would a casino allow a guy to open a cafe that allows sports betting? Absolutely not. So the question then is will. So the thing is when, when card games started expanding across the country, casinos were not anywhere. They were on reservations and in Vegas, in Atlantic City. Now that states are saying you can open a casino in the city and state proper regulated by the state, are they going to just say you can wager on card game. Card games, any card game outside of our facility? No. And the big issue for me is the reason why this is going to happen again. Loot boxes being a big play on this one. They're going to remove it. It's. They're going to lose. I guarantee it. And then the thing about card games is the reason I think the casinos will make this play is because of a card game called Balatro. Do you guys know what that is?

[Ian Crossland]

I haven't.

[Tim Cast]

And how would you describe it? It's like.

[Ian Crossland]

Well, it's, it's 52 card poker, but it's not poker, you know, but you want to make poker hands with your hand of 12 or 10 and you get rares and wilds that can change this.

[Tim Cast]

So there are some cards and Then poker cards, they've combined.

[Ian Crossland]

The two jokers give you all sorts of random abilities.

[Tim Cast]

Is it chance or skill?

[Ian Crossland]

Both.

[Tim Cast]

It's a poker variant. It is a poker variant that uses extra cards that is regulated by casinos. Why are you allowed to play it outside of a casino?

[Ian Crossland]

That game particularly because it's single player, there's no money being traded.

[Tim Cast]

There's multiplayer, there's tournaments.

[Ian Crossland]

I've never played a multiplayer version of it.

[Tim Cast]

Well, then maybe there's not, but there's tournaments. So however they play. But again, the restrictions on Balacho are specifically because they try to avoid falling into gambling territory. The question then is if. If the predominant factor test needs to be applied to the existing popular card games like Pokemon has never been done. The argument by Pokemon fans is that it is a skill game, not a chance. And because it is a skill game, it is not gambling. However, no one has ever tested this. In fact, I asked Grok and ChatGPT and it argued Pokemon Magic the Gathering and Yu Gi oh have greater chance involved because of a greater. A greater draw. Two separate decks, 120 cards or more with seven cards drawn between each player, increase substantially more variance than a poker game.

[Ian Crossland]

It's kind of true.

[Tim Cast]

It actually is true.

[Ian Crossland]

One guy's deck is way better.

[Tim Cast]

That's also chance.

[Ian Crossland]

He's got a huge likelihood of winning.

[Tim Cast]

Chance is defined as what a player can control. And if you can't control the cards the other player has, that is. That is called. That is legally gambling. It's a question they ask when it comes to the predominant factor test. So the issue is, if I invent a new card game and we start playing it and it's an entry fee, how will casinos control for gambling? If I can just keep creating new card games with new names and new variables so that I can keep wagering money on a game of skill, the casinos are going to say no to this and they are dumping tons of money to win this war. I'm.

[Ian Crossland]

I don't want to consolidate power up into the casino's hands, I think.

[Tim Cast]

Should gambling be allowed?

[Ian Crossland]

Gambling be allowed? Should it be just like gambling should be? Gambling is a part of nature.

[Tim Cast]

Should people be allowed to legally just have poker games and cash games wherever they want, whenever they want?

[Ian Crossland]

No, no, that's pretty normal.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

You know, people always did poker games. I know my dad always.

[Ian Crossland]

But it's illegal.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Sure, but they go to a Lions Club or something, they play poker at the Beef Steak or whatever. Indeed, pretty culturally normal.

[Tim Cast]

But I'm saying, should it be Legalized. And if you think it's culturally normal and everyone does it, should we just say down with the laws? Casinos should not have exclusivity on this.

[Ian Crossland]

The problem is children getting wrapped into gambling and pressing a button just for waiting until they get their dopamine fix

[Tim Cast]

is like, that's what this lawsuit's about.

[Ian Crossland]

But they're gonna have to prove the

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

thing about the social media from that too.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. Really?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

You could regulate social media more for that too because you pull down your Twitter feed, it's just like gambling.

[Tim Cast]

You're not spending money for that and you're not winning cash prizes.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Sure.

[Tim Cast]

So I think we're gonna, I think a nuclear bomb is about to drop. I think the closure of the lodge in Texas has just set a bunch of high net worth people on edge. And as soon as this goes into courts, it's going to spark off a tinderbox involving video games like Dota, games like Pokemon and the mass expansion of casinos across the country. And it's gonna get real crazy real quick.

[Ian Crossland]

They've been hard going hard on loot boxes for a little while.

[Tim Cast]

I, I Belgium, they banned them.

[Ian Crossland]

Really? When you spend money on a video game to get jewels that you can spend to get cosmetic gear. Okay, whatever. If you can sell that cosmetic gear in game for money.

[Phil]

And also remember it's all gambling. It's not a lot of times it's not just cosmetic gear, it's gear. It's like pay to win.

[Tim Cast]

Well, so, so let me, let me, I have, I have, I have a mobile game.

[Ian Crossland]

Front two is like that.

[Tim Cast]

I have a mobile game on my phone that has tournaments with cash prizes in order to build the best setup. They're basically decks, but it's not a card game. You get cards and cards give you a strong team. It's like, it's like a, it's like an RPG kind of. You have little guys that battle other little guys. You've got to buy gems, which are very expensive to get boosters, which will give you one guy to level up one guy, you need three cards. There's like 60 different guys. So the chance of getting that guy are extremely difficult. And it's a redundant, ridiculously and psychotically expensive game. To get to the highest bracket and actually win tournaments, it's just gambling.

[Ian Crossland]

And then you can win money.

[Tim Cast]

Tournaments have cash prizes. Yep. I never play any of that stuff. I just literally have little dudes fight each other and I don't really play that often.

[Ian Crossland]

No, that is like aiming gambling at children. That is That's a problem.

[Tim Cast]

Yep. So anyway, the point of, of back to the card games, what's coming after the loot boxes is the they they're probably going. So here's why I think they're going to win with the Pokemon booster pack thing in the 90s, the courts argue the individuals. Actually this, this article talks about it. They say in the 90s and 2000s many plaintiffs sued trading card manufacturers under RICO laws. All the cases were dismissed for lack of standing because the plaintiffs could not prove an injury. They had received the benefit of the bargain by receiving physical cards in exchange for the money they paid. They did not suffer a gambling loss. These cases did not rule on the merits of whether trading card packs fall into the definitive gambling. So it's not been adjudicated. However, Letitia James as a representative of state law and crim criminality is arguing they are violating state law or facilitating the violation of criminal law. Thus she has standing to sue. They're going to win. I don't know.

[Ian Crossland]

Opening the packs isn't gambling in my opinion, but get it. Buying a pack to use in a competition that you can win money for is.

[Tim Cast]

Buying a pack is gambling because you are random. You're getting random cards of various value. It's been like that since baseball cards in the 50s. Like I don't. Cards don't have a secondary market function. They're collectibles.

[Ian Crossland]

They do have a secondary market function. You can sell.

[Tim Cast]

No, no, no, no, no they don't. You can't play game. Exactly. There's no function. I said secondary market function. Magic does a pro player needs that card. I need a time twister for my commander deck. So someone wants to buy that, to speculate upon it, to sell to the players who must have it. So when I, when I want to build a new deck, I need these cards. I go to a couple a shop and say I want to buy singles. I don't buy booster packs. He then says $10, $20, $30. That's based on the scarcity that was manufactured by the card company. So there are people when the Avatar Final Fantasy great example, the collector's boosters, they are specifically ultra rare versions. And if you want the serialized ultra rare Chocobos, I've got a blue neon Chocobo behind me. It's like a $5,000 $3 to $5,000 card. About the only way to get it is to buy the $40 booster pack. No one's going to play with that card. It exists solely to be a rare and valuable item. But it's valuable because the function of the game utilizes these cards. So someone buy, bought up all of the collector boxes and a box which normally should sell for 3, 400 bucks, sold for $1,200. It's gambling. It's buying a pack, cracking it open, and hoping you get that very valuable card.

[Ian Crossland]

That $5,000 card cost them $0.03. Of course, that company is raking it in hand over fist, selling garbage to people. Pieces of paper with ink on it. Yeah, take them down. I'm done with that bullshit. Dude, you can't, you can't.

[Tim Cast]

If, if play the rules, I'll put it like this. If it was a skill game, you would be able to go to their website and buy whatever card you wanted for 50 cents. You would say, I'm going to select all the cards I need for my skill deck. Like imagine if a queen in chess cost $7,000 and in order to play chess you had to have certified chess approved pieces. And you'd sit down with only pawns and be like, well, I can't afford the $7,000 queen. It's an ultra rare expensive card.

[Ian Crossland]

That's exactly what Magic the Gathering is indeed.

[Tim Cast]

And Pokemon and all of them. So it's, it's not skill based games. It's the, the. You, you can't control what the opponent plays with. You play chess, you know the opponent's got the same pieces as you. You play Magic the Gathering. Ian, do you think you could build a deck that could take on one of my high tier decks? I.

[Ian Crossland]

Not without $8,000 or $6,000.

[Tim Cast]

My $20,000 magic the gathering deck with time Twister.

[Ian Crossland]

Super tough dude.

[Tim Cast]

It would be really just because I have the money to buy the ultra rare cards that exist and they, and they're rare because magic as a reserved list, they intentionally control the prices so that people buy the booster packs hoping to get high value cards to sell after the fact gambling.

[Ian Crossland]

And so if they got rid of booster packs completely and they only sold singles, you could still, they could still make rare singles that you would have to spend 80 bucks on to win a tournament.

[Tim Cast]

It still feels like now that no

[Ian Crossland]

pay to win though, it wouldn't be gambling as much.

[Tim Cast]

Imagine if on the website, rares were $10, uncommons were $3 and commons were a dollar. And if you wanted to build the best deck possible, you still had to spend a little bit extra money, but that wouldn't work because then you're basically again making pay to win. And only the rich people can afford the Stronger decks.

[Ian Crossland]

So maybe everybody's deck has to have a cap, a value cap, like in Warhammer. Everybody's army has to have a value cap. You can't have one army.

[Tim Cast]

This is why in magic right now, everyone's playing with proxies. For those who know what that means, it means they take a random. They'll print a card out. They will print an uncertified version of the card to use to play with because they want to play with strong decks. But they don't have $20,000 to buy the ultra rare cards.

[Ian Crossland]

I've been playing with proxies for 30 years.

[Tim Cast]

We're gonna go to your rumble rants and super chats, my friend. So smash the like button. Share the show with every single person you have ever met, literally ever. You got an old high school teacher I've Talked to in 30 years, give him a call, find them on LinkedIn or whatever you got to do, and be like, watch this show. And then you find out he's a raging liberal and he yells at you and you never talk to him again. In the meantime, we're gonna grab your comments here. So let's. Let's get at it. My friends. Joshua French says, oh, he's not happy with you, Ian, but I'm gonna read it. Ian, are you ignorant or just stupid? You should not name the Kirk children. Too many psychos listen to this and now have a name to target.

[Phil]

I don't know.

[Ian Crossland]

Public info. Charlie's talked about her quite a bit.

[Tim Cast]

The name is everywhere, and so I do kind of agree. But Charlie's children's name names are like every 17th post on X. If you Google Charlie Kirk and family, they list the names of their children. It's not particular. This is like Charlie posted photos with their names and everything.

[Ian Crossland]

You better believe that. If her name was not public, I never would have mentioned it.

[Phil]

Yeah,

[Tim Cast]

Fiacono says, tim, if the bullet is too deformed from impact, they would be unable to match it to any gun. It doesn't mean it's not from the same gun. Just they. They can't positively confirm. It happens a lot. Indeed. That's the point. Shotgun Rebel says Japanese X algorithm kicks ass. I completely agree. And as an American who is 5% Japanese born and raised here, I volunteer as ambassador on X to bring the Japanese. And I'm kidding, by the way. There's way more Japanese people than me who are American as well. But everyone's having a good time. All the Japanese, like, apparently Japan. The Japanese are adopting X like crazy.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

And the algorithm is auto translating Japanese posts into English for American people. In the algorithm, when the content aligns and everyone's laughing and having a lot

[Phil]

of fun, talking about barbecue.

[Tim Cast]

Barbecue.

[Phil]

Lots of barbecue talk.

[Tim Cast]

Oh, right. There's a. There's a Japanese schoolgirl dressed like Trump doing the Trump dance that's going viral and everyone's laughing and they love it. Yep.

[Phil]

I was enjoying the. The. The cultural exchange all weekend. A lot of fun.

[Tim Cast]

507 says we aren't Rome, we're Carthage pretending to be Rome. Wow,

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

that's a mind bender.

[Tim Cast]

All right, the Republic boss says the current Deep State does act like the Praetorian Guard. If they do not get their bribes, they JFK you and install a new emperor.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Well, the trope I made during the last election, that if so the Praetorian Prefects, the guy that was in charge of Praetorian Guard, and they would kind of do whatever he wanted. And Obama, with the way that they were deciding, you know, who the next president was going to be, just by naming her to me, seemed like he was trying to control the powers of state, like a Praetorian Prefect, so. So I think in a lot of ways you could say that there is something deciding who is president, who gets to live.

[Tim Cast]

Christian UNC says with the next Mass Effect in production by BioWare, do you think they will try to go back to its roots that made everyone fall in love with it or go Woke? And could it happen with the TV series too? Woke for sure. The fact that Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner defended Starfleet Academy shows you that even your heroes will spit in your face.

[Phil]

Gross.

[Tim Cast]

Yep. I fell out of Shatner and Frakes both of the same thing about Starfleet Academy. They were like, ah, they called Next Generation Woke. And, you know, not. Not woke. But they. They called. They. They were offended. Like, how could you change the cast? Who are these people? It seems so plastic. And then, of course, TNG became substantially more popular. It was the highest rated television show at the time, syndicated on three networks. Starfleet Academy makes a mockery of it all. It does not present social issues the way the Next Generation or the original series did. It makes them a joke and insults them and insults the stories, the character, the lore. It ruins everything. If Frakes and Shatner could not stand up for this, and they can't because they're attached to it, then what hope does Mass Effect have? They're going to wear your culture like a skin suit, and then they're going to pull their Pants down and take a dump on the floor.

[Phil]

I mean the argument that they're not going to like the evidence is basically the past 10 years, right. Like every property has had, you know, woke basically touch it and ruin it. Whether it be Star Wars. The Marvel stuff was. Was good for a few years and then it all ruined Star Wars. Yeah, they ruined it. There's only like, there's only a handful of. Of good Star wars properties that were Earth storylines that came out in the past.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That acolyte one was.

[Ian Crossland]

The reviews were horrible.

[Tim Cast]

Lesbian space witches created the Force.

[Phil]

The Obi Wan. Obi Wan Kenobi was terrible. It's absolutely horrible. And they had like. They had, you know, actually the guy that played Obi Wan Kenobi. They had. I forget what his name is off top of my head.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

McGregor.

[Phil]

Yeah, Ewan McGregor played. Was in the. In the series. They actually had Darth Vader in it. They. They had Anakin Skywalker.

[Tim Cast]

The.

[Phil]

You know, if they.

[Tim Cast]

It was still terrible if they created a new Star Trek on the new Enterprise with a new cast that were relatively reasonable, pragmatic individuals it was following. Maybe you could. Maybe you can do 80 years after the Dominion War. You could do such incredible things with that storyline. The story was opened up so massively after Deep Space Nine and they burned it all to the ground because they. You know, I think it's largely our fault because we need to step up more and take command of these things. But the truth is the woke psychopath cultists, whatever, infiltrated intentionally to destroy these cultural icons. So I would love to write a Star Trek series that is maybe 80 years after the Next Generation. And the Alpha Quadrant is largely united under a loose. The Federation has an active alliance, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Cardassians. And they are now advancing technology into the Gamma and Delta and other quadrants of the galaxy, which introduces old foes and new foes. But you could see the advancement from the original series to the Next Generation. The Next Generation Voyager and Deep Space Nine into the next era. Instead they just keep prequel, prequel, prequel and then weird woke garbage and then we're a thousand years in the future and everyone's gay or something. Not interested.

[Ian Crossland]

What if they call it the defederation? You know?

[Tim Cast]

Okay, let's read this. We got this from try Jim. He says, I think Candace Owens is attacking Erica Kirk because Erica is a good person. If the crucifixion happened today, Candace would be criticizing the Virgin Mary on how she reacted to her son's death.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Oh, yikes I don't know if it's that though. I think it's more that she gets clicks, she gets visibility and that's what she's looking for.

[Tim Cast]

Same old man says by that logic, going on blind dates are gambling. You still pay for the date but don't know if you're getting anything good. Well, the argument there is you're basically saying that the sex is a monetary value.

[Phil]

My.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That's it.

[Tim Cast]

If the argument is you are paying money for a chance to be with a woman who will hook up with you, you are implying that the hooking up has cash equivalent value and that you are making a wager on something that you will get something of cash value, equal value or greater value.

[Phil]

You know, you're always just negotiating the price.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

I guess I gamble with my low fuel light a lot.

[Tim Cast]

There you go. All right. Michael Jones says, speaking of brands, Tim, how does it feel to have the Tim cast car featured in NASCAR 25? Talk about epic. We actually have the game up there. Shout out to Cody Dennison. Absolutely incredible. It's really, really cool. Yeah, shout out. He's done a few races, but full disclosure, we have not sponsored Cody again for this year. And this has to do more with, I don't know, reallocating budgets and marketing and things like that. And I suppose when we're looking at setting up satellite studios, truth be told, Cody's fantastic. Big fan, good friend. And we're happy to have sponsored him for the past couple of years, but now we're allocating budget towards building satellite studios. So we're looking at other places. And that means no sponsorship this time around. But it was fun while it lasted and we might do something small, but, you know, that means for the past two years, because of the game, we got featured in the game, which is incredible. So best of luck to Cody Denison. We are trying to figure out how to get other people to invest, team up with us so that we can pool money and then do a sponsorship. But pool money, I gotta be honest. Pool money, I think.

[Ian Crossland]

Wow, that's a good name.

[Tim Cast]

Pool money. Pool water, indeed. I think we're. I think the economy's in trouble. I, you know.

[Phil]

You think?

[Tim Cast]

Yeah. Well, look, young people are sour on Trump over the economy. Gas out here is now $4. Have you guys seen it?

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

389.99 houses out of reach slightly. 389 and 3.99. Not 389.99.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

That'd be the average home buyer in. In New York. State I think was like 55 or something like that now.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah, yeah. There are houses out here that are like three bedroom bungalows and they're all half a million dollars. And I'm like, bro, these are. We're in a rural areas or starter homes. Like a young person who bought a house out here. Oh, it's happening, it's happening. Remember when I was talking about how we would have. You'd like be in your middle of nowhere and you'd wake up in the middle of night and there'd be like a guy in a flannel shirt with his tucked into his jeans with suspenders on and a handlebar mustache stealing one of your chickens. I was like, that's when you know it's getting bad. Yeah, I mean, well, we were driving in rural West Virginia and I saw exactly this man mowing the lawn of a dilapidated old house. And I looked at my wife and I was like, it's happening. The hipsters from the city have no choice but to move to the rural areas.

[Ian Crossland]

That's true, but at least he's working. He wasn't robbed, thankfully, on his own lawn.

[Tim Cast]

All right, we got port number three says I'm fleeing Washington state for West Virginia, looking to bring good money and voting practices to West Virginia to keep it red. Maybe you remember me offering design a display case for that Civil War flag. Indeed. We never got the Civil War flag though, because someone offered to allow us to hold this massive Civil War flag. And we were like, dude, we cannot be responsible for an original.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Flag like that.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah, yeah, it wasn't ours.

[Tim Cast]

And they were like, you can hold on to it. I'm like, yeah, right.

[Ian Crossland]

Like, we get it framed.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

It was huge.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah. All right, let's. Oh, we got a bunch of big super chats here. Kevin Hunt says. So you're saying if Jack Rubenstein didn't get Lee Harvey Oswald, you would want Oswald guilty no matter what. Not skeptics or facts. And say that's accusing Jackie. I have no idea what the point you're trying to make is. It wasn't Jackie. Okay, what if lone dual citizen planted the rifle? Was it tested for having been shot? My cell phone has DNA. I'm one hour behind chat and drunk. I'll shut up. We shall see how it plays out. Good to question why there is no video or dogs didn't find till the FBI.

[Phil]

Hey, brother, we all been there.

[Ian Crossland]

If Lee Harvey Oswald hadn't been killed by Jack Ruby, that. That he would have went to trial. Maybe he would have. He would have exposed some other people planting a rifle. You never know. It's a very weird story. He was like, eating lunch in the building when they found him. He's like, I'm a patsy. What are you guys doing?

[Tim Cast]

Haven't you ever seen that show, that Stephen King show with James Franco? And he goes back in time.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

What is that called again? That was basically just propaganda because they were like, when he saves JFK from dying, the world ends.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Oh, yes.

[Tim Cast]

He comes back to the future. It's like, if JK lives, the world ends. He has to die.

[Phil]

And watching that in Florida.

[Tim Cast]

Yeah. And then he tries, like, hooking up with that old lady, but she keeps dying.

[Phil]

Oh, that's brutal.

[Tim Cast]

Then he goes and dances with her.

[Ian Crossland]

That's pretty cool.

[Tim Cast]

When she's old. Uh, let's see. Gob Stomper says Valve is being sued because they beat a patent troll. Rothschild. If they wanted to sue over loot boxes, why not Epic Games store Activision? Because all they need is precedent. They don't need to sue everybody. You sue one where you feel you're going to win. When you do, you then have court precedent to shut everyone else down. Put them all on notice.

[Ian Crossland]

This is the thing. Loot boxes alone are not. You got. There's different types of loot boxes. There's loot boxes that give you only cosmetic stuff that don't change your gameplay. There's loot boxes that give you items

[Tim Cast]

that can make them easier. All be sold on the secondary market.

[Ian Crossland]

No, some of them can't be traded.

[Tim Cast]

I'm talking about these ones that she's suing against.

[Ian Crossland]

But then there are some like this. It's, it's really about the secondary market trading that's the problem, not the loot boxes themselves.

[Tim Cast]

Yep. When, when Hasbro maintains a reserve list to maintain the price of cars in the secondary market, then they know what they're doing.

[Ian Crossland]

And if they're taking a cut, that's a rip.

[Tim Cast]

That Pokemon wizards as well. The Nintendo. Right, that I don't know.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Pokemon.

[Tim Cast]

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is interesting. It was Wizards of the coast was contracted to publish and distribute Pokemon until 2003. And then I guess Nintendo, they owed 36. They translated Japanese cards and managed marketing in the US but did not create the IP. I see three companies, Nintendo Game freaking Creatures own the franchise, which is the coast only held the license until 2003, after which the Pokemon company took it over directly. All right, I, I and I think it's fair to argue that the Pokemon company knows Full well the value of their cards and how insane people go to try and buy them.

[Phil]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Like, come on, man.

[Phil]

No, it's. It's not a. It's a secret to them.

[Tim Cast]

What do we got here? What's. What is this? King Salami says your skateboard's chance to get numbered is gambling. That's the point. That's the argument. My argument is it is not actually gambling. The whole time. That's been the point I am making when I tweeted out Pokemon's gambling. I'm saying if all of these things, including chance, make it gambling, then literally all of these things are gambling. That's why I think they should be allowed, because they're not.

[Ian Crossland]

The skateboard thing's not gambling because no matter what, you're getting the value that you pay for with a skateboard of equal.

[Tim Cast]

And there's no secondary market for the serialized boards, like who's buying those from you. It's just for you. Is there someone out there that's like the Tim Cast limited edition number one board is worth a million dollars? No. Oh.

[Ian Crossland]

But even if there's a secondary market, it's not a gamble because you're still getting the value you pay for. You're not. There's not a chance you're going to get.

[Tim Cast]

That was the argument made on booster packs that we read.

[Ian Crossland]

But those cards worth 6 cents each. So they're not. Not. That's the. The rebuttal to that would be not every booster pack gives you $4. 50.

[Tim Cast]

That's a fair point. Yeah. With the skateboards, you're guaranteed a skateboard at the value of a skateboard. Five of them are limited edition gold. There's no secondary market to sell those skateboards on. There's no demand for those skateboards as value. It's just a special version you might get. All of the boards are basically designed as art pieces, with some being slightly better than others. But each and every one of them is valued at the exact same price. Unless there's a secondary market where someone determines that those one of fives are worth so much more money, which doesn't exist and there's no demand for. Then no matter what, you are getting a skateboard that is valued as a skateboard. The thing that Ian's pointing out, which is good, which is interesting, is that when you spend five bucks on a booster pack, you get cards that are worth zero. You could open that pack and get cards that are worth zero and you're just like. It's literally throw it in the Garbage.

[Ian Crossland]

Five cents or less.

[Tim Cast]

I mean, they're all worth zero. Like, honestly, if you open a booster pack on average and then ask the shop, will they give you any trade in value for it, they'll say no.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah. Harder to get rid of those things.

[Tim Cast]

Yep. And so what happens is people donate commons and Uncommons in big boxes to the shops that they can sell as singles for like, 10 cents.

[Ian Crossland]

The secondary market argument is dangerous because if some random guy wants to create a secondary market for product that I've been delivering, and now all of a sudden I'm treated like a gambling salesman because some. Some guy wants me out of business and created a secondary market.

[Tim Cast]

Yes, yes, yes. But the argument is you knowingly exploiting this by not letting people buy your product directly, but a chance to get your product.

[Ian Crossland]

Yeah.

[Tim Cast]

Because you know that someone will buy something of value.

[Ian Crossland]

Booster packs might be on their way out.

[Tim Cast]

I agree. And if these games really, like, let's be honest, a game of skill like chess doesn't require you to buy a $7,000 queen. Could you imagine, like I said this already. You're playing chess with someone and they have 10 queens, and they're like, well, I can afford it. And you're like, that's $70,000. I can't afford that. And they're like, well, you know, then don't play. Well, the rule is you can only have four of any individual piece. So I have four queens and four rooks and. And four knights. And you're going to be like, okay, well, I can't afford those pieces. That's insane. Right. And then to get them, you got to crack open a box and randomly hope there's a queen in there. But there's only. They only printed 100 of these queens out of the 3 million pieces that were made. Like, that's an insane game. Then if you are a top chess player, you're like, I want to buy a Queen. There's only 100 in existence, and there's 10,000 people who want to be top tier. It's a $500,000 piece, and then they'll

[Ian Crossland]

reprint the queens, and you spend 500 grand on a queen. Three months later, it's worth 20,000.

[Tim Cast]

No. They put on the reserve list and say, we'll never remake queen.

[Ian Crossland]

Hopefully. But a lot of those cards, they like TCGs.

[Tim Cast]

That's why it's insane. It's a skill game. Yeah. That I have to hopefully get random chance to get the cards to win the skill game. Screw off. Okay, we're going to go to the uncensored portion of the show, my friend. Smash the like button. Share the show. Head over to rumble.com timcast irl where we will say naughty words and make jokes inappropriate for children. You can follow me on X and Instagram at Tim Cast Iron Good sir. Would you like to shout anything out?

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Yeah. I'm at Jeremy Ryan Slate everywhere. My company is commanderbrand.com and if you're interested in history, check out Hidden Forces in History or the Roman Pattern.

[Ian Crossland]

Dude, I could have talked about just Rome for like two hours straight. Maybe we'll touch on it.

[Jeremy Ryan Slate]

Card games are over my head.

[Ian Crossland]

So yeah, yeah, this Ian Crossland. Follow me at Ian Crossland. Go to Graphene Movie and sign up on the mailing list for the new documentary that's coming out and I'll catch you later. Carter Banks what's up everyone? It's me. Great chat, Jeremy. Thanks for coming out. I'm really looking forward to get into it on the after show. You can follow me at Carter Banks everywhere and at Carter Banks official everywhere else.

[Phil]

Phil I am Phil that Remains on Twix. You can go to my Patreon and check out some of the writing that I do. It's patreon.com filler remains. The band is all that remains and we're going on tour this spring. We're going on tour in a few weeks. We're going to be out starting with starting April 29th in Albany. We'll be out with Born of Osiris and Dead Eyes will be out for about a month. You can check out all the all that Remains music at Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify and Deezer. Don't forget the left lane is for crime.

[Tim Cast]

We're going to go to the uncensored portion of the [e-mail] Tim Guest IRL right now and we'll see you there.