EPS 16 - EPS 16 - IRA Basics Explained: Contributions, Deductions & Rules

SPEAKER_03: 0:56

hello. This is Jerry and welcome back to the Pink Money Podcast where we talk about all about things. talk about all about things related to money, et cetera, from a gay perspective. And, you know, the things that have been in the news, I talked about a little bit of that in my last podcast about the Silicon Valley bank that went bankrupt and it really went belly up, but same thing. And that the feds took over. And I had mentioned that in that podcast, you know news about the bank I had read that the old Home Depot CEO had made some comments about you know the bank being woke and if they were paying more attention to the bank's business instead of things like diversity issues that the bank wouldn't have gone under which is again completely ridiculous has nothing to do with nothing but anyway I want to continue this conversation just a little bit more so I get another person's perspective on it and not just the bank but I'm just saying the kind of political environment in general and kind of what's going on so I brought on a guest that I'm gonna have today his name is David and I'm gonna have a conversation with him and we'll see what his perspective is on this hey David hey Jerry nice to have be here same here so I We're kind of close in age-ish. I'm going to be turning 61 this year, and you're at least 10 plus years younger than me. No, I'm six years younger than you. I'll be 54 in May. Oh, well, okay. So still really young. I guess you could say that. So you're married. Yes, I am. And you guys have been together, though, how long?

SPEAKER_02: 2:46

This coming November, it will be... 14 years that we've been together, and five years that we've been married. Congrats. Thank you. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 2:54

That's really awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 2:55

You took me for the world's longest test drive before you'd say yes.

SPEAKER_03: 2:59

You know, one of the things that I've been noticing in the news lately, and I don't know if you've seen this, but I've even seen some legislation that's been proposed to ban gay marriage in certain states. I have seen the same thing, and it's a little bit scary. Yeah, I mean, I thought that it'd been codified by the Biden administration just like a couple months ago?

SPEAKER_02: 3:24

I haven't seen any legislation come through that says it's gay marriage is affirmed, but there have been some talks about it. But basically what the Supreme Court did when they did it to us, allowed it for us, is they said that you can't have one group that has a right and another group that doesn't. And whether you want to call it marriage, which I do because I'm I chose the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We just deserve to have the same privileges and the same protections as everybody else. You talk about money. One of the things I've had to do with Will and I, just in case some legislation gets passed, every asset we have, every investment is in both our names. If we were a normal man and woman couple, I wouldn't have to worry about that. I could just say in my will, everything I have goes to my spouse. But with the current climate, You never know what the courts are going to do. So I've had to make sure that everything my spouse and I have, the house, the cars, our investments, our bank accounts, is in each other's name. So if one of us does pass, that he doesn't lose everything. And somebody can't say legally you can't own this.

SPEAKER_03: 4:37

So you created like a little safety net regardless of

SPEAKER_02: 4:40

what

SPEAKER_03: 4:41

happens.

SPEAKER_02: 4:42

Yes, I tried to. Just like as soon as they made it, the Department of Defense changed their policy. I made sure that I set up the annuity for Will with my military retirement so that for the rest of his life, because I'm older than he is, that he will get half of my retirement for the rest of his life and be able to maintain my benefits because I want him to have that security and that cushion. And people just... I think a lot of, unfortunately what it is, is a lot of people like to hit on Budsworth. So we have to, but it is scary because there's a lot of pandering going on there to a lot of people on the extremes. And they say a lot of things that they don't really, if they believe them, I'm sorry for them because that's just messed up in the head.

SPEAKER_03: 5:36

So have you run into anybody personally, you know, that has spoken publicly badly about your marriage or about gay people in general? I mean, and I'm talking fairly recently, like 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_02: 5:48

No, every once in a while, you'll run into that one person when we're out, and they'll go, oh, you're married, and you can tell that they're really uncomfortable with it. And I always try to be the bigger person and just ignore it. But I also will stand up for myself and my husband and our rights. my philosophy has always been, you can say whatever you want about me, but you go after him.

SPEAKER_03: 6:16

You're asking for trouble.

SPEAKER_02: 6:17

You're going to have a problem. You're going to get hurt.

SPEAKER_03: 6:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 6:20

Yeah. And if you're that small minded and if me living in my house, doing nothing that bothers you, bothers you that much, you've got a lot bigger problems than, than I can deal with, but just leave me alone and I'll leave you alone.

SPEAKER_03: 6:34

Did you guys have a problem at one point where you were flying the pride flag and that created

SPEAKER_02: 6:39

problems? Yes, there were. We were flying a pride flag, and we were also flying a Black Lives Matter flag in our neighborhood. And it was funny. Most of the neighborhood had absolutely no problem with it. They understood what we were doing because this country has some real systemic problems that it refuses to address. And I think now one of the great things about podcasts and social media is that we're starting to see things that have always been there, but we haven't had to deal with on a day-to-day basis. And about, I'd say, 95% of our neighborhood had no problem with it. There were people that said it was a terrorist flag, the Black Lives Matter flag, and the gay pride flag was influencing children, and that we needed to take them down. But They didn't violate our HOA. Our HOA didn't have a problem with them. So I was going to keep them up. And I kept them up probably one of them a lot longer than I should have because I had to replace it because it got all torn up. It was up so long.

SPEAKER_03: 7:45

Good.

SPEAKER_02: 7:49

You've known me for a long time. I'm basically a live and let live kind of guy unless you come right at me. And, you know, if people are small minded and that's all they have to worry about, I kind of feel sorry for them because that means they're not taking care of the things in their life that they need to take care of going to work, planning for their future, taking care of their family. So their lives must be pretty boring and pretty dull if they have to worry about what will flags my husband and I put up and what, what we do in the privacy of our own home.

SPEAKER_03: 8:23

So, you know, as when I think about that, um, I mean, would you say you and your husband are on the same page politically, or you guys have some differences, right?

SPEAKER_02: 8:34

Actually, I've discovered I'm a blue dog Democrat. I am very physically conservative but socially liberal. As I've been with Will, I have gotten more and more liberal, which is a good thing because as I've gotten older, I've started– talked to more people and met more people, my eyes have really been open. I would describe myself as a blue dog Democrat. The best way I could say it is, like I said, my money is my money. Leave my money alone. Don't tax me too much. I don't mind paying for things that people have earned, and I don't mind helping people. But my money is my money. Don't take it. But as long as what someone is not doing does not physically harm me, I don't care what you do. But yes, Will has opened my eyes because he is a lot farther to the left than I am. I'm what probably 70% of this country is. I'm a moderate. And the problem is, in both parties, we've let the extremists take over. More so on the right, but a lot on the left too, when you hear some of the things people say. And the problem is, I've always believed, and from everybody I've talked to, most Americans are moderates. They... They're in the middle. And we've allowed the crazy people to take over. I don't know how you feel about that.

SPEAKER_03: 10:00

Oh,

SPEAKER_02: 10:01

believe me, the

SPEAKER_03: 10:02

whole Marjorie Taylor Green crowd, that's just a bizarre, bizarre group. And this whole thing about these MAGA extremists and the whole political Republican Party really bowing to them is very disturbing to me. And I'm not even a Republican. However, I would say, you know, back in the 80s, which is a long time ago. Yes, I remember them. But, you know, under Reagan, I wasn't a real fan of Reagan, but I was more of a fan of the Republican platform. Small government, lower taxes. Yes. And those kind of things I can appreciate. But he really, the whole... You know, just say no to drugs. And then they didn't put any money towards AIDS and all that. And that really was bothersome to me. But nevertheless, I'm just saying that that platform back then was appealing in the sense that those... I thought those things were pretty universal as well. Now, fast forward to today, I don't know what the Republicans stand for.

SPEAKER_02: 11:09

They don't know what they stand for because the conservatives are... Voiced over so much by the yelling and screaming. I mean, let's face it. The best thing that ever happened to George W. Bush was Trump because he made him look like a normal human being. He made him look like a reasonable person. True. The last really good Republican we had was his father, who was a good man and a good

SPEAKER_03: 11:35

president. Yes, he was.

SPEAKER_02: 11:36

Yeah. And he didn't play this game, Democrat, Republican, left, right. What's right for the country and the majority of the people?

SPEAKER_03: 11:45

And that's probably why he got, he was only in for one term.

SPEAKER_02: 11:50

Yes, because he did what, like I said, if we're going to fix the problems in this country, I've always joked with people, the next person, if you're the president and you really want to fix things and you push for the things we need, like term limits in Congress and a balanced budget amendment and a line item veto amendment, you have to realize you're going to be a one-term president because you're going to be telling people the truth and the I don't know about you, but I'll hear the truth, but I don't like it. So we really need somebody that's going to go in there and say, look, there's no reason that somebody should serve 42 years in the House of Representatives or 40 years in the U.S. Senate. Back in 47, Congress said, oh, we don't want the president getting too powerful, so we're going to limit him to two terms. But yet they have never limited themselves.

SPEAKER_00: 12:43

And

SPEAKER_02: 12:44

I've always felt that senators serve for six years. You can serve two terms in the Senate, so you get six years. You can be in the House of Representatives for six terms because they're two-year terms, or you can have a combination of either one. Yeah. Twelve years. Our founding fathers never intended this to be a full-time job, ever. They never said that you're supposed to go to Washington and go home infrequently. Congress was supposed to be in short session. And yes, things have changed and there's a lot more to do. But I think if people were out among the people more, it would do better. And the House of Representatives needs to take some of their power back. All bills of attainer, anything that spends your or my money, Has to start in the House. But somehow we've allowed the Senate to sneak around that rule. Their job is to advise and consent. They're supposed to be the older, wiser body. And they're supposed to say either approve of legislation or not approve of legislation. That's it. And give advice and consent on presidential appointments to the executive. And James Madison, who wrote 80% of the Constitution... was a smart man. He tried to really limit the government. And that's why we're a democracy. The people have the public. We're a republic, not a democracy. We choose who's going to represent us. And if we want to fix things, we as the people have to get together and say, look, we've had enough of you. Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ramble on.

SPEAKER_03: 14:22

No, those are great points because, you know, anybody who's younger and doesn't pay maybe as close attention, you know, Like, I'll say, you know, my husband, he's not as politically aware, which is fine. Hey, you know, when I was that young, I didn't pay that close attention. We weren't worried about those things. And, you know, just by getting older, you know, you start noticing things, and some things go by the wayside, and then some things enter your life and become bigger and more important to you. Right. that doesn't mean he's completely ignorant about things that are going on, but he just doesn't get into it as much as, you know, I do. And, you know, I help educate him on certain things and, you know, because I sometimes I have to pull back cause I get a little too saturated in it.

SPEAKER_02: 15:14

Well, I'm very lucky in that respect. My husband, I, I pay attention to the news and go going on, but he is really the, he is the one that's passionate about social issues and equality. And I, living up to the dream that America is supposed to be. And I honestly thank him for that because I always knew what was going on, but now I'll look at somebody and say, well, let's hear the facts. Let's talk about this. And a lot of times, I don't know if you've noticed, but when you start talking facts to people and what the Constitution really says and what the law really means, that Usually, if they don't have anything to back up their argument, they're going to stop, and they're honestly going to probably see the truth at some point and see, oh, yeah, you are right. That's the way this really reads. Yeah. And I thank Will for that because he is so passionate. He's fired up, so he gets me fired up.

SPEAKER_03: 16:15

That's good.

SPEAKER_02: 16:16

And then he asked me for the facts to back it up.

SPEAKER_03: 16:18

Well, that works. I'm happy to hear that. Because, you know, we need smart and really passionate people to help make sure that our rights advance and they don't go backwards.

SPEAKER_02: 16:29

I agree. I don't... You're old enough to remember, and I'm barely old enough to remember. Well, I remember that when you had to be real careful when you went to the clubs at night. Because they weren't in the best part of town. And you had to make sure you parked your car away. And you had to... You didn't leave... By yourself. And you were always looking over your shoulder. Is anybody following me to my car? And we don't need to go back to those days where we have to hide because that's what causes problems. Right, right. Shame. Yes. And we already have, especially with young people, a suicide problem in this country and a depression problem. Right. And if... If things went back to the way they were in the 70s and 80s for us, it would destroy so many people. Yeah. And there's no reason you should have to hide who you are.

SPEAKER_03: 17:26

Yeah, for sure. You know, I remember friends of mine that did drag back in, you know, the early 70s. And they used to tell me that, you know, they had to wear one piece of men's clothing. Mm-hmm. underneath all their drag, like whatever it was, a pair of socks for boobs, something like that, you know, because otherwise, you know, if the place got raided, you know, they could end up in the Husqvarna. And I remember, this is a little bit different, but I had just barely come out, and I was probably in my early 20s, and I remember when Divine was coming to this bar, and I really wanted to see Divine. Because, you know, she had done Pink Flamingos and all that. Anyway, so I went to this bar. Funny enough, it was called David's. So I went to go see Divine. And it was really like a Leather Levi kind of a place. And nevertheless, so the music's playing. Here comes Divine. She jumps on this little box. I mean, it looked just... you know, a mini stage. And, you know, she was 300 pounds. She was a big girl. Yes. So anyway, she gets up on stage, crowds, you know, clapping and hooting and hollering. And the music's starting to go. And, you know, if you call Divine singing, she was singing. But, you know, very raspy how she was. But anyway, it didn't matter. So there's Divine starting to sing her song. And she's trying to get the DJ to increase the music. And he's actually lowering it more and more. And then the DJ comes on and says, hey, you know, I'm sorry, we're going to have to stop the show. The police are here and they're shutting us down. And the reason that they gave to shut them down was they did not have a cabaret license. So which meant they couldn't have any kind of dancing, live entertainment, something like that. And so Divine just said, she jumped off stage and said, I'll see you all in the pokey. And she just jumped off stage and left. So, yeah, those days were still there. And that was in the early 80s. And to think that we would maybe have to go back to that because, like, in Tennessee, they banned drag shows. Yes. So how, you know, how fucked up would that be that you went to go see a drag show and you end up in jail?

SPEAKER_02: 19:52

Exactly. And you make a good point. What's the difference between a drag show and a burlesque show? If you've ever seen a burlesque show, they get very risque. Right. But that's okay. I don't get it. Or if you've ever been to a cabaret show in Europe, I mean, they get pretty... Yeah, the Lido.

SPEAKER_03: 20:12

Yeah, I've been there. And Moulin Rouge, where the girls are dancing topless. Yes. But, you know, this goes back to what I said before. What little children... You know, what... Have you ever seen children in a drag show? Never. I mean, come on. It's happening at 11 o'clock at night, and you're telling me that these kids are being influenced and groomed by a drag show. Yeah. Where are the parents, number one? And you know what? When are the drag queens really coming off stage and going, hey, come with me?

SPEAKER_02: 20:45

They're exhausted. They go back to the dressing room to change and have a cocktail.

SPEAKER_03: 20:49

If you don't have a dollar in your hand, they're not giving you any attention.

SPEAKER_02: 20:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 20:52

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 20:52

And

SPEAKER_03: 20:53

no, it's just so ridiculous that we're protecting the children.

SPEAKER_02: 20:56

Let's get rid of the Bugs Bunny cartoons where he dresses up as a woman. I forgot about that. I mean, that's influencing our children.

SPEAKER_03: 21:04

Oh, for sure. Yes. Who didn't wear Carmen Miranda after seeing Bugs Bunny run around?

SPEAKER_02: 21:09

Exactly. Or what? Are we never going to show? What are they going to ban RuPaul, which is one of the most successful Emmy award winning shows ever? Live action,

SPEAKER_03: 21:22

ever. But look back in the 50s where you had Milton Berle in drag. Yes, dressing up. And everybody thought that was funny. And then in the 60s, you had Flip Wilson and Geraldine in drag. Exactly. And then, you know, in the 90s, in Mrs. Doubtfire, you had Robin Williams in

SPEAKER_02: 21:41

drag. And so, this is... It goes back to people just pandering. Yeah. And saying things to... Unfortunately, politicians have a bad habit. They like to hear their own voice. Yeah. And they don't pay attention to what's coming out of it.

SPEAKER_03: 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:57

Because most of them, the few I've met, there are some very intelligent ones. There are also some that couldn't put two sentences together if they had to without somebody writing them a speech. And a lot of times they don't even know the information they're talking about that well. Yeah, for sure. For sure. So it's pandering. It's just like, which state was it yesterday I was reading, just passed the ban on abortion pills.

SPEAKER_03: 22:25

Oh, yes. Did it pass? Yes. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02: 22:29

That is just, that's just pandering.

SPEAKER_03: 22:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:33

I mean, and what gets me is, this is going to get me on a tirade. They care so much about the unborn child, but why don't we have pre- and postnatal care in this country? Why don't we have daycare required at works at companies like most European countries do. Why don't we have both maternal and paternal leave? Fathers in some countries can take up to 12 weeks to stay home and meet their new baby. And with pay. We care so much, but once they're born, we... Wash our hands. Or why do we make adoption so hard? Will and I are a very stable couple. We have money in the bank. We have a beautiful home. But it's so much harder for us to adopt if we wanted. And we're both college educated. We're both stable. But, oh, no, you can't adopt children. Like, I'm going to imprint my sexuality on my child. I used to think that I figured it out when I was 10, 11, 12. Honestly, if I think back, it was more like 7, 8. I started... realizing I was paying more attention to boys than girls.

SPEAKER_03: 23:48

Well, if imprinting sexuality worked, we would all be straight.

SPEAKER_02: 23:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 23:52

And

SPEAKER_02: 23:53

that's my point.

SPEAKER_03: 23:54

Your parents didn't say, hey, David, why don't you be gay? Because that will be fun. No.

SPEAKER_02: 24:00

Yes. Like we were talking about when we grew up. I'm going to choose a lifestyle where I have to hide from my friends, hide from my family, hide from my job.

SPEAKER_03: 24:09

Put yourself at risk by just going out and being yourself.

SPEAKER_02: 24:13

Nobody choose this lifestyle. No, no, no. It's...

SPEAKER_03: 24:18

And it's shameful and it's hurtful when people have to hide who they are because, you know, they want to blend in with the crowd. They don't want to stand out. But, you know, then you get into the problem of your not being your true self. And then that's the reason we have such a high suicide

SPEAKER_02: 24:34

rate. Yes. And, you know, you're only hurting yourself because you can only live that way for so long. Right. And you can only keep track of so many lies in your head. And you... And your sense of self-worth just goes to zero because you're having to pretend to be something that you're not. And you're also hurting the people around you because you're not being yourself. Right, right. That's the only thing I see encouraging is with especially the 25 and unders. They are so much more accepting of things and they're friends. And yes, there are still some standouts, but they'll stand up for their friends' rights. And it is a sign of encouragement.

SPEAKER_03: 25:14

Well, if I asked you, would you consider yourself woke, what would you say?

SPEAKER_02: 25:22

Would I consider myself woke? No. I consider myself a moral and ethical person. You can look at something and say, this is wrong. An example, if you told me you wanted me to call you they-them, I don't care what your pronouns are. I'm going to respect you and call you. It's like if you told me your name was Sharon. Hi, Sharon. I'm going to respect you. That's the ethical choice to make. I really am kind of weird. I'm a very Orthodox Catholic, but I'm also very much a Buddhist. I really try to go through life doing no harm, and no harm means that I don't question your rights, and if I see something wrong, I stand up for it. Mm-hmm. So you could call me woke, but I don't consider myself woke. I consider myself a moral and ethical person. People think there is a lot of gray in things, but on some things, it's very black and white. You either know it's right or you know it's wrong. So to say I'm woke, most people probably would say I am. Not as woke as my husband. But

SPEAKER_03: 26:32

you're socially aware.

SPEAKER_02: 26:33

I am, but that's me being a good person, not being woke. I read Catcher in the Rye. I read 1984. I read all these books they're trying to kill a mockingbird in high school and then in college again. We had to read all these books. It really scares me when you start burning books because if you look at the list of books we're burning, it's very similar to the books that they started burning in other countries almost 100 years ago.

SPEAKER_03: 27:07

Right, right. And you don't have to look very far in our history because 1945, 39, wasn't all that far, all that long ago. So I would hate to see any of those days come back.

SPEAKER_02: 27:24

I would too because... Well, I am orthodox because my mom converted when she married... My dad converted when he married my mother. My dad's mother had a tattoo on her arm.

SPEAKER_03: 27:35

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02: 27:36

Yeah, she was born in 1908 in Hungary. And my dad is actually part of her second family because she lost the first. She was able to escape,

SPEAKER_00: 27:49

but

SPEAKER_02: 27:50

she survived. But she had a tattoo on her arm. And, you know, just talking about... We're talking about our problems. Look at the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and in the world. It's frightening. The problem is, and I'll tell you what I think the biggest problem is, a lot of people are scared to take responsibility for their own actions. They have to blame somebody because they don't have what they have. And part of that is a lot of people have been taught, well, if I don't have what the Joneses have or the Smiths have, I'm not successful. I'd rather have money in the bank and drive a nice car and not be car poor. Like, I had a friend that just bought a new car, and do you know how long their car loan is? Oh, they're stretching out to like seven years. 96 months. Yeah,

SPEAKER_03: 28:35

it's

SPEAKER_02: 28:36

crazy. That's an eight-year car loan. Your car is... Who takes out an eight-year car loan?

SPEAKER_03: 28:43

Yeah, somebody who doesn't know really what that means and how much interest they're going to be paying during

SPEAKER_02: 28:47

that entire time. And the interest rates they're paying. Like, we'll... I get all these emails and flyers, refinance your home. I have a 3.25% interest rate on my home. And now with interest rates, they're saying we can refinance you and save you money at 6%. I'm like, I'm not going to refinance at 6%. Yeah. And people don't.

SPEAKER_03: 29:08

Those are like 80 rates.

SPEAKER_02: 29:09

Yes. Rates from like the 80s. Yes. And you know what? I think it goes back to when you and I were in high school, no matter what program you were on, the college prep, honors program, everybody had to take a class called finance. Life skills, where you learned to balance a checkbook. You learned a grocery shop. You learned how to use credit. I'll be honest. I charge everything all month long on my credit card. But you know what? I pay off my balance in full. For the points. For the points every month. I don't carry a balance. And it's just easier not having to carry cash. You do the same thing. But they took that class out because, oh, this is not important. Most people now wouldn't... I only write one check a month. I pay everything electronically. But for our mortgage, I write a check because the check goes to the mortgage company, it gets returned, and I get a copy of the check. Yeah. And that's just what I was taught, how you pay your mortgage. Yeah. Because that way you have proof. Because the mortgage company can say, oh, we didn't get your payment. Well, I have the canceled check right here and it's dated to the date you deposited. We've gotten so much about... Like when you and I were in school and I was wrestling in high school, I had a coach and nobody liked this anymore, but it was a valuable lesson. He would tell us, you want to try your hardest. You want to be in first because second place is the first loser. And we didn't all get trophies for participating. And now I'm sounding harsh, but you and I grew up in a world where you had to learn how to take care of yourself. You made goals. You planned for it. You saved money. You have money for an emergency. You And I think we need to get back to some of the basics in school, reading, writing, arithmetic. Also, when you and I were in school, they had trade schools in the high schools. I have friends that are plumbers that make more money a year than I will ever make. There's nothing wrong with being a plumber, an electrician, a welder, a carpenter. And we've taught everybody that you need to go to college.

SPEAKER_03: 31:17

Yeah, it's

SPEAKER_02: 31:17

not true. And I'll be honest, college isn't for everybody. College is if you're going into a specific profession. And it's in the first part of the world. It was, if you were going to be an engineer, a doctor, a lawyer, a chemist, you needed to go to college because that was professional. But then we got into where everybody needs to go. So we, we just, not everybody needs to go to college. You can make a good living without ever going to college, but we need to encourage people. Trades people are important. Auto mechanics are important.

SPEAKER_03: 31:53

I think a lot of people were sold with the idea that you spend four years in school, you're going to come out making, you know, a six-figure income. And that's not true. That is not true. That's far from the truth. You might have six figures trailing you in terms of debt because that's actually more and more common these days. Yes, it is. Unfortunately. But, yeah. No, you're not going to come out making six figures. Most likely not. No.

SPEAKER_02: 32:20

And... When you get with a company, they're going to work you. When I was graduating from engineering school and did my engineering paid internship, and this was in the early 90s, we were working like dogs because it was so competitive because after our internship, even though it was a paid internship, we wanted to be kept on and get promoted. We wanted to go. People don't realize that, yeah, you have the potential to make six figures, but you're going to have to work your butt off for it. Yeah. It's like. I have friends that are lawyers, and you do too. When they first join a firm, it's all about billable hours and working 100 hours a week and every phone call being recorded because you want to make associate, then you want to make junior partner, then you want to make senior partner. And we just deceived a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03: 33:13

Kind of off topic a little bit, but this girl told me just the other day that, She said with the advent of AI that it will replace a lot of attorneys. Yes. That's what she said. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 33:27

I don't know. Well, some of the things they're doing and testing it with now, and I've only read a little bit about it, some of the predictions and the modeling it can do, it is pretty scary how accurate it is. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get us off subject there. No, no, no. It's

SPEAKER_03: 33:41

all good.

SPEAKER_02: 33:42

It's all good. Back to what you really started this, we all need to pay attention because it's not just they're taking away It goes back to the old court. First, they came for the Jews, and I said nothing. Then they came for the next group, and I said nothing. And then they came for the Catholics, and I said nothing. And then they came for me, and there was nobody left. Really, it's true. And I think it was Thomas in the No Man's an Island speech. No man is an island, for mankind is part of me, and I am part of mankind. So whatever affects mankind affects me. And I know it's in Thomas Paine's Common Sense, but I can't remember. And it also goes on like Hemingway's quote in Whom the Bell Tolls. I can't remember the original. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee. So even if they start taking away our rights, eventually they're going to get to where they're taking away your rights. That's why we all need to pay attention. Sorry, I didn't mean to get on my soapbox there.

SPEAKER_03: 34:45

That's the reason you're here, to be on the soapbox because– You know, a lone voice out in the woods, nobody hears it. You know, it needs to be amplified and certain, you know, things need to be talked about and heard by a wider audience. And I'm hoping that this podcast does just that, that it reaches a lot of people and the ears that are interested pick up the information, use it, and maybe help educate somebody else. And pass it along, like you said. Pass it along. And, you know, again, you know, when you think about Stonewall, you know, that reached a boiling point where people had enough. Had enough. And then they fought back.

SPEAKER_02: 35:27

And sometimes you have to. You have to be willing at some point to fight for your principles. We hope it never gets to that point. But you need to know the truth so you know what you're really fighting for. Am I fighting for something that really matters? to make the world a better place? Or am I just saying this because I'm angry and I need somebody to pick on?

SPEAKER_03: 35:49

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, that was a lot. I hope that I didn't keep it too long. No, and I hope at some point you'll have me back. Yes, I definitely will. Thank you. I definitely will. So I'm going to wrap up this episode, and I'll post it online. And I'm also going to be launching my Facebook page, so keep an eye out for that. So if you want to comment about this show, this episode, or anything about it, up, down, sideways, I would love to hear it. So I'm going to take you guys out, and we're going to listen to a little Patrick Hernandez. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00: 36:37

Thank you.