Speaker 1: Ah beautfuce. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
Speaker 1: You're listening to software Radio, special operations, military news and
Speaker 1: straight talk with the guys and the community. Yea soft
Speaker 1: rerep dot com on time on target. We have Bilabonte
Speaker 1: coming on this episode. But I mean, the first thing
Speaker 1: that we of course have to address is the video
Speaker 1: that you know, a lot of people are talking about.
Speaker 1: Of course, I was posted to soft rep dot com
Speaker 1: of the ambustion Niger of the Green Berets the hands
Speaker 1: of ISIS. Yeah, the video Niger, it's you know, turned
Speaker 1: into definitely the most controversial thing we've probably ever published.
Speaker 1: Um for understandable reasons, you know, the video for people
Speaker 1: who haven't seen it or don't wish to see it,
Speaker 1: which is perfectly understandable. UM, it's not something I really
Speaker 1: want to watch either, and we'll talk about that too.
Speaker 1: UM video details the ambush that happened in nizier Um
Speaker 1: back in October, when a U. S Special Forces team
Speaker 1: in their local counterparts were ambushed by a ISIS affiliate.
Speaker 1: And UM the video is actually helmet camp footage from
Speaker 1: one of the American soldiers. UM, and it's a it's
Speaker 1: graphic it's not it's not easy to watch. Uh. And
Speaker 1: and the gentleman who had the actual helmet cameras killed
Speaker 1: in the in the video. Um. So I mean, people
Speaker 1: are you know, definitely you know, checking this thing out,
Speaker 1: trying to make sense of it and trying to understand it.
Speaker 1: So I wrote a letter, a letter, you know, letter
Speaker 1: from the editor on SAAR Prep to essentially explain why
Speaker 1: we decided to publish it, because people again understandably upset
Speaker 1: about it. They're angry about, um that we published it.
Speaker 1: And I wrote that letter to not apologize, but to
Speaker 1: explain why we made that decision. And um, you know
Speaker 1: what I was thinking before we get to the reaction
Speaker 1: and your explanation for like, how did this all come about?
Speaker 1: Because as as I know, you were sharing the video
Speaker 1: was originally posted as basically a propaganda video, right, So
Speaker 1: the soldier who had the helmet camera on was killed.
Speaker 1: The terrorists, the jihadis out there in Nisair captured the footage.
Speaker 1: They took it and spiced it together, they made they
Speaker 1: put their little like geehottie music overlay on it, um
Speaker 1: and used it as propaganda. And the video so the
Speaker 1: video was already out there on the internet. It was
Speaker 1: making the rounds. UM maybe it and you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people had it and had seen it, and
Speaker 1: it was out there for consumption. UM. And when we
Speaker 1: saw it, when we got ahold of it, UM, one
Speaker 1: of our writers went and got it off one of
Speaker 1: these chee hotti websites. We're decided, okay, well, now what
Speaker 1: are we going to do with it? If anything? Um,
Speaker 1: And we decided, you know, what we do is strip
Speaker 1: the Jihati propaganda out of it and take that aspect
Speaker 1: away and you know, essentially repurpose the footage and show
Speaker 1: it you know that our soldiers they stood their ground
Speaker 1: and they fought and died um bravely. And it seems
Speaker 1: like that was a better way to you know, repurpose
Speaker 1: the message and to let's just let these jihadis, you know,
Speaker 1: use it the way they wanted, let them control the narrative. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think that, you know, there are some things
Speaker 1: we could have done better when I look back on
Speaker 1: it now. UM. You know, some people UM complained or
Speaker 1: not complained, but expressed. You know, they're they're discussed with
Speaker 1: the fact that our company logo is on the video. UM.
Speaker 1: And just to explain a little bit about why we
Speaker 1: did that. It was not intentional to like do some
Speaker 1: really like sick advertising for the company on this video
Speaker 1: of a Special Forces soldier killed. There was actually on
Speaker 1: the original video, like the little ISIS flag up in
Speaker 1: the corner of the video, and we did not want
Speaker 1: to portray that. Again, we're trying to strip the propaganda
Speaker 1: the ISIS propaganda out of it, and we put you know,
Speaker 1: we blocked out that flag, and in this case, we
Speaker 1: did it by putting a company logo over and in
Speaker 1: retrospect now when I when I look at it, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, people are right with that criticism, and we
Speaker 1: probably should have just blurred out the flag as opposed
Speaker 1: to like slapping a corporate logo, which just the I
Speaker 1: hate to boil it down to like optics because it's
Speaker 1: more than that. But it looks bad and in a
Speaker 1: sense it really it is bad, and I think we
Speaker 1: could have done better on that aspect um some of
Speaker 1: the other things with the footage. UM. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I covered a lot of it in that letter, UM,
Speaker 1: and that's published on the website. I do have a
Speaker 1: couple of letters here UM from people who wrote into
Speaker 1: the website UM and and it's says say, like all
Speaker 1: of us got plenty of things, but it's certainly not
Speaker 1: worth reading the stuff that was just like threatening or no.
Speaker 1: And some people, you know, a lot of people have
Speaker 1: an emotional reaction to the video, and I understand I
Speaker 1: have an emotional reaction to it as well, which includes
Speaker 1: family members of those kills. It's it's it's hard to
Speaker 1: watch and and I hate even as the editor of
Speaker 1: the website, I have mixed feelings about it because on
Speaker 1: one hand, I feel like it's the sort of thing
Speaker 1: like nobody should ever watch this, But then on the
Speaker 1: other hand, I feel like every American should watch this.
Speaker 1: Everybody should know that we have troops and in combat
Speaker 1: and what they're doing. Um. And you know, we shouldn't
Speaker 1: honor the sacrifices these guys make, uh, And we shouldn't
Speaker 1: brush this stuff under the carpet. So the two letters
Speaker 1: I have here, like I said, they're both from servicemen UM.
Speaker 1: One is in support and one is against UM. I'm
Speaker 1: going to read them both. I'm not going to say
Speaker 1: the people's identifying information because I don't think they would
Speaker 1: want me to put it out there. And they didn't
Speaker 1: give our permission, so I'm just going to read the
Speaker 1: body of the email software I'm writing to express my
Speaker 1: disgust with your decision to post the helmet camera footage
Speaker 1: from the ambush Knise air if there's any utility in
Speaker 1: watching that footage from a lessons learned perspective that should
Speaker 1: happen in team rooms and planning spaces and be accompanied
Speaker 1: by a discussion about whatever tactical lessons may be gleaned
Speaker 1: from the footage. What you were doing only perpetuates the
Speaker 1: combat voyeurism that videos like that provide. I understand that
Speaker 1: you aren't the ones that put the video online originally,
Speaker 1: but by posting it, you are participating in something distasteful.
Speaker 1: I sent this from my dot mil account so that
Speaker 1: you know I'm not trolling you. He did he, this
Speaker 1: gentleman put his name behind this email and sent it
Speaker 1: from his work email just to demonstrate and you know,
Speaker 1: he's not just some fool um right in a rant.
Speaker 1: This is an actual soldier and he has a valid
Speaker 1: opinion that we should hear. I'm going to continue with
Speaker 1: the letter now. I'm not alone in my opinion on this.
Speaker 1: I am a retired Marine raider. In your website is
Speaker 1: the talk of the town right now. In our little community,
Speaker 1: no one thinks it's okay here, so I can only
Speaker 1: imagine what people in their Special Forces group must think
Speaker 1: about it. I'm sure you meant no disrespect to the fallen,
Speaker 1: but I thought you would be interested to hear how
Speaker 1: this is being received and at least one of the
Speaker 1: soft communities regards and then his name, I have another
Speaker 1: letter here, um hm hey, as a former US Air
Speaker 1: Force combat photojournalist who worked with s F teams, I
Speaker 1: am sickened by the video. It literally made my heart hurt. However,
Speaker 1: I understand why you published it. I understand why it
Speaker 1: had to be shown, why that story had to be told.
Speaker 1: There were many images I captured that I never wanted
Speaker 1: to let alone see, but I had to. I wanted
Speaker 1: to tell the stories of the brave men who served
Speaker 1: in both Special Forces and conventional forces to the world,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't. Um. And then he makes an off
Speaker 1: hand comment about how the Public Affairs office wouldn't let him,
Speaker 1: and and that's always frustrating for you know, any um
Speaker 1: Army journalist or photographers. Everything has to be cleared by
Speaker 1: Public affairs. UM. But you know he played by the rules,
Speaker 1: so you had to do that, UM, and continue the
Speaker 1: letter continues here. Good on you for doing what you
Speaker 1: felt was right and sticking to your guns. I know
Speaker 1: you were sickened by the video as well, and it
Speaker 1: must have been hard to make the decision to publish it.
Speaker 1: Keep publishing the hard stories make people understand what we
Speaker 1: do and where we do it. I know you've got
Speaker 1: a lot of static about it. And again I agree
Speaker 1: with you and why you did it. You made a
Speaker 1: tough call with a tough subject, and I think you
Speaker 1: did it professionally and you did it with no malice
Speaker 1: in your heart. Thank you and then his name. So
Speaker 1: those are two letters, once in support of and want against.
Speaker 1: And you know I can see both perspectives here. I
Speaker 1: can see the vote liidity in both of their comments. UM.
Speaker 1: And I think this is a challenging situation to say
Speaker 1: the least. UM. I think people are shocked, not just
Speaker 1: that it was out there. I think people knew that.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of the shock and a
Speaker 1: lot of the anger comes from who published it and
Speaker 1: that it was us UH, and that we're former Special
Speaker 1: Operations soldiers ourselves, and they see this as UH selling
Speaker 1: out the brotherhood. Um. A lot of people think that,
Speaker 1: you know, we did this for profit, that there's some
Speaker 1: sort of war profiteering involved, or that it gets clicks, uh,
Speaker 1: and that we somehow get paid by clicks or something
Speaker 1: like that, and that just doesn't how the news business works. UM.
Speaker 1: And even you know, our YouTube channels not monetized because
Speaker 1: it certainly is getting a lot of clicks. But yeah, UM,
Speaker 1: I can I can understand why somebody might say that.
Speaker 1: They say, well, why in the world would somebody publish this,
Speaker 1: and they can't think of any other reason, but it
Speaker 1: must be for money, right, But it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 1: I get paid a salary for starters, so it's not
Speaker 1: even uh an issue. But even in the in the
Speaker 1: web news business, UM, advertisers and people like that, they
Speaker 1: look at consistent web traffic across the board. You have
Speaker 1: like one post that a lot of people clicks on,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really mean anything. And also oftentimes advertisers don't
Speaker 1: like this type of controversy. Yeah, I mean alienating your
Speaker 1: demographic and uh and posting controversial material is something that
Speaker 1: turns off both can turn off readers and can turn
Speaker 1: off advertisers. So none of that I mean, that just
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense. UM. It's just that's kind of like
Speaker 1: a throwaway comment that I think people make. UM. But
Speaker 1: I do again, I understand the anger that comes from
Speaker 1: a lot of the active duty guys and the veterans. UM.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of anguish from the family members, the teammates,
Speaker 1: the friends of these guys who are killed. UM. And
Speaker 1: it's like I said in the letter, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a balancing act that takes place whenever you work with
Speaker 1: material like this, you have to look at what is
Speaker 1: of a journalistic interest. You know, you have your facts, okay,
Speaker 1: but will release those facts? Were releasing those facts do
Speaker 1: good or bad? Will it hurt people? Will? I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you balance those two things out, the facts
Speaker 1: versus you know, what should not be published. And then
Speaker 1: there were facts that needed to be cleared up because
Speaker 1: as you said, there were there was a ton of
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory surrounding these deaths and controversy and all sorts
Speaker 1: of things. It's the same thing. You know, we published
Speaker 1: UM footage from the the murder of three green Berets
Speaker 1: in Jordan's last year, UM, and I felt we had
Speaker 1: to do that for the same reason. That um there
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, no backlash on that, nothing serious. UM.
Speaker 1: I could speculate on why, but I probably won't do
Speaker 1: that right now. UM. You know, for me, as far
Speaker 1: as trying to strike a balance, I kind of try
Speaker 1: to separate myself the emotion of it, um, the how
Speaker 1: horrific the footage is, and how horrible it is that
Speaker 1: these Americans were killed out there. Um, and look at
Speaker 1: you know, there's past cases. Uh. You know. I looked
Speaker 1: at like journalists like Kevin Sites for instance, who covered
Speaker 1: um he was embedded with the Marines UM in Iraq
Speaker 1: early on, and he recorded a marine committing what it
Speaker 1: could certainly be argued was an execution, and the footage
Speaker 1: was edited and then it becomes more of a controversy
Speaker 1: because oh you edited out the actual gunshot. Maybe what
Speaker 1: the journalists has happened didn't really happen, and it just
Speaker 1: leads to more confusion and more controversy. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: I looked at other circumstances UM like that, and it
Speaker 1: seems like in retrospect, journalists usually seemed to come around
Speaker 1: and concede, like, you know, we should have just given
Speaker 1: Americans the facts we could. We should have just showed
Speaker 1: them what we had rather than e cooy with it
Speaker 1: or get cute with it and try to, um, you know,
Speaker 1: curate the content somehow to show you like a sterilized
Speaker 1: version of war. Um. And a lot of people are
Speaker 1: going to disagree with me. And I understand that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been getting the messages I've been getting, you know,
Speaker 1: threats against my personal safety. Um, all kinds of wild stuff. UM.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna have to, you know, talk to a
Speaker 1: lawyer about some of that, just to you know, cover
Speaker 1: my bass. Um. But I mean that's what it is.
Speaker 1: As I said with with the letter we published, the
Speaker 1: editor's letter, I said, you know, this isn't an apology
Speaker 1: or a retraction. I you know, we've published footage of
Speaker 1: American soldiers being killed in the past, and we will
Speaker 1: most likely do it again in the future if it
Speaker 1: serves some sort of purpose. Um. Some people feel that
Speaker 1: it's uh, they describe it as snuff porn or war
Speaker 1: porn or something. And UM, I hate that. I hate
Speaker 1: that kind of like voyeurism, of the just senselessness of it. Um.
Speaker 1: That was definitely not the intent behind it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: to publish, Ah, you know something that looks like call
Speaker 1: of duty that people can watch and have some sort
Speaker 1: of voyeuristic experience. That's just disgusting. And maybe there are
Speaker 1: some people who watch videos like this for some reason, um,
Speaker 1: for that reason. Um, but I hope more Americans watch
Speaker 1: those kinds of videos and they come to understand the
Speaker 1: finality of combat and of death, and understand the situation
Speaker 1: that we're putting our soldiers in there every day for
Speaker 1: the last sixteen years. UM. So I think it's a
Speaker 1: little disingenuous too suddenly feign injury. Um, now pretend we're
Speaker 1: offended now after sixteen years of our soldiers fighting and dying.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the reality these guys are confronted
Speaker 1: with every day. Yeah, well said man. I mean I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's anything else that needs to
Speaker 1: be said. I think anything else that you could say
Speaker 1: you really addressed in what you wrote in the letter
Speaker 1: to the editor, the letter from the editor. The people
Speaker 1: who are angry, uh with me or with soft wrap.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not going to change their mind. I
Speaker 1: know that, of course. UM. I just hope to you know,
Speaker 1: and we're you know, welcome to As you said, you
Speaker 1: read that email like if people are respectful about it
Speaker 1: and disagree. It's totally when when people send an emails
Speaker 1: and I'll just point this out, when people think about
Speaker 1: what they want to say and they write an email
Speaker 1: and they criticize me, or they criticize something we wrote,
Speaker 1: or criticize some anything, really I would read that and
Speaker 1: I'll think about that. Um, you know, if you're sending
Speaker 1: like your you know, expletive laden hate mail to us,
Speaker 1: probably we're just gonna like not even look at it.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you think about what you want
Speaker 1: to say, and um, you can absolutely feel free to
Speaker 1: reach out and and send us your thoughts and we
Speaker 1: will take that to heart. We will think that over all. Right,
Speaker 1: do you feel that covers it from your end? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well on, you know, we're gonna move on to more
Speaker 1: interesting things that like we can discuss. It's weird to
Speaker 1: transition from you know, this, which is a really subject
Speaker 1: matter and and to what we're gonna do because we're
Speaker 1: not doing an entire episode on this, but but it
Speaker 1: needed to be addressed. Um Philiponte is on with us
Speaker 1: lead singer All That Remains, And the last time I
Speaker 1: saw you was when I was working with Andrew Wilco,
Speaker 1: who was really how I know you? Yeah, great that
Speaker 1: he is man. So it's it's great to have you on.
Speaker 1: I've I've wanted to have you on the podcast for
Speaker 1: a while. Um, I feel like you've never really spoken
Speaker 1: about your background as a marine, and when people ask you,
Speaker 1: you're always like, oh, I didn't really do anything. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure people would love to hear the backstory of
Speaker 1: you becoming a marine. I don't talk about it because
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything. Um. I mean in today's day
Speaker 1: and age, especially considering ever since you know, to to
Speaker 1: War on Terror started, there's so many people that have
Speaker 1: done like really significant things and save lives and help
Speaker 1: people and and put their their families on the line
Speaker 1: and and and stuff like that. So for me to
Speaker 1: sit there and talk about, oh I was a marine
Speaker 1: in the nineties for a minute, it just seems like
Speaker 1: it's cheap. So I mean, I did signed, you know,
Speaker 1: signed the paperwork, and I finished boot camp, and I
Speaker 1: got out to the U m CT and and uh
Speaker 1: s O I out in le June, but I got
Speaker 1: sent home with a medical discharge after from there. So
Speaker 1: I don't like to sound there's enough people out there
Speaker 1: doing stolen, valorable crap and stuff. So I don't like
Speaker 1: to to sound like I'm trying to take any kudos for,
Speaker 1: you know, my brief attempt at joining the military when
Speaker 1: there's people out there that have given their lives that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you got Kyle Carpenter jumping on
Speaker 1: a a freaking RFL. So where where the hell do
Speaker 1: I get off saying yeah, I mean I was, you know, hey, Phil,
Speaker 1: this is Jack, thanks for coming on the show. Man. Hey,
Speaker 1: no problem, jacky good good? Uh yeah, me and Ian
Speaker 1: we're watching some of your music videos before the show
Speaker 1: got started. I really liked it. I thought it was awesome.
Speaker 1: You had Chris Paranto and one of them. Yeah, Chris
Speaker 1: is a great duit Um. I met him in Uh
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I think it was two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: or fourteen. Problem Um had shot show and we hit
Speaker 1: it off really well. He apparently he was a fan
Speaker 1: of a fan of the band and and he used
Speaker 1: to listen our stuff before we roll out when he
Speaker 1: was a ranger, and uh, you know that's that's really humbling.
Speaker 1: And I was, you know, I I'm a big supporter
Speaker 1: of of military and people that serve and stuff, so,
Speaker 1: you know, was it was a very very easy, natural friendship.
Speaker 1: And he's a really good dude. He's one of those
Speaker 1: dudes that where when he says something, you know that,
Speaker 1: you know that that's the way it's gonna be and
Speaker 1: you can rely on. So he's just super nice, really
Speaker 1: genuine guy. Yeah, he's good dude. And people might be
Speaker 1: surprised at the shot show connection, which is kind of
Speaker 1: another connection with this audience. Like, other than being the
Speaker 1: lead singer of All That Remains, you also are a
Speaker 1: gun store owner in New Hampshire, of course, because if
Speaker 1: you were in other parts of that region, it would
Speaker 1: be pretty tough. Yeah. I think the New Hampshire remain
Speaker 1: in Connecticut. I think that the only places where you're
Speaker 1: you're actually allowed to have guns anymore, if you're in
Speaker 1: if you're in Massachusetts or Connecticut or Rhode Island. I
Speaker 1: questioned the validity of the Second Amendment in those states. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't question the Actually no, I
Speaker 1: don't question the validity of the Amendment or the right.
Speaker 1: I question the the the question whether the states have
Speaker 1: stepped outside of their their confines by their state constitutions.
Speaker 1: About that, Yeah, I mean that's safe to say. We
Speaker 1: were talking about that on on the last show that
Speaker 1: you were on, Jack, Like the whole state's rights issue
Speaker 1: with firearms, Like is there even a Second Amendment when
Speaker 1: you know, for example, you you're a former Green Beret
Speaker 1: Army ranger and sniper and you do not have the
Speaker 1: right to own a firearm without just stepping through a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of hoops, a lot of hoops. Well,
Speaker 1: they can't, you know, they can't ban the Second Amendment.
Speaker 1: They just restricted to the point that you know, you
Speaker 1: can't you can't have any of that. To me, I
Speaker 1: started to step in here, but that, to me, that's
Speaker 1: incredibly frustrating. The idea that that's something that is a basic,
Speaker 1: fundamental right, that has a protection of that fundamental right
Speaker 1: written into the constitution, and the government of many states
Speaker 1: seems to feel as if it's completely acceptable to behave,
Speaker 1: as if that is a second class right, as if
Speaker 1: it's not a right, as if it is something, as
Speaker 1: if it's a privilege, which which to me is ah.
Speaker 1: I guess that just seems to run contrary to what
Speaker 1: a right actually is. If you have to ask permission
Speaker 1: to do something, do you actually have a right, and
Speaker 1: I would argue, no, Yeah, there's a difference between rights
Speaker 1: and privileges. I mean do you feel that because you
Speaker 1: probably would you prefer to be arms where you are,
Speaker 1: And I mean I I live in the city, is
Speaker 1: so I don't know that I feel like a need
Speaker 1: to I carry a gun around with me all the time.
Speaker 1: But I mean I do feel that there's you know,
Speaker 1: it's too restricted if if I if I wanted to
Speaker 1: or someone else wanted to legally carry, I think it's
Speaker 1: overly restricted. And also it's it's fair to say you
Speaker 1: are way more trained on firearms and honestly the average
Speaker 1: like NYPD officer. Um, that's probably true. Um, that's a
Speaker 1: considerable understatem What was that that decent shooting and wasn't
Speaker 1: in San Francisco where they fired like sixty five shots
Speaker 1: and they didn't hit any other Empire State building right
Speaker 1: there in New York. Yes, it happened here to building. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's also an incident down uh not far from Times
Speaker 1: Square a few years ago where the police emptied like
Speaker 1: I can't remember how many rounds, but they like it's horrible.
Speaker 1: They hit like an old lady and a walker like
Speaker 1: she was Okay, it's just like a flesh wound. But
Speaker 1: I mean they hit everything but the person they were
Speaker 1: trying to shoot. It's really bad. And I phil I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, like, after the shooting in Florida, you
Speaker 1: have gotten plenty of backlash for coming out there and
Speaker 1: saying like this is not the fault of UH gun
Speaker 1: control or or you know, the fault of firearms. I
Speaker 1: should say, yeah, I think that when you look at
Speaker 1: headlines in the media, I think that the media is
Speaker 1: is similar across you know, sectors. So for instance, in
Speaker 1: in the metal community, there's some media outlets that are
Speaker 1: really really good about just calling it straight because they
Speaker 1: don't their their deal is music and they're they're not
Speaker 1: looking to get into politics. But of course there are
Speaker 1: some that that do take a political bend. Are you
Speaker 1: Are you referring to sites like Metal Injection. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't want to go ahead to say the things. I
Speaker 1: don't want people to go to click on it of them,
Speaker 1: but but there are there are some sites out there
Speaker 1: that have an opinion. But it's a similar thing that
Speaker 1: you see in it It's a similar it's a similar
Speaker 1: thing that you saw in the video game and entertainment industry.
Speaker 1: With with gamer games, there was a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the gaming media that decided they wanted to go
Speaker 1: ahead and try and change the culture in a video
Speaker 1: game players, and what they were really doing was trying
Speaker 1: to change a subculture and kind of the underground of
Speaker 1: the Internet in general. Uh. I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: surprise to people when they hear that teenage boys on
Speaker 1: the internet say really, really horrible things to each other.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm forty two, and as soon as I get
Speaker 1: on the phone with anyone in the band, it takes
Speaker 1: thirty seconds before we're calling each other names. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's just the way guys communicate. So m so the
Speaker 1: way that the media kind of reacts to things that
Speaker 1: could be either opinions they don't like or people saying
Speaker 1: something to get a reaction, it's really overblown and and
Speaker 1: politically nowadays, Uh, standing up for the Second Amendment is
Speaker 1: not popular. I think fact, I think through the video
Speaker 1: that I that I did and I didn't say anything
Speaker 1: that was I didn't think that I said anything that
Speaker 1: was inflammatory. Um I said I thought that I was.
Speaker 1: I was simply relating things that whether the listener likes
Speaker 1: it or not. These are things that are true. If
Speaker 1: you want to get rid of semiautos, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to go ahead and amend the Constitution. That's all there
Speaker 1: is to it. Otherwise you're just gonna be looking to
Speaker 1: looking to affect cosmetic features. I don't think that anyone
Speaker 1: that's that's actually trying to write legislation has any idea
Speaker 1: what the difference between a blowback handgun semiauto and a
Speaker 1: semiauto gas operated rifle. They don't understand the nuances of
Speaker 1: what they're talking about, so you're not gonna get effective legislation,
Speaker 1: which is another point that I made. And and and
Speaker 1: of course there were the people that have a different
Speaker 1: political opinion. We're you know, bringing down hell on me
Speaker 1: as much as they could, because they just filled I
Speaker 1: mean I could I could say the sky is blue,
Speaker 1: and they would split hairs about whether it's blue or
Speaker 1: or teal or whatever. Um. But I think that the
Speaker 1: people that actually listen to what I said really understood
Speaker 1: that it wasn't as simple as let's just band guns,
Speaker 1: even though that's the loudest cry. But the difficulties and
Speaker 1: the complexities of the ideas let's band guns are so deep,
Speaker 1: and the resistance that people that say that we'll get
Speaker 1: from people that don't want to ban guns or at
Speaker 1: least want to have a positive effect in the context
Speaker 1: of how do we reduce soft target attacks? Uh that
Speaker 1: that any any kind of of disagreement with with people
Speaker 1: that are looking to band guns. They just think that
Speaker 1: you're They just frame you as a bad person who's
Speaker 1: malicious and evil and has no caring and blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So it's tough, it's frustrating. Phil Do
Speaker 1: you feel that there's because this is a world I
Speaker 1: don't know a lot about, do you feel that in
Speaker 1: the metal world there is some sort of effort like
Speaker 1: social engineering like you brought up game or gait, like
Speaker 1: they are pushing some kind of or there's there is
Speaker 1: a push for some sort of political agenda. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say that it's in the metal world. I would say
Speaker 1: that it's in media. I understand, gotcha. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: you know what's funny. I could tell you this film
Speaker 1: and I know that you know him. Like another guy
Speaker 1: in the metal world that I'm actually friends with, like
Speaker 1: in real life is Frankie Palmary from Amure and both
Speaker 1: of you guys. Frank is a great dude, even though
Speaker 1: and the thing is, you and him get more shipped
Speaker 1: on like Metal Injection and all these sites than anyone
Speaker 1: I know for being two guys in the metal world
Speaker 1: that are just not PC and for some reason, like
Speaker 1: that's become not okay to to be politically incorrect in
Speaker 1: the metal world with with some with some of the
Speaker 1: some of the the more I guess political sites. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: I I'm not the guy that's going to back down.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just not the guy that's gonna say, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're right if I don't think you're right. And it's frustrating,
Speaker 1: and it's it's tough, and I take a lot of heat.
Speaker 1: And there's a there's a significant possibility that some you know,
Speaker 1: some bands or some some promoters are like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I want to put all the remains
Speaker 1: on there because Phil likes this, or or it might
Speaker 1: bring a bad headline. But I don't see how much.
Speaker 1: I don't see that I have a whole lot of
Speaker 1: room to do anything else. The the outrage culture kind
Speaker 1: of happened around me. I mean, I was I've been
Speaker 1: pretty much the same guy were had similar opinions for
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years, longer most of my adult life, and
Speaker 1: U only in the past five or six has it
Speaker 1: become If you say your opinion and your opinion is
Speaker 1: the incorrect one, people are gonna come after you. More
Speaker 1: than just being like I don't like that guy or
Speaker 1: I don't like this. They're gonna do their best to
Speaker 1: go after your job and go after your You're the
Speaker 1: way you make make a living. And the some of
Speaker 1: the metal blogs are are real the uh really doing.
Speaker 1: They have done their best to do what they can
Speaker 1: to hurt me because you know, hurt my my ability
Speaker 1: to make money because of the because of the the
Speaker 1: political opinions I have. That's kind of sad, I mean,
Speaker 1: especially when we're watching you know, music videos that are
Speaker 1: pretty nonpartisan. Yeah, and it's it's also kind of bullshit
Speaker 1: that like there's bands out there like Profits of Rage
Speaker 1: that you know, are obviously left left wing and they
Speaker 1: don't see the same type of blowback, like and you
Speaker 1: tore plenty of parts of the country that that are
Speaker 1: more libertarian or right wing and share your values, and like,
Speaker 1: why is it not okay to appeal to that you know, well,
Speaker 1: anytime someone talks about bands that have socialist opinions, Uh,
Speaker 1: it drives me nuts. Because socialism is communism, socialism, Marxism,
Speaker 1: it's no better than not is um killed a hundred
Speaker 1: million people in twentieth century. And the the idea that
Speaker 1: you can get away with apologizing for an ideology that
Speaker 1: has such a a horrifying uh track wress, it just
Speaker 1: boggles my mind. I don't see why there are people
Speaker 1: out there that say it is okay to be a
Speaker 1: communist with with that kind of just murderous rampation about
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. But for some reason it is. And
Speaker 1: maybe it's because it sounds nice, but I just don't
Speaker 1: get it. Yeah, that hypocrisy there in the lack of
Speaker 1: historical understanding, you know, the legacy of communism. Go and
Speaker 1: talk to somebody from like Lithuania or Estonia about how
Speaker 1: great communism is and you're liable to get punched in
Speaker 1: the face. Guys, the guitar player from Five Finger Death
Speaker 1: Death punches old. He moved to the the States when
Speaker 1: he was a teenager after the fall of communism, and
Speaker 1: he didn't speak any English. The guy's a multimillionaire rock
Speaker 1: star and between me and you and the listeners and stuff.
Speaker 1: From what I hear, he was successful in another field
Speaker 1: before he became a rock star. So this guy is
Speaker 1: like the epitome of the American dream. And he came
Speaker 1: from a communist country and he had nothing but terrible
Speaker 1: things to say about communists. Nothing the terrible things to say.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys are enjoying this interview with Phil
Speaker 1: Labanti from all that remains, great, dude, And I know
Speaker 1: that this is a little different than what we normally do,
Speaker 1: but I know that there's a cross section there. Um.
Speaker 1: I even remember when the Madness video came out, a
Speaker 1: lot of you guys were really digging it and really
Speaker 1: like Tonto's performance in it, which must have been very
Speaker 1: hard to play. Um. I love the video, but what
Speaker 1: a serious video about a serious issue, and I know
Speaker 1: it's near and dear to fill. Um. I've wanted to
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Speaker 1: wave dot Com. Let's get back to Phil Abanti from
Speaker 1: all that remains. Yeah, and then there's plenty of people
Speaker 1: out there like that, you know, getting back into the
Speaker 1: gun control debate thing. I wanted to play this while
Speaker 1: Phil was on. We usually play all the emails and
Speaker 1: voice memos before the show, before the interview, I should say,
Speaker 1: but one of our regular listeners, Old pH two, had
Speaker 1: a little bit of rant on the gun control topics,
Speaker 1: so I figured I'd play it. Get everybody's reaction, and
Speaker 1: including Phil here Okayan and Jack Um. You know, everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about the whole issue with gun control and keeping
Speaker 1: children from being killed in schools, and it's an important topic.
Speaker 1: But you know, it really goes a lot deeper than
Speaker 1: just mental health or gun can troll. I think this
Speaker 1: is our society at a whole needs to examine itself.
Speaker 1: I mean, you take a look at the death of
Speaker 1: the nuclear family, and yeah, I know I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of people that are gonna I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people are gonna be pissed that I say this,
Speaker 1: But honestly, you know, the children need an example of
Speaker 1: what adults are supposed to act. Like the best examples
Speaker 1: in the home, and the problem with having people at
Speaker 1: home it goes back to the manipulation of our currency.
Speaker 1: We don't have the buying power that we had you
Speaker 1: know when my father was raising us, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: forty fifty years ago, and quite honestly, you know, we
Speaker 1: need two incomes to raise our children. Will to have
Speaker 1: two incomes, both parents must be working, and then they
Speaker 1: put their child in daycare. Someone else raises the child
Speaker 1: with their values, and then we get back to the
Speaker 1: daycare and school. You know, there's a distinct lack of discipline.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have problem children, you either drug them
Speaker 1: into a stupor or you just expel them because you
Speaker 1: can't deal with them. You know what happened to corporal punishment.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, you know, kids need to
Speaker 1: know that there's consequences for their actions. You know, a
Speaker 1: little fist fight out on the playground, as long as
Speaker 1: it's dealt with reasonably and the kids don't get out
Speaker 1: of hand, there's nothing wrong with that. You say something stupid,
Speaker 1: you get a fat lip. That's the way the world works.
Speaker 1: And the sooner we as Americans understand that we've dumbed
Speaker 1: everything down, We've settled for less, We've gone the path
Speaker 1: of least resistance. This is the problem. Sometimes doing the
Speaker 1: hard thing isn't easy, but it's worth the effort, and
Speaker 1: the the final product speaks for its self. I mean
Speaker 1: gun control. Yeah, we need to change some things, yes,
Speaker 1: but it's not just gun control, and it's not just
Speaker 1: mental health. We need to look at ourselves top to bottom.
Speaker 1: Are we willing to spend the time, the money, the
Speaker 1: effort on education, on giving ourselves a living wage. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm as conservative as the next guy, but there's some
Speaker 1: ship that we need to get right, and we're just
Speaker 1: playing not doing it. I don't have an answer, and
Speaker 1: I know you guys don't either, but this is part
Speaker 1: of what we got to deal with. And until people
Speaker 1: talk about every one of these issues, they're not really
Speaker 1: being genuine in their concern. And I refused to even
Speaker 1: talk about it to anyone who isn't willing to talk
Speaker 1: about every free issue that's involved because there's not a
Speaker 1: solution otherwise. Hey, thanks, he and talk to you later.
Speaker 1: All right, there was old pH two. Well, I'll let
Speaker 1: Phil go first. He's our guests. Well, I think that
Speaker 1: he's He's probably got a lot of there. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that I think that I would agree
Speaker 1: with them on. Um. I do think that the the
Speaker 1: culture in the US is really not focused on the family.
Speaker 1: I think that he's right about the breakdown of of
Speaker 1: the nuclear family. I think that he's right about the
Speaker 1: shipping your kids off to school. And I think that
Speaker 1: he's right about the Federal Reserve because of the hidden
Speaker 1: taxes that are in inflation and in the printing of money.
Speaker 1: I think that he's right about I think that he's
Speaker 1: right about a lot of things. I think that there's
Speaker 1: probably more than likely, in my opinion, there's more to
Speaker 1: the situation then he's just then he's referring to, But
Speaker 1: he did. He does sound like he's interested in covering
Speaker 1: the whole basically as many vectors as he can to
Speaker 1: come to the route of the problem. I don't think
Speaker 1: the route of the problem is that there is an
Speaker 1: increase in gun violence. I do think that there's probably
Speaker 1: more mass shootings that are that are a spectacle than
Speaker 1: there were historically. But I think that that's part of
Speaker 1: the reason. Part of the reason that for that is
Speaker 1: because of the fact that um information travels so fast
Speaker 1: now and uh you can have a camera crew and
Speaker 1: be getting live photos before any incident is over most times,
Speaker 1: or or directly as soon as it finishes right away
Speaker 1: and be reporting on. And the the old adage if
Speaker 1: it leads, if it leads, it leads, I think is true.
Speaker 1: So I I don't think that he's off off the
Speaker 1: mark at all. And I think the conversations that he's
Speaker 1: looking to have are are are important, and I think
Speaker 1: that's he's on the right track personally. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: so overall. I mean, I don't want to be one
Speaker 1: of those people that I think he's absolutely right in
Speaker 1: pointing out that it's a multiple different vectors that play
Speaker 1: into it. It's not just one issue like un control. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't want to say, like, oh, the
Speaker 1: problem is that we have women working today or something
Speaker 1: like that. I don't think he don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: think that was his point. Um. I think that there
Speaker 1: is something true though, that there is some breakdown in
Speaker 1: the family and the family structure, in the social structure, um,
Speaker 1: that leads to that stuff. And I mean we see
Speaker 1: these cases where school shooters, like some guy or some
Speaker 1: kid and they like kill their mom or dad first
Speaker 1: and take the guns. I mean, like shooting your mom
Speaker 1: twenty times and stealing her guns. I mean, come on, dude,
Speaker 1: there's more a play here just the just the guns.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's some mental health issues. There's all kinds
Speaker 1: of different things happening there, and um, you know, we
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about how to end school shootings
Speaker 1: on a previous podcast or how you can take some steps,
Speaker 1: and um, you know I mentioned how it's like highway
Speaker 1: safety or fire safety, like we did like a dozen
Speaker 1: different things to try to fix that problem. And I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, definitely he's onto something there about
Speaker 1: you know, socially we have to look at each at ourselves, um,
Speaker 1: from top to bottom. Yeah, I agree, I agree with
Speaker 1: both of you. Um. So I was also going to
Speaker 1: ask Phil what is all that remains currently up to
Speaker 1: Like I didn't mention it on this on the show yet,
Speaker 1: but you know you were doing some work filling in
Speaker 1: for five Finger Death Punch and also kill Switch Engage. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that kill Switch tour was a while ago. But apparently
Speaker 1: I'm the guy that you call in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night we need someone to screen for your band,
Speaker 1: both of them. Both the times that I I was
Speaker 1: asked to to fill in it was it was a
Speaker 1: phone call in the middle of the night saying, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing tomorrow? Can you get on an airplane? Um?
Speaker 1: And thankfully, you know, I've been I've been fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to be in positions when when my friends called and say, hey,
Speaker 1: can you help us out? I've been I've been able
Speaker 1: to give my hand and that's a that's just really awesome.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a great thing to be able to do,
Speaker 1: to get flattering that people will call you even ask um.
Speaker 1: It's flattering when you hear people tell you if you
Speaker 1: get did a good job and stuff. So you know,
Speaker 1: and and it's always cool to be able to help
Speaker 1: out friends. I mean, I've known the guys in kill
Speaker 1: Switch for over twenty years and the guys in Five
Speaker 1: Finger for well over ten. Uh. I mean all that
Speaker 1: remains I think our Death Munches first show ever, All
Speaker 1: that Remains was playing. It was a show in l
Speaker 1: A with I think Dragging Forces headline was like first before.
Speaker 1: And I knew Ivan before he even joined Five Finger,
Speaker 1: because I we had all the remains are toured with,
Speaker 1: toured with um. Motivraator was the band that he was.
Speaker 1: That's from that's from yeah, like the end of the
Speaker 1: New Medal era. I feel like, yeah, yeah, we went
Speaker 1: on tour with Motigraator and I tell you what that band.
Speaker 1: Every single night they were traveling in a van, two
Speaker 1: at at time, and every single night they did put
Speaker 1: on all that team and then you know, pick it
Speaker 1: off and we weren't playing places that had showers. You know,
Speaker 1: we were playing dirty, dingy little places in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: and that's got to be gross. It was it was.
Speaker 1: I I admired their commitment to their look. I think
Speaker 1: it's the nicest way to say that, which is funny,
Speaker 1: because you have no look, like you're just a regular
Speaker 1: dude wearing whatever you happen to be wearing that day.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's kind of the way that we do.
Speaker 1: I mean that was to me. When I grew up,
Speaker 1: I was listening to death metal and underground music, and
Speaker 1: it was never about like the show was the show,
Speaker 1: and that was the show, was the people play, that
Speaker 1: was it. We we the bands that I really wanted
Speaker 1: to see when I was a teenager, not not a
Speaker 1: young teenager, because I was into Metallica and they they
Speaker 1: had always had had put on big shows and had
Speaker 1: lights and stuff. But the shows that I cared to
Speaker 1: see when I was eighteen nineteen, they were in dingy
Speaker 1: clubs and the lighting was maybe there, maybe you'd get
Speaker 1: the backlighting to make the guys on stage look more evil,
Speaker 1: but that was about it, and so the show would
Speaker 1: get done and you know, the guys were standing around
Speaker 1: in the exact name sneakers and genes that I was wearing,
Speaker 1: or we have you know, same T shirt or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it was it was. It wasn't about putting on airs.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about trying to separate the perform from the audience.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think that that might be a little
Speaker 1: bit of influence from the hardcore scene that we had
Speaker 1: in in uh New England as well. Uh nobody wanted
Speaker 1: to nobody wanted anyone else to think that you thought
Speaker 1: you were a rock star. That was the worst thing.
Speaker 1: Like if you if you're in a band and you
Speaker 1: walked around and you put and you acted like you
Speaker 1: were better than someone else, we would care you. A
Speaker 1: part of you would the ostracize, you would be you
Speaker 1: would you'd you'd end up because we all knew each
Speaker 1: other because so every Sunday night we were going to
Speaker 1: the same club. Didn't matter what bands were playing, it
Speaker 1: was just the that was where shows happened, and that's
Speaker 1: where where people hung out. So if you acted like
Speaker 1: you were like your like your ship didn't stink. It
Speaker 1: only took a couple of weeks before people were like,
Speaker 1: screw that guy, and then you've got no one to
Speaker 1: hang out with. You've got nobody to if you want
Speaker 1: to find band members. Nobody wants to be in your
Speaker 1: band because you think you're a rock star. And so
Speaker 1: for me that that's that's always kind of the way
Speaker 1: that I've been with with all that remains. As much
Speaker 1: as people will will get an impression from reading things
Speaker 1: or whatever, but if you sit down and talk to me,
Speaker 1: I'm not the guy that thinks that I deserve special
Speaker 1: treatment because I yell at a stick for a living.
Speaker 1: So what is what is all that remains? Currently? Up toil,
Speaker 1: we're writing some new stuff. This year's our twentieth anniversary. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I started all the remains of fall of So either
Speaker 1: later this year or next year, we're gonna have something
Speaker 1: some kind of celebration of our anniversary. Um, and we're
Speaker 1: putting it together now. I'm not sure about the details.
Speaker 1: There will be some kind of new music, Um, there
Speaker 1: will be, well, they'll they'll be a good amount of
Speaker 1: new music. UM. There's gonna be some stuff that's probably
Speaker 1: gonna gonna hearken back to the old days. UM a
Speaker 1: little bit for the for the old timers, and and
Speaker 1: of course we'll have you know, stuff for some of
Speaker 1: the newer fans too, but we're trying to put together
Speaker 1: some special stuff. It's not every I mean, obviously not
Speaker 1: every day is the twenties anniversary, but it's so rare
Speaker 1: for a band to be able to say, yeah, we've
Speaker 1: been doing this for two decades, and throwing the fact
Speaker 1: that All the Remains has been doing it through two
Speaker 1: decades where the music industry has gone through more changes
Speaker 1: than the previous probably hundred years. So it's it's something
Speaker 1: that we're really we're really really proud of, and it's
Speaker 1: something that we're excited to do something special for the
Speaker 1: other mains fans and everyone that stuck by us for
Speaker 1: a for as long as they have. That's awesome, dude.
Speaker 1: And then I should throw out there you're doing a
Speaker 1: Patreon where you're doing um kind of exclusive content for
Speaker 1: people who subscribe to that and some really cool rewards.
Speaker 1: Um as I know you've been posting a lot of
Speaker 1: like workout videos because Phil has gotten huge. Although Phil
Speaker 1: is very short, but it feels like a nick irving
Speaker 1: body type. I would say, I don't know abow very short,
Speaker 1: very short, started like five four. I'm five seven five
Speaker 1: six fives evans, So I'm sure, but I'm not. That's
Speaker 1: like Nick Irving right like he's about he's about that.
Speaker 1: And Nick Irving is also a massive, dude. Well I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not massive yet. The most I've been able to
Speaker 1: get up to is like one seventy and right now
Speaker 1: I'm I'm clocking in it about one. So I'm really
Speaker 1: but I'm really lean right now. So I'm pretty pleased
Speaker 1: with my results. Oh and you know what else I
Speaker 1: should ask before we wrap this up, since we were
Speaker 1: talking about shot Show before, what was your reaction a
Speaker 1: shot Show? Because I know for you, Jack, you're every
Speaker 1: year you're like, okay, I feel like I was seeing
Speaker 1: the same stuff. Was there anything that that stood out
Speaker 1: to you? To me personally, there was nothing that really,
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody was excited to see the Hudson that
Speaker 1: that striker fire that is the Hudson. Hudson nine millimeter
Speaker 1: is that what it's called. I'm looking at Jack if
Speaker 1: he has any idea. I don't know. No, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I mean I might, I might have the name wrong.
Speaker 1: It's a nine millimeter that Striker fire. But it looks
Speaker 1: like the nineteen eleven kind. Um they had that team
Speaker 1: to be making making a bunch of noise. But I
Speaker 1: didn't hear about any new products or anything that was
Speaker 1: going to go ahead and made the gun world stand up.
Speaker 1: I mean, no one came out with It's not like
Speaker 1: the year that Sig came out with the bracery. Any
Speaker 1: cool stories from shot show of just like people you
Speaker 1: ran into. Um. I got a buddy, Josh Coburn that
Speaker 1: works for Brown Els. It was nice to see him.
Speaker 1: We we talked about doing some stuff with my YouTube
Speaker 1: channel and Brown Owls and U. Um, there wasn't a
Speaker 1: whole time going on, honestly. I mean I got to
Speaker 1: to see uh, Matt and j T from Article fifteen
Speaker 1: and I did their podcast and um there. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: wasn't a whole lot that that I really got into
Speaker 1: this year. It was. It was a significantly slower pace
Speaker 1: this year than than previous years for me. I made
Speaker 1: it to the floor a couple of times and walked
Speaker 1: around and checked some stuff out, but it was it
Speaker 1: was definitely a a low key shot show this year.
Speaker 1: I didn't make the Cry party. I didn't make I
Speaker 1: didn't really make any parties here, so it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was a low key chilling out, don't spend all
Speaker 1: your money on no drinking, and don't spend all your
Speaker 1: money gambling year This year it sounds similar to to
Speaker 1: our experiences. Both of us were there pretty short. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just in and out. Yeah, and and that cry party
Speaker 1: is usually fucking insane. I did, I kind of do
Speaker 1: wish I made that. I didn't see what the I
Speaker 1: didn't see what the theme was. It was it was
Speaker 1: like a disco because I saw pictures of Scott Whittner
Speaker 1: and uh yeah with like an afro wig on. It
Speaker 1: was a disco disco theme. Well, that's all right, I
Speaker 1: have fun. The year they did the Mario Kart one, dude,
Speaker 1: I was there for that one too. Yeah. I got there.
Speaker 1: They had already done the they had already done the races,
Speaker 1: but they could still go. Had people tossing balls all
Speaker 1: over the place. I had. I did the U I
Speaker 1: did the snow one where he had to take the
Speaker 1: the inner tube to slide down a snow pile to
Speaker 1: get inside. And I did the And last year was
Speaker 1: the World of Warcraft that I went to that was
Speaker 1: that was a good time to the boats. Let it
Speaker 1: be placed me at boat races that's inside the Mario
Speaker 1: cart One. Was great. I'm surprised I didn't see you
Speaker 1: at that, man, but no, that's awesome, mom. So you
Speaker 1: could follow Phil on Twitter at Phil that remains anything
Speaker 1: else you're promoting before we wrap this upgrade having you
Speaker 1: on manh Yeah, I just go check out my YouTube page.
Speaker 1: It's the YouTube page is also YouTube dot com slash
Speaker 1: whill it remains, please subscribe like blue comments, um, follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Instagram, both of those are filled. It
Speaker 1: remains as well. So I'm pretty easy to track down
Speaker 1: on the internet. Interesting. Yeah, and you actually respond to people,
Speaker 1: and and um, I should throw out there that everybody
Speaker 1: should check out the video for madness. As Jack was saying,
Speaker 1: we're watching it earlier. And I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of videos that raise awareness for veterans issues, whether it's
Speaker 1: PTSD or you know, all the other stuff in that
Speaker 1: video soldier suicide, it's it's sometimes done in a corny way.
Speaker 1: I feel like this was very genuine. You could tell
Speaker 1: us a cause it's genuine to you, And like, who
Speaker 1: better to play that part than Chris Farranto. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: I can't say enough good things about about how Chris
Speaker 1: performed and how it came out, so I gotta, I gotta.
Speaker 1: I gotta definitely give kudos to Chris as he there
Speaker 1: was no hesitation. He was just like, yep, I'm doing it,
Speaker 1: and we're like, thank you so much. He's like, no sweat,
Speaker 1: So he's great. I thought he was great in it.
Speaker 1: You could tell that he put his all into that part.
Speaker 1: I was thinking we should end the show with madness
Speaker 1: when we wrap up. Is that cool with you? Phil? Perfect? Awesome?
Speaker 1: We will and that way, I have Phil actually saying
Speaker 1: I could play it because I know the sound cloud people.
Speaker 1: The sound cloud like is able to to see if
Speaker 1: you're playing a song and I'm gonna get some fucking
Speaker 1: notification that says that I'm using copyrighted material. But I'll
Speaker 1: be like, I have the guy himself saying we could
Speaker 1: play it. So I'll wrap about this one with Oh
Speaker 1: you think that's gonna matter. You think I'll still get craped?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he'll definitely get You wrote the song though,
Speaker 1: I no joke. There's the video that I'm waiting to
Speaker 1: finish because I am currently waiting for my label to
Speaker 1: approve the rights on my YouTube channel so I can
Speaker 1: use a song that I wrote on my video. No kidding,
Speaker 1: that's out of control. Yeah, and it's it's so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: All this is made to protect the people who actually
Speaker 1: own the copyright, the people who have actually written the songs,
Speaker 1: and instead this is what happens. Well, the thing is,
Speaker 1: when you sign a record deal, most most of the
Speaker 1: time they do own the songs, and that's what the
Speaker 1: deal is. When you signed a record deal, that'll give
Speaker 1: your money up front of that way you can live
Speaker 1: and write the record and recording stuff. And then they're
Speaker 1: just like, well, well we're going to keep the rights
Speaker 1: of this. So no, I'm sure they'll give me approval.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, to wait and wait and wait.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I hear. Well, thanks for doing this film. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate it. Man so
Speaker 1: great having Philiponte on. I've wanted to have him on
Speaker 1: for a while. I know that's like a little change
Speaker 1: of pace from for our audience, but we tend to
Speaker 1: do that every now and again. We've had comic book
Speaker 1: artists and writers on the show. We've had musicians on
Speaker 1: the show. Um, you know, we still have plenty of
Speaker 1: spec ops guys this this month, so don't worry, we'll
Speaker 1: be back to doing our usual thing. I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention al right, so on the last show I had
Speaker 1: Steve Ballastieri on UM you Were Out, Jack, was just
Speaker 1: me and Steve or Steve and I and I mentioned
Speaker 1: Captain Jerry Yelling because we were talking about interviewing old
Speaker 1: combat vets. And I said to him, Oh, you got
Speaker 1: to interview Jerry. We had him on episode thirteen of
Speaker 1: Power thought great interview, flew the last combat mission over
Speaker 1: in Japan. Well, little did I know. And I realized
Speaker 1: this because his people a publicists said, oh, we'll be
Speaker 1: back in March. You should have him on the show.
Speaker 1: And he's talking to Brandon about, oh, I still fly planes.
Speaker 1: Brandon's talking about getting him in the yack. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: two months after Brandon did that interview, UM, Captain Jerry
Speaker 1: Yellen passed away at the age of yeah, I've you know,
Speaker 1: had that happened a few times where I was supposed
Speaker 1: to talk to somebody, someone want reached out to me.
Speaker 1: They wanted to talk um. And you know, by the time,
Speaker 1: you know, we got our deconflicted our schedules that you know,
Speaker 1: these couple one or two people I'm thinking of having
Speaker 1: mind they passed away. They were they were a little
Speaker 1: bit on. Uh. They were like Vietnam every guys and
Speaker 1: you know they're they're getting up there, um and they
Speaker 1: you know, the guys who served in World War Two
Speaker 1: in Korea. I mean there's less and less of them
Speaker 1: around every day. Yeah. Yeah, and great stories. So if
Speaker 1: you get a chance to check that out, it's episode
Speaker 1: thirteen of the Power of Thought podcast. Rest in peace
Speaker 1: to Jerry Yellen. I'm really privileged that we got to
Speaker 1: have him on before he passed away. And an interesting
Speaker 1: history tidbit here, I guess, but a lot of this
Speaker 1: audience might know. But I'll be honest, I didn't know. Um,
Speaker 1: Jerry Illen was arm was a Army Air Forces vet.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing my I well, what it was
Speaker 1: was so my grandpa, for example, was an Army Air corpsvett.
Speaker 1: And I thought it just went from the Army Air
Speaker 1: Corps to the Air Force. And it apparently went from
Speaker 1: the Army Air Corps to the Army Air Forces to
Speaker 1: the Air Force. I didn't realize. Interesting I didn't know
Speaker 1: that either, Yeah, for a short So if you didn't
Speaker 1: know it, then I guess plenty of people didn't for
Speaker 1: a short period of time. I guess at the very
Speaker 1: end of World War Two, which is when Jerry Yellen
Speaker 1: was serving. It was the the Air Forces. So I
Speaker 1: thought that was interesting to know. Um, anything else before
Speaker 1: we get out of here that you wanted to mention
Speaker 1: or you know, I feel like we covered everything going
Speaker 1: on with the site. You're working on some some pretty
Speaker 1: big articles though, that I don't know if you could
Speaker 1: talk about. No, I mean I think that's about it. Yeah, um, oh,
Speaker 1: you know who I wanted to throw a punch. This
Speaker 1: is unrelated to the military, but I was telling you before.
Speaker 1: So the Southern Poverty Law Center has gone after Christina
Speaker 1: Hall Summers, who I'm a huge fan of and does
Speaker 1: great work with like debunking a lot of stuff with
Speaker 1: the gender pay gap, and you know, one in four
Speaker 1: women experienced sexual assault, and and she always breaks it
Speaker 1: down and goes into like why these are the statistics?
Speaker 1: And somehow a group against hate groups has gone after
Speaker 1: this seven year old woman who's you know, like a
Speaker 1: huge threat. I guess, yeah, we're watching that video is
Speaker 1: just ridiculous. It's like an opportunity for young people to
Speaker 1: just kind of like, yeah, well the video we were
Speaker 1: watching was was her at that college campus with you know,
Speaker 1: college could just not allowing her to speak, demanding that
Speaker 1: their questions be answered immediately with these chants. And so
Speaker 1: my reaction when I see this because I've seen Ben
Speaker 1: Shapiro has gone through this mile aunopolis and like, I
Speaker 1: kind of get it on some level that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: its publicity. These guys kind of like the attention on
Speaker 1: some level. But I would think as a seven year
Speaker 1: old woman, I would be like, you know what, I've
Speaker 1: had enough of this at this point. Let me just
Speaker 1: do my YouTube channel, let me write my article from
Speaker 1: the privacy of my own home, and not deal with
Speaker 1: this ship. So they give a lot of credit for
Speaker 1: dealing with that. Yeah, I don't. I don't really know
Speaker 1: why these people And when I say these people, I mean, um,
Speaker 1: let's just say people who are not on board with
Speaker 1: whatever the you know, current social justice warrior thing is.
Speaker 1: And uh, we'd say people who maybe are a little
Speaker 1: more conservative, why they keep going on college campuses, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, some of them probably go because they have
Speaker 1: like a principled belief and like we should have a debate,
Speaker 1: we should have a conversation. And then there's other people
Speaker 1: who they're basically just like trolling to like get the attention,
Speaker 1: you know, because they know there's going to be a
Speaker 1: some sort of verbal altercation. Um, And I'm afraid I
Speaker 1: actually don't know much about this woman. I'm a huge fan.
Speaker 1: I really am, Like, if you were to have a
Speaker 1: list of my heroes, she is a Christina, you know,
Speaker 1: because I just think it takes a lot of guts
Speaker 1: to go out there and come back this now art
Speaker 1: of the way that she has in such a logical
Speaker 1: and calm way. She's not someone who gets like up
Speaker 1: in arms. She'll just be like, these are the statistics,
Speaker 1: and this is why. And I was I it takes
Speaker 1: a lot to piss me off. When I saw the
Speaker 1: Southern Poverty Lost Center, like I feel like this is
Speaker 1: a group who people feel as lost credibility. But she
Speaker 1: wrote about it too like a group that was originally
Speaker 1: formed to combat people like the Nazis, the KKK, which
Speaker 1: obviously need to be gone after are now combating this
Speaker 1: woman who just goes against the modern day feminist narrative.
Speaker 1: It's like completely ridiculous. I know, it's strange. I mean
Speaker 1: these people who call themselves antifa, you know, anti fascists, Like, okay,
Speaker 1: when do you fight the fascists? Like, what's that actually
Speaker 1: gonna happen? Because it seems like you're just kind of
Speaker 1: berating people who are just like normal people who have
Speaker 1: opposing views. But that's the thing in the video we
Speaker 1: were watching with her, Um, they were accusing her or
Speaker 1: they what they want to stop is they call it platforming,
Speaker 1: So they don't want they they're the agenda is to
Speaker 1: deny people who have opposing views a platform if they
Speaker 1: perceive those views as being fascist, which I mean, who
Speaker 1: gets to determine what is? And apparently they think this
Speaker 1: woman has fascist views, so they want to stop her
Speaker 1: from platforming. Yeah, and as someone who's watched plenty of
Speaker 1: her work and nothing could be further from the streets,
Speaker 1: so um through a bunch of the week for me
Speaker 1: at least Southern Poverty Law Center. Uh. And with that,
Speaker 1: I do, of course want to mention that as a
Speaker 1: reminder for all of those who are listening, for a
Speaker 1: limited time, you can receive a fifty discounted membership to
Speaker 1: softwarep TV, our channel that offers the most exclusive shows,
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Speaker 1: that's gonna work when you need it to. Creates we've
Speaker 1: sent in the past have included gear like custom knives,
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Speaker 1: create club dot us. We also have gift options available,
Speaker 1: that's create club dot Us. Plenty of great guests coming
Speaker 1: um in the rest of March, so we'll keep these
Speaker 1: coming every Wednesday every Friday. UM. Also check out the
Speaker 1: Power of Thought podcast hosted by Brandon. And with that,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna end this with all that remains
Speaker 1: madness as long as uh, we're able to keep it
Speaker 1: up there, as I was talking about with Phil, as
Speaker 1: long as we get censored. Yeah, you get flagged very
Speaker 1: easily if um what you're playing is recognized by the system.
Speaker 1: But I would think having you know, the guy wrote
Speaker 1: the song on giving you for insition to play it
Speaker 1: means something, but as he said, it may not. So
Speaker 1: hopefully you're hearing madness at the end of this or
Speaker 1: at least part of it. And check out the video.
Speaker 1: Please check up the vision over and over. Why should
Speaker 1: we we are? We are? Yeah, it's nogain no hurry,
Speaker 1: this is as you know that, this is as you
Speaker 1: know that, this is sating. It's always saying this way
Speaker 1: and soon amis who wants were friends, grounded or else here?
Speaker 1: We know how it as. I can't believe I'm sick
Speaker 1: and all the last weekend even Grisa, no no, m Yes,
Speaker 1: you've been listening to Self Rep Radio. New episodes up
Speaker 1: every Wednesday and Friday for all of the great contents
Speaker 1: from our veteran journalists. Join us and become a team
Speaker 1: room member today at solf rep dot com. Follow the
Speaker 1: show on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio, and
Speaker 1: be sure to also check out the Power of Both
Speaker 1: podcast hosted by Hurricane Group CTEO and Navy Seal Sniper
Speaker 1: Instructor Brandon Webb. See all that s It's always saying
Speaker 1: it's away and soon se