BETA v2

Uncle Tony's Midnight Minefields is a podcast where the hosts discuss their backgrounds and interests. CMFM is a former Marine who loves his country but is concerned about its current state. Uncle Rick is a former gang member turned mayor of Chicago. Jethro builds chambers for technology and enjoys redneck activities. Uncle Tony, a mysterious character, interrupts the conversation. The hosts talk about their childhood experiences, including riding bikes and getting injured. They share stories about their moms' reactions to their accidents. Welcome to the first episode of Uncle Tony's Midnight Minefields. This is CMFM and I've got here with me... This is Uncle Rick and Jethro. Uncle Rick and Jethro and CMFM. So we're going to go around the table and talk to you a little bit about who we are and why we're here. CMFM here was born on the East Coast and came out to the West Coast after joining the good old Marines. Did a few years in the Marines and enjoyed myself, but not enough to keep going. But I still love my country and still love everybody in it. Right now I'm scratching my head at what we're doing in our country, but that's one of the things we'll be talking about too. Besides playing with puppies, I like to go ahead and shoot big guns, participate in fun extracurriculars, take extracurriculars and things, yummy things. I brew beer, love cooking, and yeah. What about you? Yeah, actually I wanted to be clear. It's Uncle first name, last name Tony. Alright, Rick. Uncle Rick. Uncle Rick. Uncle, first name, last name is Rick. Alright? That's me. Anyway, I grew up on the main streets of Chicago. I was in a lot of gangs and they ended up giving me the title of mayor. And so that's kind of what I'm doing right now is just cleaning up the city of Chicago and eating a lot of hot dogs. As you can imagine, being named Jethro, I grew up in the South. I eventually moved out to the West Coast because of a Navy brat. Ended up coming back to the West Coast for love. Started doing crazy things like building chambers that basically make technology keep going. Like everything that has an antenna or uses some type of radio frequency gets built in these chambers. So I've been doing that for the past like 15 years. I like guns, trucks, going off road, basically anything redneck you can think of. I either like, have done, or still want to do. And so when Uncle Rick asked me to come on the show, I was like, why not? And I got to meet CMFM and I was like, hell yeah. And that's where we're at. So why did you have fun with... Hey, hold on just a second. Hey, everybody, this is Uncle Tony. Do you guys know that the Native Americans actually invented electricity? Uncle Tony, thanks for joining us. We've been wondering where you're at. I got to go. Talk to you guys later. Wow, that was abrupt. Uncle Tony, he's going to stop in from time to time and damn it if we could have control. How did he get a badge into this place, though? You know, he's kind of like an incorporeal kind of being. Like he just can be places other people can't. He has an uncanny ability to go through solid objects. We just stopped kind of throwing him out at this point because you open one door, throw him out, and he'll come in the opposite door. So I don't really understand. I'm not really sure what he is at this point. This is a low-end studio and it's a questionable part of town in the first place, right? So you never know what you're going to get. I think what Chris is saying is that while I have described a fantastical being, he's actually just getting in from the chimney or something. I gotcha. Is that why the card that I have isn't actually a card? It's like a wrapper? Well, Chris got a baseball card. You got a receipt with a heart shape on it. I think you used my government name. Oh, I mean this is not going anywhere, right? So before Uncle Tony came in and interrupted us, I think we were talking about what did we do for fun when we were growing up? So for me, growing up in upstate New York and then moving down to New Jersey, really close to Philadelphia, we did a lot outside as compared to what I see nowadays. Around the neighborhood that I live in, I don't see any kids outside. It's like a ghost town in the summertime. Once in a while I hear a scream, but it sounds like children are being beaten. Well, you know back in the 70s, a lot of people kept their kids inside because of Oceanside Strangler. Oh, yeah. Did they? Yeah, it's a little known fact. There was this guy, Antonio was his name actually, no relation, brain dead listening at home, and he would just go into your backyard and choke your kids out, and that was a big problem. I heard it was called choking chicken. Or maybe the chicken choker? He started off doing that and then he quickly moved up to humans. But did he choke their chicken? It's an ongoing investigation. How long ago was this? Are we allowed to speak about it because it is an ongoing investigation? Some may say that he still walks among us and comes into random podcast studios to make a visit. We'll never know. For me personally, I was outside a lot. I did a lot of riding around my neighborhood on bicycles with my brother and friends, and we built tree houses in the woods and stuff like that. What about you guys? I remember breaking several bones jumping my BMX bike over homemade ramps. So that was a big part of falling down and getting hurt, screwing around outside. What about you, Jethro? I was on horses a lot. Horses? Yeah, so I grew up mostly in North Carolina on a horse ranch, so we had horses. I shot bows, guns, did a lot of fishing, a lot of riding. They've got big ones, don't they? They're pretty big. Big horses? Yeah, they're well endowed. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not like the donkey shows with TJ. Are they small dicks? They're small ones. Well, I mean, a donkey compared to a horse? I've only heard is what I'm saying. Oh. Yeah, they're pretty big. They're pretty big? Yeah. I mean, we're not filming this, but you can see the size of my arm. It goes from my fist to my elbow. One could only hope. One could only hope. I'm not even sure what to say to that. What can he say? I don't know. Uncle Tony will get around any minute now. So, I got a funny story about that. So, my brother and I, moving from upstate New York, being kind of naive, we didn't have what I thought was a really good ability to see how everything was with the world. And so, coming from upstate New York, where, you know, we had a pretty significantly moderate-sized town. And we went to Catholic school. And so, like, in our Catholic school, we had, like, it was just white people. And one black family. And when we came down to New Jersey, it was around Philadelphia. And so, it was a melting pot of a lot of eclectic people and cultures. It was great. So, what we got was we got a blend of different diversity and different people that were around. And it was fantastic. But the challenge was that we were still these kind of naive kids. And we were excited to be around everybody, learn about the different differences. But we got fucked with so bad. So, my brother and I, we were like, okay, we need to sag our pants and do this. And I was like, I can't sag my pants. Like, these just, they don't go and sag. And so, stuff like that. And so, my brother and I, we met these neighbors. And we're all riding around on bicycles. And there was a ramp that went and kind of had a curve. And then it went straight like a table. And then it went and did a, we'll say, what, a 45-degree down. So, these kids, they egged us on. Oh, keep going faster and go in a loop, my brother and I. And so, I just was like, I'm not doing this any faster. This is a recipe for madness. I had like one of those, you know, mountain bikes. My brother had like a, not even a BMX. It was just like kind of like just not a mountain bike. Just a regular kind of bike. Brother goes up this one final time. And instead of going straight, he tilts his handlebar and goes diagonally off. And smashes his jaw, hairline fracture, breaks two teeth. And, yeah, my mom whooped his ass. So, your mom beat him after you hurt himself? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He went to the house bloody and, are you fucking kidding me? What are you fucking doing? You've got to fucking lost your mind. This is ridiculous. Moms are like that though. Yeah, yeah. Like I distinctly remember, I was in South Carolina. And my mom was like, you've got to go outside and do something. I was like, it's like 100 degrees outside. And she's like, well, go outside and ride your bike. And like I was outside riding my bike. And a car came out of nowhere. So, I slammed on my front brake accidentally. And I ended up breaking my finger. And she made me sit there for like two and a half hours before she actually looked at my hand. And then ended up taking me to the doctor to find out, yeah, I did break my finger. And then, you know, now the running joke is she'll never tell me to go do something again. Because last time I broke a finger. That's all right. All right. I've got you. I'll double down. So, I was, I've got two stories. One, I wanted to ride my bike because I was bored. My mom said, no, stay home. I don't know why she told me to. But they were doing construction and putting in new houses. And there was like, you know, dirt on the road and stuff. And the wind was kicking up. So, I was riding around this little turn. And sand kicked up. And I went to go rub my eyes. And I was like, oh, I can't rub my eyes good enough. So, I'm taking both hands. Down a rocky kind of bumpy road with dirt all along it, along the pavement. And I just go, ba-boom, and smash into a freaking mailbox. I'm just laying there like, next thing I know, which is probably like a half mile away, my mom pulls up. And she's like, what the fuck are you doing? She's like, you fucking went out of the house. You didn't even listen. And she gets all pissed. And she's, I'm like freaking bloody. And she's like, get the fuck in the van. And she throws my bicycle in the van. Closes the door. Gets me in. Drives me home. Not even like, are you okay? Right? Then, the other story is, in high school, got grounded for not listening for some reason. And my grades were kind of on the fritz this junior year. And my mom said, well, you can go in our backyard. And you can study in the backyard. But other than that, you're not allowed to be outside. So, naturally, you threw a party in the backyard. You would think, right? Right. No, not at that time. That was senior year. So, oh, going into junior year. It was the end of sophomore year. It was going into junior year. So, that was when the finals were. I was like, I need to pass, you know. And this is going insane. So, back story. I have a really bad reaction to poison ivy and poison oak and poison sumac. And so, there was all kinds of forest that was behind our house. And all the other houses in the housing area. And they were burning poison ivy. And so, you know, I was sitting outside not doing a thing. And I wasn't a bad kid. It's just these stories revolve. I'm getting in trouble. That's all. And so, I was sitting there studying. And then what do you know? The next day after studying, because I had been out there. And then I went in the pool afterwards. And you would think that would have cleansed the skin because of all the chlorine. But it didn't. I got really bad poison ivy. And so, my mom was pissed. She's like, I fucking told you not to go outside. Or not to go and play in the woods with your friends like you were supposed to be studying. And I was. I didn't go anywhere. And my brother vouched for me that I wasn't. And that was that. And so, I went to the doctor. The doctor was like, so you got poison ivy. And my mom was trying to tell him, yeah, he went in the woods. And I was like, I didn't though. And the doctor was like, hmm, okay. He's like, how long has he gotten it? And so, he's kind of feeling me out. He's like, okay, where do you guys live? And so, he knew the area. And he's like, oh, yeah. They burn, actually, poison ivy. And so, he did some tests. And then figured out, holy shit, I wasn't fucking lying. Thanks, mom. Yeah, thanks. That's right. So, those are my long-winded stories. Any funny stories about you, Aaron? Or, sorry. I dropped the government name, too. So far, Jesper holds his own. I'll tell you a story about the time I saw Uncle Tony in real life. Yeah. So, I was working with Zach. And which was in, what was that? What's that city in LA? We were at the SpaceX. Compton? Hawthorne. Hawthorne. We're in there. We're working on, oh, wait, this is a different job. I'm getting it confused. The one in Irvine that had the crazy shit. ITL. ITL. We'll say ABC for this podcast. Independent Test Laboratories. So, we're working there. We're working like 24-hour fucking days. Wild. Go outside, and there's a chain link fence. And there's kind of like a plastic cover or sheet on it or like a mesh net on it. But I could see the other side, even though it was dark. Yeah. And I saw someone walk through. And it was like, really, it was like an enclosed area, I think. I don't think people could get in or out of it. Sure. And so, I think we all looked around, and there was nobody there. And I'm sure that was Uncle Tony coming to pay me a visit. He does that at times. That's the problem. Yeah. We also saw him in the rafters that night, but we won't talk about that. That's for another episode. So, what we're here to do is we're here to start this beloved podcast. And what's the reason that, Jethro, that you wanted to start the podcast? I'll go last. So, I mean, really, Uncle Ricky had been bringing up a bunch of stuff. And it just got me questioning, what does that mean for us? And what is that, basically, just why and what? And so, I thought it'd be kind of cool to be that person on the podcast. I mean, I have my own questions about things, and there are things that I think that we could talk about, which would be interesting and be helpful to people now that they just don't think about or have been forgotten, because now everything's digital. But also, I think it's important to just break it down, because a lot of the times with news outlets today, it's always like, this is all bad. Well, why is it bad? Right. Nobody really breaks that down for anybody. Yeah, and do you feel like with that substance and that material, people are doing a lot of not being aware of what actual situations are? So, maybe there's some smoke and mirror that's going on. So, let's say that, oh my gosh, CNN, Fox, ABC, all these news agencies, if you will, they're having news go across, but you're not actually getting the full picture. Like, yeah, okay, this is going on. This war is going on. This climate situation is going on. But then they're only reporting on some of the aspects or even some stories, and some of them aren't being even told, because the general public doesn't even have the insight to get information. Yeah, and I think I was just watching a thing yesterday where news outlets are saying that they're basically jaded to the fact that the younger population is sympathizing with Hamas and the whole Israel and Hamas thing. Sure. Regardless of your stance. Like, it's crazy that people can just see it as black and white. Yeah, and I mean, the fact of the matter is that, you know, the Israelis and the Palestinians have been fighting for God knows how many years. You know, this isn't something that's new. And I think a lot of people that maybe aren't in that aspect culturally, they don't know. You know, these bread and butter, you know, cookie cutter kids that are, you know, in America that are, let's say, 10 years old, 12 years old. Oh, well, I'm hearing about this, and I've seen it on TikTok, and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, they don't know. And this is the sucky part, in my opinion, is that when they're getting fractions, like almost cookie crumbs of information from news or from social media, even God, they're not getting the actual information. They're just getting what's attractive and seductive to report on. Because at the end of the day, there's so much shit that's going on that they're not reporting on, in my opinion. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, and they're going ahead and having things that people just generally don't know. And they're having reporters and publications that are biased, completely biased. And they're showing one side of the picture. And I'm not saying that there's not a challenge or a problem going on there. What I'm saying is that I want it to be fair where everybody gets the full picture, and nobody's sitting there doing that. They're having their own priority and their own agenda, and that's the challenging part. And to my opinion, that's kind of why I was interested in partaking with the three of us, is really bringing something where we could add depth and be an eclectic three-man team and just really cover things. Because we each have something to offer. What about yourself? I Google a lot of weird shit constantly, and that usually leads to more questions than answers. And then with recent events that are going on, basically there's a lot of strange shit going on all at once. And I'm not really sure why. And people, like you said earlier, will take a part of what they've heard and figure out, like, oh, based on this, then this is true. And usually it's not even close. Do you think that's always been happening, though? I mean, when do you think we as people, we'll just say in the United States, when do you think that's been happening since where we get fractions of stories? Well, it's because of the, like, nobody has attention span anymore, so they can only take in 30 seconds to a minute of content before they tune out. So you have to put out a bunch of information. If you were trying to summarize what's going on in Israel right now, it wouldn't take you 30 seconds. It would take you, like, hours, right? Right. And so they're trying to say, like, this happened in Israel, and this is what it means. You can't get to that conclusion that fast. And so do you think that with technology that's in place and we have such an attractive and great ability to have answers at our fingertips, but do you think that it's also becoming kind of hazardous to where there is so much information to be consumed and to be acclimated to that we don't know where to start? It's overwhelming. I think that that's a problem for a lot of people who are younger that didn't grow up with the Internet being a sketchy place. It's even more sketchy now, but they had to grow up learning what the warning signs for scams and all kinds of other stuff. Sure. And these people on here, they'll hear something that they agree with, and then that has to be true, right? Right. Well, how do you—so that was going down the rabbit hole of, you know, like, well, with AI, you know, we can consume and look and see this. And, well, how do we know—I guess my biggest worry is, you know, how do we know a certain response toward the topic is even legitimate, you know, and accurate? You know, let's go kind of to what you said. You know, you like a lot of weird stuff and looking up stuff. So UAPs and UFOs, right, where there's a lot of information that's being broadcast and put out even in through public—we'll say public-slash-private hearings because we don't have access to all those information that's coming out of those meetings. But, you know, where does the line—how do we know? How do we hold people accountable is my question. So a recent example, there's a reporter, Ross Cohart, from Australia. He claims he has a bunch of insider knowledge and people feeding him information from his intel agencies. And he claims that he knows where there's a ship crash that is so big they couldn't move it. So they had to build something that we all would be able to recognize as this place. It's an actual building over this thing to hide its location. And we all know what it is if they were to say it, and we would be, like, shocked. But he won't say where it is because he doesn't want to burn his sources. People are holding him accountable now by saying, you know, the Pentagon has said there's nothing, and you are saying there's something. If you are actually, like, not an enemy of humanity is the term they throw around, then you would give the information to us because that's what's holding us back from progressing as a species if there's technology there that we could use to help all of us. So in your opinion, what do you feel that we'll say the government should do with this information? Do you think that they should make it available to the general population and people and have them understand what's going on with this? I think they should start by acknowledging if it's true or not. And all of this, like, yes, we have a crash retrieval program, and we have this and that. And then over time, people can learn where these things are. But I think the first step is acknowledging that it is or isn't true. But they've been lying to us already, so I don't know about that. Okay. So let's go back to a little bit about our podcast and what we like, what we don't like. As far as, you know, Uncle Tony goes, you know, where does Uncle Tony fit into this picture? I think he just comes in and just reminds everybody how weird shit is. Yeah. Like, it's saying off-the-wall crap. It could be true. I don't know. Who is Uncle Tony? I don't know. That's what we've got to figure out. I mean, I think Uncle Tony, like, everybody has an Uncle Tony. Like, everybody is Uncle Tony at some point in their life. You know, like, for me, my Uncle Tony moment is I think the government moves a lot of stuff around in plain sight. And I think some of the ways they do it is, you know, like, cheese trucks, dairy trucks. I mean, it's a funny thing to think about, but, like, what is the easiest way to move something? Just, you know, hide it in plain sight. So it's almost like a facade. Is that what you're saying? That there's, or a mask, or masquerade? Yeah, like, you know, I don't think it would be outlandish to see the United States military moving, you know, caches of weapons in a U.S. dairy truck. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, you know, other people would find that outlandish, I guess. I think that's a good point, that there's things happening right in front of our faces that we might not necessarily even know that's going on. And that's something that's highly complex in my eyes. Because it's like, okay, well, I really think this is going on, and I can't be the only one that's thinking about this, right? I can't be the only one that's thinking this generally is taking place in this type of capacity where it feels like I've only got a sliver of the story, right? Because the human, in my mind, is pretty sophisticated, right? And when it comes down to it, the human, the individual, is very intelligent, very ability, has ability to be agile. But when it comes down to people, then that's where people versus human being, there's a dynamic difference. And people get lazy, and they don't want to necessarily engage on things and learn things. It becomes challenging where they don't necessarily sit there and try to understand the concepts, and a lot of masquerading does happen for people. Yeah. So where have we traveled to recently? Anybody go anywhere fun? No. No, my wife's pregnant. Yeah. I went to Santa Barbara for two weeks. I might be there for three weeks coming up. Yeah. I just got back from Hawaii. Lucky. Lucky. Yeah. Very, very lucky anniversary. So we went, spent a week. It was fantastic, and it sucks because it takes, at this point in my life, which wasn't true a few years back, but now it's a little bit alarming where it takes me usually about two to three days to kind of decompress into vacation and be like, okay, now I'm on vacation, I can relax. Versus seven or eight years ago, I'll probably say nine years ago, it was maybe like four or five days. Now, with this vacation for about a week, it took me about five days just to actually like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm good. Like I'm all good. I don't got to work. I'm not thinking about bills. I'm not thinking about work. I'm not thinking about this thing or that thing. What about you guys? Do you have the same problem? No. No? You just, once you're done, you're gone? I don't give a fuck. I don't like my job. As soon as I leave the office, so to speak, I don't care at all that it even exists. I don't think I really care about the office part. That's not what I'm meaning. I don't think you're... No, I mean like I don't think about anything. No? I'm just gone. Then I get real high and smoke some things. That must be nice. I feel like I stress all the time, like even when I'm on vacation. So what's the longest you've ever been on vacation? I don't know. Two, three weeks? Two, three weeks? Yeah. Okay, same. And that two, three weeks, was it recent or like a couple years ago? Oh, I mean no. Two, three weeks was probably when my wife graduated from her master's. Oh, okay. So that's been like, I don't want to give years out, but it's been a minute. It's been a minute? Yeah. So I went to Tokyo for almost three weeks. And while I was there, at that time it took me like two, maybe three days. But now, yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I think it takes me about four or five days. That really was something that was alarming to me. It was like, oh, okay, it takes me that long? And it's not work, right? It's just everything else in life going on. And I didn't think it was that bad. I thought it was like, oh, okay, I'm going to check out, be done with work, and be done. Because work isn't really bad. Work is work. It's there. It gets done. I'm fine with it. There's not much anxiousness, thankfully. As opposed to previous years, that wasn't the case. How are you on time? 30 minutes in. 30 minutes in. Seems pretty breezy. I think we should pause here, see how hard it would be to edit this amount of audio.