Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my
Speaker 2: name is Nol.
Speaker 3: They call b BED. We're joined as always with our
Speaker 3: super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
Speaker 3: are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want
Speaker 3: you to know.
Speaker 4: Folks.
Speaker 3: There are a ton of things happening in the news
Speaker 3: and around the world today. We are recording on Wednesday,
Speaker 3: June eighteenth. This strange news program will publish on June
Speaker 3: twenty third, and it's going to be diplomatically put. It's
Speaker 3: going to be interesting to see what Monday looks like.
Speaker 3: And I'm trying to be positive when we say that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, not looking good.
Speaker 3: Maybe everything will work out.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I like to try to live by
Speaker 4: those words, but it doesn't always work out.
Speaker 3: On one thing I think we all kind of predicted
Speaker 3: but found confirmed by recent research is that if you're
Speaker 3: learning about news outside of this show, then statistically in
Speaker 3: the United States, you're learning about it through social media.
Speaker 3: So shout out to the recent article by Ian Young's
Speaker 3: over at the BBC. Please check it out for read
Speaker 3: and guys, I think we all just kind of assumed
Speaker 3: that social media was a bigger and bigger source of
Speaker 3: quote unquote news for most of the US, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but usually I'm seeing news from news sites on
Speaker 2: social med So are we talking about directs who are
Speaker 2: just saying things?
Speaker 4: Well? Also, I mean, let's just be real here. The
Speaker 4: President himself is quite an active social media user and
Speaker 4: is very want to make news directly, I think prefers
Speaker 4: it that way, and so that is certainly, and also
Speaker 4: a lot of members of his party and other politicians,
Speaker 4: you know, with Twitter and now of course truth and
Speaker 4: Lusky and whatever, there is a direct way for folks
Speaker 4: to you know, make news if they wish.
Speaker 3: So bite I'm with you, Ben, bite sized, digestible what
Speaker 3: we used to call them nuggets, not indigestible at times, right, right,
Speaker 3: full of factoids. In fact, we are using that phrase correctly.
Speaker 3: Studies show more than half of people in this country
Speaker 3: get news from networks like Facebook, x YouTube, the things
Speaker 3: we were naming about fifty four percent of the country.
Speaker 3: And to your point, Matt, a lot of that is
Speaker 3: going to be repurposed clips from other news organizations, right,
Speaker 3: things that go viral, And as Mark Twain said, you know,
Speaker 3: lie can circle the world twice while the truth is
Speaker 3: putting on at shoes. That's the situation where now. So
Speaker 3: we want to keep that in mind, right, keep in
Speaker 3: mind the idea of misinformation and disinformation as it proliferates.
Speaker 3: We're going to explore the world in Tonight's Strange News,
Speaker 3: And we were talking off air briefly about this. The
Speaker 3: first thing we need to talk about is Iran, Israel
Speaker 3: and pizza.
Speaker 4: Yep, the pizza index right like much like the waffle
Speaker 4: house index predicts bad weather that you should really take
Speaker 4: note of. This pizza index, which was news to me, Ben,
Speaker 4: I think is a way of predicting military action or
Speaker 4: at least mega scuttle butt going on in Washington, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then from there we're going to encounter some shipwrecks,
Speaker 3: maybe some hidden history, some legislative corruption, and an unethical
Speaker 3: but apparently quite successful aviation hack. All this and more
Speaker 3: after the break and we have returned. If you happen
Speaker 3: to engage with Twitter or x as Elon Musk prefers
Speaker 3: to call it, then we have a follow for you.
Speaker 3: It's at penn Pizza Report. The Pentagon Pizza Report is
Speaker 3: an open source tracking of pizza order activity around the
Speaker 3: Pentagon and other related nearby places. This has become an
Speaker 3: unofficial metric similar to that of the waffle House Index,
Speaker 3: which we've discussed in the past. A lot of people
Speaker 3: will tell you, with some validity that you can make
Speaker 3: a loose prediction on upcoming US military action based on
Speaker 3: an increase in pizza orders to these military installations. First off,
Speaker 3: you know, Noel, you said this was kind of new
Speaker 3: to you. Matt, did this ring a bell for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard you guys mentioned there been at least
Speaker 2: you mentioned this Pizza index multiple times. But I love
Speaker 2: the concept. I think it's pretty brilliant. Somebody, I don't
Speaker 2: know whose idea it was, do we know? Because it's
Speaker 2: a smart move.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can always count on someone with a crazy
Speaker 3: love of a specific thing to end up, you know,
Speaker 3: loopholing our usual channels of public communication. It reminds me
Speaker 3: of the guy who got in trouble for mapping all
Speaker 3: of Musk's flights on his private plane.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is of course private, playing public record yes,
Speaker 4: must carry problem with that. It also reminds me of
Speaker 4: the way you can get a lot of accuracy in
Speaker 4: predicting news events by checking out the line betting markets.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because people in Vegas and online
Speaker 3: will bet on darn near anything. They'll bet on whether
Speaker 3: or not you think they're going to bet on something,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, They'll take those odds.
Speaker 2: But guys, just help me, just really clarify this for me.
Speaker 2: Sure in my mind, this is stating that someone somewhere
Speaker 2: in or near the Pentagon or the White House is
Speaker 2: ordering a bunch of pizza because everybody's got to stick
Speaker 2: around and have a late meeting of sex idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kind of situation room stuff. It's it's a Cold
Speaker 3: War era theory and it's been around for a while.
Speaker 3: It has very recently resurfaced. This is getting us into
Speaker 3: the story we wanted to talk about, you know, the
Speaker 3: scary one. So we started with the fun part first.
Speaker 3: Since the Cold War, there's been this theory that waxes
Speaker 3: and wanes in popularity and says you can get a
Speaker 3: rough spidy sense of what the US is going to
Speaker 3: do in global crisis situations or predict US action abroad
Speaker 3: by correlating pizza orders near the Pentagon. And this worked
Speaker 3: for a while back, especially before the age of ubiquitous information,
Speaker 3: people were able to, you know, buy hook or by crook,
Speaker 3: get the information from pizza shop operators literally in the
Speaker 3: DC area and surrounding the DoD. So recently there's been
Speaker 3: renewed interest in this Pentagon pizza index. If you follow
Speaker 3: the theory then you'll see a lot of proponents arguing
Speaker 3: it has accurately predicted twenty one global crises since well
Speaker 3: since the Cold War, and people are worried it maybe
Speaker 3: predicting something like World War three right now?
Speaker 4: Oh jeez, say that. My initial question was where do
Speaker 4: they get hitting this data? And I get it completely now.
Speaker 4: You could look at Google Business results and see high
Speaker 4: traffic times or real time reports of people checking in,
Speaker 4: et cetera. Which makes a lot of sense why this
Speaker 4: would be easier to track. And I gotta wonder how
Speaker 4: they did it in the Cold War days. Are they
Speaker 4: just like hanging out at pizza places and like monitoring.
Speaker 3: Visually with.
Speaker 4: Newspapers? Don't quite get it. It may well have been
Speaker 4: more of a boots on the ground situation, very much so.
Speaker 3: The pizza operators were probably the like, the primary source
Speaker 3: for that. But I have another twist to this. I
Speaker 3: wanted to ask you guys about, all Right, if this works,
Speaker 3: if we know it works, if the public knows it works, right,
Speaker 3: and anybody can follow anyone on Twitter or accounts like this,
Speaker 3: then is it possible that the boffins at the Pentagon
Speaker 3: are aware of this and maybe manipulating things a little bit?
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, you can do your door dash from random places,
Speaker 2: and you've got to set up some kind of randomization
Speaker 2: algorithm of where you get food from.
Speaker 4: Also, I guess pizza is kind of the ultimate community
Speaker 4: takeout food or order delivery food, you know, because you
Speaker 4: can get like cheese and then like, you know, a
Speaker 4: little bit for everybody's not forget. There's also like chiny taco.
Speaker 3: Handheld things, subway sandwiches. There used to be a subway
Speaker 3: in the Pentagon. I'm sure they got busy at different times.
Speaker 3: But the reason people are focusing on this now is
Speaker 3: due to the ongoing escalation of the conflict between Israel
Speaker 3: and Iran. With some incredibly strange and unorthodox signals coming
Speaker 3: from the leadership of the United States, the world has
Speaker 3: been following this, you can easily see timelines of the escalation,
Speaker 3: but it's important to remember this is a new chapter
Speaker 3: in something that dates back decades and decades and decades.
Speaker 3: We are well aware that this can be an incredibly
Speaker 3: sensitive subject for a lot of people, so we want
Speaker 3: to just give you the facts. I think, like a
Speaker 3: lot of us who are not following the pizza index,
Speaker 3: we got the news when Israel bombed a rot right,
Speaker 3: that's when That's when the news hit for the West.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was when Nen y'allo made a public statement
Speaker 2: about what was happening.
Speaker 4: And at least that's when I heard about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, same for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I honestly, we had a production call yesterday and
Speaker 4: I had really only heard rumblings and then you kind
Speaker 4: of filled me in on some of the details. I
Speaker 4: think one thing that we all thought was a little
Speaker 4: unusual back to the whole social media thing, is some
Speaker 4: tea kind of being spilled out of school couple of
Speaker 4: fronts Trump himself. But I also wanted to mention that
Speaker 4: you guys are ask if you saw this interview that
Speaker 4: Tucker Carlson did with Ted Cruz where Tucker Carlson goes
Speaker 4: to town on that man and and like takes him
Speaker 4: to task about like knowing the population of Iran and
Speaker 4: the cultural makeup of Iran. And then Cruz basically believes
Speaker 4: that that the leader of Iran is trying to have
Speaker 4: Trump killed, and he supports that by saying, well, we
Speaker 4: are doing something about it. We are launching a strike
Speaker 4: with a ooh sorry with Israel. They're doing it, We're helping.
Speaker 4: It was some real accidental speaking out of school stuff.
Speaker 4: And then Trump did the whole thing about We're not
Speaker 4: going to kill the leader, but we could maybe real.
Speaker 3: Weird weaponized ambiguity, also going on social media and telling
Speaker 3: telling the it is the civilians of Tehran to evacuate immediately.
Speaker 3: This latest iteration of this long running, deeply seated conflict
Speaker 3: began on June thirteenth, twenty twenty five, so just a
Speaker 3: few days ago, the IDF struck Iran in an operation
Speaker 3: code named Rising Lion. The Israeli government says this series
Speaker 3: of strikes was a response to Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there were talks, right, they were in specific
Speaker 2: nuclear deal talks which broke down and they it was
Speaker 2: literally within what a day or two of those talks
Speaker 2: breaking down that the strikes occurred.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, Iran. In Israel, we're relatively friendly until nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy nine and have been geopolitical rivals and about enemies
Speaker 3: ever since. So the big question, as any the non
Speaker 3: proliferation researcher will tell you, the big question is how
Speaker 3: close can this country get to acquiring nuclear weapons. The
Speaker 3: government of Israel is saying that Rising Lion was necessary
Speaker 3: because if they did not strike when they did, when
Speaker 3: those talks broke down, then the country would have inevitably
Speaker 3: and quickly made enough uranium weapon grade enough for fifteen
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons.
Speaker 4: And this is about targeting these enrichment facilities, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, enrichment facilities, also specific individuals with expertise, and then
Speaker 3: and then also political officials. The chief of staff died
Speaker 3: in one of these targeted attacks over this space of conflict.
Speaker 3: That's about six days in as we record, got replaced
Speaker 3: by another chief of staff, and then that guy got
Speaker 3: killed as well. That's very quick turnover.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit of an update. I just saw
Speaker 4: a time article. Iran's Supreme leader calls out Trump and
Speaker 4: threatens irreparable damage if US joins the Israeli conflict, and
Speaker 4: according to Ted Cruz, that's exactly what's happening. So that's
Speaker 4: not good.
Speaker 2: Well, but but again, you've got it's so tough to
Speaker 2: know if any of the signals coming from the White
Speaker 2: House are real or if they're diversionary tactics or some
Speaker 2: kind of play. As we've stated many a time on
Speaker 2: this show, specifically, Ben Or remember you talking to us
Speaker 2: about that. Is it Is it a tactic of a deal,
Speaker 2: right that's attempting to be made by putting out false information?
Speaker 2: Or is it something that we can trust because I
Speaker 2: remember seeing something specifically, I think it was all caps
Speaker 2: unconditional surrender or something like that, right, Yeah. And then oh,
Speaker 2: but we're also in talks. Oh, but they've really got
Speaker 2: to they got to stop now. And then as we
Speaker 2: logged into record, there's another headline that another I believe
Speaker 2: social media message that stated, oh, the leader of Iran
Speaker 2: has reached out and wants to talk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And just really quickly, part of this statement
Speaker 4: that the leader of Iran Kamani made, he says directly
Speaker 4: to Trump, the US President threatens us with his absurd rhetoric.
Speaker 4: He demands that the Iranian people surrender to him. They
Speaker 4: should make threats against those who are afraid of being threatened.
Speaker 4: The Iranian nation isn't frightened by such threats.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And part of a statement he also made today,
Speaker 3: as we record, was that Israel has made a has
Speaker 3: committed a grave mistake, and will face the repercussions. Iran
Speaker 3: will not tolerate any breach of its airspace. So we've
Speaker 3: mentioned before how sometimes the quite often public statements don't
Speaker 3: match the private conversations that world leaders and their staff
Speaker 3: and their diplomats will have behind closed doors. So the
Speaker 3: whispers were in the wind over the past few days
Speaker 3: that Ran was saying one thing publicly, and then as
Speaker 3: you said, Matt was reaching out through back channels and saying, hey,
Speaker 3: let's figure out how to de escalate this. A lot
Speaker 3: of people who have studied the military and governmental makeup
Speaker 3: of the current rounding government, they'll tell you there are
Speaker 3: some systemic flaws in the system. One of those flaws,
Speaker 3: arguably would be that it is a theocracy. So a
Speaker 3: lot of people who are in decision making or war
Speaker 3: fighting positions of leadership, they don't have military qualifications, they
Speaker 3: have theocratic qualifications, right, so they may request things that
Speaker 3: you know, your ordinary military guy would consider non starters,
Speaker 3: would consider infeasible for any number of logistical issues, or
Speaker 3: you know, they be aware of knock on and consequences.
Speaker 3: But while all this is occurring, there are again innocent
Speaker 3: people throughout the region who are in just a terrible situation.
Speaker 3: You know, some of these folks have nowhere to go, right,
Speaker 3: they have to sit there and hope that the bombs
Speaker 3: don't hit them.
Speaker 4: Well, in this notion of evacuating, it's a lot more
Speaker 4: difficult than just that. I've seen videos of obviously just
Speaker 4: absolute bumper to bumper traffic the way out of the cities.
Speaker 4: So it's just, yeah, it's not it's I get the
Speaker 4: purpose of saying something like that, though Trump has never
Speaker 4: really fancied himself to be like the bearer of empathy,
Speaker 4: but it does seem to be directed in that way,
Speaker 4: kind of right to act as though he's thinking about
Speaker 4: the Iranian people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the thing that is, I think another evolution
Speaker 3: here in the way this administration community is that it
Speaker 3: didn't come out as you know, an official statement from
Speaker 3: the DoD or the White House official press release. First,
Speaker 3: it came out as the literal president of the United
Speaker 3: States on social media, like you were saying. So it's
Speaker 3: very it's a very stark change from public communication of
Speaker 3: the past. This happens as the USS Nimitz strike group
Speaker 3: is moving toward the Middle East, and as right as
Speaker 3: we were going in to record today, the government of
Speaker 3: Iran just announced a soft blockade of or moves, which
Speaker 3: we discussed in our episode on the most recently on
Speaker 3: lost civilization in the Persian Gulf, important shipping route.
Speaker 4: Yes, vital oh, let's keep it.
Speaker 3: It's the best word for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you even mentioned something about that
Speaker 2: when we last recorded, Ben, You're like, well, let's see
Speaker 2: if they take the stray of our moves, and then
Speaker 2: you mentioned that would be one of the things that
Speaker 2: the US would try to prevent or or you know,
Speaker 2: break if that were to happen. That's yeah, that makes
Speaker 2: sense to me.
Speaker 3: Well, the issue, yeah, I agree with you, it could
Speaker 3: be a massive escalation. What we mean by a soft
Speaker 3: blockade is the idea that only not that they're stopping everything,
Speaker 3: but that only Iranian approved vessels can traverse that space.
Speaker 3: So from their statement, you know, theoretically you could say, hey,
Speaker 3: I know we're not getting along right now, But can
Speaker 3: I have some gas? Just like time out real quick
Speaker 3: for the gas? Okay, time in, Thank you guys, back
Speaker 3: at it.
Speaker 2: But that's also one of the necessary resources to stage
Speaker 2: an attack, right, So it's why would you do that?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Now we're messing with the money, which goes beyond
Speaker 3: the ideology, right. The money is something that everybody can
Speaker 3: get behind, right or use as a rationale. And again
Speaker 3: we're just giving you the facts. And the issue right
Speaker 3: now is that for consumers of news in the West
Speaker 3: and abroad, you're going to have to be very careful
Speaker 3: to sort of triangulate the truth because there are a
Speaker 3: lot of angles to some of this reporting. It's no secret,
Speaker 3: by the way, that the US often has a hard
Speaker 3: anti Iran slant when they're reporting the news, right. Like
Speaker 3: we talked about it before, one of the old red
Speaker 3: flags that you could always use to tip your spidy
Speaker 3: sense was seeing a US journalist describe something as a
Speaker 3: government or as a regime. If it's a government, then
Speaker 3: the US kind of approves. If it's a regime, they're
Speaker 3: on a list short and dangerousness. Yeah, it's like thirty
Speaker 3: percent of the world's fossil fuels or liquid natural gas.
Speaker 3: A huge amount goes through the Strait, and China and
Speaker 3: Japan in particular are reliant on those exports to keep
Speaker 3: that spice flowing. So obviously the question in the room
Speaker 3: before we move on, and we've got a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff to get to is going to be this for
Speaker 3: a lot of people, How soon and to what degree
Speaker 3: will this affect gas prices? That's honestly what a lot
Speaker 3: of people are thinking, are wondering, you know, And.
Speaker 4: Is this the kind of thing too that moves the
Speaker 4: market like I mean, I guess there's futures, bets and
Speaker 4: things like that being made on you know, commodities like gas,
Speaker 4: but you do tend to see market movement whenever there's
Speaker 4: you know, scuttle butt of this magnitude as well.
Speaker 3: Good time to own a pizza shop in DC, I guess,
Speaker 3: so trying to find something positive there and that is
Speaker 3: the best we can do.
Speaker 4: What's the scary pizza shop in PC?
Speaker 3: Oh, the Pizza Gate pizza. Yeah, So right now, this
Speaker 3: is a situation that the world has its eyes on.
Speaker 3: Please let us know your takes. If you are listening
Speaker 3: in Israel, if you're listening in Iran. If you're listening
Speaker 3: and you happen to be serving in the armed forces
Speaker 3: or in some group that may be involved with this conflict,
Speaker 3: please be safe.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I hate that we keep having to say. You know,
Speaker 3: that old quotation or proverb about elephants and grass. It's
Speaker 3: just so true, you know, I think those those are
Speaker 3: our thoughts for now. We've got We've got, you know,
Speaker 3: scads of energy analysts predictions for price jumps, and we'll
Speaker 3: see how that works out at the time. I don't know, man,
Speaker 3: It's it's strange news and it's frightening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes you wonder what the bulletin of the
Speaker 2: Atomic Scientists is going to say.
Speaker 3: Check on the clock, the clock and Dylan. Before we
Speaker 3: get to the break, let's get some breaking news quick update, folks.
Speaker 3: On June twenty second, twenty twenty five, the United States
Speaker 3: of America hit three facilities in the nation of Iran.
Speaker 3: This is including the four Dow uranium Enrichment Plant, the
Speaker 3: Natan's Nuclear facility, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. These were
Speaker 3: hit with what you would call bunker busters. The attack,
Speaker 3: retaining the earlier name Operation Midnight Hammer, is now the
Speaker 3: largest B two operational strike in history. As we alluded
Speaker 3: to in our earlier original recording, this does trigger action
Speaker 3: from Iran and the world waits to see what will
Speaker 3: happened in retaliation, and of course, with the straight of
Speaker 3: hor moves, be safe out.
Speaker 4: There and we have returned. Fellas. Are you familiar with
Speaker 4: an organization called the Ghana Drunkards Association also known as
Speaker 4: Beverage Consumers and Bar Owners Association of Ghana.
Speaker 3: You know, I only recently learned of this dole because
Speaker 3: I saw, I saw the headline and I had to
Speaker 3: check and make sure it wasn't from the Onion.
Speaker 4: Yeah for sure, headline being Ghana Drunkards Association goes viral
Speaker 4: after pressuring government to lower alcohol prices. This comes on
Speaker 4: the heels of the local Ghanian currency surging against the dollar,
Speaker 4: which that's a good thing, right if we surge is good,
Speaker 4: so that means the values up. That said spite, to
Speaker 4: some degree, this has caused some price adjustments and adjustments
Speaker 4: to various pricing structures. Is how it is put in
Speaker 4: the London Economic Report by Tom on the topic. I
Speaker 4: don't know, it's Tom, and I have found this in
Speaker 4: multiple plays. I think a lot of this is reprinted
Speaker 4: from right. Yeah, it's just yeah, just as Tom. But
Speaker 4: this is very much real and the organization has put
Speaker 4: out a call to the newly elected President of Ghana
Speaker 4: and a very colorfully signed we'll get to that minute
Speaker 4: memo directly to the President of Ghana and it reads
Speaker 4: as follows, we the members of the above stated group
Speaker 4: letterhead as exactly as I said, the Beverage Consumers and
Speaker 4: Bar Owners Association of Ghana and parentheses gone a drunkard association,
Speaker 4: wish to extend our congratulatory message. Let's start.
Speaker 3: Let's let's let's you know, flatter here and there we go. President.
Speaker 4: That's right, h E. John Dromani Mohamma and the entire
Speaker 4: National Democratic Congress Fraternity for the landslide victory in the
Speaker 4: just into twenty twenty four general election. The group is
Speaker 4: further wishing the transitional team from both the political divide,
Speaker 4: which is the NBC and the MPP, smooth transition in
Speaker 4: good faith and transparency. There we go. Let's get to
Speaker 4: the meat of it with the above. Notwithstanding, mister President,
Speaker 4: bear in mind that the landslide victory you chalked is
Speaker 4: unprecedented in the fourth Republic of the country and a
Speaker 4: clear manifestation of the desire of the masses calling for
Speaker 4: change in political administration of the country due to several
Speaker 4: factors that negatively affected their socioeconomic lifestyle in the outgoing administration.
Speaker 4: Mister President, as you take office by seventh January twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five, bear in mind that the populace would hold
Speaker 4: you and your administration accountable on all promises you had
Speaker 4: in your social contract party manifesto with us and anything
Speaker 4: aside that shall not be accepted. Now we're getting real casual,
Speaker 4: mister presu. We are aware of the daunting task ahead
Speaker 4: of you and your team, and we assure you of
Speaker 4: our prayers and anticipation that our plight shall be ameliorated
Speaker 4: in the coming days as a reduction in taxes on
Speaker 4: alcoholic beverage company producers likely to also positively affect our pockets.
Speaker 4: We hope that's our message finds you well, sir, Our
Speaker 4: commander in chief, yours faithfully moses, oh no, yeah, drybone,
Speaker 4: and he assigns it with a little stick figure holding
Speaker 4: like a Martini glass. Some little squiggle looks like he's
Speaker 4: got like, I don't know what this squiggle is attached
Speaker 4: to a circle. I don't know what that's supposed to be,
Speaker 4: but yeah, it's I gotta give them props for how
Speaker 4: aeradyite and politically minded this statement is. It's easy to
Speaker 4: want to dunk on, you know, the idea of a
Speaker 4: drunkard's association, but they it takes them a minute to
Speaker 4: get to their actual demands.
Speaker 2: I have to say, I know that they state this
Speaker 2: association that is sixteen plus million members.
Speaker 4: Crazy, dude, it's crazy that they say that, because apparently
Speaker 4: I was reading on a Reddit thread that y'all may
Speaker 4: have seen as well. I think I linked to in
Speaker 4: the doc. Some eagle eyed redditors looked for social media
Speaker 4: presence in this organization. It could only find a Facebook
Speaker 4: page with like seven hundred followers.
Speaker 2: That's what I was looking at.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so somebody points out the way they put it
Speaker 4: is really funny. Let's see if someone does by the
Speaker 4: way I mentioned, this is an objectively funny and very
Speaker 4: ununy headline. They essentially say that they think the organization
Speaker 4: is uh, let's just politely or diplomatically say inflating their numbers.
Speaker 4: And they point out that, yeah, so sixteen point sixty
Speaker 4: five million members the total population of Ghana's around thirty
Speaker 4: three point seven million yees. The working age population age
Speaker 4: fifteen to sixty five was eighteen million, six hundred and
Speaker 4: nineteenery twenty one in twenty twenty one. This means something
Speaker 4: like eighty nine percent of the adult population of Ghana
Speaker 4: is in the Drunkards Association.
Speaker 3: This is here's how you do it. Here's how you
Speaker 3: goose that one. They may be counting everybody who has
Speaker 3: ever walked into a bar in the history of Ghana, like, welcome,
Speaker 3: you're a member. Here's a PBR. Not complementary, though, you're
Speaker 3: gonna have to pay us.
Speaker 4: A lovely Reddit name. By the way, salacious verbacious. That's
Speaker 4: great props to that had this to say, maybe they're
Speaker 4: doing a membership counting strategy like the Catholic Church where
Speaker 4: anyone who is baptized automatically becomes a member for life.
Speaker 4: Definitely some creative math. His comments are gold. By the way, Well,
Speaker 4: they're passionate and using their platform for the greater good.
Speaker 4: I suppose Ghana sounds like a fun place to visit.
Speaker 4: Let's see one more. That was fun, But thinking about
Speaker 4: it further, it's quite interesting as well. How it reflects
Speaker 4: a view of collective bargaining and group identification beyond the
Speaker 4: usual sociopolitical groupings we are used to seeing. And that
Speaker 4: is a really good point. God, that's just a good point. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the possibility of protest or strikes.
Speaker 4: That is what they're calling for. I bury them there.
Speaker 4: They are calling for action, which wasn't mentioned in the
Speaker 4: actual statement, but that is essentially the takeaway is that
Speaker 4: there they don't get what they want, They're gonna they're
Speaker 4: gonna stage some sort of massive protest or with a
Speaker 4: three week time window. That's exactly right. Yeah, less reddit comment.
Speaker 4: Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Speaker 4: Teach him how to fish and he'll just sit on
Speaker 4: his boat drinking beers and complaining all day. Don't teach
Speaker 4: a man to fish. He's a grown man. And fishing
Speaker 4: is not that hard. That's all I got, y'all.
Speaker 3: I guess it does get more difficult the more alcohol
Speaker 3: you can sume.
Speaker 4: That is true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. It depends on the kind of fishing.
Speaker 3: Deep sea fishing probably more difficult, but.
Speaker 4: It's nothing as difficult. It requires patience, though, and it
Speaker 4: does make me think of the expression shooting fish in
Speaker 4: a barrel, which also doesn't necessarily seem like it would
Speaker 4: be as easy, as people point out, depends on the
Speaker 4: size of the fish and the size of the barrel,
Speaker 4: And it just never made sense that if you already
Speaker 4: have the fish in the barrel, why would you shoot them? Yeah,
Speaker 4: that just seems like adding insults injury, doesn't it welcome
Speaker 4: to overthinking? For sure, that's kind of what we do
Speaker 4: here on stuff they don't want you to know. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: they're threatening this demonstration a three week deadline in order
Speaker 4: to have their demands. Matt. Local media reports that the
Speaker 4: association will mobilize millions. Again, I don't know if they've
Speaker 4: got the man power, but we'll see to stage a
Speaker 4: mass demonstration. And that's about as far as they take
Speaker 4: it in terms of the party it does.
Speaker 3: Are going, Are we get to raise protest?
Speaker 4: Let's book, let's book our trips to Ghana right away?
Speaker 4: Last thing, though their newfound viral fame has exposed them
Speaker 4: to a global audience, the Drunkards Association have their fans
Speaker 4: back home. Moses Ohaya or Annoyaya raised a few eyebrows
Speaker 4: with the signature back in December, signing off on a
Speaker 4: communication with this exceptional signature. Sorry, that was the statement
Speaker 4: I read That was a little ways back. So this
Speaker 4: is a new initiative, but it does seem that it's
Speaker 4: very much tied to this statement that I read, So
Speaker 4: that is where the funny little squiggly signature comes from. Yeah,
Speaker 4: don't really have much else on that one, and I
Speaker 4: did just want to point out a couple of quick things.
Speaker 4: There have been some fascinating archaeological discoveries in Syria. A
Speaker 4: contractor stumbled upon a complex of Byzantine tombs under a
Speaker 4: residential area. This is from Marat al Numan in Syria.
Speaker 4: From the ap A contractor digging into the earth where
Speaker 4: the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away
Speaker 4: in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise, the remains of
Speaker 4: an underground Byzantine tomb complex, believed to be more than
Speaker 4: one five hundred years old. Discovery emerged last month in
Speaker 4: the town of Marat al Numan in Idlib Province, which
Speaker 4: is strategically located on the route between the cities of
Speaker 4: Aleppo and Damascus. The community became a touch point in
Speaker 4: the early fourteen year SII in the Civil War that
Speaker 4: ended with the fall of former President Basharas in a
Speaker 4: lightning rebel offensive in December. We're talking about like engraved stones,
Speaker 4: all kinds of archaeological goodies to be had. A sod
Speaker 4: sees this area from the opposition to his regime in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty and the houses there that had been built
Speaker 4: were looted and destroyed, which is what has led to
Speaker 4: the sifting through the rubble and the discovery of this tomb.
Speaker 3: Which may well have remained undiscovered for another several centuries,
Speaker 3: maybe another thousand years, were it not for this horrific conflict.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. Yeah, and you know an interesting knock
Speaker 4: on effect of these type of conflicts that I think
Speaker 4: is interesting in and of itself. The unearthing of these
Speaker 4: types of artifacts, I think is fascinating to all of us.
Speaker 4: And we do have one more quick my mystery solved.
Speaker 4: In a recent article from Archaeology News, new evidence points
Speaker 4: to world's richest shipwreck. In seventeen oh eight, a Spanish
Speaker 4: galleon called the San Jose left Portobello, Panama, bound for
Speaker 4: Cartina are Cartagania, Colombia, with two hundred tons of gold, silver,
Speaker 4: and priceless artifacts and gems on board, and it was
Speaker 4: it was the flagship of the Spanish chare A firm
Speaker 4: A fleet and it was intercepted by British vessels and
Speaker 4: sunk off the coast of Cartagania. Colombian authorities about ten
Speaker 4: years ago believe they had discovered this wreck, the world's
Speaker 4: largest shipwreck. But recent reports have shown that through analyzing
Speaker 4: these very specific types of coins that are littered across
Speaker 4: the seafloor, known as cobs, they've determined that they were
Speaker 4: in fact minted in Lima, Peru in seventeen seven. And
Speaker 4: this is a statement from one of the investigators. The
Speaker 4: finding of cobs created in seventeen oh seven of the
Speaker 4: Lima mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra firm
Speaker 4: A route in the early eighteenth century. This is from
Speaker 4: Daniella Vargas. Ariza is the lead researcher on the project.
Speaker 4: She goes on the San Jose galleon is the only
Speaker 4: ship that matches these characteristics and yeah, so this is
Speaker 4: potentially a billion dollar find once you know if. And
Speaker 4: it made me think too. It is like the idea
Speaker 4: of antiquities being priceless and how things are valued, and
Speaker 4: it all is kind of based on collector markets at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, right, so in terms of
Speaker 4: how much this would ultimately be valued at, not necessarily
Speaker 4: the product of the actual modern day value of the
Speaker 4: precious materials, but it, you know, figures into this whole
Speaker 4: notion of like what the collector value is or what
Speaker 4: the you know, value to museums and such might be.
Speaker 3: It was just about to say it belongs it a museum,
Speaker 3: shout out to Indiana.
Speaker 4: But I just yeah, it's all this stuff is fascinating,
Speaker 4: So I don't know. Then you had also mentioned there
Speaker 4: was another famous shipwreck that was recently discovered, and we
Speaker 4: thought maybe there was some crossover, but I think, oh,
Speaker 4: Captain what.
Speaker 3: Was it, Captain Kirk's.
Speaker 4: That's different.
Speaker 3: That would be a cooler ship to find if the
Speaker 3: Enterprise was somehow.
Speaker 4: Found on the sea floor off the coast of Rhode Island.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Captain cook ship, the HMS Endeavor, sank two hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty years ago during the Revolutionary War or the
Speaker 3: War four Independence, or as our British friends call it,
Speaker 3: the Peasants stink.
Speaker 4: I don't know that one. Did you make that up?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, probably got it. No, David Attenburrough. Sure we'll
Speaker 3: tag it on there, but that that's just a fascinating
Speaker 3: piece of perhaps ridiculous history. And in both of these cases,
Speaker 3: you know what I think we all find amazing is
Speaker 3: it shows just how much stuff is.
Speaker 4: Under the water.
Speaker 3: Still there are still shipwrecks out there. I know not
Speaker 3: everybody is a fan of James Cameron, but he's onto something, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's definitely cornered the market on the deepest of
Speaker 4: sea exploration for sure. Leave it at that, guys, Let's
Speaker 4: take a quick break. Hear a word from our sponsor,
Speaker 4: and then we'll come back with Matt Frederick's pieces of
Speaker 4: strange news.
Speaker 2: Boom, we've returned.
Speaker 4: I'm that guy, I think. Still, Oh we know, are
Speaker 4: you him?
Speaker 2: I might be him. Let's talk about some stuff, guys.
Speaker 2: We've got a fellow here named Michael Madigan. The name
Speaker 2: sounds really familiar. I don't think he's as well known
Speaker 2: as perhaps the authors of this particular AP news piece
Speaker 2: believe he is, but his name might be familiar to you.
Speaker 2: He is one of the if not the longest serving
Speaker 2: politicians forever, maybe the longest serving legislative leader in the
Speaker 2: United States, around fifty years of service to the public. Right,
Speaker 2: This is a man who served as a speaker, as
Speaker 2: in like a speaker of the house. Fellow. He he
Speaker 2: got in trouble, guys, he got in some big trouble.
Speaker 2: Two and a half million dollar fine and a seven
Speaker 2: and a half year prison sentence for a bunch of things. Yeah,
Speaker 2: specifically ten counts of things. He was convicted in February
Speaker 2: on ten counts of things like bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, damn. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and a bunch of other charges that are associated with
Speaker 2: him basically getting favors and positions for his friends.
Speaker 3: Cookie jar crimes not violent crime.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's all white collar stuff here, guys. Yeah, dating
Speaker 2: back how far? Uh, dating back for I think twenty years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if they.
Speaker 3: Got like conspiracy, this was this was a long time
Speaker 3: in coming, right, because there's there's a high bar to
Speaker 3: prove some of that. And Matt, how long did you say?
Speaker 2: The prison sentence is seven and a half years.
Speaker 4: He's going to that prison they're putting tough.
Speaker 3: That's pretty tough for an eighty three year old man.
Speaker 4: Wow, that's life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a life, not that it really
Speaker 3: is not the best one. No, we we talked about
Speaker 3: it's so weird that this came up. I want to
Speaker 3: say I may have seen part of this headline that
Speaker 3: I don't know much about it, and like a lot
Speaker 3: of us, like you were saying, Matt, I'm not super
Speaker 3: familiar with Madigan nor his work, but something inspired me,
Speaker 3: probably this headline to relist. Listen to our two part
Speaker 3: episode on lobbying, and it is scary how well it
Speaker 3: holds up. Yes, like this is a so Michael Joseph
Speaker 3: Madigan definitely was a dark money lobby alec friendly dude,
Speaker 3: would we.
Speaker 2: Say, yeah, yeah, specifically he's in Illinois. By the way,
Speaker 2: We've heard a lot of things over the years about
Speaker 2: Chicago specifically and about politics in Illinois, and it appears
Speaker 2: that mister Madigan was taken part in a lot of
Speaker 2: that stuff, the rumors you know that go around and
Speaker 2: then the rare, rare I would say, individual who ends
Speaker 2: up getting a prison sentence or a slap on the
Speaker 2: wrist for the kind of corruption that we're talking about here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he was and is of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh, yes, he was chairperson of the Illinois Democratic Party,
Speaker 2: which again just a reminder that yeah, no matter who
Speaker 2: you believe in what you believe, what your political thing is.
Speaker 2: Everybody that gets to a certain level is susceptible to
Speaker 2: this kind of thing.
Speaker 4: I would just love to say once more, I don't
Speaker 4: like or trust either of them.
Speaker 3: I like money, though, Yeah, shout out to deocracy.
Speaker 4: Boy.
Speaker 2: Both sides of this coin are kind of weird.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, the best way for me to check
Speaker 3: on that for you is if you give me like
Speaker 3: five more coins.
Speaker 4: That's a great, great idea.
Speaker 3: Patronage, right, nepotism, old school Chicago corruption as deep as
Speaker 3: the pizza up there.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's like and the fact that we have
Speaker 4: this two party system is jacked up in and of itself.
Speaker 4: And I truly don't identify with either party. I just
Speaker 4: want to make that really clear. I think both are
Speaker 4: I trust them about as far as I can throw them.
Speaker 3: I'm super into I'm super into that practice. We received
Speaker 3: some correspondence about this, that practice of local municipalities electing
Speaker 3: non human animals positions of leadership. You know, like this
Speaker 3: you know has been a great mayor and a good boy.
Speaker 2: So let's just I've loved that line, Ben about as
Speaker 2: deep as the pizza that I don't want that to
Speaker 2: go by. I really really like that. We're just we're
Speaker 2: getting toward Seriously, I'm hungry too, So just let's think
Speaker 2: think about this. Imagine this in your mind. This man
Speaker 2: was in the legislature there in Illinois, through the reins
Speaker 2: of seven different governors, seven different leaders in the executive
Speaker 2: side of Illinois were there while he was standing watch right,
Speaker 2: So you can just imagine the number of hands that
Speaker 2: he is shaked, you know, and the number of well, yeah,
Speaker 2: the number of deals he negotiated, the number of things,
Speaker 2: like you stat if you could visualize and stack up
Speaker 2: all of those negotiations and talks and all that stuff,
Speaker 2: and then only imagine that there were a teeny tiny
Speaker 2: layer on top of that that is the corrupt stuff
Speaker 2: that he's being charged. For sure, it's probably way not
Speaker 2: as bad as a lot of the stuff that's occurred,
Speaker 2: at least when I'm looking through the writing on this
Speaker 2: from AP. It's just it does stink that once you have,
Speaker 2: once you have that power to go through those negotiations,
Speaker 2: to make those deals and make those you know, decisions,
Speaker 2: you are gonna get pressured in so many ways, and
Speaker 2: you're gonna make decisions that not everybody's gonna like, but
Speaker 2: are gonna benefit a few people, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: You get that reputation that is honestly past a certain threshold.
Speaker 3: It's a political You get regarded as the guy who,
Speaker 3: for better or worse, can get things done, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean? Like, hey, red Tape, that's for the
Speaker 3: other dudes.
Speaker 4: You and me.
Speaker 3: We can you know, well we have special we can
Speaker 3: drop that. Let's get some fetichini and talk this through.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but at some point it doesn't it feel
Speaker 2: to you guys like this is just how it gets done.
Speaker 3: One hundred, no question, unless the mayor is a dog
Speaker 3: or maybe a cat. I don't know. I wouldn't trust
Speaker 3: a cat in politics.
Speaker 4: Joking, maybe diabolical. You wouldn't stand a chance.
Speaker 3: We're just saying the humans have some structural flaws and
Speaker 3: more and more. You know, it's fascinating to look at
Speaker 3: this gentleman's career. Starting your political sort of ascension when
Speaker 3: you're just twenty seven is massively impressive. And it sounds
Speaker 3: like he was already involved in campaigns well well before then,
Speaker 3: so he's definitely a career man. Has he made a
Speaker 3: statement for his lawyers.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they've made many statements during the trial. It
Speaker 2: was at least the defense was this man needs to
Speaker 2: go home. He needs to be at home so he
Speaker 2: can take care of his spouse. You know, there was
Speaker 2: a video from her that was played during the trial,
Speaker 2: like leading, you know, hey, please, I need my husband
Speaker 2: and like what like.
Speaker 4: Maybe asking for house arrests or something a little more lenient.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're looking for like some kind of commuted sentence
Speaker 2: in a fine and like make that stuff happen.
Speaker 4: But that is not That's not what the judge decided there.
Speaker 4: Do you think they made an example of him?
Speaker 3: Kind of?
Speaker 4: I mean, we see so much of this and the
Speaker 4: people's getting away with it day in and day out.
Speaker 4: Very interesting they would target this old fella, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the cynical side of us would argue, or would
Speaker 3: ask with validity, did he cross somebody? Because he's been
Speaker 3: very good at playing this game for quite some time.
Speaker 3: And I love the point you're making their noel about
Speaker 3: what could be seen as some hypocrisy on the side
Speaker 3: of the justice system. We know that the courts have
Speaker 3: been struggling lately with a lot of controversial rulings and
Speaker 3: with you know, let's say it. They're beefed up with
Speaker 3: the executive branch. There's no two ways around it, big time.
Speaker 3: But it does sound like it sounds like he did it.
Speaker 3: And I think, Matt, you're the bigger question raised is
Speaker 3: is this just the way everything gets done?
Speaker 4: Well? It kind of is.
Speaker 2: But guys, there's another article from early early this year
Speaker 2: when Michael Madigan was going through another trial involved like
Speaker 2: a whole separate trial involved with again allegations of conspiracy.
Speaker 2: Then he was using this thing called calm ed.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The New York Times article right.
Speaker 4: There, there's one of those.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at one specifically from PBS that was written
Speaker 2: January twenty second, and it's just about that trial and
Speaker 2: the end of that trial and how this utility company
Speaker 2: was allegedly paying individuals like that they shouldn't have been
Speaker 2: paying a lot of money.
Speaker 3: So the cookie didn't crumble overnight, it started to cintegrating.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, to me, it sounds like a bunch of
Speaker 2: things that got put in place because as speaker, that
Speaker 2: position allows you to kind of make the give the
Speaker 2: final word on which bills end up coming through, right,
Speaker 2: which which bills get do we even get to vote
Speaker 2: on right, a legislative body, which, good God, that's power. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it just seems like he used a lot of
Speaker 2: that for his own, his own gain.
Speaker 4: I mean, it makes me think back to the whole
Speaker 4: uh simple sabotage episode we did, and how that type
Speaker 4: of I don't know, you could call it rhetorical sabotage,
Speaker 4: I suppose is such part and parcel of the way
Speaker 4: parliamentary procedure works. There is it. It's built to fail,
Speaker 4: it's designed to be manipulated, and it's not inherently designed
Speaker 4: with the best interest of citizens at heart. It just isn't.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's designed with their best interest, but the way
Speaker 4: it's manipulated and traversed is certainly not as a.
Speaker 3: Political yes, because some of the necessary evils or some
Speaker 3: of the procedures that are common and are meant to
Speaker 3: provide some kind of inarguable benefit, those same procedures and
Speaker 3: tactics and rules and bylaws can all be weaponized right
Speaker 3: to have a negative effect, and especially you know, in
Speaker 3: a two party system, that is a tremendous opportunity for
Speaker 3: both sides. It kind of reminds me of how, like
Speaker 3: the issue we talked about with gas stations, recently. All
Speaker 3: of the same factors that make gas stations incredibly popular
Speaker 3: and successful also make them incredibly prone to corruption, conspiracy,
Speaker 3: and crime.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, guys. We could talk about this a lot,
Speaker 2: but let's jump to another quick story before we get
Speaker 2: out of here. Do you guys remember somebody named Anne Woodjiski, Yes,
Speaker 2: I don't remember. She was the co founder, and she
Speaker 2: was the CEO of a little thing called twenty three
Speaker 2: and Me, And then we just talked about how twenty
Speaker 2: three and Me filed Chapter eleven.
Speaker 4: And then there was.
Speaker 2: A bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that one of you guys
Speaker 2: brought up in Strange News pretty recently. For gosh, it
Speaker 2: was a lot of money. Yeah, two hundred two hundred
Speaker 2: something million dollars that two hundred fifty six million dollars
Speaker 2: that they were going to purchase via auction twenty three
Speaker 2: and meters and all of its stuff. Well and with
Speaker 2: Jiski came through and said, Hey, I know we did
Speaker 2: this auction thing. I know it's already complete, Regeneron's got
Speaker 2: the stuff, but I'd actually like to do the auction
Speaker 2: again because I have this new thing called TTAM Research
Speaker 2: Institute and we'd like to make a different bid this
Speaker 2: time a bid for three hundred and five million dollars.
Speaker 2: And the folks in charge of the auctioning said, you
Speaker 2: know what, that sounds better? Then that sounds better th
Speaker 2: the one almost fifty million dollars better? So why don't
Speaker 2: we reopen it? And now and with Jiski and her
Speaker 2: TTAM Research Institute are now the proud reowners of twenty
Speaker 2: three and meters.
Speaker 3: Of your gently used genetic data. Also, Matt, sorry, I
Speaker 3: have that chesure grid on while you're saying this, I'm
Speaker 3: just got a weird energy. I just keep thinking of
Speaker 3: dirty acronyms for TTAM. Do we have any idea what
Speaker 3: it actually stands for?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's the words written out twenty three and me.
Speaker 3: Clever clever. That's some real like doctor alu card energy
Speaker 3: never figure out doctor acula.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's just a weird, weird situation because you know,
Speaker 2: in our previous discussions it was all about well, who
Speaker 2: now owns all of this, you know, genetic data, and
Speaker 2: what are they going to do with it? And why?
Speaker 2: How what's happening? And now it's just the same folks
Speaker 2: who are doing it in the first place that are
Speaker 2: taking control again or at least some of the same folks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we also talked about the process to remove your
Speaker 3: data from twenty three in me, so if you have
Speaker 3: concerns about that, folks, please check out our previous Strange
Speaker 3: News when we talk about the original Regeneron bankruptcy move
Speaker 3: or their attempted acquisition. We also include the instructions for
Speaker 3: removing your data.
Speaker 4: If you feel uncomfortable, you.
Speaker 2: Should, Guys, have you ever been uncomfortable around a flight attendant?
Speaker 4: No, I'm sorry, there's no way.
Speaker 2: There's no way for me.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: If anything, I'm a little too comfortable because you guys
Speaker 3: have seen it. Like, not in a sleazy way. I
Speaker 3: just I love sitting in the window seat exit row,
Speaker 3: and I admit I am often a bit too enthusiastic
Speaker 3: when asked to give a verbal yes.
Speaker 4: You are also really good at chatting up a flight attendant,
Speaker 4: Ben that I don't mean that in a creepy way either.
Speaker 4: You just ask good questions, especially if we're going somewhere abroad,
Speaker 4: and you always get some good recommendations.
Speaker 3: So my hat's on to you, shucks Man's that's the
Speaker 3: flight attendants have a very demanding job, as we can
Speaker 3: all agree, right, you'd be surprised how how much stuff
Speaker 3: they have to put up with and how much they
Speaker 3: do or don't get paid. But you do get to
Speaker 3: travel the world. There's there's that.
Speaker 2: Hey, that's great. That's what we're talking about here, last story.
Speaker 2: We're not even going to go through the whole thing.
Speaker 2: You should look this up. Don't try it at home though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's on a plane.
Speaker 2: Well, also, don't do that, especially at an international airport.
Speaker 2: You could look this up. I found it on NBC News,
Speaker 2: but I think it's on a bunch of other places too.
Speaker 2: Look for man convicted of posing as flight attendant to
Speaker 2: score over one hundred and twenty free flights, You brilliant bastards. Well,
Speaker 2: here's the thing prove. I don't want to spoil it
Speaker 2: too much because it is a pretty interesting show. Worry
Speaker 2: just how this person, Alex Alexander made his way onto
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty different flights through three or more
Speaker 2: different companies. Where there's this special thing y'all that I
Speaker 2: didn't know. If you are a flight attendant, you can
Speaker 2: get specific seats, sometimes their jump seats. Sometimes they're you know,
Speaker 2: unsold seats on planes where you can use your badge
Speaker 2: ID number, your date of hire, and who you work for,
Speaker 2: and you can get on that flight and it's not
Speaker 2: a problem. Nobody cares. You're you're a part of the
Speaker 2: team in some way, the general team, and you're good. Well,
Speaker 2: this person did work for an airline, they just were
Speaker 2: not a flight attendant or a pilot, which are generally
Speaker 2: the two classes of people who can make use of
Speaker 2: the free flight program. He used other people's data, like
Speaker 2: other people's badge numbers and dates of hire, to sneak
Speaker 2: on to these flights.
Speaker 4: Naughty boy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that we're talking a little bit about
Speaker 3: this semi secret culture in the world of aviation. Deadhead flights.
Speaker 3: You know, that's where a pilot or a flight attendant
Speaker 3: or another professional will hop a plane just to get
Speaker 3: to their next port of call or.
Speaker 4: The half of this assignment jam band related. I get
Speaker 4: it now.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, let's see what Dylan says. He says at
Speaker 3: that point, just apply for the flight attendant position. That's
Speaker 3: a good points true, also true. How do you get
Speaker 3: away with this? I know we don't have too too
Speaker 3: much time, but how.
Speaker 2: Do you wirefraud is how you get away with it?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, to be the technical violation.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, he's using other people's information to get on
Speaker 2: these flights.
Speaker 4: Well that's the thing though, right because I mean, we
Speaker 4: know how hard it is to get onto the flights,
Speaker 4: and flight attendants are still subject to verification and the
Speaker 4: manifest and all that. You've ever been on a flight
Speaker 4: that was delayed because one crew member didn't show up
Speaker 4: and that have to redo all the paperwork and everything.
Speaker 4: I mean that there's serious business. So this person definitely, Yeah,
Speaker 4: why didn't they just get the job? Maybe they didn't qualify?
Speaker 4: How did they do it?
Speaker 2: It was thirty different IDs like badge numbers from seven
Speaker 2: different airlines, and this person claimed he went through TSA
Speaker 2: security like everybody else does. He made it onto the
Speaker 2: plane one hundred and twenty times under false free censis,
Speaker 2: which is crazy.
Speaker 3: And he had to be I imagine specifically trying to find
Speaker 3: identities that were not too far off from him, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, does he rock up to the counter and
Speaker 3: they say, oh, hello, Samantha Aberdeen nineteen years old? You
Speaker 3: know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, I don't know how it works.
Speaker 2: They don't go into the details here of like how
Speaker 2: he actually pulled it off, but he is facing a
Speaker 2: maximum of three years of supervised release and a two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty All are fine, That's all I got, guys.
Speaker 3: We can't wait to hear what you have. Folks. Listen,
Speaker 3: we know we're covering some amusing stories. We're covering some
Speaker 3: very dangerous, disturbing things and that's what strange news is
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