September 8, 2025 • 57 mins
Fan of the show Uncle Xi just threw a big party to commemorate the end of World War II. In this week's strange news segment, the guys explore the FOMO of the world's second-strangest science fair.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Faga. Most importantly, you are you.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You are here.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
We're coming to you, hot and ready like Little Caesars
on September eighth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Hot to go, h ottogo.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yes, but we are recording this on Victory Day, September third.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
We did it, y'all. Wait.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
No, we were invited, which is a huge deal for
a big part of the world, the US and Western
Europe and Japan not being invited. We'll get into that.
We do wanna, we do want to do one headline
at the top.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
There's been some shaking up over in the United Kingdom's
branch of McDonald's, which we mentioned earlier in our listener
mail program. We are sad to report that the leader
of McDonald's UK is moving on. There's a new successor
who is going to be the heir to the French
(01:35):
fry throne. But Zoe Hamburger is finding other opportunities. That's
really her name, that's really her name. Shadow nominative, right,
So we wish.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
You the best of life. Is she stepping down amidst
the scandal? Did the mccrumpets campaign not work out?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I don't think it's a scandal, And I do love
that pronunciation there. Apparently she's going to be promoted to
managing director of McDonald's Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So all to the good, okay, okay, Senior vice president
chef restaurant officer, Zoe Hamburger.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Love, I know, I know, And we just love nominative determinism,
Like how people with the last name tooth Men are
more likely than average to be dentist or dental hygienist.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
This is crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I think about our various last names quite often and
wonder what is the occupation historically of a.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Frederick, yeah right?
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Or Brown? I think my people were just you know,
mucking out the sewers.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Can you imagine being Zoe Hamburger and just being out, uh,
hanging out at a corporate event for McDonald's and you
get introduced to to Derek cheeseburger.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Sights. Yeah, over their heads.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, it works with first names as well. You know,
you meet a billionaire named Rich and you're like, oh man,
the odds were stacked against me since they wrote the
birth certificate. But the shout out to Rich right. Shout
out big fans also the multiple Riches. Also shout out
to super producer Dylan Tennessee pal Faken, who has another
(03:27):
favorite case of nominative determinism. It's a fun fact. Dylan
can share it with us.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Yes, shout out to Doug Bowser, chief operating officer of Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
No, yeah, okay, got it? Oh my god?
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Is it a family name? I mean, like, by the way,
this is a chicken or the egg question too, Like
dider get named after this guy? Or did they just
happen to share the same name.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Of the New York Bowsers. We have so much more
to explore today. We're we're probably not going to get
to all of it, which is part of the remit
of this show. But we are very interested in something
that happened quite recently that you may have heard of.
If you're in the US, but may not have been
(04:15):
fully reported or taking up as much ink as we
believe it should. As we're recording on Wednesday, September third
local time, half a world away, there has been a
victory Day. So what if we pause for a word
from our sponsors and find out more about that after
the break.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And we've returned, Guys, I think the best way to
start this off is to play a teeny tiny snippet
of the live feed that you can find on YouTube
of China's twenty twenty five Victory Day military parade, which
marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And Japanese loss.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
By the way, yes, yes, Japanese lost, And as we
mentioned briefly on another episode, is it's a piece of
history that not all of us are taught, specifically about
the conflict between Japan and China and Korea and a
bunch of the other countries there in Asia that was
occurring way before World War Two was officially thought of,
(05:25):
beginning at least in the Western world, when Germany invaded
Poland and other you know, the things that were happening
in Germany were coinciding then with things happening in Italy.
And things happening in Japan. Again, we learn history that
way because it's easier for us to grasp it, right,
especially as kids going through school, Like, Okay, I understand this.
(05:45):
These are good guys, these are bad guys. Is the
thing that happened, And that's how kids learned. I know,
that's how I still learn the best, right when it's simplified,
when you've got the least common denominator stuff, and then
you can build details on top of that. Well, all
of the actual history that was occurring. Well, you know,
we're talking of what ten years more than ten years
(06:07):
before World War two officially started, And I'm doing that
in quotations according to you know, what you learn in
history books here in the US, China was evolved in
this kind of conflict with Japan. This Victory Day celebrates
the moment that it's over. The war is officially concluded
on September second. The next day the following day is
(06:28):
wake up, let's celebrate war is over kind of deal.
So let's begin by just listening to a little bit
of that. You'll hear what's happening as the opening ceremonies
of this Victory Day parade and guys, as we're watching
this because it is video. If you want to watch along.
I found it on CNA's Channel News Asia on YouTube.
(06:51):
They've gotten an entire broadcast, the entire live feed essentially
and over about two hours and nineteen minutes long. And
we are starting. If you want to fall along at
the twenty eight minute mark, just look at the scale.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Love it?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Okay, So we're gonna pause here. So the reason why
I'm sharing that, guys, is literally the scale of humans
and the uniformity of those humans and just what that
says visually.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It really puts that little little Washington, DC military parade
to shame. And I mean just stark contrast. Yeah, there
been there there were some rumors that people were like
in a silent act of protest, not marching in the
best formation. But but boy, boyd is a dwarf our
ability to put on a military parade.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Or the appetite for such right this This immediately reminds
me of the Aarong Mass Games in North Korea. That's
another instance of propagandai'ed display and of course the hearkening
back to Soviet era shows of force. Yes, I love
this stuff because it's the weirdest science fair ever, so objectively,
(08:19):
that's fascinating. Also, we see so much more we were
talking off Mike, We see so much more at play
here than a Dragon Con parade.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh, as you said, no, another parade in DC.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, in this instance, there again, there's as you're saying,
there's so many striking things, especially when you compare it
to the recent military parade that was held in the
United States in honor of Donald Trump, the president's birthday,
which if you imagine a celebration in honor of one
man's birthday versus celebration in honor of victory over a
(08:55):
World war where there's you know, an oppressor or a
country that's seen as an oppressor and you're and they've
been around for decades and decades and you finally defeat them.
That's what this celebration is about. You start to compare
the two things in your mind, and you just start
to see the vast chasm between what's on display here
and then what was on display earlier this year in
(09:16):
the United States. And you know, as you're saying, the
technology and the science favor of it is fascinating to see.
You know, as we'll get into the missiles and some
of the other things that were just shown off in
this parade. But ultimately, for me, it's that propaganda thing
that you mentioned, Ben, that's so strong here. It's so
(09:38):
so strong, the vast number of human beings that you
couldn't see that when we're listening to it here, but
it is. It is hundreds of people wearing the same
exact outfit, same exact hair style, same exact everything.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I mean, just each move decision yes, perfect.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Then you if you go a little bit further in
the live feed from the parade, you will see like
a single battalion or single group of soldiers marching slowly
like they're they're marching quickly at first, and then they
slow it down to about half pace, and when you
watch them move, it is it's showing the what would
you call that, guys, the ability the brutal uniformity of
(10:21):
as a single force. Right like this group of people
is a singular force. That is, you know, do you
threaten us in any way? Well, guess what, We've got
a bunch of these. Because then it pans out to
show you the number of soldiers from different you know,
parts of the military.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Right cut to exhibit saying, Yo, dog, we heard you
like collectivism, so we put some collectivism in your collectivism.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Check this out.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's just it's it's a lot
to take in. We've talked before on the show about
shan Yun, which is the kind of anti state China
state government.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Movement in a way establishment.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Now, the thing that happens, You've seen flyers for it.
We guarantee it, especially I you've ever been through Georgia,
they're everywhere.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But one of the striking things about that show, about
the concept is the uniform uniformity of movement, the uniformity
of the costumes, and just the fanfare, and and then
the propaganda of it all, because don't forget Sun is
a form of propaganda in a lot of ways. And
what is propaganda about? Hearts and minds, baby, Hearts and minds.
(11:35):
So and it make you feel a certain way, make
you think a certain way about a thing.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Yeah, Like like that time I broke down weeping during
the Ford like a rock commercial.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Oh yeah, that was your feeling for that year.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
That was one of the three for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Speaking of rocks, the rock, Mister Johnson has a new
movie out there.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
I cannot wait to see the boss dude, the smashing
machine and he's pulling a Sandler. Yea, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But with those optics. Another piece of the optics going
on here are the people on the VIP list who
were invited and showed up. And so who do we
got on the roster here?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Well, we definitely don't have Western Europe. We definitely don't
have Australia, Japan, or the United States. We do have,
we do have a lot of world leaders from countries
that have historically been considered alternative players in the post
(12:35):
World War two world order right soon and part of
the redundancy in same world twice there. But we're looking
at about as far east as Slovakia, Serbia, Armenia, and
then tons of places in Oceania and in southeastern Asia.
(12:55):
We're also seeing a lot of world leaders from countries that,
to one degree or another are portrayed as hostile or
unfriendly to the existing Western order. Looking at you, Iran.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, Iran was definitely present.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Well, and I mean Trump and some of his truths
or tweets or whatever they're called, uh, certainly did not
seem happy about a lot of this, and the kings
of them of conspiring against the United States during.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Well, well, he was, he was a little more. He
was unusually diplomatic that.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
He did say conspiring against the United States, though he
literally used those words. But you're right, in general, he
kind of was. But then he couldn't help himself and
threw that one in there at the end the sign off.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, but just to point out, there are like leaders
of countries where the United States have has had intense conflict.
We've got the Cuban president there, the Vietnamese president, the
King of Cambodia was there. The people. You know, countries
are represented there that are indirect opposition or have been
(14:02):
in direct opposition of the US in the past.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
The stands came through. Shout out to you guys, stand
for the stands, right alo. We also saw, to your point,
we saw leaders of countries that just objectively have been
criticized for human rights abuses. Yeah, that's one common denominator here.
(14:27):
We also saw a you got to imagine what the
back rooms are like, but we saw a lot of
coordination between these folks. We saw even unto outfits right
to uniforms. This applied to the world leaders as well, oh.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
You're mentioning something about some very interesting symbolism represented in
some of those outfit choices.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, without reading too many tea leaves, Uncle Gee is
usually going to be wearing a Western style suit and
tie at a lot of these affairs, but this time
he's wearing more like a almost it looks almost like
a car heart onesie k outfit. Yeah, and that's typically
(15:10):
or historically that's what the Kim dynasty of dpr K
would be wearing. In this time it's flipped because now
Kim Jong un, the current patriarch of DPRK, is wearing
a Western style suit. So there's always a purpose to
these things, even if it seems small.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's a very symbolic, right. And you see the president
who you know, gives a speech chimping, gives a large
speech in front of this mass of humans, and then
you see him get into a vehicle and stand basically
in the sun roof of that vehicle or you imagine
like the limo opening in a vehicle and.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Stand a state we yeah. Well, and you watch.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Him drive or being driven along this huge pathway where
he is greeting in individual battalions and they're greeting him back,
and it's just this the collective force of it or
representative force of it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Again, it's brilliant propaganda. In a way, it makes me
super nervous, but it also makes me guys a little
jealous because it's it's the it's it's brilliant. It's really
really smart.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Right, Yeah, And we can argue a lot of analysts
are going to argue that this comes as necessity even
more like it's a flex, but it's a flex born
of having two flex in that moment. Because the post
World War two is a funny phrase, but you'll hear
it often. The bipolar world order of the Cold War,
(16:44):
defined by the USSR and the USA has eroded heavily.
And for a while the known world was what we
call unipolar, meaning there was one true superpower. His name
was Uncle Sam, and he was very weird about very
specific things. And that order. Given the domestic crises here
(17:09):
in the States, just to be honest, given the fact
that the US is internally fracturing, then this poses an
opportunity for what we will call the brick countries China
in particular, to move forward as an alternative solution to
that old power order. You know what I mean, Bring
me your tired, you're poor, your huddled masses yearning to
(17:31):
escape democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah yeah. And it comes as news drops about Russia
sending five hundred drones, you know, in Ukraine as an attack.
It comes as the United States announces that Chicago is
next on the list of places for our own soldiers
to go in and police. And just as all of
(17:54):
these things are happening in conjunction, and when all of those,
all of these are in a new speed right where
you can read them one after the other, you can
see all of this happening at the same time. It
paints a picture, oh very much does of a crumbling
place and a place that is unifying and strengthening.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Right, And the optics do matter? Are the technological capability matters?
These are That's what we call the science fair right,
whenever you see these things. Also the operational capability. That's
why everybody is making sure to step right and in lockstep.
Then we also we also have to note perhaps the
(18:35):
most worrying thing, even more than the technological stuff, The
most worrying thing for Western analysts is going to be
the implication of future collaborations. Right, what does it mean
of the current government of China turns the stands into
vassal states similar to Mongolia? What does that mean for
(18:57):
resource extraction? What does that mean for the reach? Why
are these guys this is what this is what I
think stood out to you, especially don't Why are these
guys hanging out and being so buddy buddy? Why didn't
I get invited to the parade? Says the current president
of the US.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Boy, he was, Yeah, what are they talking about? M m, well,
we'll get into that in a minute. But uh, there's
so much to unpack about this.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Whutin doesn't smile like that at my jokes?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I mean, it seems like a real bromance situation, and uh,
you know, there's a little bit of a of a
mean girl's vibe going on against our boy, you know, DJT,
And no one likes.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
To be on the other end of a mean girl's situation.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
It's just, yeah, it sure feels like somebody's getting played.
We'll see how that works out in the end, which
is coming soon.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
To a theater in the house. Are all right?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Sorry, just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. Didn't really talk
about a news story associated with this but you can
look up a ton of stuff. Literally, look up Victory
Day Parade twenty twenty five and you will find everything.
I'm looking at. An Al Jazeera article here titled China's
gee Overseas massive military parade with Putin Kim in attendance,
(20:11):
has a little bit of information in there. You'll see
even further analysis if you go to places like The Guardian.
I'm looking on her here titled Kim Jong un promises
to do quote everything to assist unquote Moscow after Putin
meeting again, you just you see bits and pieces of it,
and ultimately you've probably got to go to the think
tanks in which you can, because people write in opinion
(20:33):
pieces about it right now that will be out well
before the time you hear this. That's it. Watch the video.
It's intense. It's really intense.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Ten ten no notes, Just keep going.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, and well, maybe one day we'll talk about the
whole European Union jamming GPS jamming situation that's going on,
and how countries like Italy and others are gonna stop
publish sizing any and all flights and even doing tracking
on those so people won't be able to publicly see
(21:06):
where these official flights are going anymore, because allegedly Russia
is jamming GPS signals on flights that are anywhere even
close to near their territory, allegedly allegedly.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
But also by the time we get to that, when Matt,
I think we can all admit, uh, we're gonna we're
gonna be at a situation where we have to say, oh,
which jamming incident?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You know, it goes back, it goes so far back?
Speaker 5 (21:38):
No oh yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
The same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
In the sky following, So will all be gratefully dead? Yeah,
we'll be right back with more strange news.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
And we're back, And man, Matt, you really nailed it.
I mean, one story is is it nearly enough to
unpack this massive event at all of the geopolitical implications
and layers and symbolisms contained with it. Talking about, of course,
the Victory Day celebration, I brought a story that I
think offers us an answers at least to some degree,
(22:18):
the question that might put forth during your segment, Matu,
what are these guys talking about when they're browing down,
you know, at this very very exclusive, invite only event,
And we do have a rare glimpse into just that
in the form of a hot mic moment, which we
all love. Everybody loves hot mic moment. Putin Kim and
(22:39):
She caught plotting to live forever on hot mic. Couldn't
have happened soon we got aways us out there living forever.
And now we've got you know, putin Kim and She
plotting to live forever on hot mic. We've got a
daily beast report on this by Lee Kimmins had this
(23:00):
to say. A hot mic caught Russian President Vladimir Putin
talking about immortality with China's Shijin Ping and North Korea's
Kim Jong un at a military parade in Beijing. Through
a series of translators and there, back and forth, we
got a real glimpse into what they were talking about.
Let's see, we've got first coming from Putin. With continuous
(23:24):
advances in biotechnology, he was caught saying human organs will
be increasingly transplanted, letting us live younger and younger and
perhaps can achieve immortality. She then responds to that with
a hearty chuckle, while Kim, looking on, smiles and ads.
In this century, it's anticipated that it may be possible
(23:46):
for people to live to one hundred and fifty years
old not a huge surprise. We know that the elite
at this level of hot on life extension technology. To
what degree that technology exists is you know, not entirely clear.
But the idea of continuously transplanting organs from what younger
(24:07):
younger hosts, Like, where are they getting these organ transplants?
I mean, we know organs are very difficult to get,
even for people that are in dire need of them.
So this notion of the elites and powerful just having
access to like fresh organs at all times something going
on there, y'all. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I mean, well, isn't it interesting that this comes on
the heels of the rumor mill talking about about demise?
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yes, of course, this also seems to be very triggering
for Trump in that respect, since he's been scrutinized, you know,
for signs of mental decline, and he's got these bruises,
and you know, people are always kind of ragging on
him for his weight and things like that. And then
of course this disappearance from the public eye for a
handful of days, followed by all these rumors of his
(24:55):
eminent demise, This must have rubbed him pretty wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Guys, How great would it be if all these guys
in their seventies with hard ons for war would just
live forever and just lead us forever?
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Matt, I said, some sarcasm in your tone. Well, I mean, yeah,
that's that's the thing, right, Like, how how is there
ever going to be a sea change or any kind
of ideological improvements or evolutions?
Speaker 5 (25:28):
If you know, the folks holding on to power with
an iron grasp, just stay alive and indefinitely. I mean,
it sort of seems like rigging the game. It is
rigging the game.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Yeah, yuck, Yeah, it's yuck.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Ben, What do you think life extension technology? Is this
the kind of the rich people talk about all the time.
Is this a glimpse into something more sinister and real?
Is this speculative? What are we what are we seeing
when we when we overhear these these candid.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Moments, this level of conversation often rehearsed in advanced to
some degree, there are always going to be multiple meanings
to stuff. That's the tricky thing about diplomacy. Everybody's joking
but not really joking. So the technology is on the way,
it is inevitable, and I want to hold to the
(26:20):
earlier point. We're talking about governments in AI right. Technology
is evolving at a gangbuster's bonkers rate. Society is not.
So we are at a point where civilization is or
governing structures are unequipped. Social structures are unequipped to handle
(26:43):
the new stuff coming out. The idea here is that
we the public were able to catch a glimpse of
a conversation, but that's an iceberg situation. The real conversations,
like the great nine tenths of it, occur under the water,
away from the public, and that's where that's where the
(27:03):
real heft is. You know, I got to identify with
the current president of the US. It stinks not to
get invited to parties. I think we can all understand that.
But there's a reason the US isn't invited. There's a
reason Western Europe, in Japan and Australia aren't invited.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
What are some of those reasons? I mean, I think
I understand broadly speaking, but why is it such a
line in the sands.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
It's a line in the sand because the Anglo sphere
and plus Japan and plus a couple of South American
countries are considered the big boys of that old world
order with which China and Russia were, for their own reasons,
never satisfied. So the idea here is that having a
(27:51):
party without you guys, means that we're making our own
thing right. And this is a message that has been
signaled through bilateral agreements and resource extraction from decades ago.
Check out our episode on China and the trade empire
that it built on the African continent. Think about the
(28:12):
Silk Road two point zero. It hasn't really become what
they wanted it to be just yet, but there is
inescapably a fluidity to the world order that people once
thought was geopolitically sacrosanct got it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Isn't it interesting that the US played such a critical
role in ending World War Two, specifically in the Pacific Front,
with what they did at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and you know,
specifically all of the battles that occurred between US Navy
and Japanese forces during World War Two, only to have
the US in Japan become such close economic allies, you know,
(28:52):
over the course of all these years, and then to
have those two countries be so it viewed in such
an oppositional force because they are that old guard now somehow.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Well worth mentioning. I think the content of Trump's response
on truth Social where he references some of these things,
the big question specifically as to whether or not President
She of China this is quoting him, will mention the
massive amount of support and blood that the United States
of America gave to China in order to help it
secure its all caps freedom from a very unfriendly foreign invader.
(29:26):
Many Americans died in China's quest for victory and glory.
I hope that they are rightfully honored and remembered for
their bravery and sacrifice. Please give my warmest regards to
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire her
against the United States of America, who thank you for
your attention to this matter. Yeah yeah, Oh, did he
put that he's been he's been rocking that one lately.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Did I tell you guys a while back, I accidentally,
my girlfriend I accidentally went to a Trump themed hamburger
restaurant in Japan.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, it was so. It was so.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
It was called Munchies Munches. Excuse me, respect on the name.
But the the issues here, especially what you're describing Matt
regarding history, we have to exercise empathy, right and understand
the other perspective, Like, they're not seeing themselves as the
bad guys. They're seeing themselves as a new beacon of
(30:26):
forward progress. And where now we can throw out the
rules of all those other regimes that have been crappy
to us in the past, and the West has been
pretty crappy to China historically in the in the modern
era for sure. Opium War one, Opium War two, Opium
War three, humble farmer, rebel moon.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Well, maybe this is kind of pat but like I
heard somebody make this point recently and it resonated with me.
But I think the best way to exercise empathy, even
if this is a thought experiment, is to realize that
nobody thinks they're the villain. Like everybody in some respect,
there's some aspect of what they're doing that they believe
is the right thing to do.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's a it's an old
idea that needs to be constantly brought up, you know.
Even that's why all the good villains in fiction, with
rare exception, don't think of themselves as a village, and.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
They have complexity, they're they're trying to achieve something.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's just having pure evil personified is not particularly interesting.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
No, yeah, it's it's got no depth. Like your entire
thing is that you're a humble farmer, or that you're
just mad at the universe.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
That's weird, Ben, I'm an evil, humble farmer, ah ray
I only I only farm evil root to Vegas.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Thank you for your service.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Yeah, you'll get yours evil rudas well. Yes, please. And
just to put a cap on this when Putin did
later confirm that he and she had discussed this subject
on Wednesday, saying to Russian television, I believe note reporters
in Beijing modern means of health improvement, he said, medical means,
(32:04):
even surgical ones related to organ replacement. They allow humanity
to hope that active life will continue differently than it
does today. An interesting walk back to sort of make
it more about the people, right as opposed to just
like a bunch of mega mega you know, powerful wealthy
individuals talking about it just for us. Didn't seem like
(32:25):
that was the context initially, but you know, points for
diplomacy there. I guess this Sworder's piece ends with China's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CCTV did not immediately respond
to requests for comment, So we're gonna move on really
quickly from that one, just to a quick mention, bring
back our boy, Luigi MANGIONI, free Luigi whatever. Depending on
(32:45):
where he staying on the issue, I am coming down
on either side of that one. I do think it's
we talked about it ad nauseum, but it is an
interesting moment in the public perception and the public outcry
against rapacious healthcare executives and insurance CEOs and all of
that stuff. I don't think anybody should be summarily executed
(33:06):
in the streets, but I do love a good fire
brand that kind of kicks off sort of a sea
change in discussion, at least within the public discourse. But
this isn't really about that. This is more about like
what a smoke show Luigi is and how I guess
the algorithms are just eating him up because his likeness
apparently appeared modeling a shirt in a fast fashion ad
(33:30):
campaign by a company called Shine, which I'm not familiar with.
BBC reports by Graham Fraser. Fast fashion giant Shine has
launched an investigation after an image of Luigi Mangioni, accused
of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson New York last year,
was used to model a shirt. An image with his likeness,
(33:51):
which appeared to show him wearing a white short sleeve shirt,
appeared on the Fast Fashion website until its removal. You
could buy that shirt. You too could have that sh
for just seven pound fifty or around ten American dollars.
Spokesperson from Shine told BBC News the image in question
was provided by a third party vendor and was removed
immediately upon discovery. We have stringent standards for all listings
(34:12):
on our platforms.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It would seem not.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
We are conducting a thorough investigation, strengthening our monitoring process
and we will take appropriate action. Then, of course, the
conversation revolves around who this third party was and was
this an AI generated image. It would appear the answer
is clearly yes. Henry Adger, a generative AI expert who
was spoken to by the BBC, said the image is
low resolution, but there are a few signs that it
(34:37):
might be AI generated or manipulated. This includes the lighting
and texture of the image, particularly of the skin, as
well as the appearance of blob like artifacts above the
right forearm the hand. The right hand rather also doesn't
appear to show typical segmentation of the fingers. This, of course,
is interesting surrounding the kind of you know, rampant fandom
(34:59):
of Louis who pleaded not guilty to all the federal
charges over the shooting of mister Thompson. He's a twenty
six year old young man, very attractive. A lot of
talk that he might be played by uh oh, who's
that guy in that movie together, that new body horror
movie Franco. Dave Franco looks just psycho. A lot of
(35:20):
talk about Dave Franco playing him in a movie just
another and a long line of ai whoopsies that we're
just gonna keep seeing. You guys have any thoughts about this?
When I thought it was worth mentioning it. It's nothing
super deep going on. It's pretty clear what happens.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Don't you think that's a crazy move by somebody, somebody
types Luigi Mangioni when they generated that image.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
It doesn't just happen by mistake.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, they were high off that cracker barrel.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
Let me just I would okay, I just I said that,
but I was actually implying earlier that like this idea
of the algorithm being partial to this guy's face, Like,
what if we know that these AI algorithms are just
diving and data scraping, and if you might just maybe
they just typed in good looking young man in a
shirt and because of the prevalence and popularity around Luigi's
(36:11):
you know, million dollar smile, maybe that's what came out
and nobody thought better of it. I think that's entirely possible.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I'm not discounting that, but it's pretty specific.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
It's much more likely, though, that some jokester or fan
decided to slip this through. That's all I got, y'all.
Why don't we take a quick break here, a word
from our sponsor, and then we'll come back with one
more segment of some strange news stories for you.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And we have returned with the last act of our
weekly Strange Through segment. Guys, have you all experienced this?
Have you fallen in love with an astronaut?
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Only? Every day? Only everyone I meet?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
WHOA, yeah, I think I have.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's beautiful, Dylan. Where are you at?
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Well?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
We promised not to tell your wife? Did you ever
fall in love with an astronaut.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Just once I crossed the country and diapers to meet the.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Man of my dreams. How'd that go for you? Yes?
Not good?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Okay, it turns out he was the guy with the secrets.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, all right, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Shout out to various personas. We've got a quick story.
I wanted to mention based on our previous explorations into
scam factories and scam calls in our interview segment with
Denise Chan. Unfortunately, folks, a Japanese octagenarian was in the
(37:45):
news recently because she had been swindled out of thousands
of dollars or one million. Yet falling in love online
with a astronaut or a guy who said he was
an astronaut who needed her help to buy oxygen while
he's stranded on his spaceship, that's.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
The classic one. It's like, Hey, this is freaking Noel Gallagher.
I need more money so we can finish the new
Oasis album, you know, like.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
But also yes, agreed. Also, if you were an astronaut
stranded in space and you need help buying there are.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Many questions, man, there are many questions outside of yeah,
I'm with you, I'm.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
With Ivy, who are we buckeroo to judge? To judge
the improv stuff on the astronaut's side here, it's a
heartbreaking story despite the hilarious headline, because this is an
elderly person who trusted someone and got thousands of dollars
stolen from her. It's just the scam technology, we could
(38:49):
say is evolving at a breakneck pace in a society
as of yet unable to handle it. And I've got
a wonder This made me think, you guys, if we
gave it out and if we say, let's say it's
twenty twenty five now, yeah, correct, for a few more months,
what are the scams of twenty fifty.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Going to look like?
Speaker 5 (39:13):
Mind control?
Speaker 4 (39:16):
For a second, help, I'm stuck in a computer and
I just need a little more beryllium.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
How have I gotten into this computer? Pay someone? Help
get me out of this computer?
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Uh, I don't know. It's it's fascinating stuff. I guess
we should also mention, uh, we didn't quite get to it.
In kind of our thematic thread for this exploration today,
the weapons shown off the tech excuse me, technology quote
unquote shown off during Victory Day pretty astonishing stuff. I
(39:51):
think most people were unsurprised by the idea of the tech,
but they were surprised by the level of development it
has reached. Matt, you mentioned the ICBMs, you mentioned the
anti ship missiles. We got to talk about the laser
stuff a little bit, and we've got to talk about
this tank.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
It'es smartest tank.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, the tank was at least highly impressive what I've
read about it, But to my mind, it was the
optics of those giant ICBM missiles that they put on trucks,
you know. Oh yeah, but so you know, we just
got flatbeds with giant missiles with multiple nuclear warhead capabilities.
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
And by the way, we could put these on things
that are not this truck.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
That's a little wink in a nod. How's your uncle?
But the.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Other stuff, and about this tank, it's it's just I
feel like we scooped ourselves because we were talking about
just this sort of stuff right before the Victory Day parade,
and I believe we even mentioned it somewhere in the
course of our exploration. Ah, everybody's working on this kind
of stuff and it's getting to the point where honestly,
(41:07):
the vague high fluting terms start to feel just cartoonishly.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Not genuine or insincere.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, you know, purposely, they the tank's highly intelligent, it
performs coordinated combat. We can't tell you what that means.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Come on, well, yeah, and you look at the images
of these I don't know what type of vehicle you
would call these things. They're like transport vehicles. They're just huge, right,
And then on the top of the nukes, well no
for the for the laser tech where you've got you know,
they're fully camoed out huge vehicles. And then there's this
weird looking white turret kind of thing that has a
(41:50):
huge lens on the front of it. It looks like
prototypes maybe and they're specific or maybe they're just specifically
white to highlight them literally, and you're watching the parade,
but it just it it almost doesn't look real. It
looks like Star Wars stuff. You know, it looks like
props in a movie.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
It sure does.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Yeah, especially because it's got that blue that really pops
for the big lands. It looks so sci fi. It
looks like it blowings in space. It's called the l
Y one l Y dash one. Everybody is saying, low key,
it's definitely a laser weapon.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
And to your point, met.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
The transports that are carrying this, they look a little
similar to like the S three hundred anti missile system
that Russia created, and a lot of the blueprints or
the DNA for Chinese developed stuff now is descended from
old Soviet designs, including what is supposed to be the
(42:49):
world's smartest tank.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
The word on the street is that the l Y one,
this super duper laser system, is going to be on
aircraft carriers, which is interesting because the previous strategy was
asymmetric warfare.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Right, Why are we going to.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Boondoggle ourselves spending billions of billions on some big booty
boats when we could just build some big booty missiles
to destroy those boats.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Big booty is the term they use.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
It's a fishing yeah, very common, very common.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
War college, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
But the other stuff is the future warfare unmanned things. Right,
so you got unmanned aircraft on their unmanned submarines like
drone submarines. Uh, and then those ICBMs that you can
launch from submarines just like the US can and you know,
and you put it all together in it it does
become a pretty effective show of force.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Yeah, and it also shows a net. This is part
of a multi functional gadget operationally, right, like, oh, check
out our sickles. Also like what you put in them,
and you go, here's the thing. We can put a
lot of stuff in them. Man, we could launch them
from a lot of places. This is kind of like
if you if you run into your uncle who just
(44:14):
got a ton of fireworks, and it's like, oh man,
look at this. Okay, don't know, seriously, that was the sparkler.
You want to see the big one, dude.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
I remember watching those videos about the nuclear capable missiles
and warheads that you know are in the arsenals of
various countries, and the dunk Fang was one of them.
But the dun Fang five or DF five C is
a brand new thing. It's just a potentially even more
deadly world killing machine.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
And at the same time, we're showcasing defense against those missiles,
which is very interesting.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
You're showing the carrot and the stick and you're dangling
them both and you're saying you're doing it in time
to that of me. The propagandistic soundtrack. I'm a sucker
for those soundtracks.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
You guys.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Oh yeah, we've.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Got like a choir of one hundred plus people talking
about the glory of the nation.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Dude.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
I mean just that clip that that played at the beginning,
was it made my hairs stand on end?
Speaker 3 (45:17):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Do you want to you want to see one more
clip just of the marching so you can really understand
just for one second. Sure, here we go, guys, dad
mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Yeah, it's psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
It's part where they sat down and there are currently
you know, uh, huge artillery weapons being fired. That's the
actual sound of them being fired right now.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Notice the precision of your crew as well, every.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Bit of it.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
All Right, Well, we gotta stop this, Okay, that's.
Speaker 5 (45:57):
What people are saying.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
We're going to stop this.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
We don't, but we're not the folks who get to
make those decisions.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
There is a story that we that we should end with,
just because it's not being reported as efficiently or honestly
as it should. There is a outfit you could call it,
that's part of the US government. It does a lot
of crazy work and flies under the radar pretty often
(46:27):
and is being taken apart. Before we get to the details,
we've all heard of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, right, Nope.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Foreign CEM No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Does maybe go on tell us more so, our friends
at FEMIC are part of a recent, relatively recent thing
that was created back in i want to say, twenty
twenty two, first proposed in twenty nineteen, and the idea
as it's being pitched is that this is an organization
(47:10):
that will integrate intelligence in propaganda wars from foreign forces.
So you've got your Alexander Dugan over in Russia writing
foundations of geopolitics. You know, you got some other countries
version of whatever their project twenty twenty five is. Our
buddies at the Foreign Malign Influence Center have for just
(47:32):
a few years done a lot of work to try
to counter those info war initiatives, while also, of course,
you know, helping with our own version of it abroad.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
But it's just going to get absorbed into other parts
of the government.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
Now, that's the arguments, that's the idea. So this under
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. We're throwing
a lot of initialisms at you. Odney and Odney is
currently run by the National Intelligence Director Tulci Gabbard. You
probably recognize her from see earlier from c SPAN from
(48:15):
SNL sketches per the director. Quite recently, on August twentieth,
twenty five, Gabbard said, we're going to take this thing
that's supposed to stop foreign info wars, and we're going
to dissolve it because we are downsizing the entire national
(48:37):
intelligence thing.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
We're dumbing it down. Great, tight, great, ten no notes.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It seems like a good move to me, especially considering
the clip we just want.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, that's always saving this one.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Here the ideas as as you point out, Matt, if
we go to a great source just Security by David Salvo,
which was public August twenty eighth, twenty twenty five, we'll
see that Gabbert is saying this will be absorbed into
other parts of the intelligence apparatus. But this means the
United States is dismantling the last federal government body that
(49:18):
was dedicated to stopping election interference, to stopping the creation
of false culture wars, or to stop you know, spoopy
doopy spyboy stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, you know, we we've become so xenophobic and in
inside focused. Maybe it's time we just get rid of
this whole central intelligence thing any hat, time just get
rid of it?
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Does decentralize it, y'all? What are you saying?
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Right?
Speaker 4 (49:47):
And you know, let's just get rid of things called intelligence?
Speaker 3 (49:51):
Right?
Speaker 5 (49:51):
So here here it is, folks, we have AI. What
do we need intelligence?
Speaker 6 (49:54):
Right?
Speaker 5 (49:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (49:55):
I asked chat GPT and they said, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
That's a great idea. That's really bold of you. Do
you want to treat it like a project? I can
come up with some steps?
Speaker 2 (50:05):
What if that's all? Is? Is this entire thing? There's
been an ongoing chat GBT discussion about how to make
America great again? Well how do we do it well?
And it's just a list of ideas and it's like,
that's perfect.
Speaker 4 (50:19):
And it was this model was fed entirely on foundations
of geopolitans, which is the you know, the the Russian
boy Scout Manual for overthrowing the world order. So and
it's working pretty well actually, But the idea then becomes like, okay,
an analogy, right, Let's imagine the five of us, you specifically, you.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Were riding with us. We're in a road trip, right,
and it's late.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
At night and it's a moonless night and we're deep
in the woods, and then dismantling. This is as if
we all turned each other in the vehicle and said,
you know, it'd be dope if we also turn off
the headline.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, take your seatbelts off, no lights, no music, put
a brick.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
On the gas.
Speaker 4 (51:08):
You know what I mean, And that everybody texts while
we're trying to steer this is I know, this kind
of stuff can be boring, and the news ends up
being boring by design. Right, you and the US as
a member of the public, you must consider that there
are certain stories the power structure does not want you
(51:31):
to think about too deeply, and election interference is one
of those ideas. Right for an election interference is easier
now than it was at any point since the late
seventeen hundreds, which is a hell of a claim but
also very true. We also want to point out this
(51:52):
might be a little more pop culture. I hope our
friends at Daily's Eye guys talk about it. A Polish
CEO has gotten into some hot water because he is
visibly snatching a hat from a child at the US Open.
We heard about this. We saw a clip.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
So in the clip, which you can find readily available
everywhere on the Internet, a man named puoetr Ses Eric
Pardner Polish pronunciation went viral for grabbing a tennis player's
hat that the tennis player handed to a child to
a boy, and the guy snatched it and then he
(52:33):
went on and he wasn't expecting to go viral, just
like those cold plates cuddlers. Yeah, and so he initially
kind of apologized, but then he deleted his social media
and then he went went bonkers. He just had a meltdown.
Here's his recent statement from August thirty first. Dear ladies
(52:58):
and gentlemen, due to the fact that you're hysteria is
getting out of control, I have decided to issue a
statement to clarify who should receive the hat.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I empt at this.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
I emphasize that I won the hat because I am stronger,
and therefore I am consciously keeping it. I do not
greet people sick with envy.
Speaker 5 (53:17):
Coach of winners people.
Speaker 4 (53:20):
No, Yeah, it continued because it is a meltdown. Thanks
to this new post. Thanks to this hat, I'll soon
be on Dancing with the Stars. And what about you?
Are you still crawling for minimum wage.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Why yes, dude, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (53:40):
Just the lack of self awareness, the sociopathic tendencies kind
of move it. I think they move it from a
pop culture reference into something more like, oh, does a
certain level of financial success make you a bad person?
Speaker 2 (53:59):
I think this guy is trying to create supervillains because
if you're that kid and this guy is saying this
on national news after doing that to you, guess what.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
Little minion Z Yeah, I dedicate my life.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
You give him ten years, twenty years? Oh?
Speaker 5 (54:14):
What's that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (54:15):
I love that?
Speaker 4 (54:15):
Okay, what's that old meme where Okay, there's a person
in an interview and the interviewer says, yeah, one last
question here on your resume. There's a thirteen year gap
and it just says revenge and there's a pause in
the interviewe says you don't remember me, do you?
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Yeah, that's it. You're just on the plane. I took
a plane ride like I did.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
Ye.
Speaker 5 (54:43):
God, that's a great stay.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
And there was a baby on.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
The will Forte. I wish you would be in more
of those sketches, surely. I mean just that.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
He's in another one with ponytail situation.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
Ponytail Cigars. They have a cigar thing, and I think
you should leave. I'm not sure why, but it's probably
my favorite doll commercial.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Tell them about my car, Tell about my classic cars.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
Oh yeah, because the ice cream shop is they have
sleeper jokes, right, they got too cold, so the ice
cream machine doesn't work. Whatever, amazing, phenomenal. Thank you as always, folks.
I'm going to cut this short. We'll get to we'll
get to some other stories in the future. Behavior transplant
between species, what does that mean? We're of course following
(55:34):
the glame Maxwell Epstein scandal and we cannot wait to
hear from you. So thanks for tuning in, Thanks to
our super producer Dilan the Tennessee pal Fagan and let
us know your thoughts. Reach out and touch faith or
touch space if we're doing astronaut jokes still yeah, yeah, okay.
You can find us on a telephone, you can find
(55:55):
us on an email, You can find us on the lines.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
That's right, Hold some space with us if you wish.
You can find us in the handle conspiracy stuff, where
we exist, on Facebook with our Facebook group Here's where
it gets crazy, on x FKA Twitter, and on YouTube,
where we have video content for your perusing enjoyment on
Instagram and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy stuff showing Matt. Isn't
there more?
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Oh? There is. You can reach out and touch us
with the vibrations of your voice if you call one
eight three three st d wytk when you call in,
and keep yourself a cooler nickname and let us know
if we can use your name and message within the message.
If you've got maybe words to send us that you
want to string together in sentences and then even paragraphs,
(56:40):
why not send us an email.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet I'm afraid sometimes the
void rights.
Speaker 3 (56:50):
Back back to back, back.
Speaker 4 (56:52):
To back conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Back to back cut stuff they don't want you to
(57:16):
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visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call me Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the
Tennessee pal Faga. Most importantly, you are you.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You are here.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
We're coming to you, hot and ready like Little Caesars
on September eighth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
Hot to go, h ottogo.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yes, but we are recording this on Victory Day, September third.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
We did it, y'all. Wait.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
No, we were invited, which is a huge deal for
a big part of the world, the US and Western
Europe and Japan not being invited. We'll get into that.
We do wanna, we do want to do one headline
at the top.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
There's been some shaking up over in the United Kingdom's
branch of McDonald's, which we mentioned earlier in our listener
mail program. We are sad to report that the leader
of McDonald's UK is moving on. There's a new successor
who is going to be the heir to the French
(01:35):
fry throne. But Zoe Hamburger is finding other opportunities. That's
really her name, that's really her name. Shadow nominative, right,
So we wish.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
You the best of life. Is she stepping down amidst
the scandal? Did the mccrumpets campaign not work out?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I don't think it's a scandal, And I do love
that pronunciation there. Apparently she's going to be promoted to
managing director of McDonald's Netherlands.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So all to the good, okay, okay, Senior vice president
chef restaurant officer, Zoe Hamburger.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Love, I know, I know, And we just love nominative determinism,
Like how people with the last name tooth Men are
more likely than average to be dentist or dental hygienist.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
This is crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I think about our various last names quite often and
wonder what is the occupation historically of a.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Frederick, yeah right?
Speaker 5 (02:38):
Or Brown? I think my people were just you know,
mucking out the sewers.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Can you imagine being Zoe Hamburger and just being out, uh,
hanging out at a corporate event for McDonald's and you
get introduced to to Derek cheeseburger.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
Sights. Yeah, over their heads.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Yeah, it works with first names as well. You know,
you meet a billionaire named Rich and you're like, oh man,
the odds were stacked against me since they wrote the
birth certificate. But the shout out to Rich right. Shout
out big fans also the multiple Riches. Also shout out
to super producer Dylan Tennessee pal Faken, who has another
(03:27):
favorite case of nominative determinism. It's a fun fact. Dylan
can share it with us.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Yes, shout out to Doug Bowser, chief operating officer of Nintendo.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
No, yeah, okay, got it? Oh my god?
Speaker 5 (03:44):
Is it a family name? I mean, like, by the way,
this is a chicken or the egg question too, Like
dider get named after this guy? Or did they just
happen to share the same name.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Of the New York Bowsers. We have so much more
to explore today. We're we're probably not going to get
to all of it, which is part of the remit
of this show. But we are very interested in something
that happened quite recently that you may have heard of.
If you're in the US, but may not have been
(04:15):
fully reported or taking up as much ink as we
believe it should. As we're recording on Wednesday, September third
local time, half a world away, there has been a
victory Day. So what if we pause for a word
from our sponsors and find out more about that after
the break.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And we've returned, Guys, I think the best way to
start this off is to play a teeny tiny snippet
of the live feed that you can find on YouTube
of China's twenty twenty five Victory Day military parade, which
marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And Japanese loss.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
By the way, yes, yes, Japanese lost, And as we
mentioned briefly on another episode, is it's a piece of
history that not all of us are taught, specifically about
the conflict between Japan and China and Korea and a
bunch of the other countries there in Asia that was
occurring way before World War Two was officially thought of,
(05:25):
beginning at least in the Western world, when Germany invaded
Poland and other you know, the things that were happening
in Germany were coinciding then with things happening in Italy.
And things happening in Japan. Again, we learn history that
way because it's easier for us to grasp it, right,
especially as kids going through school, Like, Okay, I understand this.
(05:45):
These are good guys, these are bad guys. Is the
thing that happened, And that's how kids learned. I know,
that's how I still learn the best, right when it's simplified,
when you've got the least common denominator stuff, and then
you can build details on top of that. Well, all
of the actual history that was occurring. Well, you know,
we're talking of what ten years more than ten years
(06:07):
before World War two officially started, And I'm doing that
in quotations according to you know, what you learn in
history books here in the US, China was evolved in
this kind of conflict with Japan. This Victory Day celebrates
the moment that it's over. The war is officially concluded
on September second. The next day the following day is
(06:28):
wake up, let's celebrate war is over kind of deal.
So let's begin by just listening to a little bit
of that. You'll hear what's happening as the opening ceremonies
of this Victory Day parade and guys, as we're watching
this because it is video. If you want to watch along.
I found it on CNA's Channel News Asia on YouTube.
(06:51):
They've gotten an entire broadcast, the entire live feed essentially
and over about two hours and nineteen minutes long. And
we are starting. If you want to fall along at
the twenty eight minute mark, just look at the scale.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Love it?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Okay, So we're gonna pause here. So the reason why
I'm sharing that, guys, is literally the scale of humans
and the uniformity of those humans and just what that
says visually.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It really puts that little little Washington, DC military parade
to shame. And I mean just stark contrast. Yeah, there
been there there were some rumors that people were like
in a silent act of protest, not marching in the
best formation. But but boy, boyd is a dwarf our
ability to put on a military parade.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Or the appetite for such right this This immediately reminds
me of the Aarong Mass Games in North Korea. That's
another instance of propagandai'ed display and of course the hearkening
back to Soviet era shows of force. Yes, I love
this stuff because it's the weirdest science fair ever, so objectively,
(08:19):
that's fascinating. Also, we see so much more we were
talking off Mike, We see so much more at play
here than a Dragon Con parade.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Oh, as you said, no, another parade in DC.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Well, in this instance, there again, there's as you're saying,
there's so many striking things, especially when you compare it
to the recent military parade that was held in the
United States in honor of Donald Trump, the president's birthday,
which if you imagine a celebration in honor of one
man's birthday versus celebration in honor of victory over a
(08:55):
World war where there's you know, an oppressor or a
country that's seen as an oppressor and you're and they've
been around for decades and decades and you finally defeat them.
That's what this celebration is about. You start to compare
the two things in your mind, and you just start
to see the vast chasm between what's on display here
and then what was on display earlier this year in
(09:16):
the United States. And you know, as you're saying, the
technology and the science favor of it is fascinating to see.
You know, as we'll get into the missiles and some
of the other things that were just shown off in
this parade. But ultimately, for me, it's that propaganda thing
that you mentioned, Ben, that's so strong here. It's so
(09:38):
so strong, the vast number of human beings that you
couldn't see that when we're listening to it here, but
it is. It is hundreds of people wearing the same
exact outfit, same exact hair style, same exact everything.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I mean, just each move decision yes, perfect.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Then you if you go a little bit further in
the live feed from the parade, you will see like
a single battalion or single group of soldiers marching slowly
like they're they're marching quickly at first, and then they
slow it down to about half pace, and when you
watch them move, it is it's showing the what would
you call that, guys, the ability the brutal uniformity of
(10:21):
as a single force. Right like this group of people
is a singular force. That is, you know, do you
threaten us in any way? Well, guess what, We've got
a bunch of these. Because then it pans out to
show you the number of soldiers from different you know,
parts of the military.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Right cut to exhibit saying, Yo, dog, we heard you
like collectivism, so we put some collectivism in your collectivism.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Check this out.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's just it's it's a lot
to take in. We've talked before on the show about
shan Yun, which is the kind of anti state China
state government.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Movement in a way establishment.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Now, the thing that happens, You've seen flyers for it.
We guarantee it, especially I you've ever been through Georgia,
they're everywhere.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
But one of the striking things about that show, about
the concept is the uniform uniformity of movement, the uniformity
of the costumes, and just the fanfare, and and then
the propaganda of it all, because don't forget Sun is
a form of propaganda in a lot of ways. And
what is propaganda about? Hearts and minds, baby, Hearts and minds.
(11:35):
So and it make you feel a certain way, make
you think a certain way about a thing.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Yeah, Like like that time I broke down weeping during
the Ford like a rock commercial.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
Oh yeah, that was your feeling for that year.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
That was one of the three for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Speaking of rocks, the rock, Mister Johnson has a new
movie out there.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
I cannot wait to see the boss dude, the smashing
machine and he's pulling a Sandler. Yea, I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But with those optics. Another piece of the optics going
on here are the people on the VIP list who
were invited and showed up. And so who do we
got on the roster here?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Well, we definitely don't have Western Europe. We definitely don't
have Australia, Japan, or the United States. We do have,
we do have a lot of world leaders from countries
that have historically been considered alternative players in the post
(12:35):
World War two world order right soon and part of
the redundancy in same world twice there. But we're looking
at about as far east as Slovakia, Serbia, Armenia, and
then tons of places in Oceania and in southeastern Asia.
(12:55):
We're also seeing a lot of world leaders from countries that,
to one degree or another are portrayed as hostile or
unfriendly to the existing Western order. Looking at you, Iran.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yeah, Iran was definitely present.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
Well, and I mean Trump and some of his truths
or tweets or whatever they're called, uh, certainly did not
seem happy about a lot of this, and the kings
of them of conspiring against the United States during.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Well, well, he was, he was a little more. He
was unusually diplomatic that.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
He did say conspiring against the United States, though he
literally used those words. But you're right, in general, he
kind of was. But then he couldn't help himself and
threw that one in there at the end the sign off.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, but just to point out, there are like leaders
of countries where the United States have has had intense conflict.
We've got the Cuban president there, the Vietnamese president, the
King of Cambodia was there. The people. You know, countries
are represented there that are indirect opposition or have been
(14:02):
in direct opposition of the US in the past.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
The stands came through. Shout out to you guys, stand
for the stands, right alo. We also saw, to your point,
we saw leaders of countries that just objectively have been
criticized for human rights abuses. Yeah, that's one common denominator here.
(14:27):
We also saw a you got to imagine what the
back rooms are like, but we saw a lot of
coordination between these folks. We saw even unto outfits right
to uniforms. This applied to the world leaders as well, oh.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
You're mentioning something about some very interesting symbolism represented in
some of those outfit choices.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah, without reading too many tea leaves, Uncle Gee is
usually going to be wearing a Western style suit and
tie at a lot of these affairs, but this time
he's wearing more like a almost it looks almost like
a car heart onesie k outfit. Yeah, and that's typically
(15:10):
or historically that's what the Kim dynasty of dpr K
would be wearing. In this time it's flipped because now
Kim Jong un, the current patriarch of DPRK, is wearing
a Western style suit. So there's always a purpose to
these things, even if it seems small.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
That's a very symbolic, right. And you see the president
who you know, gives a speech chimping, gives a large
speech in front of this mass of humans, and then
you see him get into a vehicle and stand basically
in the sun roof of that vehicle or you imagine
like the limo opening in a vehicle and.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Stand a state we yeah. Well, and you watch.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Him drive or being driven along this huge pathway where
he is greeting in individual battalions and they're greeting him back,
and it's just this the collective force of it or
representative force of it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Again, it's brilliant propaganda. In a way, it makes me
super nervous, but it also makes me guys a little
jealous because it's it's the it's it's brilliant. It's really
really smart.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Right, Yeah, And we can argue a lot of analysts
are going to argue that this comes as necessity even
more like it's a flex, but it's a flex born
of having two flex in that moment. Because the post
World War two is a funny phrase, but you'll hear
it often. The bipolar world order of the Cold War,
(16:44):
defined by the USSR and the USA has eroded heavily.
And for a while the known world was what we
call unipolar, meaning there was one true superpower. His name
was Uncle Sam, and he was very weird about very
specific things. And that order. Given the domestic crises here
(17:09):
in the States, just to be honest, given the fact
that the US is internally fracturing, then this poses an
opportunity for what we will call the brick countries China
in particular, to move forward as an alternative solution to
that old power order. You know what I mean, Bring
me your tired, you're poor, your huddled masses yearning to
(17:31):
escape democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah yeah. And it comes as news drops about Russia
sending five hundred drones, you know, in Ukraine as an attack.
It comes as the United States announces that Chicago is
next on the list of places for our own soldiers
to go in and police. And just as all of
(17:54):
these things are happening in conjunction, and when all of those,
all of these are in a new speed right where
you can read them one after the other, you can
see all of this happening at the same time. It
paints a picture, oh very much does of a crumbling
place and a place that is unifying and strengthening.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Right, And the optics do matter? Are the technological capability matters?
These are That's what we call the science fair right,
whenever you see these things. Also the operational capability. That's
why everybody is making sure to step right and in lockstep.
Then we also we also have to note perhaps the
(18:35):
most worrying thing, even more than the technological stuff, The
most worrying thing for Western analysts is going to be
the implication of future collaborations. Right, what does it mean
of the current government of China turns the stands into
vassal states similar to Mongolia? What does that mean for
(18:57):
resource extraction? What does that mean for the reach? Why
are these guys this is what this is what I
think stood out to you, especially don't Why are these
guys hanging out and being so buddy buddy? Why didn't
I get invited to the parade? Says the current president
of the US.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Boy, he was, Yeah, what are they talking about? M m, well,
we'll get into that in a minute. But uh, there's
so much to unpack about this.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Whutin doesn't smile like that at my jokes?
Speaker 5 (19:22):
I mean, it seems like a real bromance situation, and uh,
you know, there's a little bit of a of a
mean girl's vibe going on against our boy, you know, DJT,
And no one likes.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
To be on the other end of a mean girl's situation.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
It's just, yeah, it sure feels like somebody's getting played.
We'll see how that works out in the end, which
is coming soon.
Speaker 5 (19:47):
To a theater in the house. Are all right?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Sorry, just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. Didn't really talk
about a news story associated with this but you can
look up a ton of stuff. Literally, look up Victory
Day Parade twenty twenty five and you will find everything.
I'm looking at. An Al Jazeera article here titled China's
gee Overseas massive military parade with Putin Kim in attendance,
(20:11):
has a little bit of information in there. You'll see
even further analysis if you go to places like The Guardian.
I'm looking on her here titled Kim Jong un promises
to do quote everything to assist unquote Moscow after Putin
meeting again, you just you see bits and pieces of it,
and ultimately you've probably got to go to the think
tanks in which you can, because people write in opinion
(20:33):
pieces about it right now that will be out well
before the time you hear this. That's it. Watch the video.
It's intense. It's really intense.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Ten ten no notes, Just keep going.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, and well, maybe one day we'll talk about the
whole European Union jamming GPS jamming situation that's going on,
and how countries like Italy and others are gonna stop
publish sizing any and all flights and even doing tracking
on those so people won't be able to publicly see
(21:06):
where these official flights are going anymore, because allegedly Russia
is jamming GPS signals on flights that are anywhere even
close to near their territory, allegedly allegedly.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
But also by the time we get to that, when Matt,
I think we can all admit, uh, we're gonna we're
gonna be at a situation where we have to say, oh,
which jamming incident?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You know, it goes back, it goes so far back?
Speaker 5 (21:38):
No oh yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
The same thing.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
In the sky following, So will all be gratefully dead? Yeah,
we'll be right back with more strange news.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
And we're back, And man, Matt, you really nailed it.
I mean, one story is is it nearly enough to
unpack this massive event at all of the geopolitical implications
and layers and symbolisms contained with it. Talking about, of course,
the Victory Day celebration, I brought a story that I
think offers us an answers at least to some degree,
(22:18):
the question that might put forth during your segment, Matu,
what are these guys talking about when they're browing down,
you know, at this very very exclusive, invite only event,
And we do have a rare glimpse into just that
in the form of a hot mic moment, which we
all love. Everybody loves hot mic moment. Putin Kim and
(22:39):
She caught plotting to live forever on hot mic. Couldn't
have happened soon we got aways us out there living forever.
And now we've got you know, putin Kim and She
plotting to live forever on hot mic. We've got a
daily beast report on this by Lee Kimmins had this
(23:00):
to say. A hot mic caught Russian President Vladimir Putin
talking about immortality with China's Shijin Ping and North Korea's
Kim Jong un at a military parade in Beijing. Through
a series of translators and there, back and forth, we
got a real glimpse into what they were talking about.
Let's see, we've got first coming from Putin. With continuous
(23:24):
advances in biotechnology, he was caught saying human organs will
be increasingly transplanted, letting us live younger and younger and
perhaps can achieve immortality. She then responds to that with
a hearty chuckle, while Kim, looking on, smiles and ads.
In this century, it's anticipated that it may be possible
(23:46):
for people to live to one hundred and fifty years
old not a huge surprise. We know that the elite
at this level of hot on life extension technology. To
what degree that technology exists is you know, not entirely clear.
But the idea of continuously transplanting organs from what younger
(24:07):
younger hosts, Like, where are they getting these organ transplants?
I mean, we know organs are very difficult to get,
even for people that are in dire need of them.
So this notion of the elites and powerful just having
access to like fresh organs at all times something going
on there, y'all. What do you think?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I mean, well, isn't it interesting that this comes on
the heels of the rumor mill talking about about demise?
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Yes, of course, this also seems to be very triggering
for Trump in that respect, since he's been scrutinized, you know,
for signs of mental decline, and he's got these bruises,
and you know, people are always kind of ragging on
him for his weight and things like that. And then
of course this disappearance from the public eye for a
handful of days, followed by all these rumors of his
(24:55):
eminent demise, This must have rubbed him pretty wrong.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Guys, How great would it be if all these guys
in their seventies with hard ons for war would just
live forever and just lead us forever?
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Matt, I said, some sarcasm in your tone. Well, I mean, yeah,
that's that's the thing, right, Like, how how is there
ever going to be a sea change or any kind
of ideological improvements or evolutions?
Speaker 5 (25:28):
If you know, the folks holding on to power with
an iron grasp, just stay alive and indefinitely. I mean,
it sort of seems like rigging the game. It is
rigging the game.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Yeah, yuck, Yeah, it's yuck.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
Ben, What do you think life extension technology? Is this
the kind of the rich people talk about all the time.
Is this a glimpse into something more sinister and real?
Is this speculative? What are we what are we seeing
when we when we overhear these these candid.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Moments, this level of conversation often rehearsed in advanced to
some degree, there are always going to be multiple meanings
to stuff. That's the tricky thing about diplomacy. Everybody's joking
but not really joking. So the technology is on the way,
it is inevitable, and I want to hold to the
(26:20):
earlier point. We're talking about governments in AI right. Technology
is evolving at a gangbuster's bonkers rate. Society is not.
So we are at a point where civilization is or
governing structures are unequipped. Social structures are unequipped to handle
(26:43):
the new stuff coming out. The idea here is that
we the public were able to catch a glimpse of
a conversation, but that's an iceberg situation. The real conversations,
like the great nine tenths of it, occur under the water,
away from the public, and that's where that's where the
(27:03):
real heft is. You know, I got to identify with
the current president of the US. It stinks not to
get invited to parties. I think we can all understand that.
But there's a reason the US isn't invited. There's a
reason Western Europe, in Japan and Australia aren't invited.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
What are some of those reasons? I mean, I think
I understand broadly speaking, but why is it such a
line in the sands.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
It's a line in the sand because the Anglo sphere
and plus Japan and plus a couple of South American
countries are considered the big boys of that old world
order with which China and Russia were, for their own reasons,
never satisfied. So the idea here is that having a
(27:51):
party without you guys, means that we're making our own
thing right. And this is a message that has been
signaled through bilateral agreements and resource extraction from decades ago.
Check out our episode on China and the trade empire
that it built on the African continent. Think about the
(28:12):
Silk Road two point zero. It hasn't really become what
they wanted it to be just yet, but there is
inescapably a fluidity to the world order that people once
thought was geopolitically sacrosanct got it.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Isn't it interesting that the US played such a critical
role in ending World War Two, specifically in the Pacific Front,
with what they did at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and you know,
specifically all of the battles that occurred between US Navy
and Japanese forces during World War Two, only to have
the US in Japan become such close economic allies, you know,
(28:52):
over the course of all these years, and then to
have those two countries be so it viewed in such
an oppositional force because they are that old guard now somehow.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
Well worth mentioning. I think the content of Trump's response
on truth Social where he references some of these things,
the big question specifically as to whether or not President
She of China this is quoting him, will mention the
massive amount of support and blood that the United States
of America gave to China in order to help it
secure its all caps freedom from a very unfriendly foreign invader.
(29:26):
Many Americans died in China's quest for victory and glory.
I hope that they are rightfully honored and remembered for
their bravery and sacrifice. Please give my warmest regards to
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire her
against the United States of America, who thank you for
your attention to this matter. Yeah yeah, Oh, did he
put that he's been he's been rocking that one lately.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Did I tell you guys a while back, I accidentally,
my girlfriend I accidentally went to a Trump themed hamburger
restaurant in Japan.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, it was so. It was so.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
It was called Munchies Munches. Excuse me, respect on the name.
But the the issues here, especially what you're describing Matt
regarding history, we have to exercise empathy, right and understand
the other perspective, Like, they're not seeing themselves as the
bad guys. They're seeing themselves as a new beacon of
(30:26):
forward progress. And where now we can throw out the
rules of all those other regimes that have been crappy
to us in the past, and the West has been
pretty crappy to China historically in the in the modern
era for sure. Opium War one, Opium War two, Opium
War three, humble farmer, rebel moon.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
Well, maybe this is kind of pat but like I
heard somebody make this point recently and it resonated with me.
But I think the best way to exercise empathy, even
if this is a thought experiment, is to realize that
nobody thinks they're the villain. Like everybody in some respect,
there's some aspect of what they're doing that they believe
is the right thing to do.
Speaker 4 (31:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's a it's an old
idea that needs to be constantly brought up, you know.
Even that's why all the good villains in fiction, with
rare exception, don't think of themselves as a village, and.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
They have complexity, they're they're trying to achieve something.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's just having pure evil personified is not particularly interesting.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
No, yeah, it's it's got no depth. Like your entire
thing is that you're a humble farmer, or that you're
just mad at the universe.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
That's weird, Ben, I'm an evil, humble farmer, ah ray
I only I only farm evil root to Vegas.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Thank you for your service.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Yeah, you'll get yours evil rudas well. Yes, please. And
just to put a cap on this when Putin did
later confirm that he and she had discussed this subject
on Wednesday, saying to Russian television, I believe note reporters
in Beijing modern means of health improvement, he said, medical means,
(32:04):
even surgical ones related to organ replacement. They allow humanity
to hope that active life will continue differently than it
does today. An interesting walk back to sort of make
it more about the people, right as opposed to just
like a bunch of mega mega you know, powerful wealthy
individuals talking about it just for us. Didn't seem like
(32:25):
that was the context initially, but you know, points for
diplomacy there. I guess this Sworder's piece ends with China's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CCTV did not immediately respond
to requests for comment, So we're gonna move on really
quickly from that one, just to a quick mention, bring
back our boy, Luigi MANGIONI, free Luigi whatever. Depending on
(32:45):
where he staying on the issue, I am coming down
on either side of that one. I do think it's
we talked about it ad nauseum, but it is an
interesting moment in the public perception and the public outcry
against rapacious healthcare executives and insurance CEOs and all of
that stuff. I don't think anybody should be summarily executed
(33:06):
in the streets, but I do love a good fire
brand that kind of kicks off sort of a sea
change in discussion, at least within the public discourse. But
this isn't really about that. This is more about like
what a smoke show Luigi is and how I guess
the algorithms are just eating him up because his likeness
apparently appeared modeling a shirt in a fast fashion ad
(33:30):
campaign by a company called Shine, which I'm not familiar with.
BBC reports by Graham Fraser. Fast fashion giant Shine has
launched an investigation after an image of Luigi Mangioni, accused
of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson New York last year,
was used to model a shirt. An image with his likeness,
(33:51):
which appeared to show him wearing a white short sleeve shirt,
appeared on the Fast Fashion website until its removal. You
could buy that shirt. You too could have that sh
for just seven pound fifty or around ten American dollars.
Spokesperson from Shine told BBC News the image in question
was provided by a third party vendor and was removed
immediately upon discovery. We have stringent standards for all listings
(34:12):
on our platforms.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
It would seem not.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
We are conducting a thorough investigation, strengthening our monitoring process
and we will take appropriate action. Then, of course, the
conversation revolves around who this third party was and was
this an AI generated image. It would appear the answer
is clearly yes. Henry Adger, a generative AI expert who
was spoken to by the BBC, said the image is
low resolution, but there are a few signs that it
(34:37):
might be AI generated or manipulated. This includes the lighting
and texture of the image, particularly of the skin, as
well as the appearance of blob like artifacts above the
right forearm the hand. The right hand rather also doesn't
appear to show typical segmentation of the fingers. This, of course,
is interesting surrounding the kind of you know, rampant fandom
(34:59):
of Louis who pleaded not guilty to all the federal
charges over the shooting of mister Thompson. He's a twenty
six year old young man, very attractive. A lot of
talk that he might be played by uh oh, who's
that guy in that movie together, that new body horror
movie Franco. Dave Franco looks just psycho. A lot of
(35:20):
talk about Dave Franco playing him in a movie just
another and a long line of ai whoopsies that we're
just gonna keep seeing. You guys have any thoughts about this?
When I thought it was worth mentioning it. It's nothing
super deep going on. It's pretty clear what happens.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Don't you think that's a crazy move by somebody, somebody
types Luigi Mangioni when they generated that image.
Speaker 5 (35:40):
It doesn't just happen by mistake.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, they were high off that cracker barrel.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
Let me just I would okay, I just I said that,
but I was actually implying earlier that like this idea
of the algorithm being partial to this guy's face, Like,
what if we know that these AI algorithms are just
diving and data scraping, and if you might just maybe
they just typed in good looking young man in a
shirt and because of the prevalence and popularity around Luigi's
(36:11):
you know, million dollar smile, maybe that's what came out
and nobody thought better of it. I think that's entirely possible.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I'm not discounting that, but it's pretty specific.
Speaker 5 (36:24):
It's much more likely, though, that some jokester or fan
decided to slip this through. That's all I got, y'all.
Why don't we take a quick break here, a word
from our sponsor, and then we'll come back with one
more segment of some strange news stories for you.
Speaker 4 (36:44):
And we have returned with the last act of our
weekly Strange Through segment. Guys, have you all experienced this?
Have you fallen in love with an astronaut?
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Only? Every day? Only everyone I meet?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
WHOA, yeah, I think I have.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's beautiful, Dylan. Where are you at?
Speaker 5 (37:05):
Well?
Speaker 4 (37:06):
We promised not to tell your wife? Did you ever
fall in love with an astronaut.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Just once I crossed the country and diapers to meet the.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Man of my dreams. How'd that go for you? Yes?
Not good?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Okay, it turns out he was the guy with the secrets.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, all right, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:25):
Shout out to various personas. We've got a quick story.
I wanted to mention based on our previous explorations into
scam factories and scam calls in our interview segment with
Denise Chan. Unfortunately, folks, a Japanese octagenarian was in the
(37:45):
news recently because she had been swindled out of thousands
of dollars or one million. Yet falling in love online
with a astronaut or a guy who said he was
an astronaut who needed her help to buy oxygen while
he's stranded on his spaceship, that's.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
The classic one. It's like, Hey, this is freaking Noel Gallagher.
I need more money so we can finish the new
Oasis album, you know, like.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
But also yes, agreed. Also, if you were an astronaut
stranded in space and you need help buying there are.
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Many questions, man, there are many questions outside of yeah,
I'm with you, I'm.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
With Ivy, who are we buckeroo to judge? To judge
the improv stuff on the astronaut's side here, it's a
heartbreaking story despite the hilarious headline, because this is an
elderly person who trusted someone and got thousands of dollars
stolen from her. It's just the scam technology, we could
(38:49):
say is evolving at a breakneck pace in a society
as of yet unable to handle it. And I've got
a wonder This made me think, you guys, if we
gave it out and if we say, let's say it's
twenty twenty five now, yeah, correct, for a few more months,
what are the scams of twenty fifty.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Going to look like?
Speaker 5 (39:13):
Mind control?
Speaker 4 (39:16):
For a second, help, I'm stuck in a computer and
I just need a little more beryllium.
Speaker 5 (39:23):
How have I gotten into this computer? Pay someone? Help
get me out of this computer?
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Right? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Uh, I don't know. It's it's fascinating stuff. I guess
we should also mention, uh, we didn't quite get to it.
In kind of our thematic thread for this exploration today,
the weapons shown off the tech excuse me, technology quote
unquote shown off during Victory Day pretty astonishing stuff. I
(39:51):
think most people were unsurprised by the idea of the tech,
but they were surprised by the level of development it
has reached. Matt, you mentioned the ICBMs, you mentioned the
anti ship missiles. We got to talk about the laser
stuff a little bit, and we've got to talk about
this tank.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
It'es smartest tank.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, the tank was at least highly impressive what I've
read about it, But to my mind, it was the
optics of those giant ICBM missiles that they put on trucks,
you know. Oh yeah, but so you know, we just
got flatbeds with giant missiles with multiple nuclear warhead capabilities.
It's fine.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
And by the way, we could put these on things
that are not this truck.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
That's a little wink in a nod. How's your uncle?
But the.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
Other stuff, and about this tank, it's it's just I
feel like we scooped ourselves because we were talking about
just this sort of stuff right before the Victory Day parade,
and I believe we even mentioned it somewhere in the
course of our exploration. Ah, everybody's working on this kind
of stuff and it's getting to the point where honestly,
(41:07):
the vague high fluting terms start to feel just cartoonishly.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
Not genuine or insincere.
Speaker 4 (41:17):
Well, you know, purposely, they the tank's highly intelligent, it
performs coordinated combat. We can't tell you what that means.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Come on, well, yeah, and you look at the images
of these I don't know what type of vehicle you
would call these things. They're like transport vehicles. They're just huge, right,
And then on the top of the nukes, well no
for the for the laser tech where you've got you know,
they're fully camoed out huge vehicles. And then there's this
weird looking white turret kind of thing that has a
(41:50):
huge lens on the front of it. It looks like
prototypes maybe and they're specific or maybe they're just specifically
white to highlight them literally, and you're watching the parade,
but it just it it almost doesn't look real. It
looks like Star Wars stuff. You know, it looks like
props in a movie.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
It sure does.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Yeah, especially because it's got that blue that really pops
for the big lands. It looks so sci fi. It
looks like it blowings in space. It's called the l
Y one l Y dash one. Everybody is saying, low key,
it's definitely a laser weapon.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
And to your point, met.
Speaker 4 (42:27):
The transports that are carrying this, they look a little
similar to like the S three hundred anti missile system
that Russia created, and a lot of the blueprints or
the DNA for Chinese developed stuff now is descended from
old Soviet designs, including what is supposed to be the
(42:49):
world's smartest tank.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
The word on the street is that the l Y one,
this super duper laser system, is going to be on
aircraft carriers, which is interesting because the previous strategy was
asymmetric warfare.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Right, Why are we going to.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
Boondoggle ourselves spending billions of billions on some big booty
boats when we could just build some big booty missiles
to destroy those boats.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Big booty is the term they use.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
It's a fishing yeah, very common, very common.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
War college, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
But the other stuff is the future warfare unmanned things. Right,
so you got unmanned aircraft on their unmanned submarines like
drone submarines. Uh, and then those ICBMs that you can
launch from submarines just like the US can and you know,
and you put it all together in it it does
become a pretty effective show of force.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Yeah, and it also shows a net. This is part
of a multi functional gadget operationally, right, like, oh, check
out our sickles. Also like what you put in them,
and you go, here's the thing. We can put a
lot of stuff in them. Man, we could launch them
from a lot of places. This is kind of like
if you if you run into your uncle who just
(44:14):
got a ton of fireworks, and it's like, oh man,
look at this. Okay, don't know, seriously, that was the sparkler.
You want to see the big one, dude.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
I remember watching those videos about the nuclear capable missiles
and warheads that you know are in the arsenals of
various countries, and the dunk Fang was one of them.
But the dun Fang five or DF five C is
a brand new thing. It's just a potentially even more
deadly world killing machine.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
And at the same time, we're showcasing defense against those missiles,
which is very interesting.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
You're showing the carrot and the stick and you're dangling
them both and you're saying you're doing it in time
to that of me. The propagandistic soundtrack. I'm a sucker
for those soundtracks.
Speaker 5 (45:03):
You guys.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Oh yeah, we've.
Speaker 4 (45:06):
Got like a choir of one hundred plus people talking
about the glory of the nation.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Dude.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
I mean just that clip that that played at the beginning,
was it made my hairs stand on end?
Speaker 3 (45:17):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Do you want to you want to see one more
clip just of the marching so you can really understand
just for one second. Sure, here we go, guys, dad
mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Yeah, it's psychedelic.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
It's part where they sat down and there are currently
you know, uh, huge artillery weapons being fired. That's the
actual sound of them being fired right now.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Notice the precision of your crew as well, every.
Speaker 5 (45:53):
Bit of it.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
All Right, Well, we gotta stop this, Okay, that's.
Speaker 5 (45:57):
What people are saying.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
We're going to stop this.
Speaker 4 (46:02):
We don't, but we're not the folks who get to
make those decisions.
Speaker 5 (46:06):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
There is a story that we that we should end with,
just because it's not being reported as efficiently or honestly
as it should. There is a outfit you could call it,
that's part of the US government. It does a lot
of crazy work and flies under the radar pretty often
(46:27):
and is being taken apart. Before we get to the details,
we've all heard of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, right, Nope.
Speaker 5 (46:40):
Foreign CEM No, I don't.
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Does maybe go on tell us more so, our friends
at FEMIC are part of a recent, relatively recent thing
that was created back in i want to say, twenty
twenty two, first proposed in twenty nineteen, and the idea
as it's being pitched is that this is an organization
(47:10):
that will integrate intelligence in propaganda wars from foreign forces.
So you've got your Alexander Dugan over in Russia writing
foundations of geopolitics. You know, you got some other countries
version of whatever their project twenty twenty five is. Our
buddies at the Foreign Malign Influence Center have for just
(47:32):
a few years done a lot of work to try
to counter those info war initiatives, while also, of course,
you know, helping with our own version of it abroad.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
But it's just going to get absorbed into other parts
of the government.
Speaker 4 (47:50):
Now, that's the arguments, that's the idea. So this under
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. We're throwing
a lot of initialisms at you. Odney and Odney is
currently run by the National Intelligence Director Tulci Gabbard. You
probably recognize her from see earlier from c SPAN from
(48:15):
SNL sketches per the director. Quite recently, on August twentieth,
twenty five, Gabbard said, we're going to take this thing
that's supposed to stop foreign info wars, and we're going
to dissolve it because we are downsizing the entire national
(48:37):
intelligence thing.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
We're dumbing it down. Great, tight, great, ten no notes.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It seems like a good move to me, especially considering
the clip we just want.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, that's always saving this one.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Here the ideas as as you point out, Matt, if
we go to a great source just Security by David Salvo,
which was public August twenty eighth, twenty twenty five, we'll
see that Gabbert is saying this will be absorbed into
other parts of the intelligence apparatus. But this means the
United States is dismantling the last federal government body that
(49:18):
was dedicated to stopping election interference, to stopping the creation
of false culture wars, or to stop you know, spoopy
doopy spyboy stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Yeah, you know, we we've become so xenophobic and in
inside focused. Maybe it's time we just get rid of
this whole central intelligence thing any hat, time just get
rid of it?
Speaker 5 (49:43):
Does decentralize it, y'all? What are you saying?
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Right?
Speaker 4 (49:47):
And you know, let's just get rid of things called intelligence?
Speaker 3 (49:51):
Right?
Speaker 5 (49:51):
So here here it is, folks, we have AI. What
do we need intelligence?
Speaker 6 (49:54):
Right?
Speaker 5 (49:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (49:55):
I asked chat GPT and they said, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
That's a great idea. That's really bold of you. Do
you want to treat it like a project? I can
come up with some steps?
Speaker 2 (50:05):
What if that's all? Is? Is this entire thing? There's
been an ongoing chat GBT discussion about how to make
America great again? Well how do we do it well?
And it's just a list of ideas and it's like,
that's perfect.
Speaker 4 (50:19):
And it was this model was fed entirely on foundations
of geopolitans, which is the you know, the the Russian
boy Scout Manual for overthrowing the world order. So and
it's working pretty well actually, But the idea then becomes like, okay,
an analogy, right, Let's imagine the five of us, you specifically, you.
Speaker 3 (50:43):
Were riding with us. We're in a road trip, right,
and it's late.
Speaker 4 (50:46):
At night and it's a moonless night and we're deep
in the woods, and then dismantling. This is as if
we all turned each other in the vehicle and said,
you know, it'd be dope if we also turn off
the headline.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, take your seatbelts off, no lights, no music, put
a brick.
Speaker 3 (51:08):
On the gas.
Speaker 4 (51:08):
You know what I mean, And that everybody texts while
we're trying to steer this is I know, this kind
of stuff can be boring, and the news ends up
being boring by design. Right, you and the US as
a member of the public, you must consider that there
are certain stories the power structure does not want you
(51:31):
to think about too deeply, and election interference is one
of those ideas. Right for an election interference is easier
now than it was at any point since the late
seventeen hundreds, which is a hell of a claim but
also very true. We also want to point out this
(51:52):
might be a little more pop culture. I hope our
friends at Daily's Eye guys talk about it. A Polish
CEO has gotten into some hot water because he is
visibly snatching a hat from a child at the US Open.
We heard about this. We saw a clip.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Man.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
So in the clip, which you can find readily available
everywhere on the Internet, a man named puoetr Ses Eric
Pardner Polish pronunciation went viral for grabbing a tennis player's
hat that the tennis player handed to a child to
a boy, and the guy snatched it and then he
(52:33):
went on and he wasn't expecting to go viral, just
like those cold plates cuddlers. Yeah, and so he initially
kind of apologized, but then he deleted his social media
and then he went went bonkers. He just had a meltdown.
Here's his recent statement from August thirty first. Dear ladies
(52:58):
and gentlemen, due to the fact that you're hysteria is
getting out of control, I have decided to issue a
statement to clarify who should receive the hat.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
I empt at this.
Speaker 4 (53:08):
I emphasize that I won the hat because I am stronger,
and therefore I am consciously keeping it. I do not
greet people sick with envy.
Speaker 5 (53:17):
Coach of winners people.
Speaker 4 (53:20):
No, Yeah, it continued because it is a meltdown. Thanks
to this new post. Thanks to this hat, I'll soon
be on Dancing with the Stars. And what about you?
Are you still crawling for minimum wage.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Why yes, dude, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (53:40):
Just the lack of self awareness, the sociopathic tendencies kind
of move it. I think they move it from a
pop culture reference into something more like, oh, does a
certain level of financial success make you a bad person?
Speaker 2 (53:59):
I think this guy is trying to create supervillains because
if you're that kid and this guy is saying this
on national news after doing that to you, guess what.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
Little minion Z Yeah, I dedicate my life.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
You give him ten years, twenty years? Oh?
Speaker 5 (54:14):
What's that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (54:15):
I love that?
Speaker 4 (54:15):
Okay, what's that old meme where Okay, there's a person
in an interview and the interviewer says, yeah, one last
question here on your resume. There's a thirteen year gap
and it just says revenge and there's a pause in
the interviewe says you don't remember me, do you?
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Yeah, that's it. You're just on the plane. I took
a plane ride like I did.
Speaker 6 (54:43):
Ye.
Speaker 5 (54:43):
God, that's a great stay.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
And there was a baby on.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
The will Forte. I wish you would be in more
of those sketches, surely. I mean just that.
Speaker 5 (54:52):
He's in another one with ponytail situation.
Speaker 4 (54:55):
Ponytail Cigars. They have a cigar thing, and I think
you should leave. I'm not sure why, but it's probably
my favorite doll commercial.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Tell them about my car, Tell about my classic cars.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
Oh yeah, because the ice cream shop is they have
sleeper jokes, right, they got too cold, so the ice
cream machine doesn't work. Whatever, amazing, phenomenal. Thank you as always, folks.
I'm going to cut this short. We'll get to we'll
get to some other stories in the future. Behavior transplant
between species, what does that mean? We're of course following
(55:34):
the glame Maxwell Epstein scandal and we cannot wait to
hear from you. So thanks for tuning in, Thanks to
our super producer Dilan the Tennessee pal Fagan and let
us know your thoughts. Reach out and touch faith or
touch space if we're doing astronaut jokes still yeah, yeah, okay.
You can find us on a telephone, you can find
(55:55):
us on an email, You can find us on the lines.
Speaker 5 (55:58):
That's right, Hold some space with us if you wish.
You can find us in the handle conspiracy stuff, where
we exist, on Facebook with our Facebook group Here's where
it gets crazy, on x FKA Twitter, and on YouTube,
where we have video content for your perusing enjoyment on
Instagram and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy stuff showing Matt. Isn't
there more?
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Oh? There is. You can reach out and touch us
with the vibrations of your voice if you call one
eight three three st d wytk when you call in,
and keep yourself a cooler nickname and let us know
if we can use your name and message within the message.
If you've got maybe words to send us that you
want to string together in sentences and then even paragraphs,
(56:40):
why not send us an email.
Speaker 4 (56:41):
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet I'm afraid sometimes the
void rights.
Speaker 3 (56:50):
Back back to back, back.
Speaker 4 (56:52):
To back conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Back to back cut stuff they don't want you to
(57:16):
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