June 23, 2025 • 58 mins
Things are heating up in the Middle East -- as the world studies a possible correlation between pizza orders and US military activity, the United States Air Force and Navy launch the largest B-2 operation in history, striking multiple sites in the nation of Iran. A curious trade group in Ghana protests a new tax regime. Over in Chicago, a long-serving legislator gets popped for frankly cartoonish levels of corruption. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
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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):
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my
name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call b BED. We're joined as always with our
super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want
you to know.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Folks.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
There are a ton of things happening in the news
and around the world today. We are recording on Wednesday,
June eighteenth. This strange news program will publish on June
twenty third, and it's going to be diplomatically put. It's
going to be interesting to see what Monday looks like.
(01:03):
And I'm trying to be positive when we say that.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yeah, not looking good.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Maybe everything will work out.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't know. I like to try to live by
those words, but it doesn't always work out.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
On one thing I think we all kind of predicted
but found confirmed by recent research is that if you're
learning about news outside of this show, then statistically in
the United States, you're learning about it through social media.
So shout out to the recent article by Ian Young's
(01:39):
over at the BBC. Please check it out for read
and guys, I think we all just kind of assumed
that social media was a bigger and bigger source of
quote unquote news for most of the US, right.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, but usually I'm seeing news from news sites on
social med So are we talking about directs who are
just saying things?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Well? Also, I mean, let's just be real here. The
President himself is quite an active social media user and
is very want to make news directly, I think prefers
it that way, and so that is certainly, and also
a lot of members of his party and other politicians,
you know, with Twitter and now of course truth and
Lusky and whatever, there is a direct way for folks
(02:25):
to you know, make news if they wish.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So bite I'm with you, Ben, bite sized, digestible what
we used to call them nuggets, not indigestible at times, right, right,
full of factoids. In fact, we are using that phrase correctly.
Studies show more than half of people in this country
get news from networks like Facebook, x YouTube, the things
we were naming about fifty four percent of the country.
(02:51):
And to your point, Matt, a lot of that is
going to be repurposed clips from other news organizations, right,
things that go viral, And as Mark Twain said, you know,
lie can circle the world twice while the truth is
putting on at shoes. That's the situation where now. So
we want to keep that in mind, right, keep in
(03:13):
mind the idea of misinformation and disinformation as it proliferates.
We're going to explore the world in Tonight's Strange News,
And we were talking off air briefly about this. The
first thing we need to talk about is Iran, Israel
and pizza.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yep, the pizza index right like much like the waffle
house index predicts bad weather that you should really take
note of. This pizza index, which was news to me, Ben,
I think is a way of predicting military action or
at least mega scuttle butt going on in Washington, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And then from there we're going to encounter some shipwrecks,
maybe some hidden history, some legislative corruption, and an unethical
but apparently quite successful aviation hack. All this and more
after the break and we have returned. If you happen
(04:17):
to engage with Twitter or x as Elon Musk prefers
to call it, then we have a follow for you.
It's at penn Pizza Report. The Pentagon Pizza Report is
an open source tracking of pizza order activity around the
Pentagon and other related nearby places. This has become an
(04:41):
unofficial metric similar to that of the waffle House Index,
which we've discussed in the past. A lot of people
will tell you, with some validity that you can make
a loose prediction on upcoming US military action based on
an increase in pizza orders to these military installations. First off,
(05:05):
you know, Noel, you said this was kind of new
to you. Matt, did this ring a bell for you?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I've heard you guys mentioned there been at least
you mentioned this Pizza index multiple times. But I love
the concept. I think it's pretty brilliant. Somebody, I don't
know whose idea it was, do we know? Because it's
a smart move.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, you can always count on someone with a crazy
love of a specific thing to end up, you know,
loopholing our usual channels of public communication. It reminds me
of the guy who got in trouble for mapping all
of Musk's flights on his private plane.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, this is of course private, playing public record yes,
must carry problem with that. It also reminds me of
the way you can get a lot of accuracy in
predicting news events by checking out the line betting markets.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because people in Vegas and online
will bet on darn near anything. They'll bet on whether
or not you think they're going to bet on something,
you know what I mean, They'll take those odds.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
But guys, just help me, just really clarify this for me.
Sure in my mind, this is stating that someone somewhere
in or near the Pentagon or the White House is
ordering a bunch of pizza because everybody's got to stick
around and have a late meeting of sex idea.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, kind of situation room stuff. It's it's a Cold
War era theory and it's been around for a while.
It has very recently resurfaced. This is getting us into
the story we wanted to talk about, you know, the
scary one. So we started with the fun part first.
(06:51):
Since the Cold War, there's been this theory that waxes
and wanes in popularity and says you can get a
rough spidy sense of what the US is going to
do in global crisis situations or predict US action abroad
by correlating pizza orders near the Pentagon. And this worked
(07:15):
for a while back, especially before the age of ubiquitous information,
people were able to, you know, buy hook or by crook,
get the information from pizza shop operators literally in the
DC area and surrounding the DoD. So recently there's been
renewed interest in this Pentagon pizza index. If you follow
(07:38):
the theory then you'll see a lot of proponents arguing
it has accurately predicted twenty one global crises since well
since the Cold War, and people are worried it maybe
predicting something like World War three right now?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Oh jeez, say that. My initial question was where do
they get hitting this data? And I get it completely now.
You could look at Google Business results and see high
traffic times or real time reports of people checking in,
et cetera. Which makes a lot of sense why this
would be easier to track. And I gotta wonder how
they did it in the Cold War days. Are they
(08:15):
just like hanging out at pizza places and like monitoring.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Visually with.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Newspapers? Don't quite get it. It may well have been
more of a boots on the ground situation, very much so.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The pizza operators were probably the like, the primary source
for that. But I have another twist to this. I
wanted to ask you guys about, all Right, if this works,
if we know it works, if the public knows it works, right,
and anybody can follow anyone on Twitter or accounts like this,
then is it possible that the boffins at the Pentagon
(08:50):
are aware of this and maybe manipulating things a little bit?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Now, Yeah, you can do your door dash from random places,
and you've got to set up some kind of randomization
algorithm of where you get food from.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Also, I guess pizza is kind of the ultimate community
takeout food or order delivery food, you know, because you
can get like cheese and then like, you know, a
little bit for everybody's not forget. There's also like chiny taco.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Handheld things, subway sandwiches. There used to be a subway
in the Pentagon. I'm sure they got busy at different times.
But the reason people are focusing on this now is
due to the ongoing escalation of the conflict between Israel
and Iran. With some incredibly strange and unorthodox signals coming
(09:44):
from the leadership of the United States, the world has
been following this, you can easily see timelines of the escalation,
but it's important to remember this is a new chapter
in something that dates back decades and decades and decades.
We are well aware that this can be an incredibly
(10:07):
sensitive subject for a lot of people, so we want
to just give you the facts. I think, like a
lot of us who are not following the pizza index,
we got the news when Israel bombed a rot right,
that's when That's when the news hit for the West.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, it was when Nen y'allo made a public statement
about what was happening.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
And at least that's when I heard about it.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, No, same for you.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah. I honestly, we had a production call yesterday and
I had really only heard rumblings and then you kind
of filled me in on some of the details. I
think one thing that we all thought was a little
unusual back to the whole social media thing, is some
tea kind of being spilled out of school couple of
(11:00):
fronts Trump himself. But I also wanted to mention that
you guys are ask if you saw this interview that
Tucker Carlson did with Ted Cruz where Tucker Carlson goes
to town on that man and and like takes him
to task about like knowing the population of Iran and
the cultural makeup of Iran. And then Cruz basically believes
(11:24):
that that the leader of Iran is trying to have
Trump killed, and he supports that by saying, well, we
are doing something about it. We are launching a strike
with a ooh sorry with Israel. They're doing it, We're helping.
It was some real accidental speaking out of school stuff.
And then Trump did the whole thing about We're not
(11:45):
going to kill the leader, but we could maybe real.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Weird weaponized ambiguity, also going on social media and telling
telling the it is the civilians of Tehran to evacuate immediately.
This latest iteration of this long running, deeply seated conflict
began on June thirteenth, twenty twenty five, so just a
(12:12):
few days ago, the IDF struck Iran in an operation
code named Rising Lion. The Israeli government says this series
of strikes was a response to Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, because there were talks, right, they were in specific
nuclear deal talks which broke down and they it was
literally within what a day or two of those talks
breaking down that the strikes occurred.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yes, yeah, Iran. In Israel, we're relatively friendly until nineteen
seventy nine and have been geopolitical rivals and about enemies
ever since. So the big question, as any the non
proliferation researcher will tell you, the big question is how
(13:06):
close can this country get to acquiring nuclear weapons. The
government of Israel is saying that Rising Lion was necessary
because if they did not strike when they did, when
those talks broke down, then the country would have inevitably
and quickly made enough uranium weapon grade enough for fifteen
(13:30):
nuclear weapons.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
And this is about targeting these enrichment facilities, right.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yes, enrichment facilities, also specific individuals with expertise, and then
and then also political officials. The chief of staff died
in one of these targeted attacks over this space of conflict.
That's about six days in as we record, got replaced
(13:54):
by another chief of staff, and then that guy got
killed as well. That's very quick turnover.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, a little bit of an update. I just saw
a time article. Iran's Supreme leader calls out Trump and
threatens irreparable damage if US joins the Israeli conflict, and
according to Ted Cruz, that's exactly what's happening. So that's
not good.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Well, but but again, you've got it's so tough to
know if any of the signals coming from the White
House are real or if they're diversionary tactics or some
kind of play. As we've stated many a time on
this show, specifically, Ben Or remember you talking to us
about that. Is it Is it a tactic of a deal,
right that's attempting to be made by putting out false information?
(14:41):
Or is it something that we can trust because I
remember seeing something specifically, I think it was all caps
unconditional surrender or something like that, right, Yeah. And then oh,
but we're also in talks. Oh, but they've really got
to they got to stop now. And then as we
logged into record, there's another headline that another I believe
social media message that stated, oh, the leader of Iran
(15:05):
has reached out and wants to talk.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, yeah, And just really quickly, part of this statement
that the leader of Iran Kamani made, he says directly
to Trump, the US President threatens us with his absurd rhetoric.
He demands that the Iranian people surrender to him. They
should make threats against those who are afraid of being threatened.
The Iranian nation isn't frightened by such threats.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, And part of a statement he also made today,
as we record, was that Israel has made a has
committed a grave mistake, and will face the repercussions. Iran
will not tolerate any breach of its airspace. So we've
mentioned before how sometimes the quite often public statements don't
(15:50):
match the private conversations that world leaders and their staff
and their diplomats will have behind closed doors. So the
whispers were in the wind over the past few days
that Ran was saying one thing publicly, and then as
you said, Matt was reaching out through back channels and saying, hey,
let's figure out how to de escalate this. A lot
(16:14):
of people who have studied the military and governmental makeup
of the current rounding government, they'll tell you there are
some systemic flaws in the system. One of those flaws,
arguably would be that it is a theocracy. So a
lot of people who are in decision making or war
(16:34):
fighting positions of leadership, they don't have military qualifications, they
have theocratic qualifications, right, so they may request things that
you know, your ordinary military guy would consider non starters,
would consider infeasible for any number of logistical issues, or
(16:57):
you know, they be aware of knock on and consequences.
But while all this is occurring, there are again innocent
people throughout the region who are in just a terrible situation.
You know, some of these folks have nowhere to go, right,
they have to sit there and hope that the bombs
don't hit them.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Well, in this notion of evacuating, it's a lot more
difficult than just that. I've seen videos of obviously just
absolute bumper to bumper traffic the way out of the cities.
So it's just, yeah, it's not it's I get the
purpose of saying something like that, though Trump has never
really fancied himself to be like the bearer of empathy,
(17:42):
but it does seem to be directed in that way,
kind of right to act as though he's thinking about
the Iranian people.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, And the thing that is, I think another evolution
here in the way this administration community is that it
didn't come out as you know, an official statement from
the DoD or the White House official press release. First,
it came out as the literal president of the United
(18:12):
States on social media, like you were saying. So it's
very it's a very stark change from public communication of
the past. This happens as the USS Nimitz strike group
is moving toward the Middle East, and as right as
we were going in to record today, the government of
(18:33):
Iran just announced a soft blockade of or moves, which
we discussed in our episode on the most recently on
lost civilization in the Persian Gulf, important shipping route.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yes, vital oh, let's keep it.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It's the best word for it.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, And I think you even mentioned something about that
when we last recorded, Ben, You're like, well, let's see
if they take the stray of our moves, and then
you mentioned that would be one of the things that
the US would try to prevent or or you know,
break if that were to happen. That's yeah, that makes
sense to me.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, the issue, yeah, I agree with you, it could
be a massive escalation. What we mean by a soft
blockade is the idea that only not that they're stopping everything,
but that only Iranian approved vessels can traverse that space.
(19:34):
So from their statement, you know, theoretically you could say, hey,
I know we're not getting along right now, But can
I have some gas? Just like time out real quick
for the gas? Okay, time in, Thank you guys, back
at it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But that's also one of the necessary resources to stage
an attack, right, So it's why would you do that?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, Now we're messing with the money, which goes beyond
the ideology, right. The money is something that everybody can
get behind, right or use as a rationale. And again
we're just giving you the facts. And the issue right
now is that for consumers of news in the West
(20:17):
and abroad, you're going to have to be very careful
to sort of triangulate the truth because there are a
lot of angles to some of this reporting. It's no secret,
by the way, that the US often has a hard
anti Iran slant when they're reporting the news, right. Like
(20:38):
we talked about it before, one of the old red
flags that you could always use to tip your spidy
sense was seeing a US journalist describe something as a
government or as a regime. If it's a government, then
the US kind of approves. If it's a regime, they're
(20:59):
on a list short and dangerousness. Yeah, it's like thirty
percent of the world's fossil fuels or liquid natural gas.
A huge amount goes through the Strait, and China and
Japan in particular are reliant on those exports to keep
that spice flowing. So obviously the question in the room
(21:22):
before we move on, and we've got a lot of
stuff to get to is going to be this for
a lot of people, How soon and to what degree
will this affect gas prices? That's honestly what a lot
of people are thinking, are wondering, you know, And.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Is this the kind of thing too that moves the
market like I mean, I guess there's futures, bets and
things like that being made on you know, commodities like gas,
but you do tend to see market movement whenever there's
you know, scuttle butt of this magnitude as well.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Good time to own a pizza shop in DC, I guess,
so trying to find something positive there and that is
the best we can do.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
What's the scary pizza shop in PC?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh, the Pizza Gate pizza. Yeah, So right now, this
is a situation that the world has its eyes on.
Please let us know your takes. If you are listening
in Israel, if you're listening in Iran. If you're listening
and you happen to be serving in the armed forces
(22:28):
or in some group that may be involved with this conflict,
please be safe.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I hate that we keep having to say. You know,
that old quotation or proverb about elephants and grass. It's
just so true, you know, I think those those are
our thoughts for now. We've got We've got, you know,
scads of energy analysts predictions for price jumps, and we'll
(22:54):
see how that works out at the time. I don't know, man,
It's it's strange news and it's frightening.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, it makes you wonder what the bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists is going to say.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Check on the clock, the clock and Dylan. Before we
get to the break, let's get some breaking news quick update, folks.
On June twenty second, twenty twenty five, the United States
of America hit three facilities in the nation of Iran.
(23:27):
This is including the four Dow uranium Enrichment Plant, the
Natan's Nuclear facility, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. These were
hit with what you would call bunker busters. The attack,
retaining the earlier name Operation Midnight Hammer, is now the
largest B two operational strike in history. As we alluded
(23:51):
to in our earlier original recording, this does trigger action
from Iran and the world waits to see what will
happened in retaliation, and of course, with the straight of
hor moves, be safe out.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
There and we have returned. Fellas. Are you familiar with
an organization called the Ghana Drunkards Association also known as
Beverage Consumers and Bar Owners Association of Ghana.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
You know, I only recently learned of this dole because
I saw, I saw the headline and I had to
check and make sure it wasn't from the Onion.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah for sure, headline being Ghana Drunkards Association goes viral
after pressuring government to lower alcohol prices. This comes on
the heels of the local Ghanian currency surging against the dollar,
which that's a good thing, right if we surge is good,
so that means the values up. That said spite, to
(24:55):
some degree, this has caused some price adjustments and adjustments
to various pricing structures. Is how it is put in
the London Economic Report by Tom on the topic. I
don't know, it's Tom, and I have found this in
multiple plays. I think a lot of this is reprinted
from right. Yeah, it's just yeah, just as Tom. But
(25:19):
this is very much real and the organization has put
out a call to the newly elected President of Ghana
and a very colorfully signed we'll get to that minute
memo directly to the President of Ghana and it reads
as follows, we the members of the above stated group
letterhead as exactly as I said, the Beverage Consumers and
(25:40):
Bar Owners Association of Ghana and parentheses gone a drunkard association,
wish to extend our congratulatory message. Let's start.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Let's let's let's you know, flatter here and there we go. President.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That's right, h E. John Dromani Mohamma and the entire
National Democratic Congress Fraternity for the landslide victory in the
just into twenty twenty four general election. The group is
further wishing the transitional team from both the political divide,
which is the NBC and the MPP, smooth transition in
(26:13):
good faith and transparency. There we go. Let's get to
the meat of it with the above. Notwithstanding, mister President,
bear in mind that the landslide victory you chalked is
unprecedented in the fourth Republic of the country and a
clear manifestation of the desire of the masses calling for
change in political administration of the country due to several
(26:35):
factors that negatively affected their socioeconomic lifestyle in the outgoing administration.
Mister President, as you take office by seventh January twenty
twenty five, bear in mind that the populace would hold
you and your administration accountable on all promises you had
in your social contract party manifesto with us and anything
aside that shall not be accepted. Now we're getting real casual,
(26:58):
mister presu. We are aware of the daunting task ahead
of you and your team, and we assure you of
our prayers and anticipation that our plight shall be ameliorated
in the coming days as a reduction in taxes on
alcoholic beverage company producers likely to also positively affect our pockets.
(27:20):
We hope that's our message finds you well, sir, Our
commander in chief, yours faithfully moses, oh no, yeah, drybone,
and he assigns it with a little stick figure holding
like a Martini glass. Some little squiggle looks like he's
got like, I don't know what this squiggle is attached
to a circle. I don't know what that's supposed to be,
but yeah, it's I gotta give them props for how
(27:43):
aeradyite and politically minded this statement is. It's easy to
want to dunk on, you know, the idea of a
drunkard's association, but they it takes them a minute to
get to their actual demands.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I have to say, I know that they state this
association that is sixteen plus million members.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Crazy, dude, it's crazy that they say that, because apparently
I was reading on a Reddit thread that y'all may
have seen as well. I think I linked to in
the doc. Some eagle eyed redditors looked for social media
presence in this organization. It could only find a Facebook
page with like seven hundred followers.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's what I was looking at.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, so somebody points out the way they put it
is really funny. Let's see if someone does by the
way I mentioned, this is an objectively funny and very
ununy headline. They essentially say that they think the organization
is uh, let's just politely or diplomatically say inflating their numbers.
And they point out that, yeah, so sixteen point sixty
(28:49):
five million members the total population of Ghana's around thirty
three point seven million yees. The working age population age
fifteen to sixty five was eighteen million, six hundred and
nineteenery twenty one in twenty twenty one. This means something
like eighty nine percent of the adult population of Ghana
is in the Drunkards Association.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
This is here's how you do it. Here's how you
goose that one. They may be counting everybody who has
ever walked into a bar in the history of Ghana, like, welcome,
you're a member. Here's a PBR. Not complementary, though, you're
gonna have to pay us.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
A lovely Reddit name. By the way, salacious verbacious. That's
great props to that had this to say, maybe they're
doing a membership counting strategy like the Catholic Church where
anyone who is baptized automatically becomes a member for life.
Definitely some creative math. His comments are gold. By the way, Well,
they're passionate and using their platform for the greater good.
(29:42):
I suppose Ghana sounds like a fun place to visit.
Let's see one more. That was fun, But thinking about
it further, it's quite interesting as well. How it reflects
a view of collective bargaining and group identification beyond the
usual sociopolitical groupings we are used to seeing. And that
is a really good point. God, that's just a good point. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, the possibility of protest or strikes.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
That is what they're calling for. I bury them there.
They are calling for action, which wasn't mentioned in the
actual statement, but that is essentially the takeaway is that
there they don't get what they want, They're gonna they're
gonna stage some sort of massive protest or with a
three week time window. That's exactly right. Yeah, less reddit comment.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he'll just sit on
(30:25):
his boat drinking beers and complaining all day. Don't teach
a man to fish. He's a grown man. And fishing
is not that hard. That's all I got, y'all.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I guess it does get more difficult the more alcohol
you can sume.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, I don't know. It depends on the kind of fishing.
Deep sea fishing probably more difficult, but.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It's nothing as difficult. It requires patience, though, and it
does make me think of the expression shooting fish in
a barrel, which also doesn't necessarily seem like it would
be as easy, as people point out, depends on the
size of the fish and the size of the barrel,
And it just never made sense that if you already
have the fish in the barrel, why would you shoot them? Yeah,
that just seems like adding insults injury, doesn't it welcome
(31:06):
to overthinking? For sure, that's kind of what we do
here on stuff they don't want you to know. So, yeah,
they're threatening this demonstration a three week deadline in order
to have their demands. Matt. Local media reports that the
association will mobilize millions. Again, I don't know if they've
got the man power, but we'll see to stage a
mass demonstration. And that's about as far as they take
(31:29):
it in terms of the party it does.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Are going, Are we get to raise protest?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Let's book, let's book our trips to Ghana right away?
Last thing, though their newfound viral fame has exposed them
to a global audience, the Drunkards Association have their fans
back home. Moses Ohaya or Annoyaya raised a few eyebrows
with the signature back in December, signing off on a
communication with this exceptional signature. Sorry, that was the statement
(31:58):
I read That was a little ways back. So this
is a new initiative, but it does seem that it's
very much tied to this statement that I read, So
that is where the funny little squiggly signature comes from. Yeah,
don't really have much else on that one, and I
did just want to point out a couple of quick things.
There have been some fascinating archaeological discoveries in Syria. A
(32:19):
contractor stumbled upon a complex of Byzantine tombs under a
residential area. This is from Marat al Numan in Syria.
From the ap A contractor digging into the earth where
the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away
in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise, the remains of
an underground Byzantine tomb complex, believed to be more than
(32:42):
one five hundred years old. Discovery emerged last month in
the town of Marat al Numan in Idlib Province, which
is strategically located on the route between the cities of
Aleppo and Damascus. The community became a touch point in
the early fourteen year SII in the Civil War that
ended with the fall of former President Basharas in a
lightning rebel offensive in December. We're talking about like engraved stones,
(33:08):
all kinds of archaeological goodies to be had. A sod
sees this area from the opposition to his regime in
twenty twenty and the houses there that had been built
were looted and destroyed, which is what has led to
the sifting through the rubble and the discovery of this tomb.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Which may well have remained undiscovered for another several centuries,
maybe another thousand years, were it not for this horrific conflict.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
One hundred percent. Yeah, and you know an interesting knock
on effect of these type of conflicts that I think
is interesting in and of itself. The unearthing of these
types of artifacts, I think is fascinating to all of us.
And we do have one more quick my mystery solved.
In a recent article from Archaeology News, new evidence points
(34:04):
to world's richest shipwreck. In seventeen oh eight, a Spanish
galleon called the San Jose left Portobello, Panama, bound for
Cartina are Cartagania, Colombia, with two hundred tons of gold, silver,
and priceless artifacts and gems on board, and it was
(34:26):
it was the flagship of the Spanish chare A firm
A fleet and it was intercepted by British vessels and
sunk off the coast of Cartagania. Colombian authorities about ten
years ago believe they had discovered this wreck, the world's
largest shipwreck. But recent reports have shown that through analyzing
(34:48):
these very specific types of coins that are littered across
the seafloor, known as cobs, they've determined that they were
in fact minted in Lima, Peru in seventeen seven. And
this is a statement from one of the investigators. The
finding of cobs created in seventeen oh seven of the
Lima mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra firm
(35:09):
A route in the early eighteenth century. This is from
Daniella Vargas. Ariza is the lead researcher on the project.
She goes on the San Jose galleon is the only
ship that matches these characteristics and yeah, so this is
potentially a billion dollar find once you know if. And
it made me think too. It is like the idea
(35:31):
of antiquities being priceless and how things are valued, and
it all is kind of based on collector markets at
the end of the day, right, so in terms of
how much this would ultimately be valued at, not necessarily
the product of the actual modern day value of the
precious materials, but it, you know, figures into this whole
(35:51):
notion of like what the collector value is or what
the you know, value to museums and such might be.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
It was just about to say it belongs it a museum,
shout out to Indiana.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
But I just yeah, it's all this stuff is fascinating,
So I don't know. Then you had also mentioned there
was another famous shipwreck that was recently discovered, and we
thought maybe there was some crossover, but I think, oh,
Captain what.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Was it, Captain Kirk's.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
That's different.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
That would be a cooler ship to find if the
Enterprise was somehow.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Found on the sea floor off the coast of Rhode Island.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, Captain cook ship, the HMS Endeavor, sank two hundred
and fifty years ago during the Revolutionary War or the
War four Independence, or as our British friends call it,
the Peasants stink.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I don't know that one. Did you make that up?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah? Yeah, probably got it. No, David Attenburrough. Sure we'll
tag it on there, but that that's just a fascinating
piece of perhaps ridiculous history. And in both of these cases,
you know what I think we all find amazing is
it shows just how much stuff is.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Under the water.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Still there are still shipwrecks out there. I know not
everybody is a fan of James Cameron, but he's onto something, right.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Yeah, he's definitely cornered the market on the deepest of
sea exploration for sure. Leave it at that, guys, Let's
take a quick break. Hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll come back with Matt Frederick's pieces of
strange news.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Boom, we've returned.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I'm that guy, I think. Still, Oh we know, are
you him?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I might be him. Let's talk about some stuff, guys.
We've got a fellow here named Michael Madigan. The name
sounds really familiar. I don't think he's as well known
as perhaps the authors of this particular AP news piece
believe he is, but his name might be familiar to you.
(38:00):
He is one of the if not the longest serving
politicians forever, maybe the longest serving legislative leader in the
United States, around fifty years of service to the public. Right,
This is a man who served as a speaker, as
(38:24):
in like a speaker of the house. Fellow. He he
got in trouble, guys, he got in some big trouble.
Two and a half million dollar fine and a seven
and a half year prison sentence for a bunch of things. Yeah,
specifically ten counts of things. He was convicted in February
(38:48):
on ten counts of things like bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, damn. Yeah,
and a bunch of other charges that are associated with
him basically getting favors and positions for his friends.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Cookie jar crimes not violent crime.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yes, there's all white collar stuff here, guys. Yeah, dating
back how far? Uh, dating back for I think twenty years.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, if they.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Got like conspiracy, this was this was a long time
in coming, right, because there's there's a high bar to
prove some of that. And Matt, how long did you say?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
The prison sentence is seven and a half years.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
He's going to that prison they're putting tough.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
That's pretty tough for an eighty three year old man.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Wow, that's life.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a life, not that it really
is not the best one. No, we we talked about
it's so weird that this came up. I want to
say I may have seen part of this headline that
I don't know much about it, and like a lot
of us, like you were saying, Matt, I'm not super
familiar with Madigan nor his work, but something inspired me,
(39:58):
probably this headline to relist. Listen to our two part
episode on lobbying, and it is scary how well it
holds up. Yes, like this is a so Michael Joseph
Madigan definitely was a dark money lobby alec friendly dude,
would we.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Say, yeah, yeah, specifically he's in Illinois. By the way,
We've heard a lot of things over the years about
Chicago specifically and about politics in Illinois, and it appears
that mister Madigan was taken part in a lot of
that stuff, the rumors you know that go around and
then the rare, rare I would say, individual who ends
(40:37):
up getting a prison sentence or a slap on the
wrist for the kind of corruption that we're talking about here.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Yeah, and he was and is of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yes, oh, yes, he was chairperson of the Illinois Democratic Party,
which again just a reminder that yeah, no matter who
you believe in what you believe, what your political thing is.
Everybody that gets to a certain level is susceptible to
this kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I would just love to say once more, I don't
like or trust either of them.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I like money, though, Yeah, shout out to deocracy.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Boy.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Both sides of this coin are kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Well, you know, the best way for me to check
on that for you is if you give me like
five more coins.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
That's a great, great idea.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Patronage, right, nepotism, old school Chicago corruption as deep as
the pizza up there.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
I mean, it's like and the fact that we have
this two party system is jacked up in and of itself.
And I truly don't identify with either party. I just
want to make that really clear. I think both are
I trust them about as far as I can throw them.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I'm super into I'm super into that practice. We received
some correspondence about this, that practice of local municipalities electing
non human animals positions of leadership. You know, like this
you know has been a great mayor and a good boy.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
So let's just I've loved that line, Ben about as
deep as the pizza that I don't want that to
go by. I really really like that. We're just we're
getting toward Seriously, I'm hungry too, So just let's think
think about this. Imagine this in your mind. This man
was in the legislature there in Illinois, through the reins
(42:29):
of seven different governors, seven different leaders in the executive
side of Illinois were there while he was standing watch right,
So you can just imagine the number of hands that
he is shaked, you know, and the number of well, yeah,
the number of deals he negotiated, the number of things,
(42:50):
like you stat if you could visualize and stack up
all of those negotiations and talks and all that stuff,
and then only imagine that there were a teeny tiny
layer on top of that that is the corrupt stuff
that he's being charged. For sure, it's probably way not
as bad as a lot of the stuff that's occurred,
at least when I'm looking through the writing on this
(43:12):
from AP. It's just it does stink that once you have,
once you have that power to go through those negotiations,
to make those deals and make those you know, decisions,
you are gonna get pressured in so many ways, and
you're gonna make decisions that not everybody's gonna like, but
are gonna benefit a few people, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You get that reputation that is honestly past a certain threshold.
It's a political You get regarded as the guy who,
for better or worse, can get things done, you know
what I mean? Like, hey, red Tape, that's for the
other dudes.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
You and me.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
We can you know, well we have special we can
drop that. Let's get some fetichini and talk this through.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Well yeah, but at some point it doesn't it feel
to you guys like this is just how it gets done.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
One hundred, no question, unless the mayor is a dog
or maybe a cat. I don't know. I wouldn't trust
a cat in politics.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Joking, maybe diabolical. You wouldn't stand a chance.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
We're just saying the humans have some structural flaws and
more and more. You know, it's fascinating to look at
this gentleman's career. Starting your political sort of ascension when
you're just twenty seven is massively impressive. And it sounds
like he was already involved in campaigns well well before then,
(44:34):
so he's definitely a career man. Has he made a
statement for his lawyers.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I'm sure they've made many statements during the trial. It
was at least the defense was this man needs to
go home. He needs to be at home so he
can take care of his spouse. You know, there was
a video from her that was played during the trial,
like leading, you know, hey, please, I need my husband
(45:00):
and like what like.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Maybe asking for house arrests or something a little more lenient.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, they're looking for like some kind of commuted sentence
in a fine and like make that stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
But that is not That's not what the judge decided there.
Do you think they made an example of him?
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Kind of?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I mean, we see so much of this and the
people's getting away with it day in and day out.
Very interesting they would target this old fella, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Yeah, the cynical side of us would argue, or would
ask with validity, did he cross somebody? Because he's been
very good at playing this game for quite some time.
And I love the point you're making their noel about
what could be seen as some hypocrisy on the side
(45:46):
of the justice system. We know that the courts have
been struggling lately with a lot of controversial rulings and
with you know, let's say it. They're beefed up with
the executive branch. There's no two ways around it, big time.
But it does sound like it sounds like he did it.
And I think, Matt, you're the bigger question raised is
(46:08):
is this just the way everything gets done?
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Well? It kind of is.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
But guys, there's another article from early early this year
when Michael Madigan was going through another trial involved like
a whole separate trial involved with again allegations of conspiracy.
Then he was using this thing called calm ed.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
The New York Times article right.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
There, there's one of those.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
I'm looking at one specifically from PBS that was written
January twenty second, and it's just about that trial and
the end of that trial and how this utility company
was allegedly paying individuals like that they shouldn't have been
paying a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
So the cookie didn't crumble overnight, it started to cintegrating.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Oh yeah, to me, it sounds like a bunch of
things that got put in place because as speaker, that
position allows you to kind of make the give the
final word on which bills end up coming through, right,
which which bills get do we even get to vote
on right, a legislative body, which, good God, that's power. Yeah,
(47:16):
and it just seems like he used a lot of
that for his own, his own gain.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
I mean, it makes me think back to the whole
uh simple sabotage episode we did, and how that type
of I don't know, you could call it rhetorical sabotage,
I suppose is such part and parcel of the way
parliamentary procedure works. There is it. It's built to fail,
it's designed to be manipulated, and it's not inherently designed
(47:42):
with the best interest of citizens at heart. It just isn't.
Maybe it's designed with their best interest, but the way
it's manipulated and traversed is certainly not as a.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Political yes, because some of the necessary evils or some
of the procedures that are common and are meant to
provide some kind of inarguable benefit, those same procedures and
tactics and rules and bylaws can all be weaponized right
to have a negative effect, and especially you know, in
(48:15):
a two party system, that is a tremendous opportunity for
both sides. It kind of reminds me of how, like
the issue we talked about with gas stations, recently. All
of the same factors that make gas stations incredibly popular
and successful also make them incredibly prone to corruption, conspiracy,
(48:36):
and crime.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yep, yep, guys. We could talk about this a lot,
but let's jump to another quick story before we get
out of here. Do you guys remember somebody named Anne Woodjiski, Yes,
I don't remember. She was the co founder, and she
(48:57):
was the CEO of a little thing called twenty three
and Me, And then we just talked about how twenty
three and Me filed Chapter eleven.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
And then there was.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
A bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that one of you guys
brought up in Strange News pretty recently. For gosh, it
was a lot of money. Yeah, two hundred two hundred
something million dollars that two hundred fifty six million dollars
that they were going to purchase via auction twenty three
(49:27):
and meters and all of its stuff. Well and with
Jiski came through and said, Hey, I know we did
this auction thing. I know it's already complete, Regeneron's got
the stuff, but I'd actually like to do the auction
again because I have this new thing called TTAM Research
Institute and we'd like to make a different bid this
(49:50):
time a bid for three hundred and five million dollars.
And the folks in charge of the auctioning said, you
know what, that sounds better? Then that sounds better th
the one almost fifty million dollars better? So why don't
we reopen it? And now and with Jiski and her
TTAM Research Institute are now the proud reowners of twenty
(50:12):
three and meters.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Of your gently used genetic data. Also, Matt, sorry, I
have that chesure grid on while you're saying this, I'm
just got a weird energy. I just keep thinking of
dirty acronyms for TTAM. Do we have any idea what
it actually stands for?
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, it's it's the words written out twenty three and me.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
Clever clever. That's some real like doctor alu card energy
never figure out doctor acula.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, well that's just a weird, weird situation because you know,
in our previous discussions it was all about well, who
now owns all of this, you know, genetic data, and
what are they going to do with it? And why?
How what's happening? And now it's just the same folks
who are doing it in the first place that are
taking control again or at least some of the same folks.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah, we also talked about the process to remove your
data from twenty three in me, so if you have
concerns about that, folks, please check out our previous Strange
News when we talk about the original Regeneron bankruptcy move
or their attempted acquisition. We also include the instructions for
(51:24):
removing your data.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
If you feel uncomfortable, you.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Should, Guys, have you ever been uncomfortable around a flight attendant?
Speaker 4 (51:33):
No, I'm sorry, there's no way.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
There's no way for me.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
If anything, I'm a little too comfortable because you guys
have seen it. Like, not in a sleazy way. I
just I love sitting in the window seat exit row,
and I admit I am often a bit too enthusiastic
when asked to give a verbal yes.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
You are also really good at chatting up a flight attendant,
Ben that I don't mean that in a creepy way either.
You just ask good questions, especially if we're going somewhere abroad,
and you always get some good recommendations.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
So my hat's on to you, shucks Man's that's the
flight attendants have a very demanding job, as we can
all agree, right, you'd be surprised how how much stuff
they have to put up with and how much they
do or don't get paid. But you do get to
travel the world. There's there's that.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Hey, that's great. That's what we're talking about here, last story.
We're not even going to go through the whole thing.
You should look this up. Don't try it at home though.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Yeah, here's on a plane.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
Well, also, don't do that, especially at an international airport.
You could look this up. I found it on NBC News,
but I think it's on a bunch of other places too.
Look for man convicted of posing as flight attendant to
score over one hundred and twenty free flights, You brilliant bastards. Well,
(52:54):
here's the thing prove. I don't want to spoil it
too much because it is a pretty interesting show. Worry
just how this person, Alex Alexander made his way onto
one hundred and twenty different flights through three or more
different companies. Where there's this special thing y'all that I
didn't know. If you are a flight attendant, you can
(53:15):
get specific seats, sometimes their jump seats. Sometimes they're you know,
unsold seats on planes where you can use your badge
ID number, your date of hire, and who you work for,
and you can get on that flight and it's not
a problem. Nobody cares. You're you're a part of the
team in some way, the general team, and you're good. Well,
(53:37):
this person did work for an airline, they just were
not a flight attendant or a pilot, which are generally
the two classes of people who can make use of
the free flight program. He used other people's data, like
other people's badge numbers and dates of hire, to sneak
on to these flights.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Naughty boy.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Yeah, I love that we're talking a little bit about
this semi secret culture in the world of aviation. Deadhead flights.
You know, that's where a pilot or a flight attendant
or another professional will hop a plane just to get
to their next port of call or.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
The half of this assignment jam band related. I get
it now.
Speaker 3 (54:20):
Okay, Yeah, let's see what Dylan says. He says at
that point, just apply for the flight attendant position. That's
a good points true, also true. How do you get
away with this? I know we don't have too too
much time, but how.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Do you wirefraud is how you get away with it?
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Okay, okay, to be the technical violation.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
Well, yeah, he's using other people's information to get on
these flights.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Well that's the thing though, right because I mean, we
know how hard it is to get onto the flights,
and flight attendants are still subject to verification and the
manifest and all that. You've ever been on a flight
that was delayed because one crew member didn't show up
and that have to redo all the paperwork and everything.
I mean that there's serious business. So this person definitely, Yeah,
why didn't they just get the job? Maybe they didn't qualify?
(55:07):
How did they do it?
Speaker 2 (55:09):
It was thirty different IDs like badge numbers from seven
different airlines, and this person claimed he went through TSA
security like everybody else does. He made it onto the
plane one hundred and twenty times under false free censis,
which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (55:27):
And he had to be I imagine specifically trying to find
identities that were not too far off from him, Like,
you know, does he rock up to the counter and
they say, oh, hello, Samantha Aberdeen nineteen years old? You
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Yeah, I don't know, I don't know how it works.
They don't go into the details here of like how
he actually pulled it off, but he is facing a
maximum of three years of supervised release and a two
hundred and fifty All are fine, That's all I got, guys.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
We can't wait to hear what you have. Folks. Listen,
we know we're covering some amusing stories. We're covering some
very dangerous, disturbing things and that's what strange news is
all about. Thank you for tuning in. This can't happen
without you. We would love to hear from you. So
join the party. Meet us over at the Ghanaian Drunkards
(56:28):
Association protest, which is basically going to be Marty grow
if you're down for it, and then tell us what
tell us you are experiencing your predictions with the Pizza Index,
the looming wars on the horizon, and tell us the
last time you hopped a plane. Find us online, send
us an email, call us on the phone.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
It's right. You can find us at the handle conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook group here
is where it gets crazy, on x FK, Twitter and
on youtubehe we have video content glover for your peruising enjoyment.
On Instagram and TikTok. We're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st d WYTK. When you call in, you've got
three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname and let us
know if we can use your name and message on
the air. It's pretty simple. Just words are the whys.
If any of you have noticed you have been getting
a call back lately, it's because our internal system doesn't
(57:25):
allow for calls anymore. So we are working through the
bugs on that, but hopefully the shadows will reach back
out yeah again sometime.
Speaker 4 (57:36):
In the near future, when we get our ducks in order. There.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
If you want to write to us, we have an
email it is.
Speaker 3 (57:44):
We're the entities who read every piece of correspondence we receive.
It will wear yet, unt afraid. Sometimes the void writes back.
So join us out here in the dark conspiracy at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my
name is Nol.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They call b BED. We're joined as always with our
super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you
are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want
you to know.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Folks.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
There are a ton of things happening in the news
and around the world today. We are recording on Wednesday,
June eighteenth. This strange news program will publish on June
twenty third, and it's going to be diplomatically put. It's
going to be interesting to see what Monday looks like.
(01:03):
And I'm trying to be positive when we say that.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Yeah, not looking good.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Maybe everything will work out.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I don't know. I like to try to live by
those words, but it doesn't always work out.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
On one thing I think we all kind of predicted
but found confirmed by recent research is that if you're
learning about news outside of this show, then statistically in
the United States, you're learning about it through social media.
So shout out to the recent article by Ian Young's
(01:39):
over at the BBC. Please check it out for read
and guys, I think we all just kind of assumed
that social media was a bigger and bigger source of
quote unquote news for most of the US, right.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, but usually I'm seeing news from news sites on
social med So are we talking about directs who are
just saying things?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Well? Also, I mean, let's just be real here. The
President himself is quite an active social media user and
is very want to make news directly, I think prefers
it that way, and so that is certainly, and also
a lot of members of his party and other politicians,
you know, with Twitter and now of course truth and
Lusky and whatever, there is a direct way for folks
(02:25):
to you know, make news if they wish.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So bite I'm with you, Ben, bite sized, digestible what
we used to call them nuggets, not indigestible at times, right, right,
full of factoids. In fact, we are using that phrase correctly.
Studies show more than half of people in this country
get news from networks like Facebook, x YouTube, the things
we were naming about fifty four percent of the country.
(02:51):
And to your point, Matt, a lot of that is
going to be repurposed clips from other news organizations, right,
things that go viral, And as Mark Twain said, you know,
lie can circle the world twice while the truth is
putting on at shoes. That's the situation where now. So
we want to keep that in mind, right, keep in
(03:13):
mind the idea of misinformation and disinformation as it proliferates.
We're going to explore the world in Tonight's Strange News,
And we were talking off air briefly about this. The
first thing we need to talk about is Iran, Israel
and pizza.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yep, the pizza index right like much like the waffle
house index predicts bad weather that you should really take
note of. This pizza index, which was news to me, Ben,
I think is a way of predicting military action or
at least mega scuttle butt going on in Washington, right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
And then from there we're going to encounter some shipwrecks,
maybe some hidden history, some legislative corruption, and an unethical
but apparently quite successful aviation hack. All this and more
after the break and we have returned. If you happen
(04:17):
to engage with Twitter or x as Elon Musk prefers
to call it, then we have a follow for you.
It's at penn Pizza Report. The Pentagon Pizza Report is
an open source tracking of pizza order activity around the
Pentagon and other related nearby places. This has become an
(04:41):
unofficial metric similar to that of the waffle House Index,
which we've discussed in the past. A lot of people
will tell you, with some validity that you can make
a loose prediction on upcoming US military action based on
an increase in pizza orders to these military installations. First off,
(05:05):
you know, Noel, you said this was kind of new
to you. Matt, did this ring a bell for you?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I've heard you guys mentioned there been at least
you mentioned this Pizza index multiple times. But I love
the concept. I think it's pretty brilliant. Somebody, I don't
know whose idea it was, do we know? Because it's
a smart move.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, you can always count on someone with a crazy
love of a specific thing to end up, you know,
loopholing our usual channels of public communication. It reminds me
of the guy who got in trouble for mapping all
of Musk's flights on his private plane.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, this is of course private, playing public record yes,
must carry problem with that. It also reminds me of
the way you can get a lot of accuracy in
predicting news events by checking out the line betting markets.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because people in Vegas and online
will bet on darn near anything. They'll bet on whether
or not you think they're going to bet on something,
you know what I mean, They'll take those odds.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
But guys, just help me, just really clarify this for me.
Sure in my mind, this is stating that someone somewhere
in or near the Pentagon or the White House is
ordering a bunch of pizza because everybody's got to stick
around and have a late meeting of sex idea.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, kind of situation room stuff. It's it's a Cold
War era theory and it's been around for a while.
It has very recently resurfaced. This is getting us into
the story we wanted to talk about, you know, the
scary one. So we started with the fun part first.
(06:51):
Since the Cold War, there's been this theory that waxes
and wanes in popularity and says you can get a
rough spidy sense of what the US is going to
do in global crisis situations or predict US action abroad
by correlating pizza orders near the Pentagon. And this worked
(07:15):
for a while back, especially before the age of ubiquitous information,
people were able to, you know, buy hook or by crook,
get the information from pizza shop operators literally in the
DC area and surrounding the DoD. So recently there's been
renewed interest in this Pentagon pizza index. If you follow
(07:38):
the theory then you'll see a lot of proponents arguing
it has accurately predicted twenty one global crises since well
since the Cold War, and people are worried it maybe
predicting something like World War three right now?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Oh jeez, say that. My initial question was where do
they get hitting this data? And I get it completely now.
You could look at Google Business results and see high
traffic times or real time reports of people checking in,
et cetera. Which makes a lot of sense why this
would be easier to track. And I gotta wonder how
they did it in the Cold War days. Are they
(08:15):
just like hanging out at pizza places and like monitoring.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Visually with.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Newspapers? Don't quite get it. It may well have been
more of a boots on the ground situation, very much so.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The pizza operators were probably the like, the primary source
for that. But I have another twist to this. I
wanted to ask you guys about, all Right, if this works,
if we know it works, if the public knows it works, right,
and anybody can follow anyone on Twitter or accounts like this,
then is it possible that the boffins at the Pentagon
(08:50):
are aware of this and maybe manipulating things a little bit?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Now, Yeah, you can do your door dash from random places,
and you've got to set up some kind of randomization
algorithm of where you get food from.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Also, I guess pizza is kind of the ultimate community
takeout food or order delivery food, you know, because you
can get like cheese and then like, you know, a
little bit for everybody's not forget. There's also like chiny taco.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Handheld things, subway sandwiches. There used to be a subway
in the Pentagon. I'm sure they got busy at different times.
But the reason people are focusing on this now is
due to the ongoing escalation of the conflict between Israel
and Iran. With some incredibly strange and unorthodox signals coming
(09:44):
from the leadership of the United States, the world has
been following this, you can easily see timelines of the escalation,
but it's important to remember this is a new chapter
in something that dates back decades and decades and decades.
We are well aware that this can be an incredibly
(10:07):
sensitive subject for a lot of people, so we want
to just give you the facts. I think, like a
lot of us who are not following the pizza index,
we got the news when Israel bombed a rot right,
that's when That's when the news hit for the West.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, it was when Nen y'allo made a public statement
about what was happening.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
And at least that's when I heard about it.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Yeah, No, same for you.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah. I honestly, we had a production call yesterday and
I had really only heard rumblings and then you kind
of filled me in on some of the details. I
think one thing that we all thought was a little
unusual back to the whole social media thing, is some
tea kind of being spilled out of school couple of
(11:00):
fronts Trump himself. But I also wanted to mention that
you guys are ask if you saw this interview that
Tucker Carlson did with Ted Cruz where Tucker Carlson goes
to town on that man and and like takes him
to task about like knowing the population of Iran and
the cultural makeup of Iran. And then Cruz basically believes
(11:24):
that that the leader of Iran is trying to have
Trump killed, and he supports that by saying, well, we
are doing something about it. We are launching a strike
with a ooh sorry with Israel. They're doing it, We're helping.
It was some real accidental speaking out of school stuff.
And then Trump did the whole thing about We're not
(11:45):
going to kill the leader, but we could maybe real.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Weird weaponized ambiguity, also going on social media and telling
telling the it is the civilians of Tehran to evacuate immediately.
This latest iteration of this long running, deeply seated conflict
began on June thirteenth, twenty twenty five, so just a
(12:12):
few days ago, the IDF struck Iran in an operation
code named Rising Lion. The Israeli government says this series
of strikes was a response to Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, because there were talks, right, they were in specific
nuclear deal talks which broke down and they it was
literally within what a day or two of those talks
breaking down that the strikes occurred.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yes, yeah, Iran. In Israel, we're relatively friendly until nineteen
seventy nine and have been geopolitical rivals and about enemies
ever since. So the big question, as any the non
proliferation researcher will tell you, the big question is how
(13:06):
close can this country get to acquiring nuclear weapons. The
government of Israel is saying that Rising Lion was necessary
because if they did not strike when they did, when
those talks broke down, then the country would have inevitably
and quickly made enough uranium weapon grade enough for fifteen
(13:30):
nuclear weapons.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
And this is about targeting these enrichment facilities, right.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Yes, enrichment facilities, also specific individuals with expertise, and then
and then also political officials. The chief of staff died
in one of these targeted attacks over this space of conflict.
That's about six days in as we record, got replaced
(13:54):
by another chief of staff, and then that guy got
killed as well. That's very quick turnover.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah, a little bit of an update. I just saw
a time article. Iran's Supreme leader calls out Trump and
threatens irreparable damage if US joins the Israeli conflict, and
according to Ted Cruz, that's exactly what's happening. So that's
not good.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Well, but but again, you've got it's so tough to
know if any of the signals coming from the White
House are real or if they're diversionary tactics or some
kind of play. As we've stated many a time on
this show, specifically, Ben Or remember you talking to us
about that. Is it Is it a tactic of a deal,
right that's attempting to be made by putting out false information?
(14:41):
Or is it something that we can trust because I
remember seeing something specifically, I think it was all caps
unconditional surrender or something like that, right, Yeah. And then oh,
but we're also in talks. Oh, but they've really got
to they got to stop now. And then as we
logged into record, there's another headline that another I believe
social media message that stated, oh, the leader of Iran
(15:05):
has reached out and wants to talk.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Yeah, yeah, And just really quickly, part of this statement
that the leader of Iran Kamani made, he says directly
to Trump, the US President threatens us with his absurd rhetoric.
He demands that the Iranian people surrender to him. They
should make threats against those who are afraid of being threatened.
The Iranian nation isn't frightened by such threats.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, And part of a statement he also made today,
as we record, was that Israel has made a has
committed a grave mistake, and will face the repercussions. Iran
will not tolerate any breach of its airspace. So we've
mentioned before how sometimes the quite often public statements don't
(15:50):
match the private conversations that world leaders and their staff
and their diplomats will have behind closed doors. So the
whispers were in the wind over the past few days
that Ran was saying one thing publicly, and then as
you said, Matt was reaching out through back channels and saying, hey,
let's figure out how to de escalate this. A lot
(16:14):
of people who have studied the military and governmental makeup
of the current rounding government, they'll tell you there are
some systemic flaws in the system. One of those flaws,
arguably would be that it is a theocracy. So a
lot of people who are in decision making or war
(16:34):
fighting positions of leadership, they don't have military qualifications, they
have theocratic qualifications, right, so they may request things that
you know, your ordinary military guy would consider non starters,
would consider infeasible for any number of logistical issues, or
(16:57):
you know, they be aware of knock on and consequences.
But while all this is occurring, there are again innocent
people throughout the region who are in just a terrible situation.
You know, some of these folks have nowhere to go, right,
they have to sit there and hope that the bombs
don't hit them.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Well, in this notion of evacuating, it's a lot more
difficult than just that. I've seen videos of obviously just
absolute bumper to bumper traffic the way out of the cities.
So it's just, yeah, it's not it's I get the
purpose of saying something like that, though Trump has never
really fancied himself to be like the bearer of empathy,
(17:42):
but it does seem to be directed in that way,
kind of right to act as though he's thinking about
the Iranian people.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, And the thing that is, I think another evolution
here in the way this administration community is that it
didn't come out as you know, an official statement from
the DoD or the White House official press release. First,
it came out as the literal president of the United
(18:12):
States on social media, like you were saying. So it's
very it's a very stark change from public communication of
the past. This happens as the USS Nimitz strike group
is moving toward the Middle East, and as right as
we were going in to record today, the government of
(18:33):
Iran just announced a soft blockade of or moves, which
we discussed in our episode on the most recently on
lost civilization in the Persian Gulf, important shipping route.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Yes, vital oh, let's keep it.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It's the best word for it.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, And I think you even mentioned something about that
when we last recorded, Ben, You're like, well, let's see
if they take the stray of our moves, and then
you mentioned that would be one of the things that
the US would try to prevent or or you know,
break if that were to happen. That's yeah, that makes
sense to me.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Well, the issue, yeah, I agree with you, it could
be a massive escalation. What we mean by a soft
blockade is the idea that only not that they're stopping everything,
but that only Iranian approved vessels can traverse that space.
(19:34):
So from their statement, you know, theoretically you could say, hey,
I know we're not getting along right now, But can
I have some gas? Just like time out real quick
for the gas? Okay, time in, Thank you guys, back
at it.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But that's also one of the necessary resources to stage
an attack, right, So it's why would you do that?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, Now we're messing with the money, which goes beyond
the ideology, right. The money is something that everybody can
get behind, right or use as a rationale. And again
we're just giving you the facts. And the issue right
now is that for consumers of news in the West
(20:17):
and abroad, you're going to have to be very careful
to sort of triangulate the truth because there are a
lot of angles to some of this reporting. It's no secret,
by the way, that the US often has a hard
anti Iran slant when they're reporting the news, right. Like
(20:38):
we talked about it before, one of the old red
flags that you could always use to tip your spidy
sense was seeing a US journalist describe something as a
government or as a regime. If it's a government, then
the US kind of approves. If it's a regime, they're
(20:59):
on a list short and dangerousness. Yeah, it's like thirty
percent of the world's fossil fuels or liquid natural gas.
A huge amount goes through the Strait, and China and
Japan in particular are reliant on those exports to keep
that spice flowing. So obviously the question in the room
(21:22):
before we move on, and we've got a lot of
stuff to get to is going to be this for
a lot of people, How soon and to what degree
will this affect gas prices? That's honestly what a lot
of people are thinking, are wondering, you know, And.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Is this the kind of thing too that moves the
market like I mean, I guess there's futures, bets and
things like that being made on you know, commodities like gas,
but you do tend to see market movement whenever there's
you know, scuttle butt of this magnitude as well.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Good time to own a pizza shop in DC, I guess,
so trying to find something positive there and that is
the best we can do.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
What's the scary pizza shop in PC?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Oh, the Pizza Gate pizza. Yeah, So right now, this
is a situation that the world has its eyes on.
Please let us know your takes. If you are listening
in Israel, if you're listening in Iran. If you're listening
and you happen to be serving in the armed forces
(22:28):
or in some group that may be involved with this conflict,
please be safe.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I hate that we keep having to say. You know,
that old quotation or proverb about elephants and grass. It's
just so true, you know, I think those those are
our thoughts for now. We've got We've got, you know,
scads of energy analysts predictions for price jumps, and we'll
(22:54):
see how that works out at the time. I don't know, man,
It's it's strange news and it's frightening.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, it makes you wonder what the bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists is going to say.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Check on the clock, the clock and Dylan. Before we
get to the break, let's get some breaking news quick update, folks.
On June twenty second, twenty twenty five, the United States
of America hit three facilities in the nation of Iran.
(23:27):
This is including the four Dow uranium Enrichment Plant, the
Natan's Nuclear facility, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. These were
hit with what you would call bunker busters. The attack,
retaining the earlier name Operation Midnight Hammer, is now the
largest B two operational strike in history. As we alluded
(23:51):
to in our earlier original recording, this does trigger action
from Iran and the world waits to see what will
happened in retaliation, and of course, with the straight of
hor moves, be safe out.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
There and we have returned. Fellas. Are you familiar with
an organization called the Ghana Drunkards Association also known as
Beverage Consumers and Bar Owners Association of Ghana.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
You know, I only recently learned of this dole because
I saw, I saw the headline and I had to
check and make sure it wasn't from the Onion.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Yeah for sure, headline being Ghana Drunkards Association goes viral
after pressuring government to lower alcohol prices. This comes on
the heels of the local Ghanian currency surging against the dollar,
which that's a good thing, right if we surge is good,
so that means the values up. That said spite, to
(24:55):
some degree, this has caused some price adjustments and adjustments
to various pricing structures. Is how it is put in
the London Economic Report by Tom on the topic. I
don't know, it's Tom, and I have found this in
multiple plays. I think a lot of this is reprinted
from right. Yeah, it's just yeah, just as Tom. But
(25:19):
this is very much real and the organization has put
out a call to the newly elected President of Ghana
and a very colorfully signed we'll get to that minute
memo directly to the President of Ghana and it reads
as follows, we the members of the above stated group
letterhead as exactly as I said, the Beverage Consumers and
(25:40):
Bar Owners Association of Ghana and parentheses gone a drunkard association,
wish to extend our congratulatory message. Let's start.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Let's let's let's you know, flatter here and there we go. President.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That's right, h E. John Dromani Mohamma and the entire
National Democratic Congress Fraternity for the landslide victory in the
just into twenty twenty four general election. The group is
further wishing the transitional team from both the political divide,
which is the NBC and the MPP, smooth transition in
(26:13):
good faith and transparency. There we go. Let's get to
the meat of it with the above. Notwithstanding, mister President,
bear in mind that the landslide victory you chalked is
unprecedented in the fourth Republic of the country and a
clear manifestation of the desire of the masses calling for
change in political administration of the country due to several
(26:35):
factors that negatively affected their socioeconomic lifestyle in the outgoing administration.
Mister President, as you take office by seventh January twenty
twenty five, bear in mind that the populace would hold
you and your administration accountable on all promises you had
in your social contract party manifesto with us and anything
aside that shall not be accepted. Now we're getting real casual,
(26:58):
mister presu. We are aware of the daunting task ahead
of you and your team, and we assure you of
our prayers and anticipation that our plight shall be ameliorated
in the coming days as a reduction in taxes on
alcoholic beverage company producers likely to also positively affect our pockets.
(27:20):
We hope that's our message finds you well, sir, Our
commander in chief, yours faithfully moses, oh no, yeah, drybone,
and he assigns it with a little stick figure holding
like a Martini glass. Some little squiggle looks like he's
got like, I don't know what this squiggle is attached
to a circle. I don't know what that's supposed to be,
but yeah, it's I gotta give them props for how
(27:43):
aeradyite and politically minded this statement is. It's easy to
want to dunk on, you know, the idea of a
drunkard's association, but they it takes them a minute to
get to their actual demands.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I have to say, I know that they state this
association that is sixteen plus million members.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Crazy, dude, it's crazy that they say that, because apparently
I was reading on a Reddit thread that y'all may
have seen as well. I think I linked to in
the doc. Some eagle eyed redditors looked for social media
presence in this organization. It could only find a Facebook
page with like seven hundred followers.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That's what I was looking at.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
Yeah, so somebody points out the way they put it
is really funny. Let's see if someone does by the
way I mentioned, this is an objectively funny and very
ununy headline. They essentially say that they think the organization
is uh, let's just politely or diplomatically say inflating their numbers.
And they point out that, yeah, so sixteen point sixty
(28:49):
five million members the total population of Ghana's around thirty
three point seven million yees. The working age population age
fifteen to sixty five was eighteen million, six hundred and
nineteenery twenty one in twenty twenty one. This means something
like eighty nine percent of the adult population of Ghana
is in the Drunkards Association.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
This is here's how you do it. Here's how you
goose that one. They may be counting everybody who has
ever walked into a bar in the history of Ghana, like, welcome,
you're a member. Here's a PBR. Not complementary, though, you're
gonna have to pay us.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
A lovely Reddit name. By the way, salacious verbacious. That's
great props to that had this to say, maybe they're
doing a membership counting strategy like the Catholic Church where
anyone who is baptized automatically becomes a member for life.
Definitely some creative math. His comments are gold. By the way, Well,
they're passionate and using their platform for the greater good.
(29:42):
I suppose Ghana sounds like a fun place to visit.
Let's see one more. That was fun, But thinking about
it further, it's quite interesting as well. How it reflects
a view of collective bargaining and group identification beyond the
usual sociopolitical groupings we are used to seeing. And that
is a really good point. God, that's just a good point. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, the possibility of protest or strikes.
Speaker 4 (30:04):
That is what they're calling for. I bury them there.
They are calling for action, which wasn't mentioned in the
actual statement, but that is essentially the takeaway is that
there they don't get what they want, They're gonna they're
gonna stage some sort of massive protest or with a
three week time window. That's exactly right. Yeah, less reddit comment.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he'll just sit on
(30:25):
his boat drinking beers and complaining all day. Don't teach
a man to fish. He's a grown man. And fishing
is not that hard. That's all I got, y'all.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
I guess it does get more difficult the more alcohol
you can sume.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, I don't know. It depends on the kind of fishing.
Deep sea fishing probably more difficult, but.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
It's nothing as difficult. It requires patience, though, and it
does make me think of the expression shooting fish in
a barrel, which also doesn't necessarily seem like it would
be as easy, as people point out, depends on the
size of the fish and the size of the barrel,
And it just never made sense that if you already
have the fish in the barrel, why would you shoot them? Yeah,
that just seems like adding insults injury, doesn't it welcome
(31:06):
to overthinking? For sure, that's kind of what we do
here on stuff they don't want you to know. So, yeah,
they're threatening this demonstration a three week deadline in order
to have their demands. Matt. Local media reports that the
association will mobilize millions. Again, I don't know if they've
got the man power, but we'll see to stage a
mass demonstration. And that's about as far as they take
(31:29):
it in terms of the party it does.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Are going, Are we get to raise protest?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Let's book, let's book our trips to Ghana right away?
Last thing, though their newfound viral fame has exposed them
to a global audience, the Drunkards Association have their fans
back home. Moses Ohaya or Annoyaya raised a few eyebrows
with the signature back in December, signing off on a
communication with this exceptional signature. Sorry, that was the statement
(31:58):
I read That was a little ways back. So this
is a new initiative, but it does seem that it's
very much tied to this statement that I read, So
that is where the funny little squiggly signature comes from. Yeah,
don't really have much else on that one, and I
did just want to point out a couple of quick things.
There have been some fascinating archaeological discoveries in Syria. A
(32:19):
contractor stumbled upon a complex of Byzantine tombs under a
residential area. This is from Marat al Numan in Syria.
From the ap A contractor digging into the earth where
the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away
in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise, the remains of
an underground Byzantine tomb complex, believed to be more than
(32:42):
one five hundred years old. Discovery emerged last month in
the town of Marat al Numan in Idlib Province, which
is strategically located on the route between the cities of
Aleppo and Damascus. The community became a touch point in
the early fourteen year SII in the Civil War that
ended with the fall of former President Basharas in a
lightning rebel offensive in December. We're talking about like engraved stones,
(33:08):
all kinds of archaeological goodies to be had. A sod
sees this area from the opposition to his regime in
twenty twenty and the houses there that had been built
were looted and destroyed, which is what has led to
the sifting through the rubble and the discovery of this tomb.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Which may well have remained undiscovered for another several centuries,
maybe another thousand years, were it not for this horrific conflict.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
One hundred percent. Yeah, and you know an interesting knock
on effect of these type of conflicts that I think
is interesting in and of itself. The unearthing of these
types of artifacts, I think is fascinating to all of us.
And we do have one more quick my mystery solved.
In a recent article from Archaeology News, new evidence points
(34:04):
to world's richest shipwreck. In seventeen oh eight, a Spanish
galleon called the San Jose left Portobello, Panama, bound for
Cartina are Cartagania, Colombia, with two hundred tons of gold, silver,
and priceless artifacts and gems on board, and it was
(34:26):
it was the flagship of the Spanish chare A firm
A fleet and it was intercepted by British vessels and
sunk off the coast of Cartagania. Colombian authorities about ten
years ago believe they had discovered this wreck, the world's
largest shipwreck. But recent reports have shown that through analyzing
(34:48):
these very specific types of coins that are littered across
the seafloor, known as cobs, they've determined that they were
in fact minted in Lima, Peru in seventeen seven. And
this is a statement from one of the investigators. The
finding of cobs created in seventeen oh seven of the
Lima mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra firm
(35:09):
A route in the early eighteenth century. This is from
Daniella Vargas. Ariza is the lead researcher on the project.
She goes on the San Jose galleon is the only
ship that matches these characteristics and yeah, so this is
potentially a billion dollar find once you know if. And
it made me think too. It is like the idea
(35:31):
of antiquities being priceless and how things are valued, and
it all is kind of based on collector markets at
the end of the day, right, so in terms of
how much this would ultimately be valued at, not necessarily
the product of the actual modern day value of the
precious materials, but it, you know, figures into this whole
(35:51):
notion of like what the collector value is or what
the you know, value to museums and such might be.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
It was just about to say it belongs it a museum,
shout out to Indiana.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
But I just yeah, it's all this stuff is fascinating,
So I don't know. Then you had also mentioned there
was another famous shipwreck that was recently discovered, and we
thought maybe there was some crossover, but I think, oh,
Captain what.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Was it, Captain Kirk's.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
That's different.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
That would be a cooler ship to find if the
Enterprise was somehow.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Found on the sea floor off the coast of Rhode Island.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, Captain cook ship, the HMS Endeavor, sank two hundred
and fifty years ago during the Revolutionary War or the
War four Independence, or as our British friends call it,
the Peasants stink.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
I don't know that one. Did you make that up?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah? Yeah, probably got it. No, David Attenburrough. Sure we'll
tag it on there, but that that's just a fascinating
piece of perhaps ridiculous history. And in both of these cases,
you know what I think we all find amazing is
it shows just how much stuff is.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
Under the water.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Still there are still shipwrecks out there. I know not
everybody is a fan of James Cameron, but he's onto something, right.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Yeah, he's definitely cornered the market on the deepest of
sea exploration for sure. Leave it at that, guys, Let's
take a quick break. Hear a word from our sponsor,
and then we'll come back with Matt Frederick's pieces of
strange news.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Boom, we've returned.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
I'm that guy, I think. Still, Oh we know, are
you him?
Speaker 2 (37:39):
I might be him. Let's talk about some stuff, guys.
We've got a fellow here named Michael Madigan. The name
sounds really familiar. I don't think he's as well known
as perhaps the authors of this particular AP news piece
believe he is, but his name might be familiar to you.
(38:00):
He is one of the if not the longest serving
politicians forever, maybe the longest serving legislative leader in the
United States, around fifty years of service to the public. Right,
This is a man who served as a speaker, as
(38:24):
in like a speaker of the house. Fellow. He he
got in trouble, guys, he got in some big trouble.
Two and a half million dollar fine and a seven
and a half year prison sentence for a bunch of things. Yeah,
specifically ten counts of things. He was convicted in February
(38:48):
on ten counts of things like bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, damn. Yeah,
and a bunch of other charges that are associated with
him basically getting favors and positions for his friends.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Cookie jar crimes not violent crime.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yes, there's all white collar stuff here, guys. Yeah, dating
back how far? Uh, dating back for I think twenty years.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
Yeah, if they.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Got like conspiracy, this was this was a long time
in coming, right, because there's there's a high bar to
prove some of that. And Matt, how long did you say?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
The prison sentence is seven and a half years.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
He's going to that prison they're putting tough.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
That's pretty tough for an eighty three year old man.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
Wow, that's life.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a life, not that it really
is not the best one. No, we we talked about
it's so weird that this came up. I want to
say I may have seen part of this headline that
I don't know much about it, and like a lot
of us, like you were saying, Matt, I'm not super
familiar with Madigan nor his work, but something inspired me,
(39:58):
probably this headline to relist. Listen to our two part
episode on lobbying, and it is scary how well it
holds up. Yes, like this is a so Michael Joseph
Madigan definitely was a dark money lobby alec friendly dude,
would we.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Say, yeah, yeah, specifically he's in Illinois. By the way,
We've heard a lot of things over the years about
Chicago specifically and about politics in Illinois, and it appears
that mister Madigan was taken part in a lot of
that stuff, the rumors you know that go around and
then the rare, rare I would say, individual who ends
(40:37):
up getting a prison sentence or a slap on the
wrist for the kind of corruption that we're talking about here.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Yeah, and he was and is of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yes, oh, yes, he was chairperson of the Illinois Democratic Party,
which again just a reminder that yeah, no matter who
you believe in what you believe, what your political thing is.
Everybody that gets to a certain level is susceptible to
this kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I would just love to say once more, I don't
like or trust either of them.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I like money, though, Yeah, shout out to deocracy.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
Boy.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Both sides of this coin are kind of weird.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Well, you know, the best way for me to check
on that for you is if you give me like
five more coins.
Speaker 4 (41:23):
That's a great, great idea.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Patronage, right, nepotism, old school Chicago corruption as deep as
the pizza up there.
Speaker 4 (41:32):
I mean, it's like and the fact that we have
this two party system is jacked up in and of itself.
And I truly don't identify with either party. I just
want to make that really clear. I think both are
I trust them about as far as I can throw them.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I'm super into I'm super into that practice. We received
some correspondence about this, that practice of local municipalities electing
non human animals positions of leadership. You know, like this
you know has been a great mayor and a good boy.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
So let's just I've loved that line, Ben about as
deep as the pizza that I don't want that to
go by. I really really like that. We're just we're
getting toward Seriously, I'm hungry too, So just let's think
think about this. Imagine this in your mind. This man
was in the legislature there in Illinois, through the reins
(42:29):
of seven different governors, seven different leaders in the executive
side of Illinois were there while he was standing watch right,
So you can just imagine the number of hands that
he is shaked, you know, and the number of well, yeah,
the number of deals he negotiated, the number of things,
(42:50):
like you stat if you could visualize and stack up
all of those negotiations and talks and all that stuff,
and then only imagine that there were a teeny tiny
layer on top of that that is the corrupt stuff
that he's being charged. For sure, it's probably way not
as bad as a lot of the stuff that's occurred,
at least when I'm looking through the writing on this
(43:12):
from AP. It's just it does stink that once you have,
once you have that power to go through those negotiations,
to make those deals and make those you know, decisions,
you are gonna get pressured in so many ways, and
you're gonna make decisions that not everybody's gonna like, but
are gonna benefit a few people, right, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
You get that reputation that is honestly past a certain threshold.
It's a political You get regarded as the guy who,
for better or worse, can get things done, you know
what I mean? Like, hey, red Tape, that's for the
other dudes.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
You and me.
Speaker 3 (43:47):
We can you know, well we have special we can
drop that. Let's get some fetichini and talk this through.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Well yeah, but at some point it doesn't it feel
to you guys like this is just how it gets done.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
One hundred, no question, unless the mayor is a dog
or maybe a cat. I don't know. I wouldn't trust
a cat in politics.
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Joking, maybe diabolical. You wouldn't stand a chance.
Speaker 3 (44:12):
We're just saying the humans have some structural flaws and
more and more. You know, it's fascinating to look at
this gentleman's career. Starting your political sort of ascension when
you're just twenty seven is massively impressive. And it sounds
like he was already involved in campaigns well well before then,
(44:34):
so he's definitely a career man. Has he made a
statement for his lawyers.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I'm sure they've made many statements during the trial. It
was at least the defense was this man needs to
go home. He needs to be at home so he
can take care of his spouse. You know, there was
a video from her that was played during the trial,
like leading, you know, hey, please, I need my husband
(45:00):
and like what like.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Maybe asking for house arrests or something a little more lenient.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah, they're looking for like some kind of commuted sentence
in a fine and like make that stuff happen.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
But that is not That's not what the judge decided there.
Do you think they made an example of him?
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Kind of?
Speaker 4 (45:17):
I mean, we see so much of this and the
people's getting away with it day in and day out.
Very interesting they would target this old fella, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Yeah, the cynical side of us would argue, or would
ask with validity, did he cross somebody? Because he's been
very good at playing this game for quite some time.
And I love the point you're making their noel about
what could be seen as some hypocrisy on the side
(45:46):
of the justice system. We know that the courts have
been struggling lately with a lot of controversial rulings and
with you know, let's say it. They're beefed up with
the executive branch. There's no two ways around it, big time.
But it does sound like it sounds like he did it.
And I think, Matt, you're the bigger question raised is
(46:08):
is this just the way everything gets done?
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Well? It kind of is.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
But guys, there's another article from early early this year
when Michael Madigan was going through another trial involved like
a whole separate trial involved with again allegations of conspiracy.
Then he was using this thing called calm ed.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
The New York Times article right.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
There, there's one of those.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
I'm looking at one specifically from PBS that was written
January twenty second, and it's just about that trial and
the end of that trial and how this utility company
was allegedly paying individuals like that they shouldn't have been
paying a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
So the cookie didn't crumble overnight, it started to cintegrating.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Oh yeah, to me, it sounds like a bunch of
things that got put in place because as speaker, that
position allows you to kind of make the give the
final word on which bills end up coming through, right,
which which bills get do we even get to vote
on right, a legislative body, which, good God, that's power. Yeah,
(47:16):
and it just seems like he used a lot of
that for his own, his own gain.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
I mean, it makes me think back to the whole
uh simple sabotage episode we did, and how that type
of I don't know, you could call it rhetorical sabotage,
I suppose is such part and parcel of the way
parliamentary procedure works. There is it. It's built to fail,
it's designed to be manipulated, and it's not inherently designed
(47:42):
with the best interest of citizens at heart. It just isn't.
Maybe it's designed with their best interest, but the way
it's manipulated and traversed is certainly not as a.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Political yes, because some of the necessary evils or some
of the procedures that are common and are meant to
provide some kind of inarguable benefit, those same procedures and
tactics and rules and bylaws can all be weaponized right
to have a negative effect, and especially you know, in
(48:15):
a two party system, that is a tremendous opportunity for
both sides. It kind of reminds me of how, like
the issue we talked about with gas stations, recently. All
of the same factors that make gas stations incredibly popular
and successful also make them incredibly prone to corruption, conspiracy,
(48:36):
and crime.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yep, yep, guys. We could talk about this a lot,
but let's jump to another quick story before we get
out of here. Do you guys remember somebody named Anne Woodjiski, Yes,
I don't remember. She was the co founder, and she
(48:57):
was the CEO of a little thing called twenty three
and Me, And then we just talked about how twenty
three and Me filed Chapter eleven.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
And then there was.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
A bid from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that one of you guys
brought up in Strange News pretty recently. For gosh, it
was a lot of money. Yeah, two hundred two hundred
something million dollars that two hundred fifty six million dollars
that they were going to purchase via auction twenty three
(49:27):
and meters and all of its stuff. Well and with
Jiski came through and said, Hey, I know we did
this auction thing. I know it's already complete, Regeneron's got
the stuff, but I'd actually like to do the auction
again because I have this new thing called TTAM Research
Institute and we'd like to make a different bid this
(49:50):
time a bid for three hundred and five million dollars.
And the folks in charge of the auctioning said, you
know what, that sounds better? Then that sounds better th
the one almost fifty million dollars better? So why don't
we reopen it? And now and with Jiski and her
TTAM Research Institute are now the proud reowners of twenty
(50:12):
three and meters.
Speaker 3 (50:13):
Of your gently used genetic data. Also, Matt, sorry, I
have that chesure grid on while you're saying this, I'm
just got a weird energy. I just keep thinking of
dirty acronyms for TTAM. Do we have any idea what
it actually stands for?
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, it's it's the words written out twenty three and me.
Speaker 3 (50:34):
Clever clever. That's some real like doctor alu card energy
never figure out doctor acula.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Yeah, well that's just a weird, weird situation because you know,
in our previous discussions it was all about well, who
now owns all of this, you know, genetic data, and
what are they going to do with it? And why?
How what's happening? And now it's just the same folks
who are doing it in the first place that are
taking control again or at least some of the same folks.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah, we also talked about the process to remove your
data from twenty three in me, so if you have
concerns about that, folks, please check out our previous Strange
News when we talk about the original Regeneron bankruptcy move
or their attempted acquisition. We also include the instructions for
(51:24):
removing your data.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
If you feel uncomfortable, you.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Should, Guys, have you ever been uncomfortable around a flight attendant?
Speaker 4 (51:33):
No, I'm sorry, there's no way.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
There's no way for me.
Speaker 4 (51:36):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (51:38):
If anything, I'm a little too comfortable because you guys
have seen it. Like, not in a sleazy way. I
just I love sitting in the window seat exit row,
and I admit I am often a bit too enthusiastic
when asked to give a verbal yes.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
You are also really good at chatting up a flight attendant,
Ben that I don't mean that in a creepy way either.
You just ask good questions, especially if we're going somewhere abroad,
and you always get some good recommendations.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
So my hat's on to you, shucks Man's that's the
flight attendants have a very demanding job, as we can
all agree, right, you'd be surprised how how much stuff
they have to put up with and how much they
do or don't get paid. But you do get to
travel the world. There's there's that.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Hey, that's great. That's what we're talking about here, last story.
We're not even going to go through the whole thing.
You should look this up. Don't try it at home though.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Yeah, here's on a plane.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
Well, also, don't do that, especially at an international airport.
You could look this up. I found it on NBC News,
but I think it's on a bunch of other places too.
Look for man convicted of posing as flight attendant to
score over one hundred and twenty free flights, You brilliant bastards. Well,
(52:54):
here's the thing prove. I don't want to spoil it
too much because it is a pretty interesting show. Worry
just how this person, Alex Alexander made his way onto
one hundred and twenty different flights through three or more
different companies. Where there's this special thing y'all that I
didn't know. If you are a flight attendant, you can
(53:15):
get specific seats, sometimes their jump seats. Sometimes they're you know,
unsold seats on planes where you can use your badge
ID number, your date of hire, and who you work for,
and you can get on that flight and it's not
a problem. Nobody cares. You're you're a part of the
team in some way, the general team, and you're good. Well,
(53:37):
this person did work for an airline, they just were
not a flight attendant or a pilot, which are generally
the two classes of people who can make use of
the free flight program. He used other people's data, like
other people's badge numbers and dates of hire, to sneak
on to these flights.
Speaker 4 (53:57):
Naughty boy.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
Yeah, I love that we're talking a little bit about
this semi secret culture in the world of aviation. Deadhead flights.
You know, that's where a pilot or a flight attendant
or another professional will hop a plane just to get
to their next port of call or.
Speaker 4 (54:17):
The half of this assignment jam band related. I get
it now.
Speaker 3 (54:20):
Okay, Yeah, let's see what Dylan says. He says at
that point, just apply for the flight attendant position. That's
a good points true, also true. How do you get
away with this? I know we don't have too too
much time, but how.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Do you wirefraud is how you get away with it?
Speaker 3 (54:38):
Okay, okay, to be the technical violation.
Speaker 2 (54:42):
Well, yeah, he's using other people's information to get on
these flights.
Speaker 4 (54:46):
Well that's the thing though, right because I mean, we
know how hard it is to get onto the flights,
and flight attendants are still subject to verification and the
manifest and all that. You've ever been on a flight
that was delayed because one crew member didn't show up
and that have to redo all the paperwork and everything.
I mean that there's serious business. So this person definitely, Yeah,
why didn't they just get the job? Maybe they didn't qualify?
(55:07):
How did they do it?
Speaker 2 (55:09):
It was thirty different IDs like badge numbers from seven
different airlines, and this person claimed he went through TSA
security like everybody else does. He made it onto the
plane one hundred and twenty times under false free censis,
which is crazy.
Speaker 3 (55:27):
And he had to be I imagine specifically trying to find
identities that were not too far off from him, Like,
you know, does he rock up to the counter and
they say, oh, hello, Samantha Aberdeen nineteen years old? You
know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Yeah, I don't know, I don't know how it works.
They don't go into the details here of like how
he actually pulled it off, but he is facing a
maximum of three years of supervised release and a two
hundred and fifty All are fine, That's all I got, guys.
Speaker 3 (56:05):
We can't wait to hear what you have. Folks. Listen,
we know we're covering some amusing stories. We're covering some
very dangerous, disturbing things and that's what strange news is
all about. Thank you for tuning in. This can't happen
without you. We would love to hear from you. So
join the party. Meet us over at the Ghanaian Drunkards
(56:28):
Association protest, which is basically going to be Marty grow
if you're down for it, and then tell us what
tell us you are experiencing your predictions with the Pizza Index,
the looming wars on the horizon, and tell us the
last time you hopped a plane. Find us online, send
us an email, call us on the phone.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
It's right. You can find us at the handle conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook group here
is where it gets crazy, on x FK, Twitter and
on youtubehe we have video content glover for your peruising enjoyment.
On Instagram and TikTok. We're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
We have a phone number. It is one eight three
three st d WYTK. When you call in, you've got
three minutes. Give yourself a cool nickname and let us
know if we can use your name and message on
the air. It's pretty simple. Just words are the whys.
If any of you have noticed you have been getting
a call back lately, it's because our internal system doesn't
(57:25):
allow for calls anymore. So we are working through the
bugs on that, but hopefully the shadows will reach back
out yeah again sometime.
Speaker 4 (57:36):
In the near future, when we get our ducks in order. There.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
If you want to write to us, we have an
email it is.
Speaker 3 (57:44):
We're the entities who read every piece of correspondence we receive.
It will wear yet, unt afraid. Sometimes the void writes back.
So join us out here in the dark conspiracy at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
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Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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