An AI-generated Granny baffles and bedevils phone scammers across the UK. The US collectively freaks out as unidentified swarms of drones appear over multiple cities. Some Russian politicians want to declare Santa a foreign agent. The largest supermarket merger in history goes sour in court, with Albertsons calling off the merger and suing Kroger. Russia sends an elite force to North Korea -- not 100 soldiers, but 100 top-tier goats. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Andrew Treforce Howard. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. If you are tuning in the evening,
this publishes welcome to December sixteenth. You guys, we're so
(00:48):
close to twenty twenty five, not even the project, just
the calendar year.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I think twenty twenty five is already in effect.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, full effect.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
No, no, we'll see, we'll see quick updates.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The US courts have rejected the Onions bid to buy
Info Wars for now. Another court ruled that boneless chicken
wings can still be you know, pieces of food that
have bones in them. One thing that is on everybody's mind.
We have taken some time for our personal lives, so
(01:25):
you'll hear some classic episodes coming up in the next
few weeks, and like the rest of the United States,
dare I say the world we have been paying attention
to the recent assassination of a CEO.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Oh boy, are we ever? I was, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I was in New York last week and was right
down at the iHeart offices, which are very close to
that Hilton, and I had no idea what was going on,
but I was eating it a deli and there was
a reporter talking and asking some guy that worked at
the Hilton about like maybe the security cameras something. I
didn't know what they were talking about until.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
After the fact.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Wow. Yeah, And we'll probably make a full episode on
the story of Luigi Mangeo.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's what a name.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah. I don't know if he's related to Chuck Uh.
Do you guys remember Chuck?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Is he related to Mario? Though? Is the question?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Is he related? Yeah? Or as the internet is asking us,
does this mean there is a wa Luigi who works
in private equity swear?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Then I heard the Chuck MANZIONI question come up to it.
If anyone doesn't know, Chuck Manzoni was like sort of
an easy listening.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Trumpet player really made most famous for me by his
appearance on King of the Hill.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
All the time. He's the spokesperson for megalo mart.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Finally, Finally, and speaking of spokesfolk, I like that speaks too. Yeah,
we're gonna hear some spokespeople for a popular band back
in the day. We're gonna hear some stuff about Santa
of course, you know, some comments about facial hair. We're
gonna end with a wholesome story. We'll have a lot
(03:06):
of updates along the way before we get to our
first break. I would just like to tease something. Have
you guys ever interacted with a phone scammer?
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Many?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Well, yeah, lately I just kind of once I realized
that that's they are, I say no, thank you and
just hang up. But you know, back before I was
a little less irritated by the avalanche of scam calls
that I receive, I probably would have played along for
a minute.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
H Yeah, it's only in the very first stages, but
you can kind of tell when something is off when
it's a big corporation calling you about your account.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, have you guys been getting the one where it's
like a loan company calling to ask you for additional
information about the loan that you applied for. I've been
getting that one just non stop lately.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
It's weird.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I get a lot of I'm with you. I get
a lot of unsolicited advertisements for Russian made anti aircraft okay,
no armament. Yeah it's weird. It's weird. But if they
make it through all the proxies enough to advertise, oh, here.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
On them nice.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Mine's mostly been text messages saying my UPS package has arrived,
but it needs some more information from me to get.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Oh, I get that. I got that one.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I was saying it needed to clear customs. It had
gotten held up in customs, and it asked for my uh.
It said there was a problem with the zip code.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, yeah, and all you have to do is click
the link. Spoiler, folks, don't it is a conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
It did have a link it has said. It said
you get a close this click the text message.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I clicked the link in the text message, but it
wasn't even a blue link.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was like you would have had to copy and
paste it.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
And then it said when it's when it starts getting
too complex, like close the text message open a browser.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Definitely a red flag every time.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Mm hmm, yeah, a flag so read that even the
color blind can see us. So with this in mind,
we know, for anybody who listened to our previous episode
on the Troubled Border of Mean Mar or our series
on that, we know that there are a lot of
scams in the world or the information age, and there
(05:19):
are people who have deployed one method or another of
combating those scams and those scammers. So I suggest we
take a break from a word from our sponsors and
then we introduce everyone to Daisy.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
How's that sound sounds good?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And we're back. Actually, let's just have Daisy.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Take for it.
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Right, seven and Temperates have been targeted by scammers, and
it's not just our grandparents. I was one of them.
This film isn't about getting scammed. This is about getting
(06:04):
even meet my friend Daisy.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Hello, scammers, I'm your worst nightmare. I'm an AI created
by O two to waste phone scammers time. So w's
then a DOT.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Three d W and then dot I think your profession
is bothering people?
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Right, I'm just trying to have a little chat.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
It's nearly been an hour.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Finally, benevolent use of AI.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
It's showing me a picture of my cat Fluffy. It's
showing you the picture of your fluffy stop calling me, dear.
Got it, dear, because while they're busy talking to me,
they can't be scamming you. And let's face it, dear,
I've got all the time in the world.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
So that my heart das finally a benevolent AI right.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Like doing good. Daisy is not human. Daisy is an
AI creation that impersonates sort of as we can tell,
a British granty or a granting from the UK who
answers calls in real time from suspected fraudsters with the
(07:23):
entire goal of keeping them on the phone for as
long as possible such that they don't reach real vulnerable
human beings.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What was that piece from that we just heard?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
This is from O two O two associated with Virgin
Media and you know Richard Branson's whole strange experiment. O
two has recently, as of last month, they've unveiled something
called this thing Daisy, and it's a death of a
thousand cuts for scammers. This came out you can read
(08:02):
about this on Virgin Media's official sites from mid November,
just last month. Daisy is a big deal at O
two for right now. Her official title is head of
scammer relations and what the entirety of this model is
centered on. Weirdly enough, the kind of recommendations that intelligence
(08:26):
agencies gave back in the Cold War. It's always to distract,
to ramble, to go on tangents. Daisy may, in fact,
I think, be a pretty good podcaster. The way it
works is it's an agglomeration of different AI models and
they work together in a stew to listen and respond
(08:50):
to fraudulent calls instantly, And it so far has a
pretty great success rate, probably because it still has that
new car smell and criminals aren't aware of it. It
can keep people on, Like the goal is to keep
the scammers on a call for about forty minutes at
a time. This is a small part of a larger
(09:13):
thing that virgin media two coals swerve the scammers.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I just love it, I really do.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Have you guys seen that film The Beekeeper starring Jason
Statham Matt You'd really like it.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It's a good old rollicking action banger.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
But it is like a revenge fantasy essentially, where the
titular Beekeeper, who is a high level black ops killing
machine who's gone into retirement and literally just keeps bees,
has a dear friend of his who is an older
woman scammed by these awful basically villain you know, comically
villainous you know, evil individuals corporation. Really in the in
(09:54):
the movie, and minor spoiler alert for a thing that
happens very early on in the Beekeeper, she takes her
own life because they basically stripper of all of her funds.
And also she was the keeper of some funds for
some sort of nonprofit organization, a charity, and it all
kinds of things, but it is exactly what we're talking
about here. It just you know, I've obviously done stylized
(10:14):
and done like for maximum action effect.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But this is a much less violent way.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Of dealing with these gums, right, and we see that
it comes from real life concerns. Everybody knows that people
who are not what we will call digital natives can
be a little bit less situationally aware of scams and ststers,
and this is a huge concern in the United Kingdom.
(10:43):
Virgin Media's own research, in partnership with some of the
boffins they got on the case, shows that seven in
ten are actually more than seven in ten, seventy one
percent of people in Britain or Brits would like to
get some sort of revenge against scammers, because scams, especially
(11:04):
telephonic scams, are so common there that if you have
not been the victim of a scam attempt yourself, then
you know someone who has. It's uh, it has proliferated
across that area of the world.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, and Ben, it's not. It's it wouldn't continue to
the point.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Where folks like you or I, who are you know,
more or less wise to this stuff continue to give
these kind of calls if.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
They weren't making money off of them. They have to
be successful to some degree or else why would they continue.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, it's it's kind of like the terrible logic of
the so called pua or pickup artists, where they say, hey,
well we'll just do a numbers game. You know, it's
not the nine people who don't fall for the malarkey,
it's the one who does.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, they just need to come up with something now
that also tracks somehow back to the server that is
functioning like whatever the scammers are using, so that you
can nuke the server, not actually nuked, but you know,
why destroy the server and dds at the very least
take it out or adjacent Statham group that just gets
(12:10):
deployed every time Daisy is in use.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'd be very interested in your thoughts on Beekeeper. It's good.
Yeah yeah, I all right, different show, but yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
I wasn't expecting to like it, and I truly loved it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So speaking of truly loving things, there is another story
that so many people have contacted us about. It's an
ongoing thing. We have to talk about it, at least briefly, gentlemen,
the mystery drones. Earlier in our previous Strange News segment,
(12:48):
I want to say we had explored the story of
drones monitoring US bases in the United Kingdom. It turns
out there are more mystery drones across the pond. Not
just that Chinese student who took a one way trip
after he got popped. But we know that residents in
(13:08):
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn have been reporting drones. Over in New Jersey,
a lot of people have been reporting strange stuff in
the sky, and these are We have to remember, this
part of the United States is very densely populated, so
if one person sees something, many other people saw it
as well. There's not a way to. You know, it's
(13:30):
not like the days of Blue Book. You can't just
find the one farmer and intimidate them. These drones have
been seen near US military facilities, even near President elect
Trump's golf course in Bedminster. The FAA tried to tamp
down and said, hey, look, any drone flights over this
(13:51):
airspace are going to be restricted. So then this helps
us eliminate, you know, the probability of known drones coming
in everybody pad it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
One thing we should note here is that these are
not your drones that you can go pick up at
Best Buy if you you know, came into a financial windfall,
or you can go over to you know, any of
the places that sell drones. Right now, these are, or
at least they're being reported as huge, like suv size
drones that function a lot like those quadri copter drones
(14:23):
that are loud as hell apparently, and again huge flying around,
and that is very I think that's part of the
troublesome bit, right. It's not as though it's a bunch
of hobbyists, as you've been saying there, Well, it's something else.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
And from my own education here, guys, are we talking
these are like models that are outside.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Of the norm even of what we know as.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Military drones, because those don't seem like they're incredibly loud.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I mean, I mean, I know they are.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
They make a drone sound, but I mean it would
kind of kill out the element of surprise if they
were like as loud as these things seem to be.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, I want to I want to shout out some
recent interactions we've had on social media, some emails, and
some folks who used our call in line to specifically
note this this is an active, developing situation, and to
be clear, I appreciate that clarification. Yeah, obviously we're not
(15:22):
implying that these are hobbyist drones, not the kind of
stuff you could buy on Amazon or at your local
radio shack. I think there are still radio shacks. Maybe
I'm dating myself. These are big, almost to what we
would call UAV size. I really want to get to
the statement from the FBI's Newark Field office. They said, quote,
(15:47):
we understand the concern, and we are doing all we
can to figure out what's going on. We truly don't
have much information to provide at the moment, and this
is I want to add the further context here. This
has to be terrifying and deeply upsetting, perhaps even offensive
(16:08):
to people in the area, given that nine to eleven
didn't happen too long ago, Right, So shouldn't this air
space be especially protected, be especially monitored. Out of all
the places in the United States outside of maybe you know,
Groom Lake or area fifty one, How on earth are
(16:33):
these things getting through? And how on earth are they
apparently unidentified.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Getting through without being shot down like or at least
you know, acknowledged.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
How are they getting this far right?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Right? That's the thing I would advanced to you guys.
At first off, the logical cover story would be this
is a training exercise, right, everybody, keep calm, we know
what's happening. However, that is not the path the FEDS
have chosen to take.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, it is weird because it could be test vehicles
for some company, you know, some startup company that's attempting
to make flying cars that are more quadricroft or style,
which is something we've seen prototypes of over the past
Finally six years, where's.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
A flying car? I mean, we're finally getting to them.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
If you look at the footage of them up there,
it looks like clearly a human made flashing light vehicle
you know that should be in the sky and is
flying probably safely in the sky with all of its
flashing lights and everything. It's just very very odd, especially
when you see one and then there's like five more
that you can tell, or the same thing flying around
(17:42):
out in the distance.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, we've had reports again to our show in particular,
and just reports in the public sphere where these are
reasonable people, These are not wing nuts. There are folks
who happen to live in the area, maybe even without
an interest in aviation or UAP, and they're saying, what
the heck is going on? If you're part of that,
(18:04):
if you have experienced this, you can of course email
us conspiracy atiheartradio dot com. We'd love to see any
clips you have. You can also call the FBI if
you want one eight hundred in averse of creativity, one
eight hundred call FBI. That's two two five five three
two four. And people are saying they've reported these sightings
(18:25):
multiple times and they have not gotten responses. What the
heck is going on? There's very much something they don't
want you to know, and the question is who is they?
So again we would love to hear your reports, thinking
to everybody's written in, contacted us via the internets, or
(18:45):
dropped a line to us via telephonic device. I wanted
to got wanted to go a little bit lighthearted with
a couple things. The one story about justice. So you
guys know how recently the nation of the DPRK or
North Korea as has called here in the West, sent
(19:07):
some of their own military personnel to fight in Russia's
war with Ukraine. It appears Russia has you know, reciprocated
a bit. They sent a crack team to North Korea. However,
the crack team is not human. They sent one hundred
(19:28):
and I'm quoting here elite goats.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Oh heck, yeah, elite goats. Do they have weapons strapped
on them or something?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
They have? Every goat is a weapon, right, Yeah, these
are the goat goats. Because they have cleared four hundred
and forty seven goats for shipment to North Korea. It's
the first batch of live animals. This occurred back in August.
(20:01):
Now they're continuing to send these. A lot of these
goats are pregnant. They have been microchipped. The idea is
that while the speculation in the West is that this
is meant to help address food shortages in the country.
So perhaps by having these high quality goats, which sounds
(20:24):
like a weird thing to say, perhaps that will help
the country. Wait, how many, Well, in August they cleared
four hundred and forty seven. Quite recently they sent one
hundred over.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
We're going to need more goats, a bigger gut.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
We've got to have more goats. We also know this
is part of a larger story which I really want
to dig into with you guys later. Last month, in November,
Russia also sent more animals, not just pregnant top tier goats,
which again is just a very weird statement. They sent
to bears, two yaks, twenty five pheasants, forty mandarin ducks,
(21:03):
five cockatoos of one African lion. It does sound version
of that Christmas Yeah, that's what he's gonna say. It
sounds like a weird version of that old Christmas song,
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It does.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
I mean, immediately my mind was looking for the partridge
and the pear tree.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
It seems logistically difficult to ship though.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, partridges are tough. Internation, well, they know what they
is true.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Where is the bear? Fitting.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
This is just like two bears just in case, Like,
we got to fin these herds at some point, and
we need to make sure these bears are ready.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Ye, straight to the DMZ where they cocaine bears is
my second pertion.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Every bear is a cocaine bear if you catch it
on the right Saturday. So we are out of time
for this. We're not going to get to the staff
orgy at the Tennessee VA hospital. Why, we are happy
to report Broward County has vacated victions for people who
(21:59):
bought crack recently because it turns out that crack was
made by the local sheriffs off what yes Bury the
lead guy?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
True, but what about this orgy?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
We're just we're throwing these out. If you want to
learn more, Uh, if you want to learn more about
VA orgies, uh, do check out sure News network, where
VA officials have resigned after a report of a staff
orgy at a Tennessee VA hospital.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
If you want to make sure you're, I guess buying
high quality crack, then go to Broward County. Uh, because
over in Fort lauderdel Floyd.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
I also just say I went to Philadelphia this weekend
as well, for a personal trip and energy no personal trip, and.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I are's there's a really thank you for your sir.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
There's a really wonderful queer historical queer bookstore called Giovanni's
Room where a friend of mine works, and I went
there and as we left, he was giving us all
these little extra little bits to add to our things
that we bought, like little you know, posters and things,
and he said, oh, and here, test your drugs. And
he gave us like these drug testing kits. So just
(23:09):
putting it out there that that stuff is available, and
if anybody out there is indulging in things like crack
cocaine or cocaine, I'm not advocating that, but do test
your drugs because there are all kinds of horrible adults
arend stunt to mention fentanyl and things that can actually
kill you outside of just a goofy story.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So just putting that out there.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, if you're in a situation where you are choosing
recreational activities like that, please do be aware of fentanyl
and other forms of contamination have swept through the US
and parts of Europe like a thunderstorm or a hurricane.
Who always be safe to the best of your ability,
there should be resources available. If you are, of course,
(23:49):
in Broward County, be aware that for at least three years,
the Sheriff's office there produced its own crack cocaine so
that they could sell it to people. And then are
those people for buying the crack cocaine that law enforcement
had made.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
It's like the Dave Chappelle bits, or it's like putting
a crack rock on you, you know, I mean, good lord,
that is despicable.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I just want to know who cooked up that idea.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Ok, yeah, yeah, Well, and when they're getting promoted, right,
speaking of promotions, We're going to pause for a word
from our sponsors. Will return with more strange news.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
And we have returned with a few more pieces of
strange news. Will lead with a holiday related themed story
out of Russia.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I think this one is just a hoot. Guys.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
There's a prominent pro Kremlin activist by the name of
Vitaly Boradin who has called on the Russian state to
designate Santa Claus as a quote quote foreign agent.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I mean technically he is, well.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Absolutely he is.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I mean, well, yeah, he's he's coming into your homes, y'all,
and he's, you know, leaving things in there that weren't
there before, and yet somehow we welcome this terrorist.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
No, I'm just such a weird I mean, think about it. Though.
I was talking about this with our pals at Daily's
like Geist. It is such a strange, uh, strange trope
that we all accept. If you're very good, an overweight
man that you don't know will break into your house.
It'll leave you stuff, and you should also leave him.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Sticks and thank you, thank you for the privilege.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, and if you're not good, he's still going to
break into your house, but the gifts will be worse.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Or and he's always brandishing an American Coca Cola.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Isn't he weird in the bottle too? Mmm? Refreshing? But yeah,
it's true.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
There's definitely some odd stuff around Santa Claus, the commercialization
of Christmas and all of that good stuff. But I
think we can all agree because of Matt's point about
the Coca Cola company sort of proliferating the image, the
modern image of Santa Claus that we know it is
very very much or he is very much part of
Western culture. Even though we know that Santa Claus of
(26:04):
course comes from Europe. There are you know, tons of
Santa Claus analogus, you know, Cinder Klaus and all of
that stuff, Black Schwatza, Pater, some more problematic ones and
things of that nature that come from other parts of
the world. But the bearded home invading, you know, jolly
old elf that we know as Santa is very much
(26:25):
a Western creation.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
From Thomas Nast and then later popularized be a Coca Cola.
We have a ridiculous history.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
He was a cartoonist, he kind of created, He was
a political cartoonist, and he created the image that we
know that was then kind of co opted by the
Co Cola company. So it does make sense that someone
who is so pro Kremlin like Borden might see Santa
Claus as not as like a physical foreign agent, but
as a way of infiltrating and undermining traditional Russian values.
(26:58):
He addressed a letter to the Secutor General and that
this was reported by the New York Times, where he
referred to Santa's rising popularity in Russia and the idea
that it jeopardizes the prominence of a Russian sort of
Santa Claus esque figure, Father Frost or dead Moros which
is a cultural figure that's central to Russia's New Year's
(27:20):
of celebrations. Father Frost is depicted as being from veliky
Ustyog in Vologna Oblast, which is a place in Russia,
I assume, and he has a helper. He has a
Santa's Little Helper type figure, which is his granddaughter, Snegoroshka.
And during the Soviet era he was very much pushed
(27:42):
forth as the embodiment of the spirit of New Year's
you know, reflection and gift giving and all of that
stuff gratitude. Right, But since the fall of the Soviet Union,
Western culture and capitalism, along with Santa Claus, has been
proliferating through Russia. So Borden in his letter highlights the
(28:04):
one point six trillion dollar global price tag of Santa
Claus trademarks, and he believes that exporting this figure, what
he represents Santa Claus, the exporting by international corporations run
the risk of eroding and exploiting and I guess maybe
(28:25):
more diluting Russian cultural norms, which is something that we've
heard of a good bit recently. And now I'm having
a hard time remembering the country of origin, but there
was a country. I believe in the Middle East that
was prohibiting music of a certain beats per minute because
it did not align with the traditional folk music of
(28:45):
that region. So that's very much like this idea of
let's keep these cultural norms on lock and prevent and
push away any invading forces. Which the reason I said
I thought this was a hoot, guys, is because isn't
Russia kind of notorious for infiltrating our norms and political
(29:05):
processes nowadays? I mean, I just think it's a little
bit of a hypocrisy going on here with someone that's
so pro Kremlin, the Kremlin being constantly at the heart
of a lot of these seemingly quite likely conspiracies about
Russian agents infiltrating our social media here, influencing voter turnout,
(29:27):
even doing you know, DS attacks and things of that
nature to affect the outcome of our elections.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Which is about as central to culture as you can get.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, well, perhaps I have a I have a I
don't want to say a conclusion here at all, but
I do have an interesting thing to bring up you.
You may have noticed, folks, that it may just be possible, well,
that this is a response to some breaking news about
Santa Claus. Did you hear that the the sarcophagus of
(30:01):
the quote real Santa Claus has been discovered in Turkey?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
It just does it have jingle bells on it?
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Is it a big giant sleigher I just picture Santa's
tomb being mobile in that way.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
They found the burial site, apparently the suspected burial site
of the Greek bishop Saint Nicholas at the Church of
Saint Nicholas and Talia, Turkey. It's a limestone sarcophagus. I
don't know about the bells, but maybe this is what
inspired Russian activists to say, all right, Santa Claus definitely
(30:34):
a foreign agent. You could check it out. Archaeology News,
December seventh. Shout out to Dario Radley. I'm just super interesting.
I had no idea about that, and his last thing
for me on this one. This does align with some
other efforts that are happening within the Russian government. Mikhail Ivanov,
who's a regional legislator, has been pushing for the removal
of Santa Claus figurines from store shelves in favor of
(30:57):
being replaced by more Russian center holiday figures.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Literally not just figurines.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
He criticized Santa Claus as representation of gross Western ideals, commercialization, capitalism,
et cetera, and these things that are disconnected from the
spiritual essence of Christmas. And we could make that same
argument over a year, and plenty of people do. So
these things aren't happening in a vacuum. But it does,
(31:24):
it does. It does seem interesting that these folks are
acknowledging this aggressive infiltration by outside elements that are diluting
their own cultural norms, when again, they themselves seem to
be guilty of doing the same thing to us. Sure
it didn't mean the yap so much back And I
can see your your your gears turning there.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
What do you think about this?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
One had a conversation with I so on this morning
about Santa Claus and Jesus and Christmas and all that stuff.
And I think it's just I think it's a war
on Christmas. Guys.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Okay, I.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Just choke you. I'm just no, it's fun.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
I mean, have you guys seen the genius cinematic masterpiece
that is Red One. No, it's this like Holly this
popcorn you know movie that just came out it's apparently
quite terrible and not doing particularly well, starring Dwayne the
Rock Johnson, where he plays I think a bodyguard for
Santa who's played by the guy that played j Jonah Jamison,
who's also the neo Nazi dude in OZ whose name
(32:22):
is totally eluded to me. He's the mean drum teacher
in Whiplash. You guys know what I'm talking about. His
names is totally ascab of me. But AnyWho, he's Santa
Claus and he's apparently totally jacked. And it's this like
Christmas themed adventure that none of the critics that I
pay attention to seem to be able to understand who
it's for because it's like too violent for little kids,
but it's too childish for adults.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
So that's the other example of the commercialization.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Does it Dwayne still have this is a pop culture conspiracy?
But does he still have that thing in his contract
where he supposedly whatever character he plays he can't lose
a fight.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Oh, I don't know about that. That would that would
be It's interesting.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
I know he has to have a gym on site,
and he has to have time to get Jack built
into the shooting schedule.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
You got to get your games. Also, the actor you're
looking for their nol is jkse thank you, Yes, love
him just based on his name, Matt, I.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Think Steven Sagall is the guy I remember having the
thing in the contract about not losing a fight, but
I don't.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
I don't remember well, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, because that's
his name. He did have some controversy around the shooting
of Red One, where he apparently was late all the
time and was known to pee in bottles on set,
which seems a little inappropriate, and he sort of answered
to those claims saying they were largely overblown. But there
was definitely some hit pieces out on him being a
(33:39):
bit of a pill during the filming, but that is
neither here nor there. If you guys in mind, I
think I've got time.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
For one more.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
That I had a third, well, I'll just say the
third one just because it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Really quickly, Scotland.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
The police force in the Scotland had proposed a ban
on facial hair for any officers of the law. There
a clean shaven policy that was going to be introduced
in May, what was postponed during a wave of complaints.
Now they have officially decided to scrap the plans. So
I say, that's a victory for Beard. He's everywhere, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
That's you know, that's a victory for the public of Scotland,
because if someone doesn't have a mustache, how can you
tell that they are true?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
And also Scotland being a pretty bearded country, I would
argue it let us a lot of lovely beards there.
And it was specifically supposed to encourage the wearing of masks,
those N ninety five masks that I.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Sit really tightly.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
But again the backlash was just too severe and they
couldn't do it. So lastly, I just want to talk
a little bit about the absolute.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Disco banger that is YMCA.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
There's been a little bit of controversy recently when the
singer of the band, I believe he was the cop.
If you're looking at the video, there was like, you know,
the construction worker, the cowboy, the Native American figure, there's
like a soldier, a leather daddy kind of figure wearing
like literally chains on his bare chest, and then a
police officer. The police officer who is the co writer
(35:05):
of the song Ymca, a guy named Victor Willis, is
still living, and he has come out saying, actually, I'll
just give the quote come January twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
My wife. Why he's singling out his wife and not him.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Well, he doesn't want he wants people to know his.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Oriented fair enough, that's a good point. Okay, Well let's
get to it.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
My wife will start suing each and every news organization
that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or
alluded to in the base of the story that YMCA
is somehow a gay anthem, because such notion is based
solely on the song's lyrics alluding to illicit activity for
which it does not a little interesting grammatical structure there.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, three things real quick. First, why is your wife
suing him? Why not you? Second, do you, as the
creator of anything, be a story, a painting, a sculpture,
or a song, do you get to dictate what part
of the world or what demographic identifies.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, that's exactly right, man.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
Whether or not the song was set out to be
a gay anthem, the reality of the matter is is
that it has come to have the stature of a
gay anthem. And if you watch the video, and I
mean the performances and just like the lyrics, they're pretty innocuous.
It is just singing the praises of the young Men's
Christian What is it association? I believe YMCA a place
(36:34):
where you can go have a hot meal and you know,
play a little ping pong, get a shower if you're
down on your luck, and of course hang out with
all the boys. Another very interesting statement from the singer
says that that famous line that I just quoted was
simply nineteen seventies black slang for black guys hanging out
together for sports, gambling or whatever.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
There's nothing gay about that, no, homo.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I mean, okay me thou dost Well, that's.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
What I was gonna mention Ben and Matt. This does
feel like a classic example of the streisand effects. Right
we're in somebody says no, it's not this thing, or no,
don't look at my picture on the internet where and
it just kind of doubles down on whatever that thing is,
or makes people have eyes on whatever the thing is
you don't want them to look at, and it just
comes off like Freud with cigars totally, and it just
(37:23):
comes off as really tone deaf and clueless, and a
great example of someone who doesn't understand what their own
work means to other people. And the interesting thing about
this is it comes kind of as a result of
this song having been co opted by the Trump campaign
being played at all of these events. And originally, apparently
(37:44):
mister Willis was not for that, just because he said
it was a quote unquote nuisance. I guess he was
getting bugged about it a lot. But then the Trumpet
Organization actually purchased a political license for the song through BMI,
a publishing company that owns the rights to that song,
And since then mister Willis has changed his tune entirely.
(38:05):
He isn't making it a political thing, but he is
saying the financial benefits this is from his mouth have
been great. YMCA is estimated to grow several million dollars
since the President Alex continued use of the song. Therefore,
I'm glad I allowed the President a lex continued use
of YMCA, and I thank him for choosing to use
my song. And rather than leaving it that, I just
(38:26):
do want to add it wasn't just his song. He
was the co writer of the song along with a
gentleman by the name of Jacquise Morale who or Morale Rather,
who produced the record. He was a very well known
French disco and dance music record producer and songwriter. The
Village people were, from my understanding, assembled, They were like
a boy band.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
They were put together.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
Each of their respective characters were very meticulously chosen, and
it was a time where queer culture was much more
out in the open all of a sudden, and it
was capitalizing on that. So, I mean, you know, you
can't say that the biker in the leather with the
chains on his hairy chest isn't like a symbol of
a queer iconic thing. Whether that happened before or after
(39:07):
that choice was made, it is inextricably that. But Jacquise Morel,
who is no longer with us therefore not able to
defend his position on the use of this song or
it's you know, gay roots or lack thereof. He did
pass away due to complications from HIV he contracted in
the mid nineteen eighties, and he was openly gay, and
(39:30):
he died of rather, he died of AIDS related complications
in Paris at the age of forty four. So very clearly,
you know, you got to wonder if the producer, who
also gets a co writing credit, how much who wrote what?
And how much of that what with that relationship was even?
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Like, and how do people try to retroactively redefine right
historical events? You know, history is history is written by
the people in the present ongoing conversation. Also with that
in mind, you know, guys, how cool would it be
for a Village People two point zero to come out?
(40:09):
And if so, which characters which tropes would be assembled?
You know, like who who? Who's the equivalent of the
Village People cast role wise in the modern day.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
They have to leave out the Native American with full
head dress. I would argue that that needs well, the.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
Rest of them, I think are Okay. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
I always will think of Wayne's World, that the scene
of Wayn's World where they do IMCA.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
I just think this is interesting and a great example
of kind of like a the stressand effect and be
someone kind of being a little bit clueless about their
own legacy, whether the intent was there or not. I
don't think you can shut down what a thing has
come to represent just by saying.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
So, yeah, it's kind of like, uh, it's it's kind
of like uh, you know, an old school gangster rapper
coming out and saying I've never once condoned violence. You
guys are hearing the me Is it wrong?
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yeah? One way.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I do think this is like a roundabout way to
maybe get what he wants though, say some like insensitive
possibly homophobic things out loud, you know, and now if
you listen to the song, you're supporting this guy, right,
So I do think it might actually have the messed
up effect he's looking for.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Well, it's maybe changing the narrative in a way, because
I mean, you know, Trump is you know, I would
he has some platforms that I think are not particularly
friendly to the LGBTQ and trans community. Let's just say
so to co opt that song in that way and
then have the co sign of the creator, it does
seem to flip the script on what that song represents.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
And I think he's trying to help serve that narrative.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
And now it maybe is more of the Trump dancing,
you know, jerking his hands off in the air kind
of song rather than this queer anthem that it has
in the past been.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, it is a weird way to stop getting even
the small amount of residuals you still getting no.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
No, But he's getting more. He's getting that's the point,
though he's getting no.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
He said it's generated a million dollars specifically by from
use of the Trump campaign, and it shot up in
the charts as a result of that too. But my
point is, I think the audience is changing or something
like the people who are listening to it for different
reasons or with different connotations now. But you know, I've
never it's always been pretty embraced by everyone. It's at weddings,
(42:23):
you know, everyone loves the dance. Everyone loves a song
with a dance associated with it that I don't think
was even created by the band. I think that kind
of came naturally from a performance on American Bandstand or
something where the audience kind of invented that. I don't
know exactly the details there, but it's really interesting on
a lot of levels. So anyway, those are my stories.
Let's take a quick break here, a word from our sponsor,
and then come back with a bit more strange news
(42:45):
for you.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Coming back just to play off of that YMCA story,
You guys, we have another piece of news that matches
up really well with this. You can't control who consumes
the art you create and what that art becomes for people.
A book written by author Jay Feineman, first published in
twenty ten, has skyrocketed to number two on the Amazon
(43:14):
Nonfiction Charts, the best selling nonfiction charts. The subtitle is
Why insurance Companies Don't pay claims and What you can
do about it. The title is delay, deny, defend.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Hmm.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
Okay, just saw that those three words for the first
time in my life recently on those shell case things.
And then Ben pointed out to us in our group
chat that this was kind of a popular way of
referring to how insurance companies, you know, basically get out
of paying claims that are legitimate.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yes, and you know, it is just it's strange the
way this whole thing is playing out. We will talk
about it very soon in a more full way, just
wanting to point it out there. You know, Jay Feineman
probably didn't imagine his book would be associated with, you know,
the assassination of a healthcare CEO. And now it is
all right, so let's jump to the news coming out
(44:06):
of CNN Business. This was written on December tenth by
Nathaniel Myerson. The title is Federal Judge block's largest supermarket
merger in history. So, guys, back in twenty twenty two,
Kroger and Albertson's, these are two massive grocery store slash
supermarket corporations. They announced, Hey, we're gonna team up together.
(44:29):
We're going to merge into one big old thing. The
plan was to combine both the fifth and the tenth
largest retailers in the United States. That is now hear
that largest retailers. Think of all the stores that could
be considered retail, this is the fifth and the tenth.
So that's not just grocery stores. So why go Voltron
(44:49):
like this? Well, because both of these giants were losing
ground to the recently emerging Titans of grocery, specifically Walmart
and Amazon. And you know you got your costcos and
then also tied to Walmart's like your Sam's Clubs and
things like that. They're losing out to these guys. So
they thought, well, if we get huge too and become
a titan together, maybe we can actually compete. Well, it's
(45:15):
not just Albertson's, the grocery store maybe you've heard of
or have been to, or the Kroger that you've heard of.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
Or been to.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
These companies own a bunch of other brand name stores.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
They're more like regionally specific. Right.
Speaker 5 (45:27):
You might have yes, Kroger over here in Atlanta, but
then it's like Vaughn's in Los Angeles and southern California
and such, right.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Harris Teeter, fred Meyer, Safeway, all kinds of places. And
there are dozens, by the way, not just those. So
from this article written by Nathaniel, it says Kroger and
Albertson's employ mostly unionized workforces, and said they wanted to
merge to become more competitive against these non union giants
such as Walmart, Amazon, Costco. The grocers also faced increased
(45:56):
pressure from another store that maybe you've been too recently,
All the which is the fastest growing German discount supermarket chain.
They're popping up everywhere where I live. All these are
just I'm just seeing them proliferate. I can imagine that
there's lots of pressure there. This is what they wanted
to do. And here's a quote from Rodney Mullen, the
CEO of Kroger. He's saying this merger would accelerate quote
(46:19):
our position as a more compelling alternative to larger and
non union competitors, which again seems like maybe a good thing. Right,
you've got unionized workers in these places. They're e merging
together a bunch of unionized workers, which at least has
protections for the people who are working at the stores.
That feels like a better thing than you know, at
(46:40):
least what we've heard about Amazon in some of their
business practices there when it comes to employees as well
as Walmart and others, seems like an okay thing. The
big deal here, y'all is that Kroger. When this announcement
happened in twenty twenty two, they committed to lowering grocery
prices by one billion dollars. Now what does that mean?
(47:01):
I guess the price of groceries across all of the
United States by a billion dollars, which translates to not
much money for each individual out there shopping in a Kroger.
But it would be Yeah, it's a tricky numbers thing.
And if you just say it like that, it sounds
so great, Oh my gosh, a billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah, but it's like a class action lossuit, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
You get eleven dollars, you get four dollars.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
Hell, let's pay out in coupons. You know exactly?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
That all sounded interesting, good, maybe not great. It's tough
to like giant corporations getting together and joining forces.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (47:38):
What we talked about is the nature of monopoly recently too,
and how it often seems like that's just.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Sort of the order of the day.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
This is kind of we we've grown to expect it
almost right, and to usually not see it getting shut
down or for there to be a loophole to make
it just not monopoly enough to make it but still
for all intents and purposes, that's what the heck it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Is exactly well, guys, this week, as we we are recording,
on Wednesday, December eleventh, a federal judge and Oregon judge
Adrian Nelson rejected all of those arguments and basically said
no to this merger. She blocked the proposed twenty five
billion dollar merger between Albertsons and Kroger. And this ruling basically,
(48:20):
if you sum down, what her statement was is that
it would limit competition and it would harm consumers. So
she issued a preliminary injunction that's what they call it,
halting the deal at least temporarily. In a ruling, she
said that supermarkets are quote distinct from other grocery retailers
and are not direct competitors to Walmart, Amazon, and other
(48:43):
companies that sell a wider range of goods. She said
that this merger would eliminate head to head competition between
Albertsons and Kroger and potentially raise prices for consumers rather
than lower them, as at least the CEO of Kroger
was touting, right, we're going to get bigger and we're
going to lower prices because theoretically we can all supply
(49:03):
you know, we can get a bunch more from the
same suppliers. We can do all this stuff to negotiate
and lower the prices of goods. This judge is saying,
I don't think that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
I'd like to trust you, but I maybe know a
little better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Well, again, this is an injunction, so it's temporary, just
saying hey, we're going to pause on this until we
learn some more things. Then we can come back to
the negotiation table and try and see what this merger
looks like. Well, at the end of yesterday, Tuesday, December tenth.
This preliminary injunction halted the deal, but the companies had
this option to appeal and move forward to keep going.
(49:41):
Well as of today the eleventh, Albertson's said, now we're done.
We're not going to do this. It's over Kroger. You've
wronged us, because they're suing Kroger for breach of contract,
and they're alleging that Kroger made the merger get blocked.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Like they blew it up, like they like did It's crazy,
like a poison pill.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, well, yes, they're saying that Kroger failed to exercise
its quote best efforts and to take quote any and
all actions to secure regulatory approval.
Speaker 4 (50:16):
I don't have em understand what that means.
Speaker 5 (50:19):
How is it their respond I mean it's up to
the judge, right, Like, I don't get it.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
They're saying Kroger, if they really wanted it, could have
done much more. It's similar to if I understand the
legal proceedings. Just to interject it, it feels like Albertson
is kind of accusing I even kind of is accusing
Kroger of doing that classic Gene Wilder line from Charlie
and the Chocolate factory. One of the kids gets in
(50:45):
trouble and he goes, oh stop, he said, Kroger didn't
really hustle.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, well, it is weird because Kroger's the biggest grocery
chain out there, right, and then Albertson as albertson Is
is like number ten, right, we said five and ten.
Kroger is actually number one in just grocery, and then
Albertson's is smaller. So Albertson's is kind of hoping to
join up, I guess, with the like team up with
(51:15):
the bigger player in some way. So I suppose they
have more to lose when going into this type of merger.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
And I can.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Imagine that's why the company and all of their legal
teams are saying, hey, we need to get something out
of this, because this was going to be a big
deal for us.
Speaker 5 (51:29):
They may have already put some things in motion, you know,
towards whatever that was going to look like, and maybe
that's wasted effort and funding and what have you.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Right, Yeah, and we have no visibility into that. But
again that same due that, we read a quote from
Rodney Mullens, CEO of Kroger. He said, just before all
of this stuff went down, he said, we're well positioned
to grow even if this deal ends, which is, you know,
one of those things you put out in the ether
as a merger is happening, and it's probably not a
(51:59):
great for investors to see or regulatory folks to look at.
I know this is kind of boring at all. I
think it's just I think it's just important to remember
that this is the kind of stuff that's happening, and
it's the kind of stuff that happens when enough corporations
grow and grow and grow and grow, and they can't
do anything to grow any further unless they envelop another
(52:20):
one of these big players that's doing the same thing,
and eventually, over the course of time, you get you know,
you get the Google in the Facebook and these companies
that just become one big thing like an Amazon, right
or a Meta Sure, and in this case whatever Krogerson's
would be, but.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
It did not happen, and it would seem like now
there's bad blood that would lead one to believe that
it's never gonna happen. They're done with each other. But
I just do you do you see I don't know.
I mean, I know you're not a legal expert here,
But do you see, like with Kroger being so much
bigger than Albertson, it just seems like a pretty kind
(52:59):
of a shot in the dark roll of the dice
to do this, to like go up against them when
they were trying to join up with them.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
It depends what they have, right and if they can
prove it, then maybe they get away with a bunch
of money and the investors view them as scrappy.
Speaker 4 (53:17):
Yeah. Sure, you get that.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
The share prices of both of these corporations were up,
by the way after this whole falling through, which is weird.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
I don't understand any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Well, that's it for grocery stores. Let's jump really quickly
over to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and talk
about a quote unidentified illness that is causing alarm with
the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This comes to us via The Guardian and journalist Cat Leigh.
(53:48):
It was written on December tenth, twenty twenty four. This
is a mystery disease that is spreading according to DRC's
Health minister last week, as we record today, it had
this disease had killed seventy nine people, and that since
October twenty fourth, and there were three hundred and seventy
six cases identified. The reason why we want to talk
(54:10):
about this because again that's a low number of people, right,
but that is quite a few number of people who
died in proportion to the number of people who are
getting sick. The main symptoms here are similar to flu, headaches, coughing,
difficulty breathing, anemia. There is quite a bit of testing,
but it's in a remote part of the DRC there.
So actually getting somebody to a testing facility or getting
(54:32):
let's say blood that's sampled to a testing facility, you're
talking three hundred and four hundred miles away just to
make that happen, and then you factor in the time
that it takes just to travel that length. Do the
testing get results? It's not it's not a quick moving
situation for people on the ground, right, attempting to figure
out what's going on there. And again I said, I
(54:54):
think I'm restating this, but the reason why I wanted
to talk to this and bring up to you guys,
is because they're speculat that this is is what is
known as a disease X. This is some previously unknown
pathogen that has the potential to become a pandemic.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
I think anytime we see something like that hit our radar,
we at least want to raise a flag and say, hey,
there's a possibility here of some other insane thing happening,
depending on how spread occurs. But as of right now today,
the update is that many of the people who actually
were tested their twelve initial samples that were collected, the
(55:34):
ten of them tested positive for malaria. But the doctors
are saying it is possible that malaria is one illness
and there's maybe a second illness as well. In there
you can read the article some mystery disease patients in
DRC have malaria? Who says, and again that's in the Guardian.
That's all I've got today, guys.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
Yeah, and there's much more to explore, especially with the
nomenclature of disease X shadows of colonialism, we could argue.
For right now, we're going to call it a day.
We are hoping you have a wonderful mid December. More importantly,
we're hoping you reach out and contact us. We cannot
wait to hear your thoughts. On everything from especially those
(56:19):
mystery drones. They're still getting to me. Have you ever
sent anyone elite goats? All this and more? Let us know.
We try to be easy to find on the Internet
via telephone and of course our email Noel, how does
someone touch us on the line.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
Josh, and I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 5 (56:36):
You can find this in the handle of Conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on x FKA Twitter, on Facebook where
we have our Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy,
and on YouTube where we have video content for your
holiday perusing enjoyments on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 4 (56:49):
However, we're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
And should you like to give us a telephone call,
you can do it quite easily. All you have to
do is find your favorite device and punch in the
following code. Sing it along with us at home one
eight three three STDWYTK. Wouldn't you hit the number? You'll
hear a hopefully familiar voice than a beep like so beep.
After that, you got three minutes there yours go, ham
(57:15):
go nuts. Give us your real name, give us a
nickname you'd like, ask us to make one for you.
Most importantly, let us know if we can use your
name and or message on the air. If none of
that quites bags your badgers. If you don't sip the
social meds, and you, like so many people, don't care
to make a phone call, you can always contact us
at our good old fashioned email address where we are
(57:38):
conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
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.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer Andrew Treforce Howard. Most importantly, you are you.
You are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. If you are tuning in the evening,
this publishes welcome to December sixteenth. You guys, we're so
(00:48):
close to twenty twenty five, not even the project, just
the calendar year.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I think twenty twenty five is already in effect.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Yeah, full effect.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
No, no, we'll see, we'll see quick updates.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The US courts have rejected the Onions bid to buy
Info Wars for now. Another court ruled that boneless chicken
wings can still be you know, pieces of food that
have bones in them. One thing that is on everybody's mind.
We have taken some time for our personal lives, so
(01:25):
you'll hear some classic episodes coming up in the next
few weeks, and like the rest of the United States,
dare I say the world we have been paying attention
to the recent assassination of a CEO.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Oh boy, are we ever? I was, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I was in New York last week and was right
down at the iHeart offices, which are very close to
that Hilton, and I had no idea what was going on,
but I was eating it a deli and there was
a reporter talking and asking some guy that worked at
the Hilton about like maybe the security cameras something. I
didn't know what they were talking about until.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
After the fact.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Wow. Yeah, And we'll probably make a full episode on
the story of Luigi Mangeo.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's what a name.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah. I don't know if he's related to Chuck Uh.
Do you guys remember Chuck?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Is he related to Mario? Though? Is the question?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Is he related? Yeah? Or as the internet is asking us,
does this mean there is a wa Luigi who works
in private equity swear?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Then I heard the Chuck MANZIONI question come up to it.
If anyone doesn't know, Chuck Manzoni was like sort of
an easy listening.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Trumpet player really made most famous for me by his
appearance on King of the Hill.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
All the time. He's the spokesperson for megalo mart.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Finally, Finally, and speaking of spokesfolk, I like that speaks too. Yeah,
we're gonna hear some spokespeople for a popular band back
in the day. We're gonna hear some stuff about Santa
of course, you know, some comments about facial hair. We're
gonna end with a wholesome story. We'll have a lot
(03:06):
of updates along the way before we get to our
first break. I would just like to tease something. Have
you guys ever interacted with a phone scammer?
Speaker 5 (03:18):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (03:18):
Many?
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Well, yeah, lately I just kind of once I realized
that that's they are, I say no, thank you and
just hang up. But you know, back before I was
a little less irritated by the avalanche of scam calls
that I receive, I probably would have played along for
a minute.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
H Yeah, it's only in the very first stages, but
you can kind of tell when something is off when
it's a big corporation calling you about your account.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Yeah, have you guys been getting the one where it's
like a loan company calling to ask you for additional
information about the loan that you applied for. I've been
getting that one just non stop lately.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
It's weird.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
I get a lot of I'm with you. I get
a lot of unsolicited advertisements for Russian made anti aircraft okay,
no armament. Yeah it's weird. It's weird. But if they
make it through all the proxies enough to advertise, oh, here.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
On them nice.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Mine's mostly been text messages saying my UPS package has arrived,
but it needs some more information from me to get.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Oh, I get that. I got that one.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I was saying it needed to clear customs. It had
gotten held up in customs, and it asked for my uh.
It said there was a problem with the zip code.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, yeah, and all you have to do is click
the link. Spoiler, folks, don't it is a conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
It did have a link it has said. It said
you get a close this click the text message.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I clicked the link in the text message, but it
wasn't even a blue link.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It was like you would have had to copy and
paste it.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
And then it said when it's when it starts getting
too complex, like close the text message open a browser.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Definitely a red flag every time.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Mm hmm, yeah, a flag so read that even the
color blind can see us. So with this in mind,
we know, for anybody who listened to our previous episode
on the Troubled Border of Mean Mar or our series
on that, we know that there are a lot of
scams in the world or the information age, and there
(05:19):
are people who have deployed one method or another of
combating those scams and those scammers. So I suggest we
take a break from a word from our sponsors and
then we introduce everyone to Daisy.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
How's that sound sounds good?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And we're back. Actually, let's just have Daisy.
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Take for it.
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Right, seven and Temperates have been targeted by scammers, and
it's not just our grandparents. I was one of them.
This film isn't about getting scammed. This is about getting
(06:04):
even meet my friend Daisy.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Hello, scammers, I'm your worst nightmare. I'm an AI created
by O two to waste phone scammers time. So w's
then a DOT.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Three d W and then dot I think your profession
is bothering people?
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Right, I'm just trying to have a little chat.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
It's nearly been an hour.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Finally, benevolent use of AI.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
It's showing me a picture of my cat Fluffy. It's
showing you the picture of your fluffy stop calling me, dear.
Got it, dear, because while they're busy talking to me,
they can't be scamming you. And let's face it, dear,
I've got all the time in the world.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
So that my heart das finally a benevolent AI right.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Like doing good. Daisy is not human. Daisy is an
AI creation that impersonates sort of as we can tell,
a British granty or a granting from the UK who
answers calls in real time from suspected fraudsters with the
(07:23):
entire goal of keeping them on the phone for as
long as possible such that they don't reach real vulnerable
human beings.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
What was that piece from that we just heard?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
This is from O two O two associated with Virgin
Media and you know Richard Branson's whole strange experiment. O
two has recently, as of last month, they've unveiled something
called this thing Daisy, and it's a death of a
thousand cuts for scammers. This came out you can read
(08:02):
about this on Virgin Media's official sites from mid November,
just last month. Daisy is a big deal at O
two for right now. Her official title is head of
scammer relations and what the entirety of this model is
centered on. Weirdly enough, the kind of recommendations that intelligence
(08:26):
agencies gave back in the Cold War. It's always to distract,
to ramble, to go on tangents. Daisy may, in fact,
I think, be a pretty good podcaster. The way it
works is it's an agglomeration of different AI models and
they work together in a stew to listen and respond
(08:50):
to fraudulent calls instantly, And it so far has a
pretty great success rate, probably because it still has that
new car smell and criminals aren't aware of it. It
can keep people on, Like the goal is to keep
the scammers on a call for about forty minutes at
a time. This is a small part of a larger
(09:13):
thing that virgin media two coals swerve the scammers.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Amazing.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I just love it, I really do.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Have you guys seen that film The Beekeeper starring Jason
Statham Matt You'd really like it.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
It's a good old rollicking action banger.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
But it is like a revenge fantasy essentially, where the
titular Beekeeper, who is a high level black ops killing
machine who's gone into retirement and literally just keeps bees,
has a dear friend of his who is an older
woman scammed by these awful basically villain you know, comically
villainous you know, evil individuals corporation. Really in the in
(09:54):
the movie, and minor spoiler alert for a thing that
happens very early on in the Beekeeper, she takes her
own life because they basically stripper of all of her funds.
And also she was the keeper of some funds for
some sort of nonprofit organization, a charity, and it all
kinds of things, but it is exactly what we're talking
about here. It just you know, I've obviously done stylized
(10:14):
and done like for maximum action effect.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But this is a much less violent way.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Of dealing with these gums, right, and we see that
it comes from real life concerns. Everybody knows that people
who are not what we will call digital natives can
be a little bit less situationally aware of scams and ststers,
and this is a huge concern in the United Kingdom.
(10:43):
Virgin Media's own research, in partnership with some of the
boffins they got on the case, shows that seven in
ten are actually more than seven in ten, seventy one
percent of people in Britain or Brits would like to
get some sort of revenge against scammers, because scams, especially
(11:04):
telephonic scams, are so common there that if you have
not been the victim of a scam attempt yourself, then
you know someone who has. It's uh, it has proliferated
across that area of the world.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Well, and Ben, it's not. It's it wouldn't continue to
the point.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Where folks like you or I, who are you know,
more or less wise to this stuff continue to give
these kind of calls if.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
They weren't making money off of them. They have to
be successful to some degree or else why would they continue.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, it's it's kind of like the terrible logic of
the so called pua or pickup artists, where they say, hey,
well we'll just do a numbers game. You know, it's
not the nine people who don't fall for the malarkey,
it's the one who does.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, they just need to come up with something now
that also tracks somehow back to the server that is
functioning like whatever the scammers are using, so that you
can nuke the server, not actually nuked, but you know,
why destroy the server and dds at the very least
take it out or adjacent Statham group that just gets
(12:10):
deployed every time Daisy is in use.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'd be very interested in your thoughts on Beekeeper. It's good.
Yeah yeah, I all right, different show, but yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
I wasn't expecting to like it, and I truly loved it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So speaking of truly loving things, there is another story
that so many people have contacted us about. It's an
ongoing thing. We have to talk about it, at least briefly, gentlemen,
the mystery drones. Earlier in our previous Strange News segment,
(12:48):
I want to say we had explored the story of
drones monitoring US bases in the United Kingdom. It turns
out there are more mystery drones across the pond. Not
just that Chinese student who took a one way trip
after he got popped. But we know that residents in
(13:08):
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn have been reporting drones. Over in New Jersey,
a lot of people have been reporting strange stuff in
the sky, and these are We have to remember, this
part of the United States is very densely populated, so
if one person sees something, many other people saw it
as well. There's not a way to. You know, it's
(13:30):
not like the days of Blue Book. You can't just
find the one farmer and intimidate them. These drones have
been seen near US military facilities, even near President elect
Trump's golf course in Bedminster. The FAA tried to tamp
down and said, hey, look, any drone flights over this
(13:51):
airspace are going to be restricted. So then this helps
us eliminate, you know, the probability of known drones coming
in everybody pad it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
One thing we should note here is that these are
not your drones that you can go pick up at
Best Buy if you you know, came into a financial windfall,
or you can go over to you know, any of
the places that sell drones. Right now, these are, or
at least they're being reported as huge, like suv size
drones that function a lot like those quadri copter drones
(14:23):
that are loud as hell apparently, and again huge flying around,
and that is very I think that's part of the
troublesome bit, right. It's not as though it's a bunch
of hobbyists, as you've been saying there, Well, it's something else.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
And from my own education here, guys, are we talking
these are like models that are outside.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
Of the norm even of what we know as.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
Military drones, because those don't seem like they're incredibly loud.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
I mean, I mean, I know they are.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
They make a drone sound, but I mean it would
kind of kill out the element of surprise if they
were like as loud as these things seem to be.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, I want to I want to shout out some
recent interactions we've had on social media, some emails, and
some folks who used our call in line to specifically
note this this is an active, developing situation, and to
be clear, I appreciate that clarification. Yeah, obviously we're not
(15:22):
implying that these are hobbyist drones, not the kind of
stuff you could buy on Amazon or at your local
radio shack. I think there are still radio shacks. Maybe
I'm dating myself. These are big, almost to what we
would call UAV size. I really want to get to
the statement from the FBI's Newark Field office. They said, quote,
(15:47):
we understand the concern, and we are doing all we
can to figure out what's going on. We truly don't
have much information to provide at the moment, and this
is I want to add the further context here. This
has to be terrifying and deeply upsetting, perhaps even offensive
(16:08):
to people in the area, given that nine to eleven
didn't happen too long ago, Right, So shouldn't this air
space be especially protected, be especially monitored. Out of all
the places in the United States outside of maybe you know,
Groom Lake or area fifty one, How on earth are
(16:33):
these things getting through? And how on earth are they
apparently unidentified.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Getting through without being shot down like or at least
you know, acknowledged.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
How are they getting this far right?
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Right? That's the thing I would advanced to you guys.
At first off, the logical cover story would be this
is a training exercise, right, everybody, keep calm, we know
what's happening. However, that is not the path the FEDS
have chosen to take.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, it is weird because it could be test vehicles
for some company, you know, some startup company that's attempting
to make flying cars that are more quadricroft or style,
which is something we've seen prototypes of over the past
Finally six years, where's.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
A flying car? I mean, we're finally getting to them.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
If you look at the footage of them up there,
it looks like clearly a human made flashing light vehicle
you know that should be in the sky and is
flying probably safely in the sky with all of its
flashing lights and everything. It's just very very odd, especially
when you see one and then there's like five more
that you can tell, or the same thing flying around
(17:42):
out in the distance.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, we've had reports again to our show in particular,
and just reports in the public sphere where these are
reasonable people, These are not wing nuts. There are folks
who happen to live in the area, maybe even without
an interest in aviation or UAP, and they're saying, what
the heck is going on? If you're part of that,
(18:04):
if you have experienced this, you can of course email
us conspiracy atiheartradio dot com. We'd love to see any
clips you have. You can also call the FBI if
you want one eight hundred in averse of creativity, one
eight hundred call FBI. That's two two five five three
two four. And people are saying they've reported these sightings
(18:25):
multiple times and they have not gotten responses. What the
heck is going on? There's very much something they don't
want you to know, and the question is who is they?
So again we would love to hear your reports, thinking
to everybody's written in, contacted us via the internets, or
(18:45):
dropped a line to us via telephonic device. I wanted
to got wanted to go a little bit lighthearted with
a couple things. The one story about justice. So you
guys know how recently the nation of the DPRK or
North Korea as has called here in the West, sent
(19:07):
some of their own military personnel to fight in Russia's
war with Ukraine. It appears Russia has you know, reciprocated
a bit. They sent a crack team to North Korea. However,
the crack team is not human. They sent one hundred
(19:28):
and I'm quoting here elite goats.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Oh heck, yeah, elite goats. Do they have weapons strapped
on them or something?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
They have? Every goat is a weapon, right, Yeah, these
are the goat goats. Because they have cleared four hundred
and forty seven goats for shipment to North Korea. It's
the first batch of live animals. This occurred back in August.
(20:01):
Now they're continuing to send these. A lot of these
goats are pregnant. They have been microchipped. The idea is
that while the speculation in the West is that this
is meant to help address food shortages in the country.
So perhaps by having these high quality goats, which sounds
(20:24):
like a weird thing to say, perhaps that will help
the country. Wait, how many, Well, in August they cleared
four hundred and forty seven. Quite recently they sent one
hundred over.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
We're going to need more goats, a bigger gut.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
We've got to have more goats. We also know this
is part of a larger story which I really want
to dig into with you guys later. Last month, in November,
Russia also sent more animals, not just pregnant top tier goats,
which again is just a very weird statement. They sent
to bears, two yaks, twenty five pheasants, forty mandarin ducks,
(21:03):
five cockatoos of one African lion. It does sound version
of that Christmas Yeah, that's what he's gonna say. It
sounds like a weird version of that old Christmas song,
doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
It does.
Speaker 5 (21:14):
I mean, immediately my mind was looking for the partridge
and the pear tree.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
It seems logistically difficult to ship though.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, partridges are tough. Internation, well, they know what they
is true.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Where is the bear? Fitting.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
This is just like two bears just in case, Like,
we got to fin these herds at some point, and
we need to make sure these bears are ready.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Ye, straight to the DMZ where they cocaine bears is
my second pertion.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Every bear is a cocaine bear if you catch it
on the right Saturday. So we are out of time
for this. We're not going to get to the staff
orgy at the Tennessee VA hospital. Why, we are happy
to report Broward County has vacated victions for people who
(21:59):
bought crack recently because it turns out that crack was
made by the local sheriffs off what yes Bury the
lead guy?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
True, but what about this orgy?
Speaker 3 (22:13):
We're just we're throwing these out. If you want to
learn more, Uh, if you want to learn more about
VA orgies, uh, do check out sure News network, where
VA officials have resigned after a report of a staff
orgy at a Tennessee VA hospital.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
If you want to make sure you're, I guess buying
high quality crack, then go to Broward County. Uh, because
over in Fort lauderdel Floyd.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
I also just say I went to Philadelphia this weekend
as well, for a personal trip and energy no personal trip, and.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I are's there's a really thank you for your sir.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
There's a really wonderful queer historical queer bookstore called Giovanni's
Room where a friend of mine works, and I went
there and as we left, he was giving us all
these little extra little bits to add to our things
that we bought, like little you know, posters and things,
and he said, oh, and here, test your drugs. And
he gave us like these drug testing kits. So just
(23:09):
putting it out there that that stuff is available, and
if anybody out there is indulging in things like crack
cocaine or cocaine, I'm not advocating that, but do test
your drugs because there are all kinds of horrible adults
arend stunt to mention fentanyl and things that can actually
kill you outside of just a goofy story.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So just putting that out there.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, if you're in a situation where you are choosing
recreational activities like that, please do be aware of fentanyl
and other forms of contamination have swept through the US
and parts of Europe like a thunderstorm or a hurricane.
Who always be safe to the best of your ability,
there should be resources available. If you are, of course,
(23:49):
in Broward County, be aware that for at least three years,
the Sheriff's office there produced its own crack cocaine so
that they could sell it to people. And then are
those people for buying the crack cocaine that law enforcement
had made.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
It's like the Dave Chappelle bits, or it's like putting
a crack rock on you, you know, I mean, good lord,
that is despicable.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I just want to know who cooked up that idea.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Ok, yeah, yeah, Well, and when they're getting promoted, right,
speaking of promotions, We're going to pause for a word
from our sponsors. Will return with more strange news.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
And we have returned with a few more pieces of
strange news. Will lead with a holiday related themed story
out of Russia.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I think this one is just a hoot. Guys.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
There's a prominent pro Kremlin activist by the name of
Vitaly Boradin who has called on the Russian state to
designate Santa Claus as a quote quote foreign agent.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I mean technically he is, well.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Absolutely he is.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
I mean, well, yeah, he's he's coming into your homes, y'all,
and he's, you know, leaving things in there that weren't
there before, and yet somehow we welcome this terrorist.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
No, I'm just such a weird I mean, think about it. Though.
I was talking about this with our pals at Daily's
like Geist. It is such a strange, uh, strange trope
that we all accept. If you're very good, an overweight
man that you don't know will break into your house.
It'll leave you stuff, and you should also leave him.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Sticks and thank you, thank you for the privilege.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Yeah, and if you're not good, he's still going to
break into your house, but the gifts will be worse.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Or and he's always brandishing an American Coca Cola.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Isn't he weird in the bottle too? Mmm? Refreshing? But yeah,
it's true.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
There's definitely some odd stuff around Santa Claus, the commercialization
of Christmas and all of that good stuff. But I
think we can all agree because of Matt's point about
the Coca Cola company sort of proliferating the image, the
modern image of Santa Claus that we know it is
very very much or he is very much part of
Western culture. Even though we know that Santa Claus of
(26:04):
course comes from Europe. There are you know, tons of
Santa Claus analogus, you know, Cinder Klaus and all of
that stuff, Black Schwatza, Pater, some more problematic ones and
things of that nature that come from other parts of
the world. But the bearded home invading, you know, jolly
old elf that we know as Santa is very much
(26:25):
a Western creation.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
From Thomas Nast and then later popularized be a Coca Cola.
We have a ridiculous history.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
He was a cartoonist, he kind of created, He was
a political cartoonist, and he created the image that we
know that was then kind of co opted by the
Co Cola company. So it does make sense that someone
who is so pro Kremlin like Borden might see Santa
Claus as not as like a physical foreign agent, but
as a way of infiltrating and undermining traditional Russian values.
(26:58):
He addressed a letter to the Secutor General and that
this was reported by the New York Times, where he
referred to Santa's rising popularity in Russia and the idea
that it jeopardizes the prominence of a Russian sort of
Santa Claus esque figure, Father Frost or dead Moros which
is a cultural figure that's central to Russia's New Year's
(27:20):
of celebrations. Father Frost is depicted as being from veliky
Ustyog in Vologna Oblast, which is a place in Russia,
I assume, and he has a helper. He has a
Santa's Little Helper type figure, which is his granddaughter, Snegoroshka.
And during the Soviet era he was very much pushed
(27:42):
forth as the embodiment of the spirit of New Year's
you know, reflection and gift giving and all of that
stuff gratitude. Right, But since the fall of the Soviet Union,
Western culture and capitalism, along with Santa Claus, has been
proliferating through Russia. So Borden in his letter highlights the
(28:04):
one point six trillion dollar global price tag of Santa
Claus trademarks, and he believes that exporting this figure, what
he represents Santa Claus, the exporting by international corporations run
the risk of eroding and exploiting and I guess maybe
(28:25):
more diluting Russian cultural norms, which is something that we've
heard of a good bit recently. And now I'm having
a hard time remembering the country of origin, but there
was a country. I believe in the Middle East that
was prohibiting music of a certain beats per minute because
it did not align with the traditional folk music of
(28:45):
that region. So that's very much like this idea of
let's keep these cultural norms on lock and prevent and
push away any invading forces. Which the reason I said
I thought this was a hoot, guys, is because isn't
Russia kind of notorious for infiltrating our norms and political
(29:05):
processes nowadays? I mean, I just think it's a little
bit of a hypocrisy going on here with someone that's
so pro Kremlin, the Kremlin being constantly at the heart
of a lot of these seemingly quite likely conspiracies about
Russian agents infiltrating our social media here, influencing voter turnout,
(29:27):
even doing you know, DS attacks and things of that
nature to affect the outcome of our elections.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
Which is about as central to culture as you can get.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, well, perhaps I have a I have a I
don't want to say a conclusion here at all, but
I do have an interesting thing to bring up you.
You may have noticed, folks, that it may just be possible, well,
that this is a response to some breaking news about
Santa Claus. Did you hear that the the sarcophagus of
(30:01):
the quote real Santa Claus has been discovered in Turkey?
Speaker 4 (30:04):
It just does it have jingle bells on it?
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Is it a big giant sleigher I just picture Santa's
tomb being mobile in that way.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
They found the burial site, apparently the suspected burial site
of the Greek bishop Saint Nicholas at the Church of
Saint Nicholas and Talia, Turkey. It's a limestone sarcophagus. I
don't know about the bells, but maybe this is what
inspired Russian activists to say, all right, Santa Claus definitely
(30:34):
a foreign agent. You could check it out. Archaeology News,
December seventh. Shout out to Dario Radley. I'm just super interesting.
I had no idea about that, and his last thing
for me on this one. This does align with some
other efforts that are happening within the Russian government. Mikhail Ivanov,
who's a regional legislator, has been pushing for the removal
of Santa Claus figurines from store shelves in favor of
(30:57):
being replaced by more Russian center holiday figures.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Literally not just figurines.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
He criticized Santa Claus as representation of gross Western ideals, commercialization, capitalism,
et cetera, and these things that are disconnected from the
spiritual essence of Christmas. And we could make that same
argument over a year, and plenty of people do. So
these things aren't happening in a vacuum. But it does,
(31:24):
it does. It does seem interesting that these folks are
acknowledging this aggressive infiltration by outside elements that are diluting
their own cultural norms, when again, they themselves seem to
be guilty of doing the same thing to us. Sure
it didn't mean the yap so much back And I
can see your your your gears turning there.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
What do you think about this?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
One had a conversation with I so on this morning
about Santa Claus and Jesus and Christmas and all that stuff.
And I think it's just I think it's a war
on Christmas. Guys.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Okay, I.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Just choke you. I'm just no, it's fun.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
I mean, have you guys seen the genius cinematic masterpiece
that is Red One. No, it's this like Holly this
popcorn you know movie that just came out it's apparently
quite terrible and not doing particularly well, starring Dwayne the
Rock Johnson, where he plays I think a bodyguard for
Santa who's played by the guy that played j Jonah Jamison,
who's also the neo Nazi dude in OZ whose name
(32:22):
is totally eluded to me. He's the mean drum teacher
in Whiplash. You guys know what I'm talking about. His
names is totally ascab of me. But AnyWho, he's Santa
Claus and he's apparently totally jacked. And it's this like
Christmas themed adventure that none of the critics that I
pay attention to seem to be able to understand who
it's for because it's like too violent for little kids,
but it's too childish for adults.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
So that's the other example of the commercialization.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Does it Dwayne still have this is a pop culture conspiracy?
But does he still have that thing in his contract
where he supposedly whatever character he plays he can't lose
a fight.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Oh, I don't know about that. That would that would
be It's interesting.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
I know he has to have a gym on site,
and he has to have time to get Jack built
into the shooting schedule.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
You got to get your games. Also, the actor you're
looking for their nol is jkse thank you, Yes, love
him just based on his name, Matt, I.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Think Steven Sagall is the guy I remember having the
thing in the contract about not losing a fight, but
I don't.
Speaker 5 (33:17):
I don't remember well, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, because that's
his name. He did have some controversy around the shooting
of Red One, where he apparently was late all the
time and was known to pee in bottles on set,
which seems a little inappropriate, and he sort of answered
to those claims saying they were largely overblown. But there
was definitely some hit pieces out on him being a
(33:39):
bit of a pill during the filming, but that is
neither here nor there. If you guys in mind, I
think I've got time.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
For one more.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
That I had a third, well, I'll just say the
third one just because it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Really quickly, Scotland.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
The police force in the Scotland had proposed a ban
on facial hair for any officers of the law. There
a clean shaven policy that was going to be introduced
in May, what was postponed during a wave of complaints.
Now they have officially decided to scrap the plans. So
I say, that's a victory for Beard. He's everywhere, yeah, and.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
That's you know, that's a victory for the public of Scotland,
because if someone doesn't have a mustache, how can you
tell that they are true?
Speaker 5 (34:19):
And also Scotland being a pretty bearded country, I would
argue it let us a lot of lovely beards there.
And it was specifically supposed to encourage the wearing of masks,
those N ninety five masks that I.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Sit really tightly.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
But again the backlash was just too severe and they
couldn't do it. So lastly, I just want to talk
a little bit about the absolute.
Speaker 4 (34:40):
Disco banger that is YMCA.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
There's been a little bit of controversy recently when the
singer of the band, I believe he was the cop.
If you're looking at the video, there was like, you know,
the construction worker, the cowboy, the Native American figure, there's
like a soldier, a leather daddy kind of figure wearing
like literally chains on his bare chest, and then a
police officer. The police officer who is the co writer
(35:05):
of the song Ymca, a guy named Victor Willis, is
still living, and he has come out saying, actually, I'll
just give the quote come January twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
My wife. Why he's singling out his wife and not him.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Well, he doesn't want he wants people to know his.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Oriented fair enough, that's a good point. Okay, Well let's
get to it.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
My wife will start suing each and every news organization
that falsely refers to YMCA, either in their headlines or
alluded to in the base of the story that YMCA
is somehow a gay anthem, because such notion is based
solely on the song's lyrics alluding to illicit activity for
which it does not a little interesting grammatical structure there.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, three things real quick. First, why is your wife
suing him? Why not you? Second, do you, as the
creator of anything, be a story, a painting, a sculpture,
or a song, do you get to dictate what part
of the world or what demographic identifies.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Well, that's exactly right, man.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
Whether or not the song was set out to be
a gay anthem, the reality of the matter is is
that it has come to have the stature of a
gay anthem. And if you watch the video, and I
mean the performances and just like the lyrics, they're pretty innocuous.
It is just singing the praises of the young Men's
Christian What is it association? I believe YMCA a place
(36:34):
where you can go have a hot meal and you know,
play a little ping pong, get a shower if you're
down on your luck, and of course hang out with
all the boys. Another very interesting statement from the singer
says that that famous line that I just quoted was
simply nineteen seventies black slang for black guys hanging out
together for sports, gambling or whatever.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
There's nothing gay about that, no, homo.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I mean, okay me thou dost Well, that's.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
What I was gonna mention Ben and Matt. This does
feel like a classic example of the streisand effects. Right
we're in somebody says no, it's not this thing, or no,
don't look at my picture on the internet where and
it just kind of doubles down on whatever that thing is,
or makes people have eyes on whatever the thing is
you don't want them to look at, and it just
comes off like Freud with cigars totally, and it just
(37:23):
comes off as really tone deaf and clueless, and a
great example of someone who doesn't understand what their own
work means to other people. And the interesting thing about
this is it comes kind of as a result of
this song having been co opted by the Trump campaign
being played at all of these events. And originally, apparently
(37:44):
mister Willis was not for that, just because he said
it was a quote unquote nuisance. I guess he was
getting bugged about it a lot. But then the Trumpet
Organization actually purchased a political license for the song through BMI,
a publishing company that owns the rights to that song,
And since then mister Willis has changed his tune entirely.
(38:05):
He isn't making it a political thing, but he is
saying the financial benefits this is from his mouth have
been great. YMCA is estimated to grow several million dollars
since the President Alex continued use of the song. Therefore,
I'm glad I allowed the President a lex continued use
of YMCA, and I thank him for choosing to use
my song. And rather than leaving it that, I just
(38:26):
do want to add it wasn't just his song. He
was the co writer of the song along with a
gentleman by the name of Jacquise Morale who or Morale Rather,
who produced the record. He was a very well known
French disco and dance music record producer and songwriter. The
Village people were, from my understanding, assembled, They were like
a boy band.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
They were put together.
Speaker 5 (38:46):
Each of their respective characters were very meticulously chosen, and
it was a time where queer culture was much more
out in the open all of a sudden, and it
was capitalizing on that. So, I mean, you know, you
can't say that the biker in the leather with the
chains on his hairy chest isn't like a symbol of
a queer iconic thing. Whether that happened before or after
(39:07):
that choice was made, it is inextricably that. But Jacquise Morel,
who is no longer with us therefore not able to
defend his position on the use of this song or
it's you know, gay roots or lack thereof. He did
pass away due to complications from HIV he contracted in
the mid nineteen eighties, and he was openly gay, and
(39:30):
he died of rather, he died of AIDS related complications
in Paris at the age of forty four. So very clearly,
you know, you got to wonder if the producer, who
also gets a co writing credit, how much who wrote what?
And how much of that what with that relationship was even?
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Like, and how do people try to retroactively redefine right
historical events? You know, history is history is written by
the people in the present ongoing conversation. Also with that
in mind, you know, guys, how cool would it be
for a Village People two point zero to come out?
(40:09):
And if so, which characters which tropes would be assembled?
You know, like who who? Who's the equivalent of the
Village People cast role wise in the modern day.
Speaker 5 (40:20):
They have to leave out the Native American with full
head dress. I would argue that that needs well, the.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
Rest of them, I think are Okay. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
I always will think of Wayne's World, that the scene
of Wayn's World where they do IMCA.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
I just think this is interesting and a great example
of kind of like a the stressand effect and be
someone kind of being a little bit clueless about their
own legacy, whether the intent was there or not. I
don't think you can shut down what a thing has
come to represent just by saying.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
So, yeah, it's kind of like, uh, it's it's kind
of like uh, you know, an old school gangster rapper
coming out and saying I've never once condoned violence. You
guys are hearing the me Is it wrong?
Speaker 4 (41:01):
Yeah? One way.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I do think this is like a roundabout way to
maybe get what he wants though, say some like insensitive
possibly homophobic things out loud, you know, and now if
you listen to the song, you're supporting this guy, right,
So I do think it might actually have the messed
up effect he's looking for.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Well, it's maybe changing the narrative in a way, because
I mean, you know, Trump is you know, I would
he has some platforms that I think are not particularly
friendly to the LGBTQ and trans community. Let's just say
so to co opt that song in that way and
then have the co sign of the creator, it does
seem to flip the script on what that song represents.
Speaker 4 (41:41):
And I think he's trying to help serve that narrative.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
And now it maybe is more of the Trump dancing,
you know, jerking his hands off in the air kind
of song rather than this queer anthem that it has
in the past been.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, it is a weird way to stop getting even
the small amount of residuals you still getting no.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
No, But he's getting more. He's getting that's the point,
though he's getting no.
Speaker 5 (42:03):
He said it's generated a million dollars specifically by from
use of the Trump campaign, and it shot up in
the charts as a result of that too. But my
point is, I think the audience is changing or something
like the people who are listening to it for different
reasons or with different connotations now. But you know, I've
never it's always been pretty embraced by everyone. It's at weddings,
(42:23):
you know, everyone loves the dance. Everyone loves a song
with a dance associated with it that I don't think
was even created by the band. I think that kind
of came naturally from a performance on American Bandstand or
something where the audience kind of invented that. I don't
know exactly the details there, but it's really interesting on
a lot of levels. So anyway, those are my stories.
Let's take a quick break here, a word from our sponsor,
and then come back with a bit more strange news
(42:45):
for you.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Coming back just to play off of that YMCA story,
You guys, we have another piece of news that matches
up really well with this. You can't control who consumes
the art you create and what that art becomes for people.
A book written by author Jay Feineman, first published in
twenty ten, has skyrocketed to number two on the Amazon
(43:14):
Nonfiction Charts, the best selling nonfiction charts. The subtitle is
Why insurance Companies Don't pay claims and What you can
do about it. The title is delay, deny, defend.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Hmm.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
Okay, just saw that those three words for the first
time in my life recently on those shell case things.
And then Ben pointed out to us in our group
chat that this was kind of a popular way of
referring to how insurance companies, you know, basically get out
of paying claims that are legitimate.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yes, and you know, it is just it's strange the
way this whole thing is playing out. We will talk
about it very soon in a more full way, just
wanting to point it out there. You know, Jay Feineman
probably didn't imagine his book would be associated with, you know,
the assassination of a healthcare CEO. And now it is
all right, so let's jump to the news coming out
(44:06):
of CNN Business. This was written on December tenth by
Nathaniel Myerson. The title is Federal Judge block's largest supermarket
merger in history. So, guys, back in twenty twenty two,
Kroger and Albertson's, these are two massive grocery store slash
supermarket corporations. They announced, Hey, we're gonna team up together.
(44:29):
We're going to merge into one big old thing. The
plan was to combine both the fifth and the tenth
largest retailers in the United States. That is now hear
that largest retailers. Think of all the stores that could
be considered retail, this is the fifth and the tenth.
So that's not just grocery stores. So why go Voltron
(44:49):
like this? Well, because both of these giants were losing
ground to the recently emerging Titans of grocery, specifically Walmart
and Amazon. And you know you got your costcos and
then also tied to Walmart's like your Sam's Clubs and
things like that. They're losing out to these guys. So
they thought, well, if we get huge too and become
a titan together, maybe we can actually compete. Well, it's
(45:15):
not just Albertson's, the grocery store maybe you've heard of
or have been to, or the Kroger that you've heard of.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
Or been to.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
These companies own a bunch of other brand name stores.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
They're more like regionally specific. Right.
Speaker 5 (45:27):
You might have yes, Kroger over here in Atlanta, but
then it's like Vaughn's in Los Angeles and southern California
and such, right.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Harris Teeter, fred Meyer, Safeway, all kinds of places. And
there are dozens, by the way, not just those. So
from this article written by Nathaniel, it says Kroger and
Albertson's employ mostly unionized workforces, and said they wanted to
merge to become more competitive against these non union giants
such as Walmart, Amazon, Costco. The grocers also faced increased
(45:56):
pressure from another store that maybe you've been too recently,
All the which is the fastest growing German discount supermarket chain.
They're popping up everywhere where I live. All these are
just I'm just seeing them proliferate. I can imagine that
there's lots of pressure there. This is what they wanted
to do. And here's a quote from Rodney Mullen, the
CEO of Kroger. He's saying this merger would accelerate quote
(46:19):
our position as a more compelling alternative to larger and
non union competitors, which again seems like maybe a good thing. Right,
you've got unionized workers in these places. They're e merging
together a bunch of unionized workers, which at least has
protections for the people who are working at the stores.
That feels like a better thing than you know, at
(46:40):
least what we've heard about Amazon in some of their
business practices there when it comes to employees as well
as Walmart and others, seems like an okay thing. The
big deal here, y'all is that Kroger. When this announcement
happened in twenty twenty two, they committed to lowering grocery
prices by one billion dollars. Now what does that mean?
(47:01):
I guess the price of groceries across all of the
United States by a billion dollars, which translates to not
much money for each individual out there shopping in a Kroger.
But it would be Yeah, it's a tricky numbers thing.
And if you just say it like that, it sounds
so great, Oh my gosh, a billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah, but it's like a class action lossuit, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
You get eleven dollars, you get four dollars.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
Hell, let's pay out in coupons. You know exactly?
Speaker 2 (47:30):
That all sounded interesting, good, maybe not great. It's tough
to like giant corporations getting together and joining forces.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (47:38):
What we talked about is the nature of monopoly recently too,
and how it often seems like that's just.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Sort of the order of the day.
Speaker 5 (47:44):
This is kind of we we've grown to expect it
almost right, and to usually not see it getting shut
down or for there to be a loophole to make
it just not monopoly enough to make it but still
for all intents and purposes, that's what the heck it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Is exactly well, guys, this week, as we we are recording,
on Wednesday, December eleventh, a federal judge and Oregon judge
Adrian Nelson rejected all of those arguments and basically said
no to this merger. She blocked the proposed twenty five
billion dollar merger between Albertsons and Kroger. And this ruling basically,
(48:20):
if you sum down, what her statement was is that
it would limit competition and it would harm consumers. So
she issued a preliminary injunction that's what they call it,
halting the deal at least temporarily. In a ruling, she
said that supermarkets are quote distinct from other grocery retailers
and are not direct competitors to Walmart, Amazon, and other
(48:43):
companies that sell a wider range of goods. She said
that this merger would eliminate head to head competition between
Albertsons and Kroger and potentially raise prices for consumers rather
than lower them, as at least the CEO of Kroger
was touting, right, we're going to get bigger and we're
going to lower prices because theoretically we can all supply
(49:03):
you know, we can get a bunch more from the
same suppliers. We can do all this stuff to negotiate
and lower the prices of goods. This judge is saying,
I don't think that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
I'd like to trust you, but I maybe know a
little better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Well, again, this is an injunction, so it's temporary, just
saying hey, we're going to pause on this until we
learn some more things. Then we can come back to
the negotiation table and try and see what this merger
looks like. Well, at the end of yesterday, Tuesday, December tenth.
This preliminary injunction halted the deal, but the companies had
this option to appeal and move forward to keep going.
(49:41):
Well as of today the eleventh, Albertson's said, now we're done.
We're not going to do this. It's over Kroger. You've
wronged us, because they're suing Kroger for breach of contract,
and they're alleging that Kroger made the merger get blocked.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Like they blew it up, like they like did It's crazy,
like a poison pill.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, well, yes, they're saying that Kroger failed to exercise
its quote best efforts and to take quote any and
all actions to secure regulatory approval.
Speaker 4 (50:16):
I don't have em understand what that means.
Speaker 5 (50:19):
How is it their respond I mean it's up to
the judge, right, Like, I don't get it.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
They're saying Kroger, if they really wanted it, could have
done much more. It's similar to if I understand the
legal proceedings. Just to interject it, it feels like Albertson
is kind of accusing I even kind of is accusing
Kroger of doing that classic Gene Wilder line from Charlie
and the Chocolate factory. One of the kids gets in
(50:45):
trouble and he goes, oh stop, he said, Kroger didn't
really hustle.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah, well, it is weird because Kroger's the biggest grocery
chain out there, right, and then Albertson as albertson Is
is like number ten, right, we said five and ten.
Kroger is actually number one in just grocery, and then
Albertson's is smaller. So Albertson's is kind of hoping to
join up, I guess, with the like team up with
(51:15):
the bigger player in some way. So I suppose they
have more to lose when going into this type of merger.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
And I can.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Imagine that's why the company and all of their legal
teams are saying, hey, we need to get something out
of this, because this was going to be a big
deal for us.
Speaker 5 (51:29):
They may have already put some things in motion, you know,
towards whatever that was going to look like, and maybe
that's wasted effort and funding and what have you.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Right, Yeah, and we have no visibility into that. But
again that same due that, we read a quote from
Rodney Mullens, CEO of Kroger. He said, just before all
of this stuff went down, he said, we're well positioned
to grow even if this deal ends, which is, you know,
one of those things you put out in the ether
as a merger is happening, and it's probably not a
(51:59):
great for investors to see or regulatory folks to look at.
I know this is kind of boring at all. I
think it's just I think it's just important to remember
that this is the kind of stuff that's happening, and
it's the kind of stuff that happens when enough corporations
grow and grow and grow and grow, and they can't
do anything to grow any further unless they envelop another
(52:20):
one of these big players that's doing the same thing,
and eventually, over the course of time, you get you know,
you get the Google in the Facebook and these companies
that just become one big thing like an Amazon, right
or a Meta Sure, and in this case whatever Krogerson's
would be, but.
Speaker 5 (52:39):
It did not happen, and it would seem like now
there's bad blood that would lead one to believe that
it's never gonna happen. They're done with each other. But
I just do you do you see I don't know.
I mean, I know you're not a legal expert here,
But do you see, like with Kroger being so much
bigger than Albertson, it just seems like a pretty kind
(52:59):
of a shot in the dark roll of the dice
to do this, to like go up against them when
they were trying to join up with them.
Speaker 4 (53:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
It depends what they have, right and if they can
prove it, then maybe they get away with a bunch
of money and the investors view them as scrappy.
Speaker 4 (53:17):
Yeah. Sure, you get that.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
The share prices of both of these corporations were up,
by the way after this whole falling through, which is weird.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
I don't understand any of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Well, that's it for grocery stores. Let's jump really quickly
over to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and talk
about a quote unidentified illness that is causing alarm with
the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This comes to us via The Guardian and journalist Cat Leigh.
(53:48):
It was written on December tenth, twenty twenty four. This
is a mystery disease that is spreading according to DRC's
Health minister last week, as we record today, it had
this disease had killed seventy nine people, and that since
October twenty fourth, and there were three hundred and seventy
six cases identified. The reason why we want to talk
(54:10):
about this because again that's a low number of people, right,
but that is quite a few number of people who
died in proportion to the number of people who are
getting sick. The main symptoms here are similar to flu, headaches, coughing,
difficulty breathing, anemia. There is quite a bit of testing,
but it's in a remote part of the DRC there.
So actually getting somebody to a testing facility or getting
(54:32):
let's say blood that's sampled to a testing facility, you're
talking three hundred and four hundred miles away just to
make that happen, and then you factor in the time
that it takes just to travel that length. Do the
testing get results? It's not it's not a quick moving
situation for people on the ground, right, attempting to figure
out what's going on there. And again I said, I
(54:54):
think I'm restating this, but the reason why I wanted
to talk to this and bring up to you guys,
is because they're speculat that this is is what is
known as a disease X. This is some previously unknown
pathogen that has the potential to become a pandemic.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (55:11):
I think anytime we see something like that hit our radar,
we at least want to raise a flag and say, hey,
there's a possibility here of some other insane thing happening,
depending on how spread occurs. But as of right now today,
the update is that many of the people who actually
were tested their twelve initial samples that were collected, the
(55:34):
ten of them tested positive for malaria. But the doctors
are saying it is possible that malaria is one illness
and there's maybe a second illness as well. In there
you can read the article some mystery disease patients in
DRC have malaria? Who says, and again that's in the Guardian.
That's all I've got today, guys.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
Yeah, and there's much more to explore, especially with the
nomenclature of disease X shadows of colonialism, we could argue.
For right now, we're going to call it a day.
We are hoping you have a wonderful mid December. More importantly,
we're hoping you reach out and contact us. We cannot
wait to hear your thoughts. On everything from especially those
(56:19):
mystery drones. They're still getting to me. Have you ever
sent anyone elite goats? All this and more? Let us know.
We try to be easy to find on the Internet
via telephone and of course our email Noel, how does
someone touch us on the line.
Speaker 4 (56:35):
Josh, and I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 5 (56:36):
You can find this in the handle of Conspiracy Stuff,
where we exist on x FKA Twitter, on Facebook where
we have our Facebook group Here's where it gets crazy,
and on YouTube where we have video content for your
holiday perusing enjoyments on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 4 (56:49):
However, we're Conspiracy Stuff Show.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
And should you like to give us a telephone call,
you can do it quite easily. All you have to
do is find your favorite device and punch in the
following code. Sing it along with us at home one
eight three three STDWYTK. Wouldn't you hit the number? You'll
hear a hopefully familiar voice than a beep like so beep.
After that, you got three minutes there yours go, ham
(57:15):
go nuts. Give us your real name, give us a
nickname you'd like, ask us to make one for you.
Most importantly, let us know if we can use your
name and or message on the air. If none of
that quites bags your badgers. If you don't sip the
social meds, and you, like so many people, don't care
to make a phone call, you can always contact us
at our good old fashioned email address where we are
(57:38):
conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
Stuff they Don't want you to Know is a production
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