The first Steroid Olympics -- officially the 'Enhanced Games' took place in Las Vegas. The bizarre story of an Admiral's neck on Fox. A terrifying chemical disaster in Washington leaves one dead and nine missing. Also: fatal umbrellas, dystopian WiFi surveillance, and some real dodgy real estate grifts. Tune in for all this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call the Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We're joined as always with our super producer Max the
Frey Train Williams. Most importantly, you argue you are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
If you are tuning in to our strange news program
the Evening, it publishes congratulations, fellow conspiracy realists, you have
(00:51):
arrived at June first, twenty twenty six. We hope we're
recording this. I'm a twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're so excited for you to be here, just as
you are probably excited to be here. Life is insane
and it's unsafe. You guys in the news, we recently
unlocked another new fear, flying umbrellas. You know, you go
to the beach, you go have a meal on the patio,
(01:19):
it's gonna be a nice time. It's gonna be good.
Maybe you go out on your back porch and you
got one of those nice umbrellas. You know that's in
the center usually of the table, and it's secured with
some kind of tripod situation down at the bottom. Well uh, sometimes,
actually quite often those things get to fly in and
in the case of something that just happened in South Carolina,
(01:41):
get to stabbing people.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
No, not status.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, this comes to us from wis ten, a little
news station in South Carolina. I'm just gonna read a
quick bit here. A fifty six year old woman died
while eating at the Driftwood grill of Lake Marion restaurant
Saturday night after an umbrella got loose and hit her.
The umbrella hit her in the neck, severing her carotid artery.
(02:08):
She died. Yeah, she died at the scene.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And it came as like that woman that got like
skewered by a swordfish, a freak swordfish accident.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
But yees, dangerous, y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, this is just at a restaurant at the.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Lake, and lakes are dangerous too.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It was a patio umbrella and due to storms that
went through that area of South Carolina, the winds kicked
it up and it was a bit spiky at the
end there and stabbed her right in the neck. Killed
her right right at.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
The scene final destination type stuff there, all right, Pete.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, yeah, absolutely, it's terrible. The scary thing is that
is not an uncommon thing. Umbrellas, especially on beaches where
there's gonna be a lot of wind or during storms,
are deadly little things. And even the Consumer Product Safety
Commission every year puts out safety standards for these things
(03:03):
because they are so dang dangerous. Isn't that crazy? I
never knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It is crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's definitely strange.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And it's definitely news.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And we have so much stuff that we have to
get to, folks. We're gonna take a quick word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we're going to have
a little bit of fun with something we pitched in
jest that actually turned into a real event.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
We'll be right back, guys, We are back.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We have recorded a great many of episodes as well
as strange news or listener mail programs overlow these many years,
so we can be logically forgiven if we might have
forgotten a couple of predictions, if we had forgotten a
(04:04):
couple of things to say before we get into this one,
which is us being right about wild Olympics. Guys, we
have something we cannot forget. We are going to the
High Seas once again.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Oh yes, oh yeah, not just in strange news form.
We're going as human people. Or we're going to be
podcasting on a boat.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yes, it's Virgin Voyages. It's adults only, and you should
join us.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
You'll also be joining our pals Josh and Chuck from
Stuff You Should Do, as well as our pals Andie
and Sam from Stuff. Mom never told you one thing
that we are not going to be doing on the
boat or in our travels our steroid Olympics. Guys, this
is what this is what I'm saying we forgot about.
(04:56):
We had a conversation with good friend of the show,
know pal of ours in real life, a guy named
Dan Harmon, creator of Community, creator of Rick and Morty
and so many other things. And if we recall, in
that interview segment, we pitched our friend Dan on the
idea of a no holds barred Olympics, right. I think
(05:20):
we were talking about the doping allegations and scandals and
the you know, the regulations around what sort of substances
an athlete can ingest when they enter the Olympics. This
was a area very big concern at the time, and
(05:40):
so we said, what if you could just sign some
kind of complicated waiver and then do whatever you want.
Dan seems pretty pretty into the idea, at least theoretically,
and I think we were all surprised to realize that
other people took it seriously. And this past weekend, as
(06:03):
we record on May twenty seven, twenty twenty six, the
Steroid Olympics were enhanced games actually happened.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Kardy was a bit of a flop, though, bellyflop.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I have swimmers, for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I was remembering something sketch from SNL back when Kevin Neelan.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Was on OHA and tears his arms off.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, yeah, yeah, they did an all We're here at
the first all Drug Olympics, and the person who's lifting
weights I think it's Phil Harmon. Oh guy, I can't
remember just fully rips their arms off when attempting to
deadlift an insane amount. But I just remember that reference
as like it's stuck in my head. It's so funny,
(06:46):
just the concept that this could possibly be real.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Right, and some of the swimmers were apparently too jacked
on supplements to be as good at swimming as they
potentially could be. The official title for this is the
Enhanced Games, and the first event was held on May
twenty fourth out in Las Vegas. Their purpose, you can
(07:12):
read this everywhere online, is to quote be the first
event of its kind to permit performance enhancing drugs and
not follow the rules of the World Anti Doping Agency
acronym WADA. So you got your MAGA, you got your WADA.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I just don't know what to say to it. It's weird.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It's a weird one.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It also it makes me think of what's that Peter
Jackson's Special Effects Company. That's weight out. It's different.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I guess it depends on how we pronounce the a's.
But the yeah, this thing had five categories when it
was first proposed, track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics. And
this will excite several of US combat sports.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So what if you that's badass? Right? What what's the
one thing holding back? Mm? A UFC. We're not drugging
these guys enough.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Oh it may it mmmm there were so many allegations.
Look as I used to be a UFC head for
a minute there, I have since altered myself a bit
into not being so much UFC person. But for a
while I was, and there were there were these two brothers.
I'm not evenna name him here and talk about them,
but they would. They were notorious for smoking a lot
(08:30):
of reefer, and I always thought it was a fun
and very interesting drug of choice for combat sports, right, Like,
I don't I don't imagine a lot of people getting
high and then wanting to fight somebody.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Maybe a Dulst sensu is just enough for you to
like take a good punch.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I don't know, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But what other I just imagine other substance has been
Like if you could fully just do PCP and then
get the ring.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Oh yeah, how about two UFC guys in k hole?
You know what I mean, Let's see.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
How the I think that might be kind of boring.
But the PCP one, I'm fully on board with you.
Hear about people getting pancake by trams, you know, while
on PCP and then just standing up and walking away.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That'd be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Joe, this is the weirdest ground game I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
They're just kind of laying there. That's the k hole version,
got it.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, these five categories we described were originally proposed back
in twenty twenty three. Right now, as far as we
could tell, the first event of what they're calling the
Enhanced Games had forty two athletes who were focusing on swimming, weightlifting,
and running competition. So as brilliant an idea of k
(09:47):
hole UFC sounds, I don't think it happened this time.
Maybe next year. The weirdest thing, though, guys, that's just
a shout out to you, Dan Harmon. The one of
the weirdest things we found in the news recently that
is thankfully being more widely reported is inspired by a
(10:08):
scene We're not going to spoil, but I'll play it
for you guys now and tell me if you remember,
even though you can already clearly see the title of
this here we.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Go beautiful, beautiful, unethical, dangerous.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
All right, do we all remember this scene?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Is that Morgan Freeman as God.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox in the Dark Night?
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Ah, Yes, I'm sorry, I was thinking of Bruce almighty.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Spoiler for anybody who hasn't seen an excellent film by
Christopher Nolan three to one. Toward the end of this film, Batman,
Bruce Wayne creates a technology that astonishes is his scientist
(11:01):
Lucius Fox, and as you can tell, it disturbs Lucius
so much so that later he says, I will help
you this once with this technology, but from now on,
I am resigning you. Batman have gone too far. They
created in Gotham a system leveraging Wi Fi and sell
(11:26):
signals to practice eco location to map out and identify
everybody who lived in the city of Gotham. We now
know that the news is official. Ordinary Wi Fi can
now identify people with near perfect accuracy. This comes to
(11:48):
us from Science Daily, published on May twenty second, twenty
twenty six. Scientists in Germany have demonstrated a new form
of surveillance identify I'M people using nothing more than ordinary
Wi Fi signals. They can analyze how radio waves bounce
(12:08):
around room. They pretty much have Daredevil's version of the
radar sense.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Dude, Yeah, I don't want this.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I don't either, You know it does?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Who is this for?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Right? Who is this for?
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Maybe the corporations that can legally vote in Delaware? This
is not for the average person. Reading into the study.
Reading into the analysis around this, it also appears that
turning off your own Wi Fi won't work if you
have neighbors, right, if you have a phone, then that
(12:48):
can also be leveraged. So, for instance, I were to
turn off the Wi Fi or Internet connection all told
here where I'm recording, it doesn't matter. I could still
be found because the neighbors would you know, I'd have
to go to their houses and say, hey, it's me
(13:09):
from earlier. Can you turn off all of your internet?
And they would say what for how long? And I
would say, uh, kind of forever?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Is that cool?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I brought you a pizza. I don't know how it
would go. We'd have to roll pretty high on charisma.
But also, guys and fellow longtime conspiracy realist, is this
not something we already assumed was happening in some regard
(13:40):
like we bubbled?
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Well yes, but also yes we are bubbled, but also yeah,
I was thinking it was entirely likely. I mean, given
the flock cameras of it all, and just the way
we seem to be pushing further and further into just
an outright surveillance. I have no illusion of private And
I've said it before on the podcast, like it's not
(14:02):
like I lose sleep over it, because I just accept
that it is as bad as I could possibly imagine.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's one of those conspiratorial ideas that if ten years
ago we would have said that out loud on this show,
as though this is probably a thing that's happening, people
would have scoffed at it. Right just ten years ago,
I'm imagining.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Well that ten years ago would have seemed like absolute
cartoonish fantasies that have come to pass. It's almost like
we're so distracted by so much just outright chitnery in
the world. Well, it's just really easy to sort of
lose sight of some of the things that used to
rile us up because there's just so much bigger fish
(14:45):
to fry these days, politically, rhetorically, just with world events. Technologically.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like my wifi's watching me.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
It's like when I want to send that cartoon of
like somebody like an alien showing up to somebody and
the dude just kind of being like shrug, have you
seen what's going on in the news, Like A'm non
impressed guy.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, it's an old woman, but a good one.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's almost like apathy is a tragedy and boredom is
a crime.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Is that a song lyrics reference.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, it is, it is. It is a reference.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Now the last thing you get to before we move on.
Just so everybody knows, song lyrics cannot currently vote in elections.
Atlanta just had some pretty controversial elections with some pretty
controversial decisions in the eleventh hour by the current governor,
Governor Kemp. But if you go to Delaware, even though
(15:46):
song lyrics can't vote, you will find growing support for
corporations to vote. We always point out that Delaware is
one of the most corporate friendly states in the Union.
And now this comes to us from Bloomberg Law as
of May twenty six, twenty twenty six, courtesy of senior
(16:08):
legal reporter Mike Leonard, corporations, partnerships, trust limited liability companies
and other quote artificial entities end quote have the right
to vote in elections in Delaware under certain circumstances.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
What do we think? Is this a good idea? Are
we all pleased? As punch?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Why not?
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Dude?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Why? Why would yeah picked a different word, different, a
different drink?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Perhaps please does arsenic?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Or I was gonna say flavor aid, you know, spiked
flavor aid.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I think each separate data center should have a vote,
except except it's more like a thousand votes.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Let's also throwing birthday parties. You know.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
This is this is bizarre. We don't have time to
get into it. There's more ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Uh so check out the cake of light that Delawares
Judiciary is chewing.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
And boy tell us how deep cut. Don't don't taste good,
y'all don't want to know what's in it.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
That's it's a it's for a particular mainly come yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Moon the stone chair stands all right, so there we go,
en hands the Olympics. Uh, your wife was a refugee
an episode. Yeah, and of course corporation's voting. We can't
wait to your thoughts. Conspiracy. iHeartRadio dot com. We're gonna
pause for a word from our sponsor and we'll be
back with more strange news.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
And we have returned to as I just said, off
Mike pop the top on this next shadow?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
What does that mean? What's the next shadow? What's a
what's a human mask? Let's going on on Fox News.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
And retired military personnel talking up a storm and creating
all kinds of kerfuffle on the internet with people thinking
that it's an impostor of some sort. Matt, you had
a real cool take on this that I asked you
to save. So let's just run down the whole issue
real quick, and then I'm really curious to see what
you guys think. Fox News responds to viral claims a
(18:24):
Vice admiral wore mission impossible like mask during interview. If
anybody's seen this clip circulating, it's this fellow, very bald
fellow named Robert Harward, who's a declarated Navy Seals former
deputy commander of Scentcom.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
He appeared on as a talking head potentially purporting.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
To be a real head on Fox News with the
talking about Israel stakes and Iran strikes and all of
that stuff.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
And some eagle eyed or not even particularly eagle.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
Eyed viewers or Internet users notice something really odd where
this man's neck protrudes out from his shirt collar. It
would appear that there's a flap of skin or perhaps
the part of a realistic mask that didn't get tucked
(19:26):
in properly. And you can't unsee it, guys. Once you
see it, you really can unsee it. And people calling
it a neck shadow, it just does not do the
trick for me. This is a flap. Fox News claims
that it is a lighting mishap of some sort. Don't
understand how that works. And when you look a little closer.
(19:47):
I pointed this out, Matt to you, and you said
you had an explanation for this too. There's something real
funny going on with this man's ear, and it really
does give Ai artifact vibes to me, and plenty of
people have reposted the original footage. The thing that people
are pointing out wasn't doctored, it would seem.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
And I don't know that we've got a real answer.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Yeah, Like I said, Fox News came out and said
that it was lighting to blame. But I just don't
understand what world that makes any kind of sense. And
then there's a couple of other things that sort of
muddy the water is from further. But I gotta hear Matt.
What's your take?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, Ben, I'm assuming you've been following this as well,
and I'll just give some of the thoughts that I
had after looking at it, and maybe if you don't mind.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
I'm only calling you out, Matt, because you said, like
when we were off Mike, that you'd been thinking about
this and that you and you and your partner had
kind of come to a conclusion.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
So I'm happy to hear from both of yall, because
I got nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And I would just say we went down a pretty
intense rabbit hole the moment we first saw imagery from it,
and it was on Instagram and it was just somebody
else posting, right, it wasn't the original footage. So we
went through the original footage. We took look at that,
and it's again, this is a Fox News video. It
was the one that I saw was posted on their
YouTube site, which I'm imagining is similar to, if not
(21:08):
the same thing as what was seen on like broadcast
Fox News. Right, So you take a look at it, it
certainly looks weird. There's a clear delineation, a line that
is not just a shadow, because you can see a shadow.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Beneath that line this movie.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, okay, so it's not just the lighting in the
studio set up wherever this person is being shot and lit.
It's something else that's going on. The thought of the
mask is a bit further down the conspiratorial thing for me,
as though this person was you know, disappeared or not there,
but someone came onto the show wearing the likeness mask.
(21:47):
That's a little far fetched for me, but you can
find videos of Howard on Fox News and he looks
very similar to how he looks in this specific shot.
My partner and I screenshotted or did a screen recording
of another video. I'm just gonna show it to you, guys,
so you can understand. This is another video of him
on Fox News when he is just acting as a
(22:11):
correspondent or an expert. This is his neck while he's talking.
Do you see the shadows happening here?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Demarcation?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
He does have a flappy neck.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
Let's just say. You know, he's got old man neck,
So there's some folds. Is that what you're pointing out, Matt.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, it's kind of what Ben was saying. There's not
there's not a specific demarcation as we see in the
other In the other video, what we do see is
a lot of shadow action happening on his neck while
he's talking. And then I realized, well, maybe why does
his neck look kind of smooth here? If you look
at other videos of him on other platforms and other channels,
(22:46):
he has his neck is kind of nuts looking, you guys,
he's an older gentleman. He's you can see some of
the folds. I don't know if anything is like battle
scars or anything like that, or because he is fit
for his age and the way his skin is moving
there and.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
He has a pretty significant Adams Apple.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yes, but his neck moves a ton when he speaks
in kind of strange ways. Just again because of physical attributes.
Nothing against the guy, but if you go on Fox,
he is smooth. Even his facial features where he's kind
of a bit pock marked, again because of age and experience,
all of that looks smooth.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
DOWI. So you think they like they TikTok filtered him?
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It is my belief, and this is just an opinion,
is that there is treatment on some of the guests
on Fox News Fox News, if not a lot of
folks who show up there that makes them look younger.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
It's the same as those filters that smooth you out,
like people, these beauty filters that everyone that's using going
crazy for on a lot of the social media platforms.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, that's my opinion. And what you're seeing there with
the neck is a filter, you know, because those filters
can only do so much of a face and neck
and parts of the body.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Well, and they can glitch when they don't detect or
there's something conflicting with what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
They can cause edges to show up.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
Like even if you're like trying to look like a
puppy dog, right, like that will work and it'll overlay.
But if you move in a certain way or catch
the light in a certain way, you'll see the edge
of it glitch and it looks like an AI anomaly.
And I'm telling you, man, I think this is where
you're going with this. That's what's going on with the
ear as well. I believe so, because the ear there's
a weird bubble inside of his ear that doesn't make
(24:27):
any sense. I mean, so do you think that that
I love this, Matt, I think that's true. Would that
be a bombshell or are we just so over it
that they wouldn't No one would even care.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
The closest thing to a bombshell for me is that
an outlet like Fox News and outlet anywhere that has
aging specialists and correspondence and hosts that are on there
attempting to make their the people who appear there seem
younger and not I mean that to me is very interesting.
The concept that you would want viewers to imagine these words,
(25:03):
these this messaging that's coming, you know, that's very pointed
and specific. And there are purposes to the things that
are said on like say Fox News or an MSNBC.
There are reasons to put those messages out there. And
if it seems like it's coming from a younger source
or someone who looks, you know, the way they're supposed
to look when someone is giving you important information, it
(25:28):
seems like manipulation to me.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Hey, nobody think this guy's in as twenties, you know,
or no. I'm just wondering.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
I guess what I'm getting at is like I think
people are so used to seeing I mean, so many
people consume their news on social media platforms and reels
and the like, and they're they're, you know, getting their
information from the content creators who are using these types
of filters all the time. So it's so normalized. Like
would this even be that big of a deal, especially
in this era where the quote unquote news has been
(25:57):
so delegitimized in so many ways, especially like an outlet
like Fox. I just I just think it would be
sort of like a shrug. I'm curious as to what
you think.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I agree with Matt here. Also, I'd
like to point out something on behalf of our fellow
conspiracy realist. Wearing very accurate looking mask is an endeavor
that takes some time such that it would be kind
(26:30):
of ridiculous. It would be a tall milkshake to imagine
people going through all the trouble of putting on a
realistic mask and then forgetting.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
To tucket or to target. Yeah, correctly, that's it. Do
you see the ear? Do you see the ear?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Though?
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Guys like like, look at the one I posted from Yahoo.
There's a couple of really good close ups where their
circled some things. But the thing in the ear, it
looks like there's a like some sort of rod sticking
out of his ear, like an ear ear piece.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
But it doesn't make sense the way it's placed. It
just feels like a glitch.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah to me, I mean, well, you got to wonder,
how is this person when he's speaking with people in
a different place, how is he hearing what they're saying,
Because you don't see he's not wearing headphones, right, you
don't see specific earbuds, but he's obviously hearing them while
they're talking. And we know from just our experience in
audio and video production, you wouldn't have just a speaker talking,
(27:29):
you know that putting in.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
It's kind what an earpiece looks like. Though the thing
I'm looking at is not an any ear monitor or
like it's so clunky and like sticking out in this
weird protruding fashion. It's not like any any ear listening
device I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I agree, But he's got to get that audio from somewhere,
and if I don't know, something is going over his ear,
it looks like to me like he's wearing it's so
clunky looking.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
Usually typically, what we also know from production is they
try to make those things as low profile as possible
and whatever is happening there also to me, when you
said the thing about the filter, that really does track,
and it would account also for this ear thing, because
when I was reading a lot of the internet chatter
about it, the first thing, a lot of people were
saying that it was ai, this guy had been replaced
or he was being overlaid in some way, and they
(28:19):
were pointing to the ear just as much as they
were the neck because it looks like when you see
like an ai thing and it has too many fingers,
you know, m something like that, like like a weird
little like extra extra appendage of some kind. That's really
what it reads like to me. And there's another perspective
I just want to mention from. I think this guy's
(28:41):
like a right wing podcaster or like a YouTuber. But
this dude named Grant Stinchfield, he says it's not a mask,
and Vice Admiral Robert Howard or Howard Harward. Harward says
he will prove it to me live on at Real
Am Voice, Real Am Voice tonight seven pm. Can't wait
(29:03):
to talk to you, Admiral, and then he follows it
up with so adding to the conspiracy.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
The admiral canceled note. He is one of the most
highly decorated Navy seals in American history.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
I have no reason to doubt him. He told me
that video makes absolutely no sense. We will try to
get to him on next Tuesday. But what an odd
thing for the admiral to say that video makes absolutely
no sense. He's acknowledging that the video exists and that
(29:33):
something is a miss.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I want to give you another example of something that's
a little strange. Look at any other video of this gentleman.
You will see his eyes and they are quite blue.
And then if you look at the Fox News one,
they appear almost brown, as though the blue has been removed.
Which what does that make you, guys think.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Of color grading, desaturation, filters, blue screen.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Maybe you know some kind of text technology, right that's
just being utilized there through software. That's just what I'm
thinking about. Or but again with that kind of thing, right,
with his neck looking like that, with his eyes looking different,
with his general facial features looking different, why would people
not go, oh, that's a damn mask.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
But also then the.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Question becomes to what end right where it's like, is
this guy such a crucial source they needed to fake him?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Was?
Speaker 6 (30:28):
What was he even like saying that was so important
that would require like why would they do something A
this ballzy and b do such a poor job at it?
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Well, I'd like to get in front of the emails
and to that point out that this guy is the
executive vice president for International business and Strategy of an
outfit called shield AI. Okay, so I'm just I'm putting
I'm doing my Charlie Day with a little bit of
red string here. But obviously it's not helping the case
(31:01):
for this guy to be so closely tied with what
is described as an AI focused defense technology company.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So maybe that.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Answers the questions about how he's seen as a crucial source.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting, man, I didn't know that,
And that's a very good point.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
And I do just want to read a few of
the conspira conspiracy minded folks that we're tweeting about this.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
The illuminated posted at Fox News is playing all of us.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
This man is wearing a prosthetic mask. They are afraid
we know all about their lives. Masks won't save them.
JP Sears posted this is great a guy on Fox
News wearing a mask. Look at his nowha lower neck.
Everything is fake. It's just so interesting considering how the
rights and the administration is always really really pushing this
(31:51):
fake news media narrative, and you know, the the the
disloyal press and that they're you know, the enemy of
the peace and all this stuff. I just don't understand
what this accomplishes. It's very interesting and very odd.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Could just point out he was in twenty fourteen, he
became the CEO of a Lockheed Martin United Arab Emirates.
Just puzzling.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, once you get on guys, getting into the c
suite or being on the board of anything is such
a magic key.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Once you're on one board, you get calls to be
on other boards, especially if you are, as we said,
heavily decorated admiral of the United States. This is I
don't know, it's unfortunate. If you're listening to this right now, sir,
then rip or inbox. I can only imagine the amounts
(32:51):
of crazy text and calls that you have had about
your appearance, which may be increased visibility.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
That's true, Ben, And to that point, he has not
publicly commented on it yet, nor has he appeared, you know,
at least as far as I know, on television since
and Fox News did release this statement. Vice Admiral Robert
Harward appeared on Fox News Channel earlier this week via
a remote mobile.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Camera opposite operated.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
I love this detail by an outside vendor, those outside.
It wasn't us, It was an outside vendor there. Their
cameras made him look that way during the interview. Lighting
conditions in the van contrasted with the Vice Admiral's jacket,
which caused a shadow to appear on his neck. Guys,
we know things like more patterns, right, certain patterns of clothing,
(33:41):
for example, will cause some strobing effects, you know.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
But this is bullshit, this line. This is utter horse
horse manure. This is absurd, Like whoa, I don't get it.
Speaker 6 (33:56):
Are they really trying to hide that they're using like
deaging filters? I just I don't know. I just think
they should just come get ahead of it. And I
just think they're probably not going to though either. But no,
I appreciate the detective work that you guys did on that,
and I think I'm fully on board with this whole
filter idea. I'm just curious as to whether they're going
(34:16):
to get out in front of it and just acknowledge
that that's what it is, or if they're going to
keep blaming it on something that just.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Doesn't make any damn sense.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Well.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
I was going to bring a few other stories to
the table, but that was such a fun conversation. I
think I'll actually save some of these. I will just
tease one of them. The Simpsons writer who predicted the
Donald Trump presidency has announced his own candidacy for twenty
twenty eight, in what appears to be a bit of
(34:44):
a satirical run for the presidency.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I'm here at this point.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
I'm open to I'm open to it too, man. I
wouldn't put it past them. The guy's name is Dan Greeney,
and he posted a video where he's wearing he's dressed
up like as God, kind of in a bathrobe and
like a big you know, beard and wig.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
And he says, Judgment Day is here.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
And he says, in America, the government is supposed to
work for everyone. Democracy for all, accountability for all, prosperity
for all.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
We must restore this. I'd love to help, but I'm
not a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
I'm just a self proclaimed prophet who went to law school, graduated,
passed the bar.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
Oh wait, I am a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (35:24):
He then pulls the wizard costume off to reveal himself
in a suit, outlining his platform as America for All.
The announcement makes him one of the first people to
announce their bid for the twenty twenty eight American election,
which takes place on November seventh of twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Under current law, Trump cannot run.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
For a third term, as no president is allowed to
serve more than two terms in homes.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
I love that little caveat there.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
This is coming from the Nmy, the music newspaper out
of the UK.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
Not really much to talk about. That are kind of funny.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
You love to see a good satirical presidential bid, and
I bet she's gonna be a weird election. Let's take
a break here Worth mars Thor and the I'll be
back with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And we've returned. Guys. I'm not going to get fully
into this first one, but I think it's something that's
worth all of our time. We should look into this
person in this situation and continue monitoring all things that
are occurring around data centers. This is a story coming
to us from The Guardian, May fifth, twenty twenty sixth
(36:30):
a Louisiana State senator helped secure Meta's largest data center,
then he sold the land beside it. What does that mean, Well,
let's find out. For more than two years, according to
this article, John J. Morris, a Louisiana State senator, helped
pave the way for Meta to build one of the
(36:52):
world's largest data centers, called Hyperion in Richland, Paris. This
attorney lobbied a utility regulator for a key approval. He
co sponsored two bills that enabled the land deal between
Meta and the state of Louisiana. He voted yeay on
two additional bills that provided the trillion dollar tech company
(37:15):
with tax breaks worth an estimated three point three billion dollars. Then, guys,
there was a Floodlight investigation. Floodlight as an outlet. You
can check out the investigation if you want to, but
we're going to continue with the Guardian article here. According
to the investigation, while Morris used his political position to
(37:37):
continue advancing the project, as we just talked about, he
and his business partners were buying and selling the land
around it for the past fifteen months. As recently as
February of this year, Morris and his partners sold hundreds
of acres to a utility giant named enter g that
we've been hearing about more and more in the news lately,
(38:00):
for a methane burning power plant to provide electricity for
this data center. How does that make you feel, guys?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (38:11):
Not great?
Speaker 6 (38:12):
Have we talked about the Kevin O'Leary data center debacle
and like, how how He called out these like activist
groups that are basically like looking out for it's in
Salt Lake City or it's in Utah somewhere, and they're
this activist group that we're calling attention to the climate
change UH ramifications and you know, wildlife ramifications. And he
(38:34):
basically called them Chinese spies and like tried to dox.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Them on television. I mean, I I don't mean to
pivot from your story.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
I just feel like there's so many weird data centers
being shoved down the throats of regular you know, Americans.
It's nice to see some people pushing back. Plus that
Kevin O'Leary guy's a dick.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Well yeah, he's an ultra capitalist, like a lot of
these these folks. And it's troubling to see in a
senator like this, right that's responsible for the people in
the state.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
It's clearly catering not to their interests.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
And clearly it's way and speculation to a degree that
would be illegal for the ordinary civilians.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
And he can just go on there and rubber stamp
all the stuff and go yay, millions of dollars. Morris,
by the way, guys has denied any wrongdoing. He said
his land holdings are public record, and that the tax
breaks he voted for applied to all data centers, not
just this one.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Oh righting where the ones being rude?
Speaker 5 (39:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
His solution, as an ultra capitalist would be, why don't
you guys just get elected and sell out thousands of people? Well?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, and the case of the one Nol just brought up,
it's the one of the arguments which I don't think
is the argument we should be having here, is that
taxpayers are being asked to foot a large amount of
the bill.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's the big pushbacks like why are taxpayers having to
do this? You ultra capitalist with all your interests and money,
and it's just flowing in constantly.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Let's call them what they are, guys. They're neo feudalist.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Mmmm mmmm.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
That's that's all it is.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Ultimate I mean, which is I'm not saying that's a
bad question. I'm saying the big question is is this
really what we think is the right thing to do
to build these things, to do this stuff, to use
them in these ways? Mm? Okay, did you jump off
of that one guys.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
Really quickly though, Matt, could I just say that, like
some of these debates in the past were about things
like cold burning power plants, you know, and the uh
environmental ramifications of building things like that, or nuclear plants,
the whole nimbi argument. But at least those powered people's
homes and kept people warm, and in some way, shape
or form, we're like good for humanity in some version
(41:04):
of events. Like I just feel like there's so the
argument for these things being like good for anybody. It
just boils down to it's good for the people who
are making the money, you know, and there's really I mean,
they don't even create that many jobs, guys.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
Before we get to the next story, if possible, I've
got a devil's advocate just for a second, which is
the argument that people are going to be using when
they're supporting these unclean things that I personally find a borrent.
The argument is that rival nations are far far ahead.
(41:42):
They are what Chevy Chase would call streets ahead with
AI and surveillance development. So it's very easy for a senator,
a person in the cabird seat of power, to rationalize
their actions by saying, I'm making a little bit of money, sure,
you know, for my time, but I'm also really helping
(42:04):
out this larger, greater game. So everything I do is
making me the good guy. That's very dangerous cognitive parkour,
as I would call it, but it is occurring constantly,
and we just need to be cognizant of that reality.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I feel that meant it's like we're watching this new
Manhattan project happen in the open and happen in real time.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Unapologize.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I like that, man well, and people are making billions
and billions of dollars, and investors are making millions, if
not billions of dollars, and everybody's having this party about
how great it's gonna be. It's gonna be amazing. We
just got to get past the methane burning plants and
the coal powered plants and all the terrible shit that
(42:50):
we're gonna have to deal with in the future. But
we won't have to deal with it because well, I'll
be robots baby.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Breaking news in the Iceberg Times. The Titanic is actually
a great idea of for sinking, right, dude.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
It's mass Internet addiction in psychosis, that's what's happening.
Speaker 6 (43:06):
I do agree, I do agree, and I know that,
but of the three of us, I may be ever
so slightly on the like Devil's advocate side of like
the usefulness of certain aspects of AI. This this, these
are inexcusable levels of greed and just shoving the stuff
down people's throats, and that is Can you guys even
explain to me, if, if, what are the arguments for
(43:29):
these being quote unquote good for communities?
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Is there even one? Are they even attempting to make
that case?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Money will come into your local fo.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yeah, it'll flow in, It'll be good for the rising
tide argument that never really raises anything.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
But yeah, well, I mean theoretically, if the state budget
for let's say education was risen astronomically because of this thing,
so now you can have even better schools and environments
and teachers and things like that, I could see that
argument going across somehow people would buy into that. But
that's not what's happening. I mean, it's heart crushing guys
(44:08):
in a lot of ways. And again I've I've been
revisiting way too much bo Burnham, so I'm probably on
a dark rift here. But going to the power plants
of it all and the environmental impact that these things
and the power plants necessary to run them will have
let's just jump to well, let's just name this thing
(44:31):
because it's something you can look up and learn about
and learn about. The regulations that are being manipulated and
removed currently that are going to affect this thing and
its ability to function. The Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Risk
Information System, which you know very recently on an episode
where we talked about cancer alley and chemical companies. This thing,
(44:56):
it's called IRIS. IRIS assesses chemicals plants that produce chemicals
and use chemicals in production of things. It's very important
they put out toxicity values for specific chemicals and you know,
dangerous carcinogenic chemicals and terrible things that can be accidentally
(45:16):
sometimes released into the environment or purposefully flushed in you know,
EPA approved levels and all kinds of things like that.
It's something we need to be aware of and we
need to pay attention to as regulations get removed from
a group like the EPA's ability to function and protect
what's supposed to be the humans, the people that all
(45:39):
of this is supposed to be about. Because very recently
in the news as of the god what was it, guys,
the twenty twenty seventh, the day were recording. There was
this thing that saga happening in southern California with a
(45:59):
single that a holding tank of a chemical that is
very dangerous and flammable and if it got out into
the environment, that would be really bad news. But a
huge corporation, GKN Aerospace, they've got it right. Hey, this
is a dangerous chemical, but we as a company take
responsibility for holding this chemical and a giant fat We
(46:22):
are going to protect all of y'all and we're going
to get our business done. It's going to be good
until that tank began to fail. And if you can
go down the rabbit hole and look at how GKN
Aerospace is in financial trouble because they can't meet those
quarterly earnings things that are so important because they were
purchased by someone by a group you know, that's seeking
(46:46):
profits and they can't make as much profit, so you
roll back on things that include safety things, and that's
how you get into a situation like this where there
were fifty thousand people that were forced to evacuate or
were told they needed to evacuate because of the dangers
of this chemical thing potentially leaking early on. This is
(47:06):
in Orange County. It was a terrible situation for a
lot of human beings that live in houses and apartments, right,
and they're like, hey, because this chemical might leak out
of this tank, you need to get out of here.
And it seemed as though, at least over the course
of several days, the experts who are there attempting to
fix the problem thought it was just going to be inevitable.
(47:28):
This tank is just going to fail. Either there's going
to be some kind of explosion or there's going to
be some kind of massive leak where this stuff goes everywhere,
It gets in the air and the water, and it's
really bad for you. But then all of a sudden, today,
on May twenty seventh, Southern California officials have lifted the
final evacuation orders, saying that everybody can come back. Everybody's safe.
(47:49):
There were remaining sixteen thousand people who were still out
of their home because of this leak, and they were told, hey,
you can come back, everything's fine. It just makes me
think about when you have profits over all else this
is how you get things like this. What do you think?
Speaker 4 (48:09):
I mean, you're right, it doesn't matter what I think.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That's a fact.
Speaker 6 (48:13):
Well, and it's what happens when you give corporations personhood
and elevate them literally to the same level, if not
eventually above, the needs of actual persons. This is all
just you know, downstream consequences of all that stuff, and
just that term you used, Man, I hadn't really heard it,
but hyper capitalism, it's run them up, truly.
Speaker 5 (48:34):
I don't think any of us are doing any hot
takes with that.
Speaker 6 (48:37):
I think, you know, even the most fiscally responsible among
us would probably argue that things are a bit unhinged.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Well.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
And a last thing, because it's related, Ben, when we
recorded that episode on Cancer Alley, I particularly remember you
were calling paper plants as a smell and a thing
you've experienced. Did you see that that thing coming out
of Washington State that happened? I think it was yesterday
May twenty six as we record.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Oh yes, it's breaking news.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
Matt.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
Can you tell us a little bit about this because
it's not making as much news as it should to
be honest.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
You can read about it everywhere. This is a piece
for NBC News. I'll just read a tiny bit of it.
A tank containing white liquor. We'll talk about what that is.
Ruptured early Tuesday at Nippon Dinaware Packaging in Longview, Washington,
which is in the southwestern part of the state on
the border of Oregon. White liquor is an aqueous solution
(49:39):
of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide and some other things.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Sounds like magic with a K. I don't trust it.
Speaker 5 (49:48):
Yeah, well, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Because of this occurred, nine people, including a firefighter, were
injured and one person, Gilbert Bernall, fifty two years old,
is killed during this accident. Essentially, here's a quote from
the Longview Fire Department. The tank remains unstable, creating hazardous
conditions for emergency personnel who are trying to stop the thing,
(50:16):
which which kind of shows us one of the big
problems when we've got a chemical leak or a tank
that's ruptured or something like that. The human beings, firefighters
others who are supposed to come in and stop the
thing from leaking or to prevent an explosion from happening,
sure have a hard time fighting that fire and or
rupture because it's so hazardous and dangerous for any human
(50:37):
to be anywhere near it.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
I'm sorry, I'm just headshaking. I don't know what else
to say.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Well, yeah, I don't know what if there is much
to say besides, maybe it is time to move away
from this era of the corporation knows best. The corporation
can look at its own stuff and regulate itself. The
corporation can make decisions that are good for everybody.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
This episow tho I watched America by the corporations.
Speaker 5 (51:03):
Yeah, not the way for public broadcasting.
Speaker 6 (51:05):
But Matt, I mean we've it seems like we've already
been in that era of like corporations policing themselves and
that like you know pipeline of you know, execs going
into regulation and again kind of regulating themselves. We were
already there, but now we're literally under an administration that's
like rolling back the very precious few regulations that we
(51:26):
had that were already like imperfect and like not really
doing the job. So how do you how do you
walk all this back?
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Man revolution?
Speaker 5 (51:35):
Just kidding, Mala cocktails.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Just kidding, just gidding.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Oh yeah, I there are you.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
And of course I legally have no statement about that
on air. Nice try Steve the intern. Thank you so
much for tuning in, folks. We are going to be back,
not just on Virgin voyages, but we're going to be
back in the podcast seat with you. Whether you are driving, flying, floating,
or up to some shenanigans of your own. We can't
(52:09):
wait to hear from you. We want your thoughts on
all these and more things. Please do join us soon
and reach out and touch faith. You can find us
on the lines, you can call us on a phone,
You can always send us an email.
Speaker 5 (52:22):
You can do those things.
Speaker 6 (52:24):
And man, I forgot to mention there might be a
new serial killer case Bruin in Puerto Varta, Mexico, where
police are probing the murders of three young women found
dead in the popular vacation hotspot, fearing the cases could
be linked. May well be an episode in the future.
If you have an idea for an episode in the
future or something that you want to talk to us
(52:45):
about for our weekly listener mail segment, you can reach
out to us online at the handles Conspiracy Stuff or
Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on your social media platform of choice,
and there are other ways.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yes, we have a phone number. It is one eight
three three STDWYTK. When you call, give yourself a cool
nickname so we can put you in the system and
remember when you call next time, and that's really the
only rule. Let us know. If we can use your
name and message on the air, that would be great.
If you want to send us an email, you sure can.
Speaker 4 (53:11):
We are the entities to read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
rights back. Send us a random fact, will send you
a random fact in return. I almost want to do
some spoilers, but you'll just have to write to us
out here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
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Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
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From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nola.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call the Ben.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
We're joined as always with our super producer Max the
Frey Train Williams. Most importantly, you argue you are here.
That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know.
If you are tuning in to our strange news program
the Evening, it publishes congratulations, fellow conspiracy realists, you have
(00:51):
arrived at June first, twenty twenty six. We hope we're
recording this. I'm a twenty seventh.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're so excited for you to be here, just as
you are probably excited to be here. Life is insane
and it's unsafe. You guys in the news, we recently
unlocked another new fear, flying umbrellas. You know, you go
to the beach, you go have a meal on the patio,
(01:19):
it's gonna be a nice time. It's gonna be good.
Maybe you go out on your back porch and you
got one of those nice umbrellas. You know that's in
the center usually of the table, and it's secured with
some kind of tripod situation down at the bottom. Well uh, sometimes,
actually quite often those things get to fly in and
in the case of something that just happened in South Carolina,
(01:41):
get to stabbing people.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
No, not status.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, this comes to us from wis ten, a little
news station in South Carolina. I'm just gonna read a
quick bit here. A fifty six year old woman died
while eating at the Driftwood grill of Lake Marion restaurant
Saturday night after an umbrella got loose and hit her.
The umbrella hit her in the neck, severing her carotid artery.
(02:08):
She died. Yeah, she died at the scene.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And it came as like that woman that got like
skewered by a swordfish, a freak swordfish accident.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
But yees, dangerous, y'all.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, this is just at a restaurant at the.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Lake, and lakes are dangerous too.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It was a patio umbrella and due to storms that
went through that area of South Carolina, the winds kicked
it up and it was a bit spiky at the
end there and stabbed her right in the neck. Killed
her right right at.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
The scene final destination type stuff there, all right, Pete.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, yeah, absolutely, it's terrible. The scary thing is that
is not an uncommon thing. Umbrellas, especially on beaches where
there's gonna be a lot of wind or during storms,
are deadly little things. And even the Consumer Product Safety
Commission every year puts out safety standards for these things
(03:03):
because they are so dang dangerous. Isn't that crazy? I
never knew that.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It is crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's definitely strange.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And it's definitely news.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And we have so much stuff that we have to
get to, folks. We're gonna take a quick word from
our sponsors, and when we return, we're going to have
a little bit of fun with something we pitched in
jest that actually turned into a real event.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
We'll be right back, guys, We are back.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
We have recorded a great many of episodes as well
as strange news or listener mail programs overlow these many years,
so we can be logically forgiven if we might have
forgotten a couple of predictions, if we had forgotten a
(04:04):
couple of things to say before we get into this one,
which is us being right about wild Olympics. Guys, we
have something we cannot forget. We are going to the
High Seas once again.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Oh yes, oh yeah, not just in strange news form.
We're going as human people. Or we're going to be
podcasting on a boat.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yes, it's Virgin Voyages. It's adults only, and you should
join us.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
You'll also be joining our pals Josh and Chuck from
Stuff You Should Do, as well as our pals Andie
and Sam from Stuff. Mom never told you one thing
that we are not going to be doing on the
boat or in our travels our steroid Olympics. Guys, this
is what this is what I'm saying we forgot about.
(04:56):
We had a conversation with good friend of the show,
know pal of ours in real life, a guy named
Dan Harmon, creator of Community, creator of Rick and Morty
and so many other things. And if we recall, in
that interview segment, we pitched our friend Dan on the
idea of a no holds barred Olympics, right. I think
(05:20):
we were talking about the doping allegations and scandals and
the you know, the regulations around what sort of substances
an athlete can ingest when they enter the Olympics. This
was a area very big concern at the time, and
(05:40):
so we said, what if you could just sign some
kind of complicated waiver and then do whatever you want.
Dan seems pretty pretty into the idea, at least theoretically,
and I think we were all surprised to realize that
other people took it seriously. And this past weekend, as
(06:03):
we record on May twenty seven, twenty twenty six, the
Steroid Olympics were enhanced games actually happened.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
Kardy was a bit of a flop, though, bellyflop.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I have swimmers, for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I was remembering something sketch from SNL back when Kevin Neelan.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Was on OHA and tears his arms off.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, yeah, yeah, they did an all We're here at
the first all Drug Olympics, and the person who's lifting
weights I think it's Phil Harmon. Oh guy, I can't
remember just fully rips their arms off when attempting to
deadlift an insane amount. But I just remember that reference
as like it's stuck in my head. It's so funny,
(06:46):
just the concept that this could possibly be real.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Right, and some of the swimmers were apparently too jacked
on supplements to be as good at swimming as they
potentially could be. The official title for this is the
Enhanced Games, and the first event was held on May
twenty fourth out in Las Vegas. Their purpose, you can
(07:12):
read this everywhere online, is to quote be the first
event of its kind to permit performance enhancing drugs and
not follow the rules of the World Anti Doping Agency
acronym WADA. So you got your MAGA, you got your WADA.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I just don't know what to say to it. It's weird.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
It's a weird one.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It also it makes me think of what's that Peter
Jackson's Special Effects Company. That's weight out. It's different.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I guess it depends on how we pronounce the a's.
But the yeah, this thing had five categories when it
was first proposed, track and field, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics. And
this will excite several of US combat sports.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So what if you that's badass? Right? What what's the
one thing holding back? Mm? A UFC. We're not drugging
these guys enough.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Oh it may it mmmm there were so many allegations.
Look as I used to be a UFC head for
a minute there, I have since altered myself a bit
into not being so much UFC person. But for a
while I was, and there were there were these two brothers.
I'm not evenna name him here and talk about them,
but they would. They were notorious for smoking a lot
(08:30):
of reefer, and I always thought it was a fun
and very interesting drug of choice for combat sports, right, Like,
I don't I don't imagine a lot of people getting
high and then wanting to fight somebody.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (08:46):
Maybe a Dulst sensu is just enough for you to
like take a good punch.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I don't know, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
But what other I just imagine other substance has been
Like if you could fully just do PCP and then
get the ring.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Oh yeah, how about two UFC guys in k hole?
You know what I mean, Let's see.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
How the I think that might be kind of boring.
But the PCP one, I'm fully on board with you.
Hear about people getting pancake by trams, you know, while
on PCP and then just standing up and walking away.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
That'd be fascinating.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Joe, this is the weirdest ground game I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
They're just kind of laying there. That's the k hole version,
got it.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, these five categories we described were originally proposed back
in twenty twenty three. Right now, as far as we
could tell, the first event of what they're calling the
Enhanced Games had forty two athletes who were focusing on swimming, weightlifting,
and running competition. So as brilliant an idea of k
(09:47):
hole UFC sounds, I don't think it happened this time.
Maybe next year. The weirdest thing, though, guys, that's just
a shout out to you, Dan Harmon. The one of
the weirdest things we found in the news recently that
is thankfully being more widely reported is inspired by a
(10:08):
scene We're not going to spoil, but I'll play it
for you guys now and tell me if you remember,
even though you can already clearly see the title of
this here we.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Go beautiful, beautiful, unethical, dangerous.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
All right, do we all remember this scene?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Is that Morgan Freeman as God.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Morgan Freeman as Lucious Fox in the Dark Night?
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Ah, Yes, I'm sorry, I was thinking of Bruce almighty.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Spoiler for anybody who hasn't seen an excellent film by
Christopher Nolan three to one. Toward the end of this film, Batman,
Bruce Wayne creates a technology that astonishes is his scientist
(11:01):
Lucius Fox, and as you can tell, it disturbs Lucius
so much so that later he says, I will help
you this once with this technology, but from now on,
I am resigning you. Batman have gone too far. They
created in Gotham a system leveraging Wi Fi and sell
(11:26):
signals to practice eco location to map out and identify
everybody who lived in the city of Gotham. We now
know that the news is official. Ordinary Wi Fi can
now identify people with near perfect accuracy. This comes to
(11:48):
us from Science Daily, published on May twenty second, twenty
twenty six. Scientists in Germany have demonstrated a new form
of surveillance identify I'M people using nothing more than ordinary
Wi Fi signals. They can analyze how radio waves bounce
(12:08):
around room. They pretty much have Daredevil's version of the
radar sense.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Dude, Yeah, I don't want this.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
I don't either, You know it does?
Speaker 5 (12:21):
Who is this for?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Right? Who is this for?
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Maybe the corporations that can legally vote in Delaware? This
is not for the average person. Reading into the study.
Reading into the analysis around this, it also appears that
turning off your own Wi Fi won't work if you
have neighbors, right, if you have a phone, then that
(12:48):
can also be leveraged. So, for instance, I were to
turn off the Wi Fi or Internet connection all told
here where I'm recording, it doesn't matter. I could still
be found because the neighbors would you know, I'd have
to go to their houses and say, hey, it's me
(13:09):
from earlier. Can you turn off all of your internet?
And they would say what for how long? And I
would say, uh, kind of forever?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Is that cool?
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I brought you a pizza. I don't know how it
would go. We'd have to roll pretty high on charisma.
But also, guys and fellow longtime conspiracy realist, is this
not something we already assumed was happening in some regard
(13:40):
like we bubbled?
Speaker 6 (13:41):
Well yes, but also yes we are bubbled, but also yeah,
I was thinking it was entirely likely. I mean, given
the flock cameras of it all, and just the way
we seem to be pushing further and further into just
an outright surveillance. I have no illusion of private And
I've said it before on the podcast, like it's not
(14:02):
like I lose sleep over it, because I just accept
that it is as bad as I could possibly imagine.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's one of those conspiratorial ideas that if ten years
ago we would have said that out loud on this show,
as though this is probably a thing that's happening, people
would have scoffed at it. Right just ten years ago,
I'm imagining.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Well that ten years ago would have seemed like absolute
cartoonish fantasies that have come to pass. It's almost like
we're so distracted by so much just outright chitnery in
the world. Well, it's just really easy to sort of
lose sight of some of the things that used to
rile us up because there's just so much bigger fish
(14:45):
to fry these days, politically, rhetorically, just with world events. Technologically.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like my wifi's watching me.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
It's like when I want to send that cartoon of
like somebody like an alien showing up to somebody and
the dude just kind of being like shrug, have you
seen what's going on in the news, Like A'm non
impressed guy.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, it's an old woman, but a good one.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's almost like apathy is a tragedy and boredom is
a crime.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
Is that a song lyrics reference.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, it is, it is. It is a reference.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Now the last thing you get to before we move on.
Just so everybody knows, song lyrics cannot currently vote in elections.
Atlanta just had some pretty controversial elections with some pretty
controversial decisions in the eleventh hour by the current governor,
Governor Kemp. But if you go to Delaware, even though
(15:46):
song lyrics can't vote, you will find growing support for
corporations to vote. We always point out that Delaware is
one of the most corporate friendly states in the Union.
And now this comes to us from Bloomberg Law as
of May twenty six, twenty twenty six, courtesy of senior
(16:08):
legal reporter Mike Leonard, corporations, partnerships, trust limited liability companies
and other quote artificial entities end quote have the right
to vote in elections in Delaware under certain circumstances.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
What do we think? Is this a good idea? Are
we all pleased? As punch?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Why not?
Speaker 5 (16:30):
Dude?
Speaker 6 (16:32):
Why? Why would yeah picked a different word, different, a
different drink?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Perhaps please does arsenic?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Or I was gonna say flavor aid, you know, spiked
flavor aid.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I think each separate data center should have a vote,
except except it's more like a thousand votes.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
Let's also throwing birthday parties. You know.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
This is this is bizarre. We don't have time to
get into it. There's more ahead.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Uh so check out the cake of light that Delawares
Judiciary is chewing.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
And boy tell us how deep cut. Don't don't taste good,
y'all don't want to know what's in it.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
That's it's a it's for a particular mainly come yeah, the.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Moon the stone chair stands all right, so there we go,
en hands the Olympics. Uh, your wife was a refugee
an episode. Yeah, and of course corporation's voting. We can't
wait to your thoughts. Conspiracy. iHeartRadio dot com. We're gonna
pause for a word from our sponsor and we'll be
back with more strange news.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
And we have returned to as I just said, off
Mike pop the top on this next shadow?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
What does that mean? What's the next shadow? What's a
what's a human mask? Let's going on on Fox News.
Speaker 6 (18:01):
And retired military personnel talking up a storm and creating
all kinds of kerfuffle on the internet with people thinking
that it's an impostor of some sort. Matt, you had
a real cool take on this that I asked you
to save. So let's just run down the whole issue
real quick, and then I'm really curious to see what
you guys think. Fox News responds to viral claims a
(18:24):
Vice admiral wore mission impossible like mask during interview. If
anybody's seen this clip circulating, it's this fellow, very bald
fellow named Robert Harward, who's a declarated Navy Seals former
deputy commander of Scentcom.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
He appeared on as a talking head potentially purporting.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
To be a real head on Fox News with the
talking about Israel stakes and Iran strikes and all of
that stuff.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
And some eagle eyed or not even particularly eagle.
Speaker 6 (19:03):
Eyed viewers or Internet users notice something really odd where
this man's neck protrudes out from his shirt collar. It
would appear that there's a flap of skin or perhaps
the part of a realistic mask that didn't get tucked
(19:26):
in properly. And you can't unsee it, guys. Once you
see it, you really can unsee it. And people calling
it a neck shadow, it just does not do the
trick for me. This is a flap. Fox News claims
that it is a lighting mishap of some sort. Don't
understand how that works. And when you look a little closer.
(19:47):
I pointed this out, Matt to you, and you said
you had an explanation for this too. There's something real
funny going on with this man's ear, and it really
does give Ai artifact vibes to me, and plenty of
people have reposted the original footage. The thing that people
are pointing out wasn't doctored, it would seem.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
And I don't know that we've got a real answer.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Yeah, Like I said, Fox News came out and said
that it was lighting to blame. But I just don't
understand what world that makes any kind of sense. And
then there's a couple of other things that sort of
muddy the water is from further. But I gotta hear Matt.
What's your take?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Well, Ben, I'm assuming you've been following this as well,
and I'll just give some of the thoughts that I
had after looking at it, and maybe if you don't mind.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
I'm only calling you out, Matt, because you said, like
when we were off Mike, that you'd been thinking about
this and that you and you and your partner had
kind of come to a conclusion.
Speaker 5 (20:43):
So I'm happy to hear from both of yall, because
I got nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
And I would just say we went down a pretty
intense rabbit hole the moment we first saw imagery from it,
and it was on Instagram and it was just somebody
else posting, right, it wasn't the original footage. So we
went through the original footage. We took look at that,
and it's again, this is a Fox News video. It
was the one that I saw was posted on their
YouTube site, which I'm imagining is similar to, if not
(21:08):
the same thing as what was seen on like broadcast
Fox News. Right, So you take a look at it, it
certainly looks weird. There's a clear delineation, a line that
is not just a shadow, because you can see a shadow.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
Beneath that line this movie.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, okay, so it's not just the lighting in the
studio set up wherever this person is being shot and lit.
It's something else that's going on. The thought of the
mask is a bit further down the conspiratorial thing for me,
as though this person was you know, disappeared or not there,
but someone came onto the show wearing the likeness mask.
(21:47):
That's a little far fetched for me, but you can
find videos of Howard on Fox News and he looks
very similar to how he looks in this specific shot.
My partner and I screenshotted or did a screen recording
of another video. I'm just gonna show it to you, guys,
so you can understand. This is another video of him
on Fox News when he is just acting as a
(22:11):
correspondent or an expert. This is his neck while he's talking.
Do you see the shadows happening here?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Demarcation?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
He does have a flappy neck.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
Let's just say. You know, he's got old man neck,
So there's some folds. Is that what you're pointing out, Matt.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, it's kind of what Ben was saying. There's not
there's not a specific demarcation as we see in the
other In the other video, what we do see is
a lot of shadow action happening on his neck while
he's talking. And then I realized, well, maybe why does
his neck look kind of smooth here? If you look
at other videos of him on other platforms and other channels,
(22:46):
he has his neck is kind of nuts looking, you guys,
he's an older gentleman. He's you can see some of
the folds. I don't know if anything is like battle
scars or anything like that, or because he is fit
for his age and the way his skin is moving
there and.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
He has a pretty significant Adams Apple.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yes, but his neck moves a ton when he speaks
in kind of strange ways. Just again because of physical attributes.
Nothing against the guy, but if you go on Fox,
he is smooth. Even his facial features where he's kind
of a bit pock marked, again because of age and experience,
all of that looks smooth.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
DOWI. So you think they like they TikTok filtered him?
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
It is my belief, and this is just an opinion,
is that there is treatment on some of the guests
on Fox News Fox News, if not a lot of
folks who show up there that makes them look younger.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
It's the same as those filters that smooth you out,
like people, these beauty filters that everyone that's using going
crazy for on a lot of the social media platforms.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, that's my opinion. And what you're seeing there with
the neck is a filter, you know, because those filters
can only do so much of a face and neck
and parts of the body.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Well, and they can glitch when they don't detect or
there's something conflicting with what they're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
They can cause edges to show up.
Speaker 6 (24:06):
Like even if you're like trying to look like a
puppy dog, right, like that will work and it'll overlay.
But if you move in a certain way or catch
the light in a certain way, you'll see the edge
of it glitch and it looks like an AI anomaly.
And I'm telling you, man, I think this is where
you're going with this. That's what's going on with the
ear as well. I believe so, because the ear there's
a weird bubble inside of his ear that doesn't make
(24:27):
any sense. I mean, so do you think that that
I love this, Matt, I think that's true. Would that
be a bombshell or are we just so over it
that they wouldn't No one would even care.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
The closest thing to a bombshell for me is that
an outlet like Fox News and outlet anywhere that has
aging specialists and correspondence and hosts that are on there
attempting to make their the people who appear there seem
younger and not I mean that to me is very interesting.
The concept that you would want viewers to imagine these words,
(25:03):
these this messaging that's coming, you know, that's very pointed
and specific. And there are purposes to the things that
are said on like say Fox News or an MSNBC.
There are reasons to put those messages out there. And
if it seems like it's coming from a younger source
or someone who looks, you know, the way they're supposed
to look when someone is giving you important information, it
(25:28):
seems like manipulation to me.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
Hey, nobody think this guy's in as twenties, you know,
or no. I'm just wondering.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
I guess what I'm getting at is like I think
people are so used to seeing I mean, so many
people consume their news on social media platforms and reels
and the like, and they're they're, you know, getting their
information from the content creators who are using these types
of filters all the time. So it's so normalized. Like
would this even be that big of a deal, especially
in this era where the quote unquote news has been
(25:57):
so delegitimized in so many ways, especially like an outlet
like Fox. I just I just think it would be
sort of like a shrug. I'm curious as to what
you think.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Ben.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I agree with Matt here. Also, I'd
like to point out something on behalf of our fellow
conspiracy realist. Wearing very accurate looking mask is an endeavor
that takes some time such that it would be kind
(26:30):
of ridiculous. It would be a tall milkshake to imagine
people going through all the trouble of putting on a
realistic mask and then forgetting.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
To tucket or to target. Yeah, correctly, that's it. Do
you see the ear? Do you see the ear?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Though?
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Guys like like, look at the one I posted from Yahoo.
There's a couple of really good close ups where their
circled some things. But the thing in the ear, it
looks like there's a like some sort of rod sticking
out of his ear, like an ear ear piece.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
But it doesn't make sense the way it's placed. It
just feels like a glitch.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah to me, I mean, well, you got to wonder,
how is this person when he's speaking with people in
a different place, how is he hearing what they're saying,
Because you don't see he's not wearing headphones, right, you
don't see specific earbuds, but he's obviously hearing them while
they're talking. And we know from just our experience in
audio and video production, you wouldn't have just a speaker talking,
(27:29):
you know that putting in.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
It's kind what an earpiece looks like. Though the thing
I'm looking at is not an any ear monitor or
like it's so clunky and like sticking out in this
weird protruding fashion. It's not like any any ear listening
device I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
I agree, But he's got to get that audio from somewhere,
and if I don't know, something is going over his ear,
it looks like to me like he's wearing it's so
clunky looking.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
Usually typically, what we also know from production is they
try to make those things as low profile as possible
and whatever is happening there also to me, when you
said the thing about the filter, that really does track,
and it would account also for this ear thing, because
when I was reading a lot of the internet chatter
about it, the first thing, a lot of people were
saying that it was ai, this guy had been replaced
or he was being overlaid in some way, and they
(28:19):
were pointing to the ear just as much as they
were the neck because it looks like when you see
like an ai thing and it has too many fingers,
you know, m something like that, like like a weird
little like extra extra appendage of some kind. That's really
what it reads like to me. And there's another perspective
I just want to mention from. I think this guy's
(28:41):
like a right wing podcaster or like a YouTuber. But
this dude named Grant Stinchfield, he says it's not a mask,
and Vice Admiral Robert Howard or Howard Harward. Harward says
he will prove it to me live on at Real
Am Voice, Real Am Voice tonight seven pm. Can't wait
(29:03):
to talk to you, Admiral, and then he follows it
up with so adding to the conspiracy.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
The admiral canceled note. He is one of the most
highly decorated Navy seals in American history.
Speaker 6 (29:12):
I have no reason to doubt him. He told me
that video makes absolutely no sense. We will try to
get to him on next Tuesday. But what an odd
thing for the admiral to say that video makes absolutely
no sense. He's acknowledging that the video exists and that
(29:33):
something is a miss.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
I want to give you another example of something that's
a little strange. Look at any other video of this gentleman.
You will see his eyes and they are quite blue.
And then if you look at the Fox News one,
they appear almost brown, as though the blue has been removed.
Which what does that make you, guys think.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Of color grading, desaturation, filters, blue screen.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Maybe you know some kind of text technology, right that's
just being utilized there through software. That's just what I'm
thinking about. Or but again with that kind of thing, right,
with his neck looking like that, with his eyes looking different,
with his general facial features looking different, why would people
not go, oh, that's a damn mask.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
But also then the.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
Question becomes to what end right where it's like, is
this guy such a crucial source they needed to fake him?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Was?
Speaker 6 (30:28):
What was he even like saying that was so important
that would require like why would they do something A
this ballzy and b do such a poor job at it?
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Well, I'd like to get in front of the emails
and to that point out that this guy is the
executive vice president for International business and Strategy of an
outfit called shield AI. Okay, so I'm just I'm putting
I'm doing my Charlie Day with a little bit of
red string here. But obviously it's not helping the case
(31:01):
for this guy to be so closely tied with what
is described as an AI focused defense technology company.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
So maybe that.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Answers the questions about how he's seen as a crucial source.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting, man, I didn't know that,
And that's a very good point.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
And I do just want to read a few of
the conspira conspiracy minded folks that we're tweeting about this.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
The illuminated posted at Fox News is playing all of us.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
This man is wearing a prosthetic mask. They are afraid
we know all about their lives. Masks won't save them.
JP Sears posted this is great a guy on Fox
News wearing a mask. Look at his nowha lower neck.
Everything is fake. It's just so interesting considering how the
rights and the administration is always really really pushing this
(31:51):
fake news media narrative, and you know, the the the
disloyal press and that they're you know, the enemy of
the peace and all this stuff. I just don't understand
what this accomplishes. It's very interesting and very odd.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Could just point out he was in twenty fourteen, he
became the CEO of a Lockheed Martin United Arab Emirates.
Just puzzling.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, once you get on guys, getting into the c
suite or being on the board of anything is such
a magic key.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Right.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Once you're on one board, you get calls to be
on other boards, especially if you are, as we said,
heavily decorated admiral of the United States. This is I
don't know, it's unfortunate. If you're listening to this right now, sir,
then rip or inbox. I can only imagine the amounts
(32:51):
of crazy text and calls that you have had about
your appearance, which may be increased visibility.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
That's true, Ben, And to that point, he has not
publicly commented on it yet, nor has he appeared, you know,
at least as far as I know, on television since
and Fox News did release this statement. Vice Admiral Robert
Harward appeared on Fox News Channel earlier this week via
a remote mobile.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Camera opposite operated.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
I love this detail by an outside vendor, those outside.
It wasn't us, It was an outside vendor there. Their
cameras made him look that way during the interview. Lighting
conditions in the van contrasted with the Vice Admiral's jacket,
which caused a shadow to appear on his neck. Guys,
we know things like more patterns, right, certain patterns of clothing,
(33:41):
for example, will cause some strobing effects, you know.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
But this is bullshit, this line. This is utter horse
horse manure. This is absurd, Like whoa, I don't get it.
Speaker 6 (33:56):
Are they really trying to hide that they're using like
deaging filters? I just I don't know. I just think
they should just come get ahead of it. And I
just think they're probably not going to though either. But no,
I appreciate the detective work that you guys did on that,
and I think I'm fully on board with this whole
filter idea. I'm just curious as to whether they're going
(34:16):
to get out in front of it and just acknowledge
that that's what it is, or if they're going to
keep blaming it on something that just.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Doesn't make any damn sense.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Well.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
I was going to bring a few other stories to
the table, but that was such a fun conversation. I
think I'll actually save some of these. I will just
tease one of them. The Simpsons writer who predicted the
Donald Trump presidency has announced his own candidacy for twenty
twenty eight, in what appears to be a bit of
(34:44):
a satirical run for the presidency.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I'm here at this point.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
I'm open to I'm open to it too, man. I
wouldn't put it past them. The guy's name is Dan Greeney,
and he posted a video where he's wearing he's dressed
up like as God, kind of in a bathrobe and
like a big you know, beard and wig.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
And he says, Judgment Day is here.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
And he says, in America, the government is supposed to
work for everyone. Democracy for all, accountability for all, prosperity
for all.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
We must restore this. I'd love to help, but I'm
not a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
I'm just a self proclaimed prophet who went to law school, graduated,
passed the bar.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
Oh wait, I am a lawyer.
Speaker 6 (35:24):
He then pulls the wizard costume off to reveal himself
in a suit, outlining his platform as America for All.
The announcement makes him one of the first people to
announce their bid for the twenty twenty eight American election,
which takes place on November seventh of twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
Under current law, Trump cannot run.
Speaker 6 (35:40):
For a third term, as no president is allowed to
serve more than two terms in homes.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
I love that little caveat there.
Speaker 6 (35:45):
This is coming from the Nmy, the music newspaper out
of the UK.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
Not really much to talk about. That are kind of funny.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
You love to see a good satirical presidential bid, and
I bet she's gonna be a weird election. Let's take
a break here Worth mars Thor and the I'll be
back with more strange news.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
And we've returned. Guys. I'm not going to get fully
into this first one, but I think it's something that's
worth all of our time. We should look into this
person in this situation and continue monitoring all things that
are occurring around data centers. This is a story coming
to us from The Guardian, May fifth, twenty twenty sixth
(36:30):
a Louisiana State senator helped secure Meta's largest data center,
then he sold the land beside it. What does that mean, Well,
let's find out. For more than two years, according to
this article, John J. Morris, a Louisiana State senator, helped
pave the way for Meta to build one of the
(36:52):
world's largest data centers, called Hyperion in Richland, Paris. This
attorney lobbied a utility regulator for a key approval. He
co sponsored two bills that enabled the land deal between
Meta and the state of Louisiana. He voted yeay on
two additional bills that provided the trillion dollar tech company
(37:15):
with tax breaks worth an estimated three point three billion dollars. Then, guys,
there was a Floodlight investigation. Floodlight as an outlet. You
can check out the investigation if you want to, but
we're going to continue with the Guardian article here. According
to the investigation, while Morris used his political position to
(37:37):
continue advancing the project, as we just talked about, he
and his business partners were buying and selling the land
around it for the past fifteen months. As recently as
February of this year, Morris and his partners sold hundreds
of acres to a utility giant named enter g that
we've been hearing about more and more in the news lately,
(38:00):
for a methane burning power plant to provide electricity for
this data center. How does that make you feel, guys?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (38:11):
Not great?
Speaker 6 (38:12):
Have we talked about the Kevin O'Leary data center debacle
and like, how how He called out these like activist
groups that are basically like looking out for it's in
Salt Lake City or it's in Utah somewhere, and they're
this activist group that we're calling attention to the climate
change UH ramifications and you know, wildlife ramifications. And he
(38:34):
basically called them Chinese spies and like tried to dox.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Them on television. I mean, I I don't mean to
pivot from your story.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
I just feel like there's so many weird data centers
being shoved down the throats of regular you know, Americans.
It's nice to see some people pushing back. Plus that
Kevin O'Leary guy's a dick.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Well yeah, he's an ultra capitalist, like a lot of
these these folks. And it's troubling to see in a
senator like this, right that's responsible for the people in
the state.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
It's clearly catering not to their interests.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
And clearly it's way and speculation to a degree that
would be illegal for the ordinary civilians.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
And he can just go on there and rubber stamp
all the stuff and go yay, millions of dollars. Morris,
by the way, guys has denied any wrongdoing. He said
his land holdings are public record, and that the tax
breaks he voted for applied to all data centers, not
just this one.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
Oh righting where the ones being rude?
Speaker 5 (39:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
His solution, as an ultra capitalist would be, why don't
you guys just get elected and sell out thousands of people? Well?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Yeah, and the case of the one Nol just brought up,
it's the one of the arguments which I don't think
is the argument we should be having here, is that
taxpayers are being asked to foot a large amount of
the bill.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's the big pushbacks like why are taxpayers having to
do this? You ultra capitalist with all your interests and money,
and it's just flowing in constantly.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Let's call them what they are, guys. They're neo feudalist.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Mmmm mmmm.
Speaker 3 (40:20):
That's that's all it is.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Ultimate I mean, which is I'm not saying that's a
bad question. I'm saying the big question is is this
really what we think is the right thing to do
to build these things, to do this stuff, to use
them in these ways? Mm? Okay, did you jump off
of that one guys.
Speaker 6 (40:41):
Really quickly though, Matt, could I just say that, like
some of these debates in the past were about things
like cold burning power plants, you know, and the uh
environmental ramifications of building things like that, or nuclear plants,
the whole nimbi argument. But at least those powered people's
homes and kept people warm, and in some way, shape
or form, we're like good for humanity in some version
(41:04):
of events. Like I just feel like there's so the
argument for these things being like good for anybody. It
just boils down to it's good for the people who
are making the money, you know, and there's really I mean,
they don't even create that many jobs, guys.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
Before we get to the next story, if possible, I've
got a devil's advocate just for a second, which is
the argument that people are going to be using when
they're supporting these unclean things that I personally find a borrent.
The argument is that rival nations are far far ahead.
(41:42):
They are what Chevy Chase would call streets ahead with
AI and surveillance development. So it's very easy for a senator,
a person in the cabird seat of power, to rationalize
their actions by saying, I'm making a little bit of money, sure,
you know, for my time, but I'm also really helping
(42:04):
out this larger, greater game. So everything I do is
making me the good guy. That's very dangerous cognitive parkour,
as I would call it, but it is occurring constantly,
and we just need to be cognizant of that reality.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I feel that meant it's like we're watching this new
Manhattan project happen in the open and happen in real time.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Unapologize.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I like that, man well, and people are making billions
and billions of dollars, and investors are making millions, if
not billions of dollars, and everybody's having this party about
how great it's gonna be. It's gonna be amazing. We
just got to get past the methane burning plants and
the coal powered plants and all the terrible shit that
(42:50):
we're gonna have to deal with in the future. But
we won't have to deal with it because well, I'll
be robots baby.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Breaking news in the Iceberg Times. The Titanic is actually
a great idea of for sinking, right, dude.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
It's mass Internet addiction in psychosis, that's what's happening.
Speaker 6 (43:06):
I do agree, I do agree, and I know that,
but of the three of us, I may be ever
so slightly on the like Devil's advocate side of like
the usefulness of certain aspects of AI. This this, these
are inexcusable levels of greed and just shoving the stuff
down people's throats, and that is Can you guys even
explain to me, if, if, what are the arguments for
(43:29):
these being quote unquote good for communities?
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Is there even one? Are they even attempting to make
that case?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Money will come into your local fo.
Speaker 6 (43:39):
Yeah, it'll flow in, It'll be good for the rising
tide argument that never really raises anything.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
But yeah, well, I mean theoretically, if the state budget
for let's say education was risen astronomically because of this thing,
so now you can have even better schools and environments
and teachers and things like that, I could see that
argument going across somehow people would buy into that. But
that's not what's happening. I mean, it's heart crushing guys
(44:08):
in a lot of ways. And again I've I've been
revisiting way too much bo Burnham, so I'm probably on
a dark rift here. But going to the power plants
of it all and the environmental impact that these things
and the power plants necessary to run them will have
let's just jump to well, let's just name this thing
(44:31):
because it's something you can look up and learn about
and learn about. The regulations that are being manipulated and
removed currently that are going to affect this thing and
its ability to function. The Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Risk
Information System, which you know very recently on an episode
where we talked about cancer alley and chemical companies. This thing,
(44:56):
it's called IRIS. IRIS assesses chemicals plants that produce chemicals
and use chemicals in production of things. It's very important
they put out toxicity values for specific chemicals and you know,
dangerous carcinogenic chemicals and terrible things that can be accidentally
(45:16):
sometimes released into the environment or purposefully flushed in you know,
EPA approved levels and all kinds of things like that.
It's something we need to be aware of and we
need to pay attention to as regulations get removed from
a group like the EPA's ability to function and protect
what's supposed to be the humans, the people that all
(45:39):
of this is supposed to be about. Because very recently
in the news as of the god what was it, guys,
the twenty twenty seventh, the day were recording. There was
this thing that saga happening in southern California with a
(45:59):
single that a holding tank of a chemical that is
very dangerous and flammable and if it got out into
the environment, that would be really bad news. But a
huge corporation, GKN Aerospace, they've got it right. Hey, this
is a dangerous chemical, but we as a company take
responsibility for holding this chemical and a giant fat We
(46:22):
are going to protect all of y'all and we're going
to get our business done. It's going to be good
until that tank began to fail. And if you can
go down the rabbit hole and look at how GKN
Aerospace is in financial trouble because they can't meet those
quarterly earnings things that are so important because they were
purchased by someone by a group you know, that's seeking
(46:46):
profits and they can't make as much profit, so you
roll back on things that include safety things, and that's
how you get into a situation like this where there
were fifty thousand people that were forced to evacuate or
were told they needed to evacuate because of the dangers
of this chemical thing potentially leaking early on. This is
(47:06):
in Orange County. It was a terrible situation for a
lot of human beings that live in houses and apartments, right,
and they're like, hey, because this chemical might leak out
of this tank, you need to get out of here.
And it seemed as though, at least over the course
of several days, the experts who are there attempting to
fix the problem thought it was just going to be inevitable.
(47:28):
This tank is just going to fail. Either there's going
to be some kind of explosion or there's going to
be some kind of massive leak where this stuff goes everywhere,
It gets in the air and the water, and it's
really bad for you. But then all of a sudden, today,
on May twenty seventh, Southern California officials have lifted the
final evacuation orders, saying that everybody can come back. Everybody's safe.
(47:49):
There were remaining sixteen thousand people who were still out
of their home because of this leak, and they were told, hey,
you can come back, everything's fine. It just makes me
think about when you have profits over all else this
is how you get things like this. What do you think?
Speaker 4 (48:09):
I mean, you're right, it doesn't matter what I think.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That's a fact.
Speaker 6 (48:13):
Well, and it's what happens when you give corporations personhood
and elevate them literally to the same level, if not
eventually above, the needs of actual persons. This is all
just you know, downstream consequences of all that stuff, and
just that term you used, Man, I hadn't really heard it,
but hyper capitalism, it's run them up, truly.
Speaker 5 (48:34):
I don't think any of us are doing any hot
takes with that.
Speaker 6 (48:37):
I think, you know, even the most fiscally responsible among
us would probably argue that things are a bit unhinged.
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Well.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
And a last thing, because it's related, Ben, when we
recorded that episode on Cancer Alley, I particularly remember you
were calling paper plants as a smell and a thing
you've experienced. Did you see that that thing coming out
of Washington State that happened? I think it was yesterday
May twenty six as we record.
Speaker 4 (49:06):
Oh yes, it's breaking news.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
Matt.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
Can you tell us a little bit about this because
it's not making as much news as it should to
be honest.
Speaker 2 (49:16):
You can read about it everywhere. This is a piece
for NBC News. I'll just read a tiny bit of it.
A tank containing white liquor. We'll talk about what that is.
Ruptured early Tuesday at Nippon Dinaware Packaging in Longview, Washington,
which is in the southwestern part of the state on
the border of Oregon. White liquor is an aqueous solution
(49:39):
of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide and some other things.
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Sounds like magic with a K. I don't trust it.
Speaker 5 (49:48):
Yeah, well, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (49:51):
Because of this occurred, nine people, including a firefighter, were
injured and one person, Gilbert Bernall, fifty two years old,
is killed during this accident. Essentially, here's a quote from
the Longview Fire Department. The tank remains unstable, creating hazardous
conditions for emergency personnel who are trying to stop the thing,
(50:16):
which which kind of shows us one of the big
problems when we've got a chemical leak or a tank
that's ruptured or something like that. The human beings, firefighters
others who are supposed to come in and stop the
thing from leaking or to prevent an explosion from happening,
sure have a hard time fighting that fire and or
rupture because it's so hazardous and dangerous for any human
(50:37):
to be anywhere near it.
Speaker 5 (50:39):
I'm sorry, I'm just headshaking. I don't know what else
to say.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Well, yeah, I don't know what if there is much
to say besides, maybe it is time to move away
from this era of the corporation knows best. The corporation
can look at its own stuff and regulate itself. The
corporation can make decisions that are good for everybody.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
This episow tho I watched America by the corporations.
Speaker 5 (51:03):
Yeah, not the way for public broadcasting.
Speaker 6 (51:05):
But Matt, I mean we've it seems like we've already
been in that era of like corporations policing themselves and
that like you know pipeline of you know, execs going
into regulation and again kind of regulating themselves. We were
already there, but now we're literally under an administration that's
like rolling back the very precious few regulations that we
(51:26):
had that were already like imperfect and like not really
doing the job. So how do you how do you
walk all this back?
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Man revolution?
Speaker 5 (51:35):
Just kidding, Mala cocktails.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Just kidding, just gidding.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Oh yeah, I there are you.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
And of course I legally have no statement about that
on air. Nice try Steve the intern. Thank you so
much for tuning in, folks. We are going to be back,
not just on Virgin voyages, but we're going to be
back in the podcast seat with you. Whether you are driving, flying, floating,
or up to some shenanigans of your own. We can't
(52:09):
wait to hear from you. We want your thoughts on
all these and more things. Please do join us soon
and reach out and touch faith. You can find us
on the lines, you can call us on a phone,
You can always send us an email.
Speaker 5 (52:22):
You can do those things.
Speaker 6 (52:24):
And man, I forgot to mention there might be a
new serial killer case Bruin in Puerto Varta, Mexico, where
police are probing the murders of three young women found
dead in the popular vacation hotspot, fearing the cases could
be linked. May well be an episode in the future.
If you have an idea for an episode in the
future or something that you want to talk to us
(52:45):
about for our weekly listener mail segment, you can reach
out to us online at the handles Conspiracy Stuff or
Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending on your social media platform of choice,
and there are other ways.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yes, we have a phone number. It is one eight
three three STDWYTK. When you call, give yourself a cool
nickname so we can put you in the system and
remember when you call next time, and that's really the
only rule. Let us know. If we can use your
name and message on the air, that would be great.
If you want to send us an email, you sure can.
Speaker 4 (53:11):
We are the entities to read each piece of correspondence
we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void
rights back. Send us a random fact, will send you
a random fact in return. I almost want to do
some spoilers, but you'll just have to write to us
out here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
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