August 28, 2023 • 51 mins
Leaders of the notorious Russian mercenary group Wagner are believed to have died in a plane crash north of Moscow just a few months after what appears to have been a rebellion against Russian president Vladimir Putin. Fyre Festival returns, with no sign of Ja Rule. In a big week for space, both India and China attempt moon landings. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of Iheartrading.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our
superducer Paul Mission Control Deck, and most importantly, you are here.
And that makes this the stuff they don't want you
to know. It feels like we say this increasingly often
at the top of every week. But what a time
(00:48):
China is launching AI satellites. There's here in our fair
metropolis of Atlanta. A former president is going to court
doing a little law in order thing on Rico Law.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
It's gonna be a purp walk and everything, or at
least it sounds like getting mug shot and weighed and
measured and stuff. That's what I heard, which is typical intake. Yeah,
but I don't think it happened the last time. I
think he like kind of scooted out of that. This
seems like they're making a show of it. But you're right,
it is absolutely procedural. But for some reason I think
(01:23):
that the last couple. He didn't have to do that.
There certainly wasn't a mug shot that was like circulated.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
It's just crazy to me that they're all rolling through
Fulton County jail.
Speaker 6 (01:31):
Yep, that's what.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Oh yeah, yeah. For anybody who has had the distinct
displeasure of considering Fulton County lock Up in Alma matter
non consensually, you'll understand it is. It is not a
super fun place, and it's also hilarious regardless of your
(01:52):
political ideology. It's also hilarious that this country, for more
than two hundred years ever thought, huh, can people run
for president when they're in trouble? Anyway, that's a story
for another day. That's the news you get everywhere you look,
and that is not what strange news is about. This evening,
(02:13):
we are going to travel to the Moon in hopefully
quite inspiring, if him perfect way to the moon. We
are going to look at some breaking news that will
have a lot of questions, questions that I imagine will not
be answered by the time this publishes. But before we
(02:35):
do any of that, we had an excellent conversation off air,
and Noel, you hipped Matt and I to something that
I had not heard about. It's a blast from the past.
Maybe we should start recording our our BS sessions before
we roll. But Fire Festival didn't we talk about, Like,
(02:57):
how long ago did we talk about?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
This was twenty eighteen, I think, is when the hubbub
was hubbubbing about that one. And since then, I think
we've been We've been gifted with two competing documentaries on
the subject. I think one was Netflix and one was Hulu,
and there was like debate as to which one was better.
They're both pretty good, all, you know, chronicling the misadventures
(03:22):
of one Billy McFarland and also one jaw Rule, Remember
jaw Right.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Can I just say I, for the record, I did
not believe this was act, this was true when you
sent some stuff to us. No, I was like, that's BS,
that's not real video.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
If it's a video, it's gotta be true, dude, it's
gotta be uh.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And I'm just gonna say, because we have no joke
left behind, we're not gonna belabor it on Eric because
you've heard it from us before. But every time jaw
Rule comes up, there three of us repeat verbatim that
amazing joke. By Dave Chappelle not even going to ruin it,
not even gonna ruin it. Uh tune in, Well, where
(04:08):
is jah rule?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Is the question on many you know, many a lip
and he's conspicuously absent in this and then you say
it update he said poignantly, it's yeah, I think it
speaks volumes. Perhaps it is really funny seeing him kind
of kicking the can down the road in the documentaries
where like, you know, things are just Jurassic Park level
(04:31):
falling apart, you know, and Josh just kind of in
the background like this is awkward, you know. Of course,
Billy McFarland is you know, he's this classic kind of
I guess Silicon Valley startup era huckster. You know, we
like not as evil outwardly as Who's the farm of
bro I've already forgotten his name, Yes, Grelly. Yeah, with
(04:53):
the Wu tang One of a kind record and all
of that. Of course, you know, hiking the price of
you know, survive old drugs for people with debilitating health conditions.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
That guy's cool, I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So I went to prison, got out and started hucking
it again. Is hucking a verb for what a huckster?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Does do you, Huck bro It's American English Billy McFarland,
though he went to prison for a while, I want
to say it was at least a handful of years,
maybe even as many as six.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I feel like now now the thing happened in the
documentaries came out. But there were those like fast tracked
kind of documentaries. And you know, this is a festival,
by the way, about social media influencers, and so there's
probably a lot of video, a lot of footage around
they were able to just pull off the Internet. I
feel like a lot of the footage in those both
of those documentaries was in the vertical format.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Probably not for nothing.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
But yeah, Billy McFarland is back, and he has posted
a video wherein he says Fire Festival too, coming coming
to a private Caribbean island near you.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Details are sparse, you know, some of.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
The artists that were associated with the first one were
like pretty big like folks like Blink one eighty two
and the Migos and a couple.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Other names that I'm that I'm forgetting.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But no major, major laser Okay, no no lineup announced
as of yet, but apparently tickets are already on sale
and they're not doing like too bad, and they're you know,
tiered tickets. So I think he's the first batch is
in the four hundred dollars range. And I think one
of the big things about that first Fire Festival were
(06:40):
the tickets just in general were very, very expensive. They
were like prohibitively expensive. This was like a status thing,
you know, So I think they were you know, over
one thousand dollars from maybe even just the like basic
tier tickets. And you know, as is often the case
for conferences and festivals and things like that, there's always
early special of some you know kind this one seems
(07:03):
a little bit on the desperate side in terms of
compared to like what they were asking the first time around,
which is understandable in case you'll forget you forgot, you know.
I compared it to Jurassic Park because it was just like,
you know, the all the fences went down, the monsoon
came in, and the ve loss of raptors were running wild,
(07:23):
gutting social media influence that didn't happen, but the first
two mainly did. And there were you know, meals of
like it looked like rations, It looked like wartime rations.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
There's famous pictures.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Of like the crappiest sadus cheese sandwich and wilted salad
that you've ever seen that made the rounds back in
those days of back in the glory days of Fire
Festival one point zero. What we do know is that
Billy McFarlane did come out with a video and the
quote speaks for itself. Honestly, I'm just gonna read it
because it's pretty good.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
Let's see. He says the following in this video.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here,
and it really all started during a seven month stint
in solitary confinement.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It sucks. That sucks.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Solitary is awful, and we know it's a very brutal
and inhumane thing. What's what is funny though? And it
can't help but laugh at this. You know why he
was in solitary?
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Guys?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Why was he in solitary?
Speaker 6 (08:24):
No for podcasting?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
For like trying to podcast from prison that's apparently against
the terms of his confinement. Sort of like when a hacker,
you know, isn't allowed to touch a computer.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
For like ten years.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I guess this guy isn't allowed to do a podcast
or you know, touch social media. Obviously that not in
the case now that he's out, But that's very weird
in prison.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that's what I heared. How is that not a
free speech? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I agree, And I did hear this secondhand. I'm it
may have been a joke. I sure, hope it's true.
So take that with a grain of salt, But that
is that is what I had heard.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Just to make a connection here, I was reading about
the indictments going on, you know, with former President Donald
Trump and a lot of the people you know that
are allegedly involved in that election scheme here in Georgia.
What are the points of the bond agreement for former
President Donald Trump to be you know, not kept in
a jail right while he's going through this stuff. Is
to not communicate with any of the other quote co
(09:24):
conspirators via social media. So like it is, it is
like a way of trying to prevent people who've gone
through something like this from almost messaging out to other people,
possibly in this guy's case, co conspirators.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Right. Oh, it's similar to Andrew Tatem Hmm.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
I think that's right.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And I did just find confirmation from a story from
Pitchfork from twenty twenty Fire Festivals, Billy McFarlane placed in
solitary confinement following podcast launch. It says, let's see, we
believe the investigation stems from his participation in the podcast
and the photographs that were taken and utilized in trailer
of his podcast, dumpster Fire, that launched while he was confined.
(10:05):
It's a McFarland's lawyer. That's what McFarland's lawyer told The Times,
The New York Times. I believe let's see, which we're
all properly taken. So this is him saying he didn't
He did everything right and.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
They put him in solitary.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
We don't believe he's violated any rule regulation and there
can't possibly be anything else. He's been a model prisoner there,
which would seem to be the case. So he It says,
McFarland's a sixt six year prison term. He pled guilty
to two counts of wire fraud and let's see he stated,
this is from Pitchfork, on the first episode of dumpster Fire,
(10:41):
that any proceeds generated by the show would go towards
the twenty six million dollars he Owes, the investors he
defrauded in the Fire Festival debacle. According to his lawyer,
he's currently scheduled be released August thirtieth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
That's so he got early release.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It would appear so.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Unless unless I'm unless I'm mistaken, and he is in
prison still, but I don't think so. I think he
was making that video as a free man. He was
released in May of twenty twenty two. He only served
four years for defrauding investors in committing a wire fraud.
There was another ticket scam that he actually got in
trouble for that was unrelated to Fire Festival. Who's apparently
(11:21):
doing some kind of like internet kind of bait and
switch scam or like a like a counterfeit.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
I guess where he was selling tickets on the cheap.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I guess kind of like a seat geeks kind of situation,
or where you like buy a ticket from an individual
and the hopes that you're going to get it and
all that, and you know there can be shady results
in those situations, Usually it works out. I think he
did something a little more direct to consumers that really
definitely was fraud.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
So yeah, that's really that's kind of all there is.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
It's I just you know, you'd think the guy would
have learned his lesson or done it somewhere else or
pivoted to something different. But I guess no publicity is
bad publicity because it does seem like the tickets are selling.
It's very weird, very weird. I wonder if people are
like hate buying them. Yeah, yes, it's to be a
part of something. I don't know, man, it's weird.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
It's social media as well, right, Like it's your excellent
point about the earlier instance of Fire Festival, A lot
of people were posting and I guess engaging in the
dopamine casino. So if we think about it that way,
there may be people who are signing up with the
(12:31):
cynical expectation that things go wrong again, and they can.
They can be the first accounts with those vertical videos
of those just atrocious sandwiches. Those are like prison no worse,
they're like jail level sandwiches the way they look exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
No, And you're right, I mean, to the point of
no publicity is bad publicity. That typically is the case
for social media folks. I mean, even just to be
associated with something they know will be a storm of
some variety is just going to boost their profiles, and
then they're not necessarily like culpable or anything. I think
they just see this as like maybe they see what's
(13:13):
coming and they're like, oh, this will be an opportunity,
or maybe they're just blissfully ignorant and think this is
going to be great and that he's reformed and he's
obviously gonna do a great job this time. There were
six sequels to Jurassic Park, by the way, so if
not more, I think I judged pulled that number out
of the air, but quite a few sequels to Jurassic
Park where they figured out a way to keep doing
(13:35):
it even despite you know, previous results.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
So yeah, I mean it makes sense humanity, even before
social media, even before the invention of the car, people
always slowed down to watch an accident, you know what
I mean, So that that fascination may be part of it.
But to be honest with you, you know, here's hoping
(13:59):
it goes better. Here's hoping everybody has a great time.
I want to take accountability and be absolutely honest here.
When you were you were talking about a Caribbean island,
Noll I lazily searched the internet for Fire Island and
that is a very different place. Yeah, just giving everyone
a heads up that's not related to the festival. That
(14:21):
Fire Island is spelled with is the regular way.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
If I'm not mistaken with a y because it's extreme.
That's that's how you know, That's all I need to know.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
You got a funny letter in there.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I'm there.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
Put me in the game.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I'll be in the front row playing with the pigs.
That was another thing too, guys. And then we'll move on.
In the initial like uh, I guess marketing materials for
Fire Festival one, it was like it was like a
club med vacation video. It was like you know, you know,
like Sandals Caribbean resort with and it was like and
the island is inhabited by these lovely pigs that like
(14:58):
swim and we'll play with you on the beaches. And
then like the reality of it was that pigs are
gross and aggressive like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
I love that they use that as a selling point.
It's it's just great.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
It's just what's the word, oh, Hubris, that's the word,
and it's just on display, you know, for all to
see and you can't. You can't look away from someone
that's got that level of hubris. I do wish him
the best, though, I hope that it works out. I'm not,
you know, in any way wishing ill upon Billy McFarlane
(15:33):
or jaw Rule for that matter, who seems to have
steered clear at least based on what we know now.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Uh, speaking of hubers, just really quickly before we jump,
do you guys, do you guys hear about Elon and
Putin and.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
What is going on there?
Speaker 6 (15:47):
Just hang out?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Just went public us. As we came in to record
this evening, Elon contacted the Pentagon to disc clues that
he had had one to one conversation with Vladimir Putin?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Do you think it was like.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Anyway, I just want to I want to talk about
that more later. It's just weird.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, maybe they were sending Warrio memes.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Who knows Putin's a sick memer? Everybody knows that about one?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah, have.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
You seen that that one where he's got his shirt off?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
He made all of those my hand that was did
you see the uh do you see the recent scuttle
but of there's a lot in Russia. We'll get to
it right after the break in fact, but uh, there's
a there's a new thing that low key went viral.
It's long been suspected that Putin has body doubles. Check
out our previous episode on body doubles. Uh, there's a
(16:44):
video clip now where in it's like reading tea leaves
or rorshak stuff, But there's a video clip of someone
who appears to be Vladimir Putin looking like they forgot
where their whitch wrist their watches suppose to be on,
and the Putin wears his wristwatch on the right wrist.
(17:05):
But this person, who is definitely Putin, by the way,
appears to like look at their left wrist and be
very confused and then have like an oh moment. Yeah,
that's that's who I am. I'm the strong man of Russia. Anyway,
very interesting. This is the kind of speculation that thrives
in the absence of transparency. And you know, who knows,
(17:30):
maybe humanity can turn things around. Maybe one day we'll
all be at Firefest having a big old time.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
Hope.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So we'll take a quick break now and hear a
word from our sponsors, and then we'll be back with
more strange.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
News, and we have returned with what is breaking news.
We alluded to this at the top of the show.
We have spent some time since the conflict in Ukraine,
(18:06):
which really began way earlier, right with the taking of Crimea.
We have talked extensively about what is going on in
that part of the world. In particular, we talked a
lot about an outfit called the Wagner Group, and I
(18:27):
think when we originally did an episode about the Wagner Group,
it was probably there's probably new information to a lot
of our fellow conspiracy realists in the West, because it's
not a thing that's going to pop up until there's
a big international problem. Right, So you have probably heard
you have Gety Progosian, the leader of Wagner, in the
(18:49):
news for attempting what appeared to be a coup on
the power structure of Russia, and we talked about this
in depth. There are still many unanswered questions, not just
for a schmucks in the West, but for the people
of Russia who are increasingly wondering what the heck is
(19:10):
going on. Who's at the wheel today. Just before we
came into record, we received the news that Pregosian may
have died in what is being described as a plane
crash a bit north of Moscow. Now this is happening
(19:31):
as we record. It appears this private aircraft with ten
humans on it was shot down by Russian Air Force.
This is I mean, it's not a super big plane
if you look at it, if you're an aviation nerd
like we are, this it's a small craft. And it
(19:54):
is confirmed that Pregosion was on the passenger list. The
headline what do you guys think the day the music died? So?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Uh sorry, that's perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ri Ip big bopper,
I hope.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Well, my my first question is, okay, we've got Pregosion
on the passenger list of this particular plane that was
shut down. Correct, correct, Okay, well it was and it
was shot down. It was, it didn't crash like it.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
So if you yeah, if you look at and again
we are not experts on shooting down planes, thankfully, but
if you look at the various snatches of video footage
that have been put up there, if you look at
Telegram is going nuts for this Twitter slash x as well,
(20:53):
it very much looks like it was shot down out
of the air. The plane is is or was Pregosians
business jet and it went down near a region called
Tivie Tavere tv R. And if you go to there's
(21:14):
a great site my pal Joe sent me Joe as
a navy veteran, called Real News Noble and they have
done a pretty good job of platforming a lot of
this stuff. It looks like the official government of Russia,
through various outfits, is confirming that all ten people, seven
(21:35):
passengers and three crew died as a result of the crash.
They did appear to lose their lives. Also, the second
in command of Wagner was on the plane, or at
least on the passenger list.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So what's the implication here, like shot down by whom?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, we're talking about Yeah, oh gosh, who could it be?
Imagine imagine Vladimir Putin like that hot dog sketch and
I think you should leave.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
He's like, wasn't he wasn't Putin occupied or something when
the news was coming out, Like he couldn't be reached
for comment even initially.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yes, that is correct. Also, there there's no clear proof
at this point regarding who ordered that anti air strike.
The scuttle butt we've heard, and it's all rumors for now.
The scuttle butt we've heard so far seems to fall
(22:45):
into three buckets, and we'll give them to you an
order from plausible to least plausible. The most plausible answer
is almost always going to be a simple answer. So
the simple idea is that Vladimir Putin, a very very clever,
(23:05):
brutal individual, waited until things seemed like they were going
to be cool and then you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Because when we were talking with Jake Hanrahan, we asked
him about the whole thing with the weird you know,
marching and all that good sture. He you know, he
didn't really want to go super into it, but the
one thing he did kind of let on was that
he thought it was like maybe a bit of theater
where it was like Putin and this guy kind of
colluding in some way.
Speaker 6 (23:35):
If I'm unless I miss miss You're right.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I talked with Jake just a little bit about this
earlier today. What he said is, you can't rule that out.
You can't rule out that possibility because again, in so
much of the internal affairs, it's a black box. The
second theory going right now is that, uh, the plane
was shot down, but maybe not on Putin's direct order,
(24:02):
may be on the order of the Russian Minister of Defense,
who is one of the guys that Pregosian and Wagner
were very beefed up with, because Wagner, if we recall,
was often complaining that they were being they were given
the short shrift by the proper Russian military, and so
this may have been retaliation from an inside enemy, so
(24:27):
political inviting domestic instability. That's the second idea. The third idea,
I'm so excited to talk with you as about this one.
The third idea, the least plausible, is that there is
some forty chess going on to that point about political
theater and the idea that Progosion may have faked his
own death, may have committed pseudo side. It's a cool story.
(24:52):
As we know, it is extraordinarily complicated to successfully fake
your death in the modern day, even if powerful forces
aren't looking for you. What do you guys think about
those theories? Think this guy faked his own death?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I guess that would presuppose that Putin was really, really,
really really seriously after him, right, or maybe I don't know,
it is always to what end that's such a big swing,
you know, to attempt it, let alone pull it off.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Well, okay, we have to assume that Progosion was aware
that his life was in danger and he I mean, honestly,
if you look at the words of most of the
military analysts who were talking about this openly, they're all
saying Progoshan's life expectancy was like a month, just three
months maybe something like that, and this is two months.
(25:45):
So actually it's you know, right within the window. He
lived a pretty good time after that whole coup attempt thing.
If Progosion is as wealthy as he was or is
and has all these resources, you know, your life's in danger.
Suiticide is actually a pretty good idea. And he had
(26:05):
been talking a lot about wanting to operate in Africa
a lot more like or operate Wagner in Africa a
lot more. There's a potential that he got out of
there or I don't know, maybe this was his attempt
to get out of there and it failed.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Maybe he heard the news about Fire Festival returning and said, okay,
I got to get it together, you know, buy the tickets,
crash the plane. But here's the thing. Those people really
did die. The people aboard the plane are dead, and
that would mean logically that if this guy, in his calculus,
(26:43):
if he somehow decided it would be worthwhile to fake
his death, then that means that he sacrificed ten people
for that grift, which is soulless to do.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
What have those bodies been identified or just the passenger
list used to identify the bodies that were recovered, right,
I mean, because those are very different things.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, they're relying on the manifest at this time. It's
a great question, Matt. At this time that we are recording,
forensic data has not been released, which makes sense because
it's that stuff does take time if you're doing it right. However,
by the time this strange news publishes, it is entirely
(27:29):
possible that there will be more details on the seven
passengers and the three crew, But we don't know. And
the problem is with the news coming out from Russian
sources in general, even boots on the ground on telegram
and so on, the problem is that there is always
(27:52):
going to be an immense inherent distrust, right, a questioning
of the motives. So to Jake's earlier point in sad oligarch.
It's really tough to confirm these things. Remember Jake was
telling us about him and how he and his partner
(28:15):
on the show had to go to Russian sources and
then had to parse through on a granular level, not
just the language used, but also the that's a good
way to say it, the possible motivations of that of
the people propagating that information. So right now, let me
(28:36):
be really honest. Everything we've learned about Pregosi does indicate
the world would be a more stable place without this
individual in this position of power. He might remind you know,
there are nationalistic forces in Russia that see him as
a hero, right, that see him as fighting against a
(29:02):
corrupt power structure. But we also have to remember this
guy is pretty close to Judge Holden in Cormack McCarthy's
Blood Meridian. He is sort of war personified as an individual,
and as such, you know, as such, there are some there,
(29:23):
there are some organisms that simply have to be put
down for the greater good. And I am completely aware
of how dangerous and slippery of a slope that statement is.
But a dog I can't put it any other way, man,
I mean, what do you guys think, what do you like?
Is this a guy ideologically who would quit his bloody
(29:46):
profession and go open a record store, go open like
a hipster doughnut shop. I think not, you know, I
think this guy is all gased, no breaks. But if
he did indeed die in that plane crash, other innocent
(30:07):
people died as a result, there's not really a good
guy in this story. I don't know, man.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Next week no, I feel like in three weeks, or
maybe even as much as two months, no one will care.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
I give it one to three months, one to three
months at the window.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
I give it a fortnight's time.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Ben, what were the what was the thing about a
second plane?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (30:37):
No, a second ye disarray?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
All right? So I went on Twitter talking to our
fellow conspiracy realist and let me just read some great responses.
So I was trying to be very objective, open ended
and fair. I said, the Wagner's speculation is nuts today.
Does any want to have a theory on progosion or
(31:02):
pal Mike said, I'm going with a small pointy thing
doing about mock three. Multiple people said, yeah, he was
taken out. Putin killed him obviously, and then I started
to dig a little bit more and got some got
some crazy news. A shout out to war Monitor. They
show that Progosion had apparently a second aircraft that, as
(31:26):
of about an hour ago, as we record here in
the US, was maneuvering over Moscow and safely landed. Okay,
but we may return to this again. We want to
be very fair and objective and acknowledged that more information
(31:49):
will probably come out. Very few people know the truth
at this point, and hopefully it will not always be
stuff they don't want you to know. If you are
looking for a little bit of light in the darkness there,
then we can confirm that Russian authorities have quote opened
a criminal case on the violations of the rules of
(32:10):
traffic safety.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Cool regarding the plane crush.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
You know, you gotta have rules, right, So they're like, hey,
we're gonna we're gonna look into this. We hear you,
and and speaking of flight, you know, we never want
to leave you on a really down note, folks. We'd
love to hear thoughts on this, of course. One A
through three std WYTK Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com. But
(32:38):
before we end, we have one more sort of thematic
narrative to explore. It's quite exciting. Since we're already in
the sky, let's go a little further up. We'll be
back after a break.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
We're back, guys.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
History this week has channeled Charles Dickens. It's we're siphoning
the sentiment of eighteen fifty nine because because history is
literally doing this, I'm just going to read it. It
was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom and also a foolishness,
belief in incredulity, light and darkness, hope and despare heaven
(33:23):
and hell. In short, the period was so far like
the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted
on being received for good or for evil in the
superlative degree of comparison only now. The reason why I'm
saying that is because we're talking cold war stuff. Because
cold war stuff is happening. Guess what's the most cold
(33:46):
war thing you can do?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Shoot something to the moon.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Yeah, yeah, well, well.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Poor people, you know what I mean. Let's go to
the moon.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Bro.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Yeah, either either explode the biggest bomb that has ever exploded,
or just you know, successfully get something to the moon.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Those are your two options.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Russia had the opportunity to do the most hilarious thing
and they did it. An you talking about this's just
a thing people were saying about dumb social media things.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Well, one day we will combine those two objectives, right,
launch the biggest nuke ever created at the Moon. We'll
see what happens. I think there's been some pretty good
sketches about that show. Yeah, exactly, okayings.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Let's blow up Earth things, shout.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Out to.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
Love it, love it all right, so let's get to
the actual news. Two pretty awesome things regarding the Moon
occurred this week while we're recording.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Uh, I think it was gosh. I want to say.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
On Monday, when one moon mission was supposed to conclude
with a lander on the Moon, and then today, on Wednesday,
August twenty third, a second Moon mission was supposed to
successfully land on the Moon. The one that was supposed
to occur today on Wednesday, August twenty third was the success.
(35:15):
India successfully landed the first spacecraft ever on the south
pole of the Moon. This is freaking cool. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
One of the main reasons why.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
It's so cool, First of all, it's India, It's one
of the non official Cold War countries using their space
program along with in connection with other space programs from
other countries and assistants, but India making it happen. And
not only did they like get a thing on the Moon,
they've got a rover on that sucker that's going to
(35:50):
go look for water on the Moon, like actual, not
reservoirs of water, but enough water that could be used
by future astronauts that go to the Moon. Right, super awesome.
And I don't know, it's just it's an historic thing.
It's it's a happy thing for humanity. The weird thing is, guys.
(36:11):
And the reason why I'm bringing up the Cold War
is because I've been reading a lot of foreign policy lately,
a lot of other you know, things that are paywalled
online about geopolitics. And it's interesting how at least those
people who write within those outlets at least want India
(36:33):
to be a part of the West. That's what I'm noticing, right,
There have been there have been a lot of pushes for,
I guess, to position India as more associated with the
United States and you know, quote the West. It's just
I don't know enough about that. That's why I'm going
to ask you, guys, what have you seen about positioning
India to be viewed as a part of the Western powers.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Well, first off, it is the world's largest democracy, that
part that that's tight to the fans of democracy, even
though it is imperfect. Secondly, like in our previous episode
on the line of actual control, that very crazy border
that it's just going to get weirder between India and China.
(37:20):
It's part of the allying with India is often seen
as a piece of a larger containment policy. Right, the
two most populous countries in the world are right next door, right,
And if it weren't for geography, they would be they'd
(37:42):
be the same country right now, you know what I mean.
And they both have they both have expansionist aimes. They
both have some serious region specific problems with their neighbors. Right,
shout out Pakistan, shout out the shout out the semiconductor
episode we did earlier. But with that, you know, especially
(38:08):
in Europe and the West, there is a huge Indian diaspora,
you know, so they I'm just laying out like the
laundry list reasons it would make sense for the West
to want to be when at least appeared to be
buddy buddy for a while.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yes, you know, those are great points. Ben, What I
am noticing I'm looking at my other camera. Sorry, guys,
I'm on my new computer for the first time.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yams all right.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
But Ben, Yes, what I was reading in Foreign Policy,
it's writing from see Raja Mohan. They're discussing global influence
on developing nations and how most of that influence right
now is coming from China and Russia, and how the
West is interested in seeing India's influence on other developing
(39:02):
nations throughout the world. Right, So I think that's why
it's That's why it was really interesting to me. That's
why I thought about the Tale of Two Cities, you know,
in that little intro to this segment. Because within the
span of gosh, i don't know, a couple dozen hours,
India's spacecraft was successful. But then Russia's Luna twenty five,
(39:24):
which was another Moon mission that was attempting to get
to the Moon and land to make it happen the
first moon mission in forty seven years for Russia. It
was going to be a basically a big comeback moment
for them and their Luna twenty five mission was unsuccessful.
The craft, I guess, at some point lost contact with
(39:46):
mission control and it it basically spiraled out of control
and smashed into the Moon. I'll give you the quote
from ros Cosmos, who actually made the mission occur. Quote,
the app moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to
exist as a result of a collision with the surface
(40:06):
of the Moon. It's just a great way to say
the thing like it was not good, but it ceased
to exist.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
God, such a good phrase.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
But I mean, and again that's really that's honestly, really
sad for science. It doesn't matter how you feel about
whatever geopolitical stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
It stinks.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
I wish you know their Moon mission would have been successful.
They were also targeting uh kind of not the same,
but a very similar region of the Moon that India
was targeting. And again it's it's at least on the surface.
It's missions to push forward the abilities for other astronauts cosmonauts,
doesn't matter where they're from, to go to the Moon
(40:46):
to perform science, to hopefully use it for the betterment
of humanity. The problem is gosh, and the reason why
it's a Cold war thing, it's because you can move
you can use the moon for other stuff. It doesn't
matter what you know, treaties you've signed historically.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
But also, like the moon doesn't belong to any nation, right,
isn't that a thing?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Is it agreed upon?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Is that codified?
Speaker 6 (41:10):
I think I think it is right.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Yeah, yeah, And everybody will continue pretending that's the case
until the until the rover hits hits the lunar road.
I mean, that's really interesting that we're talking about roscosmos
in particular the chief of this outfit, Uri Bodosov. And
(41:32):
again I love the point for making there, Matt. Scientists
are scientists right their nation of their own and they
are doing stuff that's often unappreciated. Failure is part of
good science. I would argue it's one of the most
important pieces. So this, uh, this official Uri Bodosov said
(41:54):
something that was really interesting. First these says the usual stuff.
We have to go to the moon, we got to
do science, we as a civilization should try. But he
speaks a little bit to the earlier point you're making
that the moon is a multi use thing. Right. It's
(42:16):
a launching point potentially for other missions into the Solar System.
It is also per our pal uri of a practical
value because, of course, the race for the development of
the natural resources of the Moon has begun, and in
the future the Moon will become a platform for deep
(42:36):
space exploration and ideal platform.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
Yep, an ideal platform for a lot of stuff. And
it's got a lot of helium whoo, let's go, and
other things, other things, right, It's got all kinds of
stuff that that corporations want to mine, just like the
you know, the asteroids.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
And stuff going by and all that good stuff.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
But guys, you have to be careful what you're reading
about this stuff. Depending on the news source, it's feeling
like propaganda. If you're in the West reading about India
and Russia's moon programs and these launches, you're gonna get
very different stuff in the way verbs are used, the
(43:16):
way it's positioned as like Russia's massive failure at all
and Russia will never get back to the old Soviet ways.
And then to you know, oh my god, India did
the best thing ever. It's amazing and we're so excited
for it. And it's just I'm sure if you're not
in the West, you're getting other slightly different reporting and
it's just and it's just the phrasing, right, It's it's
(43:36):
all about positioning, and in my mind at least, and
I think in our minds, it's just kind of stinks
that one of them was unsuccessful.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Mm hmm, yeah, man. I mean people worked really hard
on this and too. I think it was on this
show that we collectively learned and got our heads around
just the impossible labyrinthine math required to just get something
(44:08):
out to the moon. The moon is far away.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
It's right there for a man in it, reach into
the sky and pick it right out, now, I know.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
And according to some out of context buzz Aldrin quotes,
we never went there, man.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Buzz go home. Quit talking out of school, man.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Yeah, in space, no one can hear you vibe anyway,
Like that makes no sense. It just sounds cool. It's
like at the end or beginning of whatever mixtape we do.
But what I think is key here to remember is
that it's going to continue. Right. The most powerful forces
(44:53):
in human civilization currently consider long term lunar pre presence
a certitude, which means they are going to pour more
and more money into it, right, and there is a
certain level of attrition expected. There will be failures. The
math is just crazy. There's so many variables that you
(45:15):
cannot control for. It's amazing human's got to the Moon
at all. It's amazing that we even have our cool
little toys on Mars. That's nuts. There's a robot that
sings itself Happy Birthday on an empty planet.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
That's kind of sad you think about it.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
I know, he's got a little party hat on and
like a like a little cupcake alone.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
But it's also it's kind of beautiful too, you know.
It's like, look at us, what a time we're having here.
And I don't know, Matt, like, no, what do you
guys think about the idea of lunar exploration? Do you
think it's a good use of human resources and time.
(46:01):
I'm gonna be honest, I do think it is, although
I have some like ethical dilemmas. You know, there are
people starving.
Speaker 5 (46:10):
Yeah, yeah, I think there's plenty of money and effort
to both have people not starving and go to the moon.
We just we like our flying machines with death weapons
a lot more than you know, people not starving.
Speaker 6 (46:29):
On the moon.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Right, NASA's building flying cars. Shout out to Mitchell and weblook.
Do you guys remember the doctor death sketch?
Speaker 6 (46:38):
Oh yeah, I don't think I do.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I'mould have said it to you after this, you'll love it. Man,
it's great.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
But when he gets to do lunar explorations and this
kind of thing, it's still crazy to me if you
look at the timeline of when missions actually went to
the Moon to when there is a black hole of
any Moon missions any from the mid nineteen seventies to
I think it was like the next Moon mission, at
(47:08):
least by the United States, wasn't until the late nineties.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
And this is the first Russian lunar mission right in
at what'd you say, forty seven years nearly half a century.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh, I don't have the number in
my head. I think it was nineteen seventy eight six
maybe something like that. But yeah, we just stopped completely.
And then the next missions were all planned crashes. You guys,
the next missions, like when you're looking at anything that
occurred in the nineties upwards of you know, twenty ten, like,
(47:46):
that's crazy. They're all planned crashes on the Moon.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
Why I was saying, why, yeah, why?
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Why?
Speaker 6 (47:55):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I don't know dude, it's.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
Just also as enormously cartoonishly difficult as it is to
get something to the Moon, it's even more complicated to
get it back. So you're probably actually saving money if
you come a CASI.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
It, I guess.
Speaker 5 (48:16):
But in the case of the Chandrayan maybe a Yan
chandra Yan three the India India's current Moon mission, the
one that they're on right now, like they're sending a
roveroute to actually get science and send back information. If
you just crash something into the Moon, you can be like, yeah,
we got there, and we can maybe check out the
(48:39):
debris that was raised up when our ridiculously expensive machine
plummeted to the surface.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
I don't know, it's just better ways to go about that.
Speaker 6 (48:49):
I would just argue, maybe not, though I don't know.
Speaker 5 (48:53):
I don't know if there's no answers, I don't have
any answers. We've covered the moon landings before, the conspiratorial
hearts of those things, and it's I would say, guys,
it's very personally difficult for me to believe that we
didn't go to the Moon, because I want to believe
we did, because I don't want to believe that we've
just been lied to, and there was that big of
(49:15):
a charade this whole time.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
You're gonna have to recontextualize your whole Space Camp experience.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
That's the case, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
But there's so it's just weird.
Speaker 5 (49:25):
Man, it's just too weird for me right now.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Tell us what you think about the moon and all
the other things that we've covered today.
Speaker 6 (49:33):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
You can do so by reaching out to us through
the vast space that is the Internet. We exist at
the handles conspiracy stuff on the social media platform formerly
known as Twitter, on YouTube, and on Facebook. Conspiracy Stuff
Show is what you'll find us as on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
And if that's all old beings to you. If you
don't sit the social needs number five, as we alluded
to earlier, you can contact us on a telephonic device
of your choice. All you have to do is dial
in the number. Play along at home with us what
eight three three STDWYTK. You will hear a hopefully familiar voice.
(50:14):
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You got three minutes. Those three minutes belong to you.
Go nuts. Give yourself a cool moniker, a cool nickname.
We cannot emphasize that enough. You'll hear cool nicknames in
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(50:35):
important things is to let us know if we have
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The most important thing, of course, is not to censor yourself.
If you have photos you want to send us, if
you have links, if you have ancillary information or resources,
take us to the edge of the rabbit hole. We'll
do the rest. We read every single email we get.
Speaker 5 (50:55):
Where we are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff they
(51:18):
don't want you to know is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
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production of Iheartrading.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noel.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
They called me Ben. We're joined as always with our
superducer Paul Mission Control Deck, and most importantly, you are here.
And that makes this the stuff they don't want you
to know. It feels like we say this increasingly often
at the top of every week. But what a time
(00:48):
China is launching AI satellites. There's here in our fair
metropolis of Atlanta. A former president is going to court
doing a little law in order thing on Rico Law.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
It's gonna be a purp walk and everything, or at
least it sounds like getting mug shot and weighed and
measured and stuff. That's what I heard, which is typical intake. Yeah,
but I don't think it happened the last time. I
think he like kind of scooted out of that. This
seems like they're making a show of it. But you're right,
it is absolutely procedural. But for some reason I think
(01:23):
that the last couple. He didn't have to do that.
There certainly wasn't a mug shot that was like circulated.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
It's just crazy to me that they're all rolling through
Fulton County jail.
Speaker 6 (01:31):
Yep, that's what.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Oh yeah, yeah. For anybody who has had the distinct
displeasure of considering Fulton County lock Up in Alma matter
non consensually, you'll understand it is. It is not a
super fun place, and it's also hilarious regardless of your
(01:52):
political ideology. It's also hilarious that this country, for more
than two hundred years ever thought, huh, can people run
for president when they're in trouble? Anyway, that's a story
for another day. That's the news you get everywhere you look,
and that is not what strange news is about. This evening,
(02:13):
we are going to travel to the Moon in hopefully
quite inspiring, if him perfect way to the moon. We
are going to look at some breaking news that will
have a lot of questions, questions that I imagine will not
be answered by the time this publishes. But before we
(02:35):
do any of that, we had an excellent conversation off air,
and Noel, you hipped Matt and I to something that
I had not heard about. It's a blast from the past.
Maybe we should start recording our our BS sessions before
we roll. But Fire Festival didn't we talk about, Like,
(02:57):
how long ago did we talk about?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
This was twenty eighteen, I think, is when the hubbub
was hubbubbing about that one. And since then, I think
we've been We've been gifted with two competing documentaries on
the subject. I think one was Netflix and one was Hulu,
and there was like debate as to which one was better.
They're both pretty good, all, you know, chronicling the misadventures
(03:22):
of one Billy McFarland and also one jaw Rule, Remember
jaw Right.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Can I just say I, for the record, I did
not believe this was act, this was true when you
sent some stuff to us. No, I was like, that's BS,
that's not real video.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
If it's a video, it's gotta be true, dude, it's
gotta be uh.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And I'm just gonna say, because we have no joke
left behind, we're not gonna belabor it on Eric because
you've heard it from us before. But every time jaw
Rule comes up, there three of us repeat verbatim that
amazing joke. By Dave Chappelle not even going to ruin it,
not even gonna ruin it. Uh tune in, Well, where
(04:08):
is jah rule?
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Is the question on many you know, many a lip
and he's conspicuously absent in this and then you say
it update he said poignantly, it's yeah, I think it
speaks volumes. Perhaps it is really funny seeing him kind
of kicking the can down the road in the documentaries
where like, you know, things are just Jurassic Park level
(04:31):
falling apart, you know, and Josh just kind of in
the background like this is awkward, you know. Of course,
Billy McFarland is you know, he's this classic kind of
I guess Silicon Valley startup era huckster. You know, we
like not as evil outwardly as Who's the farm of
bro I've already forgotten his name, Yes, Grelly. Yeah, with
(04:53):
the Wu tang One of a kind record and all
of that. Of course, you know, hiking the price of
you know, survive old drugs for people with debilitating health conditions.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
That guy's cool, I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
So I went to prison, got out and started hucking
it again. Is hucking a verb for what a huckster?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Does do you, Huck bro It's American English Billy McFarland,
though he went to prison for a while, I want
to say it was at least a handful of years,
maybe even as many as six.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I feel like now now the thing happened in the
documentaries came out. But there were those like fast tracked
kind of documentaries. And you know, this is a festival,
by the way, about social media influencers, and so there's
probably a lot of video, a lot of footage around
they were able to just pull off the Internet. I
feel like a lot of the footage in those both
of those documentaries was in the vertical format.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Probably not for nothing.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
But yeah, Billy McFarland is back, and he has posted
a video wherein he says Fire Festival too, coming coming
to a private Caribbean island near you.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Details are sparse, you know, some of.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
The artists that were associated with the first one were
like pretty big like folks like Blink one eighty two
and the Migos and a couple.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
Other names that I'm that I'm forgetting.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But no major, major laser Okay, no no lineup announced
as of yet, but apparently tickets are already on sale
and they're not doing like too bad, and they're you know,
tiered tickets. So I think he's the first batch is
in the four hundred dollars range. And I think one
of the big things about that first Fire Festival were
(06:40):
the tickets just in general were very, very expensive. They
were like prohibitively expensive. This was like a status thing,
you know, So I think they were you know, over
one thousand dollars from maybe even just the like basic
tier tickets. And you know, as is often the case
for conferences and festivals and things like that, there's always
early special of some you know kind this one seems
(07:03):
a little bit on the desperate side in terms of
compared to like what they were asking the first time around,
which is understandable in case you'll forget you forgot, you know.
I compared it to Jurassic Park because it was just like,
you know, the all the fences went down, the monsoon
came in, and the ve loss of raptors were running wild,
(07:23):
gutting social media influence that didn't happen, but the first
two mainly did. And there were you know, meals of
like it looked like rations, It looked like wartime rations.
Speaker 6 (07:33):
There's famous pictures.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Of like the crappiest sadus cheese sandwich and wilted salad
that you've ever seen that made the rounds back in
those days of back in the glory days of Fire
Festival one point zero. What we do know is that
Billy McFarlane did come out with a video and the
quote speaks for itself. Honestly, I'm just gonna read it
because it's pretty good.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
Let's see. He says the following in this video.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here,
and it really all started during a seven month stint
in solitary confinement.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
I'm sorry, I shouldn't laugh.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
It sucks. That sucks.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Solitary is awful, and we know it's a very brutal
and inhumane thing. What's what is funny though? And it
can't help but laugh at this. You know why he
was in solitary?
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Guys?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Why was he in solitary?
Speaker 6 (08:24):
No for podcasting?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
For like trying to podcast from prison that's apparently against
the terms of his confinement. Sort of like when a hacker,
you know, isn't allowed to touch a computer.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
For like ten years.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I guess this guy isn't allowed to do a podcast
or you know, touch social media. Obviously that not in
the case now that he's out, But that's very weird
in prison.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that's what I heared. How is that not a
free speech? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I agree, And I did hear this secondhand. I'm it
may have been a joke. I sure, hope it's true.
So take that with a grain of salt, But that
is that is what I had heard.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Just to make a connection here, I was reading about
the indictments going on, you know, with former President Donald
Trump and a lot of the people you know that
are allegedly involved in that election scheme here in Georgia.
What are the points of the bond agreement for former
President Donald Trump to be you know, not kept in
a jail right while he's going through this stuff. Is
to not communicate with any of the other quote co
(09:24):
conspirators via social media. So like it is, it is
like a way of trying to prevent people who've gone
through something like this from almost messaging out to other people,
possibly in this guy's case, co conspirators.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Right. Oh, it's similar to Andrew Tatem Hmm.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
I think that's right.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
And I did just find confirmation from a story from
Pitchfork from twenty twenty Fire Festivals, Billy McFarlane placed in
solitary confinement following podcast launch. It says, let's see, we
believe the investigation stems from his participation in the podcast
and the photographs that were taken and utilized in trailer
of his podcast, dumpster Fire, that launched while he was confined.
(10:05):
It's a McFarland's lawyer. That's what McFarland's lawyer told The Times,
The New York Times. I believe let's see, which we're
all properly taken. So this is him saying he didn't
He did everything right and.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
They put him in solitary.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
We don't believe he's violated any rule regulation and there
can't possibly be anything else. He's been a model prisoner there,
which would seem to be the case. So he It says,
McFarland's a sixt six year prison term. He pled guilty
to two counts of wire fraud and let's see he stated,
this is from Pitchfork, on the first episode of dumpster Fire,
(10:41):
that any proceeds generated by the show would go towards
the twenty six million dollars he Owes, the investors he
defrauded in the Fire Festival debacle. According to his lawyer,
he's currently scheduled be released August thirtieth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
That's so he got early release.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It would appear so.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Unless unless I'm unless I'm mistaken, and he is in
prison still, but I don't think so. I think he
was making that video as a free man. He was
released in May of twenty twenty two. He only served
four years for defrauding investors in committing a wire fraud.
There was another ticket scam that he actually got in
trouble for that was unrelated to Fire Festival. Who's apparently
(11:21):
doing some kind of like internet kind of bait and
switch scam or like a like a counterfeit.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
I guess where he was selling tickets on the cheap.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I guess kind of like a seat geeks kind of situation,
or where you like buy a ticket from an individual
and the hopes that you're going to get it and
all that, and you know there can be shady results
in those situations, Usually it works out. I think he
did something a little more direct to consumers that really
definitely was fraud.
Speaker 6 (11:47):
So yeah, that's really that's kind of all there is.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
It's I just you know, you'd think the guy would
have learned his lesson or done it somewhere else or
pivoted to something different. But I guess no publicity is
bad publicity because it does seem like the tickets are selling.
It's very weird, very weird. I wonder if people are
like hate buying them. Yeah, yes, it's to be a
part of something. I don't know, man, it's weird.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
It's social media as well, right, Like it's your excellent
point about the earlier instance of Fire Festival, A lot
of people were posting and I guess engaging in the
dopamine casino. So if we think about it that way,
there may be people who are signing up with the
(12:31):
cynical expectation that things go wrong again, and they can.
They can be the first accounts with those vertical videos
of those just atrocious sandwiches. Those are like prison no worse,
they're like jail level sandwiches the way they look exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
No, And you're right, I mean, to the point of
no publicity is bad publicity. That typically is the case
for social media folks. I mean, even just to be
associated with something they know will be a storm of
some variety is just going to boost their profiles, and
then they're not necessarily like culpable or anything. I think
they just see this as like maybe they see what's
(13:13):
coming and they're like, oh, this will be an opportunity,
or maybe they're just blissfully ignorant and think this is
going to be great and that he's reformed and he's
obviously gonna do a great job this time. There were
six sequels to Jurassic Park, by the way, so if
not more, I think I judged pulled that number out
of the air, but quite a few sequels to Jurassic
Park where they figured out a way to keep doing
(13:35):
it even despite you know, previous results.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
So yeah, I mean it makes sense humanity, even before
social media, even before the invention of the car, people
always slowed down to watch an accident, you know what
I mean, So that that fascination may be part of it.
But to be honest with you, you know, here's hoping
(13:59):
it goes better. Here's hoping everybody has a great time.
I want to take accountability and be absolutely honest here.
When you were you were talking about a Caribbean island,
Noll I lazily searched the internet for Fire Island and
that is a very different place. Yeah, just giving everyone
a heads up that's not related to the festival. That
(14:21):
Fire Island is spelled with is the regular way.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
If I'm not mistaken with a y because it's extreme.
That's that's how you know, That's all I need to know.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
You got a funny letter in there.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
I'm there.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
Put me in the game.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I'll be in the front row playing with the pigs.
That was another thing too, guys. And then we'll move on.
In the initial like uh, I guess marketing materials for
Fire Festival one, it was like it was like a
club med vacation video. It was like you know, you know,
like Sandals Caribbean resort with and it was like and
the island is inhabited by these lovely pigs that like
(14:58):
swim and we'll play with you on the beaches. And
then like the reality of it was that pigs are
gross and aggressive like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
You know.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
I love that they use that as a selling point.
It's it's just great.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
It's just what's the word, oh, Hubris, that's the word,
and it's just on display, you know, for all to
see and you can't. You can't look away from someone
that's got that level of hubris. I do wish him
the best, though, I hope that it works out. I'm not,
you know, in any way wishing ill upon Billy McFarlane
(15:33):
or jaw Rule for that matter, who seems to have
steered clear at least based on what we know now.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Uh, speaking of hubers, just really quickly before we jump,
do you guys, do you guys hear about Elon and
Putin and.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
What is going on there?
Speaker 6 (15:47):
Just hang out?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Just went public us. As we came in to record
this evening, Elon contacted the Pentagon to disc clues that
he had had one to one conversation with Vladimir Putin?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Do you think it was like.
Speaker 5 (16:09):
Anyway, I just want to I want to talk about
that more later. It's just weird.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, maybe they were sending Warrio memes.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Who knows Putin's a sick memer? Everybody knows that about one?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, yeah, have.
Speaker 6 (16:21):
You seen that that one where he's got his shirt off?
Speaker 3 (16:23):
He made all of those my hand that was did
you see the uh do you see the recent scuttle
but of there's a lot in Russia. We'll get to
it right after the break in fact, but uh, there's
a there's a new thing that low key went viral.
It's long been suspected that Putin has body doubles. Check
out our previous episode on body doubles. Uh, there's a
(16:44):
video clip now where in it's like reading tea leaves
or rorshak stuff, But there's a video clip of someone
who appears to be Vladimir Putin looking like they forgot
where their whitch wrist their watches suppose to be on,
and the Putin wears his wristwatch on the right wrist.
(17:05):
But this person, who is definitely Putin, by the way,
appears to like look at their left wrist and be
very confused and then have like an oh moment. Yeah,
that's that's who I am. I'm the strong man of Russia. Anyway,
very interesting. This is the kind of speculation that thrives
in the absence of transparency. And you know, who knows,
(17:30):
maybe humanity can turn things around. Maybe one day we'll
all be at Firefest having a big old time.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
Hope.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
So we'll take a quick break now and hear a
word from our sponsors, and then we'll be back with
more strange.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
News, and we have returned with what is breaking news.
We alluded to this at the top of the show.
We have spent some time since the conflict in Ukraine,
(18:06):
which really began way earlier, right with the taking of Crimea.
We have talked extensively about what is going on in
that part of the world. In particular, we talked a
lot about an outfit called the Wagner Group, and I
(18:27):
think when we originally did an episode about the Wagner Group,
it was probably there's probably new information to a lot
of our fellow conspiracy realists in the West, because it's
not a thing that's going to pop up until there's
a big international problem. Right, So you have probably heard
you have Gety Progosian, the leader of Wagner, in the
(18:49):
news for attempting what appeared to be a coup on
the power structure of Russia, and we talked about this
in depth. There are still many unanswered questions, not just
for a schmucks in the West, but for the people
of Russia who are increasingly wondering what the heck is
(19:10):
going on. Who's at the wheel today. Just before we
came into record, we received the news that Pregosian may
have died in what is being described as a plane
crash a bit north of Moscow. Now this is happening
(19:31):
as we record. It appears this private aircraft with ten
humans on it was shot down by Russian Air Force.
This is I mean, it's not a super big plane
if you look at it, if you're an aviation nerd
like we are, this it's a small craft. And it
(19:54):
is confirmed that Pregosion was on the passenger list. The
headline what do you guys think the day the music died? So?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Uh sorry, that's perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Yeah, sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ri Ip big bopper,
I hope.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Well, my my first question is, okay, we've got Pregosion
on the passenger list of this particular plane that was
shut down. Correct, correct, Okay, well it was and it
was shot down. It was, it didn't crash like it.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
So if you yeah, if you look at and again
we are not experts on shooting down planes, thankfully, but
if you look at the various snatches of video footage
that have been put up there, if you look at
Telegram is going nuts for this Twitter slash x as well,
(20:53):
it very much looks like it was shot down out
of the air. The plane is is or was Pregosians
business jet and it went down near a region called
Tivie Tavere tv R. And if you go to there's
(21:14):
a great site my pal Joe sent me Joe as
a navy veteran, called Real News Noble and they have
done a pretty good job of platforming a lot of
this stuff. It looks like the official government of Russia,
through various outfits, is confirming that all ten people, seven
(21:35):
passengers and three crew died as a result of the crash.
They did appear to lose their lives. Also, the second
in command of Wagner was on the plane, or at
least on the passenger list.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
So what's the implication here, like shot down by whom?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yeah, we're talking about Yeah, oh gosh, who could it be?
Imagine imagine Vladimir Putin like that hot dog sketch and
I think you should leave.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
He's like, wasn't he wasn't Putin occupied or something when
the news was coming out, Like he couldn't be reached
for comment even initially.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yes, that is correct. Also, there there's no clear proof
at this point regarding who ordered that anti air strike.
The scuttle butt we've heard, and it's all rumors for now.
The scuttle butt we've heard so far seems to fall
(22:45):
into three buckets, and we'll give them to you an
order from plausible to least plausible. The most plausible answer
is almost always going to be a simple answer. So
the simple idea is that Vladimir Putin, a very very clever,
(23:05):
brutal individual, waited until things seemed like they were going
to be cool and then you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Because when we were talking with Jake Hanrahan, we asked
him about the whole thing with the weird you know,
marching and all that good sture. He you know, he
didn't really want to go super into it, but the
one thing he did kind of let on was that
he thought it was like maybe a bit of theater
where it was like Putin and this guy kind of
colluding in some way.
Speaker 6 (23:35):
If I'm unless I miss miss You're right.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
I talked with Jake just a little bit about this
earlier today. What he said is, you can't rule that out.
You can't rule out that possibility because again, in so
much of the internal affairs, it's a black box. The
second theory going right now is that, uh, the plane
was shot down, but maybe not on Putin's direct order,
(24:02):
may be on the order of the Russian Minister of Defense,
who is one of the guys that Pregosian and Wagner
were very beefed up with, because Wagner, if we recall,
was often complaining that they were being they were given
the short shrift by the proper Russian military, and so
this may have been retaliation from an inside enemy, so
(24:27):
political inviting domestic instability. That's the second idea. The third idea,
I'm so excited to talk with you as about this one.
The third idea, the least plausible, is that there is
some forty chess going on to that point about political
theater and the idea that Progosion may have faked his
own death, may have committed pseudo side. It's a cool story.
(24:52):
As we know, it is extraordinarily complicated to successfully fake
your death in the modern day, even if powerful forces
aren't looking for you. What do you guys think about
those theories? Think this guy faked his own death?
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I guess that would presuppose that Putin was really, really,
really really seriously after him, right, or maybe I don't know,
it is always to what end that's such a big swing,
you know, to attempt it, let alone pull it off.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Well, okay, we have to assume that Progosion was aware
that his life was in danger and he I mean, honestly,
if you look at the words of most of the
military analysts who were talking about this openly, they're all
saying Progoshan's life expectancy was like a month, just three
months maybe something like that, and this is two months.
(25:45):
So actually it's you know, right within the window. He
lived a pretty good time after that whole coup attempt thing.
If Progosion is as wealthy as he was or is
and has all these resources, you know, your life's in danger.
Suiticide is actually a pretty good idea. And he had
(26:05):
been talking a lot about wanting to operate in Africa
a lot more like or operate Wagner in Africa a
lot more. There's a potential that he got out of
there or I don't know, maybe this was his attempt
to get out of there and it failed.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Maybe he heard the news about Fire Festival returning and said, okay,
I got to get it together, you know, buy the tickets,
crash the plane. But here's the thing. Those people really
did die. The people aboard the plane are dead, and
that would mean logically that if this guy, in his calculus,
(26:43):
if he somehow decided it would be worthwhile to fake
his death, then that means that he sacrificed ten people
for that grift, which is soulless to do.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
What have those bodies been identified or just the passenger
list used to identify the bodies that were recovered, right,
I mean, because those are very different things.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, they're relying on the manifest at this time. It's
a great question, Matt. At this time that we are recording,
forensic data has not been released, which makes sense because
it's that stuff does take time if you're doing it right. However,
by the time this strange news publishes, it is entirely
(27:29):
possible that there will be more details on the seven
passengers and the three crew, But we don't know. And
the problem is with the news coming out from Russian
sources in general, even boots on the ground on telegram
and so on, the problem is that there is always
(27:52):
going to be an immense inherent distrust, right, a questioning
of the motives. So to Jake's earlier point in sad oligarch.
It's really tough to confirm these things. Remember Jake was
telling us about him and how he and his partner
(28:15):
on the show had to go to Russian sources and
then had to parse through on a granular level, not
just the language used, but also the that's a good
way to say it, the possible motivations of that of
the people propagating that information. So right now, let me
(28:36):
be really honest. Everything we've learned about Pregosi does indicate
the world would be a more stable place without this
individual in this position of power. He might remind you know,
there are nationalistic forces in Russia that see him as
a hero, right, that see him as fighting against a
(29:02):
corrupt power structure. But we also have to remember this
guy is pretty close to Judge Holden in Cormack McCarthy's
Blood Meridian. He is sort of war personified as an individual,
and as such, you know, as such, there are some there,
(29:23):
there are some organisms that simply have to be put
down for the greater good. And I am completely aware
of how dangerous and slippery of a slope that statement is.
But a dog I can't put it any other way, man,
I mean, what do you guys think, what do you like?
Is this a guy ideologically who would quit his bloody
(29:46):
profession and go open a record store, go open like
a hipster doughnut shop. I think not, you know, I
think this guy is all gased, no breaks. But if
he did indeed die in that plane crash, other innocent
(30:07):
people died as a result, there's not really a good
guy in this story. I don't know, man.
Speaker 6 (30:15):
I feel like.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Next week no, I feel like in three weeks, or
maybe even as much as two months, no one will care.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
I give it one to three months, one to three
months at the window.
Speaker 6 (30:29):
I give it a fortnight's time.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Ben, what were the what was the thing about a
second plane?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (30:37):
No, a second ye disarray?
Speaker 3 (30:42):
All right? So I went on Twitter talking to our
fellow conspiracy realist and let me just read some great responses.
So I was trying to be very objective, open ended
and fair. I said, the Wagner's speculation is nuts today.
Does any want to have a theory on progosion or
(31:02):
pal Mike said, I'm going with a small pointy thing
doing about mock three. Multiple people said, yeah, he was
taken out. Putin killed him obviously, and then I started
to dig a little bit more and got some got
some crazy news. A shout out to war Monitor. They
show that Progosion had apparently a second aircraft that, as
(31:26):
of about an hour ago, as we record here in
the US, was maneuvering over Moscow and safely landed. Okay,
but we may return to this again. We want to
be very fair and objective and acknowledged that more information
(31:49):
will probably come out. Very few people know the truth
at this point, and hopefully it will not always be
stuff they don't want you to know. If you are
looking for a little bit of light in the darkness there,
then we can confirm that Russian authorities have quote opened
a criminal case on the violations of the rules of
(32:10):
traffic safety.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Cool regarding the plane crush.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
You know, you gotta have rules, right, So they're like, hey,
we're gonna we're gonna look into this. We hear you,
and and speaking of flight, you know, we never want
to leave you on a really down note, folks. We'd
love to hear thoughts on this, of course. One A
through three std WYTK Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com. But
(32:38):
before we end, we have one more sort of thematic
narrative to explore. It's quite exciting. Since we're already in
the sky, let's go a little further up. We'll be
back after a break.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
We're back, guys.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
History this week has channeled Charles Dickens. It's we're siphoning
the sentiment of eighteen fifty nine because because history is
literally doing this, I'm just going to read it. It
was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom and also a foolishness,
belief in incredulity, light and darkness, hope and despare heaven
(33:23):
and hell. In short, the period was so far like
the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted
on being received for good or for evil in the
superlative degree of comparison only now. The reason why I'm
saying that is because we're talking cold war stuff. Because
cold war stuff is happening. Guess what's the most cold
(33:46):
war thing you can do?
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Shoot something to the moon.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Yeah, yeah, well, well.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Poor people, you know what I mean. Let's go to
the moon.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Bro.
Speaker 5 (33:59):
Yeah, either either explode the biggest bomb that has ever exploded,
or just you know, successfully get something to the moon.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Those are your two options.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Russia had the opportunity to do the most hilarious thing
and they did it. An you talking about this's just
a thing people were saying about dumb social media things.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Well, one day we will combine those two objectives, right,
launch the biggest nuke ever created at the Moon. We'll
see what happens. I think there's been some pretty good
sketches about that show. Yeah, exactly, okayings.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Let's blow up Earth things, shout.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Out to.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
Love it, love it all right, so let's get to
the actual news. Two pretty awesome things regarding the Moon
occurred this week while we're recording.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Uh, I think it was gosh. I want to say.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
On Monday, when one moon mission was supposed to conclude
with a lander on the Moon, and then today, on Wednesday,
August twenty third, a second Moon mission was supposed to
successfully land on the Moon. The one that was supposed
to occur today on Wednesday, August twenty third was the success.
(35:15):
India successfully landed the first spacecraft ever on the south
pole of the Moon. This is freaking cool. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
One of the main reasons why.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
It's so cool, First of all, it's India, It's one
of the non official Cold War countries using their space
program along with in connection with other space programs from
other countries and assistants, but India making it happen. And
not only did they like get a thing on the Moon,
they've got a rover on that sucker that's going to
(35:50):
go look for water on the Moon, like actual, not
reservoirs of water, but enough water that could be used
by future astronauts that go to the Moon. Right, super awesome.
And I don't know, it's just it's an historic thing.
It's it's a happy thing for humanity. The weird thing is, guys.
(36:11):
And the reason why I'm bringing up the Cold War
is because I've been reading a lot of foreign policy lately,
a lot of other you know, things that are paywalled
online about geopolitics. And it's interesting how at least those
people who write within those outlets at least want India
(36:33):
to be a part of the West. That's what I'm noticing, right,
There have been there have been a lot of pushes for,
I guess, to position India as more associated with the
United States and you know, quote the West. It's just
I don't know enough about that. That's why I'm going
to ask you, guys, what have you seen about positioning
India to be viewed as a part of the Western powers.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Well, first off, it is the world's largest democracy, that
part that that's tight to the fans of democracy, even
though it is imperfect. Secondly, like in our previous episode
on the line of actual control, that very crazy border
that it's just going to get weirder between India and China.
(37:20):
It's part of the allying with India is often seen
as a piece of a larger containment policy. Right, the
two most populous countries in the world are right next door, right,
And if it weren't for geography, they would be they'd
(37:42):
be the same country right now, you know what I mean.
And they both have they both have expansionist aimes. They
both have some serious region specific problems with their neighbors. Right,
shout out Pakistan, shout out the shout out the semiconductor
episode we did earlier. But with that, you know, especially
(38:08):
in Europe and the West, there is a huge Indian diaspora,
you know, so they I'm just laying out like the
laundry list reasons it would make sense for the West
to want to be when at least appeared to be
buddy buddy for a while.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yes, you know, those are great points. Ben, What I
am noticing I'm looking at my other camera. Sorry, guys,
I'm on my new computer for the first time.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yams all right.
Speaker 5 (38:39):
But Ben, Yes, what I was reading in Foreign Policy,
it's writing from see Raja Mohan. They're discussing global influence
on developing nations and how most of that influence right
now is coming from China and Russia, and how the
West is interested in seeing India's influence on other developing
(39:02):
nations throughout the world. Right, So I think that's why
it's That's why it was really interesting to me. That's
why I thought about the Tale of Two Cities, you know,
in that little intro to this segment. Because within the
span of gosh, i don't know, a couple dozen hours,
India's spacecraft was successful. But then Russia's Luna twenty five,
(39:24):
which was another Moon mission that was attempting to get
to the Moon and land to make it happen the
first moon mission in forty seven years for Russia. It
was going to be a basically a big comeback moment
for them and their Luna twenty five mission was unsuccessful.
The craft, I guess, at some point lost contact with
(39:46):
mission control and it it basically spiraled out of control
and smashed into the Moon. I'll give you the quote
from ros Cosmos, who actually made the mission occur. Quote,
the app moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to
exist as a result of a collision with the surface
(40:06):
of the Moon. It's just a great way to say
the thing like it was not good, but it ceased
to exist.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
God, such a good phrase.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
But I mean, and again that's really that's honestly, really
sad for science. It doesn't matter how you feel about
whatever geopolitical stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
It stinks.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
I wish you know their Moon mission would have been successful.
They were also targeting uh kind of not the same,
but a very similar region of the Moon that India
was targeting. And again it's it's at least on the surface.
It's missions to push forward the abilities for other astronauts cosmonauts,
doesn't matter where they're from, to go to the Moon
(40:46):
to perform science, to hopefully use it for the betterment
of humanity. The problem is gosh, and the reason why
it's a Cold war thing, it's because you can move
you can use the moon for other stuff. It doesn't
matter what you know, treaties you've signed historically.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
But also, like the moon doesn't belong to any nation, right,
isn't that a thing?
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Is it agreed upon?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Is that codified?
Speaker 6 (41:10):
I think I think it is right.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Yeah, yeah, And everybody will continue pretending that's the case
until the until the rover hits hits the lunar road.
I mean, that's really interesting that we're talking about roscosmos
in particular the chief of this outfit, Uri Bodosov. And
(41:32):
again I love the point for making there, Matt. Scientists
are scientists right their nation of their own and they
are doing stuff that's often unappreciated. Failure is part of
good science. I would argue it's one of the most
important pieces. So this, uh, this official Uri Bodosov said
(41:54):
something that was really interesting. First these says the usual stuff.
We have to go to the moon, we got to
do science, we as a civilization should try. But he
speaks a little bit to the earlier point you're making
that the moon is a multi use thing. Right. It's
(42:16):
a launching point potentially for other missions into the Solar System.
It is also per our pal uri of a practical
value because, of course, the race for the development of
the natural resources of the Moon has begun, and in
the future the Moon will become a platform for deep
(42:36):
space exploration and ideal platform.
Speaker 5 (42:40):
Yep, an ideal platform for a lot of stuff. And
it's got a lot of helium whoo, let's go, and
other things, other things, right, It's got all kinds of
stuff that that corporations want to mine, just like the
you know, the asteroids.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
And stuff going by and all that good stuff.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
But guys, you have to be careful what you're reading
about this stuff. Depending on the news source, it's feeling
like propaganda. If you're in the West reading about India
and Russia's moon programs and these launches, you're gonna get
very different stuff in the way verbs are used, the
(43:16):
way it's positioned as like Russia's massive failure at all
and Russia will never get back to the old Soviet ways.
And then to you know, oh my god, India did
the best thing ever. It's amazing and we're so excited
for it. And it's just I'm sure if you're not
in the West, you're getting other slightly different reporting and
it's just and it's just the phrasing, right, It's it's
(43:36):
all about positioning, and in my mind at least, and
I think in our minds, it's just kind of stinks
that one of them was unsuccessful.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Mm hmm, yeah, man. I mean people worked really hard
on this and too. I think it was on this
show that we collectively learned and got our heads around
just the impossible labyrinthine math required to just get something
(44:08):
out to the moon. The moon is far away.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
It's right there for a man in it, reach into
the sky and pick it right out, now, I know.
Speaker 5 (44:23):
And according to some out of context buzz Aldrin quotes,
we never went there, man.
Speaker 6 (44:29):
Buzz go home. Quit talking out of school, man.
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Yeah, in space, no one can hear you vibe anyway,
Like that makes no sense. It just sounds cool. It's
like at the end or beginning of whatever mixtape we do.
But what I think is key here to remember is
that it's going to continue. Right. The most powerful forces
(44:53):
in human civilization currently consider long term lunar pre presence
a certitude, which means they are going to pour more
and more money into it, right, and there is a
certain level of attrition expected. There will be failures. The
math is just crazy. There's so many variables that you
(45:15):
cannot control for. It's amazing human's got to the Moon
at all. It's amazing that we even have our cool
little toys on Mars. That's nuts. There's a robot that
sings itself Happy Birthday on an empty planet.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
That's kind of sad you think about it.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
I know, he's got a little party hat on and
like a like a little cupcake alone.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
But it's also it's kind of beautiful too, you know.
It's like, look at us, what a time we're having here.
And I don't know, Matt, like, no, what do you
guys think about the idea of lunar exploration? Do you
think it's a good use of human resources and time.
(46:01):
I'm gonna be honest, I do think it is, although
I have some like ethical dilemmas. You know, there are
people starving.
Speaker 5 (46:10):
Yeah, yeah, I think there's plenty of money and effort
to both have people not starving and go to the moon.
We just we like our flying machines with death weapons
a lot more than you know, people not starving.
Speaker 6 (46:29):
On the moon.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Right, NASA's building flying cars. Shout out to Mitchell and weblook.
Do you guys remember the doctor death sketch?
Speaker 6 (46:38):
Oh yeah, I don't think I do.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I'mould have said it to you after this, you'll love it. Man,
it's great.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
But when he gets to do lunar explorations and this
kind of thing, it's still crazy to me if you
look at the timeline of when missions actually went to
the Moon to when there is a black hole of
any Moon missions any from the mid nineteen seventies to
I think it was like the next Moon mission, at
(47:08):
least by the United States, wasn't until the late nineties.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
And this is the first Russian lunar mission right in
at what'd you say, forty seven years nearly half a century.
Speaker 5 (47:20):
Oh yeah, yeah, oh, I don't have the number in
my head. I think it was nineteen seventy eight six
maybe something like that. But yeah, we just stopped completely.
And then the next missions were all planned crashes. You guys,
the next missions, like when you're looking at anything that
occurred in the nineties upwards of you know, twenty ten, like,
(47:46):
that's crazy. They're all planned crashes on the Moon.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
Why I was saying, why, yeah, why?
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Why?
Speaker 6 (47:55):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
I don't know dude, it's.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
Just also as enormously cartoonishly difficult as it is to
get something to the Moon, it's even more complicated to
get it back. So you're probably actually saving money if
you come a CASI.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
It, I guess.
Speaker 5 (48:16):
But in the case of the Chandrayan maybe a Yan
chandra Yan three the India India's current Moon mission, the
one that they're on right now, like they're sending a
roveroute to actually get science and send back information. If
you just crash something into the Moon, you can be like, yeah,
we got there, and we can maybe check out the
(48:39):
debris that was raised up when our ridiculously expensive machine
plummeted to the surface.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
I don't know, it's just better ways to go about that.
Speaker 6 (48:49):
I would just argue, maybe not, though I don't know.
Speaker 5 (48:53):
I don't know if there's no answers, I don't have
any answers. We've covered the moon landings before, the conspiratorial
hearts of those things, and it's I would say, guys,
it's very personally difficult for me to believe that we
didn't go to the Moon, because I want to believe
we did, because I don't want to believe that we've
just been lied to, and there was that big of
(49:15):
a charade this whole time.
Speaker 4 (49:17):
You're gonna have to recontextualize your whole Space Camp experience.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
That's the case, you know.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
But there's so it's just weird.
Speaker 5 (49:25):
Man, it's just too weird for me right now.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Tell us what you think about the moon and all
the other things that we've covered today.
Speaker 6 (49:33):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
You can do so by reaching out to us through
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Speaker 3 (49:54):
And if that's all old beings to you. If you
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(50:14):
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(50:35):
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The most important thing, of course, is not to censor yourself.
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Speaker 5 (50:55):
Where we are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com. Stuff they
(51:18):
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