a lot of this wacky shit that people were saying turns out wasn't even close to being true but it was much much worse uh as far as like implicating government officials let's put it that way welcome to nice ashes join host mike and nate for cigars and culture let's go beyond the smoke What are we smoking tonight, Mike? Today? This morning? Tomorrow morning? Yesterday morning? Yesterday evening? Well, it's 5 o 'clock somewhere. You know what I mean? Probably California. But anyway,
we are smoking the Edition Especial today. All right. Which is part of our ongoing series of suffering. Oh, no. Oh, no. This one looks fine. I've got kind of like... On the wrapper, on the external, there's like a slight, like, I don't know, kind of a little hole, pinhole or something, just in the wrapper and the leaf, you know? And on the label, one of the corners is kind of bent down, which can happen. It looks like they maybe just didn't put any glue there to hold it in,
but definitely. One that looks its price point, I would say. This is extremely rough. Mine is very rough, and little flakes of wrapper are coming off of it as I took it out of the package. Yeah, the cap has a delightful taste. That's what I screamed about earlier. I'm sure you heard me. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's a long fucker, isn't it? It's going to be long and hopefully less painful than it looks. Tastes so far. All right.
Well, I'm lit. Sorry. Fuck. All right. First puff actually, despite my coughing and whatnot, the first puff actually wasn't that bad. Oh, the taste of the wrapper in my mouth is horrifying. Okay. So the second puff was worse than the first puff. First puff was good. It tastes like somebody rubbed Tylenol on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's an apt description. At least whatever that brown coating is. Yeah, the first puff wasn't bad, but I think it was because it was hot. And then the second
puff was bad. Again, very bad. I don't know if I can do this. Well, we're going to have to do as much as we can. Oh, my God. If not for me, for the listener. I'm pairing this with water and also some Crown Royal. Okay. I was going to say, if it's just water, the taste of this, you're going to have to up your octane. I'm glad that I picked some Crown Royal up. I am pairing mine. I saw a new beer on the shelves, and so
it's a Founders Mortal Bloom Hazy IPA. They are the ones that do the all -day IPA and the centennial IPA. They usually sell these in 15 packs at your local liquor watering hole. Yes. Yes. So for this episode, we might as well get right into it. I saw something pop across my screen. One day. And I thought, wow, that'd be an interesting topic. And I went to go try and find stuff on it. And there is literally one news story on this from the India Times. Oh. And then the Economic
Times picked it up and republished it. But there's the one news story on this thing. And this was last updated May 6th, 2025. And I'm sure you don't know from that cryptic kind of overview what it is we're going to talk about, but the headline is U .S. spent $21 trillion to build secret underground doomsday bunkers for elites, claims a former official. Have you heard anything about this, Mike? You know what? I am surprised that I have not, but I, in fact, have not. Wow.
Well, we're going to get into it. Probably not into the underground bunker, mind you, but we're going to get into... this story a little bit. And for those of you that think this is all conspiracy theory hogwash, I have a list, by God, of actual known underground bunkers that have been built here in the United States and perhaps elsewhere. And I have a list of companies who will build you one should you have enough money to do that sort of thing. So this news article, it is the
former U .S. housing official Catherine Austin Fitz, who was a Bush administration official. has alleged that the United States government has built an extensive underground network of bunkers worth $21 trillion. They were constructed between 1998 and 2015 with unauthorized spending, according to a report. So this was she was the secretary of housing and urban development from 1989 until 1990 under President George H .W. Bush. And she made these claims on Tucker Carlson's
podcast. And he says that they or she says that the hidden funds were funneled into construction of around 170 underground bases across the United States. And that some of these are underneath the ocean. Fitz cited a 2017 report by Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore, which probed into massive unauthorized financial adjustments within the Departments of Defense and Housing and Urban Development. So there's missing money,
apparently, out there, as we all know. Oh, I guess I should probably also be smoking the cigar, right, Mike? I kind of put it down and hoped I'd forget about it. I've had seven puffs, and I'm counting them because... It's getting less bad, but it is. Yeah. This is vile. Vile. I would immediately put this down if it were not for the show. I would have put it down before I lit
it. Yeah, I would have tasted the cap and been like, oh, no, no. It's, it's, I'm trying not to drink the whiskey because I will just get drunk and, and not smoke the cigar. Yeah. All right. So there are Cold War era bunkers such as Colorado Cheyenne Mountain Complex or West Virginia's Greenbrier Bunker are well -known fits alleges or allegations imply. a much more complex and clandestine system created in recent
decades. This article says there has been no evidence presented to substantiate her claims. So she's just going on and saying that. She's an investment banker by profession and has been famous for advancing controversial theories such as those regarding COVID -19 vaccinations and international mind control conspiracies. So I
guess you can take... Those two things aren't... exactly the same thing no and they're not necessarily because you believe one crazy thing doesn't mean some other completely also crazy thing isn't happening you know i mean you can believe a crazy thing and have some other crazy thing happen right like the covid thing is starting to come out now so yeah yeah a lot of this wacky shit that people were saying turns out wasn't even close to being true but it was much much worse
uh as far as like implicating government officials Let's put it that way. Yeah, it was what was promised was not what was delivered or the safety that was promised just wasn't there. No, and there's allegations now that it might have came out of a lab from North Carolina under direct government supervision. Sure. Which is, you know, another lab leak theory that isn't necessarily, the covering of it up is the problem, you know.
Yeah. I mean, we're beyond it now. And, you know, we've had other instances of this sort of thing happen with a lot of, you know, top secret things or things that were conspiracy theories that have later turned out to be covert operations by the United States government. So it's not out of the realm of possibility. And I don't know what their timeline is for declassifying a lot of these things. Apparently for the Epstein client list, never. But other things they'll
put out right away. So maybe they just weren't ready for people to know about these bunkers yet, and that's why there's only one reported article about it. Right. It's possible. It's also possible that it's nonsense, but it continues. Well, yeah, it's also possible it's nonsense. It's also possible that it's just in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that interesting.
I mean, that could be too. You know, other news outlets looked at it and like, well, we don't necessarily have any proof, but I don't know that we can run with it. Right. Well, I mean, like Cheyenne Mountain's an active base, so. They are in Cheyenne Mountain. Well, yeah. And we're going to talk about some of these that
we actually know about. Perfect. And then, you know, we can make up our minds, or the listener, you can make up your mind on what you believe, if you believe that they're still building these for the rich elite, or if they're not, if we're done building them. You could even say that all the ones here we're going to go through, that they're all conspiracy theories and don't exist. But some of them you can actually go tour. That's
where we are with that. So there's a lot of conspiracy theories and rumors about underground bunkers built for wealthy people in the United States. Some of them are very clearly exaggerated or fictional, but some of them are very, very real. And they've been developed and they're accessible usually only to the wealthy. I was looking at the website for one of them. You know, they start around, what do they start around? They start around 1 .5 mil for like a half floor, for a
half floor one. Sure. Which isn't that crazy in the grandstand. It's not really that crazy. If you want a full floor unit, it's $3 million. They also have a survival condo penthouse, state -of -the -art and luxury, and a custom high -security luxury and multi -use bunker complex, which don't have prices. But we'll get into that. This is the Atlas Missile Silo Survival Condo, survivalcondo .com, with, of course, a big eagle on it and a wreath, olive branch wreath or something. I
don't know. Some bullshit, whatever it is. But anyway, the first one we know about. is the Survival Condo Project, and this one's in Kansas. It's a former Atlas missile silo in Kansas. It's a luxury survival bunker that's been built into a decommissioned missile silo, and it features private movie theater, swimming pool, gym, aquaponic farm, armory, and private apartments with full security systems. So it sounds like a pretty nice Airbnb. Don't know what the cleaning fee
on that is, though. Units for the price of this one, there's not really a price, but units have been reportedly sold for millions of dollars. And the purpose that it was built for was to house the ultra wealthy in case of a global catastrophe, such as a nuclear war or pandemic. I don't know. Are we allowed to say pandemic still? I don't remember, Mike. I think it's okay now. We're in the clear. Okay. Thank goodness. All right. The next one is the Greenbrier Bunker, and that's
in West Virginia. It's underneath the Greenbrier Resort. It's a secret government facility built during the Cold War to house Congress in case of a nuclear attack. Have you heard of this bunker, Mike? In passing, I think I heard it because of September 11th. People were evacuated there. Sure. But I don't know anything about it other than just, you know, in passing. Yes, it has since been decommissioned. It was exposed in 1992, and now it's open for tours. Interesting.
Well, it's not necessarily for the rich specifically. It adds credibility to the existence of hidden underground infrastructure in the United States. So if this one was built during the Cold War, who knows how many others might have been built during that same time or since that time that haven't come to light. Can I talk about the cigar again? Oh, I wish you would. It's not getting better. I haven't had any of my whiskey yet. Yeah, it's time to start. Yeah, this is like...
The worst cigar I've ever had. We're going to smoke as much of this as we can. If this is a short episode, you know, we don't often abandon cigars in the middle of an episode. But if we have to, we have to. So that's definitely an option. It's not good. It's consistently bad. So, I mean, you know, consistently bad. This is worse than the worst cigarette I've ever had. And I've had some pretty shitty cigarettes. Yeah, I guess that's an interesting question. Would
I rather smoke a cigarette than this? I'd probably rather just smoke nothing at all because I don't like cigarettes, but I'd rather smoke nothing. If you said you have to either smoke this or a cigarette, I'd be like, nah, I'm okay. I won't be smoking anything today. In the either or, I mean, a Marlboro tastes better than this, and Marlboros tastes like shit. Yeah. Paul Malls are absolute trash, and they're better than this. Yeah. This one is not. Not delightful. But you
know which one was? Was that Cuban Delights. That one was good. That was one that punched above its weight. Yes, yes. Well, this is all out of the same bundle. Sure. As you know. How much did this one cost, Mike? Did they pay us for this one? They were $1. On sale. I think you got swindled, Mike. You got swindled. Yes. Who even makes these? Do we know? I have no idea. Whoever makes them needs to be punished, though. Yeah, they sell them on Thompson Cigar. Don't
smoke this. Yeah, let's see. I guess there's a band called the Edison Special. All right. Holt Cigar has them. Is this it? Is this the same one? Mike, say your catchphrase. What's my catchphrase? Go bowling. Google the show. Fuck, yeah. Wikipedia the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Google the show. So what's pulling up is a La Aroma de Cuba Adiciona special, but that's not what this is. This is something worse. Was this so bad they banned it from the internet? Maybe.
I mean, they don't have a manufacturer on the label. Let's put it that way. No, and we should know better. We should know better. I'm not, you know what? I'm not finding this cigar anywhere. Oh, my God. It is the nasty. Where did you say you bought this one from, Mike? Thompson Cigar. Thompson Cigar. All right. Well, good Lord. This thing is not good. This is, yeah, this is worse than a cult blood red moon. Other than the fact that I had expectations for the cult blood red
moon. Yeah, I think this is probably worse than the underground shade even. And I'm not even finding them on Thompson Cigar right now, so they distanced themselves from this fucking thing, I guess. Anyway, it's not important. I can't find it online, so I guess that's tough. Don't buy it. If you want the enjoyment of trying this cigar, more power to you, check out the Instagram, the album art, and do a Google image search, see if you can find it, because I'm not going
to do that. It's awful. All right, you're ready for the next bunker, Mike? Yeah, underground bunkers. Let's make it happen. Welcome to my underground lair. All right, this one's not in the United States. This one is Opidum, and it is in Europe. So it's located in the Czech Republic. It's often cited in discussions about underground bunkers for billionaires, and it offers a glimpse of what similar U .S.-based facilities might be like, massive underground estates with luxury
amenities and self -sustaining features. So we're not the only country that does this, and if there's other countries doing it... That kind of leads me to believe that we're also doing it more than we're mentioning. I would have the tendency to agree with that. Yeah. Here's some that are just kind of like rumored. Of course, everybody's favorite. One of everybody's fucking favorite conspiracy theories is in Colorado, the Denver International Airport. There is so many conspiracy
theories about that building. Have you ever looked any of those up, Mike? Yes, like the horse is satanic and it has a massive cock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, so they've got all those extracurricular conspiracy theories, extracurricular for our episode's sake. And there's also claims of vast underground tunnels or even cities beneath the airport. Of course, Nevada, Area 51, people have been claiming hidden facilities, government, military, others allege to be ultra -secure refuges.
for the elites. These ones are mostly speculative. There's no really verified details, but supported by the fact that the U .S. military and government do operate large underground complexes like the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is another one. And then there's also the Vivos Group Bunkers. So it's a company that offers shared or private bunkers, survival bunkers across the United States marketed to wealthy clients. Some of theirs are retrofitted Cold War bunkers and others are new
constructions. They offer high -end accommodations and long -term survivability. So I do know that there's, this isn't really a bunker in a sense of like, you know, for rich people, but there's that, I think it's in Greenland, that bunker with all the seeds. They collect all the seeds from every plant on the planet so they can reforest. Global Seed Bank. I think they have one in Switzerland as well. Sure, yeah. They likely have a couple
locations, I would imagine. All right, so the fact is that there are real underground luxury bunkers in the United States, some of which are repurposed Cold War military infrastructure, or some of them are purpose -built for disaster preparedness. There's also some fictional claims of vast underground cities for elites. They're, you know, speculative until evidence comes out,
I suppose, right? Now... When it comes to the underground city, I have an argument to make, and this is going to be a little break, but I happen to know a couple people that work at the Denver airport. There's thousands and thousands of just electricians that work there, let alone the thousands and thousands of other guys. So if you're going to build an underground city, you would need a massive support staff to maintain it, let alone the even bigger percentage of people
to build it. So you'd have to have maintenance crews full time to maintain and underground anything. Yeah. Whether it's being used or not, it has to be maintained. Like it will just degrade with time. So like a city like that, you would have hundreds of people maintaining it. Where are these people? Like they are not going to live there and you can't get rid of them. Yeah. I mean, you can't. Like now they're specialized.
You can say that they were talking bad about Boeing and whistleblowing and then they just wind up dead, right? I mean. Yes and no, because the specialist who knows how to maintain your la -la -la system that only exists for this underground city. Yeah. Probably an important person. Like, you got to make that person happy so they don't go AWOL. You know what I mean? Yes. That is true. They could be robots, Mike. They could have robots. Yeah, maybe. I mean, maybe Elon's down there
pushing a mop, right? Yep. Chainsaw. It's a peaceful life. All right. Okay. So here's some more. We already talked about the Survival Condo Project. That one was built by Survival Condo LLC, developed by Larry Hall. We've got the Vivos X -Point, which is near Edgemont, South Dakota, by the Vivos Group. And it is over 575 former U .S. military bunkers repurposed into private survival shelters. It features customizable interiors, blast -proof doors, and space for up to 5 ,000
people. Yes. That's kind of a shocking number, 5 ,000 people. I mean, it's repurposed military bunkers, but... Right. I mean, it's not surprising because it's ex -military shit, and there's all sorts of stuff underground in the central part of the United States. There's no one there to watch. Let's put it that way. Yeah. Yeah. The population is so sparse. You could do yourself a nice little digging project. All right. Vivos, Indiana. It's in an undisclosed location in Indiana.
And this is also by the Vivos group. It's a private, fully equipped underground survival shelter complex. So I wonder how anybody knows about it since nobody knows where it is. Or nobody who knows where it is is speaking. I guess, right? Important distinction to make. We've got the Vivos Europa 1. It's not in the United States, but it is in Rothenstein, Germany by the Vivos Group again. It's one of the most luxurious private bunkers in the world, and it's used as a model for similar
U .S. projects. There's a Greenbrier bunker, as we talked about. It's also codenamed Project Greek Island, and it's in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, beneath the Greenbrier Resort. It was built by the United States government in the Cold War era, decommissioned, and open for public tours now. And it was originally built as a relocation center for Congress during nuclear war. This cigar is terrible. Cheyenne Mountain
Complex. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Raven Rock Mountain Complex, Site R. It is a Pennsylvania -Maryland border near Blue Ridge Summit. It was built by the United States Department of Defense, and it's not for civilians, but it's often cited in discussions of underground facilities, and it is a backup Pentagon facility. So I guess, you know, not all of these are necessarily escapes for the wealthy elite, but, you know, redundancies
for our governmental system. But they all show what we're capable of building underground, I suppose. What the government is capable of doing, for sure. Yeah. The government has a lot of money. Yeah. That being said, like, do I think Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have underground bunkers? Like, fuck yeah, they do. Of course they do. Like, I would be shocked if Bill Gates didn't have it. Yeah. I'll bet you they have rocket ships in their backyard ready to launch into
space, you know. Like, oh no, something too terrible is happening. We're just going to go up in space and wait it out. Possibly. I think Bill Gates' house is on a mountain and he owns a mountain, so. It wouldn't be surprising if he had a big -ass bunker inside of the mountain that he already owns. Yeah. Him and Diddy and Epstein. Wow. There's no saying where Ghislaine is. Yeah. Okay. We've got the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was built by the United
States military in NORAD. Military command center hardened against nuclear attacks. It's still active with limited access. Is that the one they use in Stargate SG -1? Yes, it is. That's what I was going to say. Also, the base for SG -1. Yep. There we go. The Stargate program. Yeah, the Stargate program, because there's more than one Stargate team. Okay, but we're getting a
sidetracked here. This thing's burning unevenly, and I would like to blame it on the cigar, which it kind of is because it's terrible, and I'm not enjoying smoking it. My fault for not smoking it as much as I should be. Well, I'm smoking it more than anyone should be, my God. I think you're probably smoking it more than me because I'm letting it very cool burn. I don't know why,
man. Let's get through this shit, and then we're going to talk a little bit about what we'd want in an underground bunker after I get through this list, and then we can wrap it because this cigar is nasty. Okay. Yeah. There is a bunker near Las Vegas called the Underground House. It was built by Jerry Henderson, a 1970s entrepreneur. It's privately owned and used as a luxury underground home. It has a swimming pool, artificial lawn,
murals of outdoor scenes. I want to say I saw a movie or something where they were in an underground bunker like that, where it was like very 1950s, like retro paintings, like murals on the wall. And there's actually like a little house built in there and AstroTurf. I can't remember what it was. Doesn't matter. We can look it up later. And then we did talk about the Opidum in the Czech Republic, and that was private developers.
It's an underground estate for billionaires, and it's not in the United States, but it's relevant for understanding the global market for elite bunkers. There's some notable companies for building or retrofitting bunkers. You've got Survival Condo, LLC, based in Kansas. They specialize in missile silo conversions. You've got the Vivos Group, and they've got multiple locations in the United States and Europe. You have Atlas Survival Shelters, and they're based in Texas,
because of course they are. And they build steel bunkers for installation. You've got Rising S Company, another one based in Texas, and they build custom underground bunkers, safe rooms, and storm shelters. And then Quantum Bunkers, and they specialize in EMP -proof and NBC -resistant shelters. That is what is known about underground bunkers and cities. Not really cities, but underground things in the United States and a couple outside of our borders. What would you put in a bunker,
Mike, if you had an unlimited budget? A bowling alley and a YMCA. You knew I was going to say bowling alley. Come on. You got to have a bowling alley with a big nice bar and the tables and the golf simulator and the fucking dartboards. Of course, the kegs. A little gambling room. Yeah. Yeah. You got to have a little gambling room and, you know, a little manufacturer to make new bowling balls maybe. Yeah. Or. Yeah, all the tools for sure. Yeah, I'd definitely
want a real nice movie theater, you know. Yes. I was going to say. A movie theater and probably like a 3D simulator. Sure, yeah. Like a multi -use 3D simulator. Or just like an Oculus Rift chair or something. Like the Zero -G. Right. You know, where you put on the, what is it, the VR headset? Right. Well, that's what I mean. You could take that headset idea and expand it and make like a place to do that and maximize the level of technology. Sure, yeah. I'd need
like a... massive library. Oh, with real books, I suppose. Well, real books. I mean, you're not going to want to charge your fucking Kindle all the time if you're locked in there because of the nuclear war and you're running off generators. Oh, I've got one chapter left of this book, but
I don't have any power left. It's like that Burgess Meredith Twilight Zone where he's so excited he's the last person alive and he's got all these books he found, like the Library of Congress or something, and then his reader glasses drop off his face and shatter, and then he can't read any of the books. I would say these places can't be using fossil fuel for power. They have to have an alternative fuel source. Yeah, I wonder what that would be. Well, I mean, if they're
really rich, it could be nuclear. There are nuclear weapons that are unaccounted for. Let's put it that way. And they're somewhere, and they're not in the hands of the bad people. Otherwise, they would have went off, potentially. Well, that doesn't mean they're not in the hands of the bad people. It's just they're in the hands of bad people that don't want nuclear fallout. But want to tap into their own rich pleasures. I'm sure Vladimir Putin has a nuclear weapon
or two that is off the books. Let's put it that way. Him and all of his friends. Yeah, for sure. I suppose you'd have to have some sort of triage room, pharmacy, some kind of medical bay. You'd definitely have to have a medical bay. And you would have to have some... long -term method to manufacture basic drugs. Yep. Like cultures, live cultures to produce penicillin or something like that. Yep. Yeah, you'd have to have some sort of greenhouse or aquaponics or something
that would make your food. Yep. Well, if you did use fossil fuel, you could recycle the air from that to feed the plants. I know they do that at certain coal -fired power plants now. Oh, sure, yeah. So it could be done that way. Yep. Always interesting when they start getting stuff. But yeah, hydroponics, something in that nature. Yep. Fresh water supply or recycle, air water, geothermal heat or something. Who knows? Yeah. There's a TV show about this idea. Oh,
okay. Where all the rich people go. Sarah showed it to me now. I can't remember what it is, but it's like the president of the United States and all the people who ran the country go into this bunker. Sure. It's like a 1950s American town, but it's like a television series. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't have any more about the underground bunkers and the cigar is nasty. It's so fucking long. I feel like I'm not even halfway. I am not halfway. I am a quarter of the way at most.
Well, I'm further than you, but I'm not looking forward to any more of this one. No, it's horrible. The whiskey makes it worse, too. The whiskey makes it worse. The whiskey makes it worse. Like that acetone, like that real like nasty medicinal acetone. Yeah. Plays with like the top note of the whiskey because I'm drinking Crown Royal on ice. And it's mixing with that top note and making it like sour. Okay. Gross. Gross. Yeah. Yeah. The sweet note is not covering that like
horrifying like medicinal. I don't even know how else to describe it. Yeah. I feel like this one is one that might be too far gone that even like a tequila cigar wouldn't be good. No, no. This is like that acrid, acid, like bad. It tastes bad. Yeah, it's not good. This is all around not a good cigar. Very gross. All right. Do we have anything more for the episode? No. Are you
fine calling it? I mean, we were just going to, like, BS about, you know, underground bunkers or, you know, you could do, like, who you'd want to have down there with you or if you'd invite anybody. I'm surprised neither of us said we'd want a cigar humidor in our underground bunker. I mean, you're in an underground bunker. Smoking shit probably isn't wise. Well, you could have it vented outside. You could have one room you go in and close the door and it vents it outside.
That's true. Well, if you had hydroponics, you could grow your own tobacco and possibly grow your own cigars, you know. Yeah. You'd have to do something for like the sunlight or how to dry them, you know, big oven or something. Bake them. I don't know what you do. I've never made a cigar. You would have to have simulators, like the light walls that people get for seasonal disorder. Yeah. You'd have to have a ton of those, like a ton. Yeah. Everywhere. Because people
would lose their fucking minds for sure. Oh, yeah. No doubt. Yep. 100%. The guys who work in the missile silos hate it. Yeah. 100 % hate it. I believe it. All right. Well, I don't know any more about the underground munkers, unfortunately. But fortunately for everybody, the topic was short and the cigar was nasty. So it ended up working out. Do not smoke this cigar. But do follow us on Instagram. Give us a like, a review. Check out our Patreon and our website. And as
always, thanks for listening. Be safe, have fun.