From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Max, my name is Noah.
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. If you are listening to our weekly listener mail segment the evening it publishes, let us be the first to welcome you to Thursday, May first, twenty twenty five. And what better way to welcome us all to May than to talk a little bit about rootabagas.
Why not? Yes, my best one, unbelievable.
I was swaying hypnotically in my sees.
I am pumped you guys.
Sound c you for like applause for Dylan, whether you're writing in your car or whether you're working on some stuff wherever you find yourself in the wide world. Let us please note that is a pretty fire, pretty hot fire Dylan's. And also we owe a great deal of thanks to our super producer when we pitched him that idea of Mortal Kombat. Ruda Bega response, Yeah, I remember that earlier this morning.
Okay, oh okay, I wasn't there. Well well done, Dylan, and.
We are also grateful for some folks we're gonna hear from today. We're gonna you know, this is the point where we take a little bit of space amid this chaotic universe and check in with you the most important part of the show. So, friends and neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist, We're going to talk a little bit about El Salvador. We're going to examine allegations of weather manipulation. But before we do any of that, I think we have to bone up on our Australian cinema.
Bone up a team naming. Let's do it. Let's first take a quick word and we have returned.
And I believe we all collectively posed the question to our lovely Australian listeners of what are some uh classics of Australian cinema that we should check out? Guys, I'm totally space cadeting on how that came up?
What were we talking about?
It was an Australian gentleman that like disappeared and he was like a financier or something.
I'm so sorry. What was the deal?
His name is Harold Hole. There's a memorial. Uh, there are several memorials named after the man Prime Minister of Australia disappeared in the water. As some of our aussy listeners pointed out, it's kind of weird that there are swimming pools named after him.
But what was What was his deal with the film industry before? Was he like involved in it?
Oh, his dad was involved with some stuff in the entertainment industry and then he ended up getting into some of it too before he became Prime minister.
Gotten well, do check out that episode, though it seems to have escaped me a we do so many of these guys.
I'm so sorry.
But what the takeaway for me was is that we don't know enough about Australian film and cinema. And I even like in the moment, had a hard time producing more than like three titles, and then after the fact kind of remembered a few that I do know and love, and we'll talk about those. But most importantly, we're going to hear from Cake, a lovely Australian listener who writes in Greetings Matt Ben and Nol Peter Weir is the
Australian version nineteen seventies eighties Francis Ford Coppola. His films include The Last Wave, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously, and Picnic at Hanging Rock, among others. Other notable AUSSI directors include George Miller of course we know George's work and the Matt Max films, as well as Crazily Babe, the Babe franchise and Happy feat The.
Guy's a real renaissance man.
He's all over the Bagger. I like to think they all happen in the same unit. It's a lovely thought, yeah for sure, among others. And Kate goes on Jillian Armstrong, My brilliant career and The Handmaid's Tale. Yeah, and that would be the nineteen ninety film version of The Handmaid's Tale, well before the very popular TV series.
By the way, have you read Slash? Do you know? A nonfiction book called A Woman?
I Know?
It's written by Mary Haverstick and tells the story of Cold War era female aviation pioneer Jerry Cobb, who was or not also a CIA operative in Cuba in the early nineteen sixties and who may or may not have been in Dallas the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Jerry's identities and her real and assumed names are mind bending. This book is a wild ride, Ben Matt, I posit we do an episode on this. I don't know this story and I certainly don't think we have delved into it in the past.
Yeah, I don't know this at all, just looking at the book for the first time.
Yeah, I don't know Mary Haverstick from a can of paint. So this is going to be a fascinating thing to learn more about. We love a good book recommendation A woman I know his new to us cake. Thank you so much. Also thanks to everyone who has taken some time to teach us about Australia. As you guys know, I have over the monitor here, I have a map of Australia and I've started putting little pins in the map.
So thank you keg for the recommendation of the book and a future episode topic. And also for those films I'm familiar with, Picnic at Hanging Rock, which the Guardian calls a dazzling fever dream that is still relevant fifty years on. Peter Ware's nineteen seventy five parable of Imperial Anxiety and Sexual Hysteria was recently re released for its fiftieth anniversary and is considered a classic of Australian new wave cinema. So I definitely want to dig into that.
One that I wanted to mention that I think I've mentioned to you guys off air after the fact was the film Animal Kingdom, which is a believe a true of a notable Australian crime family starring Jackie Weaver.
I want to say it got some also Joel.
Edgerton, isn't it but it is an Australian film.
That it's called.
It considered a gritty Australian crime film in which young Joshua J. Cody is taken in by his extended family after his mother dies of an overdose. The branch of the Cody clan, overseen by Jay's scheming grandmother Janine played by Jackie Weaver, who's excellent and I believe either got nominated or won an Oscar for this role, is heavily involved in various criminal activities and they quickly indoctrinate the
boy into their way of life. However, Jay is given an opportunity to take a different route when a.
Cop is too much information.
Guy Peerce is in a cop named Lecky, seeks to help him leave the family behind. So highly recommend that one and another one called The Proposition. There is another Australian filmmaker who I realized I do know and enjoy, John Hillicote, who has done a lot of kind of Australian westerns, Lawless The Proposition, which I think is great.
He's apparently been in the works on a film adaptation of Blood Meridian by Cormick McCarthy for a long time, which is always I think, Ben, you've described it as one of those novels that's sort of considered unfilmable, you know, because there's so much eternal monologue and the writing is such a part of it, Like it's got this weird kind of biblical language and very unusual structure to it. One of your favorite villains I think in literature been the Judge.
Isn't that right? Absolutely or what's his name judge something old?
Yeah, Yeah, apparently a real piece of work, an absolute sadist and psychopathic character. Obviously, McCarthy is known for a lot of things, but I think most popularly not punctuation.
Ever, he writes in this flowy, stream.
Of consciousness way.
He did, of course No Country for Old Men, which is one of my favorite films of all time with the Coen Brothers and The Road, which is also directed by John Hillicote. The proposition is also scored by Nick Cave, who is a famous Australian artist, along with his partner
Warren Ellis. Not to be confused with the comic book writer Warren Ellis, who I believe is known for trans Metropolitan, But Warren Ellis the musician, is also in a band called the Dirty Six or the Dirty three one of those numbers, and is an excellent composer who works alongside Nick Cave all the time. So the score is worth
the price of admission alone on that. But it's also a super cool, gritty western that takes place in the outback, and there's this period period piece about that era, something they don't not always think about.
But there is a wild West in Australia as well.
Are a wild West type scenario real quickly, just want to rattle off. I found a list of the top one hundred greatest films of Australia cinema on AMTB.
There's a couple that I recognize, like.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Let's see Babe of course and Matt Max etc. But there's I mean, there are tons, of course there are what is number exactly ninety eight, Thank you Ben. I don't know that they're ranked by best. I think that maybe are Let's see
ninety eight is Wolf Creek, which I've heard of. It is a hellish Australian outback kind of like the Hills Have Eyes type situation where apparently some backpackers who are stranded and the Australian outback are stalked and tortured psychologically, and I believe there's some torture porny type stuff in it too by.
A sadistic psychopathic local.
Also, The Year of Living Dangerously is a by Peter Ware that was mentioned by Cake, starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver. A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sakarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.
I love you guys.
Throw out another number let's throw out a few more numbers and then we'll make this play short love it fifteen.
Number fifteen is.
See the Boys nineteen ninety eight, Yeah, by Rowan Woods, the director, starring David Wenhem Tony Collette, who is Australian. I always forget Tony Collette of many things fame, but specifically I think we all love her in Hereditary as well as Lynette Current I'm not familiar. After serving time for assault violent parole, Brett Sprague returns to his family home. As tensions rise between Brett and his brother Stevie and Glenn.
Over twenty four hours, dark events begin to unfold The Boys from nineteen ninety eight Rated R and then the last but not least, I wanted to mention number sixty nine.
Okay, let's do it. Thanks Maddie, good call. You had to do it.
We had one always has nice. That's the end of that one.
Oh my gosh.
The number sixty eight, Oh, Matt crazy. You know what number sixty nine is. It's Picnic at Hanging Rock, the one, the one of the ones that our listener wrote in that about and that I was just looking up. It's the one that's considered dazzling and relevant fifty years on Picnic at Hanging Rock, directed by Peter Weir.
That's so cool, Matt, Wow.
Right before that is a popular one that I also it's New Zealand.
It is kind of considered.
I don't know, that might be very controversial to Australians. But it's the Piano by Jane Campion, who is a New Zealand filmmaker. I know that's not an Australian filmmaker, but it is on this list on IMDb, so I don't know, take it up with IMDb. But the last thing, there's a TV series that I really love that I want to say. We've talked about that. Maybe one of
you two have seen, is called Myster in Between. It is an Australian crime series about a dude who is a hit man for like an organized crime entity in Australia. But it's also just like a dad and just doing regular stuff, you know. And it's said it's very like the Sopranos in that respect. It very much shows like the human aspect of someone who is ultimately a pretty tough customer.
You what are you gasping about, Matt?
I've seen clip a clip maybe or clips of this.
You love it.
It's breaking bad level good. I really think it's fantastic.
I believe it's the actor Scott who plays maybe the main person show. Well I've seen. I just clicked on the IMDb page and saw his face and he's holding an ice cream YEP with I guess his daughter and a young girl. And I just remember that scene when he confronts the dudes were not very nice.
Yeah, that's exactly right.
He definitely kicks some mass and takes some names, but it's a very human story. He has a father who is I believe going through dementia the early stages of dementia or no, maybe that's not true.
You know what it is.
That's not what it is. Excuse me, no, that is part of it.
But he also has a brother who has I believe, cerebral palsy, and the actor who plays his brother actually
has cerebral palsy. And it's an incredible performance that as individual who is cast appropriately, I would say in a time where you know, I mean, it's controversial I think sometimes to talk about how only individuals with certain conditions or you know, who present certain ways should be cast, I don't necessarily come down on one side or other of that, but I do think it's really interesting to see someone who actually has that condition portraying character who has that condition.
And we've also just ordered a copy of a woman I know female Spies double Identities, and a news story of the Kennedy assassination.
Yeah, amazing. Thank you for doing that, Ben. I just found a connection here that I did not know existing, and maybe you didn't know either. There is a two thousand and five film starring Scott Ryan, the guy who plays Ray in Between Ray yep, it is called The Magician, and he plays a character named Ray Shuesmith, who is a volatile, caring and ruthless hit man.
So Ray, No that is based that's the same name. It's the same character, Ray Shu Smith, who is in the Mystery Between. The Magician was a precursor to that series.
Okay, I remember there's a universe here, guys.
It's a love world building.
You know.
If you want to learn about Mad Max, you got to start with Babe.
The movie Babe exactly.
And lastly, I just wanted to mention one more that I had on my list that I have seen. It's been a long time very difficult film to watch. Based on a true story. It's called The Snowtown Murders, and if I'm not mistaken, we have talked about the true crime story. This film is based on sixteen year old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self appointed neighborhood watchman, a relationship that leads
to a spree of torture and murder. It's literally, I think, the most famous serial killer story out of Australia, and I think the movie is quite quite well done, but it is a challenging watch, so.
Huge thanks to Cake.
We're going to take a quick break, hear a word from our sponsor, and then we back with some more messages from you.
And we've returned. Guys. Yes, we are taking a little trip to a cool part of the United States that I've never been to, but I look forward to going one day. I wonder if you guys have been around here. Have you guys ever been to like Shreveport or.
I was just talking about that with somebody there.
I've only been to New Orleans and Louisiana, but I know some people from Shreveport.
Actually, I I uh, something like me has been there, but it goes by Peter the Roman.
Okay, Peter the Roman.
Uh.
Interesting, Nice is Peter here with us?
Now? So looms large at what level of you know, it's like hiking easter eggs? Like how how far in the grass do you put them?
Peter the Golden egg?
Oh?
Yeah, right, you know? Or is he like number one thirteen? Anyway, nice, always have to say nice. So Shreveport is in Peter the Romans experience, uh, a beautiful but imperfect place. And there's a lot of interesting government activity.
Ooh yeah. So let's get to that. This area of the United States is also known as Arcla Tech. You may know a town that's right. I guess it's just to the west of this area called Texarcana, which is really cool. And why would it be named that, Well, it's because it's kind of the border between Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana all there together in one little corner. I guess it's the northwest corner of Louisiana, is the way you'd say. It just to the west Texas, just in
the north Arkansas. And there's this thing called the Red River that runs between Shreveport and Bowser City, which is just on the east Shreveport there on the west. And there's this other place, guys, when we're talking about government activity in the area called Barksdale Air Force Base used to be known as Barksdale Field. That's before the Air Force became a thing. And guys, it's twenty two thousand acres of land. Twenty two thousand.
Acres or is it like for sale.
Or no, not at all.
Hang on, I'll pull it up zillow.
Okay. So the reason why it's not for sale is because Barksdale Air Force Base is extremely important to the United States as kind of a thing. It's I'm going to read from their website. It's an award winning base that's home to warrior airmen of the second Bomb Wing, air Force Global Strike Command, eighth Air Force, and the three hundred and seventh Bomb Wing. It's also host to mission partners dedicated to quote providing nuclear deterrence, combat power,
and combat support anytime anywhere. Tight like dominoes, like dominoes, just like dominoes, but with nukes, dominiques. There we go, We got there, we got there. And this is this is the most important part. The second Bomb Wing is the the host unit of Barksdale Air Force Base. I don't know what that means. Do you guys know what the host unit means? Maybe the most crucial part of the air Force base, perhaps, but it is one of only two B fifty two Strato Fortress bomber bases in
the Air Force. Now, a while ago we talked about strato fortresses. What those guys are the giant B fifty two bombers that actually carry nuclear weapons.
When they need to be carry the sky?
Oh yeah, Chonky boys in the sky.
Yes, I thought she said chalky boys in disguise and I was picturing a Transformers type scenario.
But it's both of these ideas.
So why are we talking about these chonky boys. Well, we got a message from Spooky Pan and we're gonna listen to it right now.
Hey, guys, my name is Spitch Bands. There's a thing called the bark Still Bubble. Bark Still Air Force Space in Boucher City, Louisiana. I live across the river in Streatport. Is the home to all our nuclear weapons, aside from Kirtland Air Force Space in New Mexico and Abuquerque. But you know what the thing is. The thing is is that no bad weather ever happens over our area to persuade anything from the B fifty two's coming back. It's called the bark Still bubble. So I'd love it if
you guys kind of investigated the bark Still bubble. Love you show, Love you guys. Hope you're doing well.
Hey, first off, there nuclear weapons everywhere.
Yeah, well that so that's the thing, spooky Pants. Barksdale is home to the Chonky boys that carry the nukes, the certain nukes. But then they're nukes chilling everywhere.
But in a way, yeah, spooky Pants, you're you're absolutely correct. Uh, there has been from my understanding at least bet there has been a lot of speculation over the years regarding possible I guess meteorological anomalies would be a word for it, or a phrase like the pattern, just like you're describing spooky Pants, the idea that the weather seems somehow courteous. Guys.
Yeah, you know, this reminds me of there's a character in the movie Waiting for Guffman that David Cross plays is like a UFO expert, and he's talking about have been coming to this circle in Blaine, Indiana for five years and sorry Missouri and measuring it. The diameter and there's circumference always constantly changed, but the radius stays the same once you go into that circle.
The weather never changes. It is always sixty seven degrees with a forty percent chance of rain. WHOA, I don't know.
I wonder if they're inspired by this, this bubble that we're talking about.
Well, interestingly enough, this Barksdale bubble thing really arises in the nineties, the mid nineties to be precise, when a little thing called Doppler radar shows up out there near the Barksdale Air Force Base. And we'll get into that, but first of all, if you go on a little hunt for this thing called the Barksdale bubble that Spooky Pants describes, you're gonna find a lot of stuff. One thing you're gonna find is a beer from Great Raft
Brewing on Shreveport. According to Untapped quote, this IPA is a thick, juicy, tropical fruit bomb, which is very exciting.
Okay, okay, okay, yes, Love, you got your back. What is untapped?
Untapped is a great website that reviews beers. It's like crowdsourced beer reviews. It's pretty cool, actually.
All right, well, they sound like they're they're legit, so.
They're so legit. Great raft also, according to Untapped, has a black lagger that I desperately want to try, called reasonably corrupt. It sounds very, very fun and I like their style over there at Great Rafts alright. Also, guys, Barksdale Bubble. It's a band, no you can find Yeah, you can find them at the Barksdale Bubble dot com. According to that site, this band is a quote electrifying fusion of powerhouse female vocals and searing guitar solos.
Yeah.
It features bandmates Chris Fomo, Hirsh, Gabby Ray, Tim Not the director, Burton, Chris count Me and Robinson a k a. The unfairly photogenic botanist.
What characters that's up there with those Australian IMDb film description.
Absolute exactly, Yes, definitely all right.
Cool.
So it feels like we solved it.
Yeah, we solved it. But one of the last things you're gonna find are several Facebook groups, several places on Reddit, and several I guess just off the beaten path websites that are discussing this anomaly, if you will. The nice weather that appears above Barksdale all the time. There are so many screenshots of the Doppler radar above Barksdale showing a ring of green or red or just bad stuff happening.
And then right in the center near where the Air Force base is nothing just clear skies at least according to the.
Radar beyond a matrix dodge.
Oh yeah, like as in, something's going on down here.
Okay, So so it is sideways around a certain perimeter, but within that perimeter it's a beautiful day.
Yeah, everything looks good, especially if you are a weatherman and you've got one of those green screens behind you and you're pointing out, you know, places where it's getting real bad. Free for it. Oh my gosh, this is not good. Guys, everybody hunker down. Oh wait, there's this one little nice look at that, so clear and calumn right there. Okay, So who else do we go to to figure out what this is? Then? A weatherman. His
name is Andrew Brightman circa twenty twenty one. In April, he was a weatherman for KSLA News twelve, and he put out just some of the best reporting I've seen in a long time, guys of the weather variety. I linked to it in here. You can find it right now.
You can really just search Barksdale Bubble KSLA. But the title is Barksdale Bubble explaining the legend of the weather manipulation device protecting Barksdale Air Force Base in this report guys, which the video appears to be straight out of our YouTube channel. I don't know if Andrew watches or it just likes the same stuff we like. Whatever it is,
it's amazingly produced and it goes through it. It's talking to a bunch of people, like radio local radio folks, local people from Barksdale, people like from the air Force base who are actually in the control tower there talking to everybody about this weird anomaly and all of the theories that surround it about maybe it really is some kind of manipulation device to protect certain parts of the air Force base that's not too outside of what we
know can happen. We've talked about weather manipulation on the show before, but it's generally about the most common thing is cloud seating, where you can encourage weather to like maybe move in a certain way by creating the right situation for moisture to generate in one area rather than another.
And then depending on you know, the wind patterns, you can kind of manipulate the weather to be better in one area by making it rain earlier before it gets to you or after it gets to you, Right, that's kind of the idea. Well, guys. In this report, Andrew makes the following statement that we're going to play in just a moment based on a couple of things. Specifically, one of the things we mentioned earlier here that Doppler radar was installed in the mid nineteen nineties in the
area and this bubble has been seen since then. Andrew describes a little flaw in Doppler radar that we need to be aware of because it may just explain what this bubble is. So let's go to Andrew.
Sometimes, when we freeport Boser, there's dry air close to the ground and rain high in the atmosphere that evaporates before reaching Earth, but the Doppler's beam still picks up that prepation recording it has a green image on the
radar screen. However, close to the tower, the Doppler has an almost circular blind spot that fails to see high atmospheric rain close to the tower, creating a mirage making it look like it's raining and storming around Streamport, Bosire while Marchdale remains sunny and dry.
Okay, makes sense.
So it really does make sense when when you hear Andrew explain it. So I don't efficiently, yeah.
Accurately, Yeah, non b.
Exactly, but it is so great that he couches that little nugget of information inside this piece that feels like an unsolved mystery episode just to give you just the facts. Hey, sometimes it appears as though there's nothing going on here, but it's literally because the radar can't see it, and because it's not actually raining right there, it's picking up the weather that's happening above the dry air.
And you know, another interesting thing about this, you guys and spooky pants in specific here is that despite the advent of Doppler radar as a technology being relatively recent in its rollout to the public, we do know there's like a century worth of somewhat reliable data about weather patterns.
So it will be interesting also to look at just the region right the overall climate of this Reveport area there in a pretty pretty cool part of the United States actually, and see if maybe there are accounts of some kind of sacro sanct area. Maybe there are accounts of just regular rain. I don't know. Man, Well it's tough.
I can't recommend everybody watched that video more because right at the end, after you know, talking about all the theories and all of that stuff, Andrew makes that explanation and then goes to the other parts of those interviews where it's people from the Air Force base saying, oh, yeah, dude, we've we've fought all kinds of insane weather on the Air Force base. It's it is, we get the exact
same weather that everybody else gets in this area. Uh no, they basically you know, and you got to take the the Air Force base personnel at their word.
But you know, yeah, but I'm just I'm laughing because now I'm picturing some guy who is just a hapless mechanic it has to, you know, constantly be doing maintenance on these vehicles. And just how pissed that guy must be at the radar boys, you know what I mean, He's like, these did these drips? You know, I don't know how they curse nowadays, drips bills eel, I.
Have no idea. In the end, it's all to protect the Chalky boys. I'm going to think about that all day, guys. In other Andrew Brightman News, it was his last day back in twenty twenty two, on August fifth, at least according to this other video on KSLA News, he moved over to Charlotte, North Carolina and is now working for Queen City News. But major shout out to you, Andrew Brightman. We we like your style.
Yeah, agreed, also Jim Yeah, oh, I love when people say cut of your jip. We should have a we should have a green screen. I'm gonna pitch you guys a video. What if we do like weather, weatherman meteorologists stuff, but instead of the weather, we predict conspiracies on the green screen.
I love it, I love it, love it.
We got a real heavy Barksdale bubble move in its way, George Charlotte. Uh, by the way, being named bright Man and like you're a weatherman that's determined. Come on incredible. Uh So, Hey, spooky Pants, we hope we didn't burst your bark Stale bubble too much here, but we do.
I'm sorry.
We highly highly appreciate you calling in letting us know. I believe former Atlantean. According to another part of Spooky Pants's messages. I think at some people do this. They'll they'll call in, leave a message and then forget to like give permission in that message, then call back and do a second one. I think it was the second message that just said, oh, by the way, I'm former Atlantean. You can use my message.
All are welcome, just like the ghost said in Poltergeist.
Do you go into the light or don't go into the light. You don't go, okay, you don't go into the light.
It if you do go into the light, ty rope around your waist and have somebody hold it outside of the right in case they need to read it again.
And get the guy who is in that sitcom coach.
There you go, There you go.
House is clear. That very interesting looking lady. I love that movie.
I loved her. Her tender was crazy.
Jesus, you know what she wore, spooky pants. All right, be right back. After a word from our sponsor, let's do it.
And we have returned with just a little bit of errata, some addendans erotica. I am in your head. I know. We'll open with a letter from uh, from a guy I want to workshop nicknames with. We'll call him s H for doubt. All right, but this is a response to some uh can kay's we've had regarding the ongoing situation with innocent residents of the United States and getting black bagged out to El Salvador.
Okay, all right, don't like that.
Carry on, yeah, yeah, we always start off with the light stuff, right, So, okay, hello, stuff. They don't want you to know. I enjoy your podcast hard period. I've found your discussion on L. Salvador prisons to be interesting. I've driven from California to Panama on several occasions. I intentionally avoided going through L. Salvador because at the time it was the most dangerous country in Central America, which also, by the way, sh tells us a little bit about
when you were driving. Sah continues, it's now one of the safest countries. Before Bukele became president of the country was overrun by criminal gangs who committed murders and extor on much of the population. After having built the prison you were speaking of on your podcast and locking up the criminals and gang members, the number of murders in the country has dropped down to below that of Canada.
Most of the citizens of El Salvador says a sh love what Bukele has done for their country and would re elect him in a heartbeat. And many other countries in Latin America would like to duplicate El Salvador's success in reducing crime and the influence of the drug cartels. Now let's pause here for a second, because this feels
like a really important point. Guys. We've heard of We've heard of dictators or authoritarians or even fascists who are lauded by the domestic population because they are seen as cutting past the red tape, right, they're like cracking down on crime.
I'm thinking of Libya in particular, where we heard pretty historic levels of approval basically back in the day before the you know, their leader was sir you know, I was gonna say unceremoniously murdered, but there was quite a bit of ceremony in.
That before Gaddafi tried to start a African version of a euro.
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Or in Venezuela, there was a really high approval rating that was at least reported, right and if oh my gosh, guys, I just I found I found something. It's El Salvador in English dot.
Com and this is legit.
Yeah, it says President Bukelia achieves historic ninety one percent global approval rating.
Wow global? Yeah all right, yeah yeah yeah yeah, shout out to Flabir Putin. Sure. But that I mean, there is an argument there that has a lot of validity, is there not the idea that, look, you're you're growing up in a place where things stink, right, Shelter is a concern. Rule of law is a concern. Law enforcement
officials are easily corruptible. They may be the criminals they're supposed to be looking for, you know what I mean, Like they may be the hot dog guy and that Tim Robinson sketch and down right right now you have a guy who comes in and says, forget due process. We know who the bad guys are, you know, let's crack down on them. We can see logically how you you would support that, you know what I mean. You might say, I will sacrifice some of my rights, some
of my liberty in return for safety. And that seems to be a somewhat fauski embargain, but it's one that has occurred throughout history. Anyway, we're editorializing, Shu continue and you say a very important point that adds to this. You continue, the United States and Europe are the largest
consumers of cocaine and other illegal drugs. True, and as such we bear shs US national by the way, and as such, we bear much of the responsibility for the situation of crime and human suffering in these Latin American countries. We have an obvious choice in our country to either stop using illegal drugs or make them legal. It's something we've talked about on the show.
Right, you can't use illegal drugs if they are in fact legal.
Oh, that's perfect, Olla, that's really good. It's beautiful. So l Salvador, sh continues, is not a rich country, and the temptation to make a quick buck in the illegal drug trade is irresistible to many young people. Obviously that happens here. To decide to lock up all the gang members involved in this illegal trade is not the best solution. Unless we here in the United States accept responsibility for the illegal drug market, it will be the favored method.
Locking people up will be the favored method to resolve this tragic situation. Thank you for the podcast. SH. So, First things first, good monikers for SH. I'm thinking, Wow, all my ideas are pretty terrible.
Right now, what are you talking about?
Untrue?
Get out of here?
Oh jeez, Well, we'll go with SH if anybody wants to give a good solution a good moniker. If s H were a series of initials, what would SH stand for Starship Home? That's cool? You know we've been talking about space.
Sugar Homie, Sugar Homie, Salvadorian.
Hero, Salvadorian Hero. Yeah, I like that. And as usually happens in these recordings, folks, about three or four minutes after we wrap the show, Dylan is gonna hit us with the best one. Usually usually you know, he'll dig that route of bega. So the question, as we as we end here, before we move on real quick, what what do we think would happen if the United States slice the Achilles heel of the cartel Orge? But yeah, by just by just making these various substances legal.
I've always I've often thought about that, like, like, would it be an immediate fix?
I don't know, it seems more complicated than that.
What do you guys think what they'd pivot right, and the cartels would pivot yeah, deep into avocados.
Right now. We talked about that previously they're diversifying their portrait.
Probably are like a lot of big media conglomos who realize that a certain technology is maybe starting to go the way of the dinosaur, or a certain type of distribution, perhaps like radio into podcasting, for example.
I'm trying to wax my mustache when you say that, Noel, so that I look a little more like the guy with the two he's got the vaccine.
It looks good, man. I like it. You should rock that to.
Me from.
Some evil mustachio waxy. Leave it in no space, but it is.
It does well. You guys tell me, maybe I'm really wrong. We've talked about it so many times. It does at this point feel like my thoughts on it are solidified. If you legalized the drug trade, black markets would just shift and there would be a lot more human trafficking.
There would be a little more of the other trafficking.
Yeah, there would be other stuff, right, And if you legalize maybe the sex trade, then maybe human trafficking starts to change and it really does become the kind of indentured servitude stuff that we just talked about.
I don't know.
I think it was last listener mail about people being shipped in from Asian countries to work basically in sweatshops here in the US and other places like that. So you're like, if you change, if you make a legal market for something, there's no real gain to the black market stuff, right, Yana the same way.
I mean, it's a pickle, right, because the main thing in these conversations about legal or illegal is that no one at the top level, no one should be stupid. There should not be a chump. It's okay to be evil, It's bad to be dumb. Uh. It is the way
the like the rationale or the discourse takes place. So to that point, you know, you you're playing whack a mole, right, You're you're saying this thing is fine, and then a criminal organization, unless they want to move to like a regional or state level power, they'll find the next illegal thing because the profit margins are just just high enough, you know what I mean. So like, well, and you're not.
The the anti tax incentives, right, I.
Mean, that's a part of it, right, It's like a tax free business.
It's a tax free industry.
That's what we got to find is more ways to shelter our earnings from the taxman.
Their HR sucks. But yeah, well, yeah.
Well it's interesting how the market shifts for things. So driving around where I live now, and I'd be curious to know if this is y'all's experience too. In most gas stations that are not like a major brand like a QT, sure you will find a ton of quote THHC products, Yes, like a ton. I didn't even realize how.
Their Delta nine though their analogs, their loophole products they are.
But they are all THC products and they're everywhere, so it just and they are. They must be purchased all the time, or else there wouldn't be so many of them in so many stores.
Right.
So in New York City, up until recently when they cracked down on this because of like legalization finally rolling out properly, all the bodegas sold actual cannabis under the table. That is no longer possible because the government there in New York City literally cracked down and went from door to door and shut a lot of these operations down. So you know, you really can only buy it through legal means. But before that it was a real Wild West situation.
But I guess all, I'm yeah, no, I hear you all I'm trying to say is I think the market ends up finding away with a lot of that kind of stuff, And it does feel like if there was just a bigger push to just get that stuff out there, and it's in a product you can buy that isn't crazy expensive, then it does change. I don't know if there's all the moral arguments, right, you can't allow that to happen, right.
Yeah, But also cocaine brought to you on a subscription model by Unilever, you know what I mean, subsidiary of Hulu or what have you. I don't know how long we're gonna I don't know how many shots I can fire before we get fired, but we do have. We do have further conversations in this light, you know. And I love the shout out to I love the shout out to independently owned gas stations. We know there's a huge, ethically fraught petroleum industry that does a lot of dirt,
for sure, and also moves the world. But what I love about the small I don't know if this is maybe just a US thing or maybe just a Southern US thing, but what I love about independent gas stations in this part of the world is they will try anything. I saw a bitcoin at everywhere.
I mean, you know, what's funny you say that, But I was thinking about that.
They obviously are no longer whoever invested in those for these gas stations, I don't think they're getting their money money as.
Well, Yes, because their rate of attrition with weird ideas is so high, you know what I mean. Like, if you want to find forget the made first TV stuff, go find the shadiest gas station in your neighborhood and look on the backshelf. I guarantee you they've got something weird.
Have we talked about how they get away with having these little gambling rooms too? Like these there's some of the same machines you'll see in Vegas. But I'm very confused as to why folks are posted up there.
What are they getting?
Hey, Like you said you were going to be Is that what it meant?
Yes, okay, it is okay.
There was a restaurant right near me that had a whole room in the back and if you won anything there, it was like getting a gift card for the restaurant. But you're spending a crapload of money trying to make some money.
Machines you can also do. Oh man, all right, that's it, it's done. We're doing a gas station episode. Yes, we're doing a gain stuff they don't want you to know about gas stations brought to you.
But also, is it worth it to buy your gas at cost co. I've seen a lot of differing opinions as to whether that's a subscription service there versus how much you pay for the game versus how much you're paying for groceries actually amounts to you getting a deal.
So I don't know, it's something that might be worth that.
That's great, Yeah, let's put that in there. Also, obviously shout out to everybody who just felt a little bit snooty when they heard us talking and said, you know, the way to save money is to take a bag of loose diamonds and just buy the tanker.
Yeah, or the Pokemon cards that you keep in the same case as the.
Loose diamonds, right right right, So heist decide. We're going to end with just a few quick clarifications needs to be said. First off, thank you to everyone who wrote in we mentioned this in an episode or previous recording. Menstruation and the moon are not related. The passage of the passage of the moon does not affect menstruation according to current studies. That's a piece of information that needs to be further out into the water world. Another important one.
Wait, I feel like we've talked about that before on the show how.
We had Maybe we must have, but I also probably brought up that I thought that they were I do remember recently in our astrology discussions, we were talking about ways of justifying how astrology might actually correlate with real stuff, and we had a listener right in I think I said, I repeated that perhaps let's call it a what would.
You call it, guys? Yeah, yeah, technically fact is something that sounds like a fact. And I'm guilty of repeating them.
I know so.
But you are not alone. You are not alone. This is here's a mea culpa on my part. We had a conversation recently where we talked about flotsam versus jetsam, and I said, oh, man, flotsam floats and jetsam sinks. While that is not entirely incorrect, the important thing to know and please merchant marines stop sending the emails flotsam and jetsam are describing different types of debris or trash. So flotsam is the stuff you lose. It's not deliberately
thrown overboard. So like a cargo ship amid the dangerous waters in a storm in the Pacific because they don't have the Barkstelle bubble when they lose a container ship, that's flotsam.
Or a shipwreck or something right, right, or.
A shipwreck or something. Yeah, And if you are in a hurry, just you've gotten some situations on the water and you got to throw some stuff out, that's jetsam.
So is that like is that like? I'm sorry, I'm just going to my mind to like a science fiction story where the spaceship it needs to offload some weight for whatever reason.
I figure, Like remember that time, you guys we were trying to we had to commandeer that helicopter and there wasn't enough room.
By the way, did you see that crazy helicopter crash in New York over the Hudson or like it literally fell out of the sky. Friend of mine sent that to me and just said, like, never flying in a helicopter ever, not gonna happen.
I don't know, man, flying a plane is like learning Mandarin but flying a helicopters like learning cantonates.
Okay, you know what I mean.
Ben, I don't remember the helicopter thing you're talking about, but I do remember way back in the day we shot Raven Oh. I think they were called like Raven two's or something at the at a local airport way back in the day. I think you and I are both there, maybe with Marshall.
Nice Marshall wow from earlier. Yes, we have a we have a lot of I have a lot of weird stories. Maybe at some point the the four of us should get together and write them down, or rather the five of us including you as well. With these corrections, these letters from home, we're getting a note from our producer that this is the close of our listener mail. So big thanks to Kate, Big, thanks to spooky Pants, big, thanks to sh That is our sugar homie, starship Home.
What's a Salvador and hero and super cool? Super cool? Hang, that's the love, thank you, that's the most important one. So we're going to pause, We're going to noctivigate. We hope this podcast finds you well and we'd love for you to join the show. You can find us on the internet. You can find us on the telephone. You can send us a good old fashioned email. It's right.
You can find us on all of those places that Ben mentioned on the interwebs, at least at the handle conspiracy stuff where we exist on Facebook with our Facebook group here's where it gets crazy. On YouTube we have video content for our perusing enjoyment and entertainment. And on x FKA, Twitter, on Instagram and TikTok, however, were conspiracy stuff showing there's more.
Oh, yes, we have a phone number. It is one eight three three st d w y t K. When you call in, give yourself a cool nickname and let us know within the message if we can use your name and message on the air. Guys, really quick shout out to Chef Ben from Chicago that calls us all the time. Chef Ben gave us a recipe that we all need to listen to. Yes for curry chicken salad.
That sounds great.
I've been literally was just talking yesterday about how I need to get into chicken salad, and this sounds like just the ticket for me.
Dude. Basically, what Chef Ben says is make curry chicken and then get it in the fridge overnight. After you know, you eat your curry chicken meal, then your leftovers. You add some mayo and some other things to it, including I think it was golden raisin, crunches and red onions, and you make a glorious curry chicken Saladazy.
I'm doing it.
And if we can do one thing, we'll have to beat. This joke is just for you, chef. How you been so?
Yeah, If you've got recipes, hey send them our way. We love those kinds of things, and you can send them to us via voicemail, or you can send them to us via email.
We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be well aware, yet unafraid. Sometimes the void writes back, what are we talking about? Why does that sound ominous? Don't be the reasonable person in your favorite horror mood. Be the person who opens the door and walks in conspiracy. At iHeartRadio dot.
Com, Stuff they don't want you to know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.