From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is noelh.
They call me Ben. We are joined as always with our super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. If you are tuning in the evening this listener mail program publishes. Let us welcome you to February sixth, twenty twenty five. We talked about it earlier this week. It's amazing that January twenty twenty five went by so quickly and took so long to do. So, we've got a lot of correspondence
to get to a true embarrassment of riches. We're going to hear from people all across the world. We're going to talk about some of the disturbing news occurring in the United States. We're gonna hear from firefighter or an exotic landscaper out west. We're going to talk about telepathy. We're going to talk about private healthcare before we do any of that, Guys, do you have your mobile phones on your persons as were free.
Whoa, you got a secret cell phone like Walter White?
I got two?
Okay, okay, keep your secrets.
Matt oh, I have so many.
Well, I would like to report that mine is currently fully charged. So come at me an essay.
Yeah, And I've recently stepped away from calling them burner phones. I don't like the connotation. I don't care for it. I call a couple of my freezer phones. You know what I mean, as in, you take them out of the freezer when it's time to make the call.
Just the one for me, guys, Just the one for me. But I respect us, I respect it, I really do.
And with that, we're going to pause for a word from our sponsors and will return with a message from Kurt.
And we've returned with the ffore mentioned message from Kurt. This one is a dilly, as Lucille Ball was wanted to say, Hey, conspiracy team, Kurt says, it's been a while since I've emailed about privacy related concerns in the past, and I know you've touched on Faraday pouches slash foil
wraps before. I work in cybersecurity current testing mobile app security, and I came across an article claiming the NSA can track your phone even when it's off, links to an article from BoingBoing dot net, which we will talk about in a minute. My first reaction, this is ridiculous. Off is the same as dead and without power. Signals aren't
going to or from our devices, right. Every movie shows the escapees or the criminals making their you know sus phone calls and then again breaking bad situations, snapping that thing in half, tossing it in the trash, smashing or throwing their phones out the window, and I'm always thinking you're safe to turn it off well after some light
precursory searching. Reddit is full of conspiracy theories about batteries not being removable after the snowed in revelations, Faraday bags are bogus marketing ploys, etc. You can read more in the comments He links to the Reddit conversation, which we'll also get to in a few But it got me wondering if there's any legitimacy to this. The technique is referred to as the find, which is pretty awesome. It's got a lot of gravitas to it, and apparently lets
the government locate high value targets. It is technically possible for a phone to be in standby when we think it's off unless the battery is completely dead. Just to interject here, another thing you see in movies a lot is the assurance if you take the battery out, you know these are obviously more like nineties early two thousands shows, then you can't be tracked because there's zero power being supplied.
But it's of course very true that in part probably due to things like planned obsolescence, etc. Or snowed in revelations, maybe there's something deeper going on here. Batteries are no longer removable from phones. They are hardwired in unless you have proprietary tools, and even then you're pretty much bricking your device like they're not designed to be replaced. If I'm not mistaken, but do correct me on that if
I'm off base, Moving on, and this is very interesting here. Also, NFC or near field communication doesn't need power and could theoretically operate like an air tag or tile device by relying on nearby powered devices like other phones to locate or triangulate them. Worth more, research and an episode longtime fan feel free to use on the air. I just think this is fascinating on so many levels. And I will read a little bit from the Boying Boying article
that Kurt very graciously linked us to. NSA can track powered down phones, How to actually protect your privacy by wonderfully named Ellsworth Dewey. What a great name. So here we go. I'm just gonna read a little bit of an excerpt from this article. Yesterday I wrote about privacy
guides mobile Phone Privacy and Security guide for protesters. Today, Randy's are CEO of Faraday pouch manufacturer SLNT wrote, just want to let you know your cell phone is tracking you, regardless if you have it an airplane mode or not. It even pings when it's turned off. There is only one way to know for sure that you are not being tracked. That is to keep all signals from coming out or going into your phone. The writer of this
piece believes that he is correct and goes on. As reported into twenty thirteen Washington Post article, the NSA has been able to track turned off phone since at least two thousand and four. Here's an excerpt from that. It's by September of two thousand and four, a new NSA technique enabled the agency to find cell phones even when
they were turned off. JASOK troops called this the Find, and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al Qaeda sponsored insurgency in Iraq according to members of the unit. So two, he goes on, so, if you're serious about not wanting to be tracked, you need to block your phone from sending and receiving signals. A Faraday phone pouch is one way to do that. It's made of conductive material like metal mesh or metalized
fabric that creates an electromagnetic shield around devices. When electromagnetic waves hit the pouts, they create a cur that generates an opposing field, effectively blocking all wireless signals like cellular, Wi Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS from reaching or leaving the enclosed device. And then two he says, I of course, when you remove from the pouch, it is once again vulnerable.
But as Kurt mentioned in this Reddit thread, there are plenty of voices out there saying that the Faraday pouch is in fact just like a marketing ploy, and that even that isn't fool proof, so I don't know me. Let me read one comment here from a Reddit user. Let's see some of the comments here, just kind of referring. This is a good summary of the of the thread. Some of the comments here are back and forth, but it does largely depend on the manufacturer more than anything.
For example, newer Apple iPhones can be tracked even when quote unquote off using the same network as the air tags. If they didn't have this in older models, I would be surprised. But to corroborate another comment, if the cellular or even Wi Fi modem for more short range applications are on, then you only need three points to calculate the position of the phone. Unfortunately, unless we have open
source firmware and hardware schematic, we can never know. However, anything with a removable battery will not be able to keep a charge to the modem for long unless some type of coin sell is in and a good test for this is often if it loses time in airplane mode.
That's interesting.
This would result in no ability to track. While it is not recommended, you could install a small hardware switch on the battery if you have the space or wherewithal to do so, and let me just see if I can find any Yes, see, throw the phone in a Faraday sleeve in your golden That's what somebody says here. But then we've got okay, proper Faraday should be enough.
Fairity bag is a little extra security. Hmmm. Actually, it does seem maybe I misunderstood what Kurt was saying, But in this thread it does seem that everyone is speaking out in favor of the Faraday pouch. But Matt and Ben, I'm not sure if you've heard anything about this being some sort of marketing fluff, And maybe it's not as fool proof as one might think.
Yeah, yeah, to interject here, Faraday bags are a real thing. However, there's not necessarily some sort of universal regulatory body assuring you that something purporting to be a Faraday bag is legit. Ah, so you can buy all sorts of things that will tell you they're a Faraday bag. For instance, certain fans of social media may receive in this spirit, targeted ads for Faraday hats, which, as we explored in our tenfoil episode,
are absolute bunk. Don't fall for it. The bigger question I will posit for you, fellow conspiracy realist and thank you again for the excellent email, Kurt, is the idea of how surveillance works in terms of tracking right, Like you earlier quoted the mention of different, let's say, techniques sold by intelligence communities. Often that goes back to the idea of whether a phone appearing to be off is
actually out of juice is therefore incapable of communication. If you own an iPhone right now and you're holding the phone in your hands, demographically speaking, you're probably listening to this on a phone now, then you're well aware of folks that your phone will turn off but still have some basic functionality, which means it's not all the way off. The best way to do more proactive surveillance, just kind of bracketing the ethical quandaries here, is to plant a
bug on a phone. That is, let's say you install a chip it's connected to the battery supply of that phote. So there's a lot to get into here.
Yeah, for sure, and I did find you're absolutely spot on. Then the marketing ploy behind Faraday bags is how effective the material they're made of actually is. If one is manufactured correctly, like the one that was referenced in that boing Boying Piece, the CEO of the company sl and T sln T. That does seem to be one of
the top ones. But I'm seeing tons of chatter about devices or I guess bags reporting to do this that are made of cheap material that has like a snake skin kind of texture to it, and that probably won't even block a call. And one thing that's interesting too that I've seen is people say, well, if you want to see if the bag works, put it in there with the ringer on and try calling it and see
if it rings. But that's only one particular frequency. Like that's just literally, you know, testing whether it blocks the same frequency that your carrier is using. And that is not a good indication of other types of signals that can you know, be intercepted or you know, uh inputed.
I guess right, Yeah, it's it goes down to the type of metal us, the density of the weave or the mesh.
Uh.
And I love that you're pointing out there, Noel, And I'm sure Kurt you and you appreciate this fact too. Faraday bags can deflect or block a wide range of frequencies, but it's caveat m tour as we used to say, back in Roman days, you know, you're not always sure what you are buying. Now, this is the part where we give space for some of our fellow conspiracy realists who might be saying, I don't trust a Faraday contraption unless I have designed it myself. And if you are
that brave individual, kudos to you. Awesome job teach us your secrets.
And one thing that we've talked about on the show too is this idea of like, how come I'm getting served all these ads for things that I've just talked about, you know, and that continues to be a hot topic of debate on the internet. In the thread that I mentioned the idea of phones tracking you when they're off, someone posts yeah, and they actively listen to Everyone was all scared of Alexa, but your phone is actually an
Alexa on steroids. Ever noticed how you'll see ads about something you talked about with someone from the days prior. The jury's still out on that as far as we're concerned, I think, I mean, we have talked about it, We have looked into these types of reports, and it's a little iffy as to whether or not that's happening, but sure feels like it is, and it's real easy to buy into that particular conspiracy theory. I have a hard time believing there's not some form of that type of
active listening going on. But guys, isn't it true that you can also wrap your phone in multiple layers of tinfoil and that could also do the trick? Or is that not nearly enough?
I wouldn't trust it.
Yeah, I got a couple. You may remember the George Washington videos if you watched any of those, the time machine in there was a testing device for RF signals and Wi Fi signals and all those kinds of things. I would just say I personally did a little at home stuff with a microwave, with some tinfoil with a freezer. Uh, And I found the most effective thing, guys, is a microwave.
Mm hmm yeah, because of the way it's shielded to keep that stuff from getting out and harming you know, the user.
So your best solution is to always carry a portable microwave. We hear it's stuff they don't want you to know or proud to present. With our partner's Illumination Global Unlimited micro Walk.
The micro.
It's a micro microwave. It looks like a very subtle form fitting a stead pleasing approximately forty five pound backpack that you can carry on your person and just pop your phone in there as long as the batteriesoul.
And you know, if you're into it, you can get one that looks like a Proton pack from Ghostbusters.
Ooh, that would be badass.
Or you if you could make it into a Boombox microwave so you could always have your Boombox microwave on your shoulder.
I do like the idea of the micro walk, but let's just take it a step further and go retro and call it the micro walkman, you know, like the old portable cassette players from days of yore.
Boom.
Well, guys, that's all I've got, Kurt. I think this is really really interesting stuff and certainly worth a further exploration down the road. Let's take a quick break. Here are worth from our sponsor, and then we'll return with more messages from you.
And we've returned, and guys, we are turning our ears to Australia to hear from Cosmic, who is fantastic and really quickly if you don't mind, y'all. Cosmic as asked a question about our favorite magic cards.
I have to answer.
I have to I know, I know, do you guys have any favorite magic cards?
And I but I'm gonna hold it for a second because mine's super dumb.
I wouldn't know where's dark, guys, I couldn't name a single magic card. But y'all, y'all have your fun.
Okay.
So just this goes back to when I started, so nineteen ninety six, around the time Mirage was released. At the time, they called it an expansion, not a set or anything like that, called it the Mirage Expansion. I had a lot of favorite cards, but two of my favorite cards had to do with a red green deck. The first is Jungle Troll, which is a high control car. Yes, yeah, but I love that card. It was one red, one green, one colorless, so three man for a two to one creature.
You could pay one green to regenerate it, or you could pay one red to regenerate it. And that just meant if it happened to die, it gets tapped and sticks around and it doesn't come back if you're able to pay the regeneration cost. The second card, and it only works with these two cards, at least in my opinion for the decade built is savage Twister. This is a sorcery for one red and one green and then X. So you pay one green, one red, and then however many other manna you have open and it deals x
damage to each creature. Now, if you've got jungle trolls in play, you save one or two manna and you regend those trolls, you kill everything else on the board, and now you're swinging for two, maybe four, maybe even six damage. And those are my favorite magic cards.
And so well, let's walk many Matt. I'd love to keep walking here, so Christopher walking here, so ideally when you're when we're enacting this, this combo mechanism, Uh, what's the base tappable mana you would want?
I would?
I would say a safe bet is seven mana. Okay, anything higher than that, that's great. Red and green lends itself as a color combination for a deck to putting more mana out on the field, more lands on the field than you would normally have, so ramping essentially up. So highly recommend it. There's my salute cosmic for asking about that, and stuff you should sandwich you. I can't wait to worry your voicemail. I guess we mentioned magic.
All right?
Oh h is it okay? If I say yeah, oh yeah, just because you asked, I've got to say it cartoon of myself for personal reasons, even though I know it's very much not a great car. I love a storm crow, man, you know, I love a storm crow. It's a little little flyer, little one two flyer, and I think I am not alone in busting that out. Also big fan, of course of the Augury Raven. Three three storm crows.
You can have as many in your deck as you want, right, that's the cool thing about storm Crow.
Yeah, because it's like a murder crows.
This storm crow the name of one of the wildling tribes in Game of Thrones that may be the most positive. There are storm crows the hill tribes, you know. Yeah, the Tyrian got got you know, in in their good graces.
Yeah, so pretty much. I love every Corvid magic and.
We do know that.
Yeah, that's all.
If you want an awesome crow deck, might I recommend black and blue and throw in just a ton.
Of dark rituals. You can only have place but.
Ramping up to three black Man up plus you got the islands hanging out, storm Crow, Storm Crow, storm Crow, Boom storm Crow.
Just zurgit buddy, Right, Oh, the Song Crows and Game of Phones were actually a mercenary company in the Free Cities.
The real issues, Cosmic, that's what that's right for.
Yeah.
But speaking of real issues, let's jump to Cosmic's perspective on our coverage of Luigi MANGIONI. Uh, it's just a little bit of insight and maybe it's going to give us a little bit of the feels it gave it to me when I first heard it. And uh, then we'll have a quick discussion about mental health care and private healthcare and how those two things are interconnected, maybe even woven together. So here's our message from Cosmic.
Yayay guys, plus McKie from Asia. I just finished listening to your episode on Luigi Mangi and holy I don't think anything I'm going to say going to said a lot on anything you guys don't already done. But I was thinking about it. I had an accident recently. I was in the God mean things like that. I have my lawn mower running and blade naps off hits my two middle fingers and drugs the skin all the way
back I went to the hospital. I was sitting in the hospital for probably about eight hours of comfort with anybody given heats, good drugs. Two days later I got asked back for them to do an operation from my hands. All of that was free. Now, I'm not saying that to kind of rub it in, because you guys are well aware that it is a massive problem in the shape and you know a lot of other countries. You know that can be considered first world the ability to
have free healthcare. Now, what does that do to your psyche in the sense of if you're doing anything in the garden or if you're doing anything that may cause you harm. Are you speaking about the ramifications of that, if that makes any sense, Because mate, like the amount of time I've in the hospital, broken bones, cut things like that, I would being so much step right now that I would be the rest of my life trying
to pay that part. I guess I'm not really calling for any points, but I guess it's just it's it's wild to think and the fact that this guy you know, has taken out one of the elite. I can understand why people are getting red tuck over there. It's shame anyway, feel pretty easily. Love you guys doing God clip.
Thank you, Thank you so much, Cosmic for that insight. And you know that question really the simple question of what does that do to your psyche as you go about in the world. Do you guys have any initial thoughts on or what does that spark?
Yeah? Absolutely, Cosmic. First off, thank you very much for supporting the show and for reaching out to us. The one thing, one one thing to level set. Just with nomenclature here, our American conspiracy realist may need to know that Cosmic is saying garden in the way that you would say yard or like backyard. So this is the just the everyday area around your domicile in terms of the psychological burden or the heft of worrying about whether
or not one can make it to the hospitals. As I had mentioned earlier in previous conversations, this is a huge and frightening thing for many people in the United States, especially given various policy changes in the labyrinthine interaction of your medical providers with private insurers. You could have a pain in your chest, for instance, which is a huge red flag. If you have a pain in your chest, everything we know about medicine tells you to get to
a doctor. However, here in the States people do, to your point cosmic, they do carry and hold this burden of feeling like they may be gambling. You know what, if you go to the doctor you have a pain in the chest, it turns out to be nothing, you know, mission critical, and now you are on the hook for an enormous expense. You're absolutely correct. I would argue that there is a ubiquitous, continual psychological burden, a question of
will I or won't I go get care? How serious do I, a non doctor, think this condition?
Maybe?
Does that sound fair?
Yeah?
It makes me think about parenting and the way you know, maybe it hasn't fully shifted, but I think if you look at trends, the way parenting is shifted to a bit of overcaution, I would say, And I wonder if any of that has to do with this very thing,
rather than just letting kids, you know the way. At least in my experience, I got to do ride a bike around a neighborhood and go, you know, take my bike really wherever I wanted to go and do some dangerous crap with my bike without any kind of supervision. And I did get injured a couple times, nothing to the point of going to the hospital, but have a lot of friends who did go to the hospital because a bike related stuff specifically. And there's just one instance, right,
or one specific thing. But and maybe a trend towards overcaution, whether we know it or not, is because adults know the full cost of getting injured on your bike or climbing up that tree would be.
For sure. It also calls to mind there was an excellent episode of Stuff You Should Know several years ago, now, a few more years than I'd like to specify, wherein they talked about the idea of antibiotic resistant bacteria, right, the idea of over medicating people with antibiotics, not letting kids play in the dirt? Right? Does that have long tail consequences? Are we being over cautious? I can't recommend
those guys highly enough. If you'd like to check out their shows, I think you can also find them on Instagram if you're interested.
Yeah, I do also think about any little thing that's just the way cosmic put it, doing anything that may cause you harm, right, anything that may cause you harm.
And I hope your fingers are all right, man.
Now, yeah, it's terrifying. I cringed immediately. And to think that even lawnmowers aren't safe they can turn on you.
Yeah, it is weird.
So we found a couple of things that I don't know, we might it might be worth pointing to Cosmic. There's some interesting research coming out of pub Med Central. Back in twenty fourteen. It was studying health insurance status in the United States and psychological distress and the connection between those two things amongst adults aged eighteen to sixty four years old. Just give you a tiny bit of sampling
of this. It states the purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between psychological distress and the aspects of health insurance status, including lack of coverage, types of coverage,
and disruption in coverage. Adults with private or no health insurance had lower levels of psychological distress than those with public or other coverage, Which is interesting, right, if you've got private healthcare insurance, you're not as worried because you've got the insurance that will cover you to some extent, even though you know, we know not fully and there will be lots of costs associated with being hurt, but at least if something major happens and you've got private
health insurance, you're not going to pay the full fifty thousand dollars or whatever. You'll pay the first two to eight thousand dollars or something like that, even though that's
a crazy amount of money. They continue. Although significant relationships between psychological distress and health insurance status were identified, their strength was modest, with other demographic and health condition covariates also being potential sources of distress, so they weren't able to find like health insurance is the reason people are
distressed and not doing things or anything like that. They're just saying there did seem to be some kind of connection between health insurance and stress, especially when a change was occurring in whatever private or public health insurance was was available to that human being, that personal that personal relationship between you and your health insurer. And then in just the last couple of things to add to this as an update, there is a new United Healthcare CEO. His name is nol nolim Z.
What did I do when I was in a fugue state?
Yeah?
He joined United Health in two thousand and seven and most recently oversaw United Healthcare's medicare and retirement businesses, which are going through some weird stuff right now to changes.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Just.
A reminder, United Healthcare's parent company, United health Group, is one of the largest companies in the world.
H yes.
Yeah. As we discussed previously in our series on Luigi Mangeon looked for an update, there's news emerges. United Healthcare is a Leviathan. It is.
Just huge.
Is not even a big enough word to encompass the economic make heft of that enterprise.
Oh yeah.
And this comes to us via an NPR article titled United Healthcare names new CEO after Brian Thompson's killing. And here's a little quote from Andrew whitti, the CEO of United health Group, that is the giant company, yeah.
The parent company of United Healthcare.
Yes.
And the quote is the healthcare system needs to function better the boy. And he added when he was talking to investors that the company's mission is quote to improve this system for everybody and help people live healthier lives.
Ah feels good.
Doesn't it so wrong as you can afford it?
Yeah?
Yeah, exactly exactly. And another thing we can mention here, just as I mentioned, there is another new AI tool that's going to help health insurers deny the denials that the other AI healthcare tool was doing. So it's a it's a stop gap AI adjunct to automate appeals to the denials that the previous AI is doing.
Hang on, man, let me get some paper.
Here, just so.
So human being gets hurt. There is a healthcare request for insurance coverage, all right, The first AI tool automatically says no, no, no, no, no no. Then this second AI tool says, well, let me hold on, let me take a look at that. Oh, we're gonna automatically appeal that process.
Okay, I'm stribbling this down. Okay, okay, take take me through the next step.
Now, one day a human actually looks at the readout, you know, because this little ticker tape that comes out, and then they're like no, okay.
And we can only assume that surely people are rolling this out because there's been some kind of breakthrough in medical technology wherein if you have a life threatening condition, your body goes on pause while the AI fights itself.
Yeah.
I think that's what it is, and it's just it's exactly what it is. Yeah, the new AI is just called Shot and Freud.
Well, thank you so much. Cosmic.
I hope that I don't know gave you at least our insights and our magic cards. We will be right back with more messages from you.
And we've returned Cosmic in particular. If you want to hear more about Corvid based magic cards, just drop an email. We've got some ideas. You know, maybe we could build a deck together. I'd say that because a big shout out to my brother Matt Frederick and our pal Tyler Claying. Matt, you remember you built a magic the Gathering deck for me. I still have it.
You should use it.
I'm the kind of guy who plays dungeons and dragons with myself, very well adjusted, very well adjusted rolling for initiative, we are going to set the stage for this part of our evenings listener mail with the following. Recently, if you live in the United States, you have doubtlessly heard that one of the country's largest employers, Uncle Sam, the federal government, sent a stark and troubling email out to a ton of federal employees. Now, Federal here is a
vast umbrella. It's a vast group term it encapsulates or it encounters many, many, many different things that most people in the US take for granted because they don't hear about it until something goes wrong. We are going to hear from a no mis FED and anonymous before we share this, we want you know it hit all of us personally. It hit a lot of our fellow listeners as well. We're going to protect your anonymity and we cannot thank you enough for sharing this because we know
it's going to resonate with a lot of people. Here's the letter. Hi guys, I've been a longtime listener, but this is the first time I'm writing it. I'm sure you've seen in the news about the Trump administration's onslaught against federal employees. On January twenty seventh, federal employees from all agencies got an ominous email from the Office of Personnel Management OPM with the subject line fork in the Road. This email offered federal employees an option to submit a
deferred resignation. The news says anonymous FED keeps talking about this as a buyout, which is not true. Basically, the email said that if we submit a deferred resignation by replying to the email with the word resign, and the body of the reply email. We will still have to work until September, but won't have to be in compliance with the four pillars of the new Federal Workforce. I recommend you check out the email we got, which we can all find by the way folks at www dot
OPM dot gov. Forward slash fork and read through the entire announcement. The fourth pillar, says Anonymous FED, is especially scary to me because of the word loyalty in there. The whole thing is quite spooky. We haven't gotten much communication from agency leadership yet. And side note, we're not going to reveal any specifics here, but says anonymous FED, many unions are saying we should not take this deal.
It's even unclear if the government is allowed to do this. Anyways, I would love to hear your thoughts on this and how the administration is treating federal employees. I personally will not be taking the deal. I would rather go down kicking and screaming. Feel free to read this out loud on the pod Anonymous FED. And first off, Anonymous FED, we can't thank you enough again. We have been reading
along with this. We had a little bit of correspondence with you earlier before we recorded, and I know this stuck out to all of us on the show, and quite honestly, I think this is directly affecting a lot of us listening tonight.
Yeah, reading through the email, it is a little bit sinister. I mean it is the repeated thank you for your service kind of language and just the you know, I don't know, there's something so formal about it, but also kind of like when when you're getting funired and like, you know, hr kind of covering their butts by speaking in a very kind of veiled and coded proper way. I don't know there's but you guys know what I'm saying, there is something about it that reads a little eerie.
I'd yeah, I hear you, And I'd like to draw everyone's attention to again www DOTPM dot gov. Forward slash fork as in knife and fork.
Right.
This is a real thing. January twenty eight, twenty twenty five. This came out. The fourth pillar that anonymous fed is talking about, which is doubtlessly and unfortunately familiar to a lot of our listeners, is something called enhanced Standards of Conduct. We'll just read a quotation from this again. This is official. This is real, and let's get some reactions. Quote. The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy,
and who strive for excellence in their daily work. Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward. Employees who engage in unlawful behavior or other misconduct will be prioritized for appropriate investigation and discipline, including termination. End quote. How do we feel about that one?
Oh, we don't want any spies in our offices because they are making everybody go back to the office.
Right, They're like, no spies in the.
Office, also returned to office?
Yeah?
Yeah, what are enhanced standards of suitability? Loyalty? Loyal stands out to anonymous fed. Suitability to me is likewise darkly fascinating.
Yeah. I don't know this.
This is troubling because it brings us to earlier precedents, right, it brings us to presidents, pr e C presidents. This shows us, I don't know, a really disturbing thing that I think is it's something we can look at a politically because we're also seeing the context wherein this language has a lot to do with other non presidential administrative things.
Right.
First off, let's recall the letter that Elon Musk sent out to the hardworking people at X which gave them basically the choice to resign or go to hardcore mode. And the language is pretty simple.
Is it just conjecture that this is direct from Musk or do we know this for a fact.
I agree with you.
The language is eerily similar.
Yeah, I think it would be at this point conjecture. However, we do know that the Heritage Foundation appears to be pulling a bit of an ALEC with a lot of the proposed legislation or policy coming out of the new administration. Do we want to talk about ALEC for a second.
Yeah.
ALEC is the thing where the lobbyist group is the actual one writing the law, like pen to paper, writing the law, and then the law maker just kind of says, Yep, this is what I wanted.
Yeah, yeah. Do you like stamps? What if you have a rubber one? Yeah, just rubber stamp this stuff. Other there's excellent reporting about this to that point, going to Salon an article that published on January twenty eighth, so just yesterday, as we record, on the twenty ninth, by Russell Pate the title right wing activist appear to be
writing memos for the Trump White House. I don't know, it's so tempting to read the tea leaves here, but a lot of the language does appear to be lockstep with earlier policy.
Proposal Project twenty twenty five from.
The Heritage Foundation and from Project twenty twenty five.
Which Trump took great pains to distance himself from. But it would seem that a lot of the policy choices coming out so quickly with these executive orders are in lockstep with all of that stuff that we discussed in that episode.
And be careful to watch the three card Monte of attribution. Am I getting it right? Is that the game you have three cards, you have to guess okay, and it's notoriously a scam, and it's notoriously there we go, mind reader. So one of the three card Monte things occurring here, I would pose it to all of us listening tonight, is that the authorship change of many of these memos, some of them coming through leaks, some of them coming
through officially. The authorship chain changes whenever an Internet sleuth says, hey, is this from the same guy or same person? Who worked for you know, insert think tank here. Isn't this exactly what they said? Are they just deep seeking or chat gpting themselves and pasting their own earlier aspirations as public policy. This is incredibly disturbing because of the way it's being reported, and to your point, Anonymous fed, it's not really a buyout. It may be more of a shakedown.
The OPM news first came to the public, the non federal employee public, via our friends at the Associated Press. They said, of course, as you can read in the OPM language, that if you resign, if you just shoot the email back and have the word resign, you will get pay and benefits until September thirtieth of twenty twenty five. You will be to your point, Matt, exempted from all applicable in person work requirements and ding ding ding in
person work requirements. Isn't that what Musk proposed earlier with.
X These pewge proponents of in office return to office what do they call it? They literally call it rto Have you heard people shorthanding? Yeah?
Ye, most of the tech giants have gone that route, and we've seen that happening even here in Atlanta with a lot of companies where that's just an expected thing, and you know it. We talked about that. It makes sense for the owners of these giant buildings. It's a one to have them used, right as well as the businesses are around those giant buildings. And just there's a ton of reasons.
Commercial real estate is a massive industry.
Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. A lot of tech giants as well, or a lot of institutional titans also have a little bit of their portfolio in commercial real estate. Yeah, not so much. Well, maybe elder care as well, maybe life work balance. Heck, maybe they're donating an equal amount of money and investment toward quality of life nonprofit charities. I am giving myself bonus points for keeping a straight face while I said that.
Ever, the diplomat Ben awarded thank you.
Oh my gosh, I got more Internet points.
You know what, then, you are the best America has to offer. That's directly from the Oh.
Yeah, I felt the back of your hand on that one.
Yeah, oh no, I didn't.
I didn't mean as it's just crazy to look at the lane.
That's how they write it, and it's so it's so that's an excellent pointment because it's such a weird vibe. The other four pillars, or the other three pillars we should outline here are, like you said, return to office. The second pillar is something called performance culture. And that's where we're pulling that quote from the best America has to offer. It's a thing. It's an argument that taxpayers
are paying money. They're paying you standards will only get higher and higher, meaning that goals will be increasingly difficult to meet.
Well, and they're saying it'll be a meritocracy, right, it's they're only going to reward those and promote those who exceed expectations.
No more of this.
You've been around here for a long time, get out of town. You better be great or you're out a he.
And I hate to point this out, I am. I should not be pointing this out out, but fairness compels us to do so. There are people, there are a few people, you know, just running down the clock for the pension. That is a thing that happens.
In every job.
Yeah, you know, but it is it is weird to see it written now like that.
And also they're not the majority of the people involved, right, who are just doing their best as experts to do their job. The third pillar is a more streamlined and flexible workforce, where they say the following quote. While a few agencies and even branches of the military I don't like that mark, are likely to see increases in the size of their workforce, the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.
And then they bring out furloughs. They're going to classify some employees as at will status workers.
And look, what does that mean? At will? Is that like right to work state kind of stuff.
It means you can lose a lot of worker protections that historically have been guarantee.
Speaking historically guaranteed. You notice the language as well really leans on you will be treated with dignity and afforded all of the care that is promised to you by your stature of your position or whatever, like, you know, implying that severance will be paid out, but also using very amorphous language.
Oh yeah, yeah, it's up there with pursuit of that's rightness. Yeah, And this is this is why we wanted to bring this up, anonymous fit. This is very close to all of us and to many of us listening this evening. As you were hearing this the evening this listener mail program publishes. It is February sixth, twenty twenty five, which is the deadline for federal employees to reply to this fork in the Road email. Some of us listening now maybe on the fence about whether or not to play along.
Are you gonna take the offer, take it or leave it?
Ben tell us folks, we want to We want to hear from you, and we will say this kind of high pressure sales tactic often is often to the detriment of the person being sold something or being made the offer.
Didn't know what I mean? Did you mention the pretty soulless respond with resign? You know, like like it's like automated kind of vibes.
That's you know what I mean, Like.
That's that doesn't feel very dignified to me. M Yeah, agreed.
And I love that you're pointing that out because we need to re emphasize unsubscribe, you know what I mean, Like it's just not taking notes, not going to have a meeting. Here's the one word you could send it the email. Also want to recommend some amazing articles that we found from the New York Times addressing this, there's one that came out today as we record shadows of Musk and the government's buy our plan to our earlier speculation,
our earlier correlation of tactic and approach. President Trump's chief cost cutter has cheered an effort to persuade federal workers to quit, and yes, our pals at the New York Times, multiple journalists confirm that there is an eerie similarity between Musk's earlier language and this fork in the road email.
Yes, right, sick.
I don't know, like, are we crazy? Are we too bubbled up in our paranoia and our constant investigation of these hidden things?
Or is it true?
It feels true. I just need a gut check. I need someone to tell me if I'm crazy.
I think we try to approach most of the stuff with a grain of salt and with a measured approach, and I think we're doing the same thing here.
But yeah, it's it's.
Not out of the realm of likelihood more than possibility that that is what's going on here.
Did anybody notice the trip Elon took to Germany?
Yeah, fascist, yeah, talking about talking about honoring your German heritage.
Oh yeah, you know again, it seems a little little little dog whistley. I don't know. I don't care for the guy. I'm sorry, it's gonna be honest.
That one got into human hearing range that whistle.
I don't know.
It is a very strange position to be in to sit here watching stuff happen. I'm not sure of what it is. And if you call out what you think it might be, you.
Could you just get labeled an alarmist. You get labeled some sort of conspiracy theorist.
And I and this is.
Yeah, someone comes up to you and says, actually it's pronounced jazz lighting.
You're crazy.
But I don't know.
I don't have any fear about it yet. But it is that where if it feels as though we're getting close to a time when speaking up about stuff you see could be.
Dangerous, Well, there is good news. Uh. The official policy of the White House has changed, a lot of prominent podcasters are going to be allowed into the press briefings. So I wanted to check with you guys, what are we going to do later this summer. No, I don't know if we're going to make it to the press club, but we do want to.
Point out I am going to Germany actually this summer, so I'll check in see what's going on.
Yeah.
Uh, And we have to we have to say the following things. First off, the vast majority of German Nationals obviously don't support this wild ass right wing stuff going on.
Well yeah, not to mention, I mean, just any mention of anything even fascist adjacent in Germany. It's like for boten to use a German word. I mean it's they take that stuff very very seriously.
Over there, very much so. And one other note, just for context, if we sound like we are somehow being hyperbolic. The Twitter message that I'm referring to from Elon Musk in twenty twenty two, can you guess the subject.
Line keeck lord five thousand.
Nice Wait, that was the discord, but I love it You're plucked in the subject live the email was literally fork in the road. So tell us these things are not related. We know there are many changes ahead. This is a chaotic time for a lot of people, and obviously we are some of the first folks who will point out that a large government bureaucracy can be a bad thing. It can historically lead to the banality of evil, but also the federal government exists because you need it
to have a government. So let us know your thoughts.
Folks.
We cannot wait to hear from you. We don't have any insider info as we as we always need to say, we're experiencing this with you. We've got your back, we've got your six we want to learn more. Thank you to anonymous fed, thank you to Cosmic, Thank you to Kurt. We're not going to have enough time to get to our our friend Mike r out there on the West coast. But Mike, if you're hearing this, be safe, and we hope we can share your message with the law Artre
crew in a later program. In the meantime, join us become our favorite part of the show, your fellow listeners. You can find us on the emails. You can call us on the telephone X. I'm just gonna say telephone X. We'll leave it there. You can find us on the nets of the inter varieting.
Yeah, you sure can at the handle in fact conspiracy stuff, where we exist on Facebook, where we have our Facebook group. Here's where it gets crazy. On YouTube, where we have tons of video content for you to peruse and enjoy at your leisure. And on x FKA, Twitter, on Instagram and TikTok. However, we're conspiracy stuff show, and we're also people on the internet. You can find me at how Now, Noel Brown Instagram, and Ben Bolan is on the internet too. It turns out I.
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