0:00

From UFOs to psychic powers

0:02

and government conspiracies. History

0:04

is riddled with unexplained events. You

0:07

can turn back now or

0:09

learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

0:12

production of iHeartRadio.

0:28

Hello, welcome back to the show.

0:29

My name is Matt, my name is Noah.

0:31

They call me Ben. We are joined as always

0:33

with our super producer Dylan Tennessee

0:36

pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

0:39

are here. That makes this the

0:41

stuff they don't want you to know.

0:44

We are recorded on October

0:46

ninth. If you're hearing this the evening

0:48

this show publishes, then welcome

0:50

to Strange News. And for

0:53

all our friends in the path of

0:55

Hurricane Milton, we hope

0:57

this finds you in good

0:59

health. We will have an update with

1:02

several conspiracy theories about these

1:04

back to back hurricanes Helene and Milton

1:06

in our listener mail program,

1:08

publishing later this week.

1:11

Yeah, but we're recording this right now at

1:13

three twenty nine pm ET and

1:15

watching the radar as the hurricane

1:17

is slamming all across Florida, and we're

1:20

just thinking about everybody who's going

1:22

through it in this moment as we're recording, and

1:24

you know, fourth dimensionally, as you're

1:26

hearing this.

1:27

Episode, just you know, hearing the I

1:29

believe mayor of Tampa saying, if

1:32

you don't leave these evacuation zones,

1:34

you're going to die. I don't

1:36

think I've ever heard an official

1:39

say something quite that pointed. It made

1:41

me scared for the

1:43

couple of people I know in the area who

1:46

luckily did evacuate. But I have one friend

1:48

who made it to higher

1:51

ground but is technically

1:53

still in an evacuation zone.

1:55

And scares the crap out of me. You

1:57

guys, so thinking.

1:58

About scares the crap out of them.

2:00

Dude, I can only imagine, of course, No, I mean, on his behalf.

2:03

I'm just like thinking about putting myself in that position

2:05

and thinking like I mean, he was so

2:07

zen about it in the conversation

2:10

that I was privy to. But I'm just

2:12

thinking about you man. You know, you know you are

2:14

if you're listening. I'm not going to name any names, but good

2:16

Lord, what a thing to be a part of.

2:18

And we also, some of us have family members

2:21

in the path of Milton, many

2:23

of our fellow conspiracy realists

2:25

tuning in tonight or in the

2:27

path of these natural

2:30

disasters. We wanted to

2:33

underline and emphasize that

2:35

at the beginning of this evening Strange

2:38

News, we have a lot of stuff we're going to

2:40

explore, including some

2:42

true crime, including some villainy

2:46

on behalf of the irs, perhaps

2:48

not in the way you might imagine, But before we go

2:50

to our cold open, guys, this

2:52

made me think again about something

2:54

that is very familiar to those

2:56

of us in the Southeastern United

2:59

States, specifically

3:01

the waffle House Index.

3:04

The waffle House Index is an

3:07

unofficial thing that

3:09

the US government and the media does

3:11

treat as though it is official,

3:14

with some of us in the audience tonight maybe

3:17

asking what is the waffle House index,

3:20

and some of us may be asking what

3:22

is waffle house? Is it a house built

3:24

of waffles? Very fair question. This

3:27

is our cold open, and

3:34

we've returned. We know the waffle house index,

3:36

right, do you guys remember this one?

3:38

Oh? Yeah, I mean it's just the waffle house.

3:40

Waffle Houses are twenty

3:43

four hour diners that are very

3:45

popular around these parts on

3:47

the Southeast, and they they

3:50

never close. And when you start seeing

3:52

them getting boarded up and them locking the doors,

3:55

that's a bad sign.

3:58

M Yeah, I think that's a great insummation

4:00

because waffle house is a

4:03

chain. The first one is actually

4:05

here in the Atlanta metro area.

4:06

There's a museum attached to it. Apparently.

4:09

Yeah, but you have to call in advance. Okay, But

4:11

at least these days, it is best known

4:14

for being a twenty four hour, three

4:16

hundred and sixty five day a year operation.

4:19

So when waffle House closes, therefore,

4:23

it is seen as kind of a canary

4:25

in the disaster coal mine. And

4:28

right now old Tampa, Florida

4:30

locations of waffle House have

4:32

closed again as we're recording on

4:34

the evening of October ninth. A

4:37

lot of this is I don't

4:39

know. Again, it's unofficial, but

4:42

I think most people in

4:44

the southeastern United States

4:47

do pay attention to the waffle House

4:49

index. It's got three colors. If

4:52

everything's green, the waffle

4:54

house in your area has power

4:57

minimal absent damage. If things

5:00

go to yellow, they might

5:02

be using a generator, and they

5:04

might have a limited menu

5:06

because supply chains are broken. And

5:09

if it's red, like just what happened

5:11

in Tampa, the restaurant

5:13

is closed.

5:14

If it's beige, waffles aren't

5:16

available. What color is beige

5:19

unclear, somewhere between white and brown.

5:22

I'm joking.

5:23

Obviously about the Waffle situation,

5:25

but no, I mean gosh, in these situations,

5:27

really, all you can do is make light occasionally, because

5:29

it is absurd to gauge

5:32

a disaster of the magnitude

5:35

of Milton, also

5:37

with a ridiculous name like Milton. I'm sorry

5:39

to anyone out there named Milton. It's just seems

5:41

like, does it seem like the name of something that

5:43

has this much catastrophic power? But

5:45

to gauge it using a chain

5:48

of waffle restaurants does

5:50

seem a little absurd. But Ben, You're

5:53

absolutely right, it is real. It is absolutely

5:55

accurate. And one of the dudes from Internet

5:57

today, it's just a show I think we all enjoy on YouTube.

6:00

Ricky is from the Tampa

6:02

area and he posted on his Instagram

6:04

today they closed my hometown

6:06

waffle House.

6:08

This is serious.

6:09

Yeah, Well, because they're so well known

6:11

for disaster preparedness. Waffle

6:14

House, along with a couple other big chains I

6:16

think specifically, I know Home Depot

6:19

and Walmart feel

6:21

how you will feel about any of these organizations

6:24

companies, but they are really

6:26

good at having team members that go back

6:28

in immediately after some kind of disaster,

6:30

no matter how big or bad. It is and attempt

6:32

at least to reopen so that there

6:35

are materials available like at.

6:37

A home depot.

6:38

Right then you a homeowner might need some

6:40

lumber real quick, or you know, just something

6:42

a tart, and then you might need some eggs

6:44

in dang bacon and if you if

6:47

you can get to a waffle house, you can eat.

6:49

Or potable water as well, which

6:51

is often given away for free. So

6:53

big shout out to FEMA administrator

6:55

Craig Fugate, who coined the term in

6:58

May of twenty eleven. We may do

7:00

a ridiculous history on the waffle house index

7:03

unclear, maybe it's a wallfalls

7:05

episode.

7:05

And really quickly, guys, I just want to I mentioned previously

7:08

that I've experienced some catastrophic damage

7:10

to the home that I owned in Augusta, Georgia, and

7:12

I just wanted to say I had some success with

7:14

the resource that anyone out there who's dealing with

7:16

this might not be aware of. I called the Army Corps

7:18

of Engineers and they referred me to a site called

7:21

Crisis Cleanup dot org where

7:23

you give them all your information, your case

7:25

info, and they put you on lists

7:27

that go out to numerous different volunteer

7:30

groups, and they said it was a long shot.

7:32

They had thousands and thousands of cases. But I did

7:34

hear back from somebody from a group called Team

7:36

Rubicon that is actually a team

7:38

of a nonprofit that

7:40

is staffed by veterans, Army veterans,

7:43

and they, you know, are going to send somebody out to my property

7:45

to help with the cleanup. And they even said,

7:48

you know it is if you have an insurance, it's going to

7:50

pay for water mitigation. We will come out

7:52

and do it and it'll save you something

7:54

on your policy.

7:55

They were okay with that.

7:57

So I mean, that's it's just really neat the level

7:59

of care they were offering, you know, even

8:01

for me who does not rely on this place

8:03

for my you know, main domicile, they

8:05

were very willing to help. And I thought that was cool.

8:07

So Chrisis Cleanup dot org check it out if it's

8:09

not something you're aware of.

8:11

Right up there with Convoy of Hope,

8:13

big thanks to GP Scooch forgive

8:15

them a shout out. Pretty top tier charitable

8:18

organizations, and I love the shout out you gave there,

8:21

Noll, because resources

8:23

do matter, and it can be so difficult

8:26

to locate those especially

8:28

at a very difficult time of your

8:30

life.

8:30

Well yeah, I mean, and it's you know, even

8:33

for me with not being someone who's out of home

8:35

because of this, I just found it overwhelming, like

8:37

not knowing the next step. I've been texting with

8:39

you guys about it, just the levels of stress and just

8:42

knowing what the next right thing to do is.

8:44

So to have any kind of resource that you maybe weren't

8:46

aware of of, anyone that can lend a hand, is a huge

8:48

deal, just knowing. So just you know, thank

8:50

you been in first and Scooch for the other recommendation.

8:53

But you know, I've talked to numerous people

8:55

who are dealing with I had no idea what kind

8:57

of resources might be available.

8:58

To them, because luckily,

9:01

for now, this sort of emergency

9:04

and disaster is not normalized larger

9:06

questions about the future. Speaking

9:09

of questions, I have a question for

9:11

you guys and all of us listening along

9:13

at home. Would you prefer to hear about

9:16

espionage or space bricks? Space

9:19

bricks?

9:20

Well, jeez, Ben, when you put it that way, how about space

9:22

bricks to start?

9:24

Oh my gosh, all right, tilted the

9:26

scale just a bit, just the

9:29

gilded the lily, right, there we

9:31

go. The question that I'm sure we are

9:33

all asking at

9:36

numerous times in our lives is when

9:39

the age of space exploration

9:42

reaches its apex, how are

9:44

we going to build structures?

9:46

Now?

9:46

For a lot of fellow Nosferatu in the crowd,

9:49

the answer is, of course, human blood.

9:51

Right, got one for

9:54

sure?

9:54

Yeah? Okay, all right, I like that face. So

9:57

there is a study that answered

9:59

a question seriously, no one

10:01

has asked. And this study

10:04

out of Manchester, published in

10:06

Open Engineering recently

10:08

concluded that potatoes

10:11

are better than human blood for

10:13

making space bricks.

10:15

Congratulations, humanity, we

10:18

figured it out.

10:19

This is a question. Who asked for

10:21

this exactly?

10:23

Idaho potatoes and the.

10:25

Potato they're trying to extend

10:28

it out into the cosmos.

10:30

Yeah, actually it was the vampires were like, yes,

10:33

we need the bloods.

10:35

Yes, that's why

10:38

potatoes greater than blood

10:40

when it comes to space breaks. Is that? Okay?

10:43

I'm just wondering where this equivalency came

10:45

from. Where Where did the need to compare these

10:47

two materials come from?

10:49

Well, you're getting situations. The portmanteau

10:52

for it is star creet like

10:54

concrete, but you know stars

10:56

because of space. I don't think

10:58

that's a long walk, but.

11:00

Ben was the idea of it. All the

11:02

humans that are making these trips are gonna

11:05

have blood, so we'll just take some of

11:07

that and make bricks and

11:10

urine.

11:11

They will be peeing the entire time.

11:13

What about of the poo poo,

11:18

precious, precious, that's

11:21

the night soil, right, we talked about that.

11:23

That's our gunk we mentioned earlier.

11:25

So shout out to Alied Roberts, A

11:28

L. E. Ed Roberts, the lead

11:30

researcher for this thing called the

11:32

star Crete project, and they're

11:34

actually they're they're answering

11:36

these questions that

11:38

might sound silly in a popsy headline,

11:41

but they do. I don't

11:43

know, it's such it's such a weird

11:46

after the fact kind of disclosure,

11:49

like when we're talking about psychic power countermeasures

11:52

when Stargate not star Crete,

11:54

when Stargate was declassified

11:57

and people said, yeah, we we did

11:59

look into that. It was cool,

12:01

but we're not doing it anymore. You can get a little

12:03

bit of fomo as a taxpayer or

12:06

as an interested member of civilization.

12:08

And so the idea, like the the

12:10

idea of coming out with a study that says

12:12

potato starch is better than human

12:15

blood for making space bricks. There

12:17

are at least three to four questions

12:20

pulled it in to the least statement.

12:22

I think we addressed a couple of them. But why don't we Let's

12:24

just knock them off one at a time.

12:26

I gotta say, but it doesn't help when space

12:28

dot Com at the end of their article

12:31

says Comma scientists

12:34

say, yes, I feel like that

12:36

phrase after anything makes you

12:38

go oh the scientists said it, Oh okay.

12:41

Yeah, it's also like adding ellipses.

12:44

Officially the two.

12:45

Things right according to officials.

12:47

Yeah.

12:48

The best statement from Roberts

12:50

that tells us about this. This is a series

12:52

of studies. Robert says, quote,

12:55

astronauts probably don't want to be living

12:57

in houses made from scabs and

12:59

your We've all been there, you

13:01

know what I mean.

13:03

Debatable.

13:04

There's like one astronaut who's super into it.

13:07

Yeah, that sounds great. Do you think

13:09

he's the worst astronaut? Is that come along

13:11

with Neil?

13:12

Yeah? Neil not Armstrong? Different

13:14

Neil?

13:15

Yeah?

13:15

Yeah, that guy. Guy's a monster. He's

13:18

at Applebee's right now.

13:19

Mmmm.

13:20

The leg wek and

13:24

what they said.

13:24

Is uh, you know, as gross

13:27

as it may sound, they are

13:29

looking with real science,

13:31

right, with genuine methodology and rigor.

13:34

And in their initial study

13:37

they explored the possibility of blood

13:40

and urine and other human fluids

13:43

as binding agents to

13:45

create something like concrete.

13:48

Because to your earlier point there, these

13:51

should be considered renewable resources.

13:53

They're one of the few things that will

13:56

always be consistently produced

13:58

by humans living in space

14:01

and other you know, terrestrial organisms.

14:04

So they did this second study and they

14:06

looked into potato flakes, and

14:08

they found that not only are potato flakes

14:10

and alternative source of

14:13

star creet, but they

14:15

are indeed less

14:18

ghoulish and perhaps more

14:21

efficient. The specific

14:24

salt compound they're using as something

14:27

called magnesium chloride. Without

14:29

getting into the chemical weeds, the main

14:32

wind for magnesium chloride is

14:35

that you can get it from the dirt on

14:37

Mars. So looks

14:41

like at this point either or preferable,

14:43

but like, if

14:45

any of it works, these are pretty great

14:47

because, as we talk about so often, you

14:50

can't actually move concrete

14:53

through space, not in a reasonable

14:56

way.

14:57

You know, yeah, you have to make

14:59

it there.

15:00

I mean whatever whatever it's made at, it

15:02

would have to be manufactured on site with

15:04

like movable materials. I mean that's true

15:06

of construction sites too, like they mix the stuff

15:08

like there, it would be prohibitively. I

15:10

mean, there are certain I guess concrete structures

15:12

you might see on the back of a flatbed, but it's pretty

15:15

rare.

15:15

Usually you have to pour that stuff on the construction

15:17

site.

15:18

I'm imagining you have to use some kind

15:21

of water as well with

15:23

the mixture, because you can't just make a powdered

15:26

thing. You know, you make a powder thing, you add

15:28

water to it. That's one of the first

15:30

ways you get to being able to even form a brick,

15:32

right and then dry the thing out.

15:35

Have they thought about just spinning up all the waste

15:37

together instead of separating the blood or

15:39

the urine or any of the other stuff.

15:41

Like suicide, like well, you know

15:43

when you mix all the sodas well.

15:45

I'm just imagining all of the waste products

15:47

that the astronauts produce as one

15:50

thing goes into one chamber, and that chamber

15:52

then siphon's directly into wherever

15:55

they're brick building.

15:57

Mm hmmm, yeah, yeah, there

16:00

literal beating your their

16:02

literal brickjit house.

16:03

Yeah, yeah, and you just feed the astronauts

16:06

mostly potato flakes, and

16:09

then there are it's already in there. It's

16:11

just broken down a little.

16:13

And the weirdest thing is if you make

16:15

this star creak with potato starch,

16:18

that magnesium chloride, and

16:21

what we believe to be lunar or martian dirt,

16:24

it is twice as strong as

16:27

the known concrete recipe we have on

16:29

the planet today. If you want to learn

16:31

more about it, check out that excellent

16:33

article referenced earlier from space dot

16:35

com by the journalist

16:38

Josh Dinner, which

16:40

is just an awesome name.

16:42

It's pretty great.

16:43

It's pretty great, you know, if you could choose a

16:45

name, that's a good choice. And uh,

16:48

I don't know, like it seems as though

16:50

it's a silly question, but it

16:52

does I think

16:54

like a lot of a lot

16:57

of hypothetical research or theoretical

16:59

research for space exploration. It

17:02

tells us even more about life

17:04

on the ground here, right,

17:07

the you know, one of the big questions

17:10

vampire stuff aside is the

17:13

idea of whether or not we

17:15

should use food sources

17:18

as means of construction, and

17:20

if so, to what degree kind of like water.

17:23

Power, right, I mean, it's

17:25

interesting in like a futurist

17:28

kind of conversation too, because it certainly

17:30

does make you think about, like we

17:33

talked about this, I believe even is the idea of building

17:35

materials here on Earth and like things

17:37

that are more sustainable and what like.

17:40

I believe there was a story we did about like insect

17:42

kitan that was used to generate

17:45

some sort of futuristic kind of building

17:47

material. I mean, I'm just I don't know. It just got

17:49

me thinking about that kind of stuff as well.

17:51

Yeah, and also, uh, to that point

17:54

in the world of folklore and mythology, it

17:57

reminds me a bit of ild Nordic

17:59

myths about a ship made of fingernails

18:02

to survive the end of the world.

18:05

Oh God, yeah,

18:07

man, No, uh, I

18:10

just got a picture now of Okay, if

18:12

you let's say you're on the lunar surface, you're building

18:14

these bricks, right, Let's say in

18:16

this case, we're building the slightly

18:20

less strong but more strong

18:22

than bricks on Earth, bricks with

18:25

blood and urine. We're making those, right, Yeah,

18:27

And we're constructing stuff

18:29

on the moon. Are we creating

18:31

some kind of giant artificial

18:34

dome that all of those bricked buildings

18:36

exist in where we can take off our helmets

18:38

and smell the bricks or

18:41

are we walking around in helmets

18:43

in these things? Because how do you make the artificial

18:45

atmosphere in a brick made building?

18:48

Ah, the smell

18:51

that Matt like, just yeah,

18:54

I mean, you're.

18:54

Gonna pump enough oxygen

18:57

and nitrogen and carbon dioxide into

18:59

that brick building that you made out

19:01

of, you know, even if it's potato

19:03

flake bricks.

19:05

Do you have to figure out you have to figure

19:07

out a scrubbing method for the air.

19:10

Also classic human

19:13

for space exploration to work out. And

19:16

every off Earth base smells

19:19

vaguely of old French fries or

19:21

piss, you know what I mean. Now that's

19:23

there. These are all free Yeah,

19:26

yeah, yeah, right, and uh and

19:29

we're gonna we're gonna move on before

19:31

we get to you an ad break. We do

19:33

want you to know that the government of China

19:35

has been confirmed to hack

19:37

major US telecom firms.

19:40

This confirmed for firms. We'll

19:42

let it ride.

19:44

Yeah, So what is it that you say, no,

19:46

really, no way.

19:49

Yeah.

19:49

And we also know that,

19:52

in addition to these accusations,

19:54

the government of China has

19:57

of course predictably ramped up

20:00

information campaigns as

20:02

we go into the US election doesn't

20:04

matter what your ideology is. They want the chaos.

20:06

Well, when these types of allegations surface,

20:09

does the government of China just say, how dare

20:12

you, sir, accuse us of such

20:14

malfeasance?

20:15

We would never.

20:16

Typically, historically the response

20:19

has been, we didn't actually

20:21

tell anyone to do this. You know,

20:23

the fifty cent army which we mentioned

20:26

earlier. It's just a bunch of private

20:28

citizens who happen to

20:30

be lockstep in march

20:32

with party goals.

20:34

Some plausible deniability is sort of what they're leading.

20:36

Yeah.

20:37

Absolutely, And if you want to learn

20:39

more about the AI weaponization,

20:42

which is going to be a thing going forward, check

20:44

out the article in Fortune dot com by Diddy

20:47

Tang David Klepper And, of

20:49

course, with some love from the Associated

20:51

Press, shout out

20:53

to the seventy two

20:55

year old man who has been

20:58

sentenced to prison in Rush

21:00

is a US national. He is

21:03

allegedly, or conclusively,

21:05

according to the Russian government, a

21:07

mercenary. Stephen James

21:09

Hubbard sentenced to six years

21:12

and ten months in prison as a seventy

21:14

two year old man on accusations

21:17

of being a mercenary for Ukraine.

21:20

And we don't know how many merks are

21:22

in the crowd tonight. We don't know how many you

21:25

know, you have personally met in your life, but

21:27

I think it's safe to say, you guys, most of them

21:29

are not seventy two years old.

21:32

Well, I mean they will be, or they

21:34

became seventy two at some point.

21:37

Yeah, but you know, probably after

21:40

their careers, you know what I mean.

21:42

Look, if somebody's been a mercenary,

21:45

even at seventy two, you're

21:48

not going to mess with that seventy two year old ex

21:50

mercenary. No, it's what he's saying, there's.

21:52

A respect aside.

21:54

Yeah, there's probably damage to be done

21:56

there if it was either necessary

21:59

or intended.

22:00

Yeah, it's like what they

22:03

lose in vinegar, they

22:05

more than make up for inexperience

22:08

and knowledge with that. If

22:10

you happen to have some opinions

22:13

we'll say, or hypothetical anecdotes

22:16

about the world of merks

22:19

and third party operators, we'd love

22:21

to hear from you, conspiracydiheartradio dot

22:23

com. We're going to take a pause for a word from our sponsors,

22:26

and we will return with more strange

22:28

news.

22:34

And we're back, guys.

22:36

I have a tale for us today from

22:38

our own backyard from

22:41

the Atlanta Greater Metropolitan

22:44

Area, and it is

22:46

a strange one. It's a tragic

22:48

story. It's pretty sad, it's

22:51

very confusing, and that's why we're

22:53

going to talk about it. This is a quick warning

22:56

ahead here. You are going to hear audio

22:59

in this segment of some

23:01

of the final moments of a person's

23:03

life. But it is not the moments when that

23:05

person's life ended. It is just the

23:08

run up to an incident where shooting

23:10

occurred. So just

23:12

be aware of that that's going to happen in this segment.

23:16

Okay, before we even get into the story,

23:18

you guys, let's talk about

23:20

something called Crime Is

23:22

Toast. Have you

23:24

ever heard of this before? Nope,

23:27

Okay, I had never heard of it either. This

23:29

is an annual awards ceremony.

23:32

It's an awards breakfast that is

23:34

put on by the Atlanta Police

23:36

Foundation for the Atlanta Police

23:38

Department. This year, the Crime

23:41

Is Toast Awards occurred on September twenty

23:43

fourth, so you know what, a

23:45

couple of weeks ago from the day we're

23:47

recording this episode, and I'm

23:50

just going to give you a couple of pieces

23:52

of information from that awards ceremony.

23:55

And this is coming from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

23:57

You can read about it search for officers

23:59

recized for response to Atlanta food

24:01

court shooting, Comma bus hijacking.

24:04

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens was there

24:07

speaking, you know, to this audience of police

24:10

officers and supporters of the APD,

24:13

praising them for reducing homicides

24:15

by twenty one percent over the course of the year.

24:18

And here's a quick quote from Mayor Andre Dickens,

24:21

and he's speaking about the APD together

24:24

they have fostered a coordinated effort to fight

24:26

crime, make our neighborhood safer, and provide

24:29

opportunities for our youth. Many

24:31

of you here today represent that united

24:33

effort. We know that the job of making

24:35

Atlanta safer is never finished. This

24:39

is important because this is just showing this is

24:41

the City of Atlanta, at least the leadership of the

24:43

City of Atlanta putting on you

24:46

know, I don't

24:48

know a PEP rally. I suppose in a way for

24:52

the police officers that protect the city or

24:54

are paid to serve and protect the city. There

24:56

are several words of note that were given out that

24:58

are mentioned in this a JC article

25:01

that's the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A

25:03

police officer named Lamar Jacobs received

25:05

the Medal of Honor award, which is the highest

25:08

honor the APD can bestow,

25:10

and that was for his response to the Midtown

25:13

food court shooting. Do you guys remember hearing

25:15

about that That happened on June

25:17

eleventh. This is an area where Dragon

25:19

Cohn occurs every year. Most people who

25:21

don't live in Atlanta would know it as

25:24

that area. It

25:26

was a big deal, so he received the Medal

25:28

of Honor. Sergeant Terrence Epps was recognized

25:30

as Supervisor of the Year for responding

25:32

to a bus hijacking. Officers

25:35

Francis Raymondville Watson, and Ruben

25:37

Miranda were named Officers of the Year,

25:40

and another man,

25:43

investigator Aubrey Horton, was named

25:46

Investigator of the Year. On

25:48

September twenty fourth of this year.

25:51

As we're recording this episode, Okay,

25:53

remember that name, Aubrey Horton. Here

25:57

we go. Let's move on to what has occurred in

25:59

what this story is actually about. According

26:02

to eleven Alive News, who wrote an article

26:04

titled APD investigator shot

26:07

after breaking into Douglas County home, authorities

26:09

say, see that thing we mentioned before, The

26:12

authorities.

26:12

Said it like the scientist didn't

26:14

say exactly.

26:16

I'm going to read directly from this article. Thank

26:18

you for writing it. Eleven alive. An

26:20

Atlanta Police Department officer died after

26:22

being shot by a homeowner on the morning of Friday,

26:24

October fourth, So from September

26:27

twenty fourth to October fourth,

26:30

Okay, that's not many days

26:32

at all. The officer was identified

26:35

as Investigator Aubrey Horton,

26:37

the very same one we just spoke about, who received

26:39

Investigator of the Year by

26:41

the APD. The Douglas County Sheriff's

26:44

Office and deputies were called to a home.

26:47

I'll give you the exact thing, so you can look it up if you'd

26:49

like, to a home on orkneyrkn

26:51

e Y Way, near East Carroll

26:54

Road in the Saint Andrews Country Club

26:56

neighborhood in Winston, Georgia. It

26:58

was around five am when this occurred

27:01

and there was a shooting, so the Sheriff's

27:03

office were called almost

27:05

immediately after five am that morning. Investigator

27:09

said Horton appeared to be either experiencing

27:11

a mental health episode or under the influence

27:13

of narcotics when he tried to break

27:15

into a home in that neighborhood and

27:18

Horton, according to tax

27:20

records, lives in the same neighborhood.

27:23

But at some point in whatever occurred,

27:26

investigator Horton made his way into

27:28

the home, was confronted by the homeowner

27:31

and was shot, and he shot fatally

27:33

and killed while inside the home

27:35

that he broke into. So, first

27:37

of all, this is very strange

27:40

that somebody who joined the police

27:42

force in twenty fifteen has

27:45

been doing I guess good enough work to be recognized,

27:48

you know, as one out of all

27:50

of the police officers in the Atlanta Police Department

27:53

as Investigator of the Year. To

27:55

go through something whatever it was, to

27:58

then try to break into some home and

28:00

then get shot and killed, very

28:02

very weird. Do you

28:04

guys have any thoughts initially just at

28:06

all about this. I know we haven't really talked about anything

28:08

that we can even discuss yet. It's

28:11

it's just weird.

28:12

Yeah, for contexts.

28:14

As we mentioned age of death,

28:16

again, the investigator

28:19

was only in their early thirties in

28:22

thirty two, so that's a very that's

28:24

a very high career trajectory to

28:26

get. As you mentioned, the

28:28

highest possible award that can be

28:31

bestowed the investigation

28:33

of course, as you mentioned, Matt is ongoing.

28:36

However, Georgia does have

28:38

self defense laws, so

28:41

even if you know, it

28:43

reminds me a bit of the Leonard

28:46

Peltier case, where you know, a

28:48

big a big part of the

28:51

the shootout in which those two FBI

28:54

agents were murdered,

28:56

A big part of the questions the

28:58

jury held where did

29:00

the people know that they were firing on

29:02

FBI agents? To this point, it

29:05

seems that if the guy lives just

29:07

a half mile away from where

29:09

the incident occurs, there's a very

29:11

high likelihood that these folks

29:14

may have been familiar with each other. Is that

29:16

fair to conjecture?

29:17

Yes, absolutely, that's something you'd think, especially

29:20

if because it is a country club kind

29:22

of thing, it's likely that

29:25

people at least that are aware of each other. He

29:28

didn't live far away at all, in the same neighborhood.

29:30

However, investigators there have made

29:32

it very clear that they did not know each other

29:35

at least, and this is crucial

29:37

to me at least as we continue forward,

29:39

the homeowner, the man that

29:41

lived there, who fired the fatal shot,

29:44

who attempted

29:46

to answer the door when this person

29:49

came up to the door, and then the person

29:51

broke in and then shot whoever this person

29:53

was. He did not know

29:56

who Officer Aubrey was.

29:58

And that's why I was asking, because I think that's one

30:00

of the first questions those of us

30:03

listening along at home will ask.

30:05

Yes, But there are multiple people who live at the house

30:07

too, so it's unknown if

30:09

just the homeowner was

30:11

unaware of this person. So that is

30:14

an answer that I kind of still have, but i'm you

30:16

know, if I was an investigator, I'd be asking

30:19

questions about that.

30:20

And one thing that came up in the Peltier story too,

30:22

is like, does the fact that a

30:25

police are entering your home

30:27

automatically make that a legitimate act?

30:30

You know?

30:30

Or or the fact that police or federal

30:32

agents or whatever are rating

30:35

your property or coming for you in some form

30:37

or fashion. If it's not legitimate,

30:40

do you have the right to defend yourself?

30:42

Okay, yes, in a self

30:44

defense situation in states

30:46

that have that kind of legislation, you

30:49

do have the right, depending on

30:52

the first is it a uniformed

30:55

member of El EO or is it some guy

30:58

who is not in uniform does

31:00

not have a warrant. We have to remember history

31:02

is again closer than it looks in the rear view

31:05

mirror. It is not too long ago

31:07

that people employed by the

31:09

Atlanta Police Department conducted

31:12

an erroneous kick door at the

31:14

wrong address and they killed an

31:16

elderly woman, absolutely a

31:18

grandmother.

31:19

Well, that's something that has occurred across this country,

31:22

right where the wrong door gets kicked

31:24

in, wrong person gets attacked. But I

31:26

have to go back to exactly what you're saying. If

31:29

it is a police officer coming into your

31:31

house, that's one thing this person. According

31:33

to the AJAC. You can look this up. It

31:35

is titled in more details and fatal shooting

31:37

of APD investigator accused of breaking

31:40

into home. It's published on October seventh.

31:43

This is a quote. When Sheriff's Office investigators

31:46

arrived at the scene, they were initially unable to

31:48

identify Horton because he didn't

31:50

have ID, and he was not wearing

31:52

shoes and not wearing a shirt.

31:55

And he was not well. This man was

31:58

in a fugue state of some kind or under

32:00

the inf I mean, something was going on.

32:02

What the hell something was wrong, which

32:04

leads us guys to the video footage,

32:07

which is then released. There were

32:09

security cameras set up by the homeowner because

32:11

his house had been burgled or an

32:14

attempted burglary earlier, so

32:16

he set up a bunch of ring cameras on his house.

32:19

So the authorities

32:21

released this video on Facebook, which

32:24

was then picked up by everybody from

32:26

you know, Fox five Atlanta to eleven Alive

32:28

to WSB and guys.

32:31

Since this is an audio only medium,

32:33

I figured we would listen to the audio

32:36

and imagine being in the homeowner's

32:38

shoes at least for a moment, and hearing this

32:40

at five am in the morning, immediately

32:43

after your spouse has left for work, like

32:45

we're talking almost immediately after your spouse

32:47

leaves for work. Then you

32:49

hear this, yes,

33:07

oh no,

33:10

tell me recording.

33:19

Now we should note this is happening on the

33:21

front doorstep.

33:22

This is terrifying, isn't

33:25

terrify ying that's someone

33:27

having a psychotic

33:29

episode or under the influence

33:32

of serious drugs.

33:34

Yes, you can discern that something

33:36

is very, very very wrong and

33:39

what you cannot hear very well in

33:41

this audio, but you can. I've enhanced

33:43

it a little bit so we could hear the background

33:45

in just a moment, but you can hear the homeowner

33:48

speaking through the door and asking

33:50

for his spouse's name,

33:52

which I guess we can say because this video has been

33:54

released. Her name is Pam, and he's

33:57

calling out for Pam, like wondering if Pam

33:59

is okay, because she literally just left. There's

34:01

a moment we maybe we don't have to. I don't know. Is this

34:03

two morbid guys? To listen to this?

34:06

Oh? I mean it's fascinating and terrifying.

34:08

Yes, it's morbid, Matt, but I think it's

34:10

an important part of the story.

34:12

Okay, Well, we're going to continue

34:14

on and listen to what occurs because you can

34:17

hear mister Horton's kind of just

34:19

sitting there on the porch for a little bit and

34:21

at some point he exclaims, which

34:24

kind of again frightened the homeowner.

34:27

And right after this audio ends

34:29

is when there's some sort of altercation

34:32

at the door where the homeowner opens the door

34:34

just slightly, you know, like barely a jar,

34:37

and Horton pushes his way in, and that's

34:39

when the shooting occurs. So let's

34:41

just continue a little bit further here. That's

34:52

the homeowner.

34:53

Yeah, who are you? Wow?

34:59

What is going on with this guy?

35:09

I love you?

35:10

No, k.

35:15

That's him. Falling backwards.

35:23

Sounds like he says, I miss happiness

35:25

or something like that.

35:26

I love you, just kill me.

35:29

Yeah, So.

35:32

I don't know.

35:33

Chilling, dude.

35:35

I just it

35:37

is chilling. And to me, I'm

35:39

trying to put my mind in

35:41

everybody's position in this, especially

35:43

the homeowner's position, or in

35:45

the responding officer's position.

35:48

Just in any and even in mister Horton's

35:50

position, I can't imagine what you would

35:52

have to be going through to to be saying those

35:54

things and doing those things. But in the homeowner's

35:57

position, just this is terrifying and

35:59

you want to find out what's going on. You

36:01

live in a fairly uh what would

36:03

be I do quotation marks safe

36:05

area, so you're probably not expecting

36:08

anything like this, although he did his house

36:10

was broken into, right, That's why he put the cameras up,

36:13

So he's also primed for another

36:15

break in of some sort, because there's

36:17

something that that does to you mentally when you put a bunch

36:19

of security cameras up in your house and other you

36:21

know, things to protect your home, you

36:23

think about it more often a little bit at least.

36:26

I don't know we can continue on, guys. I just,

36:28

uh, it really weirded me out

36:30

this whole thing. Hearing all that

36:32

stuff. It sounds like he's calling out to a specific

36:35

person that maybe he thinks

36:37

is in this house.

36:38

But didn't you say he said the spouse's name?

36:41

The husband, the homeowner

36:44

calls out for his spouse.

36:46

Misunderstood, got it to

36:48

my ears.

36:49

It sounds like Horton says, I miss

36:51

happiness and then states a name

36:53

or something or another word after

36:55

that that I can't discern.

36:58

And if it's, if it's, we'll say

37:00

this, folks. We are very well aware. Like when

37:03

you see the video, Matt did

37:05

a great job bringing out

37:07

like so we can hear more clearly the statements

37:09

there from someone who's, as we say, clearly

37:12

disturbed. One thing that's

37:14

important is we have to remember it can be dangerously

37:16

tempting to

37:19

read tea leaves from video

37:21

or audio. There is, I

37:24

assume, and let me know if this is

37:26

incorrect. There is an active investigation,

37:28

perhaps into the circumstances

37:31

surrounding these tragic events, like as

37:33

far as what led this guy to

37:36

this situation just days

37:38

after the awards ceremony.

37:40

Oh, absolutely yes, it's a tragic

37:43

situation. But there's also the thin blue

37:45

line thing going on where there is an officer

37:48

who knows what fully is going to come out about

37:50

it because he is the one who ended up getting

37:52

hurt. He did not make anybody else a victim,

37:55

and the homeowner is not being charged. Well,

37:58

I guess the victim is the homeowner because it was a

38:00

break.

38:00

In, right, right, but again self defense,

38:03

Yeah, exactly.

38:04

So homeowners not being charged. The

38:06

authorities are saying there are a bunch of conspiracy

38:09

theories basically being generated about

38:11

this right now, mostly having to do with

38:14

mister Horton knowing the homeowner or somebody else

38:16

that he was trying to contact in that moment.

38:20

Anyway, weird stuff. You can look

38:22

more into this. It just felt strange enough

38:25

that we should mention it. Let's move on

38:27

and hear a word from our sponsor, and

38:29

we'll be right back with more strange news.

38:36

And we're back with one more piece of

38:39

strange news.

38:40

Guys.

38:40

You know the thing they say that they and stuff

38:43

they don't want you to know maybe, is that there are two

38:45

things that are certain in this life.

38:47

You know those aren't death and taxes.

38:50

Yeah, I've also heard death taxes in

38:52

trouble. Shout out the black thought.

38:54

Yeah, there you go, not necessarily

38:56

on that bingo card. Of

38:59

the prerequisites for existence to

39:02

become a hostage of a

39:04

foreign entity, be it a terrorist

39:06

group or a foreign

39:09

country. We know this happens. US

39:11

citizens traveling abroad can

39:13

end up on the wrong side of the law,

39:16

or are used as bargaining chips,

39:18

or they can be used in order to leverage,

39:21

you know, power against the US

39:24

government, et cetera. And we talked about extradition

39:26

and hostage exchanges and all of that.

39:28

We know that sometimes US

39:31

citizens traveling abroad can be scooped

39:33

up in order to leverage in exchange

39:35

of a political prisoner, you know, the the

39:37

US is holding, right Ben

39:39

shut.

39:40

Yeah, that kind of stuff.

39:42

So we know this is something that happens

39:45

oftentimes. You know, people are held

39:47

obviously against their will for

39:50

a long time. You know, it can be years,

39:54

and hopefully, through the through

39:57

diplomacy, they are returned to the

39:59

United States in order to you

40:02

know, return to their normal lives

40:04

and and be with their families and you

40:06

know, go back to their jobs and all of that. And you would

40:08

think that the last thing

40:10

that anyone in that situation would need to

40:12

worry about would be answering

40:14

the question of did I pay my taxes?

40:18

Well, the IRS

40:20

seems to think that that's exactly what they should be asking

40:22

themselves. And I told a friend of mine

40:25

when I happened upon this story, is this

40:27

not the most IRS thing you've ever heard?

40:29

Just like the idea like no one is safe, even

40:33

apparently political prisoners.

40:34

It's like that thing where if you sell drugs,

40:37

the I R. S isn't mad at you, but they want

40:39

you to report your income.

40:41

That's right.

40:42

Yeah, we even talked about I believe

40:44

we had an interview. Oh my gosh, I'm forgetting

40:46

his name now. I think it was we interviewed this

40:48

that guy who was like buddies with Dick

40:50

Gregory and so he was like a street performer

40:53

in Venice Beach and

40:55

he was like.

40:55

A poet and then a really interesting dude.

40:57

And he gosh, I'm so sorry that I'm forgetting his

40:59

name, but we had him on the show and he was talking about

41:02

how his street performances in Venice

41:04

became so lucrative for him and so popular

41:07

that they started sending undercover IRS

41:09

agents to keep tabs on him

41:11

and see how much income he was generating

41:14

so they could then send him a bill.

41:16

So this is real.

41:17

This is the kind of stuff that the government does

41:20

when it comes to getting paid.

41:21

They are all up in your business.

41:23

No, you're saying, this is not some kind of like

41:26

accidental oversight.

41:27

This is like, this is the law of the land.

41:30

O lord.

41:31

And this was the person interviewed

41:34

referenced earlier was Michael Collier.

41:36

Yeah, and we'll get into some more specifics

41:38

here too.

41:38

I wanted to reference a fabulous extended

41:41

peace in the Economic policy section

41:43

of the Washington Post written.

41:46

By Jacob Bogage or

41:48

Bogage and Julie Zosmer.

41:51

Wile US hostages still

41:53

owe taxes, Congress might not

41:56

help. So the

41:58

implication here in the headline says

42:00

it all is that this would take

42:03

an Act of Congress to do

42:05

something about because representatives from

42:07

the IRS have said, yeah, I mean sure,

42:09

this seems a little rough, but it

42:11

is not within our legal rights

42:14

to waive these

42:17

fees, because we are talking about back taxes,

42:19

the taxes themselves, but also

42:22

late fees and interest fees,

42:24

interest payments, you know, for the time spent

42:28

away presumably under lock

42:30

and key, with zero access to any

42:32

kind of ability to pay your taxes.

42:34

And this is not punitive. Like shout

42:37

out to Hattah Errant and the concept

42:39

of the banality of evil right and

42:41

cold systems. This feels

42:44

like at least

42:47

well you tell me no. It feels as though

42:50

this is one of those things where you might write

42:52

to the IRS and say, hey, bt dubs,

42:56

I barely survive being held hostage

42:59

and I didn't really

43:01

have income that year, and they might they

43:04

might say, well, hey, man.

43:05

We'll cut you a check. You know, Hey, here's

43:07

what.

43:08

You're saying, Well, we've got the

43:10

system and we don't really have Like the

43:12

IRS is very form oriented,

43:14

right Well, I don't think there's a ten to forty

43:17

z's right or whatever for a.

43:19

Hostage situation, right Ben.

43:21

And you know, and I don't know that we're going to get

43:23

into some some specifics of some individuals that

43:25

were in this situation, so I don't know the specifics of their

43:27

finances. But one would also imagine

43:31

that that amount of

43:33

time spent away would

43:35

be time where you weren't earning income, and

43:37

therefore you would think there would be something, some arrangement

43:39

that could be made.

43:40

This would not be a punitive situation. But apparently

43:43

the IRS.

43:43

There is a according to this article in the

43:45

Post. The IBS is gonna quot it because I think

43:48

it's very well said here. The IRS has a long

43:50

standing practice of forgiveness for

43:52

people who are held hostage by non

43:54

state organizations, including

43:56

hamas and groups like the Islamic State

43:59

or BOCO.

44:00

So that's that's on the books, or again,

44:03

I'm not sure exactly how it's codified.

44:05

This was from a Westerley Washington Post columnist,

44:08

Jason Rezion, who actually

44:10

was himself a hostage.

44:12

He was returned to the United States in twenty sixteen after

44:15

five hundred and forty four days in Iranian

44:17

captivity, and awaiting

44:20

him upon his return was a six thousand

44:22

dollars tax bill.

44:24

Great, cool, tight, good job. Yeah,

44:26

that's so messed up.

44:28

The way he puts it is this.

44:30

When I returned home from Iran in twenty

44:33

sixteen after being imprisoned for nearly

44:35

a year and a half, I found that the IRS

44:37

had charged me with thousands of dollars in penalties

44:40

for not filing my taxes on time. The

44:42

usual penalties had compounded. I

44:45

was sleeping less than three hours a night, repeatedly

44:47

waking from nightmares that I was back in

44:49

prison. During the day. I was distracted

44:52

and having trouble concentrating, so I

44:54

neglected to sit down and address the problem.

44:57

What a diplomatic way of like saying,

44:59

f you the irs.

45:01

I had other things going on, you

45:03

know, like PTSD,

45:05

like night terrors, Like I

45:07

mean, it's the kind of thing you think about when when

45:10

you hear about often the way returning

45:12

veterans can be treated, you know, like you've

45:15

done this service for your country, You've given

45:17

your life, you've put your life on the line, and then

45:19

you come back and you are treated

45:21

like a second class citizen.

45:23

And yeah, we should say, real

45:26

quick, it might sound odd to hear

45:28

this guy Jason's name and

45:30

wonder why he was held for

45:33

almost two years by Iran.

45:36

To be very clear, folks, especially if

45:38

you have Iranian heritage and you are American,

45:41

the Iranian government considers you

45:43

Iranian and has very few qualms

45:46

about detaining you.

45:48

Right.

45:48

Well, yeah, and he was working for the Washington

45:50

Post, right, he was, correct,

45:53

Greg Hetty, He was bureau chief, so he

45:55

was one of the top guys.

45:57

Well, there's another wrinkle in this story, guys.

45:59

I mentioned the whole idea of Congress of taking

46:01

an Act of Congress to get this on

46:03

the books. Well, this is being attempted.

46:05

There are those in the legislature

46:08

who are spearheading a bill

46:10

that would deal with this unfortunate

46:13

situation.

46:13

This unfortunate, I would argue, pretty

46:16

egregious oversight.

46:17

There are members of Congress who are aligning

46:19

in order to change the law so that Americans

46:22

who are held wrongfully or detained by

46:24

these terrorist organizations or

46:27

foreign governments. Let's add that because again

46:29

we know that the terrorist organization thing is already

46:32

somewhat on the books, don't know exactly

46:34

what the language around that is.

46:35

Seems like it.

46:36

Could also offer some wiggle room to

46:38

prevent you know, the irs from going after

46:40

these folks for these for these fees and back

46:42

taxes.

46:43

And it's bipartisan, right.

46:44

It is bipartisan.

46:46

But the problem is that

46:49

something that we often see in politics

46:52

and in passing of laws is

46:54

there's this quid pro quot kind of situation

46:56

where it's like, yeah, well, we'll vote for your

46:58

thing, or we'll pass this, but it has to we have

47:00

to have this other thing attached to it, and oftentimes

47:03

the other thing that's attached to the thing that is bipartisan

47:06

is not bipartisan, and that is the case

47:08

here. Essentially, the

47:10

bill was packaged with

47:13

another measure that would

47:15

essentially make it easier for

47:17

the government to

47:19

target tax exempt

47:21

organizations like nonprofits

47:24

and strip them of their tax

47:27

exempt status if they are

47:29

deemed to be in

47:31

support of terrorism. And it seems

47:33

to me the way the language of that act

47:36

or that bill is structured, it

47:39

would be a pretty easy way to go

47:41

after groups that are against

47:43

whatever your political beliefs are. And

47:46

that is exactly the position that the folks who

47:48

are not in support of this measure are taking,

47:51

and that you know, folks with the ACLU are taking,

47:53

is that this is dangerous because apparently

47:55

there are already laws on the books that allow

47:58

you to go after nonprofits strip

48:00

them of their tax exempt status if

48:02

they are seen to be connected with any

48:04

organizations that are classified as terrorist groups.

48:06

This just makes it easier and

48:08

makes it like potentially

48:11

able to be weaponized, you know, in

48:13

a nasty way. So the whole thing

48:15

is stalled essentially

48:18

because of the way it was packaged, which makes.

48:20

Sense because they have to be incredibly

48:23

careful about this. To recap what

48:25

you said earlier, there are

48:28

standing laws that say if a

48:30

non state actor just broadly

48:33

put, has kidnapped someone,

48:35

you know, that could be a cartel, that could be your local

48:37

terrorist front. Then they're not

48:39

on the hook with the irs. They're

48:42

a victim of a crime. So it

48:44

may seem strange, dare

48:46

I say legalistic to need

48:48

an entirely new piece of legislation

48:50

saying what happens when it's a state

48:53

actor, when it's a Russia, you know, when it's

48:55

an Iran or whatever. But the

48:57

point you make here, you know, just a

48:59

moment ago, is perhaps the most mission

49:01

critical aspect of this debate.

49:05

It is stalling because there

49:07

may be certain stakeholders

49:09

or certain people in the conversation who

49:12

want to twist this toward their

49:14

own ends, which is always a danger

49:16

in the legislative branch.

49:17

I feel like that's a thing that happens when when

49:20

a law comes along, or you know, something like

49:22

this is pretty clear cutting, straightforward, and everybody,

49:25

especially this bipartisan everything, yeah,

49:27

this is great, and then something

49:30

else just attaches to it because.

49:32

They're not going to vote for the Patriot Act.

49:34

What does it do, right, Well, just tighten

49:37

these other twenty three other measures.

49:38

It's the stop penalties on American hostages

49:41

act like this is purposely branded

49:44

as something that makes you look

49:46

like a dick if you vote against it.

49:48

Let's quote the article again really quickly.

49:50

The post piece, free speech

49:53

and pro Palestinian advocacy groups

49:55

oppose that provision, concerned

49:57

that it would be leveraged to silence organizations

49:59

with the scent views or halt the work of humanitarian

50:02

agencies that operate an area is controlled by

50:04

terrorist entities, especially in the context

50:06

of the Israel Hamas war in Gaza.

50:09

That opposition probably dooms the House

50:11

bills chances in the Senate.

50:13

And here is an interesting that Chris Kuhns.

50:16

Senator Chris Kuhns of Delaware Democratic Delaware

50:18

is one of the supporters who was referring

50:21

to this, saying that he hopes that the

50:23

House will recognize they have a chance to just send the

50:25

bill to us and it goes directly to the President's

50:27

desk because they tried to

50:29

use something called a deeming resolution,

50:32

which essentially, let's

50:34

not get it the political minutia of it, but allows

50:37

them to do what he just said, It allows it to kind

50:39

of give it a fast path to

50:42

ratification because it just is so

50:44

uncontroversial a thing like this, but

50:47

because of the way the House packaged

50:50

it up and added that unrelated bill

50:52

to it, it changed the language

50:55

of the original bill, which rendered that

50:57

deeming resolution null

50:59

and void essentially, So now they have to kind of

51:01

go back to square one. An interesting

51:03

perspective from the side

51:06

of the Isle. I guess that is sort of holding

51:09

things up here is worth reading

51:11

as well. The chair of the Ways

51:13

and Means Committee, Jason

51:15

T. Smith, who's a Republican from Montana,

51:18

said the following, referring to the

51:20

fact that Hamas are believed to be holding

51:22

seven American hostages in Gaza,

51:25

four of whom are thoughts to be alive when

51:28

they are released. Even those folks could face

51:30

these tax burdens when they return. So

51:32

Smith had this to say, Our hearts break for

51:35

the hostages kidnaped by Hamas on October seventh,

51:37

including the Americans still being held captive. Russia

51:39

and other nations continue to wrongfully detain other

51:42

Americans abroad as well. The last thing

51:44

these Americans and their families need are penalties

51:46

for the irs for a situation entirely out

51:48

of their control. At the same

51:50

time, sorry, it's

51:53

like a butt, big old butt US based

51:55

organizations that enjoy not for profit status

51:58

in our tax code, while supporting terror or

52:00

providing financial support to terrorist

52:03

organizations should not be able to

52:05

benefit from tax exempt status. I

52:07

just don't understand what those two things have to do with one

52:09

another. He's making it.

52:12

It's a false equivalent. See, it feels like it just

52:14

seems like that that

52:16

one is controversial, and by packaging

52:18

it with such a non controversial build, it seems

52:20

pretty slippery.

52:22

Guys, I don't know.

52:24

And because of that, it seems like anybody that does

52:26

get released in the situation, they will also be facing

52:28

these tax bills when they come back.

52:31

It's what happens when you build a giant machine

52:33

that's way too big to see the ants that are

52:35

running the machine. Does

52:38

that make sense?

52:39

It does.

52:39

We're not people anymore, We're

52:42

just batteries for the taxes.

52:45

Again, the bidality of evil. Right,

52:47

there's the idea of dodging

52:50

accountability by saying, oh, there's a system,

52:52

and we don't have a form for that. Additionally,

52:55

no, just to game this out, Devil's

52:58

advocate a bit, we have to

53:00

think through some

53:02

painful hypotheticals like there's

53:04

a non zero chance, for

53:07

instance, and I'm sure some members of Congress

53:09

are thinking about this. There's a non zero chance

53:12

that let's say you're a billionaire

53:14

and you don't want to pay taxes, so

53:17

you just go get kidnapped for legal

53:19

reasons for you know, a year

53:21

or two. That is cartoonish,

53:25

but it is not outside the realm

53:27

of possibility.

53:28

But billionaires already don't have to pay taxes.

53:31

I mean, you know, significantly less,

53:33

it would seem because the loopholes in

53:35

the tax code.

53:36

Yeah, what I'm saying, it could

53:38

be weaponized.

53:40

That's a very not there's

53:43

not a non zero chance that that

53:45

could be attempted. It would be a way of

53:47

a further loophole. Interesting stuff,

53:49

pretty interesting view into the

53:52

political process. And how to

53:54

your point, Matt, heartless, it can

53:56

be where it's like, well I love

53:58

to help you out, but if

54:02

you don't do this thing for me, then I can't do this

54:04

thing for you. And it just seems, unfortunately

54:06

all too common, and it is a it

54:09

happens on both sides of the aisle. You know, this

54:11

is a pretty non part isn't problem.

54:14

I would argue that there are people on both sides of the

54:16

isle that play these types of

54:18

cards when it comes to getting what they want

54:20

politically, and it just.

54:21

Sort of sucks.

54:23

Yeah, speaking of sort of sucks, we obviously

54:25

don't want anyone to ever be held

54:27

hostage. I think that's that's

54:30

how we can all agree. And you brought up

54:32

some fantastic points

54:35

things that we can chew on collectively

54:38

here, not just about how the

54:40

legislative sausage gets

54:42

made, but again, like

54:44

I was pointing out earlier, the work of

54:46

Hannah Errant with the banality

54:49

of evil, right, because most

54:52

people don't think of themselves as the bad

54:54

guy. They think of themselves as someone working

54:57

within a system, often with

54:59

a of somehow changing

55:01

that system for the better. So hopefully

55:05

anybody who has survived the

55:07

harrowing trauma of a hostage

55:09

situation doesn't automatically

55:11

get smacked with some whackadoo

55:14

bill by the boffins

55:16

and the being counters. And we have people in

55:18

the irs who are listening to this show,

55:21

and we know that you

55:23

know, I guess, without sounding

55:25

too cavalier, we obviously know these

55:27

are just people trying to do their best at

55:30

their career. There's no one waking

55:32

up one day steepling their hands. Monty

55:34

Byrne style and saying, this

55:36

guy just survived the DPRK.

55:39

I can't wait to ruin his april,

55:41

you know what I mean. No one is doing

55:44

that. And Noel again, can't thank you

55:46

enough for bringing this story, which was in

55:49

specific new to me. Do

55:51

you have any last words.

55:53

Where particularly you guys both made

55:55

excellent points, and I think this is something that people should

55:57

be aware of and just and it

55:59

makes you a little sick considering what I just

56:01

said about how many loopholes there are that

56:03

benefit the super rich, you

56:05

know, and the folks that are put

56:08

through the most traumatic experience

56:10

they could possibly go through are

56:13

coming home to this kind of draconian,

56:16

you know, awfulness.

56:18

I just it really makes you a

56:20

little bit, a little bit angry.

56:22

Weirdest thing about the United States, man, it's

56:25

expensive to be poor in

56:28

many cases. With that, we're going

56:30

to call it an evening. We're

56:32

out to noctificate, which is our

56:34

fancy dancy word for night walk. In

56:36

the meantime, we cannot wait to hear from you,

56:38

fellow conspiracy realist. Be

56:41

safe out there. Let us know your thoughts

56:43

on the waffle House index. Let us know your

56:46

thoughts on the ongoing investigations

56:49

in your neck of the global woods.

56:51

We'll come back with updates in the

56:53

following weeks. Let us know your

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56:57

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57:00

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