Four indigenous children survived a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon and spent 40 days alone in the jungle. Wilson, the hero dog who found them, is now missing.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. The children’s ages range from 11 months old to 12 years old. After their plane crashed in the Colombian jungle, causing the instant death of the pilot and of another passenger, the siblings tried to save their mother who was still alive. She passed away after four days. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. 1 The eldest child, Lesly, is credited with keeping her siblings alive through her knowledge of the jungle. The children survived for 40 days in the Amazon by eating fruit and using large leaves to protect themselves from the rain. 2 The children were discovered in a forest clearing by rescuers, who were guided to their location by Wilson, a Belgian Shepherd and four-legged hero. The military released drawings made by the children, depicting Wilson in the jungle, highlighting his role in their survival. After the rescue of the children, the search for Wilson began as he was separated from the kids, had a “weird reaction” when seeing his handler, and then disappeared. There are reports of a drug-fueled search and rescue operation, suggesting that the military and various groups – including the dog handlers - had been using ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, as a ritual to help them locate the children. Wilson, the 6-year-old hero dog, is still missing in the jungle. 1. By Ed Cumming and Mathew Charles, A hero dog, a drug-fuelled hunt, The Telegraph, June 2023. ⇤2. By John Otis, How Indigenous kids survived 40 days in Colombia's jungle after a plane crash, NPR, June 2023. ⇤

Mary Bell was only 10 years old when she killed two toddlers in Newcastle, England, in 1968. Her first victim was 4-year-old Martin Brown. Mary and her friend Norma then murdered and mutilated the body and genitalia of 3-year-old Brian Howe.In this episode we discuss the disturbing story of Mary Flora Bell, who tried to kill several children and eventually succeeded in killing two young boys by strangulation. Her friend Norma bell – no relation, just a name coincidence – helped Mary murder her second victim. 1 2 Mary Bell was sentenced to be imprisoned “at Her Majesty’s pleasure,” a British legal term that denotes an indeterminate sentence. After 12 years, in 1980, she was released on license (probation) and now lioves a quiet, anonymous life with her daughter. 3 This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. 1. Leah Silverman The Chilling Story Of Mary Bell, The 10-Year-Old Murderer Who Strangled Two Boys All That's Intersting, September 2023 ⇤2. Linda Caroll A Judge Called Mary Bell A Monster When She Was Just 10 Years Old Independent, September 2022 ⇤3. MICHAEL SEAMARK & PAUL SIMS Child killer Mary Bell becomes a grandmother at 51: But all I have left is grief, says victim's mother Daily Mail, July 2023 ⇤

A 25 year old Alabama nursing student disappeared after calling 911 and claiming she was stopping to help a toddler in diapers who was walking alone on Interstate 459.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Carlee Russel returned home two days later and claimed she had been kidnapped and had barely managed to escape. She said the toddler was used as bait. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Carlee described how a man with “orange hair” emerged from the woods and picked her up and forced her into a vehicle. No, it wasn’t Donald Trump. 1 She said the man then put her into the trailer of a tractor and drove her to an unknown location where he forced her to undress and took photos of her. Carlee also mentioned that the man had a female accomplice who fed her cheese crackers. 2 Police soon realized her story didn’t add up. Carlee admitted she faked her own abduction. Her motives are unclear, but we suspect she was “inspired” by the kidnapping social media craze, a new “Satanic Panic” type of phenomenon which has been spreading like wildfire online, especially on Tik Tok. 3 This new trend, started by right-wing evangelicals, aims to terrify women, and convince them they can be abducted at any moment and sex trafficked. The scope is to distract from real social issues like overturning Roe v Wade, the gun violence epidemic, voting rights etc. Statistically, a woman in the US is more likely to get hit by lightning than get kidnapped and sex trafficked. 1. Ariana Baio & Andrea Blanco Carlee Russell smiles in mug shot as she’s charged with false police report in kidnap hoax Independent, July 2023 ⇤2. Tiffanie Drayton ‘We will not be dismayed’: What Carlee Russell’s lie means for other missing Black women Daily Dot, July 2023 ⇤3. UNODC UNODC report on human trafficking exposes modern form of slavery UNODC, February 2009 ⇤

Anneliese Michel started exhibiting “strange symptoms” like eating spiders and coal when she was 16. Her devout family believed she’s possessed by Lucifer and Hitler. Anneliese died after she underwent 67 exorcisms at the hands of two Catholic priests.In this episode we discuss the infuriating murder of Anneliese Michel by her parents and two catholic priests, in Bavaria, Germany, in 1976. Anneliese was suffering from Grand Mal Epilepsy and Psychosis. Her story inspired the 2005 film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". 1 This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Anneliese underwent 67 exorcisms over a period of about 10 months between 1975 and 1976. She eventually died from starvation and dehydration during the process. Her parents and priest were convicted of negligent homicide. Her parents do not regret what they’ve done, claiming “god told us to do it”. 2 At the time of her death, she only weighed 68 pounds. We also discuss the exorcism of 23-years-old nun Maricica Irina Cornici, who died during an exorcism at the Tanacu Monastery in Romania. 3 1. Michael Getle Cries of a Woman Possessed The Washington Post, April 1978 ⇤2. Elizabeth Day 'God told us to exorcise my daughter's demons. I don't regret her death' The Telegraph, November 2005 ⇤3. Alison Mutler Nun Dies After Convent Exorcism CBS News, June 2005 ⇤

A respected Russian professor dug up and mummified deceased children – only girls and young women - made them into “living dolls” and posed them in his apartment. The bodies of 29 girls between the ages of 3 and 25 were found in his home.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Anatoly Moskvin is a former Russian university professor, cemetery expert / self-proclaimed “necropolyst”, researcher and necromancer. He was held in very high esteem in academic circles in his native city of Nizhny Novgorod. He taught himself 13 languages and is well-traveled. He also had a disturbing unhealthy obsession with death and dead bodies. He dug up deceased girls and young women only, all aged between 3 and 25, and turned them into "living doll”. He then posed them in his apartment. 1 Despite living with him, his parents claim they never suspected a thing. What caused this macabre behavior and his love of cemeteries? Are his parents lying? We discuss it all in this episode of Dubious. 2 1. William DeLon Anatoly Moskvin, The Genius Russian Historian Who Collected Dead Girls Like Dolls All That's Interesting, March 2023 ⇤2. Anna Nemtsova Russian Historian Anatoly Moskvin Collected Dead Girls at Home Daily Beast, July 2017 ⇤

Bridget Ziegler is embroiled in a sex scandal that exposes the hypocrisy of the “don’t say gay” extremist education movement she co-founded: she was caught on tape having sex with another woman during a threesome encounter with her husband.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Moms for Liberty is a Florida-based organization, with more than 300 chapters in 48 states. It claims to advocate for “parental rights at all levels of government.” 1 In reality, they push for banning children’s books and literature, fight against diversity, inclusivity, LGBTQ children, and rail against sex education and the teaching of Black history. The Moms for Liberty cult-like following believes there’s a widespread conspiracy in American schools to expose children to “woke “concepts about sexual orientation and gender identity that don’t conform to their idea of traditional family values. Of course, they joined the Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t say gay” campaign. 2 But as it turned out, Moms for Liberty is right-wing education movement with a huge hypocrisy problem. Co-founder Bridget Ziegler, who’s also a member of the Sarasota County School Board in Florida, and her husband Christian Ziegler have been caught in a sex scandal that threatens to end the organization. Moreover, Christian Ziegler who is also the chair of the Republican Party of Florida and a big Trump fan, was accused of rape. 3 1. Mary Ellen Klas Moms for Liberty Flunks Its Own Morality Test Bloomberg, December 2023 ⇤2. Chris Baynes Most Americans say ‘Arabic numerals’ should not be taught in school, finds survey Independent, May 2019 ⇤3. Will Carless, Chris Ullery, & Alia Wong What's behind the national surge in book bans? A low-tech website tied to Moms for Liberty USA Today, October 2023 ⇤

Musk embodies the perfect hero turned villain story. We discuss his 180° political flip-flopping over time, how X will affect the 2024 presidential election, the simulation theory he adheres to, Cybertruck, and much more. Brace yourselves for big drama!This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. We discuss the FCC’s denial of $900 M subsidies for Starlink, Maye Musk’s “furious” reaction on X (Twitter) to the FCC’s ruling and why Elon’s mother, Maye Musk, had to get involved in her son’s feud with the government. 1 Elon Musk’s affinity for right-wing extremist figures like Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, Jack Psobiec, Laura Loomer and Vivek Ramaswamy has been a worrying trend. Moreover, his erratic behavior at the New York DealBook conference where he told his advertisers to “go f*ck themselves” and indicated that he won’t vote for Joe Biden but voting for Trump is “a hard choice” left many wondering if Musk is only acting based on profit optimization goals or he thinks of himself as a player character, while the rest of us are non-player characters - NPCs. 2 3 We also take a look at Musk’s involvement on the geopolitical scene, especially his ties with Saudi Arabia: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the richest Middle East players, is the second-largest investor in X (Twitter) after Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. Elon also suggested that Ukraine should cede Crimea and parts of its territory to Putin, and that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing. In Nov 2022, President Biden was asked by journalists whether Musk was a threat to national security. Biden responded: “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at. Whether he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting they’re worth being looked at.” 4 1. MIRANDA NAZZARO Elon Musk’s mom ‘furious’ at Biden after FCC denies Starlink subsidy The Hill, December 2023 ⇤2. Charlie Warzel Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist The Atlantic, December 2022 ⇤3. FOUAD KHAN Confirmed! We Live in a Simulation Scientific American, April 2021 ⇤4. Staff and agencies Elon Musk’s mom ‘furious’ at Biden after FCC denies Starlink subsidy The Guardian, November 2022 ⇤

François Duvalier claimed to be immortal, the reincarnation of a dark spirit: Baron Samedi. He built a torture room in the Presidential Palace, talked to the decapitated heads of his enemies, and used the Tonton Macoute to terrorize Haiti.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Papa Doc Duvalier was one of the most ruthless dictators in history, ruling Haiti with an iron fist from 1957 to 1971. He was a medical doctor educated in Michigan, in the United States who then used voudou and his own Wagner type militia called the Tonton Macoute to spread terror and unimaginable violence to consolidate power.1 But he had a secret: he had diabetes. After a diabetic coma, he woke up even more ruthless than before. He changed the Constitution twice, won rigged elections with the help of voodoo priests and the lwas, and had absolute power. Papa Doc killed more than 60,000 Haitians. Haiti was France’s richest colony in the 18th century, one of the most prosperous nations in the Caribbean. It was so fertile that it was was known as “the pearl of the Antilles.” Revolting against the French masters, Haiti became the first slave colony to overthrow its oppressors, the first free black republic in the world in 1803. Then the French asked for monetary reparations which Haitians had to pay to avoid invasion, and the U.S. occupied and robbed Haiti of its riches. Events like the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro’s rise to power in Cuba and the assassination of John F. Kennedy played a role in Haiti’s history as well. After Papa Doc Duvalier’s death, his “fat playboy” son, Jean-Claude Duvalier aka Baby Doc, came to power and managed to continue his father's kleptocracy for 15 more years before finally being overthrown. Now, Port-au-Prince as well as the rest of the country are in complete chaos, ruled by gangs and with virtually no government, no state officials left: Haiti is a failed state. Evolution Of Evil E01: Papa Doc Duvalier | Full Documentary 1. Albin Krebs Papa Doc, a Ruthless Dictator, Kept the Haitians in Illiteracy and Dire Poverty The New York Times, April 1971 ⇤

A harrowing firsthand account of daily life in a dictatorship from our host Sandra, tragic family stories, and the many shocking but clear similarities between Ceausescu’s tyrannical regime and Donald Trump’s ambitions for a second presidency.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Orange Jesus is a term coined not by democrats, but by Republicans themselves. In her new book entitled “Oath and Honor”, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) describes a scene in which a fellow House member called former President Trump “Orange Jesus.” Cheney says that while in the GOP cloakroom in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, members were encouraged to sign onto electoral vote objection sheets: “Among them was Republican Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee. As he moved down the line, signing his name to the pieces of paper, Green said sheepishly to no one in particular, ‘The things we do for the Orange Jesus.’” 1 “Trump is not only a danger to the United States and our democracy, but also a danger to the world. And because I was born in Romania and lived part of my life under a dictatorship, I think the best way to go about this subject is to tell some personal stories, things that happened to my family under Ceausescu’s regime in Socialist/Communist Romania, make some analogies and point out some striking similarities between what Nicolae Ceausescu did in my native country, the aftermath of his policies, what some other dictators did too, and what Trump has done and plans to do here in the United States. The 2024 Presidential Elections have the potential, if Trump wins, to impact and reshape the geopolitical order.” – Sandra, Dubious Creator and Co-Host. Identified similarities: Refusal to relinquish power; Disdain for the free press; Censorship, propaganda and disinformation; Isolationism; Abortion bans; Criminalizing homosexuality and eroding LGBTQIA rights; Dehumanizing rhetoric like “vermin” (usually leads to genocide); Rampant corruption; Using religion to manipulate and radicalize people; Limited freedom of movement for certain demographics; The cult of personality; A love for grandiose military parades; Political repression; Turning truth on its head: Trump recently said that Joe Biden is a danger to democracy. Trump says he never swore an oath to support the constitution. His lawyers, in their appeal against the Colorado lawsuit, reiterated that the wording of Section Three of the 14th amendment does not apply to people running for president and that Trump technically did not swear an oath to "support" the Constitution. Trump: “I’ll be a dictator, but only on day one.” 23 Donald Trump is the biggest danger to the world in 2024. A second Trump presidency would be more dangerous than the first to the United States and globally by orders of magnitude. 4 1. BESS LEVIN The Most Damning Details From Liz Cheney’s Book on the GOP, January 6, and “Orange Jesus” Vanity Fair, November 2023 ⇤2. Ewan Palmer Donald Trump Says He Never Swore Oath 'to Support the Constitution' Newsweek, November 2023 ⇤3. David Jackson Donald Trump says he will be a 'dictator' only on 'day one.' Then he'll focus on drilling. USA Today, November 2023 ⇤4. The Economist Donald Trump poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024 The Economist, November 2023 ⇤

The day before he was fired, Sam Altman said “Is this a tool we built, or a creature?” We discuss the Q* mysterious letter that warned the OpenAI board of a powerful AI discovery that could threaten humanity. Did OpenAI achieve AGI?This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. We discuss the five days of chaos and drama at OpenAI: an industry poster-child CEO double-crossed by his chief scientist, a cloak and dagger board coup, fears of killer AI, and a dead-of-the-night staff revolution that changed the balance of global tech power. Also: while Sam Altman is a billionaire, his younger sister Annie has supported herself doing sex work, “both in person and virtually”, on OnlyFans. OpenAI has a very unusual structure: it is a for-profit company overseen by a nonprofit board with a corporate culture somewhere in between. This recent coup seems to have ousted the non-profit faction of OpenAI, the people who were concerned with artificial intelligence tech safety and ethics. Money won. We analyze how this shift might impact AI tech globally. We also discuss Q* (pronounced Q-Star) and if Open AI has gotten close to or even achieved AGI – Artificial General Intelligence, which is the step before Artificial Superintelligence ASI. Before OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s firing, several staff researchers – including Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist - wrote a letter to the board of directors warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that could threaten humanity. The day before he got fired, Sam Altman said “Is this a tool we have built or a creature we have built?” "Four times now in the history of OpenAI, the most recent time was just in the last couple weeks, I've gotten to be in the room, when we sort of push the veil of ignorance back and the frontier of discovery forward, and getting to do that is the professional honor of a lifetime," he said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. 1 2 We also talk about Sam Altman’s history and his achievements: Y Combinator (Stripe, Airbnb), Worldcoin (which uses a silver orb to scan people's eyeballs in exchange for crypto tokens and might be a useful to discern humans from AI online in the future), and of course, his personal life - specifically his relationship with his sister Annie Altman. While Sam Altman is a billionaire, his younger sister Annie has supported herself doing sex work, “both in person and virtually”, on OnlyFans. 3 The recent changes at OpenAI will impact all of us, so it’s important to understand the implications of these recent developments within the hottest company in tech right now. It is essential to put things into context and look at the global picture: US and China are in a race for AI supremacy. 4 5 1. Charlie Warzel The Money Always Wins The Atlantic, November 2023 ⇤2. Anna Tong, Jeffrey Dastin and Krystal Hu OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO ouster, sources say Reuters, November 2023 ⇤3. Elizabeth Weil Sam Altman Is the Oppenheimer of Our Age OpenAI’s CEO thinks he knows our future. What do we know about him? INTELLIGENCER, September 2023 ⇤4. David Brooks The Fight for the Soul of AI The New York Times, November 2023 ⇤5. Dave Lawler How the U.S. is trying to stay ahead of China in the AI race Axios, June 2023 ⇤

Armed with a waterproof bible and fish, a young American missionary and beef jerky marketer decided to bring Jesus to the reclusive tribe of North Sentinel Island. His body has never been recovered. But who was behind this kamikaze mission, really?This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. North Sentinel Island is a small island around seven kilometers by seven kilometers in size, roughly 23 square miles, located in the Bay of Bengal. It’s a unique place, as it's forbidden to visit. The Indian government made it illegal for anyone to get within three miles of the island and its reclusive inhabitants.If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. The Sentinelese are an indigenous tribe of hunter gatherers, living life in a not too dissimilar way to how our ancestors would've lived about 60,000 years ago. 1 The island made headlines in 2018, after John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old American evangelical missionary, blogger and beef jerky marketer set sail to the island in hoping to convert the reclusive tribe and welcome its members to Christianity. In 2017 he had been accepted to a boot camp run by All Nations, a Kansas City organization that works to see Jesus “worshipped by every tongue, tribe and nation”. All Nations urges Christians to live by a “wartime mentality” and “make strategic decisions in the battle we’re waging against a real enemy”, waging a war against Satan. 2 John Chau was killed by the Sentinelese and his body was never recovered from the island, despite attempts made by authorities. In the last century, many anthropologists and scientists have tried to make contact with the Sentinelese. This usually never went well; many people were killed by the islanders and many islanders were killed by diseases brought by visitors. The only remotely successful people were Madhumala Chattopadhyay and Triloknath Pandit, two famous Indian anthropologists. The Sentinelese have no immunity to diseases carried by outsiders, and they learned over time that contact with others brings only death. Understandably, they do not welcome visitors. 1. J Oliver Conroy The life and death of John Chau, the man who tried to convert his killers The Guardian, February 2019 ⇤2. Leah McDonald Father of American missionary who was killed while trying to convert isolated Indian Ocean tribe blames evangelicals' 'extreme Christianity' for the death of his 'innocent child' Daily Mail, February 2019 ⇤

What do cute panda bears, US - China relations and Taiwan’s microchip fabs have in common? The race for Artificial Intelligence supremacy. China recalled its furry diplomats a week before the Joe Biden - Xi Jinping APEC summit meeting in San Francisco.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. In this episode we discuss China’s panda diplomacy, and how recalling the pandas is connected to US foreign policy, Taiwan’s microchip fabs and AI supremacy. On Wednesday Nov 8, 2023, the two adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, and their 3-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji, were guided into metal crates and transported by truck to the airport. They took off in a FedEx Boeing 777 called the Panda Express. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian arrived at the Smithsonian National Zoo in 2000 under a 10-year agreement that has been renewed three times since 2010. Xiao Qi Ji, whose name means “little miracle,” was born in 2020 as a result of artificial insemination – and the little male cub is indeed a miracle, as his mom was considered too old to be able to get the pregnancy to term. Efforts to renew the zoo’s current panda agreement, which ends on Dec. 7, have been unsuccessful. Not only did China refuse to renew the contract, but they’re also taking the pandas back even earlier than previously agreed. 1 The timing of the panda recall is dubious, given that the Biden-Xi bilateral takes place a week later during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which the US is hosting in San Francisco from 11 to 17 November. The encounter on 15 November is their second face-to-face meeting during the Biden presidency. It will be wide-ranging, US officials said, with the Israel-Hamas war, Taiwan, war in Ukraine and election interference to be discussed. 2 China’s posturing in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, the brushes with Philippine ships, and flying its planes dangerously close to American ones - all of this, is pretty much about Taiwan and who will control Taiwan, the world’s largest producer of semiconductors. Chips are what powers AI: 60% of all microchips are produced on the island; 92% of logic semiconductors with components smaller than 10 nanometers, capable of fitting more processing capacity onto a minuscule area while also being faster and more energy-efficient, are made in Taiwan. A single strand of human hair is 90,000 nanometers thick. In 1971, an average transistor was already just 10,000 nanometers thick. Today, the most advanced chips are manufactured at 2 nanometers, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) already working on creating a 1 nanometer chip. Microchips mean economic power, and more importantly, military power: and military power means geopolitical power. Microchips also mean control of emerging and disruptive technologies, like Artificial Intelligence and synthetic biology. Countries that have the capability to successfully harness AI innovation will be strategically positioned for both improved national security and economic growth. 1. Larissa Gao and Megan Lebowitz With return of three pandas to China, U.S. could soon have none NBC News, November 2023 ⇤2. PHELIM KINE Biden to press Xi on Iran in APEC meeting next week Politico, November 2023 ⇤

Nurse Lucy Letby violently attacked and killed 7 newborns and attempted to murder 6 more. She is Britain’s most prolific child serial killer. Why did she do it? Apparently, for “love”.Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Lucy Letby has been found guilty of murdering seven newborn babies and attempting to kill six more at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England. Aged 33, the nurse attacked the babies between June 2015 and June 2016 at the neonatal unit where she worked. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. In this episode we discuss how the Countess of Chester hospital management dropped the ball and their series of failures and attempts to cover-up the severity of the situation that led to this tragic outcome. 1 During trial, Lucy Letby blamed the neonatal unit doctors for being out to get her - “the Gang of Four” she called them: John Gibbs, Stephen Breaery, Ravi Jayram and another pediatrician. In reality, these doctors were the ones who fought the hospital management in order to get police involved and stop the horrific murders. 2 Nurse Letby injected air into the newborn’s tummies and veins (air embolus), poisoned them with insulin, overfed them milk, even hit them hard causing organ damage and showed metal objects down their throats causing them to bleed uncontrollably and go into cardiac arrest. Some of the babies that survived are left with permanent brain injuries from the lack of oxygen they endured before being resuscitated. An inquiry is ongoing as to why hospital management were so slow to act, but this is not a public inquiry which obliges witnesses to give statements under oath. In this episode we also discuss other medical professionals who killed their patients: nurse Beverley Allitt – known as the “angel of death”, doctor Harold Shipman and nurse Charles Cullen. We also look at an egregious case of malpraxis in which an Atlanta, GA doctor named Tracey St Julian decapitated a baby during childbirth. 1. Judith Moritz, Jonathan Coffey & Michael Buchanan Hospital bosses ignored months of doctors' warnings about Lucy Letby BBC, August 2023 ⇤2. Josh Halliday, Garry Blight, Harry Fischer and Ashley Kirk Timeline of Lucy Letby’s attacks on babies and when alarm was raised The Guardian, August 2023 ⇤

We discuss Israel’s use of white phosphorus incendiary bombs in Gaza and how Hamas planned the attack in plain sight, posting a training video in which they broke through a full-scale replica of the Israeli border wall just 2 weeks before Oct 7.Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. First, we look at the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the communications blackout and Israel’s use of white phosphorus, violating international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch verified videos “taken in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border, and interviewed people who described an attack in Gaza. (…) Upon contact, white phosphorus can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone as it is highly soluble in fat and therefore in human flesh. White phosphorus fragments can exacerbate wounds even after treatment, entering the bloodstream and causing multiple organ failure. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed, and the wounds are re-exposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal.” 1 Then we address the multiple and catastrophic security failures by Israel’s intelligence community and military. We look at SIGINT, HUMINT and IMINT failures. How did Shin Bet, the Mossad and the IDF miss this attack? Here are the main points: Intelligence officers failed to monitor certain communication channels used by Palestinian attackers. Military personnel and intelligence officers over relied on border surveillance equipment that was easily shut down by attackers. The commanders were all in one place, clustered in a single border base, that was overrun in the initial phase of the incursion, preventing communication with the rest of the armed forces. Intelligence officers accepted at face value assertions by Hamas military leaders, made on private channels, that they were not preparing for battle. The officers were aware that Hamas knew these phone calls were being monitored by Israel. 2 Another issue we address is Israeli reservists’ criticism for Yair Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, who remains in Miami rather than joining the fight against Hamas. The 32-year-old is currently living in Florida, where he moved in April 2023, after he was sued for defamation in Israel over social media posts against a political activist. 3 We also discuss Israel’s ground invasion (land incursion) in Gaza and the regional ripple effects: as Israel pushes ahead, regional players are preparing their next moves. Hezbollah might attack from the north, and Iran has hinted at getting involved directly. Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey might play crucial roles in the coming weeks. While Qatar is trying to negotiate with Hamas, Saudi Arabia is staying out of the mix. Also included: the Gaza tunnels, the hostages, similarities to 9/11 from an intelligence perspective, Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance on a two-state solution and his policies which ensured Hamas is not eradicated, and what might come next. 1. Human Rights Watch Israel: White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon Human Rights Watch, October 2023 ⇤2. Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley How Israel’s Feared Security Services Failed to Stop Hamas’s Attack The New York Times, October 2023 ⇤3. Graeme Massie Israeli reservists question absence of Netanyahu’s son who remains in Miami Independent, October 2023 ⇤

The Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel coincided with Putin’s 71st birthday. Russia has been supporting the terrorist group since 2006, with Hamas reportedly laundering illicit funds through a Moscow-based crypto exchange and the Wagner group training HamasThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we discuss the Israel – Palestine war, we look at the history of the region and how the Middle East conflict initially started, and we analyze the close diplomatic relations between Russia and Hamas. Moscow’s massive propaganda and foreign influence operation was turned into a pro-Hamas, anti-Western disinformation machine. Even before the war started, Russian media was promoting the idea that U.S. weapons for Ukraine have somehow ended up in the hands of terrorists plotting to strike Israel. 1 If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. We also discuss the geopolitical implications of the Gaza-Israel war, how it helps Putin and China, how Iran’s support for Hamas might destabilize the region and turn this whole thing into a proxy war between the world’s biggest powers, how the U.S. responded, how the United Nations reacted, the numbers of innocent victims on either side, and most importantly – what we need to retain from all of this: innocents were killed on each side, and Palestinians in Gaza need urgent humanitarian aid, more aid. 2 Hamas are a terrorist organization, but they do not represent the Palestinian people who have a right to exist, be safe and raise their children. Hamas does NOT stand for the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. The international community must do more to protect civilians in Gaza, make sure more humanitarian aid trucks pass through the Rafah crossing, and that Israel’s airstrikes and imminent land invasion will not result in senseless killings of tens of thousands of innocents. 34 Other points of conversation: freeing international and American hostages with the help of allies in the region (Qatar), How Russia, Iran (Hezbollah too) and China stand to win from this conflict, why Mossad and Shin Bet did not see this attack coming, the deadly explosion at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, and how Elon Musk’s X helped amplify disinformation about the war and help the interests of Russia / Iran / Hamas. Links: 1. Josh Rogin Putin is helping Hamas to hurt the west The Washington Post, October 2023 ⇤2. BBC Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained BBC, October 2023 ⇤3. Niall McCarthy The Human Cost Of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Statista, May 2021 ⇤4. Amnesty International Damning evidence of war crimes as Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza Amnesty International, October 2023 ⇤

Gilberto Valle, A New York City police officer, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to kidnap, torture, and eat women. In this dark story, the legal system grappled with the boundaries between fantasy and reality.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In the "Cannibal Cop" case, Gilberto Valle was accused of using online forums to discuss disturbing cannibalistic ideation with other users: Moody Blues, Christopher Ashe, Michael Van Hise, and Richard Meltz – also a former policeman. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. The prosecution argued that Valle's online conversations were not just fantasies but actual plans to commit crimes. However, Valle's defense team claimed that his discussions were merely fantasy role-play, and he had no intention of carrying out any real harm. Ultimately, in 2013, Valle was found guilty of conspiracy charges, but the conviction was overturned on appeal in 2014, with the court ruling that his actions did not constitute a true conspiracy.1 In the United States v. Valle case, the legal system grappled with the boundaries between fantasy and intent to commit a crime. The case raised complex questions regarding online communication, freedom of speech, and the interpretation of criminal conspiracy. While the prosecution argued that Valle's online discussions were evidence of a genuine plan to harm others, the defense asserted that they were simply dark fantasies that should be protected under the First Amendment. The legal proceedings shed light on the challenges of distinguishing between genuine criminal intent and disturbing but ultimately harmless expressions, particularly in the context of online interactions.2 1. James Nye It isn't quite like pork, but very meaty anyway': Cannibal cop's online pal boasts of eating 'a black woman and white child' in vile computer chats Daily Mail, January 2013 ⇤2. Cathy Free ‘Cannibal Cop’ defendant gets 7 years in prison New York Post, July 2018 ⇤

After a Lyft driver nabbed Tux the cat in Austin, TX, her human turned to social media for help. Palash Pandey’s posts went viral, a massive search ensued, and Lyft CEO David Risher hired private investigators to locate the feline.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. The unprecedented chain of events began on September 30, 2023, when Palash Pandey ordered a Lyft to take his cat, Tux, to the vet at Banfield Pet Hospital in Austin, Texas. As he made his way around the vehicle to grab Tux, who was located on the passenger side, the driver sped off. Desperate, Palash tried to contact the driver, even offered him money to bring Tux back, but to no avail. 1 Palash then turned to Reddit and Twitter X. His posts went viral, galvanizing the online community and putting pressure on Lyft who was facing a PR cat-astrophe. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. After 36 hours, private investigators hired by Lyft CEO David Risher found Tux 1.2 miles away from the vet’s office, where she had been kidnapped from. She was dehydrated, covered in fleas and terrified, but otherwise unharmed. The driver has been deactivated on the Lyft platform on October 2, and the Austin Police Department are investigating the case. 2 In this episode we also discuss the legal aspect related to pets being considered property instead of sentient beings, and we look at safe alternatives to ridesharing involving human drivers: Robotaxis such as Waymo made by Alphabet and Cruise made by General Motors are looking promising. 1. palashpandey9 Need help!! Lyft driver drove off with my pet cat Reddit, October 2023 ⇤2. Cathy Free Lyft passenger says driver took of with his cat. A Huge search ensued. The Washington Post, October 2023 ⇤

In 2018, Lady Gaga’s producer RedOne introduced MMA fighter and former convict Abu Azaitar to the royal entourage of Morocco. Since then, king Mohammed VI has disappeared from public life and the three Azaitar brothers became all-powerful.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we discuss King Mohammed’s childhood and relationship with his father Hassan II, his marriage to Princess Lalla Salma the computer engineer, and his fascination with the cage fighters. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Abu, Ottman and Omar Azaitar are three German brothers who grew to be very influential in Rabat, Morocco’s capital. It is rumored that King Mohammed VI is entirely under their “spell”. Their parents were born in Morocco. The brothers have a background in mixed martial arts, fought and won in the UFC, and they were good fighters: two of the brothers have been dubbed as “the brutal twins.” 1 Abu Azaitar has an impressive rap sheet: his German criminal record lists: “Theft, extortion, fraud, physical violence, criminal conspiracy, robberies and recidivism, computer fraud, driving without a license, bodily harm causing permanent disability, assault and battery, drug trafficking, forgery and resistance to law enforcement.” He once doused a man in gasoline and stole his Ferrari. While at a Christmas market, he also punched an ex-girlfriend and punctured her eardrum. Since 2018, the Azaitars have monopolized the king at a moment in history when after the 2001 Arab spring, the pandemic and the Panama Papers scandal, Moroccan society is boiling and the makhzien (government and security apparatus) led by Hammouchi are not happy with the MMA fighters’ influence over their king. 1. Nicolas Pelham The mystery of Morocco’s missing king The Economist April 2023 ⇤

Four indigenous children survived a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon and spent 40 days alone in the jungle. Wilson, the hero dog who found them, is now missing.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. The children’s ages range from 11 months old to 12 years old. After their plane crashed in the Colombian jungle, causing the instant death of the pilot and of another passenger, the siblings tried to save their mother who was still alive. She passed away after four days. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. 1 The eldest child, Lesly, is credited with keeping her siblings alive through her knowledge of the jungle. The children survived for 40 days in the Amazon by eating fruit and using large leaves to protect themselves from the rain. 2 The children were discovered in a forest clearing by rescuers, who were guided to their location by Wilson, a Belgian Shepherd and four-legged hero. The military released drawings made by the children, depicting Wilson in the jungle, highlighting his role in their survival. After the rescue of the children, the search for Wilson began as he was separated from the kids, had a “weird reaction” when seeing his handler, and then disappeared. There are reports of a drug-fueled search and rescue operation, suggesting that the military and various groups – including the dog handlers - had been using ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, as a ritual to help them locate the children. Wilson, the 6-year-old hero dog, is still missing in the jungle. 1. By Ed Cumming and Mathew Charles, A hero dog, a drug-fuelled hunt, The Telegraph, June 2023. ⇤2. By John Otis, How Indigenous kids survived 40 days in Colombia's jungle after a plane crash, NPR, June 2023. ⇤

Dubifriends, we’ll be back on October 4th with a big surprise! Until then, we’ll be working behind the scenes to bring you even better content. Enjoy the summer and stay dubious!This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy.

All about the secretive life of Vladimir Putin: his wives, girlfriends, children, and how they fit into his empire. How many children does Putin have, how many times was he married, is he married now? We try to solve the puzzle that is his private life!This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we put together the puzzle that is Putin’s private life. We discuss his first marriage with Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya (ex Putina), their honeymoon in Ukraine, the birth of their two daughters that Mariya Vladimirovna Vorontsova and Katerina (or Yekaterina) Tikhonova – Masha and Katya, the divorce of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila. If you like our content please become a patron, you'll get all of our episodes ad-free. 1 We also look into their post separation relationships: Lyudmila as since remarried a Russian entrepreneur/oligarch 21 years her junior named Artur Ocheretny and Putin has had a series of relationships, the first with Svetlana Krivonogikh, a shareholder in a major Russian bank, who also owns the elite property and a St Petersburg erotic nightspot. They allegedly have a child together, 18 years old Luiza Rozova (Elizaveta Krivonogikh). He then met and allegedly secretly married gymnast Alina Maratovna Kabaeva (also named Kabayeva by some sources). They allegedly have for children together, who are now living in Switzerland with their mother. 2 All of this leads to our next episode about how friends and family of the Putins do not just jet set to ski resorts in the Swiss Alps, but also play crucial roles in overseeing the family wealth which is controlled by the state, and guarded by the FSB. 1. Laurel Wamsley. Putin's Daughters Were Just Sanctioned. Here's What We Know About Them. NPR. April 2022. ⇤2. Vladimir Putin's 'Girlfriend' Sparks New Pregnancy Rumours. Telegraph. May 2015. ⇤

The FBI is investigating Inna Yashchyshyn, a woman with 4 passports and suspicious background, who befriended Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham, and mingled with 45’s most inner circle at Mar-a-Lago.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Inna Yashchyshyn, who presented herself as fake heiress Anna de Rothschild, was born in Ukraine, has American, Canadian, Russian and Ukrainian passports and a Florida driver’s license and the authorities have no idea when she entered the country. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our public episodes ad-free. 1 Obviously, Inna Yashchyshyn is no member of the famous Rothschild banking dynasty but under that assumed persona she managed to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence – where top secret HUMINT and SIGNALS intelligence were illegally kept in an unsecured room, with just a lock on the door. The timing of fake banking dynasty heiress Anna de Rothschild’s presence at Mar-A-Lago, where she played gold with Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham and ingratiated herself into the former’s president inner circle, is suspicious: she first started to go there in May 2021. According to the New York Times, the CIA sent a top secret cable to chiefs of station – in all countries - warning them that too many agents were dying or were being turned into double agents.. So they should be extremely cautious. The cable said that the CIA knew exactly how many were executed but they have no idea how many were turned. 2 Inna Yashchyshyn is the daughter of an Illinois truck driver, which makes her marriage to her now ex-husband Sergey Golubev even more dubious: he said she married her to get a green card. 3 The FBI is also looking into her charity, United Hearts of Mercy, after the Sûreté du Québec Police Provincielle du Canada have launched investigations into Yashchyshyn’s dealings too, also related to this foundation which claims to help immigrant families. In fact, this was a money laundering scam. Stripe, the money processing app, suspected fraud and halted the funds for the campaign – a campaign which was also supposed to help families devastated by the COVID pandemic. The United Hearts Charity of which Inna Yashchyshyn was president, was founded together with Valeriy Tarasenko, a Moscow-raised businessman who also has a very unclear background. 4 In this episode we discuss the possibility of Inna Yashchyshyn being a spy, knowing the honey pot strategy is used by foreign intelligence services such as Putin’s SVR and GRU. 1. Michael Sallah, Jonathan Silver, Kevin Hall, and Brian Fitzpatrick. Inventing Anna: The Tale of a Fake Heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI Investigation. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. August 2022. ⇤2. Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman. Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants. New York Times. October 2021. ⇤3. Harriet Alexander and Nikki Schwab. Ex-husband of Ukrainian fraudster who posed as de Rothschild heiress to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago and meet Trump: Says former wife - who faces FBI probe 'needed a green card'. Daily Mail. August 2022. ⇤4. Inna Yashchyshyn. United Hearts of Mercy - Facebook Non-Profit Page. Facebook. October 2016. ⇤

Was Vladimir Putin born in Russia or in Georgia? Who is his biological mother – Vera Putina or Maria Ivanova Putina? Putin’s autobiography says he was born in 1952 in Leningrad. But, there is an alternative, more credible story we tell today.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. The unofficial version of events places Putin’s early years in Metekhi, Georgia and identifies his biological mother as a woman named Vera. In the Kremlin version, Putin’s grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. If you like our content and want to support Dubious, please become a patron to get our episodes ad-free. Putin's mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD – which later became KGB, now FSB. He was severely wounded in 1942. Vladimir Spiridonovich and Maria Ivanovna, his parents, had two more children, two boys but they both died before Putin was born: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany forces in WW2. In her memoir, Hard Choices, she shares a story Putin told her about this time in his life. This story does not fit the version Putin tells in his official autobiography. The then U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said he too had never heard it before. Putin also tells another story: one of his great teachers in life was a rat. 1 Putin’s path was influenced by a movie called The Shield and The Sword - a 1968 Soviet spy series. It inspired him to join the KGB. Putin was impressed that “One man's effort could achieve what whole armies could not. One spy could decide the fate of thousands of people.” 2 There is an unofficial version of Putin’s early years: Putin was actually born in Georgia. A woman named Vera who lives in Metheki, near Gori, in Georgia has been saying since 1999 that she is Putin’s birthmother. Putina married a Georgian soldier Giorgi Osepahvili. In December 1960, the ultimatum from her husband, Putina travelled with "Vova" back to Ochyor, in Russia and she left the boy with her parents and returned to Georgia. Vera believes that the Leningrad "parents" referred to in Putin's official biography adopted HER son from his grandparents, so from her parents. The story was corroborated by Shura Gabinashvili, a former Russian teacher at the village school in Metekhi. She says Putin was her student and that she has received death threats about making these claims public. She remembers Putin by the same pet name Vera, his alleged biological mother uses: "Vova." 3 In this episode we also discuss Alexander Litvinenko, polonium 210, the suspicious death of BOTH Putin’s Leningrad parents of cancer, AT THE SAME TIME. We also comment on the very peculiar deaths of Artyom Borovik who died in a plane crash coinciding with the documentary he was making about Vera and Putin's childhood & Italian journalist Antonio Russo who was also interested in Vera’s story before was murdered while investigating Putin’s war crimes in Chechnya. 1. Alex Kliment. Putin, Ukraine, and the Rat Story. Gzero. March 2022. ⇤2. Damien Sharkov. Straight Outta Leningrad: Putin Says Streetfights Taught Him How to Tackle ISIS. Newsweek. October 2015. ⇤3. Kate Weinberg. Could This Woman be Vladimir Putin's Real Mother?. Telegraph. December 2008. ⇤

Trump’s first wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan home on July 14, 2022. She was cremated and laid to rest at Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in a “pauper’s grave”, not far from the 1st hole.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Mother of Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivana Trump was 73 years old. An employee found her and called 911 at 1:40 pm. The autopsy was conducted in less than 24 hours and her death was ruled “an accident”, the official cause of death being “blunt force trauma to her torso”. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our episodes ad-free. She deserves to be remembered not only as Trump’s first wife. She was a New York socialite, model and author but she was also an athlete who made the Czech skiing Olympics team. Ivana Trump was her own person: a mother, an author, fashion designer and New York socialite. In the first half we focus on Ivana’s life before she met Donald Trump, as there are some tragic aspects like the death of the man she loved, George Staidl, a playwright and lyricist who died in a car crash, and her fourth husband, Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi who passed away at 49 with melanoma (a type of skin cancer). 1 Ivana Maria Zelnickova was an educated woman with a master’s degree in Physical Education and she was a fighter: she fled from communism in her native country (then Czechoslovakia, part of the USSR) and built a new life for herself, starting off in Canada and then immigrating here, to the United States. In the second half we discuss the details of her death and the timing. Ivana passed away on July 14. Donald Trump and his three adult children were going be deposed the next day, separately, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were postponed. We also discuss her golf course burial in an austere grave and the attempt by Donal Trump to designate the area as a cemetery to get a tax break. A cemetery in New Jersey avoids property, income, and sales tax, the holy tax trinity. 2, 3 Donald Trump is also selling an “eternal membership” for the Bedminster National Golf Club: people play to play and when they pass, they can be buried close to Ivana if they pay extra. 4 Ivana also loved dogs. Funeral guests and others, in lieu of flowers, were asked to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and to “help save the lives of dogs that are in desperate need.” The charity was picked by her ex-husband and children, and this seems to be another of Trump’s schemes where the money is not really going where they say it’s going. Ivana’s own dog, Tiger, is now living with her assistant. Episode #DubiMeter = 9 1. Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta. Ivana Trump, First Wife of Donald Trump Who Helped Build his Empire, Dies at 73. Reuters. July 2022. ⇤2. Hamish Mitchell Twitter account. Tweet: Pics of Ivana Trump's Grave. Twitter. July 2022. ⇤3. Edward Helmore. Will Ivana Help Donald Trump with Tax Breaks from Beyond the Grave?. The Guardian. July 2022. ⇤4. Sinéad Baker and Tom Porter. Trump's PAC Asked Fans to Donate Money While Announcing His Ex-wife Ivana's Death. Business Insider. July 2022. ⇤

Are zombies real? A Harvard biology PhD named Wade Davis went to Haiti to investigate the stories of voodoo priests turning people into “zombies” with a poison, and it turned out that the poison was tetrodotoxin - and it’s real.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Voodoo priests in Haiti make a poison concocted of human remains, snakes, frogs, sea worms, and most importantly... the venom of a puffer fish. The puffer fish venom is sort of the inverse of an anesthetic. Instead of dulling the pain, it dulls your ability to react to it. A person poisoned by the zombie powder is aware and conscious, but unable to move. Their metabolic rate slows to a crawl and they show signs of death, such as bluing of the extremities and lack of response to stimulus. And then when they're presumed dead and buried, the voodoo priest digs them up and tells them when they regain their freedom of movement that he has captured their soul, and they must serve him. This is a form of capital punishment in Haiti; a throwback to the colonial days when the only escape from bondage was death. But what if you can't die? What if you are resurrected and put back into bondage? This is the threat of the zombie poison: a fate worse than death, and it happened to the subject of Wade Davis' study. Clairvius Narcisse was pronounced dead and buried after he was poisoned by the zombie powder for the accused crime of stealing property from his brother after his parents died. The voodoo priest who poisoned him dug him up and sent him to work as a slave on a sugar plantation. If you like our content, please become a patron, you'll get all of our episodes ad-free. 1, 2 Not to be outdone, if you want to risk death from the zombie poison you can also get it by eating a puffer fish in Japan. In mild doses you get high and a little tingly, in extreme cases of eating too much puffer fish in Japan you might wind up like the man who was stuck in the morgue for 7 days, with everyone thinking he was dead. He woke up before being disemboweled and embalmed, thankfully... 3 All of this is still with us because of the late, great Wes Craven's movie about Wade Davis's trip to Haiti to study the zombie powder, called The Serpent and the Rainbow, it's one of the better 1980s horror genre films, check it out if you haven't seen it! The film and book also inspired the Godsmack song "Voodoo" over a decade later. 4, 5, 6 1. Gino Del Guerico. The Secrets of Haiti’s Living Dead. Harvard Magazine. October 2017. ⇤2. Lakshmi Gandhi. Zoinks! Tracing The History Of 'Zombie' From Haiti To The CDC. NPR. December 2013. ⇤3. Patrick D. Hahn. Dead Man Walking. Biology Online. September 2007. ⇤4. Wade Davis. The Serpent and the Rainbow. Touchstone Publishers. 1997. ⇤5. Wes Craven, director. The Serpent and the Rainbow. Universal Pictures. 1988. ⇤6. Sully Erna, writer. Godsmack - Voodoo. Universal Music. 1999. ⇤

In 1970, King Charles III warned about the negative effects of plastic on the environment and the dangers of climate change, but was mocked for his views. He built an eco-town and supported “organic” farming long before the word became fashionable.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. The UK has a new monarch: King Charles III’s coronation was watched by millions across the globe. Camilla became Queen Consort and William, the heir to the throne, became Duke of Windsor. Prince George is second in line to the throne. If you like our content, but want to listen to our episodes AD-FREE, please become a patron. Whether you’re a monarchist or not, you have to admit that Elizabeth Regina II – Lilibet et as Prince Phillip used to call her - was a magnificent monarch and Uk’s longest reigning monarch. 1, 2 When her father George VI died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as Head of the Commonwealth. During her reign, she had 15 Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss. King Charles III has a passion for gardening, plants and green spaces and was way ahead of his time with his care for the environment, a worry he expressed in his 1970 speech in which he warns about plastic, pollution and the dangers of climate change. He also loves sustainable architecture and built an eco-town called Pundbury on the outskirts of Dorchester, in Dorset. He enjoys organic farming and products, which he has been growing since before the word “organic” became fashionable. 3, 4, 5  1. Anneta Konstantindes. American tourists once met the Queen and had no idea who she was — so she played a joke on them. Business Insider India. June 2022. ⇤2. British Royal Films Youtube channel. Queen Elizabeth cracks a joke!. Youtube. March 2009. ⇤3. The Royal Family Youtube channel. The Prince of Wales reflects on 50 years since his first speech on the environment. Youtube. February 2020. ⇤4. Royal Institue of British Architects Facebook page. Next month marks 30 years since Prince Charles’s (in)famous ‘Carbuncle’ speech.... Facebook. April 2014. ⇤5. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Royal Gala Evening at Hampton Court Palace. Prince of Wales Official Website. May 1984. ⇤

Reports say President Biden doesn’t trust some of the Secret Service agents, or their biting incident accounts about his dog Major. A FOIA lawsuit regarding Commander Biden was filed against the DHS by the same GOP group who targeted Champ and Major.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we’re going to talk about the new Biden pets, Commander the German Shepherd, Willow the tabby cat and Poppet the unofficial White House rabbit, but also about Major and the late Champ Biden and how they were turned into political weapons and attacked by right wing groups, in court and on live TV. And we have some “barking news”: president Zelensky, Olena Zelenska, and their children have more than just two dogs: they also have a hamster and a cat. If you like our content, please become a patron. Major Biden is the only pet in history whose less than perfect behavior was considered reason enough to "file a FOIA lawsuit against the United Stated Department of Homeland Security for records of communication between Secret Service officials assigned to the White House regarding the Biden family dogs." One’s pets and children are/should be off limits in politics, even if the politics of their humans is not your cup of tea. On that note, thanks to President Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush for adopting puppy Freddy Bush from the SPCA of Texas and rescuing kitty Bernadette from the side of the road and giving them a wonderful, spoiled life, along with Bob, the second Bush cat. We discuss the attack against a 13 year old dog, Champ, by a Newsmax host. Gregg Kelly and two guests presented agreed on live TV that Champ “is dirty, looks rough, disheveled, like a junkyard dog.” This attack was connected to senator Ted Cruz who fled to Cancun during the 2021 Texas freeze, leaving his poodle Snowflake alone in a house with no electricity and no heat. Texas monthly editor Michael Hardy brought this fact to light and the Twitter account The Oval Pawffice spread the Snowflake news. Newsmax attacked this account while lying to their viewers, stating the account belonged to Jen Psaki. Newsmax viewers mass reported the account until the Twitter algorithm banned it. But thanks to the adorable fox red Labrador retriever Gipper, Juris Dog-tor at Clare Locke, a boutique law firm, The Oval Pawffice was reinstated in 24 hours. Gipper wrote an official letter to Twitter’s Legal Counsel making it clear that The Oval Pawffice didn’t break any rules. This letter is a work of art, it’s written in doggo, Gipper signed it with his own paw print. 1, 2 Next: fun stories about FDR’s dog Major, Pete Roosevelt, Barney Bush, Juno and Satan Adams, parrot Poll Jackson, Old Ike the Woodrow Wilson ram and Rebecca Coolidge the racoon. We think wild animals should be protected and they should live in their own habitat. Sanctuaries yes, zoos no. Foreign presidential pets like Nemo Macron and Konni Putin (Konni sadly passed away) are included too. Farts, hair dye and Rudi Giuliani are also a thing in this episode. 3 We conclude by asking everyone to please donate to animal organizations on the ground in Ukraine. They need our help, now more than ever, so please help out if you can. And please ADOPT DON’T SHOP. 4 1. Joe Patrice. Twitter Bans Fan Account For Joe Biden’s Pets… . Above The Law. February 2021. ⇤2. The Oval Pawffice twitter account. How to Help Pets in Ukraine. Twitter. April 2022. ⇤3. The Star Youtube account. Macron's Dog Pees in Elysee Meeting. Youtube. October 2017. ⇤4. Michael Hardy Twitter account. @mkerrhardy. Twitter. 2022 ⇤

William and Kate, Harry and Meghan, the pageantry, ceremony, the Crown Jewels, and a special chicken recipe: What should we expect from the coronation of King Charles III?This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In 1937, the 11 year old Princess Elizabeth had watched her father, King George VI crowned in the elaborate ceremony and 16 years later on 2 June 1953, her own official coronation was to take place. Now, Prince Charles will become King the moment Her Majesty passes away. And William will be watching his father’s coronation. Prince Charles was the first child to witness his mother's coronation as Sovereign. Princess Anne, his sister, did not attend the ceremony as she was considered too young. He received a special hand-painted children's invitation to his mother's Coronation. 1 The Coronation of King Charles will be scaled down, less expensive and more inclusive than any other previous similar ceremony. 2 Prince Charles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall are to be crowned side by side, together, and I like that a lot. Camilla will become Queen Consort. The last time the honor was bestowed was in 1937 when the Queen's mother sat alongside King George VI. 3 In this episode we also discuss The Royal Mews – the Gold Coach, the royal cars and the horses - , as well as the Crown Jewels and their significance. The St. Edward's Crown, made in 1661, will be placed on the head of The King during the Coronation service. It weighs 4 pounds and 12 ounces and is made of solid gold and 44 gemstones, including rubies, garnets, sapphires and tourmalines. After the crown, the orb, also made in 1661, is the most important piece of regalia. It is a globe of gold surrounded by a cross girdled by a band of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphire and pearls with a large amethyst at the summit. The Coronation ring, known as 'The Wedding Ring of England' – because the monarch’s first duty is not family but country – will be placed on The King’s fourth finger of his right hand in accordance with tradition. This ring was made for the Coronation of King William IV in 1831, William himself commissioned the British jeweler Rundell, Bridge & Rundell to create the symbolic sapphire ring with baguette-cut rubies in the form of a cross across the face. The rubies represent the cross of St. George (for England) and the sapphire represents the Scottish flag. 4 When Charles becomes King, he will change the royal insignia, he will put his own stamp on the reign by changing the designs of everything from mail boxes to police uniforms. Instead of the ER II insignia, during Charles’ reign, the Tudor Crown design will be used. We also debate whether a traditional coronation recipe called Coronation Chicken is exceptional or.. disappointing. The recipe is linked below. 5 1. 50 Facts about The Queen's Coronation. The Royal Household. ⇤2. Mehera Bonner. This Is What Prince Charles's Coronation Will Be Like (Because Yep, It's Already Planned). Cosmopolitan. June 2022. ⇤3. Kate Mansey. Charles and Camilla to be Crowned Side by Side: Prince of Wales's Plans for a Scaled Down Coronation Codenamed 'Operation Golden Orb' that will be Shorter and Cheaper are Revealed. The Daily Mail. February 2022. ⇤4. Queen's Platinum Jubilee Final Day 05/06/22. Youtube. June 2022. ⇤5. Andrea Soranidis. The Original Coronation Chicken. The Petite Cook. February 2019. ⇤

Since we covered the SCOTUS, we also looked at the local judiciary around the U.S. Spoiler alert: not good. A judge from Arkansas named Mike Maggio posted himself from the bench to prison by revealing the details of a sealed adoption by Charlize Theron.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Mike Maggio even took bribes from a nursing home corporation to reduce negligence / wrongful death judgments against the company and pinned all of this stuff on himself by posting about it on a college football forum. Maggio’s flagrant abuse of the law was uncovered by Matt Campbell of Blue Hog Report, a great example of a blog for any would-be local issues journalist. 1 As it turns out, Maggio may be the norm rather than the exception. A study of judge misconduct nationwide found approximately 16-20% of them have had some sort of reprimand, but 90% remained in office after being punished. Of those nefarious judges, 2/3 were punished anonymously so that possible victims of those judges can't even pinpoint their names. 2 Sandra talks about her time volunteering for a Senate campaign for Beto O'Rourke in Texas and we close up by recommending that people pay a little more attention to their local offices and local issues. You can do a lot more with a few friends and neighbors in your hometown than the spectacle of a presidential election can do for you. All of this brought to mind the all-time great political speech from Jesse Jackson during the 1984 campaign. "Rocks, just layin' around..." 3 1. Matt Campbell. Who Have You Wronged, Mr. Maggio? Hog Nation Turns Its Angry Eyes To You. (Woo woo wooooo.). Blue Hog Report. March 2014. ⇤2. Michael Berens and John Shiffman. Thousands of U.S. Judges Who Broke Laws or Oaths Remained on the Bench. Reuters. June 2020. ⇤3. Jesse Jackson. Rocks Layin' Around Speech. Youtube. October 2020. ⇤

Despite claiming he enjoys Walmart parking lots and RV parks, Clarence Thomas is more of a yacht and private jet guy. His lavish life, bankrolled by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, is far more glamorous than any of us imaginedThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we discuss how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts since joining the court, including $1,200 worth of tires, valuable historical objects and a $5,000 personal check. 1 He also received batteries and a jacket. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our content ad-free. These are the gifts he reported, but it turns out that Harlan Crow took good care of Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas. 2 Justice Thomas lives the life of a movie star or tech bro billionaire, flying on private jets, cruising on million dollar yachts and vacationing in exotic places like the Indonesian islands. Thomas and Crow went together to Bohemian Grove, the rustic Bay Area men-only retreat for the rich and powerful, where rumor has it that captains of industry and powerful politicians roam the grounds naked or in robes, drink profusely and… urinate on trees, all in the spirit of male-bonding. 3, 4 1. Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski. Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire. Propublica. April 2023. ⇤2. Richard A. Serrano and David G. Savage. Justice Thomas Reports Wealth of Gifts. Los Angeles Times. December 2004. ⇤3. Jack Holmes. This Supreme Court Justice Definitely Does NOT Have a Sugar Daddy, They Are Just Friends. Esquire. April 2023. ⇤4. Michael Cabanatuan. Clarence Thomas and Bohemian Grove: Inside the secretive California retreat making headlines. San Francisco Chronicle. April 2023. ⇤

A Russian GRU operative posing as a Brazilian student in the U.S. was arrested, after the FBI and the CIA kept tabs on him for years. Moscow retaliated and detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich on trumped-up charges of espionage.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In this episode we discuss the specifics of Sergey Cherkasov’s arrest: Sergey is a Russian spy, an illegal, arrested by the Danish authorities in Brazil. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes ad-free. Cherkasov’s legend – a made-up bio created by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service – presented him as Victor Muller Ferreira, a Brazilian student in his late 20s. In reality, Sergey is 33 and a spy. Using fake documents, he managed to obtain a post graduate diploma from John Hopkins University. He then was offered a junior analyst position at the International Criminal Court, the same institution that recently issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes in Ukraine. The CIA and the FBI had been keeping tabs on him for a while, so he was arrested in Brazil in April 2022 and will spend the next 15 years in prison. 1 The Russian spy story broke on March 26 in The Guardian, and just 4 days later, on March 30, 2023, the Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested near Moscow. Not a coincidence, this was probably payback for the public embarrassment the Russian intelligence services are facing after a very sloppy operative they trained was caught. 2 Evan Gershkovich, a thirty-one-year-old reporter for the Wall Street Journal is the son of Soviet-born émigrés who came to the U.S. in the late seventies. He was detained while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a city 800 miles east of Moscow. The next day, he was brought to Moscow, formally charged with espionage in a closed hearing, and ordered to be held in Lefortovo Prison awaiting trial. Evan Gershkovich is accredited to work as a journalist in Russia by the country’s foreign ministry. 3 1. Greg Miller. He came to D.C. as a Brazilian student. The U.S. says he was a Russian spy.. The Washington Post. March 2023. ⇤2. Joshua Yaffa. The Unimaginable Horror of a Friend’s Arrest in Moscow. The New Yorker. March 2023. ⇤3. Daniel Michaels, Vivian Salama, and Jared Malsin. White House Condemns Russia’s Detention of Wall Street Journal Reporter. The Wall Street Journal. March 2023. ⇤4. Greg Botelho. Dangerous diplomacy: A look at U.S. diplomats killed in the line of duty. CNN. March 2015. ⇤

Mixing fraud and fame is a bad idea. In this episode we discuss two scammers who inexplicably thought they could be both con men and social media influencers at the same time. Predictably, both found prison in addition to internet fame.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Theodore Robert Wright III went from cell phone case kiosks as a teenager to crashing airplanes for fun and profit as an adult and took the bold move of filming himself after (intentionally) crashing a plane into the Gulf of Mexico and trying to pitch the accident to the cell phone case company to create a “Red Bull moment.” If you like our content, please become a patron to get all our episodes AD-FREE. It's all very strange, and well detailed in the article written by Katy Vine for the Texas Monthly about our man Theodore, which details how his scheme to set a private jet on fire at the Athens, Texas municipal airport got Theodore in the sights of ATF agent Jim Reed, and ultimately landed him in the slammer. 1 We also discuss whether ostriches should be shoes, how it's totally fine to get a manicure as a man if she thinks you're hot already, how to bum money from a sultan for the CIA and then instantly lose it because you are bad with account numbers, and last but not least, how getting your secretary pregnant is a pretty good way to get divorced and thus lose your private flying hobby. Lastly, we cover the case of a guy who decided to be a fake Saudi prince. While it's not technically illegal to be an imaginary persona on Instagram, it is illegal to impersonate a diplomat apparently. And certainly illegal to use that persona to defraud foolish business partners out of about 8 million dollars. It turns out that Prince Khalid al-Saud from Instagram is really not Prince Khalid al-Saud, but rather Anthony Gignac from Michigan. In this part of the episodes we discuss whether a dog needs a grill, which is cooler out of gold beheading swords or gold stoning stones, and how botox may or may not give your camel an unfair advantage in the camel show. 2, 3 1. Katy Vine, The Wildest Insurance Fraud Case Texas has Ever Seen, Texas Monthly, September 2020. ⇤2. Ian Lecklitner, Braces For Dogs Aren't as Dicey as They Seem, Mel Magazine, 2020. ⇤3. Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jack Guy, Camels Ejected from Beauty Contest Over Botox Use and Other 'Tampering', CNN, December 2021. ⇤

Charles Taylor, the former warlord and president of Liberia, “sponsored” by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, left a swath of death and destruction through the country in the 1980s and 1990s.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Charles and Chuckie Taylor left a swath of death and destruction through the country of Liberia in the 1980s and 1990s, which culminated in both of them being run out of political office and tried and convicted of war crimes. If you like our content please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free. Charles Taylor was the son of an Americo-Liberian judge from Monrovia, Liberia, and his privileged upbringing in private American schools prepared him for the future that would see him befriend the Firestone Tire and Rubber country, and orchestrate a bloody revolution which killed over 250,000 people and exiled a million more from his home country. 1 Taylor's rise began with a post in the administration of the dictator who came to power from a prior coup in Liberia. During that time Taylor was head of purchasing and procurement, and skimming the contracts in that office for personal profit landed him in jail in the US awaiting extradition back to Liberia, after he fled from fraud charges in Monrovia. But he struck a deal with the American intelligence agencies and Firestone to overthrow the current Liberian dictator, and the CIA helped him escape from the American jail and start his genocidal revolution on the borders of Liberia and neighboring countries like Guinea and the Ivory Coast. 2 Taylor's violent revolution ultimately failed to capture Monrovia, but he was elected to the country's presidency anyway. His revolution sponsored by Firestone had given him far better access to mass media facilities than his competitors, so despite running ads with the crazy slogan "he killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I'm voting for Charles Taylor," Taylor won the presidency of Liberia by an election in 1997. But his success would not last. Just a few short years after his election he was run out of office just as he had overthrown his predecessor, Sergeant Samuel Doe, a former Liberian army soldier who had in turn overthrown the government of his predecessor, William Tolbert. All of this is very well documented in an excellent series of articles published by PBS and ProPublica, which was later turned into a documentary for PBS as well. Charles Taylor is now serving a life sentence in prison for war crimes after having been convicted by the international court at the Hague. Chuckie Taylor is now serving a life sentence after having been convicted on a similar charge in the US, he's the first American citizen to be convicted of torture abroad. As of the writing of these articles we're citing from the early 2000s, Chuckie's sadistic commander Bill Horace, who was known for crucifying villagers he caught looting abandoned plantations, was still living a free life in Toronto, Canada. 3 1. T. Christian Miller and Jonathan Jones. Firestone and the Warlord. ProPublica. November 2014. ⇤2. Charles Taylor 'worked' for CIA in Liberia. BBC. January 2012. ⇤3. Michael Petrou. Safe haven for an alleged killer. MacLeans. March 2010. ⇤

Four Americans were ambushed and caught up in a cartel shootout in Matamoros, then held hostage for days – apparently, the gunmen thought they were Haitian drug smugglers. Two of them were killed, two survived.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. Four friends from North Carolina, Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, Eric James Williams, Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard traveled to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, for a medical procedure. 1 Latavia McGee was supposed to get a tummy tuck, but things didn’t go as planned. If you like our content, become a patron, you'll get all of our episodes ad-free. Their car was shot at and the four were taken hostage by the Scorpion division of the Gulf Cartel before they were able to reach the clinic where Latavia McGee had her abdominoplasty appointment. Sadly, Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were killed. An innocent passerby was also murdered by the cartel, by mistake. 2 In this episode we discuss all the theories and rumors surrounding this case, the level 4 “do not travel” advisory issued by the State Department, the timeline and chain of events, medical tourism in Mexico, the cartel’s apology letter and the verified facts that should be considered before jumping to conclusions. 3, 4 1. Lewis Pennock. Woman denied entry into Mexico with 'Tummy Tuck Four' claims group told her they'd return in just 15 MINUTES.... The Daily Mail. March 2023. ⇤2. David Wolf Twitter account. Just the usual dragging of bodies... (video: graphic). Twitter. March 2023. ⇤3. Nyamekye Daniel. Authorities Explore Drug Smuggling Motive As Apology Letter, Photos of Suspects from Cartel Raise Public Suspicion In Case of Americans Kidnapped In Mexico. Atlanta Black Star. March 2023. ⇤4. Jorge L. Ortiz, Rick Jervis, Kevin Johnson, and Josh Meyer. Mexican cartel apologizes for kidnapping, killing Americans, turns over 5 it says responsible. USA Today. March 2023. ⇤

How a sketchy aviation academy in Texas drove an immigrant flight student to suicide. Yan Yang was supposed to learn how to be an airline pilot. Instead, the 21 yo was bullied, made to mop floors and clean toilets.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. We're talking about an aviation school in Denton, Texas that is accused of driving a Chinese student to suicide in 2019. According to plaintiff accusations, this aviation school had Chinese students mopping floors, cleaning toilets, and holding the doors open for passers-by, rather than getting the flight training they had paid for when they came to the US to learn to be airline pilots. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free! 1, 2, 3 The school also let an airplane fly despite repeated engine failure events according to an NTSB Report about a crash that killed another Chinese student and the student's 25 year old American instructor. Predictably, at least one of the owners of this school lists a history of employment and contracts with companies like Halliburton, Texaco, etc. 4, 5 1. Marshall Reid. Chinese parents sue Denton County aviation academy over son's death archive copy. Denton Record-Chronicle. September 2020. (archive copy) ⇤2. Reddit: Chinese parents sue.... /r/denton subreddit. September 2020. ⇤3. Reddit: Denton aviation academy photos. /r/denton subreddit. October 2020. ⇤4. Megan Gray-Hatfield. ‘Our hearts are heavy’: Memorial set up to honor 2 killed in plane crash. Gainesville Daily Register. July 2019. ⇤5. NTSB. Aviation Accident Summary CEN19FA238. Accidents App. August 2019. ⇤

This is a crazy, lesser-known story of Titan II missile silos, a poultry tariff with serious repercussions for the environment, and relations between France, US, and Germany after WW2.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. In the 1950s, Senator Fulbright from Arkansas politely told a gathering of NATO countries that he would withhold military aid if the French and Germans put a tariff on American frozen chicken. Arkansas was home to not only the largest chicken corporation in the world, but also dozens of Titan II missile silos. If you like our content, please become a patron to get more bonus episodes like this one, and all of our public episodes ad-free as well. This strange congruence of conflicting nefarious interests incidentally led us to the environmental catastrophe we face decades later. The Johnson administration's retaliation to the chicken tax was to put a tariff on trucks, and in response the American car companies doubled up on marketing trucks and SUVs to Americans due to that protected market. So in a manner of speaking, the reason that the sky here in Dallas is yellow with exhaust fumes on a hot summer day is because of fallout from a war over frozen chickens, although presidents after Johnson and Kennedy have done their part to push us further toward ruin as well. 1, 2 Not to be outdone: hog farms. We also discuss the abuses of the hog farming industry in North Carolina and how they inevitably pollute rivers after every single hurricane hits that state, from overflowing open-pit waste collection ponds. As we mention in the episode, this video was captured by a reporter investigating a coal ash spill after hurricane Florence in 2018. We found out later that the coal ash was mixed with pig feces. 3 1. Western Europe: Nobody But Their Chickens. Time Magazine. November 1962. ⇤2. Rod Leonard. The USDA Plan for Deregulating and Privatizing Meat and Poultry Inspection: A Short History. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. December 2013. ⇤3. ABC World News Tonight. DAM FEARS: Aerials show Florence floodwaters breaching a dam that contains a large lake at a Wilmington, North Carolina, power plant.... ABC News. September 2018. ⇤

On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train transporting deathly chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Weeks after the toxic train wreck, residents have reported a growing number of symptoms – from rashes and nausea to headaches and trouble breathing.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. After the train derailed at approximately 9 PM ET, the chemicals it transported, such as vinyl chloride, were intentionally burned off in a controlled explosion, which prompted a temporary evacuation of the area. If you like our content and want to support us, please become a patron to get all of our episodes ad-free. The waterways and creeks around East Palestine are covered in an oily sheen, fish died and now people and animals in the area are experiencing worrying symptoms. For almost two weeks, the media was silent. Similarly, the local authorities did not say much either. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, said in a press conference on Feb 14, 2023, ten days after the East Palestine ecological disaster: ‘Look, President Biden called me and said, “Anything you need.” I have not called him back after that conversation. We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it.’ The EPA and FEMA are on the ground, debate continues whether it is safe to breathe the air or drink the water in the area. Questions are being raised regarding the extent and reach of this environmental disaster, too. 1, 2 In this episode we also look at the peculiar similarities between the East Palestine toxic train derailment and the very similar fictional event described in the novel White Noise. This coincidence is reminiscent of another unbelievable case: the 1979 the film “The China Syndrome” with Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon. This movie about a nuclear plant explosion in Three Mile Island came out in theaters one week before the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in Pennsylvania, which led to 140,000 people being evacuated out of their homes. 3 1. Alex Presha,Brandon Chase ,Morgan Winsor andIsabella Murray. Ohio train derailment: EPA administrator visits East Palestine, asks residents to 'trust the government'. ABC News. February 2023. ⇤2. This isn't a railway in a Third World County, This is in Ohio. Twitter. February 2023. ⇤3. Alison Stine. The eerie parallels between Netflix's "White Noise" and the Ohio train derailment disaster. Salon. February 2023. ⇤

After his secret girlfriend tipped off the authorities, McGonigal was arrested over ties with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Jan 2023. As Chief of FBI’s Counterintelligence in New York, Charles McGonigal had near limitless access to US secrets.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS today to get 10% off your first month of therapy. This week we tell the story of a top FBI agent, Charles McGonigal, and his ties with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin and the former employer of Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair. If you like our content, please become a patron to get all of our episodes ad free. 1 McGonigal took $225,000 in secret cash payments from someone who had served as an Albanian intelligence officer. McGonigal concealed that relationship, as well as his meetings with Sergey Shestakov, from the Bureau. FBI’s New York Chief of Counterintelligence also had an extramarital affair with a woman named Allison Guerriero, who later became Rudy Giuliani’s house guest and biggest supporter. The events are reminiscent of the Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen spy cases. 2 During his time with the FBI, McGonigal led the WikiLeaks investigation into Chelsea Manning, and oversaw the search for a Chinese mole inside the CIA. McGonigal was arrested In January 2023 at Kennedy International Airport. Shestakov was arrested at his US home in a simultaneous operation. Both men are accused of receiving payments through shell companies and forging signatures to conceal the fact that Deripaska was paying them. [^3] They have both been charged with money laundering charges, in addition to charges for violating sanctions. Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 3 1. Mattathias Schwartz. Exclusive: The FBI's McGonigal labyrinth. Business Insider. Feb 2023. ⇤2. Mattathias Schwartz. Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy hunter charged with taking Russian money. Insider. Jan 2023. [^3] Benjamin Weiser and William K. Rashbaum. Former Senior F.B.I. Official in New York Charged With Aiding Olig:arch. New York Times. Jan 2023. ⇤4. Craig Unger. Did the FBI’s Charles McGonigal Help Throw the 2016 Election to Trump?. New Republic. Feb 2023. ⇤

A history of knife wielding assassins, from medieval times to Salman Rushdie’s attempted murder in New York, in 2022. The word “assassin” comes from the Persian “hashshashin,” eater of hashish. Who was the first assassin in history?This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Go to https://betterhelp.com/DUBIOUS for 10% off your first month of therapy and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help. We're talking about the attempted killing of Salman Rushdie by Hadi Matar, a New Jersey man obsessed with the Ayatollah Khomeini's Fatwa issued to encourage Rushdie's assassination back in the 1980s after the publication of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. Please become a patron if you like our content, you'll get all of our public episodes ad-free. 1 Fatwas are mostly pretty silly, there are only three recent ones dealing with a person: one in the 1990s was issued for secular Egyptian writer Farag Foda who was murdered in 1992, one was issued in the early 2000s urging the assassination of Libyan president Muhammar al-Gaddafi, and the third for Salman Rushdie in 1989. Rushdie lived with a permanent security presence away from the public eye for a decade due to the threat of violence against him. The term assassin originated with Hassan as-Sabbah, an 11th century Shia revolutionary who seized Alamut castle and the surrounding region without killing soul... by disguising himself as a teacher and gaining the confidence of the castle's guards and diplomats while the ruler of the region was away. With co-conspirators in hand Hassan took control of the castle and founded both one of the medieval world's great libraries and centers of learning, as well as a school for hired killers. The word itself either came from the Persian word "eaters of hashish" or "hashashin" (because anyone who would kill a man who he had spent years befriending only to be killed by guards moments later must be high), or "hassa", the Arabic word for "killing a large population of people." Whichever was the true origin, the prevalence of the word in English comes from Shakespeare, who also used the word in Macbeth to describe the act of killing a king for profit and ambition. We finish by discussing a great article about the state of modern discourse by Kenan Malik printed in the Guardian in 2018, as well as quotes from Rushdie himself and the great fictionalized version of Hassan as-Sabbah's story written by Vladimir Bartol in 1938: the novel Alamut. 2, 3 Episode #DubiMeter = 8 1. Ray Sanchez, Adam Thomas, Kristina Sgueglia, Samantha Beech, Paul P. Murphy, and Lauren Said-Moorhouse. Authorities identify suspect who attacked author Salman Rushdie at western New York event. CNN. August 2022. ⇤2. Kenan Malik. The Satanic Verses sowed the seeds of rifts that have grown ever wider. The Guardian. September 2018. ⇤3. DJ Grothe. Salman Rushdie – Secular Values, Human Rights and Islamism. Point of Inquiry. October 2006. ⇤

Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by five policemen after being stopped illegally for an alleged traffic violation, in what looks like a targeted, personal attack.In this episode we’re talking about some aspects of the Tyree Nichols’ murder that are being discussed less, Memphis and LA deputy gangs, some crazy details of the actual murder that shocked us the most, things like implicit bias and how racism can happen against people of your own race. If you like our content please become a patron and get all of our episodes ad-free. 1 We also discuss the EMTs who didn’t do their jobs properly, the aggravated kidnapping charges, the now disbanded Scorpion Unit, the history of Slave Patrols and why racism is central to policing in America, and many other insane things that make this case so different from other police killings. 2, 3 Nichols was supposedly stopped for reckless driving, but Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis said early Friday morning an investigation and review of available camera footage had found "no proof" of that. All five ex-officers who beat Tyree Nichols to death were charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, one count of aggravated assault, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. The officers involved — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were fired, Davis said, after they violated department policies during the January 7 stop that led to Nichols' death. They are now out on bail awaiting trial. 1. Theodore R. Johnson. Black-on-Black Racism: The Hazards of Implicit Bias. The Atlantic. December 2014. ⇤2. Dr. Gary Potter. The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1. Eastern Kentucky University. June 2013. ⇤3. Lynching In America: Confronting The Legacy Of Racial Terror. Equal Justice Initiative. 3rd ed 2017 ⇤

In a phenomenon dubbed "Sudden Russian Death Syndrome", over two dozen oligarchs, media executives, and high ranking military personnel have died in "accidental" deaths since the start of the Ukraine war.Most have "fallen" out of windows. One fell from his boat and "died instantly" upon hitting the water. One even died from the poisoned toad venom he took from a couple of guru-healers in Moscow who gave him the toxin as a hangover cure. All of these victims of SRDS have run afoul of Putin's favor, and met untimely deaths in the past couple of years. If you like our content please become a patron to support the podcast. You'll get all of our episodes ad-free. 1 We're also talking a bit about the Wagner group, recently declared an international criminal organization by the US State Department. Its leaders have a penchant for Nazi tattoos and brutality, but they also seem to have much more leeway in terms of criticizing the Kremlin than all of the unfortunate oligarchs who fell out of their balcony windows or fell down a flight a stairs. Recently the Russian Army took credit for taking the town of Soledar in Eastern Ukraine, and Wagner Group officials publicly corrected them and chastised the Kremlin for "stealing their victory." In a rare moment of backing down, the Kremlin apologized for the mis-statement. 2 Almost half of the two dozen or so "mysterious deaths" since the beginning of the Ukraine war happened prior to the summer of 2022. 3 1. Elaine Godfrey. Sudden Russian Death Syndrome. The Atlantic. December 2022. ⇤2. Leila Sackur. Victory claims over small Ukrainian town expose rift among Russian forces NBC News. January 2023. ⇤3. Giulia Carbonaro. Every Russian Official Who Has Died Since Putin Invaded Ukraine. Newsweek. April 2022. ⇤

What is truth? With George Santos, who knows. This week we're talking about the most prolific liar in the US Congress, Long Island's recent house member elect: George Santos.In this episode we're talking about who George Santos is and how he got here... here being both the United States and the House of Representatives. If you like our content, please become a patron if you'd like to support us directly. You'll get all of our episodes ad-free. The only thing we know for sure about George is that he is in fact a child of Brazilian immigrants, the rest is a very moving target. We only know that because he has a pending criminal charge in Brazil, apparently he stole the checkbook of a deceased man his mother was caring for and went shopping on the dead man's account. 1 More interestingly, George is apparently quite friendly with Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, via Viktor's cousin in the United States Andrew Intrater. Santos is the largest recipient of funds from Intrater / Vekselberg linked companies in the past election cycle and the only one to get individual donations from both Intrater and his wife. 2 Santos is also linked to an investment firm in Florida called Harbor City Capital which was shut down by the SEC for operating as a ponzi scheme, and directors of that company including Jayson Benoit and Devaughn Dames are now involved in other Republican fundraising and political organizations, such as WinRed and Red Strategies USA. WinRed in particular has some explaining to do, as Santos and another campaign affiliated with his former Harbor City buddies (Tina Forte who ran against AOC in 2022 and lost by 44 points) are accused of fraudulently over-billing donor credit cards via the WinRed payment processing service. 3 WinRed's treasurer is a man named Benjamin Ottenhoff who came up in the Senate campaigns of Rick Scott, the senator from Florida who, unsurprisingly, was the CEO of a company which at the time pled guilty to the largest Medicare fraud in US history. Funny how Republicans pretend to care about how things cost too much but are either throwing money at scams or perpetrating them all the time, isn't it? Predictably, an Ottenhoff firm was also paid quite a bit to "consult" on Kanye West's political campaign, too. 4 1. Grace Ashford and André Spigariol. Brazilian Authorities Will Revive Fraud Case Against George Santos. The New York Times. January 2023. ⇤2. Isaac Stanley-Becker and Rosalind S. Helderman . New details link George Santos to cousin of sanctioned Russian oligarch. The Washington Post. January 2023. ⇤3. Hunter Walker and Josh Kovensky. Campaigns Linked To Santos Left Donors Feeling Ripped Off After Questionable Credit Card Charges. Talking Points Memo. January 2023. ⇤4. Roger Sollenberger and William Bredderman. Kanye West’s ‘Independent’ Campaign Was Secretly Run by GOP Elites. The Daily Beast. ⇤

A Virginia school teacher was shot by her six-year-old student after she tried to confiscate the weapon from the child who was showing off the gun in class.Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said that the shooting was intentional, not an accident. After an altercation with his teacher, 25 year old Abby Zwerner, the first grader shot her twice, once in the abdomen and once in the hand, right there in the classroom. If you like our content please become a patron to support us, you'll get all of our episodes ad-free. Richneck Elementary went on immediate lockdown and first responders were called. The child was taken “into custody”. Besides the obvious discussion about gun control and why would such a young child be able to get hold of a gun, in this episode we discuss the story behind the story, and we’ll analyze how the criminal justice system deals with such young offenders. We look at precedents, what the psychiatrists say and at the societal influence that make events such as this one possible. We are of the opinion that this child is also a victim. 1, 2 We also talk about the child sized gun industry and the lightweight, JR-15 weapon, inspired by the AR-15 and designed for juniors by an American company. 3 1. Antonio Planas and Helen Kwong. 6-year-old is unlikely to be charged in teacher's shooting, but parents could be, experts say. NBC News. January 2023. ⇤2. Erum Salam. Virginia teacher who was shot by six-year-old tried to confiscate gun – report. The Guardian. January 2023. ⇤3. Snejana Farberov. 'It shoots just like mom and dad's gun': Weapons manufacturer unveils AR-15 for KIDS - called JR-15 - that is 20% smaller and weighs just 2.3lbs. The Daily Mail. Feb 2022. ⇤

A Romanian and an American are discussing the twitter obliteration of Andrew Tate by Greta Thunberg, while focusing on the lesser known details of his criminal activity and arrest in Bucharest, his childhood, chess years and current girlfriend.The online feud between teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate is probably one of the best Twitter moments ever. Greta won by knockout, despite Tate’s kickboxing background. If you like our content and want to support us, please become a patron. The Tate brothers – Andrew and Tristan – moved to Bucharest, Romania in 2017 because they thought rape charges are easier to avoid. In April 2022, following a tip-off from the US embassy that a 21-year-old American woman was being held against her will, their Pipera villa was raided. The police found two women being held captive, an American and a Romanian and the brothers were detained for 24 hours, on suspicion of human trafficking and rape. In December 2022, hours after posting a video reply to Greta Thunberg showing two Jerry’s Pizza boxes, DIICOT - Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism – arrested the brothers again, as well as two women who were helping them: Luana Radu – an ex cop - and Georgiana Manuela Naghel, the latter being Andrew Tate’s girlfriend. DIICOT alleged that the four suspects – the Tate brothers and their respective girlfriends - formed an organized criminal group that stretched from Romania to Britain and the United States, for the purpose of committing the crime of human trafficking. 1 The authorities say that the Tate brothers misled the victims “into believing that they intended to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship” – the loverboy scam - while transporting victims to Romania and later sexually exploiting them with physical violence and coercion. Authorities also said one of the suspects raped a victim on two separate occasions in March 2022. At least six victims were allegedly “sexually exploited by the organized criminal group”. 2 In this episode we also take a look at Andrew Tate’s childhood in Chicago, Illinois and Luton, UK, his family history, chess years and kickboxing career. His father, Emory Tate, was a chess International Master. Tristan and Andrew claim that they were very poor, but according to Gandul, their father left them a hotel in Thailand. 3 1. Ovidiu Oanta. The Tate brothers could lose their entire fortune. DIICOT prosecutors seized the million-dollar villa and cars. Stiril Pro-TV. January 2023. ⇤2. Adina Anghelescu. The victims of Andrew and Tristan Tate are starting to make complaints to DIICOT and are asking for damages. Gandul. January 2023. ⇤3. Marius Olaru. Catching the Tate brothers, step by step. Gandul. December 2022. ⇤

How the Mormon church turned their practice of baptizing of the dead into a medical data empire, and managed to amass the world's largest genetic database, which was then sold to Blackstone for billions of dollars.What is Blackstone going to do with the largest archive of print newspapers, human genetic data, and vital records? Let's be honest, it's Blackrock/Blackstone, so it's probably not going to be good. This is a preview, if you like our content and would like to support us, become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free. In the 19th century the early Mormon church was expelled from two different American territories before arriving in Utah, where they remain concentrated to this day. In both cases, stuffing election ballots with overwhelmingly Mormon candidates, intimidation, and land fraud were among the things which got them into violent confrontations with their non-Mormon neighbors. The game was relatively simple: the whole church would move en masse to a small town and as of the next election after their arrival, elect themselves to every single public office. But Mormon aspirations did not stop at political power, it's wealth that people ultimately want, not redemption. In the early Mormon church's days Mormon doctrine said that the bible's bit about "thou shalt inherit the land of thy enemies" was specifically aimed at them. Non-Mormons in the towns that Mormons moved to in Missouri or Illinois found themselves harassed into selling their property to members of the Mormon church, and those who refused could be dealt with in "other ways" if the Mormons had full political authority in the territory. Fast forward to the last two decades, and the same Mormon church had not only amassed control of local county deeds and estate records, but also amassed America's largest newspaper archive, and the world's largest genetic data archive. They sold it all to Blackstone in 2018 for four and a half billion dollars, and subsequently, Blackstone was accused of buying apartment blocs in Denmark that were deed restricted against private landlord ownership. That sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it? 1 In the modern Mormon church's case, all of this data is wrapped up in the church doctrine of baptizing the dead. Mormons believe that they can posthumously baptize people who will be offered redemption in the afterlife. It's all very tech savvy and post-COVID, in that people who are dead and buried are baptized "remotely" by stand-in surrogates in Mormon temples. 2 In the US, a charity organization named "Reclaim the Records" is trying to fight back against the practice of hoarding vital records by private companies, by suing government agencies which refuse to honor FOIA requests from individuals, journalists, and non-profits while selling data to for-profit companies. 3 1. Katie Notopoulos. Ancestry.com Is In Cahoots With Public Records Agencies, A Group Suspects. Buzzfeed. October 2018. ⇤2. Kristofer Rhude. Mormons, Genetics, & Digitized Data. Harvard Divinity School. 2019. ⇤3. Reclaim the Records. Official Website. 2022. ⇤

How the notorious Jennings, Louisiana sherriff's and police departments covered up the murders of 8 young women between 2005 and 2010.In this episode we're talking about the murders of 8 young women in southwest Louisiana, as reported in the great book and documentary television series "Murder in the Bayou" by Ethan Brown. The story is not only a true crime television series, but also very close in plot details to the first season of the fictional HBO series True Detective, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, written by Nic Pizzolatto. If you like our content please become a patron to get all of our public episodes ad-free. 1 The Jennings, Louisiana law enforcement agencies were notorious nationwide before these murders took place. In the 1990s they made national news in an investigation by NBC's Dateline, into fraudulent drug charges related to vehicle seizures along Interstate 10 between Houston and New Orleans. The Jennings area police complicit in that scam were paying themselves bonuses for fake drug busts and buying lavish toys and properties with the ill gotten proceeds. But a lot is never enough, and those same police graduated to running protection for other criminal enterprises later on in the early 2000s. Most of the drug and sex trade in Jennings ran through a strip club owner named Frankie Richard, who was not surprisingly also the police's most prized informant. Frankie was implicated in at least two of the murders of the 8 women discussed in this episode, but was never tried for the crimes despite eye-witness accounts detailing the manner in which he and his niece killed the two victims. Another man was stabbed to death after only saying that he knew what happened to one of the dead girls. A third man was mysteriously hit by a train. 2 And last but not least, but perhaps most predictably, Republican congressman Charles Boustany was rumored to have frequented a motel in Jennings where the 8 dead girls often sold sexual favors. Frankie Richard said he had sex with 3 of the girls who wound up dead, and the motel was being managed and operated by one of Boustany's campaign staffers at the time. The accusations cost Boustany his 2008 run for the US Senate, but he remained the US House Representative from the district encompassing Jennings until 2017. Family values, folks. 3 1. David Renshaw. HBO executive admits he rushed ‘True Detective’ writer into creating second season. NME. January 2016. ⇤2. Ethan Brown. Who Killed the Jeff Davis 8?. Medium. January 2014. ⇤3. Allegra Kirkland. What’s The Deal With Those Wild Prostitution Claims Against A GOP Rep.?. Talking Points Memo. September 2016. ⇤

A Yoga school in Buenos Aires full of classical musicians has operated for over 30 years as a hidden international sex cult.We're talking about the recent raid by the Argentine Federal Police's Human Trafficking unit of a sex cult that has operated internationally from Buenos Aires for the past 3 decades... at least. If you like our content please become a patron to get our episodes ad-free. In late August the Argentine Federal Police raided a yoga school filled with cash, gold, property titles, cars, and oddly... sex toys. It turns out that this was the second time the school had been accused of running a human trafficking organization. In the 1990s the school was charged with similar crimes but the case never went to trial, presumably because of the wealthy participants involved. The organization's director Juan Percowicz is arrested and awaiting trial, along with pianist Susana Mendelievich, and renowned oboe performer Mariano Kraus. Opera soprano Verónica Iacono is currently an international fugitive, also facing charges related to the cult. The late violinist Rubén González was the director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when he opened the Buenos Aires Yoga School's Chicago location back in the 1990s, as well. 1 This time, there are wiretaps detailing the cult's activities and those wiretaps contain multiple mentions of the world's most famous living opera singer: Placido Domingo. This isn't the first time Domingo has been involved in sex scandals. While paying for sex in Argentina is legal and he faces no criminal charges related to the sex cult in Buenos Aires, he was fired from his management roles in the Kennedy Center Opera Company and the LA Opera Company over complaints that he had sexually harassed female performers. 2 As it turns out Placido was a customer of the young girls which the cult provided to wealthy clients, but prostitution wasn't their main business. The larger share of their profits came from a scientology-type cult which promised people spiritual healing for everything from drug addiction to chronic pain. The young sex workers were just a way to lure in cult members who were then coerced into changing their wills to gift their property to the cult upon their deaths. 3 A man named Pablo Salum has extensive information on the cult going back to the time when his parents joined it in the 1990s when he was a teenage boy. Pablo has started an advocacy organization called "Libre Mentes" or, "Free Minds" in English, which advocates for laws to combat coercive religious cults in Latin America. 4 Episode #Dubimeter: 9.5 1. Phil Greenfield. ASO Concert Strikes Strange Chord. Baltimore Sun. November 1995. ⇤2. Anastasia Tsioulcas. LA Opera Finds 'Inappropriate Conduct' Claims Against Plácido Domingo Credible. NPR. March 2020. ⇤3. Frederico Molina. Sex, drugs and promises of happiness: The Buenos Aires Yoga School’s money-making machine. El Pais. August 2022. ⇤4. Pablo Salum. Here I begin the THREAD where it will be clear to you with documentation, how the human rights organizations were complicit, helped and protected the #Secta who has my family!. Ley Antisectas Twitter account. March 2018. ⇤

A mysterious gunman opened fire on two grid substations in North Carolina, in a targeted attack during a drag show organized by Naomi Dix at a local theater which left more than 38,000 people in Moore County without power, in freezing temperatures.The Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines went dark in an instant. The drag show was called off early, and shortly thereafter a woman named Emily Rainey seemed to take credit for the power outage in a public Facebook post. The local sheriff has questioned her in relation to the Facebook posts and determined that she's not the culprit after "a word of prayer." ...Right. 1 If you like our content and would like to support us, please become a patron to get our public episodes ad-free. This wasn't the first drag show Emily Rainey has protested, she's been attending them in secret according to her Instagram posts for quite some time. She's also a regular guest on the podcast of a priest officially made into a hermit by the Catholic church due to his outrageous political opinions 2 This isn't the first time Emily Rainey has made national news, either. She was forced out of her Army commission after bringing a bus of 100 people to attend the January 6 riots in D.C. after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Since then she's rebranded herself as a right wing activist figure in charge of an organization called "Moore County Citizens for Freedom" but there's just one problem: according to voter records she doesn't even live in Moore County. 3 What she does do, according to her own social media history, is get pregnant after an affair with another woman's husband. The Calvary Christian School in Southern Pines was apparently very concerned about the drag show, but not as concerned with Emily's baby daddy situation. Shocker. 4 1. Khaleda Rahman. Emily Rainey Photo With Sheriff Amid North Carolina Outage Raises Questions. Newsweek. December 2022. ⇤2. Fr. Dave Nix. In Exile From a Kidnapped Bride. Padreperegrino.org. September 2022. ⇤3. Tom Cleary. Emily Grace Rainey: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. Heavy.com. December 2022. ⇤4. Taylor Shook. 'It was a beautiful moment': Moore County drag show goes on despite power outages. Fayetteville Observer. December 2022. ⇤

The concept of Russian Roulette has a very interesting history and over time, this soldiers’ trick game became a dangerous film stunt.In this episode we're re-watching the Deer Hunter, the first film made about the Vietnam War after it ended, which featured scenes of POWs (and paid participants in back-alley gambling houses) playing what we know as "Russian Roulette", in which two participants shoot a revolver at their own heads with a bullet randomly placed into one chamber of the gun. If you like our content please become a patron to support us, and you'll get our public episodes ad-free. It turns out that the history of Russian Roulette started as a ficitonal plot device but became more "real" for lack of a better word when it made it to American film audiences, as multiple people have actually died imitating the scenes from the movie with real guns and real bullets. The film was a massive success for the director Michael Cimino, it was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 5 of them. It also launched the career of Meryl Streep, who was the lead actress of the film alongside her tragically dying lover at the time, John Cazale, who passed away from cancer shortly after the film was completed. Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro also starred in the film, and they of course went on to great acting careers as well. 1 Long term success was not in the cards for Cimino, however. He tried to rip off the author of the Deer Hunter, Deric Washburn, when the original story was modified into a film script but history has proven Washburn to be a more capable writer than Cimino. Cimino's next film, Heaven's Gate, was a massive failure that actually bankrupt United Artists, the studio which financed it. While the film industry is distinctly American, Sandra's home country was not spared having to sit through all 3 and a half hours of the Deer Hunter either, she has a hilarious story of the one lady who translated all bootleg American films during the last days of communism, to varying degrees of accuracy. Irina Margareta Nistor was the voice of everyone in a film she translated, and thus the voice of American film for many Romanians. Sadly the title of the Deer Hunter was not available when she translated it back in the 1980s and it came out as "Dear Hunter" which Sandra says is still a running joke today. 2 We also talk about other dangerous (or marketed as dangerous) film stunts, such as the tragic deaths of Vic Morrow and two children on John Landis's set for the film version of The Twilight Zone in the 1980s, The multiple cases of accidental shootings on film sets most notably Brandon Lee's fatal shooting on the set of The Crow, and Alec Baldwin's accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. 3, 4 1. Peter Biskind on Michael Cimino’s Twisted, Tortured Legacy: “A Mystery in Death as He Was in Life”. Hollywood Reporter. July 2016. ⇤2. Kit Gillet. The Voice That Brought Hollywood Films to Communist Romania’s TV Screens. The Guardian. December 2014. ⇤3. youtube user Seawyatt. "The Program" deleted scene. Youtube. September 2012. ⇤4. Pilot Voiced Fears, 'Zone' Co-worker Says. The Washington Post. January 1987. ⇤

In the second part of this series we discuss Putin's first years in office, in particular the Moscow apartment bombings and the Moscow theater hostage crisis. Both events were blamed on Chechen militants despite overwhelming evidence of state involvement.This episode picks up in Putin's first term as president, which almost immediately was overshadowed by the Moscow apartment bombings, which were blamed on Chechen terrorists despite all signs pointing to the KGB / FSB. The FSB had recently acquired large quantities of hexogen, an explosive found at the scene. Composite sketches of a suspect were circulated by police and local press, and then erased from existence at the behest of the FSB when they decided upon a suspect: Chechen rebellion leader Achemez Gochiyaev. Please become a patron if you enjoy our content and want to support us, you'll get all of our public episodes ad-free. Key to investigating the FSB's links to these bombings were three people we have mentioned before, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, former media oligarch Boris Berezovsky, and reporter Anna Politkovskaya, all of whom have since been murdered by Russian intelligence or mobsters since that time. If you want to read more on this subject, we recommend Blowing Up Russia by Litvinenok and Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky, as well as From Russia With Blood by Heidi Blake. 1, 2 Following the bombings, the Moscow theater crisis was another event in which the FSB was complicit in killing Russian civilians and blaming the carnage on Chechen militants. An entire theater was taken hostage leading to a multi-day seige from Russian police and military, after which the FSB gassed the theater, killing indiscriminately both hostage-takers and hostages alike. It seems that the lone "Chechen militant" escapee from the crisis, Khanpasha Terkibayev, was kicked out of dozens of local Chechen resistance organizations, because everyone in his home region suspected him of being an informant for the FSB. 1. Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky, Blowing Up Russia, Encounter Books, March 2007. ⇤2. Heidi Blake, From Russia with Blood: The Kremlin's Ruthless Assassination Program and Vladimir Putin's Secret War on the West, Mulholland Books, November 2019. ⇤

In the first of a two part series, we discuss Putin's assignment in Dresden to the KGB office that managed Soviet support of international leftist terrorists such as Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez, the PLO, and the RAF.Putin's time in the Stasi represents his formative years as a KGB administrator working with the East German intelligence police. Putin was tasked with two activities during this time that carry through to the rest of his political career. Please become a patron if you enjoy our content and would like to support us directly, you'll get all of our public episodes ad-free. In addition to providing money and weapons to people like the RAF (Red Army Faction), PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization), and Carlos The Jackal, Putin was also on the board of directors for the first collaborative corporation formed between East Germany and Russia called SPAG. This company was later investigated by German authorities for connections to money laundering, particularly for organized crime syndicates like the Colombian cocaine cartels and the Russian mafia. We then discuss Putin's time on the staff of St. Petersberg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, the primary author of the Russian constitution that was established after the fall of the Soviet party, and how Putin continued his penchant for getting himself into positions tasked with distributing formerly state-owned property to private hands, and how Putin used this authority to buy favor within the ranks of Russia's oligarchy. We finally discuss Putin's time doing basically the same tasks for the Yeltsin administration on the staff of Pavel Borodin who was the Moscow figure also tasked with redistributing former state property to business interests, and finally Putin's appointment to the head of the FSB, after which Putin killed his law school mentor and long-time friend Sobchak during his first run for the Russian Presidency. The books of two authors were invaluable for the research for this episode. First, Dr Karen Dawisha at Miami Ohio University and her research into the Stasi records that survived from Putin's time in East Germany, and secondly the articles and books of Catherine Belton. 1, 2, 3, 4 1. Karen Dawisha, Vladimir Putin, Operation LUCH, and Matthias Warning: The Secret KGB-Stasi Relationship (appendix), Miami Ohio University, 2014. ⇤2. Catherine Belton, Did Vladimir Putin Support Anti-Western Terrorists as a Young KGB Officer?, Politico, June 2020. ⇤3. Catherine Belton, Putin's Name Surfaces in German Probe, The Moscow Times, May 2003. ⇤4. Catherine Belton, PUTIN’S PEOPLE: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2020. ⇤

A young journalist boarded the mini submarine UC3 Nautilus in Køge Bay, Denmark, in Aug 2017: she was there to interview the man who built the submarine, Peter Madsen. That was the last time she was seen alive.In this episode we discuss the horrific killing of Kim Wall and the investigation into the only submarine murder in history. This is a preview of a premium episode, if you like our content and would like to support us, please become a patron to get our public episodes ad-free. 1 Kim Wall was reported missing after mini submarine Nautilus failed to return to the Refshaleøen harbor after her scheduled interview with Peter Madsen. The submarine was found sunken the following morning and Madsen was taken into custody by police after being rescued from the water. Between 21 August and 29 November, parts of Wall's dismembered body were found in different locations around the area with the help of cadaver dogs – the pups proved to be essential in solving this case. Charged with her murder, Madsen was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on 25 April 2018 by Copenhagen City Court. 2, 3 1. Kim Wall, Coleen Jose, and Jan Hendrik Hinzel. The Poison and the Tomb. Mashable. February 2018. ⇤2. Ruby Lott-Lavigna. The Story of Kim Wall’s Murder, But Not As You Know It. Vice. January 2021. ⇤3. Martin Shore. Where is Peter Madsen now? Into the Deep Netflix film explained. What to Watch. October 2022. ⇤

Q Anon conspiracy theorist, former “hemp artist” and nudist David DePape tried to murder Paul Pelosi with a hammer, in a middle of the night violent attack.In this episode we try to understand how the assailant, David DePape, was radicalized by the Q Anon cult and when his break from reality started to manifest. We go over all the details of the vicious attack as we explain how conspiracy theories emerge. If you like our content please become a patron to get two bonus premium episodes per month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. “Where is Nancy?” These are the words DePape was screaming as he broke in to the Pelosis’ San Francisco home breaking a glass door in the back of the house, carrying his tool box, at least two hammers and zip ties. The investigators already determined that the target of the attack was The Speaker of The House. 1 The attacker’s plan was to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and probably torture her, “break her kneecaps” and find out more information about other democrats, he had a list of names with him too. 82 year old Paul Pelosi was seriously injured after being struck on the head with a hammer and was rushed to the hospital. 2 The situation was made worse by GOP politicians who started spreading conspiracy theories online. Elon Musk, days after buying Twitter, also got involved, implying in a reply tweet to Hillary Clinton that there’s more to this story and alluding that Paul Pelosi and the attacker were involved sexually. He later deleted that tweet. 3 The one bit of good news is that Jack Dorsey is launching a new social platform, BlueSky Social. 4 1. Brian Klass. This week, 3 men were convicted of trying to.... Twitter. October 2022. ⇤2. Victoria Bekiempis. A secret bathroom 911 call: how Paul Pelosi saved his own life. The Guardian. October 2022. ⇤3. Kurtis Lee. Elon Musk, in a Tweet, Shares Link From Site Known to Publish False News. New York Times. October 2022. ⇤4. BlueSky App. Blue Sky. November 2022. ⇤

The concept of eternal life has fascinated humans for millennia, and now billionaires are investing in anti-aging research in the hopes of cheating death.This episode is about a modern medical take of the old school classics, Dracula and Frankenstein, but in this case the “bloodsuckers” are fancy Silicon Valley start-ups promising rejuvenation to seniors via young blood transfusions. If you like our content, please become a patron to two premium bonus episodes per month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Peter Thiel who created Pay Pal, Larry Ellison the co-founder or Oracle, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders of Google, David Murdock who’s 99 and said he wants to live at least 125 years – all these people donated or invested massive amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, in anti-aging research. 1 We discuss cryonic preservation – freezing one’s dead body in liquid nitrogen to be brought back to life when science evolves enough, downloading one’s consciousness into a digital form and other potential ways of cheating death. 2 We focus in particular on the pseudo scientifical practice of blood / plasma transfusions from young people to seniors – a very dangerous process inspired by parabiosis. Parabiosis means “living beside”, it’s a laboratory technique that involves two organisms which are joined surgically to develop a single, share physiological system.. For example, stitching living mammals together. There were several companies like Ambrosia who offered plasma transfusions collected from teenagers to old people. Ambrosia’s CEO, Jesse Karmazin, even though a medical doctor who graduated from Sandford, was barred from practicing in Massachusetts and when one of his patients died, he claimed the man faked his own death. 3 These “therapies” are dangerous. In fact the FDA said “patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies” and warned that “such treatments have no proven clinical benefits for the uses for which these clinics are advertising them and are potentially harmful.” 4 1. Katie Warren. Millionaires are dropping tens of thousands on 'young blood' transfusions and cryonic preservation. Business Insider. August 2019. ⇤2. Lindsay Dodgson. A 14-year-old in Britain just won the right to have her body frozen for thousands of dollars — here's the science behind it. Business Insider. November 2016. ⇤3. Jesselyn Cook. Notorious ‘Young Blood’ Doctor Claims Dead Patient Faked His Own Death. Huffington Post. October 2019. ⇤4. Erin Brodwin. A controversial startup that charges $8,000 to fill patients’ veins with young blood is opening a clinic in NYC — but researchers whose work inspired it warn it’s dangerous. Business Insider. September 2018. ⇤

Svetlana Iosifovna Stalina, the most famous defector of the cold war, was born in luxury, in the Kremlin and led an extraordinary, tumultuous life. She died destitute at a care home in Wisconsin.In this episode we tell the incredible story of Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, born Stalina and later known as Lana Peters. If you like our content, please become a patron to receive our two exclusive premium episodes each month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Born on February 28, 1926, in Moscow, Svetlana was Stalin’s favorite child and The Princess in The Kremlin. Her mother Nadezhda was a secretary for Lenin and played an important role in Stalin’s rise to power. She committed suicide when Svetlana was just 6 years old. Her brother Vasily was 11 and her half brother Yakov was 25. Artyom, her adopted brother and the only one of her siblings who reached old age, was already a young man. Svetlana had a lonely childhood, very few friends and was interested in literature and poetry. She was the only one that could influence Joseph Stalin. During the Great Purge, she managed to save the lives of many people just by pleading with her father to commute their sentences. She was 10 years old at the time. As a 16 yo teenager, she fell in love with filmmaker Aleksei Kapler, who was 20 years older. Stalin sends him to the Gulag because he was Jewish. Joseph Stalin himself married Nadezhda when she was just 16 years old and he was 39. Svetlana rebelled and married another Jewish man, but their union was short lived. Her first son Josef was born. Her second marriage disintegrates just as fast, but now Svetlana had a daughter too, Yekaterina. During WW2, Her brother Yakov was captured by the Nazis and Stalin refused to exchange him for Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus. Yakov commits suicide by throwing himself on an electrified fence. Vasili dies of alcoholism induced cirrhosis at just 41. After Stalin’s death, Svetlana, now a single mother of two, fell in love with Indian translator Kunwar Brajesh Singh. When he dies, she traveled to Delhi to pour his ashes in the Ganges. In Delhi, Svetlana walked into the US Embassy and defected, bringing her first manuscript– 20 Letters to A Friend – to America. She publishes it and earns almost $1M. Most of her money was spent by William Wesley Peters, the world famous architect and vice president of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation after their marriage and years living together at the Taliesin Fellowship. Her marriage to Peters ended, but they had a daughter together, Olga. She now goes by the name of  Chrese Evans and lives in Portland Oregon. 1 In 1978, Svetlana, now Lana Peters became a US citizen. 2 Her older daughter, Yekaterina, is a volcanologist in Kamchatka Penninsula in Siberia. Her firstborn son Iosef, a cardiologist, died in Russia in 2008. She was never able to see them again after she fled from Russia. On November 22, 2011, Svetlana died of colon cancer, at the Richland center, a care home in Wisconsin. 3 Episode #Dubimeter: 20 1. Nicholas Thompson. My Friend, Stalin's Daughter. The New Yorker. March 2014. ⇤2. Steven V. Roberts. Stalin's Dauhter Confirms Marriaje to Architect. The New York Times. April 1970. ⇤3. Get.factual youtube channel. Stalin's Daughter - Escaping the Shadow. Youtube. July 2022. ⇤

Georgia US Senate Candidate and former American football player Herschel Walker was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder by an ex pastor who believes that demonic possession can be confused with mental illness.In his 2008 book “Breaking Free”, Walker wrote about his DID and struggles with mental illness, noting that his life began to unravel after he retired from the NFL in 1998. Walker went to see his old friend Jerry Mungadze to seek treatment. Jerry Mungadze is not a medical doctor and has dubious views which include a belief in demonic possession and ritual abuse, but nevertheless diagnosed Walker with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Walker said he had 12 alter egos. If you like our content, please become a patron and get our two monthly premium episodes and the weekly public episodes ad-free. 1 Support for DUBIOUS is brought to you by MANSCAPED. Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code DUBIOUS at MANSCAPED.com!  Mungadze employs shady treatment methods that originate in the satanic panic decade which include colored crayons – despite the fact that he admitted to be colorblind. In this episode we discuss Herschel Walker’s mental health battle while taking a look at more realistic causes for his violence and erratic behavior, like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy CTE. In the past 10 years neurosurgeons have found proven links between repeated head injuries suffered by football players and paranoia, depression, memory loss, and violent reactions. A month before the November midterms, Walker, who is running on a conservative family values anti abortion platform, is caught in a web of lies and revelations from his past: he made the mother of one of his out of wedlock children have an abortion and paid for it and has a history of violent outburst against women – retraining orders, stalking accusations, even threatening one of them to “blow off her head” with a loaded gun. His own son Christian Walker accused his father of being a liar and indicated that he abused his mother. 2, 3 1. Shannon McCaffrey. Herschel Walker’s mental health battle raises questions about treatment. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. May 2022. ⇤2. Roger Sollenberger. Herschel Walker, Critic of Absentee Dads, Has Yet ANOTHER Secret Son—and a Daughter. The Daily Beast. Jun 2022. ⇤3. Brian Slodysko. Police records complicate Herschel Walker's recovery story. ABC News. February 2022. ⇤

After a stint in the military, Stewart Rhodes accidentally shot himself in the eye, made his wife strip in nightclubs to pay for his education and, according to her, was violent even to his children, trying to choke his 12 year old daughter.Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder of the Oath Keepers and four others individuals linked to the far-right, anti-government group are now on trial for seditious conspiracy and other charges stemming from the deadly assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. If you like our content, please become a patron and get our two monthly premium episodes and the weekly public episodes ad-free. This episode of Dubious is brought to you by MANSCAPED. Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code DUBIOUS at MANSCAPED.com!  Rhodes is in the first group of Oath Keepers on trial, and the second group trial will happen in November. Two of the 11 people indicted in the case – Brian Ulrich and Joshua James - have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and are cooperating with the government. 1 In this episode we discuss Rhodes’ military career, his personal life and his trajectory from Yale to jail. Rhodes served for 2 years and 7 months and was never deployed in a combat area. He failed the Special Forces Qualification Course after the first week and was discharged with a temporary disability. Soon afterwards, he dropped a gun and shot himself in the eye, hence the eyepatch. 2 He then married Tasha Adams, she was 18 at the time, he was 25. According to his now estranged wife, he made work full time as a stripper to pay for his education and even pushed for her to take things further with the men in the club she was dancing in. After graduating from Yale with a law degree, he gets a clerkship for a judge on the Arizona Supreme Court but his extreme views get him out the door quite fast. 3 This is when he starts formulating the idea of starting an extremist organization. He formally launched the Oath Keepers in Lexington, Massachusetts, on April 19, 2009. 1. Ryan Lucas. In a big Jan. 6 case, Oath Keepers go on trial for seditious conspiracy. NPR. September 2022. ⇤2. Drew Lawrence. What the Military Records of the Oath Keepers' Leader Actually Say About His Service. Military.com. May 2022. ⇤3. Jacques Billeaud and Lindsay Whitehurst. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.... Associated Press. September 2022. ⇤

A story about an American family with a white savior complex, the first snuff film broadcast on national TV, a nameless murder victim executed in a Zambian National Park and a famous novel made into a movie.Before she was a famous fiction author, Delia and her then-husband Mark were anti-poaching activists in both Zambia and Botswana, and are still wanted for questioning in Africa due to a murder which was recorded and broadcast to American audiences in an ABC News documentary in the 1990s. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our additional premium episodes each month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Mark and Delia Owens sold all of their belongings while in grad school at the University of Georgia and moved to Botswana in the 1980s to study wild animals in pursuit of their biology PhDs. But they found a massive poaching operation in which wildebeest herds were slaughtered en masse to keep them away from cattle which were being raised for export to Europe. After failing to get the Botswana government to act against poaching Mark and Delia moved to Zambia, and took it upon themselves to provide anti-poaching operations to the local government. They recruited and trained scouts to patrol the North Luangwa National Park in Zambia to curtail poaching of elephants and black rhinos for their tusks and horns. Their methods were a concern, which was confirmed with ABC News sent a film crew to interview and patrol alongside Mark and Delia's scouts. On film that was later broadcast to American audiences via ABC News, a scout and an unnamed individual killed a man returning to his campsite in the North Luangwa National Park. According to Jeffrey Goldberg's articles in both the New Yorker and the Atlantic about this incident, Mark's son Christopher may have fired the fatal shots that killed the man. The only evidence they had of his being a poacher, per the video, was a bag full of shotgun shells at his campsite. 1 Mark, Delia, and Christopher fled back to the US and moved to Northern Idaho after this incident, and are still wanted for questioning by the Zambian police. Ironically (or perhaps not?), Delia's hit novel revolves around a character who murders a man and is later acquitted of the crime, but the story's conclusion reveal's the character's guilt. 2 In short, Mark and Delia basically re-enacted the plot of Heart of Darkness in their own real lives, and then returned home to literary fame and fortune based on the experience. 3 Episode #Dubimeter: 10 1. Jeffrey Goldberg. The Hunted. The New Yorker. March 2010. ⇤2. Jeffrey Goldberg. Where the Crawdads Sing Author Wanted for Questioning in Murder. The Atlantic. July 2022. ⇤3. Alexandra Alter. Questions About An Unsolved Murder Linger Over ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’. The New York Times. July 2022. ⇤

The biggest bribery investigation in US military history revolves around a Malaysian defense contractor who just made an escape as brazen as the case itself: Leonard Francis aka Fat Leo snipped off his ankle monitor and disappeared from house arrest.We're talking about the case of Leonard Glenn Francis, a defense contractor who owned a company named Glenn Defense Marine Asia, or GDMA for short. He bribed his way literally to the top of the US Navy chain of command, and the fallout included an admiral who was short-listed for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, but now is the first serving admiral to be convicted and serve jail time in US history. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes available exclusively to our premium subscribers, as well as our public episodes ad-free. 1 Leonard aka Fat Leo was born to a Scottish father and a Malaysian mother whose family owned a similar shipping supply business to the one he grew to prominence of late. His father's abuse of his mother, both physical and emotional, led to Leo having the same duality of obsession with and dislike of women. Like his father, this would ultimately be Leo's undoing, as the angry wives of US Navy officers like Michael Misiewicz were the ones who provided the initial reports to the NCIS which began the Fat Leonard investigation into the US Navy Pacific fleet chain of command. 2 Leo grew from scrappy husbanding agent to preferred military contractor between the time of the USS Cole bombing and 9/11, by providing whatever "services" the US Navy officers he dealt with wanted. Women, booze, parties, hotel suites, 5 star meals... Leo could get it if you wanted it, as long as you had some influence in the US Navy that could turn Leo a profit down the line. Leo even procured a former British ship, which he renamed "The Braveheart", to serve as a floating brothel-slash-casino which followed the 7th fleet around the south Pacific with diplomatic clearance. Even when NCIS caught wind of Leo's exploits, he was difficult to prosecute both because of the reach of his influence within the chain of command, and because Leo also had the NCIS director at Quantico, Virginia on his payroll. As it turned out, special agent in charge John Beliveau had befriended Leo when he was a security aide to an admiral in Japan years before. In fact Leo was so problematic to prosecute that he wasn't... earlier this month he removed his ankle monitor and disappeared from his San Diego home. As it turns out the security company contracted to look after him wasn't doing their job very well either, they hadn't been to his home in days and didn't notice the tampering with the ankle monitor for 6 hours. 3 Leo was due to be sentenced tomorrow, but he's now on the run. Episode #Dubimeter: 9.0 1. Craig Whitlock. The man who seduced the 7th Fleet. The Washington Post. May 2016. ⇤2. Greg Moran. Jury convicts four former Navy officers in ‘Fat Leonard’ bribery trial. Los Angeles Times. June 2022. ⇤3. Fat Leonard’s bold escape from California home was judge’s worst fear come true. The Mercury-News. September 2022. ⇤

“You take this grenade and you pull the pin, you've got a live piece of ammo in your hands; 34 states - if every Republican legislator votes for this, we have a constitutional convention..." --Rick Santorum at an ALEC meeting, December 2021Republicans are pushing for an unprecedented constitutional convention to re-write our constitution, the US legal bedrock since 1778. And so far, 19 states have joined this rapidly growing GOP movement to call for a new convention. If you like our content, please become a patron and get exclusive access to our premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. This effort to end democracy was meant to be a behind the curtains endeavor, with plans being discussed at the American Legislative Exchange Council and other similar meetings among influential republicans. Thanks to the Center For Media and Democracy, we now know what the GOP is working towards, with many supporting organizations like COSA and mega donors like the Koch and Mercer families. 1 According to a New York Times article, “Jodey Arrington, a conservative Texas Republican, believes it is well past time for something the nation has not experienced for more than two centuries: a debate over rewriting the Constitution.” 2 Arrington then shifted from “debate” to I quote “I think the states are due a convention”. In July, Arrington introduced legislation to direct the archivist of the United States to tally applications for a convention from state legislatures and compel Congress to schedule a gathering when enough states have petitioned for one. Russ Feingold, the former Democratic senator from Wisconsin and president of the American Constitution Society told the New York Times that a constitutional convention is an exceptionally dangerous threat from the right and suggests it is closer to reality than most people realize: “We are very concerned that the Congress, if it becomes Republican, will call a convention. This could gut our Constitution. There needs to be real concern and attention about what they might do. We are putting out the alert. If you think this is democracy’s moment of truth, this is one of those things.” What the republicans hope to achieve is taking advantage of Article V of our current constitution, more specifically a certain aspect of it that was never used before. Article V says in part that Congress, “on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments.” The danger is real: "No one five years ago would have said that Roe vs Wade would be overturned. No one in this room. For the last 25 years, people in the pro-life movement did the blocking and tackling necessary for this day to come" – Rick Santorum. Throughout our country’s history, 27 amendments have been added to the Constitution BUT ONLY by another complicated route, with the amendments originating in Congress subject to ratification by the states. What the republicans want now is pretty much unchecked control, in line with how totalitarian regimes operate. 1. Alex Kotch. The Right Is Trying to Rewrite the Constitution to Cement Minority Rule Forever. Center for Media and Democracy. December 2021. ⇤2. Carl Hulse. A Second Constitutional Convention? Some Republicans Want to Force One. New York Times. September 2022. ⇤

Is the pope trying to curtail a Vatican organization affiliated with Clarence and Ginni Thomas, right wing judges, and developing world dictators?We're talking about Opus Dei, the Catholic Information Network, Leonard Leo, Ginni and Clarence Thomas, and incidentally in the context of this story, the Order of the Knights of Malta. If you like our content please become a patron to get our exclusive premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Ginni Thomas has led a life in adherence to various cults. She started with Lifespring, a self-help cult which was sued into bankruptcy in the late 1980s and early 1990s after a string of accidental deaths related to their activities. From there she worked with a series of "deprogramming" organizations which strayed into kidnapping-for-hire in their efforts to forcibly remove the relatives of wealthy families from other cults. Today, Ginni's cult is the assortment of far-right American political interests which use her husband's name and influence to try and coalesce into a singular political vision. One of those interests is a secretive organization of wealthy Catholic donors named Opus Dei, which was also featured in Dan Brown's novel The DaVinci Code. 1 Opus Dei was formed during the Spanish Civil War by a priest named Josemaría Escrivá. From its outset, it has been an advocate of far-right governments, from Franco's Spain to various military dictatorships in South America. They were rumored to be involved in the Argentine military dictatorship during the Falklands War, which indirectly caused the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, after which that bank's chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanging from the Blackfriar Bridge in London with bricks in his pockets and $14,000 in cash in his jacket. The bricks signified his rumored membership in another secret organization: the Masonic lodge Propaganda Due. In America, Opus Dei is behind money which flows into far-right political causes, particularly those related to the appointment of federal judges. The organization's American functions are run by a man named Leonard Leo, who was Trump's primary judicial consultant. Leo was also a consultant to the George W. Bush administration on the selection of justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts. 2 The Order of the Knights of Malta are unfortunate victims in this story. The current pope stuck them with the most prominent far-right priest in America, Cardinal Raymond Burke, when he demoted that priest from the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's equivalent of a supreme court back in 2014. The pope fired Burke again and reinstated Albrecht von Boeselager, the former chancellor of the Order who Burke and its Grand Master had purged for distributing condoms and morning-after birth control pills in the Myanmar region. More recently, the pope has ordered all vatican organizations to deposit their funds into the Vatican Bank within the next 30 days, and demoted the chief clergy officer in Opus Dei from a bishop to a priest. The pope has also widely banned the Latin mass, another favorite cultural argument of Cardinal Burke. Perhaps the pope is curtailing Opus Dei specifically? 3 Episode #Dubimeter: 15 1. The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas. The New York Times Magazine. February 2022. ⇤2. A Conservative activist's behind-the-scenes campaign to remake the nation's courts. The Washington Post. May 2019. ⇤3. Christian Right Seeks Renewal in Deepening Catholic-Protestant Alliance. Political Research Associates. July 2013. ⇤

After 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Windsor passed away at 96, surrounded by her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.Whether you’re a monarchist or not, you have to admit that Elizabeth Regina II – Lilibet et as Prince Phillip used to call her - was a magnificent monarch and also a most capable and beloved mother figure for the British people. She was also The United Kingdom's longest reigning monarch. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our bonus episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1, 2 Now, the UK has a new king: King Charles III. Camilla became Queen Consort and William, the heir to the throne, is now Duke of Cornwall and will become Duke of Windsor. Prince George is second in line to the throne. When her father George VI died in February 1952, Elizabeth—then 25 years old—became queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (known today as Sri Lanka), as well as Head of the Commonwealth. During her reign, she had 15 Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss. The Queen’s coronation in 1953 and her marriage to Prince Phillip, the birth of her 4 children (King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew Duke of York and Prince Edward Earl of Wessex), the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012, and 2022, are some of the important milestones of her life. She had several residences: Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle, Holyrood Place, Sandringham Estate, and Hillsborough Castle. King Charles also has several homes: Clarence House, Highgrove, Birkhall and Llwynywermod. King Charles III has a passion for gardening, plants and green spaces and was way ahead of his time with his care for the environment, a worry he expressed in his 1970 speech in which he warns about plastic, pollution and the dangers of climate change. He also loves sustainable architecture and built an eco-town called Pundbury on the outskirts of Dorchester, in Dorset. He enjoys organic farming and products, which he has been growing since before the word “organic” became fashionable. 3, 4, 5, 1. Anneta Konstantindes. American tourists once met the Queen and had no idea who she was — so she played a joke on them. Business Insider India. June 2022. ⇤2. British Royal Films Youtube channel. Queen Elizabeth cracks a joke!. Youtube. March 2009. ⇤3. The Royal Family Youtube channel. The Prince of Wales reflects on 50 years since his first speech on the environment. Youtube. February 2020. ⇤4. Royal Institue of British Architects Facebook page. Next month marks 30 years since Prince Charles’s (in)famous ‘Carbuncle’ speech.... Facebook. April 2014. ⇤5. A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Royal Gala Evening at Hampton Court Palace. Prince of Wales Official Website. May 1984. ⇤

New masters, new direction: CNN fired Brian Stelter and cancelled his show Reliable Sources (which was on the air for 30 years) and then, on September 2nd, John Harwood, was pushed out the door as well.Cable News Network was the brainchild of Ted Turner and it was based on a revolutionary concept at the time, a concept that changed the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. CNN was the world’s first 24-hour television news network, and it made its debut on June 1st 1980 from its HQ in Atlanta Georgia. As we said in the intro, in its first years of operation, CNN lost money and was ridiculed as the Chicken Noodle Network but they started growing, covering events all over the world LIVE and their audience grew. If you like our content, please become a patron. John Malone is a right-leaning billionaire libertarian, close friend of the Murdoch family, and key Warner Bros Discovery board member. In 2021, CNN at AT&T spined off and combined Warner Media with Discovery, so now CNN is a Warner Bros Discovery WBD entity. And with this change of corporate hands, came a new board and .. new masters. Both Brian Stelter and John Harwood described Donald Trump as a “demagogue” in their last appearances on the network. 1, 2 John Malone, a Fox News fan and Trump donor, has deep and longstanding ties with David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD. In an interview with CNBC in 2021, John Malone said, “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.” 3 He proposed a model: “Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.” Hen also said, according to Vox, that “a time of change” is coming.. Is CNN turning into Fox News Light? Malone has denied he is “directly involved” in any decisions about CNN, but multiple current and former staffers who spoke to journalists are indicating that Malone is indirectly dictating an agenda to Chris Licht, the newly installed CNN boss. 4 1. Brian Stelter. Brian Stelter speaks about cancellation of his CNN show 'Reliable Sources'. Youtube. August 2022. ⇤2. Ramon Antonio Vargas. Correspondent abruptly leaves CNN after calling Trump a ‘demagogue’. The Guardian. September 2022. ⇤3. Amanda Northrop. Why billionaire John Malone’s shadow looms over CNN. Vox. August 2022. ⇤4. Adam Parkhomenko. Tweet: The new head of CNN met with Congressional Republicans and is now checking off their to do list. Twitter. September 2022. ⇤

The FBI's investigation into Inna Yashchyshyn, a woman with 4 passports and suspicious background, who befriended Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham, and mingled with 45’s most inner circle.Inna Yashchyshyn, who presented herself as fake heiress Anna de Rothschild, was born in Ukraine, has American, Canadian, Russian and Ukrainian passports and a Florida driver’s license and the authorities have no idea when she entered the country. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium bonus episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. 1 Obviously, Inna Yashchyshyn is no member of the famous Rothschild banking dynasty but under that assumed persona she managed to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence – where top secret HUMINT and SIGNALS intelligence were illegally kept in an unsecured room, with just a lock on the door. The timing of fake banking dynasty heiress Anna de Rothschild’s presence at Mar-A-Lago, where she played gold with Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham and ingratiated herself into the former’s president inner circle, is suspicious: she first started to go there in May 2021. According to the New York Times, the CIA sent a top secret cable to chiefs of station – in all countries - warning them that too many agents were dying or were being turned into double agents.. So they should be extremely cautious. The cable said that the CIA knew exactly how many were executed but they have no idea how many were turned. 2 Inna Yashchyshyn is the daughter of an Illinois truck driver, which makes her marriage to her now ex-husband Sergey Golubev even more dubious: he said she married her to get a green card. 3 The FBI is also looking into her charity, United Hearts of Mercy, after the Sûreté du Québec Police Provincielle du Canada have launched investigations into Yashchyshyn’s dealings too, also related to this foundation which claims to help immigrant families. In fact, this was a money laundering scam. Stripe, the money processing app, suspected fraud and halted the funds for the campaign – a campaign which was also supposed to help families devastated by the COVID pandemic. The United Hearts Charity of which Inna Yashchyshyn was president, was founded together with Valeriy Tarasenko, a Moscow-raised businessman who also has a very unclear background. 4 In this episode we discuss the possibility of Inna Yashchyshyn being a spy, knowing the honey pot strategy is used by foreign intelligence services such as Putin’s SVR and GRU. 1. Michael Sallah, Jonathan Silver, Kevin Hall, and Brian Fitzpatrick. Inventing Anna: The Tale of a Fake Heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI Investigation. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. August 2022. ⇤2. Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman. Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants. New York Times. October 2021. ⇤3. Harriet Alexander and Nikki Schwab. Ex-husband of Ukrainian fraudster who posed as de Rothschild heiress to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago and meet Trump: Says former wife - who faces FBI probe 'needed a green card'. Daily Mail. August 2022. ⇤4. Inna Yashchyshyn. United Hearts of Mercy - Facebook Non-Profit Page. Facebook. October 2016. ⇤

Known by his millions of followers as the Billionaire Gucci Master, Ramon Abbas started his rags to riches fraudster career in Nigeria, evolving from phishing emails to defrauding international banks and corporations of $350 M.There are influencers, there are scammers, there are scamfluencers and then there is the godfluencer: Hushpuppi. We're discussing the rise of Ramon from the internet cafes of Lagos, Nigeria to the penthouse suites of the Palazzo Versace in Dubai... and predictably eventually to a US prison. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our two premium episodes every month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Hushpuppi and his co-conspirators in various email phishing scams: Samson Oyekunle, Vincent Chibuzo, and Abdul-Rahman Juma, Ghaleb Alaumary, and Nigeria's "super cop" Abba Kyari, perpetrated email frauds throughout the world, from middle-man banks in Mexico to compromised accounts in an investment bank in Malta, and even to the French equivalent of the US Securities Exchange Commission, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, and English Premiere League football clubs. 1, 2, 3 Team Hush wasn't one of those small time Nigerian Prince email scam crews. They were talented social engineers capable of talking their "magas", Nigerian slang for "gullible marks" out of hundreds of thousands of dollars per transaction. Rather than rely on cold-emailing millions of people they would insert themselves into corporate and government email networks, and then observe their day to day transactions to custom-design scams that would fly under an accounting auditor's radar. WIth the ill-gotten money Hushpuppi lived large: a penthouse in Dubai, helicopter rides around the Greek Isles, private jet rides to his destinations, and multi-hundred thousand dollar watches and cars. He was even a guest of the Louis Vuitton PR department at Fashion Week in Paris, and "customer of the year" in the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Versace store. 4 When he was finally arrested by Dubai police (who also documented their swat raid on Hushpuppi's penthouse for social media in a highly over-produced video), dozens of phones and laptos were seized along with 7 million dollars in cars and 40 million dollars in cash. 5 And old habits die hard, most recently a new charge has been added to Hushpuppi's rap sheet in the US. The FBI has charged him with obtaining $430,000 dollars in fraudulent COVID relief loans granted to victims of identity theft, after which Hushpuppi would sell the debit cards containing the loan funds that were sent out by the US Government. Episode #DubiMeter = 11 1. Evan Ratliff. The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master. Bloomberg. June 2021. ⇤2. Evan Ratliff and William Clowes. How Instagram’s ‘Billionaire Gucci Master’ Sank Nigeria’s Super Cop. Bloomberg. February 2022. ⇤3. Ivan Martin. How BOV hackers got away with €13 million. Times of Malta. February 2019. ⇤4. Segun Adewole. How Hushpuppi bought Richard Mille wristwatch worn on Instagram. Punch. July 2021. ⇤5. Dubai Media Office Twitter account. Hushpuppi arrest video. Twitter. June 2020. ⇤

After the Toyota Land Cruiser Daria Dugina was driving exploded on a road 20 miles west of Moscow and burst into flames, Russia has opened a murder investigation into her assassination.According to TASS, When Dugina "turned onto the Mozhaiskoye road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi, there was an explosion, the car caught fire immediately. Forensic experts, investigators and experts in explosive engineering are inspecting the scene and they have found or concluded that approximately 400 grams of TNT were used to cause the explosion. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1 Daria’s father is Alexander Dugin, a right wing extremist and ultranationalist, is the figure who “inspired” and advised Putin to invade Ukraine. He helped lay the ideological foundation for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is referred to as “Putin’s brain” or “the architect of the Ukraine invasion”. He allegedly is Putin’s spiritual advisor, based on his roots in the orthodox church. 2 Darya Dugina’s father invented the concept of Eurasianism – a new flavor of fascism. He is to Putin what Steve Bannon / Alex Jones is to Trump. In March 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Daria Dugina for her contribution to an article on the United World International website suggesting that Ukraine would "perish" if it is admitted to NATO. Dugina was UWI's chief editor. She also claimed that the atrocities of Bucha were American propaganda, chosen because of the phonological similarity to "butcher," a word she linked to US President Biden calling Putin a "butcher" earlier in March. 3 We are considering three theories regarding who’s behind the assassination of Darya Dugina, based on one simple question: who stands to gain from her death? Ukraine did it – we explain why that is not the case, in fact this is the last thing Ukraine would do An inside Russian opposition faction did it to destabilize Putin’s regime and cause unrest – this theory doesn’t hold water either in our opinion. Putin’s FSB did it, on his orders as he did with the Moscow apartment bombings, the Moscow theater hostage crisis, Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya. What would Putin stand to gain? Re-energizing popular support for his continued invasion of Ukraine A pretext to escalate tragedies in Ukraine A pretext to justify those war crimes and attacks, as being payback or a response to this assassination – to his people and to the western leaders, United Nations etc Creating a martyr, a new symbol to galvanize the troops An opportunity for him to make some strong worded statements, to come out as a powerful, strong leader who has to double down on killing Ukrainians to keep his own people safe Lastly, a great opportunity to use the grieving father, Aleksandr Dugin, the architect of the war in Ukraine, as a megaphone for his propaganda serving his political goals. Episode #DubiMeter 9.5 1. Russia Opens Murder Investigation After Blast Kills Daughter of Putin Ally. New York Times. August 2022. ⇤2. Mohammed Tawfeeq, Josh Pennington, Jonny Hallam and Tara John. Car bomb kills daughter of 'spiritual guide' to Putin's Ukraine invasion. CNN. August 2022. ⇤3. Annabelle Timsit and Rachel Pannett. A Putin ally’s daughter was killed near Russia’s capital. Washington Post. August 2022. ⇤

On July 14, 45’s first wife was found at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious and unresponsive in her Manhattan home.On July 20 her body was laid to rest at Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in what some described as a “pauper’s grave”, not far from the first hole. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free. Mother of Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, Ivana Trump was 73 years old. An employee found her and called 911 at 1:40 pm. The autopsy was conducted in less than 24 hours and her death was ruled “an accident”, the official cause of death being “blunt force trauma to her torso”. 1 She deserves to be remembered not only as Trump’s first wife. She was a New York socialite, model and author but she was also an athlete who made the Czech skiing Olympics team. Ivana Trump was her own person: a mother, an author, fashion designer and New York socialite. In the first half we focus on Ivana’s life before she met Donald Trump, as there are some tragic aspects like the death of the man she loved, George Staidl, a playwright and lyricist who died in a car crash, and her fourth husband, Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi who passed away at 49 with melanoma (a type of skin cancer). Ivana Maria Zelnickova was an educated woman with a master’s degree in Physical Education and she was a fighter: she fled from communism in her native country (then Czechoslovakia, part of the USSR) and built a new life for herself, starting off in Canada and then immigrating here, to the United States. In the second half we discuss the details of her death and the timing. Ivana passed away on July 14. Donald Trump and his three adult children were going be deposed the next day, separately, as part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the Trump Organization. The depositions were postponed. We also discuss her golf course burial in an austere grave and the attempt by Donal Trump to designate the area as a cemetery to get a tax break. A cemetery in New Jersey avoids property, income, and sales tax, the holy tax trinity. 2, 3 Donald Trump is also selling an “eternal membership” for the Bedminster National Golf Club: people play to play and when they pass, they can be buried close to Ivana if they pay extra. 4 Ivana also loved dogs. Funeral guests and others, in lieu of flowers, were asked to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida and to “help save the lives of dogs that are in desperate need.” The charity was picked by her ex-husband and children, and this seems to be another of Trump’s schemes where the money is not really going where they say it’s going. Ivana’s own dog, Tiger, is now living with her assistant. Episode #DubiMeter = 9 1. Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta. Ivana Trump, First Wife of Donald Trump Who Helped Build his Empire, Dies at 73. Reuters. July 2022. ⇤2. Hamish Mitchell Twitter account. Tweet: Pics of Ivana Trump's Grave. Twitter. July 2022. ⇤3. Edward Helmore. Will Ivana Help Donald Trump with Tax Breaks from Beyond the Grave?. The Guardian. July 2022. ⇤4. Sinéad Baker and Tom Porter. Trump's PAC Asked Fans to Donate Money While Announcing His Ex-wife Ivana's Death. Business Insider. July 2022. ⇤

A translator and spy turned international arms dealer, Viktor Bout is to be part of a proposed prisoner swap between the US and Russia for the return of Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.Griner was found guilty on drug smuggling charges by a Russian court, and convicted to 9 years in a penal colony after 1 milligram of cannabis oil, prescribed by her American doctor, was found in her vaping pen in her luggage in Moscow. The charges are obviously a political play by Putin in response to Ukraine sanctions. If you like our content, please become a patron to get our extra premium episodes every month, as well as our public episodes ad-free. 1 Trevor Reed, a former marine who was also imprisoned in Russia after allegedly attacking a policeman, another Kremlin fabricated story, was recently released in a successful prisoner swap and he said that Brittney Griner will experience "serious threats" to her health if she is sent to a labor camp. Moscow asked for a second Russian to be added to the mix for this proposed swap, an FSB agent, Vadim Krasikov, a Russian spy / murderer, who was convicted in Germany for carrying out a killing on behalf of Russia, an act the judges called “state terrorism.” It is hard to separate fact from fiction in Bout’s resume. He’s believed to have been born in 1967 in then-Soviet Tajikistan. He studied as a linguist at  Moscow-based Soviet Military Institute for Foreign Languages, a training school for officers, diplomats, and in many cases, spies. He learned Portuguese and he then started his career with the Red Army as a translator in Angola. 2 When the Soviet Union broke up, arms were scattered across the 15 new nations created by the dissolution, especially Bulgaria. These countries had neither the money to pay an army nor the infrastructure to keep the weapons they’d inherited. Viktor saw an opportunity. He assembled a fleet of ex-Soviet cargo planes, massive Antonov and Ilyushin aircraft, and began shipping arms and other goods all over the world. He set up a freight charter in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and soon became the inspiration for Lord of War, an exceptional movie featuring Eamonn Walker, Nicholas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke. Bout kept company with African warlords and dictators such as Jean-Pierre Bemba, Masavenya and Jonas Savimbi. After 9/11, the US needed scapegoats and Bout fit the bill. By entrapment, he was captured in Bangkok, Thailand and extradited to the US where he was convicted of aiding terrorists. The judge's opinion coincides with ours: “Until DEA went after Bout, he had not committed a crime chargeable in an American court in all his years as an arms dealer. And but for the DEA approach made through this determined sting operation, there is no reason to believe that Bout would have ever committed the charges brought against him.” 3, 4 Merchant of Death DubiMiter – 9.5 1. Mike Eckel. Merchant Of Death. Lord Of War. The McDonald's Of Arms Trafficking: Who Is Viktor Bout?. Radio Free Europe. August 2022. ⇤2. The Notorious Mr. Bout. Market Road Films. January 2014. ⇤3. Benjamin Weiser and Colin Moynihan. Conduit to Arms Sting, a Star Witness Apologizes for His Crimes. New York Times. May 2012. ⇤4. United States of America v. Viktor Bout. International Crimes Database. February 2012. ⇤

Born congenitally deaf and wrongly regarded as “slow” on account of her disability,  Princess Alice of Battenberg chose a life of service to the poor and marginalized.Despite the many tragedies in her life she volunteered to help the wounded in WW1 and WW2, she almost got arrested by the Gestapo for saving Jewish families during the Holocaust, became a nun, was sterilized by Sigmund Freud after erroneously being diagnosed as a schizophrenic and died poor, after selling all her jewelry and possessions to help those less fortunate. If you like our content, please become a patron to unlock our premium episodes ad-free. Princess Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie of Battenberg of Greece and Denmark was the mother of Prince Philip, and mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II. A great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alice was born in Windsor Castle on Feb 25th 1885 and grew up in Great Britain, Germany and Malta. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. Despite the stigma attached to her illness, she learned to lip-read and speak in English, German and French by the time she was 8 years old. After her marriage, Princess Alice became involved in charity work, while her husband Prince Andrew continued his career in the military. In 1908, she visited Russia for the wedding of Grand Duchess Marie of Russia and Prince William of Sweden. While there, she talked with her aunt Grand duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna who was at the time working on plans for the foundation of a religious order of nurses. In 1913, King George V awarded her the Royal Red Cross in for her service helping the wounded. Princess Alice and her children were forced to shelter in the palace cellars during the bombardment of Athens by the French on 1 December 1916. They had to escape unrest in Greece twice, very traumatic experiences for her. 1 In France, Princess Alice became active in a charity organization for Greek refugees. She became deeply religious and, in October 1928, converted to the Greek Orthodox Church. Then her mental health started declining and Princess Alice was forcibly removed from her family and placed in an asylum, Sigmund Freud recommended “X-raying her ovaries in order to kill off her libido" and induce early menopause as treatment for “schizophrenia”. During WW2 she sheltered Jewish refugees, including the Cohen family, and helped them escape death, and for this she is recognised as “Righteous Among The Nations” by Israel's Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem. In 2010, the Princess Alice was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government. Her nursing order of nuns was named Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary. Princess Alice was also a chain smoker and played canasta. She passed away at Buckingham Palace on December 5 1969. She left no possessions, as she had given everything away to the poor. Initially her remains were placed in the Royal Crypt in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, but before she died she had expressed her wish to be buried at the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Ghethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem near her beloved aunt Elizabeth who was made a Russian orthodox saint, we think Princess Alice should be made one too. 2 1. Philip Chrysopoulos. Princess Alice, Philip’s Mother, and Her Life of Philanthropy in Greece. Greek Reporter. July 2022. ⇤2. Timeline Documentaries. The Other Queen Mother: The Forgotten WW2 Hero: The Queen's Mother in Law. Youtube. August 2018. ⇤

All about the secretive private life of Vladimir Putin: his wives, girlfriends, children, and how they fit into his empire.If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad free! In this episode we put together the puzzle that is Putin’s private life. We discuss his first marriage with Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Ocheretnaya (ex Putina), their honeymoon in Ukraine, the birth of their two daughters that Mariya Vladimirovna Vorontsova and Katerina (or Yekaterina) Tikhonova – Masha and Katya, the divorce of Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila. 1 We also look into their post separation relationships: Lyudmila as since remarried a Russian entrepreneur/oligarch 21 years her junior named Artur Ocheretny and Putin has had a series of relationships, the first with Svetlana Krivonogikh, a shareholder in a major Russian bank, who also owns the elite property and a St Petersburg erotic nightspot. They allegedly have a child together, 18 years old Luiza Rozova (Elizaveta Krivonogikh). He then met and allegedly secretly married gymnast Alina Maratovna Kabaeva (also named Kabayeva by some sources). They allegedly have for children together, who are now living in Switzerland with their mother. 2 All of this leads to our episode about how friends and family of the Putins do not just jet set to ski resorts in the Swiss Alps, but also play crucial roles in overseeing the family wealth which is controlled by the state, and guarded by the FSB. 1. Laurel Wamsley. Putin's Daughters Were Just Sanctioned. Here's What We Know About Them. NPR. April 2022. ⇤2. Vladimir Putin's 'Girlfriend' Sparks New Pregnancy Rumours. Telegraph. May 2015. ⇤

The Saudi Crown Prince might have bought a fake Leonardo.Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting in the world, has a fascinating yet murky history: is it worth $450 million? Its initial price tag was 49 British pounds and we are debating whether it is an original Leonardo or one of many similar but less valuable paintings created in the 16th century. If you like our content please become a patron to receive our premium episodes, and all of our public episodes ad-free as well. One of many renaissance era portraits of Christ holding a celestial bauble while making the sign of the cross surfaced in a New Orleans auction house in 2005, only to be sold later for almost half a billion dollars. If its chain of ownership is true, it began in the private collection of Louis XII of France, saw the execution of Charles I, and was centuries later sold from the estate of Sir Francis Cook to Warren and Minnie Kuntz, furniture dealers from New Orleans, for 49 British pounds in 1958. Three dealers from New York bought it on a hunch from the auction of the Kuntz estate for $1175, and turned it over to Diane and Mario Modestini, experts in painting restoration. 1 Diane decided after extensive work on the painting that it was from the hand of Leonardo himself. From there the painting took on a life of its own, and each step along its journey involved the exchange of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. 2 Sketchy Swiss shipping magnate Yves Bouvier bought it for $83 million, and immediately sold it to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127 million. When Dmitry found out about Yves' markup (and when his ex wife hit him with a 4.8 billion dollar divorce judgment...), in a rage he put the painting up for auction at Christie's, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman paid $450 million for it. When MBS tried to get the Louvre in Paris to assist in the painting's perception of authenticity by exhibiting it next to the Mona Lisa the French curators refused, so it now reportedly lives on his yacht. 3 The painting propelled British National Gallery curator Luke Syson to a glamorous career at the Met in New York and the Cambridge University museum, whose previous director is now the director of the royal family's private art collection. It also embroiled Yves Bouvier into a string of lawsuits against Rybolovlev spanning major cities around the globe, and according to the French tabloids also brought Bouvier into an arrangement with a group of escorts who were previously involved in a scandal involving French football stars, who solicited them when they were underage. 4 All of this is a deep look into the shady underworld of the high end art market, and how billionaires and their handlers carry rare antiquities on their yachts and jets to hide from banks, governments, ex-wives with divorce settlements, and tax collectors. 1. Report: How a Louisiana Family Unknowingly Owned $450M da Vinci Painting for Nearly 50 Years. The Advocate. September 2018. ⇤2. Sarah Cascone and Eileen Kinsella. 7 Unbelievable and Contentious Takeaways From a New Documentary About ‘Salvator Mundi,’ the $450 Million ‘Lost Leonardo’. Artnet. August 2021. ⇤3. Sam Knight. The Bouvier Affair. The New Yorker. January 2016. ⇤4. Danielle Granger. What is the Real Story Behind Yves Bouvier’s Ties to Zahia Dehar?. The Frisky. March 2020. ⇤

The detailed secret plan of what happens on D-Day: the day Queen Elizabeth II passes.The Queen herself was actively involved the planning of her own funerial ceremonies. Buckingham Palace prefers to use code names for all royal deaths. The last time a British monarch died 70 years ago, the demise of George VI was communicated in code to Buckingham Palace, to prevent switchboard operators from finding out. The code was “Hyde Park Corner”. If you like our content please become a patron to get our bonus episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free! While everyone loves the Queen and wishes Her Majesty would live forever, one has to face the facts: Queen Elizabeth is 96 years old, she is in good health for her age but she does have some mobility issues, as any human would at 96. She had COVID-19 in February 2022, she recovered but she did say that covid leaves 'one feeling very tired and exhausted'. During the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, The Queen pulled out of some of the events due to “discomfort”. 1 The day she passes was code-named D-Day, and every day after that until she is taken to her last resting place. 2, 3 The second Her Majesty The Queen draws her last breath, Prince Charles of Wales becomes King. The British prime Minister is announced of her demise, he will hear the phrase “London Bridge is down”. From the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre, in an undisclosed location in London, the news will go out to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, and the 36 other nations of the Commonwealth. 4 The BBC, will activate RATS the “radio alert transmission system”, a cols war system that is used only in case of national emergencies or the monarch’s death. On D Day +1, the proclamation of King Charles will take place – that is part of operation SPRING TIDE. His coronation will most likely happen about a year later though. The queen will lie in state at the Palace of Westminster for three days, in an operation codenamed FEATHER. D-Day +9 is the actual day of the funeral, and everything will be closed in the UK - including the stock market – as this will be a day of national mourning. The nation will be silent. The state funeral itself will be held at Westminster Abbey. After the state funeral at Westminster Abbey, the queen’s body will be brought home to Windsor Castle outside of London, where many members of the royal family over the centuries have been buried at St. George’s Chapel. Once Charles is king, the line of succession will change. William will move up and take the position of heir apparent. 1. NBC News. Queen To Skip Jubilee Event After Feeling “Discomfort”. Youtube. June 2022. ⇤2. Sam Knight. 'London Bridge is Down': The Secret Plan for the Days after the Queen’s Death. The Guardian. March 2017. ⇤3. Alex Wickham. Britain’s Plan for When Queen Elizabeth II Dies, Politico. September 2021. ⇤4. Inside “Operation London Bridge,” the Detailed Plan for When Queen Elizabeth II Dies. Cosmopolitan. June 2022. ⇤

Middle Eastern princesses and the abusive fathers and husbands they try to flee from.Sheikha Latifa of Dubai was drugged and kidnapped at gunpoint at her father’s orders – twice! Her sister Shamsa was also kidnapped in London 22 years ago and nobody has seen her since. The stories in this episode are insane and include Indian special ops teams, yachts, a French American spy, the FBI, helicopters, private jets and hostage videos. If you enjoy our content, please become a patron, you’ll get all of our exclusive premium episodes as well as our public episodes ad-free! Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defense of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai. Mohammed has about 30 children with several wives, and amazingly, some of these wives managed to run away and divorce him He kidnapped and imprisoned two of his daughters and tried to pressure and intimidate Princess Haya, one of his wives who managed to escape to London, as the sheikh wanted to marry their 12 year old daughter to MBS, the Saudi Crown Prince who is 37. Princess Haya won the custody battle and is happily divorced, but not entirely safe. Princess Latifa’s second escape is almost like a James Bond movie and it involves French-American spy Herve Jaubert, capoeira instructor and best friend Tiina Jauhiainen, jet skis, a yacht, the FBI and the MARCOS - Indian special forces. Latifa planned this escape for 7 years but it unfortunately failed. 1, 2, 3 In this episode we also discuss the case of Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 57, a businesswoman, rights activist and member of the Saudi royal family, went missing in March 2019 along with her adult daughter Souhoud Al Sharif in Saudi Arabia. It turn out they had been thrown in prison. Quatar does the same thing: Aisha Al Qahtani escaped on a family holiday in Kuwait, where she snuck away to the airport on her own to catch a 3am flight to London. She was not able to flee directly from Doha because she was not 25 years old yet, she was just 22. Qatar remains the only GCC Gulf Cooperation Council country with male guardianship laws for female travel: single women under 25 require a male guardian’s consent to travel outside the country. 4 Princess Kasia Gallanio was not as “lucky”, she was found dead in her home in Marbella, Spain, after an ugly divorce and custody battle with the uncle of the Emir of Qatar, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al-Thani. 1. FreeLatifa. Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum - Escape from Dubai. Youtube. March 2018. ⇤2. OBC News. Princess Latifa's Bathroom Video Reveals ‘Hostage’ Ordeal. Youtube. February 2021. ⇤3. Ashis Ray. French Captain to File Suit Over 2018 Capture of Dubai Princess, Case to 'Also be Against India'. The Wire. October 2021. ⇤4. Ismaeel Naar. Women’s Activist Aisha al-Qahtani Recalls Escape from Qatar, Vows to Fight for Rights. Alarabiya News. May 2020. ⇤

We're talking about the murder of Mark Kilroy by a black magic priest in Matamoros, Mexico in 1989.Mark Kilroy and three of his friends were in South Padre Island, Texas for spring break in 1989, but by pure misfortune he crossed paths with Adolfo Constanzo, a palo mayombe black magic priest who doubled as a drug cartel boss, who was unhappy with his previous human sacrifice. Mark became his next one. If you like our content, please become a patron to unlock our premium episodes and get our public episodes ad-free! The satanic panic was all over the news in the 1980s and 1990s. Everyone was convinced that satanic cultists were hiding behind every bush in America, which simply wasn't true, but as with so many other cultural trends in the US, after a certain critical mass of political debate is reached, a person comes along and makes a myth into reality. Adolfo did exactly that when his gruesome sacrificial altar was discovered in the summer of 1989 in Matamoros, Mexico, just over the border from Brownsville, Texas. A hot party spot for spring break tourists coming over the border from Padre Island, Texas, Matamoros was also a major crossing for drug cartels. Adolfo said he needed the screams of terror to make the most powerful magic, and he grew weary of rival drug gang members who simply wouldn't scream and beg. His instructions to his followers when they went out to find Mark Kilroy was simple: "A student. Someone blonde and soft. Someone I can use. Someone who will scream." 1, 2 The Hernandez drug cartel, a small pot smuggling family in Matamoros, believed in the magic, and brothers Elio and Ovidio Hernandez-Rivera assisted in the ritual murders. They thought the magic made them invisible to the police and invincible versus bullets. Sara Aldrete-Villareal also believed, she was an American honors college student by a day and Adolfo's priestess by night. She performed at least one human sacrifice... a man who offended her was boiled alive after she cut off his nipples with scissors. 1. Gary Cartwright. The Work of The Devil. Texas Monthly. June 1989 ⇤2. Guy Garcia. The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico. Rolling Stone. June 1989. ⇤

Mind control, drugs, the sixties, and the CIA, oh my!An elephant injected with a lethal dose of LSD, the Kennedy assassination, Charlie Manson, the Unabomber, Patty Hearst and the gruesome murder of a child: what’s the connection? Dr. Louis West! If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes, and our public episodes ad-free. Most people know about MKULTRA since it's been bouncing around pop culture in print and film for decades now, from recent TV shows like Stranger Things and Wyrmwood to classic films like The Manchurian Candidate and the honorable mention, for trying hard but falling just a bit short, The Men Who Stare at Goats. But MKULTRA was real, the CIA thought they could control our minds with drugs, and they used copious amounts of them to try and learn how, by trial and error. The most notorious figures were Sydney Gottlieb who headed the CIA's drug and assassination programs, and his loyal assistant Dr. Louis "Jolly" West. They were present for everything from the Manson family's beginnings in San Francisco drug clinics, to the rape and murder of a 3 year old girl by an Air Force enlisted man in Texas named Jimmy Shaver, to the psychotic break of Jack Ruby before Ruby was able to testify before the Warren Commission about his role in the assassinations of John Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald. 1 On the other side of this coin, far away in a non-descript building at Harvard in the 1950s, a psychology professor named Henry Murray was berating a 16 year old math undergrad to gauge his propensity for becoming an intelligence officer. That 16 year old didn't take very well to being abused by a CIA mind control doctor... he grew up to become the Unabomber, the most wanted domestic terrorist in the US over a span of almost 20 years. 2 All of this began with the Korean War in the post-WW2 years, when American pilots were forced under torture to confess to using biological weapons against the North Korean and Chinese armies. Little evidence of such weapons ever surfaced outside of claims by the KGB, North Korean, and Chinese governments, but more importantly the fiasco gave rise to the notion of "brainwashing" which was, ironically, dismissed by none other than Dr. Louis West. 1. Tom O'Neill. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Little, Brown, and Company. June 2019. ⇤2. Alston Chase. Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber. The Atlantic. June 2000. ⇤

The life and exploits of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, aka MBS.Mohammed bin Salman is the uncrowned king of Saudi Arabia, ruling the Kingdom with an iron fist. He took power by force and coercion from Muhammad bin Nayef and he consolidated that power by kidnapping, detaining and torturing members of the Saudi Royal Family and prominent businessmen like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh, he even kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri and imprisoned his own mother. He also ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2017. If you enjoy our content, please become a patron to get our premium exclusive episodes, and our public episodes ad-free. 1 MBS also has an army of flies, tiger squads, gold cars and a lavish lifestyle, he owns the world’s most expensive home, the Serene $500M yacht and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, but the painting he paid $450M for proved to be a fake. MBS has a very dual personality: he’s modern but also medieval at the same time. The Saudi state essentially treats women as permanent legal minors. But MBS is also implementing Vision 2030 to modernize Saudi Arabia, he allowed women to drive, he brought back cinemas, he reduced the power of the religious police and clerics, he wants green energy cities, and to move away from dependency on oil. 2 In the context of president Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and MBS, “the reset”, with a gallon of oil priced $5, we think it’s important to also highlight the relations between US and Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region like Qatar, Yemen, Syria, , Bahrain, Lebanon (United Arab Emirates), as well as the Iran – Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, known as the Middle Eastern Cold War. Saudi Arabia has a young population, 60% of Saudis are under 30 and use Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. MBS’ army of flies – bots and hackers - created by Saud Al Qahtani ensures that no critical posts happen, and his tiger squads – hitmen – target those who dissent like Saad Al Jabri. Women can now drive but Saudi Arabia still imprisons activists like Loujain al Hathloul. Some of the laws governing sex segregation have been relaxed, but Saudi Arabia's guardianship system ensures that men still have ultimate control over most aspects of women's lives. We also discuss the beheadings in Chop Chop Square (Deera or Al-Safaa Square), the executions of those who oppose the regime, the arrest of Ali Nimr during the Arab Spring, the lashing of blogger Raif Badawi, MBS’ war in Yemen, and we draw a parallel between Mohammed Bin Salman and Putin. We also discuss the connection between the Wahhabi-Salafi Islam ideology in Saudi Arabia and Daesh (Isis), Al Qaida, and other terrorist groups: the ideology is so similar that the manuals used by Saudi kids in school are the same books used in terrorist indoctrination schools in the caliphate areas. The Trump visit in Saudi Arabia and the glowing orb in the now infamous photo depicting King Salman, Trump and Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al Sisi touching the orb is also a point of discussion. 3 1. Alexandra Ma. Lebanese Prime Minister, Who Got Kidnapped in Saudi Arabia.... Business Insider. December 2018. ⇤2. What Women Can and Can’t Do in Saudi Arabia. The Week UK. August 2021. ⇤3. Bill Bostock. The Sinister, Glowing Saudi Orb that Trump Touched.... Business Insider. March 2020. ⇤

Many Ukrainian transgender people fleeing the war face discrimination and humiliation at border checkpoints.In this episode we discuss the personal stories of several trans people in Eastern Europe, two who struggled to get out of Ukraine after Putin's invasion due to discrimination by border guards who refuse to let them leave the war zone, and one teen in Moldova who tragically took her own life after years of harassment by kids at school and the parents of those kids, school administrators, and teachers. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes, and our public episodes ad-free! We discuss the stories of Edward Reese, Zi Faámelu, and trans woman named Judis. Edward was able to flee his home city of Kyiv to Denmark, but Zi, Judis, and Judis' friend Alice were not so lucky. They were all stopped at the Ukrainian border by border guards who attempted to forcibly enlist them into the army after the border guards declared them to be men. Ukraine is currently under martial law, and restricts all men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Zi managed to swim a narrow part of the Danube river... in February, and make it to Romania and then on to Germany. Judis and Alice didn't get out of the country, as far as we know they're still in Ukraine. 1, 2 Rainbow Europe lists Ukraine as the 39th of 49 countries in Europe in terms of the favorability of LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual) rights. Prior to 2017, people were forced to self-commit to a mental institution for a month, sterilize themselves, divorce if they were married, and undergo gender affirmation surgery to appease the state rules in getting their gender changed on official documents. Since then the WHO has removed the "disorder" classification from transgender medical diagnoses and required all member nations to follow suit, the deadline is this year. In fairness, not all western European countries are much better off. The case that got the EU human rights court to outlaw forced sterilization was a ruling on homophobia. It was originally aimed at three gay men in France. 3 We next discuss the tragic story of Felis Joy, a trans teenager from Chișinău, Moldova who took her own life after harassment by teachers, school administrators, classmates, and the parents of those classmates. One of the teachers who failed to protect her from physical abuse even spoke in favor of transphobia and belittled Felis at her own funeral. Most of the primarily Catholic or Orthodox European countries are heavily biased against LGBTQIA people in their laws. Poland has even declared "LGBT free zones" which is funny considering how many priests there are in that country... 5 1. Julia Lee. 'Danger everywhere': War and Transphobia Create Perfect Storm for Trans Ukrainians. NBC. April 2022. ⇤2. Lorenzo Tondo. ‘I Will Not Be Held Prisoner’: The Trans Women Turned Back at Ukraine’s Borders. The Guardian. March 2022. ⇤3. Europe: LGBTQIA Country Rankings. Rainbow Europe. 2022 ⇤4. Felis Joy. Translivesmatter.info. April 2022. ⇤5. Polish Region Wants to Remain an 'LGBT-Free' Zone Despite Risking Millions in EU Funds. Euronews. August 2021. ⇤

The people behind the NRA are as evil and cruel as you imagined.In this episode we share some lesser known stories about some of NRA’s “iconic” leaders like Oliver North, and their bloodstained resumes. We also discuss the Uvalde school massacre timeline and the anemic, shameful, and cowardly police response. If you like our content, please support us by becoming a patron. As Adam Serwer pointed out in 2018, "The Cruelty is the Point." That's why, for example, the right wingers like people like Oliver North leading the NRA, and people like Felix Rodriguez training their torturers and assassins. We discuss the El Mozote massacre orchestrated by death squads in the El Salvador military during the Reagan administration, and how people like North and Rodriguez trained them. They also orchestrated the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero, 40 of his funeral attendees, and the four Maryknoll nuns raped, murdered, and bured in a roadside Salvadoran mass grave. The right loves their sadists... 1, 2, 3, 4 We also discuss the recent developments in the investigation into the timeline of the Uvalde, Texas mass shooting and the failure of a police response to the incident. Why did 19 children die while cops waited in the hallway? Those cops get 40% of the town's budget, and yet didn't have the equipment they say they needed, and had to wait on a tactical unit from a federal agency to come end the shooting incident for them. The response of Uvalde law enforcement commanders has been less than reassuring, considering the person who wrote the FBI's training guide on mass shooting response says the local cops did it all wrong. 5 Oh, and a pastor at an Arlington, Texas city council meeting wants to execute the gays (again). See? Like we said, they love their sadists. 6 1. Adam Serwer. The Cruelty Is the Point. The Atlantic. October 2018. ⇤2. Raymond Bonner. Massacre of Hundreds Reported in Salvador Village. The New York Times. January 1982. ⇤3. Tom Gibb. The Killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero.... The Guardian. March 2000. ⇤4. Larry Rohter. Four Salvadorans Say They Killed U.S. Nuns on Orders of Military. The New York Times. April 1998. ⇤5. Katherine Schweit. I Created the F.B.I.’s Active Shooter Program.... The New York Times. May 2022. ⇤6. Reddit: In Arlington TX citizens voiced support for executing LGBT+ people. /r/denton subreddit. May 2022. ⇤

We are discussing gun control and the Uvalde school shooting.Americans have a sick fascination with their guns, it’s pathological, almost sexual. May 24 2022, Robb Elementary School, Uvalde Texas – 19 children slaughtered, two teachers gunned down as they tried to shield the students with their bodies. On this black day, yet another avoidable school mass shooting shocks the world. Yet another AR-15 rifle is used to massacre babies. The nation is in shock, but the republican politicians are still refusing to ban assault rifles and pass gun control laws. The gunman bought his two AR-15s and 375 rounds of ammo legally, the day after his 18th birthday. In the United States one cannot buy a beer if they’re younger than 21, but buying an Armalite military weapon created for war is legal. If you like our content, please become a patron and get our extra premium episodes. Just as the funerals of the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting are starting, America is faced with another slaughter of innocents. 19 little bodies, so destroyed they had to be matched to their parents by DNA tests, some were unrecognizable. 4 victims are still alive, in critical condition at a San Antonio hospital. The police took more than 1 hour to neutralize the gunman, it appears they arrested a parent, tackled another, and pepper sprayed a third, as these people were trying to get in the school to save the children while police were outside, while the gunman was still shooting inside the school. An 11 year old girl had to cover herself in blood to appear dead, and she stayed still for 1 hour until the police got there. This year we’ve had more mass shootings in the US than days. We have more guns in the US than we have people. The American academy of pediatrics just said that the leading cause of death of American children and adolescents is no longer car accidents, it is FIREARMS. In the last 26 YEARS, since they banned semi-automatic rifles after the Port Arthur massacre, Australia had 20 people dying in mass shootings. We have 19 children and 2 teachers in one day, on May 24. This comes right after the Buffalo racist shooting on May 14, where 10 people were gunned down in a supermarket. So we have 31 fatalities in 10 days. AMERICA, WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE GUNNED DOWN IN 10 DAYS THAN AUSTRALIA HAS IN 26 YEARS. An AR-15 was used in all these gun massacres: Uvalde: AR-15 Buffalo: AR-15 Boulder: AR-15 Orlando: AR-15 Parkland: AR-15 Las Vegas: AR-15 Aurora, CO: AR-15 Sandy Hook: AR-15 Waffle House: AR-15 San Bernardino: AR-15 Midland/Odessa: AR-15 Poway synagogue: AR-15 Sutherland Springs: AR-15 Tree of Life Synagogue: AR-15 We explain why arming teachers is insanity, why metal detectors and transforming our schools in prisons won’t work, and why the only solution is a ban on assault guns, on all semi automatic guns and common sense gun laws, strict gun control, and universal background checks. Also other measures like red flag laws too, but no: this is not about evil and mental illness, all countries have that: what they don’t have is guns. And therefore, mass shootings. Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, senator Ted Cruz and the mayor of Uvalde Don McLaughlin yelled at Beto O’Rourke when he interrupted their shameful press conference in which they were blaming the “evil”, not the guns. Beto was escorted out by Uvalde police officers. Texas chose Cruz over Beto in the senate race in 2018. Now Texas has a chance to replace Abbott with Beto in the gubernatorial race. Just 2 hours after the massacre, TX governor Gregg Abbott attended a fundraising event: he was counting money while the Uvalde parents were counting bodies. The NRA convention in Houston just days after the tragedy in Uvalde was not cancelled, with Cruz and Trump still attending, while Abbott decided to make a video appearance only.

What is monkeypox and how did it get here?We're talking about the monkeypox virus: its incubation period, symptoms, transmission, how contagious it is, treatment and mortality rate. It's similar to smallpox, which only two countries are officially in possession of WHO authorized smallpox repositories of. Iraq, North Korea and France are also believed to possess “illegal” stockpiles. If you enjoy our content, become a patron and unlock our premium episodes. 1 We discuss how Russia produced tons of biological weapons using similar plagues. As Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong of The Atlantic said, “The US has spent decades thinking about how to handle smallpox bioterrorism. The two cases of monkeypox in 2021 provided handy test runs for those plans.” The State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk called Vector is in possession of smallpox and anthrax, as well as more recent pathogens like Ebola. 2 Smallpox had a 30% fatality rate at its peak. Monkeypox is between 1-10% depending on the strain and care available. The COVID SARS 2 R0 is 8. Monkeypox’s R naught is less than 1 (average) so far. R0 is the average number of people who will contract a disease from one person with that disease. Although it's rare, if you have swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, pustules, puss filled blisters, or lesions on your hands and feet, extremities, and face you should probably head to the ER... Monkeypox is transmitted by bodily fluids. It is not an airborne virus like COVID, monkeypox is also a DNA virus so it doesn’t mutate easily. The virus is mostly carried by rodents. In 2003 USA had a monkeypox outbreak in Illinois after an import of rodents from Ghana. What’s different now is so many cases without a clear prime source. Rarely, monkeypox makes away from it's endemic areas in Nigeria, Ghana, and Congo. When it does,outbreaks are usually in the single digits, not this time. On May 20th confirmed cases were in the US, UK, Spain, and Portugal. As we record on May 24, monkeypox is in all NATO countries plus a few. Those first affected were men who have sex with men. It is important to not stigmatize any group of people. Early narratives about a disease can become lore. And narratives turned stigma can stop people from reporting symptoms. Stigma and disinformation is exactly what evangelical Republicans and the Russian orthodox church will likely do, though. We discuss Russian experiments with Marburg, Ebola, bubonic plague, anthrax, HIV, and camelpox. Catherine the Great was the first Russian vaccinated for smallpox, and all these years later this outbreak has the stocks of companies with an interest in vaccines like TPOXX and TEMBEXA such as Siga, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, Emergent BioSolutions, and Bavarian Nordic soaring. We discuss Vektor Labs in Koltsovo, Siberia (as well as its predecessor, Biopreparat) where Putin's doctors work on the latest vaccines... they say... maybe also bioweapons. Ilya Drozdov was in charge of Vector, but he's now the world's most famous missing scientist, either accidentally or on purpose. If there is still a Russian bioweapons program they're in volation of the Biological Weapons Convention. Vector is the second largest such facility in the world behind the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Our Russian bioweapons history knowledge mostly comes from defector Ken Alibek who testified about his time in Russian bioweapons research before Congress. 1. Mary G. Reynolds et al. ...Risk Factors for Human Monkeypox.... Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol 13, November 2007. ⇤2. Ed Yong. So Have You Heard About Monkeypox?. The Atlantic. May 2022. ⇤

How Stalin starved Ukraine in the 1930s and how Putin is doing it now.We're talking about the "Terror-Famine" created by Soviet farm policy in the 1930s which killed millions of people in Ukraine. If you like our content please become a patron and get our premium episodes, plus our public episodes, all ad-free! The Soviet Union had problems with food production throughout its existence. From the outset in 1917, Lenin was forced with a farm revolt in the Penza province that resulted in his infamous "hanging order" to execute 100 kulaks. We explain what a kulak is, how that class of people came to be, and how Stalin tried to exterminate them in the 1930s. 1 After Lenin's death in the early 1920s, it was Trotsky or Stalin for who would succeed him. Trotsky had the army, but Stalin had everyone else, and the fate of millions were sealed when Stalin rose to power. Stalin's first five year plan involved the collectivization of farmland, and it was thought that machinery could increase production with less labor, and so the kulaks were sent to labor camps and the women of farming villages left to work the fields, with disastrous results. On the low end, 3 to 5 million Ukrainians starved to death. Another 1.5 million Kazakhs. More in the northern Caucasus. And those not killed by the famine were also targets in Stalin's purges a few years later. Kherson, Odessa, and Mariupol: all cities in the news today with Russia's current invasion. They're grain ports in the country known as the bread basket of Europe, and Ukraine is still fighting for them 100 years later. Famines in 1918 may be more aptly described as food terrorism today, as Putin's destruction of grain ports could cause a global food crisis. Will we have mass migrations in response to mass hunger in Europe in 2022 if grain supplies run low? Little was written of the famines in the west, except by journalists like Welshman Gareth Jones, who kept diaries of his travels through Soviet territory. Sadly, Jones' legacy was tarnished by western journalists complicit with the Stalin regime such as Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who admitted in private that millions were dying of hunger, but downplayed that fact in the the paper of record. He was given a Pulitzer and "perks" from the Soviets for his efforts, Gareth Jones was given three fatal gunshot wounds while reporting on the Japanese invasion of Mongolia in 1935 with a man we now know to have been with the NKVD: the precursor to the KGB. 2 The famine was also documented in the photos of people living in 1930s Soviet territory such as Alexander Wienerberger and James Abbe. A particularly striking photo of Wienerberger's was one of a Soviet Health Minister's summer palace in Crimea, in which he lived while millions of people below his stately grounds were falling dead in the streets from starvation. Not very comrade-like... 3, 4 1. Lenin's Hanging Order for the Kulaks (1918). Alpha History. ⇤2. Neil Prior. Journalist Gareth Jones' 1935 Murder Examined by BBC Four. BBC, July 2012. ⇤3. 'A Gift To Posterity': Four Men Who Risked The Wrath Of Stalin To Photograph The Holodomor. Radio Free Europe. May 2021. ⇤4. Alexander Wienerberger. Soviet Health Commissar's Summer Residence in Crimea. The Holodomor Research and Education Consortium. ⇤

A history of Roe v. Wade in the context of its impending reversal.The United Nations lists forced pregnancy as a crime against humanity in Article 7.1.g of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court. If you like our content, please become a patron to access both our premium episodes and our public episodes ad-free. Forced pregnancy is listed near murder, enslavement, and the crime of apartheid. An abortion ban is forcing women to be pregnant and give birth. A sexual violence component is linked to this crime: in this case, that component is obliging a rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term and give birth. 1 The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe Vs Wade is not only an attack on women’s rights. In some states, it will also be a ban on IUDs, condoms, and even a ban on medications used for treating ectopic pregnancy and miscarriages. Women will have less access to medical services such as cancer screenings and the Papanicolaou test. Raped young girls will be forced to give birth. The same will apply to incest and cases where the pregnancy risks to the mothers’ life. Plan B even would be prohibited, the morning-after pill could trigger a murder charge. Even countries like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia have more liberalized abortion laws. 2 In some US states, the abortion laws are already insane: In Alabama, the penalty for getting an abortion after you are raped is more severe than the penalty for raping someone. Some pharmacists in Texas are ALREADY refusing to fill prescriptions to treat ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages as some of the drugs used in those cases are also used for abortions. And outside of abortion, Texas has also implemented a "loyalty oath to Israel" requirement for state employees including school teachers that is working through the courts. 3 We also discuss Jane Roe aka Norma McCorvey, Linda Coffee, Sarah Weddington, Gloria Allred, feminism, Matt Gaetz, “overeducated”, and the fact that it was Republicans like Nixon and Reagan who first passed abortion laws. We discuss the Supreme Court Republican nominated Justices: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barret. We hear about abortion bans in Ceausescu’s Romania, then explain how racism and the Green v. Connally decision are the root of the American anti abortion craze via a man named Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell. Bob Jones University and its founder claimed that racial segregation was mandated by the Bible. Then we discuss the separation of church and state, and Jimmy Carter’s election details in this context. We also address the foster system and state of social services in the US. We discuss the senate vote on codifying Roe vs. Wade as well. 4 We look at the countries that rolled back abortion laws in the last 20 years: El Salvador, Nicaragua and Poland. 1. Crimes Against Humanity. United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention. ⇤2. Adrian Horton. "It's ot a Little Child": Gynecologists Join the Fight Against Six-week Abortion Bans. The Guardian. April 2019. ⇤3. Jacey Fortin. She Wouldn’t Promise Not to Boycott Israel, So a Texas School District Stopped Paying Her. The New York Times. December 2018. ⇤4. Randall Balmer. The Real Origins of the Religious Right. Politico Magazine. May 2014. ⇤

How Vladimir Putin acquires his luxuries, and how they're hidden from the world.Officially, Vladimir Putin is not a rich man. On paper, he owns the following: an 800 square foot apartment, a trailer, two cars and a modest salary of $140,000 a year. In reality, he is one of the richest men on Earth. If you like our content, become a patron to get our exclusive premium episodes, plus our public episodes ad-free. After the intro, Sandra has a few things to say to Justice Samuel Alito regarding the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion about overturning Roe vs Wade. Then we move into Putin’s wealth: he also has yachts, mansions, gold toilets and expensive watches. 1 There's also the palace on the Black Sea coast that is still under construction, revealed to the world in drone footage by Alexei Navalny before his imprisonment. It features a hockey rink, a vineyard on the grounds of the adjacent property, its own border checkpoint, its own self-enforced no-fly zone, a casino, and of course a hookah bar with a stripper pole and an ancient Greek Orthodox church moved to the site brick by brick. FSB are the title holders. 2 Western billionaires use the same methods as oligarchs to hide their wealth from taxation. We discuss a couple of good examples, for instance the case of Suleiman Kerimov, who owned several Russian banks and also the country's largest gold mining company, Polyus Gold. Kerimov's wealth was hidden behind a Swiss accountant who even used his town's local tattoo artist to send wire transfers between shell companies, to the tune of about $700 million dollars. Most of Suleiman’s wealth came from his investment in Gazprom, a Russian gas company, to the tune of about $21 billion. 3 There's also the case of a few Harvard economics professors who tried to rip off the Russian banking system by taking over the clearing bank for the entire Russian economy with a $400,000 dollar loan from a dentist uncle in Idaho.  It all ended in hurt feelings, fraud charges, and tears. But they did gain money in the end by investing in Gazprom. 4. We also discuss some of Sandra's personal stories about Lada cars, Boris Berezovsky, loans for shares during Yeltsin's admin, and the scam auctions which set all of this in motion from her home country of Romania back when the Soviet party fell apart and Nancy Pelosi’s historic visit to Kyiv, meeting Volodymyr Zelensky. Also included: Kursk, Ozero dachas, Yeltsin, Roman Abramovich, novichok, Scarface, gold toilets, Trump, KGB, Alina Kabayeva, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, Luiza Rozova, Sergei Roldugin, Boris Rotenberg, Svetlana Krivonogikh, Timchenko, Kolbin, Kovalchuk, Panama & Pandora Papers, Anatoly Chubais, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 1. Mike McIntire. Why Tracking Putin’s Wealth Is So Difficult. The New York Times. April 2022. ⇤2. Inside 'Putin's Palace'. Radio Free Europe. January 2021. ⇤3. James Oliver, Nassos Stylianou and Steve Swann. Hidden Wealth of One of Putin’s 'Inner Circle' Revealed. BBC. April 2022. ⇤4. David McClintick. How Harvard Lost Russia. Institutional Investor. January 2006. ⇤

Was Vladimir Putin born in Russia or in Georgia? Who is his biological mother – Vera Putina or Maria Ivanova Putina?Putin’s autobiography says he was born in 1952 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. But there is an alternative, more credible story which places his early years in Metekhi, Georgia and identifies his biological mother as a woman named Vera. In the Kremlin version, Putin’s grandfather, Spiridon Putin, was a personal cook to Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. If you like our content and want to support Dubious, please become a patron and subscribe to our add free premium episodes. Putin's mother was a factory worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. Early in World War II, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD – which later became KGB, now FSB. He was severely wounded in 1942. Vladimir Spiridonovich and Maria Ivanovna, his parents, had two more children, two boys but they both died before Putin was born: Albert, born in the 1930s, died in infancy, and Viktor, born in 1940, died of diphtheria and starvation in 1942 during the siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany forces in WW2. In her memoir, Hard Choices, she shares a story Putin told her about this time in his life. This story does not fit the version Putin tells in his official autobiography. The then U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said he too had never heard it before. Putin also tells another story: one of his great teachers in life was a rat. 1 Putin’s path was influenced by a movie called The Shield and The Sword - a 1968 Soviet spy series. It inspired him to join the KGB. Putin was impressed that “One man's effort could achieve what whole armies could not. One spy could decide the fate of thousands of people.” 2 There is an unofficial version of Putin’s early years: Putin was actually born in Georgia. A woman named Vera who lives in Metheki, near Gori, in Georgia has been saying since 1999 that she is Putin’s birthmother. Putina married a Georgian soldier Giorgi Osepahvili. In December 1960, the ultimatum from her husband, Putina travelled with "Vova" back to Ochyor, in Russia and she left the boy with her parents and returned to Georgia. Vera believes that the Leningrad "parents" referred to in Putin's official biography adopted HER son from his grandparents, so from her parents. The story was corroborated by Shura Gabinashvili, a former Russian teacher at the village school in Metekhi. She says Putin was her student and that she has received death threats about making these claims public. She remembers Putin by the same pet name Vera, his alleged biological mother uses: "Vova." 3 In this episode we also discuss Alexander Litvinenko, polonium 210, the suspicious death of BOTH Putin’s Leningrad parents of cancer, AT THE SAME TIME. We also comment on the very peculiar deaths of Artyom Borovik who died in a plane crash coinciding with the documentary he was making about Vera and Putin's childhood & Italian journalist Antonio Russo who was also interested in Vera’s story before was murdered while investigating Putin’s war crimes in Chechnya. 1. Alex Kliment. Putin, Ukraine, and the Rat Story. Gzero. March 2022. ⇤2. Damien Sharkov. Straight Outta Leningrad: Putin Says Streetfights Taught Him How to Tackle ISIS. Newsweek. October 2015. ⇤3. Kate Weinberg. Could This Woman be Vladimir Putin's Real Mother?. Telegraph. December 2008. ⇤

A FOIA lawsuit was filed against the Secret Service regarding the Biden dogs, Champ and Major.In this episode we’re going to talk about the new Biden pets, Commander the German Shepherd, Willow the tabby cat and Poppet the unofficial White House rabbit, but also about Major and the late Champ Biden and how they were turned into political weapons and attacked by right wing groups, in court and on live TV. And we have some “barking news”: president Zelensky, Olena Zelenska, and their children have more than just two dogs: they also have a hamster and a cat. If you like our content, please subscribe to our premium episodes. Major Biden is the only pet in history whose less than perfect behavior was considered reason enough to "file a FOIA lawsuit against the United Stated Department of Homeland Security for records of communication between Secret Service officials assigned to the White House regarding the Biden family dogs." One’s pets and children are/should be off limits in politics, even if the politics of their humans is not your cup of tea. On that note, thanks to President Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush for adopting puppy Freddy Bush from the SPCA of Texas and rescuing kitty Bernadette from the side of the road and giving them a wonderful, spoiled life, along with Bob, the second Bush cat. We discuss the attack against a 13 year old dog, Champ, by a Newsmax host. Gregg Kelly and two guests presented agreed on live TV that Champ “is dirty, looks rough, disheveled, like a junkyard dog.” This attack was connected to senator Ted Cruz who fled to Cancun during the 2021 Texas freeze, leaving his poodle Snowflake alone in a house with no electricity and no heat. Texas monthly editor Michael Hardy brought this fact to light and the Twitter account The Oval Pawffice spread the Snowflake news. Newsmax attacked this account while lying to their viewers, stating the account belonged to Jen Psaki. Newsmax viewers mass reported the account until the Twitter algorithm banned it. But thanks to the adorable fox red Labrador retriever Gipper, Juris Dog-tor at Clare Locke, a boutique law firm, The Oval Pawffice was reinstated in 24 hours. Gipper wrote an official letter to Twitter’s Legal Counsel making it clear that The Oval Pawffice didn’t break any rules. This letter is a work of art, it’s written in doggo, Gipper signed it with his own paw print. 1, 2 Next: fun stories about FDR’s dog Major, Pete Roosevelt, Barney Bush, Juno and Satan Adams, parrot Poll Jackson, Old Ike the Woodrow Wilson ram and Rebecca Coolidge the racoon. We think wild animals should be protected and they should live in their own habitat. Sanctuaries yes, zoos no. Foreign presidential pets like Nemo Macron and Konni Putin (Konni sadly passed away) are included too. Farts, hair dye and Rudi Giuliani are also a thing in this episode. 3 We conclude by asking everyone to please donate to animal organizations on the ground in Ukraine. They need our help, now more than ever, so please help out if you can. And please ADOPT DON’T SHOP. 4 1. Joe Patrice. Twitter Bans Fan Account For Joe Biden’s Pets… . Above The Law. February 2021. ⇤2. The Oval Pawffice twitter account. How to Help Pets in Ukraine. Twitter. April 2022. ⇤3. The Star Youtube account. Macron's Dog Pees in Elysee Meeting. Youtube. October 2017. ⇤4. Michael Hardy Twitter account. @mkerrhardy. Twitter. 2022 ⇤

We discuss Russia's escalating attacks on civilians in Ukraine, and similar tactics used previously in Syria and Chechnya.Putin has committed crimes against humanity before. With no real repercussions from the West. If you like our content, please subscribe to our premium episodes. During the Chechen wars, the West was not as outraged as now, because the victims were predominantly Muslim and world leaders at the time still believed Putin was fighting a war “against terror”. It was proved by journalists like Anna Politkovskaya and former FSB officer turned dissident Alexander Litvinenko that was in fact Putin who planned the now infamous Moscow apartment bombings of 1999 as a pretext to start a war with Chechnya. For a more detailed account, listen to our Putin’s Rise to Power – Part 2 premium episode. 1, 2 We discuss verified reports of executions, sexual assault, torture, shelling of children hospitals, maternities, and blocks of flats, as well as other horrors emerging from Bucha, Borodyanka, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Lviv, Irpin and Odessa. The number of civilian casualties just in Mariupol alone is estimated to exceed 20,000. They are rounding up Ukrainian civilians into camps and many people are “disappeared”. They have even killed dogs and their puppies. As Russia regroups to prepare for the Donbas battle, they are giving a new meaning to “scorched earth”. We go through a brief history of war crimes, and we will analyze the current situation, the West’s reaction and what’s coming next: General Alexander Dvornikov aka the Butcher of Syria and the Battle of Donbas. 3 Lviv University is the alma mater of the two lawyers who came up with the legal concepts of prosecutions at Nuremberg for genocide and crimes against humanity. Raphael Lemkin introduced the term ‘genocide’ in international law and Hersch Lauterpacht coined ‘crimes against humanity’ into international law. Putin is winning in Russia. He’s losing internationally but he’s winning at home, his popularity ratings inside Russia are 83%. On April 11, Putin arrested Vladimir Kara-Murza. The FSB has poisoned kara-Murza twice already. He’s now in prison just Alexei Navalny, not likely to be released soon. A 13 km long Russian convoy is approaching Donbas. On the international scene Russia has been kicked out of the UN Human rights Council but not from the Security Council. The US is sending $750 M in military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine also has Bayraktar drones from Turkey. Finland and Sweden move closer to NATO membership. 4 1. Patrice Taddonio, What an ‘Unhinged’ Meeting Reveals About Vladimir Putin’s War on Ukraine, PBS, March 2022. ⇤2. Greg Myre, Russia's Wars in Chechnya Offer a Grim Warning of What Could Be in Ukraine, NPR, March 2022. ⇤3. Pjotr Sauer, Hundreds of Ukrainians Forcibly Deported to Russia, Say Mariupol Women, The Guardian, April 2022. ⇤4. Ben Arris, Editor in Chief, BNE Intellinews. ⇤

In this episode we interview a Boeing 737 pilot.For reasons which become apparent as the conversation unfolds, our guest is introduced as just “Alex”. Together with this experienced Boeing 737 pilot, we address a very important issue: mental health in aviation and the stigma surrounding it. If you like our content, please subscribe to our premium episodes. Are our pilots and air traffic controllers, the people we entrust with our lives, able to get the healthcare they might need without fear of being let go by the airlines? Our guest shares a very personal tragedy he experienced and how he coped with the loss of his beloved newborn son. Alex also explains that he’s one of the lucky pilots who received full support from his airline. Together we discuss mental health, what the reality of suffering from depression or anxiety translates into in the aviation community and what can be done to make things better for everyone involved. We also discuss the China Eastern Airlines MU-5735 crash. Together we look at potential causes for this tragic incident as and we compare the China plane crash to similar plane crashes based on the information revealed so far by the investigators. 1, 2 1. Tom Head, China Eastern Plane’s Vertical Dive Raises Questions – As ‘Pilot Suicide’ Theory Tackled, The South African, March 2022. ⇤2. Pilot Mental Fitness, Federal Aviation Administration, June 2016. ⇤

A pilot and a passenger discuss the China Eastern Airlines MU-5735 crash.Together we’ll analyze the horrific details of the tragedy, we’ll go over a brief history of Boeing and we’ll look at similar plane crashes based on the information revealed so far by the investigators. If you like our content, please subscribe to our premium episodes! We’ll also address a very important issue: mental health in aviation and the stigma surrounding it. Are our pilots and air traffic controllers, the people we entrust with our lives able to get the healthcare they might need without fear of being let go by the airlines? In this context we discuss the Germanwings pilot suicide crash of 2015, the Silk Air pilot suicide crash of 1997, and the Egypt Air pilot suicide crash of 1999. 1, 2, 3, 4 In these cases, captain Tsu Way Ming, first officer Gameel Al-Batouti, and co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed their flights to commit suicide, according to official reports. We also discuss the MCAS related crashes of Boeing 737-MAX aircraft operated by Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines, and how the company, particularly Dennis Muilenburg the Boeing CEO at the time, repeatedly misled the public about the nature of the crashes and the cause of them. It is essential to point out that until the investigation into this tragic plane crash of China Eastern Flight 5735 is completed, we won’t have any concrete definitive answers as to what caused it. In part two of this series we will interview a current international cargo 737 pilot about the technical details of the aircraft and his opinions on the FAA medical procedures and processes, particularly in the context of mental health. 1. Joshua Hammer, 9525, GQ Magazine, February 2016. ⇤2. Regan Morris, Silk Air Crash Was Probably Intentional, ABC News, January 2006. ⇤3. William Langewiesche, The Crash of EgyptAir 990, The Atlantic, November 2001. ⇤4. Silk Air Flight 185 Crash Animation, Youtube, February 2022. ⇤

On the Freuds, films, and psychoanalysis in the life of Marilyn Monroe.In this episode we are talking all about psychoanalysis. What is it, where it came from, and how it directly contributed to Marilyn Monroe's decline and unfortunate suicide. If you like our content please subscribe to our premium episodes! We begin with a discussion of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, and its impact on the culture of the late 19th and early 20th century. Thanks to Adam Curtis for the wonderful documentaries, but in particular for this episode we mention The Century of the Self, a BBC documentary that is one of the few in mass media to examine the impact of the theories of Freud in modern culture. 1 We then cover the life of Marilyn Monroe from the time of her childhood in orphanages on through her adult fame in the post WW2 American Film industry. Marilyn is inseparable from the film business, because of her association with the "method acting" school, Actors Studio, founded by Lee Strasburg with funding in large part provided by Marilyn. Sadly Strasburg's method was fundamentally incompatible with Marilyn personally, since it teaches people to draw on their past experiences to summon emotion for the camera, but Marilyn's past was mostly traumatic and only led to her continued psychiatric decline. 2 We also discuss Marilyn's relationships with Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, and the conspiracy theories surrounding her affairs with Bobby Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. DiMaggio seemed to be her only reliable friend at times and Miller an unfortunate marriage of professional considerations that didn't work out. The irony of Arthur Miller relegating his wife to a secondary role in a movie starring her, coming from the author of Death of a Salesman, cannot possibly be overstated. Last but not least we cover in detail Marilyn's mistreatment at the hands of her psychiatrists, all of which were proteges of the Freuds, Anna in particular. Sadly Marilyn was not the only notable celebrity to die in the care of a Freud, Tiffany and Co. heiress Mabbie Burlingham died due to sucide in the care of Anna Freud as well. In Marylin's case she was most mistreated by Drs Marianne Kris in New York, who convinced Marilyn to commit herself to the Payne Whitney Mental Hospital in Manhattan (incidentally also the site of MKUltra experiments) where she was sexually assaulted by a staff physician, and by Ralph Greenson her psychoanalyst in Los Angeles who employed the bizarre technique of "adoption therapy" in which he convinced Marilyn to live in his house and pretend to be one of his family. We also talk a bit about Freud's bizarre first trip to America after World War I. 3, 4 As a book recommendation for this episode, we recommend Gloria Steinem's "Marilyn: Norma Jeane" as the most relevant to the subject matter we are discussing. It is not only a deeper dive into the same stories but includes iconic photos of Marilyn taken by the late, great celebrity photographer George Barris, who took the last picture of Marilyn before she died. 5 1. Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self, BBC, 2002. ⇤2. Rachelle Bergstein, How Method Acting Led Hollywood’s Biggest Stars to Behave Bizarrely, New York Post, January 2022. ⇤3. Sam Kashner, Marilyn and Her Monsters, Vanity Fair, November 2010. ⇤4. Daniel Akst, Freudian America, The Wall Street Journal Europe, August 2009. ⇤5. Gloria Steinem, Marilyn: Norma Jeane, Open Road Media, 2013. ⇤

Vladimir Putin’s health is declining.There is credible intelligence suggesting that he has a “significant” illness. “Putin appears to have some neuro/physiological health issues.” There is chatter of cancer and/or Parkinson’s disease and steroid use, videos of Putin show a rigid right arm and visible limping. If you like our content, please subscribe to our premium episodes. We discuss the possibility that he may be dying, and that the Ukraine invasion may be a legacy action that he is trying to complete before his own demise due to medical issues. Putin has a very carefully constructed public image which includes prepared videos and images of him performing physically demanding tasks such as Judo fighting, riding horses, and flying gliders. But these "strong-man" images and videos have declined in number in the past couple of years and in some cases, even have been altered with things such as a photoshopped image of a bear. 1, 2 Russian TV even had to cut a portion of a live appearance, presumably due to some medical issue Putin suffered on stage in front of a crowd, and then re-start the broadcast after he had been attended to and returned to the microphone. 3 We also analyze Ukraine's air force status. The war is slipping through Putin's fingers due to his own mismanagement of the ground assault, and so is the number of aircraft in service in the Ukranian air force. As of our recording they're down to 55 fighter jets - MiG-29s are not known for reliability. 4 We finish by assessing who Putin's successors may be if he dies of natural causes or simply doesn't manage to hold on to control of the country if the Ukraine invasion fails. Anatoly Chubais resigned and fled to Turkey. Yuri Kovalchuk and Alexander Bortnikov may also fall out of favor if Ukraine falls from Putin's grasp - like Mikhail Khodorkovsky who got imprisoned by Putin for 10 years. He says Putin will be "gone in 3 years." Boris Berezovsky is obviously out of the running, Putin had him killed. 5 1. @Russia Twitter account, Putin With Photoshopped Bear, Twitter, October 2021. ⇤2. @PutinsKillList Twitter account, Putin and the Microphone, Twitter, March 2022. ⇤3. By Nataliya Vasilyeva, In a £10,500 Italian Designer Coat, a Limping Vladimir Putin Tries to Rally his People, Telegraph, March 2022. ⇤4. Maria Varenikova and Andrew Kramer, How Ukraine’s Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets, New York Times, March 2022. ⇤5. Roman Petrenko, Who Will Replace Putin? Pravda, March 2022. ⇤

"The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride."Zelensky’s words changed everything. In this episode we discuss the invasion timeline, use of illegal weapons, war crimes, the assassination attempts survived by Zelensky and the response of Western leaders in the face of Putin’s increasing aggression. 1 If you enjoy our content, please click here to subscribe. The West, NATO and EU countries finally stepped up and sent relevant military aid, even Germany changed their policy 180 degrees and sent armaments. In reponse, the Russians have intensified their attacks in western Ukraine, in Lviv. Now they’re focused almost exclusively on civilians. A maternity in Mariupol, a children’s hospital as well. The images and reports coming from Ukrainian cities like Kharkiv, Irpin, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Kyiv are harrowing. 2 At the time of our recording, 3.2 million refugees have left Ukraine. Russia has been bombing the refugee corridors as well. Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia cancelled all restrictions for pets entering from Ukraine. We further discuss Zelenskyy’s vision in managing this crisis, his past career as an actor and his unexpected rise as a political figure. The USA announces $800 million in aid to Ukraine after Zelensky’s address: 800 anti aircraft systems 9,000 anti armor systems drones 7,000 small arms 1 million grenades and mortar and artillery rounds radar systems, body armor and helmets We analyze the military capabilities of Ukraine vs Russia and how Putin managed to bungle his invasion so badly. The turn from complete capitulation on the part of western countries to Ukraine seeming like the probable victor in this conflict is astonishing. Putin began with a 6 to 1 advantage in tanks, a 15 to 1 advantage in helicopters, and a 15 to 1 advantage in terms of total airplanes, and yet now we are to the point where Putin seems afraid to commit the rest of his airforce, and his armor has struggled to advance on Kyiv due to drone strikes. We also cover why the Polish MiG-29 offer to Ukraine was a bad idea in an analysis of modern versus cold war fighter aircraft capabilities. An iconic moment in the past week was when Maria Ovsiannikova (also spelled Ovsyannikova), a Channel 1 employee, interrupted the state controlled live tv program holding a big sign saying “Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here”. She urged Russians in a pre-recorded video which has gone viral since then (she knew she would be arrested): “Don’t be afraid to protest, THEY CAN’T ARREST US ALL.” 3 Putin now must fear his own people, and we discuss the similarities between the trajectory of this conflict and the failed invasion of Afghanistan that broke the Soviet party in the 1980s. 1. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Address to the US Congress, Video, March 2022. ⇤2. Mstyslav Chernov, Pregnant Woman, Baby Die After Russian Bombing in Mariupol, AP News, March 2022. ⇤3. Greg Walters, ‘They Are Lying to You’: A Russian Journalist Just Stormed a Live Broadcast to Protest the War, Vice, March 2022. ⇤

On February 24th the world watched in horror as the Russian military started its invasion of Ukraine.In this episode we are discussing all the things that led to Putin’s war on Ukraine, the west’s lax attitude and response, and Ukraine’s fight for freedom and acceptance in the EU over the past three decades. Latest developments at the time of recording are of course discussed as well. If you enjoy our episodes, please subscribe. Historical and geopolitical context is key to understanding the current tragedy unfolding under our eyes. We start off with The Budapest Memorandum of 1994 when, after the fall of the USSR, Ukraine was assured by the US, UK and Russia that its territorial sovereignty would be protected as long as they gave up their nuclear warheads. 1 Next we discuss The Orange Revolution of 2004, when the Ukrainian people organized nationwide protests in support of fair elections after Russian tampering, and the poisoning of candidate Viktor Yushchenko by Russian intelligence. He almost died and remained disfigured. We also discuss how the protest movements of this time in led to similar uprisings in support of elections in other countries in the region such as Moldova and Belarus, and how all of this led to similar protests within Russia itself in 2011, and Putin's personal feud with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 2 Then we discuss the Revolution of Dignity following the elections of 2010, in which the Russian-favored candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, was elected to the presidency of Ukraine, leading to another round of protests and a violent response from the state police and military. We also go over the subsequent Russian annexation of Crimea, and failure (again) of western countries and NATO to live up to their assurances made in the 1994 agreement that saw Ukraine stripped of nuclear weapons. 3 In addition to all of this we discuss the specifics of no-fly zones and how Russia has evaded them in the past, for example during the recent Syrian conflict. Also the firings of Ukranian officials at the behest of US presidents, such as the "Trump phone call" from 2019 to current Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and the overlap between GOP and Ukranian right-wing campaign advisors, Paul Manafort for example. We also discuss the persecution of Russian dissidents Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya who were all killed by Russian intelligence agents while living in London. 4 This is a multi-part series, in the next episode we'll discuss the devastation from the invasion in Mariupol, Kharkhiv, Kherson. Irpin, Kyiv and other Ukranian cities, and the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 17 incident. 1. Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, December 1994. ⇤2. Ukraine's Ex-president on Being Poisoned, BBC, April 2018. ⇤3. Revolution of Dignity, Maidan Museum. ⇤4. David Cenciotti, Syrian Mig-29 Fulcrums Escorted the 28 Russian Jets... Hiding Under Cargo Planes, The Aviationist, September 2015. ⇤

We discuss swatting: calling in false law enforcement emergencies on one's online enemies.In the last decade, there have been several cases of people who have been targeted for their “special” social media handles: high value handles that are very short or otherwise desirable. If you enjoy our content, please click here to subscribe. At least two persons lost their lives after SWAT teams were sent to their homes under false pretenses. Innocent people like Mark Herring, a 60 year-old family man, who died of a heart attack after being swatted over his Twitter handle @Tennessee. Andrew Finch, a 28-year-old father, got swatted in 2017 after an online Call of Duty dispute between two others. He was killed by police on his front porch. This episode focuses on their stories and the ways in which laws have changed regarding online behavior. 1, 2, 3 According to swatting victim @jw, the ordeal starts with constant DMs, comments and phone calls, escalates to pizza deliveries not ordered by the victim and culminates with militarized police sent to their homes. We also discuss Neal's incident with the Little Rock SWAT team, after his bravely drunk neighbors confronted burglars to try and protect the sanctity of his plasma TV, and in the process managed to attract every cop in Little Rock to his house. We also discuss the swatting cases of former Washginton Post tech writer Brian Krebs and Wired Magazine reporter Mat Honan. 4, 5, 6 Lastly, we introduce the publishing platform we are open sourcing this week! Rent Free Media allows anyone to publish podcasts, videos, or any other digital content, including support for paid subscribers via Stripe. We hope this encourages people to take ownership of their content and stop using corporate publishers such as Patreon and Apple Podcasts that expect anywhere from 18% to 30% of their gross revenue for hosting sub-100 megabyte podcast episodes. 1. Tennessee Man Died from Heart Attack fter ‘Swatting’ over Twitter Handle, The Guardian, July 2021. ⇤2. Danny Cevallos, Charges Against Suspect in 'Swatting' Hoax that Led to Death Could Be Complicated, NBC News, January 2018. ⇤3. Suspect in Fatal "SWATting" Call Charged in Another Similar Prank, CBS News, January 2018. ⇤4. Brian Krebs, Men Who Sent Swat Team, Heroin to My Home Sentenced, Krebs on Security, February 2017. ⇤5. Brian Krebs, The Obscurest Epoch is Today, Krebs on Security, March 2013. ⇤6. Mat Honan, How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking, Wired, August 2012. ⇤

What really happened to the Dyatlov hikers?In 1959 a group of Russian hikers disappeared in the Ural mountains. Months later their bodies were found, showing signs of mutilation, exposure to strange chemical substances, and exposure to radiation. We examine a new theory in this episode that we think solves this decades-old Russian mystery, involving the US Cold War spying flights orchestrated by the USAF Strategic Air Command and CIA, and a Chernobyl-esque nuclear accident at the Kyshtym plutonium enrichment facility which the Soviets tried to hide from the rest of the world. If you like our content please subscribe to our bonus episodes. The theories about the reason for the Dyatlov party's demise run the gamut from kadabatic winds, to avalanche, to yetis and ghosts. But we think it far more likely that they were inadvertently struck by a photo flash bomb: a device dropped by a spy plane for night time aerial photography. 1, 2 There are documented cases of photoflash bomb accidents in America as early as 1938, and they were used regularly for night flight spy missions during the Korean War in the early 1950s. The photoflash bomb theory explains many of the mysteries surrounding the condition of the bodies of these hikers. The strange grey material on their bodies could be magnesium, burns to their skin could have been caused by proximity to the blast, photos of bright orbs in their camera film could have been the flash bombs themselves, seemingly frantic behavior that caused them to lose contact with each other, all of these details lend more credence to this theory of a photoflash bomb causing their deaths. 3 We think this is the most likely explanation for what happened to these people, and we cover all of the details in this episode. If anything, declassified books and documents from the US military give further weight to this theory about the Dyatlov party, as they paint a more clear picture of the mentality of the people in charge of operating the US military and intelligence agencies at the time. In particular, a declassified book from the CIA covers in some detail the disagreement between USAF officials Curtis Lemay and Jimmy Doolittle and CIA director Allen Dulles about the role of recon flights, generally. 4 We also talk a bit about the found-footage horror film "Devil's Pass" which is a pretty good encapsulation of all of the crazy theories about this incident in fictional form. 5 Over 200 members of US military and intelligence flight crews were shot down over Soviet airspace during the cold war. The vast majority of their families were lied to about their condition and whereabouts. As we publish this there is a brand new war brewing between Russia and NATO over control of Ukraine. Hopefully one of these days we get past World War II, but not today it seems... 1. Harrington Aviation Museum, Photoflash Bomb , American military design. ⇤2. Andrei Shepelev, Documentary promo (Russian), April 2021. ⇤3. The New York Times, Photoflash Bomb Wrecks Windows Near Air 'War', May 1938. ⇤4. Gregory W. Pedlow and Donald E. Welzenbach, The CIA and the U2 Program, US Central Intelligence Agency, 1998. ⇤5. Devil's Pass, written by Vikram Weet and directed by Renny Harlin, IFC Films, 2013. ⇤