Stuff They Don't Want You To KnowStrange News: Bear Fraud, Iraq and Child Marriage, The Onion Buys Infowars, China's Peruvian Megaport and More
A Swedish leader is terrified of bananas. A group of ne'er-do-wells get busted for bear fraud. Some Iraqi politicians want to lower the legal age of consent to 9 years old. The Onion buys Infowars. A US defense contractor pays out 43 million USD for its role in torturing Abu Ghraib detainees. Over in Peru, China's building a megaport - and no one's sure what will happen next. All this and more in this week's strange news segment.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Noah.
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our superproducer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. If you are hearing this strange news segment on the day it publishes or the evening, let us be the first to welcome you to November twenty fifth, twenty twenty four. As people reckon the calendar. We have so many updates, we have so much strange news from across the globe. Maybe one that would be interesting for us to kick off with here is, do you guys hear about that Swedish leader who's terrified of bananas?
Uh?
No, but I can relate.
I don't trust the shape and the peel and you slip on them, you're dead. I mean, come on, if Mario Kart has taught us anything.
Yeah, but they're also radioactive.
They are Yes, that is true. You know, the story of the banana is fascinating on its own, given the fact that you know, the reason banana candy, banana flavored candy doesn't taste the same as bananas in your grocery stores entirely because the gross Michelle almost got wiped out right and replaced by the cavendish banana.
It's a nuts of.
Story, maybe more for ridiculous history. We do have to give a quick trigger warning to our pal Paulina Berg, who is a Swedish minister with an intense phobia of bananas. Apparently part of it is due to physiological reasons. She has a strong allergy to bananas, and in multiple emails regarding you know, various international or domestic appearances, her team goes out of the way to say that no bananas are allowed on the premises entire.
Wait, so she's actually allergic to the bananas.
Let's go to a quote. Let's go to a quote she distrustful of them, like me, Well, let's go to the you know, we love a primary source. Brand Berg told an outfit called Expressing earlier, she said, quote, it's sort of an allergy. You could say, huh, it's something that I get professional help with. Oh, I have a phobia of bananas, so I don't know.
It reminds me a lot of the Chuck character on Better Call Saul, who is allergic to electro electromatic you know. And that's a you know, a story we've talked about too, but it is yet to be fully recognized by medical science.
It's like cats with cucumbers, you guys.
Well they mistake them for reptiles.
Okay, No, it's not like that, so well maybe it might be.
Who are we to plumb the depths of every individual mind? We'll tell you after this gold open and we've returned. Speaking of phobias, here's one that I'm sure has stood out to all of us at some point in the darkness. The constant fear that a bear may approach you and break into your.
Car with a banana.
With a banana or a cucumber, you know, or both, just a dual wielding the most dangerous produce.
Want some produce, it says, you know.
I mean, let's just can we at least all agree that bananas do have a bit of a sinister vibe.
I mean, they're useful for scale in a non metric system. They're also untrustworthy because a banana goes, a banana goes from perfect to bye bye so quickly.
I was examining the one banana I have left after my son got here on Sunday. We purchased it on Monday. As we're recording today, it is Wednesday. I swear it is bad.
It is terrgo. They go quick.
Yeah, you can freeze them.
You can freeze them. That's a great note. But the larger rules. But bears, so we all So That's where I'm going, right, Are we unanimous on this? Do we all have that completely understandable, ever present fear that a bear dual bananas and cucumbers might break into your car?
Yes, ever since I've seen that black bear like literally in my cul de sac. Yes, I'm actually worried about.
That, Ben.
This is a fear I didn't know I had until you manifested it into existence with.
Your very words.
Oh geez, just gave you the words for that vibe. Man, It's been with you cradle to grave. California has seen a lot of bears breaking into cars, but it appears someone has been leveraging this again universal fear. I'm joking to perpetrate some crime, and we love a good silly crime. The California Insurance Department started noticing something was awry when four LA residents were arrested on previous Wednesday earlier this November. They were accused of defrauding insurance companies out of nearly one hundred and forty two thousand U S. Dollars by claiming a bear had randomly showed up and damaged their luxury vehicles, and they provided they provide a video footage of what they said was a bear moving within two Mercedes, popping into a Rolls Royce and claimed, you know, they needed the insurance payout. Apparently it was a guy dressed as a bear as part of a just delightful conspiracy.
Okay, Ben, I'm looking at a photo on this ap article you shared it.
Yeah.
Yeah, and there there is a bear suit that looks like it has a shirt on for some reason, and it looks like there are two claw like weapons that you would hold in your fists.
To do the damage.
Yeah.
It's also it's fascinating because you say shirt, I feel like it looks like a lap coat. Yes, like doctor bear is so the bear quote unquote the woosh woosh. Bear reportedly damaged a twenty ten Rolls Royce ghost, which, just so you know, is an amazing piece of art, often confused with a car. It was look the video shows a bear trashing the car. They gave it to the insurance company. And here's my favorite quote from the California Insurance Department. They said, quote upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah yeah.
So the four people, Ruben tom Rizaian Ararat, chirknian vahe Mura Kanyan, and Alif Zuckerman, we're all arrested on charges of insurance fraud and of course conspiracy. San Bernardino County District Attorney Office said we don't have time for this. I'm kidding.
No.
They said they're going to do their job. So I don't know, man, it might be a sensitive time to order bear costumes. Our thoughts go out to all the furries out there, you know what I mean?
Oh, I know what you mean. But I'm just looking at pictures of twenty ten Rolls Royce ghosts.
Beautif see you see what I'm saying. Art confused with a car.
Well, and can I just say my thoughts are always with all the furries out there.
Just why we have a few furries who listen Confirmed furries guys. Oh yes, very kind, awesome humans that we've interacted with.
Dude.
Also, furries are great. You're not messing up anybody's life by doing what you want. You're not harming other people. I love it. I love when our pal Josh Clark was telling me a while back. He was telling me he was trying to get into a furry convention in Atlanta and security was super high. And I asked him, well, you know, Josh, what's going on with that? And he said, Ben, believe it or not, a lot of folks are mean to these people.
And I was not joking when I said I often think of furries because it is a live and let live kind of lifestyle and I think it's delightful and if it gives them joy, I say, more power to them. And those costumes are very elaborate and really demonstrate a lot of craft.
Generally, don't come with those clow fists though.
Right, No, that was to mess up the cars for the Insurance podcast, So hashtag not all furries or no tall furries, depending on how you read this. It's a super Bowl superb Owl kind.
Of word joke.
We have a little bit of time before we move on to our next few stories. I would like to ask you, guys, there's a lot of geopolitical stuff at play. Syria is now having his water cut, the EU is doing a little bit of quid pro quo with Chinese tech giants. A rock is lowering the age of consent from eighteen to nine years old.
That is not good clip.
Yeah, yeah, do you want to talk about that one for a second.
No, No, I guess also experiencing declining birth rates, and this is some sort of I'm sorry, I'm just grasping a straws here.
I would say, like, as much as personally I don't want to talk about it, let's at least get the facts out there so when people see that headline they understand what is happening.
Yeah, this is important and we need to be very aware of this. All of us joined around at the proverbial campfire this evening. This bill has not gone through. It is a proposed legal change. The current age of consent legally is eighteen years old. In the nation of a Rock. If this bill passes and becomes law, it will lower the age of consent to nine years old. It will not have a men max requirement for the age of someone marrying a nine year old, which means conceivably it could be a very much older person an adult. Iraq's parliament is a coalition enterprise and right now the folks running the legislative roost are a coalition of Shia Muslim parties. They're seeking to overturn Law one eighty eight, better known as the Personal Status Law, which has been around since nineteen fifty nine. It's supposed to be irreligious or secular, meaning it is not impacting certain people differently based upon their religious creeds. However, this is the second time Shia have attempted to amend that Personal Status law. They were not able to change it in twenty fourteen, try it again unsuccessfully in twenty seventeen. This has largely been rejected, thank goodness, due to female activists and female politicians in the country. But it has a lot of momentum right now and it's seen I don't know I so we have to wonder what these kind of things that would hopefully never pass in any country, we have to wonder what their motivation is. Is it to victimize children?
I mean, it certainly seems to take a lot of agency away from children. I mean, maybe that's even too diplomatic a way of putting it. But a nine year old doesn't have the ability to make that choice for themselves.
It doesn't have the ability to consent.
Now, so this is a bit of a bastardization of a law that is intended to protect children.
Yeah, it's an attack on it. And we could even argue if we look at the larger context, which we don't have time to do in our new segment.
But what we.
Can say is it's possible this is an attempt to earn some higher ideological legitimacy for the base for supporters, but it will inevitably lead to child marriage. You know, in a country where per the latest statistics, some twenty eight percent of women are already married consentially or non consensually by the age of eighteen, this personal status law is still a bag of badgers because it does allow for religious marriage in place of secular marriage. So a religious leader can officiate thousands of marriages per year up to and including children as young as fifteen. And you know, doubtlessly, given the number of us listening along tonight, there are several of us who have been involved in marriages at quite a young age. And it may it may have worked out, But nine nine years old, that's too far.
That is like, that.
Is technically physiologically gross.
I hadn't even learned how to play magic the gathering at that age.
Where are you?
Well, well, I guess what I mean is I'm just trying to imagine who I was if I was married at nine?
Like what?
Because you're not you yet, not even close to the like an actualized human being.
Yeah, so this is a tough one. We do want to raise awareness of this. We also want to give great thanks and appreciation to Coalition one eight eight uh, an Iraqi based group of femal activists who are opposed to allowing this law to pass. Please let us know your thoughts if you have experience in a rock or if you are in a rocky national conspiracy atiheartradio dot com. We're gonna pause for a word from our sponsors, and as we do so, shout out to the Psychic Crime Syndicate in Sydney, Australia. They all got arrested. How did they not see that coming?
And we've returned with another piece of strange news.
Strange indeed, it's like something out of.
An Onion article, but it actually involves The Onion, the satirical newspaper that's been around since the eighties and in recent years has pivoted to more online kind of meme type presence, where like sometimes the headline and the picture alone is what gets shared. I got to wonder what their click through rate is on those. It's really shareable stuff, really fun, and it's been nice to see them kind of you know, popping up more and more. Apparently they are in fact about to reboot the print version of The Onion, which I think is also cool, in an effort to contribute to like raising their online subscription numbers. So kind of like an old school way of propping up a new school business model newer anyway.
But The Onion, in fact, again.
And something that sounds like a story they would write about, has purchased, or has one a bid to purchase Alex Jones's Info Wars Empire, at the very least his website.
This is pretty wild stuff.
I mean, it's like it's almost like cards against humanity, like buying up that lot to prevent Elon Musk from doing it. Like I just you gotta love to see this kind of bizarro satirical activism, sort of like the stuff that John Oliver does at the end of his episodes where he'll like literally buy all of the you know, leftover kitchen equipment from a red lobster in last week tonight. So I don't know, I was sorry to know exactly where to start the main story and then it's ongoing, is that, you know? Obviously, Alex Jones lost a massive defamation lawsuit class action lawsuit filed by the parents of children who were killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. We've covered this pretty extensively due to Alex Jones's flagrant abuse of his platform in calling this false flag attack, saying that there were crisis actors involved in not only that, but you know, literally asking his followers to kind of go after the parents of you know, these tragically murdered children.
And he lost big time.
You know, I believe he owes the families that were involved in the class action one point five billion dollars in pr puts it thusly for spreading false conspiracies at the elementary school shooting in Newton, Connecticut never happened, as followers then harassed and threatened them for years. So Jones is basically on the hook for just about everything. He owns, his entire business empire, multiple wings of his parent company, which I believe is called Free Speech LLC or Free Speech Systems. Rather, he has a division of that that has for many years pedled these kind of doomsday prepper kits, like bucket kind of meals, things like that, but also like bone broth and all of these pretty, you know, snake oily kind of life extension remedies. Right, guys, Does that kind of sum up the case as far as where we're.
At right now?
Sure? I believe so. Yeah.
I just just Jones is on the hook for a lot of money and that is going to involve the liquidation of all his assets, and this bidding process was part of that. So apparently the Onion and their parent company which I'm not quite sure again it's the Onion where the joke ends and the truth begins. But apparently their parent company is called Global Tetrahedron LLC. But then it's also a kind of an illumination Global unlimited type figure within the lore of the Onion, and we're going to get to that in a minute. And hear a statement from their fictional CEO, Bryce P. Tetrator or tech Trader.
So that is like a global three dimensional like pyramid, right, that's right, Okay, okay.
Yeah, Global Tetrahedron. But I think it is the name of their parent company. But again it represents a lot of like shadowy lore and they have this fake CEO, Bryce P. Tet Trader, who has released a statement, a fictional statement which we will get to.
But the Onion and their parent company, whether or not.
That's what it's called and whether that's real, were one of only two bidders in a process intended to liquidate this asset InfoWars dot Com. The Onions bid, however, for Free Speech Systems was named the winning bid after this bankruptcy auction. The proceeds of the sale were intended for Sandy Hook families in order to pay them and make them whole for the pain and suffering and anguish that they were put through by Alex Jones again to the tune of one point five billion dollars. He is not liquid. He cannot just pay that out. It's going to require all of this various liquidations of his assets. If the purchase goes through successfully, it would basically allow the Onion to have their way with Jones's Info Wars brands, which they have lampooned pretty mercilessly for many years. They plan, apparently, according to some statements, for the company to relaunch the info Wars platform is a parody, which, if we're being honest, a lot of the time, that's what it felt like and of itself.
So let's go to this quick.
Statement from this faux CEO that I think it really sums up the Onions position on all of this, and I think there's some really good writing here. Here's why I decided to buy info Wars. Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands, and let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice. All told, the decision to acquire info Wars was an easy one for the Global Tetrahedron executive board. They then go on to describe what they plan on doing with the portion of the website that did sell these vitamins and stuffing it says here, we are halting their sale immediately. Utilitarian logic dictates that if we can extend even one CEO's life by ten minutes, diluting these miracle elixirs for public consumption is an unethical waste. Instead, we plan to collect the entire stock of the info Wars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar sized omni vitamin that one executive I will not name names may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal.
All will be revealed in due time.
For now, let's enjoy this win and toast to the continued consolidation of power and capital, infinite growth forever.
Bryce p. Tetrader, Global Tetrahedron CEO.
Thank you, Bryce, and also big big credit to the original writers of that commentary. I love the onion man. I'm sorry, Noel. In case anybody missed it. Do we have the blow by blow on what's happening with this acquisition? Is it already done?
We absolutely do. There are wrinkles upon wrinkles. Alex Jones is bucking, He is pushing back. He is suing, essentially saying that the bid was fraudulent, that the auction was not held fairly, and that he is essentially asking the judge, the bankruptcy judge presiding over this sale, to nullify it. Jones's lawsuit calls the Onion's offer a quote flagrantly non compliant Frankenstein bid and the black letter definition of collusive bidding. He says the judge should disqualify the offer and instead named the only other bidder, which was first United American Companies and Alex Jones affiliated Friendly f UAC. FUAC affiliated with Jones in his online nutritional supplement store. They bid three point five million in cash. The Onion, on the other hand, offered half that amount, but there was a sweetener. The Connecticut families promised to forego in order to make this bid go through some of their sale proceeds to help beat the offer from FUAK. So this was in the you know, the best interest and was the wishes of you know, the winners of this class action lawsuit. Reading from an NPR piece by Tovia Smith, the Onion attorneys say that deal would result in the highest payout to the other creditors, including a smaller group of families who want a separate defamation suit against Jones in Texas, and did not offer to forego any proceeds. Alex Jones argues the offer was based on quote fake dollars and that the rules of the auction were changed at the last minute in what he describes as a conspiracy against him in order to benefit the Onion and the Connecticut families and to deny FUAC a fair chance of winning the bid. He referred to it as monopoly money and refers all the while on a plan to rig the process. WHOA and A US Bankruptcy Trustee Christopher R. Murray is overseeing these bankruptcy auctions, and he filed court papers as well, dismissing what he referred to as a barrage of baseless allegations, referring to them as just a disappointed bidder's improper attempt to influence an otherwise fair and open auction process.
Dang Man I was looking at that AP News article you connected us to their NOLL and it was talking about from this guy named Ben Collins, who I guess is also associated with the parent company. That's right, And I'm just trying to understand this whole thing where it's a company making a bid and then there's also a background agreement with people who would actually be accepting the payment of the bid. That to me does feel weird, just does feel surface.
I agree, there's something I don't understand this world. This is not my wheelhouse. It does feel like the rules were changed a little bit, but it was changed in order to I mean, the whole point of liquidating this stuff is to pay out the participants, the winners of this lawsuit. So it would be in the best interest for the outcome to give them the best deal. And while the cash offer for the Onion was less than the FUAC cash offer, which is three point five million dollars, Onion only offered one point five million. Their caveat of helping to take some of the proceeds and pay other creditors that Alex Jones owes money to would ultimately benefit the families of the Sandy Hook victims in the end.
Which is the most important part it is, but.
It's slippery still.
I don't quite understand the machinations here. Well, I want, of course, I want the onion to win. I don't fully understand how this stuff, in these little behind the scenes kind of machinations work.
It does seem a little weird.
Well, it's it's auctions with stakeholders, you know, so people have a prioritization to when they can step in. There's an order of operations for what can or cannot be so when or when we you know. One of the one of the best summations of this I have found recently was from the New York Times. Shout out to Elizabeth Williamson and Benjamin Mullen, not related to Ben Collins. I hate to say it, but I don't think all Ben's hang out just yet. They said that they're talking about some of the stuff you were signaling just a few minutes ago, Which is that the bid, because is still technically a bid to acquire info Wars, has gotten sticky. It's gotten messy. It's slippery. Your buddies at FUAC are still, you know, coming in eleventh hour trying to fight against this, and I think the most important thing, again, as I said at the very beginning of this, is to like prioritize the survivors of Sandy Hook who had their lives ruined by this disinformation.
Well a million percent.
And it also feels to me that for an organization affiliated with Joeans to win the bid is completely counter to that, because they're obviously just going to like put their resources into replatforming Alex Jones in some way, and we don't certainly know exactly what their intentions are. But I'll just end this segment before we go to a quick break with a quote from Robbie Parker, whose child Emily was killed in the twenty twelve Sandy Hook shootings there in Connecticut, said, through their lawyers, the dissolution of Alex Jones's assets and the death of Info Wars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for. So it seems to me like that's the only outcome that would be acceptable. And for the Onion to just perma lampoon the stuff and turn it into the satire that it deserves to.
Be, I think is a win for everybody.
Let's take a quick break here where from our sponsor, and then come back with one more piece of strange news.
And we've returned. We're going to go over several updates here.
Guys.
Hey remember a guy named Jack to Shara?
Jack to Shara?
Wait wait wait t E I X E R I A.
That's the one.
How is Jack?
Oh he's not great right now? Jack did Shara was a Massachusetts Air National Guard member actually still is, just on a probationary weird thing. But we talked about a last April because he became a household name. He was arrested and accused of leaking highly classified information to a bunch of his friends on Discord and a couple other places online where, at least from appearances, when we talked about it in April, it was like a boastful thing. Hey look what I got? Check this out? Oh yeah, look at these secret documents.
I'm impressive, you guys. I'm not just some other dude talking mess on the internet. Here's some stuff they don't want you to know. It turns out it was STDK and the streets were watching.
Is that correct?
Yeah?
Not at first, because he was doing it for a while before anybody caught on and they went, wait a second, what is this Oh my god, this is like insider information on the United States relations with Ukraine while the active war is happening, and strategy about how the US moved some things around in Ukraine, stuff that we as the United States don't want anybody to know about for realsies. So he got in trouble, got arrested almost immediately, and then in March of this year, he pleaded guilty to six counts of quote, wilful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. And that was nearly a year after his initial arrest. So took a minute to get him through and he finally pleaded guilty. Well, he was just sentenced to fifteen years one to five years in prison by a federal judge.
He did it, though, Matt, He did actually do these things.
Correct, Um, he did do these things. Well, he at least admits to doing these things. It would appear by all counts that he did these things, and he is being punished for it. And there are many quotes you can find in places like the AP News where you can search for this. Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Tikshera sentenced to fifteen years in prison by a federal judge that was posted on November twelfth. There are tons of quotes that basically say, we have to make an example of this guy. That's how I would put it.
Yeah, I'd agree with that.
Yeah.
Well, and it goes back to the problem that we've discussed on this show before about classification. Who gets access to classified secret documents? Who gets access to the stuff that they really don't want us to know? How easy is it to get that kind of access, and what are the consequences for mishandling it? Right? Well, there it gets deeper in here through the court case where basically his defense attorneys are saying, he well, I guess I can just I'll read this from the AP News article quote. Defense attorneys had described to Share as an autistic, isolated individual who spent most of his time online, especially with his discord community. They said his actions, though criminal, were never meant to quote harm the United States, and he had no prior criminal record. Instead, his intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation.
Okay, okay, So painting it as a well intentioned yet super not traitorous action on his behalf and that's you know, that's that's a very there may be some validity to that argument.
Right, Well, that's a good point because it is no you're right, though, you're absolutely right. But I think when it comes to sentencing, you should take some of those things into account, right, not whether or not you broke specific laws, but why what were you trying to do. It's not the same as giving secret documents to a known enemy, right, because you're acting as a spy, or you're getting paid, or you're being coerced in some way. This is basically a kid going you, guys, there's crazy stuff happening in Ukraine right now, because you know, everybody was seeing back in the in those times, seeing information about what's what's happening in Ukraine and freaking out a little bit because it looked like an active New World War that was starting up, and it kind of still is, as we're about to talk about. But that's that's different from being a spy. But again, the prosecution basically and the federal judge who sentenced him, said yeah, that doesn't matter. We've gotta we got to put this thing down.
Yeah, And for anybody wondering the Espionage Act in the United States is super duper old in comparison to the country it comes from, Like nineteen seventeen, it has not been universally applied. Just to be clear, so, fellow conspiracy realist, when our pal Matt is talking about the numerous statements saying someone needs to make an example of this guy, Jack, we are very well aware, painfully aware that this does not get applied in every situation. Got really close to naming a couple of people who should have the Espionage Act applied to them, But maybe tonight has not.
That night, Nah, probably not.
But you know what I'm talking about.
I do too. In other strange news, guys, segue, here is a little story from CNN written on November thirteenth, twenty twenty four. I'm going to read the title US defense contractor to pay former Iraqi detainees forty two million dollars for its role in torture at notorious Abu Grab prison. Abagrad prison, Guys, we covered that extensively when we talked about black sites on this show, made a couple of videos about it, made a couple of podcast episodes about it. Abu Grab is one of those places that was functionally a prison that used to be a place for wholey different stuff, and then it was used to let's say, enhancedly interrogate people for quite a while.
That's rough.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that can be read as torture now, especially given this court proceeding. So we'll just go to this. This was three Iraqi men who endured what is considered torture, full on torture at Abergrab prison over two decades ago, so twenty years ago, and it was a US government contractor, so a third party company that was responsible for this abuse, which is kind of weird because of something we've talked about in that Black Side's episode. A lot of the let's say instructions, the playbooks or the let's say the generalized playbooks for how to perform these enhanced interrogation things, these putting people in stress positions, hitting people in certain parts of their.
Bodies, psychological manipulation, sexual ac humiliation.
All came from government sources down to the contractors, who then were the ones who actually did it. So it is kind of a passing the blame thing, and in this case, the well, they are the actual people who are torturing, right, these contractors, but ultimately they were doing it at the behest of government officials, which is sticky. Not great.
It's not kaka, but it is Kasi, right.
Oh, CACI Premier Technology Incorporated. That's the defense contractor that we're talking about. I'll just read this from that CNN article quote. The plaintiffs alleged the company was hired by the US government following the US invasion of Iraq to interrogation services at Abu Grab, a US Army detention facility where Iraqi detainees were brutally tortured. And hey, you want to get into who these people were. It's a middle school principle, a fruit vendor, and a journalist. And they each received three million dollars in compensatory damages and eleven million impunitive damages.
And for larger context, folks, please consider obviously more than just these plaintiffs, there were there were many more people held in before the US took over, during the Hussein regime. This was already a prison, So things just got worse and worse and worse.
Yeah, not great at all. And there are a lot more people who went through that system and were tortured who haven't yet to file a formal complaint like this. And to sue you know, a contractor or the US government anything else. We need to talk about this, guys before we move on to the last update for today. Good here, all right, here we go. This is a big one, guys, Oh, it sure is. We've been hearing a lot about tariffs lately, and specifically that the incoming American presidential administration is going to or has pledged to enact a lot of tariffs or taxes on goods and products coming in from other countries into the United States. We've heard anywhere from twenty percent tariffs to sixty percent tariffs, ranging all the way up to two hundred percent tariffs. A lot of this is just rhetoric or talk, right, none of it's actually on paper yet, but it is something that I wanted to bring up with you guys, because there is an interesting story coming out of the BBC. Was written on November fifteenth. Here is the title, and on the surface it's not related. But then as we start thinking about the future in the next couple of years, couple of decades, it could be a major story. I think the title is Mega Port Mega PRT opens up in Latin America to Chinese trade as US looks on why is this important? Let's I'm gonna read directly from the top of this article is written by Robert Plummer for the BBC. As the world waits to see how the return of Donald Trump will reshape relations between Washington and Beijing, China has just taken decisive action to entrench its position in Latin America. And he goes on to talk about one of the main platforms that now President elect Trump was talking about, where these tariffs as highs sixty percent, specifically on Chinese made goods. So if we're thinking for d chess moves here, we're thinking big picture global politics, China and maybe seeing the future, maybe hearing some of this stuff taking action. This feels like something that's been in the works for a long time, and actually has been in the works for a long time. China made the move to open Megaport, which has the potential to create whole new trade routes that fully bypass North America. Yeah, so potentially if the US, if you just imagine a map with the US on it, if you wanted to send any goods into that place, you'd have to pay sixty percent, you know, extra on whatever you are selling there. Now, imagine instead of doing that, you just go a little further south to Latin America, and now you can move stuff around the United States if you need to. You can move stuff, you know, further north, if you need to, You can fully bypass needing to deal with the US at all, and even further down the road, you cut off trade almost completely, or at least whittle it down to almost nothing, which, guys made me think about, what was that thing that happened the Great Depression? And there's this guy, this president named Hoover, and he he put forth the thing. It was the Smoot Holly Tariff Act. Do you guys remember hearing about this back in the day. Have you ever covered that on Ridiculous History?
Well?
I certainly remember covering it an actual history class, but it's been a long time and I haven't really thought about it. Can you remind us and the listeners what the Smoot Holly Tariff Act was all about?
It was a very similar action back in nineteen thirty to what is being talked about today in twenty twenty four, where massive tariffs were put on any international goods coming into the US, like very high tariffs.
Well, how to work out then not great.
It is considered, at least from what I'm reading via the Cato Institute in several other places, as one of the major contributing factors to ongoing economic issues following the crash, right the stock market crash and at the very start of what is considered the Great Depression in the United States in the late nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties.
Which still we we know is a terrible name, folks, Great Depression. It just describes the magnitude of how crappy things were. Nobody's saying it's you know, double plus good. I love that you're bringing up that historical contact men, But.
Make America great again, guys.
Greatly expensive for imports. Sure, that's what's going to happen.
You know, guys, I do have a question, and I mean, you know, the moment that it appeared that Trump was going to win the election, cryptocurrency markets went crazy through the roof. The stock market went bonkers and has continued to do so. So I you know, I just wonder what is it about Trump's election that is so appealing to the powers that be and the folks that are, you know, movers and systems like these.
I don't want to take us too far away from this incident of the Chinese megaport, which is improved part of the Belton Roade initiative. But to answer that question, or at least give some context to it, we have to realize that the United States is increasingly run by business interest and business interests that feel that feel their long term survivability will be advantageous under one administration or the next. They will respond in logical ways to that, which means investors will also follow up. What we're seeing is a bunch of people kind of raising their hands together and then saying, oh, this is great. We're all raising our hands, kind of like when you do a wave at the stadium.
Yeah, oh yeah, but it is I don't know, guys, maybe this is me reading tea leaves. It's exactly what happened in nineteen twenty and nineteen twenty nine the stock market hit its highest levels it had ever hit. Because again, it's all speculation.
Skilded age.
It's what people think is going to happen, right, or what people anticipate, and often that's tied directly to laws that are not on the books yet, they haven't been signed yet. But they are intercombissed in the way, right, so people are anticipating a law coming into effect. I'm just pointing out right now, on November twentieth, twenty twenty four, that I'm looking here in the tea leaves that are completely speculation on my part, appear to be very similar to a situation where it gets really tough for any country that is attempting to be super isolationists. The way some of the things that have been said appear to be pushing us towards or the way Hoover it hoped exactly because the tariff theoretically is a way to bring money into a government, right, Hi, tariffs mean, oh we're gonna, oh my gosh, we're gonna make an extra twenty percent, an extra thirty, maybe sixty percent on all these goods.
But there's an economic argument that's just kicking the can down the road, because is when you up those tariffs, then that money has to come from somewhere, and it often gets passed on to consumers.
Well yeah, or the people who were bringing goods in just say beat me here for you.
That's what I and it goes so well, But that's what I mean.
It could cause a scarcity, and it could cause an issue with supply and demand, and then prices because of that scarcity could go up for consumers.
The efficacy or the function, right, the economic function of a tariff is protectionist. To your earlier point, Matt, it is to protect domestic industries. However, if you are assigning tariffs to things that do not have a domestic manufacturing capability, then what you're doing is carrying costs toward the companies and then toward the consumers. The foreign government and the foreign companies exporting those goods will not experience a hit directly in the same way. If I could to the earlier point about historical context. History doesn't always repeat, but it sure as heck rhymes. If I could plug one show, please do check out Let's Start a Coup, which studies, in part the economic factors that led to a high level of instability in the United States government. And it's not a one to one rhyme, but it's a Flanneriocotter level slant rhyme. History is closer than it looks in the rear view.
Man, dude, all right, head over to the Cato Institute and read the May seventh, twenty sixteen article. I know it's from a long time ago, but this is like history analysis stuff, so it doesn't really matter that much. It is titled the Smoot Holly that is Smoot dash hawl e Y Tariff and the Great Depression, and it goes into essentially the trade wars that followed suit after that legislation was passed, and also how the anticipation of that legislation affected the stock market. Oh, it's all fastating stuff. And then also read about that megaport for sure, because that is a three point five billion dollar project run by Costco Shipping Cosco Shipping. It's not the Costco that you're probably aware of, not yet, oh man. And there's a lot to learn about that. There's a lot more detail in there too, and especially about that bridge and road. Is that what it is? Bridge Belton Belt Belton Road Initiative, which is a whole thing. I think we have an episode on it, and if not, we need to just do another one because there are lots of developments going on there.
Oh man.
Okay, that's it for today's strange news.
We can't wait to hear from you folks. Give us the update if you happen to be in Peru or Peruvian national we'd love some on the ground information about that megaport which has cough cough, taken up some of our time offlide. Look, we try to be easy to find email, telefonic device all over the Internet. Speaking of segues, how do people find us?
There?
Boy, hottie, that's a good segue, right there, Ben, You can find us, in fact, all over the Internet of the handle Conspiracy Stuff where we exist.
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