Every Thursday, about 8:15am, Matthew talks with Ethan and Zac on 95bFM’s “Breakfast Show” about conspiracy theories.
For two weeks running breaking news has prevented Zac, Ethan and meself from talking about a rather interesting development in the world of Abstract Art. Last week it was the death of Hugo Chavez; this week it was the election of Pontifex Maximus Francis I (or, as we like to call him, “End Pope”), the Petrus Romanus of the Vatican legacy.
Yea, verily, Rome has a new bishop and, if you accept the foreboding (and certainly fictitious) claims of the Prophecy of St Malachy, the end times have started.
Every Thursday, about 8:15am, Matthew talks with Ethan and Zac on 95bFM’s “Breakfast Show” about conspiracy theories.
When it comes to Hugo Chavez, the former President of Venezuela, people are split as to whether he was a good president who succumbed to paranoia, a despot who hid his true intentions in his first term, an economic ignoramus or a man who improved the lost of the Venezuelan people. Chavez, during his tenure as president suppressed the Press, admitted to being a 9/11 Truther, ran what seemed to be fair elections (if the international observers are to be believed), restructured the country so political power was with his acolytes rather than qualified experts, was an ally of Iran and Syria, gave aid to Cuba and claimed the CIA was aiding the Opposition (but the Cablegate release seems to show America, quite reluctantly, weren’t).
Russian Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov today demanded an international investigation into the death of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, claiming it was “far from a coincidence” that six leaders of Latin-American countries who had criticized the U.S. simultaneously fell ill with cancer.
Zyuganov is accurate so far as his claim that six Latin-American leaders were diagnosed with cancer within a relatively close period of time, most notably Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in December 2012, although later analysis proved that she had never actually suffered from the illness.
Current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, and the former Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have all been hit with cancer in the last few years. In 2006 it was also reported that retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro was also diagnosed with cancer.
In this episode of “Conspiracy Corner with the Earl of East-Sheckley” Zac, Ethan and meself talked about the death of Hugo Chavez, was it induced, who might be responsible and the big question, “Why?”
Every Thursday, about 8:15am, Matthew talks with Ethan and Zac on 95bFM’s “Breakfast Show” about conspiracy theories.
Villainous organisations, if they want to keep their activities secret, need to have nondescript names. “The Evil Plot to Destroy All Humanity Billionaires Fund” may very well play to a certain class of wealthy donor (“How do I get in on some that oh-so-sexy human destroying mayhem?”) but it also stands out on the average tax receipt (“I’ve got a question about this 10 million dollar donation to ‘Kill the Poor'”).
Now, I’m not saying that “The Donors Trust” and “The Donors Capital Fund” are run by Bond villains, but I am saying that a donation (of at least US$1 million) looks innocuous unless you know that the only real thing both these funds invest in is promoting skepticism of Anthropogenic Climate Change.
The Donors Trust is the topic of this week’s “Conspiracy Corner”.
You can read more about the Donors Trust over at The Guardian and George Monbiot offers his view here. Meanwhile, bFM’s Green Desk talked with Kert Davies, the person who produced the study revealing the extent of the Donors Trust, was once able to be listened to below (but bFM no longer hosts that file).
Every Thursday, about 8:15am, Matthew talks with Ethan and Zac on 95bFM’s “Breakfast Show” about conspiracy theories.
This week’s radio segment was on some (but definitely not all) of the stories circulating as to why Pope Benedict XVI is steeping down from his day job of Pontifax Maximus (I think he’s off to build by-passes. You’ve got to build by-passes).
Is there any better combination of words than “Space Monkey?” I can’t help but picture an imaginary Brad Pitt utter those words, such is the joy “space monkey”, as a phrase, gives me.
Space monkeys is what I was all about this morning, specifically the Iranian variety (although I don’t believe Iran has any indigenous monkeys, space-variety or otherwise), which may, or may not, have been on a round trip through the outer atmosphere of the Earth.
The issue can be illustrated thusly. This is a space monkey before heading out on a spot of space flight:
This is a space monkey after said flight.
Spot the difference?
What happened to the space monkey?
To my mind there are at least six possibilities:
There was a successful launch, the monkey survived and returned to Earth but there was a photo mix-up (this is quite possible – five monkeys were rumoured to have been trained for space flight – and this is the official position of Iran).
There was a successful launch but the monkey died before returning to Earth; Iran’s space agency, however, wanted to suggest it returned to Earth alive. If this is the case we have a relatively minor conspiracy on our hands.
The launch was unsuccessful launch and the monkey died – conspiracy
The launch was successful launch but the monkey did not go – conspiracy (but an unlikely one since you then have to spin a story as to how the Iranian spaceflight agency managed to cock up the photos).
There was no launch at all – a major conspiracy but also an unlikely one.
There is no such place as Iran (like the other pseudo-country, Belgium, or the pseudo-state of the US, Idaho.
More thoughts on the matter below (warning: this segment was literally phoned in, so the audio quality is a little shoddy and my thoughts, when transmitted by phone, always seem a little more scattered than usual).
