Ronald Reagan and Oliver North orchestrated the Iran-Contra scandal, secretly funding Nicaraguan Contras via arms sales to Iran despite the Boland Amendment. While high-level officials like George H.W. Bush and Caspar Weinberger participated, the administration blamed Bud McFarland and shredded 15 months of correspondence to evade impeachment. Although Reagan claimed memory loss due to Alzheimer's, the missed "Diversion Memo" proved his knowledge, leading to a cover-up that mirrored Watergate. Ultimately, this historical analysis suggests Reagan's evasion of jail highlights a dangerous precedent of presidential impunity regarding self-incrimination and constitutional violations. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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The Bob Marley of Podcasts00:03:27
This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
10-10 shots fired, city hall building.
How did this ever happen in City Hall?
Somebody tell me that.
A shocking public murder.
This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics.
They screamed, get down, get down.
Those are shots.
A tragedy that's now forgotten.
And a mystery that may or may not have been political.
That may have been about sex.
Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.
I vowed I will be his last target.
He is not going to get away with this.
He's going to get what he deserves.
We always say that.
Trust your girlfriends.
Listen to the girlfriends.
Trust me, babe.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Laurie Siegel, and this is Mostly Human, a tech podcast through a human lens.
This week, an interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to the products we put out in the world.
An in-depth conversation with a man who's shaping our future.
My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI.
Listen to Mostly Human on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
My nigga left this thing.
Rookies.
Listen, I am in a cemetery based.
Rookie shit.
Rookie cookies.
I don't even know.
This virtual background, what is it?
Is it wet grass?
I think so.
Zoomed in.
Who decided this was like the move?
You got to design your own backgrounds over here.
Welcome, everybody, to this podcast part two situation where Sophie's now back home on her background.
She is.
That's what everyone says about Sophie.
Yeah.
Back home on her background.
My name is Propaganda.
I catch wreck like earthquakes.
That's Anderson barking there.
Yes.
She doesn't like the weather.
She's our COO.
She's our COO.
And the illustrious Robert Evans.
Aww, yes.
The awardless.
That is the accurate way to describe me.
Illustrious and unawarded.
Awardless.
Join me in the join me and Bob Marley as people who've never been awarded for our work.
Really?
Bob Marley?
He never won any sort of music award.
Even when he did with the All Along the Watchtowers and the Princess, all that good shit.
Nope.
Wow.
See, that makes me feel better about the fact that I have never been awarded anything.
I am the Bob Marley of podcasts.
You stretched Armstrong that one.
Selling Weapons to the Saudis00:14:57
But yeah, I agree, man.
Yeah, it's a good list to be on.
Yeah.
All right.
Where are we at?
Where are we at?
Oh, I remember where we at.
Where we last left our heroes.
Oliver North had a light bulb idea as to how to solve this problem.
Yes, he did.
That's because he's aware of a whole other situation that's happening on the other side of the world that we have not yet talked about.
And just for a brief aside, the reason that Ollie is aware of everything that's happening.
So I said in the first episode that McFarlane has centralized all intelligence.
So it's going through the NSC.
They have this computer system and it's this physical set of terminals that like the data runs directly into the terminal.
It's not like a, you know, it's flying through the air or anything.
Like it's running along these wires to these specific set of terminals.
And it's this group of three big screens that all of everything the United States as an entity knows about the world runs into these three screens.
So the guy sitting behind the screens is Ollie North.
Anti-crazy.
He was like on the internet before everybody.
So Ollie is aware of, and he's also like put in charge of all this stuff, you know.
So by Bud McFarland, he's like, look, can you do this?
Can you fix this?
So one of the things he's worried about is who we talked about in the beginning of this was the Contras, this rebel group in Nicaragua who's fighting against the Sandinistas, this again, socialist group who overthrew their dictator.
And Reagan just like jocking, just he could not be harder for these guys.
He is so just like rock hard for these fools.
He calls them the moral.
Yeah, I'm sure you're getting to that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like the, yeah, the more the force of good in South America.
Like just all kind of just out of pocket extra shit about the Contras and that we need to support our Brown brothers down south.
Just absurd, right?
And again, like we said before, it's based on this fear that socialism is going to spread in the Americas, right?
Or on the Western hemisphere, period.
You know, if you go, if we're going to have communists, let them be on the other side of the Atlantic.
You know what I'm saying?
At least it's not, at least it's not on our side of town.
But either way, he's like, we rocks with the Contras and whatever they need.
And he's been on the TV, like, yo, whatever these fools need, we need to ride for them.
And Congress is like, slow down, chief.
Buddy, y'all remember Vietnam?
Yeah.
This shit don't work, fam.
Yeah, we're actually not okay with being ride or die for these guys.
Yes.
Because exactly.
Yeah.
So in 1982, they passed what's called the Bowling Amendment, which is if you are a teacher, a parent, an older sibling, whatever the case may be, you would resonate with something like this.
It's one of those laws that, or those rules that you can't believe need to actually be stated.
You know, if you, you know, you know, it's when you see one of those like, please do not walk off this cliff.
Please do not lick the doorknobs.
Like, I shouldn't have to tell you this.
Why is this a rule?
Well, it's because somebody did walk off this click and somebody actually used to lick this doorknob.
So we had to make a law.
And the law was, hey, you can't use our money to overthrow Nicaragua.
Yeah, you can't like it was in broad, it was, you know, you can't just go overthrowing governments and funding militant groups without asking Congress, right?
Like you can't just be, you can't just be cutting checks to overthrow governments, fam.
Like, but that's not what we pay taxes for.
Everyone who wrote, was involved in making it was like specifically looking at what Reagan was trying to do in Nicaragua.
Like that wasn't hiding.
Yeah, because he wasn't hiding.
He was like, nah, we rock with them.
The Sandinistas are dangerous.
We need to help these fools.
And they're like, okay, listen, bro.
We've been down this route before.
You can't just be cutting checks for these people like this.
But Reagan's like, okay, word, I hear you.
But like, what if I want to, though?
You know what I'm saying?
And he's like, but, but what if I, but what if I, you know, counterpoint, I want to.
So it was Bud McFarlane's job to make sure that we still have these fools back without actually breaking this law, right?
So who does Bud McFarlane put in charge?
Oh, Ali Alioxin free, right?
Puts the big homie in charge.
So in 1984, Bud tells Ali, listen, this is what we'll do.
Hey, have the Contras set up this offshore account, right?
This, you know, and if you've seen a movie ever, you know what an offshore account is, you know what I'm saying?
You know, for contributions that are made to them that are direct deposits to the cause.
Ollie is like, gotcha.
Let me tap in with some homies who know some people down there.
So he hits Bill Casey again from the CIA.
He's like, yo, who you got down there that can help us over there set this thing up?
So they, so Bill Casey connects him with the homie Adolfo Calero, right?
Who's big Nicaraguan businessman, big baller, you know what I'm saying?
Shot caller, moving in circles out there with the Contras.
And he, so Bill Casey lays out the play.
He's like, look, small amounts per month, but only small so that nobody notices it.
Right.
And when it's time to go, because if you go big, that's how you get caught.
Right.
And if we do get caught, you know what I'm saying?
The money is offshore, right?
So nobody will know that the U.S. had anything to do this at all.
We don't want, we can't have our name on none of this, but we want you to know that we got you, right?
Word.
Sounds cool.
So the next obvious question is like, all right, well, where's this money coming from?
If the Bowling Act says that we can't fund this, right?
That's cool.
But there's no problem with us letting the homies know that our homies need some help.
Yeah, yeah.
We could just like, well, we can't fund it, but we can promise favors to the king of Saudi Arabia or whatever.
Hopefully we can scratch our way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I wonder where the name Saudi Arabia came from.
How did they get involved?
Is this not the seventh country to be involved in this story?
Right.
So you're right.
So they say, hey, you know, we've been slanging weapons to the Saudis for a while.
I think they might owe us some favors.
You know what I'm saying?
We've been selling.
And not only have we been selling them Blickies, I mean, we've been selling them that good good.
I mean, that Zaza.
We've been giving them like the realness.
So they look, they say, hey, listen, man, we've been sliding.
The shit that takes planes out of the sky.
Yes, we've been shooting you shit to take planes out the sky because off your shoulder.
This look, we ain't been selling you that gas.
Like we've been giving you the Zaza.
You know what I'm saying?
So if that's the case, hey, man, like, look, we're going to need you to do us a favor real quick.
We've been giving you this good stuff.
Hey, I need you to slide a millie or two into this account.
Just here and there, just a millie, right?
You know what I'm saying?
And this is your way of thanking us for giving you that good good, right?
That's all we're going to need from you.
Saudi like, all right, word, we got you.
We'll slide him a million a month to the offshore.
The problem is that's not enough, which is crazy that that's not enough.
Right.
Yeah, that's true.
So that's nuts.
So now enter another acronym, the NSPG, which is the National Security Planning Group, right?
Which they connect in June in 1984 to talk about Contra because listen, they finna run out of money and they about to lose this.
And the only people that know the money's going through the Saudis is old Ronnie Reagan, Oliver North, Bill Casey, and Bud McFarland.
They the only people that know this.
And that's really who's in this group, right?
And they're like, okay, so we need to figure out they need more money, right?
How do we help the Contras, right?
Which we not supposed to be helping anyway, but we slick, slick, kind of low-key under the table, figured out how to do this, right?
So then they say, if anyone finds out that we're getting money from other countries to pay for this, if we're like, well, that's not taxpayers' money.
We just got money from somebody else.
If they don't do it directly, then they're like, nah, that's still impeachable.
Like, we can't just do that.
Right.
But they're like, I still don't know how to do this.
Cut to Oliver North, right?
In the group text with Calero and the Saudis to making sure that the money's going through, the money's going through.
Everybody's cool, right?
But again, it's still not enough.
But while everybody's sweating about this, the funny part is like dudes like Weinberger, who's like, listen, I don't understand what y'all problem is.
This is perfectly legal.
Yeah.
Like we're not, we have not done anything wrong.
Listen, we have no control over their money, right?
And just because we connected the two, that's not like, just because we connected them.
You know what I'm saying?
Like we haven't broken no laws here.
Now, Vice President Bush Sr., he's in the room and he's like, listen, man, what's, I don't, I don't understand what everybody worried about.
What's wrong with us doing a solid for the homies, right?
As long as we don't get anything in return, we all agree.
Let's, it's okay.
Let them keep doing what they're doing.
And if we get approval from the AG, from the Attorney General, and now everybody knows this, then I don't understand what the problem is, right?
Ronald Reagan, like, okay, I get it.
As long as I know one thing, this one time I was like, okay, this is a good Ronald Reagan quote.
He's like, this works as long as everyone keeps their fucking mouth shut.
Yeah.
I was like, work out great if you don't say a goddamn thing.
I was like, okay, Ronnie.
All right.
You've shown some humanity that I agree with.
He's like, okay, Ronnie does understand.
You can try to convince me this is legal, but just in case, I need nobody singing.
Now, as anyone who is no, who's ever tried to put together a lick or a mission or a scheme, the more names involved, the more people involved, the more chances for problems.
Right.
Right.
But, but still, we're still in a situation where Oliver North is down there, you know, again, since he's the middleman between the Saudis, you know, Calero and the Contras, right?
The Contras are still just a rebel group.
They're not a five-star purple-hearted general.
You know what I'm saying?
Like Oliver North.
So Oliver North down there kind of low-key giving them game here and there, right?
Just like, yo, man, okay, listen.
So when we give you this, this is how you set stuff up, right?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, we'll figure it out, you know, and we'll try to get you some more money.
So while this is happening, in October of 1984, the Congress passed another bowling amendment that was like, okay, listen, you can't pay for the Contras, but you also can't indirectly fund the Contras.
Yeah.
Man, you're not allowed, like we, you know, you're not allowed to loophole funding a foreign military organization.
We see what you're doing.
Letting you do this.
Yes.
We see what you're doing, bro.
I mean, they do wind up letting them do this.
And they eventually do.
Yeah, we'll get to that.
But they're just like, bro, you can't just like, okay, listen, dog.
Again, we thought maybe this was clear, but you can't directly or indirectly fund them.
So everybody who hears that that was funding indirectly the Contras goes, okay.
So so what you're telling me is we just have to come up with a better system to fund the Contras, right?
That's what you're saying.
Like, no, no, we're saying don't do it.
They're like, so do it better.
Got it.
Right.
So they're just like, that means we got to turn up.
So in 85, Oliver North gets them, gets the Saudis to double their monthly pledge.
And between 1984 and 1986, it says that the Saudis gave them $32 million to the Contra.
Ali knows it all.
$32 million, right?
It's like, and he's down there, Ali down there giving them all kinds of gains, weapons, war strategy, $11 million in guns, $11 million, 11 milli worth of guns.
And they still lose it.
They're still a significant number of guns.
Like, that's not a tiny number of guns.
No.
It is 85.
Yeah.
So, and they still lose it.
That shit goes far back then.
You think they just lose it.
Awesome.
And they're still losing.
Yeah.
Listen, I mean, one of the things that is we should probably hone people in on here if they haven't picked up on it.
The Contras are not a very good rebel group.
They not, they, this should have been.
Yes.
They do get better, like, in terms of their competence at fighting, like near the end of the story.
But they're like, they're really bad at being an insurgent militia.
It's really not doing well.
And they taking on another insurgent that overthrew another government who clearly got some more experience on you.
You know what I'm saying?
So like, fam, this shit ain't working.
Like, and it's like, and we just dumping money into you.
But again, as America or Reagan and them is concerned, we have a vested interest in y'all winning this war.
And it's almost like, look, the purse can't have a bottom on it because I need y'all to win this.
Right.
And now, cut to Oliver North, right?
Ali, remember, this is all happening at the same time while we still trying to get them hostages out.
It's the same time, right?
So we still ain't got no hostages.
You know what I'm saying?
We dumping money here.
Now, remember, we're not giving the Saudis these weapons.
They're buying them.
Yeah.
Right.
But so the agreement was agreeing to sell to us, right?
That was the part that I always missed when I was like trying to really understand this story growing up.
I was like, well, I don't understand where the money coming from.
It was like, well, no, they buying it.
I was like, oh, okay.
They're paying.
They're paying for these weapons.
Yeah.
People are, yeah, the fucking arms industry is getting their cut of this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everybody making money.
You know what I'm saying?
So this is happening at the same time.
We still ain't got our hostages.
So in November 1985, November 17, 1985, Israel calls Oliver North to be like, okay, back to the beginning.
Our last Hawk missiles didn't clear customs.
Remember we told you about that?
It didn't clear customs enlistment.
It got sent back, right?
So that's when Oliver North calls Bud McFarland and tells Ronnie he's down for whatever, right?
Iran thinks Israel's sabotaging this stuff.
And they're like, if you blame America, they're going to kill the hostages, right?
So we're in a situation that we got to figure out how to take care of both of these situations.
Israel, Iran, and Offshore Money00:03:32
There's not enough money here.
We still ain't got our hostages over there.
In comes January 1986, the diversion.
Now, according to Oliver North, he said Gabonifar came up with it, right?
And we can't know because it was like a movie scene where you out in London.
Y'all remember that meeting I said when they talked in London, right?
They're out in London.
They're having a conversation.
You got to picture a movie scene where the fool, Gabonifar, pulls this fool into the bathroom, turns the water on, right?
So nobody hear them talking, right?
And according to Oliver North in his story, according to his story, he's like, listen, I got an idea how you could get an extra millie for you.
I got an idea and you could make an extra millie on it, right?
But it's going to take a few steps.
So he's like, okay, here's the plan.
Stop using Israel.
Okay.
Sell directly to Iran and mark up the price and take the rest and put it in that offshore account that the Nicaraguans set up.
Sure.
And if you want to, why don't you mark it up a little bit more and you could pocket a little bit?
Like it's over, you putting your life in danger here anyway.
You probably gonna go to jail over this shit.
So you might as well make a little money.
You know what I'm saying?
And you know, Boy Scout Oliver North is like, well, I could never do that, right?
But he doesn't do it.
So he doesn't take the money, right?
But he definitely is like, huh.
It basically, huh?
Huh?
So they need more money.
We need our hostages.
Iran thinks Israel's the problem.
So if we remove Israel, sell to y'all directly, mark it up, take that extra money, put it in an offshore account.
That way we get our hostages and we pay for this war that we're not allowed to pay for with money that actually don't exist.
Because remember, we're not supposed to be selling to them anyway.
So that in that case, if you work it right, the money never touches our account.
It never comes into your bank account because the money is not supposed to exist anyway.
And again, like we said in the beginning, brilliant.
Right?
Although quite a bit of that money is going to wind up in a physical safe that Oliver North keeps.
Like he winds up, he's grabbing.
There's points of this where he's like paying off people in our government and stuff.
And he's just like handing folks like bearer bonds he keeps in his fucking safe in the white.
It's hilarious.
It's the most messiest, like, yeah, it's very messy because these people aren't actually criminals.
Yeah.
You don't say...
I'm Ego Modem.
Ego Modem Meets Will Farrell00:02:56
My next guest, you know, from Step Brothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Farrell.
My dad gave me the best advice ever.
I went and had lunch with him one day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.
I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.
I'm working my way up through it.
I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent.
He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.
Yeah.
He goes, but there's so much luck involved.
And he's like, just give it a shot.
He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.
If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.
It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hang in there.
Yeah, it would not be.
Right, it wouldn't be that.
There's a lot in life.
Listen to Thanks Dad on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
10-10 shots fired, City Hall building.
A silver .40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.
From iHeart Podcasts and Best Case Studios, this is Rorschach, murder at City Hall.
How could this ever happen in City Hall?
Somebody tell me that.
Jeffrey Hood did it.
July 2003.
Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest.
Both men are carrying concealed weapons.
And in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead.
Everybody in the chamber ducks.
A shocking public murder.
I screamed, get down, get down.
Those are shots.
Those are shots.
Get down.
A charismatic politician.
You know, he just bent the rules all the time.
I still have a weapon.
And I could shoot you.
And an outsider with a secret.
He alleged he was a victim of flat down.
That may or may not have been political.
That may have been about sex.
Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
There's two golden rules that any man should live by.
Rule one, never mess with a country girl.
You play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.
And rule two, never mess with her friends either.
We always say, trust your girlfriends.
I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girlfriends...
Oh my God, this is the same man.
A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.
I felt like I got hit by a truck.
I thought, how could this happen to me?
The cops didn't seem to care.
Raising Funds for the Contras00:16:12
So they take matters into their own hands.
They said, oh, hell no.
I vowed I will be his last target.
He's going to get what he deserves.
Listen to the girlfriends.
Trust me, babe.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right.
So Ollie goes up, pulls up to the new national security advisor, this dude, John Paul Dexter, who I thought was a made-up name.
No, no.
That dude's got a real ass name and he's really down.
He's been hard.
Yeah.
And he was like one of them like true believer type dudes, like first class and like, you know, Navy, PhD, and like new customers.
He's described as being, he's extremely smart.
Yes.
And he, he also, he's, he's described as being extremely intelligent and having effectively no independent thought whatsoever.
Like he's this brilliant man who's never had an idea of his own, but he's unfailingly loyal.
Yeah.
He's just down.
True believer down.
So January 17th, Reagan finally signs the finding, right?
To drop the middleman to be like, this is what we're going to do.
I'm going to sign the finding.
Remember, he did the retroactive one, but which was already fraudulent.
Now he's about to sign one that's going to say, we're going to cut out the middleman.
The problem is it never goes to Congress.
So Congress never saw it, right?
But the diversion is now off to the races, right?
So missiles that we sold to Iran for what should have been 3.7 million was 10 million.
That's what we raised the price to from 3.7 to 10 million.
And we take the extra 6 milli and we fund the Contras.
Right?
That was the plan.
It was working.
Except we still ain't got the hostages.
They still ain't gave up.
Bill Casey is fucking dead.
Yes.
Yeah.
Or not Casey.
Buckley is fucking dead.
He did.
He did.
They still ain't got the hostages.
Get like one guy or something at one point in this, like almost no movement at all.
Like, they're handing over literal tons of weaponry and they're trying to get six dudes.
Yes, now, look, I'll tell you right now: if I've got six guys and you give me 500 tons of anti-air and anti-armor weaponry, I'm going to give you those six guys because I'm an honest man.
Um, but no, Hezbollah is just like, ah, you know what?
No, see how long we can run it?
Go ahead, see how long we can run it.
And at the end of the day, it's like, I don't blame them.
If y'all keep sending them, then like, why would I stop?
Like, y'all keep sending them out.
Yeah, it seems like the U.S. is just a gun pinata right now.
Why not?
Like, there's no downside.
And what's crazy is in this whole story, the realest, the only real ones in this story so far is Hezbollah.
Yeah.
Because they was like, look, we'll do it if you give us weapons.
And I'm like, wait, so you'll still give us weapons even if we don't do our part or Iran.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Is Iran.
They're like, wait, you'll still give us weapons if we don't give you what you want.
I mean, well, shit.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, I don't know.
I mean, that it's, it's cool, right?
So, anyway, uh, so Ronnie hits uh, Bud McFarland back and he's like, Listen, dog, I done fucked up.
I need some help here, right?
So, in May 86, they land in Tehran, right?
Uh, with a couple spare parts of a Hawk missile, a kosher cake for some reason, and a Bible.
This is according to Ronald Reagan story, and a court and a Bible with a message from Ronald Reagan.
Now, why in the world Ronald Reagan would think this was a good gesture is beyond me, but they were there to negotiate the terms of release, right?
So, basically, it was like, okay, we're moving out Gabbonifar.
This is us talking, like, let's talk face to face.
All right, here's a situation, and as a sign of good faith, here's this Jewish thing that I'm giving y'all, right?
Which I still don't understand why he thought that was a good idea, unless it's a dig towards Israel.
That just doesn't make sense to me.
And a Bible, I don't get it.
The point is, according to them, that's what they say.
Now, Oliver North and his story is it wasn't no Bible, and the cake was something that he bought in Tel Aviv, right?
Which is why it was kosher.
Uh, but either way, they was in this meeting, they brought Bud back from retirement because remember, Bud was like, Dog, I'm out, man.
I don't want none of this.
Bud came back to because Ronald asked him, and they were in this situation.
And Ollie was like, Okay, here's the move.
This is what we're gonna say: we're gonna negotiate the terms.
Here's what it is.
We hear directly.
You know, you ain't gotta worry about Gabbonifar, who has cashed plenty of checks, right?
And it's clearly in on the thing, right?
So we're having a talk, and then Bud flies off the handle.
Blood throws the whole thing up.
He was like, The Iranian, the Iranians offered two hostages.
It was like, okay, well, we'll slide y'all two hostages.
Bud was like, hey, homie, it's everything or nothing.
Nah, fam.
We ain't come up here for two, for two.
We came up here for everybody, right?
And he was like, look, look.
And he leaning over and he leaning over to Ali and them.
And he's like, listen, dog, you got to do this with these fools because they're not going to, they're not down.
They're not going to give us anything.
He was like, I knew they wasn't going to do this because listen, when we flew in here, they didn't even meet us for this meeting.
Like, they wasn't, they didn't send no cars.
We had to straight like Uber to this shit.
Like, they ain't got no, we ain't got no hotel.
We got to figure this shit out.
They're not really here for us.
Matter of fact, they had us waiting for two days.
He was like, fool, we had this meeting.
We just been sitting here for two days waiting for these fools to come.
You don't understand.
You ain't got no hustle in you.
He was like, they hustling us, fam.
Nah, everybody or nothing.
That was Bud's thing.
Cause you remember, Bud's a gangster.
Yeah.
Right?
So, so he's like, um, all right.
Well, either we could do this, try to figure this out, you know, all or nothing.
And while they're saying all or nothing, Ira already unloaded the plane.
So they already got the weapons.
So they already got the parts.
So they're not even worried about anything you talk about anything.
Anyway, we got all these parts, right?
Which meant that they paid for it.
So they was like, we're going to get you, we'll pay for the money, but we're still not going to give you your hostages.
And we already got the pieces anyway.
So the negotiation is done.
So y'all, I mean, y'all want what y'all want to do.
Y'all want y'all go ahead back home, right?
So he goes ahead back home.
They all on the plane.
So Oliver North calls back home and he tells, and he's, and he's, and, and, oh, I forgot this is an important part about this.
Bud McFarland don't know about the diversion.
Bud don't even know about the raising the price to send it to Iran, like, or to send it to Nicaragua.
He don't even know.
Well, because again, the CIA, like, they're not, they don't like the NSC, right?
All these organizations are greedy.
They all want to be like running shit through themselves.
So like everybody's compartmentalizing information and stuff.
Yeah.
So they on the plane.
So they on the plane right now on their way back home.
And they like, damn, dude.
Like Ollie, like, damn, man, that's, dang, it didn't work again.
But at least we got the dough for the for the Contras.
He just slips.
Well, at least we got the dough for the Contras, right?
And Bud is like, yeah, wait, what?
We got the what now?
So he's like, oh, he just dry snitched on himself.
So now he's like, well, I guess, I guess, I guess that's what we're doing.
So he's like, well, tell the president that the negotiation failed, right?
I guess that's it.
So flashback to 86.
We still trying to deal with Nicaragua, right?
So finally, August 6th, 1986, Reagan finally convinces the Congress to pass to Chill on the Bowling Act, right?
So there's a $100 million appropriation bill.
Now, keep in mind, we've been paying these fools for three years.
You know what I'm saying?
But now you done finally got the Congress to agree to $100 million appropriation bill.
The Republican, the Republican, just like back then, just like now, are like, yo, let's ride.
The Democrats are like, okay, cool, wait, but we have so many questions.
Like, we're just, you just going to cut a check for these people?
Like, okay, can we, can we discuss this a little bit?
Then they enter this man named Lee Hamilton, right?
He's from the intelligence committee in the Congress, and he asked Oliver North and them, like, okay, listen, bro, we've been discussing this shit for a while.
I need you to keep it a whole century with me.
Keep it a buck with me, bro.
A hundred.
Keep it real.
You've been down there with the Contras already?
Have you been giving them military advice this whole time?
Ollie, Ollie.
Look, bro.
You, Ollie, son.
Hey, right?
And it's like, listen, we don't look.
The law's already passed.
Okay.
It's already passed, bro.
Just he's a lot of this is happening in DC.
Like he's meeting with their reps and handing them fucking bags of cash that he takes out of a safe in the fucking headquarters of the U.S. goddamn government.
It's fucking, it's so funny.
Oh, man.
It's, it's such just like crime stuff.
Like it's not, like they.
Just they did a thing and then found out afterwards, oh my god, we violated some sort of congressional.
No no dude, you're.
You're shoving bearer bonds into a sack to hand them to a dude who you are now telling how to kill people.
Like it is the war's equivalent of Shaggy's classic song, it wasn't me, that's right, that's right, there's got me in the shower.
It wasn't me.
Like you just cut.
Just picture it where he, uh, what's that service?
You could pay famous people who are kind of on the downslide to record videos for you.
What is that?
Uh uh uh cameo, cameo.
Is Ollie North on cameo?
We could get him to do that.
That would be pretty funny.
So great yes, you just.
Oh man, it's so funny yeah, it's just, it's totally a movie.
It's like when you ask the, when you ask him, hey, have you been doing this already?
You just cut to the the flashbacks of him doing all this yeah, and him being like, okay, I know, this is the great place you want to be.
I know what y'all know.
If you're the one doing the crimes, it's better for me to know how much everybody else knows, and I know y'all don't know right, so you need to craft the answer to say i'm gonna only give you an answer that confirms what I know, you already know, and only as much as I know.
So his answer quote, well, i'm a military man and when I sit down with other military men it's inconceivable that we won't talk about military things.
So even if I thought I could give them good advice, you and I both know we can't run this war from Washington.
Okay unquote, okay subtext, uh-huh yeah, we're actually running this war from Washington yeah, and they're literally like giving them stuff like hey, we need you guys to do an offensive now.
You've got to like try to take this area this the, these camps and stuff back, because we need to be able to like put some victor, some some dubs on the board.
Like it's very direct coordination, he's literally coordinating this war.
And then they ask him something like hey uh look, just just keep it real, have y'all been raising money for the Contras?
He was like nah uh nah what, what wait?
Like raising money?
Uh nah hey hey bud hey hey yo hey, we were, I don't know.
We haven't been raising money.
Weinberger do, do you know of any?
Nah, we haven't been raising no money.
That that's cool right, and the Congress is like well, I guess that covers it.
So uh, he said no.
So I mean, he said he didn't.
So yeah, I guess you want to cut the check.
Everybody, everybody good, everybody good, they cut the check.
Right, we did our work, we did our job.
We were supposed to ask.
He said no, I don't know what to tell you right, the rest is just.
Paperwork seems easy right now.
We are now back at october of 1986, right before the money was supposed to get cleared, right before this 100 milli was supposed to get clear.
Gene from Wisconsin, head ass gets shot out of the sky.
Oh Gene, god damn it.
Gene, you it all up Gene, what are you doing?
Your name is Gene and you're from Wisconsin.
What are you doing in Nicaragua doing?
Come on, Haas and Fossil, Get out of here.
Oh, man.
So, Bill Casey, like, look, burn the bucks, dog.
Get out now.
We got to get out now.
We caught.
We burnt.
The spots blow.
Yeah.
Start throwing some shit in the furnace.
Yes.
Oliver, like, look, everybody.
Shredding it is not going to be.
It's not enough, homie.
Oliver North, like, everybody, you ain't got to go home.
You got to get the hell out of here, dog.
Right?
Time to go.
Time to go.
Fucking back.
Time to go.
Everybody.
Time to go.
Now, this is.
Near burnt the white house down behind them.
Yes.
This is the famous shit that I remember being a very small child and seeing on television.
Right.
And dope that, what's the name?
President Biden just talked about officers getting reparations over this shit.
Right.
Is he says, since everybody got to go home, we need no evidence.
And by I mean no evidence, I mean we are bulldozing these buildings, digging a big hole, throwing everything in the building, everything in the hole.
Nigga, the chairs, the printer, the desks, the water cooler, everything go in this hole, burn the shit on fire in the jungles in Nicaragua.
Just burn the shit.
Burn it all.
Like, burn everything, right?
So why everything getting burned?
Gene from Wisconsin, headass, is doing an interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes.
Awesome.
Good call, Gene.
Get your money, Gene.
Yeah.
I have so much respect for Gene, for Gene from Wisconsin.
Because Gene was like, you gonna pay me to do what?
Burning Shit in Nicaragua00:05:02
To fly to fly where?
Word.
I don't owe y'all nothing.
Okay.
And you, fool, I just look, you guys, you guys just said you don't know me.
You just said exactly.
I don't know what kind of cards you think you have left over me here.
Because when worst came to worst, well, we was down.
When shit hit the fan, you understand what I'm saying?
You was not down.
Okay, cool.
Well, I'm going to go get my money then.
You know what I'm saying?
Look, Gene, Gene and the Iranians are the realest people in this story.
Yeah.
Gene was like, all right, so well, no, that's bullshit.
This is what they had me do.
My man was on 60 minutes telling his whole story.
So then, oh man.
So now, but although in October of 1880 or 1986, because the Bolden Act thing was repealed, they really, now we don't need no diversion.
So we can stop it.
We can stop like trying to hide out all this stuff, right?
But as long as, like Reagan said, everybody keeps their mouth shut.
However, as we all know, no one ever keeps their mouth shut.
No.
Then in the history of keeping your mouth shut, no one ever keeps their mouth shut.
We did an episode on Hood Politics about like how many years you got to throw at somebody before they start snitching.
And I don't care how hard of a gangster they are.
Like year, five years, that's a vacation.
You have somebody hold, you know, hold your money.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, hold it was cool.
Like, as long as you good, you got enough people in the scene, you could do a year.
You could do two years.
You start talking about 10 years.
You start talking about 25 years.
People start sounding like Mariah Carey out this mug.
Like you become Rihanna.
Like fools start singing when you throw enough time on them.
Right.
And also, if you a journalist, oh, there's some pull of surprise shit.
Like, you're going to change your life forever.
You break this story.
Yeah.
So in November of 1986, a newspaper in Lebanon called Al Shura drops their expose and fam, they name names.
Everybody involved, they name names, they're fooled, they lit this thing up.
Now, all of America is like, uh, what the hell?
White House, y'all got something to say?
And the White House is like, ooh, what?
What?
What?
This is so weird.
I don't, what are you talking?
I don't know what she's talking about.
That's crazy, right?
It's crazy, right?
She was saying, you see all that that they said?
It's crazy, right?
I don't know.
Right?
So you can kind of play it off, but again, everyone snitches.
And not only does everyone snitch, when you have somebody like a character like a Ronald Reagan, right?
Which is what you're watching play out in a lot of ways, just in a very uncouth way with Donald Trump, in the sense that if a person feels like they too smooth to get caught, they'll start dry snitching on themselves.
Then they don't listen to, that's one thing about I've learned about a narcissist.
A narcissist will always reveal their play.
Always, because they need you to stroke their ego, right?
They need you.
They need you to be impressed about their prowess.
So, and they're going to go off script because they believe they're invincible.
Always.
In the same way that Trump snitched on himself about the box of classified documents that was laid out on the floor when he was like, man, they spread it out there.
They spread all that shit out on the floor like I was a slob.
I kept all my documents in a nice folder.
Oh, where are the documents that you ain't supposed to have?
The ones that you said that you already gave back.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm like, fam, you just dry snitched.
Like, oh, so you do got the documents, right?
Right?
So we're going to watch President Reagan continue to try to dance, right?
Angel Voda Introduces His Guest00:02:02
I'm Angel Voda.
My next guest, you know, from Step Brothers, Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network, it's Will Farrell.
My dad gave me the best advice ever.
I went and had lunch with him one day and I was like, and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.
I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings.
I'm working my way up through it.
I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent.
He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet.
Yeah.
He goes, but there's so much luck involved.
And he's like, just give it a shot.
He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.
If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.
It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hang in there.
Yeah, it would not be.
Right, it wouldn't be that.
There's a lot in life.
Listen to Thanks Dad on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
10-10 shots fired in the city hall building.
A silver .40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.
From iHeart Podcasts and Best Case Studios, this is Rorschach, murder at City Hall.
How did this ever happen in City Hall?
Somebody tell me that, Jeffrey Hood did.
July 2003.
Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest.
Both men are carrying concealed weapons.
And in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead.
Everybody in the chamber is ducked.
A shocking public murder.
They scream, get down, get down.
Those are shots.
Those are shots.
Get down.
A charismatic politician.
You know, he just bent the rules all the time, man.
I still have a weapon.
And I could shoot you.
Councilman Davis Shot at City Hall00:16:01
And an outsider with a secret.
He alleged he was a victim of flat down.
That may or may not have been political.
That may have been about sex.
Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
There's two golden rules that any man should live by.
Rule one, never mess with a country girl.
If you play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.
And rule two, never mess with her friends either.
We always say, trust your girlfriends.
I'm Anna Sinfield.
And in this new season of The Girlfriends.
Oh my God, this is the same man.
A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist.
I felt like I got hit by a truck.
I thought, how could this happen to me?
The cops didn't seem to care.
So they take matters into their own hands.
They said, oh, hell no.
I vowed I will be his last target.
He's going to get what he deserves.
Listen to the girlfriends.
Trust me, babe.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Now, the first person to actually snitch is the weirdo Don Regan, right?
Because again, if you're in a situation like this, like you have to, like anybody in this situation, who do you think everybody's going to try to protect?
I mean, the boss, right?
You're going to protect the president.
Yeah, that's the way that works.
Especially like Ronald is, he's gotten re-elected by the point that this breaks.
Yeah.
But he's also kind of losing his shit, right?
Like he's seriously like Nancy is kind of running things for a large chunk of this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Nancy's running up.
He's he's starting to lose his marbles, but he's still the don.
He's still the boss.
And if you know that, you start, what you should do is start calculating where on the totem pole you are because the lower you are, the more likely you're going to get thrown to the wolves, right?
So if you got any sense, you like, I need to set this shit up for myself because y'all not going to look out for me.
Y'all remember Gene Hawson Falls from Wisconsin?
Y'all not finna look out for me.
You know what I'm saying?
So you should know what this situation, right?
But now this, now this, now this snitch, Don Regan, who nobody knows is a snitch at the time, they call Washington Post.
They say, he say the president didn't have nothing to do with it.
He was trying to like, which is a, which is quite a calculation for him.
He's like, all right, let me not.
I'm a snitch, but not on the big boss because I don't want that to come back and bite me in the ass later.
So he snitches and the person he throws under the bus is Bud McFarland.
Yeah.
And he says that man never told the president what he was doing.
Of course, that's a lie, President Course.
And there's, yeah, the president definitely knew there are a bunch of shady things where like McFarland will say, well, no, I got his specific approval before I did this thing.
And it'll be like, well, when did you do that?
Well, I called him.
And he's like, well, there's not a record of this phone call.
And there's now, there's other records of Reagan knowing about it.
Like, but, you know, that doesn't mean on the day-to-day.
Totally.
Just to make the point, McFarlane absolutely lies what Reagan knew, but Reagan also knew.
Although it is possible that the Alzheimer's caused him to lose significant pieces of it.
Absolutely.
And it's like, and when you run in a lick like this, and especially like Bud McFarland and Ronald Reagan, like they're actually like buddies.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's very possible that like he is just like calling on the fly like, oh, by the way.
They're just hanging out or something.
Yeah, he's like, oh, by the way.
There's a call, but it was during a thing.
Yeah, I got to send $6 million to Iran.
You cool?
Yeah.
Okay, cool.
You know what I'm saying?
Like you dial in around like the, what specifically did the president know?
Well, that's a harder question to answer, but did, did the president know and approve of the plan?
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, so, uh, so the hope was that, like, listen, tell this, tell this, tell this cover story.
Ed Meese was the attorney general at the time.
And he's like, listen, but Bud retired, right?
So Bud's retired.
He's not going to lose his job.
If we put everything on Bud, Bud knows everything, we're cool, right?
Like, then, then that way we can get out of it.
That's the story, Ronnie.
That's the story is like, Bud did the thing.
Here's the situation.
Poindexter hollers at Bud and he says, yo, if you tell Don to back off, like Don out here trying to like drag me.
I remember I said later on that Don tells this story to the press that Bud is cheating on his wife, just like just a dickhole, right?
So Bud is like, okay, I'll take some of this heat, but fuck Don Reagan.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Like, you're not going to do this to me like this.
He's like, okay, cool.
Just protect the president.
Now, Reagan getting slaughtered in the press.
This is the least popular he ever is.
He gets heat.
He kinds of has a breakdown around this point.
He really does.
Nancy is running the show.
He's basically hiding and watching like old movies on television.
No one can reach him.
They actually, there is a period of time where they consider, they actually like bring in an outside guy to secretly analyze Reagan, whether or not they need to do a 25th Amendment and like pull his ass over there.
Because he was losing it, which is how he dipped out of impeachment.
Yeah.
Was like, well, I don't recall.
So he getting slaughtered.
And guess what?
Them hostages is still in Iran, which is still funny to me.
It's not funny because that's their life, but it's like all this shit, you still ain't got the hostages.
But he says he has to make some sort of statement.
Now, if you are Reagan, again, your pride is involved here, right?
If the story is they doing all this shit up under my nose and I don't know it, then I look like a punk.
You know what I'm saying?
So like, I don't know how cool I am with this.
Poindexter says, listen, he tells the press, listen, it was, I know everybody was saying this was about arms for hostages.
And it was not, fam.
This was always about being good with Iran because everybody know they crazy over there.
So we needed to make sure that we was good over there.
We was tapped in.
Everything was cool.
And it all happened in 86.
Anything before that, yo, that was Israel.
Like, and remember, that was the cover the whole time, running through Israel so that when you can, so you could tell your people if it do come out, like, oh, I don't know, fam, that was Israel.
Like, whatever they did with that.
I don't know.
You could check the ledgers.
We was selling them stuff because that's what we do.
We've been selling them stuff for years.
Like, I don't understand the problem, right?
But everybody knows, look, man, somebody's got a role.
Don Regan's like, listen, man, a head got to roll.
This story ain't gonna hold up.
People gonna figure this out.
And as long as that head ain't Reagan, we gonna be cool.
Right.
So Reagan goes with the story, right?
But he got to go talk to Congress, right?
Now, this is where it gets super funny, right?
So now we in November 12th.
This is 1986.
And Reagan got to talk to, talk to Congress, right?
We talking Bob Dole.
We talking Dick Cheney, right?
All these like big, big like Reagan stands that ended up ruining most of our childhood as they became part of the leadership of our government, right?
So the Congress is like, okay, fam, when did this start?
Well, I think it started in November 85, but we ain't do no transfers to the Heaters until 1986.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a total lie, right?
And then Reagan says, yo, yeah, this was like a clandestine thing because we don't negotiate with people.
That shit is a lie.
He out here trying to be a cowboy.
Like, you think you really, y'all really think, y'all really think I'm that much of a punk that I'm going to be out here negotiating with these terrorists?
That's a lie, fam.
I don't be negotiating with no terrorists.
That's not what I did.
I had this clandestine shit.
And Poindexter and them is like, nigga, if you don't shut the fuck up, you're not supposed to know what happened.
That was the story.
The storyline is you don't know what happened.
He's like, nah, man, I've let them make sure that we don't negotiate with terrorists.
Like, okay, fam.
Oh, Lord, here we go.
So after all this, Schultz meets with everybody and he's like, George Schultz is like, fam, I tried to tell y'all this shit wasn't going to work.
I tried to tell y'all this was going to happen, right?
And Don is like, look, if everybody stick to the script, it's going to be cool, right?
But Schultz is like, listen, this math ain't mathing.
Everybody going to figure this out.
This is Watergate all over again, right?
It's not going to work.
I'm trying to tell y'all, Reagan losing his marbles, right?
Don't let this man talk.
But I'm telling you, Schultz is like, fam, who we going to throw under the bus?
Because they going to figure this shit out.
Like, people are not stupid.
This story don't make sense.
The story we telling them don't make sense.
And the numbers are obvious, right?
This is Watergate all over again.
So then now it's like Reagan again with his like, I'm a superhero is like, okay, listen, let me go ahead and talk to the nation.
Now in this situation, anybody who got any sort of like street, you know, any sort of like street wisdom would know that you are now in a position where you are going to look people in the face and lie to them.
Yeah.
So you, this was wrong.
This is not the move, fam, because now you officially lied to our face, right?
Before it was confusing.
Before it was just, you know, ambiguous.
Now you finna lie to us, right?
Yeah.
So he was like, listen, what they saying about me ain't true.
I made no concessions and we ain't get him no gun guns.
America like, fam, you just gonna lie to us like that?
Like this is so obvious what you did.
And he like, I'm trying to tell y'all, this ain't what we did, right?
That same day, pointexter getting grilled, right?
And he like, listen, dog, we ain't getting more weapons.
Okay, maybe a few weapons.
A couple of weapons.
Maybe a couple, right?
And then Reagan on November 19, doubling down.
And reporter says, yo, then this is the part that like went viral if their version of viral, right?
One of the reporters was like, yo, you say you ain't trade no weapons for hostages, but um every time one of them hostages kind of came home, the records show a major shipment of guns.
What's that about?
That's kind of weird.
It's like when a hostage lands, weapons leave.
That kind of seemed like, I mean, I'm just reading the ledger.
It kind of seemed like you was given weapons for hostages, right?
It feels a little like that.
It does kind of look like that.
And Bregan and them like, look, dude, ship weapons all the time.
If it happens at the same day, I mean, I don't know how to tell you, fam.
It just kind of happened at the same time.
Right.
And it's just your lie getting worse and worse and getting paper thin.
Somebody gonna figure this shit out.
Somebody gonna have to take the fall because the script ain't working and the script's only kind of true.
Right.
And Reagan keep talking too much.
The more you talk, because he feeling like, you know, you know, when you lying and people figuring out your lie, yo, instinct is to double down.
But once you start doubling down, like I say, you start dry snitching.
It's getting worse and worse and worse.
And your story's not adding up.
This shit don't make sense.
This is what's playing off all over the news.
If Twitter was around on this time, this would be just a great time in Twitter.
This shit not making sense, right?
November 20th.
Schultz is telling him, like, listen, bro, just come clean, right?
Just this, they're going to figure it out.
And if they figure it out, it's worse.
Right.
And Reagan does textbook white boy stuff and he says, listen, I didn't mean.
This is great.
Again, textbook wise.
I didn't mean to sell weapons for hostages.
So if I didn't mean to do it, I didn't do it.
Yeah.
My heart tells me I didn't do it, but the evidence says otherwise.
It's like literally a thing he says.
Yes.
So they're just...
Best intention say we didn't do this, but all the evidence says we did.
So who's to say what happened?
Well, that's my Reagan.
Yes.
Well, so the next day they like, look, dog, this is what we're going to do.
We're going to launch an internal investigation.
Right.
Ed Meese is like, look, let's launch an internal investigation.
Let's figure out what's going on.
Let's holler at the national secretary advisor, right?
Poindexter and figure out these findings.
Right.
So Poindexter knows exactly what he finna find out because he gonna find out that the papers that was supposed to be turned in and findings was never turned in and one of them was backlogged.
So basically when he finds them papers, which we all know exist, it's gonna prove that the president knew everything.
Right.
Now, guess who else knows all this?
Oliver Mulkin North.
Yep.
He sure does.
He knows all this and got all the papers.
That's what everything comes into, right?
He's got it all.
And if this fool got it all, there's papers for everything.
So he's like, well, what is the most logical thing to do right now?
Probably the same thing you did in Nicaragua.
You just got to get rid of the evidence, right?
First, make a copy so I can have my own.
You need to get rid of everything.
This is these are serious felonies, y'all.
Like, let's, let's not, let's, okay, let's, let me not, you can't shred government documents to cover up war crimes.
Like, this, this is terrible, right?
Yeah.
So he calls his assistant like a dumbass.
So he calls his assistant to go do it, right?
Which, again, crime number 101, you can't just send somebody even, I don't care how close this person is.
You can't send somebody else to come do this.
You need to make sure this shit is done correctly, right?
Because if anything is missed, everybody going to jail.
So they go about and they shred 15 months of correspondence, right?
15 months and one and missed Robert.
The Crime of Sending Assistants00:06:11
They missed one document.
Ah, well, that's pretty good.
And that one document proved the whole thing.
Of all the documents that they shredded, the one they didn't shred.
Follow me.
Follow me.
The one document they didn't shred was a memo entitled The Diversion Memo.
Yeah, the crime note.
How to crime, how we're going to break the law repeatedly.
Amazing guys.
What we're going to do that we're trying to cover up memo.
You get so lazy when the whole apparatus of government is on your side.
Like that's, that's really what this is.
It's the same thing you see from all these like right-wing groups being like, yes, here's our meeting chat where we're going to overthrow the government.
Meanwhile, kids who are like, I don't know, burning a police car with nobody inside it spend like years planning and like the rest of their lives frightened that the law is behind them and burn all of their clothing, never see each other again.
Meanwhile, the guys trying to overthrow the entire government are like, let's just do a signal loop for that.
And I'll loop in my guy with the Trump White House.
And we'll just all get in the same group and figure out how we're going to kill all those people.
Yeah, it's all good, bro.
Don't worry about it.
Literally a memo called the diversion memo.
You nerds.
Like you, you named it the crime.
What the hell is wrong with y'all?
You know what I'm saying?
So that's the one that got out because that's the one they missed.
Now, by this point, Ed Mees knows everything.
You know, Reagan is still, you know, stiff lipped.
I don't know what's going on.
I ain't do nothing wrong.
Literally, the document shows that you absolutely did, right?
The NSC has got all kinds of private memos, right?
They got to blame somebody.
Poindexter finna resign.
Oliver North is the only person they can blame because it all came out of his office.
Now, the next thing that happens is the independent investigation from Lauren Walsh.
Now, this be now what happens, that what plays out in public is the part that a lot of us are familiar with.
It's when a special investigator, this is their version of Robert Mueller, right?
Comes on the scene and comes in, just picture the slow motion.
And this dude's retired, like just a nerd, retired at home.
I'm tired of doing this lawyer thing.
They send him this situation and he's like, oh, shit.
Damn.
God damn.
Okay, yeah, I'll investigate it.
He do the investigation.
Fools come on TV and what was televised, which is so crazy.
It's like, just, it's almost like the beginnings of how we see politics now.
What was televised was the Oliver North trials.
And that man ended up being on the cover of Time magazine as one of the greatest patriots because Oliver North figured out how to play the game.
He was like, okay, listen, I'm going to go to jail for this shit.
I'm going to go to jail as a patriot.
Yeah.
And he became this like right-wing superstar.
Oh, yeah.
No, I watched his fucking TV show all the time when I was a kid.
He got a TV show.
Over stories with Oliver North.
I think he's still on the air.
Oliver North, bro, for running this thing.
But basically, he became the fall guy.
Now, years later, right?
So after President Reagan was President George Bush Sr. and there had to be an agreement that like, hey, you're not going like, you're not going to impeach me later, right?
And he's like, fam, why in the hell would I impeach you later?
Of course I'm not going to, because if I impeach you, nigga, I'm going to jail because I was in the room the whole time, fam.
So why would I not do that?
But a trial did happen where Reagan, Ronald Reagan, believe it or not, this is the part that like surprised me.
Ronald Reagan was put on trial for this.
It's just he was so far into his Alzheimer's at the time that he was able to be like, well, I don't recall.
Well, I don't recall.
He became the quote that all of us love, which is not to my recollection.
Did you not to my recollection?
Would you there?
I don't remember.
Not to my recollection.
So President Reagan actually got it.
Oh, no one except for Oliver North saw any real time.
Yay.
And yeah, Oliver North's war stories ran for 15 years.
15 years in 2016.
Yeah.
And that, my friend.
Oliver North.
Yeah.
And all them Fox news dollars.
And that, my friend, is the Iran-Contra scandal.
What a great story.
It really is.
What a great story.
I'm proud to be an American right now.
And as you guys will find out in the book endings of these series, that there was other ways that Nicaragua thanked us.
They did.
They showed their gratitude in a way that was deeply felt in the United States.
Yes.
And we will be getting into that or have been getting into that or are you, you'll hear that too.
It's all coming out.
It's all going to be in your ears this whole week.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
In this stage of recording, we actually don't know which order these episodes are coming out.
We're working it out.
Yes.
But anyway, so that's it.
I ran Contra.
So who's the bastard?
NSC, CIA, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North.
Ollie North is my favorite guy in it just because he's such like, he's such a fucking criminal and such a bad criminal.
And it's really funny how bad he is at doing crime.
Really?
It really is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got to give my vote to Ollie.
Yeah.
And then I'm like, but then I'm like, again, real ones, my real ones in this story, I still, Gabonifar is still my favorite.
Oh, yeah.
Now, Gabonifar is the actual like coolest dude.
He's the coolest dude in here.
He's an absolute war criminal, but he is the coolest dude in this story.
Ollie North: A Bad Criminal00:04:35
Right.
Of the war criminals, he's, he's just such a little scamp.
It's like, you're going to just rob him again, aren't you, buddy?
Yeah, you did.
You fucked him over again.
Fucked him over again, bro.
They're never going to catch on.
And just, and just, he saw it like, he just disappears from the record.
I don't know.
I have no idea what happened to him.
Last thing they talk about him in all the records was he cashed a million dollar check.
Ain't seen him sin.
I just, at least from our records, he probably in some other record.
I couldn't find no where are they now is with Gabonifar.
Yeah, why would you?
No, you go right off into the sunset with all of the money that you made.
Yeah.
And Gene from Wisconsin's head ass, I don't know where he is either, but I still love the fact that that man did a 60 minutes.
We could probably fight.
We could probably find that way, Gene.
I wish you the very best of luck, Gene.
Just stay away from Nicaragua.
Just don't be flying no weapons in Nicaragua.
Yeah.
We good. We're good.
You can fly me some weapons, Gene.
Dude, I would love to go visit Gene.
Just be like, yo, just tell me, tell me some stories, bro.
Like, tell me what was like, how many misses did you run?
Like, they don't say that.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, did you ever get a chance to actually kick it in Nicaragua?
They're not going to say that.
They ain't telling nobody that.
Hilarious.
Yeah.
Well, that's about it.
Robert Evans behind the bastard's pod.
I write okay.
After the revolution, you can find it on AK Press.
You can find it on AK Press.
That's right, Sophie.
You know what else you can find is my book everywhere else.
It's available everywhere else.
So just Google After the Revolution, Robert Evans, and buy the book from wherever.
Amazon, local bookstore, independent bookstore, AK Press.
I don't care.
Yeah.
And Margaret Kildrey also has a book that depending on when this is, it's either before or after it drops, which is on September 20th.
And it's also from AK Press.
And if you pre-order it, you can get a nice little book sleeve cover artwork situation.
And it's called We Won't Be Here Tomorrow.
That's my plug is for Robert and Margaret's books.
That is a great plug.
Thank you, Sophie.
You're welcome.
Prop has a book too called Terraform.
It's a poetry and short story.
Oh, yeah.
There's also a cold brew called Terraform Cold Brew.
If you're into coffee stuff, it's delicious.
I put it on the screen as if y'all could see it.
But the point is, it's very delicious.
You can order that, TerraformColdbrew.com.
And by props, Prop's book is amazing.
I love Prop's book.
And it's also just a very beautiful, beautiful cover.
And just like, I love, I love it.
I have a signed copy, Brag.
Yes, you do.
Who else has a book?
Let's think.
No one.
Those are the only books ever written.
No, I'm just, I'm thinking of what's displayed on my bookshelf.
Oh, Jake Hanrahan.
Front of the pod has a book too.
You could get Jake Henrahan's book.
It's called Gargoyle.
Hanrah.
Yeah.
That's it, right?
Yep.
Buy him.
All right.
Love it.
All right, guys.
hood the bastards
How could this ever happen in City Hall?
Somebody tell me that.
A shocking public murder.
This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics.
They screamed, get down, get down.
Those are shots.
A tragedy that's now forgotten.
And a mystery that may or may not have been political.
That may have been about sex.
Listen to Rorschach, Murder at City Hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.
Destroying the World with AI00:00:57
I vowed I will be his last target.
He is not going to get away with this.
He's going to get what he deserves.
We always say that, trust your girlfriends.
Listen to the girlfriends.
Trust me, babe.
On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Laurie Siegel, and this is Mostly Human, a tech podcast through a human lens.
This week, an interview with Open AI CEO Sam Altman.
I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to the products we put out in the world.
An in-depth conversation with the man who's shaping our future.
My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI.
Listen to Mostly Human on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.