Could the recent buzz and conspiracy theories surrounding the Baltimore Bridge tragedy and the upcoming solar eclipse be hinting at an apocalyptic breakthrough, or are they just another twist in our celestial journey? Join me and Michael Parker as we tackle these burning questions, shedding light on the shadowy corners of current US phenomena. From the strangely heightened governmental activities to the curiosity sparked by celebrities like Puff Daddy and sports legends such as Pete Rose, we navigate through the fog of speculation to seek out the truth that lies beneath the surface.
The plot thickens as we delve into the repercussions of the bridge collapse on supply chains, the ethical quagmire of the Shohei Otani betting scandal, and the mysterious allure of power and privilege that seems to shield certain celebrities from the consequences of their actions. The conversation takes a darker turn, discussing the implications of an interpreter's betrayal and the complex web of allegiances in the MLB. We then tread the fine line between healthy skepticism and the pitfalls of rabbit-hole conspiracy theories, pondering over how the rich and famous navigate scandalous allegations while maintaining their enigmatic influence over fans and followers.
We pay our respects to the late Ian Punnett, a pioneer in paranormal broadcasting, and recognize the fresh voices of Bill Maher, Billy Corgan, and Fred Durst in the conspiracy podcast scene. As we honor the old and embrace the new, I share vivid anecdotes from my eye-opening visit to Dubai, challenging preconceived notions with tales of this ultramodern oasis. Amidst it all, we consider the perplexing world of QAnon and the psychological games at play, questioning whether these theories serve to empower or pacify the masses. Prepare to have your perspectives challenged and your curiosities piqued in this episode that's brimming with intrigue and thought-provoking discussion.
Elevate the Extraordinary: Support U.S. Phenomenon!
Could the recent buzz and conspiracy theories surrounding the Baltimore Bridge tragedy and the upcoming solar eclipse be hinting at an apocalyptic breakthrough, or are they just another twist in our celestial journey? Join me and Michael Parker as we tackle these burning questions, shedding light on the shadowy corners of current US phenomena. From the strangely heightened governmental activities to the curiosity sparked by celebrities like Puff Daddy and sports legends such as Pete Rose, we navigate through the fog of speculation to seek out the truth that lies beneath the surface.
The plot thickens as we delve into the repercussions of the bridge collapse on supply chains, the ethical quagmire of the Shohei Otani betting scandal, and the mysterious allure of power and privilege that seems to shield certain celebrities from the consequences of their actions. The conversation takes a darker turn, discussing the implications of an interpreter's betrayal and the complex web of allegiances in the MLB. We then tread the fine line between healthy skepticism and the pitfalls of rabbit-hole conspiracy theories, pondering over how the rich and famous navigate scandalous allegations while maintaining their enigmatic influence over fans and followers.
We pay our respects to the late Ian Punnett, a pioneer in paranormal broadcasting, and recognize the fresh voices of Bill Maher, Billy Corgan, and Fred Durst in the conspiracy podcast scene. As we honor the old and embrace the new, I share vivid anecdotes from my eye-opening visit to Dubai, challenging preconceived notions with tales of this ultramodern oasis. Amidst it all, we consider the perplexing world of QAnon and the psychological games at play, questioning whether these theories serve to empower or pacify the masses. Prepare to have your perspectives challenged and your curiosities piqued in this episode that's brimming with intrigue and thought-provoking discussion.
Elevate the Extraordinary: Support U.S. Phenomenon!
Welcome to US Phenomenon, where possibilities are endless. Put down those same old headlines. It's time to expand your mind and question what if? From paranormal activity to UFOs, bigfoot sightings and unsolved mysteries, this is US Phenomenon?
Speaker 2:It all began on a drive home from swing shift. The radio, my only companion, the voice of the legendary art veil, filled the car, a beacon in the darkness, a world beyond our own. The stories, untold secrets, kept just out of sight. The voice, those tales ignited a spark within me, a drive to seek the truth, explore the phenomenon that lied just beyond the edge of reason, from the whispers of the paranormal to the echoes of the unknown, my quest began. So join me, fellow night travelers, as we continue the journey, delving into the enigmas of the night, uncovering mysteries that unweigh. This is US Phenomenon, where the answers are never ending and the adventures are just beginning. Tonight's trending stories the Baltimore Bridge, we're going to talk about Puff Daddy, shohei Ohtani and what in the hell is going on with Pete Rose and tons of other headlines. Plus, tonight's guest is one of my good friends and fellow night travelers, but he does his own show on Michael Parker Media. It is my pleasure to welcome back to US Phenomenon, michael Parker. Welcome back to the show, my friend.
Speaker 3:Mario, it is always a pleasure and, yeah, it's about time we talk because there is a lot of crazy stuff happening. My friend, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2:You know what's interesting. I don't know where to start, but let's just get into what seems to be the hottest topic right now. I mean, we know that there was a ton of loss of life with this Baltimore Bridge, but I want to go into the world of the like. I mean, everything is going on. We're talking about eclipse, the, the, the princess of uh, wales. You know her, her trending last week. I mean it is unreal.
Speaker 2:I mean, are we on the edge of end times with the solar eclipse? There's so much to cover tonight. So as I take a deep breath and as everyone gets so excited because, hey, michael, this could be the end, this could be the last show before the solar eclipse well, there'll be one more before that, but if, if, if that's what's going on. That could be. That could be the case, because what's interesting is that people are talking about a solar eclipse, that which is going to happen in april 8th right, and, what's interesting, I saw the first, I saw the other one back in 2017 down, I went down to totality, went down.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, we're going to oregon, we hit it, we had totality. It was amazing, it was so. It was like bright because it was morning time and it was like very warm, sunny, and then the next thing, you know, it was like you could see the moon coming. You could see the shadow of the moon coming through, but it started to get cold and dark and the birds, instead of of chirping, started to like quiet and it was so eerie that, as you watched the, the two intersect that the world became still. I kid you not, it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen to watch have you ever seen it?
Speaker 3:have you ever seen that movie? Apocalypto, uh, mill gibson made this film and it was about the aztecs and in, at one point in the movie, this uh, indigenous uh, jaguar paul, I think, is the name of the character you know. He's been running through the jungle, he's trying, and he's just one of the local indigenous people. Of course, the aztecs are indigenous as well, but they have this full-blown civilization, they're building pyramids and it's kind of, in my opinion, when I look at that film, it's a. It's a uh, it's a statement about government, the elites, how corrupt they can become. Anyway, at one point during the movie they're about to sacrifice, to sacrifice Jaguar Paw, up on the top of the pyramid. They're going to stab the obsidian knife into his chest and at that very moment they have an eclipse and, just like you said, everything grinds to a halt. Everybody thinks, oh, my God, is this the end? What have we wrought? Anyway, he gets away, but, yeah, eclipses. For those into astrology, these things have great meaning and I've listened to a lot of people discussing it over the last week or so, I think.
Speaker 3:Right now, as you and I are talking on this Thursday afternoon, I think Alex Jones is doing his own thing right now, talking about what he thinks is going to happen, and my wife asked me the other day she goes. So why is everybody so worked up about this eclipse thing? And it is strange because I enjoy odd subject matter and and something like an eclipse is interesting. But this time it's really interesting because now we're seeing all these stories where various municipalities are bringing in the national guard or the briefs, the law enforcement, all this and what does that mean? And spoiler alert uh, yesterday I just saw a bit of alex's thing that he was going to talk about. He believes that kind of bad people within our government are going to use this as a chance to run some kind of martial law dry run. So it really has nothing to do with the eclipse, other than that's the excuse they're using.
Speaker 3:Percy, I don't know what is going to shift us into a period where we're going to find out about the lies of other things in the recent past that I'm not going to say in here in case we get boomed off of certain social media types. I don't know what's going to happen, but it is very strange and coincidental with this eclipse. Look at this week we had the bridge collapse. We've got these massive raids on p diddy's house and I'm not a p diddy fan but I'm not a hater either. I never really listened to his music that much, but I have been hearing for years. Oh yeah, he's unsavory character.
Speaker 3:Oh, and I will say this, a friend of mine, who I've interviewed a couple of times, just made Newsweek yesterday. Sloan Bella is a pretty famous psychic here in Los Angeles and she did I mean it's on record and it made Newsweek yesterday because back in November Sloan predicted that she thought P Diddy was going to have major issues before Easter at the end of March. And I'll be dang. That is exactly what's happened. I live in Los Angeles, so it was all over the news. Almost immediately, I mean, they came gangbusters into his house. What they're going to find, I don't know. I mean, clearly, the issues seem to be human trafficking and things like that which, honestly, I think a lot of people have been hearing about for a long time. And then, of course, we have this really tragic issue with this bridge, which I think is going to have major implications over time. I think right now let me just say this the minute I saw the bridge thing, I woke up and I saw the news on it the next morning.
Speaker 3:I was like man, this is no good. And they always kind of start out by saying well, this was an accident, we've got this loss of power. Dot dot dot. They try to minimize whatever seems to be going wrong. My prediction is and I don't know what the answer is, but my prediction is, as we hear about this story, for the next weeks, months, even years to come, because it's going to take years to rebuild that bridge, which is a major, major piece of infrastructure on the East Coast what I think will happen is little details will trickle out more and more that things are not as they seem let's go back to the eclipse because, as you were talking about the, the aga, um, uh piece, there it's.
Speaker 2:It's interesting because his stuff has coming out again on different social media platforms and, um, there are other people that are posting that they think that, because of how this aligns, that it's going to hit these certain cities that have been you know that spell Nivea, nineveh, nineveh, yes, and so they've said that this is going to hit seven different cities. And then then the cross point is rapture, which is interesting to me, and I'm like, okay, if you believe in a biblical peace, you're definitely thinking you better have your, you better be got your Ps and Qs lined up, because this could be close to end times, if that's what you believe in.
Speaker 3:Well, and in times can mean different things, right? I mean, I don't think it's the. I don't think it's the end of civilization, but it may be the end of a particular state of mind. It may be the end of what has been running things for a while. In my opinion, if we're going to wax metaphysical and things are going to happen as a result of this, I think I tend to think that it will be more information about past things that we've been lied about coming to light. But I'm just a regular guy. It could be dead wrong.
Speaker 2:And you know, what's interesting to me is to Look. I don't remember in recent times, even during that eclipse, I don't remember in oregon ever seen what the reports have been out via social media that there's going to be a larger presence of some type of, you know, national guard. Is that necessary? If you're gonna and maybe it is because they're, they'll be able to control the crowd. Now, is this, is this a mock draft of them, being able to, you know, run, as maybe aj has talked about, uh, a martial law dry run through? If? If that's the case, people need to start waking up and smelling the coffee, and this is something that I've been talking about a lot lately, just because of what is going on.
Speaker 2:It's an election year, things are seeming to wrap up, things are very tense in regards to how the political spectrum is, and look, regardless on what side of the fence you're leaning on, things are so divisive that it's not even fun anymore to have conversations with those that may lean to the other side or have that conversation like, yeah, that's not really my thing, but those, those things don't happen anymore. But to just to go back to this whole piece about the uh, about in not end times. But in regards to the eclipse, I don't remember seeing any of that um, and I was there, I was at totality. It was not that bad. I mean, of course we were in oregon, but we, we, I mean we drove down there. I mean that was. I mean I have pictures over here in in in the house from that.
Speaker 2:It was just a sight to see and and I'm not going to be able to venture out to Texas or into any of these other cities that are going to have totality, and my thing is enjoy it, because you're not going to see it again. And, as I like to say, these things come once in a while and these are things that just make us all look like micro pieces of dust within our own solar system. We're just a spectacle of matter. You know, it is what it is. It's it's. It is so awe-inspiring. So if you have a chance and you're going to go see it, it's coming up, so go do it, hey. And if the world's coming to an end, by all means, you're going to know about it, so might as well go out in style.
Speaker 3:Well, check this out, going out in style. The one thing that's odd to me and my wife and I, you know, we're just I'm cooking dinner, we're having a little drink and we're kind of talking about this whole thing. But one thing that is odd okay, eclipses. In the past there's always people who say, well, that you know this hearkens the end or whatever. Um, and it does have meaning to different people for different reasons. But the thing that is odd is people that travel to watch an eclipse, that go to these areas of of of totality. I've never known them to be such a rowdy crowd that you need additional law enforcement and the national guard. I mean that to me, is odd that you're going to call. I mean because typically these people are sitting there in a field or a parking lot or wherever it is, watching this thing. They're not out creating melee, um, like they're at tifa or something right in a race, right?
Speaker 2:you're right, because everyone is gazing to the stars. You know everyone's looking up to the sky. That I mean, that's what you're doing. You got your glasses on. You can't, you can't see within. You know you're. You're looking up and you got the special glasses on. I'm over here with my hands over my eyes, uh, if you're watching the show.
Speaker 3:But you're right, you're right I guess your guard seems a little heavy-handed I mean, unless the world, unless everyone in the united states.
Speaker 2:They think that it's going to be that over the top, like everyone's. Like I'm taking monday off, I'm gonna go check it out, you know, I just don't. I don't remember that being the case. I don't, it seems like we're.
Speaker 3:It seems like we're in it, and I mean to cut you off, but I get excited. It seems like we're in this elevated just move to panic anytime something interesting happens, or maybe that's how they keep us all in the state of being so crazy that we can't think critically and ask questions about things that really are going to matter. Listen, the eclipse will be a wondrous thing to watch, but I don't think the event itself on that day is going to create havoc. I think it's more about how we react to it or how the event itself is used, and I think that's what AJ's pointing at. And here again, I have no insider information that something is going to happen, but I do think that it's a little heavy handed, and that's what my wife was asking why all the hullabaloo with additional law enforcement was asking why all the hullabaloo with additional law enforcement?
Speaker 2:national guards and stuff, and I think that's a reasonable question. Yeah, it sure is, because at the end of the day, man, I'm like really, and it seems like a little bit, a little excessive, um, as as we continue, uh, going on top trending stories I mean tragic, with the baltimore bridge just collapsing, michael, um, I'm, I'm at all. I was actually awake. I woke up to at like oh, dark 30. I was like probably three o'clock in the morning when it went down. Yeah, um, just, I was like watch. It's amazing how much video was available for everyone to watch.
Speaker 2:And the conspiracy have gone wild. Like you should still be able to steer the ship, blah, blah, blah. I mean, look, when you're talking about a vessel of that magnitude and depending on how the weight of that is moving, it doesn't change if they lost power. They lost power. There's just no recovering of that. I don't. I mean there was, there's an engineer that just talked about it, but, um, the conspiracy is already out there. They're, they're talking about the ceo has passed away about a week ago, prior to this happening.
Speaker 3:That was the sister-in-law of Mitch McConnell. I don't know if she's actually involved with that company. Let me just say this about the conspiracies man I mean people want to bag on conspiracy theorists, but I swear to God, I mean you want to bag on conspiracy theorists, but I swear to God. I mean you have to question everything. And I think it is a sign of the times that whenever something like this happens, people just start thinking well, wait a minute, it's the year 2014. I'm sorry, it's 2024. How do things like this happen? Yes, okay, clearly, the energy went out on the boat and we watched the video and the lights go out and they come on twice and then it makes this maneuver and then it seems to come back and I don't know the answer. But I have been listening to people talk about it because it interests me and the the worst, one of the worst things about this is the fact that this is going to crimp our supply chain in a very serious way. It's not just the economic devastation that's going to bring baltimore, which is already a city with a litany of issues. So there's 30 000 people some odd that traverse that bridge every day to go to work. But this is a critical piece of United States of America infrastructure. I think it's I-94. So that bridge is gone and now you've got the debris of that bridge falling in this waterway, which I believe is the 19th busiest port in the US. So you think back during COVID all of the supply chain issues that we had right. I mean you couldn't get this, you couldn't get that Down in San Pedro, long Beach. Our ports were backed up. So you think about that. Well, this is not going to be a couple of months. This is not going to be a couple of months. I think it will take years to repair this bridge and make it traversable for major container ships to go through there. So I think this is a pretty serious thing.
Speaker 3:And Laura Logan I believe that's her name. She's been doing, yeah, laura Logan, I like her work. Some people think she's a wild and crazy conspiracy theorist, but I think she's just a passionate researcher and investigator. And if she's wrong, if the people that she's talking to are wrong, I hope they're wrong, but I'm not going to say it's out of hand.
Speaker 3:We need to know how this happened. And for anybody to say right off the bat, oh, it's just a tragic accident, well, I think that's a little bit oversimplistic. I think we need to know more about it before we can say what happened. And there's a lot of really unusual aspects of this. And that boat, where it hit it hit, from my understanding, it hit one of the two major load-bearing pillars for that bridge, so it hit pretty much in the worst possible place it could hit.
Speaker 3:But regardless, I feel for the families that have lost in it, I feel for the city of Baltimore, the people whose lives are immediately changed as a result of this, and I about the us and the integrity of our infrastructure. And I also want to know look, I don't know if this was a cyber espionage, cyber attack, but I want that fully investigated. And I want to know if she's alleging from her contacts that the GPS of the ship were broached and hacked. I don't know if that's true or not, but I know that this is a very serious situation and the US has to protect its ports and its infrastructure much more than they have been this time last year. Well, january of last year we had the train derailment, which is a massive disaster, and I think even now it's not been fully investigated to the extent that I think most people would be happy with.
Speaker 3:But anyway, I want to be wrong. I want this to be just a tragic accident, but I also want to know more information about it, and I don't know that we ever will. I think, as this plays out over the weeks, months and years to come, there will be little bitty bits of information that will dribble out. Everybody will argue about it. The people that want things to be simple will argue that we're all conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, the people who want questions or want answers to the questions that they have, we will probably be met with the same derision that we usually do about situations like this.
Speaker 2:And, yes, as we talk about a tragic accident, when I looked, watching the video and looking over evidence that is available to us right now, michael, it is concerning because you're like what's the next steps? What are ports going to do? Is this a situation where something of this nature or a bridge of this stature, um, no longer is uh structured like this with steel? Um, just having these barrier points or these catastrophic points where they're, they're, you know, you hit it, you're done, it's, it's critical fracture and clearly we saw that, uh, in this, uh, in this tragic accident, and to me that you're right, this is going to take a long time to recover from this. Um, the, the, the, the financial implications that are going to happen with this is just beyond the scope of uh, something that I, even of my own, uh, my own head. Um, michael, what, what's your thought? Uh, maybe, just if, if you were, I mean, watching the video at first, did you think? Do you? Did you were you thinking? I mean, because we're, look, we're in the business of like, we, we shake our heads calculation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is our business at first did you think were you watching the video and you're watching the cars? That was my first thing and I'm like, oh, first I thought it was a train trussle, because I've been to Baltimore once but I don't recall going over that bridge. So I saw the ship and I was like, oh, is this a train thing? And then I'm like, oh, you could see the cars flying by and, untragically, it looked like there were some vehicles that were still on the bridge.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah I that's interesting. Just today I heard someone saying that luckily the people on the boat were able to get an sos out or a mayday or whatever to alert the people that were landside and that supposedly they were able to block off access to the bridge. But I don't know. I don't know about that because the video that I saw it appeared that cars were still like winging it across that bridge almost up until the moment that the boat hit. So I can't speak to that, other than when I heard that today I struck that it struck me odd, um, but I don't know that that's not true, but that it struck me odd, um, but I don't know that that's not true, but that means to me, so what? You close off one lane, you close off all the lanes. Did you do it right before it hit? At what point did you do this to supposedly save the lives of the people going back and forth? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Uh, our guest tonight, michael Parker. Uh, man, it's always fun to go through these speculations. What's been going on in your world outside of? There's so much to cover in regards to conspiracies, and I want to get into the show. Hey, otani, you're? I don't know, are you a Dodger fan?
Speaker 3:I'm actually not a baseball guy. I'm a huge football fan, but I live in LA and the story is huge and today is the home opener for the Dodgers. And I'll be honest, not not being a huge baseball fan, I had not followed this individual that much. All I knew is that you know that he's a huge star. He got a gigantic contract. It's going to be good for our city because it's going to make you know people are going to come see him, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:Anyway, the other day when I first the story first started to emerge, I thought, okay, well, you know what I can buy this. The man doesn't speak English. He has a trusted interpreter, slash friend. The friend now has a gambling issue and he's been siphoning off money from his employer. I thought that was plausible. But I guess now the IRS is involved and law enforcement is involved and people are beginning to wonder, because they were interviewing people outside of uh angel stadium, which is down in anaheim, a day or two ago and they were asking both dodgers fans and angels fans what they thought and some of the people thought, well, no, no, he's probably involved in this somehow. I don't know. Um, we are all human and, uh, we have our failures. I mean, I don't know, I just know that's a huge issue and here's.
Speaker 2:Here's what I will tell you. Uh, what's? What's interesting to me is I think um shannon sharp said this eloquently unless your power of attorney, you're not someone has to have access to your money. You can't just move ten thousand dollars. We're talking about 4.5 million dollars here. You unless shohei otani, unless this interpreter had power of attorney, someone had to have access to this. You're not moving that kind of money. And what's interesting?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of speculation out there, michael, about um, that, um, that the, um, the bookie or whoever he was booking was, was actually using his name and likeness. Yeah, well, shohei, shohei Otani bets with us, which is interesting to me. What I find to be interesting is the fact that the interpreters, the two stories that have now become mixed up oh, I was trying to help him wait, now he's stealing the money. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens here in the next months to come with the investigation. But if I'm a betting, well, I'm not. But if I was a betting person, here's what I would tell you Until the investigation is done, for the pure sanctity of baseball because I love it he should be suspended. He should not collect a paycheck.
Speaker 2:But I think what's interesting is the day of what this all about gambling is, does it? It's? It's different because, michael, you have, you know, the dot coms, the espns of the world that are, you know sunday night baseball sponsored by draft kings and this and that and bet here on. You know all these fantasies. So everything's a betting situation.
Speaker 2:Now, I'm not saying that otani had been betting, but the fact that his money was used, and I will tell you someone who is a connoisseur of baseball, I was like you know what. Let's go back to pete rose's situation. And for sure you know and rule 21 states this that it this applies to players, umpires, club officials and employees prohibiting any connection to mlb is prohibited for from betting on any baseball game, even if they're not directly involved with the contest. Now, what's interesting to me is that now, if he was betting the interpreter or whoever was using Shohei Ohtani's money you're talking about $4.5 dollars. Now there are already are there are already social media outlets that are out here saying that the day that that bet was placed, a 4.5 million dollar, allegedly a 4.5 million dollar bet, was made on the day that shohei otani was to pitch. Now that is some new information that has come through.
Speaker 3:Let me make sure I'm understanding you, because I thought the $4.5 million was cumulative over all the bets placed. You're saying a single bet was worth that much.
Speaker 2:That's why I say allegedly that yeah, Right, Well.
Speaker 3:I tend to agree. I think that you make a very reasonable argument in that you know Otani should not be able to play. He should be probably suspended while the investigation goes on and then if it turns out he was innocent, then you repatriate him. The money or whatever, however, those kinds of things work, but it is concerning and he's a gigantic superstar right, they were saying today that I think they said 10% of the tickets, which seems hard to believe.
Speaker 3:It was a really fat statistic, that of the ticket sales today. A bunch of these were people from Japan, so he doesn't have just like a local LA following.
Speaker 2:He's got an international following. This is huge. The implications of him, if this even comes out to be that he had been betting on games. I mean this is going to be a huge black eye for MLB. Yeah, dodgers, I mean obviously they'll recoup the money. Uh, minus the 4.5 I'm just kidding uh, they'll recoup their money. Um, in regards to that situation and he should be banned, he should. It should be a bad, lifetime ban, just like pete rose, because if this goes through and they said, oh no, he, no, he wasn't betting on baseball, now we know Pete Rose was betting on baseball, so he falls under the rule 21D. He bet on games he suspended.
Speaker 2:Now, if something comes out that this is simple math, mike, they should be able to get from the bookie what he was betting on. This is this is let's just get to the meat and potatoes of this. You don't need you do your investigation full fledged, do your, do your homework, but go. I think mlb is going to. They're not. You're not going to. We're not going to know what he was betting on.
Speaker 2:We're going to find out that it was the interpreter who may take the fall and be the scapegoat for this, but it's interesting to me because there are so many articles out here and there are even videos of him doing interviews where he's getting questions in English and having the interpreter answer the answer in English for him. So I think he does have an understanding. There's so many speculations with him having this secret life newly married Look, I get, people are private. You're like the biggest thing since Babe Ruth. Dude, you are the biggest thing since Babe Ruth. Think about that. This is a pitcher and a home run hitter. So when you talk about someone of that stature, of course this could be such a big, devastating loss economically for MLB. But look, it's great because look what it's doing. Mlb is getting so much play off of a paranormal phenomenon show it's a big story.
Speaker 2:It's a big story. It's a huge story and what I love about it is will mlb just kind of sweep it under the rug in regards to, okay, maybe there were no bets in baseball, or are we ever going to find out what he was actually betting on? And I don't think we are. I don't know. I don't know that. We're gonna hear hear. Well, he was. You know, these were the bets. Just come out with the bets, let's just hear. Okay.
Speaker 3:I believe that the bookie that was being used was in Orange County, which is south of LA. Right, and I mean so, listen, law enforcement knows who the bookie is. They have access to the books. That's how Otani's name came up. They're going to figure out what happened now. What happens as a result that I don't know. How much of the truth will we find out? I don't know, but I guarantee you they have the information oh, so crazy, right, so interesting.
Speaker 2:Um, let's see what other stories that I I wanted to cover, I mean in time well, there's, there's p diddy oh, that's yes, oh yeah, that whole p diddy situation.
Speaker 2:man, I mean, and for those who may not be into hip-hop and someone who grew up in that time period, michael, I feel like if this goes down, I feel like if this goes down, you're going to have to scrub almost a decade of music, like late 90s to all the way to 2010. Maybe almost 20 years of music is going to get vacated out of existence. Think about it. Well, unfortunately, in the hip hop, community.
Speaker 3:I mean well, listen, I hear you. Let me just say this, though I have been hearing rumors about P Diddy for years. I would hear about it as part of conversations about other things and he's not had the greatest reputation for a long time. And one of the people on local news yesterday said well, you know he's, he's known as being rather unpleasant. And then they qualified it by saying but many successful people are unpleasant. But I will say that P Diddy has had a bad reputation and there have been allegations regarding him and sex and underage people for a long time. And how it came about all of a sudden, I'm not sure, but I will say this.
Speaker 3:A friend of mine who I have interviewed on my show a few times and she is a well-known celebrity psychic here in Los Angeles, california, her name is Sloane Bella and she is very active in her. She's quite vociferous in her hoping for justice for minors and people who have been subjected to human trafficking, sexual exploitation, et cetera. Anyway, back in November on one of her live streams she does them to her fans. She has a bazillion fans. She made a prediction back in November of last year that she thought that come the end of March, before Easter, the waltz would come down on P Diddy, I think was the words and people.
Speaker 3:Just yesterday because I know Sloan but I hadn't talked to her about this, and actually it's all through my feed People are posting the clips of her making that prediction back in November and, lo and behold, before the end of the day yesterday she had actually been mentioned in Newsweek. So she's been on record about this. You know, where there's smoke, there's fire. I don't know how bad it is, but it was bad enough that they came in with SWAT teams and they went through that house. You know his lawyers called it military force.
Speaker 3:Right, but anyway yeah he's in a world of hurt.
Speaker 2:I mean you have all the allegations the three women and a man in manhattan that uh, yeah, that have, uh, you know, gone, you know have allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault as, as you said, soliciting distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms. I mean, what's interesting to me about this is like you got to be one of the richest individuals in the entertainment business. Okay, I, I don't recall, and I I've look, I I've been in this music, I I've worked for a music radio station, I've met. I have a picture with diddy, I have a picture with the diddler. Now I, I know, I I mean I gotta take the thing down now, but I'm like well, it wasn't your fault.
Speaker 3:I mean you had your picture made with a, with a huge star that came into your radio station.
Speaker 2:It doesn't mean you didn't have knowledge. No, no, no, not by any means. But what's crazy to me is that you have all this money, you've got the talent and how things have gone down in your life, you've been able to just successfully, you know hit these marks and benchmarks. And what's crazy is like listening to, like, all these people starting to come out on social media platforms. I don't know. It's almost like how did the Me Too move and not catch him, you know? Or during the epstein situation, how did that that not you know get grab some traction? And it sounds like to me that this has been going on for a decade, that they've been working on pd for a decade and I'm talking about homeland security, the fbi at least that's what the stories have been out there are stating that this has been an ongoing investigation for quite some time the assaults, things of that nature.
Speaker 2:Now, if you ask me, dude, you have more money than most of us here. You have money, you have power, you, you have access to things most people just don't have access to. Now what happens is the corruption that this individual may have had. This continues to boast on an arrogance of which none of us typically see. But what kind of inspired me to continue just to go down the wormhole and I know someone used to say that a lot. But this wormhole is so large. Think about this you have. Well, here's.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:The one artist from back in the day, usher, who moved to New York, who became his, his parents signed over his rights to P Diddy so that they had guardianship over this gentleman, over Usher, Over Usher, yes.
Speaker 3:Okay, because I don't know how old Usher is. I just assumed that Usher and P Diddy were kind of the same age. No, no, that's not the case no.
Speaker 2:no, Usher is around 45, 46 years old.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so when you watch this young man grow up, he spent time in Diddy's camp. Now there are interviews with Usher on the biggest man of multimedia guy, mr Howard Stern. There's an interview of Usher and Howard asking him would you send your kids there? And he's all hell, no, I would never send my kids to that camp.
Speaker 2:But the things that Usher's seen, the things that Usher you know like was had access to, you know, and he kind of like tongue-in-cheek, laughed and said yeah, there were some things you know, women coming on to him You're going to see, there's so much that is going to unfold. The Cassie situation is not, you know, is going to unfold. The cassie situation is not, you know, not going to boast any help for him in regards to his cases because that was a litigation under, not a federal case, but that was, you know. Hey, I'm, you know sorry, let's go ahead and here's your hush money and let's bygones be bygones. So his whole situation seems to be unraveling and the latest I heard is that if this goes down, he's definitely going to try to unravel some others in the hip-hop game as well.
Speaker 3:Well, I think it'll go beyond hip-hop, because he traveled, you know, his fame transcended hip-hop, so now he is in that upper echelon of the full-blown entertainment game, right, right, so now there have been rumors about P Diddy forever, and his relationship with Justin Bieber raised a lot of eyebrows for a long time. And Justin Bieber seems to me, and it seems like for a long time Justin Bieber, has been a person guarding some kind of issues in his life that we don't know about. And I don't have to speculate. Everybody, I think, has probably heard these rumors.
Speaker 3:My point is, I'm seeing things that P Diddy may have run in the same circles with Epstein and all of these people. So you're not just talking about hip-hop, you're talking about entertainment, you're talking about politics. You're talking about entertainment, you're talking about politics, you're talking about socialites, you just this, this whole circle of people and and we still don't know what all was going on with epstein we all have a pretty darn good idea, but it's interesting that now this p diddy thing happens and I saw a cartoon today p P Diddy, epstein, and they had taken the spotlight off of Epstein and shining it on Diddy. But let me ask you this, because you know more about hip-hop than I do, and I like hip-hop, but I'm not as close to it as you are. Did Kanye once say that P Diddy was a fed? Did Kanye once say that?
Speaker 2:P Diddy was a fed. I don't recall that he said that, but I have watched a recent interview with Shannon Sharp on his podcast with Cat Williams man. That was tough to watch.
Speaker 3:I still haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 2:I'm not a big cat williams fan period and so I watch. But, man, he should be hosting this radio show, not me. Uh, because, look, when it comes to conspiracy I'm I'm really just a tabloid conspiracy guy. I mean, I love it, right, I love going down the wormholes and like having an understanding, but at the end of the day, when I'm, when I'm done checking out, it's over, right, you know it's over, like I've gone through the check and that's what I hope most people at the end of the day we hope. You're like, damn, they brought me, you know, brought me some in, you know informational, and we're here to you know to be, you know, a beacon of light. When you drive home on that, you know long night of, uh, working a swing shift you know I used to be a blue collar guy listening to ab and having those stories you're like what the hell is this? I mean, well it's.
Speaker 3:It's easy to be consumed by this and I think that anybody that asks these kinds of questions and they immediately give us the c word ah conspiracy theorist that I think they picture us as consumed by this, and I think that anybody that asks these kinds of questions and they immediately give us the C word ah, conspiracy theorists that I think they picture us as completely consumed by this, when in fact, I think that we're just curious people with a uh, innate sense of distrust for the government. And why shouldn't we? I mean, you've got to be. For God's sakes, let's all get real for a minute. I mean, we've earned that distrust. We've earned the right to ask questions and to be disbelieving. Now back to what you're saying. Yes, it's unhealthy to be completely consumed by it, and I do the same thing. You and I are in this game. We're broadcasters and we talk about these subjects.
Speaker 3:I am incredibly interested in all of this. However, I don't live and breathe it every minute of my day. There are other things. I have a family, I have things that I enjoy. I make music, I know people. I have a family, I have things that I enjoy. I make music, I know people, I like to travel, I like to do a lot of things. So I don't let it completely control my life, for sure, but I do have space for it in my makeup, in my brain to ask these questions. And just so you know, I saw something yesterday. You and I are going to have a little bit of competition, apparently. I saw something yesterday that bill maher is going to have his own podcast network and billy corgan of smashing pumpkins and fred durst of limp biscuit are going to have conspiracy podcasts and fred durst, in particular, is going to be a ufo related podcast, as if we needed more competition, mario unbelievable.
Speaker 2:But good for those guys, good for those guys, I know, I know right, it's crazy because bill maher's got this is mainstream now it is so. But you see, you see what it's come to. It's come to a fact that mar bill maher is going to, and Mar Bill Mar is going to capitalize on the situation.
Speaker 3:Cash in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, and good for those guys. And, by the way, man, I was listening to the competition the other day and I don't know that he sounds. I won't even mention his name, but the main host doesn't sound like his voice is in strong, like strong strength right now. He sounds very weak.
Speaker 3:I almost emailed them. The man who will not be named, right assuming it's a man yes, I think I know who we're talking about yeah and um yeah, did you?
Speaker 2:did you know that? Uh, ian punnett passed away?
Speaker 3:no, yes, no, I didn't. I mean, I got to be honest. I haven't listened to that show in a long, long time because I could get that content from so many other places. Well, you know it is because I'm not trying to knock it, it's just that I don't really listen to it anymore and that voice that we were talking about is not particularly compelling to me. But I did not know that Ian Punnett had passed away. When did that happen?
Speaker 2:Recently I believe it was a recent situation. So away, what did that happen? Uh, recently I believe that it was a recent situation I hear this yeah, I was like whoa what? I was looking at the website and I was like wait, what in the actual? I didn't know that. Yeah, I was like damn and I was like wow, this really just happened yeah, but he was just doing saturday nights for a long time, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know right when he, or if he even still hosts it anymore.
Speaker 2:But December 22nd of 2023, 63 years old, non-alcohol-related liver disease is a cause of death.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:A big, big blow to that show. I will say For sure. So I guess they still have what's his name.
Speaker 3:George Knapp maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah Knapp, yeah K knapp. Maybe yeah nap, yeah nap, nap news I always enjoyed him yeah, he's good.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I don't know how much longer those guys got, but you know they got their whole paranormal podcast platform. They got everybody in god's green earth on there, except for you and I, which is quite interesting to me. But you know what? You know? We just need to start our own paranormal podcasting uh platform. I digress, but uh, michael, I gotta ask you. Um, so much going on. I know we talked about all these different paranormal things. What the hell have you been doing? I know we were gonna have you on um before I go there, but doesn't some of this seem? Well, you still haven't read the book behold the pale horse. So I can't really ask you.
Speaker 3:But a lot of this but I I think I could speak to it and um it feels very much.
Speaker 2:Uh, behold the pale horse with you know, listen I.
Speaker 3:I haven't read the book, but I feel like I've read the book because I've been reading about the book for 20 some odd years and I do not. I know that our friend Mark Jacobson wrote the book and I know that he's not a fan of the so-called conspiracy theorists. But listen, I'll tell you something. I think that William Cooper was tapped into some information. Does that mean that I would sign on to everything that he says? No, but I don't sign on to everything that anybody says. But I think that the man, he certainly had an eye to the future and I think that maybe it drove him crazy after a while. But I'm not going to knock the and I'm not going to say that he didn't know what he was talking about, because he seemed to hit some things quite squarely on the head.
Speaker 2:What's interesting to me is when you go back to a QAnon situation. That word will probably get striked out of everything, but in regards to the QAnon, I feel like for them, that is their Bible.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I mean I never, I didn't.
Speaker 2:Just a lot of things that have been said, words, phrases.
Speaker 3:I have a thought on that, Mario.
Speaker 3:Go ahead I mean, I'm going to general because I do have one friend who tried to get me into it. I have read so much and been through this for so long. I just kind of I think I can get a bur, I think I can get a general view of what something is sure and I have a very I have a view of what q anon was. I think that it was a psyop to get people to not do anything. I think that it was because I have friends who believe oh well, it said this which meant this was going to happen on this.
Speaker 3:Well, dude, I'm still waiting, and so I'm not saying that there wasn't some truth in there, but I really think it was a psyop to get people to not do anything, to be waiting for a hero, to be waiting for something magical that was going to fix things. I'm not disagreeing with them that there's a lot of things that needed to be fixed. I'm not disagreeing with them that some of the things that they were talking about may have been real, but I think the main thing about QAnon to me was that I think that it was to disempower people.
Speaker 3:It was to get them to wait for somebody to save the day, Making them sheeple Well just to make them not do anything because they're reading these cryptic things, which leads them to believe that the cavalry is coming and that justice is going to be served. And I want justice to be served. Listen, and this is just my opinion. I could be wrong, but I'm not going to pick on the q? Anon people. I'm not I just I just, it's just not my thing no, no, no, not and not same here.
Speaker 2:I just felt like to me. It felt like some of the stuff that was coming out of what I've seen from that, from that camp, was stuff that I had either read or have saw in that book.
Speaker 3:Not pale horse rider, but behold the pale horse from william cooper well, I think certainly they share some common ground and I think that some of the ideas from q anon were probably first voiced by william cooper. But um, yeah, at some point I got to sit down and read the book really quick oh, man, it's, it's a phenomenal book.
Speaker 2:Uh, it'll scare the pants out of you. So I know that you just got back from traveling and this is a while back, but, man, tell us what your adventures are, what you've been doing lately I, my wife and I am trying to look at my dates here.
Speaker 3:it was the end of february, before ramadan. My wife and I were invited by my very dear friend, mushtaq al-wasiti, who is a photographer for the royal family of Dubai and he and I had met on some of these archaeology trips that I was going. Anyway, I had expressed interest in Dubai he's like man Michael come and so my wife and I went there at the end of February and for those who I think the common stereotype of Dubai is that it's this kind of playground for the rich and famous. And you know, there is, there probably is that it's this kind of playground for the rich and famous, and there probably is that. But that was not my experience. My friend Mushtaq, he and his wife have lived there for many years and for one week they showed us everything and Dubai is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai.
Speaker 3:There are seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates. So of the seven Emirates, we went to Dubai, abu Dhabi and Sharjah, and Sharjah is a more conservative Emirate, which might be more kind of what people might stereotype as an islamic monarchy being like. But anyway, dubai, the city. I'll tell you what it looks like. It looks like the future, yeah, and this is a. This is a city that has largely been built since the early 90s and when you go there, it looks like a star trek episode. And, make no mistake, it is an islamic monarchy, but in this particular case, the, the people, the family that run things there are actually quite visionary and they're very pro business.
Speaker 3:so there's no income tax there either, yeah but just but just to look at the city, it looks like the future. They're about to. Burj khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world, is in that city. I went up in it and it will blow your mind. They're about to build something beside it that looks like something again out of a Star Trek episode. It's going to be this large circle to the side of Burj Khalifa that's elevated off of the ground. I mean, it's just. All of the architecture of Dubai is just incredible, and I got to say I thoroughly loved the city.
Speaker 3:English is spoken everywhere. The signs are both in English and Arabic, so it's an extremely easy place for Westerners to go, and I just had a wonderful time. I was shown nothing but kindness. My friend Mushtaq he invited me to, you know he and his wife. We met her family. They introduced us to all our friends and everywhere we went, my wife and I were treated nothing but wonderfully and we just had a blast and I was there for a week.
Speaker 3:This was prior to Ramadan and I'm glad that we went then instead of now. Hey, it's Ramadan now and things have kind of wind down there during that period, but also all this stuff's going on here in the States that I need to cover, but I had a. I had a really great time. By the way, if you go to Dubai or you go to the United Arab Emirates, it's a 16 hour plane flight from LA, so go class if you can, right, but um, you know it's it's. It's a long flight, man, but I had a wonderful time. I will definitely be going back again. I can't say enough about it. Thoroughly enjoyed it man.
Speaker 2:Um, it's think about this, michael, in the hour we've done the show and podcast. Uh, you, it seems like it always goes by so fast. Yeah, it does. You know, I would have loved to hear what Mark Jacobson would have said about Puff Daddy. We'll have to have him come on one of these days. I know that so much is going on in regards to all these top stories.
Speaker 2:I will tell you this I saw something yesterday, just to go back to this puff daddy situation, and I don't know, that most of our listeners even care, but this may go down as one of the this will like could take down other large artists oh, for sure you know that's what I'm saying, and it's not just in music, yeah, but because, listen, he knew the royal family.
Speaker 3:I mean, he ran in major circles and that's what some of the articles that I'm seeing is. You know, there's overlap with Epstein. All of these people knew each other. All these people ran in these circles, and there's going to be other famous names that get dragged into this, for sure.
Speaker 2:And what's crazy to me is, you know, it's almost, I don't know, I don't want to say a distraction, because there's so much going on and it does feel like that a little bit.
Speaker 3:And the timing of it is interesting because, just like with Harvey Weinstein, I've lived in LA man, I've been hearing about that guy for 20 years and then one day we decide that we're going to actually finally make him pay. So the timing of this is interesting, when the wheels are completely falling off the wagon. Yes, we do drag out a couple of distractions every now and then, and justice needs to be served. And if he is guilty of the things that people are alleging, which I think he probably I mean anything's possible, right that people are alleging, which I think you probably.
Speaker 2:I mean anything's possible right, yeah?
Speaker 3:anything's possible, but it is interesting the timing and it does suck up some of the bad wits. We're really serious Because of all the things that we discussed today the eclipse, puffy, pete Eddy the bridge.
Speaker 3:The bridge thing is the thing that I am the most concerned about, not because of that singular incident, because of what it could pretend for in the future. And you know, I don't know if it was a cyber attack or not, but I do know that our infrastructure is vitally important to the integrity of the United States integrity of the United States and I think that we're going to need to be concerned because in the 21st century, warfare in the old fashioned terms is obsolete and you can do things in other ways. And if you could take out infrastructure, if you could poison people's minds, if you can drug them, if you can flood the country with illegal immigrants, there's a lot of really interesting ways to destabilize a country, and I'm not saying that's what's happening here, but it certainly goes through my mind.
Speaker 2:I mean, it goes through a lot of people's minds. Yeah, it is something to think about, to ponder. We didn't even get to open the text line or do any of that, which I will say this we are working on something cool that is going to be coming to US Phenomenon. Now, this is only going to be online, so if you're listening to the radio show and you're not a US Phenom, you need to go to my website on airmariocom. Go, become a US Phenom. There's a little alien stop sign. Click the login button. We're going to have some super cool information. Michael, do you have a quick story about camping that you were like? It was either like a tragic camping story or it was the best camping story.
Speaker 3:Dude, I've got a great camping story. When I was in Dubai, we went to the Dubai desert and so we did glamping, which is the way that I want to camp. I grew up on a farm, ladies and gentlemen, so I had plenty of that growing up. I mean, I grew up on 400 acres out in the bush of West Texas. We had cattle, we had horses, jackrabbits, rattlesnakes, all that stuff that you associate with that, and I was right in the middle of it. So for me, camping is not something I'm getting that excited about.
Speaker 3:But when we were in Dubai, we went and camped in the Dubai desert and it was a company called Arabian Adventures, which is owned by Emirates Airlines and, dude, it was fantastic. So you're out in the desert, which is is absolutely beautiful, and they have these kind of glamorous tents that sit on these platforms. And the wildlife in the desert there there's oryx, which is a large kind of antelope looking animal. We saw plenty of those. It was a beautiful night. And then, around the campfire, of course, we heard all the jinn stories, and the jinn is essentially the genie, which is the you know, a cult, uh, which is like a ghost or something in arabic culture. So we heard a lot of those stories, but it was for my wife and I. It was absolutely beautiful and um, so that's the way I like to camp. The other camping that I've done has not been since high school and usually it was um way too much beer around a campfire, burning steaks and just passing out eventually uh, we're going to be working with uh storm king spa now.
Speaker 2:they have a place that is in ashford, washington, which is really close to mount rainier, but they have these glamping estates, their little pods, I mean they have hot tubs. It's going to be.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:It's fantastic. I'm excited to work with them. They're going to be fun to work with, going to be a great and, plus, it's a local business. You know it's time and that's the thing for 2024 for myself, is continue to promote local businesses, local radio shows, other podcasters like yourself, michael when can everybody find you?
Speaker 3:You can find me on Twitter Michael Parker, la, la. Of course, los Angeles. I just made that handle because I thought it'd separate me from all of the other possibly thousands of Michael Parkers that are out there, but anyway, you can find me there on Twitter. Slash X and I have a podcast called Michael Parker Media and we cover some similar issues and things that Mario does. I'm in the midst of a couple of UFO episodes right now. We just did one a couple of days ago with Tom Matt, who's a man who has been involved, um, basically season holographs, and he has been in contact with nhi. So, um, if you like coast to coasty mario's kind of stuff, well then maybe you'll like my stuff. It's michael parker media. I'd love to have you come on over and listen to an episode or so, and it's the same thing on YouTube, so there's videos there too. Michael Barker Media Can't miss it.
Speaker 2:And what we'll do, too, is we'll also post it in this podcast If you don't listen to it, and you watch it on the stream as well. It's always fun to have you on, michael, so I appreciate you coming on to hang out with us this evening.
Speaker 3:I always enjoy it, Mario, and I appreciate the invite. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, my pleasure. As we conclude tonight's voyage into the extraordinary, I want to express my deepest gratitude to you, the listeners of US Phenomenon. An unwavering curiosity, a passion for the unknown Make our journey through the cosmos and corner of this reality possible. To my daughter, the beacon of the inspiration and joy of my life, thank you for reminding me every day that the greatest mysteries are not just out there, but they're right here in our own loving home. As your host, mario, I leave you with this thought Keep your gaze fixed to the stars and mind open to the endless possibilities. May the question you've pondered tonight spark conversations, inspired dreams and remind us that we're a part of a grand, mysterious phenomenon. Good night, stay curious. The adventure never ends, it just transforms. Until next time, keep exploring, keep questioning and keep the discovery alive. Good night.