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In Soviet Russia, America Plots to Undermine You!
31 Plays6 years ago
This week Josh and M discuss the Dulles Plan (or Doctrine), which posits a huge conspiracy by the U.S. to undermine Russia from within. They also discuss Ben Carson's claims about the Fabian Society, touch on some purported Chinese espionage back in Aotearoa, and update you on the requistite Trump news. Just another week at the coalface of conspiracy theory. Oh, and M introduces their new YouTube series, "Conspiracism!" You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJEp7xTcFU3hc2W0kfdSvAQ
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Conspiracism'
00:00:00
Speaker
This week, we introduce you to my new web series, Conspiracism. Hold on, is this paid advertising? No, it's worse. It's unpaid advertising.
00:00:12
Speaker
Fair enough. I'm docking your wages for this. And I'm not surprised. Yes, if you like conspiracy theory and if you are listening to this podcast and you don't, you must really, really, really, really like our banter. Then Conspiracism is the series for you. Catchy title. What's it all about?
Exploring Conspiracy Theories Academically
00:00:33
Speaker
I'll see. I get to look at the academic study of conspiracy theory, so whilst there will be some deep dives into conspiracy theories both good and bad, it's going to largely be a discussion of how academics, like myself, talk and deal with conspiracy theories and the theory of conspiracy theory. Well that sounds grand. Where can people find it? YouTube! Search for Conspiracism there, or click the link in the description of this pod or vodcast.
00:01:03
Speaker
And I guess there's a betrayan as well? There sure is. Well, that sounds fine and dandy. I hardly recommend people go and check it out. If only because otherwise Ian will be mentioning it every goddamn week until the end of eternity. And beyond. Google is working on how to advertise to people in the afterlife, don't you know?
00:01:26
Speaker
But for now, let's return focus to this show, the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy. So, what's coming up on this episode? I have no idea. See, I don't care about this thing anymore. I'm a YouTuber now.
Hosts Introduction and YouTube Stardom
00:01:40
Speaker
Fine. Well, this week I'll be discussing the Doll's Plan, reminiscing about cultural Marxism, and trying to pronounce Russian words despite not actually speaking the language. And you, you'll be doing what exactly? Preening myself.
00:01:55
Speaker
Because I'm worth it. The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy Hello and welcome to the Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy. I, as usual, am Josh Addison in Auckland, New Zealand, sitting directly next to Dr. M.R.X.Denteth also in Auckland. And also usual.
00:02:19
Speaker
So as that little intro possibly suggested, you're branched out into YouTube stardom, eventually, I'm sure. Yes, I hope that maybe someone might watch my little YouTube series. So yes, I'm going to be weekly, hopefully, working on 10 to 15 minute videos on conspiracy theory, theory for the elucidation of the common person and also the common rhino, because
00:02:47
Speaker
I do think that rhinos are not looked after by the YouTube segment of YouTubers at this stage. I use the word YouTube there too often, but that's because when you are a YouTuber, you are contractually obliged to use the word YouTube every 15.5 milliseconds YouTube. I think you're also contractually obliged to start your episode with what's up!
00:03:07
Speaker
And only if you refer to yourself by saying... Oh, and also, if you smash that like button... Smash the like button and... Ring that bell! Only if you refer to yourself by saying... Chance hands and spirit fingers! It's ya boy! Regardless of your gender or age.
Transition to Main Content: Conspiracy Theories
00:03:21
Speaker
Oh, I suppose I could go, it's your boy, Conspiracism. We're going to get the hip hop and the lowdown on the conspiracy theory theory. Booyah. I even now feel like I'm 4,000 years old. No. Well, if I've learned one thing from sitting there while my children watch YouTube, YouTube is on video, volume is an acceptable substitute for talent.
00:03:45
Speaker
Well, I'm going to be fine then. I am going to be fine. But anyway, this right here is not your new web series. This is your old podcast slash web series. It's true. It's like about a media empire. So I have my notes in front of me right now about what we're actually going to be talking about today, which is not, I'm sorry to disappoint you yourself and your new web series.
The Dulles Doctrine: Fact or Fiction?
00:04:09
Speaker
Is it parakeets? It is not parakeets. It is Russia, Mother Russia.
00:04:14
Speaker
I would have accepted paraplegias. No. I'm afraid to be disappointed. Well, then let's talk about Russia and how sometimes America plots to destroy Russia from the inside, or the outside, or from around the bend. This is one of those things. Don't be disgusting. I'll be as disgusting as I like on my own YouTube series, Conspiracism! Asia won't be disgusting, it's a very serious show. I'm gonna put a chart in there. I'll just go straight into it.
00:04:43
Speaker
No, we're gonna put the chime right here. Right, so, now, it's kind of a common, it's kind of a cliche almost, really, that conspiracy theories are around from within the West saying how forces from without the West are in some way plotting to bring it down.
00:05:06
Speaker
in decades past. It's been communism from Russia, those commies plotting to destroy the American way of life and by extension the rest of the West. In more recent times we've talked about China and it's, what do they call it? Soft force. Soft power. Soft power. Soft force. Sounds like something a washing machine does. No, that was a straight to VHS.
00:05:29
Speaker
Action film from 1984, which starred all the Z-list celebrities, the people who are in the back scene of Olivia Grina films. If you know who Olivia Grina is, then you are our kind of person. And you've probably watched the film Mars and...
00:05:46
Speaker
I am really, really sorry for you because that's a hard film to like. But anyway, apart from China and its soft power, also the forces of cultural Marxism, which we will be coming back to I think later on in this episode.
00:06:02
Speaker
are all plotting to destroy Western values, Western society in general. But sometimes it turns out that there are forces plotting to destroy Russian society, or at least it's alleged there are forces to defeat Russian society. And now we get to the real, real important question. How do we pronounce the name of this plan? I'm just going to say dolls.
00:06:31
Speaker
I will accept that. It might be... The Dulles plan? Might be Dulles. Might be Dulles. No, I'm just going to say Dulles. Because it's D-U-L-L-E-S. We're going for Dulles. Actually, it sounds quite nice. The Dulles plan. Yeah.
00:06:47
Speaker
So, the Dulles Plan, or the Dulles Doctrine as some people call it, I think simply because alliteration makes it sound nicer, is the conspiracy theory that we're going to be discussing today. And it's a conspiracy theory which is currently very popular in Russia to explain how outside forces are trying to destroy Russia from the inside, which, interesting enough,
00:07:12
Speaker
is quite fascinating given the theories in America about Russia trying to destroy it from the inside. Yeah, so it's kind of nice really, it's kind of life-affirming in a way to know that we're all kind of the same, that while America's busy worrying that Russia's plotting to bring it down, at exactly the same time Russia
00:07:30
Speaker
is coming up with theories that America is silently plotting to undermine its society and bring it in? Well, in Australasia we imagine that the Chinese are plotting to destroy us from the inside. Everybody has an outside enemy to blame the woes of their society upon. It's wonderful and terrifying and horrible all at the same time. But the Dulles Doctrine in particular. I think I'm going to stick to Dulles Doctrine just because it sounds just good.
00:07:58
Speaker
It's got the alliteration on it. I'm very sure it's a 1994 computer game. The Dolls, Doctor and Starring, Lara Croft. Well that makes it even better. So, what is it though? That's the real question. Do you want to take it or shall I? You've got the note. I'm still lacking on the whole tablet front due to a tragic seafaring accident.
00:08:21
Speaker
So the Dolls' plan slash doctrine is a popular conspiracy theory these days in Russia. It's been around since the sort of 1990s, early 90s. It is named after a Mr. Ellen Dolls. Now he's been sort of peripheral to a few. So he is a real person. He's been involved in American establishment for quite some time. Yep.
00:08:46
Speaker
He was the director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961.
00:08:52
Speaker
Eventually, he had to resign in 61 over the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which is what America backed an invasion of Cuba that attempted coup. Yes, which of course leads him quite nicely to theories about why JFK was assassinated, which makes Alan even more interesting, because of course, after being involved in the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he was also involved in the Warren Commission,
00:09:17
Speaker
which investigated the assassination of JFK. He was one of the actual commissioners of the Warren Commission and was supposedly sort of being put on there to give them some expertise on exactly how to interview CIA people and how to talk to them. So he was a general, I think, in World War II, which confuses me slightly because they keep, articles I've read about, I keep referring to him as the first
00:09:45
Speaker
the first civilian head of intelligence. But he wasn't a civilian, but I assume that they're using it in a different sense. Maybe he was no longer in the military when he was made director.
00:09:56
Speaker
Possibly, or due to the weird way in which people got rank in the army during World War II. Sometimes you got an honorific rank. Yeah, because he was very much his military intelligence. He wasn't on the front line. So he may well have been given a rank, but not being considered part of the military proper. Things get very confusing during World War II.
00:10:18
Speaker
That's why we try not to have too many of them. Yes, in a perfect world, yes. But anyway, supposedly this conspiracy theory goes that after, just after World War II in the 1940s, Alan Dulles came up with this plan to destroy Russia, which, and of course, you know, that's, that's, we all know that after World War II, it was very much set up that the remaining two powers were sort of America and Russia. And so immediately, even before World War II was over,
00:10:45
Speaker
America was thinking, okay, how are we going to make sure that Russia doesn't come out best against us? And indeed, one of the theories is, isn't it, that the reason why they dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was more about showing Russia don't mess with us than actually about defeating Japan? Yes, because as people point out, it wasn't really necessary to bomb Hiroshima or Nagasaki at that point in the war. Japan was pretty Japanese already on the ropes. Yes, war machine was in collapse.
00:11:12
Speaker
It was kind of an overreaction, but it makes sense if it's actually meant to display power to a third party going, oh, by the way, we've got these special bombs. We can destroy cities, you know, we can destroy cities if we want to. Yeah, just lob bombs at you.
00:11:29
Speaker
So, apparently, at around this time, World War II was over, and now America's attention turns to how can we undermine Russia, and supposedly, Alan Dulles came up with this plan. Now, the quote that has been ascribed to him, I'll read the whole thing out, because basically, it sets everything out for you. Supposedly, he said, or wrote, by sowing chaos in Russia, we'll imperceptibly replace their values with false ones which we'll force them to believe in.
00:11:58
Speaker
How? We'll find our accomplices, helpers and allies in Russia herself. In a series of episodes, a tragedy grandiose in scale will be played out. The demise of the last unbroken nation on Earth, the final irrevocable extinguishment of her national self-consciousness. From art and literature, for example, we'll gradually exterminate the social element.
00:12:17
Speaker
We'll retrain artists, discourage them and discourage in them the desire to depict the world, and examine those processes taking place in the masses of the people. Literature, the theatre and the cinema will all proclaim the basis of human feelings. We'll use all our means to support and promote those so-called creators who will hammer into the people's consciousness the cult of sex, violence, sadism and betrayal, in a word, immorality.
00:12:41
Speaker
He goes on. We'll create chaos and confusion and the workings of the government will actively but unnoticeably encourage bureaucratic stupidity and bribe taking. Bureaucratic red tape will be elevated to a virtue, honesty and audliness will be ridiculed as being of no use to anyone and anachronism. Rudeness and insolence lies in deceit, drunkenness and drug addiction, animal fear of everyone and everything, indecency, betrayal, nationalism and strife between ethnic groups and above all hatred for the Russian ethos,
00:13:09
Speaker
We'll cultivate all of that quietly and skillfully. And only the few, the very few, will guess or understand what's happening, but we'll put such people in a helpless situation, turn them into objects of ridicule, we'll find a way to slander them and declare them the dregs of society.
00:13:24
Speaker
So, as they said in an episode of Futurama One Time, interesting if true. Also, that doesn't read like the kind of thing that someone writes down. Unless you're writing a fictional speech for a villain in a book or a film. Indeed, certainly referring to Russia as the last unbroken nation on Earth.
00:13:47
Speaker
That's not the kind of thing you expect from an American intelligence officer to praise the enemy they're about to destroy.
00:13:58
Speaker
But part of the reason for that might be, of course, because that was translated back into English from a Russian newspaper article. So supposedly this conspiracy theory of the Dole's Doctrine gained prominence in the early 90s, which one must note is about 50 years after this plan was supposedly first thought up.
00:14:22
Speaker
Well, I mean, in that time they did destroy communism, so well done, the Dulles Doctrine. Indeed. So it first appeared in a pro-communist newspaper called Narodnya Pravda, which I think is the people's truth. Pravda is definitely truth, because there's other newspapers called that. Pretty sure Narodnya is people. And that was, I believe, what I just read out came from the article that first popularized it.
00:14:50
Speaker
And so I suppose we should address the Russian speaking elephant in the room. Is the doll's plan real? Well, the simple answer is no. The complex answer is, have you heard of the elders of the protocols of Sion? Or, as it's agely known, the protocols of the elders of Sion.
00:15:13
Speaker
protocols because, like that particular text, what you've just heard is actually lifted from fiction rather than fact. Thank you. So no, it's not true, but the story of where it comes from is fascinating. It is. So some researchers and reporters
00:15:38
Speaker
Sort of, I possibly like us figuring that that sounded a little bit odd, did a bit of research and basically found a version of this plan in a novel called The Eternal Call written by one Anatoly Ivanov.
00:15:54
Speaker
He wrote it in the 70s. It was eventually cleared by the Russian census and published in the early 1980s, I think. So at one point in this book, one of the books, Villains, and as you point out, it is a fairly villainous sounding speech, one of the books, Villains, who is a Trotskyite and a Nazi collaborator,
00:16:15
Speaker
details his plan to defeat Russia after World War Two. So yeah, that kind of explains why it sounds like a fictional villain describing their master plan because it came from a book in which the fictional villain describes it as their master plan. Now what I must point out here is I love the fact that the villain here
00:16:35
Speaker
as a Nazi collaborator and a Trotskyist, because of course that shows the anti-Trotsky sentiment that continued post-Stalin, which of course ties in quite nicely with one of my favourite Soviet examples, the Moscow show trials, where they made up evidence that there was a Trotskyist plot to topple Stalin. Indeed, and as you mentioned the Protocols of the Elders of Stalin, it's worth pointing out that the book itself also had
00:17:03
Speaker
apparently had quite the anti-Semitic undercurrent and supposedly Trotskyism and Judaism were sort of mashed together as this enemy force rallied against Russia. And the similarities, they kind of persist really. I mean you've got a fictional text which
00:17:23
Speaker
forms the basis for a conspiracy theory, and yet in both the cases of the protocols of the Elves of Zion and the Eternal Call, the fact that it's fictional hasn't really stopped the conspiracy theories in either case, has it? No, because as we've seen with the protocols, there's a class of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists who goes, yes, I accept the protocols are fake or a forgery.
00:17:51
Speaker
but they're spiritually true. So even though they don't describe an actual thing, they describe an intent by the Jewish people. So yes, they're fake, but they point to what Jewish people actually believe, which is the perfect fake you have here. Because I know they're fake, but are they? I mean, I know they're fake, but really,
00:18:16
Speaker
are they? And we get the same thing with the Dole's Doctrine here. We have a, well, we know that this particular speech comes from a fictional text and we know that there was no such thing as the Dole's Doctrine really, but it did happen, didn't it?
00:18:34
Speaker
And indeed some people took it a little bit further and suggested that Ivanov had contacts in the KGB or possibly some other mysterious sources who were giving him inside knowledge that the Americans really were planning this. So his work of fiction was actually his way of kind of getting it out there, of letting people know about this plan in a roundabout way.
00:18:57
Speaker
which of course is one of the theories people had about the Da Vinci Code. Oh yes, it's a fictionalised novel about the hidden Jesus bloodline.
00:19:05
Speaker
Dan Brown was basically getting a message out there which would be unpalatable if he wrote it as a work of fact. But we can get the message out by hiding it as a work of fiction. And in a lovely bit of sort of historical poetry things come full circle because it turns out that in 1921
00:19:27
Speaker
While at the US Embassy in Istanbul, one that we see here, Alan Dulles, was one of the people who worked on proving that the Protocols of the Elves of Zion was a forgery. How about that? It all comes full circle. He apparently tried to persuade the US State Department to publicly denounce the Protocols as a forgery, but was not successful in that.
00:19:51
Speaker
And actually there's an entire theory there as to why the US weren't willing to be vocal about that. Something that we should probably do when we do an episode on the protocols at some point, because we've actually never discussed the protocols properly. No, they've come up a bunch of times, but we never devoted a fully episode to them.
00:20:07
Speaker
And the reason why was that when I was at the Hotel de Bilderberg conference earlier this year, there was a talk by a German historian who's basically written an entire book on the writing of the protocols and the role of the protocols and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. And it turns out a lot of the things that we think we know about the protocols aren't actually true. So the whole, they were created at the behest of Russian agents to persuade the Tsar. Actually not true.
00:20:37
Speaker
and it kind of means I have to read this book and it's a very very long book and I want to read it but I've got other things going on in the background so once I've read that book you'll get an episode I just have to find time to read that book oh well it's something to look forward to
00:20:52
Speaker
But as you point out, the Dell's doctrine to undermine traditional Russian values and bring Russian society into decline may not be true, but Russia certainly has moved away from its quote-unquote traditional values. It's become more liberal, more Westernized, communism fell.
00:21:14
Speaker
which has led people to sort of say, in fact, apparently there's a popular meme in Russia which translates as the Dulles Plan. Does not exist. Still works.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yes, so get you into that really interesting thing where communism in Russia failed, and it failed for a variety of different reasons, both external and internal.
CIA, Art, and Cultural Influence
00:21:37
Speaker
But of course, if you are a firm communist or a firm autocrat who is concerned that Russia is losing its place in the world and losing its traditional values,
00:21:48
Speaker
And you end up going, well, I've heard about this doctrine that was designed to destroy Russia from the inside, and Russia has been destroyed. Well, something must have been going on. So it gives you evidence, the end point, that there must have been a cause, the conspiracy. And on top of that, I mean, it's not
00:22:11
Speaker
There are elements of it that we can point to. We've talked in the past about the fact that the CIA, what did they do? They sponsored abstract expressionist art. They sure did. They did love a little bit of the old Jackson Park. So what was the thinking behind that? The idea was to
00:22:29
Speaker
display to Europeans that America had a vibrant intellectual culture on the notion that Americans were looking back towards the old world and going, oh, they've got the art, they've got the culture. And so it was in the CIA's interest and they go, no, no, no, no, no, no. We need to actually bolster our own expertise and our own aesthetic appreciation, which also then allows us to send our people overseas
00:22:59
Speaker
and we can set up missions that way. So both allow them to go, we shall increase patriotism for Americans and also give us an excuse to go on junkets to talk to people overseas as well. So the projection of American cultural values overseas, even as an attempt to sway communism in some way, is not
00:23:24
Speaker
Out of the question. It's not out of the question at all. It's just that this particular version of the plan didn't occur. And so, yeah, I mean, it brings us back to one thing we have devoted fully to.
Cultural Marxism and Conspiracy Theories
00:23:39
Speaker
So two in the past was, of course, cultural Marxism, which is kind of the other way around. Although cultural Marxism, again, was less about external forces than forces from within the West trying to bring it down, wasn't it?
00:23:52
Speaker
Well, cultural Marxism, or to give it its old name, back in Germany, cultural Bolshevism, because of course it is a Nazi term referring to Bolsheviks and their cultural move to try and destroy Germany from the inside, is very much there are agents in your own country who are fighting against you. Of course, cultural Marxism now basically means any politically correct thing
00:24:21
Speaker
that I don't like. Yeah, it's turned into one of those. So I think, have we said all we can say about the Dolls' Plan? It's quite interesting to read about, really, and draw the parallels between other conspiracy theories going in the other direction. It's quite nice to talk about a conspiracy theory that's widely believed in Russia, and yet not many people know about it outside of, well, what was the Soviet Union.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yes, well, there we go. So it is, actually, until you forwarded the article upon which a lot of the episode was based, it never really occurred to me that other countries must have their own sorts of conspiracy theories. I mean, of course, we look at the Middle East and obviously there's lots of sort of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories that go around that sort of thing, but maybe that's something to look at in the future. What other countries have their own little conspiracy theories that
00:25:20
Speaker
We wouldn't have heard of here in the West. And the thing is, most countries will have their own little conspiracy. Most people don't know about the counter New Zealand thesis outside of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Depending on the country you're in and depending on what kind of history you have and who your enemies have been historically.
00:25:38
Speaker
you're going to have all sorts of theories that blame those people for the ills of your society today, or depending on whether you're a colonized or non-colonized country, you're going to have all sorts of theories claiming, actually, no, we were here first. We were here first. I mean, I know we weren't here when we arrived, but we were here before the other pink people arrived. They just ate us. They really, really ate us.
00:26:02
Speaker
Yes, and at the end of the day, everyone has enemies in one way or another, and everybody's going to assume their enemies are conspiring anyhow. I don't. You don't? No, not at all. I've got people who think they're my enemy, but they're really not. Well, that's all right then. I know. You have a deep and abiding love of all humanity. Oh no, I hate all humanity. I just don't have any enemies. Right, okay. None in particular.
00:26:24
Speaker
Well, there you go then. The doll's plan does not exist. Still works. Yep, still works. And now, the news. Breaking, breaking.
Dr. Ben Carson and the Fabian Society
00:26:35
Speaker
Conspiracy theories in the news.
00:26:40
Speaker
Our top story this week features Dr. Ben Carson, one-time U.S. Presidential hopeful and currently Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who's finally discovered the real puppeteers behind the Brett Kavanaugh sexual molestation charges. The Fabians.
00:26:55
Speaker
The Fabian Society was, and still is, a British socialist organisation. Founded in the late 19th century, their goal is to advance, via gradualist and reformist work, democratic socialism. They're quite against revolutionary overthrow, which means some leftists love them, and others hate them with a passion beyond belief.
00:27:15
Speaker
Dr Carson told an audience of conservative activists last Friday that the allegations against Justice Kavanaugh were part of a socialist plot which has been going on for a long time dating back to the Fabian Society.
00:27:28
Speaker
Now, the Fabians did have a US chapter, but it is no longer active. But that's no challenge to Dr Carlson, who went on to claim that the Fabians controlled the US media and education system, and thought they had control of the judiciary, until President Trump came along. Yes, blaming secret or not-so-secret societies for the political ills of one's own country or party is nothing new, and the Fabians have been linked to ills big and small throughout the 20th century.
00:27:56
Speaker
Fabians have been accused of furthering the rights of women, promoting open relationships, agitating for workers' rights and the like throughout the 20th century. For people of a particular political bent, the Fabians are the quintessential enemy, given they promote progressive rather than conservative values.
00:28:13
Speaker
And some aspects of Fabian history are awkward for modern-day leftists. The society is still active politically in the UK and as for other New Zealand, for example, because the Fabians were in favour of eugenics and forced sterilisation back in the early 1900s. However, Dr Carson's claim that there's a long-standing plot by the Fabians to destroy America and the American way of life looks less like a well-evident conspiracy theory and more like the usual let's blame Group X for these troubles.
Rod Rosenstein and the Mueller Investigation
00:28:42
Speaker
and the past politicians in the US have blamed Freemasons, Catholics, and all kinds of societies for all sorts of ills. Now it's the Fabians. Next week, Buffaloes. I guess the biggest question to hand is that if the Fabians really do control the media, why are they letting Mel Gibson start making films again? That's a very good question, and I suspect if we could answer that, there really wouldn't be any more questions left to answer.
00:29:10
Speaker
And now, the requisite bit of Trump news brought to you by our non-existent sponsor, who just wants there to be another election already. This week has been Trump heavy, what with Trump himself being laughed at at a United Nations General Assembly meeting he was cheering, and people questioning Trump's dismissal of the scientific estimates of how many people died in the natural disaster which befell Puerto Rico recently.
00:29:35
Speaker
of interest to us is the talk that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have with members of the Department of Justice conspired against Trump. The New York Times reported last week that anonymous sources claimed Rosenstein mentioned wearing a wire to record Trump and that he had discussions with White House staffers about invoking the 25th Amendment.
00:29:59
Speaker
The 25th Amendment is a mechanism by which, if the vice president and the majority of the cabinet determine the president is unable to discharge the powers and duties of their office, the vice president becomes president. Which means that if reports about Rosenstein's actions were true,
00:30:17
Speaker
This would have to include Vice President Mike Pence, which does make it sound like there exists a conspiracy by White House insiders to topple a sitting president. Of course, this has been denied by Rosenstein, Pence and other staffers. Now, you might say, but of course they're going to deny it. But some sources who spoke to other media outlets claimed that while Rosenstein did talk about wearing a wire, it was in the context of a joke, rather than a man trying to gather dirt on the president.
00:30:46
Speaker
However, the New York Times also claims to have access to internal memos which were made after the alleged conversations, which means that even with denials by Rosenstein, Vice President Mike Pence and other staffers, the story is not likely to go away. Which might be kind of the point. What better way to addle Trump than to say, we have evidence these things were said, which is likely to make a paranoid man even more paranoid.
00:31:15
Speaker
Add to this that Rosenstein is the person overseeing the Robert Mueller investigation into that pesky Russian collusion thing, and you have a recipe for political disaster. People are already making bets as to how long it is before Rosenstein resigns. Which brings up conspiracy theory 2. Is this a setup to either get Attorney General Jeff Sessions to take over supervising the Mueller investigation, or a new Deputy Attorney General who might be more amenable to Trump's wish to shut the investigation down?
Chinese Espionage Allegations
00:31:45
Speaker
Finally, some local news. Our own Security Intelligence Service have carried out a search for listening devices at the University of Canterbury office of Professor Anne-Marie Brady, whose home was broken into in February of this year. The suspected culprits are agents of Beijing. Brady has written extensively on China's influence in Australia, having written her PhD on the topic and also a book. Her work is focused on the rise of soft power,
00:32:11
Speaker
by China and Australasia, and according to her and other academics in the field, this work has not gone down well with the agents of the People's Republic of China. As such, the February break-in is now suspected to be a possible target of Chinese espionage, and this has been taken seriously not just by our own intelligence services, but also by agencies like Interpol. We've discussed China's interest in this region of the world before, in fact, and this is either more evidence of the paranoia of our fellow citizens, or
Conclusion and Social Media Banter
00:32:41
Speaker
Evidence of spying in our own backyards. Whatever the case, China is denying any responsibility, while the police and Brady are strongly suggesting the existence of a cover-up. More news as it comes to hand. Meanwhile, in our bonus content, we follow up even further on the continuing farce, which is the Brett Kavanaugh affair. More talk on the various bans being handed down on Alex Jones. And we ask the question of what caused school children in Carterton to get sick?
00:33:10
Speaker
Yes, indeed we do. But, now is not the time for special bonus content. Now is the time to wrap up this episode. And wrap it up we well worth it. With special magical words. Do you have special magical words? La di da di. Ah. How's that special and magical?
00:33:29
Speaker
It's saying goodbye in Romanian. Okay. I'm pretty sure that's how Dracula says goodbye when he leaves one of his lover's rooms having drained them of blood. He just leans out the window, goes, la di vedare! Took them to bat and flies away. It's a magical word, Joshua. I made it work. You sure did, actually. I won't I agree with that at all. In fact, all I will say is goodbye. La di vedare. Das vedanya.
00:33:55
Speaker
You've been listening to the podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy. It is written, researched, and performed by Josh Addison, aka monkeyfluids, and MRXtenteth, aka Conspiricism on Twitter. This podcast is available where all good podcasts can be found, as well as iTunes, Podbean, and Stitcher.
00:34:20
Speaker
It can also be watched on YouTube. Just search for the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy, or, if you happen to be technophobic, consult the auguries. You can support the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy via our Patreon page, as listed in the podcast description, or just by searching for us on Patreon.
00:34:43
Speaker
You can also support us via the Podbean patronage system, if that is more your style. You do you. If you want to get in contact with us, why not email us at podcastconspiracy at gmail.com, or find us on Facebook. And remember, they're coming to get you, Barbara.