Michael Jackson defied the Rio de Janeiro governor and police to shoot his music video in the Dona Marta favela in 1996 — the only reason he could do it safely was that drug lord Marcino VP personally guaranteed his protection. No money changed hands, just an agreement.
Where this was said
At 1:11:50 · chapter starts 1:10:00
A looping tangent about Michael Jackson's vitiligo leads Theo to pull up an account of Jackson's 1996 'They Don't Care About Us' video shoot in Rio de Janeiro's Dona Marta favela. The story is extraordinary: the governor opposed it, police refused to enter the area, yet Jackson proceeded — protected by the personal guarantee of Marcino VP, one of the city's most powerful drug lords, who asked for nothing in return. Theo and Matt both find the story genuinely moving — a superstar choosing to be with marginalised people despite institutional opposition, asking a drug lord for permission instead of the government.
Matt Rife and business partner Elton Castay purchased Ed and Lorraine Warren's Connecticut house after being first offered it by the family. The property holds roughly 700 paranormal artifacts, original case recordings, and the Annabelle doll — and Rife is terrified enough that he is almost never there.
In 1996, Michael Jackson shot his 'They Don't Care About Us' video in Rio de Janeiro's Dona Marta favela with approval from a drug trafficker, against government wishes.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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