Well There's Your Problem | Episode 99: Air Mail Scandal of 1934

sorry it's not PC part 2
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Sources:
www.historynet.com/airmails-f...
www.airforcemag.com/article/0...
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www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Fia...
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[@stripedgillette3580]

"Russia is gonna crush them, obviously." I have never been more glad for WTYP to be wrong.

[@quantumblur_3145]

Uh oh

[@stripedgillette3580]

@@quantumblur_3145 Uh oh?

[@murciadoxial8056]

@@quantumblur_3145 oh nooo, bakhmut's toilet block is about to be taken by wagner, the war is looooooost

[@firehawk5962]

Whomp whomp, Ukraine stands.🇺🇦

[@quantumblur_3145]

Just because you shun the war & stand with the civilians doesn't mean you're not allowed to acknowledge when things are probably doomed

[@thomaspalazzolo5902]

God I can just imagine the reaction the WTYP crew would have if a newscaster said, "Ukraine has seen volunteers with previous military experience from all over the world. Excuse me, sir, can you tell us your experience?" "Pennsylvania Secret Service. I've come here to be the danger they shake hands with."

[@memegicianOfficial]

Absolutely legendary

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

There anywhere I can buy a Penn. Secret Service vanity patch to put on my second-hand German flecktarn jacket so when the Russians find my corpse they'll have to inform some Russian intelligence guy about the Penn. Secret Service, so this meme can be filed away in some cabinet in the Kremlin?

[@kv4302]

Another helpful tip, if you say you worked for the Pennsylvania SS, they're even more likely to trust you!

[@Tankliker]

@@kv4302 Ah yes, "SS" on a german uniform won´t spread any suspicions

[@kv4302]

@@Tankliker Not in Ukraine it won't!

[@strredwolf]

Update on the Amtrak engineer trial: The jury found him not guilty.

[@NonsenseFabricator]

Thank you

[@FLIXXE]

Thank god

[@Debilitator47]

Relistening to this. Found your comment, and greatly appreciated it. Glad he was found not guilty. Mad that the whole system is still geared towards putting this responsibility on too few people. Horrified by the accident and sad/furious in the knowledge that it will happen again. It's not if, it's when.

[@chrisball3778]

I can't believe they talked about old-timey air mail without mentioning the 1870-71 siege of Paris. The city was surrounded and cut off by the Prussians, but there were a number of balloonists who had flown tourist trips trapped inside. The Parisians put them to work running a balloon school and balloon factory to provide balloons and balloonists to provide a line of communication with the outside world. Trouble was, it's completely impossible to steer a balloon, so every journey out was a one-way trip in a random direction, depending on where the wind was blowing, and the only way to get messages back IN to Paris was via newly-invented microfilms strapped to the legs of homing pigeons they took with them in the balloon. The crews had to make wild judgement calls as to when it was safe to touch down, and often had no idea whether they were in friendly territory or even Prussia. One crew left at night to avoid being shot at, and when the sun rose, looked down to see nothing but water underneath them. Luckily the wind eventually blew them over land and they ended up in Norway, where they became celebrities.

[@EvocativeKitsune]

I want this podcast to be as janky as possible, as close to breaking as can be without self-destructing. Never change your opens.

[@spamviking]

It makes it more real, like listening in on a conversation.

[@ragzaugustus]

I want this podcast to be true to it's nature: An engineering disaster.

[@DavidVallner]

WTYP Podcast: “you won’t believe we edit this”

[@seanomatopoeia]

The beginning of WTYP is the most avant garde performance art I regularly consume

[@ctmdwhub]

The bathroom breaks are another essential and, in my opinion, structural component of the show.

[@IcarusAscent]

“True Crime but for social murder” is a GREAT description of the podcast. I’m mad I didn’t think of it first.

[@zuthalsoraniz6764]

Guide to red and black flags: Diagonal stripe is good, horizontal stripe is bad

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

+1

[@flugelflugel4556]

Who's the artist for your pfp? Looks good

[@attben]

well said.

[@jbarbeau92]

Vertical stripe is unclaimed, or 2/3s Belgian

[@pixelatedvolume8051]

counterpoint: M-26-7 flag

[@TalkingSoup]

"benjamin franklin was said to be in attendance" should be on the wtyp bingo card

[@itsmannertime]

If theres something cool going down in North America or France around 1800, Ben was probably there. Whether he was wearing pants is the real question

[@buscemichael]

At an appropriate time and when you feel ready, we please need a thoughtful memorial to the Antonov AN-225 to help us grieve.

[@briar9997]

It will be truly missed

[@Myrea_Rend]

She is reunited with her best friend, Buran.

[@buscemichael]

@@Myrea_Rend It's snowing in soviet aircraft heaven, I believe

[@paddyfolan]

She’s carrying supplies in Plane Valhalla.

[@Skullair313]

Until that time, I will press F to comemorate the loss.

[@Name-ot3xw]

How one man can disable a tank: Step 1. Run for cover. Step 2. Call for anti-tank support.

[@carlost856]

The Javelins idea wasn't bad.

[@MrJimheeren]

Watch how it runs on your mine

[@politedog4959]

@@carlost856 All hail to Saint Javelin, protector of Ukrainian sovereignty, mightiest foe to Russian imperialism

[@Name-ot3xw]

@@carlost856 my problem with one guy taking out A tank with a javelin is that either that individual tank was very lost, or there are A whole bunch more tanks and infantry nearby that now know where you are thanks to the smoke signal the javelin leaves behind.

[@Name-ot3xw]

@@MrJimheeren mines sound like a great idea right up until your evacuees run over a bunch on the way out, great plan, A+ job smart guy.

[@gaelanmccann6686]

Since there's no Part 2 to Penn Central I am forced to conclude that any and all disasters were averted and Penn Central remains the premier passenger train and rail freight provider in the northeast USA to this day

[@ClaudiaNW]

Not only that, but they built a 350kph bullet train from NYC to Chicago

[@kermitthemutantlevitatingf7836]

@@ClaudiaNW and it was built in a straight line from the still standing Penn Station to Chicago Union Station.

[@emilyadams3228]

​@@kermitthemutantlevitatingf7836A literal straight line, on a causeway across the south end of Lake Michigan. Going around on land is for pvssies. It's the P Company, dammit, not that half-ass Chicago-New York Air Line.

[@cameronmilligan]

Hi Liam. As a Canadian I can confirm that milk in a bag is indeed one of the most fucked up things created by modern society. I do not respect milk in a bag.

[@cytosol9836]

I live a world apart from u in Argentina and we have milk in a bag, its just called a sachet and it's a bit cheaper...

[@stefanielaris2173]

Alice, by virtue of not having an insurmountable American accent, instantly has one of the best attempts at an Aussie accent I've ever heard from someone outside of Oz. Deeply amusing the hear the deciphering of the lingo in real time. Keep up the good work!

[@EmyrDerfel]

A lot of non-Bogans sound like exotic Brits. My stepdad (now 80+ yrs) has an old Kentish accent and spent many years chasing summer alternating between Scotland and NZ. For the first 5 years after I first met him, I thought he was Australian.

[@ZealothPL]

God I love us "justice system", where judges can apparently decide that valid arguments aren't allowed "cause reasons" Same with rittenhouse and that video... And a billion other cases

[@AbsolXGuardian]

The most hilarious and kind of fucked up one is when they take away an aurgement as punishment. A lot of times it can be justified, like "dude, you gave the court a run around when it came to discovery", but making the punishment being they can't use certain aurgements, not because the judge deemed them bullshit, but to give them a handicap really hurts the whole idea of establishing the truth.

[@sammosaurusrex]

That Rittenhouse trial was something else. The back and forth with the judge about whether or not the “pinch to zoom” function “used artificial intelligence to enhance the image” made me want to throw myself off a bridge. He actually pulled out his phone to show emails of screenshots of text messages that he’d emailed to himself with really horrible JPEG compression to say “see? sometimes the phone alters images” as though he had not kept up with technology since Kodachrome - I mean, this was such embarrassing tech illiteracy, worse than even “a series of tubes” which at least had a certain logic to it. And we have to accept that as justice because he has the fancy robe and title. Jesus CHRIST

[@steemlenn8797]

3 days ago I read an explanation (or was it video?) that not being the murderer is not a valid reason for an appeal. You also have to prove that the judgement would have changed if the new fact (like an alibi from the sheriff) was known at that time. Of course proving a possibility is strictly speaking not even possible.

[@sammosaurusrex]

@@steemlenn8797 It was the new John Oliver video

[@raggedy61]

"Our podcast does not describe you getting brutally murdered by, um, a person; but rather the system" "True Crime but for Social Murder" "Stay Sexy and Don't Get Social Murdered," are good taglines.

[@thomaspalazzolo5902]

Y'know Nostradamus wrote another, poorly recieved book which was just a list of dates, names, and the word, "Owned."

[@ROMBomb001]

1:43:55 Liam: "How much coffee have you had?" Justin: "I haven't had any coffee." Alice: "Well, there's your problem." I'm not even sure if that was intentional...

[@DavidVallner]

It’s Alice dropping a groaner, it’s either intentional or second nature by now

[@RichardMaw]

Well, this came out just as I finished HBomb's latest, looks like I'm watching KZbin all day today.

[@Sombomombo]

Three hours. Cheers to my Sunday baby.

[@ShiningRayde]

Goddamit SAME

[@ianfisher7397]

This is amazing I was just thinking I haven't seen an hbomberguy video in forever.

[@Runningfromtheredqueen]

I interrupted hbomberguy to come here. Because my brain wanted to listen to plane fall down.

[@varltim4663]

Glsd im not the only one

[@OrbitalRose_01]

I feel like Alice is never gonna come down from the high of Being Right about this

[@JulianSildenLanglo]

Of course not, she's not going to stop Being Right either.

[@itsa_possum]

Eh, she earned it

[@slimpickens32]

She has Seen the Elephant

[@nondescriptname]

Good.

[@MrNeverdieold]

I've got whiskey, a pack of smokes, and nothing of positivity in my mind. Let's hear about an avoidable disaster. Love you folks thank you for the mental exercise.

[@sparkpenguin]

i come home with two tallboys and a packa smokes and think the exact same thing when i see this jewel in my current recs. great minds.

[@maxwellkazemba2299]

Rock n roll baby

[@marinary1326]

Y'know, this podcast likes to promote organized labor and all, but I'm liking this new thing Liam and Alice are piloting of completely disorganized labor. Labor that refuses to be organized. Labor that will do a hostile takeover of the podcast if Roz isn't careful. Also, the state of North Carolina birthed me, so whether that's a point in its favor or completely outweighs having such badass place names as Cape Fear is up for debate.

[@IntervencionesGringas]

I caught the reference to the Hindenburg episode, but only because I have no life and have been going though the back catalog recently. I'm not surprised Liam didn't get it bc I'm sure he recorded the episode and then never listened to it again. In conclusion, the fans know more about the podcast than the presenters

[@helloofthebeach]

And it was ever thus

[@SolarFlareAmerica]

Bruh we all don't have lives. Don't feel bad. It's the normal now, for everyone except insta influencers.

[@adams3627]

That's true for EVERY podcast

[@jonasholm2408]

The Hindenburg episode melted their minds, remember that

[@musclecat1005]

1:01:34 it was actually a man in Milwaukee who painted "Welcome to Cleveland" on top of his house, so Alice is wrong and she is owned.

[@Max._Power]

the muffler fell off my car, I stabbed myself in the finger, it's fUCKING SNOWING AGAIN, but I cannot overstate how happy I was to see a new episode on what would have otherwise been a terrible start to a day off

[@porschelover04]

Bro. Weight reduction.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

The muffler fell off your car? The entire muffler? Not like... a heat shield or something?

[@Max._Power]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 yeah the whole thing, the only parts that remain are the catalytic converter at the front and the part with the baffles currently sitting in my passenger seat. An ice hump tore the rest of it off and bent the heat shield

[@johannageisel5390]

I wish it was snowing here! But Germany is turning into a savanna, so snow is only available to people in the higher areas and even there it becomes scarce.

[@nicholascallahan6460]

Alice, you aren't allowed to end Kill James Bond until you do The Tailor of Panama, the le Carre adaption where the villain is straight up James Bond.

[@sweetprimrose]

Didn't that also star Pierce Brosnan or am I having a stroke?

[@nathaniellindner313]

She also has to get through the entirety of the James Bond Jr. tv series as well, which apparently made it to 65 episodes, so she'll be busy for a while yet

[@ciceronincheese7195]

Joining the WTYP brigade in Ukraine We only fight by means of armored train out of sheer stubbornness

[@itsthesheppy_ttv]

Listening to this now, hearing the crew say Russia was going to crush them... pretty wild in hindsight.

[@MrJohndoakes]

When you have the US as a sugar daddy, anything is possible.

[@MrJohndoakes]

@@samlowe1066 Absolutely, and the Russians have still not thrown in the towel, so the losses on both sides are horrendous. Now it's a game of who breaks first.

[@thetree7403]

In regards to the POPE bit. Here's an idea for a bonus episode: invite literally any polish person, and have them explain to You the cult of john paul II in conservative polish culture

[@ClaudiaNW]

A flip side to the existing Protestantism bonus episode - the Polish Catholicism bonus episode

[@ThomasShatter]

YES! But with someone who really know all that history and can bring some specific events and memes.

[@lukewest7216]

Alice it's possible your beer wasn't properly pasteurized and it started fermenting again in the bottle. We had a case of pale ales at work that decided to come alive in our cooler and had to get pitched so customers didn't have their drinks explode all over them

[@vaska00762]

I've homebrewed cider, and I use a sparkling wine yeast - it's advised to keep the yeast alive for bottling, because the yeast will also carbonate the cider, or wine. Well... open up a bottle that's been sitting for 3 weeks, and it'll basically empty itself all over you in a matter of seconds. It's gotten to the point that all bottle openings will be done over a bowl so that the escaping cider will be captured. I wouldn't know where to begin with attempting to pasteurise homebrew...

[@slome815]

It's common for beers that referment in the bottle (I have no idea that's the right translation, in dutch it's "hergist op de fles" literally "reyeasted in the bottle"). They are often left for a couple of months here in belgium before they are opened, since this affects the taste, and often you have to be very carefull with opening them or they will expand right out of the bottle. It's normal for many stronger beers here.

[@callmeprettybaby]

Holy crap, I am convinced the Universe is telling me to court Roz, because when Liam brought up the jean jacket bit, I swear I have been thinking about mailing them thirst trap denim jacket pics, specifically for Roz’s eyes only. I planned on making it a proposal for fun and chili. Because his chili sounds delicious and I look great in just a denim jacket. So hearing Liam say “hit up Roz for all your thirst traps,” well…

[@ClaudiaNW]

I will forever wonder whether this comment resulted in Rocz getting laid. I doubt we will ever know, as a gentleman never tells.

[@ClaudiaNW]

But I do want a "Rocz cooks" spin off series. People love KZbin cooking channels. And maybe reaction videos to Jamie Oliver cooking disasters

[@callmeprettybaby]

@@ClaudiaNW Psh making me look bad by using the correct Rocz. I just decided to go with everyone else’s “Roz” hahahaha. Ummmmmmm well also I’m not a gentleman, so I can tell you, no, not yet (; but if he wants, that’s definitely an open channel! 😇

[@atn_holdings]

in honor of women's day I would like to say: too many people care about the time mail was first delivered by air, but not enough people care about the time femail was first delivered by air

[@ClaudiaNW]

Much like how they did an episode on the Le Mans disaster, but not the Le Womans disaster

[@johannageisel5390]

I wouldn't be surprised if that news reel race between the train and the plane had inspired Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal" plot.

[@ClaudiaNW]

Great book

[@StonerWaifu]

"Kids throwing rocks at trains" Mac and Charlie at it again! "Merry Christmas, bro!"

[@yrobtsvt]

I wanted to share a few details about the blonde-loving Executive Jet Aviation CEO General O.F. Lassiter, who was the highlight of the Penn Central podcast. I’m convinced this is a $50,000 movie script along the lines of Wolf of Wall Street, but I am not a screenwriter so I don’t know how you’d believably script such an insane story. This is easy money for any skilled writers reading this youtube comment. - Lassiter was a 1950s Air Force test pilot. The exact era of The Right Stuff. If you Google his name, his Air Force official bio comes up... which mysteriously ends in 1963. - In 1964 he told a friend, “We have a potential for making a lot of money. But whether we do or not we’ll have a lot of fun.” - Already by 1967 it was known Penn Central executives were giving EJA millions with no control over how it was spent, but none of the accountants could get them to stop, because of the hierarchical, uniform-wearing TRAINZ culture of Penn Central as described in the previous episode - In 1968 Penn Central board begrudgingly started bothering Lassiter to give them their money back. He gets nervous and starts casting about for ideas - In summer 1969 he gets in contact with Arab sheikhs in the Trucial States (the future UAE) and invites them to California. The plan is that they will be feted by Gov. Ronald Reagan and he will sell them on an air force pilot university, so that they can train their pilots for when they become independent of the UK. EJA writes a massive check to Lassiter’s personal account to fund this scheme. This money vanishes, of course. - In October 1969, the Trucial States independence talks break down, and Lassiter is left out to dry - Lassiter is desperate and pitches EJA a new scheme: he will build them a new kind of corporate jet. A SUPERSONIC CORPORATE JET. Yes, he will create a supersonic aircraft manufacturing company from scratch. Someone has posted the official mockup art Lassiter used online and it is insane. It looks like one of the Air Force prototypes. An actual aircraft company is incorporated in California and appears to have mostly spent money on procuring busty blondes for Lassiter. Zero engineers are hired. He is reimbursed for camera equipment which his “company” lost in an “accident” - When this scheme naturally goes bust and the board REALLY needs its money, somehow Lassiter makes underworld contacts and finds an unknown man who offers Penn Central to buy out EJA for $330k in cash and $30million in mysterious corporate paper from shadowy paper corporations based in Liechtenstein and the Caribbean. The guy, who has very little paper trail online (no news articles about him), claimed to represent no one but himself and had been convicted of corporate fraud multiple times. The Penn Central board AGREES to this. - Sounder minds intervene, which leads to the Sundlun Pinkerton raid of EJA in July 1970, followed by Lassiter’s attempted armed takeover, as described on the podcast. The armed takeover is apparently only described in Delaware court documents which are not online. I have half a mind to beg someone to get them from PACER, but again, not a screenwriter. - Lassiter was arrested, paid $50k bail, and died in Rome of natural causes while awaiting trial. - As described in Part 1, after Lassiter’s out of control mismanagement and fraud schemes were resolved, EJA was actually a very profitable business model. It returned to net profit by the end of 1970 and still exists today - As described in Part 1, although this was the most insane part of the fall of Penn Central and lost the company $30mil or so, it was not even the main cause of bankruptcy. The main cause was broken corporate culture where the executives sold their only profitable lines, and acted like profits were irrelevant and it was too big to fail. In my mind this is a very film-worthy aspect of the story, because it makes the extreme irresponsible spending at EJA seem harmless in the big picture. Similar to films like American Made

[@jkholtgreve]

That last point made me think of Enron when I first watched the episode. Enron sold their pipelines for a song to Rich Kinder on his way out, and now Kinder-Morgan is the largest LNG pipeline company in the US. I guess Enron was sort of a hybrid of everything bad about Penn Central and everything bad about New York Central.

[@turbo1431]

Goddamn. Do you have a link to the insane supersonic concept art?

[@yrobtsvt]

@@turbo1431 google "Lassiter supersonic" and the photo is in the first result, hopefully. Just remember this is supposed to be a corporate jet. For flying from NYC to LA at 700mph. Lol

[@MrJimheeren]

With everything going on in the world I kinda needed this. Just a simple government scandal. Not to many people died and it’s about airmail. Thanks guys

[@whoever6458]

People are still stall-spinning small planes into the ground to this day. It's so counterintuitive to push the nose of the plane forward when you stall and start falling from the sky but that, and increasing power on the engine(s), is the only thing you can do to avoid a complete stall and subsequent spin directly into the ground. That's why it still happen obscenely often.

[@fuckduncan3754]

I'm a mechanic and not a pilot but the impression that I've gotten from various accident reports is that stall crashes are generally as a result of the pilot not reacting in time (shocked, reacts too late) or just general overconfidence putting themselves into a bad position that gets them killed. From the people I know who've done flight training they drill stalls pretty hard

[@prismaticowl]

Instead of a true crime podcast, I think you should do a paranormal one purely so there can be a segment about whether or not everyone thinks Liam could beat up whatever _thing_ they're talking about that week and whether or not liquor would need to be involved.

[@zOrO56641]

As a member of Ukrainian Armed Forces, I will wear your patch with honor!

[@zOrO56641]

It will be like: Well, there is your problem, Russia.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

glider pilot here! landing in some unexpected field (without damaging the aircraft) is not the same thing as a crash landing

[@dominichinde8405]

As much I love and enjoy WTYP the comments about Russia crushing Ukraine have aged like milk.

[@TheCommunistColin]

It was a reasonable expectation, though thankfully an incorrect one. Ukraine has fought heroically and Russia has an on-paper cakewalk into a catastrophic blunder.

[@captainseyepatch3879]

@@TheCommunistColin I will be yelling at people until the day I die about how my PhD Thesis was based on how Russia was going to trip dick first into a war with Ukraine and fail. Like a year before it happened....

[@richtofenrules91]

As a resident of North Carolina I want to thank you for shouting out this awful/ lovely place.

[@matthamm384]

Now I'm happy to come from NC.

[@drewdederer8965]

1. Most of the reason the "sensible" people don't argue Wright Primacy is the 1908 demonstrations. By this point several people have "flown" as in hopped into the air and returned to earth none-too-violently, one had even made a 360 by standing on the rudder and not losing ALL his altitude before he got around. Wilbur showed up at LeMans, Orville demonstrates for the US Army back in the states. Wilbur takes a couple weeks putting his plane back together (the custom official had gotten a bit too enthusiastic with examining it), he didn't have an assistant until he trained one and wouldn't work on Sunday (Bishop's kid). When he finally flew, he took off, flew a bit, made a 180 banked turn. flew back, made another 180 and landed just about where he started. If the mic had been invented then, he would have dropped it. DuMont himself said "It is as if we don't even exist!" Who flew first isn't in too much doubt, who first flew UNDER CONTROL has NONE. 2. One side effect of the first airmail contracts that was of big benefit down the road. No group receiving subsidies for air mail was allowed to enforce patents on improvements. This is why the Boeing 247 and especially the DC series (DC-1 was a prototype, DC-2 was the first successful, DC-3 was widened enough for 3-wide seating) were built with ALL improvements then available. Which meant the US was dominating civil air travel before WW2. 3. Lindbergh had been one of the early air mail pilots (back when the death rate was positively scary) in the early 1920s. He at least had some idea what the Army was having its pilots do.

[@briar9997]

Notoriously good geopolitical views from this podcast always

[@Myrea_Rend]

Honestly I was worried and I shouldn't have been

[@Tzilandi]

Well, from Alice and Justin; Liam is an anarchist which, according to Alice, isn’t real politics.

[@Oscar_Lasco]

I wouldn't trust Justin concerning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He shared the infamous John Mearsheimer's video "Why is Ukraine the West's fault?" This professor strips Eastern European countries and their populations of agency. He lies by pretending Russia didn’t invade Crimea because they already had soldiers in a naval base (US take notes in case you want to invade Cuba). Like Putin, he frames the protesters as fascists manipulated by the West, paints the Revolution of dignity as a coup and basically justify Russian imperialism. Never recognize the enormous irregularities of the phony referendum justifying Crimea’s annexation. No word on Budapest memorandum guarantying Ukraine’s territorial integrity (nothing about Ukraine not joining NATO/EU). And last but not least he takes the word of Putin, a murderous and corrupt politician, for granted. When Putin says he will only attack to defend Russia's security, Mearsheimer believes him. Never considers the possibility that his true motive is imposing the Russian system to the former soviet republics to prevent them from emancipating (or worst, discrediting him by thriving without his "help"). This is a guy "westplainning" Eastern Europe to Eastern Europeans. Also, in order to appease Putin, NATO always rejected Ukraine's adhesion despite its plea. But the reason Putin attacked wasn't because he thought Ukraine was too strong. He attacked because he thought it was weak.

[@RaeIsGaee]

@@Oscar_Lasco NATO/EU Expansion is absolutely one of the main reasons for the tensions between Ukraine and Russia and has been for decades. Also that West Ukraine has a big Nazi problem which has infected the National Guard, much like it has in Russia. Doesn't justify Russia murdering Ukrainian citizens or invading a sovereign country to push their own imperialist agenda, but to act like this isn't in large part a slug fest between two different post-USSR imperialist powers is lying.

[@EmyrDerfel]

​@@Tzilandi anarchism is a philosophy detached from reality. You can't seriously be a pragmatic anarchist.

[@CaelanAegana]

Still in love with Rocz's awkward Patreon commercial. I'm also seriously impressed that Pasco, WA was on the map in 1934, it was a small farming town back then (there wasn't even military housing in the area until the 40s). In fact Google can't find any census data from Pasco before 1990. But I guess it was still the best way to get to Spokane since there were train lines.

[@GaldirEonai]

11:48 That's pretty much what happened, apparently. The Ass-off contingent were positioned to absorb the brunt of the initial attack wave and have pretty much ceased to exist as an organized force. Same for Kadyrov's contribution. Turns out both sides rather liked the idea of having their near-uncontrollable militia allies play the role of disposable meatshield...

[@politedog4959]

Hopefully. I fully stand with the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight for freedom and against Putins imperialism. As for the Asov battalion, i expect nothing less than for them to charge heroically into Russian machine gun fire and sacrifice their lives for their fatherland like the good patriots they proclaim to be

[@slimpickens32]

@@politedog4959 This is the way.

[@RaeIsGaee]

@@politedog4959 Considering the National Guard said they stand completely with Azov and tried to say that they weren't Neo-Nazis, I don't think that'll be a reality.

[@jamiekamihachi3135]

When Justin joked about long distance calls I remember in the 90s my mom warning me about calling my friends the next county over who went to the same school as me because they had a different area code and my parents would get billed for long distance.

[@TheLaureness]

It's still true for my hometown. I was just at my mom's in 2021 and got the house phone snatched out of my hand when I started to call my grandmother's house (10 minutes down the road) because it's a different prefix, not even area code.

[@spyone4828]

We had lots of places that were toll calls within the same area code. I had a friend who had a friend who lived just far enough away that it was a toll call, but only one way. So they had a code: if the phone rang twice, then stopped, then rang twice and then stopped, call the guy you can call for free who can't call you for free. One time I was trying to call an auto parts store from work, and found that it would be a toll call. I called home and had my brother make a three-way call since he could call us both for free, then put us on hold so we could talk and he could walk away. And when we both hung up, the phone on hold would automatically hand up. Landlines used to be really stupid.

[@konochiyoda4028]

There’s docent at the Sacramento Railroad Museum that used to work for USPS back at the tail end of railroad postal routes. His explanation was that the introduction of the zip code system sounded the death knell of rail mail, as it made sorting the mail much easier and eliminated the advantage that sorting en route gave the railroad.

[@HamSaladtv]

This was a great episode. My dad only retired last year from the USPS. He was a union leader in the 80s and 90s in the APWU and constantly complained about the neoliberal and deliberate mismanagement of the USPS. One thing he hated was that the USPS in his mind had previously been given the possibility of running their own air mail again in house, but went against it. Much of the issues with the modern USPS stem from Nixon moving the organization out of the cabinent, and into a corporate organization. Also, I loved the Wild Bill Donovan joke. My great uncle served under him in the 69th in WW1. In the OSS, Donovan recruited a number of American communists to serve in key positions, including Spanish Civil War vets like Milton Wolf, because they were stalwart anti fascists who were highly motivated.

[@ClaudiaNW]

I do find it interesting that both the USPS and the UK's General Post Office used to be cabinet-level departments! Ours was at one point headed by Tony Benn.

[@HamSaladtv]

@@ClaudiaNW In the US it was largely run by a political appointee, usually the election manager. Up until the 2nd half of the 20th century, it was considered a pretty respected job. As the degradation of public institutions happened though the Post Office has become a joke, and company culture has caused people to hate their jobs.

[@nekowolf583]

I was driving south through New Jersey to Williamsburg, VA when I decided that I would take the Garden State parkway instead of the NJ Turnpike, not realizing that it did not, as I thought, end in Delaware. When I hit the Jersey Shore, I. had to buy a map to figure out where I went wrong.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

We'll extend it down there as soon as we annex Delaware. With the world distracted by Ukraine, it'll be real soon. Then it's on to Staten Island.

[@MrJimheeren]

@@fuzzydunlop7928 are you sure you want all the NYC cops and firefighters in your new annexed area. They always seem kinda sturdy

[@captainseyepatch3879]

I will be yelling at people until the day I die about how my PhD Thesis was based on how Russia was going to trip dick first into a war with Ukraine and fail. Like a year before it happened....

[@toddschriver9924]

As an Ohioan, it's not that we want to leave, it's that we don't want you to come here and make housing prices go up. So, we give the impression that we hate it and want to leave.

[@eilidhmm]

Talking of the Royal Mail trains Alice mentioned, because they cross the border between England and Scotland, most of them have the English Royal Mail insignia (the royal cipher EIIR with the St Edward's Crown on top) but 3 out of 16 have the Scottish insignia (the Crown of Scotland with no cipher). This is all a lasting effect of the Pillar Box War in the 1950s, where Scottish nationalists who objected to the Queen being called Elizabeth II bombed newly installed postboxes with the royal cipher, since Scotland had not previously had a Queen Elizabeth. All Royal Mail postboxes and vehicles etc in Scotland have the version with no cipher to appease Scottish people. And they say we're not petty.

[@johnhmstr]

Between George Washington's bath water & "Hoover has never swept into the rescue for anything in his life" Alice cracks my ass up. great episode

[@joewilson3575]

A chippy is indeed slang for a carpenter in both Britain and apparently Aus and probs Canada and the US and NZ too, it is so far as I know not slang for a joiner which is completely different from a carpenter. Carpentry is structural, Joinery is furniture.

[@Randomstuffs261]

Given what's happening, you guys should do a video called *"Well there's your problem : Europe"*

[@_oe_o_e_]

Ground work for an 11 hr episode

[@Randomstuffs261]

@@_oe_o_e_ Good, they need to work for that Patreon money $$$

[@robmoney]

@@_oe_o_e_ the Three Trilogies of WTYP, Penn Central, 9/11, and Europe.

[@RaeIsGaee]

It's just an entire history of Neo-Nazi movements in Eastern Europe.

[@robin8404]

On the subject of the "flimsy" fuel can, II'm fairly sure I remember my grandad saying those were single-use as well - I'm not sure if the cap was just not designed to go back on, or if they were just made from such thin metal that they ended up inadvertently getting deformed to the point where they wouldn't seal, but british troops certainly dropped the empties everywhere in North Africa...

[@davidwright7193]

The flimsies weren’t supposed to be single use but we’re supposed to be cheep. They just turned out to be so cheep that they tended to become unusable after an average of ~0.5 uses. In the end they sent a captured German fuel can back home from Egypt and said we want 200,000 of these please.

[@drakinkoren]

Introducing... Well There's Your Perpetrator, "the True Crime Podcast that is in itself, a crime."

[@H313NA]

this episode has cemented what I always knew in my heart: just as man was never meant to delve beneath the earth and enter the caves, man was never meant to go Up

[@starfinney6308]

Alice casually dropping the word philatelist, it makes me happy

[@OneHandDan]

Had to look that one up!

[@ClaudiaNW]

Philately, a word that Tom Lehrer managed to rhyme with "Lady Chatterley"

[@EmyrDerfel]

​@@ClaudiaNWI love Tom Lehrer's word-interrupting rhymes: from "We Will All Go Together When We Go": When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner or Later those you love will do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, Not to mention other adjec- Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.

[@ciceronincheese7195]

42:25 Well, dear Alice, that would be because the *Jerry can* was invented by the *Jerries* in WWII. That is literally where we get the name from. The more you know.

[@ClaudiaNW]

@barnabyjoy And shitting was invented by Hildebrand Graf von und zu Schitting. (The spelling was changed in 1917 for patriotic reasons)

[@LorenOnTheMoon]

My one and only modeling gig as a child was for when Newfoundland switched to bagged milk back in the very early 90s. The province has long since returned to cartons, but I still feel nostalgic for the bags.

[@Anaxiamander]

I have vague memories of a blue bag jug in my aunt's fridge growing up, so I feel the nostalgia. There was a weird sense of returning to the past that hit me the year I lived in Ontario because of it. Always happy to see more Newfoundlanders listening to WTYP.

[@LorenOnTheMoon]

@@Anaxiamander we gotta tune in, otherwise all their NL references will go unappreciated.

[@marcypagel7577]

Giggling at y’all not understanding true crime podcasts, when your podcast and true crime podcasts are the only things I listen to 😂

[@miabobeea2644]

54:15 I never thought I'd hear my favorite podcasters make fun of my mom's hometown! honestly I'm happy it was noticed at all; the town is a few square miles of suburbs surrounding literally two blocks of actual town, though it has a pretty courthouse in the middle

[@kosmokat111]

damn nearly a year later and russia has basically had 12 months of nightmares, couldn't be happier to see them lose but man this war got bloody and fucking horrific

[@Aderon]

I appreciate the interim ad break happening at a point where Liam, Justin, and Alice all agree that they need a break for a minute. Great work all around. Yay Liam.

[@capsjukebox]

Flag identification is important so you know which one to shoot at when you’re done shooting at the first one

[@JulianSildenLanglo]

Unironically yes!

[@vectrobe]

as an australian, there's always something instantly hilarious about australian impressions

[@ClaudiaNW]

*bad fake Australian accent* Strewth, mate. I'd love to have a beer with Duncan

[@fuckduncan3754]

Seeing history happen in real time is pretty cool -- hearing takes from 3 months ago about Ukraine is fun These older aircraft usually use rigid fuel tanks instead of bladder tanks iirc. Hand built aircraft aren't a bad thing and most modern aircraft are assembled in parts by workers. There's no robotic assembly line churning these things out either Btw EAA has a ton of resources on building your own plane these days plus there are tons of kits to get if that's your thing

[@sicsemperevellolux7409]

You should do an entire 2 hour episode of the podcast subscription advertisement, that was the best and left me craving more advertisements.

[@carlost856]

I didn't think my admiration for Liam's dad could grow any more.

[@kevinrussell3501]

Episode 100 should be about a place I drove through the other day (and live way too close to), Picher, Oklahoma. It's living proof of why corporations need regulations and why you can't have mining without them. So many collapsed roofs since the last time I drove US 69 through there a few months ago. It's almost like it's a different world. Anyways, good episode

[@EllieODaire]

Before I started this episode I was just walking around my apartment saying "yay Liam" over and over again

[@eilidhmm]

yay ellie!

[@TheLaureness]

@@eilidhmm yay, eilidh!

[@PFMediaServices]

@@TheLaureness Yay Lauren!

[@bossbeartherock6034]

Everytime you bring up huey long I grow a little bit happier ...

[@Myrea_Rend]

Forgive me, WTYP, for I have sinned. I don't know why I was worried about which side you'd come down on in the war in Ukraine. I should have more faith in your ability to generate good takes.

[@slimpickens32]

@@elsiehupp Yes but Russia used to be the USSR so by the transitive property of "Navalny is a Fascist" and "Ukrainians are Fascists," only based de-Nazifying Putin remained in the equation. I'm glad they cleaned up the math in this episode, though.

[@slimpickens32]

@@elsiehupp It's mainly the Russian Communists, like Vestnik Buri, who correctly blame the USSR's fall on Gorbachev, adventurists like Yeltsin, and the overall rush to hollow out the core of USSR industry and economy in the late 80s and early 90s. In the eyes of many on the Western side, Russia/Putin is still somehow a viable alternative, or even opponent to, neo-liberalism. I heard these arguments in 2014 and we can still hear their echoes in the insistence on putting "NATO expansion" front and center in 2022. Putin basically said "Ukraine is a not a real country," his media accidentally published a laudatory article about "a new world being born" and "solving the Ukrainian question," but yeah if you don't count the 80s and 90s, it may indeed look like non-stop Soviet bangers from Lenin to Putin. He's also adopted the imperial symbology of the USSR, minus its institutions and ideology. This is how a country that "defeated fascism" has now come full circle to doing a fascism.

[@slimpickens32]

@@elsiehupp Right, the Russian Communist position is basically this: the decline of the USSR, in the form of "zastoy" or "stoppage/stagnation" was already in play before the 1980s, but the leadership, especially Gorbachev, accelerated it. Vestnik Buri points to currents within the government starting in the late 60s as a sign of decay, as well as Soviet leaders' apparent wish to have a more notably "Western" luxury lifestyle. Once the economy started to head toward market reforms and the openly anti-communist drift in the late 80s, all these processes culminated in the events we know and love today.

[@ClaudiaNW]

@@slimpickens32 I guess they've kept the bad aspects of the USSR (authoritarianism, militarism, homophobia, etc) while dumping the good parts (public or cooperative ownership of most of the economy, universal healthcare and education, cheap public housing, etc).

[@slimpickens32]

@@ClaudiaNW Nailed it.

[@benjaminchung991]

Great Value Predator is the best description of the TB-2 I've ever heard. Thank you.

[@emilymcelroy3124]

At the risk of establishing a parasocial relationship, thank you for being here. This is a comforting thing in a hard time.

[@napalmholocaust9093]

An early compass that has an internal reference is very heavy. The ones for naval ships weighed hundreds of pounds, a quarter of that was a steel saucer below the dial. Still kinda mysterious even though I've seen cutaways.

[@latentdiscourse4357]

Do you have any examples?

[@napalmholocaust9093]

Drachenifel (sp?) discussed it and showed examples on a drydock episode. I've seen to many to know which one it was.

[@psychic_beth]

Alice's impression of an Australian accent is surprisingly good

[@ShrubRustle]

"Russia's gonna crush them, obviously" AND YET

[@rogerledgister7913]

Rocz is not the ghost of a pilot, he's the ghost of a SEPTA bus, not a bus driver, just a bus.

[@ClaudiaNW]

In 2200 we will be on Episode 1,000,000, and Rocz will be campaigning against SEPTA's plan to replace buses with personal teleportation devices

[@antivanti]

Dear, sir, I write to you to tell you of my plight And at the time of writing I am not a pretty sight My body is all black and blue, my face a deathly grey. And I write this note to tell you why your old mate is not at work today. While installing some trusses across them I did walk But they were not secured so the truss and frame detailer at me gawked. It tipped down on it's side and broke in half and to the ground I fell...

[@SharpsKC]

The OSS shot FDR with the first prototype of the heart attack gun, the plans having been found in Tesla's apartment. The prototype took up three rooms, weighed 25 tons, and was so loud the only way to drown out the noise was to hire banner towing planes to circle the building where FDR was staying.

[@Cynon]

As an autistic person, self-diagnosis isn't a bad thing nor is it anything to be ashamed of, if you think you're on the spectrum somehow. Much love. Yay Alice. Yay Liam. Also I didn't think the jokes were ableist, but the concern is appreciated.

[@1121494]

The problem with self-diagnosis is that the symptoms can also come resulting from different cognitive and neurological issues than those of autism. Those then actually do warrant dealing with them in different ways than with autism. Even if you don't feel like needing or benefitting from any official disability recognition you can still benefit from having a professional diagnosis that should not be an issue in any decent country with universal healthcare.

[@spambot7110]

​@@1121494 formal diagnoses can have some benefits, but even aside from healthcare funding, there's a lot of reasons why they can be difficult to impossible to access; even among psychiatrists who should know better, false understandings and stereotypes abound, and if your autism doesn't fit the most stereotypical presentations it can be very difficult to have it formally recognized (a very basic example is the difficulty women tend to have with getting autism diagnoses compared to men). not to mention, if you're diagnosed as a minor (or as an adult and deemed not able to make decisions for yourself) you can be subjected to truly horrific stuff like ABA "treatment". so, i'm all for expanding access to formal diagnosis (and dismantling the threats it can entail), i'm thankful i got my formal diagnosis as it's probably helped with some disability stuff. On the other hand, while it definitely can unlock some useful resources in some contexts, i think someone who self diagnoses as autistic is far better off than someone going undiagnosed. especially considering, a lot of the ways people arrive (and stay) at self diagnoses are by learning skills and techniques for navigating the world and understanding their experiences from other autistic people and finding it helpful. so if the main concern is utility, the utility is often kinda built in to the self-diagnosis itself. i can't speak for everyone's experience, but self diagnosis is often a much more communal process than one may assume (as a fun anecote, i've noticed a surprisingly strong correlation between being autistic and getting along well with me)

[@Cynon]

@@spambot7110 I like you already.

[@kagitsune]

This is the best summary of the multi-layered ethics of the Ukrainian resistance I have heard so far. No repeating the Russian line or the NATO hero worship, just looking at the facts on the ground and going "... Yep."

[@CatFish107]

Bout a half hour in, and Justin drops "I'm an idiot." all casual. Got a giggle outta me.

[@CatFish107]

Wait, we just got the year figured out, followed by Justin saying the full date, and after that nothing happened for a while? I thought the full date was meant to be a big red flag? No DOOM?

[@geoffreyentwistle8176]

I'm disappointed that the stamp with Boyle's plane being upside down is a misprint; it feels like the most accurate display of the first air mail attempts. XD

[@tarasaurus98]

This podcast (and the world in general) needs more anti-air travel propaganda

[@EvocativeKitsune]

Propaganda about travel that downs aircraft?

[@Skullair313]

No, it's about traveling with an anti-aircraft gun

[@nunyabidnis3815]

_This show belongs in a museum_

[@engineer_cat]

Regarding safety third: I'm gonna bet that 90 by 45 is the metric name for 4 by 2

[@patrickmeyer2802]

Bingo

[@LotharTheFellhanded]

Kill Devil Hills is awesome. Vacation down there all the time. And the Aviation Museum at Kittyhawk!

[@_-KR-_]

2:07:02 hey thats me! I weigh 130lb soaking wet, am of average every so slightly below average height, and am a faerie with wings *and* boots. It is always the hardest time convincing people I really am a career manufacturing worker, if I werent so modest I would wear a halter top to display my washboard, but that is neither here nor there. Im small-ish and a veritable faerie, but im also tough as nails and considerably strong... When I was 8 years old I was climbing up onto rooves to help my dad do tear off, chalking, felt layering, cutting jurry-rig peak caps, and of course sliding shingles down for him to put in place and stamp with the nail gun, I eventually began doing hot roll work and driving the nails for shingles all before entering high school.

[@DrDarkEnergyInfinito]

"Russia is gonna crush them" Oh boy.

[@captainseyepatch3879]

I will be yelling at people until the day I die about how my PhD Thesis was based on how Russia was going to trip dick first into a war with Ukraine and fail. Like a year before it happened....

[@Airedale260]

FYI, what was Bustleton Field is now Red Lion Plaza plus nearby housing (corner of the Boulevard and Red Lion); there’s also a historical marker commemorating the air mail service at the corner of Red Lion & Haldeman

[@whoever6458]

They must not have strained the yeast out of that beer and it's probably natural carbonation instead of passing CO2 gas through it to carbonate it. In my opinion, that makes for a better beer but it will foam a lot. I used to brew beer that way.

[@kenjisakaie6028]

Alice, it's the opposite side of the state, but the First Soviet Watch Factory (makers of the strela and 24-hour akula) was originally in Akron, until it relocated

[@andrewshanks7053]

I was intrigued to learn that this wasn't made up for the transport fever level. Not even the bit about subsidies making it profitable for air mail companies to mail themselves junk.

[@schnoodle3]

polystyrene dissolved in gasoline is not poor mans napalm, it is in fact napalm

[@ShiningRayde]

I saw the video of the community soup kitchen and molotov production line and now I have a new dream job in the revolution.

[@louisvictor3473]

I am not Australian, but the MGP10's key take away is that it is _pine;_ which is a "soft" wood (low density, in the relevant biology sub-field it soft wood means something else entirely). It is cheap and not very strong in natura (e.g. not in plywood, not reinforced with something like steel from a certain direction), but it is used in construction because bloody engineers engineer its use in ways that respect its material properties and strength. And that is exactly why you don't ignore the safety instructions, it is telling you "it works this way, and this way only" - construction site, not the place to test new novel ways, or just experiment and learn why the good ways are the good ways.

[@northsidestar120]

Does this mean we will get a rerun of the Pennsylvania Secret Service cards but with the NATO seal of approval?