Episode 161: Detective Herzog And The Millionaire Kitty Cartel

It was barely half past two when Trace stepped into my office, casefiles in hand. The first one gave me a good chuckle. Apparently Elon had removed “legacy verification” from Twitter — meaning the only way to get a blue check now was to give him eight smackeroos a month. Everyone from Jason Alexander to SCOTUS Blog was threatening to bounce, someone had impersonated the Big Apple itself, and Elon had footed the bill for LeBron James, Stephen King, and — her?! No way. I gazed at the smoke detector above me, two rectangular holes where its batteries should be, and flipped to File #2. A writer for The Atlantic named Ed Yong had crossed the line from “journalist” to “activist”, going after everyone questioning the narrative on “long COVID”. Something about the evidence he used smelled fishy as hell. I put it to the side — this was one for Jesse to handle. The last file was something else entirely. I took a drag of my cigarette, watching the smoke curl lazily towards the ceiling as I kept reading. An old grandma gets raided by the DEA for traffickin’ human growth hormone. No charges. Turns out what she was pushin’…wasn’t exactly intended for human consumption. Then the FDA busts a lady importing “beauty products” from Hong Kong. Confiscate her cars, her mansions. A spreadsheet she kept shows she moved a whopping $10 million worth of product. “You think they’re connected?” “A listener tipped us off. Said her cat needed meds, but they’re illegal. The dame says her vet pointed her towards a Facebook group that could hook her up under the table. I think they’re the missing link. Real secretive, though. Won’t talk to anyone who’s not a buyer, so I sent them an invite, pretending to be —" Suddenly, the phone rang. A booming voice on the other end spoke. “Your invitation to join FIP Warriors® 5.0 has been accepted.” I stood up and brushed the flakes of weed off my trenchcoat as Trace unholstered his trusty snubnose revolver and adjusted his fedora. “Start the car, Trace. Looks like we’re going undercover.” Blue Checks The results of the legacy checkmark removal https://twitter.com/goldengateblond/status/1649162600826167296 https://twitter.com/thatfrood/status/1649179696226000897?s=20 https://twitter.com/realrickpaulas/status/1649136628915380226?s=20 Musk buys Twitter Blue for Stephen King https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1649147510525423626 Long COVID Ed Yong’s article on Long COVID https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/04/long-covid-symptoms-invisible-disability-chronic-illness/673773/ The CDC on Long COVID https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html Evidence is mixed as to whether vaccines reduce the chances or severity of long COVID https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/long-covid-what-do-latest-data-show/ Household Pulse survey on Long COVID https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/pulse/long-covid.htm Federal Reserve report on Long COVID https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/long-covid-cognitive-impairment-and-the-stalled-decline-in-disability-rates-20220805.html Survey about discrimination against those with long COVID https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277317 Jesse’s response to the article The New Republic: We Might Have Long Covid All Wrong https://newrepublic.com/article/168965/might-long-covid-wrong Stuart Ritchie: Does Long Covid really exist? https://unherd.com/2021/06/does-long-covid-really-exist/ Ed Yong’s first article on Long COVID https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19-coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/ The Kitty Cartel The Atlantic’s 2020 piece on black-market cat remdesivir https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/remdesivir-cats/611341/ Business Insider’s article https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-treatment-cats-fip-sold-10k-black-market-2020-6?r=US&IR;=T Robin says she doesn’t get kickbacks https://www.reddit.com/r/cureFIP/comments/11qv50c/proof_that_robin_has_previously_claimed_they_dont/ OneZero: Inside a Facebook ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ for Cat Drugs https://onezero.medium.com/desperate-cat-owners-are-buying-illegal-cat-drugs-on-facebooks-black-market-cd40bfe90997 Cure FIP exposes FIP Warriors https://www.curefip.com/post/drama-fip-telenovelas FIP Warriors https://www.facebook.com/groups/804374446995270 FIP Global Cats https://www.facebook.com/groups/595916822107282 Zen By Cat https://www.zenbycat.org/

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