All the things that made the world the way it is now.
Welcome to the podcast takes your nostalgia, tells you the history behind it and makes you ask What the HELL Were You Thinking. Host Dave Bledsoe takes the history, politics and pop culture of the past fifty years and explains what it was like to live through it and why it is still ruining the world today. So join Dave, his hapless Producer Gavin St James every Monday for time capsule of truth! Find us at whatthehellpodcast.com, @whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social and the show name on Facebook.
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All the things that made the world the way it is now.
Welcome to the podcast takes your nostalgia, tells you the history behind it and makes you ask What the HELL Were You Thinking. Host Dave Bledsoe takes the history, politics and pop culture of the past fifty years and explains what it was like to live through it and why it is still ruining the world today. So join Dave, his hapless Producer Gavin St James every Monday for time capsule of truth! Find us at whatthehellpodcast.com, @whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social and the show name on Facebook.
Episode 501: Operation Just Because Pt 3 of Summer Series 2025
What the HELL Were You Thinking?
36 minutes
3 months ago
Episode 501: Operation Just Because Pt 3 of Summer Series 2025
Show Notes Episode 501: Operation Just Because
Pt 3 of Summer Series 2025
This week host Dave Bledsoe drunkenly demands someone liberate him from the tyranny of paying for his own drinks only to find the pee of liberty can only be watered with cash from drunk podcasters. (Again) On the show this week Summer Series 2025 continues with the Most Expensive Drug Raid in History, the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
Along the way we learn why Dave never made it to the military major leagues (he was fat, drunk, slacker). Then we dive into a brief history of Panama, from Spanish Empire’s dream of the shortcut to the Pacific, to the French dream of a short cut to the Pacific to the Americans saying fucking, we’ll dig our way to the Pacific. (and kill a bunch of people doing so!) Then we meet Manuel Antonio Noriega, Panamanian military officer, CIA asset and drug kingpin and how finally stopped being useful to the CIA. (Reagan left office) Then we learn how George HW Bush got sick of Manny’s shit and launched a legally dubious military action to arrest (and prove to America he wasn’t a wimp!)
Our Sponsor this week is Blue Spoon Military Marketing, make the most of your illegal invasion with a catchy Operation Name to rally the folks back home with Blue Spoon! We open with Poppy Bush explaining why we have to invade Panama and close with Patty PerShayla who sings about Panama.
Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense
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The Show Line: 347 687 9601
Closing Music: https://youtu.be/6sHNd_2F0es?si=dW9olPdwnrR5Gy5h
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Citations Needed:
Operation Just Cause
https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/History/Monographs/Just_Cause.pdf
How Manuel Noriega surrendered to the sanity-destroying power of mallrat music
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2017/may/30/noriega-panama-music-playlist
Music To Annoy Dictator and Priest With
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VGlbfQvcSXggt2r2gYrun?si=fsfY_Sp0T76XakOPKTz7CQ
Bush plays only some cards right
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/01/23/bush-plays-only-some-cards-right/
The Noriega Case: Public Opinion; Panamanians Strongly Back U.S. Move
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/06/us/the-noriega-case-public-opinion-panamanians-strongly-back-us-move.html
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What the HELL Were You Thinking?
All the things that made the world the way it is now.
Welcome to the podcast takes your nostalgia, tells you the history behind it and makes you ask What the HELL Were You Thinking. Host Dave Bledsoe takes the history, politics and pop culture of the past fifty years and explains what it was like to live through it and why it is still ruining the world today. So join Dave, his hapless Producer Gavin St James every Monday for time capsule of truth! Find us at whatthehellpodcast.com, @whatthehellpodcast.bsky.social and the show name on Facebook.
