BONUS Episode 57 PREVIEW: Area 51 and its Weather Balloons

folks they're calling it our most fed episode yetfull episode on our patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wtyppod/posts/weather-balloons-167837307

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Flyline photography at Edwards is prohibited and at Area 51, obviously, but you are allowed to go out in the desert and take photos.

• 0:07November Kelly?

  No fun allows.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  Next slide, just a topless trans woman.

• 0:10November Kelly?

  Hello?

• 0:13Justin Roczniak?

  Oh, my.

• 0:14November Kelly?

  Okay, I see what you've done here. Okay, what I've learned is that there's a kind of temporal valence to the description that you've given me. And, okay, that's fine. That's fine. I'm not mad or disappointed. I'm actually feeling quite normal.

• 0:30Speaker 00

  Okay. Well, DM me on Discord. I can send you some I took on this vacation.

• 0:37Justin Roczniak?

  Okay.

• 0:38Speaker 00

  Very far in the distance, in the photo on the left, you'll see one of the many emitter receiver stations that are out in the desert between Edwards and Area 51, just out in the big nothing that is the Great Basin. It's quite small and in the distance because I wasn't going to take photos from up close because, you know, I wanted to not go to Leavenworth as an inmate.

• 1:02Liam McAnderson?

  I choose life.

• 1:03November Kelly?

  I like that you specified as an inmate.

• 1:05Speaker 00

  This is in an area where photography was allowed, and I made sure that there was not enough detail to really be a problem. So this is the sort of thing that they would use to evaluate the aircraft and keep track of their things that were flying around. And you can keep looking at the topless photo of me for as long as you want. Otherwise, you can go on to the next few slides.

• 1:23November Kelly?

  I'll message you.

• 1:26Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:28Justin Roczniak?

  Oh, this guy.

• 1:29Liam McAnderson?

  Christ on sale.

• 1:33Speaker 00

  This is tacit blue.

• 1:34November Kelly?

  This is how I feel I look. This is, this is, when I look in the mirror, this is what I'm, what I'm seeing.

• 1:42Liam McAnderson?

  You see tacit blue? Because I do too, bud, though.

• 1:45November Kelly?

  Yeah.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  There's a note here that says, "It is the status-looking thing I have ever seen, apparently very unstable."

• 1:52November Kelly?

  Moods, moods, moods.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  To which I added the annotation, "Yeah, the stealth trans aircraft with sensitive sensors. All of us hyper alert trans people are a little unstable. It's fine. We're fine."

• 2:07Justin Roczniak?

  I, I, I put this in because Scooter looked at the slides and was like, "Why isn't this in here?" This is apparently the only airplane, or one of the very few airplanes, that was actually built in Area 51, as opposed to...

• 2:19November Kelly?

  Yeah, it shows.

• 2:22November Kelly?

  It is a shed. It's got a conservatory on the front.

• 2:27Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah.

• 2:29Speaker 00

  It had phase three radar. It was really cool. And it actually led to the development of the B2, which less cool, but still okay.

• 2:38November Kelly?

  Yeah, in the same, in the same way that like my transition led to the transition of like people who transitioned after me, you know, it's like, yeah, I did essential pioneering work in the space and I still look like this, though.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  If you look at the cockpit and the way that's laid out and the design of the front and, girl, it's fine. And then look at the inlet for the engine. All of those things are things you will see on the B2 as they have evolved, but they were, they were the technology demonstrator for a lot of those technologies used in the B2, especially that rounded radar absorbent glass or radar.

• 3:14November Kelly?

  Sort of presently tacit blue. If you guys keep subscribing to the Patreon enough that I can afford FFS, B2 Spirit.

• 3:23Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah.

• 3:23Liam McAnderson?

  Hell, yeah.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Fair enough.

• 3:25Justin Roczniak?

  It looks like a...

• 3:27Speaker 00

  That happens. If people keep subscribing to Sculptor on the, for the nonprofit, I'll be able to help you out perhaps as well.

• 3:35November Kelly?

  Yeah.

• 3:35Speaker 00

  I had two patients this year and they both recovered well. So we're actually doing pretty okay on funds. We're not, we're still going to be a few months before we have all the medical bills paid off from my most recent patient, but I don't actually have anyone lined up coming up, so.

• 3:51November Kelly?

  Yeah, we will, we will put the link in the description as well for donations.

• 3:55Speaker 00

  What will make November country is the next project.

• 3:58November Kelly?

  Yes, finally. It's been, it's been six million years.

• 4:04Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, I thought, the thing I was gonna say is, and then I tried to start drawing it and it didn't work. It kind of looks like a old Citron delivery truck.

• 4:12Liam McAnderson?

  It does. Jesus Christ.

• 4:13November Kelly?

  Oh, the four Jeanettes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 4:15Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 4:16November Kelly?

  They should, they should do it with the like, sort of lines across the side, like the corrugation.

• 4:20Justin Roczniak?

  Oh, yeah. You gotta have that, gotta have the fluting, yeah.

• 4:23November Kelly?

  But the problem is with tacit blue is so many of them got turned into food trucks and it's like...

• 4:29Liam McAnderson?

  Basically just decorative.

• 4:31Speaker 00

  They make a mean taqueria.

• 4:32Justin Roczniak?

  I want to say, I want to say this one lives and the have blue did not.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, the have blue did not. This, both of, I think one or both of them got damaged in flight.

• 4:46Justin Roczniak?

  Both of them were damaged.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  You can tell it have blue from the F-117 by the F-117 tails leaning outward and have blue's tails leaning in. This is the type of trans woman I was pre-transition. Very peculiar.

• 5:02November Kelly?

  But this is, this is...

• 5:03Speaker 00

  A little bit like an Imperial Star Destroyer. Just a little bit fash, if you will.

• 5:13November Kelly?

  It, I think it's fine to have a have blue phase, you know?

• 5:16Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Maybe. I hope so.

• 5:19Justin Roczniak?

  Have blue will travel.

• 5:21Speaker 00

  I worry sometimes when like trans women are held to such high standards, like, why, why, why aren't you good and homeless? Why do you have to have a job working for people that are questionable? It's like, girl, only so many of us can, can be passing the same $20 around. Some of us actually have to bring in money to help people.

• 5:39Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, the $20 has to come from somewhere.

• 5:42Speaker 00

  Right. Like, I understand holding people to high standards and please keep holding me to high standards, but don't hold me to standards you wouldn't hold anyone else to. Okay. I say that because I'm talking about my military experience on a podcast that leans very liberal. And I love you.

• 5:56Liam McAnderson?

  Non-liberal, non-liberal.

• 5:57November Kelly?

  Yeah, that's, yeah, I lean way further than that.

• 5:59Speaker 00

  I lean very left.

• 6:00November Kelly?

  Thank you.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  Please understand that as of, like, I am an outspoken Marxist.

• 6:05Liam McAnderson?

  End it and kill her. End it and kill her. We're gonna do a hate crime.

• 6:10November Kelly?

  I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

• 6:12Speaker 00

  Well, keep in mind that I am a Marxist. I believe strongly in that everyone should have healthcare and housing and I have done everything I can to make that happen within my community.

• 6:23Liam McAnderson?

  No, actually, I take it back. You're a Marxist killer again.

• 6:28Speaker 00

  I need to do to make the, anyway. Please don't come at me on social media just because you don't like the fact that it took me well to realize that I'm, that I can become a good person. Thank you. And now we have a 737 coming up.

• 6:42Justin Roczniak?

  As I always say on this podcast, what kind of politics you got on this podcast? Oh, we got both kinds, communist and anarchist.

• 6:50Liam McAnderson?

  That's right, baby. Gotta hold it down. Gotta hold it down.

• 6:55Speaker 00

  I just understand how anarchy covers for the people with like, how do, how do you cover for the elderly, the infirm in an anarchist society?

• 7:03Liam McAnderson?

  Figure it out in post. This is not, this is not, listen.

• 7:07November Kelly?

  How many hours are we into the recording? I wanna, I wanna get off of the end episode so that I can send some DMs. Like, come on.

• 7:14Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, I'm gonna have to get out the discourse hat.

• 7:18Liam McAnderson?

  Do not get out the discourse hat on air, please.

• 7:23Justin Roczniak?

  So, well, no one will be able to see it. They'll ruin the joke. Yeah. All right, all right, all right. Now we've seen the various weather balloons that came out of Area 51 and other associated military bases. How do you get to Area 51?

• 7:38November Kelly?

  Well, so this is, this is the weather balloon that goes into Area 51.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  One does not go into Area 51. One simply arrives at Area 51.

• 7:52November Kelly?

  You were taken.

• 7:54Justin Roczniak?

  Arrive precisely when you need to.

• 7:57November Kelly?

  Yeah, I mean, this is the thing. They kind of thought, you know, maybe we shouldn't let them live in trailers over the week and commute from Burbank. So now you're, you're sort of cosmic punishment or one of them for working at Area 51 is you have to commute from Las Vegas.

• 8:11Justin Roczniak?

  You have to commute from Las Vegas. Yeah, so.

• 8:13Liam McAnderson?

  A fate worse than death. Jesus.

• 8:16Justin Roczniak?

  The government runs an airline called Janet Airlines. The planes are very conspicuous because they're the only good-looking ones left.

• 8:26November Kelly?

  Yeah, I, I also think that these are really good-looking planes, partially just because of the, the like minimalism. But I'm also, I'm always kind of fascinated by like these or the, the like fucking ones that like L3 operates, the fucking COMCOs, whatever the fuck they're called. What, I'm always interested in the design that governments choose when there has to be a design, right? The sort of bare minimum of like paint or whatever applied to the thing. In the same way that like, I think about like, you know, the fucking, why, why did the security guards at MI6 have the little like stripe on the

• 9:08November Kelly?

  vest? There's no reason for that other than the like, feels like there should be a design that. So there is. And so that's interesting to me. It's like, um, uh, there's a really, really good photographer, um, who's, who's into this kind of stuff, um, uh, whose name is Trevor Paglen. And he's done a couple of, a couple of books, one of which is, is called, um, I, uh, I think it's like, "If I told you, you would have to be destroyed by me," right? Which is about the patches that these sort of very secretive units design for themselves, often with very bad Latin, which is where the title's from. But also one called, uh, called limit telephotography, uh, telephotography, which is about like

• 9:48November Kelly?

  shooting into Area 51 and other places with the longest lenses imaginable, just to kind of, I had like de-instantiate it a bit and, and to like heighten the weirdness. And so that kind of thing really appeals to me. And so I have a real affinity with fucking Janet Airlines, you know?

• 10:09Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's funny to see like this highly, very, very secretive operation. They're running multiple jets a day into Harry Reid International Airport. Cause they run the planes from there to Edwards Air Force Base and Area 51. You know, these are super duper top secret airplanes, which are, you know, just on public view all the time. They got a dedicated terminal at Harry Reid International and I'm going to be honest, I bet the lounge kinda sucks.

• 10:40November Kelly?

  Yeah, I mean, I bet flying on these kinda sucks.

• 10:43Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah.

• 10:45Justin Roczniak?

  You're racking up so many miles, you can't use for anything.

• 10:49November Kelly?

  The thing is.

• 10:50Liam McAnderson?

  Oh my God, my battalion status.

• 10:53November Kelly?

  The yearning, right? And part of the reason for the yearning is because it's, it's an exclusive piece of access, right? And the access might be to something that sucks, but the thing is the drug there is you're on the inside looking out, you know?

• 11:07Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 11:10November Kelly?

  Yeah, it's, it's like Gita Mopassar eating in the Eiffel Tower restaurant every day. Cause it's the one place in Paris, you don't have to see the Eiffel Tower from. This is the one place where you can't like, you have the distinction of be able to look out from the kind of mid commuter airline that the government has to run in order to like facilitate aircraft testing. And it's like, yeah, who wouldn't want that? Of course I do.

• 11:31Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah. And like, you know, Colonel Bob always gets the fucking exit row seat.

• 11:40Justin Roczniak?

  But yeah, I, I, I, I think it's also really funny to have like really public facing aspects of the super secret base.

• 11:48November Kelly?

  It's, it's like. Highway exit sign for the CIA headquarters.

• 11:55Liam McAnderson?

  Top secret, do not look. Yep. Fort V, do not look.

• 11:59Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, NSA has one too.

• 12:04November Kelly?

  There was, there was a story that like, I know, I know, like you can't trust ex CIA officers to do anything but like make TikToks and lie. Right? But it might've been John Kiriakou, if not him, then one of these other guys has a story about how one time he parked in the, like the parking lot in front of the CIA headquarters. And while he was at work, someone stole the doors off his car.

• 12:32November Kelly?

  I think about that a lot just because the idea that like, yeah, it's highly secured from the outside. It's not gonna stop someone else who works there taking your car doors off.

• 12:41Liam McAnderson?

  Bit by bit, baby.

• 12:43Justin Roczniak?

  My dad's company picnic was across the street from the CIA building.

• 12:49Liam McAnderson?

  Top secret, do not look.

• 12:50Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, yeah, we're not beating the allegations.

• 12:54November Kelly?

  Every, every left wing podcaster is a former member of, current member of, or future member of every intelligence agency on earth.

• 13:03Liam McAnderson?

  All at once.

• 13:04Justin Roczniak?

  Yeah, all at once. Yeah.

• 13:05November Kelly?

  I'm, I'm with the French DGSE right now. It's crazy. Like I'm, I'm like having a great time. It's aesthetic as fuck.

• 13:12Justin Roczniak?

  I was actually gonna put in an application to GSA because I look at Google Maps so much.

• 13:20Liam McAnderson?

  Congratulations, you're more qualified than the rest of the national security apparatus.

• 13:28Justin Roczniak?

  But yeah, um, now we have to talk about the various incidents, accidents and goofs.