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Feral America

Feral America

By: Stevie and Em
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Two Gen X women who are done being polite about it. True crime, conspiracy, and the stories the system hoped you'd forget.

2026 Stevie and Em
Social Sciences True Crime
Episodes
  • Kars4Kids BANNED in California! The 30-Year Donor Con Behind the Annoying Jingle
    May 27 2026

    Kars4Kids has been running car donation ads since 1994. That jingle has been in your head for over 20 years. And in November 2025, the organization was named in a federal class action lawsuit alleging racketeering, false advertising, and violation of California unfair competition laws.

    Here is what the ads never told you.

    Kars4Kids is the fundraising arm of Oorah, an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization based in Lakewood, New Jersey. Both organizations share the same CEO: Eli Mintz, son of the rabbi who founded them. In 2024, Kars4Kids collected over $94 million in contributions. A third of that went straight back into advertising. Their own IRS Form 990 shows they paid Google $22,508,970 in a single year for marketing. Bing Ads got $3.4 million. Sirius Satellite Radio got $424,000.

    The money that was left went to Oorah, which funds gap year trips to Israel for Orthodox Jewish high school graduates, adult matchmaking services for Orthodox Jewish young adults, Jewish private school tuition assistance, and a $16.5 million building purchase in Israel.

    California accounts for over 25% of all donated vehicles nationally. Kars4Kids ran zero programs in California. Their only local presence was a backpack giveaway of 1,000 bags, distributed by random drawing, no financial need required.

    On May 8, 2026, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian ruled that Kars4Kids violated California false advertising and unfair competition laws. The ads are banned in California effective June 8, 2026, unless the organization adds an explicit audible disclosure of its religious affiliation.

    This is not the first time. Oregon and Pennsylvania settled deceptive advertising cases against Kars4Kids in 2009. Minnesota found in 2017 that less than 1% of funds raised from Minnesota donors benefited Minnesota children. The jingle kept playing.

    This episode walks through the court ruling, the 990 filings, the executive compensation, the class action complaint, and the full paper trail of what Kars4Kids is and what it has always been.

    Sources and full Substack article linked below.

    Feral America Substack (full article with sources): sueselle.substack.com

    Kars4Kids IRS Form 990 2024: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/223746050

    Oorah IRS Form 990 via ProPublica: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/043728030

    May 8 2026 ruling coverage NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-bans-kars4kids-jingle-california-citing-misleading-advertising-rcna345648

    CharityWatch Kars4Kids analysis: https://blog.charitywatch.org/kars-4-kids-updated-charitywatch-rating/

    Federal class action coverage: https://www.lawcommentary.com/articles/kars4kids-jingle-banned-in-california-after-judge-finds-ads-misleading

    #Kars4Kids #Oorah #CarDonationScam #FalseAdvertising #FeralAmerica #InvestigativePodcast #CaliforniaLawsuit #EliMintz #IRS990 #CharityFraud #ClassActionLawsuit #DonorDeception #OrthodoxJewish #NonprofitAccountability #Racketeering

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    24 mins
  • EXPOSED: Epstein's Money Laundering Mechanism Involving Ben Goertzel, Humanity+ and Novamente
    May 8 2026

    In January 2015, AI researcher Ben Goertzel wrote one of the most damning emails in the entire Jeffrey Epstein file release. He commiserated with Epstein over the "spate of utterly idiotic negative publicity," floated the theory that Epstein's victims (children) were "reasonably mature people who mutually consented," and then, in the very next paragraph, asked for another $25,000 to be funneled through his 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Humanity+.

    In this episode of Feral America, we examine the full mechanism.

    This is not a story about a scientist who had a bad funder. It is a story about the conversion mechanism. The pass through. The five percent fee Goertzel openly charged for his nonprofit's role as a financial conduit, in writing, in an email with the actual subject line "Funneling money."

    In this 30 minute investigation, you will learn:

    How Epstein's $100,000 fellowship at the University of New Mexico in 2001 launched Goertzel's career

    The exact structure of the laundering pipeline

    The IRS statutes that were violated

    The receipts: emails from the Epstein files

    Goertzel's "I was social engineered" defense in his February 2026 Substack

    How a male professional culture of benefit of the doubt continues to protect powerful men accused of horrible things

    Why I filed an IRS Whistleblower complaint

    PRIMARY SOURCES AND FURTHER READING

    My full Substack investigation: https://sueselle.substack.com

    South China Morning Post original report (February 16, 2026): https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3299896

    Ben Goertzel's "Goertzel vs Epstein" Substack response: https://bengoertzel.substack.com/p/goertzel-vs-epstein

    Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., No. 1:22 cv 10904 (S.D.N.Y. 2022)

    Vashon Maury Island Beachcomber coverage: https://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/2026/02/27/islander-bankrolled-by-epstein-on-and-off-for-nearly-two-decades/

    Business Insider on Goertzel and Epstein: https://www.businessinsider.com (search Goertzel Epstein)

    IRS Whistleblower Office and Form 211: https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office

    IRS guidance on Inurement and Private Benefit for 501(c)(3) charities: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/inurement-private-benefit-charitable-organizations

    Epstein Files searchable database: https://epsteinexposed.com

    #FeralAmerica #JeffreyEpstein #BenGoertzel #EpsteinFiles #MoneyLaundering #HumanityPlus #Novamente #HongKong #AIResearch #ArtificialGeneralIntelligence #SophiaTheRobot #IRSWhistleblower #EnhancedEducation #SingularityNet #JPMorganChase #LeonBlack #VirginIslands #Transhumanism #AGI #InvestigativePodcast #EpsteinNetwork #501c3 #NonprofitFraud #TaxFraud

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    30 mins
  • URGENT: No Warrant Needed for Your Data - The CLOUD Act
    Apr 26 2026

    Last night, a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Every news outlet reported the same thing this morning: law enforcement is "obtaining search warrants" for his phone and devices.

    Here's what they didn't mention: under the CLOUD Act, the government doesn't need a warrant for most of his digital life. His Gmail, his cloud storage, his social media... all of it is accessible through a completely different pipeline. Faster. Quieter. No judge sitting on it for hours.

    And that law doesn't just apply to active shooters. It applies to you.

    In this episode, we break down:

    • What the CLOUD Act actually is and how it passed (buried in a 2,200-page spending bill)
    • How it lets the US government compel Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft to hand over your data, even if it's stored overseas
    • How foreign governments can now request your data directly from US tech companies
    • Why journalists, activists, lawyers, and immigrants are especially at risk
    • The one structural weakness in the law and the free tools that exploit it → Signal, ProtonMail, Tresorit, Bitwarden, and other privacy tools explained

    RESOURCES: 🔗 EFF CLOUD Act Explainer — https://www.eff.org/issues/cloud-act

    🔗 Signal (encrypted messaging) — https://signal.org

    🔗 ProtonMail (encrypted email) — https://proton.me

    🔗 Bitwarden (password manager) — https://bitwarden.com

    🔗 Privacy Guides — https://privacyguides.org

    🔗 ACLU CLOUD Act Analysis — https://www.aclu.org

    🔗 Full CLOUD Act Text — https://www.congress.gov

    #CLOUDAct #Privacy #DataPrivacy #Surveillance #Signal #ProtonMail #Encryption #WHCD #WHCDShooting #DigitalPrivacy #FourthAmendment #BigTech #GooglePrivacy #iCloud #FederalLaw #CyberSecurity #PrivacyRights #FreePress #EndToEndEncryption #FeralAmerica

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    24 mins
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