u/IndependentMove5437

I'm not usually one to shill other people's YouTube channels on Reddit, but Joey shares some really good, lesser-known information about Nicky Scarfo. For one, he was there with Nicky, his father, his uncle, and Leonetti, so he's essentially a firsthand witness to the whole thing.

All the schemes and rackets these mobsters were involved in were netting close to hundreds of millions of dollars. It's crazy how much money these Genovese mobsters were making. If you were to get involved with them today, you'd probably become a millionaire within a year. I wonder how much money the entire family has when you combine all of their net worths. It's probably somewhere close to $1 billion by now.

Many people in the West view Russia's continued war against Ukraine as illogical because they believe it doesn't benefit anyone and is a pointless war, yet many Russians still support it. Because of this, some people online use derogatory terms like "animals" to describe Russians, believing they have no regard for human life and want to import Russia's poor living conditions into their own countries out of spite. How do you feel about this?

In many ways, he presents “the life” almost like a reality TV show. If you’ve ever watched videos of Giovanni Rocco, a former FBI agent, a lot of what Rocco describes from his undercover experience closely matches what Joey shows on his podcast.

First, I want to say that the podcast is unique because the culture of Italian-American mobsters is somewhat different from mainstream Italian-American culture. It’s almost its own subculture, influenced by older Sicilian traditions. Mobsters tend to socialize mainly with other mobsters and their families, speak in a particular way, and live in a relatively insular world.

On Joey’s podcast, you have Snuff, who is connected to Joey through the Philadelphia crime family. Snuff’s cousin, Ralphie Head, and his father and uncle were former associates of Joey’s father and Joey himself. Snuff has spoken about his struggles with addiction, saying he became hooked on drugs that Joey’s friends were selling on the streets.

So how does Joey portray this world on his podcast? For starters, he shows how important business relationships and networking are. Second, mob guys seem to enjoy gambling, golfing, going to restaurants, and attending social events. Many of the restaurants and events featured on the podcast are connected in some way to people involved in organized crime. For example, they once visited a restaurant owned by the son of a Chicago capo who is serving time in prison.

Another thing he highlights is his constant criticism of mafia informants, often trying to discredit or dehumanize them and portray them as villains while presenting himself as innocent to the public. He also brings mob lawyers onto the podcast who discuss how the government allegedly wrongly prosecuted mafia members and claim they were all innocent, alongside criminals discussing crimes they have already been prosecuted for. Occasionally, active or former mob figures appear on the show or around him at public events, such as the Feast of San Gennaro.

He also spends a lot of time discussing the history of the South Philadelphia mob. He rarely says “the mafia” directly, but when he talks about certain people and stories, it’s clear what he is referring to. Ralphie Head even talked about making $5,000 a week working for his father by robbing and beating up people.

They also talk about busting each other’s balls or complaining about their wives and girlfriends.

I’ve been watching the podcast regularly, and honestly, if you want to see what mafia culture looks like in 2026 in a reality TV-style format, it’s probably one of the most realistic portrayals you’ll find. It doesn’t show murders or major criminal conspiracies, but it does show the social world, relationships, attitudes, and day-to-day culture surrounding people connected to that life.

The fact that he's able to become a councilman on their turf, put money on the street, and operate independently without any repercussions is crazy.

Maybe I'm just too frugal, or maybe I'm just a fatass, but I've never understood it. I've seen people buy a whole pizza, a large sushi platter, or order delivery, eat only part of it, and then leave the rest in the fridge to be thrown away later. It seems so wasteful to me.

I've seen a few people ask this question and get downvoted, but I don't understand why it's considered impossible.

We know the mafia doesn't kill people the way it used to. In the past, they would just shoot someone in the middle of the street, and that was it, or engage in gang warfare out in the open.

But what about murders carried out the way a serial killer might do them? For example, killing someone in a secluded location, disposing of the body in secret, and then cleaning up all the evidence afterward kind of like Dexter Morgan.

How would law enforcement or the FBI know that a person was murdered this way if there were no witnesses, no body, and no obvious evidence left behind?

There's not much info about him; all I know from the interview is that he did 40 years for murder but wore a wire against terrorists? What's the full story?

Some of the things in this game make no sense. Take the item system, for example. In other games, you don't get the best items right at the start of the game; usually there's a progression system. But in Warhammer 3, the game gives you the best rare items right from the beginning.

Then there are the mechanics that let you instantly recruit your best units at the start, which I don't understand, especially when replenishment is already so high in this game. In other RTS games, there's usually some kind of progression system in place, and you don't get your best units until the late game.

It also kind of kills your motivation to play because you get these units so early. Honestly, it's like playing skirmish mode, where you just pick and build your own armies and fight against another made-up army.

Then there's how invincible you become due to power creep. It gets to a point where it doesn't matter if the AI has 1 or 10 stacks of armies, they still won't be able to damage you because all those buffs stack and make you invincible.

There's nothing wrong with a power fantasy, but in this game the power fantasy feels like the player is cheating. In other games, the player becomes overpowered late in the game, not on the very first turn.

The game is now over 4 years old and has practically stayed the same since its release. I looked at posts from the last four years that were critical of the game, and it's crazy that none of the stuff discussed during that time was implemented. People have been complaining about power creep for years, but CA has ignored those concerns and only increased the power creep while making the game easier.

I even found a post I made about two years ago asking for the game to be more challenging. I really didn't like the community's response because it always seemed more focused on CA generating profits as a company rather than improving the game. For example, when I asked for the game to be more difficult, people argued that it was already difficult enough for new players. But what do new players have to do with Legendary mode? Why can't the difficulty be increased only on the Legendary setting while new players continue to play on Easy or Normal?

After thinking about those responses, it seems to come down to this: people want the game to be easier so new players will buy it and make CA more money. One thing I've noticed about the Total War community is that it sometimes feels like a shareholder or corporate employee community, people who get enjoyment from a corporation making profits rather than from playing and improving the game itself.

People in the criminal world are just mad that they used law enforcement to their own advantage, like killing informants and getting information about their enemies' activities. These people never testified against anyone in their former life or gave up information regarding their criminal activities.

The only people who testified against them were their former crew members, who used what their boss did as an excuse that they had no choice but to become rats themselves. One thing we've seen from the Mafia world online is that rats hate being called rats themselves.

I know there will probably be pushback for what I'm saying on this sub, but if these men were 100% rats, why didn't they go all the way? Why didn't they testify against anyone for a reduced sentence? Like Greg Scarpa's son: he did 30 years but wore a wire against terrorists. Why didn't he testify against people from his former life?

When Pennisi became an informant, the FBI had no idea who he was. Pennisi was extremely lucky to have been able to live a criminal lifestyle and participate in numerous illegal activities without being on the FBI's radar. If he hadn't turned himself in, he might have gotten away with many of his crimes. It makes me wonder how many made guys like him exist that the FBI has no clue are in the Mafia. We only have organizational charts that show many members being very old, but maybe there are still a lot of younger members that the public doesn't know about. What do you think?

During the early 2000s and before the economy collapsed under Bush, my dad was just a normal truck driver hauling cars. He wasn't some corporate executive or CEO. He worked mostly five days a week and sometimes even weekends because there was so much money to be made at the time.

We lived in California, which even back then wasn't considered a cheap place to live. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. My dad managed to buy a house, multiple cars, trucks, jet skis, motorcycles and boats. Me, my siblings, and my mom went on vacation to our home country every year. He also bought multiple properties in our home country and renovated them all. We were never frugal, we went out to eat often, he bought us whatever we wanted, and he paid for all of our medical insurance and other expenses.

Now compare that to me today. I followed in his footsteps and became a local truck driver. What can I afford with my purchasing power today? Absolutely nothing. I can't afford a house or support a family on a single paycheck. At most, I can save up to buy a used car or spend my entire savings traveling somewhere.

He tells me to just work overtime all the time, but I can work overtime 24/7 and it still wouldn't make a difference. It drives me insane when I see someone argue that fast food workers shouldn't be paid more because they should "just join a trade" or "go to college." I tried to do better and joined a trade, but it still isn't enough today.

For some reason, it feels like we all need to be in the top 10% of income earners just to afford anything. I'll tell you the truth: I'm not smart enough to become the CEO of a company making millions. Why can't I just live comfortably as a normal truck driver like my dad did?

Michael Franzese was literally meeting with the bosses of other families and discussing switching families. Of course, the Colombo family was concerned about that. It's amazing that they didn't have him killed right then and there, but he was too important to be killed at the time because nobody else could handle the gas scheme racket besides him. It's kind of like how Ralph from The Sopranos was too important to be killed because they depended on him to manage the Esplanade, which both crime families were making millions of dollars from. So don't believe Michael's claims that they had no good reason to call him in for a sit-down.

Everything he owns is under someone else's name, and everything he buys seems to be bought by someone else. The new luxury cars he drives are supposedly given to him for use by friends. The designer clothes and watches worth tens of thousands of dollars are bought by other friends. His houses in Florida and Philadelphia are under his wife's name, and even the cheesesteak business isn't directly under him.

He obviously doesn't work a normal job. All you ever see him do is go to restaurants, travel to social events, gamble, and play golf. People online are literally convinced that because Joey doesn't own anything directly under his name, he is completely broke and living off other people's money. I don't think that's the case. Even the most popular celebrities aren't given everything for free like Joey appears to be.

There are two possible scenarios. One is that he has an illegitimate source of income, launders money, and pays for everything in cash. The second is that, as an ex-mob boss and convicted felon, he is not allowed to own certain things directly under his name, but in reality he is a silent partner or investor in a large number of businesses and real estate ventures in Philadelphia and Florida. I'm guessing that many of the businesses advertised on his podcast could be ventures he has an interest in behind the scenes.

There's some evidence that points in that direction. For example, he can't own the cheesesteak business directly because felons can have difficulty obtaining certain licenses related to alcohol sales. There are also examples where he goes to cigar lounges or restaurants and doesn't pay, instead telling them to put it on his tab.

I'm leaning toward the second scenario because there are examples like Tony Soprano in fiction, who had interests in businesses such as a garbage company that were officially owned by other people while he appeared to be just an employee. The only way to know for sure would be to determine whether Joey is actually employed somewhere and receiving benefits like a regular employee. If he has employer-provided health insurance, a retirement plan, or other employment benefits, that could provide some clues about how he earns and reports his income.

You also have to ask about Joey's father. The Philadelphia mob practically helped build many of Atlantic City's hotels and casinos. Did Joey's father really leave him nothing when he was sentenced to life in prison? It's possible that some money, investments, or business interests were passed down through family members or trusted associates over the years.

The only person consistently calling Joey broke is John Rubeo, who may not want to admit that Joey used him to pay restaurant tabs and gambling debts.