Programmed to Chill

We're about to take a long voyage into German steel production through the lens of Krupp Steel, from 1587 into the 1960s. You're going to learn so much about German heavy industry, but I promise it's not boring. It's all about Essen, Germany, and this episode is about the start of the Krupp family, the way they made their early fortune, their actions in the Napoleonic era, and the race to figure out how to make cast steel. We meet Friedrich Carl, who almost ruins the family forge, and his son Alfred Krupp, who figures out how to make cast steel. There's industrial espionage, Austrian bribery, and even the revolutions of 1848.  w/ Krupp und Krause theme song

Today we get real weird. We're talking about how British Security Coordination + industrialists and moneyed interests formed World Commerce Corporation, with some very interesting people on its board of directors. Then we discuss WCC's official, stated goals, and the more occulted purpose it played in reindustrializing Germany. And since I can't help myself, we get the first introduction of the Bormann organization. Then, WCC morphed into Permindex, and we introduce Major Bloomfield, William Stephenson's successor. We talk about who was on the Permindex board, what they got up to, and why we know so much about it (de Gaulle). The JFK assassination is involved. Then we focus in on Major Bloomfield, who probably glows more than anyone I've ever covered, including the Dulles brothers. Then, we discuss sources for longer than normal given the spooky topic, including an extended discussion of the Torbitt Document.

Today, we talk about Diamonds are Forever, Stephenson's relationship with US news media, the curious cases of Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson, counterintelligence in general, Igor Gouzenko's defection, and we evaluate the performance of British Security Coordination overall. Then we run through BSC's alumni; there are some very, very interesting people included in that list. Ian Fleming, Dorothy Maclean, Ivan T. Sanderson, David Ogilvy, Betty Thorpe, Sgt. Pepper, and we finally discuss H. Montgomery Hyde as a source. Functionally the last William Stephenson episode, though he will appear in next week's episode too. w/ snippet of Sgt. Pepper and Montego Bay by Amazulu

Today I speak with two of the Trillbillies, specifically Tom Sexton and Tarence Ray. We discuss many aspects of esoteric Kentucky, like the word itself and the other name settlers picked out for the land, as well as the Indian mounds. Then we discuss the economics of Ashland Kentucky which might explain some of the high strangeness that's occurred there, from massacres to mafia coal companies to Charlie Manson. Then we discuss the history of Kentucky and LSD, like with Captain Hubbard and Augustus Owsley Stanley III, two of the main LSD gurus and both native sons. Then, we discuss the history of LSD and MKULTRA experiments in Kentucky, which leads us to discuss the Kentucky blue bloods and high society in Lexington. From there, we get into the Bluegrass Conspiracy, with former Lexington PD narcotics task force officer Andrew Thornton III falling to his death strapped with 40 kilos of cocaine. This ties into Lexington high society, but also international crime, the CIA, Adnan Khashoggi, and Thornton's paramilitary terrorist training camp in Kentucky. To wrap it up, we talk about Kentucky's first UFO incident. w/ Bales of Cocaine by the Reverend Horton Heat

Today we talk again about Wild Bill Donovan's COI and OSS, as well as BSC's Camp X training site. Then we discuss the infiltration of the WRUL and KGEI radio stations by BSC, which included almost total control of information by British agents; it was handed over to US intelligence. Then we talk about the OWI - Office of War Information, the agency in charge of non-black propaganda, the relationship between OSS and SIS, and a frank assessment of Allen Dulles as spy re Fritz Kolbe. I call out some historians, which is reckless; then we talk about US foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, of which there's additional evidence of it via the BSC. Finally, we talk about Gallup polling and it's relationship to spying and population control. It's good stuff, and this is all before Operation Mockingbird even gets started. Check it out.

This week, we're talking about astrology as warfare, the BSC fighting Vichy France, infiltrating embassies and stealing ciphers, economic warfare, US companies owned by Germans like Schering AG, Pioneer Import Corporation, and a variety of subsidiaries owned by IG Farben. We talk about US oil's relations to the Reich again, and the BSC monitoring contraband on the high seas, with a strange trip into MK territory. Then we talk about the political situation in South America during WWII, with BSC running harassment campaigns in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and shutting down the LATI airlines. BSC would make completely fake documents, some of which got into the hands of FDR, wouldn't you know? 

Today we're talking about the America First movement, the German Bund, and the isolationists. We talk more about Wild Bill Donovan, British ambassadors, the ONI and G2, and especially the FBI, with its legal restrictions and limitations. We talk about the British Imperial Censorship in Bermuda and its letter-opening program, and how they taught the tricks to the FBI. There's weird foot stuff and sexism involved. Then a series of incidents with Italian and German spies in the Americas, and some hypothesizing about why German spying in the US was underwhelming, and some of Germany's very curious links to certain sectors of US industry. Several German spy rings get broken up, and we talk about the frank mail privilege, ending with Nazi propaganda efforts in the US. There are limericks, too. w/ snippet of As Time Goes By from Casablanca soundtrack

Wouldn't it be pretty bad if FDR sold the American public on WWII with falsified evidence? Ahh that would be bad if that had happened huh? It'd be bad if the British made up a fake Zimmerman Telegram 2.0, for sure.  Today we talk about William Stephenson, a British businessman and spymaster who gave pushed the US into WWII. We talk about his early years as a soldier, POW, boxer, businessman, and spy. We also talk about Wild Bill Donovan, FDR, J. Edgar, cash and carry, US destroyer sales to the UK, and so on. 

Today we talk about Italian funding of the Nazi party, what it looked like and how we know it happened, as well as other minor foreign funders. Then there's the elephant in the room - the perfidious British, and precisely how this came about. There were trips to the UK by Kurt Lüdecke and Alfred Rosenberg, the latter organized by British air intelligence; we talk about who they met and why; their factions and interests, culminating with 'currency dictator' Montagu Norman and Sir Henri Deterding, two of the most powerful people in the world at the time. Both of these men basically signed off on Hitler as dictator. Then we talk about the so-called Prince of Windsor 'abdicating for love' being a pretext. Finally, we have Lüdecke and Rosenberg talking about their funding efforts. w/ the 'Apollonia' theme from the Godfather soundtrack

Today we crunch some numbers on the Versailles Treaty and then get deep into heavy vs light industry - what they are, why they function differently, and then how that's reflected in their lobbying efforts. We talk about lobbying, the secret rearmament program, German heavy industry's secret political slush fund, and the Great Depression. There's some talk of coalitions in the Reichstag, and we go into the story of the Nazis party's accountant, the 1930 elections from a fundraising perspective, and the burgeoning Nazi coalition. To round it out, we talk about the Brocken, the original Witch Mountain, with its many spooky resonances, and the mass meeting of all elements of the political right that happened nearby, culminating in Dr. Schacht questioning the currency, throwing the entire political-fiscal system into chaos. Heavy on economics and magic, this episode. Check it out. w/ Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky