Fourth Reich Archaeology

We're back this week with the fourth installment of our ongoing Geopolitik series. Picking up where we left off, we continue our exploration into the normalization of genocide in the Fourth Reich. Despite the fact that genocide is reviled as one of (if not THE) worst crime against humanity, as we discussed in Part 3 it is hard to remember a time when the United States was not involved in genocidal violence in its relentless quest for global hegemony and imperial domination. This time, we approach the subject through the lens of ideology—specifically, white supremacist and Nazi ideology—and examine the dialectical relationship between genocidal tendencies in American foreign policy and the resurgence of white supremacist ideology within American society. Beginning well before the United States officially became a country, it has always relied on racialized violence in pursuit of economic exploitation, territorial expansion, and eventually the expansion of markets in which to plunder natural resources and discipline masses of workers. We begin our excavation by examining the recent backlash to “DEI” initiatives. We point the finger at the hypocritical weaponization of “anti-racism” discourse to shift the blame for racial inequality and strife away from the economic system and its beneficiaries and onto the subjective beliefs and behaviors of the working class. We then trace how this paradigm teed up the opportunity for the political right to use anti-DEI and anti-woke rhetoric as a trojan horse for laundering Nazi-aligned beliefs into the mainstream. With Trump and his allies practically begging to kick off a constitutional crisis and claim even more dictatorial powers, the danger of this rising tide of American Nazism cannot be overstated.From there, we take a historical turn to analyze the white nationalist immigration policies emerging from the Trump administration, tracing their roots back to the inception of U.S. border policy—which, unsurprisingly, was grounded in deeply entrenched racist attitudes toward Mexicans and other immigrants of color. So pervasive is the Trump administration’s ideological commitment to white supremacy that it has shown a willingness to turn against its own, including judges appointed during Trump’s first term, to push its agenda forward.Throughout our discussion, as always, we bring you our analysis using the one-of-a-kind Fourth Reich Archaeology lens, and once again this episode features some original music from our co-host, Don. The outro song was produced by friend of the pod Compost Ghoul: https://soundcloud.com/compost-ghoulWe remain deeply grateful to our listening audience for your continued encouragement and support. If you’re able, please consider donating to help sustain this project: www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology

This week Don is back with another guest: Andrew Myslik - a former legislative aide to Representative Rashida Tlaib. Andrew joined Rashida’s Congressional staff at the very beginning of her career on the hill, spending several years in her office until leaving recently. This will be the first installment of yet another Fourth Reich Archaeology excavation into the workings of Congress, that Amerikan Reichstag. In this episode, we dig into the inner workings of Congress and begin to explore how the corruption machine works to ensure that the so-called “People’s House” is run for the benefit of corporate persons (who, since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, have all the rights of human beings) rather than us flesh-and-blood mortals. Since Congress is ultimately so monomaniacally geared towards the enrichment of war profiteers and the glorification of Israel and its genocidal exterminationist agenda, we also spend time exploring how and why that is. This is Andrew’s podcast debut, and we feel privileged to be the first pod to have him on to share his insights into the inner-workings of the legislative branch. If you can believe it, we’re even able to find a glimmer of hope in the morass, and we look forward to continuing the discussion with Andrew in future installments of this series. Patreon: www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeologyEmail: fourthreichpod@gmail.comSocials: @fourthreichpod

This week, we are back with another excavation into the present moment, and once again, we are digging deep into its historical roots. The theme of the episode is genocide. First, we give a snapshot of the current moment within the broader trajectory of the US/Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. In Gaza, in the West Bank, and even in the diaspora. Physically and intellectually. But as our listeners should know by now, we are not just “reading the news” out here. Instead, we are utilizing genocide as a lens to understand the Fourth Reich.Unfortunately, the current ongoing genocide is not the first genocide that has taken place since the Nazi Holocuast. In fact, genocide is a persistent and ongoing feature on the landscape of the Fourth Reich just as it was for the Third Reich. After all, the persistence of genocidal violence is an essential piece of the capitalist machinery that traps billions of poor people around the world in misery to prop up the extractive, exploitive apparatus of the “modern,” purportedly “civilized” lifestyles of the ruling class. So we situate the current genocide in its historical context and take head-on the liberal finger-wagging hypothetical that “the left” bears responsibility for Trump’s openly fascist excesses due to its rejection of Kamala Harris and refusal to support the institutional Democrat party. We’re calling BULL on that allegation, and in our deconstruction thereof, we spare no targets of our analytical ire.This is one of our most personal episodes yet. There are times when the discussion gets emotional. We are living in trying times, in times of great upheaval and the potential for great advancement. The two-faced fascist beast whose right hand (Republicans) and left hand (Democrats) strangle the life of the people, has shown its monstrosity for all the world to see. Genocide is always central. Its unpunished commission itself undermines the rule of law more than any policy position the Trump administration could take, no matter how extreme.We hope you enjoy. The episode also includes three original compositions and recordings from our very own “Angleton’s Orchids” aka Don. Now let’s let the truth be the wind under our wings and take to flight!

This week, we're taking a break from the Warren Commission, but don't worry; JFK stuff still comes up as relevant context at the present moment. But mostly, we're back into current events to cover the inauguration of the new regime. Trump 2.0. On the one hand, as we've consistently argued, the U.S. is not a democracy but a corporate state investing the bare minimum to maintain a mere image of democracy. So in that sense, Trump is no different from Biden: both are just actors filling roles in the spectacle of politics.We begin the episode saying farewell and f-off to Joe Biden and his entire rotten, genocidal administration. We discuss Biden's and Blinken's farewell addresses, Kamala's uncertain future, and the bravery of journalists standing up for the victims of genocide in the face of violent arrest and slander. We live in a time when "freedom of speech" is being redefined to mean "freedom to espouse and inculcate hardcore racist and genocidal beliefs," while free-speech activity like protesting genocide is being redefined to mean "crime and terrorism." Biden certainly has a role in that, and Trump seems like more of the same.Then we cover the inauguration and first day of President Donald John Trump, "the king of crime." After a banger of a musical number underneath "pig man" Trump's imperial inaugural address, we cover the MANY parallels between Trump and Reagan, including but not limited to their near-identical initiatives to privatize the government under the direction of literal Nazis. We discuss some of the day-one executive orders and issue predictions about what we might see next (including initial thoughts on JFK disclosure!!). Disclaimer: any predictions may very well change; this damn world is crazy as hell! Nevertheless, the Fourth Reich Archaeology thesis - albeit dire - is vindicated daily. Enjoy!

Finally, we land on the original Warren Commission Defender, junior staff member Wesley J. (“Jim”) Liebeler. Liebeler, 24 years younger than his senior partner, Albert Jenner, came to the Commission from U. Chicago law school, specifically recommended by his lawschool classmate, one Kenneth Dam. Both Dam and Liebeler were acolytes of the “law and economics” school - a legal theory fusing libertarian jurisprudence with the neoliberal, neoclassical economics of the “Chicago school” of shock-doctrine disaster capitalism.We discuss how Liebeler embodied the “gunner” lawyer prototype and how he brought that attitude to his work. He was a guy who knew how to play the middle to please everybody and advance his own star. For example, even though he went on record, writing a memo to Lee Rankin raising some serious questions about the Warren Report’s evidentiary weaknesses, he also took it upon himself to tie up some of the very loose ends he was concerned with in a way that tamped down evidence tending to show a conspiracy.In this regard, we take a deep dive into the “Odio incident,” wherein Dallas Cuban Silvia Odio was visited by a man she identified as Lee Harvey Oswald in September 1963, among a group of anti-Castro Cubans talking about wanting to assassinate the President. Liebeler’s conduct in that affair paints a disturbing picture of the man and his ethics, which casts further suspicion over his long and illustrious post-Commission career defending the Warren Report in the court of public opinion all over the country. This episode ties off our excavation into the Warren Commission staff attorneys for now, so we conclude it by zooming out to revisit the question we started with way back in Episode 7: How is it possible that all of these independent-minded professional men with no ulterior motives but to find the Truth about the President’s assassination could countenance a coverup of a conspiracy?

We return this week with another installment of our deep dive into the impact of Bert Jenner, the Warren Commission lawyer responsible for preparing the Report’s profile on Lee Harvey Oswald.  And boy has this one taken us places.   Recall that we started out this journey in The Warren Commission Decided Episode 10, by illustrating the deep connection between Jenner and General Dynamics, the company that was awarded a record-breaking $7 billion dollar contract to build a state of the art fighter jet out of its facility in North Texas.  When General Dynamics made this deal, Jenner was lead counsel to the company and its controlling shareholder, Henry Crown, and he also sat on its Board of Directors. This matters because a key focus of Jenner’s investigation was the White Russian colony that formed the Oswalds’ social circle in Dallas in the months leading up to JFK’s assassination, and his key witness from that milieu was Lee Oswald’s good friend, George de Mohrenschildt. We spent much of the last two episodes establishing de Mohrenschildt’s ties to the intelligence community, which had a heavy footprint in Dallas and in the Texas oil industry, and which unsurprisingly overlapped with Jenner’s corporate sugar daddy – General Dynamics.  Having taken a brief contextual detour to explore the de Mohrenschildts, their connection to the underbelly of the corrupt Texas military-industrial-oil-intelligence complex, and Lee Harvey Oswald, we return to Jenner this week and cover the nitty gritty of the work he did interrogating the de Mohrenschildts. In some ways, this episode provides a master class on how to interrogate a witness either to elicit – or avoid – certain testimony.  Whether through intimidation, exhaustion, or even weaponized incompetence, Jenner was learned in all the ways.  And in this episode, we show how Jenner deployed all these tricks to divert investigation away from the North Texas intelligence community and get George de Mohrenschildt to provide exactly the testimony he needed to prop up LHO as the deranged love scorned maniac who shot Kennedy. Remember, we are doing all of this to challenge one of the most persuasive anti-conspiracy lines deployed against Warren Commission critics, which is “how could all of those staff lawyers on the Commission really be in on a coverup? They’re independent-minded guys, and respectable attorneys, with no political bag to carry!” We tie it all back together to show that contrary to the popular argument against the Warren Commission cover up, there is ample evidence to show that all it took was a few key individuals like Jenner or Arlen Specter in the right places.  Even without imputing treasonous or criminal intentions to these cover-uppers, we illustrate how they played a crucial role in controlling the narrative of the Commission’s investigation and the ultimate conclusion that Oswald was the lone nut who capped Jack. Only our most loyal fans would have read this far, and if we’ve got that right, please consider giving us a donation on Patreon so that we can keep this project going: www.Patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeologyWe think you’ll agree when we say that now more than ever the world ought to know how and why it came to be that we are, most unfortunately, living in the Fourth Reich.

Last week, we talked about how President Lyndon Johnson came to put together a top-flight blue ribbon commission to cover up the Kennedy assassination. For the next two episodes, we go around the table and introduce the listener to each of the seven members of that  commission. As we do, we also receive a masterclass on how to lie, manipulate, coerce, and outright strongarm to get your way. At the head of the class is LBJ. Along with its chairman, Earl Warren, the Warren Commission consisted of two members from each chamber of Congress: one Democrat and one Republican. The Commission also had “two members of the public.” This week we cover the Warren Commission’s chairman, its members who served in the House of Representatives, and its Democrat Senator. First, we introduce Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was the ringleader of the ragtag team of spooks, drunks, racists, and rats. Warren was the perfect man to lend his name to the cover-up. He had spent the last 10 years building the public’s trust by overseeing the most progressive shift in the history of Supreme Court jurisprudence, including classics like Brown v. Board of Education and Gideon v. Wainwright. For his Democratic Senator pick, LBJ chose Senator Richard “Dick” Russell of Georgia. Russell mentored LBJ in the Senate and was a logical pick to serve as LBJ’s “inside man.” There was just one problem. Russell was a Dixiecrat and staunch segregationist, which made him Earl Warren’s arch-nemesis. LBJ bullies him like a boy. We play the tapes. It’s incredible.For the Democratic Congressman, LBJ picked Hale Boggs of Louisiana. Where Russell was an offensive pick, Boggs was a defensive one. In the days leading up to the announcement of the Warren Commission, Boggs - who had been a great admirer of the slain JFK - was vocal about the need to initiate an independent, unbiased investigation. To nip that in the bud, LBJ neutralized Boggs by bringing him in the fold. And you know we had to save the best for last. Our day one homie, Jerry Ford. Jerry was the Republican Congressman pick, and LBJ chose him for all the reasons we’ve discussed in Jerryworld. At this point Jerry was a national brand, with a reputation for being a team player, a hard worker, and a straight shooter. In fact, in LBJ’s eyes, Jerry looked like the perfect mark to be his bagman–after all Jerry was still a young up and comer. Little did LBJ know that Jerry was playing him for a fool and serving as mole to none other than J Edgar Hoover.

Published on the 50th Anniversary of his ascension to the highest office in the world, this is the first installment of our excavation into the life, times, and meaning of the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, Jr.  Ford is an ideal case-study for the consolidation of the Fourth Reich through the vessel that is the quintessential modern American everyman. In this episode, we first discuss some of the major recurring themes that mark our exploration of Ford's life. Those are:American Exceptionalism (aka American Imperialism) and settler colonialismThe "Greatest Generation" and the myth of Good Guys (Freedom & Democracy) vs. Bady Guys (Totalitarianism)Freemasonry, other Secret Societies, and their role in American political lifeAmerican expansionism and the promise of unending growthWe will also explore the early years of Gerald Ford’s biography. We touch on the traumas from Jerry’s early days and the horrific events that indelibly marked his psyche: the fraught relationship between his birth parents, the settler-colonial ideology and pedigree of his forebearers, and his ultimate upbringing in a household striving to ascend the socio-economic ladder in middle America straddling the first world war. Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology

In this episode, we start off with a geographical and cultural tour of Grand Rapids, Michigan - Jerry's real hometown - with a little narrative help from the words of Grand Rapids native, Paul Schrader, spoken by the great George C. Scott. The class-based and ethnic lines demarcating the city's neighborhoods, plus the Calvinist work ethic pervading its business community, shaped the man Jerry would grow into.We consider Jerry's choice of the working-class South High School over the more affluent Central High, and run into his early anti-communist sentiments and actions. Jerry became a football star, and with that stardom came popularity. His popularity (and a little willingness to bend the rules) would eventually win him his first trip to the nation's capitol. But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for young Jerry - we'll also dig into Jerry's traumatic reunion with his deadbeat birth-father, Leslie Lynch King, and discuss how Jerry began balancing his budding sense of class-resentment with his instinctive political knack for maintaining good terms with all potential allies.After graduating high school in 1931, it was off to the University of Michigan for Jerry, where he worked his way through school, worked his way into a popular fraternity, and worked his football team to back-to-back national championships. We'll explore the much-mythologized relationship between Jerry and his Black friend and teammate, Willis Ward with a little cameo from none other than George W. Bush.Finally, we will follow Jerry's relationship with the man he'd later refer to as his "real father" forward in time and watch him put his conflict-resolution skills to the test. Patreon: www.patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology

Join us this week in the first installment of what will be a periodic series focused on current events within our Reich, and the historical precedents in Reichs past.  We’re calling it “Fourth Reich Geopolitik.” After a little catch-up on some of the latest expressions of fascism in American politics, we go back to basics and wipe off our patented Fourth Reich lenses.  Recall that when we say “Fourth Reich,” what we refer to is a regime with the same capacity for cruelty and destruction as the high watermark of those qualities: the Third Reich.  To put a finer point on it, our modern US-led global capitalist world order–with the Trump administration at the helm–represents a continuation of the Nazi quest for world domination and the consolidation of capital that dates back to well before the industrial revolution.  We illustrate this continuity by a quick recounting of the “science” of Geopolitics, from the British Lord Halford Mackinder to the Nazi Karl Haushofer, to Haushofer’s American Jesuit acolyte, Edmund A. Walsh, the namesake of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.With our lenses polished, we turn to the real focus of this episode: making sense of the latest developments in the Trump administration’s foreign and domestic policy. As to foreign policy, we look at the war in Ukraine and see the imperial maneuvering of US foreign police reduced to tabloid-level spectacle.  While some might see Trump “sidling up to dictators” or “abandoning our allies,” we see him pulling a reverse-Nixon: Rather than opening up to China to push back on Russia’s global influence, the Trump team is teaming up with Russia to help it knock down the dominoes on the way to Beijing.We then turn inward, looking at domestic policy, and dissect how it is exactly that the Republican party went from the country club party of rich old white men to counting among its ranks the young tech crowd.  For this, we need not look further than Elon Musk.  With Musk, Trump gets not only a jester with a devout silicon valley following but also a vehicle to the growing concern his voter base has with fraud and corruption.  But while Trump and Musk claim they have a mandate from the people to hack away at the federal government to eliminate fraud and waste, their cuts reveal that they are focused largely on agencies–like the Dept. of Education and the CFPB–that have been on Donald Trump’s shit list since the early days of his campaign. We also look at the rhetorical ruse of the Populist Front of the Republican Party led by the likes of Steve Bannon, dissecting their ability to speak several truths only to lull people into a false sense of security and bait-and-switch into fascist eugenics.We try to maintain a positive attitude throughout it all, though admittedly, it is getting harder with every day. The time is nigh to make moves and organize strategically to build power, and if we are to make any progress in the right direction, we need to unfetter ourselves from the corrupt genocidal Democrat Party. Dig in and enjoy! And if you like what you are hearing please drop us a line, give us some support on Patreon, and spread the word! Fourth Reich Archaeology email: fourthreichpod@gmail.comFourth Reich Archaeology Patreon: patreon.com/fourthreicharchaeology