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...

As promised, we are digging into the surprising story of the formation of the Warren Commission over the week succeeding Lee Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby on November 24, 1963. Most observers assume that the idea originated with President Lyndon Baines Johnson, whose name was on the Executive Order creating the Commission on November 29, but that is far from the case. In fact, Johnson - and FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover - initially opposed the creation of a presidential commission, preferring to...

UNLOCKED: We promised to release this, our first piece of paywalled content, for free as soon as our wonderful listeners got the first episode of THE WARREN COMMISSION DECIDED over 1,000 streams. You all pulled through in record time, so we hope you enjoy this little spooky story about Lee Harvey Oswald's attempted defection to the Soviet Union on Halloween, 1959. The consular officials who witnessed his performance said it looked rehearsed, like a man reciting memorized lines. But who wrote...

We are in the big game now. Jack gets capped and it’s up to FBI informant Gerald Ford Jr. and a ragtag band of Fourth Reichsmen helmed by ex-CIA chief, Allen Dulles, to investigate (read: cover up) the murder.  We recap the first half of Jerry’s life’s work and his entry into the keystone of the political pyramid, including the insane amount of intersections Jerry has with historical personages and events, with a heavy center of gravity in the intelligence community… We’re in the late...

Join us as we take a final dusting to the artifact-in-the-making that is the 2024 presidential election. Will we make an endorsement? Not likely. Will we have a few laughs? Definitely. We’ve subjected ourselves to hours upon hours of presidential slop. We went ears deep in the trough for you, listener. We’ll give a few highlights from Kamala’s performance on the Breakfast Club, Trump on Rogan, JD Vance on Tim Dillon. Seriously, we had to bathe with a steel loofah after listening to all this...

In Money Pt. 2, we switch lenses from macro to micro and link back up with Jerry as he navigates the scene we set in part one. Recall that in part one, we gave a big-picture view of the U.S. as it emerged out of WWII as the victor and began its reign over the rubble left in the wake of the War.  We discussed how the “Cold War” was not so cold after all, as Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen’s “stay-behind” armies (under the direction and on the payroll of the ClA) waged guerrilla warfare against...

Congressman Gerald R. Ford Jr. - once upon a time known as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. - is in the money. Not literally. Yet. But he’s moving major stacks for Uncle Sam. You see, with a maneuver of cunning and of sidling up to just the right power brokers, Jerry lands himself a seat on the much-coveted House Appropriations Committee in his first term in office. From rookie to MVP contender in the House. Not only that, but he’s also on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.  This is another...

Here we go! In our last episode, Jerry bought the ticket to Congress, and in this episode, he takes the ride. Already aboard the ride and two years deep into their own nascent political careers were fellow Navy combat vets Jack Kennedy and Dick Nixon, whom we cover in this episode. This week, we pick things up with Jerry during the first term of his Congressional career. He's the classic outsider candidate turned people's Congressman. You know Jerry is on that grindset, and once he is in...

We're back with Part 2 of Love / Machine! After a quick recap of Part 1, we link up with our hero circa 1948. Jerry's in Grand Rapids practicing law at the firm of Butterfield, Keeney & Amberg, where Harvard-trained OG superlawyer Julius Amberg takes Jerry under his wing. We dig into Amberg's background, yielding rich results. Amberg is the scion of Grand Rapids's first well-established Jewish family. And wouldn't you believe it, Amberg's grandfather even once held the same...

Jerryworld is back, baby! This week, we introduce the female lead in our saga, Betty Bloomer Ford, and we explore the parallels and rhymes between Betty’s and Jerry’s lives. For example, like Jerry, Betty was raised by a mother who was acutely aware of ancestry, social status, and etiquette. In fact, Betty’s mother, Hortense, and Jerry’s mother, Dorothy, ran in the same social circles.  Also, like Jerry, Betty had an alcoholic biological father who spent much of his life tormented by his...

It's Fourth Reich Archaeology's first interview, and it's with the great Clancy-hunter himself, Matt Farwell. Matt and Don grab their shovels and break a little ground on Propaganda. We talk about super-spook Frank Wisner, into whose life and archives Matt has been plunging, and the way Wisner played the press like a "Mighty Wurlitzer" before losing his mind, first figuratively, then literally. We connect the dots from CIA to the media, the newspapers, and the major publishing houses, and -...

We're back in Jerryworld in times of war. After a quick recap, we follow Jerry Ford into the Navy in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Jerry quickly finds himself in his element - leading sports and physical training among the recruits just like in his (very recent) coaching days. But he's not contented with stability and gets back on his grindset, landing himself significant promotion and a spot on the bridge of a light carrier in the Pacific theater. Once again, the hand of...

This week on Fourth Reich Archaeology, it's back to business as usual at our favorite dig site—Jerryworld. In a two part episode called "WAR,” we explore the four wars Jerry fought in the 1940s.  Of course, there is WWII, in which Jerry was a Navy man on board the USS Monterey. Leveraging the charm he inherited from his biological father, the keen social awareness he obtained from his mother, and the attitude he adopted from his stepfather, Jerry moves up the ranks onboard the “Mighty...

This week on Fourth Reich Archaeology, we take a brief hiatus from Jerryworld and travel back to the present day for a special episode on the 2024 election cycle.   A true American spectacle, the sights and sounds of the 2024 campaign trail appear to have been inspired by the pomp and circumstance of modern professional wrestling. In fact, with a steady bombardment of character arcs, secret alliances, double-crosses, over-the-top walkout songs, cheesy catchphrases, and interludes from...

In our most noided episode yet, we follow Gerald Ford to Yale University where he first worked as a coach before studying in the law school. He spent several formative years in New Haven, from 1935-1941, overlapping with such figures as CIA Counterintelligence Chief James Jesus Angleton, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart and Byron White, and many more. We dig deep into the whole Yale milieu of the time - how curious that Jerry finds himself in the land of...

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...

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...

Welcome to Fourth Reich Archaeology! This episode provides an exegesis on the idea and concept behind the podcast - namely, that the global capitalist world order led by the United States represents a continuation of the Nazi quest for world domination and total control. Indeed, we posit that the current US-led world marks a stage in a continuous process dating back at least to the age of European "exploration" and conquest, through the "enlightenment" and industrial revolution, and into...