[originally published on March 17, 2024] Efraín Ríos Montt's presidency was the nadir of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, and the worst period of violence - la violencia - took place during it. I begin by discussing his upbringing, class background, and early career as a Guatemalan military officer. He was trained at the School of the Americas (now WHINSEC) in Georgia as well as at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina as well as the Italian War College and Fort Gulick (aka the...

[originally published on Patreon March 16, 2024] By 1970, the literal former head of a death squad was running Guatemala - Colonel Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio. He took the death squad model to the next level, and disappearances skyrocketed. In 1972, the survivors of FAR formed the EGP (Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres, or the Guerrilla Army of the Poor) and shifted from foquismo to a protracted people's war model of insurgency. I discuss the Catholic church's complicated legacy in...

[originally published on Patreon March 15, 2024] Most stories of the 1954 coup end shortly thereafter. We continue with Guatemala barreling right into the Guatemalan Civil War. I start with the Justice Department's antitrust case against United Fruit Company in the immediate aftermath of the 1954 coup.  From there, I go into the curious case of Carlos Manuel Pellecer, a "communist firebrand" who was causing problems for the Arbenz government. Before the coup, I found declassified CIA...

[originally published on Patreon March 14, 2024] I open by discussing Operation SHERWOOD, the CIA's covert attempt to support Castillo Armas' invasion, run by Tracy Barnes and David Atlee Phillips, intentionally modeled after Orson Welles' infamous 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast.  From there, I discuss the invasion proper, the Guatemalan government's diplomatic and military responses, and the chances of success without US air support. I go through the various causes of Arbenz's sudden...

[originally published on Patreon March 13, 2024] I begin the episode with the elephant in the room - the Dulles brothers owning United Fruit Company stock. I explore Sullivan & Cromwell's connections to UFC as well as the Cabot family's ownership of UFC stock, and other government insiders. Depending on your inclinations, you can tell the story of the 1954 coup from the perspective of UFC or the CIA, but as it turns out, UFC and CIA were working symbiotically the whole time and were...

[originally published on Patreon February 27, 2024] I begin with an extended meditation about Arbenz's position in 1951 and the state of the Guatemalan economy. This leads to a discussion of Decree 900, the agrarian reform bill which was passed in 1952. I discuss what it did and did not entail and compare it to Mexico's agrarian reform law as well as the US Alliance for Progress recommendations later. Despite this, United Fruit Company's leadership began to close ranks and draw up battle...

[originally published on Patreon February 27, 2024] I begin discussing Guatemala as early as possible - the Olmec and Mayan civilizations, and the 200 year bloody pacification war against them by the Spanish conquistadores and the Captaincy General of Guatemala.  From there, I jump to Manuel Estrada Cabrera, the president from 1898 to 1920. Cabrera was the president who began signing vast concessions over to Minor Keith, IRCA, and therefore UFC. Cabrera was unseated by Guatemala's...

[originally published on Patreon February 23, 2024] In this episode I discuss Colombia's relationship to United Fruit Company aka El Pulpo. In particular, I open with the massive strikes against UFC in 1928 culminating in the massacre at Ciénaga which was so memorably fictionalized in Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad.  From there, I discuss the curious case of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and his assassination in 1948 which triggered El Bogotazo, a wave of civil unrest and violence...

[originally published on Patreon February 15, 2024] Today I discuss more criminals involved in the banana trade, introducing the Vaccaro Brothers and Sam the Banana Man Zemurray. I discuss that intersection between organized crime and Wall Street that intersected precisely in the banana trade through these figures.  I go through Zemurray's career, from his start in Alabama, his Cuyamel Fruit Company, the Honduran coup of 1911 and the concurrent takeover of Honduran national debt by JP...

[originally published on Patreon March 15, 2024] Today is the opening salvo for a 15-part series on the rolling waves of crimes involving the Octopus that is United Fruit Company, the banana trade, Guatemala specifically, and Central America more generally, culminating in the Guatemalan Genocide. In this episode, I discuss the origins of the Octopus. aka Boston Fruit Company aka the United Fruit Company aka the New Orleans Banana Trust. I know for a fact that much of this history has...

[originally published on Patreon February 9, 2024] As if I didn't discuss the Tupamaros enough, I revisit the story in light of even more information I found. In particular, I look at a RAND report on the MLN-T and cross-reference it with several more books on the group. This leads us to the interestingly-named Plan Satán, as well as much more context for the Mitrione kidnapping. I also found more information on the Nixon administration's decisions at the time. Then, CJ and I act out a...

[originally published February 7, 2024] I finish the story of Manuel Hevia Coscullela, the Cuban spy, based off his memoir, Pasaporte 11333 : ocho años con la CIA (1978). I examine what exactly Hevia was doing for the agency and what USAID's Office of Public Safety was up to. I discuss Lyndon B. Johnson's visit to Punta del Este, Uruguay for the Organization of American States (OAS) summits/conferences and how that affected the domestic political climate. I get obsessed with the story...

[originally published on Patreon February 1, 2024] I continue the extended story of the Tupamaros by examining the life of Manuel Hevia Coscullela, the Cuban double (or triple) agent embedded in the CIA in Uruguay. I obtained his memoir, Pasaporte 11333 : ocho años con la CIA (1978) and translated various passages into English. As far as I know, this is the first time this has ever been done. Hevia's story begins before the Cuban revolution, and I explain his education and upbringing...

[originally published on Patreon January 25, 2024] Today I'm rejoined by Dr. Pig Bodine aka CJ (@pussy___teeth) to continue our discussion on the 1972 film State of Siege by Costa-Gavras. We open with a discussion on the death squad as a general concept and in its specific applications in Uruguay.  Then, we discuss exactly why the Tupamaros were so effective and, despite that, why they were brought down so quickly. As it turns out, they were brought down due to the same factors that...

[originally published on Patreon January 18, 2024] Today I am rejoined by old friend of the show Dr. Pig Bodine aka CJ (@pussy___teeth) to discuss the 1972 film State of Siege by Costa-Gavras. We begin by reviewing the plot of the film and the real-life events.  From there, we quickly descend into darkness as we discuss the life of Dan Mitrione (beyond all the Jim Jones stuff). This leads us to ask why the field of parapolitics research into MKULTRA has been so incredibly unfruitful...

[originally published on Patreon Today I'm joined by Fergal Schmudlach (@irregnata) from the Kingless Generation podcast to discuss paleo-parapolitics.  We start by discussing several points of mutual interest regarding Japan. Then we get into what anthropology can tell us about Marxism and serial killing. We talk about The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity by Brian Hayden among other...

[originally published on Patreon January 12, 2024] Today I'm joined by Reid (@seriations) to finish our conversation about Ira 'the Unicorn' Einhorn.  We pick up on his life story by getting into Einhorn's attempts at publishing both his own works and that of others. To that end, we discuss Einhorn as crank, Einhorn as magician, and especially Einhorn's ongoing fixation with extremely low frequency technology. Then we get into Holly Maddox, the Maddox family, and Einhorn's long history...

[originally published on Patreon January 5, 2024] Today I'm joined by Reid (@seriations) to continue our conversation about Ira 'the Unicorn' Einhorn. We get into Einhorn's relationship to Andrija Puharich, his involvement with Earth Day, Bell Telephone company, and the development of "Einhorn's Network". Reid explains the importance of the Diebold Corporation and how this all might be a sophisticated method of OSINT and espionage, among whatever else it may have been. Note: in the...

[originally published on Patreon Dec 29, 2023] Today I'm joined by Reid (@seriations) to discuss maybe the most conceited man in the world - Ira 'the Unicorn' Einhorn. In this episode, we get into Einhorn's family history and early life, his time studying to be a guru, and his work as a snitch and informant. I lost my damn mind researching a related figure, Weldon Melick, who very much appears to be Something, but what that Something is, isn't entirely clear to me. Then we get into...

[originally published on Patreon Dec 22, 2023] Today I'm joined by Nick Vyssotsky (@cuss_otaku) to discuss Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid video game franchise. Nick takes us through the franchise's alternate history and we discuss the various themes involving Private Military Contractors, parapsychology, Programed to Kill themes, black budgets, AI guided governance, and on and on. Then I discuss the real-world example of a particular PMC, Keenie Meenie Services. I discuss their...

[originally published on Patreon Dec 15, 2023] After having introduced accounting concepts and laid out their applications in Jamaica, I continue my close reading of Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal. I discuss the nature of 'book farming', the nature and origin of value, and discuss the ubiquity of King Cotton in the US and world economy. I cover the fungibility of labor, perverse concepts of depreciation, and get into the postbellum developments in the...

[originally published on Patreon Dec 9, 2023] Having laid out various accounting concepts, I now introduce their application in a horrible setting: plantation accounting in Jamaica. To do this, I rely on a close reading of Accounting for Slavery: Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal. Her work simply demolishes the traditional business history about the development of these concepts. As it turns out, slave plantations actually led the global economy in new developments of field and...

[originally published on Patreon Today I attempt to trace the history of accounting from renaissance Venice through the robber barons into the modern era. Along the way, I opine on the nature of moneylending, Shylock, and drill down six key accounting concepts necessary to understanding the next two episodes. While I tried to keep this episode from being boring, it's very much a setup episode. episode art by Robert Voyvodich @r.voy__ Songs: Count This Money by Gucci Mane Countin’...

[originally published on Patreon Nov 22, 2023] Today I'm rejoined by Comrade Chad to continue our discussion about post-Trotsky Trotskyism in the US. We continue discussing Burnham's various intrigues and we go pretty deep on Joseph Hansen's perfidious career. Along the way we get into the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Socialist Workers Party history generally. I go through Lyndon LaRouche's early career as a Trot leading up to him starting his own idiosyncratic...

[originally published on Patreon Nov 17, 2023] Today I'm rejoined by Comrade Chad to discuss post-Trotsky Trotskyism in the US, especially their penchant for attacking communism 'from the left'. Comrade Chad walks us through some of the theory and vocabulary necessary. Then we zero in on James Cannon, Max Schactman and James Burnham in particular. We attempt to explain the theoretical positions this entailed within both Trotskyism. Marxism, and Cold War geopolitics before explaining their...