As early as February 2020, with the pandemic looming on the horizon as a huge potential liability for the Republicans, the Council for National Policy (CNP) identified three strategies that might help to avoid a loss—or at the very least muddy the waters. According to author Anne Nelson:
The first involved expanding their use of data to juice Republican votes and suppress Democratic turnout. The second was to mobilize supporters in swing states to ignite Tea Party–like protests against the virus-related public safety lockdowns. The third was to deploy physicians with dubious credentials to dismiss the dangers of Covid-19 through a massive media blitz.
It wasn’t a great strategy, and they knew they had a weak hand. They figured that the only solution would be to somehow prevent certification of the vote, such that they could put results in play in at least a few states.
In April 2020, shortly after Easter, and after just about a month of lockdowns, coordinated protests emerged in about eighteen states. Filmmaker Mikki Willis, a propagandist who had also been present at Standing Rock, released the propaganda film Plandemic in April featuring discredited researcher Dr. Judy Mikovits.
Violence over the summer in response to the murder of George Floyd helped to crystallize “Antifa” as a rhetorical foil to any right-wing factions such as the Proud Boys, Three Percenters or Oath Keepers—despite the false equivalence. While there had been established white supremacist groups for many decades, anti-fascist groups had considerably less history and organizational heft. But this ersatz match-up between two opposing “sides” imparted a menacing atmosphere of conflict.
By the time people began to go to the polls in October, concerns about the integrity of the US Postal Service (vital for mail-in ballots) had reached a fever pitch, leaving many with feelings of uncertainty, and that “anything might happen.”
Meanwhile, leading CNP figures had begun to realize that they would need to deploy their full range of capabilities to retain control of power—or, crucially, to forcefully seize it in the event of an election loss. Advisors began exploring strategies they could use in the event of the loss of either the popular vote or the Electoral College, or both.
Also in February 2020, CNP member Lisa Nelson, the CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), launched a strategic push to ensure state legislatures knew they would be part of any strategy to challenge the electoral vote, and that they planned to challenge individual secretaries of state and inquire “what really did happen that night?” (Ultimately, they set out to physically intervene in the states’ certification, and reportedly aimed to intercept the electoral ballots themselves.)
The network behind January 6th had been coalescing in 2018–2019 in meetings of CNP and the Schlafly Eagles. On September 14, 2018 at the Schlafly Eagles annual conference in St. Louis, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn was awarded the inaugural “Jack Singlaub Award.” Presented by Ed Martin of the Schlafly Eagles and also of Singlaub’s own group, America’s Future, Flynn graciously accepted the award. Many people involved in promoting aspects of the operation were present, including Jack Posobiec, Cassandra Fairbanks, Mike Cernovich, Jim Hoft, and of course, Michael Flynn, his brother Joe, and his son Michael.
※ 2018年9月14日、「2018 Schlafly Eagle Forum Award Dinner」を開催しました。(ツイッター)
In 2019, the same gathering included even more characters who would go on to become involved in the lead up to and events of January 6th, including Scott Presler, Ali Alexander, Brandon Straka (Walkaway), Jack Posobiec, Logan Cook (Carpe Donktum), and Tony “Spooky” Shaffer. Steve Bannon, who would later go on to say on January 5th, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” also spoke at the Schlafly Eagle Forum in 2019.
Two months later, when the election was called for Joe Biden on Saturday, November 7, 2020 (a moment I remember well, as I was standing on the Ellipse at the White House that morning—the same site where the January 6th rally would be organized by CNP member Kylie Kremer just two months later), the CNP network and all its allies were fully activated. This was war.
On November 10, Trump installed a clique of four loyalists at the Pentagon and NSA, several notches above their normal pay-grade. He placed Ezra Cohen-Watnick (a former aide to both Flynn and Devin Nunes) as Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security; Anthony Tata as Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Kash Patel as Chief of staff, Defense Department; and Michael Ellis as General Counsel at NSA. This seemed to be a strategic move, but it wasn’t entirely clear why at the time.
※ パウエル、フリン、トランプJr. "The Plot Against the President "にて。(アマンダ・ミリウス、2020年)
Several co-conspirators, including Patel, Stone, Flynn attorney Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Jack Posobiec, and many others, also appeared in the propaganda film, “The Plot Against the President,” available free on Amazon Prime. The film suggests that Trump was framed in an attempted deep state “coup” during the 2016 transition period—a projection of what was actually happening in 2020.
また、パテル、ストーン、フリン、弁護士のシドニー・パウエル、ルディ・ジュリアーニ、ジャック・ポソビエックなど、複数の共犯者が、アマゾン・プライムで無料公開されているプロパガンダ映画「The Plot Against the President」に出演しています。この映画では、トランプ大統領が2016年の政権移行期にディープステートによる「クーデター」を企てられたことを示唆しており、2020年に実際に起こっていたことを投影しています。
Parler, a conservative clone of Twitter (created in 2018, following the suggestion by Konstantin Malofeev), had seen a massive uptick in downloads in the days following the election and was being used to attract an audience for planned Stop The Steal rallies. On November 13, I exposed details that raised questions about Parler’s possible links to Russia and to Rebekah Mercer.
Twitterの保守的なクローンであるParler（Konstantin Malofeevの提案を受けて2018年に作成）は、選挙後の数日間でダウンロード数が大幅に増加し、計画されている「Stop The Steal」の集会の聴衆を集めるために使用されていました。11月13日、私はパーラーがロシアやレベッカ・マーサーとつながっている可能性について疑問を呈する詳細を暴露しました。
So let’s talk about Parler. Where did it come from? Founder John Matze met his now wife, Alina Mukhutdinova, in May 15, 2016 in Las Vegas. Alina is from Kazan, Russia. She was on a two week road trip “vacation” across the USA with a friend.
ワシントンで行われた第1回「Stop The Steal Rally」の開催日である11月14日、ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル紙は、パーラー社の所有者がレベッカ・マーサーが主に出資しているとされる不透明なシェル企業であることを確認しました。レベッカ・マーサーは、1月にCEOのジョン・マッツェを解雇し、CNPのメンバーでTea Party Patriotsの創設者であるマーク・メクラーを後任に任命しています。パーラーは現在、下院の監視委員会の調査対象となっている)。
Alexander and Alex Jones did a dry run at the Georgia capitol on November 18. A second stop the steal rally was organized for December 12. Jones, Flynn, Stone, and Alexander were speakers at all three main events on November 14, December 12, and January 5–6.
アレクサンダーとアレックス・ジョーンズは、11月18日にジョージア州の国会議事堂で予行演習を行いました。12月12日には2回目のstop the steal集会が開催されました。ジョーンズ、フリン、ストーン、アレクサンダーは、11月14日、12月12日、1月5～6日の3つのメインイベントすべてで講演を行いました。
Michael Flynn was pardoned by the president and by William Barr on November 30, 2020. He and his attorney Sidney Powell met with the president on December 18 to convince him to declare martial law. White House Counsel Pat Cipillone is said to have talked him out of it.
The danger was palpable. On Sunday, January 3, anticipating what appeared to be brewing within the defense and intelligence community, all ten living former Secretaries of Defense issued a joint letter, stating: “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”
At least five Oath Keepers who did security for Roger Stone have been charged with taking part in the 1/6 attack on the Capitol. https://t.co/nODrrj9674 Stone says never met his security guards; didn't see their faces. But here he is with his security detail from a 12/14 event. pic.twitter.com/yslkJ9euGm
Steve Bannon evoked the beaches of Normandy. Michael Flynn drew comparisons to Civil War battlefields and spoke of Americans who died for their country. Roger Stone called it a struggle “between the godly and the godless, between good and evil.” Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat.” Ali Alexander said it would be a “knife fight.”
CNP members were key players in the preparation and execution of the failed coup. Author Anne Nelson has documented CNP’s extensive involvement in her excellent piece published February 22. Dr. Simone Gold pushed COVID disinformation, and was inside the Capitol on January 6th. Sidney Powell worked with Flynn and lawyer Lin Wood on ludicrous legal strategies and typo-laden lawsuits. Cleta Mitchell pleaded, with Trump, to Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger for 11,781 votes. Dr. Scott Magill, of Veterans in Defense of Liberty, summoned veterans and bikers to participate, saying “our battle cry shall be, ‘We will not concede!’”
CNPのメンバーは、失敗したクーデターの準備と実行に重要な役割を果たした。作家のアン・ネルソンは、2月22日に発表された素晴らしい記事の中で、CNPの広範な関与を記録しています。シモーネ・ゴールド博士は、COVIDの偽情報を流し、1月6日には国会議事堂内にいた。シドニー・パウエルは、フリンやリン・ウッド弁護士と協力して、おかしな法的戦略や誤字脱字の多い訴訟を行った。クレタ・ミッチェルは、トランプと一緒に、ジョージア州のブラッド・ラフェンスパーガーに11,781票を嘆願しました。Veterans in Defense of LibertyのScott Magill博士は、退役軍人やバイカーを召集し、"我々の戦闘の掛け声は、「我々は譲歩しない！」とする "と述べました。
CNP heavyweight Ginni Thomas, wife of Clarence Thomas, enthusiastically supported the January 6th coup; she recanted weeks later. Charlie Kirk helped coordinate transportation to the rally. Brent Bozell IV, son of CNP 30-year executive committee veteran Brent Bozell III, entered the Senate chamber and directed C-SPAN’s camera at the floor.
※ CNPのシモーネ・ゴールド博士、1月6日にキャピトルで開催された Mikki Willisと "Plandemic "のDavid Martin博士が出演するイベントの広告。(Washington Post, Facebook)
On January 3rd, Kylie Kremer, daughter of CNP’s Amy Kremer (who founded Tea Party Patriots with now-Parler CEO Mark Meckler), took out the permit for the rally at the Ellipse. “Plandemic” filmmaker and Standing Rock operative Mikki Willis joined and praised the violent mob, and David E. Martin from Plandemic II spoke at the MAGA Freedom Rally on January 5th. Ali Alexander is, at the time of this writing, “at large,” hosting chats on social audio app Clubhouse, even as others whose involvement was minimal in comparison have been arrested.
1月3日には、CNPのエイミー・クレマー（現パーラーCEOのマーク・メクラーと一緒にティーパーティー・パトリオットを設立した）の娘であるカイリー・クレマーがエリプスでの集会の許可証を出した。"Plandemic "の映画監督でスタンディングロックの工作員であるミッキー・ウィリスは、この暴力的な暴徒に参加して賞賛し、"Plandemic II "のデビッド・E・マーティンは、1月5日に開催されたMAGAフリーダムラリーで講演しました。アリ・アレクサンダーはこの記事を書いている時点では「逃亡中」で、ソーシャル・オーディオ・アプリ「Clubhouse」でチャットを主催していますが、それに比べれば関与の度合いが低い他の人々は逮捕されています。
Pentagon leaders installed as part of Trump purge last month blocked DC National Guard from getting riot gear and ammunition as protesters descended on Capitol. https://t.co/zggrUhfRgo
The Pentagon’s three hour and 19 minute delay in sending National Guard troops was a key cause of the breach of the US Capitol. Capitol Police and the Pentagon have advanced conflicting narratives. The Washington Post reported that some of the delays in making the decision to send troops to the Capitol were caused by the team of loyalists installed by Trump on November 10. Additionally, Michael Flynn’s brother, Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, was part of that decision—a fact that the Army initially lied about. We still do not have a coherent explanation for what happened at the Pentagon that day, and where Flynn himself was as this unfolded. Congress must launch a full investigation.
Heavy participation from people in the military and intelligence community in promotion, preparation, and execution of the event suggests a coordinated networked insurgency. As reported in Part 4, a network of former military and intelligence veterans were instrumental in promoting and advancing the narratives associated with QAnon and that ultimately led to the insurrection.
Additionally, researchers examining the Virginia Citizens Defense League believe that Flynn was directly networked with that group, per the poster on his wall in the video above bearing their logo.
The events of January 6th were the expression of a long-standing conflict between two powerful networks. Like two tectonic plates colliding, the conflict resulted in the release of energy in the form of violence, bewilderment, and the rupture of the values and norms of democracy.
The paradigms of left or right and Democrat or Republican have negative utility when trying to evaluate what occurred here, as these networked conflicts are longstanding and have persisted through time. This conflict has roots in the 20th century world wars, and in the US civil war. In history, themes ebb and flow, and some long-standing conflicts return repeatedly over time until a new consensus can be synthesized.
This is entirely appropriate. Left/right has negative utility in a world populated by performative play-actors and political technologists who use “common sense” ideas as leverage to radicalize people into increasingly unruly factions.
In this case, I believe the primary conflict can be traced back to the idea of “molestation,” and a deep-seated human obsession with the idea of “property.” For some, it is a primary concern. For others, it is secondary to the well-being of society as a whole. We may never fully resolve this, and indeed people who are most enamored with “property,” have developed extensive frameworks predicated on the concept and informed by the non-aggression principle: libertarianism and paleo-conservatism.
A world rooted in the “gold standard” is closer to what libertarians think is a “just” system. Opponents suggest it is also one more likely to fall victim to boom and bust cycles, fascist and authoritarian tendencies, and war and famine. Bitcoin is an attempt to enshrine the libertarian value system in code, and its advocates would very much like to migrate global finances entirely to it. They also tend to believe that intelligence should be used as a tool to keep “subversives” (namely, anti-property ‘communists’) in line.
For most people, these are arcane and counterproductive points of debate. Most people just want to have a comfortable life where they can stay healthy, do some good, achieve some goals, and enjoy the comforts of family.
In the end, it’s about trust. Ideological libertarians want a world where trust is not necessary, because they do not think people or institutions are trustworthy. Most other people feel differently, and believe that trust is not only possible but necessary in order to build a workable world. And some see positive points on both sides of the argument.
At this point, you will not be surprised to learn that Jack Singlaub was obsessed with gold, and traveled to the Phillippines in 1988 to recover Yamashita’s gold, stashed at the end of World War II. CNP researcher Anne Nelson was in the room in 1988 when he delivered funds to Malacanang Palace, related to his hunt for gold—a hunt that may have been partly successful. Pieces of this story even became part of QAnon folklore, whether true or not.
Others have begun to notice that the same people who infiltrated Standing Rock and promoted QAnon were deeply involved in Occupy Wall Street chapters around the world. Lisa Clapier, the QAnon figure known as “SnowWhite7IAM” ran communications for Occupy LA.
PAGING LISA CLAPIER who set up media at Occupy LA: We’re you involved in the creation of QANON while using our resources to brainwash our comrades and use them as cannon fodder in the name of white supremacy?!?
This won’t be settled anytime soon. But we can expose it to sunlight. We can stop bickering over the daily stream of provocations and focus on the broader themes of history. We can understand that political technologists are using our “common sense” notions as leverage to radicalize people into increasingly unruly factions.
The concept of “Russian meddling” was a bad frame. Rather, we are confronting a global network of ruthless aligned interests that is willing to use fascism and the banner of “anti-communism” to gain and retain power. And that network includes participants in the United States, Russia, UK, Europe and many other countries. Russia’s activity in the United States was a collaboration between peers—not an outside intervention. And we must also hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its many gross human rights violations.
The lust for power, sex, and wealth knows no bounds, and unless we expose and control it, it will fully and permanently overwhelm the institutions of democracy.
Today when people talk about molestation, they are almost always talking about sexual molestation. This wasn’t always the case. In the past, it had been used in connection in discussion of libertarian theory, which has since gone on to inform so-called “paleoconservative” political philosophies.
In libertarianism, molestation describes the subversion of the will of another. If someone has a cookie, and someone else takes it, the taker is “molesting” the cookie’s owner. This sounds nutty to a modern reader, but when this theory was being advanced in the 1950’s, it sounded more normal than it does today.
Oneof the best known advocates of this concept was Robert LeFevre. He lectured extensively on the idea of molestation and what he saw as the cure to the so-called “non-aggression principle.”
LeFevre and other hardline libertarian thinkers asserted that any “aggression” is inherently illegitimate, where “aggression” is defined as the “initiation” of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property.
“Sacrifice and Molestation” by Robert LeFevre, distributed by the Ludwig von Mises Institute (YouTube)
To followers of this philosophy, taxation was a kind of aggression, as was any sort of intervention of any kind—to the point where government itself was seen as a violation of one’s individual rights. Because he was opposed to government, critics called LeFevre an “anarchist.” LeFevre responded by refining his views, claiming he was an “autarchist” — in favor of individual sovereign self-rule. He claimed that “natural law” is above the law of the state.
LeFevre was extremely influential, and advanced his philosophies to high-profile students through multiple educational institutions he founded, including Freedom School, Rampart College, and The Rampart Institute. LeFevre recruited notable proto-libertarian thinkers such as Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and Rose Wilder Lane as teachers.
Jane Mayer reported in her book Dark Money (2017) that LeFevre recruited one follower who would go on to become very influential, Charles Koch. Through his father Fred’s connection to the John Birch Society, Robert Love of the Love Box Company introduced Charles to LeFevre’s school. Koch would go on to provide financial support to the Freedom School and also serve as an executive and trustee.
Another notable graduate of the Freedom School was Kerry Thornley, one of the founders of Discordianism, a kind of “parody religion” which exerted an outsized influence on later cultural movements.
But before LeFevre founded the Freedom school, and a brief stint in the US Army Air Corps, he had been indicted in 1940 for his participation in the “I AM” movement, along with its founders, Guy and Edna Ballard. According to Mayer, “I AM” was a movement that “worked audiences into frenzies as they chanted in response to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s names, ‘Annihilate them!’.” The growth of the “I AM” activity was closely aligned with rise of American fascism in the 1930’s.
For centuries, there have periodically been false allegations that Jews murder Christians — especially children — to use their blood for ritual purposes. It has persisted despite Jewish denials and official repudiations by the Catholic Church and many secular authorities. Most commonly, this is called the “Blood Libel Myth.”
Around 1902, a new piece of propaganda, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion appeared in Russia and was quickly disseminated around the world. A hoax, it alleged a global Jewish conspiracy to control the world. Today, holocaust deniers such as David Icke wrongly assert the factuality of “Protocols.” Both ‘Blood Libel’ and ‘Protocols’ have been readily incorporated into modern conspiracy thinking and have proven to be very resilient, if false, myths. On March 16, 2021, (the day this piece was published), a Capitol Police officer was suspended for having a copy of “Protocols” at his desk.
In recent years we have seen the rise of what’s come to be called “cancel culture,” wherein people who have been revealed as sexually transgressive are subjected to public reprobation. Whether it is for alleged abuse of children (Woody Allen), abuse of women (Harvey Weinstein; Bill Cosby), or even just behavioral impropriety in this area (Al Franken; Garrison Keillor; Andrew Cuomo), we are now all very familiar with what it means to be culturally “cancelled.” (And to be clear, there is no excuse for abusive behavior.)
“Our strategy will be to bleed this corrupt culture dry,” the document declares. “We will pick off the most intelligent and creative individuals in our society, the individuals who help give credibility to the current regime.” … “Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them…. We will maintain a constant barrage of criticism against the Left. We will attack the very legitimacy of the Left…. We will use guerrilla tactics to undermine the legitimacy of the dominant regime” (emphasis added).
Taken in the context of a 4th Generation “total war,” systematically “picking off” prominent figures is an effective way to shift cultural norms and mores. By conflating libertarian “molestation” of property with that of children and women — particularly when wielded against enemies such as immigrants, central bankers, and people deemed culturally transgressive—it is possible to effectively mobilize a wide swath of the population in service of the libertarian and right-wing agenda.
After all, who is willing to stand up in favor of “molestation?”
結局のところ、誰が "痴漢 "を支持し立ち上がるのだろうか？
Robert David Steele, presiding over the International Tribunal of Natural Justice, discussing child trafficking. ロバート・デビッド・スティール（元CIA捜査官）、自然正義の国際法廷を主宰し、子供の人身売買について議論している。
One of the central narratives in the QAnon myth is that a cabal of Satanic pedophiles runs the world and drinks the blood of terrified children in order to obtain “adrenochrome,” enabling them to live forever. This is, of course, nonsense and a blatant recycling of the Blood Libel Myth.
While no one is sure of the exact origins of QAnon, by 2020 it had crawled from the sewer of obscure internet message boards to earn the endorsement of a long list of former military and intelligence professionals we cited in Part 4 of this series.
Michael Flynn has been deeply engaged in promoting QAnon and its many narratives, including pro-Trump missives penned by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò—an ally of Steve Bannon’s connected with the far-right Catholic faction Opus Dei. And Flynn is still promoting in QAnon in 2021, despite the fact that the last “Q” post was on December 8, 2020.
Investigations into QAnon have shown that Robert David Steele (video shown above) pushed the Pizzagate child sex abuse scandal as far back as 2016. Thomas Schoenberger, another person cited in investigations and linked to Flynn through mutual associates Nasser Kazeminy and Bijan Kian as far back as 2010, uses the alias “Thomas St. Germain”— a reference to “St. Germain,” the chief spiritual entity in the “I AM” cult movement.
Lisa Clapier, known as “SnowWhite7IAM” has also promoted “I AM” cult content, and was part of Occupy LA in 2011. Manuel Chavez III, known as “Defango,” worked with Schoenberger on an internet puzzle called Cicada 3301. Chavez also claims to have worked with Brittany Kaiser on the Obama campaign—before she joined Cambridge Analytica (see Part 1).
"SnowWhite7IAM "として知られるリサ・クラピエは、"I AM "のカルトコンテンツを宣伝しており、2011年には "Occupy LA "にも参加していました。「Defango」ことManuel Chavez IIIは、Schoenbergerと一緒に「Cicada 3301（シケイダ3301）」というインターネットパズルを作っていました。また、チャベスは、ケンブリッジ・アナリティカに入社する前のブリタニー・カイザーとオバマキャンペーンで一緒に働いていたと主張している（第1回参照）。
Both Steele and Clapier have promoted a two-part series of new-agey films called “Thrive” made by Foster Gamble, an heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune. The film made something of a splash when it premiered in 2011, but reviewers quickly found that it in addition to being new age woo nonsense, it was anti-Semitic libertarian propaganda that used LeFevre’s non-aggression principle as a cudgel against central banks and government alike.
QAnon combines LeFevre’s “I AM”, Freedom School, and Rampart teachings into a cultish one-size-fits-all religion—modeled on the Discordianism created by LeFevre’s student Kerry Thornley in 1963, and pushed by Flynn and a network of former military and intelligence officials.
Anti-communist hard-liners in the military and intelligence community have been in conflict with the idea of civilian oversight for decades. The novel “Seven Days In May,”released in September 1962, depicts this conflict in gripping detail. A film adaptation began production in 1963. Inspired in part by the 1933 “Business Plot” exposed by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, it also deftly spoke to current events.
The John Birch Society, created in late 1958 by publisher Robert Welch and other co-founders including oil magnate Fred C. Koch, had been gaining in influence. The group was named after John Birch, who had served as a military intelligence officer in China during World War II, and then in August 1945 served in the OSS—the military intelligence division that later became the CIA. Birch was killed by Chinese communists in late August 1945, and Welch wanted to make sure his story was never forgotten: he wrote a biography of Birch in 1954 and then formed the Society in 1958. (It is unclear whether Birch would have approved of this use of his name.)
General Edwin Walker met Welch in 1959 and became well-known for his far-right anti-communist rhetoric, going so far to claim that President Eisenhower was a communist, citing his continuance of support for New Deal programs. In late 1961, Walker began his political career and by February 1962 had launched a campaign to become governor of Texas. His caustic rhetoric had attracted the praise of American Nazi-party leaders, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Kennedy.
President Kennedy offered director John Frankenheimer support in making “Seven Days In May,” including permission to film scenes around the White House while Kennedy vacationed. The film was released in February, 1964—just months after Kennedy’s assassination—to critical acclaim.
Spoiler alert: the plot centers on the attempted military takeover of the US Government by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a secret military base where resources were being staged. The President discovered the scheme, fired those involved in the conspiracy, and opted to keep the details secret, lest its exposure would reveal the country’s internal weakness to the Soviet Union. The plotters, led by Gen. James Mattoon Scott, were concerned that the president was being too soft on the Soviets. But the real conflict was over democracy or fascism, as illustrated in this scene below.
General James Mattoon Scott: James Mattoon Scott, as you put it, hasn’t the slightest interest in his own glorification. But he does have an abiding interest in the survival of this country.
President Jordan Lyman: Then, by God, run for office. You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country — why in the name of God don’t you have any faith in the system of government you’re so hell-bent to protect?
The tension captured in Seven Days between fascism and democratic principles continues to this day, often defying strict party lines. The John Birch Society network has had allies inside government and in industry, while those more inclined towards civilian control (or who are otherwise competing with the Birch-aligned network) have their own goals and centers of power.
The idea of civilian control has always been accompanied by an exaggerated fear of “communist infiltration.” So champions of Congressional oversight and of democratic processes had always been viewed with suspicion.
Truman and Eisenhower were disliked because of their support for New Deal programs, and Ike earned special ire for his warnings about the “military industrial complex.” Nixon was disliked because he pushed the country even further off of the gold standard, ending the convertibility of dollars into gold and introducing market interventions such as wage and price controls. Ford continued many of Nixon’s policies.
The election of Ronald Reagan, however, introduced a new era of opportunity. Weyrich, Singlaub, and the hardliners in the intelligence community rallied around Reagan’s staunch anti-communist stance, even as they were increasingly constrained by a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party. Undeterred, they initiated a series of covert programs ranging from Western Goals to Center for National Policy (CNP), Iran-Contra, BCCI, and the banking mess that would culminate with the savings and loan crisis of 1986–1995. The goal was to fight communism globally by any means necessary—including at home.
Narratives connected to CNP’s 2020 election strategy (promoting Republican votes, and suppressing Democratic votes; COVID denial; denial of Trump’s loss) have enjoyed considerable support of former intelligence and military professionals, a fact I have documented in considerable detail.
THREAD: QAnon was enabled in part by former military and intelligence professionals "gone wild." They lent credibility to the myth and laundered QAnon messaging to the public, sometimes via E-list "influencers." Here are some of the key personnel.
※ 元軍人＋諜報関係者が「Stop The Steal」と「QAnon」に隣接したシナリオを推進していることが判明しました。(Twitterスレッド)
This is a network, and many of them frequently reference each other’s posts and appearances on internet videos and podcasts. And this is not an exhaustive inventory. NPR noted that of the arrests made in the days following January 6th, about one in five had connections to the military. Looking at who promoted these stories, this is not surprising.
Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn, brother of Michael Flynn, was in the room when the decision was being made about whether to send National Guard troops to the Capitol, a fact the Army lied about. Trump’s decision to replace multiple people at the Pentagon and the NSA with loyalists (who despise the CIA) just a week after the election is especially troubling in this broader context.
Multiple media outlets are aware of the disinformation that was pushed by this network of military and intelligence networks. Citing concerns about “mental health” of the subjects as well as complexity, there has not been substantive journalistic coverage of the consistent support from this network. A full Congressional investigation is needed.
People radicalized by a network of disaffected network of military and intelligence people (all of whom seem to have a beef with the civilian control of the CIA) tried to overthrow the US government—just as Kennedy had been concerned about when he lent his support to Seven Days In May.
In late 2016, a group of native people and their allies began organizing in Standing Rock, South Dakota to oppose the planned Dakota Access Pipeline. Their protest movement organized as “Water Protectors” under the banner #NoDAPL.
The protest, which lasted for months, was quickly infiltrated by private military contractors. Notably, the firm TigerSwan, a spinoff of Erik Prince’s notorious military contracting firm Blackwater, deployed a range of covert operations designed to break up the protests so that the pipeline could continue. Prince, a CNP member, had a long history with this kind of operation.
A Jesuit-backed organization known as the Romero Institute (named for Óscar Arnulfo Romero, a Catholic archbishop of El Salvador assassinated in 1980 by right-wing death squads) was also involved in running opposing operations (which had their own issues) at Standing Rock.
The Romero Institute is a project of Danny Sheehan, a Jesuit-backed lawyer who had had another notable brush with the spotlight: in the wake of the Iran Contra scandal, he sued Jack Singlaub, Oliver North, and a long list of other participants in the affair under the banner of a different Jesuit-backed organization, the Christic Institute.
You may now detect a theme: Iran-Contra and Standing Rock both contained a deep conflict between Jesuit-backed left-leaning factions vs. right-wing business interests backed by Catholic factions such as Opus Dei, connected to Prince and his peers.
Iran-Contra alumnus Bud McFarlane wrote in 2006 that it would be advantageous to get access to Russia’s oil reserves, much of which is concentrated in the Arctic shelf. For this to be possible, climate change would need to continue apace. Blocking climate change would thus mean constrained access to oil.
McFarlane was present at Trump’s foreign policy speech to allies including Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak on April 27, 2016 at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel. Subsequent deals involving Russian oil and gas firms Rosneft and Gazprom may have advanced the policy McFarlane advocated.
Steve Bannon also noted this schism in the Catholic Church, broadly between the Jesuit faction (Pope Francis was the first Jesuit Pope) and the right wing factions (Opus Dei, Knights of Malta, Legatus). And he’s been working for years to advance this wedge. Weyrich himself was a member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, a conservative sect based in Syria.
At issue? The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), which resulted in a sweeping set of reforms introduced by the Roman Catholic Church, which many considered to be too progressive. While there are many Catholic traditionalists who might prefer to return to such rituals as the Latin mass, Bannon is trying to drive a cultural wedge between the Jesuits and the traditionalists as a whole.
In multiple interviews, Bannon has amplified Archibishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a conservative Vatican operative who has accused Pope Francis of covering up sexual abuse in the church. Letters by Viganò have been amplified by both Lt. Gen. Flynn and in QAnon posts, leading some to think QAnon may be affiliated with Flynn, Bannon or both.
Outside of its retail offerings, the Catholic Church has two major lines of business: banking and global intelligence. As such, it is the largest and oldest such entity in the world. It should not be surprising that it has developed factions and long-standing alliances that connect with other global entities engaged in the same enterprises.
We are not the first to encounter the Octopus. A reporter named Danny Casolaro found it in 1991, but died of apparent suicide the night before he was to meet with a source. An artist named Mark Lombardi found it in the late 90’s and died of an apparent suicide in March 2000. A woman named Rachel Begley found it in 2007, when she wondered about her father’s 1981 murder in southern California. Danny Sheehan (of the Jesuit Romero institute) is still talking about it. Supporters of Smedley Butler even talked about it in 1934.
There isn’t much evidence to suggest that Casolaro or Lombardi’s deaths were suspicious; both were investigated by the FBI. However, they may have become disillusioned upon learning about The Octopus and its scope.
In December 2020, attorney Sidney Powell (a CNP member) promised to “unleash the Kraken” (a narrative amplified in QAnon), a mythical sea-cephalopod able to take down ships. Interestingly, the term “octopus” had been used pejoritavely to describe the Catholic Church’s negative influence for a very long time. And it’s also worth noting that “the octopus” has been used as an anti-Semitic slur, describing a global Jewish conspiracy.
Whether Powell intended to invoke “The Octopus” or not (and it seems unlikely she did), historical evidence suggests that the events that culminated on January 6th are rooted in long-standing conflicts between powerful networks.
パウエルが "The Octopus "を引き合いに出すことを意図していたかどうかは別にして（そうではなさそうだが）、1月6日に起こった出来事の根底には、強力なネットワーク間の長年にわたる対立があることを歴史的に示している。
Tom Fitton is an idea. In 1989, William S. Lind formalized the principles of what he called “Fourth Generation Warfare.” Without getting too technical, fourth generation warfare is all about messing with the minds of your opponent, and getting ahead of their decision-making processes.
Lind drew heavily on the ideas of Col. John Boyd, who described the idea of the “OODA loop,” or the mental process of “observe, orient, decide, act” used by pilots. Boyd argued that if you could get inside of this OODA loop, and act faster than an opponent, you can outpace their ability to make sense of the world.
William Lind partnered up with Paul Weyrich, founder of both the Heritage Foundation and the Council for National Policy, to bring Fourth Generation Warfare techniques to Republican organizing strategy. Among the ideas they had in the early 1990’s was to lay the groundwork for a generation of future leaders.
In late 1993, Weyrich founded National Empowerment Television, a cable channel that reached 11 million homes at its peak. In addition to shows that featured Weyrich, the Family Research Council, and the NRA, they featured a show called “Youngbloods,” (pitched as NET’s answer to MTV’s “The Real World”) featuring aspiring conservative stars Tom Fitton (described as “the resident flamethrower”), along with Norah O’Donnell, and Heather Nauert. Arianna Huffington served briefly as a spokesperson for the network in 1995.
1993年末、ウェイリッチは「ナショナル・エンパワーメント・テレビジョン」を設立し、ピーク時には1,100万世帯が視聴したケーブルチャンネルとなりました。ウェイリッチ、Family Research Council、NRAを特集した番組に加え、保守派のスターを目指すトム・フィトン（「専属の火炎放射器」と呼ばれている）、ノラ・オドネル、ヘザー・ナウアートらが出演する「Youngbloods」（MTVの「The Real World」に対するNETの回答）という番組を放送しました。1995年には、アリアナ・ハフィントンが一時的にスポークスマンを務めました。
Over time, the principles of fourth generation warfare came to dominate Republican politics. In October 2004, Ron Suskind reported in the New York Times this anecdote about an interaction with a senior G.W. Bush adviser.
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
This exchange captures exactly what Fourth Generation Warfare is all about. It’s about creating reality and forcing others to react to it, placing opponents at a continuous strategic disadvantage.
In 1980, the Council on Foreign Policy and its magazine Foreign Affairs was one of the most influential policy-crafting organizations in the country, if not the world. While it maintained a liberal orientation, its open membership and wide-ranging mission as a think-tank allowed it to secure a tax exempt 501(c)(3) status, thus securing an advantage with individual and corporate donors.
1980年当時、Council on Foreign Policy（CFR：外交問題評議会）とその雑誌『Foreign Affairs（フォーリン・アフェアーズ）』は、世界はおろか米国でも最も影響力のある政策立案機関のひとつでした。リベラルな方向性を維持しながらも、会員をオープンにし、シンクタンクとしての幅広い使命を果たすことで「501(c)(3)」の免税資格を得て、個人や企業の寄付者に有利な立場を確保していました。
Paul Weyrich and his allies, direct mail wizard Richard Viguerie and constitutional lawyer turned ERA-opponent Phyllis Schlafly decided they needed a comparable organization in order to advance their long term strategies. In 1981, they created the Council for National Policy (CNP) as a long-term counterweight. It was funded by Weyrich’s patrons, the Hunt brothers and by Joseph Coors, with whom Weyrich had founded the Heritage Foundation, Western Goals, and ALEC, with similar objectives.
But the CNP was something of a different beast from anything that had been previously tried by Weyrich and his allies. Think-tanks like Heritage Foundation were one thing, but CNP was all about action. The goal was to network powerful individuals, place them for long term success, and enact specific policies with clear outcomes.
CNP in its early days was a hotbed of fundraising for conservative causes like the Nicaraguan Contras, and Jack Singlaub and Oliver North were participants and speakers in many early CNP meetings. While CNP met only a few times per year, and its membership was secret, it was laying the groundwork for decades of conservative activism.
Other CNP participants in years to come read like a who’s who of the Trump years: Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Ginni Thomas, Michael Flynn, Herman Cain, Ted Cruz, Ken Cuccinelli, Brent Bozell, Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince, Donna Rice Hughes, Tom Fitton, Sidney Powell, and dozens more.
And by 2017, the CNP membership would include one more figure prominently associated with January 6th: Ali Akbar, or as he has become more popularly known after he changed his name due to his criminal record, Ali Alexander.
The night before the 2016 election, a PAC run by Alexander and co-founded by an old friend of Larry MacDonald’s, Roger Stone, received $60,000 from Robert Mercer. His group, called “Stop The Steal,” issued guidance on November 7, 2016: “Your help is needed, it is respected, and it is appreciated… With this movement, you will one day be able to tell your grandchildren about what you did to help SAVE AMERICA!!!”
2016年の選挙の前夜、アレクサンダーが運営し、ラリー・マクドナルドの旧友であるロジャー・ストーンが共同設立したPACが、ロバート・マーサーから6万ドルを受け取っていた。「Stop The Steal」という名の彼のグループは、2016年11月7日にガイダンスを出しました。「あなたの助けは必要とされ、尊敬され、感謝されています...この運動によって、あなたはいつの日か自分の孫に、アメリカを救うために何をしたかを伝えることができるでしょう！」
ストーンとアレクサンダーは、2018年にも「Stop The Steal」を復活させ、特にフロリダでは、共和党のリック・スコットと民主党のビル・ネルソンの間で行われた連邦上院選の投票再集計に反対する活動を行いました。そして実は、ストーンは2000年の時点でフロリダで、ブッシュ対ゴアの裁判でこうした作戦を実践していました。"ブルックスブラザーズの暴動 "と呼ばれる事件に参加していたのです。
By 2020, Alexander and Stone had a well-oiled machine at the ready to organize around Trump’s losing turn in the November 3 election. The CNP leadership had decided as early as February 2020 that the election would need to be contested at the state level, and they pursued that strategy well before the first vote was even cast.
Before Steve Bannon’s name was well-known in the realm of politics, he was known for intervening in the strange, cultish science experiment known as Biosphere 2. He was hired by Texas oil billionaire Ed Bass to help curb costs on the project as it was widely seen as getting out of control. In broad strokes, Biosphere 2 was a kind of “Burning Man” happening, but re-cast as science fair project set in the Arizona desert. Run by a collective of theater geeks, it arguably was as much a product of the counter-culture as it was any kind of scientific exploration. Its purpose? To discover the effects of climate change. Bannon was the perfect person to put a pin it, and in early 1994, he did.
In May 2001, former child actor Brock Pierce (First Kid, The Mighty Ducks), then aged 20, started a company called Internet Gaming Entertainment, or IGE. Pierce had found that he could “mine” virtual goods in games like EverQuest that could be sold to other players around the world who wanted a shortcut to success in the game. IGE helped popularize something important: selling intangible goods online for real money, at an arbitrary valuation.
Pierce knew he was onto something big, but he didn’t know how to scale it. He needed an army of freelance “miners,” preferably operating in markets where labor is inexpensive. After several years of trying unsuccessfully to scale, the company brought on the former Goldman Sachs investment banker of Biosphere 2 fame, Steve Bannon, who replaced Pierce as CEO.
2006年2月7日、バノンはゴールドマン・サックスからIGEへの6,000万ドルの出資を取り付けた。2,000万ドルはピアースに支払われたため、彼は資本金を手放すことができた。同社はその後、World of Warcraftを含む複数のゲームのグッズ販売に進出した。2012年にBreitbart News社を率いるためにバノンが退社すると、同社は低迷し、資産は他の企業に買収されました。
But in 2009, others had figured out a way to sell a virtual good that wasn’t tied to video games. An anonymous inventor using the name Satoshi Nakamoto unleashed Bitcoin on the world. Brock Pierce went on to become a major investor in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and in 2020, he ran for president.
In 1933, the United States was in the grip of the Great Depression and in need of immediate intervention. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, and immediately set about implementing a program of spending — “The New Deal.”
The plan depended on the issuance of new currency (“printing” money, in effect) that could help un-stick the economy, stimulate purchases, help fund government jobs, and the like. Until that time, US currency had been backed by gold. Many businessmen felt that this was a recipe for disaster, and that devaluing the dollar by printing as many as we wanted was, in effect, a kind of theft.
In 1933, Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, was approached by a man named Gerald MacGuire about the possibility of intervening to force Roosevelt to return to the gold standard, effectively terminating the New Deal programs. MacGuire attempted to recruit Butler for several months.
Butler blew the whistle, and testified to Congress that the plan, backed by a network of industrialists he believed was tied to the American Liberty League, was to raise an army of 500,000 “super soldier” veterans and stage a siege on Washington.Roosevelt would be forced to either accept Butler as a “Secretary of General Affairs” (who, in effect, would be the acting President)—or he would be killed.
There are multiple accounts of the plot, but it was generally believed to have been supported by executives from DuPont, J.P. Morgan, Goodyear, Anaconda Copper, and Bethlehem Steel — with ammunition supplied by Remington Arms company, a DuPont subsidiary. The plot was also allegedly supported by J. Howard Pew of Sun Oil, a longtime friend and supporter of Robert W. Welch, who would later found the John Birch Society.
Butler eventually told MacGuire, “If you get 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home.”
On April 5, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 which forbade the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates in the United States. This was foundational to the New Deal as it underpinned the primacy of the US dollar and did not allow for rich individuals to challenge it by keeping their assets primarily in gold. Wealth would need to be kept and transacted primarily in dollars. This was followed in 1934 by the Gold Reserve Act, which returned all gold certificates to the US Treasury.
In the late 1970’s, Texas oil barons William Herbert and Nelson Bunker Hunt were feeling the effects of the energy crisis and runaway inflation. Their cash wealth was being eroded annually by the ever-weakening dollar, and they wanted to safeguard their holdings.
So they decided they would try to corner the market for another precious metal: silver. The Hunts went all-in, transferring their holdings almost entirely to the metal. They were seen by many as crazy gamblers, even as others admired their resolve.
Ultimately their effort to corner the silver market failed due to a combination of market and regulatory shifts, but their connection to the John Birch Society (and its founder Robert Welch and then-president Georgia Rep. Larry McDonald) would lead them to other important developments.
In 1979, after helping Paul Weyrich found the Heritage Foundation in 1973, the Hunt brothers helped to fund Western Goals, the private intelligence agency founded by Maj. Gen. Jack Singlaub and Larry McDonald, and which was behind the Iran-Contra affair.
And in 1981, following the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, they funded the one organization whose membership was most prominent in the January 6, 2021 insurrection: The Council for National Policy.
そして1981年、ロナルド・レーガンの就任後、2021年1月6日の暴動で最も著名なメンバーが所属していた組織に資金を提供した。CNP（The Council for National Policy）です。
The New York Times dubbed the year 1975 “the year of intelligence,” as Congress pursued a series of investigations in response to widespread allegations of abuse. From COINTELPRO to revelations about US Army intelligence, to concerns about covert CIA assassination efforts, there was a growing sense that the intelligence community (specificially FBI, the CIA, military intelligence, and other agencies) had gone rogue. Congress demanded answers.
The Church Committee, created in early 1975 and overseen by Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, was perhaps the most influential of these investigations. It led to sweeping reforms in the form of executive orders and other legislation that curtailed the power of the CIA, and further clarified rules about what information could be collected about Americans.
At the time, Maj. Gen. John K. “Jack” Singlaub was U.S. chief of staff in South Korea, overseeing American troops stationed there. Singlaub saw his mission in South Korea as key to the containment and rollback of communism in the region. Singlaub, along with Chiang Kai-Shek of Taiwan and several other anti-communist leaders, had founded the World Anti-Communist League in 1954. Singlaub was a committed anti-communist and believed strongly that continued presence of troops in Asia was a required element of any deterrence strategy.
In early 1977, fulfilling a campaign promise he had made as early as 1975, President Carter announced that he would seek to withdraw troops from the Korean Peninsula. In response, Singlaub told The Washington Post that Carter’s plan was a mistake that would lead to war. Carter promptly fired Singlaub for undermining his authority. It was the first time a general had been fired by a president since MacArthur was recalled from Korea by Truman. Singlaub cultivated this injustice as a badge of honor.
Larry McDonald was elected to Congress in 1974 and began his term in 1975, in the midst of the Congress’ crackdown on intelligence agencies. Shortly after, Singlaub and McDonald, who had both been active in the John Birch Society (where McDonald served as the group’s second president), came up with a new idea — something called “Western Goals.” Where the CIA and intelligence community was prohibited from collecting information on suspected communist influences in the United States, Western Goals, operating as an independent organization, felt it had no such restrictions.
Western Goals was squarely focused on the threat posed by communist infiltration within the United States — whether that threat was real or not. Roy Cohn, the infamous McCarthy era character who would later serve as mentor to Donald Trump, was on the Western Goals board, as was Larry McDonald’s first cousin, General George S. Patton III.
When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, there was a rush to secure the fruits of power and to enact legislation that would advance the administration’s agenda. A variety of conservative leaders including Singlaub, McDonald, Phyllis Schlafly (who had earned fame for fighting the proposed Equal Rights Amendment), and others formed the Council for National Policy to serve as a counter to the successful left-leaning organization, the Council on Foreign Policy. The group aimed to operationalize their networks for tangible, immediate gains.
In a strange and tragic twist of fate, Larry McDonald was killed along with 268 others when his flight, Korean Airlines Flight 007, was shot down by the Soviet Union when it strayed into their airspace. This left Singlaub substantially in control of Western Goals, and he began to use it to continue his singular cause: fighting communism. With the passage of the 1982 Boland Amendment, the US government was explicitly prohibited from assisting the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. Singlaub took matters into his own hands.
At the meeting of the Council for National Policy (CNP) in 1984 and at a 1985 Dallas meeting of Singlaub’s US Council for World Freedom (the US chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, which he also founded), he solicited funds from private donors such as Joseph Coors and heiress Ellen Garwood to fund the Contras. They were happy to oblige. Western Goals was used as the conduit for those funds.
Singlaub would eventually be called to testify before Congress to explain his role in the Iran-Contra affair, which was orchestrated by CNP bigwig (and later NRA president) Lt. Col. Oliver North, on orders from the executive branch. Iran-Contra was the biggest scandal of the Reagan presidency. A messy, complicated affair, it threatened to ruin his legacy and those of several others — among them Robert “Bud” McFarlane, Reagan’s National Security Advisor, who attempted suicide three hours before he was to testify about his involvement.
Anti-communists: “Now what?” Also notable: the death of Robert Maxwell.
The total collapse of the Soviet Union on Christmas, 1991 presented an unprecedented opportunity for the United States, and the George H.W. Bush administration wasted no time in reorienting itself around this new geopolitical reality. Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz worked with Lewis “Scooter” Libby to draft a document called “Defense Policy Guidance, 1992–1994.” In it, they outlined a vision of the United States presiding over a unipolar world, one in which it explicitly sought to prevent the emergence of any threat to its hegemony. A leaked early draft of the so-called “Wolfowitz Doctrine,” reached without input from Congress or the public, was widely ridiculed. A second and final draft, released in April 1992, softened some edges.
Dedicated anti-communists such as Singlaub had something of a dilemma. What now? With the Soviet Union consigned to the history books, their attention turned primarily to China. Falun Gong was also formed in 1992, in ostensible opposition to the Chinese Communist Party; Singlaub and his anti-communist friends felt some kinship with their cause.
Meanwhile in Russia, efforts were made to quickly privatize state-controlled industries. What resulted was a network of oligarchs who derived their power from proximity to the Kremlin. Vladimir V. Putin made a series of moves to wrest control away from Boris N. Yeltsin, who was widely perceived as ineffective, and a drunk.
Putin also gained control in 1999 in part by manufacturing a video of a sexual liaison between his chief rival, Yuri Skuratov, and some prostitutes. This “kompromat” served to discredit Skuratov and effectively ended his political career. (These techniques have since expanded to include planting child pornography onto devices of dissidents).
As power consolidated in Russia, the Orthodox church emerged as a new center of gravity, and a point of commonality between Russia and the United States. Allen Carlson, a religious conservative, traveled to Russia in 1995 on a trip to meet with people also interested in “traditional values.” While there, he had the idea to form the World Congress of Families (WCF), a group focused on international collaboration between Christian-aligned groups and predicated on opposition to gay marriage and LGBT rights.
By 2014, the anti-communist fervor personified by Singlaub had, ironically, fully merged with the Kremlin agenda, one which was centered on consolidation of power by oligarchs as well as an alliance with the Orthodox church to consolidate their hold over the Russian public.
Singlaub, now aged 99, is still alive. On January 23, 2020, he penned a letter to then Attorney General William Barr asking him to “Free Mike Flynn and Drop the Charges.”
For the last fourteen years, I’ve been studying disinformation campaigns and the data trails they leave behind on the Internet. And I’ve conducted countless one-on-one interviews with dozens of sources from government and military, and with journalists, researchers, and defectors from these networks.
January 6th was the culmination of decades worth of groundwork. We can trace many disinformation and infiltration campaigns back to about 2011. But the broader effort reaches back to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. And those efforts in turn have roots that go back to the 1930's.
This essay series is an effort to tell this story in a way that is as succinct as possible, but no moreso. Clearly, this narrative is long, complex, and could be expanded to book length. My goal for now is simply to share what I believe is both a correct and sense-making explanation for what we have seen and experienced. Other treatments are likely to follow from myself and others.
Please read these essays, and share them if you also find them instructive. Some may feel bewilderment at the scope of this history, and be tempted to put it aside for that reason. Readers should resist that temptation. This history is well-documented and widely corroborated. When a story is correctly framed, facts are accretive. In all my work on this topic, this story has been augmented and not materially altered with the addition of new information.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ― John Adams
The work of multiple researchers and historians has intersected to provide a fuller picture of the historical forces that led to the events of January 6th. The story centers on the Council for National Policy (CNP) and its members and affiliates who were the most active organizers and participants. But the deeper question is why this history unfolded the way it did.
複数の研究者や歴史家の仕事が交錯し、1月6日の出来事につながった歴史的な力の全貌が明らかになりました。物語の中心となるのは、最も積極的に組織・参加したCNP（Council for National Policy）とそのメンバー、関連団体である。しかし、より深い疑問は、なぜこの歴史があのように展開したのかということである。
Where did the CNP come from? What are its goals? Considering this larger historical frame apart from the day-to-day frustrations of party politics reveals a number of key themes. CNP was born from the same network of people who created both the John Birch Society and the World Anti-Communist League. In turn, those networks are also tightly associated with the birth of American libertarianism and also harbor a fervent and lingering passion for the gold standard.
Within this community, the fear and distrust of communism cannot be separated from the libertarian “non-aggression principle” and the preference for the gold standard. The fetish for gold is in fact directly tied into the non-aggression principle in that they see inflationary fiat currency as a kind of “molestation,” as articulated by Robert LeFevre, considered by many to be the progenitor of modern American libertarian thought.
Long-term historical conflicts provide a more useful lens for understanding this “big history” than the minutiae of quotidian partisan politics, which should be subordinated to their more important macroeconomic and philosophical drivers. For example, the longer term trends animating current disputes include relitigating the New Deal, the gold standard (now mapped to cryptocurrency), central banks, multilateral alliances, taxation, Vatican II, abortion, women’s rights, climate change, fossil fuel dependence, and anti-Semitism.
Because these contentious issues cannot be resolved in a generation, if indeed they ever can be, their study requires consideration of networked interests that persist over time, rather than a focus on specific politicians or personalities. For example, the network of interests that promoted Donald Trump will persist in time and select another avatar for the same purpose; the details about that person are not especially important. They will either be a net positive or a net negative to the network that selects them. And the issues they carry will either be carried forward for later settlement, or an issue may be resolved with a new consensus.
The overarching conflict is over whether the world should seek to pursue democratic or so-called “neofeudal” forms of governance. Advocates of neofeudalism believe that departure from the gold standard was a mistake, and that scarcity of wealth provides a mechanism for keeping score and assignment of value. People with more gold are thus more valuable. And this scoring is immutable and cannot be “molested” by predators such as central bankers. The philosophy is rooted in a literal zero-sum view of value creation and storage.
For neofeudalists, the accumulation of wealth and power rightly allows for those with extreme wealth to capture the institutions of the state and ultimately dismantle them. The goal is what Robert LeFevre described as “autarchy,” or literal self-rule by the individual. Details are scant on chores like trash collection and how that might be handled, except for hand-waving about the “market” taking care of it.
In the narrative of the modern enlightenment, “democracy” is held as the most just form of government, despite its flaws. The founding myths of the United States reinforce this story in ways that are both propaganda and also factual. And it is true: most Americans aspire to self-governance by, of, and for the people.
Autarchists, hardline libertarians, and free speech absolutists challenge the authority of the state. When allied with anarchists from the left, they may together form a powerful faction that serves to undermine the authority and function of the state. For this reason, it is necessary to address the legitimate concerns that such a unified faction may hold in order that it not come to subvert the will and interests of the majority of the population.
This set of stories — and it is several stories, too wide in scope to tell in one sitting or a single article — centers on this tension between the state and those who would seek to destroy it; it is about the tension between the institutions that brought relative prosperity and peace in the last half of the 20th century, and those who wish to destroy them in favor of something new and as yet unspecified. It is about the tension between “socialism” (both as it is and as it is imagined to be) and hardline libertarianism. And it is about capitalism and its present and future, and what kind of guardrails and safety nets we choose to attach to it.
Social phenomena such as disinformation and influence campaigns are but symptoms of these conflicts playing out in the heavens above. By developing a better understanding of these historical drivers we can seek to explicate the ephemera we observe within the terms of these long-standing conflicts. Additionally, it is useful to consider these conflicts not in partisan political frames, or as those between nation-states, but rather between factions that are globally networked.
Americans wishing to curb illiberal forces are as likely to be fighting a network of factions that exists in the US, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Iran, western Europe, and China, and should prepare accordingly. Citizens United opens up a global portal for these networks; it no longer makes sense to consider nation-state boundaries as especially relevant when looking at networks of influence.
America has had a particularly difficult time the last 5 years trying to deal with well-documented “Russian meddling” and the persistent denial thereof by those who point to Americans as being just as culpable. Ultimately meddling was a counter-descriptive term because a network of Americans, Russians, Europeans, Chinese, Australians, Brazilians and people in many other countries have all collaborated to promote illiberal forces across the globe. It should not be a surprise that Eduardo Bolsonaro was present on January 6th, or that Polish MP Dominik Tarczyński and Germany’s AfD Petr Bystron have attended events hosted by Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagles organization. Indeed, it is a networked coalition.
Continuous immersion in television news and talk radio has crowded out the opportunity to consider more than the present moment. Perhaps by pausing to wonder at the history that has brought us here, we can regain some perspective on what’s happening, and gain a new footing as we seek to curtail the advancement of illiberalism in the world.
Like any number of other conspiracy theories, one of the central pillars of QAnon belief is that there is a shadowy organization that secretly rules the world. As QAnon is often a radicalization of theories that came before, it is not enough for the decision-makers to simply be the mega-wealthy: QAnon heightens the peril by teaching that they are also Satanists. The reason for their continued quest for domination of the earth is not the accumulation of money or power, but in service of their master Lucifer (or Baal, or Moloch, depending on which Anon you ask, as they are all interchangeable within QAnon belief). To this end, the Cabal traffics children to use into their sexual orgies and cannibalistic rituals, for the ultimate purpose of extracting adrenochrome from their terrified bodies, a chemical that QAnon believes gives the user a high as potent as heroin but also extends life itself.
But how did they get here? As a syncretic belief system, QAnon’s theories about adrenochrome come from multiple sources, where believers take bits and pieces of science fiction, science fact, and religious traditions and blend them together to construct a mythos that (to them) seems grounded.
Adrenochrome is a real chemical. It is oxidized adrenaline (or epinephrine), and can be found naturally in the body whenever it processes adrenaline. It can also be synthesized in a lab and is readily available for purchase.
Adrenaline is produced by the adrenal glands that are found atop the kidneys. More specifically, adrenaline is produced by the inner adrenal glands, or the adrenal medulla. Adrenaline is released into the bloodstream during moments of fright or stress (the so-called “fight or flight reflex”) and will increase your heart rate, breathing, and cause vasoconstriction, sending more blood to the major muscle groups. Adrenaline also allows the body to break down more complex sugars to fuel a rush of energy.
Adrenochrome was studied during the 1950s as being a possible cause of schizophrenia. Because adrenaline and mescaline have similar molecular structures, and because schizophrenics experienced heightened delusions while under stress, scientists in 1952 published a paper theorizing that adrenaline itself might have psychotomimetic qualities, and that oxidized adrenaline (that is, adrenochrome) might have even stronger effects. They theorized that as adrenochrome was a chemical that naturally occurred in the body, a buildup of adrenochrome might be the true cause of schizophrenic delusions. Even more papers followed between 1954 and 1957, examining its impact on epileptics and schizophrenics, often tested alongside known euphorics and hallucinogens like mescaline and LSD.
Because adrenochrome did not produce the results that were predicted, and the results that were recorded were not comparable to that of mescaline or LSD, that specific line of adrenochrome research did not survive into modern scholarship, dying out almost entirely by 1975. But by then, the notion that adrenochrome was a hallucinogen as potent as mescaline was already firmly planted in pop culture.
The emergence of adrenochrome’s supposed effects into popular culture began in 1954, when Aldous Huxley first heard about the 1952 paper examining adrenochrome and its “close biochemical relationship between adrenaline and mescaline.” Huxley was already experimenting with mescaline use, and though he never tried adrenochrome, he included a mention of the substance as a powerful hallucinogen and euphoric in The Doors of Perception.
The purported similarities between mescaline and adrenochrome were reinforced with the 1962 publication of A Clockwork Orange, when Alex and his droogs visit the Korova Milk Bar, with two of the listed drug-laced options being drencrom and synthemesc.
Perhaps the most impactful use of adrenochrome in fiction was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written in 1971 by Hunter S Thompson. Not only did Thompson’s novel introduce the idea that adrenochrome had to be extracted from a living body to retain its hallucinogenic properties, but the 1998 film adaptation repeated the myth for a modern audience.
アドレノクロムが小説の中で最も衝撃的に使われたのは、1971年にハンター・S・トンプソンが書いた「Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas（邦題：ラスベガスをやっつけろ）」だろう。トンプソンの小説は、アドレノクロムの幻覚作用を維持するためには生体から抽出しなければならないという考えを導入しただけでなく、1998年に映画化された際には、この神話を現代の観客に向けて繰り返し伝えた。
First, it is a modern retelling of the medieval antisemitic conspiracy theory of blood libel, a belief dating back to the 1100s in England that secret conclaves of Jews abduct and ritually murder Christian children to use their blood for making maztos or to work magic to ensure they would again inherit the Holy Land.
Second, it is an evolution of the common cultural myth of the vampire, a secret aristocracy composed of monsters who rely on drinking the blood of common people (or sometimes more specifically the innocent) to perpetuate their immortality.
These two longstanding myths were largely background elements of the Satanic Panic in the 1980s, when many Americans believed that devil-worshiping cults were operating across the United States and that they were kidnapping and abusing children nationwide. While “blood rituals” involving children were common tropes during the Panic, the children were usually cast as unwilling participants in the rituals, and not the ones being sacrificed. The goal of immortality and the mention of adrenochrome was absent entirely.
During the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the theories of the Satanic Panic saw the incorporation of partisan politics, when longstanding hatred for Hillary Clinton was injected into the mythos and she became a full Satanic priestess. As more and more conspiracy believers gained access to the internet, their theories started to blend together even further, becoming as unfocused as the annual tradition of finding occult meaning in the Superbowl Halftime Show.
By the time Pizzagate reared its head in 2016, the Cabal had already grown to include the near-totality of the Democratic Party and anyone who supported them, which draws in most celebrities and of course the investor and philanthropist George Soros. Pizzagate itself did not introduce much new content to the existing theories, but instead tied all the preexisting elements together with the idea that the Podesta emails leaked by WikiLeaks showed the outlines of the child-murdering sex Cabal operating out of the basement of Comet Pizza.
QAnon’s beliefs about adrenochrome are slightly unusual in that Q has never actually said “adrenochrome” in a Drop (though there is the infamous and now-deleted “walnut sauce” Drop made on August 1st 2018). It arrived in QAnon as a fully-formed belief from Pizzagate, and continues to be spread by Q promoters and followers to this day. In this way, the adrenochrome theory bears a similarity to the JFK Jr theory.
Simply put, no. Not only is there no scientific basis to support the supposed effects of adrenochrome, the theory itself does not stand up to biology, mathematics and economics.
Basal levels of adrenaline in humans is ~65 pg/ml. In acute stress, levels can raise by as much as 20 times, 1300 pg/ml (or .0013 mg/L). With ~5 liters of blood in an adult, that's .0065 mg circulating in the body. In a child’s body, with only ~2.5 liters of blood, the amount of adrenaline is only .00325 mg.
For reference, a medical dose of epinephrine in an epi-pen is about 50 times the amount a human body produces under acute stress, .3 mg for adults and .15 mg for children.
I probably don’t need to belabor the point, but .15 mg is a tiny amount of a substance. I couldn't even find an image of how little that is to show as an illustration.
One might imagine that adrenochrome must be very valuable if you only get .00325 mg from the ritual sacrifice of a human child. But one would be imagining incorrectly: adrenochrome is available from medical supply houses, and a bottle containing 25 mg costs between $40-$60. That 25 mg bottle represents 7700 child sacrifices' worth of the chemical.
And this is where the whole adrenochrome conspiracy starts to break down.
そして、ここからアドレノクロムの陰謀が崩れ始める。
First, the cabal would spend more on a tank of gas to transport a single victim to the ritual site than just buying a bottle of the stuff. It's a colossal waste of money.
Second, if a dose is ~.3 mg (and it can't be much more, a 2nd dose from an epi-pen is only advised for acute anaphylaxis, and a 3rd dose will likely kill you by cardiac arrest), then the cabal needs to sacrifice 92 kids per ritual per member of the cabal. If a coven has 10 members, they'll need to round up 1000 kids for their ritual sacrifice. Alternatively, they could buy one $60 bottle and still have enough left over for seven more rituals.
Third, according to the theory, adrenochrome is supposedly highly addictive and its effects sadly temporary. Every time Hillary Clinton has a bad hair day, some Anons will say it's because the effects of adrenochrome are wearing off. According to the believers in the theory, addicts need doses every month, or even every week. If so, that's five thousand kids per year per member of the Cabal.
Finally, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children keeps track of an average of 450,000 reports of missing children per year. Putting aside for a moment that the NCMEC list does not account for multiple reports filed about the same child, and does not remove a report from their list if the child returns or is recovered, let’s treat the NCMEC list as though it represented a total number of kids gone missing in a year in America.
最後に、National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrenは、年間平均450,000件の行方不明児童の報告を記録しています。NCMECのリストでは、同じ子供について複数の報告がなされていることは考慮されておらず、子供が戻ってきたり保護されたりしてもリストから削除されないことは一旦置いておいて、NCMECのリストを、アメリカで1年間に行方不明になった子供の総数を表すかのように扱ってみましょう。
Using the NCMEC’s own numbers, 92% of the 450,000 reports are teenaged runaways. According to the adrenochrome harvesting theory, the cabal does not use teenagers for their ritual, because they are too old. Another 3% of those 450,000 are missing young adults, aged 18-20. Once those two groups are eliminated, only 5% of those 450,000 reports are actual abductions of children. That's 22,000 kids per year.
