Fourth Reich Archaeology

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 providence seems to guide Jerry through dangerous situations, brushes with death, and up the ladder. First in the Navy, and later on the Grand Rapids political scene.

Jerry kept in regular contact with his step dad and stayed abreast of the goings-on in his hometown, even while overseas. Gerald Ford Sr. began to serve as a surrogate for Jerry Jr. in the Republican Home Front group - a well-intended conspiracy of local leaders and likely freemasons to unseat the party boss holding the keys to political participation in Michigan; Frank McKay.

Jerry's participation in the political war against McKay parallels in some respects his participation in the hot war in the Pacific. Each bring their typical (for Jerry) mix of luck, cunning, charm, and timing.

We even check in with Harry Conover and follow the eventual termination of Gerald Ford's partnership in his modeling agency.

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 Monterey.” Before long, Jerry catches the captain’s eye and gets an appointment to be the ship’s assistant navigator. Jerry snags this coveted spot on the bridge despite having no prior relevant experience. Classic Jerry. 

We also dive deep into Jerry’s willingness to participate in the Cold War. Namely, by applying for a position in Hoover's FBI. Jerry’s application to be a G-Man shows he wanted to be not just a noble soldier for the USA, but also an infiltrator. Indeed, along with his application to the FBI, Jerry also applied to work in the Office of Naval Intelligence. 

And there is the war at home, in Grand Rapids, against the corrupt party boss Frank McKay. Mckay was the prototypical mobbed up political wheeler and dealer. The guy had his grubby fingers in all aspects of the Republican party of Michigan, which at the time, meant he had control of the State. With booze running, corruption, bribery, extortion, and, of course, murder, the McKay saga is nothing short of a classic mob tale.  

Last, we explore the internal war that Jerry was waging. Including his decision to end his relationship with the beauteous Phyllis Brown and Jerry's decision to forgo working in New York and DC after Yale, to instead return to Grand Rapids and hang a shingle with his longtime friend and frat bro, Phil Buchen.

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 rappers and comedians to boot, you’ve been so busy being entertained this election cycle that you don’t even realize your favorite politician hasn’t said a lick about policy. While we otherwise may not know exactly what kind of terrible shit is going to come out of the mouths of our political leaders, you can always count on it being unhinged.  

But lest you think we are departing from our favorite object of study... to the contrary, we apply the artifacts we've unearthed in the first three episodes of Jerryworld to help make sense of the senselessness of the 2024 presidential election. Indeed, the life and times of Jerry Ford are as relevant as ever. Whereas Gerald Ford's eventual identity as a mere brand ambassador for the entrenched powers that be had a ring of tragedy to it, Kamala and Donald inhabit a world of hyper-farce, playing the role of carnival-barker for feuding (but ultimately compatible) factions of the ruling class. Moreover, while there are issues each nominee has championed for their respective financial backers, or to pacify or incite their faithful followers, the substance of their actual policy positions on the things that really matter don’t meaningfully differ. 

Like every election before it, 2024 will likely once again break the record for most expensive election ever. But in our view, money in politics nowadays isn't so much about swaying elections as inflating the spectacle of "democracy," generating viewership through the corporate media machine, and imposing hard limits on what is considered acceptable political discourse. Thus, to paraphrase our favorite Thomas Pynchon quote once again, the true election cycle is not the culmination of a democratic process but a celebration of markets. 

And to all our Jerry heads out there, don't fret—we will return to our regularly scheduled program next week with Jerryworld Episode 4.

Meanwhile, check out our Patreon, which we're finally rolling out. We won't paywall any content just yet, but we do invite and encourage you all to get in on the ground floor. The sooner we can quit our day-jobs, the more time we can pour into the pod, and the deeper we can dig into the hellscape of the Fourth Reich.

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Song List: 

Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime

Bob Dylan – Masters of War

Metallica – For Whom the Bell Tolls 

Neutral Milk Hotel – Oh Comely

Trey Parker and Matt Stone - I’m a Little Bit Country 

David Bowie – Five Years 

Opening Clip is from Dr. Oblivion’s monologue in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome 

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 Boola Boola at the same time as many of the godfathers of the American intelligence apparatus.

At Yale, Jerry joins the original America First Committee, networking with true American elites and situating himself politically on the opposite side of the Roosevelt administration. We'll reveal the surprising identity of the faculty advisor for the Committee - a name that will have true heads' jaws on the floor.

(THANK YOU to TIMOTHY CLEARY for the incredible build-up music in that sequence!!)

But Jerry wasn't spending all his time as a coach/law student in the library, he spent a good deal of time in NYC with his model girlfriend. Indeed, he dabbled in modeling himself. He dabbled in modeling so much, listener, that he got involved with one of the real godfathers of American modeling and publicity, a man with surprising links to intelligence of his own...

In this episode, we start off with a geographical and cultural tour of Grand Rapids, Michigan - Jerry's real hometown - with a little narrative help from the words of Grand Rapids native, Paul Schrader, spoken by the great George C. Scott. The class-based and ethnic lines demarcating the city's neighborhoods, plus the Calvinist work ethic pervading its business community, shaped the man Jerry would grow into.

We consider Jerry's choice of the working-class South High School over the more affluent Central High, and run into his early anti-communist sentiments and actions. Jerry became a football star, and with that stardom came popularity. His popularity (and a little willingness to bend the rules) would eventually win him his first trip to the nation's capitol.

But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for young Jerry - we'll also dig into Jerry's traumatic reunion with his deadbeat birth-father, Leslie Lynch King, and discuss how Jerry began balancing his budding sense of class-resentment with his instinctive political knack for maintaining good terms with all potential allies.

After graduating high school in 1931, it was off to the University of Michigan for Jerry, where he worked his way through school, worked his way into a popular fraternity, and worked his football team to back-to-back national championships. We'll explore the much-mythologized relationship between Jerry and his Black friend and teammate, Willis Ward with a little cameo from none other than George W. Bush.

Finally, we will follow Jerry's relationship with the man he'd later refer to as his "real father" forward in time and watch him put his conflict-resolution skills to the test.

Published on the 50th Anniversary of his ascension to the highest office in the world, this is the first installment of our excavation into the life, times, and meaning of the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, Jr.  Ford is an ideal case-study for the consolidation of the Fourth Reich through the vessel that is the quintessential modern American everyman. 

In this episode, we first discuss some of the major recurring themes that mark our exploration of Ford's life. Those are:

• American Exceptionalism (aka American Imperialism) and settler colonialism

• The "Greatest Generation" and the myth of Good Guys (Freedom & Democracy) vs. Bady Guys (Totalitarianism)

• Freemasonry, other Secret Societies, and their role in American political life

• American expansionism and the promise of unending growth

We will also explore the early years of Gerald Ford’s biography. We touch on the traumas from Jerry’s early days and the horrific events that indelibly marked his psyche: the fraught relationship between his birth parents, the settler-colonial ideology and pedigree of his forebearers, and his ultimate upbringing in a household striving to ascend the socio-economic ladder in middle America straddling the first world war. 

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 the long 20th century.

We also provide a sneak peek at what's to come next in Fourth Reich Archaeology: "Jerryworld" - our first series delving into the life and times of Gerald Ford.

Follow us on Twitter @fourthreichpod, follow Don on Twitter @AngletonOrchids, and/or email us at [email protected] with your thoughts, questions, tips, or feedback. We'd love to hear from you!

Further Reading:

Christopher Simpson, "Blowback"

Christopher Simpson, "The Splendid Blond Beast"

David Talbot, "The Devil's Chessboard"

George Seldes, "Facts and Fascism"

E.H. Cokeridge, "Gehlen: Spy of the Century"

Music:

Beanie Sigel, "The Truth"

Manu Chao, "Rainin' in Paradize"

David Bowie, "We Are the Dead"

KRS-ONE, "The Truth"

Partido Comunista de Uruguay, "La Internacional"

Paul Robeson, "Soviet National Anthem"

Cabaret (Movie Soundtrack), "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"

The Kinks, "Money-go-round"

Graham Nash, "Chicago"

Angleton's Orchids (covering Bob Dylan), "With God on Our Side"

Clips:

"Winter Soldier: Trailer"

"Get Me Roger Stone: Trailer"

Praeger U, "Why Has the West Been So Successful?"

And More...

(C) 2024, Angleton's Orchids