Continuing our exploration into Arlen Specter, in this episode we focus on Specter’s work on the Commission, and his claim to fame: the infamous single bullet theory.  We examine how Specter built out the case against Oswald as any crooked prosecutor might, fitting the evidence into his theory, and not the other way around. Drawing from a vast array of prime source audio material, we hear from several of the players themselves: eyewitnesses, doctors, ballistics experts, and pathologists. They all have one thing in common: their lived experiences and expert analyses run contrary to Specter’s theory. We systematically dismantle the theory by reference to some of the best evidence, including evidence of Specter’s self-interested, abusive relationship with the truth.

This week marks the return of our series within a series, The Warren Commission Decided.  Continuing our exploration into the Commission’s staff, in this episode we focus on the man behind the “single-bullet theory”--Arlen Specter.  You see, it was Specter, then a young attorney with less than a decade’s worth of experience, who first posited that a single bullet caused multiple wounds to both JFK and Texas Governor John Connally, which of course is the key element in defending the conclusion that there was just one lone gunman, and thus no conspiracy involved in the assassination. 

We start off by doing some exposition on Specter’s life both before and after his work on the Commission. “Know them by their deeds,” they say, so we begin with a dig into Specter’s work after the Commission, when Specter enjoyed a long and influential career as the U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania, where he became a respected figure on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and was involved in numerous high-profile confirmations and investigations, including the failed confirmation of Robert Bork and the successful confirmation of Clarence Thomas. He was also a lifelong friend of Israel. We then turn back the clock to follow Specter’s early years, and cover his time at UPenn as an undergrad, and his time in the Air Force ROTC and later the Office of Special Investigations. 

But fear not listener, the majority of this episode (one of our longest yet) focuses squarely on Specter’s work on the Commission, and his claim to fame: the infamous single bullet theory.  We examine how Specter built out the case against Oswald as any crooked prosecutor might, fitting the evidence into his theory, and not the other way around. Drawing from a vast array of prime source audio material, we hear from several of the players themselves: eyewitnesses, doctors, ballistics experts, and pathologists. They all have one thing in common: their lived experiences and expert analyses run contrary to Specter’s theory. We systematically dismantle the theory by reference to some of the best evidence, including evidence of Specter’s self-interested, abusive relationship with the truth.

This one is another two-parter, with Side A available this week and Side B to be released next week. If you can’t wait until next week, sign up on our Patreon here and get the full three hour mega-episode TODAY!

This week, we are thrilled to welcome a very special guest, journalist and author Jacob Silverman. Jacob’s writing focuses on the tech industry; particularly on the political activism of tech billionaires and their collective efforts to buy the U.S. government and instrumentalize it in support of their nefarious fascist worldview. 

His forthcoming book, “Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley” could not be coming out at a more timely moment, and you can (and should!) preorder it here. You should also follow Jacob on Substack: https://substack.com/@jacobsilverman and on Twitter @SilvermanJacob. He has his finger on the pulse of the oft-confusing goings-on of the technofascist takeover and you’d be wise to track his analysis.

In our conversation, we talk about the current state of play a couple weeks into the Trump administration and zoom out to consider how we got here, what the historical precedents for the present moment are, and what we - the disgusted spectators watching it all unfold from the left - might do to prevent the technofascist dystopia from culminating its conquest of our lives.

The subject matter is grim, and we’ve tried to end on a light note with an Angleton’s Orchids original song to play us out. 

We hope you enjoy! Let us know what you think at [email protected], follow us on Twitter and Instagram @fourthreichpod, and, if you’re inclined to give us a hand in ramping up our operations, sign up as a Patron here. 

This week, we are grateful to welcome another guest to the pod - filmmaker and researcher Max Good. You may know him from his truly excellent (and we mean really, truly excellent) documentary "The Assassination and Mrs. Paine." If you don't, you would be wise to watch the film ASAP, available wherever fine films are streaming. In his movie, Max presents some of the last-recorded interviews with key witnesses and researchers around the JFK assassination including Ruth and Michael Paine, the bizarrely well-connected couple who famously hosted Marina and Lee Oswald in their Irving, Texas home in the lead-up to November 22, 1963.

In this episode, we discuss Max's movie, what it was like confronting spooked-up witnesses like Ruth Paine and CIA-connected author Priscilla Johnson McMillan (author of the pro-Warren Commission 1977 book, "Marina and Lee"), and the importance of family history in deep politics. But that's not nearly all. 

We spend much of the conversation situating our collective truth-telling work in the broader historical and political context in which we live. We talk about the right-wing appropriation of "conspiracy" discourse, the encroachment of technofascist oligarchs into the reality of political conspiracies, and of course Trump's promised JFK disclosure. We also benefit from Max's sincerity and generosity of spirit as he reminds us to meet people where they are, take a kind approach to potential allies out there in the world, and keep our eyes on the ultimate goal of a true people's movement to reclaim the mantle of democracy while shunning the billionaire class and their cynical faux-populism. 

We hope it will be both an educational listen, and also one that balances off the bleak picture of our present moment with some hopeful thoughts for a more humane future

This week, we're taking a break from the Warren Commission, but don't worry; JFK stuff still comes up as relevant context at the present moment. But mostly, we're back into current events to cover the inauguration of the new regime. Trump 2.0. On the one hand, as we've consistently argued, the U.S. is not a democracy but a corporate state investing the bare minimum to maintain a mere image of democracy. So in that sense, Trump is no different from Biden: both are just actors filling roles in the spectacle of politics.

We begin the episode saying farewell and f-off to Joe Biden and his entire rotten, genocidal administration. We discuss Biden's and Blinken's farewell addresses, Kamala's uncertain future, and the bravery of journalists standing up for the victims of genocide in the face of violent arrest and slander. We live in a time when "freedom of speech" is being redefined to mean "freedom to espouse and inculcate hardcore racist and genocidal beliefs," while free-speech activity like protesting genocide is being redefined to mean "crime and terrorism." Biden certainly has a role in that, and Trump seems like more of the same.

Then we cover the inauguration and first day of President Donald John Trump, "the king of crime." After a banger of a musical number underneath "pig man" Trump's imperial inaugural address, we cover the MANY parallels between Trump and Reagan, including but not limited to their near-identical initiatives to privatize the government under the direction of literal Nazis. We discuss some of the day-one executive orders and issue predictions about what we might see next (including initial thoughts on JFK disclosure!!). Disclaimer: any predictions may very well change; this damn world is crazy as hell! Nevertheless, the Fourth Reich Archaeology thesis - albeit dire - is vindicated daily. Enjoy!

It’s Friday, and you know what that means—time for another installment of The Warren Commission Decided. We’re calling this week’s episode “Doing the Work” because in it, we take  a deep look at the nitty-gritty of legal investigations. 

Donning our lawyer hats, in the first part of this episode we give a short primer on the grind behind the scenes that makes investigations come together. We break down the real "work" of the Warren Commission. At its core, the Commission was basically a law firm—the staff was almost entirely lawyers, and J. Lee Rankin, the Commission’s Chief Counsel, was the one steering the ship.

For the second part of this episode, we explore the life and times of Rankin, including how and why he was picked for the position. A native Nebraskan,  Rankin served as the administrative head of the Commission, handling all the logistical and organizational work that the seven commissioners were too busy and too important to take on. Rankin was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations, from coordinating evidence collection to working with the investigators who obtained witness testimony. Late in his life, Rankin came out swinging against the FBI and CIA for their manipulative tactics with respect to the Commission. We play a good deal of his testimony from the House Select Committee on Assassinations; it is sure to elucidate and enlighten! Seriously insane audio we had never fully appreciated before this episode.

So, whether you’re powering through a work shift or wrapping up your classes for the week, hit play and give your brain a well-deserved snack—this episode is definitely worth it!

Happy New Year! We’re back with another installment of The Warren Commission Decided to round out our excavation into the backgrounds and baggage of the seven commissioners LBJ appointed to seal up the narrative of the JFK assassination in the wake of the murder of Lee Oswald. And we’ve saved the worst for last: God’s own monster, Allen Welsh Dulles.

Oceans of ink have been spilled, and miles of vocal cords chafed recounting the genocidal legacy of Allen Dulles. You know we’re averse to trodding familiar ground, so this episode delves into some areas we hope will be fresher. It wouldn’t be 4RA without a healthy dose of Oedipal psychology, so we dig into the Foster-Lansing-Dulles klan to consider what makes these freaks tick. Then, we touch on Allen’s career of evil from his jumpstart in espionage (and Aryo-philia) during WWI, to his participation in the Versailles conference, to his law practice at Sullivan & Cromwell, to his peak as longtime CIA director under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

Again, we gloss over a lot of the greatest hits to give you the deeper cuts, all while focusing on Dulles’s deep-seated racism and how it informed his tolerance - or even admiration - for Nazism. We also highlight his absolute mastery of the art of deception. 

Finally, we end up where we always do: with his relationship with JFK, their breakup after the Bay of Pigs debacle, and his selection as commissioner. Perhaps when JFK fired the old silver fox, he should have been more “careful with that axe.” It’s another banger: dig in!

We are back to finish off our excavation into the life, times, and legacy of Reichsman extraordinaire, John J. McCloy. We last left off with McCloy’s service in WWII under Henry L. Stimson. We heard some of the real audio from the Nuremberg tribunal to get a sense of the theft, murder, kidnapping, and enslavement that the German industrialists committed during the Third Reich, well, John J. McCloy was about to undo a lot of the justice meted out unto those bastards.

We pick up post-war with McCloy’s incredible career, leading up to his selection on the Warren Commission. We cover his exploits as World Bank President, High Commissioner for Germany during the US occupation, Chairman of Chase Bank, and Chairman of the Ford Foundation. We look beneath the titles to get a read on the man and his character. He left an indelible mark on each of the institutions he touched, and in turn, on the broader economy and society in which those institutions carried so much sway.

Finally, it’s back to 1963, Kennedy’s dead, and McCloy springs into action as the “fixer,” cutting deals and mediating between opposing factions on the Warren Commission in the quest for unanimity.

This week we take a brief hiatus from our series within a series “the Warren Commission Decided,” and travel back to the present day to weigh in on a topic of much discussion these last few weeks: the killing of United Healthcare's former CEO, Brian Thompson, and the spectacle that has ensued ever since.

To be clear, this episode won't have any conspiracy theories. Nor will there be any debates about "who done it" or even whether the assassination was justified. No, here at Fourth Reich Archaeology we know full well that you can get that sort of thing just about anywhere these days. So, instead, we offer you a tutorial on how to apply the tools we’ve sharpened (and the artifacts we’ve uncovered) over the last five months to the spectacle that has come to bear since the early morning hours of December 4, 2024. 

Happy holidays to all!

We are back for another round of excavation into the life, times, and legacy of Reichsman extraordinaire, John J. McCloy. We last left off with McCloy’s service in WWI, during which he spent the bulk of his time as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Guy H. Preston. Preston was not only a soldier in the settler colonial army of the Western frontier, he was a participant in the Wounded Knee Massacre who was charged with taking possession of the Indian prisoners of war. What a mark that left on John McCloy.

We pick up post-war with McCloy’s Harvard Law graduation and departure from his native Philadelphia off to the big apple, New York City, where he’d set down his roots as a Wall Street lawyer. His legal practice fit seamlessly into the transition between America’s imperial conquest of the Western frontier–he spent a lot of time helping investment banks build railroad monopolies and consolidate financial control over industry–and America’s entry into the global stage of intercontinental imperialism. Just like the Dulles brothers’ over at Sullivan and Cromwell, McCloy’s work at the firms Cadwalader, Wickersham, and Taft–and later at Cravath–saw him greasing the wheels for that great interwar collaboration between US financiers and industrialists, and the German industrialists who spent the 1930s working overtime to remilitarize. 

During WWII, McCloy is brought under the wing of friend of the pod Henry L. Stimson. We stack up both sides of his moral ledger: on one hand, advocating the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps while fighting efforts to bomb the German concentration camps and curb the Holocaust; but on the other hand, he opposed dropping nukes on Japan and helped integrate the US Army. We make sense of his mixed record through our patented Fourth Reich Lens.

We hope you like Krautrock, because this is our most German episode yet. 

On our free feed, that’s where this episode ends. If you want the full 2-hour extravaganza, head on over to Patreon and sign up today! If not, you’ll need to wait a while for side 2…

Meanwhile, enjoy, and happy holidays to all!