SEASON 2, "The War on the Dollar" We begin season two by following the ongoing assaults on the dollar by Xi, Putin, and the BRICS nations, and looking at how that might play into Elon Musk's long game with Twitter. Rich with clips from across the media spectrum, we'll be exploring the underlying forces that shape our world — and what we might do to respond to them. Segments: The End of Twitter, The War on the Dollar, the Grinding Nuclear Threat, Katechon vs. Eschaton. Keywords: Twitter, dollar, X.com, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Michael Flynn, Alex Jones, Foster Gamble, Jack Lew, Robert Kiyosaki, BBC, Donald Trump, Lance Wallnau, John Trump, nuclear war, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, AOC, Steve Bannon, Wall Street Bets, Gamestop, AMC, GME. Source of Musk and Dorsey clips: https://www.thebword.org/c/track-2-Bitcoin-As-A-Tool-For-Economic-Empowerment

As the United States faces yet another showdown over the federal debt ceiling, we examine the roots of the conflict by looking at the "North/Paul Strategy," a decades-old plan to provoke a financial collapse and then seize power. Rooted in libertarian economic theory and Christian Reconstructionist doctrine, Gary North and Ron Paul's ideas laid the foundation for the Tea Party and later, January 6th. Dave chats with James Scaminaci III, a scholar and expert on Fourth Generation Warfare, and Frederick Clarkson, who has been studying religious extremism for decades, and is an expert on the New Apostolic Reformation. They look at why economic eschatology is a persistent feature of American political life, and how we might break the vicious "cycle of doom." James Scaminaci III TwitterNorth/Paul Strategy Paper Frederick Clarkson TwitterThe Spirit Of January 6th

Everyone's talking about AI, how it will change the world, and even suggesting it might end humanity as we know it. Dave is joined by Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres, two prominent critics of AI doomerism, to cut through the noise, and look at where these ideas really came from, and offer suggestions on how we might look at these problems differently. And they also offer a picture of the darker side of these ideas and how they connect to Eugenics and other ideologies historically. Together Émile and Timnit coined an acronym called TESCREAL, which stands for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism — and yeah, that's a lot of -isms. But it ties into other topics that we have covered in this series, including Russian Cosmism and Longtermism. Dr. Gebru came to prominence in 2020 after she was fired from Google for speaking up about the company's lack of ethical guardrails in its AI development work. Émile Torres studies existential risk and has been a critic of the "longtermist" movement for several years. Dave last spoke with them last year in Season 1, Episode 23. Here are some relevant articles from Timnit and Émile. On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? (Bender, Gebru, McMillan-Major, Schmitchell) https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922 The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmares https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/ Longtermism and Eugenics: A Primer, by Émile Torres https://www.truthdig.com/articles/longtermism-and-eugenics-a-primer/ The Wide Angle: Understanding TESCREAL — the Weird Ideologies Behind Silicon Valley’s Rightward Turn, by Dave Troy https://washingtonspectator.org/understanding-tescreal-silicon-valleys-rightward-turn/ Google Researcher Says She Was Fired Over Paper Highlighting Bias in A.I. (New York Times; Cade Metz, Daisuke Wakabayashi) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/technology/google-researcher-timnit-gebru.html Keywords: existential risk, artificial intelligence, TESCREAL, Yudkowsky, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Peter Diamandis, Ray Kurzweil, Timnit Gebru, Émile Torres, Gary Marcus, OpenAI, Google, doomerism.

The League of Nations was established in the wake of The Great War to prevent another war like it from ever happening again. While it was a noble effort, it became clear as Hitler and Mussolini rose to power, that such a design would not be capable of curbing rampant nationalism and conflicting national interests. And Clarence Kirschman Streit saw it all unfold before his eyes. As a journalist for the New York Times covering the League of Nations in Geneva, he observed its operations in detail. At first, he thought he could offer ideas on how to fix it. But he came to realize that a new design was needed. He settled on a federated union, and wrote up his proposal in a book published in 1939 called "Union Now." It was well-received, but too late to prevent the horrors of World War II from unfolding. In this episode, Dave talks with Dr. Tiziana Stella, Executive Director of the Streit Council, which works to help advance Clarence Streit's ideas. The fundamental design flaws he outlined in the 1930's are still threatening us today, and have left a door open for autocratic leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. If we want a peaceful, democratic future, we would do well to listen to the lucid analysis of Clarence Streit. More info: https://www.streitcouncil.org/ https://twitter.com/tizistella Union Now: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262135

No discussion of the ways that the dollar and the United States are under attack would be complete without a contemporary exploration of the world of cryptocurrencies. Zeke Faux, an investigative journalist with Bloomberg News, joins Dave to discuss his new book, "Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wide Rise and Staggering Fall," which is part research, part travelogue, and filled with bizarre schemes and colorful characters. Number Go Up on Goodreads Zeke Faux on X NumberGoUpBook.com Keywords: Bitcoin, Tether, NFTs, Crypto, FTX, Sam Bankman Fried, Axis, Brock Pierce, Pig Butchering, El Salvador, Bukele, Binance, CZ, Giancarlo Devasini, Jean Chalopin, Jean-Louis van der Velde, Inspector Gadget, Steve Bannon, Miami, Bored Ape, Libertarian, Gold Standard, Gamestop, Russia, Musk.

Psychedelic drugs are having a moment, like SSRI's and Valium did decades before. What if there's a simple way for people to feel happier and more connected to the world while ushering in world peace at the same time? That's what many advocates of psychedelic drugs claim, but the reality is a lot more complicated. Dave talks with Neşe Devenot, a writer and early psychedelics advocate who has increasingly become a critic of the attitudes and capital that are lining up behind the popularization of these drugs. While they do hold some promise, some are advocating that they be used as a salve to dampen the negative externalities caused by crony capitalism and extractive resource use. Devenot and her co-authors on multiple papers think that's not okay — and we get to explore all the reasons why. TESCREAL hallucinations: Psychedelic and AI hype as inequality engines Dark Side of the Shroom: Erasing Indigenous and Counterculture Wisdoms with Psychedelic Capitalism, and the Open Source Alternative ‘More evolved than you’: Evolutionary spirituality as a cultural frame for psychedelic experiences Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency "Starseed," by Timothy Leary Spirituality & Psychedelics with Rick Doblin (The Marianne Williamson Podcast) Keywords: Rick Doblin, MAPS, Marianne Williamson, Neşe Devenot, LSD, Ketamine, MDMA, DMT, Ecstasy, Rebekah Mercer, Elizabeth Koch, Elon Musk, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Conscious Evolution, Fundamentalism, Jules Evans, Teilhard, Vernadsky, Noosphere, Psilocybin, Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescaline, TESCREAL, AI, Longtermism, Artificial Intelligence, Silicon Valley, hierarchy, aristocracy, metanoia, overview effect.

On January 8, 2024, Dave hosted a space on "X" (formerly Twitter) for an overview of what to expect in geopolitics in 2024. In this wide ranging monologue, Dave covers many topics including the US elections, Russia's war against Ukraine, the brewing conflict in the Middle East, and rising tensions in Asia between Taiwan, China, and Japan. Keywords: geopolitics, 2024, election, Russia, Ukraine, Putin, Iran, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, China, Taiwan, Japan, Trump, RFK Jr, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Red-Brown Alliance, Dugin, conscious evolution, history, atomic bomb, Leo Szilard, Robert Oppenheimer, Katechon, Eschaton, Eschatology, Nuclear War, Apocalypse, end times, Christian Nationalism, Barbara Marx Hubbard, New Age, cults.

American society seems to be devolving into two bitterly opposed and diametrically polarized camps. Not just around politics, but around culture as well. Jonathan Stray studies conflict, and tries to identify ways in which we can learn to conflict with each other more productively. He is a researcher at the Center for Human Compatible AI at the University of California Berkeley, where his work looks at a range of scientific and academic study of conflict and online behaviors. He talks with Dave about his work, why Americans are so divided, and what we might do about it. They also discuss where some of his funding comes from, and the messy world of think tanks. Keywords: conflict, polarization, social media, online interaction, CHAI, Center for Human Compatible AI, Jonathan Stray, Better Conflict Bulletin, University of California Berkeley, Mercatus Center.

For decades, a highly entrepreneurial group of researchers, scientists, and journalists has been at the center of the movement to “disclose” the existence of extraterrestrial visitors to Earth — and they’ve scored what may be their biggest legislative victory yet. The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed in December, includes a provision that requires the federal government to provide any and all records on UAP. Activists hope that a deluge of new UAP information will be disclosed later this year — smack in the middle of election season. The new law requires that all UAP-related records created more than 25 years ago must be made public — unless personally blocked by President Biden. Dave talks with researcher Jack Brewer and veteran journalist Art Levine in two separate interviews, to hear each of their perspectives on what's going on. It's a rich, detailed conversation you won't want to miss. Is a UFO Hoax a Ticking Time Bomb for Biden by Dave Troy, Washington Spectator Spaceship of Fools by Art Levine, Washington Spectator AARO Historical Report (March 2024) Expanding Frontiers Research Keywords: Danny Sheehan, NDAA, Robert Bigelow, Brandon Fugal, Skinwalker Ranch, Luis Elizondo, Hal Puthoff, Russell Targ, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Christopher Mellon, Timothy Mellon, RFK Jr., Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Noosphere, Vladimir Vernadsky, Vladimir Putin, KGB, UFO, UAP, Noosphere.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT As the age of oil winds down, a variety of interlinked forces are in play. Dave outlines a framework spanning roughly the last 100 years that helps put oil, gold, cryptocurrency, disinformation, radicalization, and the pandemic in perspective, and offers ideas about how we might overcome the looming climate emergency. He also addresses questions posed by listeners. Recorded live, November 2021.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT In 1964, Henry Littlefield proposed that the wildly popular book and film "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum could be read as an allegory about the gold standard, silver, and other political themes present in the 1890's when Baum was conceiving of the book. Others suggest it could be read as a theosophical story as well. Regardless of Baum's intent, this reading of this universally beloved story provides a gateway for people to think about such topics as monetary policy. Today, with cryptocurrency serving as a modern proxy for gold, we can think about its parallels to gold and its strengths and weaknesses. By tying current debates to history, we gain a better understanding of the present moment. Includes discussion of Littefield's theory and listener questions and ideas about cryptocurrency and cults historically connected to gold and oil.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Most people may not be aware that the modern Republican Party has been overtaken in recent decades by libertarian extremists that hail from the anti-communist, gold-obsessed John Birch Society. Dave Troy talks with Dr. James Scaminaci III, who is a noted expert on the extreme Christian Right and the American libertarian movements, as well as 4th generation warfare. He describes how the ideology from the John Birch Society eventually ended up in the Council for National Policy, the Ron Paul 2008 campaign, the Tea Party, January 6th and in cryptocurrency.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the author of the book "Strongmen: Mussolini to Present". She joins Dave Troy in conversation about the history of fascism in Italy, its offshoots around the world and connections with the Catholic Church. Ben-Ghiat studied how multiple dictator strongmen came to power, the tools they used to keep it, and how they eventually fell, to look for common patterns. She presents fascism as a "third way," a right-wing reaction to communism in Soviet Russia, rooted in private property and privatization. They discuss the risks present today, previous fascist coups in Chile, parallels with cryptocurrency, and how the United States may emerge from its current authoritarian moment.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Continuing discussion from November 23 with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Dave talks with Monique Camarra, an instructor at the University of Siena and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast. Dave and Monique have a wide-ranging conversation spanning the origins of Italian fascism, its asthetic roots, and its spread and adoption around the world. They tie the global fascist turn to oil, gas, and carbon fuel interests and to gold and cryptocurrency, and offer ideas for how people worldwide might better subjugate the current fascist turn.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The 1930's was a time of incredible upheaval in world politics, and the United States was no exception. Financial uncertainty, the New Deal, and anxiety about FDR's departure from the Gold Standard accompanied the flourishing of cult practices that aimed to address fundamental questions around the direction the country (and the world) might take. These groups, informed by previous traditions such as New Thought and Theosophy, offered a hierarchical, eugenicist view of society linked to prosperity and gold. Today's conflicts around cryptocurrency serve as a proxy for these same questions about our future direction. Joe Szimhart offers a sweeping overview of America's cultish turn, along with some ideas about how we might move forward at this very challenging time. Two books referenced (with permission): 400 Years of Imaginary Friends by Kenneth and Talita Paolini lightofchristtruth.com/References/Imaginary.pdf Psychic Dictatorship in America by Gerald Bryan (1940) tyob.info/public/pdf/psydict.pdf

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Anyone studying online disinformation will eventually come to the realization that much of it can be traced back to the oil and gas industry — specifically to groups like the Council for National Policy, created by and for oil and industrial interests. These networks have a deep history of fascist activity in the United States, where they were born primarily as a reactionary response to the New Deal and fears of "creeping socialism." Brent Allpress is an architectural academic based in Melbourne, Australia, and has been studying these networks in detail for the last several years. He has collaborated with authors such as Anne Nelson (Shadow Network) and filmmakers Dr. Charles Kriel and Kat Gellein (People You May Know). He has come to believe that most all of the political conflict we are experiencing is rooted in the carbon crisis, of which the January 6th insurrection was one expression. Today, the conflict rages on as oil industry influence (going so far as to vacuum up psychological profiling data) determines whether, how quickly, and how well we may respond to the looming carbon disaster. And cryptocurrency, by creating demand for even more energy and forestalling our response, is only making things worse. This is a must-listen session for a planet out of time. The Death of the Carbon Coalition Existing models of U.S. politics are wrong. Here’s how the system really works. foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/12/carbo…ter-us-politics/ Shadow Network (Book, Anne Nelson) www.amazon.com/Shadow-Network-Me…al/dp/163557319X/ People You May Know (Film, Kriel & Gellein) www.imdb.com/title/tt12606876/ The Aftermath of Cambridge Analytica (TEDxMidAtlantic) www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd5pxDEXBWA

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The Council for National Policy was created in 1981 with funds from the oil and gas industry to operationalize goals of the libertarian and Christian Right movements which had joined forces to elect Ronald Reagan as president. The CNP went on to play significant roles with the Iran Contra affair as well as to significantly shape the strategy of the right for the following four decades. The CNP played a significant role in the planning and execution of the January 6th attacks. Anne Nelson's book "Shadow Network" documents the CNP from inception to the present moment. She discusses the CNP, as well as multiple aspects of its history, goals, obsessions with eliminating taxation and regulation and with so-called "sound money" such as gold and now, cryptocurrency.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Christine Arena is a public relations veteran, climate activist, and filmmaker based in San Francisco. For the last several years she's been studying the funding of influence campaigns by the carbon fuel industry, looking at ways to expose and disrupt their strategies. She and Dave discuss the history of how the oil industry has not only sought to deny climate science, but to target lawmakers and the public with influence and psychological warfare campaigns that minimize the harms caused by the industry while outright obstructing any kind of action that might stand in their way. Christine's current project is a grant-funded documentary, PLAYED, which outlines the influence of the oil and gas industry and proposes ways to disrupt it. She has also appeared on the podcast series DRILLED by journalist Amy Westervelt, specifically in Season 3. For more information, check out her website at generousfilms.com, and check out DRILLED at criticalfrequency.org. Listeners may also want to check out work on Discourses of Delay: www.cambridge.org/core/journals/gl…B6212378E32985A7

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT The Catholic Church is a complicated organization with many internal divisions, political affiliations, intelligence connections, and banking functions. Frank Cocozzelli has written extensively about the factions inside the church, their connections to economic libertarianism, and Steve Bannon and Vladimir Putin’s ambitions for a “Third Rome” in Moscow. Frank and Dave have a wide-ranging discussion on all things Catholic, from the Opus Dei and Jesuit factions, to Vatican II and the New Deal. Mentioned in the show: Article by Fr. John McCloskey https://www.catholicity.com/mccloskey/2030.html Articles by Frank Cocozzelli https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/Frank-Cocozzelli Pat Buchanan: Whose side is God on, now? https://www.creators.com/read/pat-buchanan/04/14/whose-side-is-god-on-now keywords: Opus Dei, Jesuits, Putin, Ukraine, Catholicism, Catholic Church, Fascism, Frank Cocozzelli, Third Rome, Third Secret of Fatima, Steve Bannon, Knights of Malta, Aleksandr (Alexander) Dugin, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò, Mike Flynn, QAnon, Katehon, Eschaton, Dominionism, Ziklag, Libertarianism, gold standard, cryptocurrency, sovereignty.

SEASON 1: OIL, GOLD, CRYPTO & FASCISM: HOW WE GOT HERE AND HOW TO FIX IT Bitcoin first emerged on the world stage in 2009, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. But the story of where cryptocurrencies came from goes back decades. Dave talks with software engineer and prominent cryptocurrency critic Stephen Diehl about the libertarian roots of crypto and NFTs, why it’s anti-democratic, how it radicalizes and preys on people, and why we need to pop this corrosive Ponzi scheme sooner than later. Mentioned in the show: Stephen Diehl’s Blog: https://www.stephendiehl.com/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/smdiehl Line Goes Up video by Dan Olson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g  Crypto Skeptics (Twitter List by Dave Troy) https://twitter.com/i/lists/1470046292336336900?s=20 Keywords: cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, NFTs, libertarianism, Austrian economics, gold, Ponzi schemes, CBDC, MMM, Executive Order, Eric Adams, Francis Suarez, Mavrodi, Mussolini, Steve Bannon, Brock Pierce, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, January 6th, insurrection, class collaboration, federal reserve, anti-Semitism, DOGE, FJB, coal, energy, renewable, eugenics, Pioneer fund, Bell Curve, China, yuan, ruble, hybrid war, crime, money laundering, oligarchs, Putin.