What is “Situation Report?”
We have several ongoing emergencies on our hands, and we’re collectively failing to “connect the dots” about what’s going on. For a lot of reasons, most current news reporting just doesn’t address history or provide any context for what’s happening. I find myself trying to assemble and share this context via Twitter, so current events make more sense.
Recognizing that simplicity and repetition is the key to penetrating the media sphere and shaping public opinion, this is my inaugural Situation Report, in which I will, from time to time, offer historical context and backstory for what we’re seeing in the news. Knowing why things are happening can help us to determine what may happen next.
What’s Happening Now
Monetary policy is (still) at the heart of everything. The libertarian faction headed by Charles Koch and Robert Mercer is continuing to try to execute a series of “interrelated plays” to push the world towards plutocracy and away from democracy. By pushing towards scarce value stores such as gold, silver, and cryptocurrency (what they call “honest money”), they hope to devalue fiat currencies and dismantle the banks behind them, specifically the US dollar and the Federal Reserve. Why? Read on.
The fight over the debt ceiling is a threat to the dollar. For decades, Republicans have been shutting down the government over the debt limit. But they always cave. This time it’s different; or at least, it may be different going forward. The old Republican party has been usurped by the new libertarian faction run by Koch and Mercer; their threats against the debt ceiling and the dollar are real, because they actively want to alter monetary policy. While an agreement has been reached that will forestall the debate until December 3rd, we should not assume the dollar will not ultimately be attacked. As with a child that plays with matches and talks about burning down the house, we should not discount the possibility that they eventually might.
Utah and Wyoming (and the American west) are a hotbed of gold and crypto activity. Several western states, because they were created out of land owned (and still owned) by the US Federal government, have a fraught relationship with Washington. In 2011, Utah passed a law that recognizes gold and silver as legal tender. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY, the former Miss Frontier) has been a major champion of “non-fiat currency,” especially Bitcoin, especially after making a major purchase of it on August 16. She talked about this in detail during this week’s debate over the debt ceiling. The region is a major host of the “constitutional sherrif” movement that aims to challenge the power of the Federal government. Currency is part of this, so the coupling of these two initiatives in this region is unsurprising. (It’s also a hotbed of “I AM” cult activity; see next story.)
Michael Flynn recited a prayer lifted from a gold cult. On September 17, Flynn led a congregation at Nebraska pastor Hank Kunneman’s Lord of Hosts Church in a prayer written by cult leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Prophet’s cult, Church Universal and Triumphant, was derived from the prior “I AM” cult, started in the 1930’s. I AM was obsessed with gold, and hated Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (annihilate them!) for abandoning the gold standard. Whether Flynn knew it or not, he was invoking these cults and their fascist history. QAnon adherents mistakenly interpreted this prayer as a “Satanist” prayer for its references to “light rays.” Journalists missed the “I AM” connections that pervade the so-called “Pastel Q” movement. The correct take is to acknowledge that this prayer came from the CUT/I AM cult, which is associated both with gold and QAnon promoters. Fun fact: Elizabeth Clare Prophet purchased her Livingston, Montana ranch from proto-libertarian Malcolm Forbes.
Attacking fiat currency is one effective way to delay action on climate. Kneecapping fiat currency limits government’s ability to develop viable alternatives to carbon fuels. This recent TED talk by Stephanie Kelton makes a convincing case about how government is uniquely positioned to invest in “moonshot” projects because of its ability to wield fiat currency. And this talk by Jamie Beard describes how geothermal energy can lead the way in displacing carbon fuels. We just have to invest in it; but we can’t and won’t if we’re embroiled in wars between so-called “honest money” and central banks. The Guardian reports that fossil fuels receive $11 million per minute in subsidies, secured by the massive influence the industry has, and aims to retain.
Former Democrat Andrew Yang is talking about paying Universal Basic Income in Bitcoin. Yang, after first announcing the formation of the so-called “Forward Party,” recently tweeted, “who’s to say UBI needs to be in fiat?” This appears to be a continuation of an effort to draw audiences away from traditional left vs. right and Democratic vs. Republican issue frames and into the fiat vs. crypto debate. Yang’s audience is small but not insubstantial, and influential in certain geographies. Whether Yang is wittingly participating in this libertarian turning is hard to say, but he is regardless fueling this growing divide.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was influenced by former CIA officer Bradley Johnson to believe election disinformation, fueling the insurrection. The Senate Judiciary report published this week shows that Mark Meadows pushed AG Rosen to look into a fake scandal called “Italygate” which appeared to have been pushed by Rudy Giuliani. I reported back in February that Bradley Johnson was one of dozens of former military and intelligence officials pushing insurrection-related themes. This network is, in many cases, still pushing active disinformation about the 2020 election and COVID.
People are outraged about ties between AT&T and OAN, but OAN’s connections to the Washington Times and the Moon cult deserve further inquiry, too. Stories recently emerged about how AT&T was involved in founding and then subsidizing One America News Network by seemingly “overpaying” for carrying the channel, and is thus its primary financial backer. However, it’s also worth noting that OAN was formed in 2014 as part of a partnership with the Washington Times, a right-wing newspaper owned by the Moon cult — historically part of the same network of anti-communist gold-bugs we are dealing with elsewhere. And President Trump spoke at the 9/11 20th anniversary event hosted by the Moon cult; it is a major part of the past and present “libertarian” network (which oh-by-the-way seems to rely a lot on cults to get its work done.)
What May Happen Next
Expect to see continued attacks on the dollar. That could culminate around the December 3rd deadline for raising the debt ceiling. If the debt ceiling is somehow not raised, the dollar will face serious pressure, and we can expect crypto speculators such as Sen. Lummis (R-WY) to try to profit with gains in crypto. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has been talking about regulating crypto, and may actually introduce some meaningful reforms. What to watch: regulating crypto products and derivatives as securities; limiting derivatives that allow purchase of crypto assets using leverage; possible meltdown of Tether, a “stablecoin” allegedly backed by 69 billion dollars — that appear to be missing.
China already took a swing at crypto by effectively outlawing it. While many speculated that it would have a major impact, it has not (yet). Moves by the SEC and the possible coincident collapse of Tether may lead to a run on assets. The highly volatile and interconnected crypto-space may, of course, collapse on its own at any time; if it does, and it probably will at some juncture, it may slow down the plan by the stealth libertarians looking to overpower fiat currencies.
As we head into 2022, we remain locked in a conflict between libertarian forces trying to impose a hierarchical model of money and value on the world versus everyone else, who mostly doesn’t understand this is their goal. As Nancy MacLean said in her book “Democracy In Chains,” theirs is a stealth program of “constitutional revolution,” and their aim is to gradually enact changes so significant that they become permanent — and ultimately render our economy and society incompatible with democracy.
Facebook’s disastrous week may increase calls for “decentralizing” social media, using still largely-unwieldy blockchain-based approaches. This could result in a drive towards social media that is effectively “unregulatable.” This sounds good to libertarians, but effects on society are largely unconsidered, and could easily lead us more in the direction towards genocide, as Frances Haugen warned us about Facebook this week.
As I will reassert here frequently, the world deserves to have a conversation about “decentralization,” and to push back against a tired, fundamentalist agenda desired by only a minority of people.
We’re interested in the major historical trends that shape current events. Tips? Ideas? Drop us a line via email or Twitter DM. Please note: this analysis is historical and political in nature; it is not intended as financial advice and should not be taken as such.
For an even deeper dive, check out my series, The Big History Behind January 6th.
