Monolith Baby

Update 11/28/20:

Well, it looks like the mystery has already deepened. Just a little over a week after this would-be artifact was revealed to the public at large, the monolith has just as suddenly disappeared. This certainly makes for one of the stranger series of events in 2020, which is saying something. Or is this the end of the Utah monolith? As is discussed below, there is a lot of highly charged twilight language surrounding this whole psycho-drama. 

Intro

So, 2020 still has a little over a month to go. What else could this especially foul year of Our Lord have in store for us? Naturally, this past week has produced two additional gems, one a bit twee, the other not so much. 

Let's start with the former. As I'm sure you're all aware by now, a monolith has appeared in Utah. I've become quite fascinated with Utah of late and consider Stanley Kubrick to be my all time favorite filmmaker, so this development had quite a personal significance for me. But beyond that, the monolith also has a lot of synchs with things I've been exploring on both this blog and The Farm recently. 

A popular theory making the rounds regarding the monolith is that it was left by someone affiliated with the HBO sci-fi series Westworld. The monolith is located near Lockhart Basin in San Juan County. The closest town of any significance is Moab. This whole region has long been a popular filming location for Hollywood, especially when it comes to Westerns. Hence, the presence of Westworld at a location near the monolith. 

Westworld and ARGs (and spoilers)

If the Utah monolith is indeed some kind of LARP conceived of by the Westworld crew, its most apt for both the show and this time in history. One thing that I've explored lately is the murky netherworld of alternate reality games (ARGs), especially in regards to how their techniques have been hijacked by public and private intelligence services. ARGs have clearly had an enormous influence on the HBO series. Indeed, the namesake park in which the first two seasons unfold is a kind of ARG for the affluent to indulge in their basest impulses. 

But one particular "guest," the brutal Man in Black character (Ed Harris), is obsessed with the notion of a broader game being at play. His intuition is proven correct by the end of that season. Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), the park's "puppetmaster" (the preferred to title for someone running an ARG), has already expanded the game beyond those confines. Large portions of the staff are themselves "hosts" (lifelike androids programed to be at the mercy of the guests) and some have been given "special" instructions, while other appear to have become self-aware. The effect is to utterly blur the difference between reality and the game, something all good ARGs manage.

the Westworld maze, one of the early puzzle pieces for the "deeper" game

During the show's third season, it largely leaves the park and presents the viewer with a horrific depiction of modern America. Social control has become a refined science (largely based on cybernetic principals, of course). Human beings profiled as "outliners" (i.e. those with a large capacity for social deviancy) are considered a threat to the social order. Pacification of these elements takes two forms: pointless wars and petty criminal activity. In that sense, not much has managed, though some novel methods are now employed. Criminal activity is largely managed through an app known as RICO. 

As the third season unfolds, it is revealed that the app is owned by the same company that controls the Westworld park. Both, in turn, are managed by an A.I. known as Rehoboam. This particular A.I. appears to have structured the RICO activities along the lines of ARGs, with players effectively being sent on "missions" (often minor crimes to benefit the interests of the A.I.), the success of which supplements their meager incomes (the equivalent of acquiring tokens). 

the RICO app is even designed to look like a gaming screen

More broadly speaking, the park (an enormous ARG) was used to acquire personal data on users. This data was later turned over to Rehoboam, which used it to craft highly accurate personality profiles for society at large. This is at the heart of the social control depicted throughout the dystopian future of season three. ARGs have long been used for similar personality profiling while the type of control system shown in Westworld appears to be modeled on Cambridge Analytica's profiling methods. Of course, those methods in turn were surely adopted from ARGs in part. 

The coup de grace is of course that HBO has used numerous ARGs to promote Westworld over the years. Is this a case of life imitating art imitating life, or art imitating life imitating art?

one of the many fake website created for Westworld's various ARGs

And what of the monolith itself? Is it a kind of ARG? Certainly, it seems to have a few of those elements, most notably the treasure hunt component that's so crucial. The timing is also curious. The monolith apparently went undetected for over four years until agents of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources happened to notice it on November 18th while surveying sheep via helicopter. 

Accounts of it started to spread like wildfire here in these United States the following week as the Thanksgiving holiday started across the nation. This ensured an ample audience as it went viral, especially with travel concerns growing over COVID. This story has those generated far more attention than it likely otherwise would, especially in such an unprecedented year. Already, there's been a lot of internet sleuthing to ascertain the origins and motives behind the monolith.  And sooner or later, the treasurer hunters will be making the scene. 

It will certainly be interesting to see how all this plays out. Will the story simply fade away in the coming weeks as more pressing concerns come to the forefront (more on that in a moment)? Or, is their another wave in the works? As its 2020, the possibility that a stainless steel monolith in a Utah desert playing some kind of international role cannot be discounted. 

It's No Game

It's certainly fitting that the monolith would appear in the heart of Mormon country. They know a thing or two about LARPing and faux artifacts, after all. But there are much darker things about Mormonism than their ridiculous pseudo-history. And that is garishly on display in the nearby area from where the monolith was found.

Rockland Ranch is located about 40 minutes south of Moab. This is the site of a "fundamentalist Mormon" (i.e., those who still practice polygamy) community that has recently gained national exposure. It is the setting of the Netflix series Three Wives, One Husband and also the location of "The Rock Rally." The latter is one of the largest festivals for fundamentalist Mormons, attracting hundreds of visitors a year.

one of the unique residences that characterize Rockland Ranch

Rockland Ranch has certainly done its part to put a wholesome, family-centric face on fundamentalist Mormonism. But it's cult-like nature is never far from the surface. Many of the denizens who attend this festival, as well the broader fundamentalist community, came up in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). And nowadays, it's hard to deny the FLDS was and is a full blown cult. The sects infamous leader, Warren Jeffs, is currently serving a life sentence for sexual assault committed against two of his underage "brides" (one was 15, the other 12). Jeffs has long been accused of the sexual abuse of minors, including by his own family members. Further, he promoted the practice of "child brides" among his followers. This is the sort of milieu that has often characterized fundamentalist Mormonism. 

Warren Jeffs

Rockland Ranch has gone to great lengths to downplay any connections to the FLDS. They are more forthcoming up their links to the LeBaron family, which has quite a dark and violent history south of the border. Enoch Foster, the son of the founder of Rockland Ranch and the principal subject of Three Wives, One Husband, has acknowledged being related to the Langford family, another Mexico-based fundamentalist Mormon clan, and one that has intermarried with the LeBarons for decades now. Thus, Foster is almost surely related to the LeBaron family as well. 

As I noted before here, the LeBarons have been at the center of controversy of late. They, along with the above-mentioned Langford family, were targeted during the 2019 massacre in Mexico that left nine fundamentalist Mormons dead. Less well known are the disturbing ties this same branch of the LeBaron family has to the NXIVM cult. As in, they were providing it with girls. 

So, to recap: This mysterious monolith appears in a region featuring one of the more storied fundamentalist Mormon compounds, and one engaged in quite the charm offensive of late. And all with the specter of the FLDS, the LeBarons, and all those "child brides" hanging over it. And in a state long controlled by a church that has been engaged in LARPing and mythmaking for a very longtime now. Quite a potent combination to be sure, especially when one considers some of the more recent shrines crafted in the state of Utah. 

It's No Game II

All of this makes for an interesting puzzle to unravel over the Thanksgiving holiday to be sure. And it may even be less ominous than a story that broke during Black Friday and will thus receive far less attention than the Utah monolith. Or, at least we can hope that's the case. If this thing does go viral, it probably means war is about to break out.  

To wit, on November 27 Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the alleged head of Iran's nuclear program, was assassinated. Top Iranian officials have already blamed Israel and vowed retaliation. The assassination comes days after a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Mossad, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And of course, Trump had just considered attacking Iran's nuclear sites earlier in the month. 

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh

All of this is deeply unsettling in light of recent changes made at the Pentagon. This includes a veteran special operator ascending to the Secretary of Defense post; the US Special Operations Command effectively becoming its own branch of the military, on par with the Army, Navy, etc.; and one of General Michael T. Flynn's closet aides assuming control of virtually all special operations forces and military intelligence. Flynn is of course one of the most militant Iran hawks in the national security establishment. During his short-lived tenure as Trump's first National Security Adviser, Flynn was quick to put Iran on "notice."

Is this a last ditch effort for the Flynn loyalists and elements within Israel to provoke a war with Iran? John Brennan, a onetime Obama-era CIA director turned fanatical anti-Trumper, certainly seemed to think so. Of course, the administration Brennan most recently served in witnessed the assassination of no less than four Iranian nuclear scientists. Naturally, the legacy media has long forgotten these things.

  

John Brennan

It is doubtful Iran has, however. While its widely believed Biden will offer them more favorable terms, whether or not that will actually be the case is debatable. This puts Iran in a precarious position. If the early names floated for Biden's cabinet are any indication, he will be even more hawkish than the Obama regime. He is also likely riddled with dementia, ensuring he will be more "hands-off" in regards to the national security apparatus than either Obama or Trump. 

For these reasons, an attack by this Islamic regime against Israel is not outside the realm of extreme possibility. The Iranians may ultimately conclude that a war with Israel would provoke enough chaos in the US political system to warrant the risk. It's been that kind of year, after all. 

And with that I shall wrap up for now dear readers. If you haven't already, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for The Farm's exclusive content. Next week. I'll drop an epic discussion between Christopher Knowles and myself on all things Millennium and its incredible parallels with 2020. Not to be missed. 

Anyway, until next, stay tuned. 

The Game

In the pivotal year of 2012, the enigmatic Cicada 3301 was launched. It all started with a series of puzzles left on the infamous 4chan on January 4 of that year. A fresh round would appear on the same day in 2013 and 2014. The puzzles were allegedly designed to locate "highly intelligent individuals." Initially, they largely centered around data security, cryptography, steganography, and internet anonymity. But over time, they became more fixated on the occult, incorporating elements such as Freemasonry, Crowley, runes, and even the highly esoteric work of William Blake. This thread reached an apex with the launch of a tie-in book, Liber Primus, which appears to be something between a codebook and a grimoire. 

Cicada 3301 became a global phenomena shortly after its launch and still continues to fascinate despite it being six years since the last puzzle dropped. In 2019, Great Big Story (a subsidiary of CNN) dropped a very slick documentary on the Cicada phenomena called Cracking the Code of Cicada 3301. It followed a group of Cicada fans who still struggles with the ciphers years after much of the rest of the world moved on. The documentary attempts to link the group behind Cicada 3301 to the early 1990s cypherpunks behind the famed mailing list that originated at UC Berkeley. It's all a way to train brilliant individuals in techniques to protect their digital privy while enabling many of these loners to finally find true friends in the process. 

That's the Cinderella version anyway. The reality looks far more ominous by the day. Less than three weeks before the election, the arch globalist mouthpiece known as the Financial Times dropped a bombshell: QAnon was an outgrowth of Cicada 3301. Three days later, Heavy joined in on the fun. 

QAnon as ARG

Their claims were incredible: that a man named Thomas Schoenberger had taken over Cicada 3301 by 2014 and that he had later set up the Q phenomena. Further, Schoenberger was linked to a slew of former US intelligence officers. They included Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) members William Binney (ex-NSA) and Robert David Steele (ex-CIA). Even more curious are his supposed to ties to General Michael T. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and Trump's first National Security Advisor. Of course, Flynn served in the latter capacity for less than a month before he was forced to resign in the midst of the scandal. His subsequent legal odyssey could fill an entire blog alone. 

General Michael T. Flynn

But how credible is all of this? Both Cicada 3301 and QAnon are described as "alternate reality games" (ARG) in these accounts. When exactly ARGs first emerged is a matter of some dispute, but they are generally believed to be an outgrowth of the 1980s counterculture, and specifically that of the Bay area. Early influences include Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, and chaos magic. Operation Mindfuck would be one of the most obvious predecessors. 1988 witnessed the launch of Ong's Hat, the first proper ARG, and a product of the previously mentioned subculture. 

While little acknowledged, ARGs constitute a vibrant subculture in their own right. It all seems terribly clever and as with most clever things, the multinationals were drawn like moths to a flame. Sought after game designers are now frequently used in marketing campaigns for films, TV shows, and the like. In more recent years, it also appears intelligence communities got in on the act. In 2013, Wired (which grew out of the same 1980s counterculture milieu) reported that the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) had begun studying ARGs as a meanings of enabling the Pentagon to better understand human psychology and social behavior. The project was dubbed "Using Alternate Reality Environments to Help Enrich Research Efforts," or UAREHERE. 

Its possible interest in such things went back even further. Joseph Matheny, the principal figure behind Ong's Hat, stated that the Navy had approached him some time around 2000 to study synchronicities surrounding Ong' Hat. To his credit, Matheny turned the Navy down, but the game may have an even more perverse interest for the military. In the same interview, Matheny noted: "Unfortunately, what we've discovered is that there are certain personalities types that can trigger a flight into destructive fantasy." Certainly, this would very much seem to be the case with Q. On that note, let us return to UAREHERE for a moment.

This research largely unfolded while many of the former senior intelligence officers who've spent much of the Trump presidency in full LARP mode were still in office. The IARPA is a part of the Office of National Intelligence, then headed by arch Trump antagonist James Clapper. Another arch Trump foe, John Brennan, was then CIA director. Elsewhere, the above-mentioned General Flynn headed the DIA. 

Deep Moves

The purported direct links of Michael T. Flynn and Schoenberger are especially ominous in light of events currently unfolding in these United States. In the aftermath of the 2020 election Clown Show, the Orange One had sudden changes at the Pentagon. On November 9 (a date steeped in esoteric significance to Nazism), Trump sacked Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher C. Miller. 

Christopher C. Miller

Miller is as unconventional of a choice of the Secretary of Defense gig as is the timing of his appointment. While its not uncommon for former military men to hold the post, Miller is one of the few career military men to secure the appointment. He dedicated nearly 31 years to the military. The only prior Secretaries of Defense with more time served are Generals George Marshall and James "Mad Dog" Mattis. By contrast, Miller was only a colonel when he retired from the Army. What's more, while the bulk of the experience of Mattis and certainly Marshall resided with conventional forces, the majority of Miller's career was spent among the special operations forces. Specifically, Miller was a Green Beret, and one who was active in Afghanistan. One of his last duties in the Army was to work out of the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC). That particular Assistant Secretary is the most senior civilian figure representing the special operations community. As for Miller, he retired from the service in 2014 and joined Trump's National Security Council in 2018. From there, he was made the director of the National Counterterrorism Center earlier this year. 

To recap: Miller's entire career has been dedicated to unconventional warfare, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency. These United States have never had a Secretary of Defense quite like this, either on a permanent or intern basis. And to be sure, Miller has already put his personal stamp on the DoD. A little over a week after taking office, Miller announced that the SO/LIC will now report directly to the Secretary of Defense. Presently, only the civilian heads of the individual branches of the military services report directly to the Secretary of Defense. Now, the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is effectively its own branch of the armed forces. 

Think about that for a moment dear reader. The United States Special Operations Command has effectively achieved parity with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, etc. And keep in mind, the authority for this move ultimately comes from the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017, which was signed into law by Obama. What's more, Sleepy Joe is unlikely to challenge any of these changes. Indeed, given what Biden will be facing in the aftermath of his inauguration (assuming that that actually happens, of course), he may end writing Trump an especially warm thank you note featuring a lifetime's worth of presidential pardons for these actions alone. 

The other significant move Trump has made of late is the elevation of Ezra Cohen-Watnick. Cohen-Watnick is a longtime Flynn alley who first hooked up with the general in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He followed Flynn into the National Security Council, where he was later implicated in leaking materials to Representative Devin Nunes indicating the Obama administration had spied on the Trump campaign. He was ultimately drummed out of the NSC by HR McMaster in the summer of 2017. He returned to the Trump administration in 2018 via the Justice Department and rejoined the DoD earlier this year. In September, Cohen-Watnick was made the SO/LIC, which now reports directly to the Secretary of Defense. Cohen-Watnick, a close alley of Michael Flynn, is now the civilian head of all US special operations forces and has a direct line of communication to the SoD. 

Ezra Cohen-Watnick

But that's not all. As part of Trump's Pentagon shakeup, Cohen-Watnick was also made the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence (USDI). While little discussed, the USDI is one of the most powerful positions in the entire national security apparatus. It is arguably the most senior intelligence post in the entire government, with the director of the CIA being its only real rival. The heads of the NSA, the DIA, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and all of the individual military intelligence branches, fall under the command of the USDI. More information on the importance of this post in the post 9/11 years can be found in my first book, Strange Tales of the Parapolitical. But to sum it up, the USDI effectively oversees all branches of military intelligence.

In essence, then, Cohen-Warwick is now in control of all US special operations forces and military intelligence, while reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense, himself a veteran of special operations. This certainly streamlines the chain of command from the president to the civilian head of special operations and military intelligence, to put it mildly.  

Yeah, that's not a little unsettling. Especially with the links the Flynn Intel Group appears to have to Thomas Schoenberger. This certainly raises some very disturbing prospects as to what ends the QAnon movement could be put towards in the coming weeks and months with current developments in the Pentagon. It is important to remember, however, that Flynn's mentor is General Stanley McChrystal, one of the most vocal critics of Trump. Flynn and McChrystal had been a part of the "Irish Mafia" at Fort Bragg and it was McChyrstal who tapped Flynn to head intelligence for the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Reportedly, Flynn founded his private intelligence company in a townhouse owned by McChrystal.

General Stanley McChrystal

Are Flynn and McChrystal then possibly working in tandem against Trump? McChrystal has endorsed Biden in 2020. On the other hand, his military career was ruined in 2010 by scathing comments he made regarding Biden. Men as vein as McChrystal rarely let such things go. And he and Flynn have a whole netherworld of misfit toys locked and loaded. In other words, do not expect the techniques developed from the ARG world to go away anytime soon. They will ensure that, regardless of whichever clown prevails in the show, SOCOM will emerge as the true victor. This is what men like McChrystal and Flynn had spent their careers working towards, and they will achieve these ends by hook or by crook.

For more on the ARG nexus that becomes more and more relevant by the day, check out the latest installment of The Farm with We've Read the Documents' John Brisson and Tek-Gnostics' Jack Heart. Enjoy.

Also, consider becoming a patron of The Farm. For five dollars a month, you get two additional, full-length podcasts with exclusive guests and content. I've got big plans for the latter in the coming months. Stay tuned. 

Chaos Re-Imaginos

In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 US Presidential Election (Clown Show), the great Christopher Knowles proclaimed Choronzon, Lord of Chaos, the victor. And aptly so, as regardless of which clown prevails, chaos will ultimately reign.

This will be especially true if Biden maintains his media-proclaimed victory. Trump TV is quietly going forward, ensuring the Orange One will have his own personal platform to directly address his millions of disgruntled followers throughout the Biden (Harris) administration. This dynamic has already been playing out at the Vatican for much of this past decade with "the two Popes." 

Neither Trump nor his followers will be nearly as diplomatic as Pope Benedict, however. And of course Benedict has likely been muzzled by his involvement in the Vatican's ongoing pedophile scandal. Trump certainly has Epstein hanging over his head, but so does practically the entire Democratic Party. Everyone and everything will burn if that card is played. So, Trump will have his soapbox and he will use it. 

And he may not have to do much, as things look like they're going to burn regardless. Despite the glowing public face, the Democratic Party appears to realize 2020 was a Pyrrhic victory at best. A leaked conference call revealed that the moderate and progressive wings of the party are deeply divided even in the face of an assumed Biden victory. Days later, progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) unloaded on her own party and even threatened to quit politics. 

Be assured, this division will only increase as the election is further scrutinized. One factoid that is surely fueling the fire is the Orange One appearing to score the highest share of nonwhite voters of any Republican presidential candidate since 1960. 

Donald J. "Build the Wall" Trump. 

Just think about that for a moment, and then imagine some of the discussions awaiting the mostly white, baby boomers who comprise the centralist (Rockefeller Republican) wing of the party and the much more diverse progressive wing. Yeah, fun times indeed. 

And this assumes that Biden is still president by 2022. What happens if the torch is in fact passed to Kamala Harris in the midst of an internal party war while an unshackled Trump advocates an actual civil war to his followers? Imagine 2020 not ending, and even finding a way to ratchet the chaos up to eleven. And that's probably the most optimistic projection for how this particular scenario will play out.

Fittingly, Imaginos has re-emerged just in time for the post-election chaos. As longtime readers of this blog are well aware, Recluse is quite the Blue Oyster Cult fan. I first began subjecting all of you to this obsession in 2012, when BOC took center stage in the last two installments of my "How the Music Died" series (which can be found here and here). If this wasn't enough, I wrote an epic, five-part series during 2016 in the aftermath of longtime manager and producer Sandy Pearlman's death. It revolved around BOC's legendary "Imaginos cycle," which Pearlman had conceived of. The song cycle followed the saga of Imaginos, a unique human who later becomes a godlike being. It incorporates Aztec scrying mirrors, the Sirius tradition, demonic biker gangs, Nazism, the secret history of both World Wars, and of course, extraterrestrials, into one heady brew.

BOC never got around to doing a full-blown concept album centered around the cycle during their heyday, though the "Black and White" albums (most especially Secret Treaties) did make heavy use of those songs. It was not until 1988's Imaginos that the songs finally got their own collection. That album had begun during the early 1980s as an Albert Bouchard solo album. Bouchard was BOC's longtime drummer and one of their principal songwriters. After leaving the band in 1981, he and Pearlman teamed up to finally give the Imaginos cycle a proper album. Things did not go smoothly, however, and eventually the project reverted back to BOC, but in name only. The actual album that emerged is surprisingly strong, but mired by a badly dated 1980s sound.

Despite never quite getting the presentation that they deserve, the songs have continued to fascinate me. So much so that I dragged Chris Knowles onto The Farm earlier this year so we could talk some BOC, with a special emphasis on Imaginos. But it still wasn't enough. I knew that to achieve stratification, I needed to talk to someone directly involved with the cycle. The logical choice would have been Pearlman, but he sadly departed us in 2016. That left only one real candidate, the man who had written the bulk of the arrangements for Pearlman's songs: Bouchard. 

As its 2020, not only was Mr. Bouchard willing to indulge me for nearly an hour while I asked him many of the kooky questions I've always wanted to ask regarding Imaginos, but he also informed me that he would soon be releasing a new version of the Imaginos cycle as a solo album: Re-Imaginos. 

A new album's worth of Imaginos songs, and with arrangements in line with how Pearlman and Bouchard had always wanted the songs to sound? It sounded to good to be true until I heard Bouchard's new versions of "Black Telescope" and "Blue Oyster Cult." Yeah, they're not quite on par with BOC during the "Black and White" era, but are surely light years beyond the first Imaginos. Dig:

The album dropped on November 6, 2020, and it more than lives up to the promise of the first two singles. Until a time machine can be invented, enabling us to travel back to '74 and force the band to turn Secret Treaties into a full blown Imaginos concept album, this will stand as the definitive work on this subject. Highly recommended. 

It's also especially apt that it dropped days after what is easily one of the most chaotic elections in US history and which will surely usher in an era of unprecedented chaos in said history. For my money, the centerpiece of the Imaginos cycle is the classic "Astronomy."

I have long believed that this song describes a magical ritual being used to open a portal into the Abyss from which Imaginos (in his "Desdenova" form) can return to the physical realm. And as I'm sure many of you are aware, Choronzon is not just the Lord of Chaos, but also the Lord of Abyss. In some traditions, the Abyss is the realm the primordial chaos from which the ordered world emerged. 

For obvious reasons, it is both profoundly fitting and profoundly disturbing that this trope has once again re-emerged. But really, what could be more 2020 that the resurrection of Imaginos? If you're still not convinced, be sure to check out my interview with Bouchard, which can be found here. All kinds of goodies await.