Clyde Lewis ties Jack Brooks's death, the REX 84 plan, and Terence McKenna's Timewave Zero to the approaching December 21, 2012 date.
At a glance
Guest: Gordon Duff of Veterans Today
Topics: Timewave Zero · REX 84 · December 21, 2012 · Benghazi · fiscal cliff doomsday plan
Also discussed: Terence McKenna · Jack Brooks · Oliver North · John Bringerhoff · Ezra Klein · Zero Dark Thirty · Osama bin Laden
A young woman answers the phone in the Oval Office. The man on the line says a spaceman gave him the number, and there are monsters behind the President. "Young lady, there are no monsters in the Oval Office," the President tells her. The caller refuses to drop it. "The spaceman told me."
That taped skit opens the December 5, 2012 broadcast, sixteen days out from the date half of America has circled on the calendar. When the music drops, Lewis delivers his thesis in one breath: "It's more than just a fiscal cliff we're on, ladies and gentlemen. We're on a cliff, and we're teetering." He promises the audience "Cliff's Notes. The doomsday." In his reading, the budget showdown in Washington, a fresh Washington Post headline about a Republican doomsday plan, and the approach of December 21 are one event wearing three costumes.
A Wave Ending on a Friday
Lewis frames the date through Terence McKenna, the psychedelic philosopher who argued that time has a structure, a fractal wave compressing toward a point of maximum novelty. McKenna's calculation placed that point at December 21, 2012, the rollover of the Mayan long count. Lewis argues the theory was built around renewal, and that television programmers and politicians stripped it for parts. He points to shows like "Counting Down the Apocalypse" and tells his audience the 2012 fear "will be generated and regenerated, it'll have a heyday."
He also concedes the date itself is shaky. "The date really is not the true date of the long count anyway," he says near the close. What interests him is the use of the date, the way a calendar page becomes an instrument.
A Congressman Dies on Schedule
The synchronicity arrives as an obituary. Congressman Jack Brooks of Texas died the night before the broadcast, at 89, less than two weeks shy of his birthday. Brooks spent 42 years in the House, rode in the Dallas motorcade in 1963, and during the Iran-Contra hearings pressed Oliver North about a classified continuity-of-government plan. Lewis replays the exchange. Brooks: "Colonel North, in your work at the NSC, were you not assigned at one time to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?" North: "Mr. Chairman, I believe that the question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area, so may I request that you not touch upon that, sir." The chairman shut the questioning down.
The plan, REX 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, would in Lewis's account suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and open detention camps during a national emergency. Lewis says North and John Bringerhoff drafted it, patterned on a 1970 FEMA proposal by Louis Giafrida that envisioned detaining up to 21 million Black Americans in case of a militant uprising. He ties REX 84 to the broader contingency plans Garden Plot and Lantern Spike. Then he names the timing outright: "Jack Brooks, the man who unveiled the doomsday scenario back in 1984, passes away. I'm saying that's a synchronicity." He concedes Brooks was an old man who died of natural causes. The pattern is what he is after.
Doomsday as a Trigger Word
Lewis spends a stretch of the first hour on Ezra Klein's Washington Post column "The GOP's bizarre doomsday plan," published that morning. The strategy, as ABC News described it, would let Republicans allow a vote on middle-class tax cuts and then recess if fiscal cliff talks collapsed. Lewis reminds listeners that Congress passed a genuine doomsday plan in 2005 to keep the legislature functioning after a catastrophic attack, and he objects to how casually the word now circulates. "I just don't like the idea of the words doomsday plot, doomsday scenario," he says. "What they're doing is they're sending out a meme, and I don't want that meme to transpire. I don't want to turn it into some sort of a tulpa manifestation."
He claims his own research into government doomsday planning drew a warning from what he calls an alphabet agency, telling him to stop. Later in the show he snaps at the whole apparatus: "No, I'm not scared. I'm pissed."
Gordon Duff Takes the Phone
Gordon Duff of Veterans Today joins by phone and redefines the federal government as "mid-level organized crime." His claims come in a rush, and Lewis gives him room. Duff claims the Benghazi attack was planned by an American group inside the Pentagon and State Department, run through teams from the United Arab Emirates and Gaddafi loyalists trained in Israel. He claims the 2012 election was rigged for Mitt Romney, that an agency showed him Romney's FBI file, and that operatives in Cuba and Houston are working with Pentagon personnel to, in his words, "decapitate the U.S. government."
Then the claim that outruns the rest: "Osama bin Laden's body was turned over to his family on December 16, 2001, in Bahrain. He died at that time of kidney disease. He did not live in Abbottabad." Duff calls the 2011 raid a cover for moving Leon Panetta to Defense and David Petraeus to the CIA, and calls the film Zero Dark Thirty "utter and absolute fiction." Lewis agrees on air: "What a lie that is." The established record, it should be said, holds that bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011, and Duff offers no evidence on air beyond his own account.
Duff goes on to tell Lewis the United Nations was designed to fail, that the United States stood nearly alone on the Palestinian statehood vote beside what he calls "the Coconut and Hockey Puck Coalition," and that the Nazis built the foundation of the CIA through the Galen Organization. Each claim lands in the studio without challenge.
The Callers Argue About What Comes Next
After Duff hangs up, the lines fill. Lisa from Arkansas says that after she contacted the Tea Party during the election, her family's physical address was changed with their cellular company through a Postal Service notice they never filed. "How do they know who our cellular company is?" she asks. "We don't get bills in the mail, first of all." Randy from Idaho, a Desert Storm veteran, argues that resources are depleting and collective funding of necessities is unavoidable. "We're going to use socialism to get out of socialism. Or we're sunk," he says, and later, "We've got to bake our own candy." Jason from New York calls Americans economic slaves to the IMF and the central banks. Cody from Missouri warns that the United Nations will grow into a new world order. Robert from Idaho says of the president, "He's just a puppet on a string like a marionette."
Lewis closes where McKenna began. He argues the fear will keep regenerating because fear is the product, and that renewal, the thing McKenna mapped, keeps getting overlooked. What stays unresolved at sign-off is the question the skit planted. The monsters were never located, and sixteen days remained to learn whether the date, the plan, or the language itself was the thing to fear.
Questions this episode answers
What is Terence McKenna's Timewave Zero theory?
Lewis argues Timewave Zero maps time as a fractal wave of novelty and habit compressing toward an endpoint McKenna calculated as December 21, 2012.
McKenna, the psychedelic philosopher Lewis invokes throughout the broadcast, held that time has a structure, with fluctuations in consciousness charted as cycles of novelty and habituation. His wave's endpoint aligned with the rollover of the Mayan long count calendar.
Lewis argues the theory centered on renewal and transcendence, and that media outlets and politicians repackaged it as doom. He cites TV programming such as "Counting Down the Apocalypse" and tells listeners the 2012 fear "will be generated and regenerated, it'll have a heyday." He also concedes on air that December 21 "is not the true date of the long count anyway."
What was the REX 84 plan Jack Brooks asked Oliver North about?
Lewis describes REX 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, as a Reagan-era contingency plan to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and detain citizens during a national emergency.
During the Iran-Contra hearings, Congressman Jack Brooks asked North: "Colonel North, in your work at the NSC, were you not assigned at one time to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?" North asked that the matter not be touched upon, and the chairman shut the questioning down.
Lewis claims North and John Bringerhoff wrote the plan, patterned on a 1970 FEMA report by Louis Giafrida proposing detention of up to 21 million Black Americans in case of a militant uprising. He links REX 84 to the contingency plans Garden Plot and Lantern Spike. These are Lewis's characterizations of a plan whose full contents remain classified.
What did Gordon Duff claim about Osama bin Laden's death?
Duff claims bin Laden died of kidney disease in Bahrain on December 16, 2001, and that the 2011 Abbottabad raid was a staged cover story.
"Osama bin Laden's body was turned over to his family on December 16, 2001, in Bahrain," Duff says. "He died at that time of kidney disease. He did not live in Abbottabad." He claims the raid narrative existed to move Leon Panetta to the Defense Department and David Petraeus to the CIA, and calls the film Zero Dark Thirty "utter and absolute fiction." Lewis agrees: "What a lie that is."
The established record contradicts Duff. U.S. forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011, and the account has been corroborated by participants, journalists, and declassified material. Duff offered no documentation for his version during the call.
What did Gordon Duff claim about the Benghazi attack?
Duff claims an American group inside the Pentagon and State Department planned the Benghazi attack, using teams from the United Arab Emirates and Gaddafi loyalists trained in Israel.
"This group, an American group within the Pentagon, within, this is a critical point, within the State Department, planned and organized the attacks in Benghazi," Duff says on air. He claims he has been interviewed by officials about the allegation.
Duff presented no evidence for the claim during the broadcast, and Lewis did not press him for any. Official investigations attributed the September 11, 2012 attack to local militant groups and documented security failures, with no finding of a Pentagon or State Department role.
What was the "GOP doomsday plan" Lewis kept citing?
It was Ezra Klein's Washington Post column "The GOP's bizarre doomsday plan," published the morning of the broadcast, describing a Republican fallback strategy for the fiscal cliff.
As ABC News reported it, Republicans weighed letting a vote proceed on middle-class tax cuts and then recessing if negotiations with President Obama collapsed. Lewis pairs the story with the genuine doomsday plan Congress passed in 2005 to keep the legislature functioning after a catastrophic attack.
His objection is linguistic as much as political. "I just don't like the idea of the words doomsday plot, doomsday scenario," he says. "What they're doing is they're sending out a meme, and I don't want that meme to transpire. I don't want to turn it into some sort of a tulpa manifestation."
Did Gordon Duff claim the 2012 election was rigged?
Yes. Duff claims "the election had been rigged for Romney" and that intelligence agencies would not allow Romney to take office.
Duff says an alphabet-soup agency showed him its file on Mitt Romney, which he claims ties the candidate to organized crime and drug trafficking. He also claims a plot run through Cuba and Houston, involving Pentagon personnel and Oliver North, aimed to "decapitate the U.S. government." Lewis reads a White House memorandum on insider threats on air, and Duff interprets it as an admission of a planned assassination and false flag operation.
The electoral record shows Barack Obama won the 2012 popular vote and the Electoral College, and no evidence of a rigged outcome for Romney has ever surfaced. Lewis frames Duff's statements as allegations from a guest, not findings.
Frequently asked questions
What is Timewave Zero?
Timewave Zero is a theory by Terence McKenna that treats time as a fractal wave, with history oscillating between novelty and habit. McKenna's software placed the wave's point of maximum novelty at December 21, 2012, matching the end of a Mayan long count cycle. The theory has no scientific standing and is studied today as an artifact of late twentieth century esotericism.
Who was Jack Brooks?
Jack Brooks was a Democratic congressman from Texas who served 42 years in the House and chaired the Judiciary Committee. He rode in the presidential motorcade in Dallas in 1963. He died December 4, 2012, at age 89. In conspiracy circles he is remembered for questioning Oliver North about continuity-of-government planning during the Iran-Contra hearings.
What is continuity of government?
Continuity of government refers to federal plans, many of them classified, for keeping the executive, legislative, and judicial branches operating after a catastrophic event. Some elements are public, including a 2005 plan for reconstituting Congress after mass casualties. Others, such as the details of REX 84 discussed on this broadcast, remain classified or contested.
What happened on December 21, 2012?
Nothing catastrophic. The Mayan long count rolled over, celebrations were held at Maya sites across Central America, and the date passed as an ordinary Friday. Lewis predicted as much on air, arguing the fear around the date was manufactured and that McKenna's theme of renewal had been overlooked.
Who is Gordon Duff?
Gordon Duff is a Vietnam veteran and senior editor of Veterans Today, a site known for publishing conspiracy claims. He appeared on this broadcast by phone as a guest. Several of his on-air claims, including his account of bin Laden's death and the 2012 election, contradict the established public record, and the page presents them as his allegations.
Who's on this episode
- Gordon Duff, senior editor of Veterans Today, by phone
Callers: Jason from New York, Lisa from Arkansas, Clark, Randy from Idaho, Joe, Cody from Missouri, Robert from Idaho.
