GM to those that GM 🫡

Highly relatable. 🫡

nostr:npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx dropping in a “We got ‘em” 🤣

The Resnick family owns Fiji water and CA water rights and donated $250K to fight Gavin Newsom’s recall. Drain reservoirs, empty hydrants, and land grabs reminds me of films Chinatown (1974) and Inherent Vice (2014). Water and real estate rule CA (always has been).

“Some towns are built of marble, some cities built on schemes; only one is built of magic, only one that’s built on dreams: My world… my world of Hollywood.”

- - opening quotation of the film “Mondo Hollywood” (1967)

https://youtu.be/LbcGV5jVhgo?si=8rCSnzwaGcN_FRUG

Downtown LA / Meat Puppets II album cover (1984)

GM Milky 🌤️

GM, to a beautiful day in TX 🤠🌤️

Artist Mark Hagen, sculptures using obsidian stone

Lombardi’s “BCCI-ICIC & FAB, 1972-91 (4th Version)”, acquired by the Whitney before his death, maps the Arab bank BCCI scandal’s tangled financial networks—linking banks, politicians, and covert ops. A data and design masterpiece of investigative art. https://whitney.org/collection/works/12916

I’d also recommend artist Mark Lombardi’s book Global Networks. His intricate drawings mapped banking ties (Iran-Contra, Bush family, pre-9/11 finance in the Mid East). Lombardi was found hung in his studio—weeks before his first major museum show, a few months shy of 9/11.

By strange serendipity, I was in NY a month after Mark Lombardi’s death to see his work in the Greater New York show at PS1. Transfixed by his drawing, I later learned his story and saw more of his work, including at Gagosian LA while I worked there.

https://youtu.be/KWX9FKG7NDg?si=4qWX0Z3XXzycT4mz

https://youtu.be/CUvjeOfgCDw?si=YhhMcGTjDv3WGrZB

On a recent nostr:npub1sk7mtp67zy7uex2f3dr5vdjynzpwu9dpc7q4f2c8cpjmguee6eeq56jraw episode w/ nostr:npub1guh5grefa7vkay4ps6udxg8lrqxg2kgr3qh9n4gduxut64nfxq0q9y6hjy , nostr:npub1du6sgl90wse0cz44fg50a4kg9ea4sgctlxps90ccx58lw8ssgv9qhjyf3c , and WAR MODE podcast, a guest mentioned hidden WWII gold, reminding me of Gold Warriors by Sterling & Peggy Seagrave—a book I read in the early 2000s that helped spark my Bitcoin journey. It’s up there with Confessions of an Economic Hitman and The Devil’s Chessboard, though rarely mentioned among bitcoiners.

“Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold” is a detailed exploration of Japan’s WWII plunder, describing the systematic looting of gold and cultural treasures across Asia. The Golden Lily operation, led by Emperor Hirohito’s family, amassed fortunes worth hundreds of billions today. Much of this wealth, known as “Yamashita’s Gold,” was hidden in booby-trapped tunnels and vaults in the Philippines as the war turned against Japan.

U.S. operatives, including OSS/CIA figure Edward Lansdale, later extracted its location through brutal interrogations of Japanese prisoners. This treasure, the Seagraves argue, became the “Black Eagle Trust,” a secret fund used to finance anti-communist operations during the Cold War, orchestrate coups, and prop up regimes like the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.

Southeast Asia, then the epicenter of the global drug trade (supplying 90% of the market), became deeply entangled with these operations. The CIA allegedly controlled key drug networks after WWII, using them to fund off-the-books activities—a strategy that later extended to South America and the cartels. These networks ultimately funneled drugs into the U.S., contributing to the 1980s crack epidemic, which devastated communities and laundered money to areas like south Florida.

As an aside, I once had an art studio in Jefferson Park, LA, a historically Black middle-class neighborhood. A homeless man I befriended, who had grown up there, recounted how the 1980s crack epidemic ravaged the area, destroying families and livelihoods. Later revelations about CIA involvement in drug trafficking tied these local tragedies to the covert funding mechanisms Gold Warriors explores.

Why was the gold kept secret? The Seagraves argue that U.S. officials, including Truman and Nixon, suppressed knowledge of these immense reserves to protect the global financial system. Publicizing this wealth could have destabilized the dollar under Bretton Woods, where it was pegged to gold. This secrecy likely influenced Nixon’s 1971 decision to abandon the gold standard, shielding the U.S. economy but accelerating inflation and widening economic inequality.

The book highlights how this “ghost fortune” fueled corruption. Ferdinand Marcos, backed by the CIA, used Yamashita’s gold to consolidate his power, enriching himself and laundering wealth through Japan’s Yakuza, who were pivotal in hiding the treasure’s origins. Imelda Marcos’s infamous extravagance—such as her vast shoe collection—symbolized the loot’s misuse while Southeast Asia remained impoverished.

So much so that the Seagraves revealed in interviews they had to hide in a remote Canadian cabin after publishing Gold Warriors. A price was allegedly placed on their heads by the Yakuza for exposing suppressed histories and their ties to organized crime and global power structures.

Gold Warriors is a reminder of buried histories (in this case literally buried). It connects hidden WWII plunder to Cold War geopolitics, CIA operations under figures like CIA director/president George H.W. Bush, and historic financial institutions like Brown Brothers Harriman, among other connections (think Clinton’s, and Obama’s).

https://youtu.be/iGLzWdT7vGc?si=nSB-Ihefcg10Yyiu

In David Foster Wallace’s book Infinite Jest, Québécois separatists (know as the A.F.R.) fight U.S. dominance, resisting cultural and political assimilation into the O.N.A.N. alliance (basically NAFTA). Prescient in light of Trump (a former actor, like IJ’s president “Johnny Gentle” who was a former B-list celeb and lounge singer) pushing for a U.S. annexation of Canada 🇨🇦. Reality imitating art, recursive layers. ♾️

🤝

Start with the film Freejack (1992), a sci-fi adaptation of Immortality Inc. featuring Mick Jagger as the villain. A weird film that’s kind of slipped through the cracks of time 🕰️

Fuck it: More wild mixed-media sculptures by LA artist Matt Johnson (1978- present) — mostly painted wood or meticulously molded metal transforming made to look like everyday objects 👇

Christmas afternoon— 2 solid hrs, when the kids scatter to dive into their presents 📚

Also did an interview with security-focused artist Ripcache (who uses a voice changer) about their 50-screen takeover of Bitcoin Amsterdam’s main stage. It was a bit stiff in hindsight, and much didn’t make the final edit.

Looking forward to loosening these up in the future and doing more recorded interviews. Still love the Interview Magazine-style Q&As format for artists convos: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/art-under-surveillance-ripcaches-radical-take-at-bitcoin-amsterdam

Check out @BitcoinMagazine’s interview with Pepenardo on his “Fresh Impact” solo exhibition at Bitcoin MENA, diving into memes, digital culture, and consumables—yes, including Subway sandwiches (fun fact: Subway accepted bitcoin in 2013 at a handful of locations).

2025 feels like the perfect time to hear more from artists exploring how Bitcoin shapes their creative process—even as simply as valuing time and energy in sats. This Nardo interview took some unexpected turns—worth a read:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-to-paint-a-sandwich-a-solo-presentation-on-memes-and-digital-culture-by-nardo-at-bitcoin-mena