7 insane conspiracies that actually happened
#7. The Business PlotLinkThe Plan: In 1933, group of wealthy businessmen that allegedly included the heads of Chase Bank, GM, Goodyear, Standard Oil, the DuPont family and Senator Prescott Bush tried to recruit Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup against President FDR and install a fascist dictatorship in the United States. And yes, we're talking about the same Prescott Bush who fathered one US President and grandfathered another one.
How did that work out?: A good rule of thumb: never trust a man named Smedley to run your hostile military coup for you. Besides being no fan of fascism, Smedley Butler was both a patriot and a vocal FDR supporter. Apparently none of these criminal masterminds noticed that their prospective point man had actively stumped for FDR in 1932.
Smedley spilled the beans to a congressional committee in 1934. Everyone he accused of being a conspirator vehemently denied it, and none of them were brought up on criminal charges. Still, the House McCormack-Dickstein Committee did at least acknowledge the existence of the conspiracy, which ended up never getting past the initial planning stages.
Though many of the people who had allegedly backed the Business Plot also maintained financial ties with Nazi Germany up through America's entry into World War II.
the latest
latest episodes
also maintained financial ties with Nazi Germany up through America's entry into World War II
???? No. Past it. Their assets were seized under the trading with the enemy act.
"Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you." - Kurt Cobain
Insane Plot? No, Long term plan. It is just now bearing the fruit planted in the '30s.
Pffft-- liberal media, they're so "anti-business."
Smedley Butler is one of the great unsung heroes of American history.
He was a modest man of incredible courage and integrity.
At the time of his death, he was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
He also wrote the classic and unfortunately still very relevant tract "War is a Racket"
It basically describes America's foreign policy in terms of maximizing profits for organized crime.
the full text is available here.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
What I find the most shocking about this piece is the source... CRACKED???
Although I don't see Sylvester P. Smythe anywhere on the site, the logo is the same as I remember it. CRACKED Magazine was the low-rent version of MAD I bought when I was a kid in the 1960s, when the latter title was sold out. I'm amazed, and a little bit tickled, to see the old war horse still in existence.
As to the content of the piece itself: old news. Still sad and shameful, but no real surprise. 'Twas ever thus...
Nice to see the Parliament bombing conspiracy and Operation Snow White talked about in the same article.
I've read that the Bush family has bought a large tract of land in Paraguay, where they've passed laws that prevent accused war criminals from being extradited. If true, it would fit right in with a story about the Bush patriarch trying to hatch a fascist coup.
Also, anybody see what Bushie JR has been saying about how the Dems are trying to practice "appeasement" and how it's just like appeasing Hitler (said in the Knesset, nonetheless)? Some people could certainly use a history lesson(s).
Actually, Doc, if you read Cracked's Wikipedia entry you can follow the convoluted history of the magazine and its publishers. After being bought by a series of conglomerates, the title was sold to an individual who tried and failed to keep it going in the same way it previously had, and then sold by him to "a group of Arab, Asian, and American investors who announced plans to revive Cracked with a new editorial focus and redesign." It would appear they basically wanted to create a print competitor to FHM and things like the College Humor site, rather than the comics-filled parody magazine of the past. The new version of the print mag died, but the web presence continues on. Pretty much every time I see them linked these days it's because of one of these "Eight Most Wacky Lists" type lists.
I've read a bunch of stuff about this story, and I'm pretty skeptical. Here's a couple points to consider:
* the entire story rests on the testimony of one man, Smedley Butler, who provided no evidence but his first-hand recollections of an offer from shady characters (one of whom emerged in the McCarthy era as an unreliable witness)
* Butler would have been an odd choice to lead a fascist coup. He was a populist and a pacifist, and a supporter of Roosevelt. Here's a quote from Butler: "I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”
It's possible that Butler fabricated the story for his own purposes. By all accounts he enjoyed the media spotlight. And by telling this story he was able to advance his own populist argument about Washington being run by Wall Street.
That said, it is certainly true that there were right wing financiers who were sympathetic to fascism and Germany, and might have considered actions like this. But I think there would be more evidence that would have emerged after all this time if the coup were a substantial threat.
Here's a good wikipedia page on the the alleged plot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
You want to learn about another "insane conspiracy" that actually happened, just Google 9/11, PNAC, Feith, Zakheim, Cheney, etc. etc.....and all of us living today witnessed it. Live. On our televisions. Hiding it right out in the open.
I've read about the huge tracts of land in Paraguay as well. I mean HUGE. It astounds even the most cynical - me - that a President could even be rumored to have purchased a safe haven should shit hit fan. If Clinton had done it, we'd still be talking about his attempt to hide from criminal charges. Astounding. Liberal media indeed.
#11, good link. But that wikipedia page indicates that the plot did in fact happen...and that it wasn't only Butler who said so...and that there were clearly attempts to suppress parts of his testimony. The doubters quoted don't suggest that Butler made the whole thing up, but rather that he might have been fooled or bamboozled, and possibly exaggerated. The consensus seems to be that there were people sniffing around the idea of a coup, but most historians don't think it was a serious threat.
But if there was nothing to worry about, it makes one wonder why parts of Butler's testimony was deleted from the record. It makes one wonder why Congress made a big deal out of it.
As for the poor idea of choosing Butler of all people, never underestimate the ability of arrogant wealthy jerks to choose the wrong people to do their bidding. Rich financiers know no more about pulling off coups than I do about brain surgery. It's far more likely that they'd pick the wrong guy than the right one. They'd assume that the force of their personalities, their overpowering intelligence, and the unquestionable rightness of their cause would instantly induce anyone to fall in with their plans.
(While wringing their hands and saying, "Mwa-ha-ha-ha!")
They should have gone to 'Dugout Doug', a born fascist; he was right there in D.C.
The BBC did a fantastic report on the whole incident:
http://prisonplanet.com/audio/240707_bbc_prescott_coup.mp3
How far does the apple fall from the tree?
Here's another brief history of the Bush family, and their links to the creation of arms trade, dating back to the period immediately after the Civil War in the United States. This was put together for the 2004 election.
http://www.e-book.com.au/electionspecial04.htm
Their links to fascism and self-interest death trade are well known. Anyone who believes otherwise probably also doubts climate change and the spherical shape of planet earth.
At this point you have to be a serious coincidence theorist to explain away the rotten stench in our halls of power.
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason." - Sir John Harrington
the bush family is corrupt at its very core! prescott bush and his partner george herbert walker ( name sound familiar?) got extremely wealthy from their holdings at german big pharma, and a travel agency that was more a front for arms sales. with son, george herbert walker bush and with the aid of a few others, they put together the c.i.a. to house their ex-nazi pals. since then, they have had their hand in just about every nasty and underhanded, dirty bit of bizniz that has happened in the last 50 years. haliburton, blackwater, bay of pigs, kennedy assassination, 9-11, zyklon-b, crack cocaine, the list would take me a year to complete! there was a piece on cnn, and i believe it was in the nytimes as well. it only appeared once on each, and spoke of a pedophile-prostution ring being run out of the whitehouse. and the news media weren't freaking about that, they were going on about a credit card scandal that was attached to the prostitution ring! since then i never heard another word about it. just before his death, h.s. thompson was discussing it as part of an expose' he was working on at the time. a few days later he 'committed suicide' while chatting with his wife on the phone. in all the research that i have done, i have yet to find ANYTHING positive to say about these people. i just don't understand how do we allow them to stay in power?
I thought I'd have to go through my whole life without getting to utter this phrase, but... Hooray for Smedley!
haliburton, blackwater, bay of pigs, kennedy assassination, 9-11, zyklon-b, crack cocaine, the list would take me a year to complete!
Take your time, son; take your time.
im sure the bush family stands behind you, jack. so bend over baby! lol