The One Percent's Plots to Overthrow Democracy

The Great Depression, the conflicts that tested the Republic to its foundations, and the struggle to maintain the commitment to freedom and democracy against powerful interests.

The highly decorated Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified in 1934 that he had been recruited by the representatives of powerful industrialists who asked him to bring the Bonus Army back to Washington and take the government over by force from then President Franklin Roosevelt.  This was a scheme that was known as The Business Plot.

The American Liberty League

These wealthy business people were not prosecuted and the incident was quietly swept aside in the interest of domestic confidence and peace.

 

 

If Not At Home, Then the Establishment of Oligarchy Abroad

 

After the failure to overturn democracy in the US, some in the American 'One Percent' became powerful supporters and business associates of Mussolini, and even of the German Third Reich.  This business relationship continued long after the criminal brutality of these regimes had become quite obvious to all civilized people.  

 

Their involvement in the rise and promotion of fascist ideology seems to have been largely forgotten.

Robert Johnson: US System Is Broken and Heading Toward Social Conflict

"We are on an unsustainable financial trajectory, the financial system has been unmasked as unstable and unfair, and that contributes to inequality, part of which comes from the operations of the financial sector, and is a formidable, formidable cause of social instability in the medium term."

Robert Johnson

The English-speaking people are marvelously unaware and uninformed of what is happening in their own countries. 

Peaceful demonstrations and grievances such as Occupy Wall Street are systematically stifled and crushed.  Non-sanctioned opinions are marginalized and ridiculed.

A vocal minority is energized by stimulating their fears, hatreds, and paranoia.   The majority are 'diverted' and confused.   The professional class is acquiescent to the status quo.  The intellectuals hide in their studies.

The plutocracy's standing order of the day is 'keep a lid on it.'   Until when?  The increasing use of force? And then what?

There will be change in finding the right issue, the fulcrum of change that will enable diverse groups with different perspectives to come together and energize themselves in a common cause.   Favorite causes and individual egos will continue to be an impediment to this.  The Occupy movement lost focus because it chose to protest in favor of everything and became enamored of process over substance.

I thought Johnson's idea of eliminating private schools was in the wrong direction.  Consolidating the schools and eliminating diversity while giving them to an unreformed and corrupt political regime does not seem to be in the first priority for change.  Social engineering tends to be longer term, divisive, and debilitating.  And I don't think eliminating choice is the key to achieving progress.  It sounds somewhat statist.

The focus of effective reform needs to be struck at the root, which is the financial sector and the mechanism of financial looting, and the money corrupted political process which is how injustice is propagated.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Related: The Problem In One Picture

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Bonus Army and Business Plot

Another bear raid.

As a reminder this is the big 'triple witching' option expiration for stocks this week. The miners are fair game.

As you may recall, there was a significant amount of civil unrest in 1932, which was a presidential election year.

The Bonus Army of WW I veterans occupied Washington until they were forcibly dispersed by the US military led by Douglas MacArthur. The veterans had been encouraged in their peaceful occupation by Smedley Butler, Major General of the US Marine Corp.

Butler later testified in 1934 that he had been approached by several powerful industrialists who asked him to bring the Bonus Army back to Washington and take the government by force of numbers from then President Franklin Roosevelt, in a scheme that was known as The Business Plot.

This reminds me of the co-opting of the Tea Party, which started as a protest against TARP and the bank bailouts, by today's monied interests.

Fortunately our modern day Herbert Hoover is not so much the liquidationist as his business friendly predecessor.

Obama understands the need for bread, and Wall Street supplies the circuses.

But if history rhymes once again, this could be a long, hot summer.