Let me make this pellucidly clear for the hacks

[malaise]

Indicting a former president who orchestrated a coup is not a sign of a Banana Republic. Not locking him up for this unprecedented criminal act is a sign that this self serving criminal monster and his goons are above the law.

Further, every banana republic on the planet was established on behalf of US corporate and government interests.
That is all.

[FalloutShelter]

1. THIS!

BOOM

[calimary]

38. Yep!

[Kid Berwyn]

2. "War is a Racket," Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC (Ret.)

“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. 1 helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."

Source: https://thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/War_A_Racket_SButler.html

[malaise]

4. That simple

Sadly the same interests have now taken it home.
Eventually we reap what we sow. We either believe in democracy for all or we don’t. And democracy does not mean American self interest read corporate interests.

[PJMcK]

6. All true

Want another example? Iran.

[Kid Berwyn]

63. "Money trumps peace," pretzeldent George W Bush said.

When not a single reporter in the Press Corpse asked a follow-up was the moment I knew the spirit of Hitler not only lived, it ruled.

[rampartc]

11. general butler, with 2 medals of honor

was offered the job of fuehrer of the usa in wall st's "business plot" of the depression era. he turned down the job and blew the whistle.

a real american hero , his "war is a racket" should be required reading.

[malaise]

34. A national hero

Indeed

[brush]

44. Yep, the American Liberty League, a bunch of corporate nazis.

[Kid Berwyn]

64. The Wall Street Putsch of 1933.

Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?

Business leaders like JP Morgan and Irénée du Pont were accused by a retired major general of plotting to install a fascist dictator

Sally Denton
The Guardian, January 11, 2022

Excerpt…

FDR thought government in a civilized society had an obligation to abolish poverty, reduce unemployment, and redistribute wealth. Roosevelt’s bold New Deal experiments inflamed the upper class, provoking a backlash from the nation’s most powerful bankers, industrialists and Wall Street brokers, who thought the policy was not only radical but revolutionary. Worried about losing their personal fortunes to runaway government spending, this fertile field of loathing led to the “traitor to his class” epithet for FDR. “What that fellow Roosevelt needs is a 38-caliber revolver right at the back of his head,” a respectable citizen said at a Washington dinner party.

In a climate of conspiracies and intrigues, and against the backdrop of charismatic dictators in the world such as Hitler and Mussolini, the sparks of anti-Rooseveltism ignited into full-fledged hatred. Many American intellectuals and business leaders saw nazism and fascism as viable models for the US. The rise of Hitler and the explosion of the Nazi revolution, which frightened many European nations, struck a chord with prominent American elites and antisemites such as Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford. Hitler’s elite Brownshirts – a mass body of party storm troopers separate from the 100,000-man German army – was a stark symbol to the powerless American masses. Mussolini’s Blackshirts – the military arm of his organization made up of 200,000 soldiers – were a potent image of strength to a nation that felt emasculated.

Snip…

The Gray Shirts of New York organized to remove “Communist college professors” from the nation’s education system, and the Tennessee-based White Shirts wore a Crusader cross and agitated for the takeover of Washington. JP Morgan Jr, one of the nation’s richest men, had secured a $100m loan to Mussolini’s government. He defiantly refused to pay income tax and implored his peers to join him in undermining FDR.

So, when retired US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler claimed he was recruited by a group of Wall Street financiers to lead a fascist coup against FDR and the US government in the summer of 1933, Washington took him seriously. Butler, a Quaker, and first world war hero dubbed the Maverick Marine, was a soldier’s soldier who was idolized by veterans – which represented a huge and powerful voting bloc in America. Famous for his daring exploits in China and Central America, Butler’s reputation was impeccable. He got rousing ovations when he claimed that during his 33 years in the marines: “I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”

Butler later testified before Congress that a bond-broker and American Legion member named Gerald MacGuire approached him with the plan. MacGuire told him the coup was backed by a group called the American Liberty League, a group of business leaders which formed in response to FDR’s victory, and whose mission it was to teach government “the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property”. Members included JP Morgan, Jr, Irénée du Pont, Robert Sterling Clark of the Singer sewing machine fortune, and the chief executives of General Motors, Birds Eye and General Foods.

Continues…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/trump-fdr-roosevelt-coup-attempt-1930s


Where US media fear tread, BBC Radio also presents solid information:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

[Hermit-The-Prog]

74. The billionaires' boys club has learned to be stealthier since then.

The Subversive 6 might have blown it open too soon, though. Voters are pissed off.

[tclambert]

80. And how many of those business leaders went to prison for it?

I'm guessing the number starts with a "z" and ends with "ero."

[rampartc]

82. you would be very close to the truth.

another nptable participant was prescott bush.

[Evolve Dammit]

17. Good post.

[Kid Berwyn]

67. Thanks! Butler was an exceptional human being.

We are fortunate so many stand up with him in supporting and defending the Constitution to this very day.

Gen. Mark Milley told Dimdonnie the Dicktaterwannabe that the Pentagon wouldn’t be going along with his martial law schemes — before and after the election and J6.

[Evolve Dammit]

68. Gen. Milley is an unsung hero from what I can tell. Thanks again.

[Joinfortmill]

22. Thanks. Going to read.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. Full text PDF...

…from Ratical:

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

[malaise]

33. Great post

[NJCher]

43. thanks for the quote

'cuz I loved this part of Malaise's post:

Further, every banana republic on the planet was established on behalf of US corporate and government interests.

[Kid Berwyn]

71. They don't call it Capitalism's Invisible Army for nothing.

The Agency. The Firm. Da Outfit. Take Nixon.



HOW THE CIA'S CUBA DEBACLES BROUGHT THE FUTURE WATERGATE CONSPIRATORS TOGETHER

Jefferson Morley on the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs, the CIA's evolving plans in Cuba, and the people the Agency brought together.

Excerpt…

Helms relieved Jake Esterline, chief of the Cuba task force. He replaced him with Bill Harvey, the chief of the Berlin base, whom Helms regarded as perhaps the finest operations officer in the DDP. He brought in Ted Shackley, a brusque deputy of Harvey’s, to run the Miami station. He sent his energetic protégé David Phillips to Mexico City to wreak havoc on the Cuban embassy, Castro’s first intelligence outpost in the western hemisphere. Helms had bad news for Howard Hunt. “It was made abundantly clear to me in a very pleasant way that I was to have nothing further to do with Cuba operations,” Hunt recalled.

Helms conferred a consolation prize on Hunt more appropriate for his literary talents. He assigned him to serve as covert action chief in the newly created Domestic Contacts Division, where he supervised what a later generation would call “soft power” activities. Hunt later testified that he took over the Agency’s relationship with Frederick Praeger Publishing Company, which published books that aligned with the Agency’s interests but were not “economically feasible.” With subsidies from Langley, Praeger generated books that advanced the Agency’s mission. In this domestic propaganda operation, Hunt reported to Karamessines. Helms took care of his pal.

***

The deputy director had to deal with the mess left by the inexperienced Dick Bissell. Bob Maheu might have been the right man to introduce Agency officers to organized crime figures. But telling the amoral ex-FBI agent the specific and lethal nature of their interest was a mistake for which the Agency soon paid. As Maheu’s friend, Johnny Rosselli, put it, “If somebody gets in trouble and they want a favor from the G [meaning the U.S. government] we can get it for them. You understand. We have the government by the ass.” Bob Maheu—no surprise—had a feel for blackmail.

Helms knew this terrain better than most gentlemen.

“Let’s leave aside the notion of theology and the morality of all good men for just a moment,” he dilated for TV talk show host David Frost. “If you hire someone to kill somebody else, you are immediately subject to blackmail, and that includes individuals as well as governments.” As Helms knew full well, Maheu was one of those individuals. Maheu had a problem, and he wanted the CIA to fix it. It seems that Sam Giancana, while negotiating with the Agency about the Castro hit, expressed concern that his girlfriend, pop singer Phyllis McGuire, was getting “too much attention” from comedian Dan Rowan, who was performing in Las Vegas. Giancana asked Maheu to bug Rowan’s hotel room to determine “the extent of his intimacy with Miss McGuire,” as the CIA inspector general chastely put it. Maheu hired an experienced “wire man” to plant the bug, but the man wasn’t experienced enough. Hotel security officers nabbed him in the act. When he called Maheu for help, the FBI was listening in. The Bureau decided to charge both men with violating federal wiretapping statutes. Maheu let his friends at the CIA know that, if prosecuted, he would start talking about the Agency’s scheme to kill Castro. The charges were soon dropped. Blackmail worked.

Continues…

https://crimereads.com/cia-cuba-watergate/

[wnylib]

54. The Brown Brothers mentioned in regard to Nicaragua

also helped finance Hitler's rise to power and his rearmament of Germany. Prescott Bush, father of GHW Bush, worked for Brown Brothers as part of the Union Banking Corporation. Family values passed on to each Bush generation.

[soldierant]

78. And after he did all that, the plutoctats

Thought he would be only too happy to help them kidnap President Roosevelt. Istead he turned them in Thatnk heaven.

He was a complicated man. But on the whole I'm glad we had him.

If he hadn't done all that crappy stuff, someone else would have. But no one else would have written that book. Or foiled that plot.

[Raster]

3. The only worse record for international interference is the Brits.

[malaise]

5. The Spanish and French aren't far behind

[PJMcK]

7. Russians have a bad history, too (n/t)

[malaise]

9. True

[jaxexpat]

15. Couple that with a misbegotten "domino theory" and you get a real planetary problem.

Of course, that theory was concocted to make middle class "folks" think they had a stake in fighting the "threat" of socialism. How else could TPTB get them to offer up their children as cannon fodder to protect their profits.

But when the "folks" wised up to that scam they had to invent another dire "threat" and that's how we came to a war on "TERROR". Which was carefully engineered so as to be easily expanded into a "war on poor people", complete with push-button technology so the kids wouldn't have to get their hands dirty.

Somehow this evolves, hand in glove, with a mysterious war on immorality. I hope, with this overreach, they have FINALLY jumped the shark. I mean, after all, this noise was Hitler's modus operandi 90 years ago.

Are we to lose our bid at supremacy in the frozen wheat fields of Russia as well? A year ago, I'd never even have imagined the thought crossing my mind. Now it's tickling the border between far-fetched-fantasy and unlikely possibility. There was a time, recently, when re-warring with Iran, having been put on a high shelf, was dusted off and migrated to eye level by the Trump/Bolton-ites.

Fool's fancy and potential threats to corporate freebooting require extreme contingency measures from time to time, I suppose.

[malaise]

20. MIC must be fed

Funny how so many of those who promoted the Cold War now support the coup plotters and overt racism. More than a few are Fascists

[jaxexpat]

25. Their commonality? Susceptibility to propaganda, autosuggestion and self-hypnosis, I expect.

Basically, gossip mongers and mirror addicts.

[gab13by13]

8. Chile was a bad one.

[Farmer-Rick]

24. Yeah, Imagine a US president doing what Pinochet did?

I guess he wouldn't have to murder his predecessor, like Pinochet did to Allende. But the Trumpers were hunting for Pence.

The problem was the military didn't all support TFG. A lot of military did see that psycho as their savior. A lot of military are religiously insane. But a lot of military are just normal Americans trying to do the right thing.

I don't think TFG even had the majority of the military on his side. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to get a bunch of wackos and Nazis to attack the capitol. He could have just ordered the Army or National Guard to do it.

It wouldn't have looked like a citizen uprising if he sent in a military force in then. But Trump seemed to just want to not give up the White House. He didn't seem to care who or how he stayed in the White House.

I wonder how close the military was to attacking the capitol?

[paleotn]

30. Donnie, and a lot of Americans, just don't understand the US military....

Its traditions, its ethos or the fact that most of us took and take our oath seriously. Our oath is to an old piece of paper first and foremost, not a government directly, or a party, an ideology or any individual. It's an oath to preserve and protect an idea. An oath to protect a form of democratic government. Possibly the first in human history, maybe still is.

It does say I will obey the orders of the President and officers appointed over me, but only in reference to bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution as prescribed in the UCMJ. General Milley, upon hearing "politics" before Jan 6, said in so many words...Nope, I don't do that. That's not how we roll and that's a damn good thing.

[Farmer-Rick]

39. Yeah, a Military Times poll

Right before the election showed more service members were planning on voting for Biden then TFG by almost 2 to 1.

So he didn't con the majority of the military into supporting him. In fact his poll numbers with the military kept dropping throughout TFG's term.

[Walleye]

10. Inciting a riot to overturn a presidential election is the definition of a banana republic

[The Magistrate]

12. Hear Hear, Ma'am

[867-5309.]

13. Yuuuup!

n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

14. That is unassailable /nt

[FakeNoose]

16. Today would be a great day ...

[Evolve Dammit]

18. Wouldn't it though? Every day I wait to see him in orange.

[malaise]

21. THIS

at his Saudi funded golf scam.

[FakeNoose]

57. Yes! Cuff him and perp walk him - right in front of the Saudis

[Joinfortmill]

19. 👍

[panader0]

26. 'La United Fruit Company' by Pablo Neruda (translated)

[malaise]

29. THIS

Folks should study our north-east as well. Portland.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

45. Thank you for this... Que triste..lagrimas para la Gente, today's refugees --we did that,

...yet we criminalize their pain,generations of abuse by dictators, govts supported by corporate imperialism. On her visit to Central American countries..Pres. Biden tasked V.P. Harris to travel to what is known the northern triangle to address the root of migration to U.S.,recall her addressing about U.S. roll responsibility for the migration of people out of these counties.

While Pablo Neruda wrote this poem in 1950, it's relevance to today's migration of pilligrenos out of these countries to U.S. is astounding. In CNN article Re:Harris travels central American countries asses how to combat,work with respective govts to stave off migration to U S. Article reminded me of the thousands of orphaned children that came to U.S., what have become of them? They are the lost children in America's memory of images of children clinging to the top of railroad cars heading El Norte to U.S. [note: provided link to Info on VP Harris/CNN article and excerpt and link to analysis of Neruda's poem.]

CNN/Harris Border/Central America Migration
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/10/15/politics/kamala-harris-border-migration/index.html&ved=2ahUKEwjPxqbs7qD5AhU8IkQIHa3VApEQFnoECAgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2t5OfPC4Takwnvyuyhjlqe

This essay is an analysis of “La United Fruit Co” (Pablo Neruda), also known as “United Fruit Company.” The poem was published in Spanish in 1950 and later interpreted into English. It is a reflection of the situation in the Latin American countries during the early and mid-20th century. That follows a wave of imperialism exercised by the international corporations established in the Middle American countries.

These include the Coca-Cola Company, the Anaconda Mining Company, Ford Motors, and the United Fruit Company. Bucheli argues that the latter was the American company that had established the most political and economic influence in the so-called “Banana Republics” (9).

That was a term coined by an American writer Henry, to refer to the backward Latin American countries, whose governments had been taken over by dictators, supported by the multinationals from the United States.

The multinationals had influenced the governments of these countries to the extent that the tyrant who ruled in those days. They also suppressed workers’ strikes using government bodies such as the military and the police in favor of the companies. The meaning of the “United Fruit Company” poem stands out as relevant during those times in several ways.

Analysis of La United Fruit Co by Pablo Nerudas; ivypanda.com
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://ivypanda.com/essays/pablo-nerudas-united-fruit-co/&ved=2ahUKEwju9L6-66D5AhUEI0QIHXmoCp0QFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw32gQUCC4IdPA-FSZxviC-p

[sop]

65. Since 1954 the US military has intervened over fifty times in Central America,

usually to depose leaders we disapproved of, back those who would do our bidding and, most importantly, prop up US corporate interests.  American men, money and arms flooded into Central America, rightwing death squads were organized and US-backed dictators employed all manner of terror, torture and murder to silence their own people. 

Those conflicts devastated economies, displacing generations of Guatemalans, Salvadoreans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans and many others.  This long, bloody history might explain why migrant men, women and children cross the southern border trying to escape the horrors of American foreign policy.

[Septua]

27. Exactly

Michael Steele paraphrase: "So, we've never indicted a former President. We've never had a President like Donald Trump."

[malaise]

31. He gets it

Although it took some time.
Bravo to the Jan6 Committee for digging off the pus filled scab and exposing these ReTHUG criminals. And never forget that they knew what they did and covered it up during the second impeachment.

That this disgraced criminal can still walk in public and get coverage is terrifying in and of itself.

[ChazInAz]

28. If this were a banana republic

He and all of his fellow conspirators would have been executed by now.

[malaise]

32. True

[paleotn]

35. Absolutely!

That's the thing people in the rest of the world understand about coups. You better be damn sure it's going to work, because if it don't, you're dead in short order.

[brush]

47. I think it's the other way around. If this was a...

banana republic, his insurrection would not have been an attempted coup, it would've been a successful one and he'd be in the White House now.

[SeattleVet]

58. There are still too many banana republicans blocking for him.

[paleotn]

36. In my mind, we're a failed democracy if we don't indict, convict and incarcerate

the ring leaders.

[Butterflylady]

37. You get it.

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman." Great reading.

[malaise]

40. I have my copy

[iluvtennis]

41. Indeed! n/t

[Martin68]

42. Exactly.

Last edited Sat Jul 30, 2022, 11:24 AM - Edit history (1)

Although many banana republics were established on behalf of British, French, Dutch and other government interests. I believe it is called "colonialism," a by-product of imperialism.

[malaise]

50. Colonialism was and is evil

and I agree that the content overlapped, but but the form of the government and political systems in those countries were/are not the same as in banana republics. Civil society was/is decidedly weaker in banana republics.

[Martin68]

51. Until the colonizing power pulled out and left the mess they created behind. One of the most

destructive practices of European imperialism was establishing colonies with arbitrarily drawn borders that often split family groups in half (the other half in a neighboring colony under a different European power), and bound historical enemies together within the same state. In both Africa and Asia this was a common phenomenon which left chaos in its wake once the colonizers withdrew their military forces and left their "subjects" to fight it out among themselves in their new "country."

[malaise]

52. Agree 100%

They also moved people from various parts of the planet as slaves or indentured laborers. Divide and rule was their modus operandi = Evil is the word

[Hotler]

46. John Bolton Admits Planning Coups: 'Not Here But, You Know, Other Places'

“One doesn’t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup,” Tapper said to Bolton.

“I disagree with that,” Bolton replied. “As somebody who has helped plan coups d’etat ― not here but, you know, other places ― it takes a lot of work.

https://news.yahoo.com/john-bolton-admits-planning-coups-214504222.html

[malthaussen]

55. And I find it fascinating that people are willing to take him at his word. n/t

[Hotler]

48. Note that one of the 1/6 hearings we haven't seen yet or, will we see?

Is one about the money and the money trail. I wonder how much of the money for 1/6 is old 1%er family money from some of the same families involved in the 1933 coup attempt. Fascist then and fascist now. Pull back that curtain and shine the light.

[malaise]

49. Excellent post

Follow the money

[BadgerMom]

56. K & R

🎯

[Voltaire2]

59. Pellucid means 'clear'. NT.

[malaise]

60. Tell SCJ Stevens and others in the courts

And then tell my Union man

http://www.newyorkcourtwatcher.com/2009/12/pellucidly-clear-at-supreme-court-ny.html

That is all

[EarnestPutz]

83. Nonetheless, this "felititous redundancy" still rankles.

[malaise]

84. Which is why I always remembe my union man's use of

that felicitous redundancy

[EarnestPutz]

85. remembe?

[malaise]

86. ROFL

😀

[ymetca]

61. Our own country

is a colonial conquest. Ours was a "cotton republic" perhaps? A "tobacco republic"? Most, of course, were already "slave republics".

And Nations are mostly defined by what goods and services they provide. That is their "purpose", regardless of what their inhabitants might think about it.

When the royal families of Europe started losing power to the rising merchant classes, they cut a deal to quell the unruly masses. Let's give them "representation", which could be controlled. Oversight by a "House of Lords". A "cooling saucer" of a Senate. Any sort of "upper chamber" would suffice. God forbid any actual Democracy be allowed to take root!

Then there was the Industrial Revolution! Yee-haw!!!

Today, this unholy alliance between our ruling classes using technological innovation and militarized populace control, has reached its zenith (or nadir for most).

Now the whole planet is "colonized", and nature itself is stressed to the max.

Divide and conquer has had its day. It has served its evolutionary purpose. Time for a new Global Direct Democracy, where everyone, everywhere, gets to vote on everything. The rising Noosphere has made us all interconnected and smart. They don't like that, and are desperately trying to impose their control over it. It will not work.

The nation/state way of governing human behavior is long overdue for its "unplanned obsolescence".

[malaise]

62. What an interesting response

The current arrangements sure aren’t working for the majority.

[station agent]

66. If you put pellucidly in your title I won't read any of the other words (n/t)

[malaise]

69. Enjoy this

http://www.newyorkcourtwatcher.com/2009/12/pellucidly-clear-at-supreme-court-ny.html

[DaveDuhRave]

72. i pellucidly thank you.

Pellucidly. One of the worst words ever!

[TeamProg]

73. Well, after WWI, probably, yeah..

""Further, every banana republic on the planet was established on behalf of US corporate and government interests. ""

[malaise]

75. The type of government and political system

We agree re the foreign rule colonial madness and yes there are overlaps. That said, Banana Republics precede 1945.

[TeamProg]

76. WWII was 1945, WWI that I mentioned, was 1914 FYI

The Brits were in the biz of Banana Repubs long before the good ol USA.

[malaise]

77. My bad

Should put on my glasses😀

[NewsCenter28]

79. My god, this post rocks

Rec!

[Solly Mack]

81. True