Utopiano Reformato

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Posts by Utopiano Reformato

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  50

  Ten Commandments in Courthouse

  by rem in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  oh, yeah, your god's law... as if your religion and god is the only one out there.

  good advice, but it's pretty obvious.

  10. you shall not covet your neighbor's house; you .

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  Utopiano Reformato

  I am forced to agree with the Czar. While China may have a deplorable record in human rights and a less than adequate judicial system or trial by representation, their shotcomings/abuses are not related to whether or not the lack of the ten commandments affects their ability to govern.
  
  Claiming we would become abusive like the chinese communists if it were not for the ten commandments is quite a stretch. The colonial forefathers made grandiose claims of freedom and equality as christian men, WHILE OWNING SLAVES. An affinity to judeo-christian teachings in no way guarantees additional measures of freedom, as evidenced by crusades, civil rights, apartheid, etc.
• 
  50

  Ten Commandments in Courthouse

  by rem in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  oh, yeah, your god's law... as if your religion and god is the only one out there.

  good advice, but it's pretty obvious.

  10. you shall not covet your neighbor's house; you .

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  Utopiano Reformato

  KGB:
  
  I can tell you understand and appreciate fairness and equality and desire freedom of representation. But, in effect and in principle, Judge Moore is NOT fighting for christian freedom. He is insisting on making judeo-christian representations in a publically funded place.
  
  Indirectly, all of our taxes fund the federal government and the facilities they operate on a daily basis. If the tablets of Moses are to be displayed, then diplay them as you would a traveling exhibit. Present them as part of a cultural/ethnic/historical awareness week. In many federal buildings, I have seen african american items on display and exhibit during Black History Month. The same venue could be provided for religious tolerance week.
  
  However, that is the absolute limit. I am not going to ignore my taxes being used to promote any ones opinion of what is historically the religion of any country. If a compromise cannot be reached, remove the tablets by force, fine the Judge and administratively sanction/censure him from the bench. He should have known better in the first place.
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  43

  I passed my exam ! (... but 4 more to go)

  by Simon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm now officially certifiable ... erm, i mean certified having passed my first exam:.

  070-315 developing and implementing web applications with microsoft visual c# .net and microsoft visual studio .net.

  i now have 2 more to do to get mcad status (ms certified application developer) and 4 more for mcsd (ms certified soution developer).

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  Utopiano Reformato

  Wow. What a weird coincidence! To this day, I have never passed a "free or beta" exam. Because they were free, I guess I slacked off and took the voucher for granted and I always regretted it after the fact.
  
  I am glad that the vendors eliminate useless information from the courses, but some of it should stay. I think the switching information is necessary and is a good review for everyone, but useless outdated legacy stuff like "DECNET, Banyan Vines, ArcNET & IPX" is just a waste of time.
  
  Then again, there are those folks with photographic memories who I call "CTM" and "MasterCTM". There are certified technology memorizers working all over the industry. A fews years ago, a lexicon of buzz words made anyone sound credible.
  
  Nowadays, with Fibre Channel SANS, filtering and security, remote control, desktop imaging, and wireless, having the OSI memorized will not be enough.
  
  I have seen a few poseurs fall by the wayside. And there are still thousands of microsoft mouse monkeys out there with paper certifications and have never built a box from scratch, recover a failed drive, setup a token ring or ISDN link for video conferencing.
  
  One reason I continue supporting Novell is because their courses always met ISO criteria and received college credit, which you couldn't get with MS unless MS had bought the school new computers to be included in a degree program. Even now, they can't get themselves certified as secure because their products are like swiss cheese.
  
  But,back to the point. I hope you pass the CCIE next time. I have never met any CCIE's and I would be proud to be acquainted with one. I have about a dozen certifications of which 5 need upgrading. I will finish three upgrades before the end of the year and finish the rest before spring.
  
  My new goal is to earn that CISSP and CTT before the end of 2004. In order to get new business and focus on security, I will need a few more acronyms. I guess CCIE is like becoming Eagle Scout and some of are still cubs and weebloes.
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  13

  Watchtower logical fallacies

  by RunningMan in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i believe that in order to effectively immunize a person against the disease of watchtowerism, it is necessary to bring them to a full, conscious understanding of their tactics.

  i am currently working on a document for my son that shows how the society uses faulty logic to make their points.

  the document lists several common logical fallacies and then provides examples from the societys teachings.

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  Utopiano Reformato

  Nice Job Running Man!

  I hope it works!
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  84

  Poll: Do you trust Israel ? ? ? ?

  by Iron Eagle in

  1. social
  2. current

  hey folks.

  why is it that all americans are so damn pro - israel ?.

  israel is totally against the united states; they are just using america for their own selfish gains.

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  Utopiano Reformato

  ThiChi:

  You used a good source of information, under normal circumstances. However, since Madeline Albright has in the past been very outspoken about supporting pro-Israeli policies her declarations of who and what should be classified as "terrorist" does deserve at least a little scrutiny. I am sure by-and-large she is correct. However, since many believe that our government has been influenced by zionist cabals, it is also possible her oversight could have been prejudicial.

  ---

  Is America influenced?

  However, because American leaders are “superstitious”, they continue providing economic and political support to Israel for fear of divine disapproval. Israel has been the Anglo-American “lucky rabbit’s foot” since 1948. Do Americans know how much this “good luck charm” costs?

  U.S. aid to Israel: about $5 billion dollars annually!
  
  Year 2000 - Israel's total population: 5,842,454
  Year 2000 - U.S population older than 14: 217,007,918

  Payment each man, woman, and infant Israeli receives annually from the U.S.: $855.80, or $71.32 monthly. Cost of payment to each U.S. citizen above the age of 14: $23.04

  Source:http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/indexgeo.html
  http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/010201/0101015.html

  List of the Jews in President Clinton´s First Administration

  NAME POSITION

  Albright, Madeleine K US Ambassador to the UN
  Altman, Roger Deputy to Secretary Bentson
  Baird, Zoe Attorney General (Declined Post)
  Berger, Samuel National Security Deputy Head
  Boorstin, Robert Communications Aide
  Boykin, Keith Communications Aide
  Dreyer, David Communications Aide
  Eisenstat, Stuart E Asst Secretary of State: Security
  Eller, Jeff Communications Aide
  Feder, Judith Advisor to Secretary of Health
  Gober, Hershel Asst Secty for Veterans' Affairs
  Herman, Alexis Secty to President: Public Works
  Kantor, Mickey US Trade Representative
  Klain, Ron Third White House Counsel
  Kunin, Madeleine Assistant Secretary of Education
  Kusnet, David Communications Aide
  Lewis, Samuel Director of Strategy
  Ludwig, Eugene A Director of the Mint (Jew of course)
  Magaziner, Ira Cheif Advisor: Security Questions
  Newman, Frank N Asst Secretary of State: Finance
  Nussbaum, Bernard White House Counsel
  Oxman, Stephen A Asst Secretary of State: Europe
  Paster, Howard Presidential Secty for Congress
  Pena, Federico F Secretary of Transportation
  Rahm, Emanuel Presidential Secty Political Affairs
  Reich, Robert Secretary of Labor
  Rivlin, Alice Deputy Director: OMB
  Rubin, Robert E Head: Counsel Economic Advisors
  Segal, Eli Director: Office of Nat'l Service
  Seidman, Ricki Communications Aide (Research)
  Schifter, Richard US Ambassador to Israeli
  Spero, Joan Edelman Asst Secty State: Econ Affairs
  Summers, Lawrence H Asst Secty State for Policy
  Tarnoff, Peter Asst Secty State: Pol Affairs
  Waldman, Michael Communications Aide

  Article from the American Jewish magazine "Jewish Post", 16/9-1992:

  Clinton Advisers: 5 of 7 are Jewish

  NEW YORK - Of the seven advisers on whom Gov Clinton relies, at least five are Jewish and perhaps six; They are Robert Reich, 45, a professor of Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government; Ira Magaziner, 45, president of SJS, Inc; Robert J Shapiro, 42, vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute; Samuel R Berger, 46, former deputy director of the State Department policy planning staff; and Michael Mandelbaum, 45, professor and director of American foreign policy studies at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University

  The following is a list (which doesn't include lower staff levels) of Jews in the present Clinton adminstration:
  (1/4/1998)

  Madeleine Albright
  Secretary of State

  Robert Rubin
  Secretary of Treasury

  William Cohen
  Secretary of Defense

  Dan Glickman
  Secretary of Agriculture

  George Tenet
  CIA Chief

  Samuel Berger
  Head National Security Council

  Evelyn Lieberman
  Deputy Chief of Staff

  Stuart Eizenstat
  Under Secretary of State

  Charlene Barshefsky
  US Trade Representative

  Susan Thomases
  Aide to First Lady

  Joel Klein
  Assistant Attorney General

  Gene Sperling
  National Economic Council

  Ira Magaziner
  National Health Care

  Peter Tarnoff
  Deputy Secretary of State

  Alice Rivlin
  Ecomomic Advisory

  Janet Yellen
  Chairwoman, National Economic Council

  Rahm Emanuel
  Policy Advisor

  Doug Sosnik
  Counsel to President

  Jim Steinberg
  Deputy to National Security Chief

  Jay Footlik
  Special Liason to the Jewish Community
  (no other group has a special liason)

  Robert Nash
  Personal Chief

  Jane Sherburne
  President's Lawyer

  Mark Penn
  Asia Expert to NEC

  Sandy Kristoff
  Health Care Chief

  Robert Boorstin
  Communications Aide

  Keith Boykin
  Communications Aide

  Jeff Eller
  Special Assistant to Clinton

  Tom Epstein
  Health Care Adviser

  Judith Feder
  National Security Council

  Richard Feinberg
  Assistant Secretary Veterans

  Hershel Gober
  Food and Drug Administration

  Steve Kessler
  White House Counsel

  Ron Klein
  Assistant Secretary Education

  Madeleine Kunin
  Communications Aide

  David Kusnet
  Dept AIDS Program

  Margaret Hamburg
  Dir Press Conferences

  Many Grunwald
  Liason to Jewish Leaders

  Karen Adler
  Dir State Dept Policy

  Samuel Lewis
  National Security Council

  Stanley Ross
  National Security Council

  Dan Schifter
  Director Peace Corps

  Eli Segal
  Deputy Chief of Staff

  Alan Greenspan
  Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank

  Robert Weiner
  Drug Policy Coordinator

  Jack Lew
  Deputy Director Management and Budget

  James P Rubin
  Under Secretary of State

  David Lipton
  Under Secretary of The Treasury

  Lanny P Breuer
  Special Counsel to The President

  Richard Holbrooke
  Special Representative to NATO

  Kenneth Apfel
  Chief of Social Security

  Joel Klein
  Deputy Whlte Honse Counsel

  Sidney Blumenthal
  Speclal Advisor to Pirst Lady

  David Kessler
  Chief of Food & Drug Adininistration

  Seth Waxman
  Acting Solicitor General

  Mark Penn
  Presidential Pollster

  Dennis Ross
  Special Middle East Representative

  Howard Shapiro
  - General Counsel for the FBI

  Lanny Davis
  White House Special Counsel

  Sally Katzen
  Secretary of Management and Budget

  Kathleen Koch
  Heads FBI Equal Opportunity Office

  John Podesta
  Deputy Chief of Staff

  Alan Blinder
  Vice Chairman of Federal Reserve

  Janet Yellen
  Heads Council of Economlc Advisors

  Ron Klain
  Chief of Staff for Al Gore

  List of some of the Jewish US Ambassadors:

  Germany:
  Ambassador John C Kornblum
  Germany has long been seen as an adversary of the Jews Thus a Jewish Ambassador places them under direct Jewish pressure

  France:
  Ambassador Felix Rohatyn
  Rohatyn is a former partner in the Jewish Lazard Freres investment bank In September the French oil company, "Total," invested $2 billion in the production of oil in Iran Rohatyn is seeking to Veto this project due to Israel's hostility toward Iran Rohatyn said; "Globalization doesn't carry a threat, but it carries discipline"

  Poland:
  Ambassador Daniel Fried
  Chester Grabowski, editor of "The Polish Post Eagle", and others urged Clinton to name a Polish American This plea was ignored There has never been a Jew ambassador to Poland before as Jews hold an animosity toward Poles This is considered as a gross insult Regardless, Fried jokingly said: "I will now have to brush up on their language"

  Denmark:
  Ambassador Edward E Elson
  Dr Fields attended Marist High School in Atlanta with the Elson brothers He learned that their family made a fortune in the textile business and are big contributors to the Democratic Party

  Hungary:
  Ambassador Donald M Blinken
  This country has long been considered "anti-Semitic" Budapest has the largest Jewish population in Europe, some 125,000 Jews, only exceeded by Paris Thus Blinken can protect their financial interests

  Romania:
  Ambassador Alfred H Moses
  At one time Romania was ruled by an allJewish Communist Party under Anna Pauka Romania is closely allied with Israel Six members of the Rumanian Senate, three of them priests, objected to Clinton's 1994 appointment of Moses stating that he was closely connected to the fallen Communist Ceausescu regime

  Belgium:
  Ambassador Alan J Blinken
  Antwerp, Belgium is the diamond capital of the world next to Tel Aviv The diamond business is totally Jew-controlled Blinken is in a position to further protect their interests He is related to the Blinken ambassador to Hungary

  Belarus:
  Ambassador Kenneth S Yalowitz
  Belarus is located between Poland and Russia It once had a huge Jewish population They still have interests there

  South Africa:
  Ambassador James A Joseph
  The Jewish Oppenheimer family controls this gold mining capital of the world The Jewish-run South African Communist Party and the ANC now control the government and loyally do the bidding of the gold interests)

  India:
  Ambassador Frank G Wisner
  This economic powerhouse has long sided with the Arabs against Israel and needs more Zionist control

  Turkey:
  Ambassador Marc Grossman
  The "Kemalist" Turkey is the only Middle East border country with a military alliance with Israel They pose a threat to Syria and Iraq over long simmering border disputes Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was a secret Jewish infiltrator ! This explains the alliance between the Ataturk-influenced military regime in Turkey and the fraudulent and criminal state of Israel! This also explains the opposition of the "kémalian" junta against the rennaisance of Islam amongst the muslim people of Turkey!

  New Zealand:
  Ambassador Josiah H Beeman

  Egypt:
  Ambassador Daniel C Kurtzer
  Egypt is the recipient of the second largest amount of US foreign aid This is to "buy off" Israel's southern front Any hostility toward Israel would end the aid)

  Sweden:
  Ambassador Thomas L Siebert

  Morocco:
  Ambassador Marc C Ginsberg

  Singapore:
  Ambassador Timothy A Chorba

  Zambia:
  Ambassador Arlene Render

  Brazil:
  Ambassador Melvyn Levitsky
  This is South America's largest country and economic powerhouse Jews have huge investments here

  Bolivia:
  Ambassador Curt W Kamman
  This is another mineral rich country; copper, magnesium, lead, etc

  Mexico:
  Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow
  Davidow was formerly Assistant Secy Of State for South America under Albright Mexico sends the US more immigrants and trade than any other nation

  Canada:
  Ambassador Gordon Giffin
  Thus Clinton has given both our border neighbors, Mexico and Canada, to Jewish operatives

  Cuba:
  US Interest Head, Michael G Kozak
  One would think that this nation would have a Spanish Catholi "Interest Chief" instead of a Jew???

  Norway:
  Ambassador David B Hermelin
  Hermelin is a Michigan multi-millionaire real estate developer and president of the World Jewish ORT Union Re owns Palace Sports and Entertainment, "The Palace" of Auburn Hills and the "Pine Knob Music Theater"

  Switzerland:
  Ambassador Madeleine M Kunin
  Kunin is the former Democratic governor of Vermont Her four children attended a Hebrew school The New York Times of Oct 4, 1997 says she, "doggedly pursues the Swiss on the issue of gold for holocaust survivors"
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  25

  Origins of SHOCK AND AWE

  by chachasmum in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the basis of hitler's blitzkrieg, march 14, 2003 .

  reviewer: a reader from langley, va, united states shock and awe were the foundational concepts put forth by hitler's military leaders as a new and lethal way of rapidly overwhelming opponents.

  setting aside considerations of the violence visited on civilians and non-combatants or the damage done to infrastructure, hitler suggested that inducing "shock and awe" through his "lightning war" system would lead to rapid military victories.

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  Utopiano Reformato

  ThiChi:

  My last two posts in this thread attempted to explain the basis on which I was projecting the information regarding "zionist" conspiracies. It is difficult to swallow or imagine that such a thing exists. It was difficult for russians to imagine the atrocities of Stalin and the inner dealings of the KGB. Outspoken critics were silenced. I am sure no repsectable, peaceloving jew wants to hear about zionist conspiracies like germans did not want to hear about concentration camps.

  You and your friend/supporter Francois are under no obligation to agree with the information. Enjoy your rights!
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  25

  Origins of SHOCK AND AWE

  by chachasmum in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the basis of hitler's blitzkrieg, march 14, 2003 .

  reviewer: a reader from langley, va, united states shock and awe were the foundational concepts put forth by hitler's military leaders as a new and lethal way of rapidly overwhelming opponents.

  setting aside considerations of the violence visited on civilians and non-combatants or the damage done to infrastructure, hitler suggested that inducing "shock and awe" through his "lightning war" system would lead to rapid military victories.

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  Utopiano Reformato

  Francois
• 
  25

  Origins of SHOCK AND AWE

  by chachasmum in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the basis of hitler's blitzkrieg, march 14, 2003 .

  reviewer: a reader from langley, va, united states shock and awe were the foundational concepts put forth by hitler's military leaders as a new and lethal way of rapidly overwhelming opponents.

  setting aside considerations of the violence visited on civilians and non-combatants or the damage done to infrastructure, hitler suggested that inducing "shock and awe" through his "lightning war" system would lead to rapid military victories.

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  Utopiano Reformato

  Francois
• 
  19

  Is there a secret "zionist" agenda & hidden "cabals" operating in US/UK?

  by Utopian Reformist in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  check out this article from benjamin freedman:

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  Utopiano Reformato

  Hey SF:

  I see you made "EMPEROR" class! Congratulations! It takes me so long to get free time, and then I have to get a spare PC ready with Microshaft software to participate, so that's why you don't see me much anymore. I see everyone is doing well, busy and the site is growing tremendously. Simon is doing a bang-up job! I am checking out the articles in the links you posted. Great seeing you here again!
• 

  Coup D'Etat in the US - Exposed by USMC General Smedley Butler

  by Utopiano Reformato in

  1. social
  2. current

  an american coup d'etat?.

  by clayton e. cramer.

  history today, november 1995 .

• 

  Utopiano Reformato

  An American Coup d'État?
  by Clayton E. Cramer
  History Today, November 1995

  Some Americans regard our country as superior to other nations because we don't change governments by coup d'état - and we never have. Perhaps because of our long tradition of power changing hands by election, we regard our nation as immune to the use of force for political purposes. True, assassins have killed four of our Presidents, but these deaths did not lead to turmoil and chaos; the government followed well-established procedures for transferring control to the men previously elected Vice President. Unlike other nations where assassination often leads to civil war, the United States has avoided this.

  How different is America from nations where political power comes quite directly "from the barrel of a gun"? A curious footnote to American history suggests that, except for the personal integrity of a remarkable American general, a coup d'état intended to remove President Franklin D. Roosevelt from office in 1934 might have plunged America into civil war.

  The General
  This remarkable man was Smedley Darlington Butler, retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General. Butler is the sort of person for whom the word "colorful" is woefully inadequate. Butler won America's highest military award for bravery (the Congressional Medal of Honor) twice. His style of warfare was unusual not only for his personal courage, but for the energy he put into avoiding bloodshed when it was possible to achieve his aims in other ways. Not surprisingly, this engendered a remarkable loyalty among the men who served under him - and that loyalty was why certain men asked Butler to lead a military attack on Washington, D.C., with the goal of capturing President Roosevelt.

  Butler was more than a remarkable soldier. He served as police commissioner of Philadelphia during 1924-25 (on loan from the Marines), in an attempt to enforce Prohibition. While the effort was a failure, his insistence on enforcing the law against wealthy partygoers as well as poor immigrants established his reputation as a man of high integrity. He was not universally loved, but he was widely respected.

  Butler is best remembered today for his oft-quoted statement in the socialist newspaper Common Sense in 1935:

  I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I 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 benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras "right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.... Looking back on it, I felt I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three continents.

  In War Is A Racket, Butler argued for a powerful navy, but one prohibited from traveling more than 200 miles from the U.S. coastline. Military aircraft could travel no more than 500 miles from the U.S. coast, and the army would be prohibited from leaving the United States. Butler also proposed that all workers in defense industries, from the lowest laborer to the highest executive, be limited to "$30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get." He also proposed that a declaration of war should be passed by a plebiscite in which only those subject to conscription would be eligible to vote.

  From 1935 through 1937, Butler was a spokesman for the League Against War and Fascism, a Communist-dominated organization of the time. He also participated in the Third U.S. Congress Against War and Fascism, sharing the platform with well-known leftists of the era, including Langston Hughes, Heywood Broun, and Roger Baldwin. When the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) threatened the collapse of the Soviet-supported Spanish government, the League's pacifism evaporated, and they supported intervention. Butler, however, remained true to his belief in non-interventionism: "What the hell is it our business what's going on in Spain?" But before Butler became involved in these causes, he had already exposed a fascist plot against his own government.

  The Plot
  Butler had friends in the press and Congress, so he could not be ignored when he came forward in late 1934 with a tale of conspiracy against President Roosevelt, in which he had been asked to take a leading role. At first glance, Butler seems an unlikely candidate for such a position. While Butler was a Republican, in 1932 he campaigned for Roosevelt, calling himself a "Republican-for-Ex-President Hoover." (Butler had a poor relationship with Hoover going back to their time together during the Boxer Rebellion.)

  But there were good reasons why someone seeking to overthrow the U.S. government would have wanted Butler involved. Butler was a powerful symbol to many American soldiers and veterans - an enlisted man's general, one that spoke out for their interests while on active duty, and after retirement. Butler would have attracted men to his cause that would not otherwise have participated in a march on Washington.

  Butler would have been a good choice also because of his military skills. His personal courage and tactical skill would have made him a powerful commander of an irregular army. Finally, his ties of friendship to many officers still on active duty might have undermined military opposition to his force, as friends and colleagues sought to avoid a direct confrontation with him.

  Another reason that the plotters might have approached such an unlikely candidate was that Butler was not regarded as a great intellect. After World War I, the Marine Corps had began to emphasize a new college-educated professionalism. Butler, one of the less educated "bushwhacer" generals, might have seemed easy to manipulate.

  Butler testified that bond trader Gerald MacGuire had approached him in the summer of 1933. MacGuire claimed to represent wealthy Wall Street broker Grayson Murphy, Singer sewing machine heir Robert Sterling Clark, and other unnamed men of wealth. They asked Butler to speak publicly on behalf of the gold standard, recently abandoned by President Roosevelt. MacGuire's rationale for why Butler should ally himself with the gold standard cause was that the veterans of World War I were due a bonus in 1945. As MacGuire told Butler, "We want to see the soldiers' bonus paid in gold. We do not want the soldier to have rubber money or paper money."

  It appears that the plotters underestimated Butler's intelligence and character. When this explanation failed to persuade Butler, MacGuire and Clark offered him money, abandoning any pretense of civic-mindness. Butler's sense of honor prevented him from speaking in favor of any policy for mercenary reasons.

  MacGuire eventually told Butler their real goal. MacGuire asked Butler to lead an army of 500,000 veterans in a march on Washington, D.C. The stated mission was to protect Roosevelt from other plotters, and install a "secretary of general welfare" to "take all the worries and details off of his shoulders." But Butler saw through their supposed concern for Roosevelt. He testified before Congress that he told MacGuire:

  [M]y interest is, my one hobby is, maintaining a democracy. If you get these 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home.

  Yes; and then you will put somebody in there you can run; is that the idea? The President will go around and christen babies and dedicate bridges, and kiss children. Mr. Roosevelt will never agree to that himself.

  Butler eventually deduced that the real goal was a coup d'état to take Roosevelt captive, and force reinstatement of the gold standard, the loss of which many wealthy Americans feared would lead to rapid inflation. The plotters would keep Roosevelt as a figurehead until he could be "encouraged" to retire.

  That MacGuire had significant financial backing behind him seems clear, considering the substantial bank savings books he showed to Butler. What remains unclear is whether the names MacGuire dropped (other than Robert Sterling Clark) were really involved, or whether MacGuire was a con man.

  MacGuire's claims and financial resources alone did not convince Butler that such a conspiracy actually existed. The fulfillment of a series of startling predictions by MacGuire did finally persuade Butler that there was more than just hot air involved. MacGuire knew in advance of significant personnel changes in the White House. He correctly predicted the formation of the American Liberty League (the major conservative opposition to Roosevelt), and the principal players in it.

  Especially disturbing was that many of the supposed backers of the plot were also members of the League. MacGuire's claim that the League ("villagers in the opera" of the scheme, in MacGuire's words) was part of the plot could not be easily dismissed.

  The American Liberty League was a successor to the highly successful Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, the lobbying organization responsible for the repeal of the "Noble Experiment." From its formation in 1918 until 1926, the AAPA made little progress, at least partly because it had little money. But in 1926, money poured into the AAPA from some of America's wealthiest men, including Pierre, Irenee, and Lammot du Pont, John J. Raskob, and Charles H. Sabin. The AAPA spent its new found wealth on distribution of literature, and on the formation of a bewildering number of associated organizations. These associated organizations gave the impression of a grassroots movement, rather than a collection of millionaires feeding press releases to friendly newspapers. The AAPA also rapidly took control of the Democratic Party, with one of their supporters, Al Smith, receiving the 1928 Democratic Presidential nomination. While AAPA had powerful friends within the Republican Party, they never achieved control of it.

  The AAPA's motivations were a mixture of idealism and pragmatism. The stated concern was that Prohibition had done serious damage to the principle of federalism - that the federal government's authority did not include the police powers used to enforce Prohibition. But it appears that this was not the only motivation, or even the reason most important to the men who funded the AAPA. Like many other Americans, these business leaders "found themselves unable to gratify what seemed a natural, more or less innocent, desire without breaking a law" (i.e., the consumption of alcoholic beverages). To suddenly find themselves among the criminal classes was not pleasant to a group who had always thought of themselves as law-abiding and respectable members of American society. There is also strong evidence that the backers of the AAPA saw Repeal as a method of reducing income and corporate taxes, by taxing alcoholic beverages instead.

  The AAPA went out of business at the end of 1933, with the end of Prohibition. But within a year, from the same offices, with most of the same backers, many of the same employees, and much of the same style, it reappeared as the American Liberty League. Throughout the next six years, it led the fight against the New Deal, arguing that much of Roosevelt's program was contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution. In an age when Hitler and Mussolini had commandeered extraordinary economic powers, the fears that the American Liberty League expressed about Roosevelt's vaguely similar gathering of economic power could not be summarily dismissed.

  The League, in spite of its impressive resources, was rapidly made to appear "ridiculous or dangerous" or both by the Roosevelt Administration. Most importantly, the leadership of the League was largely rich men. The Depression-era gap between rich and poor had become too wide, too obvious, and too painful for the League to be credible to the majority of Americans. Butler's testimony before Congress claimed that some of the people associated with the League were the very ones that had approached him - including Grayson Murphy, the League's treasurer.

  In the depths of the Great Depression, in that nadir of despair before Roosevelt gave his stirring first inaugural address in 1933, America was awash in political groups identifying in greater or lesser degrees with communism or fascism. Rep. Samuel Dickstein (D-NY), concerned about the threat of such groups, persuaded the House of Representatives to create the Special Committee to Investigate Nazi Propaganda Activities in the United States. This committee investigated Butler's charges in late 1934.

  MacGuire, not surprisingly, denied that such a plot existed. Instead, he claimed his activities had been political lobbying to preserve the gold standard, but he quickly destroyed his credibility as a witness by giving contradictory testimony. While the final report agreed with Butler that there was evidence of a coup d'état plot against Roosevelt, no further action was taken on it. The Committee's authority to subpoena witnesses expired at the end of 1934, and the Justice Department started no criminal investigation.

  Part of the reason for the lack of prosecution of the alleged plotters may have been the untimely death of the only man who could have testified against the rest: Gerald MacGuire. He died at age 37 from complications of pneumonia, less than a month after the Committee released its report. MacGuire's physician claimed that his death was partly the result of the stress of the charges made by Butler, but there is no reason to assume that MacGuire's death was in any way suspicious.

  The Committee's report excluded many of the most embarrassing names given by MacGuire, and repeated by Butler. MacGuire had claimed that 1928 Democratic President candidate Al Smith, General Hugh Johnson (head of Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration), General Douglas MacArthur, and a number of other generals and admirals were privy to the plot. Since Butler had no evidence of their involvement, other than MacGuire's claims, it was certainly reasonable for the Committee to exclude these details from the final report as "certain immaterial and incompetent evidence." But in conjunction with MacGuire's apparent advance knowledge of the details of internal White House staff activities, it certainly suggests that if a coup was planned, it had significant support within the Roosevelt Administration.

  The News Media Downplays The Plot

  The news media gave an inappropriately small amount of attention to the report. Time magazine ridiculed Butler's claims. The week following Butler's testimony, Time described it as a "Plot Without Plotters," simply because the alleged plotters claimed innocence. But Time admitted that Veterans of Foreign Wars commander James Van Zandt confirmed that he, too, had been approached to lead such a march on Washington.

  The leftist magazine New Masses carried an article by John Spivak that included wild claims of "Jewish financiers working with fascist groups." Spivak's article spun an elaborate web involving the American Jewish Congress, the Warburg family, "which originally financed Hitler," the Hearst newspaper chain, the Morgan banking firm, the du Ponts, a truly impressive list of prominent American Jewish businessmen, and Nazi spies! Spivak's article raised some disturbing and legitimate questions about why much of Butler's testimony was left out of the final committee report. But these important concerns were seriously undermined by Spivak's paranoid ravings. The left-of-center magazines Nation and New Republic were unconcerned about it, since in their view "fascism originated in pseudoradical mass movements," and therefore could not come from a wealthy cabal.

  Newspaper descriptions of the final report are also astonishing for how lightly most treated it. A New York Times article about subversion and foreign agitators started on the front page, but gave only two paragraphs to the coup plot inside the paper. "It also alleged that definite proof has been found that the much publicized Fascist march on Washington... was actually contemplated." It was not a major story.

  The San Francisco Chronicle took the story more seriously. The only headline with a larger type size that day concerned the recent fatal crash of the airship Macon. The Chronicle carried an Associated Press story headlined, "Justice Aids Probe Butler Fascist Story." The first five paragraphs were devoted to Butler's allegations. The Chronicle quoted the Committee report that it "was able to verify all the pertinent statements by General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement suggesting creation of the organization."

  A third newspaper sampled showed an even more astonishing lack of interest than the New York Times: the Sacramento Bee used a substantially different Associated Press wire story that emphasized propaganda efforts by foreign agents. Another AP wire story, at the bottom of page five, described Butler's allegations, taking the Committee's report at face value. This wire story includes the comforting knowledge that the committee found "no evidence to show a connection between this effort" and any foreign government.

  An apparently serious effort to overthrow the government, perhaps with the support of some of America's wealthiest men, largely substantiated by a Congressional committee, was mostly ignored. Why? Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, wrote a book in 1939 about the concentration of American journalism. He claimed that, "In 1934, 82 per cent of all dailies had a complete monopoly in their communities." Newspaper chains, in Ickes' view, "control a dangerously large share of the national daily circulation and in many cities have no competition."

  Ickes' book was largely devoted to proving that the major newspapers of the United States were intentionally distorting the news, and in some cases, directly lying. Ickes argued that newspaper editors did so in the interests of both their advertisers and in defense of the capitalist class. Ickes mentioned the Liberty League as one of the "propaganda outfits" who were allied with the major newspapers. Indeed,the New York Times, one of the papers that had downplayed the Committee's report, had editorialized in favor of the Liberty League's formation.

  Did newspapers and magazines onsciously play down the plot, because it represented an embarrassment to people of influence? Or did editors simply give it low visibility because they regarded it as an absurd story?

  We must consider another disturbing possibility. Butler was associated with the loose alliance of progressive and populist forces that were dragging Roosevelt towards the left. It is easy to forget that for much of Roosevelt's first term as President from 1932-36, he was the rope in a tug of war between conservative and progressive forces in America. The popularity of men such as Senator Huey Long (D-Louisiana) and the nationally known radio priest Father Coughlin - and the need to short-circuit their rising political power - appears to have caused Roosevelt's increasingly leftward movement in 1935-36.

  Is it possible that Butler concocted this story as a way of creating animosity towards conservatives by Roosevelt? If Butler had lied to the Committee, and no such conspiracy was ever planned, why did MacGuire apparently perjure himself before the Committee? Or, alternatively, could leftward leaning members of the Roosevelt Administration have manipulated Butler into believing that such a plot actually existed as a way of creating animosity towards conservatives, thus dragging Roosevelt to the left? Either theory could explain why MacGuire, Murphy, Clark, or the other supposed plotters were never prosecuted.

  Yet another possibility (though less likely) is that there was no prosecution because Roosevelt's own advisors had taken part in the plot, as MacGuire claimed. A criminal prosecution would have washed the Roosevelt Administration's dirty laundry in public.

  Why Is The Plot So Poorly Known?

  Butler's account of the MacGuire plot was a very serious accusation. If MacGuire had told Butler the truth, a large number of wealthy men had made serious plans to overthrow representative government in the United States - though their concern that Roosevelt was creating a government in the style of Mussolini or Hitler, might provide some legitimate reason for their actions. Why doesn't this plot appear in history books? That conservatives might discount the plot is not unexpected; that liberals have tended to ignore the plot is a little more surprising.

  It is hard to imagine how different American politics was in the 1930s. The collapse of the world economy had shaken the faith of many Americans in individualism and free market capitalism. Many traditionalists, here and in Europe, toyed with the ideas of Fascism and National Socialism; many liberals dallied with Socialism and Communism. Prominent populists such as Huey Long and Father Coughlin sided with progressives in support of isolationism, redistribution of wealth, and a federal government that would play a more active role in the American economy.

  In hindsight, the moral and economic deficiencies of these various collectivized systems are now clear. In 1934, however, people of good will persuaded themselves that Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin were doing good, and ignored the great evils that were already underway. To turn over the rock exposing MacGuire's plot raises unpleasant questions about the political sensibilities of both right and left in 1930s America.

  How Secure Are The Institutions of Legal Government In America?

  How secure, indeed? It would be tempting to write off this entire matter as a group of con men separating wealthy conservatives from their money by pretending to hatch a plot against the Roosevelt Administration. But there are too many disturbing pieces of evidence in this tale that suggest that the Zeitgeist of the 1930s was not limited to Europe.

  If MacGuire's claims to Butler were true, some U.S. military commanders were prepared to stand aside while 500,000 veterans marched on Washington and took Roosevelt captive. (Between the World Wars, the United States Army was so small that 500,000 veterans might have given them a serious fight - even if every officer remained loyal to Roosevelt.)

  But unlike many European countries, American government was highly decentralized in 1934, and this would have worked against any serious military action against the legitimate government. Every state governor had control of state militia units, armed with out of date, but still serviceable military weapons.

  In addition to the regularly organized state militias, the population of the United States, then as now, was heavily armed with the sort of weapons well suited to military operations. Whatever the advantages of the plotters' army of 500,000 veterans, they would have been far outnumbered by the unorganized militia of the United States - then as now, consisting of every U.S. citizen between 18 and 45, and legally obligated by state laws to fight at the order of the governor in the event of insurrection, invasion, or war.

  But in a nation that was suffering from the ravages of the Great Depression, another model exists for what might have happened: the Spanish Civil War. The divisions over religion in America were not as dramatic as those that ripped apart Spanish society. But many Americans were beginning to lose their faith in American institutions - as evidenced by the growth of American Nazi and Communist movements during the 1930s. It is frightening to think of what might have happened if a general as capable as Butler had become the man on a white horse.

  In the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, delivered at New York University in 1960 concerning the protections of the U.S. Bill of Rights:

  I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th century straitjacket, unsuited for this age. The evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us now, they exist today.

  Experience all over the world has demonstrated, I fear, that the distance between stable, orderly government and one that has been taken over by force is not so great as we have assumed.

  Indeed, the plot that Butler exposed - if what MacGuire claimed was true - is a sobering reminder to Americans. We were not immune to the sentiments that gave rise to totalitarian governments throughout the world in the 1930s. We make a serious mistake when we assume, "It can't happen here!"

  Clayton E. Cramer is a software engineer with a Northern California manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. His first book, By The Dim And Flaring Lamps: The Civil War Diary of Samuel McIlvaine, was published by Library Research Associates (Monroe, NY) in 1990. Mr. Cramer's second book, For The Defense of Themselves And The State: The Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right To Keep And Bear Arms was published by Praeger Publishers (Westport, Conn.) in 1994. Mr. Cramer recently completed his B.A. in History at Sonoma State University.

  Bibliography
  Archer, Jules, The Plot To Seize The White House, (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1973).

  Brinkley, Alan, Voices of Protest, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1982).

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  Cahn, Edmond, The Great Rights, (New York: Macmillan Co., 1963).

  Ickes, Harold L., America's House of Lords: An Inquiry into the Freedom of the Press, (Rahway, N.J.: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939).

  New York Times, February 16, 1935; March 26, 1935.

  Schmidt, Hans, Maverick Marine, (Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1987).

  Sevareid, Eric, Not So Wild A Dream, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946).

  Spivak, John L., "Wall Street's Fascist Conspiracy", New Masses, January 29, 1935, 9-15; February 5, 1935, (page numbers missing on the microfilm)..

  Sacramento Bee, February 15, 1935.

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  Time, 24:23 [December 3, 1934].

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  Wolfskill, George, The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League, 1934-1940, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1962).