1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: You always had the feeling that there's something strange about reality. 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: According to the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, there is. 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 1: On the show, post Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick examine 4 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:16,599 Speaker 1: neurological quandaries, cosmic mysteries, evolutionary marvels, and much more. Prosthetics 5 00:00:16,600 --> 00:00:19,960 Speaker 1: are true testaments to not only human craftsmanship and ingenuity, 6 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: but also to the plasticity of the human brain. Listen it' 7 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the I Heart Radio 8 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: apper wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by 9 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:29,159 Speaker 1: dot dot go. Protect your privacy online for free with 10 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: dot dot go. Hello, Hello, Hey, I don't know if 11 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:37,200 Speaker 1: you heard, but my podcast Checking It has been nominated 12 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: for the End of a CP Image Award in the 13 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: category of Outstanding Lifestyle and Self Help Podcast. I'm grateful 14 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: for the nomination. I I almost didn't even do a 15 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: podcast because I was just wandering there are thousands of 16 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 1: podcasts out there and why is my voice needed. But 17 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: a nomination from the End of a CP lets me 18 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: know that I made the right choice, and I encourage 19 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 1: you to don't worry if there are thousands of something 20 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: else that you want to do. No nobody has your sauce, 21 00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:08,400 Speaker 1: so listen. You can still vote. Go to vote dot 22 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,960 Speaker 1: a CP Image Awards dot net. You have until February five, 23 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,800 Speaker 1: um nine pm Eastern Standard time, and please listen to 24 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: my podcast. We're part of the Black Effect podcast Network 25 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get 26 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: your podcast. Thank you for checking in. Look for your 27 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 1: children's eyes and you will discover the two magic of 28 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: a forest. Find a forest near you and start exploring it. 29 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: Discover the Forest dot org, brought to you by the 30 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 1: United States Forest Service and the AD Council. What's overthrowing 31 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: the government? My consortium of shady financial interests? Yeah, I 32 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: don't know, I got no h. This is behind the 33 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: insurrections of the Find Behind the Bastards mini series about 34 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: fascist attempts to seize power. Uh. And this is our 35 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: last episode of this beautiful mini series. We did have 36 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: a seventh episode planned, but um I had some personal news. 37 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: That's that's gonna alter our work schedule a little bit. 38 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: But we will get to that episode at some point, 39 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: but not next week. Um My guest with this one, 40 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:32,239 Speaker 1: as as with always on our mini series, Jason Petty 41 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: a k A. Prop What's always Alwa's property is in 42 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: a building. Now, prop, I'm gonna come right to the chase. 43 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: Have you heard of the business plot? No? Oh good? 44 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,320 Speaker 1: Oh well. One of the things that's fun about this 45 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: is that, um, one of our characters from behind the 46 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: police is the main character of this story. Um, our 47 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: old friends Smedley Butler. Yeah, the guy who ran the 48 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: police in Philadelphia, the marine. That's that's going to be exciting. Yeah, 49 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,959 Speaker 1: I know that guy. So the business plot is there's 50 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,239 Speaker 1: a reason why you haven't heard of it. Uh. A 51 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:11,959 Speaker 1: lot of people have put in a lot of effort 52 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: to make sure that people don't talk about this anymore. UM. 53 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: Imagine a cadre of plutocratic bankers, financiers, and media moguls 54 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: all conspired to take over US democracy and institute of 55 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: fascist state hidden as a fake democracy. Um, shouldn't take 56 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:33,679 Speaker 1: a whole lot of imagination. Yeah. Um, that's what people 57 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: say to record industry is yeah, the record industry or 58 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: the way a lot of our government works right now, 59 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: Like the fact that Janet Yellen uh had financial ties 60 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: to one of the giant hedge funds that shut down 61 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:47,560 Speaker 1: the game stock trading and stuff like, yeah, you know 62 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: it may sound that sounds familiar to people. Um, but 63 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: usually we're talking about it. Most people were talking about 64 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: you know when we talk about like, well, there's a 65 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,920 Speaker 1: cadre of elites who control you know, the government. Um, 66 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: they meet it in sort of a deep state. Since 67 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,440 Speaker 1: but there was a time where the wealthiest men in 68 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:08,800 Speaker 1: America engaged in a very real conspiracy to have a 69 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:12,520 Speaker 1: paramilitary army sees the levers of power overthrow the president 70 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 1: and institute of fascist state. Um. And there's people alive 71 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: today who lived through it. It happened in the thirties. 72 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, yeah, this is this is a story 73 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,479 Speaker 1: people should know. Um. I think you'll find this one interesting. Props. So, okay, 74 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:28,920 Speaker 1: is gonna this is gonna be one of those ones 75 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: where I'm like, I'm actually going in. Yeah, this is 76 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: a fun one. Yes. So, our our story starts with 77 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: one of my favorite historical figures. As I told you, 78 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 1: Major General Smedley Butler. We're talking about old Smedley again. Um, 79 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: So we're gonna start by talking about him because he's 80 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: at the center of all this. So okay, Smedley Butler 81 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 1: was born in eighteen eighty one, who is the eldest 82 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: son of a Quaker family from Westchester, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas, 83 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: was a congressman and his maternal grandfather was in Congress 84 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: as well, So this is a guy who comes from 85 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: a lot of privilege in power. UM. He attended the 86 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 1: Haverford School, which is a secondary school for rich kids 87 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: from Philadelphia, and he thrived in this upper crust, elite institution. 88 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: He became captain of the school baseball team and quarterback 89 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: of the football team, and he seemed to be on 90 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:18,920 Speaker 1: the road to a career in politics or business. But 91 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,360 Speaker 1: then thirty eight days before his seventeenth birthday, he left 92 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: school to enlist in the United States Marine Corps UM. 93 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: So he's on like a path to follow you into 94 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,280 Speaker 1: business or into politics. And then when he's sixteen, he 95 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: leaves home to join the Marines. Now this pisses off 96 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: his dad, who didn't want his kid joining the Marines. 97 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: But the reason Smedley had joined is that the Spanish 98 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: American War had just started, which we chatted about of 99 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: it last week, and Smedley wanted to fight UM. So 100 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: he lied about his age to the Marines and was 101 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: commissioned as a second lieutenant. He landed in Guantanamo Bay, 102 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 1: Cuba shortly after it was captured, and he didn't see 103 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,720 Speaker 1: any action there. His unit was sent back to the 104 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: mainland and he could have been cashiered out, you know, 105 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 1: gone back into go you know, doing a business thing. 106 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:03,280 Speaker 1: But he decided to stay in the Marines and take 107 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: a commission as a first lieutenant and go fight in 108 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:08,599 Speaker 1: the Philippines. Um. He was not immediately good at war. 109 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:11,920 Speaker 1: He was initially tasked with garrison duty, which bored him 110 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,039 Speaker 1: so much that he just spent all of his time drunk. 111 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,160 Speaker 1: He was at one point relieved of command temporarily due 112 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,160 Speaker 1: to something he did in his bedroom, which is all 113 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: that we know about the incident he did. He did 114 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,839 Speaker 1: something with alcohol in his bedroom that made his superiors 115 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:27,720 Speaker 1: be like, this guy can't be in charge of people 116 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: for a while. Yeah, yeah, phil phill in the blanks, 117 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:40,680 Speaker 1: you know. Um So, in October of eighteen nine nine, 118 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: he saw his first combat action when he led three 119 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 1: Marines to conquer a town from the people who you 120 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,480 Speaker 1: know lived there, right, Like, this is a colonial, brutal 121 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:51,520 Speaker 1: colonial war. Were still colonial, got it, Like, he's he's 122 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: a he's the bad guy right there, We're we're the 123 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: bad guys in that war. Um. Yeah, and Butler fell 124 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: in love with battle and with the Marine Corps. He 125 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: just was very it was very good at fighting. Like 126 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,040 Speaker 1: he this is a really difficult, desperate situation, and he 127 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: comports himself well, he's good at leading men in combat. Um. 128 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:16,119 Speaker 1: And he becomes after fighting so enthralled with the Marine 129 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: Corps that he hires a tattoo artist to give him 130 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:21,480 Speaker 1: a full from his neck to his belly tattoo of 131 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:26,960 Speaker 1: the Marine Corps emblem like this. He's very into the Marines. Okay, 132 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,840 Speaker 1: loves him some being a marine. Yeah, you're getting a 133 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: full day. That's that's that's some being affleck, you know. 134 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: But I think, yeah, there's I know, people, including some 135 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 1: Marine bets, who will argue that the Marine Corps kind 136 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: of the cultist of the of the military branches. Um. Yeah. 137 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: And some might argue that's because they're the best at 138 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: what they do. Um. But Butler is definitely drinking the 139 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: fucking kool aid. Right. So he gets sent to China 140 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: next as part of the U. S. Dettachment sent over 141 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: during the Boxer Rebellion. He's wounded in calm At and 142 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: despite having a bullet like one of his men gets 143 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: hurt and he runs out to get him and get 144 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: shot in the leg. And despite having a bullet in 145 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: his leg, he drags multiple men to safety while actively 146 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: under fire and bleeding. Um and again the box reveillion 147 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:18,720 Speaker 1: another brutal colonial action. Um. But he's he comports himself 148 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: very well. Now, at that time, commissioned officers were unable 149 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: to receive the Medal of Honor, otherwise he probably would 150 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: have earned one. But he received some decorations for his 151 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: gallantry under fire. Smedley Butler would spend the next couple 152 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: of decades as he would grow into what was probably 153 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:37,920 Speaker 1: the best soldier in the American Empire. Like he is 154 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,680 Speaker 1: an exceptional imperial soldier. Um. He fights in the Banana Wars, 155 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:45,040 Speaker 1: which were a series of police actions and intervention in 156 00:08:45,080 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 1: the Caribbean and in Central America made on behalf of 157 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:51,920 Speaker 1: US business interests, killing people for He's he's killing people 158 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,200 Speaker 1: for banana companies. He's killing people for United you know. Uh. 159 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 1: He fights in Honduras, where he was constantly near death 160 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:01,760 Speaker 1: with fever and received the knickname Old Gimlet Eye because 161 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: his eye his every like he was, he looked terrifying. 162 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: He was this gaunt, scar filled monster with bloodshot eyes. 163 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 1: Um and like just feverish. Yeah, that's his old gimlet 164 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: eye is. Like he looks like a fucking a wraith. 165 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:20,079 Speaker 1: You know. I love this guy. He's except for his 166 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: except for his colonial colonial stuff. Yeah. Yeah, he's fighting 167 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,559 Speaker 1: on the wrong side, but he's objectively a badass. Um. So, 168 00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: Butler racks up promotion after promotion. He enforces US foreign 169 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:35,719 Speaker 1: policy in Nicaragua. He sent us a spy during the 170 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,760 Speaker 1: Mexican American War. He sent us a spy to Mexico City, 171 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:40,959 Speaker 1: or one of the wars that we fall with Mexico. 172 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 1: He sent us a spy to Mexico City to help 173 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: the United States gather information for the siege of Vera Cruz, 174 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:48,400 Speaker 1: which a lot of people don't know we were doing 175 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds. We like bombed Vera Cruz. Yeah, yeah, 176 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,199 Speaker 1: there's a good warren Zevon song about it. Butler was 177 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 1: one of nearly sixty American servicemen who received Medals of 178 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,599 Speaker 1: Honor for their service in Mexico because he fights in 179 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:04,280 Speaker 1: in Vera Cruz as well. Uh, and virtually all of 180 00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: those medals were complete bullshit, like they hand out sixty 181 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: medals of Honor for the Siege of Vera Cruz. And 182 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: they're doing it because Woodrow Wilson, the President, knows that, like, 183 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:15,439 Speaker 1: this is an ugly colonial war, and he wants to 184 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,080 Speaker 1: dress it up by making it look like by putting 185 00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: out a bunch of stories of heroism and stuff. So 186 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:22,800 Speaker 1: he hands out the military's highest honor like candy, and 187 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,280 Speaker 1: there's actually a bunch of It's a big controversy at 188 00:10:25,280 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: the time because a lot of veterans are like, you're 189 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:30,160 Speaker 1: devaluing the medal of honor by using it this way. Um. 190 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 1: And Smedley Butler receives one of these show medals of 191 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,719 Speaker 1: honor and he tries to return it, arguing that he'd 192 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:37,719 Speaker 1: done nothing to deserve it and he shouldn't get it, 193 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: but he's ordered by his superiors to keep the medal 194 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 1: and wear it on his uniform. Um. So you're seeing 195 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: he's starting he's starting to like realize, like that's kind 196 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,559 Speaker 1: of messed up. Why why I I don't deserve this? 197 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 1: Don't give this to me? Um? Like that, Yeah, he's 198 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:55,559 Speaker 1: he keeps me, He keeps me like imbalanced. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 199 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 1: you're gonna he's he's he's a growth story. Smedley. Smedley's 200 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: always Jane Jake, especially knowing because of the behind the 201 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:05,040 Speaker 1: police stuff, like I know where this guy lands where 202 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: I'm just like, why am I feeling any stupidly about you? Yeah, 203 00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:11,040 Speaker 1: it's it's that's that's not even quite Yeah, well we'll 204 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: talk about it. So in Haiti. In Haiti, Butler wins 205 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:16,760 Speaker 1: his second Medal of honor Um, and this was one 206 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: for actual fighting. His unit was sent into the country 207 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: when the president was murdered by a mob. Butler and 208 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: his troops repeatedly outnumbered by insurgents, and over a long 209 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,679 Speaker 1: campaign succeeded in breaking the insurgency and establishing order for 210 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:32,199 Speaker 1: the U S back dictatorship. Butler himself helped organize the 211 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: Haitian police, and in his own recollection, he and his 212 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 1: men hunted enemy rebels quote like pigs. Um. So again 213 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: this he is a brutal soldier of empire, like building 214 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:46,599 Speaker 1: the police force for a dictator. Um. You have to 215 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:51,079 Speaker 1: kind of look at but yeah, it's not great. Um, 216 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:54,679 Speaker 1: it's not great now. Smedley was promoted to brigadier general 217 00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,640 Speaker 1: at age thirty seven. He was in Remains one of 218 00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:00,160 Speaker 1: the most highly decorated soldiers in the entire history of 219 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,120 Speaker 1: the United States military. He's got two medals of honor. Um, 220 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 1: and he's he's like, you know, as a general rule, 221 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,560 Speaker 1: generals don't get medals of honor, certainly not two of them. Um, 222 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:11,839 Speaker 1: they don't tend to be fighting guys. But Smedley is 223 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: a fighting guy. He's not a stand back and give orders. 224 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: He'sould get stuck in kind of dude. Um. He desperately 225 00:12:17,160 --> 00:12:18,959 Speaker 1: wanted to fight in France during World War One, but 226 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: he was not assigned combat duty. This is probably because 227 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: by the later stage of his career he was seen 228 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: as politically unreliable due to the tendency he developed over 229 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:29,959 Speaker 1: the years to say exactly what he felt. But the 230 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 1: retired in late nineteen thirty one. He ran for Senate 231 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty two, supporting prohibition, but he was defeated, 232 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:38,520 Speaker 1: and in the late stage of his career while he's 233 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,680 Speaker 1: still in the Marines. Is when he's running the police 234 00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:44,959 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia during that brief tenure. Um. So this is 235 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,839 Speaker 1: you know, our story starts after he's he you know, 236 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:49,760 Speaker 1: he took what he learned in Haiti and tried to 237 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,200 Speaker 1: apply it to the Philadelphia Police. It didn't work out great, 238 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,439 Speaker 1: but he's kind of the father in a lot of ways, 239 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,839 Speaker 1: one of the fathers of militarizing the US police. UM. 240 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: And now he's he's retired. He tried to get into politics. 241 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,480 Speaker 1: He's not good at it. UM And by the early 242 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,440 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, Smedley Butler, who is probably the greatest soldier 243 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,920 Speaker 1: in any empire ever had um had started to change 244 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: his mind on some things. A lot of this had 245 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 1: to do with the Great Depression and a social movement 246 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:18,360 Speaker 1: that it spawned called the Bonus Army. The gist of 247 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:20,719 Speaker 1: it is that when the economy crashed, a bunch of 248 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 1: World War One veterans found themselves unemployed, in a lot 249 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:26,360 Speaker 1: of cases homeless and starving. These guys had been given 250 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:29,760 Speaker 1: what we're called service certificates in nineteen twenty four, which 251 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:32,320 Speaker 1: was the government saying we will pay you a bunch 252 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:34,719 Speaker 1: of money for what you did in the war, but 253 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: not yet because these were bonds, so they couldn't redeem 254 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,800 Speaker 1: them until nineteen forty five. Right. It was like imaginary money, 255 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:43,839 Speaker 1: imaginary money that like, in thirty years, this will be 256 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: enough money to maybe retire on but like not now, 257 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: but there's we're starving now, you know, like I can't 258 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:53,200 Speaker 1: wait another fifty years. Um. So obviously in nineteen doesn't 259 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: seemed like a good deal. But after two years of 260 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:58,120 Speaker 1: economic collapse, a lot of people just couldn't wait anymore. Uh. 261 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:00,319 Speaker 1: And in June of nineteen thirty two, more than forty 262 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: veterans protested in Washington, d c UH. They called themselves 263 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: the Bonus Expeditionary Force or the Bonus Army, and they 264 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,640 Speaker 1: advocated for Congress to pass an immediate soldiers bonus for 265 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:14,560 Speaker 1: serving in World War One. Now again, we're all living 266 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:16,880 Speaker 1: through our own version of of something similar. So you 267 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:19,880 Speaker 1: know what comes next. Congress adjourned without actually doing anything. 268 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: Here we go. This pisses the Bonus Army off, and 269 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: they started getting loud and unruly, so the shot two 270 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: of them, which eventually provoked a riot. The whole massive 271 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: men set up this enormous camp in order to hold 272 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:35,080 Speaker 1: up and wait for Congress to do something. Right, they like, 273 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 1: build a camp and they're like, we're not leaving until 274 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: you give us some fucking money. Um. The bill makes 275 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: its way into Congress, but it gets defeated Congress based 276 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: on some powerful financial interests decides it's too expensive to 277 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: pay these veterans UM, so they lose. They don't get 278 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: their bonus. But the camp doesn't disperse. Um. And when 279 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 1: the camp doesn't disperse, the Hoover administration announces that it's 280 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,520 Speaker 1: sending in the army to evict the soldiers. Now, it 281 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:01,880 Speaker 1: was at this point that General Smedley Butler visited the camp. Um. 282 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:03,760 Speaker 1: He told the soldiers that he thought they were well 283 00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: within their rights to lobby Congress corporations can why can't 284 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:10,040 Speaker 1: Why can't people like us? You know? Um. He spent 285 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: the night there with the men, He had breakfast with them. 286 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:14,200 Speaker 1: He told them they were good soldiers, and he was 287 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: proud of them. Um. And a week or so later 288 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: he leaves. In a week or so later, America's most 289 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 1: overrated General Douglas MacArthur disperses the crowd with a mix 290 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 1: of men on horseback and poison gas um. And this 291 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:31,320 Speaker 1: radicalizes Butler. Um. Initially he just becomes very anti Herbert 292 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:34,440 Speaker 1: Hoover and and you know, advocates for Hoover to get 293 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:36,680 Speaker 1: his ass kicked in the election that year. And Hoover 294 00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 1: does lose reelection that year. It turned out to maybe 295 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:43,320 Speaker 1: be a bad idea. I can't turn on the people. 296 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 1: Broom no, no. And he's a ship president in general. 297 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: Um So, obviously Fdr Franklin Delano Rose about wins wins 298 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,400 Speaker 1: the election. That year he becomes the president, he promises 299 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: Americans a new Deal, which wealthy capitalists saw as a 300 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: clear sign that Roosevelt was about to open the door 301 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 1: to Soviet commune is him and take all of their money. 302 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:08,000 Speaker 1: Why are you also scared all the time? Man? We're 303 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: gonna talk about that. There's an interesting story there. Um. So. 304 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:13,160 Speaker 1: One of the men who get scared by the New 305 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 1: Deal is a guy named Robert Sterling Clark, and he's 306 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: the heir to the singer sewing machine for fortune. Um. 307 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 1: Everybody's seen a singer sewing machine. That's the kind of 308 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,840 Speaker 1: money this guy has, you know. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, 309 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,840 Speaker 1: And we're talking singer sewing machines in the thirties when 310 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: everybody uses them all the time. Actually, every house had it. 311 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000 Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's not a hobby. It's the only way 312 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: you have pants. Um. Another guy who got scared was 313 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: a Wall Street financier named Grayson M. P. Murphy, and 314 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:47,200 Speaker 1: another was Prescott Bush, the father of President George H. W. Bush. 315 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: And who is it that? Yeah, yeah, he he really 316 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: doesn't like the New Deal. Um. And Prescott Bush is 317 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: an investment banker on Wall Street at the time. Um. Okay, yeah, 318 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: So these three are the best own members of what 319 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: came to be called the Business plot. And we'll talk 320 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:05,679 Speaker 1: about them all a bit more. But before we get 321 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,600 Speaker 1: into their plan to overthrow the United States government and 322 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: institute a fascist state, I should probably make it clear 323 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,159 Speaker 1: that a lot of rich Americans in the nineteen thirties 324 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,520 Speaker 1: wanted to at least see FDR thrown out on his 325 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 1: ask for suggesting that rich people be taxed to stop 326 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,600 Speaker 1: poor people from dying in the street. Again, not surprising 327 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 1: to anyone that it's not It wasn't new then. Yes, Um, 328 00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:31,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna read of I found a very good summary 329 00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:34,439 Speaker 1: of of kind of this situation and the American culture 330 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:37,080 Speaker 1: at the time from a college thesis by Bradley Galka 331 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:39,320 Speaker 1: of the University of Albany that I really recommend reading. 332 00:17:39,359 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: He does a great job of putting this all together. Quote. 333 00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:46,000 Speaker 1: William Manchester, in his book The Glory in the Dream 334 00:17:46,119 --> 00:17:48,680 Speaker 1: describes the fear which upper class Americans had of a 335 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: lower class revolt in the months before Roosevelt's inauguration. Among 336 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 1: the propertied classes, he writes, the distinction between the poor 337 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 1: wanting bread and a full on communist revolutionary was often 338 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:01,960 Speaker 1: non existent. The rich would have to take their security 339 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,600 Speaker 1: into their own hands. If the government could not keep order, 340 00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:07,200 Speaker 1: each man must look to his own Businessmen in a 341 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:10,240 Speaker 1: number of cities formed committees to cope with nameless terrors, 342 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: should railroad and telephone lines be cut and surrounding highways blocked, 343 00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:18,200 Speaker 1: Candles and canned goods were stockpiled. A Hollywood director carried 344 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,159 Speaker 1: with him a wardrobe of old clothes so that he 345 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: could disappear into the crowd on a moment's notice. In 346 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: New York, hotels discovered that wealthy guests, who usually least 347 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: suits for the winter, were holding up in their country homes. 348 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:32,960 Speaker 1: Some had mounted machine guns on their roofs. Manchester goes 349 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:34,960 Speaker 1: on to say that the paranoid elites were not really 350 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: so paranoid. The evidence strongly suggests. He writes that had 351 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:41,520 Speaker 1: Roosevelt in fact been another Hoover, the United States would 352 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,280 Speaker 1: have followed seven Latin American countries whose governments had been 353 00:18:44,359 --> 00:18:48,200 Speaker 1: overthrown by depression victims. So there is revolution in the air, 354 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: and it scares the funk out of these people their 355 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: Bolton machine guns to their country houses, you know. Um. 356 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: So the fears of this particular group of rich white 357 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: dudes were further confirmed by the fact that twing writers 358 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:03,359 Speaker 1: in intellectuals were louder than ever in their anticipation of 359 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: a coming communist revolution. Things were, from the outside, at least, 360 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: looking pretty good in Soviet Russia compared to at least 361 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,479 Speaker 1: the reality that a lot of Americans knew. In nineteen 362 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: thirty two, the socialist presidential candidate we used to have 363 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 1: socialist presidential candidates tripled his share of the vote from 364 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,560 Speaker 1: the nine election. Um. And uh yes, so socialism is 365 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: actually doing starting to do pretty well in American politics. 366 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:32,640 Speaker 1: Socialism was mainstream in a way that seems impossible now. 367 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,199 Speaker 1: One example of how mainstream it was, Governor Floyd Olson 368 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,439 Speaker 1: of Minnesota announced that he would not take any recruit 369 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,639 Speaker 1: for the National Guard who quote doesn't carry a red card, 370 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 1: because he said, Minnesota is a left wing state, like 371 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: communists in the army. I'm the governor of Minnesota. What 372 00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: world is this? Okay, yeah, so yeah, obviously, if you've 373 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:03,280 Speaker 1: got a left wing governor of an entire state saying 374 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:06,199 Speaker 1: Minnesota is socialist and we're raising an army, a lot 375 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: of capitalists are going to get freaked out. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. 376 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:17,240 Speaker 1: The right wing governor of Kansas, Alf Landon declared that quote, 377 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,560 Speaker 1: the iron hand of a national dictator is in preference 378 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 1: to a paralytic stroke. So the right is saying we 379 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: need a dictator, and the left is saying we need 380 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,920 Speaker 1: an army. Um. You might recognize this as kind of 381 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:32,160 Speaker 1: identical in rhetoric to both what we were see hearing 382 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:34,879 Speaker 1: in Portugal and Spain before those countries had Couz Right 383 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 1: Portugal saying like an iron chancellor. Yeah, he's saying maybe 384 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: the iron hand of a dictator, you know, yeah, same rhetoric. 385 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:45,920 Speaker 1: Republicans were surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, willing to 386 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: endorse outright fascism over socialism. Senator David Reid of Pennsylvania, 387 00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:54,680 Speaker 1: a Republican, stated, if this country ever needed a Mussolini, 388 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: it needs one. Now wait wait, wait you let yeah 389 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: he let that come out of his mouth. Okay, okay, 390 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 1: you are not you are not thinking, you're not thinking 391 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,040 Speaker 1: a long game, big homie. Okay, long game. Things turn 392 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: out kind of upside down for Mussolini. But that's a 393 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:16,280 Speaker 1: story for another day. So in saying this, Senator Reid 394 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,720 Speaker 1: was tapping into what was at that point more or 395 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 1: less an American meme, a surprising love of Mussolini. Benito 396 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:27,000 Speaker 1: Mussolini was huge in America in this period. This is 397 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: like the twenties and thirties. People did not know that. 398 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:32,680 Speaker 1: So I did not know because I spent so you know, 399 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,840 Speaker 1: obviously during this time, I'm I'm in Harlem. Yeah, my 400 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,639 Speaker 1: whole history is what's happening with black people right now? 401 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So I never even thought 402 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:46,440 Speaker 1: about my lord, like there was Mussolini standing yeah, okay, yeah, 403 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:49,320 Speaker 1: that's what's happening with white people at the time. They're 404 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:55,159 Speaker 1: getting real Mussolini jazz. You know, here have been jazz. 405 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:58,439 Speaker 1: You talk about Mussolini kind of fly man, that guy, 406 00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:03,879 Speaker 1: look the way he wears boots. So historian John P. 407 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:07,119 Speaker 1: Diggins argues that a large number of American journalists in 408 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 1: the twenties and thirties supported Italy's fascist regime from the 409 00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 1: March on Rome out up to the outbreak of Italy's 410 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,680 Speaker 1: invasion at the Ethiopia in nine five. That's kind of 411 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:20,440 Speaker 1: what like stops the Mussolini uh honeymoon period when he 412 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,520 Speaker 1: gasses a bunch of people to death. Um, But up 413 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,520 Speaker 1: until that point, he's really big. Diggins writes that a 414 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: large number of American journalists quote succumbed to fascist propaganda 415 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,800 Speaker 1: and if you actually prop prostituted themselves in the pay 416 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: of the Italian government. So Mussolini spends a lot of money, um, 417 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:42,159 Speaker 1: trying to push articles and think pieces that would give 418 00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:45,359 Speaker 1: fascism a positive reputation in the United States. He's bribing 419 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: reporters and editors to write articles that make fascism seem 420 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: good now. Historian Jeanne mcnowne uh notes that he Mussolini 421 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: spent particular effort influencing quote the financiers who needed to 422 00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,840 Speaker 1: be able to count on favorable future conditions for the 423 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:04,200 Speaker 1: European investments. Mussolini's favorite target and his best friends in 424 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: the United States were JP Morgan and his family. You 425 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: go dropping his names, he's out of nowhere names. We're like, wait, 426 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,800 Speaker 1: that guy, Like the story just turned so weird that 427 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:24,359 Speaker 1: JP Morgan, JP Morgan loved fascism turns out wild. This 428 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: is when I wish I had one of those buttons 429 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:31,600 Speaker 1: so I could do that. Yeah. Now, another big Mussolini 430 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 1: fan and his primary propaganda distributor was the press syndicate 431 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:40,399 Speaker 1: run by William Randolph Hurst, Um also big fan of fascism. 432 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,080 Speaker 1: So we'll talk a little bit more about Hurst in 433 00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:45,240 Speaker 1: a bit, But I want to note that there were 434 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,360 Speaker 1: also some very good reporters at the time who saw 435 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:49,560 Speaker 1: what was happening, what Mussolini was doing, and who spoke 436 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 1: out against it elucidly improperly. The Chicago Tribunes George Selds 437 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,760 Speaker 1: was probably one of the best journalists for this. He 438 00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:00,920 Speaker 1: wrote quote far away Fascism has been attacked, exposed, and 439 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,199 Speaker 1: denounced by the same publications which for years ran articles 440 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,359 Speaker 1: lauding Mussolini and his notable backers in all lands and 441 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,960 Speaker 1: the Hurst Newspapers, which published from nineteen thirty four to 442 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,720 Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor dozens of signed propaganda articles by Dr Gebel's 443 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: Gearing and other Nazis now call them names, but no 444 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,880 Speaker 1: publication which takes money from certain big business elements will 445 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,240 Speaker 1: dare name the native or nearby fascists in many instances 446 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,480 Speaker 1: the publications themselves are part of our own fascism, and 447 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: that selves is kind of recognizing. And it was one 448 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:32,800 Speaker 1: of the few guys to be like, really try to 449 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 1: drum home, drive them openly. And this he wrote this 450 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,440 Speaker 1: obviously after World War two started. It like, oh, yeah, 451 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,000 Speaker 1: as soon as we're war, y'all are against Mussolini and Hitler. 452 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:44,040 Speaker 1: But you let them publish fucking articles before you, before 453 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:49,280 Speaker 1: this ship happened. Come on and you ignore. Yeah. Cels 454 00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: argued that fascism, American fascism, was not just limited to 455 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,440 Speaker 1: lunatic fringes of society, but was influential in major economic, social, 456 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 1: and political circles. He asserted that there were communists in 457 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,440 Speaker 1: the United States who quote organized big business in a 458 00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 1: movement against labor, signed a pact with Nazi agents for 459 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,399 Speaker 1: political and economic penetration of the US, founded a million 460 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,479 Speaker 1: dollar a year propaganda outfit to corrupt the press, radio schools, 461 00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: and churches, and delayed the winning of the war through 462 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:17,800 Speaker 1: the acts of dollar a year men looking out for 463 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 1: present profits and future monopoly rather than for the quick 464 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:24,359 Speaker 1: defeat of fascism. And there's a lot of these guys, 465 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,600 Speaker 1: and like, when you're looking at American corporations who directly 466 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: with their money supported fascism and funded fascist propaganda. You're 467 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:36,640 Speaker 1: talking General Motors, you're talking the DuPont Corporation, and you're 468 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: talking Reader's Digest who were wig into fascism. God, dog man, 469 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, there's no ending, bro, there's just no Wow. 470 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,760 Speaker 1: We don't talk about the time Readers Digest was whole 471 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:57,680 Speaker 1: hog for Mussolini. Yeah, like again, yeah, that's number three 472 00:25:57,960 --> 00:25:59,919 Speaker 1: the name you never thought you'd get when a law 473 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,159 Speaker 1: time you said the will you because you when the 474 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: last time any of y'all said the word Reader's dig In. 475 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:09,879 Speaker 1: I've been published in them and I don't think about them. Yes, Roberts, 476 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: what that's funny? Yeah? But you know who won't fund 477 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:21,080 Speaker 1: a fascist propaganda campaign to convince financiers that Benito Mussolini 478 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: has the right idea? Pick me, pick me, pick me. 479 00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: I know the answer to the answer, and the answer 480 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,680 Speaker 1: who who is it? Who won't do that? Sophie, the 481 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:35,320 Speaker 1: Fine Products and Services that sponsor this podcast nailed it. Nay. Hi, 482 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:37,840 Speaker 1: I'm Robert laund and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're the 483 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,600 Speaker 1: hosts of the science podcast Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 484 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 1: where every week we get to explore some of the 485 00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: weirdest questions in the universe, like if sci fi teleportation 486 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,720 Speaker 1: was possible, how would it square with the multitudes of 487 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,080 Speaker 1: organisms that inhabit our human bodies? Can we find evidence 488 00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:57,280 Speaker 1: of emotions in animals like bees, ants, and crayfish? How 489 00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:02,200 Speaker 1: would an interplanetary civilization function just free will exist? Stuff 490 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind examines neurological quandaries, cosmic mysteries, evolutionary marvels, 491 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,040 Speaker 1: and the wonders of techno history. Basically, this show is 492 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,480 Speaker 1: the altar where we worship the weirdness of reality. If 493 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,000 Speaker 1: anybody ever told you you ask the weirdest questions, it 494 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: is time to come join us in the place where 495 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:23,479 Speaker 1: you belong. The Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast new 496 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 1: episodes publish every Tuesday and Thursday, with bonus episodes on Saturdays. 497 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:29,600 Speaker 1: Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the I 498 00:27:29,760 --> 00:27:33,439 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 499 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:37,919 Speaker 1: Look for your children's eyes to see the true magic 500 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,440 Speaker 1: of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You 501 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,600 Speaker 1: look and see a tree, they see the wrinkled face 502 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They 503 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,159 Speaker 1: see treasure and pebbles, They see a windy path that 504 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:55,600 Speaker 1: could lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide. 505 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:59,040 Speaker 1: Is this fascinating world? Find a forest near you and 506 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,159 Speaker 1: start exploring. Get discovered the forest dot Org. Brought to 507 00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:05,359 Speaker 1: you by the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. Hello, 508 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:07,720 Speaker 1: and welcome to our show. I'm Zoe de Chanelle and 509 00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:09,920 Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be joined by my friends and 510 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,120 Speaker 1: cast mates Hannah Simone and Lamar and Morris to recap 511 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,719 Speaker 1: our hit television series New Girl. Join us every Monday 512 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: on the Welcome to Our Show podcast, where we'll share 513 00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,040 Speaker 1: behind the scenes stories of your favorite New Girl episodes, 514 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: revealed the truth behind the legendary game True American, and 515 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 1: discuss how this show got made with the writers, guest stars, 516 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: and directors who made the show so special. Fans have 517 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,000 Speaker 1: been begging us to do a New Girl recap for years, 518 00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:36,920 Speaker 1: and we finally made a podcast where we answer all 519 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 1: your burning questions like is there really a bear? In 520 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,840 Speaker 1: every episode of New Girl? Plus each week you'll hear 521 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,280 Speaker 1: hilarious stories like this at the end when he says, 522 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:49,640 Speaker 1: you got some schmid on your face. I feel like 523 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:52,280 Speaker 1: I pitched that joke. I believe that I feel like 524 00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 1: I did. I'm not on a thousand percent I want 525 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,480 Speaker 1: to say that was I tossed that one out. Listen 526 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,480 Speaker 1: to the Welcome to Our Show podcast on the I 527 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,520 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app book podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. 528 00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:09,360 Speaker 1: We're back and God Almighty, I know that JP Morgan 529 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:12,720 Speaker 1: the bank does adver throw in random adds sometimes, and 530 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,160 Speaker 1: I kind of hope one came in in between as 531 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:24,200 Speaker 1: we're talking about incredible. Uh, it's very funny, um, very funny. 532 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:26,959 Speaker 1: So this is all all of this stuff that we're 533 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,000 Speaker 1: talking about, is what's cooking off in the background when 534 00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:31,280 Speaker 1: a funkload of rich guys and we don't know all 535 00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: of the folks involved or who they were. We'll talk 536 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 1: about why near the end of this. But obviously some 537 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 1: of them are JP Morgan, like um, William Randolph Hurst 538 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:42,920 Speaker 1: is is almost certainly a part of it. There's a 539 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:44,960 Speaker 1: good chance Henry Ford was, but we don't know exactly 540 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: who was involved. We know some of the people though, 541 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,680 Speaker 1: including George H. W. Bush's dad. So at any rate, 542 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 1: this cabal of financiers and rich guys pick a couple 543 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: of patsy's to do the grunt work because they decide, okay, 544 00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,479 Speaker 1: you know, the very wealthiest men are like, we need 545 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: to find a way to take power, and we need 546 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 1: to do it stealthily because Americans won't stand for an 547 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: open fascist coup. Um, so we're going to need They 548 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 1: pick a couple of guys to kind of do the 549 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: grunt work of actually organizing this fascist coup. And the 550 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: dudes they pick are Gerald C. McGuire and Bob Doyle, um. 551 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 1: And they're these guys are bond salesman, right, their stock 552 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:28,040 Speaker 1: traders essentially, um. And they're both veterans imaginary money again, yeah, 553 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: their imaginary money guys. Uh. And they're both members of 554 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: the American Legion, which had been established to support veterans 555 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,320 Speaker 1: rights and activities. And they're both vets, you know, um, 556 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:39,280 Speaker 1: which is not you know a lot of people are vets. 557 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,880 Speaker 1: World War One's just ended. So these guys, like these 558 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,479 Speaker 1: rich dudes, some of whom we had also been veterans, UM, 559 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,880 Speaker 1: had watched what had happened with the Bonus Army in 560 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,680 Speaker 1: d C. They'd seen tens of thousands of veterans march 561 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,600 Speaker 1: on Washington, UM And obviously they hadn't supported those guys 562 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:56,960 Speaker 1: getting any money because it would have meant taxing rich people. 563 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,400 Speaker 1: But they thought there was potential and having tens of 564 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,720 Speaker 1: thousands of combat hardened men march on the capitol, and 565 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: they basically started saying to themselves, what if we could 566 00:31:05,640 --> 00:31:08,080 Speaker 1: harness that kind of force and put it under the 567 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,880 Speaker 1: control of a guy that we control and they trust, 568 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:16,800 Speaker 1: maybe we could overthrow the government. WHOA And Americans wouldn't 569 00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: be because they'd say, oh, these are our vets, you know, 570 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,240 Speaker 1: they're they're coming into fix things, you know. Yeah, well there, 571 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,440 Speaker 1: you know, we support our troops exactly. It's a good idea, 572 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,000 Speaker 1: you know, you get to overthrow. So obviously they're looking 573 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:30,960 Speaker 1: at who can we who can we put in control 574 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,600 Speaker 1: of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of veterans 575 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:35,920 Speaker 1: who will be easy for us to control, but also 576 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,320 Speaker 1: who everyone respects and loves, and who no one's going 577 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 1: to accuse of any ulterior motives. Oh my god, who 578 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:43,600 Speaker 1: is it? While it's the perfect soldier of empire, the 579 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:50,480 Speaker 1: greatest imperial warrior whoever existed? Retired General Smedley Butler. They're like, 580 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 1: this is the guy who can do it. And he 581 00:31:52,840 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: and they look, look at all of these all of 582 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:58,200 Speaker 1: these wars that we profited from that we got America 583 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,800 Speaker 1: into to make money. He fought it and ran things 584 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: like he he's already done this for us. He's perfect, 585 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:07,520 Speaker 1: you know damn Yeah. So I'm gonna quote a right 586 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:10,800 Speaker 1: up by Artia Publishing for what happens next. Yeah, yeah, 587 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:15,200 Speaker 1: that's yeah, Like he's he's obviously, he's who you go with. Quote. 588 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,320 Speaker 1: During their first meeting with Butler, McGuire and Doyle asked 589 00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:21,160 Speaker 1: the Major General to speak at a Legion convention in Chicago, 590 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:23,960 Speaker 1: claiming they wanted to point out the various problems with 591 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: the legion's leadership. But there was at first open to 592 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: this idea, knowing that the Legion had several administrative issues 593 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,680 Speaker 1: that ultimately compromised veteran benefits. So they're like, hey, the 594 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,080 Speaker 1: Legions having a vote in convention to like vote on 595 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,720 Speaker 1: it's its leaders. You know, we are also vets, and 596 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: like we you know, obviously you're you're the guy we 597 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: respect the most. Would you give a speech about some 598 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: of the problems our organization is happening? And He's like, sure, 599 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: you know, it seems like a reasonable thing to do. 600 00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: He's always going to try to help out soldiers when 601 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: he can. Um. But then he as he kind of 602 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,200 Speaker 1: looks through the speech that they've written, he realizes that 603 00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 1: it says almost nothing about the American Legion leadership and 604 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:02,080 Speaker 1: is instead entirely about the gold standard and about how 605 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: the government needs to go back to the gold standard. Yo. 606 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:10,560 Speaker 1: I had the clapper that because I'm like, that is 607 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,800 Speaker 1: a juke. That is a really good jun Yeah, that's 608 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 1: that's that's a zag and Smedley. Smedley's like, wait a second, 609 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:21,600 Speaker 1: what I thought you wanted me to help get the 610 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,080 Speaker 1: American Legion working better? Why the fund? Do I care 611 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 1: about the gold standards? I care about that? Yeah? Yeah. Um. 612 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,600 Speaker 1: So they were like basically the what was that The 613 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:34,520 Speaker 1: actual case here is that all of these bankers were 614 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,280 Speaker 1: scared that they had gold back loans from the government 615 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:38,880 Speaker 1: that weren't going to be paid back in full by 616 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: the president. Um. And you know, they also kind of 617 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:44,760 Speaker 1: wanted to get Butler used to working for them as 618 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 1: their agents and see if they could like use them further. 619 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:49,320 Speaker 1: It's a couple of things going on here. That is 620 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:53,959 Speaker 1: textbook rich guy man, very textbook richly, like just right 621 00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,440 Speaker 1: on the nose. And what they don't realize about Butler 622 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 1: is that he's not the perfect imperial so drew anymore. 623 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,920 Speaker 1: By this point, he's he's become a socialist um and 624 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,040 Speaker 1: he doesn't bite. Uh. He actually thought McGuire might be 625 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,600 Speaker 1: mentally ill because what the guy was suggesting seems so 626 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:14,799 Speaker 1: strange to him. And Butler's impression of McGuire didn't change 627 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,520 Speaker 1: over the next few months, because the stockbroker keeps approaching 628 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,320 Speaker 1: the old general with new requests to address the American 629 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:26,520 Speaker 1: Legion for really incoherent reads what seems to Butler incoherent reasons, okay, 630 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: and so in August of nineteen thirty three, Butler and 631 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 1: McGuire meet again, and by this point Butler had started 632 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,440 Speaker 1: to realize that McGuire was working for someone. He starts 633 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 1: to piece together there's a through line for all these 634 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:39,960 Speaker 1: weird things he's asking me to do. There's got to 635 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: be someone pulling the strings behind this um. Now, because 636 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,959 Speaker 1: McGuire was the kind of guy who only valued money, 637 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,120 Speaker 1: he saw Butler's reticence and decided that like, oh, he's 638 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:51,439 Speaker 1: not suspicious because I'm asking him to do weird things. 639 00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,279 Speaker 1: He wants to know that I have backing, So he 640 00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 1: basically flashes a huge pile of cash, and Butler's so 641 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:00,719 Speaker 1: so rich guy only thinks that every body thinks like 642 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: rich guys. Yeah. Butler's like, it's really weird that you 643 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:06,880 Speaker 1: keep asking me to make all of these bizarre political 644 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,000 Speaker 1: addresses to the American Legion. And McGuire's like, hey, I 645 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:13,800 Speaker 1: got a hundred grand great, Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, but 646 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:16,720 Speaker 1: what are you talking about though? Yeah? And this actually 647 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,680 Speaker 1: makes Butler more suspicious because in his mind, no honest 648 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 1: man has access to a hundred thousand dollars. Keep it real, 649 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:27,920 Speaker 1: but like, I'm not supposed to like you, bro, But like, day, 650 00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:30,520 Speaker 1: that's a great answer. Was like what what? Well, he's 651 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,160 Speaker 1: changed at this point, but there's he goes through a 652 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: very satisfying evolution. McGuire admits that he has a backer. 653 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,680 Speaker 1: He says like, yeah, I work as a bond salesman 654 00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,400 Speaker 1: for Grayson Murphy, who's a wealthy Wall Street financier who 655 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,680 Speaker 1: had also been a colonel during World War One, but 656 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:48,840 Speaker 1: not like a real like his job had been coordinating 657 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:50,640 Speaker 1: with the Red Cross. He got a rich guy job 658 00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:53,840 Speaker 1: in the army for the war. You know. Um, So 659 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,960 Speaker 1: McGuire had paid a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars 660 00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,400 Speaker 1: to underwrite the start of the American Legion because it 661 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: starts after World War One, and he thought of it 662 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:05,760 Speaker 1: as as an investment, right, Like Murphy's putting the American 663 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,080 Speaker 1: Legion together because he has a really rich guy is like, 664 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,440 Speaker 1: it's probably a good idea to have an organization of 665 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: combat veterans who I can kind of direct, right, Yeah, 666 00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: there's a plot going on here. Yeah. Butler and McGuire 667 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,200 Speaker 1: start talking about McGuire's backers, and McGuire admits to Butler 668 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,359 Speaker 1: that his boss, Grayson, is one of nine Richmond who 669 00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: were trying to pay for a national convention of the 670 00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,880 Speaker 1: American Legion in d C. Now, by this point, Smedley 671 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,520 Speaker 1: Butler knew something very crooked was going on, and Bradley 672 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,920 Speaker 1: Galka writes quote Butler did not commit to anything, but 673 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:40,399 Speaker 1: rather waited and listen to what McGuire had to say. 674 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: The two met at the beginning of September. When asked 675 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:44,600 Speaker 1: if he had begun recruiting men to go to the 676 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,600 Speaker 1: national convention, Butler said no. He told McGuire that he 677 00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,320 Speaker 1: would not even consider cooperating unless he was allowed to 678 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:52,319 Speaker 1: meet with one of the principal backers of the plot. 679 00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:54,719 Speaker 1: McGuire promised to set up a meeting as soon as 680 00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,640 Speaker 1: was possible. Treated his word, McGuire arranged for Butler to 681 00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: meet with one of the principles the following week. Man 682 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,560 Speaker 1: was actually an acquaintance of the general. His name was 683 00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 1: Robert Sterling Clark, known to Butler as the Millionaire Lieutenant 684 00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:08,760 Speaker 1: This is the Singer Guy. Clark had been a junior 685 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,640 Speaker 1: officer under Butler's command in China during the Boxer Rebellion. 686 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,600 Speaker 1: According to Butler, Clark had been a batty sort of 687 00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:19,040 Speaker 1: queer fellow who did all sorts of extravagant things. Him 688 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,719 Speaker 1: a batty bad like like as in like how we 689 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,600 Speaker 1: say that girls a battye or like as in battye 690 00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: b a t t y like this this he's this, 691 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: you know. There he goes to war with this guy, 692 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,319 Speaker 1: and everyone knows this kid as a millionaire and he's weird, right, 693 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: like he's a rich kid, you know. He's yeah, like wait, 694 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:41,640 Speaker 1: what do you mean by a batty? And I was like, wait, 695 00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 1: you call him a batty and then saying, well he 696 00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:46,160 Speaker 1: does queer stuff like you just called him a batty, 697 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,439 Speaker 1: like bro, Like just okay, now I get it. Yeah 698 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:55,759 Speaker 1: you know, so yeah, that's clarify that so so so 699 00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:57,800 Speaker 1: so wait so it makes sure I'm following along. So 700 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:02,880 Speaker 1: at this point, Smedley's antennas are all like his spidy 701 00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:06,960 Speaker 1: in angling all over the place like some now right 702 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,759 Speaker 1: yeah something yeah. And then he's like, and I don't 703 00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:13,000 Speaker 1: trust you rich kids like y'all never see no combat. 704 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: You ain't no blood on your hands, man, you I 705 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:16,799 Speaker 1: you stayed on the porch the whole time. You wasn't 706 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 1: running with the wild dog. So so help me understand. 707 00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:22,560 Speaker 1: And then he goes and he meets what he's rich dude. 708 00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:25,799 Speaker 1: He's like, I remember this kid, Yeah, this fucking kid. 709 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,480 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And he's also he's also, this is kind 710 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,200 Speaker 1: of the guy that Smedley's a very intelligent man. He 711 00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:34,000 Speaker 1: thinks something is fishy and he's like, I want to 712 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:35,520 Speaker 1: go up the food chain. I want to follow the 713 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:36,879 Speaker 1: money up and I want to talk to you. I'm 714 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,359 Speaker 1: gonna talk to the guy. Give any money, you know. Um. 715 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:44,640 Speaker 1: So the General meets with Clark, this millionaire air uh. 716 00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,319 Speaker 1: And Clark's first question was whether or not Butler had 717 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: read the speech that that Clark had helped right for him, 718 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: and Butler was like, he says, yes, but it looks 719 00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:54,719 Speaker 1: as if it were a big business speech. There's something 720 00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:58,360 Speaker 1: funny about that speech. Mr Clark. Now, once it was 721 00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,440 Speaker 1: clear that Butler knew he was being used for some purpose, 722 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:03,640 Speaker 1: even though he wasn't sure what that purpose was, Clark 723 00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:06,360 Speaker 1: drops the act. So Butler says that, and Clark's like, Okay, 724 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:08,680 Speaker 1: you know something's going on. So I'm just gonna tell 725 00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:11,480 Speaker 1: you the truth. And he tells Butler this quote. You 726 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,440 Speaker 1: understand just how we are fixed. I have got thirty 727 00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,080 Speaker 1: million dollars. I do not want to lose it. I 728 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,279 Speaker 1: am willing to spend half of the thirty million to 729 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,520 Speaker 1: save the other half. If you go out and make 730 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: this speech in Chicago, I am certain that they will 731 00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,319 Speaker 1: adopt the resolution, and that will be one step towards 732 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,719 Speaker 1: the return of gold. To have the soldiers stand up 733 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:30,560 Speaker 1: for it. We can get the soldiers to go out 734 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:33,400 Speaker 1: in great bodies to stand up for it. And obviously 735 00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: gold isn't the end goal here, but that's how they 736 00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,080 Speaker 1: want to like start things that's they're starting it. Yeah, 737 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:40,719 Speaker 1: and and this guy admits like, look, I I am 738 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:42,799 Speaker 1: trying to use you to keep my money, and I'm 739 00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:44,560 Speaker 1: willing to spend half of my money to keep the 740 00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:46,920 Speaker 1: other half. You know, That's what's important to me, is 741 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:51,160 Speaker 1: continuing to be a rich man. Yeah. Now in uh, 742 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,719 Speaker 1: there's there's some sort of like a kind of a 743 00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:59,040 Speaker 1: dark and twisted but kind of good financial advice in that, 744 00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:03,000 Speaker 1: like I'll spend half of this if it's gonna make 745 00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:06,759 Speaker 1: my other half double. Yeah. It's like and he said, 746 00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,560 Speaker 1: he's also saying like I'm I'm afraid that the decisions 747 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:15,480 Speaker 1: being made by this government will reduce my class. All. Yeah, yeah, 748 00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:18,720 Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. Like this is like dark, like okay, 749 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:20,879 Speaker 1: this is this is why they're wealthy. It's like, well, 750 00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 1: I'm not just sitting on this stuff and I'm not 751 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 1: willing to burn it all, but I'll spend on what's 752 00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:30,000 Speaker 1: gonna protect the other half and increased the other half. 753 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:32,839 Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, it's how rich guys think, 754 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:36,480 Speaker 1: you know, it's how rich guys think. This enrages Butler 755 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:38,680 Speaker 1: when when he said, like Butler is kind of barely 756 00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:41,440 Speaker 1: able to keep himself from just like flipping out at 757 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:44,920 Speaker 1: this guy. Because Butler, he had been obviously an imperial soldier, 758 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,080 Speaker 1: but his entire career, his focus, the thing that kept 759 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:50,319 Speaker 1: him going was the well being of the soldiers under 760 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:52,800 Speaker 1: his command. Right, he had risked his life repeatedly and 761 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,960 Speaker 1: been wounded to protect them in under his command. And 762 00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:59,120 Speaker 1: this rich guy is saying, I want to use your 763 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,400 Speaker 1: fellow soldiers for my own to keep my money, and 764 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,480 Speaker 1: Butler's like, fuck that and fuck you, like you know, 765 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,839 Speaker 1: at this point, yeah, we've done. Yeah. Now, at this point, 766 00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:11,719 Speaker 1: Smedley didn't quite realize that his entire career up to 767 00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,880 Speaker 1: that point had been doing the same thing in other countries, Right, 768 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,440 Speaker 1: had been like risking the lives of his men to 769 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:20,520 Speaker 1: protect the money of rich people. He doesn't quite get 770 00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:24,800 Speaker 1: that yet, but he sees that what he he understands 771 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:27,640 Speaker 1: what this guy is trying to do now, right, Um, 772 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,839 Speaker 1: So he gets angry and he tells the millionaire how 773 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,279 Speaker 1: he feels, I took an oath to sustain democracy and 774 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:35,439 Speaker 1: that is what I'm going to do and nothing else. 775 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,000 Speaker 1: I Am not going to get these soldiers marching around 776 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:40,359 Speaker 1: and stirred up over the gold standard. What the hell 777 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:44,200 Speaker 1: does a soldier know about the gold standard? Um damn 778 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:47,960 Speaker 1: different one. It's direct, man, when you see it like 779 00:41:48,239 --> 00:41:51,680 Speaker 1: rather than like at a systemic or like a you know, uh, 780 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:56,640 Speaker 1: indirect way like you said, like ultimately you know you're 781 00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:01,000 Speaker 1: at least in our most recent wars, you just went 782 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 1: to protect somebody's money and to hold up a crooked regime, 783 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,320 Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But if somebody couldn't. But 784 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,920 Speaker 1: if like if your general stood up to you and 785 00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:14,360 Speaker 1: just said, hey, homie, uh, this place got oil, so 786 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,080 Speaker 1: we need a kill these people to get it, like 787 00:42:17,200 --> 00:42:19,000 Speaker 1: you would be like, nothing to do that. You know 788 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,480 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I'm not gonna do that. What are 789 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:23,160 Speaker 1: you talking about? You know what I'm saying. But like 790 00:42:23,239 --> 00:42:25,120 Speaker 1: when it's in your face the way it was with him, 791 00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,920 Speaker 1: He's like, no, listen, here's the thing. I'm rich and 792 00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:32,160 Speaker 1: I'm might lose it, so I need you to go 793 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 1: get my money. Yeah. And this is this is a 794 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:41,360 Speaker 1: bit of a spoiler. This It being this direct for 795 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,120 Speaker 1: him is what helps him realize what the rest of 796 00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:48,239 Speaker 1: his career had been. Like this really is We're not 797 00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:52,839 Speaker 1: quite there yet, okay. McGuire, Like Butler's like, I am 798 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,239 Speaker 1: not going to do this thing for you. I'm not 799 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,560 Speaker 1: gonna go fucking put my neck on the line for 800 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,160 Speaker 1: the gold standard. And McGuire's like, all right, I'll right, 801 00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:02,479 Speaker 1: and he's like, can I use your phone? And while 802 00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:06,000 Speaker 1: Butler listens, McGuire gets on the phone, uh in Butler's 803 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,560 Speaker 1: house or not McGuire. Uh. Sterling gets on the phone 804 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:12,040 Speaker 1: in Butler's house and he calls McGuire, the guy who 805 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,120 Speaker 1: had was his gopher um and tells him that Butler's 806 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:18,439 Speaker 1: not coming to the American Legion convention. And Sterling tells 807 00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:21,160 Speaker 1: McGuire to use forty five thou dollars that he'd given 808 00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:23,840 Speaker 1: him to flood the convention hall with telegrams urging a 809 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,680 Speaker 1: return to the gold standard. And that's exactly what happens 810 00:43:26,680 --> 00:43:29,360 Speaker 1: at the convention. The telegrams flow in and the result 811 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:32,080 Speaker 1: solution is passed condemning like the move away from the 812 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:35,880 Speaker 1: gold Standard. And you know, Sterling kind of does this 813 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:37,879 Speaker 1: to show off to Butler, like, Okay, well, if you're 814 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:39,200 Speaker 1: not going to do this, let me show you what 815 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,000 Speaker 1: I can accomplish. I can just pay forty five grand 816 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:45,640 Speaker 1: to get fucking flyers put up and like will flood 817 00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:48,880 Speaker 1: them with propaganda and make it happen. And Butler takes 818 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 1: this as the lesson that it is right that these 819 00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,080 Speaker 1: are powerful men, and this is like they do have 820 00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:58,279 Speaker 1: the ability to to make this ship happen. Um. So 821 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:00,319 Speaker 1: for a little while, that's kind of all is. It's 822 00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,520 Speaker 1: this weird thing over the gold Standard, and Butler it 823 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:06,279 Speaker 1: feels off to him, but he doesn't think much more 824 00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:09,440 Speaker 1: about it until the next year, August of nineteen thirty four, 825 00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:12,279 Speaker 1: when Gerald McGuire comes up to his house again and 826 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:15,400 Speaker 1: he and Butler meet and McGuire tells the general quote 827 00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:18,719 Speaker 1: the time has come to get the soldiers together, and McGuire, 828 00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:21,120 Speaker 1: who's a veteran himself, is referencing the Bonus Army. He's 829 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:23,239 Speaker 1: basically coming up and being like, hey, you know, the 830 00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,960 Speaker 1: things are still hard for veterans. Why don't you and 831 00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,439 Speaker 1: I work out something where we can get another group 832 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:31,480 Speaker 1: of soldiers together and maybe march them on Washington um. 833 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:34,560 Speaker 1: And Butler's like willing to have this conversation, right, He's 834 00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:36,319 Speaker 1: not willing to do the gold Standard thing, but like, oh, 835 00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,120 Speaker 1: you're talking about getting people together because veterans need some money. 836 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:43,480 Speaker 1: Absolutely that's my whole thing of money. Yeah. But then 837 00:44:43,560 --> 00:44:47,120 Speaker 1: the conversation turns. McGuire tells Butler that he'd just gotten 838 00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:49,080 Speaker 1: back from an overseas trip and it was on It 839 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,080 Speaker 1: wasn't a vacation, but his wealthy backers were paying him 840 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,120 Speaker 1: to go scouting. And this is what McGuire says, quote. 841 00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:57,600 Speaker 1: I went abroad to study the part that the veteran 842 00:44:57,719 --> 00:44:59,920 Speaker 1: plays and the various setups of the governments that they 843 00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,359 Speaker 1: have abroad. I went to Italy for two or three 844 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,040 Speaker 1: months and studied the position that the veterans of Italy 845 00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:07,680 Speaker 1: occupy and the fascist set up of government, and I 846 00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:10,440 Speaker 1: discovered that they are the background of Mussolini. They keep 847 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:12,480 Speaker 1: them on the payrolls in various ways and keep them 848 00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:15,520 Speaker 1: contented and happy, and they're his real backbone, the force 849 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:17,600 Speaker 1: on which he may depend in case of trouble to 850 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,200 Speaker 1: sustain him. But that setup would not suit us at all. 851 00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,920 Speaker 1: The soldiers of America would not like that. I then 852 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,160 Speaker 1: went to Germany to see what Hitler was doing, and 853 00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,120 Speaker 1: his whole strength lies in organizations of soldiers too, but 854 00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:30,720 Speaker 1: that would not do. I looked into the Russian business. 855 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:32,759 Speaker 1: I found the use of soldiers over there would never 856 00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:35,560 Speaker 1: appeal to our men. Then I went to France and 857 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,319 Speaker 1: I found just exactly the sort of organization we are 858 00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,640 Speaker 1: going to have. It is an organization of super soldiers. 859 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,120 Speaker 1: And what he's talking about, you remember the cross of 860 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:49,040 Speaker 1: Fire that we talked about last episode in France, that 861 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,880 Speaker 1: French veterans organization. You got five officers, a thousand officers 862 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,520 Speaker 1: and n c o s and they control the votes 863 00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,640 Speaker 1: of five million men, and they're very, very far right right, 864 00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,680 Speaker 1: and they have a role in the insurrection that happens 865 00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:03,000 Speaker 1: over in France, which has just happened at this point. 866 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,080 Speaker 1: So these rich guys watch what happens in France and 867 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:09,120 Speaker 1: almost succeeds and are like, oh, you know, that's that's 868 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:11,520 Speaker 1: not a bad idea. Why don't we set up a 869 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,920 Speaker 1: veterans organization like that? Uh yeah, So that's what McGuire 870 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:17,520 Speaker 1: is like, we need to build the same thing that 871 00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:19,960 Speaker 1: they have in France, because if we can get five 872 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,160 Speaker 1: million votes or so, like a coalition of five million votes, 873 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:25,080 Speaker 1: we can win any election we want. We can get 874 00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:27,920 Speaker 1: rid of you know, Roosevelt, or we can march them 875 00:46:27,960 --> 00:46:29,960 Speaker 1: on the capitol. You know, if we have half a 876 00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:34,279 Speaker 1: million soldiers so Butler said, all right, like, I'm not 877 00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,840 Speaker 1: I'm not against this idea. If you want to organize 878 00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,120 Speaker 1: a bunch of veterans to to to make political changes, 879 00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:42,080 Speaker 1: act as a voting block, that makes sense to me 880 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,480 Speaker 1: because I care about veterans issues. Um, but what do 881 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:47,480 Speaker 1: you want to use them for? Right? Why are you? 882 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:50,000 Speaker 1: Why are we building this because he's still suspicious of 883 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,160 Speaker 1: this guy over the Golden State? Do yeah? And McGuire 884 00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,000 Speaker 1: shares them, like, no, they're going to support the president. 885 00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:56,359 Speaker 1: That's what we want them to do, is to kind 886 00:46:56,360 --> 00:46:59,880 Speaker 1: of support the president and his efforts to fix the economy. 887 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,279 Speaker 1: And Butler points out when McGuire says this, Butler points 888 00:47:03,280 --> 00:47:04,919 Speaker 1: out that like, well, in all these speeches you wanted 889 00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,319 Speaker 1: me to give earlier, you would have me. You wanted 890 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,200 Speaker 1: me to oppose all of FDR's policies. So why are 891 00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,279 Speaker 1: you trying to make a veterans organization to support FDR now? 892 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,160 Speaker 1: And McGuire responds, don't you understand that the setup has 893 00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 1: got to be changed a bit? Now we have got him, 894 00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:21,440 Speaker 1: we have got the president. He has got to have 895 00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:23,600 Speaker 1: more money. There's not any more money to give him. 896 00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:25,920 Speaker 1: Eight percent of the money now is in government bonds, 897 00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:28,360 Speaker 1: and he cannot keep this racket up much longer. He 898 00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,480 Speaker 1: has got to do something about it. He has either 899 00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:32,080 Speaker 1: got to get more money out of us or he 900 00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,440 Speaker 1: has got to change the method of financing the government. 901 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:36,239 Speaker 1: And we are going to see to it that he 902 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,800 Speaker 1: does not change that method. He will not change it. 903 00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:41,560 Speaker 1: They're worried about him, like going into debt and devaluing 904 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:44,759 Speaker 1: the dollar and stuff. Um. So Butler sees where this 905 00:47:44,960 --> 00:47:47,840 Speaker 1: is going and he asks McGuire straight up, the idea 906 00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:49,919 Speaker 1: of this great group of soldiers then is to sort 907 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,239 Speaker 1: of frighten him, is it. McGuire lying said that no, 908 00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,800 Speaker 1: they don't want to scare FDR. They just want to 909 00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,800 Speaker 1: support him. And then he introduces a new idea. He 910 00:47:58,920 --> 00:48:01,759 Speaker 1: tells Butler, you know, the president's overworked, and he's he's 911 00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,319 Speaker 1: an old man, he's not healthy. Wouldn't it be nice 912 00:48:04,760 --> 00:48:07,759 Speaker 1: if we could give FDR an assistant president. We can 913 00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:10,560 Speaker 1: use this big armed group of veterans to convince the 914 00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:14,560 Speaker 1: President to create a new cabinet position, Secretary of General Affairs, 915 00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:16,919 Speaker 1: and this person will do all of the actual work 916 00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:19,799 Speaker 1: of the president, and he'll institute policies that my rich 917 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:23,120 Speaker 1: backers nowhere going to fix things for the American people. 918 00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:26,960 Speaker 1: F DR will still be president, but he'll just be 919 00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:30,839 Speaker 1: ceremonial and will be controlling things, and this big armed 920 00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,520 Speaker 1: group of veterans will make sure that everybody plays nice. 921 00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:40,399 Speaker 1: That right up under our noses. Bro. So McGuire tells 922 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:43,200 Speaker 1: Butler that this is all necessary because the president is sick, 923 00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,719 Speaker 1: and even if it's not true that he's unable to 924 00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,160 Speaker 1: do the job anymore, the American people will believe them 925 00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:52,879 Speaker 1: if they say he's sick, because quote, we have got 926 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:56,120 Speaker 1: the newspapers. He's talking about the fact that William Randolph 927 00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:57,919 Speaker 1: Hurst is one of the guys involved in this plot. 928 00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:01,120 Speaker 1: Like whatever, whatever we need the American people to believe, 929 00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:03,360 Speaker 1: they'll believe because we control the newspapers. So all we 930 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:06,840 Speaker 1: need to do is organize this body of men. So 931 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:10,799 Speaker 1: in suggesting this, McGuire's rich backers were looking to treat 932 00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:13,279 Speaker 1: FDR kind of the same way Mussolini treated the King 933 00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:16,040 Speaker 1: of Italy or Hitler treated Hindenburg in his last months. 934 00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:18,640 Speaker 1: Of course, McGuire didn't point this out to Butler, but 935 00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:21,400 Speaker 1: he asked, would you be interesting and heading up this 936 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,279 Speaker 1: super organization of veterans that we're going to use to 937 00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:27,320 Speaker 1: take power. So he's all on the table now, like 938 00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,000 Speaker 1: we're going to take over the government. We're going to 939 00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:31,480 Speaker 1: do it in a way that's not obvious. We're going 940 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:33,320 Speaker 1: to use the newspapers to make sure people don't know 941 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:36,719 Speaker 1: that we've just stopped FDR from having any power, and 942 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,719 Speaker 1: we're if things are going to be run by the 943 00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:41,480 Speaker 1: rich um and but so he's like, do you want 944 00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:44,280 Speaker 1: to be the guy who leads this army of veterans 945 00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:48,440 Speaker 1: into the capital to demand these things? And Butler response, 946 00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:51,600 Speaker 1: I'm interested in it. I'm interested in this veterans organization, 947 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:53,560 Speaker 1: but I don't know about heading it. I am very 948 00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:56,200 Speaker 1: greatly interested in it, because you know, my interest, my 949 00:49:56,320 --> 00:49:59,520 Speaker 1: one hobby is maintaining a democracy. If you get these 950 00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:03,200 Speaker 1: five a thousand soldiers advocating anything smelling a fascism, I'm 951 00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:05,400 Speaker 1: going to get five thousand more and lick the hell 952 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,080 Speaker 1: out of you and we'll have a real war right 953 00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:12,879 Speaker 1: at home. He's a direct man. Yeah, I love It's like, look, 954 00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:15,520 Speaker 1: maybe I mean wars I fought. You think I'm scaredy you? Yeah? 955 00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:18,759 Speaker 1: Like yeah, like and this like if you do this 956 00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,239 Speaker 1: and I think you're trying to create a fascist state. 957 00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:23,960 Speaker 1: I'll raise an army and I'll win. Like you don't 958 00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:26,560 Speaker 1: know about the actual war vet, like I actually know 959 00:50:26,719 --> 00:50:31,040 Speaker 1: the veterans. Yeah. Yeah, So this makes McGuire backped a 960 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:33,840 Speaker 1: little bit. He's realized he's maybe like gone, he was 961 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:35,680 Speaker 1: maybe a little bit too open about what they were 962 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:37,360 Speaker 1: planning to do. And he insists like, no, we're not 963 00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:39,520 Speaker 1: trying to overthrow. We just want to support the president. 964 00:50:39,560 --> 00:50:41,799 Speaker 1: We're not trying to take power. We want to support him. 965 00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:44,520 Speaker 1: And Butler says, well, if that's the case, you're gonna 966 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:46,120 Speaker 1: need a lot of money, right, This is not going 967 00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,359 Speaker 1: to be a cheap thing to do. And McGuire is like, well, 968 00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:51,879 Speaker 1: we've got three million dollars on hand, you know, money 969 00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:53,760 Speaker 1: and a problem. We get access to three hundred million 970 00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:57,000 Speaker 1: dollars if necessary, And so Butler again it's like, who 971 00:50:57,080 --> 00:50:59,319 Speaker 1: in the funk is putting up this money? Honest, men 972 00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:03,640 Speaker 1: don't have three million dollars to throw around. And so 973 00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:05,479 Speaker 1: he's like, where are you getting all of this money? 974 00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,720 Speaker 1: And I know it's not just Clark Um or Sterling, 975 00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:11,040 Speaker 1: the guy that I had met earlier. And McGuire says, 976 00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:12,919 Speaker 1: you know how Clark told you he would spend half 977 00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,640 Speaker 1: of his uh fortune to save the other half. Well, 978 00:51:15,880 --> 00:51:17,800 Speaker 1: there's a lot of other rich guys who feel the 979 00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:20,279 Speaker 1: same way, right, Prescott Bush and JP Morgan and all 980 00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:22,719 Speaker 1: these all these other rich dudes feel the same way. 981 00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:26,799 Speaker 1: So Smedley Butler meant what he said. He was absolutely 982 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:30,560 Speaker 1: committed to American democracy and he never actually considered helping. 983 00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:32,520 Speaker 1: But he knew the danger of what he was hearing 984 00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:34,239 Speaker 1: and he wanted to be able to expose it, and 985 00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:37,040 Speaker 1: to do that he was going to need a corroborating witness. 986 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,919 Speaker 1: So his goal now too becomes, I need someone else 987 00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:42,400 Speaker 1: credible to be witnessed to the whole plans that we 988 00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:46,759 Speaker 1: can go testify to Congress just in case, dude, dog 989 00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:51,280 Speaker 1: this dude's antenna's are like they are a tuned because 990 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:53,480 Speaker 1: to be like you can't just be like f you 991 00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:56,560 Speaker 1: and storm the room because these people don't need you. 992 00:51:56,640 --> 00:51:59,200 Speaker 1: Don't find somebody else, you know what I'm saying. And 993 00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:03,280 Speaker 1: it's like the understanding that like just that power play. 994 00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:05,680 Speaker 1: When you're in a role with people that wealthy, they 995 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,600 Speaker 1: always feel like they're in charge, but that but that 996 00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:12,160 Speaker 1: power is given to them. But if you don't, if 997 00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:14,239 Speaker 1: you don't give a shit about their money. You know 998 00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:16,840 Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Then, been the power don't matter, you 999 00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:19,200 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying that, Then you realize really what's 1000 00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:21,719 Speaker 1: happening here. It's like, oh wait, y'all got all this 1001 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,080 Speaker 1: money and you still need this meeting with me. So 1002 00:52:25,200 --> 00:52:27,040 Speaker 1: there's some you know what I'm saying, So like he 1003 00:52:27,120 --> 00:52:28,759 Speaker 1: had his antenna's enough to be like, I need to 1004 00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:31,040 Speaker 1: make sure because it's not like these people can't put 1005 00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:33,279 Speaker 1: me away. I need somebody over here to watch all 1006 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:36,320 Speaker 1: this happening because they wielding all his power and I 1007 00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:38,440 Speaker 1: am you know what I'm saying, like right now, I'm 1008 00:52:38,480 --> 00:52:41,480 Speaker 1: in their good graces right now, they're still hungry for me. 1009 00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:46,279 Speaker 1: So let me make sure I'm playing this is Antenna's 1010 00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:48,720 Speaker 1: are art? I love it? Yeah? You know he's he's thinking, 1011 00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:52,120 Speaker 1: he's thinking. He's thinking that right up by Arcadia Publishing 1012 00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:55,320 Speaker 1: again for What Happens Next. Having previously worked as the 1013 00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:58,879 Speaker 1: police captain of Philadelphia, Butler reached out to a Philadelphia 1014 00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:01,800 Speaker 1: record writer, Paul Calmly French, who agreed to meet with 1015 00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:05,000 Speaker 1: McGuire as well. During this meeting, McGuire told French that 1016 00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:08,120 Speaker 1: he believed a fascist state was the only answer for America, 1017 00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:11,439 Speaker 1: and that Smedley was the ideal leader because he could 1018 00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:15,480 Speaker 1: organize a million men overnight. So French, the very skilled journalist, 1019 00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:17,600 Speaker 1: comes in and kind of on the guys of like, yeah, 1020 00:53:17,640 --> 00:53:19,319 Speaker 1: you want the press on your side, let's talk about 1021 00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:22,440 Speaker 1: what you're trying to do. And he's like, French is 1022 00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:24,839 Speaker 1: clearly a good interview and gets McGuire to admit, like, yeah, 1023 00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:26,439 Speaker 1: I want to we want to make a fascist state. 1024 00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,400 Speaker 1: It's the only way forward for America, and Butler's the 1025 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:33,319 Speaker 1: best guy to do it. So French takes detailed notes 1026 00:53:33,719 --> 00:53:36,920 Speaker 1: after all of these meetings, he would later tell Congress. Quote, 1027 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:40,239 Speaker 1: during the course of the conversation, he continually discussed the 1028 00:53:40,320 --> 00:53:42,360 Speaker 1: need of a man on a white horse, as he 1029 00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:44,840 Speaker 1: called it, a dictator who would come galloping in on 1030 00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,359 Speaker 1: his white horse. He said that was the only way, 1031 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,080 Speaker 1: either through the threat of armed force or the delegation 1032 00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:52,080 Speaker 1: of power and the use of a group of organized 1033 00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:56,640 Speaker 1: veterans to save the capitalistic system. Speaking of capitalistic systems, 1034 00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:03,160 Speaker 1: speaking of capitalism, you know who won't inside a fascist revolution? 1035 00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:10,640 Speaker 1: I mean, hopefully, hopefully fingers crossed. I have something to 1036 00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:13,080 Speaker 1: tell you at this ad break that just broken the news. 1037 00:54:13,120 --> 00:54:16,760 Speaker 1: But I guess I'll tell you now. Jeff just stepped 1038 00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:20,280 Speaker 1: down at CEO of Amazon. What the funk is happening. 1039 00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:25,040 Speaker 1: He's transitioning to an executive chair role. Something's about to 1040 00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:29,520 Speaker 1: go down. Yes, I have some theories. That's big. Take 1041 00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:33,120 Speaker 1: this break, taketah. Yeah, yeah, we're We're all, what are 1042 00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:36,360 Speaker 1: your theories? Something's fucking happening. So here's my theories. I 1043 00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:38,520 Speaker 1: think there was two things going on here. I think 1044 00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:42,719 Speaker 1: uh one is he's like, I would like the money 1045 00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:46,359 Speaker 1: without the headache, So let me just let somebody else 1046 00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:51,160 Speaker 1: had a headache, says All. Says this is from obviously 1047 00:54:51,200 --> 00:54:55,400 Speaker 1: the Washington Post because he owns it. Basis will step 1048 00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:57,640 Speaker 1: down from the role after founding the company more than 1049 00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:00,160 Speaker 1: twenty years ago. I'll sharing a new era for the 1050 00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:06,279 Speaker 1: e commerce merchant giant currently current Amazon Web Services chief 1051 00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:11,680 Speaker 1: and Jassy will take on the mantel of CEO. So 1052 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:14,759 Speaker 1: I don't like our word mantle first of all. Yeah, yeah, 1053 00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:16,960 Speaker 1: but I think the money from the like from the 1054 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:21,400 Speaker 1: from the web support platform services is now outpacing the products, 1055 00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:24,200 Speaker 1: so they like we need to move that way. Number 1056 00:55:24,239 --> 00:55:27,640 Speaker 1: one and number two I'm positive they're gonna break the 1057 00:55:27,719 --> 00:55:33,080 Speaker 1: company up. They're gonna break this up because it's yeah, 1058 00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:35,719 Speaker 1: and he's like, I better get out now. They're gonna 1059 00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:40,200 Speaker 1: break this ship up. I really hear. Um, Yeah, it 1060 00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:44,800 Speaker 1: should be broken up. It's too much of the business. 1061 00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:50,000 Speaker 1: You can't be the grocery store and the groceries. I 1062 00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:52,200 Speaker 1: think he just wants to go off into the moon 1063 00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:56,239 Speaker 1: and just spend the rest of this to no one. 1064 00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:59,080 Speaker 1: I want all the money without the headache. No reasonable 1065 00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:02,759 Speaker 1: person would be worth a hundred billion plus dollars and 1066 00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:06,160 Speaker 1: want to keep doing a job. Why do you keep working? Yeah, 1067 00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:10,239 Speaker 1: go fill an island with I don't know, no more, 1068 00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:14,920 Speaker 1: no more rich guys with the islands. I always do 1069 00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:17,440 Speaker 1: have to say, yeah, it's like, you don't make a 1070 00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:21,000 Speaker 1: hundred million dollars to keep working. He'll he'll never spend 1071 00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:24,160 Speaker 1: this You will never spend this money. It's the only 1072 00:56:24,239 --> 00:56:26,360 Speaker 1: bi who's ever made sense to me is one of 1073 00:56:26,400 --> 00:56:28,800 Speaker 1: the Google founders who like spent hundreds of millions of 1074 00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:32,520 Speaker 1: dollars making a house blimp. And it's like, yeah, that's rad, Like, yeah, 1075 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:38,479 Speaker 1: I'm gonna a blimp, Like I can never you can't 1076 00:56:38,480 --> 00:56:41,719 Speaker 1: even give it away. There's not enough, There's not enough 1077 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:44,400 Speaker 1: hours in the day. You know you're not gonna live 1078 00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:49,400 Speaker 1: enough years to spend this, Yeah you couldn't. Yeah, uh, 1079 00:56:50,560 --> 00:56:58,040 Speaker 1: all right. What grows in the forest trees? Sure you 1080 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,520 Speaker 1: know what else grows in the forest? Imagination, a sense 1081 00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:04,960 Speaker 1: of wonder, and our family bonds grow too, because when 1082 00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:11,759 Speaker 1: we disconnect from this and connect with this, we reconnect 1083 00:57:11,840 --> 00:57:14,879 Speaker 1: with each other. The forest is closer than you think. 1084 00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:18,560 Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and start exploring. I Discover 1085 00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:21,080 Speaker 1: the Forest dot org, brought to you by the United 1086 00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:25,720 Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the ad Council. Adoption of teams 1087 00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:28,360 Speaker 1: from foster care is a topic not enough people know about, 1088 00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:31,160 Speaker 1: and we're here to change that. I'm April Dinuity, host 1089 00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:35,160 Speaker 1: of the new podcast Navigating Adoption, presented by adopt us Kids. 1090 00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:39,040 Speaker 1: Each episode brings you compelling, real life adoption stories told 1091 00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:41,600 Speaker 1: by the families that lived them, with commentary from experts. 1092 00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:45,720 Speaker 1: Visit adopt us Kids dot org, slash podcast, or subscribe 1093 00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:49,080 Speaker 1: to Navigating Adoption presented by adopt us Kids, brought to 1094 00:57:49,160 --> 00:57:51,200 Speaker 1: you by the U S Department of Health and Human Services, 1095 00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:54,960 Speaker 1: Administration for Children and Families and the ad Council. Conquer 1096 00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:57,920 Speaker 1: your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the 1097 00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:02,160 Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast. In each bite sized daily episode, time 1098 00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:06,240 Speaker 1: management and productivity expert Laura Vanderkamp teaches you how to 1099 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:08,640 Speaker 1: make the most of your time, both at work and 1100 00:58:08,880 --> 00:58:11,960 Speaker 1: at home. These are the practical suggestions you need to 1101 00:58:12,080 --> 00:58:14,920 Speaker 1: get more done with your day. Just as lifting weights 1102 00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:18,000 Speaker 1: keeps our body strong as we age, learning new skills 1103 00:58:18,200 --> 00:58:21,600 Speaker 1: is the mental equivalent of pumping iron. Listen to Before 1104 00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:28,960 Speaker 1: Breakfast wherever you get your podcasts. We're back. Uh what 1105 00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:33,240 Speaker 1: a great what a great time. So uh we're talking 1106 00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:36,760 Speaker 1: about Yeah, this guy Butler brings in this journalist French 1107 00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,320 Speaker 1: who gets Who gets these guys to throw down some 1108 00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:43,640 Speaker 1: dirt right and admit what they're actually looking to do? Yeah? 1109 00:58:44,000 --> 00:58:47,120 Speaker 1: Um now? In his right up on the business plot, 1110 00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:51,040 Speaker 1: Bradley Galka notes quote. McGuire also discussed this group's intended 1111 00:58:51,080 --> 00:58:53,880 Speaker 1: solution to the national employment crisis. He said they were 1112 00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:57,120 Speaker 1: inspired by Adolf Hitler's policies in Europe, that the solution 1113 00:58:57,160 --> 00:58:59,680 Speaker 1: would be the institution of labor camps and barings and 1114 00:58:59,720 --> 00:59:02,479 Speaker 1: a mayor I could to mobilize the unemployed. You said, 1115 00:59:02,600 --> 00:59:05,440 Speaker 1: you said it out loud. You're not supposed say that 1116 00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:08,280 Speaker 1: out loud. Bro this head. The guy has some good ideas. 1117 00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:11,760 Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, we could save you. Hear me, 1118 00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:16,760 Speaker 1: hear me out. We could save capitalism, We could save 1119 00:59:16,880 --> 00:59:18,760 Speaker 1: cap What if we put the par in camps and 1120 00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:22,480 Speaker 1: make them work for us. They're not doing anything right. 1121 00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:24,960 Speaker 1: They're not doing anything right. Shouldn't be voting. They just 1122 00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:29,000 Speaker 1: gotta vote to take our money. But I'm in camps. Uh. 1123 00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:32,480 Speaker 1: Such an initiative, McGuire insisted, would solve the problem overnight. 1124 00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:35,320 Speaker 1: He also revealed that the plotters would force all suspected 1125 00:59:35,440 --> 00:59:38,640 Speaker 1: radicals across the country to register their movements with the government. 1126 00:59:38,960 --> 00:59:41,640 Speaker 1: That way, said McGuire, the new regime could stop a 1127 00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:44,520 Speaker 1: lot of these communist agitators who were running around the country. 1128 00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:48,280 Speaker 1: McGuire ended by insisting that another economic crash was inevitable 1129 00:59:48,320 --> 00:59:51,040 Speaker 1: and would come when bonds reached five percent interest. When 1130 00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:53,680 Speaker 1: that time comes, he said, the soldiers must prepare to 1131 00:59:53,800 --> 00:59:58,560 Speaker 1: save the nation. Now. It's worth reiterating two important takeaways 1132 00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:02,440 Speaker 1: from McGuire's interacttions with Butler and French. First, during McGuire's 1133 01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:05,160 Speaker 1: meeting with Butler at the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, McGuire 1134 01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:07,920 Speaker 1: claimed that he and the plotters have got the newspapers. 1135 01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:10,400 Speaker 1: He told Butler that whatever cover story his boss has 1136 01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:12,400 Speaker 1: decided to put in the papers would be accepted by 1137 01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:15,320 Speaker 1: the dumb American people who would fall for it. In 1138 01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:19,080 Speaker 1: a second, damn it not wrong, not wrong, not wrong, 1139 01:00:19,120 --> 01:00:21,160 Speaker 1: and is right up of this is very good, it's 1140 01:00:21,160 --> 01:00:23,880 Speaker 1: and it's free. So I really recommend it for folks. Now. 1141 01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:26,640 Speaker 1: At this point, Butler decided he had enough information to 1142 01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:30,520 Speaker 1: go to Congress. On November ninety four, he appeared before 1143 01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:34,240 Speaker 1: the Special Committee on Unamerican Activities. Before the Committee and 1144 01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:37,040 Speaker 1: its lawyers, General, Butler laid out the details of the 1145 01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:41,000 Speaker 1: whole sordid scheme, providing Congress with French is corroboration and 1146 01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:44,160 Speaker 1: the detailed notes that he himself had taken of every conversation. 1147 01:00:44,600 --> 01:00:46,680 Speaker 1: He swore under oath that this was all true and 1148 01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:49,840 Speaker 1: that a cabal of bankers and industrial magnates were plotting 1149 01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:53,440 Speaker 1: to overthrow American democracy. So he goes to Congress and 1150 01:00:53,520 --> 01:00:55,800 Speaker 1: he puts it all out on the line, and the 1151 01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:58,960 Speaker 1: story hits the news media. Soon after, The New York Post, 1152 01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:01,720 Speaker 1: which at this time is a liberal newspaper, publishes the 1153 01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:04,960 Speaker 1: first report, which is written by French himself. It outlines 1154 01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:08,240 Speaker 1: the details of the plot accurately. The Post also publishes 1155 01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:10,960 Speaker 1: a second, shorter piece which provides the accused plotters with 1156 01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,280 Speaker 1: an opportunity to give their denials. Now, The Post coverage 1157 01:01:14,320 --> 01:01:17,160 Speaker 1: here was both responsible and vital, but McGuire had not 1158 01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:19,720 Speaker 1: been lying when he said that his secret backers controlled 1159 01:01:19,800 --> 01:01:23,280 Speaker 1: much of America's print media. A second wave of coverage 1160 01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:27,640 Speaker 1: bursts from conservative hearst Own newspapers. These papers tended to 1161 01:01:27,680 --> 01:01:30,200 Speaker 1: provide only the barest details of the actual plot and 1162 01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:33,600 Speaker 1: spend most of their time publishing denials by the accused magnates. 1163 01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:36,959 Speaker 1: One popular columnist, Arthur Brisbane, who worked for the hearst 1164 01:01:37,040 --> 01:01:40,800 Speaker 1: owned San Francisco Examiner, suggested that somebody may have been 1165 01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:44,120 Speaker 1: deceiving General Butler. He portrayed the business plot as more 1166 01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:47,000 Speaker 1: or less a practical joke and wrote mockingly that those 1167 01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:50,080 Speaker 1: wicked and bad and outrageous Wall streetman were the ones 1168 01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:52,880 Speaker 1: who actually had the most to fear from a fascist dictatorship. 1169 01:01:54,160 --> 01:02:00,560 Speaker 1: Adam Yeah, a flim flamboy, Yeah, flim yeah. This dumb 1170 01:02:00,640 --> 01:02:03,200 Speaker 1: general he just he just he got took in by 1171 01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:06,360 Speaker 1: a practical joke. You know, listen, he doesn't understand, you know, 1172 01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:11,960 Speaker 1: Doug and I man, I imagine even like how you 1173 01:02:12,040 --> 01:02:17,200 Speaker 1: stand in front of Congress and like this, I don't know, 1174 01:02:17,400 --> 01:02:19,840 Speaker 1: like if you have this this like sinking feeling when 1175 01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:21,720 Speaker 1: you're trying to say something that you know is true 1176 01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:24,160 Speaker 1: and you're positive to people in front of you don't 1177 01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:27,959 Speaker 1: believe you, and you're like, uh, damn, this ain't gonna 1178 01:02:28,920 --> 01:02:30,880 Speaker 1: I'm stuck, ain't I you know what I'm saying, Like, 1179 01:02:31,240 --> 01:02:33,800 Speaker 1: I wonder if I don't know why. As he was talking, 1180 01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:36,040 Speaker 1: that was like the moment I pictured when he was 1181 01:02:36,080 --> 01:02:38,320 Speaker 1: like he went to Congress to tell them that, like 1182 01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:40,440 Speaker 1: he's snitching, but it's like a good type of snitch 1183 01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:42,200 Speaker 1: to where I'm like, no, I'm trying to tell you 1184 01:02:42,240 --> 01:02:45,080 Speaker 1: the truth. This is what these people are doing. Yeah, 1185 01:02:45,240 --> 01:02:47,040 Speaker 1: I don't know, because it's like even coming out of 1186 01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:50,360 Speaker 1: his mouth, he was probably like, do I sound crazy? 1187 01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,320 Speaker 1: I might sound crazy, but I'm trying to tell you 1188 01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:59,680 Speaker 1: this what they're doing. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So Adam Ox, 1189 01:03:00,040 --> 01:03:02,800 Speaker 1: writer for The New York Times, wrote an article about 1190 01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:04,920 Speaker 1: the business plot, and again it's not just herst papers. 1191 01:03:04,960 --> 01:03:07,080 Speaker 1: The New York Times gets in on this ship. He 1192 01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:11,080 Speaker 1: writes an article titled Credulity Unlimited, which also mocked Butler 1193 01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:13,640 Speaker 1: and painted him as a crank. What can we believe, 1194 01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:16,200 Speaker 1: apparently anything to judge by the number of people who 1195 01:03:16,280 --> 01:03:18,880 Speaker 1: lend a credulous ear to the story of General Butler's 1196 01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,280 Speaker 1: five hundred fascists and Buckram marching on Washington to seize 1197 01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:25,320 Speaker 1: the government. Details are lacking to lend versabilitude to an 1198 01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:28,720 Speaker 1: otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. The whole story sounds like 1199 01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:35,160 Speaker 1: a gigantic hoax. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this guy's crazy talked 1200 01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:39,760 Speaker 1: to him. No, this silly old man thinks that the 1201 01:03:39,800 --> 01:03:45,800 Speaker 1: popular rich dudes, we're just saying it's fine. And there is. 1202 01:03:46,360 --> 01:03:48,640 Speaker 1: One of the things that really does corroborate that the 1203 01:03:48,720 --> 01:03:51,920 Speaker 1: story is true is there's a massive and very organized 1204 01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:55,360 Speaker 1: media campaign to discredit Butler. And it's not just journalists. 1205 01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:58,400 Speaker 1: Will Rogers, the former Cowboy actor who like half of 1206 01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:01,400 Speaker 1: l A is named after. Yeah, I was like wait, wait, yeah, 1207 01:04:01,480 --> 01:04:04,520 Speaker 1: yeah that Will Rogers, publishes an article in the New 1208 01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:06,760 Speaker 1: York Times. He gets to write a column for The Times, 1209 01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:11,120 Speaker 1: and this article both mocks Smedley Butler and in the article, 1210 01:04:11,600 --> 01:04:14,040 Speaker 1: after making fun of Butler for being an idiot. Will 1211 01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:17,000 Speaker 1: Rogers volunteers to lead a fascist army in his stead. 1212 01:04:17,360 --> 01:04:19,600 Speaker 1: If Smedley Butler don't take that job of marching down 1213 01:04:19,640 --> 01:04:22,120 Speaker 1: Pennsylvania at the head of Wall Streets fighting Brigade, I 1214 01:04:22,160 --> 01:04:24,160 Speaker 1: would like to get my application in. I got the 1215 01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:26,800 Speaker 1: Gray Horse. It won't be such a novelty as people think. 1216 01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:30,560 Speaker 1: This is clearly bullshit. But if it's not, I'd lead 1217 01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:35,520 Speaker 1: a fascist army on behalf of you. Man. Katie Perry 1218 01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:39,080 Speaker 1: tried to buy his house out here. Oh yeah, it's 1219 01:04:39,080 --> 01:04:42,240 Speaker 1: a nice house. It's a very nice house. Went on 1220 01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:46,400 Speaker 1: a field trip once anyway. Yeah. New York City Mayor 1221 01:04:46,480 --> 01:04:50,120 Speaker 1: Fiorello LaGuardia called the business plot a cocktail push, by 1222 01:04:50,160 --> 01:04:52,720 Speaker 1: which he means he thought Butler had heard the plans 1223 01:04:52,800 --> 01:04:54,320 Speaker 1: at a part as a joke at a party and 1224 01:04:54,440 --> 01:04:57,480 Speaker 1: run away with the idea. Um, that's a great you. 1225 01:04:57,720 --> 01:04:59,960 Speaker 1: The more I hear their defense, that's a great cover story, 1226 01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:02,800 Speaker 1: it's a great coverage. They were just joking. Dude, we're 1227 01:05:02,880 --> 01:05:05,160 Speaker 1: just drinking. It's like the guy got to this party. 1228 01:05:05,160 --> 01:05:06,640 Speaker 1: He don't really wrong with us. He don't know how 1229 01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:09,680 Speaker 1: we don't know how you work. We're just playing around. Yeah, yeah, 1230 01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:12,600 Speaker 1: it's not It's not dumb, right, These aren't idiots. Now. 1231 01:05:12,800 --> 01:05:17,040 Speaker 1: The Committee, the Congressional Committee, the House An American Activities Committee, 1232 01:05:17,160 --> 01:05:20,720 Speaker 1: continues their investigation though, and they find additional evidence of 1233 01:05:20,800 --> 01:05:23,200 Speaker 1: the plot. Concerted digging revealed that a number of the 1234 01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:26,120 Speaker 1: men implicated in the plot had recently formed a conservative 1235 01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:30,080 Speaker 1: lobbying group called the American Liberty League. Its members included 1236 01:05:30,200 --> 01:05:34,560 Speaker 1: JP Morgan Jr. Irene DuPont, the CEO of General Voters, 1237 01:05:34,840 --> 01:05:38,240 Speaker 1: the CEO of General Foods, and other industrial leaders controlling 1238 01:05:38,320 --> 01:05:41,280 Speaker 1: roughly forty billion dollars in assets, which in modern terms 1239 01:05:41,440 --> 01:05:45,400 Speaker 1: is three quarters of a trillion dollars. All of the 1240 01:05:45,560 --> 01:05:48,680 Speaker 1: richest guys and that like, these are the dudes behind 1241 01:05:48,760 --> 01:05:51,280 Speaker 1: it now. This digging also turns up the fact that 1242 01:05:51,360 --> 01:05:55,600 Speaker 1: Prescott Bush, who was heavily involved in with the Nazi government, 1243 01:05:55,720 --> 01:05:57,840 Speaker 1: right he's working with them on the Hamburg America Lions 1244 01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:01,600 Speaker 1: and stuff. Um that Prescott Bush, under the proposed American 1245 01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:04,240 Speaker 1: fascist government would have acted as a liaison between the 1246 01:06:04,280 --> 01:06:08,320 Speaker 1: American dictatorship and the Nazi government. So George W. Bush's 1247 01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:12,920 Speaker 1: grandpa volunteered for the job of liaison between a fascist 1248 01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:15,800 Speaker 1: American state and the Nazis was like, oh, I love 1249 01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:22,240 Speaker 1: the Nazis. I'd be perfect at this job. Yeahs so, 1250 01:06:22,560 --> 01:06:26,560 Speaker 1: and then gave birth to presidents, two of them. Well, 1251 01:06:26,640 --> 01:06:29,240 Speaker 1: his wife gave birth to presidents. Let me clear that up. Sorry, ladies, 1252 01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:31,960 Speaker 1: he didn't give birth to nobody yet. Okay, he donated 1253 01:06:32,120 --> 01:06:35,240 Speaker 1: genetic material that led to two presidents, both of whom 1254 01:06:35,280 --> 01:06:41,720 Speaker 1: were trash. So the committee, after its investigation, never releases 1255 01:06:41,720 --> 01:06:43,720 Speaker 1: an official report on the business plot, but they do 1256 01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:46,400 Speaker 1: give a report to Congress, and in it they say 1257 01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:50,480 Speaker 1: that they quote trash. Oh it's about to get trasher 1258 01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:54,840 Speaker 1: before it's trash. The committee goes to Congress and they 1259 01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:58,280 Speaker 1: say everything we checked out that Butler said, we were 1260 01:06:58,320 --> 01:07:01,400 Speaker 1: able to verify. They say that they quote had received 1261 01:07:01,440 --> 01:07:04,400 Speaker 1: evidence that certain persons had made an attempt to establish 1262 01:07:04,440 --> 01:07:07,800 Speaker 1: a fascist organization in this country. There is no question 1263 01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:10,800 Speaker 1: that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have 1264 01:07:10,920 --> 01:07:13,840 Speaker 1: been placed in execution win and if the financial backers 1265 01:07:13,920 --> 01:07:17,600 Speaker 1: deemed it expedient. The names of the individuals involved, they said, 1266 01:07:17,800 --> 01:07:19,800 Speaker 1: would have to be kept secret until they could be 1267 01:07:19,840 --> 01:07:23,960 Speaker 1: investigated and their complicity verified. So they're like, we we 1268 01:07:24,200 --> 01:07:25,800 Speaker 1: we looked this up. And we found a lot of 1269 01:07:25,880 --> 01:07:30,240 Speaker 1: evidence that it was true, but we can't confirm anything yet, 1270 01:07:30,280 --> 01:07:31,600 Speaker 1: and we're not going to give the names of the 1271 01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:36,280 Speaker 1: individuals we found evidence about because we haven't finished the investigation, right, 1272 01:07:36,520 --> 01:07:39,120 Speaker 1: which sounds reasonable, that's how it's supposed to work. But 1273 01:07:39,240 --> 01:07:44,760 Speaker 1: they never finished the investigation, oh man, after saying hey, 1274 01:07:44,960 --> 01:07:48,880 Speaker 1: yeah this, Yeah, we've collaborated everything you said. Okay, cool, 1275 01:07:49,360 --> 01:07:52,960 Speaker 1: And we don't know why the investigation doesn't get finished. 1276 01:07:53,000 --> 01:07:55,160 Speaker 1: There are some theories, and I'm gonna quote the Washington 1277 01:07:55,240 --> 01:07:58,360 Speaker 1: Post for one of them. According to journalist John Buchanan 1278 01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:01,160 Speaker 1: speaking to the BBC in two thousand seven, this was 1279 01:08:01,200 --> 01:08:03,920 Speaker 1: probably because Roosevelt struck a deal with the backers of 1280 01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:07,280 Speaker 1: the plot. They could avoid treason charges and possible execution 1281 01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:09,520 Speaker 1: if they backed off their opposition to the new deal. 1282 01:08:10,000 --> 01:08:12,120 Speaker 1: Sally Denton, an author who wrote a book about the 1283 01:08:12,160 --> 01:08:14,360 Speaker 1: business plot, thinks the press may have ignored the report 1284 01:08:14,440 --> 01:08:16,519 Speaker 1: at the urging of the government, which didn't want the 1285 01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:19,120 Speaker 1: public to know how precarious things might have been. So 1286 01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:22,720 Speaker 1: the government that like was threatened by this may not 1287 01:08:22,880 --> 01:08:26,160 Speaker 1: have wanted it to be super public knowledge, right, just 1288 01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:28,519 Speaker 1: like the I don't think it's a good idea for 1289 01:08:28,600 --> 01:08:30,760 Speaker 1: people to know how quickly they came close, they came 1290 01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:34,200 Speaker 1: to overthrowing us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you shouldn't notice. Yeah, 1291 01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:36,800 Speaker 1: And and FDR probably sits down with these rich guys 1292 01:08:36,800 --> 01:08:39,120 Speaker 1: and it's like, look, we can hang you, and it 1293 01:08:39,120 --> 01:08:41,719 Speaker 1: will be ugly for everybody, Like there will be consequence, 1294 01:08:41,760 --> 01:08:44,880 Speaker 1: it will suck for me, Like listen, or you shut 1295 01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:46,679 Speaker 1: the funk up and let me do the new deal. 1296 01:08:46,840 --> 01:08:49,040 Speaker 1: You know, I love it man, the brand. Listen, this 1297 01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:51,879 Speaker 1: is a bad this is bad for everybody. Everybody loses. 1298 01:08:52,479 --> 01:08:56,479 Speaker 1: I'm gonna cut your head off. But like, let's just 1299 01:08:56,960 --> 01:08:58,920 Speaker 1: I love it. Good job, FDR. Yeah, I mean it 1300 01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:00,200 Speaker 1: was probably like I don't know, I'm not I say 1301 01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:01,439 Speaker 1: it was the right thing. I think it would have 1302 01:09:01,479 --> 01:09:04,360 Speaker 1: been better to prosecute these guys. But totally, he's in 1303 01:09:04,400 --> 01:09:06,320 Speaker 1: a rough position. He does what it seems like the 1304 01:09:06,400 --> 01:09:08,840 Speaker 1: best thing to do at the time. Now, based on 1305 01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:12,400 Speaker 1: her research, Sally Denton believes that had Smedley Butler gone 1306 01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:15,000 Speaker 1: along with the plot, it would have succeeded, and he 1307 01:09:15,120 --> 01:09:17,400 Speaker 1: might have been the only person capable of leading that 1308 01:09:17,520 --> 01:09:20,040 Speaker 1: fascist coup who also would have refused to do it. 1309 01:09:20,360 --> 01:09:22,760 Speaker 1: It is hard to overstate. How lucky we are that 1310 01:09:22,920 --> 01:09:25,560 Speaker 1: he was the man they went to write, like the 1311 01:09:25,680 --> 01:09:30,040 Speaker 1: one guy who had that kind of respect among veterans, 1312 01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:33,200 Speaker 1: who had that kind of talent and that kind of experience, 1313 01:09:33,439 --> 01:09:36,080 Speaker 1: and also doesn't give a funk about money, right, like 1314 01:09:37,439 --> 01:09:41,640 Speaker 1: the perfect Yes, the perfect combo yeah down, because he 1315 01:09:41,720 --> 01:09:44,800 Speaker 1: could if he even wanted it, and and cared about money. 1316 01:09:45,280 --> 01:09:47,639 Speaker 1: He could even extort these dudes, Yeah yeah, he could, 1317 01:09:47,680 --> 01:09:50,000 Speaker 1: and saying they're promisingly, we'll take care of your family. 1318 01:09:50,160 --> 01:09:52,720 Speaker 1: Your kids are never right. You're gonna take care of 1319 01:09:52,800 --> 01:09:55,360 Speaker 1: my family, Joe said, take care of my neighbor's family, 1320 01:09:55,520 --> 01:09:57,599 Speaker 1: and to take care of my children, the children, You're 1321 01:09:57,600 --> 01:10:01,320 Speaker 1: gonna take care of us until the pies. But he 1322 01:10:01,479 --> 01:10:05,479 Speaker 1: instead decides, the thing that I swore an oath for 1323 01:10:05,760 --> 01:10:09,200 Speaker 1: was to defend democracy, and that's what I'm going to 1324 01:10:09,320 --> 01:10:13,360 Speaker 1: fucking do. Um And for his part, the business plot 1325 01:10:13,400 --> 01:10:16,160 Speaker 1: seems to have been the final straw in Butler's radicalization. 1326 01:10:16,479 --> 01:10:19,560 Speaker 1: He realizes, after having been these rich guys trying to 1327 01:10:19,600 --> 01:10:21,160 Speaker 1: use him as a pon, that that's all he'd been 1328 01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:23,599 Speaker 1: doing his entire career as a soldier. He'd been upon 1329 01:10:23,680 --> 01:10:26,720 Speaker 1: a banbridge uh in nineteen thirty six, he votes for 1330 01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:30,840 Speaker 1: the socialist presidential candidate UM In nineteen thirty five, he 1331 01:10:30,920 --> 01:10:33,240 Speaker 1: publishes a short book based on a series of speeches 1332 01:10:33,280 --> 01:10:37,000 Speaker 1: he delivered. He starts traveling around the country delivering speeches, 1333 01:10:37,120 --> 01:10:39,880 Speaker 1: a speech titled war is a Racket, and I'm going 1334 01:10:39,920 --> 01:10:41,920 Speaker 1: to read you a summary. Butler wrote of his own 1335 01:10:42,000 --> 01:10:45,800 Speaker 1: book that kind of explains where this goes. War is 1336 01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:48,599 Speaker 1: a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, 1337 01:10:48,720 --> 01:10:51,840 Speaker 1: easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is 1338 01:10:51,920 --> 01:10:54,920 Speaker 1: the only one international in scope. It is the only 1339 01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:57,160 Speaker 1: one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and 1340 01:10:57,240 --> 01:11:00,360 Speaker 1: the losses in lives. A racket is best to scribed, 1341 01:11:00,400 --> 01:11:03,120 Speaker 1: I believe, as something that is not what it seems 1342 01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:06,040 Speaker 1: to the majority of the people. Only a small inside 1343 01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:08,519 Speaker 1: group knows what it is about. It is conducted for 1344 01:11:08,560 --> 01:11:10,920 Speaker 1: the benefit of the very few, at the expense of 1345 01:11:11,040 --> 01:11:13,920 Speaker 1: the very many. Out of war, a few people make 1346 01:11:14,080 --> 01:11:18,080 Speaker 1: huge fortunes. And he's there's a lot of good quote 1347 01:11:18,640 --> 01:11:22,080 Speaker 1: from Butler in general. That is good when he say 1348 01:11:22,720 --> 01:11:26,000 Speaker 1: the losses are in lives, but the profits are in dollars. 1349 01:11:26,680 --> 01:11:30,800 Speaker 1: Yeah god, yeah, good god. That's a bar. And he 1350 01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:35,080 Speaker 1: is truly unsparing. Like another quote of his that I 1351 01:11:35,200 --> 01:11:38,720 Speaker 1: love our boys were sent off to die with beautiful 1352 01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:41,559 Speaker 1: ideals painted in front of them. No one told them 1353 01:11:41,640 --> 01:11:44,280 Speaker 1: that dollars and cents were the real reason they were 1354 01:11:44,360 --> 01:11:48,519 Speaker 1: marching off to kill and die. Got dog dude, Yeah, 1355 01:11:48,600 --> 01:11:50,720 Speaker 1: I have a homeboy the music. He's a friend, but 1356 01:11:50,800 --> 01:11:55,080 Speaker 1: he's an incredible represents Bamboo. Yeah from Filipino dude. Uh 1357 01:11:55,520 --> 01:11:57,120 Speaker 1: uh boy, he's from l A who lives in the Bay. 1358 01:11:57,600 --> 01:12:00,840 Speaker 1: His wife, Rocky Rivera. Both amazing artists. Uh. Their whole 1359 01:12:00,920 --> 01:12:04,960 Speaker 1: label be Rock There all these like left wing guerrilla 1360 01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:10,400 Speaker 1: warfare like super revolutionary dudes. But he was he was 1361 01:12:10,479 --> 01:12:12,000 Speaker 1: an l A dude, got in trouble with the law 1362 01:12:12,280 --> 01:12:15,640 Speaker 1: and then, you know, like any other brown kid, you 1363 01:12:15,760 --> 01:12:17,479 Speaker 1: go to the military to try to like you know, 1364 01:12:17,880 --> 01:12:21,320 Speaker 1: get out of jail and kind of the same scenario. 1365 01:12:21,479 --> 01:12:25,240 Speaker 1: He came out of that so radicalized, so ready to 1366 01:12:25,320 --> 01:12:30,360 Speaker 1: be like this is all bull and I would never 1367 01:12:30,439 --> 01:12:31,880 Speaker 1: send another child, you know what I'm saying. He's not 1368 01:12:31,880 --> 01:12:34,200 Speaker 1: at all a pacifist, Don't get me wrong. Like the 1369 01:12:34,280 --> 01:12:37,519 Speaker 1: brother got a collection of like ancient island weapons, let 1370 01:12:37,600 --> 01:12:39,679 Speaker 1: alone guns. You know what I'm saying. So he ain't 1371 01:12:39,720 --> 01:12:43,400 Speaker 1: no pacifist, but he's like, I'm not dying for someone 1372 01:12:43,560 --> 01:12:49,280 Speaker 1: else's pockets. Yeah. It's like, yeah, this is crazy. Yeah. 1373 01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:52,040 Speaker 1: And and Butler, Butler is that. Butler's not a fashion 1374 01:12:52,320 --> 01:12:55,320 Speaker 1: or not not pacifist, and he's not anti military. He 1375 01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:58,560 Speaker 1: loves the military, he hates what it's used for. And 1376 01:12:58,640 --> 01:13:00,639 Speaker 1: he when he's delivering these speed which is he's trying 1377 01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:03,600 Speaker 1: to get Americans on board with a complete reformation of 1378 01:13:03,720 --> 01:13:06,800 Speaker 1: the military. Um, he believes that it should only ever 1379 01:13:06,880 --> 01:13:09,080 Speaker 1: be defensive in nature, and in order to make it that, 1380 01:13:09,439 --> 01:13:11,800 Speaker 1: he thinks the Navy should be limited to operating within 1381 01:13:11,880 --> 01:13:14,839 Speaker 1: two d miles of the coastline and the Army restricted 1382 01:13:14,880 --> 01:13:18,559 Speaker 1: from ever leaving the confines of the continental United States. UM. 1383 01:13:19,200 --> 01:13:23,840 Speaker 1: Yeah now that same yeah. Yeah, that he's he's trying 1384 01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:26,840 Speaker 1: to like, he thinks we need a military. It just 1385 01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:29,120 Speaker 1: we have to find a way to stop bankers from 1386 01:13:29,160 --> 01:13:32,559 Speaker 1: being able to use it to fight wars for profit. 1387 01:13:33,040 --> 01:13:37,639 Speaker 1: That's the problem. Um. In that same year, nineteen thirty five, 1388 01:13:37,720 --> 01:13:40,760 Speaker 1: Butler gives an interview to common Sense magazine where he 1389 01:13:40,840 --> 01:13:45,080 Speaker 1: tells the nation, quote, I spent thirty three years and 1390 01:13:45,240 --> 01:13:48,280 Speaker 1: four months in active military service, and during that period, 1391 01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:50,799 Speaker 1: I spent most of my time as a high class 1392 01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:53,759 Speaker 1: muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. 1393 01:13:54,000 --> 01:13:57,600 Speaker 1: In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. 1394 01:13:59,160 --> 01:14:01,160 Speaker 1: I remember that quote, Ye remember that quote from the 1395 01:14:01,200 --> 01:14:03,920 Speaker 1: police one. Yeah, he was just like, man, I'm just 1396 01:14:04,040 --> 01:14:07,559 Speaker 1: a goon. I was just a goon. Yeah, just muscle, 1397 01:14:07,720 --> 01:14:10,160 Speaker 1: just a goon. And man, this needs to be in 1398 01:14:10,680 --> 01:14:13,080 Speaker 1: dog I wish there's a reason it's not in your 1399 01:14:13,160 --> 01:14:16,840 Speaker 1: history textbooks, you know, every history book. You know what 1400 01:14:16,880 --> 01:14:20,240 Speaker 1: I'm saying, because yeah, because the reality is we don't have. 1401 01:14:20,600 --> 01:14:22,479 Speaker 1: Like I was as you were talking, I was like, 1402 01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:28,880 Speaker 1: do is there any figure in America now that could 1403 01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:32,640 Speaker 1: do that? And I'm like, I don't know, only the 1404 01:14:32,760 --> 01:14:35,920 Speaker 1: imaginary one, Like who's the movie The American Sniper? Was 1405 01:14:35,960 --> 01:14:39,960 Speaker 1: that movie? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that dude's imaginary. You 1406 01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:43,040 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. The real the real person that 1407 01:14:43,160 --> 01:14:46,839 Speaker 1: he was was like a lunatic, like dangerous, like murderer 1408 01:14:47,200 --> 01:14:49,920 Speaker 1: and a liar. Yeah yeah, and he couldn't lead up 1409 01:14:50,000 --> 01:14:52,280 Speaker 1: dash this insurrection. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. But 1410 01:14:52,439 --> 01:14:56,720 Speaker 1: like if if if the guy that that was portrayed 1411 01:14:56,880 --> 01:14:58,920 Speaker 1: was a real person, and maybe, but we ain't got 1412 01:14:59,000 --> 01:15:01,120 Speaker 1: one in real life, what I'm saying. But the one 1413 01:15:01,200 --> 01:15:04,000 Speaker 1: that did exist came out of the other end, going, Yo, 1414 01:15:04,560 --> 01:15:08,880 Speaker 1: these wars were crap, and I was just out there 1415 01:15:08,920 --> 01:15:12,599 Speaker 1: getting y'all's bags. Kitness is ridiculous. I was a fucking gangster. 1416 01:15:13,560 --> 01:15:16,959 Speaker 1: Got He spent the rest of his life giving speeches 1417 01:15:17,040 --> 01:15:20,800 Speaker 1: and trying to radicalize veterans and mourning in public that 1418 01:15:20,960 --> 01:15:23,519 Speaker 1: he and his comrades had only ever fought for, in 1419 01:15:23,720 --> 01:15:27,840 Speaker 1: his words, the benefit of millionaires and billionaires. He insisted 1420 01:15:28,000 --> 01:15:30,479 Speaker 1: that he had named names to the committee, that he had, 1421 01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:32,639 Speaker 1: that he had given the names of the people involved, 1422 01:15:32,920 --> 01:15:35,360 Speaker 1: but that those names had been removed from his testimony 1423 01:15:35,439 --> 01:15:38,160 Speaker 1: before it was made public. In a radio of an interview, 1424 01:15:38,200 --> 01:15:41,360 Speaker 1: he insisted, like most committees, it has slaughtered the little 1425 01:15:41,439 --> 01:15:44,240 Speaker 1: and allowed the big to escape. The big shots weren't 1426 01:15:44,240 --> 01:15:50,200 Speaker 1: even called to testify. Yeah, if that ain't the Straights, 1427 01:15:50,360 --> 01:15:53,479 Speaker 1: broy it's very And it's not for nothing that he 1428 01:15:54,240 --> 01:15:57,280 Speaker 1: names himself as a gangster. You know, he recognizes like 1429 01:15:57,520 --> 01:15:59,840 Speaker 1: it's exactly why. Yeah, I'm saying the little, the little 1430 01:16:00,240 --> 01:16:03,600 Speaker 1: cornerboy doing fifteen years, you know what I'm saying. But 1431 01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:05,479 Speaker 1: nobody go to the You know what I'm saying, that 1432 01:16:05,600 --> 01:16:09,240 Speaker 1: the Russian oligarch that got him fifteen bricks, you know 1433 01:16:09,240 --> 01:16:12,040 Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like he's living nice in the Hollywood Hills. 1434 01:16:12,160 --> 01:16:14,200 Speaker 1: They don't even he's not even in the testimony, you 1435 01:16:14,240 --> 01:16:17,960 Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's crazy, And it's fucking one 1436 01:16:18,000 --> 01:16:19,840 Speaker 1: of the things that is because there's so much that's 1437 01:16:19,840 --> 01:16:21,760 Speaker 1: a bummer about this story, right that they just get 1438 01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:24,439 Speaker 1: away with it. But there is there's hope in it too. 1439 01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:26,120 Speaker 1: And and the hope, I think is in the story 1440 01:16:26,120 --> 01:16:28,880 Speaker 1: of Smedley Butler, this guy who could not have been 1441 01:16:28,960 --> 01:16:34,000 Speaker 1: a more dedicated soldier of imperialism and realizes he was 1442 01:16:34,080 --> 01:16:38,800 Speaker 1: wrong and spends the rest of his life fighting against you. 1443 01:16:39,080 --> 01:16:41,240 Speaker 1: You can't, you can't. You know, there's no time machine. 1444 01:16:41,320 --> 01:16:43,960 Speaker 1: You can't go back and undo what you did to 1445 01:16:44,240 --> 01:16:47,120 Speaker 1: freaking Haiti and Costa Rica and the Banana Wars. You 1446 01:16:47,200 --> 01:16:50,960 Speaker 1: can't go back and redo that. But I can do 1447 01:16:51,080 --> 01:16:54,000 Speaker 1: the best, my best to pay it forward. That's good man. Yeah, 1448 01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:57,000 Speaker 1: it's it is a It's a real story of of redemption, 1449 01:16:57,080 --> 01:16:59,640 Speaker 1: of redemption, and of a man who was had a 1450 01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:02,200 Speaker 1: You gotta respect the amount of self knowledge to be 1451 01:17:02,320 --> 01:17:04,840 Speaker 1: able to admit I spent thirty three fucking years as 1452 01:17:04,880 --> 01:17:09,599 Speaker 1: a gangster. My friends died in a gang war over money, 1453 01:17:09,760 --> 01:17:13,040 Speaker 1: you know, liken ours, but we don't even get to 1454 01:17:13,120 --> 01:17:16,400 Speaker 1: collect Big Sean on it. Last record was like, dude, 1455 01:17:16,479 --> 01:17:19,800 Speaker 1: John dying over street corners you don't even own, like 1456 01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:21,920 Speaker 1: and it's like, yeah, that like that where you just like, 1457 01:17:22,000 --> 01:17:24,120 Speaker 1: we don't even oh we don't even own these projects. 1458 01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:30,880 Speaker 1: We'll own these property. Dang, that's crazy. Yeah, anyway, that's 1459 01:17:30,920 --> 01:17:35,760 Speaker 1: the business plot. So it happened here. It happened here. 1460 01:17:36,320 --> 01:17:38,400 Speaker 1: Uh and the only reason it didn't happen all the 1461 01:17:38,439 --> 01:17:40,840 Speaker 1: way is that there happened to be one really good 1462 01:17:40,960 --> 01:17:45,280 Speaker 1: man in the middle of it. Dang, that is crazy. Yeah, 1463 01:17:46,600 --> 01:17:56,559 Speaker 1: So thanks Smedley Butler. Right, we appreciate you one good dude. Yeah, 1464 01:17:56,600 --> 01:17:58,479 Speaker 1: And I will say I think that's maybe another one 1465 01:17:58,520 --> 01:18:00,800 Speaker 1: of the optimistic things take out of it is that 1466 01:18:00,880 --> 01:18:05,840 Speaker 1: it is a story of sometimes a single person with 1467 01:18:06,000 --> 01:18:09,280 Speaker 1: the right who is willing to make a moral stand 1468 01:18:09,880 --> 01:18:15,400 Speaker 1: can be the difference between calamity um and and and 1469 01:18:16,040 --> 01:18:23,800 Speaker 1: not calamity. You know, yeah, wow, any proper you got 1470 01:18:23,840 --> 01:18:25,760 Speaker 1: some plug doubles to plug as we as we roll 1471 01:18:25,840 --> 01:18:30,720 Speaker 1: out of behind the insurrections. This has been You can't 1472 01:18:30,760 --> 01:18:37,680 Speaker 1: say a pleasure, can you? But it it was. I 1473 01:18:38,439 --> 01:18:41,720 Speaker 1: enjoy every time I get to like work with you 1474 01:18:41,800 --> 01:18:44,040 Speaker 1: all and here about the most horrible things in the world. 1475 01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:46,120 Speaker 1: They're always just They're a great time of my day. 1476 01:18:46,200 --> 01:18:48,320 Speaker 1: Although it takes me like an hour to recoup after 1477 01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:52,120 Speaker 1: we do this. Um, but yeah, thank you so much 1478 01:18:52,160 --> 01:18:54,920 Speaker 1: again for having me prop hip hop dot com. Uh 1479 01:18:55,240 --> 01:18:59,720 Speaker 1: if this as of the day that you're hearing this, um, 1480 01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:04,800 Speaker 1: which is Thursday, right is Thursday one. Yeah, I will 1481 01:19:04,840 --> 01:19:08,280 Speaker 1: be dropping new music the next day Friday morning, new video, 1482 01:19:08,439 --> 01:19:11,800 Speaker 1: new music. So uh, please go to proper pop dot com. 1483 01:19:12,160 --> 01:19:15,120 Speaker 1: You can subscribe to the YouTube, get on Spotify of 1484 01:19:15,240 --> 01:19:18,840 Speaker 1: a ton of new music. Um a new coffee drop 1485 01:19:18,920 --> 01:19:22,560 Speaker 1: into yeah, propit pop dot com. I gotta get you 1486 01:19:22,640 --> 01:19:25,000 Speaker 1: a bean man, Yeah you do, Yeah, you do. Gotta 1487 01:19:25,000 --> 01:19:27,200 Speaker 1: get you on poor Gummy Fridays too. Man, you're not 1488 01:19:27,280 --> 01:19:30,479 Speaker 1: on Instagram? Well, yeah, I do have an Instagram. I 1489 01:19:30,560 --> 01:19:32,720 Speaker 1: only follow one guy so far, and he's the guy 1490 01:19:32,760 --> 01:19:35,400 Speaker 1: who's making knives for me. You have an Instagram. I 1491 01:19:35,520 --> 01:19:38,720 Speaker 1: feel betrayed. I wanted to look at knives. I mean 1492 01:19:38,800 --> 01:19:42,040 Speaker 1: I forgive that part, but but I could. I could 1493 01:19:42,080 --> 01:19:45,040 Speaker 1: add I could have coffee and knives be my Instagram things. 1494 01:19:45,080 --> 01:19:49,120 Speaker 1: What about Sophie and Anderson? I get I talked to 1495 01:19:49,160 --> 01:19:53,160 Speaker 1: you on signal. This is true, this is heartful. But 1496 01:19:53,280 --> 01:19:55,600 Speaker 1: I feel you. I feel you. Either way, We're going 1497 01:19:55,640 --> 01:19:58,120 Speaker 1: to figure it out. Yes, I do you if you're 1498 01:19:58,160 --> 01:20:01,080 Speaker 1: a fun follow. Wait, maybe you log into the Bastards 1499 01:20:01,120 --> 01:20:03,840 Speaker 1: pods Instagram and I've never posted or whatever it is 1500 01:20:03,920 --> 01:20:08,320 Speaker 1: you do on Instagram. Do you post? Yeah, you post? Yeah, 1501 01:20:10,520 --> 01:20:13,240 Speaker 1: I could add you. All right, Well, don't find me 1502 01:20:13,280 --> 01:20:15,200 Speaker 1: on anyway, grand because I'm not going to tell any 1503 01:20:15,320 --> 01:20:17,800 Speaker 1: action there. You'll find me prop on Instagram. No one 1504 01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:23,160 Speaker 1: else I will find yes, um and yeah, Well we'll 1505 01:20:23,320 --> 01:20:27,800 Speaker 1: be back next week for something different. Um. It'll be 1506 01:20:27,920 --> 01:20:30,519 Speaker 1: fun uh and a little bit of a break, and 1507 01:20:30,560 --> 01:20:33,519 Speaker 1: then we'll probably get back to talking about genocides pretty soon. 1508 01:20:33,720 --> 01:20:38,600 Speaker 1: Won't be long genocide every month. That's the behind the 1509 01:20:38,640 --> 01:20:45,520 Speaker 1: Bastards promise. That is our promise. I have a good one. Byewses. 1510 01:20:49,160 --> 01:20:51,719 Speaker 1: After thirty years, it's time to return to the halls 1511 01:20:51,760 --> 01:20:54,080 Speaker 1: of West Beverly High and hang out at the peach pit. 1512 01:20:54,320 --> 01:20:58,000 Speaker 1: On the podcast one O MG visit Jenny Guards and 1513 01:20:58,120 --> 01:21:00,880 Speaker 1: Tory Spelling for a rewatch of the A series Beverly 1514 01:21:01,000 --> 01:21:03,200 Speaker 1: Hills nine O two one oh. From the very beginning, 1515 01:21:03,400 --> 01:21:06,439 Speaker 1: we get to tell the fans all of the behind 1516 01:21:06,560 --> 01:21:08,880 Speaker 1: the scenes stories to actually happen, so they know what 1517 01:21:09,000 --> 01:21:11,720 Speaker 1: happened on camera obviously, but we can tell them all 1518 01:21:11,880 --> 01:21:14,000 Speaker 1: the good stuff that happen off camera. Listen to nine 1519 01:21:14,040 --> 01:21:16,439 Speaker 1: O two one O MG on the I Heart Radio app, 1520 01:21:16,479 --> 01:21:20,280 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You always 1521 01:21:20,360 --> 01:21:24,040 Speaker 1: had the feeling that there's something strange about reality. According 1522 01:21:24,080 --> 01:21:26,519 Speaker 1: to the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, there is. 1523 01:21:26,840 --> 01:21:30,240 Speaker 1: On the show, post Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick examine 1524 01:21:30,320 --> 01:21:35,880 Speaker 1: neurological quandaries, cosmic mysteries, evolutionary marvels, and much more. Prosthetics 1525 01:21:35,960 --> 01:21:39,240 Speaker 1: are true testaments to not only human craftsmanship and ingenuity, 1526 01:21:39,320 --> 01:21:41,920 Speaker 1: but also to the plasticity of the human brain. Listen 1527 01:21:41,920 --> 01:21:43,559 Speaker 1: to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the I Heart 1528 01:21:43,640 --> 01:21:45,840 Speaker 1: Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to 1529 01:21:45,880 --> 01:21:48,080 Speaker 1: you by dot dot go. Protect your privacy online for 1530 01:21:48,160 --> 01:21:53,120 Speaker 1: free with dot dot go. On April four, Dr Martin 1531 01:21:53,240 --> 01:21:55,840 Speaker 1: Luther King was shot and killed in Memphis, a petty 1532 01:21:55,880 --> 01:22:00,320 Speaker 1: criminal named James Earl Ray was arrested. Case closed right 1533 01:22:00,840 --> 01:22:05,360 Speaker 1: James Sylvay was a pawn for the official story. Some 1534 01:22:05,560 --> 01:22:08,439 Speaker 1: of the evidence, as far as I was concerned, did 1535 01:22:08,479 --> 01:22:12,720 Speaker 1: not match the circumstances. This is the MLK Tapes. The 1536 01:22:12,800 --> 01:22:15,960 Speaker 1: first episodes are available now. Listen on the I Heart 1537 01:22:16,040 --> 01:22:19,520 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.