Either you’ve got a better sense of humor that I would have given you credit for, or you just went speeding over a cliff on the sanity highway in a jet-propelled, monkey-piloted super car.
Oh no no no, I’m quite serious about those two. And it has some hard, scientific evidence to back it up, although for some reason a loose footing in the scientific community. There’s plenty of reasons to believe tornadoes and hurricanes and dust devils are eletrical vortices, and there are plenty of reasons to believe a comet’s glow is caused by an eletrical discharge between it and the sun.
Do a search for some of the stuff. Or if you wish, whine and cry and make fun of me for saying this for long enough and maybe I’ll post some links.
Actually, by SDMB/GD custom and protocol, you’re supposed to do that first, or as soon as somebody posts, “Cite?”
In any case, you’re making two separate assertions here:
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It is a proven fact that the true nature of comets/hurricanes is [I’m sure what you’re saying on this point, actually – do you mean comets are, or are not, “dirty snowballs”?].
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It is also a proven fact that the above is known to certain persons who have covered it up to prevent widespread panic.
Can you back up both of those?
To return to the OP, didn’t Roosevelt provide considerably more aid to the Allies prior to Dec 7, 1941 (A Date That Will Live In Infamy) than the public was told? Granted, most of this was not in the form of direct military aid, but IIRC FDR really played fast and loose with presidential power for two major reasons: one, that he did not want American shipping to become a legitimate target of war, and two, that there was a sizable portion of the US population that was sympathetic to Germany and/or indifferent to the problems of the rest of Europe and Asia, and would not have supported providing aid to the Allies. We tend to forget about that latter, it being rather embarassing now, but there was a not insignificant portion of the population that thought Hitler was pretty much OK with them.
I’d say that that was a conspiracy that turned out well, even if I rather disapprove of the means.
I agree with Shagnasty. The degree to which the press cooperated in the cover-up of FDR’s handicap was crucial to his political success.
Or maybe the disclosure would have just brought that continuing trade to an abrupt end, which would have hurt the German war effort more than the American.
I’d say a the intelligence coup’s carried out against the Nazis during WW2 fall into this category. Someone already mentioned the Enigma “Ultra” codebreakers, though some would say the post-war continuation of this “conspiracy” was a less the laudable attempt to ensure britian could successfully spy on its former colonies (who were supplied with technology based on the Enigma system, which could then be cracked). Though when a good intellgence op becomes a “conspiracy” is a grey area:
Operation Mincemeat
“Double cross”
The radar in the Mosquito fighter-bomber
But that really comes under military-strategic secrets, not the kind of secret that is covered up for fear of public reaction or legal consequences.
The public’s alleged complete ignorance about FDR’s paralysis during his presidency is, unfortunately, a growing misconception. If you ask anybody who was around during that time, they’ll tell you that most people were aware FDR was in a wheelchair. That fact, however,was downplayed–as opposed to being outright suppressed–because it was considered to be impolite and in bad form to make too much note of it in public. Social mores were a lot different in the 1930’s than they are now.
The current Presidential Curse thread reminded me of an article I read a few months back. The ER surgeon who had been on duty when Reagan was brought in after being shot spoke about that night, painting a picture that his patient was much closer to death than had been publically stated at the time. This might well be a case of a secret having been good for the public’s well being.