Smedley Butler

[66polara]

As a somewhat interesting aside, Butler is honored with a Marine Corp Base named after him on Okinawa.

[Little_Nemo]

Referring to this column.

[Little_Nemo]

On a related subject; what were Burr and Wilkinson up to in 1805?

[Humble_Servant]

As a somewhat interesting aside, I am so old that I still play the short club convention.

[sub]At our house, we don’t have to debate elections or the war while playing bridge–the reprise of the play is generally more vicious than mere political argument can hope to aspire to.[/sub]

[Good_Egg]

He was probably the only person named Smedley.

[movingfinger]

When I went through Marine boot camp in 1961, recruits whose job was to wait on the drill instructors in the mess hall and serve them their food were called “Smedleys”.

Get it? They were butlers! Har, har, har! Butlers! Smedleys! Har, har, cough, gack, hrrrmf! Umm, yes, well…

[JRDelirious]

Butler, a two-time Medal of Honor awardee, was well known as a maverick officer. He failed to become Commandant and was put on a dead-end DC billet (ergo pushed into retirement) for being offensive to Benito Mussolini, which in hindsight seems a lame reason to screw over a hero. Marine Corps Legacy Museum page on Butler.

Shortly upon retirement wrote a book titled War is a Racket; his most illustrious quote is a famous passage about imperialism:

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
“Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”

[Beware_of_Doug]

@movingfinger

When I went through Marine boot camp in 1961, recruits whose job was to wait on the drill instructors in the mess hall and serve them their food were called “Smedleys”.

Get it? They were butlers! Har, har, har! Butlers! Smedleys! Har, har, cough, gack, hrrrmf! Umm, yes, well…

So…what exactly does the Corps (excuse me, Corp) think of old Smedley?

[judybinfo]

“Though the idea of a popular revolt financed by zillionaires seems harebrained now…”

not in my book! corporate America seems to have quite a say in how our government operates, and a bit of control over the press now, too . . . more so than since I first started paying attention, at least (in the Nixon era).

[The_Long_Road]

War is a racket

Can’t believe I never heard of this guy.

[JohnT]

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
“Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”

He didn’t do a very good job, now did he?

[JRDelirious]

@JohnT

He didn’t do a very good job, now did he?

Oh, while he was around he did a socko job – but then he retired and died and look how everything went down the tubes since
And judybinfo, that’s precisely part of the deal – if the statu quo IS at the service of corporate fat cats, anyone from among their ranks seeking to overtly overthrow it would have to be harebrained.