Hemp, and Empire by Rand Clifford

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by Rand Clifford
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 15, 2010

“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

That was GHW Bush’s answer to reporter Sarah McClendon’s question in 1992 regarding what Iran-Contra was all about. He also told her that, “If the American people really knew what we had done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.”

Extraordinarily candid of “Poppy” Bush, revealing not only the fundamental goals of Iran-Contra, but also the ultimate goal of financial Elites, now and always. For those people who really pay attention, Poppy’s candidness was generic, dredging up moans of, “Oh…really?” And to our distracted masses who chronically pay little attention, it was mere wasted insight, naked truth—especially the part about what the American people would do if they “…really knew what we had done…” Can you imagine mainstream media (MSM…also known as, CorpoMedia) giving the masses truth about what is being done to them? CorpoMedia tells the masses exactly what they want the masses to believe; truth is irrelevant. They call it “perception management”. What do you think about having your perceptions managed?

And speaking of lynchings…even with the list of treasonous candidates so bloated, and growing every day, there will be no lynchings—at least not until the masses learn to think for themselves instead of simply slogging along in a fantasy land spun for them by CorpoMedia, slogging along imagining there is meaningful truth amid the monolith of daily official lies; imagining TV has anything to do with reality, especially, “reality” TV.

So what about our representatives in Washington D.C.?  In 2009 the average net worth across the Senate was $13,989,022.98, led by Herb Kohl, a Democrat from Wisconsin, who was worth an estimated $214,570,011 in 2008. In the House of Representatives there are actually a few who officially declare a negative net worth…while the highest net worth goes to Darrell Issa (R-California), almost $165 million. Such are the monied hands our government OF The People, BY The People, FOR The People has been financed into. Are you a multi-millionaire? Is your neighbor? How many multi-millionaires do you know personally? These are not The People, and they are not FOR The People.

After the Supreme Court recently ruled that there are no limits to the amount of money corporations may spend to influence elections, ownership of our government OF the Elite, BY the Elite, For the Elite, though obvious for so many years, has now been officially cemented—even beyond such contemporary jokes as “e-voting”. Who do you think is laughing?

Perhaps it only makes sense that the Elite own our government, since they own practically everything else. In 2009, the wealthiest 10% of Americans owned 71% of all US assets, with the wealthiest 1% owning 38%. And if that lopsided distribution of wealth isn’t hideous enough, our recent collapse of financial markets because of Wall Street Casino devilry turned into the greatest upward transfer of wealth in history. All we can expect is more of the same, especially considering the quadrillion? dollars worth of casino currently being obscured on Big Bank balance sheets.

By the way, the bottom 40% of Americans control 0.2% of wealth in America.

The way things are going, if we can somehow avoid extincting the human species, it won’t be long before a handful of oligarchs and their minions, the “…higher, tighter and righter hands”, control virtually all of the world’s wealth, while everyone else is essentially a slave.

However, there IS a natural ally that has been saving people for thousands of years, one powerful enough to save us even from our globalist/imperialist/capitalist miasma. That natural powerhouse older than money is hemp.

Hemp…a more useful, beneficial crop is hard to imagine. Throughout the history of civilization hemp has been the ultimate famine buster; hemp seed is our best source of vegetable protein, one of nature’s finest foods. Legendary also for its versatility, hemp today offers thousands of products that could replace so many modern consumer goods with natural, often cheaper and better alternatives…one has to wonder if it will ever be legal again to farm industrial hemp in America, considering its potential for reallocation and spreading around of wealth.

In the early days of our “republic”, in many situations it was illegal not to farm hemp. Then in the early 1930s, machinery to greatly reduce the labor-intensity of hemp farming was developed. Popular Mechanics magazine, in February of 1938, ran a cover story praising the new machinery to make hemp so competitive, hailing hemp as “The New Billion-Dollar Crop”. Alas…it was already looking black for hemp; in 1937, congress had passed an illegal tax law that essentially outlawed hemp farming in the United States. Surprise!

“Reefer Madness” was being hammered into the heads of Americans by William Randolph Hearst’s national chain of newspapers, with help from other media. Then came WWII, and the feds’ new film “Hemp For Victory!” They glorified hemp as an indispensable ally, doing all they could to entice farmers into growing hemp for the war effort. They actually told the truth…. Hemp helped us win the Big War…then the feds resumed their mantra about marijuana being the “Assassin of Youth”. Any hard evidence of “Hemp for Victory” went down the memory hole, they hoped….

The true reason our farmers face prison and fines for growing hemp is much the same as it was 73 years ago: Hemp’s threat to profits from cotton, timber and paper—and especially, oil—for starters. Shifting of vast profits of entrenched industrialists toward The People would be involved, and there lies the pinch. If hemp were legal to farm, certain nefarious Elite schemes since the Industrial Revolution would be jeopardized.

So now, over seventy years since farming of the most valuable crop in history was domestically banned, look around at the death and decay. Big Oil has prevailed to the point that one of the most admired countries in the world has become the most dangerous, an Imperial Thanatos trampling the globe, killing people for control of the last great reserves and supply routes to Western markets of the black gold that is killing our biosphere. Oceans are dying. The atmosphere is heating up. And Imperial Thanatos is threatening anyone who might stand in the way of its “Benign Global Hegemony” with preemptive annihilation from the greatest killing power ever amassed, including “tactical” nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, back in the homeland, “The continuous consolidation of wealth and power into higher, tighter and righter hands” has so concentrated the nation’s wealth that for the vast majority of Americans, their standard of living is plummeting while the American Dream becomes a nightmare, and the Elite laugh it up.

For too many 18+ year-olds, the best job opportunities are in the business of killing foreigners for their resources, or pipeline routes, such as in Afghanistan. America is morally, spiritually and financially bankrupt. Higher, tighter and righter hands exalt globalization, and a New World Order—final phase in our inevitable bloody slog toward a world of Lords, and serfs….

But is it inevitable? If we kicked the oil addiction, and moved away from globalization, toward regionalization, the future might look less black…even, green? We are always lectured about how oil is vital for everything! Oil gives us our food, fuel, fiber, plastics, rubber, medicine…ad nauseam. But, we DO have an alternative. Fully utilizing hemp, instead of oil, we could move toward a greener future, living in a living system, as opposed to dying in a dying system. Oil is death, originally and perpetually, very old death. Watch what happens in the Gulf of Mexico, despite the “news”…. Hemp is living. Food, fuel, fiber, paper, plastics, medicine, on and on—hemp has the potential to replace many products of oil and petrochemical alchemy with products that, exactly unlike oil, have a place in a living system.

And now we approach a most telling time in the history of American hemp interdiction. Medical marijuana is advancing rapidly, despite the hypocrisy of being classified as a schedule 1 drug (no medicinal uses). The Oakland city council gave final approval last week to make their’s the first city in the country to allow “…large-scale industrial pot cultivation.” They intend to license four production facilities to grow, process and package medical marijuana—which will “…be heavily taxed and regulated.”

We are also in the midst of a country-wide push to legalize the personal use of marijuana, also to be heavily taxed and regulated. So the big question flying at us is: If possession and personal consumption of marijuana were to be decriminalized, will domestic hemp farming remain banned?

By linking industrial hemp (no drug potential) with the drug marijuana, then employing the shameful and ridiculous “Reefer Madness” chicanery—that’s how the feds snuffed hemp’s competitive potential with entrenched industries in the first place. They rarely speak truth, would never admit anything like: “Certainly, we used the nastiest tricks to kill the American Hemp Industry back in ‘37. Hearst was pretty worked up about hemp’s threat to his timber and paper biz, especially since duPont had recently patented sulfuric acid paper processing. Cotton men were itchy. Rockefeller…oil men barked loud and clear. The list is a long one. And petrochemicals were gonna be the next monster thing. Lotsa money at stake. So we made ‘em all happy, pulled the plug on hemp by linking it with marijuana. Slick.”

They were so lucky to have marijuana, and still are. But what if they lose their massive War On Drugs cash cow? If possession and private consumption of marijuana becomes legal, how will the feds justify continued prohibition of hemp farming? Will farmers be allowed to again grow industrial hemp? Will the War On Drugs die of starvation? Will We The People be allowed one of our greatest weapons to fight globalization—to empower regionalization and help to fairly spread the wealth?

Naw…they’ll find a way to keep tyrannizing us, to perpetuate the status quo. They always seem to because never do enough people know the truth. Too many people are having their perceptions “managed”.

For instance, how many people know anything about Ron Paul’s latest hemp bill, co-sponsored by Barney Frank: HR 1866, “The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009″?

The inevitable place such bills go to die is:

The House Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

Slick.

What do you think has made Americans such slow learners?

Rand’s novels CASTLING, a “Story of the Power of Hemp” and, TIMING, the sequel are published by StarChief Press.

see

H.R.1866: Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009 – U.S. Congress – OpenCongress

Wake Up Obama by Joel S. Hirschhorn

Truth In Labeling: It’s “Anti-Empire”… by Philip A. Farruggio

We Hold These Truths… By Timothy V. Gatto

Michael Parenti: Deep Ideology: How Reactionary Agendas Shape Political Awareness (must-see)

From the archives:

Blood, Oil & US Empire

King Hemp Part I: From DEA Deadly Birdseed, Toward Power to the People By Rand Clifford

King Hemp: Part 2: Battle Lines: Natural, Or Synthetic…Life, Or Death? By Rand Clifford

King Hemp Part 3: We Got Mugged, So Let’s Get Hemp Back By Rand Clifford

King Hemp IV: Rope and Dope By Rand Clifford

King Hemp V: Industrial Disease By Rand Clifford