Glenn and I were curious about this Expo and Jobs Fair, and so took the Yellow Line out to the Expo Center.
If in tourist mode, then right off the train, check out the subtle memorials to the days when Japanese were proving economically successful, especially as vegetable growers.
Other farmers were jealous of the Japanese (or "Japs" for short) and wanted less competition and more land. WWII gave them exactly the excuse they needed, to confiscate the lands and own all the vegetables.
Today's Expo was about "vegetables" as well, cannabis in particular. Prohibition has only been repealed in a few states as of this writing, to the degree where only a tiny minority of US Americans might legally enjoy what God put freely on this Earth.
Lots of money and jobs are stemming from this boom economy, however most states have no such opportunities as the Feds are still criminalizing it, like they used to do with booze. The repeal of the 18th Amendment, in the form of the 21st, did nothing to make cannabis less of a controlled substance.
However, tax-starved states and municipalities recognize a cash cow when they see one. Since they're allowed to get money from gambling and selling alcohol, why not from marijuana as well?
The presidential candidates, meanwhile, are about as silent on the issue of rolling back Prohibition as they are about US colonialism in Puerto Rico.
We might tie our story back to the theme of unwanted competition at this point.
When US corporations started large scale farming in Hawaii, they found themselves up against those productive Japanese again.
Japanese were uppity and believed they had human rights. The solution was to bring in more Puerto Ricans and Filipinos, who would work harder for lower wages.
In a later chapter, the GM-type corporations would again become heatedly anti-Japanese, as their local car industry started feeling the competition. Demonizing Japanese was in vogue once again.
Of course Korea, still smarting from America's supporting Japan after the war, in keeping Korea partitioned, is not inclined to support Japan all that much either. Korea is a lot like Russia in asking why America stayed so friendly with the Nazis.
Because history is messy? Many Nazis were good at STEM and the military industrial complex needed more lethal weapons, the better to fight anti-colonialist nationalists or "Communists". Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada... and that's just in the "backyard" (where a lot of the fruit and vegetables come from).
Lets remember that many "governments" (i.e. the "gangs in charge"), if wanting to stay eligible for Drug War money (to buy weapons), which the US dispenses with largess, need to kill, maim and imprison their own people, just like the Big Daddy USA does.
Having extorted money for weapons from drug-using US Americans (mostly prescription, pushed on TV), the USG then uses it in Afghanistan to destroy lucrative opium crops, and cocaine crops in Latin America. Ruthlessly destroying the competition is what "capitalism" is all about.
This ongoing destruction of infrastructure and local economies is done in the name of Christianity as well in many cases, as religion hates competition from medications. Priests alone must do the healing. Remember what Marx said about "opium of the people"? Exactly.
Other insecure religions besides Christianity fear the competition, from entheogens in particular. Only the officially designated and approved authorities should mediate between the masses and the many varieties of religious experience. That usually means psychiatrists, or priests, not shamans.
Demonizing drugs not authorized by state licensed practitioners, the ones who play the game and pay for the privilege, is the point of endless propaganda campaigns.
Now that Oregon has licensed its growers and sellers (many of them), there's a ceasefire in the demonizing, as there's money to be made. The bankers are especially miffed, as they're under pressure from the Feds to not play on the "wrong side". But then which side is the losing side?
Years of Prohibition turned US Americans into criminals and scofflaws pretty much across the board. As Americans, we're used to thinking of laws as tools of oppression, meant to be broken, with pride and a clear conscience. Laws against interracial marriage were about dividing and conquering the workforce. In retrospect. Apartheid looks like Jim Crow which looks like Nazi Germany.
The stereotypical cannabis users (or "stoner") has not even a smidgen of guilt or remorse for indulging in such "depraved" (i.e. "sinful") activity. They're typically not bombing and terrorizing others, so actually feel morally superior to those doing the bidding of company slave masters.
The USG is relatively easy to demonize on the other hand. It's really hard to see why anyone would want to be a US president. Why have something that ugly on one's resume? Who wants to brag about being a warlord?
If in tourist mode, then right off the train, check out the subtle memorials to the days when Japanese were proving economically successful, especially as vegetable growers.
Other farmers were jealous of the Japanese (or "Japs" for short) and wanted less competition and more land. WWII gave them exactly the excuse they needed, to confiscate the lands and own all the vegetables.
Today's Expo was about "vegetables" as well, cannabis in particular. Prohibition has only been repealed in a few states as of this writing, to the degree where only a tiny minority of US Americans might legally enjoy what God put freely on this Earth.
Lots of money and jobs are stemming from this boom economy, however most states have no such opportunities as the Feds are still criminalizing it, like they used to do with booze. The repeal of the 18th Amendment, in the form of the 21st, did nothing to make cannabis less of a controlled substance.
However, tax-starved states and municipalities recognize a cash cow when they see one. Since they're allowed to get money from gambling and selling alcohol, why not from marijuana as well?
The presidential candidates, meanwhile, are about as silent on the issue of rolling back Prohibition as they are about US colonialism in Puerto Rico.
We might tie our story back to the theme of unwanted competition at this point.
When US corporations started large scale farming in Hawaii, they found themselves up against those productive Japanese again.
Japanese were uppity and believed they had human rights. The solution was to bring in more Puerto Ricans and Filipinos, who would work harder for lower wages.
In a later chapter, the GM-type corporations would again become heatedly anti-Japanese, as their local car industry started feeling the competition. Demonizing Japanese was in vogue once again.
Of course Korea, still smarting from America's supporting Japan after the war, in keeping Korea partitioned, is not inclined to support Japan all that much either. Korea is a lot like Russia in asking why America stayed so friendly with the Nazis.
Because history is messy? Many Nazis were good at STEM and the military industrial complex needed more lethal weapons, the better to fight anti-colonialist nationalists or "Communists". Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada... and that's just in the "backyard" (where a lot of the fruit and vegetables come from).
Lets remember that many "governments" (i.e. the "gangs in charge"), if wanting to stay eligible for Drug War money (to buy weapons), which the US dispenses with largess, need to kill, maim and imprison their own people, just like the Big Daddy USA does.
Having extorted money for weapons from drug-using US Americans (mostly prescription, pushed on TV), the USG then uses it in Afghanistan to destroy lucrative opium crops, and cocaine crops in Latin America. Ruthlessly destroying the competition is what "capitalism" is all about.
This ongoing destruction of infrastructure and local economies is done in the name of Christianity as well in many cases, as religion hates competition from medications. Priests alone must do the healing. Remember what Marx said about "opium of the people"? Exactly.
Other insecure religions besides Christianity fear the competition, from entheogens in particular. Only the officially designated and approved authorities should mediate between the masses and the many varieties of religious experience. That usually means psychiatrists, or priests, not shamans.
Demonizing drugs not authorized by state licensed practitioners, the ones who play the game and pay for the privilege, is the point of endless propaganda campaigns.
Now that Oregon has licensed its growers and sellers (many of them), there's a ceasefire in the demonizing, as there's money to be made. The bankers are especially miffed, as they're under pressure from the Feds to not play on the "wrong side". But then which side is the losing side?
Years of Prohibition turned US Americans into criminals and scofflaws pretty much across the board. As Americans, we're used to thinking of laws as tools of oppression, meant to be broken, with pride and a clear conscience. Laws against interracial marriage were about dividing and conquering the workforce. In retrospect. Apartheid looks like Jim Crow which looks like Nazi Germany.
The stereotypical cannabis users (or "stoner") has not even a smidgen of guilt or remorse for indulging in such "depraved" (i.e. "sinful") activity. They're typically not bombing and terrorizing others, so actually feel morally superior to those doing the bidding of company slave masters.
The USG is relatively easy to demonize on the other hand. It's really hard to see why anyone would want to be a US president. Why have something that ugly on one's resume? Who wants to brag about being a warlord?
