Posted on 06/26/2009 9:44:41 PM PDT by Lorianne
Conspiracy theorists point to an assortment of groups they think secretly run the country -- the gun lobby, Big Oil, the New World Order and even Yale's Skull and Bones society have all been fingered as the shadowy Illuminati who rule Washington. Yet the nation's real power brokers are in plain sight, amid amber waves of grain: the farmers.
The farm lobby demonstrates its awesome might every few years with the passage of a new farm bill, which invariably shovels billions in corporate welfare to agribusiness while damaging U.S. trade relationships and in many cases raising consumer prices for agricultural goods. But its power goes beyond the farm bill; it's hard to pass any legislation even tangentially related to farming without the support of a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers from Midwestern states. Which is why, when congressional Democrats bring their sweeping 1,200-page bill to fight climate change to the House floor today, the farm lobby's loamy thumbprints will be all over it.
That didn't stop Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, from holding up the bill to wrestseed money for his constituents under the theory that heading off global catastrophe is only worthwhile if agribusiness can profit from it.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
No kidding! And don’t forget the big agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland. They’ve been buying politicians for years. Bob Dole used to be called the Senator from ADM.
There is no special interest represented in this vote, only the accumulation and control of power for the elites. The vote was for the government to have total control over the means of production!
Bollocks.
My question, as always, is: If this is really a "global catastrophe" then why do we exempt China, India, Mexico, etc.?
It's either a ****ing global catastrophe or it isn't. If it is, we don't have the luxury of picking and choosing who gets to "head off" anything.
If only farmers really did have the power we really should wield, because, really, your lives depend on us.
If only we got all those billions of dollars that we supposedly get.
It is a good thing farmers aren’t as rich and spoiled as everyone thinks they are because most would just quit and retire, especially since most of us are nearing retirement age and there are not many young farmers to take our places. Those people who are afraid we’re going to make a little money off of them but doesn’t blink an eye making Estee Lauder, Maybelline, Hollywood stars, Professional athletes etc, rich, might wake up hungry some day.
Farmers: Quit farming, let your crops rot, go on the government dole, and make everybody HUNGRY! That ought to light a fire under Americans to fix this problem!
According to the Heritage Foundation net farm income will eventually drop by 94% if this cap and destroy bill passes. Agriculture is one of the most energy intensive businesses there is. Farmers have no way to pass any increased costs. Farmers are not for this.
Then the progressives could declare a National Emergency, nationalize the arable acres, bring in government employees as managers, illegals as labor and force the farmers to allow others to grow food.
The drumbeat against farming is just another method to distract people with someone else to blame for whatever. I remember discussing the Depression with farmers and the stories of government heavy handedness and real poverty were stark. When the issue came up in discussions with folks who had lived in cities, with no ag ties, back then, the city people were offended at any sympathy towards farmers. A common statement was:”At least they had food.” Nothing would change the minds of the city folks. The government had convinced them that every shortage or price increase was directly caused solely by the farmers.
People think they are going to live off their gardens. They are delusional. Growing enough food for even two people to eat sufficiently for a year, then preserving that food is an immense amount of labor and takes a lot of expensive energy. That doesn’t even take into account the weather, poor crops, crop disease and a host of other factors that can destroy the best plans for growing food. Up North, nothing grows outdoors in the winter and in the Deep South, the summer is too hot for much agriculture. Not every hunt is successful, either. Up here in the North, we can ice fish, but with governmental control of all water, I am sure there will be attempts to limit all fishing. In fact, IIRC, there are already moves afoot to do just that. Much of the river that borders our land is already a National Trout Stream with a limited season and catch & release rules for many miles. It is already dependent on artificial stocking.
Wait until the old farmers retire, the young ones with no equity go broke, the machinery and fuel shortages hit the remainder and the cost of transportation drives shortages and food inflation. I think there will be an end to any so-called obesity epidemic. It will be another unwasted crisis. Imagine even a small city with designated shopping hours and a strict monetary or per item limit on what can be purchased. How easy would it be for the media to deflect all blame to the ag producers?
from Milwguy
While watching CNBC this morning the whole cap and tax scheme crystalized in my mind. They had a guest host there from UBS and the he was espousing the Messiah’s economic plans. he went into the whole green jobs thing, and then two Congressmen came on. The one anti tax and kill Congressmam pointed out how ludicrous the UBS bankers arguments about green jobs was. Like the Spanish study just out from their ‘green economy’ showing for every green job created, two regular ones are lost. Also that it took subsidies of 750K per job to create each job.
The whole time the UBS guy on split screen just sat there and smiled, his smile getting bigger the longer the Congressman spoke. The UBS guy knows what the MSM and most americans do not, and this came to me like a bolt of lightning as I watched the UBS guy smile.
Cap and Trade is the replacement for Subprime and securitized mortgages, 50 to 1 leverage the banks used the last 10 years, etc. Without a housing bubble, the only way the bankers can continue to make money at our expense is cap and trade. Why? BECAUSE THEY WILL BE RUNNING THE MARKET FOR CARBON OFFSETS!!! The UBS’s, Goldman Sachs, etc of the world will game the system the same way they made liar loans, 110% mortgages, etc.
Cap and Tax is the bankers next big thing, and the main reason Enron went down and the Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastows of the world were hauled off to jail was cap and tax, not manipulating the energy prices.
Kenny Lay, Skilling and company actually met with Clinton in the White House to start this ball rolling. Once the bankers found out about this, they had to stop them by any means necessary to keep the pot of gold for themselves.
The smile on the UBS bankers face was like the cat who caught the canary, he can taste the money they will make by selling nothing but air. No cost, 100% profit. To the corrupt bankers, it does not get better than that.
Then someone who is making a bundle off of ethanol or other alternative fuels is. T. Boone Pickens and his wind farms perhaps?
You always have to follow the money. Politicians and their cronies are getting some kind of payoff from this scheme.
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