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Besieging Germany, June 1931

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  When prohibition laws collapse the global economy, blame tariffs! Frankenstein's monster , like the Pure Drug law of 1906, the Hague Opium convention of 1909--even the UK/China Opium treaty signed August 1911 and the second Hague "Opium" (and much else) convention of 1912 seemed to be innocent, childlike creations. Yet the latter, signed in January 1912 brought war to the opium-producing Balkan states and political and financial turmoil to Andean Nations before the ink had dried... then caused WW1. How did all this come about?  American food and drug cranks  operating within the Anti-Saloon League and Prohibition Party had been galvanized into action after China's 1905 boycott caused the T. Roosevelt administration to take time out from shooting Filipinos to extend patent protection to German heroin patents in China (lest Americans be tempted to compete) . Newspapers and magazines were unstinting in their production of horrifying documendacities, mostly rewrites of ...

German Mystical Altruism

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  Russian-American author Ayn Rand, like Friedrich Nietzsche, wrote about how mystical altruism was killing Europe ( link ) The German newscast , DW.com is my favorite source of European news and I highly recommend it.( link ) Yet soaked into the fibers of their worldview (and the American worldview as well) are assumptions of mystical altruism.  Before the USA made a mission of interfering with Germany’s pharmaceutical industry, nearly all Germans then believed in invisible gods and devils –beliefs reinforced by the Gutenberg Bible at the close of the Hundred Years’ War.  “The spirit of the Lord has descended upon me, because I am Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His sword, His representative. Woe and death to all those who resist my will! Woe and death to those who do not believe in my mission! ” ( link ) The above quote  from Kaiser Wilhelm was business as usual in 1914, when Americans (and Germany’s competitors), using the Hague ...

German, U.S. Spoiler parties, May 1931

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  Herbert Hoover was inaugurated 2 days after beer was made a felony–while the League of Nations unfolded a worldwide war on drugs . Small wonder that the resulting Great Depression triggered a search for replacement parties here, there and everywhere… Germany had troubles too . Losing the 1914 war against the Hague opium conventions had burdened the nation with war reparations to the Allies and loan debts to the (NOT an Ally) U.S. By 1930, League plans to throttle German pharma–Germany’s largest industry –had intensified. The U.S. now financially backed these international prohibitionists and packed the Geneva committee with her own delegates. Naturally, the search was on for new politicians.  Adolf Hitler’s name began appearing in the news .( link ) The League of Nations Opium Advisory Committee  spent nearly all of May 1931 working on the new Drug Convention they’d planned throughout 1930. German participants kept their government dutifully apprised of plans amounting-...