As everyone who attended school knows – bullies are a giant pain in the posterior.
No one likes bullies. They engender fear in their presence – and loathing in their absence.
The United States government has – since at least World War II – been a titanic bully. On the world stage – and domestically.
Before you freak out at me: “How dare you attack the US!!!”…please peruse but the few (of myriad) examples I will now provide to bolster my thesis.
Almost two years ago, I moved to tiny, nigh-unpopulated Belize.
Belize is basically the size of New Hampshire – 8,867 square miles. With a total population of 400,000.
To put that in perspective: The city of Washington, DC comprises 68.3 square miles. And has a population of 700,000.
I moved to Belize – because I was sick of being bullied by my US governments (federal, state, county, city,…).
As an expat US citizen, I still get bullied by my US governments – but a whole lot less than when I was submerged in the tank.
And my move to escape the domestic abuse – further opened my eyes to the international abuse.
The amount of abuse the US’s federal government heaps upon the beautiful little country of Belize is obnoxious – and asinine.
Some of it is Belize-specific. Like the US prohibiting Belize from importing lots of stuff directly from her neighbor Mexico. Belize has to instead wait for the US to import the stuff from Mexico – and then Belize must import it from the US.
Which of course increases Belize’s costs (at least) twice. She has to needlessly cut-in the US as a middle man. And she has to bring things in by much-more-expensive (US) ship – rather than by much-cheaper (Mexico or Belize) truck.
Much of the abuse Belize suffers – is heaped upon the entire planet.
Like the US’s ridiculous 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Which is the US placing its giant elbow on the throat of the entire global banking sector.
I watch Belizean expats from every other nation walk into Belize banks – and walk out with Belize accounts. I have failed FIVE times trying to open a simple savings account – because of the asinine FATCA compliance requirements imposed upon US citizens and international banks.
Quite understandably, tiny Belize is afraid of getting cross-wise with the giant US.
Quite understandably, so is every other country on the planet.
I was just made aware of a 2017 book by Lindsey A. O’Rourke: “Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War.”
Journalist Jeffrey Sachs says the tome looks at SIXTY-FOUR coups the US government has executed all over the world.
For reasons political – and crony economic.
To the world, the US has time-and-again said:
“Your government will play ball – or we will overthrow your government and install one that will.”
Staying in the Americas: I’m sure you’ve heard the term “banana republics”:
“The term originated as a way to describe the experiences of many countries in Central America, whose economies and politics were dominated by U.S.-based banana exporters at the turn of the 20th century.”
When these poor little countries’ peoples get sick of being exploited? The US government steps in – on behalf of their exploiters…:
“Throughout the early 20th century, an American multinational corporation called the United Fruit Company – now known as Chiquita Brands International – controlled vast swaths of Guatemalan land and production. Aided by a corrupt autocracy, it received little pushback over decades of economic exploitation.
“But in the 1940s, a democratic revolution and calls for justice threatened to undermine United Fruit’s position. So the company leveraged its powerful connections inside the White House….
“(T)he CIA launched Operation PBSuccess: a sweeping coup that destroyed the country’s democracy, installed a dictator, and sparked a decades-long civil war and genocide of the Indigenous Mayan people.”
But the coup helped a US-crony company continue its exploitation of Guatemala’s people and resources – and that’s what matters to the US.
How frigging obnoxious. And not at all what a Constitutional, limited government commercial republic is supposed to be doing.
I now have a whole new understanding of the international term “Ugly Americans.”
This sort of banana republic international thuggishness? Has also long been practiced by the US government – inside the US.
Big Government has for decades worked against US politicians they don’t like. John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Donald Trump,….
And that’s just the domestic coup stuff. There’s also the domestic crony business stuff.
Crony Big Businesses are better able to bribe Big Government. So Big Government gives them crony policies. That benefit them – and murder their competitors.
Want a health sector example?
Big Insurance, Big Medicine and Big Pharma wanted to fleece We the People out of even more of our money.
So Big Government bullied US with the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act (ACA-Obamacare).
Insurance premiums doubled – and insurance deductibles tripled. Which is horrible for We the People – but great for Big Insurance, Big Medicine and Big Pharma.
Small insurers couldn’t afford to keep up. So they bowed out – and Big Insurance now even-more-thoroughly dominates the health insurance landscape.
Want a tech sector example?
Big Tech wanted to make it even easier for them to steal Intellectual Property (IP).
So Big Government in 2011 bullied US with the woefully mis-named America Invents Act (AIA).
Created therein was the unconstitutional Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). A MUCH cheaper-and-easier way for Big Tech to stampede little inventors – and steal their inventions.
Before the law? The US was always #1 or #2 on the Global Innovation Index. After the law? The US had dropped out of the top ten.
Want a banking sector example?
Big Banks wanted to further dominate the banking sector – and thereby dominate We the People.
So Big Government in 2010 bullied US with the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Allegedly imposed to address the “Too Big To Fail” bank problem – it made the problem orders-of-magnitude worse.
It buried the sector in additional regulations. The Big Banks could handle the added weight. But it murdered thousands of small banks that could not.
The Big Banks then yet again became the crony beneficiaries. They bought up the corpses for pennies on the dollar – and with them all of their marketshares.
Thereby further consolidating the sector – and giving the Big Banks ever-increasing record market power.
Credit card rates are now at record highs (to go along with record credit card debt levels).
And the credit card rates didn’t drop when the interest rates did. Because the Big Banks have consolidated the sector to such a degree – that “Screw you” can be their official response.
We could go on citing additional examples – until the crack of doom.
All of these many decades of national and international US government malfeasance?
Are the result of the HUGE US government – insisting on bullying as its default way of doing things.
It would be exceedingly great if that were to FINALLY stop.