23A011 Twisted Arms by Jim Davies, 3/14/2023

For quite a while now, I've been puzzled about how it could be that the UK and other European countries could be so foolish as to do just what the FedGov wants in regard to sanctions on Russia. "Yessir, yessir, three bags full" seems to be the reaction of the BritGov to whatever the USGov wants; a sickening way for a country to behave, on whose Empire the sun used never to set.

Others, notably Hungary, go along with some of its demands but reluctantly, with loud protests. So what hold does Washington hold over London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and the rest? How does the US hegemon operate?

Perhaps you'd figured it out much sooner, but one penny dropped for me on March 2nd, when news broke that the United Arab Emirates had been told by the USGov that they were trading too much with Russia. The UAE exists on international trade, that's its whole business. The threat was to "sanction" the UAE itself, unless it complied. Do as we say, or we'll cut off your arm.

And that's what they do with all their "friends and allies."

Now, Britain has an extra reason to follow US leads; it broke free of the EU (for very good reasons about self-determination) but that must inevitably lead to some loss of trade with EU members; therefore businesses in the UK are more than usually dependent on trading with the rich market of US importers and exporters. So it's even more vulnerable to the implicit threat of US sanctions than its European neighbors are. Hence the "three bags full", the pathetic rush to denounce Russia and to speed weapons to Ukraine.

Notice what happens: a trader in Country A notices that certain products are being offered in Country B for prices lower than available in A - for any of several reasons. So he gets to work and brokers imports from B to A. The same takes place in reverse, for other products.

It's efficient, because specialization happens: bananas don't grow in Finland, and assembly workers cost less in Mexico than in Michigan, etc. This is the normal flow of international business, and it works well to spread the wealth and bring us what we like at prices we can afford. But every time such an exchange takes place, a government border is crossed, and it asserts the power (at gunpoint) to skim some off the top (as "duty"!) - or even to slam down a prohibition, to prevent the transaction altogether.

There's nothing wrong at all with free, unfettered cross-border trade; I wish it were available everywhere, unconditionally. But in the US hegemon, it's not at all unconditional. It applies only for as long as the smaller country follows orders. The traders' arms are twisted.

Another penny dropped a few days later when I happened to watch again that remarkable Oliver Stone movie, Snowden. During the period (around 2012) when CIA geek Edward Snowden was reconsidering the ethics of his job, he and his colleagues chatted about how a "sleeper virus" had been inserted into the control programs for the electricity grids of many countries, and how the one in Syria had been activated, perhaps accidentally, plunging the whole country into darkness.

Assuming those viruses are still present and undetected, the FedGov has every affected country over a barrel. It need only press a key, and everything in it comes to a grinding halt. So when Biden met Chancellor Scholz of Germany shortly after the revelations about Nordstream had surfaced, there was no report that Scholz had expressed towering indignation that Biden had committed an act of war against Germany as well as Russia and then mendaciously denied it. He knew his country was basically a vassal state.

He probably also knew the dictum of an earlier Chancellor: "The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it."

These are some of the sick games that governments play, along with others of most of which I'm not yet aware. What utter parasites they are! They play them at the expense of individuals within their borders, to enable themselves to suppose that they are important and have some useful, beneficial rôle to play in human affairs.

They do not.