#3: International Gun Running
Politicians often claim that they want stricter gun control for the safety of citizens, but, much like the doublespeak of the mafia, they say one thing and do another when it comes to handing out weapons.
The U.S. government has sold over 75.9 billion dollars worth of arms to foreign governments in 2017 alone. This includes sales to known human rights violators like Saudi Arabia and sales to countries with state-sponsored terrorism like Qatar.
The annual running of billions of dollars in weapons isn’t limited to contracts between governments though.
The U.S. government has been running guns in secret operations to many groups, including groups that later became known terrorist organizations.
The U.S. supported the Mujahideen, Afghan rebel fighters among whom was Osama Bin Laden, from 1979 to 1989, under Operation Cyclone. These men would later become the Taliban and Al-Qaida after the Soviet Union’s fall.
The U.S. armed Syrian rebels with guns under Hillary Clinton, funneling weapons after an intervention in Libya. These rebels would later become the radical terrorist group ISIS.
The government has also permitted weapons sales to criminals under the pretense of sting operations. One notable example is Operation Fast and Furious, in which the ATF permitted gun sales to straw purchasers in the hopes of tracking down cartel members. Thousands of guns were sold, but only hundreds were recovered.
When it comes to gun running and scandal, the U.S. government puts the Italian mafia to shame.
#2: Drug Running
While the front-facing side of the U.S. government claims to be vehemently anti-drug, the deep state has a penchant lust for drug running as it fuels billions in black market funding for clandestine operations.
The drug running came to public notoriety through an exposure of the CIA’s drug running to support the Contra war in Nicaragua under the Reagan administration. A 1986 investigation by a sub-committee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee discovered that payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department were made. Further investigation by journalist Gary Webb found that part of the Contra funding came through cocaine smuggling, which impacted urban communities in Los Angeles where it was sold. Former narcotics investigations officer, Michael Craig Ruppert, confirmed these allegations with his own observations of CIA-connected drug running to the area during the 70s. Due to the scandal, former United States Marine Corps Lieutenant, Colonel Oliver North, was tried and convicted, but his convictions were later vacated and reversed on a procedural error.
The drug proliferations are not limited to the deep state, however. Many local police officers have been running drugs for profit and planting drugs for the sake of obtaining a conviction.
One recent example is a Baltimore police officer who was caught planting drugs on a suspect because he thought he had turned off his body camera. His body camera had a 30-second turn-off delay, which captured the officer planting a bag of drugs on a suspect. This scandalous discovery led to the overturn of 34 cases.
When it comes to the drug business, the government makes Scarface look like an amateur.
#1: License Protection Rackets
“It’d be a shame if anything happened to this place, wouldn’t it?” While that sounds like a threat from a mob goon looking to take a cut, the government does this all the time when it comes to the licensing of business.
As the government licenses and regulates the ability to start a business, it makes it clear that you have no right to earn a living unless government gets a cut.
Worse, as protection rackets grow, some businesses lobby government to create even more of a barrier to entry to ensure that meaningful competition cannot arise. This cronyism, called regulatory capture, further ensures that anyone who dares try to compete in the market, without paying a hefty extortion fee, will be shut down violently.
Take for example natural hair braiders. In 13 states, natural hair braiders are forced to become licensed cosmetologists or hairstylists, even though those trainings have nothing to do with natural hair braiding. These hair braiders must spend up to 2,000 hours of training and pay upwards of $20,000 in tuition fees at cosmetology schools, on top of the government permit fee, just to be allowed to open their doors. These rules were put into place by politicians influenced by donations from the cosmetology lobby.
When it comes to extortion, government does more than break a few legs: government can take away your entire livelihood and lock you away in a cage.
Governments are mafias. The only difference between a mafia and government is that no one excuses the threats and theft of the mafia as legitimate violence.
Sources:
US clears record total for arms sales in FY17:
https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2017/09/13/us-clears-record-total-for-arms-sales-in-fy17/The US Government Is Literally Arming the World, and Nobody’s Even Talking About It:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/tomdispatch-dc-congress-defense-international-arms-business/#Arming Syrian rebels: Where the US went wrong:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33997408How the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraqAssange: Why I Created WikiLeaks’ Searchable Database of 30,000 Emails from Clinton’s Private Server:
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/25/assange_why_i_created_wikileaks_searchableATF gunwalking scandal:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandalThe Contras, Cocaine, and Covert Operations:
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/index.htmlThe Police Officers Who Sell the Drugs They Seize:
https://www.vice.com/en_nz/article/bmbab8/the-police-officers-who-sell-the-drugs-they-seizeBaltimore Police Caught By Their Own Body Cameras Planting Evidence:
https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/baltimore-police-caught-their-own-body-cameras34 Baltimore cases dismissed after video appears to show officer planting drugs:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/body-cam-video-baltimore-police-department-officer-planted-drugs-cases-dropped/IJ Untangles Regulations for Natural Hair Braiders:
http://ij.org/issues/economic-liberty/braiding/
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