Smuggling // Current TV

1,700 animals found alive in hatchback car!

Police in Italy have found 1,700 little animals - ALIVE - in the back of a hatchback.... more

FreshPlastic
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3 years ago
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Warrant issued for Gov. Clinton's ex-chief

Did she do it? I don't mind if she did. Do you?

kingfugazi
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3 years ago
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Feds bust Mexico-U.S. oil smuggling scheme

U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil stolen from Mexican government... more

WakeUpPeople
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3 years ago
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Wikipedia History Lesson: Sons of Liberty

Wikipedia's hard power definition focuses on the international politics of hard power - one country using military and economic power to pressure another country. Hard power starts smaller though.

All politics is local, and all violence starts with one person in conflict with another. Countries start with armies, armies start with militias, militias start with gangs, and gangs start with street toughs with a cashflow. Hard power starts on the streets, and works its way up to the national level from there.

Hence today's history lesson: the Sons of Liberty. You may have heard of them if you had to read "Johnny Tremain" in school (a patriotic revisionist book written during World War 2 when patriotic revisionism was the norm), or if you drink a lot of Samuel Adams Boston Lager. These guys were a loose network of terrorist cells in the East Coast of the United States, which continually harassed the British and escalated petty legal issues between the colonies and the British government.

Why? Rule number 1: Follow the money. They were almost certainly funded by people like John Hancock, who was an improbably rich merchant trader (*cough cough smuggler*) and a founder of the independent United States. Smuggling is only profitable when there are tariffs or other trade restrictions, and back in the mercantilist days of the British Empire, it was mighty profitable. Hancock's shipping company stood to make an even bigger fortune if he was allowed to trade with whomever he pleased. Thus, he needed to get Boston out of the yoke of port tax collectors and British army. John Hancock wasn't the only one - every American port had merchants with the same idea.

The Boston Tea Party (and many other Tea Parties in ports across the US) was the destruction of lots of valuable property to protest the Tea Act, which taxed tea imported to the American colonies. Tea came from that most valuable of British colonies, India, and it was expensive. The prime source of caffeine in that day, some economists think it helped people work longer and harder, and thus make more money. Of course, if the Americans were independent of the British Empire, they could import all the tea (or anything else they want) at a much cheaper price than from London. All the taxes that lead to the Revolutionary War ended up being something like 2% of income for Americans back then, and that was apparently enough to stoke the separatism into all out war of independence. Rule number 2: If there is enough money to be made by violence, someone will pay to start that violence.

The Sons of Liberty carried out things like "tar and feathering," which sounds almost cute and quaint, until you remember it involves taking a political official, and pouring boiling tar on them. I'm not a fan of having boiling anything poured over me, and the symbolic nature of the violence against these targets was one of America's first encounters with terrorism. Rule number 3: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

This terrorist group eventually grew into a "well regulated militia," and with political leadership, time and money from France (yes, the Continental Army was a foreign backed insurgency), we were able to make it too expensive for Britain to keep fighting us. That is why we celebrate terrorism, insurgents and most importantly explosives on the Fourth of July.

Class dismissed.Wikipedia's hard power definition focuses on the international politics of hard... more

HardPower
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3 years ago
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June proves big month for smuggling at the border

The month of June was a hot month for drug busts along the southern border. On June... more

Ihatethemall
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3 years ago
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250 turtles hidden on train, smuggled by conductor

A whopping 250 turtles have been found hidden on a train by Ukrainian border guards.... more

FreshPlastic
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3 years ago
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Guns from America fuel Jamaica's gang wars

Ships from Miami steam into Jamaica's main harbor loaded with TV sets and blue... more

retro_Syl
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3 years ago
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31 comments

Customs Finds $134 Billion in a Suitcase

It is either the biggest smuggling operation in history -- or a fraud of equally... more

unclepete
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3 years ago
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Korea News - North Korea's burden of crime and terror

As recently as February 16 (2007), while the United States was trying to improve... more

Mike_Johnston
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3 years ago
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Convicts Use Shakespearean Dialect to Smuggle 'Cawbe', Fool 'Shades'

Inmates at Buckley Hall Prison in Rochdale have been using Elizabethan dialect to help... more

burukku16
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3 years ago
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5 comments

Canadian scientist arrested for smuggling ebola virus into U.S.

A Canadian scientist was stopped at the U.S. border last week after authorities found... more

Future_America
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4 years ago
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19 comments

Two men try to smuggle Asian birds into the U.S. inside their pants

Two California men were indicted today on federal charges that they illegally smuggled... more

AwesomeJosh
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4 years ago
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37 comments

U.S.-Mexico fence building continues despite Obama's promise to review effects

“On the day of its first foreign policy discussions with Mexico, the Obama... more

covelogibbs
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4 years ago
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Lisa Ling has finger on pulse of world

EL PASO -- Lisa Ling recalls covering the civil war in Afghanistan as the most... more

covelogibbs
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4 years ago
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1 comment

When Weed is Legal

Taxed, regulated marijuana sales might help save the state's economy, but will it... more

covelogibbs
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4 years ago
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7 comments

Pigeon Caught Smuggling Cell Phone Parts into Colombian Jail

A carrier pigeon in Colombia gave new meaning to the term "jailbird" when... more

crazykatlady
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4 years ago
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U.S. Guns Flow to Mexican Cartels

Thousands of Mexican federal troops and police are trying to stem the drug violence in... more

covelogibbs
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4 years ago
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Residents smuggle suds over green brands

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into... more

TravG73
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4 years ago
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12 comments

Irish police hunt for Real IRA bomb!

Is the situation in Northern Ireland about to get a whole lot worse? This sounds like... more

emmahill
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4 years ago
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2 comments

Smuggler with broken leg wears cocaine cast

A man was arrested in Barcelona after the police realized he was wearing a leg cast... more

nazbags
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4 years ago
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