American Imperialism
Not my flag!
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Sky TV. These companies all represent American Imperialism! The way they all started was by taking advantage of the large US single market. The USA currently has a population of 328,000,000 which is a lot less than the EU population of about 508,000,000! Some time ago, when Apple started in 1976, the USA had a population of only about 218,000,000 and the EU with its “Single Market“ didn‘t even exist. There was only the EEC which had only 9 members (France, West Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Britain, and Denmark), with its vague statement of a “Common Market“ for goods and services.
So, why are all these big companies from the USA instead of the EU? The answer of course is that although the EU has a larger single market, this isn't properly administered as a single market!
As far as I‘m concerned, the term “Single Market“ obviously means that everything available in one part of the “Single Market“ must be available everywhere else in the “Single Market“, but that‘s simply not the case! Under EU Single Market regulations anything that is sold anywhere in the EU can be sold anywhere else in the EU. This includes bananas, no matter where thery‘re from, any kind of food, alcoholic drink, magazines, TV programmes, films, books, and ebooks. Items not availble in Britain include German Sekt sparkling wine, fresh meat from anywhere except Britain or Ireland, most types of Tchibo coffee, and tape measures marked only in Centimetres and Millimetres. Chain stores not operating in Britain include Rewe supermarkets (Germany), Intermarche supermarkets (France), Netto supermarkets (Denmark), Casino Shop supermarkets (France), Rossmann drugstores (Germany), Penny supermarkets (Germany), Leader Price Express supermarkets (France), Albert Heijn supermarkets (Netherlands), Media Markt electronics (Germany), and Saturn electronics (Germany). Following the closure of Maplins stores in Britain, there‘s no chain store for electronics hobbyists, although Germany has Conrad. In the Netherlands, Albert Heijn supermarkets seem to have a virtual monopoly, although checking the figures online, it‘s not as bad as that. However, it seems that wherever you are in the Netherlands if you‘re going to a supermarket, it‘s likely to be an Albert Heijn supermarket, so your choice of food and drink will be decided by their management! Just Imagine how amazing it would be if in Britain you could go into a local supermarket and buy some German Sekt sparkling wine for about £3.99, go into a newsagent and pick up a magazine of your choice from anywhere in the EU, as well as buying some fast food of types from anywhere in the EU!
Alternatives to US companies…
Amazon
– They‘re trying to set up a monopoly for books and ebooks! In
Germany, a consortium of booksellers as well as Deutscher Telekom got
together to launch the Tolino ebook reader, which allows users to set
up an account with one of several ebook sellers to download books
purchased from them onto the device. Unfortunately, the Tolino
ereader isn‘t officially available in Britain. I bought mine from
eBay Austria! Try the Tolino ebook shops www.weltbild.de
www.thalia.de www.hugendubel.de
and www.osiander.de or
www.bol.com from the Netherlands.
To use www.weltbild.de you have
to set up your Tolino to say that you‘re living in Germany, then
give them an address in Germany. If you make one up, the Tolino will
say that it doesn‘t recognise that address, then ask if you mean
this address instead. Answer yes, then you‘re set up. Pay them with
Paypal, so they won‘t know if you don‘t live in Germany.
Apple
– Apple has been going since 1976, but their products have always
been greatly overpriced. The operating system Linux www.linux.org
runs on any Intel x86 or AMD based computer, as well as is on other
CPUs such as ARM. Linux is a good alternative to Apple Mac OS. Linux
comes in various types called distros, which is short for
distributions. This means exactly how it works and what software is
included, although lots more software can be installed. If you want
Linux to look and feel like Mac OS you can install the KDE desktop
onto your Linux distro, or select a distro which has this installed
by default www.kde.org You could
also install Elementary OS, which uses irs own Pantheon desktop to
look and feel like Mac OS. If you really want to use Mac OS, then you
can still avoid paying Apple‘s high prices by installing it on non
Apple hatdware, as explained on https://hackintosh.com/
or https://www.tonymacx86.com/
Facebook
– Visit https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/
for a list. Most of them seem to be American or Chinese, though. Why
not try building your own social network?
Google
– Alternatives include www.orange.fr
and www.duckduckgo.com ,
although DuckDuckGo is still from the USA.
Microsoft
– In their early days, Microsoft created versions of programming
languages for various computers. AFAIK they didn‘t actually invent
any of the languages by themselves, though. They had their first
success with a version of the language BASIC (Beginners‘ All
purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) which they created for the Altair
8800 kit computer. BASIC was actually created by Professors Kemeny
and Kurtz in 1964, but Microsoft didn‘t write their first version
of it until 1975. An alternative to Microsoft Windows is Linux, a free, open source operating system
www.linux.org
Netflix
– They provide access to a large selection of films and TV series.
I think all of these films or TV series are also available free of
charge by using the media player Kodi with one or a few “Video Add
Ons“ installed. These include “Exodus Redux“ and “Odin“.
Using this, you can save your money and buy something else from EU
companies instead! One of these companies is www.youtv.de
which provides you with the facility to record and download from a
large selection of German TV channels.
Sky TV – This company was run as from 1989 by the evil country destroying Brexshitter Rupert Murdoch, who is a US imperialist and a traitot to Australia which he abandoned. Aided and abetted by Tony Blair and others, they were also able to establish themselves in Germany and Italy. It took its name from Sky Channel, a very early satellite TV channel, which was also carried by cable TV networks across Europe. Sky TV was taken over by Comcast/NBC/Universal, but this is an American company. Under US law, no foreigners are even allowed to own US TV channels or broadcasting networks! My advice is to avoid them. If xou want to watch any films or TV series shown on Sky TV or NOW TV, then use Kodi instead, as explained under the paragraph about Netflix.
When it comes to food, there are lots of products from the USA which are banned in the EU. These include hormone treated beef and chlorine washed chicken. These chickens spend most of their lives covered in their own shit and piss, then are cleaned up only after they‘re slaughtered! I heard that all US beef was banned in the EU, due to hormone treatments. However, on a trip to Germany in May-June 2019 I was sursprised to find some US beef clearly labelled as such being sold in supermarket delicatessens. I asked the staff about this two or three times, but none of them were able to give me a clear answer about how or why this was allowed. I‘ve recently heard from the German Tagesschau news (ARD) www.tagesschau.de that there is hormone free US beef which is allowed to be sold in the EU, though. Another problem is farmers and supermarkets involved in conspiracies to monopolise their local markets. This is a big problem in Britain, with supermarkets displaying signs such as “All our beef is British“ or “All our chicken is 100% British“. This beame a big problem with the BSE/vCJD (mad cow disease) crisis. Nearly all fresh beef sold in Britain was (and still is) either from Britain or Ireland, but most of it is from Britain., Not only that, but some cuts of beef were only available from Britain! There was a case of BSE in Britain during 2018, so that didn‘t just come out of nowhere! I can‘t eat it, so I have to avoid most products containing beef, because the beef is usually from Britain. If I don‘t know where it‘s from, then I must assume it‘s from Britain.