Shock Doctrine should be required reading if you want to understand what is underway in the US

Even if you know about the coup in Chile, even if you know about Argentina's runaway inflation, even if you know about Guatanamo, even if you knew about the CIA experiments on unwilling people with drugs and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, even if you mourned the response in New Orleans, fear the proliferation of Blackwater, revile the neocons and neoliberalism..read it anyway. Naomi Klein puts it all together in an amazing flow.
AND -- what was done to Chile and Argentina is BEING DONE TO US NOW. Privatize, build charter schools instead of public, sell off public assets, cut social spending, beef up the police -- it's all part of Milton Friedman's agenda, which he PERSONALLY counselled Pinochet not long after the football stadium massacres -- but what comes next? Massive inflation, depressed wages, high unemployment, destruction of the middle class, death lists and terror to suppress any one who opposed their policies.

The CIA paid for the 'Chicago boys' to educate young men through Milton Friedman's ideology, and sent them back to their home countries to reverse the leftwing 'developmental' ideology that threatened US business interests.

Suck all the wealth out of a country, a market, a middle class -- suck quickly, in the midst of disaster, amidst shock and awe.

The vision in New Orleans including shipping those poor people on buses destined for 'anywhere', without their belongings and with no choice in their destination. That was one of the most horrible things I've seen done by our government in full public eye to American citizens, as if they had no right to make a choice about anything. As if it couldn't possibly matter whether they got on a bus that took them to Atlanta where they had cousins or to Dallas where they did not know anyone, or to Houston where that low class woman who let Shrub loose on the country would look down her nose at them in the evacuation center and say "this all is working out pretty well for them, isn't it?" That must have been shock and awe for those people.

Will the "Massive inflation, depressed wages, high unemployment, destruction of the middle class" lead inevitably to the "death lists and terror" of resistors? I used to think that paranoia about the buildup of the mercenary and private 'security' companies -- the idea that they might be used to bring the dark acts of the CIA in Latin America back home to roost -- was a bit "over-the-top". The parallels are deeply, deeply disturbing.

Read it.

The question is no longer whether we are too paranoid -- it's whether we are paranoid enough. Those Chicago School of Economics characters are the spawn of Satan. It's ALL about the money. BOHICA, folks.

:scared:

I assume that you were thinking something different.

Don't jump to conclusions just because everyone else on DU does.

PU or SU!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=353813&mesg_id=353818

Read it too.

Call your representatives and say no NAFTA highway or Americas Union without our permission.

It has been the mandate of each election to rid ourselves of the WTO but they ignore us. Immigration is Totalization of our three countries and open borders. Much like the EU. We have very dangerous 3rd world countries south of us. We can't be the same success as the EU. There's going to be war and strife.

Ring the bells the brown shirts are coming. They already robbed the last town. Don't let them distract you with the primary. They've already determined any of the three will do.

Also required reading:

"Conservatives Without Conscience" John Dean

and

"Imperial Hubris" anonymous

how physically safe is any progressive President? There are too many people within the government for whom murder is no big deal and worth it if they can stop us.
:scared:

participating in a coup to overthrow FDR, and I don't think assassination would have been "off the table".

There's that family, again.

Colbert Watcher's post? (on my thread) S/he gave a link directly to the film on YouTube, so if you're adept doing that kind of stuff, could you download it to a DVD?

I think I'll read it and take it back and tell them I didn't like it. LOL :P (just kidding)

edit> Durn. I should have got here earlier. i get a Border's coupon every week in my email. 20, 25, sometimes 30% off a book. Sign up.

Thanks.
It's a bit traumatic to watch, honestly, but I can probably share it with half of my friends.

I would imagine that there are other U-C Econ types with him.

For the life of me, I can't understand why Obama would have anyone from that Econ department on staff, unless such person was the resident heretic.

I liked Edwards because he was about as far away from the "Chicago Boys" as you could get.

... I think it's one of the most important books of the last century. It exposes the lies we've been told and makes sense of the seemingly mystifying behavior of our government's policies both domestically and internationally. I'm hard pressed to think of a more important book. I'm about to buy a dozen copies and mail them to my friends and family.

If the vast majority of people can't even afford the simple things in life, there is no incentive to work and create products that ultimately create wealth and thus makes the people at the top more wealth to hoard.

What you are talking about is feudal economics which does nothing for the people at the top.

The problem in the US is we are transforming into just another big economic unit and are no longer the biggest unit on the block.

Our leadership and are collective psyche is loathe to embrace such a demotion.

When the U.S. dollar collapses, they will miss no opportunity to seize our shock and radically remake laws.

When the Federal Reserve collapses, they will miss no opportunity to seize our shock and create a "New Fed" with radical powers.

When U.S. food riots begin, they will be ready to exploit the opportunity, and they will be ready with radically punitive new laws.

"The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein and "End of America" by Naomi Wolf -- the two best & most important books of our lifetime.

But I agree with what you've posted it and have long felt that things will only get worse. The election is so close that it will be stolen for McCain.

I keep thinking my family and I should leave the country now, but can't because of my husband's job and retirement. But will that retirement that we've been counting on even exist in 10 years?

Will my husband still have the job he has now in 10 years even though it's union and "secure"?! :yoiks:

Chicago School economics + NeoCon political power = unending war w/ massive profits for the corporate elites

Ground breaking.

Martin Feldstein, Reagan's former adviser, for 30 years indoctrinated Harvard Ec 10 students in the fine art of Milton-nomics. Today, Feldstein's place in teaching the course has been taken over by Greg Mankiw, Bush Jr's adviser. And practically every other U.S. university has also taken up teaching the UChicago-brand of trickle-down, cheap-labor, pro-privatization swill.

tells you the same thing....you rant on US as if we're conspiracy nutcases?

ever ranted about conspiracy nutcases -- other than to poke fun at myself on occasion.

:scared:

One finds ones self getting so outraged, you just have to put it down and calm yourself a bit, lest you lose it completely and go running out on a rampage, shooting Republicans on sight. These guys are so spectacularly evil, it takes your breath away.