Is this the Shock Docturne in action?

[Armstead]

For those familiar with Naomi Klein's theory of the Shock Docturne, is the current bailout an example of this in action?

In her thesis, the corporate CONservatives specialize in advancing their agenda by manufacturing (or at least knowingly allowing) a "crisis," to enable them to push through policies and actions that would never be accepted under normal circumstances.

Examples from her website:
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/the-book

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets. .."


--------------

It sure is looking like the Bush administration has given us a massive example of the Shock Docturne as this administration's Swan Song.

[mikelgb]

1. a poster child

[Blarch]

2. Yep.

the signs are there.

1. A huge sum of money is requested.

2. Sweeping powers are requested.

3. It must be passed very quickly, there isn't a second to waste.


Welcome to Disaster Capitalism.

[lapfog_1]

3. Yes.

Note that the bailout has to happen "overnight".

Note that Bush will veto it if it includes the needed re-regulation of the financial markets.

Note that the actions of the Secretary of the Treasury are non-reviewable and criminally immunized in regards to the bailout.

[bcoylepa]

4. dirty little secret

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/dirty-secret-of-the-bailo_n_128294.html

section 8

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

[Armstead]

5. That's what made me think of it

It seems like -- as in 9-11 -- the Bush administration is taking a reasonable possible solution to a crisis and poisoning it so much that the actual motive for supporting it are wiped away.

We may need to channel some money into the markets to save the economy -- But why the rush, and why the insistence on sweeping powers with no accountability or opportunity for compromise?

[irislake]

6. Yup

and the Democrats ain't gonna help you one little bit. You is doomed.

I think I am going to throw up if anybody on CNN uses the scare-Americans-shitless word "socialism" one more time! I am visiting my daughter and watching CNN reminds me why I don't subscribe to it at home. They are plugging away to help the fascists plunder what's left in the American piggy bank. Sickening to watch.

Obama will go along or they will say he's partisan and unpatriotic and the usual. The Democrats are useless. Except for Dennis Kucinich. The corporate media will "help" reluctant Democrats fall in line. Gotta love the American MSM!