I finally finished Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine"........

[marmar]

..... and I'm not a conspiracy guy by any stretch of the imagination, and Naomi Klein in the book never suggests conspiracies behind any of the great disasters since * took office. But in the context of the whole book, and the whole push behind Chicago School total liberation of the market, those "conspiracy theories" seem a lot less difficult to believe.
That's all. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and read it. :tinfoilhat:

[PDJane]

1. That was my reaction too...........

[alfredo]

2. New Orleans could be the Shock Doctrine in action.

[marmar]

3. Perhaps much larger than New Orleans even.....The United States as whole right now.

n/t

[yurbud]

4. yep--bankrupt the country, force austerity policies and privatization, and buy pieces at fire sale

prices.

That's what they have done in scores of countries and have been doing here under Idi Amin Bush.

[alfredo]

7. As long as we have a democracy here, we won't let much more

surrender of our rights. Another emergency followed by martial law might tip the scales. Maybe a depression could be the way the get us.

[Pale Blue Dot]

5. The only question left for me after reading that book is

"Does Bush/Cheney have the balls to declare martial law?" Which, thanks to Congress, he can legally do.

My guess is that they would like to, but they have lost the support of the military (thanks to Iraq). He would need the military, I think, to do it. Either way, our economy and the American way of life are done for.

[spanone]

8. petreaus would sign up in a heartbeat

[defendandprotect]

10. Let's keep in mind that those areas are pulling out of the fascism pushed on them . . .

thru economic means ---

They're bankrupting our Treasury here --- and what is Congress doing about it ????

Keep pushing on this ---

[Nickster]

6. I'm working on it right now. Amazing how many parallels between current US and Chile of the 70s.

[defendandprotect]

9. You know my library had 26 copies of that great book "The Da Vinci Code" . . .

they have one copy of "Shock Doctrine" . . . !!!

So -- IMO -- many people haven't heard of the book --- even if connected to the internet,
it was selective to get to see her and her videos ---

Don't know if TV paid any attention to her ---
Did C-span/Brian Lamb ever do it on his Book TV --- ???

[marmar]

11. Yup. She was on Book TV with a very hostile interviewer from the New Republic....

n/t

[defendandprotect]

18. You mean Brian Lamb didn't do the interview ????

...from the New Republic --- ??? How could that be???

Brian was forced to cave in '94 when the GOP majority came in ---
he hasn't been the same since.

[blondie58]

13. ironically, I had just checked my library in Jefferson County, CO

today and they had about eight or nine copies- all checked out with some on hold.

[ProgressiveFool]

12. Amazon just notified me that my copy shipped today

I bought the new Glenn Greenwald book, and looked for something else to get free shipping. Had been meaning to read hers, so I got that.

[canoeist52]

14. one of the items that made me pale was the date of Chili's overthrow

September 11th 1973. These guys love anniversaries don't they?

[marmar]

16. Yup. That freaked me out too......

I had to put the book down at that point and have a glass of wine.

[tanyev]

15. It's taking me a long time to get through it.

I have to keep stopping because everything she has documented makes me kind of nauseous.

[yurbud]

17. 4 other books on same theme you'll like:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780060846879-3">THE BUSH AGENDA by Antonia Juhasz

Excellent coverage of how this has played out in the Bush years, and in particular what they are trying to do to Iraq and their oil.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780805082401-1">OVERTHROW by Steven Kinzer

Starts with the business motive for our overthrow of the independent government of Hawaii in the 19th century and works forward through all the coups big business has ordered.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780452287082-0">CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN by John Perkins

The author was a foot soldier who made Third World leaders the offers they couldn't refuse.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780671799328-5">THE PRIZE by Daniel Yergin

The history of oil, ironically written by an associate of Papa Bush, but shows even more than any of the others that when business calls senators and presidents, they don't ask for favors they give orders--even when it interferes with free markets. In the 1920s when independent oil companies were putting too much oil out on the market, the oil company asked for and got troops to shut them down to drive up prices. Their behavior abroad was a bit worse.

This one got a Pulitzer Prize.