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We already know that the Trump administration plans to deregulate markets, wage all-out war on “radical Islamic terrorism,” trash climate science and unleash a fossil-fuel frenzy. It’s a vision that can be counted on to generate a tsunami of crises and shocks: economic shocks, as market bubbles burst; security shocks, as blowback from foreign belligerence comes home; weather shocks, as our climate is further destabilized; and industrial shocks, as oil pipelines spill and rigs collapse, which they tend to do, especially when enjoying light-touch regulation.
All this is dangerous enough. What’s even worse is the way the Trump administration can be counted on to exploit these shocks politically and economically.
Speculation is unnecessary. All that’s required is a little knowledge of recent history. Ten years ago, I published “The Shock Doctrine,” a history of the ways in which crises have been systematically exploited over the last half century to further a radical pro-corporate agenda. The book begins and ends with the response to Hurricane Katrina, because it stands as such a harrowing blueprint for disaster capitalism.
That’s relevant because of the central, if little-recalled role played by the man who is now the U.S. vice president, Mike Pence. At the time Katrina hit New Orleans, Pence was chairman of the powerful and highly ideological Republican Study Committee. On September 13, 2005 — just 14 days after the levees were breached and with parts of New Orleans still underwater — the RSC convened a fateful meeting at the offices of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Under Pence’s leadership, the group came up with a list of “Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas Prices” — 32 policies in all, each one straight out of the disaster capitalism playbook.
To get a sense of how the Trump administration will respond to its first crises, it’s worth reading the list in full (and noting Pence’s name right at the bottom).
What stands out in the package of pseudo “relief” policies is the commitment to wage all-out war on labor standards and on the public sphere — which is ironic because the failure of public infrastructure is what turned Katrina into a human catastrophe. Also notable is the determination to use any opportunity to strengthen the hand of the oil and gas industry.
The first three items on the RSC list are “automatically suspend Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws in disaster areas,” a reference to the law that required federal contractors to pay a living wage; “make the entire affected area a flat-tax free-enterprise zone”; and “make the entire region an economic competitiveness zone (comprehensive tax incentives and waiving of regulations).”
Another demand called for giving parents vouchers to use at charter schools, a move perfectly in line with the vision held by Trump’s pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
All these measures were announced by President George W. Bush within the week. Under pressure, Bush was eventually forced to reinstate the labor standards, though they were largely ignored by contractors. There is every reason to believe this will be the model for the multibillion-dollar infrastructure investments Trump is using to court the labor movement. Repealing Davis-Bacon for those projects was reportedly already floated at Monday’s meeting with leaders of construction and building trade unions.
Back in 2005, the Republican Study Committee meeting produced more ideas that gained presidential support. Climate scientists have directly linked the increased intensity of hurricanes to warming ocean temperatures. This connection, however, didn’t stop Pence and the RSC from calling on Congress to repeal environmental regulations on the Gulf Coast, give permission for new oil refineries in the United States, and to greenlight “drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
All these measures are a surefire way to drive up greenhouse gas emissions, the major human contributor to climate change, yet they were immediately championed by the president under the guise of responding to a devastating storm.
The oil industry wasn’t the only one to profit from Hurricane Katrina, of course. So did a slew of well-connected contractors, who turned the Gulf Coast into a laboratory for privatized disaster response.
The companies that snatched up the biggest contracts were the familiar gang from the invasion of Iraq: Halliburton’s KBR unit won a $60 million gig to reconstruct military bases along the coast. Blackwater was hired to protect FEMA employees from looters. Parsons, infamous for its sloppy Iraq work, was brought in for a major bridge construction project in Mississippi. Fluor, Shaw, Bechtel, CH2M Hill — all top contractors in Iraq — were hired by the government to provide mobile homes to evacuees just 10 days after the levees broke. Their contracts ended up totaling $3.4 billion, no open bidding required.
And no opportunity for profit was left untapped. Kenyon, a division of the mega funeral conglomerate Service Corporation International (a major Bush campaign donor), was hired to retrieve the dead from homes and streets. The work was extraordinarily slow, and bodies were left in the broiling sun for days. Emergency workers and local volunteer morticians were forbidden to step in to help because handling the bodies impinged on Kenyon’s commercial territory.
And as with so many of Trump’s decisions so far, relevant experience often appeared to have nothing to do with how contracts were allocated. AshBritt, a company paid half a billion dollars to remove debris, reportedly didn’t own a single dump truck and farmed out the entire job to contractors.
Even more striking was the company that FEMA paid $5.2 million to perform the crucial role of building a base camp for emergency workers in St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans. The camp construction fell behind schedule and was never completed. When the contractor was investigated, it emerged that the company, Lighthouse Disaster Relief, was actually a religious group. “About the closest thing I have done to this is just organize a youth camp with my church,” confessed Lighthouse’s director, Pastor Gary Heldreth.
After all the layers of subcontractors had taken their cut, there was next to nothing left for the people doing the work. For instance, the author Mike Davis tracked the way FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though the tarps themselves were provided by the government. Once all the subcontractors took their share, the workers who actually hammered in the tarps were paid as little as $2 a square foot. “Every level of the contracting food chain, in other words, is grotesquely overfed except the bottom rung,” Davis wrote, “where the actual work is carried out.”
In Mississippi, a class-action lawsuit forced several companies to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages to immigrant workers. Some were not paid at all. On one Halliburton/KBR job site, undocumented immigrant workers reported being wakened in the middle of the night by their employer (a sub-subcontractor), who allegedly told them that immigration agents were on their way. Most workers fled to avoid arrest.
This corruption and abuse is particularly relevant because of Trump’s stated plan to contract out much of his infrastructure spending to private players in so-called public-private partnerships.
In the Katrina aftermath, the attacks on vulnerable people, carried out in the name of reconstruction and relief, did not stop there. In order to offset the tens of billions going to private companies in contracts and tax breaks, in November 2005 the Republican-controlled Congress announced that it needed to cut $40 billion from the federal budget. Among the programs that were slashed were student loans, Medicaid, and food stamps. In other words, the poorest people in the United States subsidized the contractor bonanza twice: first, when Katrina relief morphed into unregulated corporate handouts, providing neither decent jobs nor functional public services; and, second, when the few programs that directly assist the unemployed and working poor nationwide were gutted to pay those bloated bills.
This is the disaster capitalism blueprint, and it aligns with Trump’s own track record as a businessman all too well.
Trump and Pence come to power at a time when these kinds of disasters, like the lethal tornadoes that just struck the southeastern United States, are coming fast and furious. Trump has already declared the U.S. a rolling disaster zone. And the shocks will keep getting bigger, thanks to the reckless policies that have already been promised.
What Katrina tells us is that this administration will attempt to exploit each disaster for maximum gain. We’d better get ready.
Portions of this article were adapted from “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”
I read the Shock Doctrine and found it amazingly well researched.
Naomi Klein saw a pattern that I had not seen before, and no media entity brought to my attention.
The best thing about Naomi’s work is that it is predictive. If it is her view that Trump is going to use a national crisis to push fascist policies, then I would listen intently.
I have a bigger concern, or another concern.
It think it is now totally obvious that 911 was engineering by Bush. If you contest that, check Architects and Engineers and review the technical evidence and then figure out how all 2700+ of them that support the movement are all crazed conspiracy lunatics. The lack of technical knowledge in the US regarding 911 is shocking. If you don’t understand engineering or you find the explanations tedious, then don’t simply deny the conclusion because metallurgy, aircraft design, and thermite are not your areas of interest.
Here is the thing, Trump is very soon to see his approval rating drop into the gutter. He will need a major event to hold onto power. The Pentagon and CIA are just itching to stage another terrorist attack so that they can make the case for their “value.” As Trump is an undeniably a completely unethical person, why wouldn’t he engineer a false flag operation? He absolutely would.
If it does happen, we need to be vigilant and review the evidence. 911 caught people off guard, but now the evidence is all out and it is overwhelming. But it is also too late. When Trump plans his false flag operation, we need to catch it earlier. That means bringing up the point now.
So why wouldn’t Trump pull something similar. Trump
So…all these years later, no one has come forward to admit their part in this mass cover up??? Bush engineered 9/11? Is he stupid or smart? How long was he planning this BEFORE he got elected; he orchestrated this in 9 months???
…..Wow.
Dear Mz Klein
I admire your work and respect your views. My question
Did you vote for Hillary Clinton ?
If no then I applaud you
If yes , well I’m sorry we’re in this mess .
While I have generally appreciated the direction of Klein’s writing, sometimes she plays so fast and loose with facts that I cringe when I see it. I can never link to her because sometimes it’s as bad as anything that comes out of Trump’s … okay, it’s not that bad, but still.
For example, in this piece: “Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws … a reference to the law that required federal contractors to pay a living wage …” Really? Do you have no idea what D-B wage laws are about? The origin of this horrific law was to prevent negros in The Great Migration from competing with white workers outside of the Jim Crow South. It was effectively Jim Crow imperialism. After the AFL reconciled with the integrationist CIO, the law became less about racism and more about graft and fraud. To make a long story short, prevailing wages were based on numbers that were sometimes made up but almost exclusively submitted by local unions. I used to work in a small town with a backhoe operator who told me that he loved going out on federal jobs because they paid 3x what every other job paid, confirming the GAO’s analysis that D-B wages are far above the supposed local prevailing wages. Even Matt Yglesias has admitted that D-B artificially inflates costs, which are then used to support union political activities, which are then funneled straight to Democratic party hacks. And newsflash – just because you submit a job claim for tripled union wages doesn’t mean that you actually pass those along to the workers.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on this mess of an article. For principled leftists, Davis-Bacon ought to be repealed on general principles; for unprincipled Democratic party hacks, D-B is just another tool in the power-seeker’s toolchest. I’ll take Naomi Klein more seriously when she writes Disaster Progressivism: How Obama Became the Greatest Republican President. It’s a tale of how Obama delivered everything the Right has ever wanted by exploiting a long period of urgency to give handouts to Big Pharma, insurance, and financial giants; celebrated his Nobel Peace Prize by bombing poor people while studiously ignoring Syria, Putin, and China; prosecuted whistleblowers and journalists while increasing the size and scope of the Security State; and vastly expanded the scope and authority of the executive branch with his phone and pen while the Left blamed Bush for it all.
Trump will be impeached on purpose. What? His presidency was meant to fail, in comes Mike pence. Why? By simply not divesting himself of his private business affairs. And Clinton aided in this charade by kneecapping Sanders. the left won pop vote but lost presidency, but still a win win for the established left/ right who are all Republican. A Mike pence presidency will be far worse than a Trump debacle
Noooo, Naomi–not you too! I had mad respect for you after reading your brilliant book Shock Doctrine, but the above article is sadly lacking the same journalistic integrity. “Trump has already declared the U.S. a rolling disaster zone. ” Really? There isn’t a single shred of evidence on the internet that supports this claim. “What Katrina tells us is that this administration will attempt to exploit each disaster for maximum gain. We’d better get ready.” Huh? Fear mongering and strange non-sequitur thinking. “This is the disaster capitalism blueprint, and it aligns with Trump’s own track record as a businessman all too well.” If Trump used disaster capitalism policies in building real estate, selling steaks and appearing on reality TV shows, kindly elaborate with specifics. Naomi, you’ve dragged a few gems out of your book of yesteryear, describing the widespread corrupt policies that happened under the Bush Administration and plonked responsibility squarely on Trump’s shoulders–balancing your whole claim on a single Pence link. It makes absolutely no sense. Overall, not very fair and balanced. In fact, reeks of leftist agenda pushing. So very disappointed. :( And PS- I’m no Trump lover. But can’t stand bias and badly researched reporting.
Sofia, if you listen to Trump’s inaugural speech, and much of the rhetoric he repeated on the campaign, he does paint America as a “rolling disaster zone” that he is going to fix.
Could not have stated it better myself. thank you sofia averill. And PS-Im no Trump lover either but enough of the not very fair and balanced BS. We have all had enough of it.
Notice Klein is wearing “Soros Purple” like the Clintons did when HRC finally conceded to Trump.
Klein is Canadian where most of these problems/issues are relatively minor at best, especially w/regards to immigration.
IMO part of what Trump is doing is stripping US agencies govt entities “charities” of 40+ years of administrative corruption driven by child traffickers and pedophiles and/or their defenders/enablers. #pizzagate
Planned Parenthood for example, is facing many lawsuits for not helping girls who went to them because they were raped by step-fathers and/or others and became pregnant, child services the police etc were not notified and these girls were not rescued from their abusive situations.
UNICEF Doctors Without Borders the list is long for organizations originally created to do good but have been perverted by the Podestas Clintons Epsteins of the world, look at Haiti. Laura Silsby works for the Amber Alert Network yet was caught trying to traffic dozens of Haitian children after the earthquake, she is a close friend of the Clintons.
Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs on people in 2016 alone.
Obama said he was stopping the Dakota Pipeline yet it continues to be built and has nearly reached the river.
How many fracking wells on public and private land did Obama permit?
Has Flint Michigan’s water been cleaned up?
Is there really such a thing as clean energy? How are solar panels and wind turbines made? Is there a safe way to extract/refine/transport oil? Railways trucks pipelines ships all potential and past disasters. This isn’t to excuse/defend Trump but to be realistic.
I find it hard to believe that Dems really think Trump is worse than Nixon or Reagan or Bush 1&2 from that perspective. Apparently Sen. Schumer doesn’t think so as he has voted to approve every Trump nominee so far and doing his usual sucking up to power.
I also appreciate Trump going after Big Pharma exposing toxic vaccines and drugs which are poisoning even killing people. I look forward to the work RFK Jr will be doing in this area.
Canada has almost no problems from outside terrorists because they carefully vet whom they allow to emigrate especially from countries where most terrorists are from, and most of these are fanatical Muslims.
Most of the Syrian refugees allowed into Canada last year are Christian and/or secular Muslims, they are educated middle-class people and pose no threat to anyone.
Communities sponsor many of them, finding them housing, get the kids into school, language classes, and jobs whenever possible. They are grateful for the help they’re receiving, and are not pressured into abandoning their home countries and are able to help family members who were unable to emigrate.
I read The Shock Doctrine many yrs ago and agree with it, however, Klein like the other hysterical pro-Clintonites are trying to fit a round peg into a square hole, and are blind to the crimes of the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, stealing the Dem nom from Bernie Sanders, the cheating lying screeching the bigotry calling Hispanics “tacos” and so on, why weren’t people marching against this? The pay2play millions of $$ with almost nothing actually going to charity. The Weiner laptop, the pedophile network, the greed. Just about the entire US govt has been tarnished and corrupted by these people. Will Trump “drain the swamp” as his supporters say? Time will tell.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Wikileaks have proven Clinton and Obama and their colleagues created ISIS for their own nefarious and greedy purposes.
I would expect Naomi Klein to put her formidable intellectual powers on these problems instead of a retread of Katrina.
The right wing propoganda machine lies are strong in you.
I find it misleading that 90% of the subject matter in this article is tied to Katrina, but Trump’s name is also being brought up in almost every paragraph. Everyone knows the Trump administration has nothing to do with Katrina but this article has no problem correlating the two. I feel like the whole article is a reach, trying to tie a book to current events. Just wait a few months, I’m sure there will be actual examples from the Trump administration to talk about.
US foreign policy since WWII = creating military dictatorships in the 3-rd world (Nation building) , who facilitate cheap access to resources and labour for megacorporate-fascist Wallstreet.
So Trump is nothing new, he may do even better then Obama, the king of drone killings, in peace-making with Russia, and he may create a lot of (the wrong kind) of Jobs in the Defense – Intelligence contractor businesses.
On the climate-hysteria:
1. A bit more CO2 is good for huams and agriculture production levels.
All the exponential climate computerprograms have far overstated the CO2 increase feedback-effects fo vapour and clouds on mean planetary temperature.
2. There is no IPCC consensus among climate scientists. Many do not agree with IPCC alarmism views.
3. The most accurate remote sensing data from satelites, last 15 years, show no significant increase in mean planetary temperature.
4. There is no evidence for increasing climatic disasters, like subtropic hotspots(non-existent), excessive sea-water level rises (same as before), incidence of hurricanes, e.o.
UN fostered Climate hysteria resulting in carbon taxes on all productions, is just another Tax for poor countries and peoples, which inhibit economic natural ecnomic growth in GDP and real wages.
And that is a climate crime against humanity.
Funny stuff Dennis Miller,however, your comedy act died in the 20th century, RIGHT?
2016 is the third consecutive year with the highest global temps recorded. So, we aren’t in any cooling cycle , are we?
https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/publication/ice-cores-and-climate-change/
Study the Antarctic ice cores CO2 & methane data pal. It’s not any computer simulated scenario of anything, RIGHT?
Show me where CO2 air concentrations have ever been higher. Why would we be at the highest CO2 outputs in measurable geologic time PAL?
Hmmmm.
Just send more DENIER’s blathering hypocrisy crap and I can correct your attitude, right snappy like, OK RUBE , pseudo scientist?
Are you always such a disingenuous liar? Obvious troll is obvious.
You are full of shit Max and know better than to spew alternative facts-outright lies. And what about the 97% of climatologists who have come to the conclusion that man made climate change is threatening our survival as a species. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Like drumph, where is it you’re getting your facts from… me thinks out of thin air possibly?
Shock Doctrine does not spare the Democrats their responsibility in the oligarchy’s use of our government to loot the world.
I read Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein in September. I should have read it when it came out. It documents, indeed, the blueprint that the global billionaire class has used to loot government after government, country after country, for at least fifty years.
Klein’s incredible research and footnotes agree completely with the research I have done. I have spent decades reading declassified documents about US intelligence undermining foreign governments so their countries could be looted by global corporations.
When I see the look of shock and dismay on the faces of people in this country after the election, I have no doubt that they will do the same thing here. The only use these people have for our country is the military and intelligence services, which have already been thoroughly privatized (as also documented in this book). Democracy and the American People are merely inconveniences to the global oligarchy. They have no reason not to steal your pensions, social security, tolls, bridges, and everything else they can get their hands on.
While Trump is tweeting and popping the stock market bubble, legislation will be written and signed and ignored by global corporate mass media.
If you have not read Shock Doctrine yet, go to your nearest actual bookstore and get a copy and read it now.
Eye opening
As much as I deplore conservative ideology AND limo-liberal mainstream posturing, the election of Cheeto Head and the moronic celebratory regurgitation of ultra-rightwing idiocy–reimagined as a moron’s faith in a demented dogma straight out of Toonsville–has given me the impression of a national electorate suffering from a miasma of self-destruction, one generated by the complete collapse of ethics in U.S. business and government institutions.
No doubt Klein is correct in her estimations…but I fear there is nothing much to do other than lament the slow-motion collapse of our dysfunctional house of cards.
I’m with you on this. I dislike pessimism but see no reason for optimism. I have given Trump his first week to convince me he’s something other than Neoliberalism Personified. FAIL. (“Terrible!”)
Friend of mine who emigrated to another country told me, around the turn of the century, the plan was to let America become a third world country, along the lines of many countries south of the Mexican border. I couldn’t understand why the wealthy powers that be would do that to their own country. I didn’t take greed into account, or the fact that the very wealthy don’t see ‘their country’ the same way poor or working class people do – they are global citizens, not nationalists, and don’t give a damn about patriotism except to disguise their true motivation.
Did disaster capitalism suddenly stop when Obama took office? Is it only just now being dusted off again? That’s the impression I get from Klein’s otherwise excellent analysis.
One would certainly get that impression from 3rd-way democrats. They’ve viewed Obama’s time in office through very warped, rose-colored glasses.
But I have a feeling that Trump will make Obama look like a saint in long term comparisons.
It just needed a little vacation that’s all but now it’s back and well rested
Will politicians ever divorce the owning class and make-up with the working class? If not then all is lost. Other countries support their citizens, caring schooling, caring work environments, etc, all building loving, happy societies. Trump is a continuation of disater, like a drunk, America has hit rock bottom.
For DDT and his guilded ghouls, any missed opportunity to make money is a disaster.
Some of this article is a bit unfair. For example, the fact that contractors like Fluor, Bechtel, or Parsons were hired by the Bush Administration in both Iraq and Louisiana isn’t necessarily some vast corporate conspiracy; those just happen to be some of the largest contractors in the world and are among a small list of companies that would be considered for work like that. The author doesn’t even allege that said firms (save Parsons) did a bad job in Iraq.
I agree with the gist of the article, but the evidence provided in that sense is quite unconvincing. Yes, then-President Bush turned to the private sector for relief, and yes, many of those names were familiar faces from Iraq’s “reconstruction”, but there are only so many firms worldwide capable of mobilizing in terms of scale and schedule that quickly
Hmm. Maybe, if there are only a couple companies large enough to do the job, the job shouldn’t be farmed out at all. That way contractors won’t be able to have us over a barrel when it’s crisis time.
So you’re suggesting not doing the work at all? That doesn’t seem feasible. The other solution that springs to mind it government work, which goes against the Republican / Conservative ideology of small government.
That is a fair point, but keep in mind this is a short article excerpting a larger work. If you read The Shock Doctrine in its entirety, there is much more convincing detail (in the book she does indeed allege that many firms did a ‘bad job’ in Iraq, to put it mildly).
I agree that the dots are not well connect in the article. I chalked that up to expediency rather that willful misleading of the reader. Clearer explanation as to why the selection of those firms is/was problematic is missing. I think another point to be made is that if indeed FEMA was doing its job, there need not be the reliance on large contractors, many of the projects could be done by smaller regional companies. Such an approached requires more FEMA or other government agency oversight but would likely result in *less* graft/exploitation if done properly.
The article is fair. Read the book. The evidence is thorough, and well documented. The arc of how these companies, with shareholders like Rumsfeld and Cheney, made huge profits while we stole Iraq’s oil for global oil corporations, on the backs of our patriotic servicepeople, and then used Hurricane Katrina to do a similar thing here, and how it fits in to a more than fifty year history of similar behavior, is clear.
First they thought he would just lose, then they thought they could manipulate the EC, now they they think they can invoke the 25th!
Next they’ll be dreaming of putting some lead under his combover… ;>)
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/25/dont-look-now-its-president-pence-donald-trump-can-be-deposed-even-without-impeachment/
I worked for the SBA after Katrina, inspecting buildings and recommending loan amounts. We did the same inspections that Fema did, and the insurance companies. People would cry when I said their losses would be covered (by a long-term, 2% loan). It was often the first good news they got. I later found out that maybe 5% got those loans. These were people who owned the land and lost everything. Who really needed help! (I wasn’t in NO. I was at ground zero, in MS). Simple people who had never asked for help before. You could see how uncomfortable they were. They may have done better with the $2500 Fema grant. But that would go quickly. And their insurance companies? They would deny, deny, deny. ‘That wasn’t wind damage – it was water damage.’ When they contacted their flood insurance, it was suddenly ‘wind damage’. Few received anything, beyond frustration and heartbreak.
I thought of starting a roofing business. But I soon realized that those with a blue roof were not being helped by the insurance. And a year later – they probably still had that tarp up there.
I thought I was down there helping people. HA! It was all theater. And the money stayed at the top. Little trickled down.
Is Prez Trump issuing a higher than normal number of Executive Orders?
Neutral question.
Please read the editorial before posting silly questions ?
There’s nothing “silly” about the question and I don’t glean an answer in Klein’s piece. Do you?
VfE has already displayed serious reading difficulties below. I don’t know what these people are doing here: ‘inadvertent trolling’ maybe?
The term ‘executive order’ doesn’t even appear in the text. Not once.
EPA ungagged here. Complete website mirror
http://ch12.xyz/zero/
#opEPA has begun.
we need people to make more mirrors, and there’s also important stuff at NOAA and NASA that was harder to wget
on twitter @iRadioTube next comes @radiocron – a shade darker
What is involved in creating a mirror and who would I speak to about it?
Meanwhile, the alt-Park Service launches. Let the revels begin.
http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/alternate-national-parks-service-twitter/
We will END his rule by boycotts that will CRIPPLE AmmarraKKKa!
Perhaps you should not use the word capitalism until you fully research what it means. Deregulation of some markets while others are not is not capitalism, it’s corporatism. The very issues you complain about are never brought about by the de-regulation of markets, but rather the award of privileges and protection from lawsuits by government. Until the production of security and justice is provided on a free market, you can be sure government will continue to violate the property rights of citizens it claims to defend, while awarding the privilege to trash these rights to favored entities. Once you learn what the meaning of that word you hate so much, maybe your commentary will be interesting.
That is, literally, as ridiculous as any string of words I’ve ever seen.
What is this “free market” you speak of? Where can we see or touch it? Who created it, God? Or did it emerge mysteriously in the coalescence of objects in the Universe following the Big Bang.
Please, define and describe this “free market” and its origins.
Agree the word capitalism is used for corporatism by both sides. From what the left says they would actually benefit greatly from studying Adam Smith’s capitalism and point out how the right is essentially the ISIS of capitalism. The right though, how has no reporter or moderator every asked them about this is beyond me.
Can you point to an example of a time and place when capitalism — as you understand Adam Smith to have endorsed — was in place?
What is the “proper” definition of capitalism, and where in time and place has it existed?
Trump reportedly installing ‘shadow cabinet’ in federal agencies
If you see something, leak something.
Stalin had a system very much like this. Eventually, every military unit, factory and agricultural collective had resident Party agents.
Naomi Klein has some credible insight into the incestuous nature of the neoliberal con of the duopoly; the left hand washes the blood off of the right while the masses are predictably left without a savior (or a pot to piss in for that matter). The masters of mankind will continually generate a string of self-proclaimed anti-establishment, hope-and-change reformers whose role is to provide a check against the rise of any true messiah. The system that we are currently living under has so much institutional inertia that it really does not matter which party holds the reigns of power. When coupled with the fact that the dark state endeavors to hold sway over every aspiring candidate of any note (long before they can do any real damage), one is left wondering from whence true relief can come.
The political left (aka democrats) insist that more federalism is the answer to the rise of multinational corporatism; yet the federal government is awash with corporately funded candidates. The executive branch of the Federal government has assumed unprecedented power under Obama and the the end result is that the two parties have become evermore committed to the common goal of providing welfare to their shared corporate sponsors while simultaneously creating conditions for their migration abroad.
The political right (aka republicans) have recently responded to the public’s nurtured disillusionment with neoliberal corporatism by fielding a self funded, anti-corporate candidate (faux savior) whose unabashed narcissism has been packaged and sold as the epitome of American exceptionalism; it is not. And like Obama in 2008, Trump is rapidly raising eyebrows as he too sheds his campaign rhetoric and appoints well established neoliberal cons to cabinet positions (six from Goldman Sachs alone). And again, the newly elected president’s supporters stand agape – like rutting dear caught in the headlights of an APC – as their faux savior lavishly praises the very instruments of power (i.e. Intelligence community, Military, Law enforcement, corporate spy agencies, fusion centers) that have been ever-evolving to quell foreseeable political dissent.
TRILLIONS of dollars have been invested by US. based multi-national corporations to establish a presence in volatile regions of the world with the promise that American military might would be used to “rebuild” any nation that opposes their shared commitment to globalization (War on Terra); the obama administration was overtly engaged in violently pacifying six of those nations when Trump took power. With China and Russia competing for the same markets and resources, any significant lapse in American foreign policy by Trump will be perceived by some of the most powerful corporate entities in the world as an existential threat. Although Trump has shelved the TPP for the time being, one can be quite certain that its aims have not been set aside. Those U.S. based multinationsl corporations who choose to rekindle a manufacturing base within the United States will only be lured by terms that benefit their bottom line; a reduction in corporate tax for example. Such incentives can only lead to greater cuts in social welfare spending or higher personal income tax rates for the average Joe.
Any way that the elites decide to slice the pie, one can bet that the Federal government and their corporate sponsors will get the lion’s share. In 1913, federal government expenditures equaled 2.5% of GNP. at the conclusion of WWII however, Federal expenditures had risen to, and have since been sustained, at a rough average of 20% of GNP. As the GNP of the United States has steadily risen from $2.218 trillion in 1945 to $16.397 trillion in 2015, one can see how this neoliberal trend has played out in real dollars.
But how exactly shall we get ready and be prepared? I am not talking about being like one of those prepers who build shelters and stockpile food water firearms. What I really want to know is, and I am not even being cynical, how can I, a not super rich guy who has a little extra money to invest, can also profit from it?
Pay off debt.
It’s kind of iffy. If we enter into a deflationary spiral debt, becomes harder to pay off. Short of that, check your portfolio. If a stock is under-performing in these market conditions, what will it do if the market turns down?
If you sell under performers, you can assume a stronger cash position and/or pay off more debt. Some people keep a running short list as in “The Big Short.”
Read the Solari report for an economic sitrep.
But hey, let’s look forward not back. Nothing to learn from the past (debacles), right? Don’t need no stinkin’ learning curve…
Learnin’? That’s for bookworms and nerds, not for action men!
ATTENTION FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, LEAK SOMETHING
This can be done securely and anonymously and placed in the hands of journalists sworn to protect their sources from discovery, even on pain of prison.
Out of curiosity. Why didn’t you do this when Obama was president?
You think it was critical to encourage, e.g., EPA scientists to leak during the Obama administration? We/I did encourage natsec and FBI employees to leak. Indeed, one Edward Snowden knew exactly who to go to when he went to Glenn Greenwald.
Ok. My memory of those days do not include TI overtly soliciting leaks, but maybe you didn’t have to.
I don’t really care if the EPA leaks like a sieve. Technically they shouldn’t have to. They should report to Congress and Congress should make the report public, unless they have a compelling national interest not to.
The U.S. media ought to push for a restoration of FOIA. Then you would not need leaks as much.
Glenn was actually at The Guardian when Snowden sought him out. TI wasn’t founded until late ’13. During the Obama administration, both this site and The Freedom of the Press Foundation repeatedly promoted using the Secure Drop software for leaks.
Know your employee speech rights against the regime
The Trump regime is ordering scientists in government employ not to speak to the public, is scrubbing government web sites and ordering deletion of tweets about carbon emissions & etc. Lawyer Ken White, an expert on free speech law, has published this: Quick Cheat Sheet on First Amendment Rights of Public Employees
If you see something, leak it.
So far in Trumpspeak “infrastructure” only means the few thousand jobs they’ll produce prostituting public lands to pay for pipelines. And it’ll become clear when infrastructure spending fails to include the building/repairing/updating of things like inner-cities, bridges, dams, sea-walls, or power-grids and clean water systems – instead of just roads, that the towel is still being thrown in the ring for this continent. What self-respecting Bilderberger (um, not the president) doesn’t understand that although supervolcano Yellowstone may not erupt for thousands of years it could also erupt with only a few weeks or months notice – now, and contingency plan for that?
We know oligarchy money sets policy and largely runs the corrupt United States Government.
One censored tweet from Badlands National Park yesterday was particularly interesting, concerning planetary CO2 levels being the highest in 650,000 years, because that’s not only pretty much right before the last time Yellowstone erupted – it’s also the known approximate span of years between the last three eruptions of that “Old Faithful” caldera.
And while continuation of its eruption cycle is by no means certain, eruption ash and earthquake resulting meltdowns of just some of the couple hundred continental reactors – will render great swaths of North America uninhabitable for a very long time.
Pivot to elsewheres, anyone? Has ANY U.S. infrastructure spending since learning of Yellowstone 2 to 3 decades ago – amounted to even a tiny fraction of the GDP used annually for weapons and wars elsewhere, or has it instead just been ignored? I’m sure it’s all just coincidence.
As the Trump regime silences scientists in the EPA and National Parks (as discussed below):
This weird fancy woman Naomi Klein earned her millions by protesting,standing on top of the same pyramid scheme as everywhere else…….Welcome to the Modern World……
Sad thing is that neither the Democratic Party or organized labor has the leadership or any plan to stop this. Both of them are incompetent organizations.
Clark – We may surmise you voted for Bernie. So we who trusted HRC would essentially pick up where Barrack left off were wrong.
Naomi’s points still stand. We are witnessing the reversal of solid, albeit slow, progress in reversing habitability issues facing our planet. We are using reason and a modicum of humbleness dealing with Iran. We are advising Netanyahu to stop sticking pokers in the eyes of the Palestinians. We would soon launch programs to help American’s reduce red meat and dairy weekly. We fight to weaken the deathhold the NRA has on scared white women everywhere, some bad fearmongering (mostly by racist fathers over dinner) going back 80 years.
Meanwhile, evangelicals turned blind eyes to wealthy paritioners evil practices in mortgage lending, labor and environmental law infractions, and most evil, supporting GW Bush wars in Iraq, at phenomenal murder rates of children and other non-combatants.
Wow, once again you have created your very own news story out of thin air. Time to start telling the truth.
Your entire story is about what Bush and his cronies did during Katrina. It was horrible, absolutely inhumane in so many ways. The populace was outraged, but where were the protesters? His actions were unconscionable.
And you use this to show what Trump is up to? How is this accurate reporting? Let Trump make his own mistakes.
The last 8 years have been spent adding legislative actions to limit all of our freedoms. Where is your outrage for this? Where are the protesters for this?
Not sure about your website anymore.
There have been plenty of articles about the failures from the past administrator. Stop sucking Trumps ass and look at what’s actually going on.
Protesting is dying. It allows people to make a “personal statement”, but it accomplishes nothing. Criticism alone won’t work. You need policy and program. We keep trying to spoon feed it to progressives, but they keep spitting it up. They don’t want things to get better. They just want to throw a tantrum.
You are talking about people who couldn’t organize sock drawer, let alone engineer societal change.
Wrong. You do not understand the piece you read, if you even read it.
This is Naomi Klein’s opening paragraph:
These are the final two:
The events during and after Katrina are examples of Klein’s “disaster capitalism” thesis, a thesis she has long been arguing with a compelling marshaling of facts and logic. Donald Trump, and the GOP Congress, are creating conditions and opportunities for a disaster-capitalist feeding frenzy. That’s what her piece is about, not Katrina per se.
Joan,
Read Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” then read the article and it will all make sense. Or, for a quick-take read online about what shock doctrine is. Then the article will make sense.
Lee Camp recently joked that marching is like sex – orgasmic, but afterwards you collapse and do nothing.
We need an alternative. Knowledge will be its foundation. Get out or row.
pastor martin niemoller…then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
wow. The Socialist Workers Party came for them; National as in NPR.
shivers. don’t let it come to that.
Willful ignorance will not save you.
Amazing paper…
Hillary Clinton’s supporters helped make all of this happen.
Yes, the republicans and Trump are disgusting,
but they have not done all of this without the help of
the lying republicans known as democrats.
Approximately 98% of the votes cast in 2016 helped
reinforce the system which lousy liberals like Klein and
Michael Moore think they oppose while they point their
fingers at the republicans and while they largely
turn a blind eye to the “democrat” wing of liars.
Klein’s words are cheapened by her association with the
delusional supporters of the democrat wing of corruption.
Klein on Clinton:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opinion/trump-defeated-clinton-not-women.html
I think you made his point. a lame critique by Klein: poor Hillary was simply “the wrong messenger”. Hindsight is 2020. What Clark picks up on is true: even hardline lefties like Moore sold out, took the ea$y option and it blew up in their faces. And guess what, 2 months down the track? they still don’t have the guts to admit it.
Klein ‘gets it’ now. The collective blindness that affected the Clinonites isn’t over yet, of course. I only cured mine with the Wikileaks and some TI.
Re-read this article because the under-lying message
is that these horrors are republican. Klein skips over the
lousy Obama/Clinton participation in and escalation of
disaster capitalism while
she reaches back to the lousy Bush years and presents a
Bush-Trump scenario which implies that the
Obama/Clinton corporate owned liberals played no part.
There is NO indication that Klein “gets it” when the “it”
is the whole truth of the bipartisan agenda.
Is there evidence that the same kind of behavior occurred during the cleanup after Sandy or any other disaster since Katrina? My guess is that the same thing did happen and if so then, yes, the same level of criticism should be levied against the Dems.
“In short, [Hillary] landed on many of the right messages, but she was the wrong messenger.”
Bullshit. She was for big Pharma and the bankers.
Klein’s first name should be Joe …
The people who voted for Clinton did not vote for Trump.
The people who voted for Trump did not vote for Clinton.
It is simply bizarre to say that the people who voted for Clinton elected Trump.
You might as well say, “I bought a car because I ride the bus to work.”
Or “I watch movies because I like to jog.”
Or “I hate birds so I feed the pigeons.”
Or “The up escalator goes down.”
Words mean things. Words do not mean the opposite of what they mean.
Your reason for your vote is not the same as your vote.
How on earth can you say that the people who voted for Clinton elected Trump?
How is “free” cheapened?
G-d, Milton, whether one agrees or disagrees with it, the statement is not hard to understand.
Supporting an unsuitable candidate (Clinton) of course helped Agent Orange to his victory. It’s not rocket science, you know.
Of course if Milton still believes Clinton was the near-ideal candidate and that it wos the Russians wot did it then that logic will be lost on him.
And worse, the Hillary faction and DNC actively worked to sandbag the Sanders campaign, and maligned an alienated the many millions of enthusiastic Sanders supporters. Supporters whose candidate was shown in poll after poll, throughout the primaries, to beat Trump very soundly — as opposed to Clinton who was never much better than a dead heat.
Once Clinton secured the nomination, the Clintonites actively and repeatedly told the Bernie faction to fuck ourselves., e.g., by choosing a rightwing Dem like Kaine as running mate. Surprise, surprise, there was little enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton so necessary to getting out the vote. And she held lavish parties with rich and celebrity donors rather than campaign in th Rust Belt — which she lost to Trump.
In a populist moment the Democrats made very sure the only populist on offer was a rightwing egomaniac like Donald Trump. Idiots.
You rang the bell with that comment!
^^^^^
Which has absolutely nothing to do with my previous comment.
I don’t care why you voted as you did.
Your reasons apply to you. You might find many who agree. You can insist that I must agree with you (whether I listen or not), but you don’t get to tell me my vote NOT FOR TRUMP elected Trump.
If you don’t like the Democrats, fine. If your reasons for your vote compel you, fine. If you want to share your thoughts and feelings, fine.
However it is objectively untrue that people who voted for Clinton elected Trump.
That’s obvious, indisputable and absolutely bizarre to claim.
1 plus 1 makes 2, Ms Obrien. Two! Not 6, not 3,000 not infinity. I don’t care how you feel about it. Your Trumpian “it feels true so it must be true” is nutty.
Your alternative reality, ‘IF …., then’ you can reach any conclusion you wish (a reflection of what you feel) which is still not objectively true. If you drive a car as if what you want is true, you are a danger to all because the road, the stop signs, children in the crosswalk, other cars, pedestrians are more true than your desire to reach your destination quickly.
So you, and others, must stop confusing your feelings for objective reality.
It doesn’t help and it can cause huge injuries to many people — as the election of Donald Trump will, quite likely, cause.
Tangled thoughts have tangled consequences.
First be truthful — acknowledge common truths.
Then, if you want to tell me Sanders would have won IF … I would point out that I voted for Sanders in the state caucus, I thought Kaine was a horrible choice and I find HRC, um … uncomfortable. These are MY thoughts and feelings.
But my vote for Clinton did not elect Trump and I resent the fuck out of anyone who says otherwise.
Since I didn’t tell you that, I have no idea why you are objecting as if I had? In my view there was no morally clear vote in the general election as among the choices of voting for Clinton, voting third party, or not voting at all. But the DNC and primary Clinton voters absolutely did give us Donald Trump for all the reason I set forth above.
Sigh… a lifetime of myopic partisanship isn’t going to recede for a few poignant comments. If we made Milton hand-copy some of the most incriminating wikileaks several times, he’d still be in denial.
He’s like a football hooligan: he’s chosen a side, now doesn’t care how his side plays. DNC uber alles!
This is a lie.
You don’t have to lie to make your point.
I understand what you’re trying to say. I’ve understood it since GG wrote an entire article about it after the election.
You’re trying to support some version of: “Trump won because Clinton was a poor candidate.”
Then — so the argument goes — Clinton was a bad candidate because [… ] and that’s why Trump won.
I have a different argument.
My argument is this: Trump won because he got more votes than Clinton.
If you cannot even accept this simple, indisputable fact, how can anyone — including yourself — trust what you say?
Worse — and this is my subsequent point — if you must craft your words this carefully in order to protect your argument, you lose the ability to be honest.
Every word, every fact, every dispute threatens the subjective reality you’ve invented. This is why, for instance, Trump insists more people attended his inauguration than any inauguration before. This is why, also for instance, he claims there were millions of illegal votes cast.
He’s not trying to explain or even understand reality. He’s trying to support his own internally manufactured reality.
If you want to talk about why Trump got more votes than Clinton, that’s a valid discussion, but it’s clearly not responsive to my statements. It’s only responsive to your own invented narrative.
I understand why you would lie to protect your narrative. Growing up can be painful sometimes.
I suppose if you have enough money from the git-go, you can maintain your childish illusions all your life. You could even buy a presidency and use your authority to demand government employees that they stfu.
The breadth of issues and intrigues associated with the 2016 presidential campaign cannot be summed up as “it’s the democrats’ [Clinton’s/DNC’s/Clinton voters’] fault.” Nor should it be.
The more you insist that this must be true, the more reality you must ignore or distort to make it so.
If by now you still like the Democrats you:
1. have really not been paying attention, or,
2. don’t know a thing about politics, or,
3. are only interested in wedge issues.
Mentioning the DNC is the key to this whole shit mess we’re in now. They put all their eggs in the WRONG basket. Bernie was the proper choice and the DNC fucking blew it; I blame them almost entirely.
It’ll go down in history as one of those ‘saving defeat from the jaws of victory’ moments the Dem’s have been famous for over the years. Personally I hope the party becomes what it deserves, so that a third and fourth party can rise to accept the challenges ahead.
Hmmm…methinks you need to inform yourself. Klein was NOT a fan of HC.
At this point, I’m afraid there is very damn little that paper-hanging pussy-grabber can do to shock me, Naomi.
*I was there when Mr. Trump and Mayor Koch (later Guilliani) effectively put an end to rent-control (mitch-a-lama) … and my hopes of making it in the city.
I suggest we all continue to hope for the best … and prepare for the worst.
What Klein describes is neoliberalism on steroids. It’s a term most people are still unfamiliar with. I hope to open more eyes to the dynamic with my photo series on the topic http://flashgfoto.com/i-am-mannequin/
^^^^^Bravo!^^^^^
There’s nothing neoliberal about limousime liberals. They’re the same standard issue, deep state building, collectivist liberals.
And Hitler was a leftist, right Communete?
It’s Mona’s sidekick Gert.
Hitler founded a Socialist Workers Party, National as in NPR. Who shows up on the stoop of a function with the words “Socialist” and “Workers” scribbled over the doorbell? Together even. Be honest, Gert.
Who used the same playbook, chapter and verse, 70 years after Nuremberg to attempt to distance themselves from yet another choice that embarrassed them, one that had come complete with a new solar symbol?
A disapproving public causes chastened, embarrassed, dishonest progressive leftists always to point away from themselves.
Hitler hated socialism and socialists. This is extremely well documented and I’ve already provided a corroborating link for your delectation, in the past.
It’ s equally tempting to equate horrid Stalinist-Leninist Communism with fascism but equally inaccurate.
There’s enough to criticise the left with, legitimately, w/o resorting to debilitating fantasies.
Hey, it’s Mona’s understudy Gert.
Jiang Qing hated Mao. Chairman Gonzalo and Shing Path hated the MRTA. The Soviets hated China. UNITA hated the MPLA. Pol Pot hated Vietnam.
Socialists are notorious for internecine rivalry.
Shining.
Somebody who “hated socialism” should have, uh, taken Socialist out of his organization’s name. Gert?
He took a wrong turn on the Internet, meaning to show up at Prison Planet to discuss his favorite topic: Satanic/Illuminati mind control that turns thousands of women into “sex kittens.” Somehow, he instead keeps ending up here (in evasion of multiple bans) to rant about how Hitler was a man of the left & various other hallucinations.
We should probably ignore him while the reasonable and lucid adults continue talking.
Seconded.
Very fine work. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Ms Klein’s idea of creating emergencies in order to hand out lucrative rescue contracts to your friends and cronies is a good one. But I’m somewhat old fashioned and prefer the tried and true method of starting wars. Contracts for fighter jets are much more profitable than contracts for emergency blankets. However, Ms. Klein’s work has potential. Wars at home always carry a certain risk, so a combination of domestic emergencies and foreign wars might yield the highest returns over the long run. Certainly we should not fall into the trap of complacency, believing the current system is the best, and refusing to consider any improvements. Steady profits, year after year, is a sign of decay. Profits should increase every year and so Ms. Klein’s suggestions should be fully explored and, if feasible, implemented.
As my local supermarket puts it: “every little helps!”
You must shop at Save-O-Lot.
*benitoe eats a little higher on the hog.
Just for any readers here who may not be familiar with the book:
The above only highlights the need in part for a revolution in our understanding in finance. http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics and also in understanding information http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Universal_Debating_Project
Now I’m really wishing Hillary Clinton won. The way they saved Haiti with all that help And million dollar contracts. Almost adopted (kidnapped) 33 under priveladged not quite orphaned kids as well.
Oh wait…..
Heard that worked out terribly. Couldn’t find Naomi Kline mentioning the Clinton foundation ripping the Haitians off. Did I
miss something? Or is that called disaster charity?
Klein is not a fan of Hillary Clinton (cam out in full support of Sanders) and to be fair, Bill Clinton admitted they got it wrong in Haiti. Two simultaneous truths can exist within the same space. Trump can be a bad president and so too could Hillary.
Are you dense? The article sticks to its topic, as it should.
Naomi Klein: on Clinton and neoliberalism;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate
While Trump is signing of new bills it won’t take long until fracking will be extended.
I suggest that all Trump voters sign-up to be first inline to get fracking started in their hometown.
Make Democracy Great Again.
Untold trillions of pounds of CO2 released from lightning sparked wildfires that burned uncontrollably through forests in the eons before the invention of municipal fire depts.
Please step gingerly over that bad carbon.
link showing the untold trillions of pounds of co2 released? and showing there have been fewer forest fires to release it? and showing greater or equal co2 ppm in the atmosphere just before the industrial revolution? all these would support your case more than bald assertions.
Sadly, there are a bunch of paid trolls on this discussion thread this morning, as they are all discussing climate change, which had nothing to do with the article (except inasmuch as a climate disaster was used as an excuse to push through a radical reactionary agenda).
Intercept – I think you guys should hire a few moderators.
Sadly Naomi Klein is using climate disasters for her anti -Trump propaganda. ShaunMarie you should know better than to call anybody who has a different opinion a paid troll.
Don’t you mean censors? Call propornot!
“Intercept – I think you guys should hire a few moderators.”
Yep.
Nice for right wing talk radio zombies to spout off on instances of environmental catastrophes occurring over the last million plus years to justify their rape and pillage for quick $ profit. But please wake up from your coma! Global warming is occurring over the tiny time frame of 100 years after a complex ecology supporting humans had evolved. But hey we had super volcanos and meteors that dwarf nuclear weapons “eons ago” so I guess that means its cool to start a nuclear war by your logic, right??? Sean Hannity says it’s so, must be rational?
There’s a relative paucity of CO2 in the atmosphere compared to recent periods. The Ordovician saw an ice age with 14x the amount there is now.
But Joy Behar tells you something else, so it must be true, huh, glider?
https://www.skepticalscience.com/CO2-was-higher-in-late-Ordovician.htm
Boring denier argument.
The Ordovician was ~450 million years ago.
The last half-million years is much more relevant to humanity.
Klein has picked the wrong target. The real culprit is not Trump but Trudeau …who is producing all this dirty tar sand oil that has to be exported to the USA and Europe. Naomi should organise a march in her own country.
Naomi Klein Debunks Ethical Oil at Tar Sands Action
Everybody blaming Trump for climate change…. so dishonest…as if there were no climate disasters before humans started burning fossil fuels. Nevertheless I admire those who do not use cars and airplanes for their transportation, who eat only locally produced food, who do not wear clothes and toys and phones that have to be shipped from the other part of the world, who do recycle their waste and who live in energy passive homes. Everybody else should stop lecturing others on this climate religion.
climate change religion?
7 billion people and climbing…
get yer houseboat ready – unless you can get to mars.
Like the story of the arch of Noach.
https://tobefree.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/climatology_dees.jpg
uh disaster can be caused by different things. forest fires for example. try this–“forest fires occurred long before humans ever existed, therefore humans cannot cause forest fires today. there is just a coterie of grant hungry scientists that are trying to convince humans they can cause forest fires, because these scientists are paid by the government to take away our precious matches”
Naomi’s editorial blames Trump for disaster profiteering suggesting he will do everything to increase the number of disasters. As for humans having an impact on the environment that is such a no-brainer……
As for logic try this: Climate disasters exist. Trump exists. Therefore Trump causes climate disasters. Like : Russia exists. Trump was elected.Therefore Russia won the US elections.
Please point to specific parts of the piece that, in your view, make that case.
Have you read the first paragraph ? We already know that the Trump administration plans to deregulate….bla, bla bla.
Deregulation causes natural disasters? Who thunk?
Nope. But it would make exploiting them with Disaster Capitalism easier.
Europeans often see themselves as better informed and more sophisticated than Americans.
And yet here you are…
Gert Wilders alert !
It’s actually Geert Wilders, you toadie. A man whom I despise with all my heart, Wilders.
If you want to make the world a better place just take a look at yourself and make that change. I still have hope for you, Geert.
So we agree on something.: Naomi anti Trump propaganda. Sentence number2 of the first paragraph: ‘it’s a vision that can be counted on to create a tsunami of shocks………weather shocks…. She is clearly blaming future climate disasters on Trump’s deregulation and his supposed disaster profitering attitude.
Trump denies ACC. He therefore doesn’t believe ACC will have any negative effects or cause natural disasters. Re. the latter, Klein does believe that’s what ACC will cause. Trump’s disaster capitalism would cash in on that.
These are simple facts, not propaganda.
Forest fires that poured unfathomable volumes of CO2 into the air–that were never extinguished until they naturally, eventually petered out.
I,e., atmospheric carbon producing forest fires that lasted far longer in duration than now. For shitloads of years before vehicles were around.
Forest fires were controlled, when forestry, grazing, mining, dams, and roads werepracticed and expanded haphazardly.
We know better now, that forests are supposed to burn, down low. Obviously, clear-cutting and mountaintop mining is horrible; regardless of how many jobs and support services are enriched.
Multiple use is precisely what our USFS, BLM, and USBOR professionals have been touting over the past 20 years.
Would you please bother to read the article before shooting your mouth off? You have clearly no idea what the article said, what was being discussed, or why it matters.
I can only suppose you are a paid troll, in the employ of some Indian sub-contracting company, googling anything that discussing anything about the climate. I understand the need to feed yourself and your family, and that your employer doesn’t pay you for reading – but honestly, your posts make you look illiterate.
So what did the article say. Get ready for what ? Any advice on how to combat human induced climate change…..Or just be afraid because the new US president will profiteer from climate disasters…. Did you know Naomi is in the select top 1 pro mille of humans based on her carbon footprint ? So in a perverse way she is promoting climate disasters that will profit the new president.
Paid troll? Nah, far too dumb for that.
I’d put that comment down to your own dishonesty but why do that when your plain stupidity is the likely cause?
Trump isn’t responsible for climate change (the article doesn’t claim that) but he sure as hell is intent on making the problem far worse than it already is.
Ok , have it your way Gert and ‘ Get ready for the first shocks of Trump’s disaster capitalism’
When RINOs cackle about ‘no climate change’ and ‘the environment is over-regulated’ they usually remain somewhat moderated by a thing called ‘the facts’. Trump doesn’t suffer these inhibitions and seems hell-bent on ripping up every piece of environmental regulation in existence, out of spite.
Bracing ourselves might be a good survival strategy…
In the meantime here in Europe we have signed CETA so we will be able to import this wonderful Canadian tar sand oil. Where is Naomi….?
Like a super quantum particle: in 17 places at the same time.
You.Are.A.Idjut.
You sound like a Dutch populist. Attacking the man instead of the content.
Quite obviously, the solution is more politicians!
Or perhaps it’s time to see that politics has failed and will always fail.
A new philosophy must emerge.
now yer thinkin!
keep it up
“Tornados” as a harbinger of Climate Change. They must have given up on hurricanes.
Florida never saw waterspouts. Oh, wait….
‘Climate’ as a discipline is the phrenology of science. CO2 is the serotonin of its research community.
You know what—you’re right. I wish we could convince corporate interests that there is just as much money to be made in controlling CO2 emission as there is in controlling serotonin transmission.
You’re right. If only we could we convince corporate interests that there’s as much money to be made on controlling CO2 emission as there in controlling serotonin emission …
I did share this really insightful article with as many people that I knew would read it. I find this to be so far out of the logical realm that it makes sense. We cannot begin to reason what is going on with the Nationalistic policies put forth daily. The underlying agenda is very scary.
Trump is ordering National Park employees to delete tweets about carbon emissions, and has ordered the EPA “to remove the climate change page from its website.” Scientists are organizing a march on Washington, D.C.
When a government orders it’s scientists to delete scientific facts, that government is properly referred to as a “regime.”
National Park employees have an alternative Twitter account: @AltNatParkSer. Bio:
They’re Based at Mt. Rainer National Park, and since the regime began cracking down today, their follow count has been climbing by the thousands every hour.
Ha! Bravo.
I hear rebellions are going on at EPA, NASA and USDA, also. I’m sure they won’t be the only ones.
What are the chances of Trump’s head exploding? Maybe we should start a betting pool on the date.
Comments here continue to be almost unbearably tedious and irksome, so consequently I read less and less of them and reply less and less to them. But I didn’t know about the @AltNatParkSer”> twitter action until just now. That’s great news, and I’m so pleased to learn of it. I immediately went to follow them, and am now catching up on what has been posted there.
In violation of FOIA and and the 2014 amendments to the Federal Records Act, one would think.
Very possibly so. His attempt to pretend he has written and order to “move ahead” with DAPL and Keystone XL are blowhard hot air and horse shit.
Yup. He doesn’t have unilateral authority to bypass the Code of Federal Regulations.
minitru sez doubleplusungood refer to @realbb guv as “regime.” science memoryhole doublegood for doublethink climate.
‘ When a government orders it’s scientists to delete scientific facts, that government is properly referred to as a “regime.” ‘
The quote above must be made a sign, to be placed in every classroom, worldwide, and shared on every forum!
It’s about time the US government is called a “regime”. This ‘honour’ is long long overdue.
It might be worth noting that regime doesnt mean quite what you think it does. Although regime tends to have a negative connotation a regime is basically the type of government, a constitutional monarchy is a regime as is an oligarchy.
But what we are starting to look at is a more and more authoritave regime
this whole situation with the Donald and the majority is going to come down to a shouting match with the most common fraze being “WHAT ARE YOU! NUTS?”
Relax. Enjoy some satire poetry.
Vampire.
I bet you a bat
that your fake golden hair
is like the fake news
that you use
to incite more despair.
But we’ve got your number
we’re not in a slumber
we’re all sitting
and knitting
teenie weenie beach bikinis
for your infamous corporate penis.
Another pseudo intellectual article doomsday article from the left. Trump is the president and a real estate developer known for building projects on time. He’s not Pence. If you want to know real disaster, look no further than Haiti where the Clinton’s enriched their cronies at the expense of Haitians. http://antonyloewenstein.com/2012/09/28/haiti-is-disaster-capitalism-ground-zero/
If your only solution is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Because of Trump, the climate will change and we’re all going to die. IT IS KNOWN.
That may be the plan. Dovetails very nicely with their apocalyptic religious worldview. I don’t just NOT believe that these people don’t believe in climate change, I think these people believe IN climate change. It validates their insane end of the world beliefs, washes away millions of us godless abortion-supporting traitors and drowns us in our coastal Sodoms and Gammorahs alongside millions of non-believers world wide, leaving nothing but profitable clean-up jobs for the good Christian, Republican donating contractor.
What about climate change can the American Republican right wing not love?
The Final Solution. Same as it’s always been… EXTERMINATION. Now with the help of “nature”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones
I liked it here on earth when the climate
Didn’t change. Perfect weather all of the time. No flooding or
Rain. Damn humans. All the farting (methane) oceans warming (Fukushima maybe?) it’s got to be our cars! The way los
Angeles and new york used to look like a smog bank 40 years ago and now you can hardly see 20 ft.
WSJ subscription needed
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-phony-war-against-co2-1477955418
40 years ago today, Dr. Who predicted “alternative facts.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doctor-who-alternative-facts_us_58860d95e4b070d8cad3b0e1
Meanwhile, real activists fight lonely battles to overcome this new form of hidden, toxic, and often illegal policing that has overtaken America; as well as fighting the hidden bonus of the ‘discrediting narrative’):
Gavin Seim confronts ‘community policing’ thugs who are too stupid to realize what fascism looks like (it’s them, and their close cropped haircuts, and black shirts.)
https://youtu.be/_GG-DPnHLTg
Meanwhile- the intercept comments section gets intercepted. Irony is a gift of the sardonic.
If this is how the new government will respond to disaster as well, it’s better if the larger states are prepared to respond on their own. One seems to be heading that way. The State of the State message —
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article128432759.html
I would say that it’s best if all state and local governments that are able, willing and so inclined do whatever they are able to do to push back.
Fortunately for those of us who live here, California has enough muscle to push back with real force.
For the time being that may be well and good. However, with all of that military gear coming back from the M.E. and being dispersed around the country to those pledged “to protect and serve”, how long before the police state realizes that Ca. has to be taken over by the police state?
Well, not impossible, of course.
However, we don’t have any police chiefs, sheriffs, etc. who aren’t serving at the pleasure of the voters or of the governor, or of the local elected officials.
Are you expecting the Trumpeters to send federal troops to occupy California? Or to try to federalize our National Guard units?
I don’t think I’ll put this issue too high on my list of things to worry about.
If you are, e.g., a Black Lives Matter organizer or participant in, say, Louisiana, you should be very worried.
That’s right; the new administration will probably reinstate the 1033 program, where Defense Logistics Agency provided surplus military weaponry, vehicles and equipment to local law enforcement. That means renewed militarization of local police.
Databases of such gifts will probably turn up and you can see where it goes, e.g., to the University of California police. (Worth noting, BTW, that “rifle 5.56mm” is almost certainly M16-series rifles, which were temperamental to begin with and probably badly-worn — local police should have a gunsmith look at them.)
I’m glad this piece was written showing Pence’s history of corruption, especially with respect to education & Education Secretary Nominee Betsy DeVos–with whom Pence has a really close relationship to Betsy’s brother, Eric Prince–because it shows the extent to which Pence has been granted enormous power over domestic policy, & that the corporate takeover of public education in Indiana is about to be taken nationwide.
Most Hoosiers actually hated the changes made by then-Governor Mitch Daniels’ Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett, which is why Dr. Bennett lost his reelection bid in 2012 & moved to Florida so its governor, Rick “Largest Case of Medicare Fraud in U.S. History” Scott could appoint him to a powerful position within his administration & try to do some of the same things.
What Hoosiers don’t know, however, is how the relatively popular–compared to other changes to public education in Indiana–voucher program not only aids the corporate takeover of public education in Indiana, but, alongside other actions taken, also helps to split up & segregate Indiana’s kids along every socio-economic & political faultline in America today: not just race & religion, but just as importantly, class, sexual orientation, disabled children with much more expensive needs are stuck in public schools as private schools have the enormous advantage in this landscape of selecting which students they wish to exclude, including which are the cheapest to educate, even along gender lines as private schools can be all-male, all-female, or possibly some mixture based on some arbitrary ratio so as to muddy the waters of their segregating acts.
I don’t think I have to point out the severity of the consequences to a society that can arbitrarily decide who will succeed & who will fail in being well-resourced in becoming a future productive member of society, effectively deciding who will succeed & who will fail in life. Whatever problems exist within the public education system, no one can logically & reasonably argue this is in any way, shape, or form a way towards improvement.
I already spoke in a comment on a previous article about how the selection of Gen. James Mattis to be the next Secretary of Defense gave away Pence’s power over foreign policy, after which they made it even more obvious with the selection of former Indiana Senator Dan Coats to be the new National Intelligence Director–apparently everyone still has the attitude that this job isn’t worth having; otherwise, the list of candidates would never have included Coats. Now with Betsy DeVos up for Education Secretary pending Senate approval, we know he has been given at least some power over domestic policy as well.
I refuse to believe that Trump’s dumping of TPP & talk of renegotiating or outright abrogating NAFTA means any kind of end to free trade between the U.S. & other nations. I expect Pence & his corporate superiors will find a way to carry on free trade under another name & rhetorical scheme. When that is found, we’ll know that the Buck stops with Pence in this administration, & Trump is just its horrifically ugly mask.
Then again, Trump could just get impeached–& convicted–& Pence would simply be officially sworn in as President. Heck, he’s already being sued over emoluments. I think we all know that’s only the beginning.
the US is going to split
Richard Trumka seems pleased with the first moves, at least regarding trade.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/24/our-union-celebrates-tpps-death-nafta-must-be-the-next-trade-deal-to-fall
Fascinating.
What he does with trade could be catastrophic. Imagine: He raises tariffs on Chinese imports. Walmart and other retailers get severely downsized or go out of business. China would see it as an existential threat pretty much.
“Existential threat” seems to be a new phrase like “on the ground” or “fake news” – that people fall in love with, overuse, and denude it of any real meaning. If we understand it to mean a threat to existence, I can’t get on board with your assessment. While raising tariffs would certainly be a threat to China, it is hyperbolic to say that it would be or China would view it as a threat to their existence. It could certainly start a trade war.
Of the many things that Trump will do that will damage this country, what he does to trade will likely be bad but not be catastrophic and will probably be reversible . The cronyism will suck ass in terms of redistributing wealth in such a way that fosters even more of an income gap. The further war on Islam will cement us in irreparable conflict for at least another generation – though keep in mind we’ve been dropping bombs in no less than five countries in the Middle East that we are not a war with during Obama’s tenure. And let’s not forget about net neutrality going on the garbage pile of things that no one pays attention to but really should.
Yeah, let’s argue about Sean Spicer and his hackneyed lies about crowd size. Let’s DEMAND Trump release his taxes so we can confirm that he is the fraud we already know he is. “The men (and women) the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” We are along way from figuring out the latter, though that you are reading this on the Intercept is a start.
Sorry, that was just a crazy rant…
So would Walmart and their constituents. It doesn’t augur well.
You’re dead wrong. This along with prioritizing doing business with Russia instead of fighting with it are Trump’s only good points. If we eliminated imports, things would have to be made here, recreating massive jobs. It would be a good thing if Walmart went out of business, because it would be replaced by a place that paid its workers more money. Even more important, if things cost more, people would buy less, which is much better for the environment. So high tariffs would be a win/win/win.
Get a clue and stop spreading lies and propaganda.
This kind of economic shock would be severe, regardless of whether globalization is good or bad. If he does something like that abruptly, it will be reckless.
The intercept needs to purge itself of these racist communist writers if they want to stop being considered a fake news website
Explain how Naomi Klein is a racist.
Joe doesn’t know what:
1. Communism is,
2. racism is,
3. fake news is.
Joe doesn’t know much.
An’ Joe don’t care. Why should he?
For a very long time, schoolchildren in the US have been taught that it is axiomatic that, “anyone can grow up to be president.”
Many of us have long believed that to be a myth rather than an axiom. It now appears that we may have been mistaken. ;^(
I blame the Democrats. ;^)
So not everyone can grow up to be Prez? What a bummer! ;>)
You learn something new every day here!
But everyone can become a Donald J. Trump, right?
Please don’t shatter that dream as well!
Anyone can be President in this great nation. But to elect nobody as President? That’s an achievement.
Yeah, this is what Joe does. Drop in with some inane assertion and then scamper off. Except when he isn’t embarrassing himself by describing the purported relationship between the writers and editors here. A scenario known to be absurd and false be anyone with a passing familiarity with the core group of journalists. (Specifically, Joe imagined that when Murtaza Hussain posts a low-quality piece on Syria, that means the site’s editors agree with Hussain, or else they wouldn’t let him publish.)
I’ve seen Joe in action before at TI. Still unsure what the purpose of such commenters is. Too dumb to be paid shills or trolls, that’s for sure.
Macedonian troll factory kids do a better job than the ‘Joes’ of TI. Sad lives…
Joe knows EXACTLY what he’s talking about !
Don’t be like Joe.
joey… joey… joey…
COMMUNISM is the virtuous implementation of the biblical demand from God that life support is an entitlement for his children aka human beings, by the providence of public ownership of all life support resources. So unless you are an israeli zionist who murders Palestinians for their land, you should be good with communism.
RACIST is what you are when you defy God’s will for His communist policy for life support for all God’s children – aka human beings.
FAKE NEWS is information you cast out to others which is false or fraudulent or out of lie with God’s will.
And to make sure the shock brings forth the profit bonanza for the elite the corporate media will keep the focus on those of the poor looting for food and laundry detergent as opposed to the corporate disaster looters raking in billions.
This pattern of economic genocide is one that i dont think the public is really seeing. I liken it to a gold mine with 1 person in charge of water and as the years go by the waterguy supplies youngsters with water and discards the lessers by denying water. The cycle continues for decades – not that there is no water for the old, retired, less fit, etc – but that there is only advantage to the water suppliers for those in their work force to get them their gold.
Trump’s and the planet’s real fight is against the existing US currency and valuation ponzi scheme – it ain’t capitalism – that is currently in place because no matter how much energy we save getting off of fossil fuels, the ponzi scheme for wealth accumulation requires population growth which leads to more energy needs. And that self destructive process is accelerating.
earth is doomed.
Earth does not depend upon climate for existence and will do just fine; it’s humanity that’s doomed.
Depends on what you mean by “Earth.” The Earth would be a virtually dead rock without a climate,.
Clearly, Naomi has proven that she knows very little about Katrina and/or really has the goal of promoting her political/economic ideology.
Naomi rightly points a some of the very true problems, but only selectively and in a manner that fits her narrative. It’s telling to read an article about the bloated corruption of Katrina without mention of ‘Brownie’, Blanco, Nagin, Jefferson, and the population at large. That omission alone exposes this piece as mere propaganda.
Katrina was a cacophony of corruption and ineptitude at every level.
Now imprisoned Mayor Ray Nagin had zero emergency plan to evacuate immobile residents. He falsely declared marshall law to the NOPD which led many officers to murder citizens (see: Danziger Bridge, Henry Glover, etc), steal property (300 Cadillacs from the dealership, etc.), and abandon the city (1/3 of the police force fled).
All of that was happening as perfectly functional public RTA busses sat unused in their parking lots.
Local music legend Charmaine Neville had to steal one of those public RTA buses —after being stranded on a school rooftop, getting raped, climbing over scores of dead bodies, and using a flat boat to get to high ground— to save 24 people. That’s because the passing helicopters never helped them (after 2 days). They’d see the group, signal to them, and continue flying over without dropping a basket or aid.
Imprisoned State Rep. William ‘Dollar Bill’ Jefferson personally requested and utilized a NG helicopter to fly him to his home so he could retrieve the laundered public money he’d kept hidden in his freezer.
Governor Kathleen Blanco completely botched the evacuation at the state level because didn’t understand how to appropriately order in the NG, and admittedly didn’t know how many she should request. After two days of a city already literally drowning, Blanco finally made the appropriate federal aid/evacuation request.
Michael ‘Heckova Job Brownie’ Brown was Bush’s infamous head of FEMA whose delayed action, lack of crucial knowledge, and general indifference was also responsible for thousands of people left stranded in the Superdome, Convention Center, etc. without electricity, food or water. People were dying of heat exhaustion and getting robbed, raped, and killed in those squalid conditions.
Which leads to the population at large. After Katrina and the billions of federal aid dollars went pouring in, a money-grabbing free for all was had by the public. Many people deserved every penny and more, many people that deserved most got nothing, but there were many many others who filed false claims and got free unneeded money…sometimes tens of thousands of dollars.
The author’s claim that body-recovery was exclusively run by a private contractor is absurdly misleading/false. Private citizens who were able and willing were hired and paid upward of $100/h to help retrieve and haul bodies. Other private citizens (and family members) did so for free if they saw a body.
Then came the recovery boon in which many many many poor and affected local people were able to **capitalize** on the burgeoning need for demolition and construction. But there were many other locals who took the opportunity to scam people out of their recovery money before doing incomplete or no repair work.
While this was happening, New Orleans saw an enormous increase in undocumented immigrants. Many of those, as the author rightly points out, were taken advantage of or robbed… but many others were also responsible for scamming the locals out of their recovery money without doing the work, and leaving town/country.
From the top to the bottom, corruption abounded.
Over 1,000 people died- floating around the city- as a result of governmental corruption/ineptitude.
For Naomi to exploit the deaths and immense/complex tragedy of Katrina in order to spew her hyper-partisan Marxist BS is disgustingly misleading, disrespectful, and grotesque.
I don’t know where TI is finding these new hires.
Huh? Even to the extent any or all of that is true, it doesn’t detract from Klein’s thesis.
I continued reading your comment, and finally hit:
And then I understood why your post was a long diatribe that didn’t address Klein’s thesis, much less undermine it. You’re an ideologue who thinks tossing in faux outrage about the “misuse” of the dead should persuade intelligent, reasonable people of a thing.
Nice job inserting yourself without any refutation or substance…consistent. Your behavior paints you clearly more as a character assassin, rather than someone who discusses issues.
Didn’t you read GG’s piece on JTRIG? Your ‘chat’ decorum is in lock-step with those monstrous operations. Do you see nothing wrong with that behavioral parallel?
While you mull that over, try to come up with any substantive refutation of my above comment…rather than personal attacks.
OraleHohms translated: “I hate being busted about my poor reasoning. Damn, I really had hoped that my spewing about ‘Marxist BS’ and the sacred dead, would shut her up. [tap, dance, tap dance]…JTRIG, [tap dance, tap dance].”
Still waiting for that substantive refutation sans personal attacks……. I have a feeling I’ll be waiting a while.
Thanks for so concisely proving my point.
You poor sod. You have the burden of justifying your attack on Naomi Klein’s article. I do not have a burden to “refute” your non-refutation; I stand on Klein’s still intact reasoning.
Better luck next time.
Surprise! Another evasive stick and run….embarrassing.
“You have the burden of justifying your attack on Naomi Klein’s article”
Yeah…that’s in my 1st comment you ignored to levy your personal attack.
Now you have to offer a substantive refutation of that comment to prove you’re not a troll with a discrediting agenda. I’m STILL waiting for the substantive refutation sans personal attack.
Tick toc….
You silly goose, you’ve put forward nothing that discredits Klein’s thesis. There’s literally nothing you’ve done to dent Klein’s argument, and thus there is also nothing relevant that is susceptible to refutation.
(As for my being a troll, well, given my history , including professional history with one of this site’s co-founders, that’s exceedingly unlikely. Yet another area in which you are quite ignorant. But even were I a troll, that would merely mean you under-performed a troll in the logic department.)
Tell ya what: Make a fact-based, logically sound attack on Klein’s thesis and I’ll address it. I suspect, however, that you are not capable of doing so. [shrug]
What are the sources of your narrative?
I was there, Gert. Since you’re clearly a skeptic and don’t know what happened, look it up for yourself. You’ll learn that it’s unfortunately true.
You’re not obliged to do so but could make my life easier by providing some corroborating links. If you were there, that should not be a difficult task for you. No doubt you know more about the Katrina debacle than I do.
I don’t think I’ve advertised myself as “clearly a skeptic”.
I don’t think I’ve advertised myself as “clearly a skeptic”.’
Fair enough…I said that because you didn’t take (what’s ultimately the truth) at face value. That’s not unreasonable.
Having been there, I didn’t have to read most of those things to find out they happened. Locals experienced it and talked about it first, then local media reported it, and then it was finally somewhat picked up in the national news.
But since I probably know the more relevant keywords, I’ll post some links if TI allows. Stand by –
Jefferson:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/jefferson.search/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Jefferson#Local_influence
Chairman Neville:
http://www.wafb.com/story/4830934/charmaine-neville-stands-by-story-of-rapes-alligator-attacks-during-katrina
Blanco:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#State_and_local_government
Cops and Cadillacs:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9542398/ns/msnbc-the_abrams_report/t/inside-allegations-nopd-looted-cadillacs/#.WIgJC4dH1mM
Marshall law:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/law-disorder/blog/2010/08/after-katrina-new-orleans-cops-were-told-they-could-shoot-looters.html
You should already know about the Henry Glover and Danziger Bridge incidents…. if not, they’re high-profile enough that you can find them.
I will. No hurry.
Jefferson:
cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/21/jefferson.search/index.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Jefferson#Local_influence
Chairman Neville:
wafb.com/story/4830934/charmaine-neville-stands-by-story-of-rapes-alligator-attacks-during-katrina
Blanco:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#State_and_local_government
Cops and Cadillacs:
nbcnews.com/id/9542398/ns/msnbc-the_abrams_report/t/inside-allegations-nopd-looted-cadillacs/#.WIgJC4dH1mM
Marshall law:
pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/law-disorder/blog/2010/08/after-katrina-new-orleans-cops-were-told-they-could-shoot-looters.html
You should already know about the Henry Glover and Danziger Bridge incidents…. they’re high-profile enough that you can find them.
It’s very late here, so I will read those tomorrow, w/o fail, thank you.
Word of advice: claiming someone “spew(s) her hyper-partisan Marxist BS” points to your own bias. To call Klein ‘Marxist’ requires an elastic definition of Marxism, about the size of my obese granddad’s underpants; wide, extremely worn and supersized.
You’re welcome.
To be fair, that assessment wasn’t in a vacuum. Having glanced at Naomi’s works and views on ‘capitalism’ paired with reading what I clearly know first hand to be her misleading and unduly partisan account of the complex social, political, and economic corruption that plagued New Orleans…the nature of her piece becomes clear.
Perhaps “spew” was a bit strong…but her exploitation of the situation was offensive.
Her’s is a summary. Perhaps oversummarised. But it’s not a book about Katrina.
As you have said you were there, so to has Klein (as an investigative journalist – not a resident). After having read her book in its entirety I can certainly see where she absorbed what happened and processed it into her own paradigm, but we all do that. In some instance she is reporting facts and in others offering a point of and interpretation of those facts relative to a larger picture. I never got the sense that she felt that corruption was the exclusive domain of the ruling class.
And bias is fine but becomes pot meets kettle very quickly, in this context.
As I said, even if all of your fact claims about Katrina are true, that does undermine Klein’s thesis. Nor do you show any reasoning whereby they even could.
Naomi Klein has put forth an argument, matching facts to theory in a manner that sets forth a coherent and elegant explanation. Not one word you’ve spewed about her article detracts from the logic of her thesis.
You simply dislike her explanation. Which is wholly insufficient reason for anyone else to find it wanting.
Ach gach. This:” that does undermine” should have a “not” after “does.” (Kids, don’t post while pausing a movie.)
Been watching Terminator 2 again? Knock it off, it’s overrated and doesn’t withstand a second viewing. ;>)
Nah, I’m a David Morrissey fan after his superb turn as “The Governor” in The Walking Dead. So I’m taking in one of his “Thorne” films — performing as a quite different character — and admiring his talent and range.
**Charmaine**
TI’s autocorrect is 0/3 tonight.
Well, that’s all horrid stuff we didn’t get to see on our European boxes. When society breaks down, the worst animal (Man) shows its worst side. I have no reason the doubt the veracity of these stories.
But I fail to see how they contradict Klein’s thesis on Disaster Capitalism in action in Katrina.
I believe it’s your own understandable emotional attitude to the disaster that causes your to spout that vile and baseless allegation.
Natural gas it is ;-)
And we are to believe is worlds apart from what came before?
I’m hardly a fan of Trump or his flimflam picks and banana republic approaches to governance. (The fact he appeared to be a citizen rebel and not a completely corrupted establishment insider may have been his only positive and apparently a waste in his case). But Naomi Klein’s thesis on “Disaster Capitalism” was wrong 10 years ago and doesn’t hold water today.
Continuity rule under a “Too-Big-to-Fail” state under Bush/Obama began long before Trump ever had practical designs on the White House (a Trump stunt oddly supported and engineered early on by the Clintons and their corrupt network).
And however flawed, real capitalism should provide:
1) valid citizen choice (i.e. backed by real media, uncorrupted public leaders, institutions, etc)
2) valid, real markets (no genuine global markets exist)
3) genuine democracy (a ship that sailed long ago)
4) true checks and balances to insure capitalism does not devolve into corporate monopoly
5) control and issuance of a nation’s own money as a public utility (not subject to private tampering)
We have NONE of those 5 mainstays in America today and haven’t for quite some time. What we have is garden-variety Fascism as in the merger of state and corporate power (a de facto kleptocracy of extortion through deep state rule). Sorry to say this, but people such as Klein that point the finger of distraction at obvious effects and not the core causes will only continue to divide and confuse an already polarized and ineffective electorate.
Nothing in the historical record indicates that those words, or variations on it, were ever uttered by Mussolini.
you’re going to need a bigger hanky
Not true. When getting on a train, Mussolini was asked by a reporter to define fascism. Because he was in a hurry, Mussolini said he didn’t have time for a long explanation, and famously defined it as corporatism, i.e. corporations running the government. That’s what economic fascism is and pretty much what we have.
spot on
And yet, you don’t tell us why or how.
Further, your points 1-4 simply employ adjectives such as “valid,” “genuine”or “true” without stating how such conditions can be brought about. That is, you sound like a garden variety utopian who lives purely in theory, as opposed to thre real-world Naomi Klein — who marries history with a coherent theory that explains many facts. If her theory is wrong you’ve done not a thing to show it.
also spot on
2 views of the same situation from different phenomenological realities.
Naomi correctly identifies the nature of the real world relationships in terms of how US victims see the situation.
Naomi states-
Naomi accurately provides evidence of cracks and corruption which reveals what can go wrong will go wrong.
In clive’s world, he sees that as a fatalistic approach to what he considers should be the narrative of what is actually wrong. His perspective takes a step back in time and seems to slighted Naomi’s starting point – as if Naomi missed something.
Naomi didnt miss anything. Clive seems to insist that the epidemiology of the problems are the root cause of a completely devoid system that must always be named – implying that Naomi’s somehow misses the boat. Clive’s presumption about Naomi in that regard i take is out of line but his 5 points i see as spot on, to be clear.
Naomi is a magnificient thinker.
“That is, you sound like a garden variety utopian who lives purely in theory, as opposed to thre real-world Naomi Klein — who marries history with a coherent theory that explains many facts.”
But of course. I’m a “utopian” because I don’t buy Naomi Klein’s hazy theory, never mind whatever “facts” you refer to…
Naomi Klein’s entire “theory” and the bulk of her talking points are based on the single idea the U.S. and the west are “capitalist” (and hence tainted by recurring disaster) which is obvious pap. Anyone including Klein can make observations about corrupted policies but her assumptions as to cause are clearly at odds with fundamental reality on the ground and with history.
Even the most basic dictionary definition of the term at issue demands free competitive markets and therefore some form of democracy (worth the name) for capitalism to exist much less operate.
Evidence of no working capitalist framework in the U.S. (or the west in general) has been available for decades in scandal after monopoly scandal (the giant LIBOR conspiracy bank scandal for example which was barely covered in what passes for a “free” American press), endless rigging crimes (Comex rigging, Brent Crude rigging, Forex rigging, Stock Exchange rigging, Bond rigging, etc), and massive events such as the economic meltdown of 2008 when the so-called “Too-Big-To-Fail” banking monopoly took the entire nation for a shakedown with trillions in bailouts paid out to the most privileged and elite de facto criminal looters in the culture. I could go on regarding the Eurozone led by Wall Street ex-staffers, etc, etc. This is NOT capitalism by any means.
“And yet, you don’t tell us why or how… If her theory is wrong you’ve done not a thing to show it.”
I just did so. I am no promoter of capitalism as the end-all be-all. But capitalism requires legitimate free competition and – by extension – functional democracy. The west has neither under a de facto “Too-Big-To-Fail” monopoly deep state. Open any dictionary. It is literally that simple. And simply that wrong to make assumptions about the world that clearly do not hold up.
“thre real-world Naomi Klein — who marries history with a coherent theory that explains many facts.”
See above. Such theories are not coherent to reality on the ground and explain little to nothing for anyone with a passing knowledge of economic/political history.
In the words of Mable Minkinoff… dahlink, al ur raplies iss delitefully, don u no.
Ore somethink 2 thet effact.
That’s funny–I’m not confused by what she’s saying at all, but then again, I know where she’s coming from. I read her book, which was well-written and devastating in it’s evaluations and criticisms. Your little list of all the things capitalism should provide–you come up with that on your own? Brilliant! You think you’re the smartest guy in the room, dontcha? Sure.
You conflate economic systems with political ones. While there is obviously some overlap, these are to entirely different things. You could have a capitalist democracy or a social democracy, for example. And capitalism certainly doesn’t provide democracy, in fact usually the opposite.
I think the problem is that you don’t understand what capitalism really is, which is using capital to make more capital. This necessarily creates workers who are in a substantially inferior position to their bosses economically. You don’t have to have capitalism in order to have free markets.
A much better economic system would be worker-owned co-ops. An entire region in Spain operates this way (Mondragon), and this model eliminates the major problems associated with socialism and communism, namely lack of incentives.
“You conflate economic systems with political ones. While there is obviously some overlap, these are to entirely different things.”
They should be different. Not, however, when one system is almost fully in the pocket of another – as it is now with a “Too-Big-To-Fail” deep state in rather obvious ownership of what passes for “democracy” in the west (see my response to Mona’s points).
“And capitalism certainly doesn’t provide democracy, in fact usually the opposite.”
Really? Name a country that has had legitimate capitalism (defined by the dictionary entry below) without a working democratic regime to insure property rights and free competitive markets. (free competitive markets which do NOT exist in the west any more than viable democracy). By the same token, name an autocratic regime that operates a working capitalist system.
“You don’t have to have capitalism in order to have free markets.”
If that’s true, name the modern system you are referring to with said “free markets”.
Capitalism
an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit
By the way, the term “capitalism” was coined by William M. Thackeray in the late 1800s and popularized by Karl Marx. (who heavily plagiarized utopian social theorist Victor Considerant)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Confirmed as UN Ambassador
Oh well, at least it isn’t The Walrus.
More Mike Davis, less Naomi Klein amd Jeremy Scahill.
Wish Naomi would put the “blowback” from foreign aggressiveness in perspective. Bush and Obama and HRC have created a massive disaster in this regard. Thusfar it is not clear that Trump will not even reduce such tensions particularly in regard to the current Deep State push to reignite the Cold War.
?Dear Mr. President
Could you just lower my income taxes please?
Team Trump won’t need any such disasters to implement the domestic equivalent of the Iraq Reconstruction contracts (or Katrina contracts) – the disaster of collapsing degraded American infrastructure dates back several decades and just gets progressively worse with time. The combination of tax cuts and public-private infrastructure plans means that the Trump program will be a combination of taxpayer ripoffs and shoddy construction – as in Iraq, when a million dollar contract would end up, at the end of the subcontracting process, with a few Iraqi laborers digging a ditch to nowhere. Or it’ll look like Bechtel-in-Bolivia, with Trump insiders taking over public services and jacking up rates in exchange for shoddy services. All in all, it’s more progression towards Third World America – but that’s been the policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations with close ties to Wall Street, so who is surprised?
Trump’s domestic plans will look like American Hustle 2.0 – but this is still a better outcome than Hillary’s foreign plans, which would have looked like World War III. Which says a lot about the corrupt political process in the United States, really.
The Reps. are on it gain making a mess of our country in the next 4 years while filling their wallets tax-dough.
Everybody Buckle-up !
LAUGHING OUT LOUD –
what empirical hypocrits
1. invade a sovereign country under false pretenses
2. kill thousands of citizens there and assassinate their leader
3. bum and blow their infrastructure to pieces
4. leave the country
5. supply arms to all sides seeking power
THAT HAS BEEN OUR POLICY
and now the SUPID US MEDIA who helped PERPETRATE FALSE EVIDENCE (their day job is to help wallstreet rob americans) want Americans to GET ANOTHER WAR GOING AGAINST A FICTIONAL ACCOUNT OF RUSSIA and have battered Americans pay for it all with their lives and earnings.
YEAH.
and now we are supposed to feel all bad about getting paid for this crap?
I DONT THINK SO.
1. Sell lots of arms to a friendly but dubious regime.
2. Start war with said regime for whatever made up reason.
3. Sell arms to own side to defeat now hostile regime.
4. Sell replacement arms to successors of said regime.
Repeat as needed. Pure genius.
Usa_naziland is just making the american public’s subconscious opinion of foreigners & hatred of us. Come to the surface, as the rest of the free-thinking world turns its back on north-america. North-korea is now a model trump & the elites admire & are trying to pursue.
I’m actually glad that your gained a vile out-spoken president & will suffer from an introspective outlook. Because it will force commentators too shine a light on how other nations around the world are ran & do things. Usa_naziland is a pure warmongering bully who’s newly aligned regime is propelling your social-culture into a dictatorship…who the public will come to sing along with & praise because they know know better.
Roll on the demise of the US-dollar as more & more nations look to BRIC’s & newly formed currency markets as the future of stability. The downfall of north-america & its disastrous history is coming.
Naomi, I’ve followed your work from the UK and you are always bang on the money. It’s not just happening in the US though – here in the UK in small rural villages, the threat of fracking is imminent.
Local councils oppose it but then, as it is Government policy, their objections are overruled – I’m sure I heard a click as democracy left the building and closed the door behind it.
At the same time, the Government are reducing subsidies on renewables (in a small island country surrounded by sea and battered by wind) and have appointed an Energy Minister who was a (failed) fracking boss.
Keep up the good work, we need people who can articulate so well
There are a lot more parallels between the UK (and other European countries) and the U$A, than mere fracking, as I’m sure you’re aware.
Even as the UK government (whose conservative and neoliberal leaders tend to have close ties to Qatari gas interests, among other fossil fuel suppliers) tries to block renewable energy on behalf of the fossil fuel industry and its investment bankers, renewable energy prices continue to drop:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/cost-of-offshore-wind-power-in-uk-has-dropped-32-percent-in-four-years/
What this really means is that capitalism itself is not what is driving global warming and climate destablization – the continued reliance on fossil fuels is the problem. Note that centrally controlled socialist economies that rely on fossil fuels, with publicly owner fossil fuel industries, are no different from free market deregulated capitalist economies in this regard. Venezuela is the classic example; its promotion of socialist policies under Chavez did nothing to limit its contribution to global warming since those policies were financed by international oil sales.
This is why the solution to global warming is not about capitalism or socialism, it’s about eliminating fossil fuels as an energy source and replacing that demand with renewable power – i.e. what detractors call a “techno-fix” is the only plausible solution.
This article shows Historicism at its best, and unfortunately that is not a compliment.
Klein ‘knows’ what the Trump’s administration will do because she wrote a book called the shock doctrine, where the theory is explained in detailed. A theory that concerned the practice of the Bush administration. Actually the future is inevitably leading to gobal environmental disaster, according to Klein’s theory and the photo that is accompanied by the article is enforcing this theory.
That prediction is difficult, especially because it concerns the future, is not a concern for Klein. She knows what will happen. No science needed for Klein, the scareminger. And certainly no quotes from Karl Popper who said that
‘Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.’
W, your call but I didn’t read your conflation to Popper or theory. Perhaps (your call) if she had said something to the effect that in disaster areas employers will be able to increase the mandatory tax on citizens (you and me) for the difference between the wages they refuse to pay and a living wage. Would that qualify as a theory or a fact?
Or that stiff dicks and the MIC govern the USA and that ain’t changing anytime soon. Is that a theory or close enough to a fact for you/Popper? Maybe this is better re theory or fact:
“Les chiens aboient et la caravane passe.”
Thanks for the edjumacation, HCG. The quote is a perfect baseline description of the shock model of capitalism, and capitalism in general.
And if Willem is scared, he should be. But not because Klein is a scareminger (sic), but because the corporate rape of our civic, cultural and democratic institutions is plain to see.
I’m grateful for her information for gives me a picture of what I can look for in the morass of similar chicanery likely ahead of us. The obvious theme is the application of corporate screws to enrich themselves at the expense of the people and environment and applied at the first instance of catastrophe. Morally bankrupt and sociopathic.
If anything can be said to be predictable it is imperialism.
Trump has just signaled another round of stemming the tide of the inevitable slide.
It is not a theory that humans are the cause of global warming/climate change or that if this gets bad enough could make the Earth uninhabitable for humans and most other species that now exist. It is not a theory that humans are the cause of our current extinction crises. It is not a theory that human population growth directly tracks population declines of other species, or that humans depend on other species in order to survive (other species have intrinsic values aside from benefits to humans, but I wouldn’t expect someone with your attitude to care about or even understand that). It is not a theory that every bit of air, land, and water on the Earth is contaminated with unnatural (i.e., not naturally occurring) human chemicals. It is not a theory that all oil wells and pipelines leak and that oil spills occur daily.
Considering all this and other FACTS, it is easy to accurately predict certain things about the future.
Well said, Jeff D.
How utterly perverse to misuse a quote from Karl Popper, of all people, to undermine the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and is having — and will continue to have — disastrous consequences. You, sir, do not understand Karl Popper.
Nor do you understand historicism or Popper’s critique of same. Klein is not arguing for “inexorable laws of historical destiny” in any manner. Rather, she is describing what certain cohorts of human beings have done in the past, and explaining why conditions they find conducive to their actions are ripe — and that they are well-positioned to take advantage of these excellent (from their perspective) conditions.
You are going to find that the commenters at this site include a good many bright and well-read people. People who aren’t impressed by name-dropping Popper, or inapposite spewing about a particular political philosophy — historicism. Certainly being so dim as to simultaneously, on the one hand, reject an overwhelming scientific consensus and, on the other, to spit “no science needed for Klein,” is simply precious.
Other than that, great comment.
Good exchange, Mona. The barrage of executive orders by Drumph gives one a bout of indigestion. It’s a fascinating mix and not all terrifying; e.g; cancelling TPP and using American steel for the oil pipeline. On balance he is a wild man.
Considering the alternatives, his Sec of State passes my muster.
Have you ever seen this so called scientific consensus in any material form other than statements from politicians or certain scientists with fixed agendas?
Measurements observations and personal experience show that there has been GW even with the years of cooling that were noticed. We are now supposed to believe what these politicians tell us the scientists say about projections into the future which is a much different and difficult project.
I don’t think there is any consensus on what will happen or how fast it will happen in the future among scientists yet we are being led to make decisions about what to do to stop or at least try to slow GW.
What we are being sold as the solution to this problem is a new Green Industrial Revolution when it was the first Industrial Revolution that caused the existing problem.
Why, since you ask. . . you betcha!
Prepare yourself: Citing John Cook invariably causes them to go on a long ad hominem digression, asserting the many purported deficiencies (if not villainies) of Mr. Cook.
Yeah, because Cook couldn’t possibly have done that meta-review, even with the assistance of all those coauthors, without cheating somehow. The fact that anyone can find and read all those papers and, if honest, be forced to reach substantially the same conclusion, doesn’t bother them — because they are neither honest nor scientifically literate.
But we have almost unlimited ammunition on this one.
2009 letter generated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and signed by the leaders of 18 US scientific organizations.
Human?Induced Climate Change Requires Urgent Action
(2013 Statement by the American Geophysical Union.)
Climate Change
An Information Statement of the American Meteorological Society (Adopted by AMS Council 20 August 2012)
Thanks for the follow-up and I won’t contest any of it even if Cook has an agenda.
What you can’t do is project this consensus onto the claims of what the future holds or what will happen and how it will happen. You also can’t with any real certainty decide what to do about the changes we face based on this data. Demanding Urgent Action is scare mongering especially when the only viable action that will even slow GW is massive reduction in consumption and emissions which I would hope that the sciencepolicy.org statement included even though I doubt it.
Greenhouse gases trap heat, and huge unnatural human greenhouse gas emissions are causing our atmosphere to heat up. A warmer atmosphere causes, among other things: 1) more extreme weather, because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture (causing more rain in already wet areas and more droughts in dry ones); 2) glaciers and polar ice caps to melt, causing sea level rise; 3) a feedback loop from melting tundra in the Arctic releasing even more greenhouse gases.
With these FACTS it is not difficult to accurately predict certain dire consequences of continuing to emit massive unnatural amounts of greenhouse gases. What about this don’t you get? It’s pretty straightforward. The real problem is that people like you DON’T WANT TO BELIEVE that their lifestyles of driving, gross overconsumption of meat and electricity, and consumption of electricity without having solar panels on their roofs are destroying our planet.
Simplified lectures on complicated issues may help simpler minds to believe what they are told and support what they are told are the solutions. This is more political than scientific persuasion and projecting what is known only about today as being able to accurately predict the future is just selling snakeoil. Even the powerful modeling programs that are used to make some of these predictions are flawed.
The real conflict about the future is about the agenda being sold that claims it will address GW based on propaganda it produces and wishful thinking it plants in simple minds looking for solutions that don’t actually cost them anything especially related to their right to overconsume.
It seems that too many people want to believe that solar panels are somehow benign and sprout from the ground fully formed ready to produce clean green energy, except at night.
We know fairly accurately how much CO2 is produced now by our FF power sources but we know very little, its hard to find accurate data on what this new Green Industrial Revolution will produce. Should we proceed with a huge industrial program, about 95% still to be built, on top of our present emissions that only works part of the day and has no affordable replacement for gasoline?
On which of Popper’s Three Worlds do you reside?
How can any non-drooling moron believe anything this propagandist produces? Never ceases to amaze me.
Easy to disparage – but another “opinion” absent, as it is, with evidence to support your claim – otherwise known as a – cheap shot.
As much as I dislike Trump, I think this article misses the point. Trump is no free marketeer. He’s an economic nationalist. That’s why he attacks free trade, wants to slap tariffs on imports and publicly criticizes companies with overseas operations.
And his business career is hardly a model of free-market derring-do. He built his fortune in the highly regulated real estate sector and has always exploited tricks in the tax code and bankruptcy laws. He’s also a celebrity that profits from television appearances and licensing fees from his name.
In other words, he’s a rentier who avoids competition, not a free-market zealot who embraces it.
This isn’t to say businesses won’t benefit from his tax cuts and regulatory changes. I just don’t think he’s preparing to lay out a buffet for corporations.
If anything, I think the opposite is more likely. He’s going to look for ways to consolidate his power and make corporations serve him. That raises a much bigger risk: That he’ll sleep through–or allow–some national security disaster that will allow him to launch a police state. Crisis authoritarianism seems more likely than crisis capitalism.
Far from allowing corporations to do what they want, he might ask–or force–them to support a pogrom against his opponents and targeted racial or religious groups. Protecting labor laws might seem like a luxury if they start harassing people or encourage racist vigilantes.
The point is how catastrophes are likely to be calculatedly used primarily For corporate (and private business, e.g charter schools) gain and the public and its institutions be hanged. Notice who on the economic ladder got screwed in the New Orleans/Katrina debacle. Reminiscent of Trump’s treatment of his workers at his Atlantic City enterprise?
I think he cares about HIS business, but I don’t think he cares about business generally. His public assaults on Boeing, the auto companies and Carrier tell me he’s more interested in having corporations serve him than he is in helping corporations.
He’s more of an economic fascist. The following definition comes from a staunchly capitalist website, but I think it aligns pretty clearly with Trumpism:
“As an economic system, fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer. The word derives from fasces, the Roman symbol of collectivism and power: a tied bundle of rods with a protruding ax. In its day (the 1920s and 1930s), fascism was seen as the happy medium between boom-and-bust-prone liberal capitalism, with its alleged class conflict, wasteful competition, and profit-oriented egoism, and revolutionary Marxism, with its violent and socially divisive persecution of the bourgeoisie. Fascism substituted the particularity of nationalism and racialism—“blood and soil”—for the internationalism of both classical liberalism and Marxism.
Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it.”
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html
That strikes me as a particularly fluffy definition of fascism.
More to the point it’s the merger of state and corporate power.
Yes, but I think it’s important to note that this isn’t a merger of equals. Corporations don’t have much power in a world where a presidential tweet can knock their share prices flat. Trump seems fine with “requiring owners to use their property in the ‘national interest.'”
I agree that some of his policies will benefit the rich and make life easier for corporations. But I think that’s a side effect of his economic nationalism, not a feature. If he were in favor of profitability at any cost, he’d be fine with offshoring and free trade.
I agree wholeheartedly with how shameful what she discussed is, but what’s the solution? More big government?
“Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Hurricane Katrina and High Gas Prices”
“Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Baby Jessica Stuck in a Well”
“Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Your Neighbour’s House Fire”
“Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to That Kid Screaming With a Broken Arm”
““Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to Those Kittens You Found in the Snow”
“Pro-Free-Market Ideas for Responding to The Old Lady Who Collapsed in the Supermarket”
Naomi Klein on the Intercept is a dream come true. This collaboration is just what we need. This is the most important article about this presidency I have read so far. The disaster capitalism of Iraq is upon us… the question is what are we all going to do about it?
Naomi,
I’m with you. But ending your piece with “We’d better get ready” without giving advice as to how we get ready, how we fight this is a challenge for me. Now I just feel freaked out with no good first steps to take. I mean, I’m on the board of my local 350 group, I’ve worked with Transition Towns and plenty other political groups. I get a million activist emails. But your piece leaves me feeling like none of this will be successful or worthwhile.
So. Now what?
Take the California approach to opposing Trump’s idiotic domestic policies, which will result in nothing but economic and ecological disasters:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/trump-freezes-epa-grants-while-california-plans-to-slash-emissions/
And let’s also remember that similar disaster capitalism was a feature of the Obama Administration, from the post-coup situation in Honduras to the regime change games in Libya and Syria and the Ukraine, it’s really been a continuation of the GW Bush system, which Trump is now inheriting.
My hero, Naomi Klein, is one of the most interesting people in the world.
This article is what makes Ms Klein one of the most important voices of this generation and everybody in the world should see this. If you haven’t read any of her books, I suggest you savor each and every one.
This puts it all in its proper perspective – and christalmighty, it looks awful.
For more commentary from Ms Klein, she was with Amy Goodman (and others) on Democracy Now! during Amy’s seven hour (I think) coverage of the inauguration.
This brings back bad memories of the Bush administration. But, Bush did do two positive things: He prosecuted Enron CEO Ken Lay and he tried to create a hydrogen car initiative. The Bush era abuses are why people turned to the Democrats and gave them: the Presidency, a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and control of the House of Representatives. It did little good. We replaced one group of corrupt clowns with another. Anyway, at least so far, none of this touches Trump. As far as Pence goes, I didn’t vote for Pence. And wouldn’t.
President Trump needs to set up Paul Ryan to take the fall on the coming recession caused by declining deficits. Call it the Ryan Recession. The main flaw is that Republicans and some (most) Democrats think that deficits are bad. They are neither good nor bad. They are necessary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6yna7Q7pvg
Most people are already in a state present shock from attention economy.
Thank you for an excellent article.
I find it difficult to read; I can only imagine how difficult it must be to write as you must wade through this liars’ bazaar of auctions and exploitation.
You’ll find many here downplaying, dismissing and disputing what should be as evident as a filthy cloud arising along any horizon on earth (except maybe at the South Pole.) As the planet dies, they elect a carnival barker to oversee the pirates looting and pillaging the world. They accept the CEO of an oil company and business associate of Putin to set American foreign policy. They praise a segregationist for his prosecution of murderers who were also white men. They name a woman who is the sister of a mercenary gangleader and the wife of a pyramid scam artist to oversee the privatization of an education system once the envy of the world. They welcome a banker who makes his money evicting the most vulnerable homeowners to manage the US treasury and then offer an insider trading Congressman as HHS secretary as they repeal the only slight relief from predatory medicine practiced in the US. Their replacement plan will can be summed up in two letters. F and U.
It’s disheartening to watch this shameless army of liars and frauds justify themselves while literally stealing the future from everyone else on earth.
They call this plague, this swarm of locusts, the free market.
It should be called an apocalypse for the same reason we call a desert a desert. When there’s no future, the apocalypse is that which immediately precedes it; the apocalypse is the event that creates a barren, sterile, toxic. and uninhabitable wasteland.
Well the rich are getting ready – they have a backup plan!
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
Hilarious. On RT’s ‘Keiser Report’ they showed a Bloomsberg report on ‘anxiety relieving rooms’ (and similar facilities) in Davos, because some of the elitists are getting worried about the ‘populist’ backlash! It’s quite believable.
Out-fucking-standing.
Indeed, and amen.
“Les chiens aboient et la caravane passe.”
Trump is already a disaster for ordinary non-rich Americans, and he’s just getting started
“FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though the tarps themselves were provided by the government. ‘
$17,500 For a 10 ft by 10 ft tarp. Average home sale is $100 a square foot.
This is out right fraud and no Republican or Democrat will do anything about it.
I don’t know where you got this information on FEMA and roofing prices but roofing is generally priced by the ‘Square’ 100sq feet. which would make this a reasonable charge for disaster work.
This looks like a quote from Naomi’s book “The Shock Doctrine” (see link below).
https://books.google.ca/books?id=7ZUl-iF7Sl4C&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496&dq=%E2%80%9CFEMA+paid+Shaw+$175+a+square+foot&source=bl&ots=Xjc9hwu3OC&sig=5MPP2XFiYoyr2Z6_AyZ03XGwotI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEv7CC2NvRAhVLymMKHWWpDzEQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CFEMA%20paid%20Shaw%20%24175%20a%20square%20foot&f=false
That number rose my eyebrows also. The author made an error. They paid $175 per square (100 square feet), or $1.75/sq foot. It’s a freaking tarp! It might take 5 min to nail a square down once your on the roof. That’s how they got them done for $2.00 a square. It’s really fast, simple work. I can’t see more than $20 bucks a square. Shaw made out like bandits.
My only comfort in all of this is that the red states, those half witted bible thumping, half-witted degenerates are going to be hit first and most horrifically by these policies.
I’m going to revel in the pain and despair that is going to come down on the heads of these pathetic lowlife wannabe “pious faithful”.
You ingrate yokels wanted Republican, right wing policies? Well Jethro, congratulations, you got it. NOW OPEN UP AND EAT IT!
“Love trumps hate!” Good job.
I think more than a few people in Louisiana will turn against the Republican agenda once they experience it. They turned against the Republicans after 8 years of Bobby Jindal by voting in a Democrat.
Sensational title…for a BS editorial. Read the last sentence and ask yourself : what did Trump do to Katrina to get Naomi so excited ?
or, read all the sentences before that one to understand why your question is nonsense.
Your comment is BS. And your question is stupid. Read the article and you might find out why. Voice of Europe? Yeah right.
I’m from Europe and can attest that most of what ‘Voice from Europe’ contributes to TI is indeed BS.
1. Trump is a developer. Real-estate developer.
2. Selected that religious zealot and right-wing heartthrob Mike Pence.
3. Selected that CEO from ExxonMobil.
4. Selected Pruitt to run the EPA – who thinks that man has impacted climate change. His donors included Koch and Exxon.
After four, I’ll let you reread the article and answer your own question.
i’m going to go out on a limb and declare the US to be the biggest, most heavily armed banana republic in recorded history.
You don’t have to go out on a limb to say that.
Isn’t the Shock Doctrine almost completely applicable to Climate Change legislation? Don’t all the same elements apply?
Climate Change Is Intergenerational Theft
For one, your disaster theory is just a modem form of Marx’s view on primitive accumulation. Secondly, we have just had a president that has opened up vast lands to fracking, bomb trains and offshore oil drilling. Obama most effectively used disaster capitalism during the Wall Street crash to transfer trillions to the ruling class, protect them from prosecutions, and force unions to accept two-tier slave wages.
Let ‘s not even talk about how Obama used ‘disaster capitalism’ in the Ukraine, Libya and Syria … you are embarrassing yourself with your Trump rants. If anything, the ruling class will use the imaginary liberal disaster of Hillary losing, to manipulate liberals like you as useful idiots to march us to the brink of nuclear war with Russia and/or keep Trump in check when he dares to end the TPP on day one? Why didn’t your hero Obama do that?
I can’t say I remember Naomi Klein complaining about Obama’s diabolical “all of the above” energy strategy or Hillary Clinton’s malevolent promotion of fracking throughout the world, either, but it’s plain to see that Trump is equally retarded in his approach and at least as dangerous for the environment.
Let’s call them ALL degenerate bastards and unite to de-throne the Deep State which uses both Parties to maintain the unsustainable status quo. If we just go into tribalism, defending either the GOP or the Democrats, we’re missing the point that both are unworkable and should ideally be (peacefully) removed from power due to their relentless and irresponsible corporatism.
Maisie, please do your homework.
Naomi Klein
Well, I’m working right now, so I can’t view that – and all I’m saying is I can’t say I remember her directly addressing these issues with the alarm with which she’s now writing. Just to scorn neoliberalism is laudable, but not what I addressed. Please point to where she complains about Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy or Hillary Clinton’s malevolent promotion of fracking throughout the world. It is certainly possible that she has, but as I say I either missed it or it was not alarming enough to be memorable.
Well, when you have time, you’re a skilled researcher. . .
Meanwhile, when you get off work:
Thanks for that, which I scanned briefly. Klein still seems to be pulling her punches, though, compared to the histrionic tone adopted here (I would prefer her to have been as considerably damning of Clinton as with her more colorful language describing Republican miscreants). So I can still see tribalism here, and a hope of convincing the what you refer to as the “one-party” establishment’s Democratic wing to try to redeem itself, as if it were a reasonable suggestion instead of just as much a futile head-wall-banging proposition as it would be with the GOP.
Anything you can find specifically on Obama’s diabolical “all of the above” energy strategy by Klein would be appreciated, also, for my objection is that she seems to be only now taken an appropriately apocalyptic tone when she should have been this histrionic about Obama’s gross negligence and corporatism as well, damning him to hell and back no less than she is the current administration. From the brief look over what you’ve linked to, I see nothing to match how she described Bush or now Trump in criticism of Obama specifically. And as I say, that Clinton piece is handled with a comparatively light touch, in my opinion.
And that was my point: if tribalism is encouraged, we’re missing the point that the status quo on both sides of the aisle in this regard has always (for decades at least) been this extremely life-threatening, and that is a grave mistake that can lead only to more trouble. Later, dude.
I have to do some work, too, so I’ll just say that I agree that the tone taken by Klein, and most other “progressives,” even those who are openly anti-capitalist, tends to be gentler when dealing with the near-right wing of the One Party than when focusing on the other wing. Perhaps not too difficult to understand — if you write like Doug and Maisie, you won’t be published almost anywhere that has wide circulation and money to pay well.
That said, Naomi (young Naomi to me) is head and shoulders above, and intellectually far ahead, of the useless, run-of-the mill liberals and progressives. If you haven’t you should definitely read her books.
That’s what I get for hiring Pedinska to type my posts for me.
https://twitter.com/naomiaklein/status/428906162361077760
Yeah, it’s a damn shame that some progressive writers often seem more savage about the establishment Democrats on something inanely called “Twitter” than elsewhere!
I’ve read The Shock Doctrine, but it was a while ago now. I appreciate her work, for sure. My initial comment was more to balance out what Jamie said than anything else, but this was a good chat, if hurried.
My lunch break is nearly over, but the only article in the catalog you linked to seeming to criticize Obama specifically doesn’t refer to his “all of the above” approach at all, let alone damn it vociferously. That was in 2009, entitled Obama’s Bad Influence, and the generalized criticism (such as it is) is extremely tame compared to the fiery and explicit condemnation she reserves for the GOP.
It’s possible her more barbed stuff on Obama and Clinton is elsewhere, hidden by Google of in the depths, which wouldn’t surprise me. But so far I can certainly restate my objection with confidence.
Well, of course you can, kiddo. When haven’t you been able to do that? ;^)
You two, Maisie and DS, make for delightful, enlightening reading.
Thanks. Of course, that opinion is not universally shared around here. ;^)
Why do you Trump supporters feel the need to troll every single website with your lunacy. What does Obama have to do with any of this? He’s no longer president. Yea. Obama expanded oil production, fracking and Obama had Wall Street people influence him. Trump has more Wall Streeters and more oligarchs influencing him. Trumps secretary of defense on day 1 dropped 24 bombs in the Middle East. Trump is talking about going back to Iraq. And is not Naomi Kleins hero. There are Pros And Cons to everything. This is one of the Cons to pulling out of any Trade Agreements with TPP nations. If the President doesn’t do anything with NAFTA it means more hard times here. Mexico has Trade agreements with TPP Nations and is another reason companies flock to Mexico under the benefit of NAFTA. :
American factory workers cheered when Donald Trump declared that he was going to terminate negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal between the United States and Asian nations. But those American factory workers weren’t the only persons who cheered the end of the TPP: The leaders of communist China were cheering, too.
Virtually no Americans or American media noticed, but in the week after Christmas China hosted a formation meeting of its own Asian trade group, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Attending the meeting were all the key Southeast Asian nations, plus important U.S. trading partners India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand — all looking to join together in an RCEP trade treaty headed by China, and which shuts out the United States.
If the United States is shut out of trade with many of the world’s fastest-growing economies and populations, our own economy will stagnate and more jobs will be lost because 162,000 American factories and businesses and their millions of American jobs depend on trade with Asian nations.
Even more important than jobs: Few Americans grasp the fact that such trade agreements are actually strategic military agreements. The fact is that if you tie a nation’s economy and businesses to your nation, you also tie that nation’s government and its military to you. TPP was designed to tie Asian governments to the U.S. to stop China’s expansion and military power over the region. Now without TPP the U.S. is powerless to stop China from economically and militarily tieing those nations to itself.
Already since Trump announced he will kill the TPP, the President of the Philippines has traveled to China, met with its leaders, signed a large trade agreement, and announced that he is prepared to shut down American military bases in his nation. American military bases in the Philippines are the key to our influence throughout Southeast Asia and to vast areas of the Pacific Ocean that include Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Without those bases, the entire area falls under the military umbrella of China.
And China is jumping in with even more than the RCEP: China has opened the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a Beijing-based rival to the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund, to make loans to Asian nations and further tie their economies, governments, and military to China, with the U.S. shut out.
So, China’s leaders are absolutely jubilant about Mr. Trump’s announcement about killing the TPP. It’s the kind of opening they had hoped for but thought would never come…and now it has. Here’s how the headline in the Wall Street Journal put it: “China Picks Up U.S. Trade Fumble.”
With even the Aussies preparing to join China’s trade group, China will score the game winner on that Trump fumble.
Trump is also showing his inexperience in world trade when he tries to bully foreign companies and countries. His experience is limited to bullying real estate corporations, but international trade is far more complex and the real estate corporations he has dealt with in the past don’t have armies, navies, missiles, and atomic weapons like foreign nations do to tell him “where to go”.
Even his success at bullying U.S. carmakers has its limits: U.S. car companies today compete in a worldwide market and build plants in Mexico where costs are low so that their cars are price competitive in the world market. A U.S. car company plant in Mexico might send 75% of that Mexico production to worldwide markets and 25% to the U.S. If Trump puts a 35% tax on those 25% of its cars coming into the U.S., it’s not likely that the U.S. company will start shifting production to the U.S. because if it did, 75% of its production would no longer be price competitive in the larger worldwide market. So, the company would just say, “OK. Put the tax on the cars we ship into the U.S. We’ll just get the money back by raising the prices of the cars in the U.S. Yeah, that will reduce sales in the U.S. a bit, but not nearly as much as if we lost the worldwide market, and it will cost U.S. jobs because dealers will lay off salespeople and mechanics, and U.S. car parts makers will lay off people, and states will lose lots of revenue because there will be fewer car sales taxes so they will raise sales taxes, real estate taxes, and income taxes. So, go ahead, Mr. Trump.
You pathetic moron. You don’t have the tiniest clue whom you are addressing.
It was the Democrats’ embrace of neoliberalism that won it for Trump
How about a degree of civility? There’s a few of you who think you own the comment sections of this publication and can abuse others who dare to intrude with differing opinions.
Aww, diddums!
Nope. And abuse comes from flybys just as frequently.
Hear, hear!
The party needs to be buried, with a stake in it’s “heart” under a couple of tons of quicklime, dealt with in the same way cattle infected with BSE are dealt with, or the country will continue to suffer an analogous hollowing out and liquefaction of the national brain, leading inexorably to a horrendous death.
The author does realize that the Trump administration’s economic policy is not capitalism, but actually Mercantilism? Tariffs and strong-arming businesses to stay in the country is not a tenant of the free-market approach.
Merchantilism is a form and branch of capitalism. Deregulation and low taxes on rich people is market capitalism. Which is also what Trump is doing. Also forcing companies to come back to the US will only cause then to automate not save jobs and will raise consumer prices on everyone again screwing over the middle class and poor
In fact, we correctly think of 19th Century Britain and America as the Vatican of free-market capitalism. Yet at the start of that century, the Crown made a device known as the spinning jenny a British state secret, because with it one could create an entire textiles industry. It was smuggled to the US, stolen intellectual property, and that industry was indeed built here, the beginning of the American Industrial Revolution. Yet the US kept its industries protected by tariff barriers. It also was the world’s greatest pirate of published books from Europe. This remained the American tendency until the catastrophic 1930 tariff act that made our Depression into a global pandemic.
It was one thing for an obscure player to cheat on trade, but when a major player did it, it led to disaster. Capitalist empires are all sneaky mercantilists on the way up, then turn to free trade due to their need to exercise “leadership” after destructive trade wars. Then they go protectionist again on the way down – which can be more extreme than mercantilism, since now the attempt is to shut out all trade in both directions due to being unable to avoid retaliation anyway.
But yes, they’re all part of capitalism.
to be fair, it’s difficult to establish *tenancy* within such an elusive structure as a free market.
in fact, has anyone ever seen such a thing?
Of course we’ve seen free markets. In a free market, if you have something I want, and I’m bigger and stronger, I take it. Then you learn how to make and use a long spear and come take back your property and some of mine as well. Rinse and repeat.
Today, e.g., areas of Mexico where competing narcotraficante gangs and helpless (and corrupt) government entities battle for dominance are excellent examples of the free market.
I think he was just calling attention to his misuse of “tenant” where he meant “tenet”.
No. Not “just.” Read it again.
which raises the question – do self-styled American Libertarians and Free Marketeers really want to abolish government, or do they just want to determine whom to point it at?
The latter. Controlling the government is the ultimate weapon in the fight to take what they want and to prevent effective resistance or retribution.
There must be tenants, because there’s a whole hell of a lot of rent-seeking.
Naomi, I’m a big fan and I think The Shock Doctrine is seminal work and essential reading. I’ve purchased numerous copies and distributed them to people I thought might benefit from its critically-important lessons.
And it’s good to see you here.
That said, this piece, mostly adapted from or restating points from the book, is so weakly-linked to the advent of the Trump administration and the reality we face today, that its relevance is, to be charitable, doubtful.
Really Naomi, you should do a little real studying and research , without liberal confirmation bias, and you’ll soon see how sensationalist and false many of your viewpoints are. Unless of course you’re driving an agenda of your sponsors and have no interest in the facts or the truth.
Your provided no substantial rebuttal to the arguments set forth in the article. You are dull and have a mediocre mind not worthy to listen to. Philistine, that’s what you’re.
Haha gotta love conservatives who come on a progressive website to spread their lies and propaganda. It’s you that doesn’t have the truth and is bias now move along now boy
What exactly makes these viewpoints “sensationalist”.?Where are YOUR facts, and for that matter, who are her sponsors? Really, you need to do more than create doubt-you need to pony up some reliable, verifiable information, or are your right wing think tanks a bit short on that?
I can hear Mr Putin laughing all the way from Moscow. Not that I believe that he played a big role in the election, contrary to what the mainstream press and the CIA wanted us to believe not so long ago. But it is certain that adopting openly such disaster capitalism will condemn the United States of America to the dustbin of history. Give it a few years for it to affect the sustainability of their military, and no one will be affraid of the once formidable empire… And Russia, which has a great sense of history, remembers how disaster capitalism was imposed on them by the USA…
I have no problem with people having less fear of anything, especially empires. Perhaps one should find a better m.o. than that to get along in the world
It seems Naomi is doing a little capitalist like trolling with projections of disaster and references to her long remaindered book to generate some revenue.
We can’t know exactly what Trump will do in the future but before taking office he intervened to stop some smaller but important threatening disasters for working people. Starting with Carrier he now also has Ford, Chrysler and GM on board with the plan to not visit disaster on their workers.
These are high skill, high wage and union working class jobs and union leaders were very enthusiastic after their meeting with the POTUS which may signal the end of union subservience to Clintonite betrayal.
you sound just as convoluted as the clintonites
Wow how brainwashed are you. Trump didn’t stop anything. Ford’s decision in regards to the factory had nothing to do with Trump. The CEO even said that. The CEO also said he would have done the same thing if Clinton was elected. Chrysler and GM haven’t been controlled by Trump yet and have done nothing.
SoftBank/Sprint situation was a deal that was already in place back in April of 2016 and announced publicly in October of 2016. You know before the election.
And Carrier was really Pence’s control due to him being governor still at that time. And it was only 700 jobs while the other 1,400 still left the country and Carrier got a ton of tax payer subsidies.
Obama saved 1.5 million auto jobs due to the auto bailout and saw the highest increase in manufacturing job creation since 1990. Did you praise Obama on any of these things?
And let’s be real. All these things that happened occurred under Obama’s presidency. And the economy was clearly strong enough as it was for these companies to invest all, etc. So Obama’s strong economy drove these decisions.
Meanwhile, Trump via executive order signed a law raising taxes and housing costs on middle class and lower class homebuyers. He just elected the head of FCC who opposes net neutrality and wants to dismantle it. That doesn’t help middle class and poor. He also opposes any worker protections/regulations and environmental regulations. Not good for many communities and workers. He pretty much doesn’t care about Native Americans or their water supply with him signing executive order to go forth with the Dakota pipeline. These things don’t help the middle class.
Also having consumer prices skyrocket due to Trump pushing tarriffs just so some factory Jobs can be saved screws over middle class and poor.
“Starting with Carrier”
Yes. Trump tried to make himself look like a champion of the working class, but all he did was give taxpayer money to Carrier, who then turned around with the intent to automate most of the factory work, using that money.
Good show Trump. Your negotiating skillz are approaching that of the average five year old.
Instead of stopping a disaster, he caused a bigger disaster. I hear Putin was laughing his arse off.
How exactly are Republicans being blamed for Katrina when the levies failed because the Democrat run city embezzled the funds for the levies’ upkeep? It’s hardly a case of model government.
I find it particularly funny that only real complaints about what happened post Katrina, was when the government decided to grant monopolies to contractors and bad contracts were entered into. You’re undermining your own case.
Not really; you’re shuffling facts around to suit your argument.
How exactly am I shuffling facts?
New Orleans has not had a Republican Mayor since 1872,
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_New_Orleans )
and federal money poured into the state to fix the levies for years but was spent on other items ( http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/katrina_federal_money_for_louisiana_went_to_pork_not_levees/ ).
The Katrina disaster is not some example of “disaster capitalism”(whatever that is), but rather just another example of government in action. Blaming republican capitalist-based relief efforts, for a problem caused by Democrats mismanaging the government is almost laughable.
Ms Klein is Canadian. She’s is beyond US party politics. Seen from outside, there is very little difference between Republicans and Democrats politically beyond the logo (but still using the same three colours and stars) and the presentability of their candidates. The “disaster capitalism” doctrine has been imposed abroad under presidents of both parties and is now coming home to roost.
Exactly. This “b-b-but they were Democrats!” is both sad and hilarious. With Clintonism we got the Republican Lite Party — more socially liberal, somewhat more inclined toward protecting civil rights, but otherwise not a great deal of difference. Certainly not in fiscal and economic matters. Some GOP are merely even more extreme, having driven most of the “moderate” Republicans out.
Clinton/Albright’s ? 1.5 million murdered in Iraq is hardly “Lite”,
nor is Obama’s hearty “…turns out I’m really good at killing people”
Nope you are wrong and twisting things for your bias. Republicans controlled the state and not enough funds were going to the city. The Hurricane happened under no ones control and the federal governments response again republicans, only worsened things
The levies should never have been built in the first place. They were a federal Republican gift to developers and caused massive ecological harm.
And trump just okayed the XL Pipeline… Yeah, let’s just double down on a system that doesn’t work anymore. (facepalm) The sad thing is in 4 years people are going to be so tired of this Neo-Conservative stuff, they’re just going to elect whoever is the “democrat” nominee. Which won’t change a damn thing but keep the capitalist corporate warfare welfare state of the last 50 years alive.
It’s not clear how ‘Trump’s Disaster Capitalism’ is different from normal capitalism. I don’t think he invented the practice of awarding lucrative government contracts to private contractors. Nor was he the first to realize that no good crisis should be allowed to go to waste. As Mr. Capone said, “This American system of ours … call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it”.
Well, that’s a perfect example of talking over the elephant in the room of it being wrong.
But no president has ever nakedly refused to stop running his corporate empire while also running our government. Which means that those private contractors are no longer just people who contributed hundreds of thousands to his campaign, but they could easily be fronts for his children, or direct investors in those fronts to the tune of hundreds of millions. There is literally nothing to stop that now. And the government contracts only exist because the maligned government employees no longer are allowed to do the work – it is mandated to go to private contractors on the grounds of “efficiency.” We haven’t even begun to privatize as far as we could, the failures of which are much of what Ms. Klein has written about.
Well, for a start, it would be nice if ppl stopped conflating the Republican party with god’s will (and don’t even start, oh Obama-blinded Democrats).
You have to give Trump credit for one thing: thanks to him, after a half century of being the poster child for cheap imported goods, you’ll soon no longer be able to buy products Made In Taiwan. Not even in Taiwan, after the Chinese finish cashing the check Trump’s big mouth has written them…
“after the Chinese finish cashing the check Trump’s big mouth has written them…”
If an attempt were to be made on Trump’s life, the first suspects I would look for would be from Taiwan.