Loo Hoo. @ 170

Yes. Why can’t I go to Cuba?

never mind Cuba. They are building systems to prevent emigration, as terminal tyrannies like the Soviet Union or East Germany do.

supposedly, DHS has a 100 mile zone around the entire US perimeter in which they can set up checkpoints, demand papers, and run them through the databases they have been building up.

it’s 1938 for real now.

Oh, so *that’s* why they come onboard Amtrak trains in Rochester, NY (the first stop after Buffalo, close to the entry point from Canada) and ask for ID from anyone they think looks like an “illegal.” Chilling, but it happens. The ones I saw wore brown shirts (sheriff’s deputies, I think). Train employees told me it happens all the time. They take a few from The Lakeshore Limited nearly every day.

# # #

For example, think of your fifteen year old memories of Boris Yeltzin: a dancing fool on television.

I can safely predict that the Washington Post, when they get around to reviewing Xoc, will choose someone like John Fund or Terry Jeffries.

eCAHNomics @ 12

2. I did not see you use the word fascism in the sections I read, but much of what you describe sounds like textbook fascism. For example, the socialization of costs and the privatization of benefits.

One of the defining characteristics of fascism is extreme nationalism and this is missing from many of the examples Ms. Klein cited in the book. Chile under Pinochet and Argentina under the military junta were fascistic, however the same cannot be said of other examples such as Poland.

The most heartbreaking part of the book (so far) for me was the chapter on South Africa following Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. For me, the end of Apartheid in South Africa was one of the great triumphs of progressives. Particularly tragic were how the ANC was outmaneuvered in economic negotiations and how The Freedom Charter–the document drafted in 1955 that outlined the guiding principles of the ANC–was gutted and, for all intents and purposes abandoned.

Can you comment on FutureMap? I was looking for a reference to it in your book, but was disappointed you did not include it. Where did it go? I doubt its sinister promoters let such a potentially lucrative program sit on the shelf and gather dust. Any idea where those people are now and what they’re up to?

Damnation, but I wish I could have made it to this salon in real time!!!

I’ve bought two copies of this book, loaned out the first a couple times, am still reading the second. I cannot get through it, even though I’ve been reading it for a month…because every time I make it through a page I have to slam the book shut in fury and do something else for a while.

You see, I went to business school. They crammed the Chicago School down our throats, never telling us what it was, always insisting this was to business what Newton was to physics. I still remember painfully an argument with one of my Econ profs about sustainability. He’d said that if we were worried about the trees, we should just use paper — crinkling up a fresh piece of white notebook paper here for effect, and tossing it directly in the garbage can — that the market would make more, no worries.

I was AGHAST. I worked for a chemical company at the time; I knew that the bleach required for that paper created dioxins, which polluted the river that flowed less than a mile from the school. When would the market clean up that river? when would the market bear the cost of the damage that dioxin cost the community? He couldn’t answer those questions, just blithely went on with his lecture.

That was 10 years ago; the river is still polluted. There is yet another warning against eating fish from that river, on top of previous warnings against fishing and eating game that lives in the river flood plain. The market is still fighting against cleaning the river, tooth and nail against the community and the state government…

How many students in the mean time have gotten that same lecture and other similar lectures from professors like that one who balled up that crisp white paper so dismissively? How many of them are managers now — or worse, educators — blithely tossing paper without a care because the market will fix it and make it all better?

Each page of Naomi’s book reminds me of that lecture, and of earlier arguments in macro economics over guns-or-butter. If only I could insist that every business student in American must read it. Bravo, Naomi.

For Avi, if he comes back — why not do both? There very much must be a historic reference, one that could be used in business schools as a counterweight to the Friedman fetish whenever business schools begin to come to their senses. And why not a concurrent, topical exploration of disaster capitalism as it takes its toll on a community (God knows I have a perfect example here in my back yard)? It would capture the attention of those who seem unable to sit through history lessons.

If the American public can manage to follow the multiple 7 to 10 threads running concurrently through the Sopranos, they should be able to manage flipping back and forth between Chile in the 70’s and America today, perhaps using the Social Security system as a lynch pin between the two. The Chicago School wants the U.S. to privatize Social Security — but it has already been a failure in Chile, where Chicago School worked its magic.

Rayne is clearly on to something fundamentally important here, and it will require puting together the best qualities produced by education (formal and informal) to perceive the situation and to find answers to counteract and control those who promulgate the problem.

Historically, the sole institution capable of withstanding the will of wealth was the government. The ability to organize labor to protect itself was done under the umbrella of governmental protection. It shoud be clear that what has transpired since the Johnson adminstration is a concerted effort to surrepticiously undermine and destroy, not only the New Deal of FDR, the government itself. That may be the real message of “Mission Accomplished”.

I need to obtain a copy of Naomi’s book forthwith! THANKS

Agree with Rayne. Please include both in the movie.

Supposedly the fraternity of magicians have some agreement not to divulge the secrets of their magic tricks to outsiders.

Naomi is like an audience member who figures it out and publicizes it to others. By telling the audience where to look, the tricks fall flat. This is one Magic Show that deserves to be ruined.

I’ve bought two copies of this book, loaned out the first a couple times, am still reading the second. I cannot get through it, even though I’ve been reading it for a month…because every time I make it through a page I have to slam the book shut in fury and do something else for a while.

You see, I went to business school. They crammed the Chicago School down our throats, never telling us what it was, always insisting this was to business what Newton was to physics. I still remember painfully an argument with one of my Econ profs about sustainability. He’d said that if we were worried about the trees, we should just use paper — crinkling up a fresh piece of white notebook paper here for effect, and tossing it directly in the garbage can — that the market would make more, no worries.

I was AGHAST. I worked for a chemical company at the time; I knew that the bleach required for that paper created dioxins, which polluted the river that flowed less than a mile from the school. When would the market clean up that river? when would the market bear the cost of the damage that dioxin cost the community? He couldn’t answer those questions, just blithely went on with his lecture.

That was 10 years ago; the river is still polluted. There is yet another warning against eating fish from that river, on top of previous warnings against fishing and eating game that lives in the river flood plain. The market is still fighting against cleaning the river, tooth and nail against the community and the state government…

How many students in the mean time have gotten that same lecture and other similar lectures from professors like that one who balled up that crisp white paper so dismissively? How many of them are managers now — or worse, educators — blithely tossing paper without a care because the market will fix it and make it all better?

Each page of Naomi’s book reminds me of that lecture, and of earlier arguments in macro economics over guns-or-butter. If only I could insist that every business student in American must read it. Bravo, Naomi.

For Avi, if he comes back — why not do both? There very much must be a historic reference, one that could be used in business schools as a counterweight to the Friedman fetish whenever business schools begin to come to their senses. And why not a concurrent, topical exploration of disaster capitalism as it takes its toll on a community (God knows I have a perfect example here in my back yard)? It would capture the attention of those who seem unable to sit through history lessons.

If the American public can manage to follow the multiple 7 to 10 threads running concurrently through the Sopranos, they should be able to manage flipping back and forth between Chile in the 70’s and America today, perhaps using the Social Security system as a lynch pin between the two. The Chicago School wants the U.S. to privatize Social Security — but it has already been a failure in Chile, where Chicago School worked its magic.