Bushcon has set up the ultimate con. A guaranteed flow of billions with an onerous agency to enforce collection, the IRS. And if those billions don't cover, there is the good name of the US government to go a' borrowing, from Japan and China. And when the game is up, and the default comes (and it will) the principles will be long gone, and enjoying their blood money in Paraguay, or Dubai, or wherever criminals go to die.

Yes folks, we US taxpayers are simply giving our money every payday to the ultimate "corporation", the United States of right wing Christianity; whose CEO, COO, Treasurer, and board are the bush family, the Carlyle Group, Boeing, BlackWater, TripleCanopy, the Murdock corporation and on and on.

Its the ultimate inside job, and its being done in the name of securing us, and right under our noses.

"Klein assails the legacy of Milton Friedman, the late, Nobel Prize-winning Chicago economist beloved by conservatives for his unequivocal belief in the supremacy of the private sector, even as a means of delivering traditionally public services such as health care, education and drinking water."

The supremacy of the private sector:

1) Health Care - Health Care premiums have more than doubled since George Bush took office and insurance companies are covering fewer and fewer health problems but have increased their profit margin by multi-billions.

2) Education - Well, if the humanoid private sector is teaching the Milton Friedman philosophy of economic greed, the majority in this country is in big trouble.

3) Drinking Water - While Milton Freidman's superior private sectors continue to pollute our drinking water around the globe, absent any liablity for their criminal behavior and costing "we the taxpayers" $$billions to clean-up their irresponsible destruction of our environment, we can thank our complicit corporate governments for not enforcing environmental laws. Do you have any doubt that in time the superior private sector will take over ALL of our public water resources (complements of our government)and charge us the usual "predator" fees to have the luxury of running water?

I wonder what the late Milton Freidman would have to say about the sub-prime lending scandal and the role of his alleged "superior private sector"?

Naomi Klein is brilliant and I can't wait to read her 70 pages of footnotes that back up her thesis.

See more at Seachangetoday.com

This is one more 'exposure' of a failing system. It is long overdue. Add to this Riane Eisler's "Real Wealth of Nations" that helps us see the "value system" that permeates the planet. Corporations and the people who work in them are all part of a "dominator" system that has been weaving its way for so long that we've come to accept it as normal. But not only is it not normal, its no longer necessary for us to perpetuate it. What RWN does is to expose as well as offer solutions for creating an economy that honors the most important work of all--caring for humans and the planets--something that's completely ignored in the 'dominator'economy.

Hurrah for Klein--all of these books are adding up to a seachange! Add to hers, Eisler's "Real Wealth of Nations", Korten's "The Great Turning". Brandt's "Whole Life Economics", Kelly's "The Divine Right of Capital"....and change is coming.

Yes, the emperor is naked and we're finally ready to see it. Oooh, let's get that boy some new clothes....

The human race is essentially amoral and predatory, unless it is checked in some way. Corporations are amoral mafias led by psychopaths that rise to the top. They are always the real enemy within, and should be taxed from power.

There will be a book launch for Naomi Klein's New Book on September 17th in NYC at the NY Society for Ethical Culture. This is the "it" event of the fall season. Thousands are expected.

Good news - hope it sells 100x more than No Logo

The truth widely spread will set us free from a seriously f'd up establishment!

A most welcome addition to understanding what corporations are all about. I recommend that all readers supplement their reading about corporate reality with the short but incredible book, The Unconscious Civilization, by another Toronto resident, John Ralston Saul, whose prescience is both enlightening and astonishing.

Until the working class understands how influential the votes they cast in the marketplace (ie: who they give their money to) are, the corporations will continue to aggregate more power at the expense of the working class.

Unfortunately many working class people believe they are upper middle class or beyond. Remember, if you need to be concerned about your credit rating you are probably working class.

NK gave a pretty fair exposition of anti-sweat organizing in No Logo - both from the factory-level and amongst European and N. American activists. The ultimate conclusion which she arrived at, however, was that it was "roving and random" - shining a spotlight on this or that corner of the global economy but offering "no system of universal enforcement." (Unwittingly she was reinforcing characterizations of "gotcha" and "gadfly" - favorite dismissive snarls of corporate PR hacks.) I felt that this was a shallow and unfair reading of what had transpired in the eight years since I'd had an Indonesian Nike-worker's wage stub printed as the "Annotation" feature in Harper's. With a sole focus on Nike's shoe contract-suppliers in Indonesia, we had five years of meticulous research on file when Charlie Kernaghan dragged Kathie Lee Gifford onto the world stage and the sweatshop issue really took off in the U.S. In addition, NGOs from Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Holland, France, the UK and Germany had all done sport-shoe manufacturing studies in S-E Asia in the period 1990-95. In other words, very focused and reliable information about workers' legitimate protests (and illegitimate sackings) was already disseminated through multiple channels, years before NK went to Asia.

This is not just "sour grapes" on my part. There is a serious cross-border organizing lesson to be learned here. Timelines for real change can be extraordinarily long and social forces (North and South) take a while to get in synch.

NK speaks about "paths not taken" because of the forces of reaction and global capital. Let's just imagine that she took a different path in her years-long speaking tour after No Logo was published. She could have told those audiences (who were eager for change-agent tips) that one thing seemed to be working: intense scrutiny of a single brand, combined with "street heat" (the sainted Trim Bissell at the helm of the Campaign for Labor Rights) could dramatically affect sales. In fact, Nike's U.S. sales declined for over 5 years, while the default "conscious consumer" choice - New Balance - increased sales by over 400%. (Then, as now, NB made about 15% of its shoes in the U.S.) At the same time, she could have ridiculed the grotesque "corporate social responsibility" machinations of garment/shoe/toy/electronics companies and their NGO enablers. (I'm a fan of "militant abstentionism" - stay away from that "stakeholder" nonsense.)

Another misreading of the consumer-pressure opportunity came from that other tribune of corporate wrong-doing, Bill Greider. In "One World, Ready or Not" he wrote: "In the course of my reporting, I accumulated many ugly facts about Nike [and others]...I chose not to elaborate on these facts because I think focusing on the moral values of particular companies invites a self-righteous response among readers that is too easy and undeserved." (What does he mean by, "undeserved" ­ that consumers cannot act on info that they themselves have not gathered?) He caught his tactical error later, writing in The Nation, soon after the WTO protests: "The campaign for authentic reform will be a long and uphill struggle, but it may already be time to open a new front. The next target for protest, I suggest, ought to be the major multinationals themselves, at least those that claim America as home base."
see more here: http://www.counterpunch.org/ballinger08242007.html

I have also come to the conclusion that Corporate power is the underlying disease that if cured would address so many of the "symptoms" of what is wrong in the country and the world...however with the advent of the Iraq war and the Bush administration I have also realized that when governments "privatize" their many functions..they have at their disposal quantities of money so vast that a boycott or purchase plan by individaul citizens becomes irrelevant. They can( and have essentially ) looted the treasury to perpetuate their power. I'm all for 'outing' this travesty...but can see no way 'out' Golden rule still prevails...those with the gold make the rules....

new orleans. new orleans, new orleans, new orleans.

A recent report out of Juiná, Brazil on u tube http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=9-O2iIHXyn0

is another example of the 'shock doctrine' being applied by states forcing the PAC (policy for accelerated Growth) over constitutional and human rights. Here its Greenpeace taking the blow. Following links you see the same pattern all over again.

I'm glad someone understands that Capitalism the way it was originally envisioned with labor an equal partner in risks and benefits.

It's a long overdue treatise of the way uncontrolled, state supported Capitalism is currently practiced to the detriment of all workers.

I hope there are enough workers who still know how to read.

"Bushcon has set up the ultimate con. A guaranteed flow of billions with an onerous agency to enforce collection, the IRS. And if those billions don't cover, there is the good name of the US government to go a' borrowing, from Japan and China. And when the game is up, and the default comes (and it will) the principles will be long gone, and enjoying their blood money in Paraguay, or Dubai, or wherever criminals go to die."

jjpeter, no need for third world havens for their retirement even after a complete economic meltdown. They own the legislature, they own the presidency, they own the press. Twisted laws and one of our usual "free press" PR extravaganzas will lead our gullible dumbed-down populace (oh, my, how these crooks love to cut spending on public education!) to let them off the hook yet again.

How about a deck of playing cards like that used in Iraq to out their Baathist leadership, only this time outing our very own corporate/political pirates? Faces, names, addresses, net worth and simple summary of how they are culpable for our current state of affairs?

The public deserves to know. Both the moneyed leadership living behind the curtain along with their political hookers who perpetuate this criminal cycle. Toto, pull back that curtain!

I think Naomi is just... super, really super (blush)

If something is not done by the politicians soon to bring corporations under control and the people have to do it there will be massive violence. If FDR had not intervened during the depression the violence would have escalated to the critical point then.

I don't see any FDR among the candidates. Those that have the inclination do not appear to have the skills to get elected. Unfortunately, the majority of the candidates see the massive hole dug by this administration and immediately outline their plan to dig better, deeper, faster or wider.

I am optimistic that there will be improvements to increase both freedom and economic security. I am not optimistic that it will happen in my lifetime or peacefully.

Corporations protect themselves by buying out any competitor they can't destroy with manipulation of laws and subsidies provided by politicians.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

New Millennium Homes~RATM
"Check tha high tech terror
Yes tha new order athletes
Peer into tha eyes of tha child already on trial
Armies rippin families apart
Get em on file
Convictions fit tha stock profile
All tha while films of dogs
Cutting through homes
Ripping skin from bones
Yes tha new millennium homes
Privatizing through private eyes
An era rising
Of tha old south order
New northern horizon"
Ashes in The Fall~RATM

This is the new sound
Just like the old sound
Just like the noose wound
Over new ground
Listen to the fascist sing
Take hope here
War is elsewhere
You were chosen
This is god's land
Soon well be free
Of blot and mixture
Seeds planted by our
Forefathers hand

A mass of promises
Begin to rupture
Like the pockets
Of the new world kings
Like swollen stomachs
In Appalachia
Like the priests that fuck you
As they whisper holy things
A mass of tears have transformed to stones now
Sharpened on suffering
Woven into slings
Hope lies in the rubble of this rich fortress
Taking today what tomorrow never brings
This is the new sound
Just like the old sound
Just like the noose wound
Over new ground

In the midst of the greatest challenges that we have yet faced as a race, what is most tragic is the insanely suicidal misdirection of humanity´s resources toward greed and power. Just imagine if all the resources the Bushites have piddled away to generate more hate than ever before had been focused on the creation of alternative technologies to heal the earth, generate clean energy, educate people and harness our boundless creative potentials.

I am most grateful that intelligent, committed people like N K exist in the world, and I hope that we can find a way to make use the tools she is giving us to turn this mess around.

Now Monsanto, Bayer, Cargill want to shove GM corn down our throats in Mexico. Of course this will all be done "legally", so the remaining land-races will be "legally" contaminated with corporately-patented, genetic garbage. How do you clean up genetic contamination once it happens? Have the geniouses even addressed that issue? They can sue farmers for using their "intellectual property", even in the case of contamination as Canadian soy farmers are well aware, but honest, hard-working farmers can´t sue them for contaminating their crops. Sound like bullshit to you? Does to me.

Perversion is reaching new and more sophisticated heights every day. We have to find ways to resist.

Gracias, Naomi.

Qué viva el maíz nativo de México!

I hope she gives the Katrina Hurricane and the disaster put upon New Orleans into one of her chapters. This disaster will no doubt be a prime example of shock and gnaw, disaster capitalism at its worst, or best if you are a profit monger feeding off the beast of upheaval and suffering.

Yes this whole GM control by ruthless companies like Monsanto is creating more problems then people realize. It is destroying what is left of the indigenous farmers and cultures around the world. Farmers are being forced to by seeds that need special soil and feltilizers to grow. They don't even have a choice because the GM seeds cross pollinate with the natural seeds and cause a hybride, and then the companies sue the farmers for growing their patened seeds. It is an ecological nightmare of a corporate conglomorate trying to control gods creation. I mean these people are sick and twisted

She gave a fantastic speech which was rebroadcast on Democracy Now.
Really original, bold thinking.

And God I have such a crush on her.
What a gorgeous woman.
My dream girl. Smart & badass and lovely.

There will always be greed. Greed can't be banished. Instead, the civic institutions have to be protected from greed.

It should not be too difficult - in a collective there are always at least a few cool heads to illustrate the right thing to do. For example, impeaching the US president has been placed on the table by the cooler heads. Localism is an approach well-understood to solve most greed problems. Socialism, of course, has been in development for many decades.

It's simply that the will to carry out the right thing is lacking. The will has to emerge from the grass roots, as the civic institutions are easily corrupted by networks of cronies, elitist clubs, yale fraternity boys, Milton Friedmans/Howard Roarks, and the like. The people have to be instructed to understand the stakes and the methods.

So we need to educate the children in K-12 so they may do their civic duty. The instruction has to take place. How do you expect the people to perform their duty if they are not given the training and responsibility?

I agree with Gail--even better than her writing (or speaking) which are both quite good enough, is the fact that Naomi does her homework and has sources and facts to back up her assertions. How enjoyable it will be to scan her 70 pages of footnoteds indeed!

"corporations seize on the disorientation caused by situations of turmoil and upheaval to inflict their privatizing agendas."

Interesting, I note that others have no problem using situations of turmoil and upheaval to push for their pro govt agenda. Apparently 'using' these situations IS perfectly acceptable as long one uses them to push the 'correct' ideology.

Looking forward to reading this one ...

hubcap ... what an idiotic response ... sounds like it's coming from a sexist dinosaur

When baseball stadiums and football stadiums are named after corporations instead of American heroes, well, that really says it all, doesn't it?

hetzer @ 7:55pm: "The human race is essentially amoral and predatory, unless it is checked in some way."
-I respectfully disagree, and think that view is a misperception. Our whole race ought not be judged by the actions of a rogue sector?

As to Ms Klein, lovely to see (inner and outer) beauty and intelligence gracing these pages in place of the usual rogue's gallery of (inwardly and outwardly) dull and ugly nincompoop governmental types!

Sunnuku writes:
"In the midst of the greatest challenges that we have yet faced as a race, what is most tragic is the insanely suicidal misdirection of humanity's resources toward greed and power.
Just imagine if all the resources the Bushites have piddled away to generate more hate than ever before had been focused on the creation of alternative technologies to heal the earth, generate clean energy, educate people and harness our boundless creative potentials.

and:
"...I am most grateful that intelligent, committed people like N K exist in the world, and I hope that we can find a way to make use the tools she is giving us to turn this mess around."

Brilliantly said! ~thankyou for that.

For anyone wishing to take the matter further, may I recommend the following:
http://www.ominous-valve.com/blog/25ways.html

for "25 Ways to Suppress the Truth: the Rules of Disinformation". It might come in handy.

I look forward to reading this well-researched book.

MtnGoat: Collective caring and trying to create a better world are very different than having a "pro govt agenda"

gabi: Give hubcap a break! "fantastic speech" "original, bold thinking" are not idiotic responses. Finding a person like Ms. Klein attractive - yes, even physically attractive - is a truly human characteristic. Saying so doesn't make a person a "sexist dinosaur"; assuming it does, however, says something about the person making the assumption!

I am deeply grateful for the existence of (apparent) "class traitors" like Naomi Klein. But, honestly, what do the rest of us begin to do about this?

longingforsanity, whether you believe the profit system can be "reformed" into a kinder, gentler,version or that it's time for a total overhaul, there is much you can do to Organize (form a discussion group, bookclub,organization, union) Agitate (take it to the streets, get loud and visual) and Educate (both yourself and others so you can articulate a coherant critique of the status quo and vision for the future. Show films, start a library, bring speakers to your community)Look for people wearing Black and Red.

"If something is not done by the politicians soon to bring corporations under control"

The politicians serve the interests of the corporations. Their power to control and manipulate the masses are maintained by corrupt politicians. This is not capitalism. This is a carefully concealed oligarchy. It has been for decades now. The free market capitalism is nothing but political spin. The idea that you need to solve this problem by "empowering" our federal government to do something about it has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. You have put the fox in charge of the hen house and decided that things are not working out so you need more foxes. Good luck with that. Politics only work on a local level. The trend of consolidating power in things such as The EU and a North American Union...are just going to make life worse. If an angry citizen can not show up at his leaders door with a complaint (and not get shot)...they have no power. Americans have no power over their government...and things are only going to get worse.

dboylon,
Very well stated! Localized government is the only way to liberation!

I am not sure what sollutions NK will propose, but if it anyway advocates for more governmental control of our lives it is destined to fail. We need to employ smaller localized government that protect individual freedom. Why pay taxes to a government that grows larger in its scope of control. We need to protect ourselves not just from the corporation, but more specifically from the oligarchy, they're one in the same. The majority of our tax dollars go directly to subsidizing the power and dominance of the already powerful. When will we decide enough is enough?

Stop Paying Taxes!!

Naomi is awesome!

Aren't we seeing the same pattern in La in the aftermath of Katrina?

The problem with Friedman's pragmatic vision for America is that it is a near-sighted vision catering mostly to Wall St. In the long term, America's strict adherence to the free market system will isolate and destroy us. It's just not very pragmatic to piss the whole world off, is it?

You should all read NK's article in Harpers from 2004:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197
"Free market" and "free trade" is corporate/neocon framing. Fair trade is something entirely different.

On local government, is no one paying attention to all the advertising on bus shelters? To the reason red light cameras and photo enforced speed equipment are coming into use? This is essentially private use of public right of way, with the inducement being a scheme hatched by private business to share profits with local government, in return for access to our public right of way. Scratch the surface, and you will find that these programs are operated entirely by private enterprise. You will find the major billboard media companies behind all of the bus shelter advertising. And billboard advertising is poised to enter the digital era, if the FHWA report expected soon gives it a clean bill of health on the safety/distraction issues.

Naomi defines the term "global citizen." She comes from good leftist genes and she's married into Canada's First Family of the Left. With their brains and background, she and Avi could have taken the easy way out and gone into capital-P Politics but chose instead to be the voice of everything progressive and life-enhancing about the Americas. I wish her much luck and a big audience for this newest book. But watch your back, Naomi: you know what the establishment does to voices of hope like yours. Footnotes don't always work as body armour.

"Collective caring and trying to create a better world are very different than having a "pro govt agenda""

Entirely true. Which is why people who do not have a pro govt agenda and who collectively care and wish to create a better world, should speak up when books like this which do have a pro govt agenda, or seek the use of tools ending in a pro govt agenda, should be opposed.

Happy to have struck a cord for you, UN-common dreams!

Yes, what to do? Well, one thing is to begin to create parallel support structures that don´t depend on governments. Shame them into doing what´s right, or just fucking do it yourself at your own pace! I´ll bet the folks in New Orleans could use a hand with picks and shovels. In the Sierra Tarahumara, amid indigenous communities that have resisted for 500 plus years, the struggle is to break the bonds of dependency: the formula used to demean people and turn them into passive subjects. Especially now, when the tattered fabric of community is being constantly eroded by immigration which is fueled by poverty, drug traffickers and the ensueing military interventions, adverse climatic conditions and the general destabilization of rural Mexico, it becomes even more encouraging to see simple but substantial advances in soil conservation, reforestation, things done by the community to stay on the land, even as the corporations scheme to deprive them of their resources: minerals, water, timber. That´s a bit of the local picture.

Solidarity is what governments want to subvert and relegate to oblivion. But I know there´s plenty of will out there to do meaningful things. We need to channel it, create local, independent low-overhead support structures and demand the resources that are ours to begin with. For example, do the folks in New Orleans have anything going whereby people can donate their labor? (We all know how to do something) To live as they live for a while and struggle with them to overcome this injustice?

When governments don´t respond as they should, people must take over the functions of government.

So much is wrong in the world, and we are so small. Yet the little things that we can do make a difference. And if we can pool our energies and walk and work together for an instant, the effect will multiply.

I haven't started the book just yet, but I saw her speak about the book at a benefit event earlier this year in Vancouver. She had everyone on the edge of their seat. The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka3Pb_StJn4

So why is commondreams linking the book to amazon.com when it can also be preordered from a unionized seller - Powell's - through the union's portal - http://www.powellsunion.com/ - and 10% of every purchase made through this portal goes directly to the workers? Yes, it is considerably cheaper at amazon - for the buyer. The nonunionized workers at amazon are picking up the rest of the tab, and the independent publisher is probably taking a hit, too, because of amazon's monopolistic buying power.

Excellent review, buy the way. I look forward to reading another penetratingly insightful book from Naomi Klein. She sees things no one else does. But the point, if I may paraphrase Marx, is not just to see things but to change them.

Hey,tbonez- that poem was righteous.

We should buy books at Powells so the unions can exploit us?

MtnGoat:

You view unions as exploiting consumers by negotiating better wages and working conditions for working people, rather than corporations as using their economic power to exploit workers? If workers earn low wages, often below the level required for the basic needs of their families, so you can buy a product cheaper, then those low-wage workers are subsidizing you. (Credit to Barbara Ehrenreich for introducing this useful perspective; see "Nickeled and Dimed.")

If you are arguing against the values and views expressed in Klein's books and on Commondreams generally, then I can understand your opinion of unions, but if you espouse so-called progressive values, then this is an issue much worth discussing. Whereas I agree that individual unions can be bureaucratic, undemocratic, and otherwise flawed, to view unions and the labor movement generally as exploitive is inconsistant with a progressive vision of democracy, equality, and social justice.

I'm going to get this book. That's a nice pic of Naomi btw.

"... is not a marginal, academic treatise by a lefty think tank targeted at a small, like-minded audience."

And thank God for that.

"Americans have no power over their government."

Not as long as we continue to believe that. People have power, but as long as we think that we are powerless to act and DEFY this regime, they are safe and they can go on raping the whole world, sullying the name of all Americans. They are so afraid that people will realize their own power... why do you think they are so secretive about everything? They know where the real power lies. Now we just need to shake this lethargy, this dangerous apathy, and DO something about these atrocities. I'm ready. Are you?