Tag Archives: The Shock Doctrine

Natural’s Not In It

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Another gray day, this time it’s Friday. Just woke up from a nap which was ok. I should have turned the lights out, but I didn’t want to fall into too deep a sleep. Too deep a sleep sounds like Chico Marx. But that’s what happened. In fact I just told Bill to do the same thing that I did, set an alarm on his cellphone and take a nap for an hour. Hopefully he’ll have better results.

I guess this weather is a lot like the weather in Arcata and it’s like this a lot of the time. I don’t know how they can deal with it out there, but they do persevere. Last night was O & RM again, punctuated with calls from Bill and Harpy. Both calls enjoyable, one a sober call, the other not so much.

After that, The Daily Show then The Colbert Report then the news and bed. Man- I lead a boring life.

Tomorrow should change that, Girl Talk with Juan at Terminal 5.

Work was as quiet as I expected it to be. I was the only employee in for my company. The sub-sub tenants were all in. A trading desk was set up a few feet from my own and if it’s anything like the trading desk that used to be at Wanker Banker it should be filled with rude obnoxious guys.

But then again I think I would have seen these guys already, and so far it four guys and a woman who seems to be ‘one of the guys’.

Corner of my new cube

Since I was the only one I was officially allowed to leave early which I originally thought to be 1:00PM, bit actually was closer to 2:00PM which isn’t so bad. It’s a good thing Bill called me since he was going to surprise me but he knew that since it was Friday I would probably be leaving early.

I met up with Bill in Bryant Park where we sat in a light mist and smoked cigars for a while before heading over to the bus terminal. He was heading back to his mother’s apartment, having taken the day off and I was headed back to Hoboken on a crowded bus.

Him

Me

It seems a lot of people get off early on Fridays and it seems like their mainly from Hoboken.

In the queue for the bus. Here’s an advert that caught my eye.

I like the shirt, tie and turban combo.

Still reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and its quite an informative book about capitalism and Milton Friedman and his followers from the University of Chicago. His economic shock treatment was a major cause in the overthrow of Allende in Chile on 9/11/73, Bolivia, Argentina, Poland, Russia and lately Iraq.

Also the US after 9/11/01 some of his dastardly teaching were implemented. BushCo is/are big fans of Milton Friedman’s economic plans. He hated FDR and the New Deal and this is his way to correct that. Free trade, no regulations or oversight by government. You’ve heard that tune before on GOP Records.

Basically it’s about changing economic policies following a disaster, usually man made but occasionally following a natural disaster. While the populace are in shock, the Chicago Boys move in and implement among other things, price restrictions and go about destroying unions as well as anyone who gets in their way.

In Chile it was Pinochet overthrowing Allende, in Russia it was Boris Yeltsin attacking the democratic Russian parliament in the name of preserving democracy. With Bill Clinton praising Yeltsin while he attacked the people’s representatives. Also created the Russian oligarchs in the process. Dickwads, all of them.

It’s a good read, and now that I’m in the middle of it, it flows quite nicely.

Tomorrow is another demonstration, this time at New York City’s City Hall. It’s in the afternoon at 1:00 and depending on the weather and the laundry I may join them.

Here’s me, sans Padron

GOP First Responders

It’s Too Bad

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On the cusp of O turning into RM, after O’s excellent editorial regarding Prop h8 in California, I get a phone call from my brother Frank. He watches O religiously, and I guess I do too. O was over and I guess RM isn’t his type so despite the fact that I’m watching RM he calls to ask me if I saw O’s Special Comment. I tell him I did and it’s basically what I’ve been thinking and feeling the past few months.

I tell him of my plans to demonstrate outside the mormon temple on Wednesday night with a few other bloggers in my poppy seed blogroll. He advises me to not get into trouble so as not to alert the O’Reilly factions. I want to tell him it would be more like Grant Park 2008 as opposed to 1968, but I guess he just wanted an easy going conversation and here I was getting all radical.

It’s too bad, I would have loved to have talked to him about the past week. I wrote that last night, after I posted and after the phone call. I was obviously bothered by the whole thing and kept it to myself. Actually not really keeping it to myself since I am posting it here.

Frank’s wife Elaine, told me that he definitely likes to talk (when he can find the words), he’s just not so good at listening.

Now Bill is home, literally hat in hand. He’s upset that he’s going to have to take his mother out of his cousin Elsie’s apartment. That’s where his mother has been since Elsie was adamant about not wanting her Aunt in a nursing home.

Elsie’s husband, Andy Capp, the faux crooner has been very abusive towards Bill on the whole matter, calling him names and generally belittling him every chance he could get. You see Andy Capp with his series 7 broker license doesn’t work. Just practices being a crooner all day long.

Food on the table? That’s his wife’s job. Clothing their kids, let Elsie do that too. Here is this bald headed scumbag treating Bill like shit as if Bill wasn’t feeling bad enough. So Bill is going to take his mother out of there and set her back up in her own apartment.

That means after the helper that’s been looking after Bill’s mother leaves, Bill will leave work and tend to his mother without the help of Elsie or the abuse of Elsie’s do nothing husband. Bill is all torn up and once again I offer a shoulder to cry on and ears to listen.

The bed will be bigger without him, but it will always be here for him. I just love how people use the bible to justify their hatred, their fears. Elsie seems so hip and with it but she actually uses that old tome to make decisions on how to live her life and to justify not explaining to her kids why ‘Uncle’ Billy isn’t going to get married to a woman, and now why Bill isn’t going to be around much, if at all.

Even if Jesus existed, I’m pretty sure this isn’t how he wanted his followers to behave. Speaking of which, tomorrow night is the night when I will be joining fellow No on Prop 8 supporters demonstrating outside the mormon temple at 65th and Columbus Avenue at 6:30.

Started out the day reading about Thomas Friedman in the New Yorker, rode on the bus home reading about that dead bastard Milton Friedman in Naomi Klein’s excellent book, The Shock Doctrine.