shock doctrine

CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett May Have Met Her Match in Chicago

This afternoon at 4pm, a coalition of Chicago teachers, parents, students and community members will meet at Daley Plaza to voice their displeasure with the announcement last week by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett that 61 Chicago Public Schools will be closed before the opening of the 2013-2014 school year.

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https://twitter.com/deficitowl/status/273499626064183297 Read below the fold...

Whenever I hear our thugs in higher office say "infrastructure program," I think complicated privatization schemes, outrageous no-bid contracts, and other creative ways to sodomize the American purse.

One such example is the sewer project that has completely ruined Jefferson County, Alabama.

And now, The Exiled has uncovered the latest attempt to steal the most precious resource to all of us: water.

WATER WARS: GOV. JERRY BROWN’S PET PUBLIC-TO-PRIVATE WEALTH TRANSFER PROJECT IS A GO
By Yasha Levine

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I have been meaning to write a post about the coming epidemic. We have millions of people with either limited access to health care or no access to health care. They are living in overcrowded conditions as family members take in relatives who have been unemployed for a long time.

And who are these workers? They work in food service, janitors and sanitation workers, hotel maids, hospital workers, in other words the kinds of jobs where they are most likely to spread infection to others.

We also have a large population of malnourished because the have limited income and live in food deserts where they don't have access to grocery stores.

They also live in poor housing with vermin and mold. Read below the fold...

In John Perkins' latest book "Hoodwinked", he compares recent CEOs of American companies to mercenaries.  He says that in the good old days of post war America, CEOs were seen more like soldiers with loyalty to their company and community being number one.  Now, CEOs are loyal to themselves and the guys who hire them.  CEOs used to work for the good of country/company/community, but after 1980 they turned into hired guns who worked for the short term profit and their bonuses.  It was a return to the Robber Baron age only much worse.  Perkins had a professor of Business Management, Prof. Read below the fold...

Susie and Atrios have both cried foul on this:

WASHINGTON — Faced with anxiety in financial markets about the huge federal deficit and the potential for it to become an electoral liability for Democrats, the White House and Congressional leaders are weighing options for narrowing the gap, including a bipartisan commission that could force tax increases and spending cuts.

This is disaster capitalism:

step one, pervert the financial system into a kleptocracy, steal everything in sight

step two, use the inevitable crisis as a way of destroying democracy and steal what is left Read below the fold...

Charter schools and the attack on public education

According to U.S. Census data, well over $800 billion is spent on education, public and private, at all levels in the United States each year.20 This makes it roughly the same size as the U.S. trade deficit with China. The private sector wants to get its hands on this money. Along with politicians, it is determined to break the power of the teachers’ unions and to attack one of the last bastions of decently paid American workers. The budget problems resulting from the current recession will provide them cover in doing this.

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[I'm stickying this because, dammit, it seems unfoily to me, and everybody's assuming LIBOR is some sort of neutral measure. Takedown, anyone? -- lambert]

Bloomberg has an interesting article whose headline, if taken literally, puts shock doctrine right out into the open:

Libor Holds Central Banks Hostage as Credit Freezes?

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SEC Loosens Accounting Rule Banks Blame for Crisis

The standard, also known as "mark to market," has led portfolios to plunge in recent months as banks affixed fire sale prices to their assets, a move that sometimes required them to raise still more capital to meet regulatory requirements. The measure also led to clashes between corporate executives and independent auditors over how low the markdowns should be forced to dip.

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Long-troubled Douglass High could lose its identity

Many Douglass supporters accept that some high schools should move to more state-of-the-art buildings, but they argue the disappearance of Douglass' program altogether would mark the loss of an institution that has stood as a symbol of community resilience in the 9th Ward for decades.

Nantrell Malveo, a 2008 graduate, compared her experience at Douglass favorably to her time at a Jefferson Parish school generally considered to be better.

"I learned more at the run-down school (Douglass) because I could relate to it, and it taught me to fight for what mattered," Malveo said.

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Times:

The improvisational nature of their effort has turned President Bush and Congressional Democrats into virtual bystanders, sometimes uncertain about what comes next and left to wonder about the new power dynamics in the capital. Seemingly every time lawmakers tried to get a handle on what was happening and what role they might play with elections around the corner, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke would show up again on Capitol Hill for another evening meeting with another surprise development.

"Seemingly"? Really. Does anyone believe this is a coincidence? Read below the fold...

First Obama started moving part of the Democratic National Committee to Chicago. Then he began pushing to prevent Clinton's name be put in nomination, contrary to all precedent.

Then he arranged to replace Iowa Democratic workers with his own staff and now he is taking control of the DNC voter files for North Carolina. Read below the fold...