It is America that has undergone regime change - Paul Craig Roberts

[housewolf]

A Threat Greater Than Terrorism

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Delusion has settled over America. Washington cannot tell fact from fantasy. Neither can sycophantic media nor nothink economists.

<snip>

The reality is that an ignorant and blundering Bush administration has created a Shi'ite crescent from Iran to Lebanon that is revolutionizing the Middle East. The reality will not penetrate the Bush administration. Reality contradicts Bush fantasy and is "against us." Facts that don't support Bush fantasy are "liberal" and "anti-American." Truth is dismissed as anti-Bush propaganda.

It is America that has undergone regime change. The Bush administration constitutes a Jacobin revolution. Its fanatics have declared world war on political diversity. The first victim of Bush's "war on terror" is the Bill of Rights. In its place we have an incipient police state.

One might easily conclude that Bush is first among the deluded, but the more one observes economists' romance with outsourcing, the more one wonders if economists are not the most deluded of all.

<snip>

By turning domestic production into imports, outsourcing increases the trade deficit. America pays the import bill by turning over the ownership of her wealth, and the income streams that wealth produces, to foreigners. Thus, Americans not only lose jobs and careers but also the ownership of their companies, real estate, corporate and government bonds. The incomes from these lost assets pass from Americans to foreigners.

<snip>

http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts03212005.html

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: [e-mail]

[Robert Oak]

1. wow, is he calling a spade a spade

I'm noticing this more and more from economic commentators....

they ain't mincing words ...Lou Dobbs says "incompetent", "ludicrous",
"what are these people thinking", when commenting on the latest
economic horror story on his show, now Paul Craig Roberts,
then Paul Krugman also...

the language is becoming stronger and stronger...and I'm waiting
for "traitor" to be used...which is what I think, personally.

I think the realization that *those* people who are running the
country don't give a rats ass about America the nation state...
it's all multinational corporations and their short term profit goals that's running the show...is upon most of the educated now in this nation...

and what's worse than corporations running the world are corporations
running the world on a 90 day profit schedule.

Anyway, great editorial and like the other major books, articles,
evidence, graphs and statistics...

this too will be ignored by the American people.

[housewolf]

2. I think so too

You wrote:

"I think the realization that *those* people who are running the
country don't give a rats ass about America the nation state...
it's all multinational corporations and their short term profit goals that's running the show...is upon most of the educated now in this nation...

and what's worse than corporations running the world are corporations
running the world on a 90 day profit schedule."


I agree with you 100%, this is what I have thought for the past some number of years.

The problem is that its both parties, not just the repubs although they are worse.

Sigh....

[Virginian]

6. How does Lou Dobbs keep his job?

"(...Lou Dobbs says "incompetent", "ludicrous",
"what are these people thinking", when commenting on the latest
economic horror story on his show,) "

Isn't the White House putting pressure on CNN because Dobbs isn't drinking the kool aid? Is it just a matter of time before he is replaced by a paid White House "journalist?" Has Jeff Gannon applied for the 6:00 time slot?
I listen to Lou Dobbs nearly every night. If I enjoy his show, and he makes sense, the White House must be against him.

[necso]

3. This guy has been smokin'.

It's too bad that responsible conservatives, those who have shaken off the blinders, have about as much influence as the dodo bird does. -- We might actually be able to work with these people... all half dozen or so of them.

...

Madmen and fools are in control of this country and we are zooming towards the precipice. Absolutely fucking zooming.

And when these greed-bag scum-bucket traitors are done with offshoring our economy and using our Constitution for toilet-paper, there isn't going to be squat left of a substantial, sustainable, modern economy -- or of a substantial, sustainable, modern, democratic society.

But the ensuing chaos might furnish opportunities for a fresh batch of the completely ruthless and thoroughly evil to take over.

It would almost have to be better... eventually... after all the horrors.

And a fresh batch of scum is about all that we have to look forward to. Nice guys are never going to displace these bastards. Never.

[starroute]

7. Roberts is a paleocon and possibly a racist

He hates the neocons, but that's about the only thing to be said for him. Just google on his name and see who he hangs out with.

It might be possible to form an alliance of convenience with these people but I really have my doubts.

[necso]

8. Yeah,

I hear ya.

But at least this guy is going further than many of the paleos will. (In this article, Mr Roberts hammers the media, the delusional thinking of this administration and its supporters, the war in Iraq, current economic policies -- and the economists behind them.)

And yeah, we share little enough in way of ideas about solutions with any of the paleos. And yeah, even those paleos who deal straight-forwardly with many issues notably leave other critical issues out, making it something approaching impossible to deal with any issue.

There is also the possibility that you and I might differ on some things. I, for instance, would not consider restricting work visas, or illegal immigration, or offshoring (etc) to be necessarily racist. (Indeed, I believe that increasing the availability of good jobs in this country would be immensely helpful to the minorities here -- and that decreasing the availability of good jobs is immensely harmful to them.) To me, at this time, and for a time, these are economic issues -- and economic necessities.

And that some folks would do these same things because they are racist (or for other unsavory reasons) is not to me grounds for shying away from these policies. Rather it is a reason to make sure that any such policies are implemented in the colorblind way that a strictly economic viewpoint dictates (and/or that other viewpoints like national security dictate).

Personally, I have no idea whether Mr Roberts is racist or not. I do know that this sort of labeling (using labels that represent the antithesis of core Democratic values) is a technique used to discredit not only individuals, but also the truths that they speak and the policies that they espouse. And if we let this sort of weapon be used against us (we are subject to the same name-calling if we speak similar truths or espouse similar policies), then we are doomed to failure.

But let me make perfectly clear that I am not accusing you of this. And you could be right.

[indepat]

4. That Americans would give up the Bill of Rights for an insipient police

state run by a hard-core group of extreme ideologues and religious fanatics will boggle the mind of the world for decades, if not centuries, to come IMHO.

[tom_paine]

5. Nominated for Front Page

"Soma Nation" is right!