Robert Parry: Making the US Economy ‘Scream’

[marmar]

from Consortium News:




Making the US Economy ‘Scream’

Exclusive: Over the past several decades, Republican methods for winning national power have come to resemble CIA techniques for destabilizing an enemy country — through the use of black propaganda, political skullduggery and economic disruptions. Now, heading toward Election 2012, the Republicans appear poised to make the U.S. economy “scream,” observes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry
June 3, 2011


Modern Republicans have a simple approach to politics when they are not in the White House: Make America as ungovernable as possible by using almost any means available, from challenging the legitimacy of opponents to spreading lies and disinformation to sabotaging the economy.

Over the past four decades or so, the Republicans have simply not played by the old give-and-take rules of politics. Indeed, if one were to step back and assess this Republican approach, what you would see is something akin to how the CIA has destabilized target countries, especially those that seek to organize themselves in defiance of capitalist orthodoxy.

To stop this spread of “socialism,” nearly anything goes. Take, for example, Chile in the early 1970s when socialist President Salvador Allende won an election and took steps aimed at improving the conditions of the country’s poor.

Under the direction of President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the CIA was dispatched to engage in psychological warfare against Allende’s government and to make the Chilean economy “scream.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2011/06/03/making-the-us-economy-scream/

[xchrom]

1. & maybe the dems should stop agreeing with some of their horseshit. nt

[Kolesar]

2. Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newswee

So said the attribution at the end of the article.
This essay made me want to scream.

[nashville_brook]

3. playing along with the GOP on "the deficit problem" is cutting our throats

too bad our leadership is so beholden to the monied elite that they can't mount an effective defense.

[yurbud]

4. If the Democrats don't stop playing along with this game, they should be replaced by a real

opposition party.

[Zoeisright]

5. Repukes act that way when they're IN power too.

Repukes should be banned from this country. Better yet, let's give them a state and let them all move there. We'll call it "Backwardistan", build a fence around it, and let them all kill each other.

[MinM]

6. Are Republicans purposely hindering the economy in order to make President Obama weaker 2012?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x609003

You betchya.

[MinM]

7. Kicked as an antidote to some loftier goals the nytimes tries to ascribe

...
to the republicans.

In Fiscal Fight, G.O.P. Distrust of Obama Runs Deep

Rep. Austin Scott, Republican of Georgia, second left, said that freshman Republicans have the long-term fiscal health of the nation in mind.

WASHINGTON — If President Obama thought he could rattle House Republicans with his warning on Tuesday that Social Security checks might get held up in the event the debt limit was not raised soon, he was mistaken.

“That’s not leadership; that is sad and pathetic,” said Representative Allen West, a freshman Republican representing thousands of Social Security recipients in South Florida. He said the president and the Treasury secretary could pay pressing federal obligations out of money still coming in, and if they say they cannot, “Then they are liars.”

Mr. West is no outlier in the House Republican majority, where distrust of the Obama administration runs deep and warnings of economic Armageddon do not seem to be moving lawmakers toward a compromise.

Instead, many Congressional Republicans seem to be spoiling for a fight, calculating that some level of turmoil caused by a federal default might be what it takes to give them the chance to right the nation’s fiscal ship. ...

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/us/politics/13repubs.html?_r=1&hp