Naomi
Klein, always worth the read, in an interview discussing why launching a
war might be quite a "reasonable" option for DJT & Co. Tom
"Breaking down the shell
game behind U.S. politics is activist journalist Naomi Klein’s
specialty. In her latest book, No Is Not Enough: Resisting The New Shock
Politics And Winning The World We Need, Klein warns, six months into
Donald Trump’s dizzying presidency, not to take our eyes off the
kleptocracy-in-the-making behind the reality freak show in Washington.
Namely, the corporate CEOs, billionaires and bankers busily using the
cover of endless crises in American politics to launch a coup of their
own against the welfare state.
"No Is Not Enough offers up a disaster preparedness manual of sorts for
the American Left, as well as a road map for resisting and reclaiming
populist ground lost to the Trump forces. So what’s in it for Canadians?
"Here are the highlights from a wide-ranging interview with
Klein, who spoke with NOW from Toronto recently after a book tour of the
UK.
"On Trump’s distraction doctrine as media catnip
KLEIN: "Trump has always understood the power of distraction. This has
been the story of his business career. Part of the reason he will not
log off Twitter is because he understands having everybody gasping at
his outrageousness is better than having close attention paid to what
he’s actually doing in office, which is a complete betrayal of what he
promised to do on many different fronts, particularly economics. There
is scarce attention [being paid] to the economic agenda being advanced
by Trump’s Goldman Sachs-intensive economic team. None of it can compete
with the Trump show. The media won’t take their eyes off this reality
television narrative of impeachment, who’s going to be voted off the
island, who’s going to end up indicted. It's media catnip.
"This is different from the shock doctrine I’ve written about – it’s the daily schlock distraction show.
"On why war may be the next big venture on Trump’s agenda
KLEIN: "There are many reasons why it might be in the Trump
administration’s interests to launch a full-fledged war. One would be to
get the price of oil back up. [That’s] something we know [Secretary of
State] Rex Tillerson would be interested in, considering his ties to
ExxonMobil and the fact that ExxonMobil’s profits have been way down
since they invested so heavily in expensive oil in the Alberta tar
sands. This is something they [Trump administration] share with Putin.
[Russia’s] major export is oil and gas [and] they’ve been in a budget
crisis since the price of oil collapsed, with huge implications for the
economy.
"Many wars are fought in order to safeguard access to
fossil fuels. The price of oil needs to be at a certain rate in order
for extreme energy – meaning tar sands, Arctic drilling – to make
economic sense. From a climate perspective it’s absolutely catastrophic
for us to be opening up these new fossil fuel reserves so preventing the
wars that will send the price of oil up is absolutely in keeping with
the climate interest.
"On why impeaching Trump won’t stop disaster capitalism’s corporate coup in the U.S.
KLEIN: "We [would] end up with the same agenda but with somebody
significantly more boring, like Mike Pence. Pence terrifies me.
"Part of the reason I decided to write the book is I know his track
record in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when he was chair of the
Republican Study Committee, the organization that provided the map for
how to turn New Orleans into this laboratory for extreme so-called free
market economics: privatizing the school system, shutting down public
housing, creating a tax-free private enterprise zone, redacting labour
protections. I consider him to be one of the most dangerous lawmakers.
Ultimately, there needs to be a very different political project that
replaces them..."
Author and activist Naomi Klein. (photo: Link TV)
