Naomi Klein: The Worst Is Yet to Come with Trump, So We Must Be Ready for Shock Politics

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report as we wrap up today's show with part two of our conversation with best-selling author and journalist Naomi Klein author of the shock Doctrine and this changes everything capitalism versus the climate her new book is called No is not enough resisting Trump's shock politics and winning the world we need to accompany the book The Intercept recently made this video shock shocking I don't think I could sit down right now you mean historic astounding shocking it's a word that's come up a lot since November for obvious reasons he's going to inject a shot to the system now I've spent a lot of time thinking about Sean ten years ago I published the shock Doctrine an investigation that spanned four decades from pinochet's U.S back coup in 1970s Chile to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I noticed a brutal and recurring tactic by right-wing governments after a shocking event a war coup terrorist attack market crash or natural disaster exploit The public's disorientation suspend democracy push through radical policies that enriched the one percent at the expense of the poor in middle class this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare we are going to cut taxes and simplify the tax code the United States will withdraw from the Paris climb into court now some people have said that's exactly what Trump has been trying to do true sort of but in all likelihood the worst is yet to come and we'd better be ready the administration is creating chaos daily breaking news Donald Trump's National Security adviser Michael Flynn has resigned tonight all of a sudden the White House is concerned about James comey's handling of Hillary Clinton's email a senate committee will question president Trump's son-in-law and Senior adviser Jared Kushner about his meeting with officials from a Russian bank now of course many of the scandals are the result of the president's ignorance and blunders not some nefarious strategy but there's also no doubt that some Savvy people around Trump are using the daily shocks as cover to advance wildly pro-corporate policies that bear little resemblance to what Trump pledged on the campaign Trail save Medicare Medicaid and Social Security the White House released its budget for 2018 and among the four trillion dollars in cuts it proposes are billions upon billions of dollars slashed from both Medicaid and Social Security and the worst part is likely just the warm-up we need to focus on what this Administration will do when it has a major external shock to exploit maybe it'll be an economic crash like 2008. maybe a natural disaster like Sandy or maybe it'll be a horrific terrorist event like Manchester or Paris in 2015. any one such crisis could redraw the political map overnight and it could give Trump and his crew free reign to Ram through their most extreme ideas but here is one thing I've learned over two decades of reporting from dozens of crises around the world these tactics can be resisted and for your convenience I tried to boil it down to a five-step plan step one know what's coming what would happen if a horror like the one in Manchester took place on U.S soil based on Trump's obvious fondness for authoritarianism we can expect him to impose some sort of state of exception or emergency where the usual rules of democracy no longer apply protests and Strikes that block roads and airports like the ones that strung up to resist the Muslim travel ban would likely be declared a threat to National Security protest organizers would be targeted under anti-terror legislation with surveillance arrests and imprisonment with public signs of dissent suppressed the truly toxic to-do list would quickly Bubble Up bring in the feds to pacify the streets muzzle investigative journalism you know he's itching too you weren't called sit down the courts who Trump would inevitably blame for the attacks might well lose their courage and the most lethal shock we need to prepare for push for a full-blown foreign war no it won't matter if the target has no connection to the attacks used to justify it what did Iraq have to do with what for all this is crucial you know what to expect we won't be that shocked we'll just be and that's important for step two get out of your home and defy the bands when governments tell people to stay in their homes or show their patriotism by going shopping they inevitably claim it's for Public Safety that protests and rallies could become targets for more attacks what we know from other countries is that there is only one way to respond hundreds of tunisians have been defying the curfew in the capital Tunis disobey on mass that's what happened in Argentina in 2001 with the country and economic Free Fall the president at the time declared a state of Siege giving himself the power to suspend the Constitutional he told the public to stay in their houses here's what they did instead the president resigned that night and eventually new elections were held three years later in Madrid a horrifying series of coordinated attacks on trains killed more than 200 people the Prime Minister Jose Maria aznar falsely pointed the finger at Basque separatist and also used the attacks to justify his decision to send troops to Iraq his rhetoric was classic shock Doctrine division War fear daddy will protect you this is how Spaniards responded they voted out asnar a few DeFranco Spain's former dictator which brings us to step three know your history throughout U.S history National crises have been used to suspend constitutional protections and attack basic rights after the Civil War with the nation in crisis the promise of 40 acres and a mule to freed slaves was promptly betrayed in the midst of the pain and panic of the Great Depression as many as two million people of Mexican descent were expelled from the United States after the Pearl Harbor attacks around 120 000 Japanese Americans were jailed in internment camps if an attack on U.S soil were perpetrated by people who were not white and Christian we can be pretty damn sure that racists would have a field day and the good folks of Manchester recently showed us how to respond to them something else we know from history step four always follow the money while everyone is focused on security and civil liberties Trump's cabinet of billionaires will try to quietly push through even more Extreme Measures to enrich themselves and their class like dismantling Social Security or auctioning off major pieces of government for profit today we're proposing to take American Air Travel into the future it's in those moments when fear and Chaos are sucking up all the oxygen when we most have to ask whose interests are being served by the chaos what is being slipped through while we're distracted who's getting richer and who's getting even poorer when the flood waters were still rising in New Orleans one of the first official acts that the governor did was to fire all the teachers what's happening is a RAID of the money set aside for public education to be given to private companies it wasn't by happenstance it was by Design you saw the political manipulations and taking advantage of the crisis but if we learn from this history with step five Advance a bold counter plan at their best all the previous steps can only slow down attempts to exploit crisis if we actually want to defeat this tactic opponents of the shock Doctrine need to move quickly to put forward a credible alternate plan it needs to get at the root of why these sorts of crises are hitting us with ever greater frequency and that means we have to talk about militarism climate change and deregulated markets more than that we need to advance and fight for different models ones grounded in racial economic and gender justice ones that hold out the credible promise of a tangibly better and fairer life in the here and now and a safer planet for all of us in the long term defensive actions alone won't cut it there has to be a different vision and it needs to be bold saying no to the shock Doctrine is vitally important but when this hits the fan no is not enough that video produced by The Intercept their senior correspondent Naomi Klein author of the new book released this week no is not enough resisting Trump's shock politics and winning the world we need yes a shock you're a specialist in analyzing what happens next Naomi right and you know the reason why I wrote this book very quickly for me you know it usually takes me five years to write a book I did this in less than five months is because I really wanted it to come out before any kind of major crisis hits the United States I mean lots of people out there see Trump himself as a crisis and you know I would tend to agree um but what really has me scared is what this configuration of characters in the Trump Administration Pence Bannon Betsy DeVos you know Steve mnuchin all these Goldman Sachs Alum who are in the cabinet how they would respond to a large-scale crisis that they themselves are not creating I mean the chaos is chaos they're generating themselves either deliberately or out of incompetence and and avarice but what happens if there's a 2008 like financial crisis what happens you know heaven forbid if there is a Manchester like attack in the United States the actions of this Administration make these types of shocks more likely not less right they're deregulating the banks creating the conditions for another crash they are antagonizing the world uh particularly the Muslim world you know Isis apparently called Trump's Muslim travel ban a blessed ban because it was so good for recruitment they are you know they are making climate disasters more likely with everything they're doing to deregulate uh industry deregulate put for polluters there's a lag time between that and when the climate shocks hit but the truth is we've already warmed the planet enough that no U.S president can get through a year let alone a term without some sort of major climate related disaster so how does this group of this cabinet of disaster capitalists is what I call them Amy because there is such a track record of taking advantage of Crisis whether we're looking at the Goldman Sach former Goldman Sachs Executives and the way they profited from the subprime mortgage crisis to increase their own personal wealth whether it's Mike Pence and the central role he played when New Orleans was still underwater to come up with a corporate wish list to push through so you know as as as as disastrous as Trump's policies have been so far there's actually a long toxic to-do list things that people around Trump and Trump himself have been have very openly said they would like to do but they have actually not been able either to get through without a crisis or they haven't even tried right think about Trump's threats to bring back torture think about his threats to bring the feds into Chicago think about his threats not just have a Muslim travel ban from specific countries but not to let Muslims into the country period so I think we do need to prepare for this and what I tried to do with this video is create a little toolkit of you know what I have seen work in other countries because I report have been reporting on shocks and large-scale disasters and how societies respond now for a couple of decades and I've seen some amazing acts of resistance and talk about those we saw some images of them here yeah so you know one of the things I think we could really count on Trump to do particularly if there is a you know any kind of terrorism related shock and let's be clear there have been terrorism events white supremacist terrorism in the United States during the Trump era but of course he doesn't treat those as a crisis so an event that they decided was a large-scale crisis we already know from the way Trump responded to the the London Bridge attacks he immediately said this is why we need to bring back my travel ban after the Manchester attacks he immediately said this this is about immigrants flooding across our borders in fact the person responsible for those attacks was born in the UK it doesn't matter you know we know this from 9 11 that the way these crises are used as opportunities to push through policies that actually have very little to do with getting at root causes and in many cases exacerbate most notably the invasion of Iraq which had nothing to do with 9 11 but it was just that sheer opportunism so you know what I've seen is I think in all likelihood they would declare a state of emergency some sort of state of exception where they're able to ban protests like the protests we saw the very inspiring protests in the face of the Muslim travel ban they would say no you can't block a road you can't block an airport this is you you could be a target of terrorism yourself saying you're homes so you know I give a few examples like Argentina in 2001 when as the president was declaring a state of Siege and telling people to stay in their homes people describe not being able to hear him because the sound from the streets was so loud the Roar of pots and pans and neighbors flooding out of their homes and going to the plaza demaio and refusing this state of Siege was uh that they they drowned him out they literally couldn't hear him so they just so other people left their houses and you know in that moment that's the moment to resist you know that is the moment to to just not accept it and it's really a question of strength in numbers because if it is only the kind of Hardcore activists that are out on the streets it's really easy to to crush small protests it's harder to do it when it is hundreds of thousands of people so I wanted to share some of these stories of societies that have just said we will not let you do it right I was in France as were you Amy um a week after the horrific terrorist attacks in 2015 we were there for the Paris climate Summit a week before 200 people had been killed in Paris and coordinated attacks the French government under Francois land a socialist government you know socialist in name only but you know a left government declared a state of emergency and banned political Gatherings of more than five people you know if that can happen in France under a socialist government in a country with a very deep history of disruptive strikes what do we expect Trump and Bannon and Pence to do at the earliest opportunity so I think it's important to strategize it's important to know the history in the United States you know in all these countries the examples I give in Argentina why did they flood out of their houses you ask people they said it reminded us of the beginning of the dictatorship in 1976 that's how it started they told us that we weren't safe and that it was going to be a temporary state of emergency and it ended up it turning into a dictatorship so they saw the early signs and they said no not again Hamas right you know we talked to Americans about this they say well we don't have that history really what about the Japanese internment you know what about as you've written Amy what about what happened to Mexican mexican-americans in the United States during the Great Depression and during that crisis and the mass deportations there is this history in many communities and those communities keep that history alive you know during Hurricane Katrina so many African-Americans talked about the history of how crises had been used to further oppress black people in this country but these stories are offloaded into those communities who hold them and keep that history alive it isn't nationally metabolized right and so we have to share these stories and I do think there is a memory now of what happened after September 11th and the rights that were lost and the ways in which people's grief was exploited by men in power who said trust me don't make that mistake again what about the connection to War I mean you have what happened in Manchester the horror there you have the continued deaths in Yemen the U.S back Saudi bombing now the U.S has expanded both in Somalia and in the Philippines with U.S forces you have this horrific attack that took place in Kabul where over a hundred fifty Afghans died it hardly got any attention but the rage that must be Brewing at the Grassroots when they don't get any media attention from the West right right you know people are being erased uh you know and this is this is a very very old story no they're already expanding the battlefields escalating on multiple multiple friends and you know this is the most dangerous most lethal way that shocking events are exploited people's fear are exploited and you know let's remember that this Administration will have various motivations for changing the subject away from their domestic scandals and you know Trump has never gotten better media coverage than in the wake of the his Syrian missile strike you know called Beautiful by Brian Williams and it's you know suddenly he was presidential right ordering cruise missiles over delicious chocolate cake at uh at Mar-A-Lago so you know we have to be very very Vigilant about this and you know the U.S has had a strong anti-war movement in the past but that anti-war movement you know has has um hasn't been in the streets in the same way and and you know I think that this uh these resistance movements are going to have to get ready for that kind of a shock because once the wars begin it's you know it's very hard to stop them another example I think of shock resistance we just saw in the UK during Jeremy corbyn uh during Jeremy corbyn's campaign where Theresa May was exploiting the Manchester attacks the London Bridge attacks to say yeah we're gonna um you know have to get rid of your online privacy you know we need back doors into all all of your communication apps we may need to suspend human rights law and Jeremy corbyn was talking about root causes the failure of the war on terror Paradigm and how this is leading uh you know to an increase in these types of attacks and um you know I I think that a lot of people decided that that made more sense after these many years like not to double down and give up rights in these moments but try to try to understand why this is happening and to do something about it and so Theresa May lost her conservative majority in the parliament um on Saudi Arabia the first country president Trump went to the first foreign country was Saudi Arabia he does the orb with the Saudi Arabians he does the sword dances or tries with the Saudi Arabians he seals these deals uh well over 110 billion dollars leaves there extolling the Saudi leadership and attacks the European leaders and then comes home and despite the um almost begging of the European leaders on the issue of the climate Accord he not only attacks them but then comes home to the United States as announces he's withdrawing from the very Accord they're pleading with him to remain in what about this Primacy of Saudi Arabia right now in both its connection to war with the U.S backed Saudi bombing of Yemen which is leading to a horrific cholera epidemic not to mention just the number of deaths and climate change you know what are the things that really worries me is how motivated these petrol states are to have more instability because that sends the price of oil up and you know their profits flow even more it's something that the Saudis have in common with the Russians have in common with Rex Tillerson former CEO of Exxon you know I the way I think we should see that foreign trip of Trumps is basically these traveling weapons salesman right and he's sending this message you buy enough American weapons you're our friend you know like this is the price so he heaps preys on Saudi Arabia uh for you know having having done that um having made that deal and he goes to Europe and he screams at them you know NATO members for not pulling their weight right which means not buying enough weapons well you know I'm Canadian I'm Canadian American dual citizen but my government shamefully came home and announced a massive Inc sorry a massive increase in weapon spending um so you know this is this is Trump's foreign policies traveling weapon salesman best-selling author Naomi Klein senior correspondent for The Intercept her new book is titled no is not enough for assisting Trump shock politics and winning the world we need to see what part one of the interview you can go to democracynow.org on Monday and Tuesday day two July 4th specials will bring you a major address by Senator Bernie Sanders at the people Summit in Chicago before about 4 000 people that's Monday's show July 3rd and on Tuesday James Earl Jones reads Frederick douglass's historic speech what to the slave is the Fourth of July and we talked to the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe about the standoff at Standing Rock and where it stands today happy birthday to Isis Phillips I'm Amy Goodman thanks for joining us

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 803,409

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, DN, News, Politics, democracynow.org, Video, Independent Media, Daily News, Breaking News, World News, Interview, Donald Trump, Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough, The Intercept, climate change, disaster capitalism, terrorism, global warming, reproductive rights, healthcare, social justice, protest, activism, resistance, White House, corporate interests, medicaid, medicare, federal budget

Id: w44lApffH30

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2017