When An Irresistible Conqueror Meets an Unsuspecting People

Imagine that a conqueror with an irresistible army invades your county. He institutes martial law, suspending the U.S. and California Constitutions. He replaces the Board of Supervisors with his Board of Directors, replaces the Sheriff Department with his mercenary companies, replaces the public school system with charter schools with arbitrary requirements for teachers, no set pay or graduation requirements, and privatizes all utilities and transportation. He replaces all city governments with his own people. He installs a multinational corporation to run the water supply. He commandeers all Tahoe lakeshores and the prime lands in all cities and turns them over to developers for hotels and casinos and displaces the original owners to temporary shelters.

All these changes are installed instantly while the people are in shock. All personal rights and freedoms are suspended. YOU, THE TAXPAYER, PAY FOR ALL OF THIS.

This Milton Friedman technique is called disaster capitalism under the Shock Doctrine of Bush and his neocons. If it sounds familiar, it is because it was done in New Orleans and Iraq and to a large degree to the U.S. after 9/11, with the creation of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act. The conqueror awaits the next hurricane or 9/11.