Foreign take over right under our noses

[Sadie5]

This has been on my mind the past few days and I haven't seen it posted here. Bush and his Dubai ports takeover business seems to have disappeared for now, but I wonder if this isn't another of the PNAC crafted plan to sell out America. It is no secret that in my state(Indiana) that Bush and his pals went all out to get Mitch Daniels 'placed' in the Governorship. Daniels then worked up a deal to sell the toll road to a foreign company which he caught much flak on. It was a done deal and too late to do much about it as he had plenty of backing in this red state. I wonder how many other states have foreign investments and are those states governed by Dems or Repukes? Could they be working on strategic placement for the big takeover at a later date when it is too late to do anything about it? Bush has sold out our jobs to India and wrecked our economy, whats to stop him from doing this?

[Cassandra]

1. Wonder no more...

Thom Hartmann covers this well.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0227-20.htm

" Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As www.economyincrisis.com notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry:

· Sound recording industries - 97%
· Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
· Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
· Metal ore mining - 65%
· Motion picture and video industries - 64%
· Wineries and distilleries - 64%
· Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
· Book publishers - 63%
· Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
· Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
· Rubber product - 53%
· Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
· Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
· Plastics product - 51%
· Other insurance related activities - 51%
· Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
· Glass and glass product - 48%
· Coal mining - 48%
· Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
· Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
· Advertising and related services - 41%
· Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
· Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
· Securities brokerage - 38%
· Other general purpose machinery - 37%
· Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media - 36%
· Support activities for mining - 36%
· Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
· Chemical manufacturing - 30%
· Industrial machinery - 30%
· Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 30%
· Other food - 29%
· Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
· Machinery manufacturing - 28%
· Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
· Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment activities - 27%
· Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
· Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
· Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
· Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
· Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
· Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
· Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
· Basic chemical - 24%
· Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
· Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
· Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
· Printing and related support activities - 21%
· Chemical product and preparation - 20%
· Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
· Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
· Publishing industries - 20%
· Medical equipment and supplies - 20% "

[melm00se]

3. the same things were

said back in the 80's when the Japanese were flush with cash and bought everything in site. Their economy faltered (actually crashed is a better word), the US ecomonu swung up and bought back a huge chunk of what was sold (and a loss for the Japanese...it happens when you have a fire sale).

While I don't think that if this trend continues for the long term this is an unhealthy situation, but money that moves is a good thing:

moving money works
moving money can be taxed

[tsuki]

4. He is great, isn't he?

[Squeech]

2. I say

this is part of a bigger picture that I'm just beginning to grasp. I call it "absentee landlordism."

It's an extension of the "cheap labor conservative" idea. I've been assuming all along that their ultimate purpose is some form of corporate feudalism, but that idea breaks down when you consider how historical feudalism, for all its institutionalized unfairness and rigidity, still constituted a two way street: that the lords were still obligated to take care of their vassals and peasants when times were hard. And there's no way our corporate overlords would ever acknowledge that.

So it'd be much easier to implement the true social-Darwinist heartlessness of their program if the actual corporate overlords we had to answer to weren't even from around here, but were imported from India or China or some other destination of outsourcery.

Corroborating evidence: Greg Palast has reported that, when the IMF agrees to bail out a country in fiscal trouble, the first thing they do is make the head of state sign a secret protocol agreeing to put his country's productive assets up for outside investment. Typically the first things bought up are the utilities: electric, gas, even municipal water systems. And typically the buyers are bankers from some other (richer) place, and tend to run the systems to maximize profit, with no compassion for their captive clients, who are "free" to live without power and drink rain water. On the other hand, our ruling cabal thinks it's just ducky to have Dubai run our ports, and a French company run our premier telecom research facility...

Should I be fitted for a tinfoil hat now?

[Nikki Stone1]

5. Please write an article on this, and combine it with the use of religion

as a dividing mechanism, especially extreme forms. The more people are divided along religious lines (which tend to be irrational), the less possibility they have of uniting to fight a common enemy. Start with the fact that US intelligence set up the Taliban and supports ME regimes with the most extreme forms of Islam and goes after the more moderate cosmopolitan ones. Further connect that with William F Buckley's Young Americans Foundation (YAF, as in Young Americans for Freedom) which is the largest single outside funder of university activities, dwarfing every organization below them, and which is responsible for Campus Crusades for Christ and funding for other Fundamentalist entities. The extreme Fundie neocon stuff STARTED at the unversities in the late 70s, picking up in the wake of the Moonies, looking for troubled, addicted and very homesick students (including foreign students) to pull into "conversion".

If the landlords are to be absentee, the tenants are to be either docile (praying for miracles) or at each others' throats.

I happen to think that you are not alone in your estimation of things.

[Squeech]

7. Thank you

Good idea, but it's not clear enough yet in my mind to write the article you're looking for :shrug:

Plus I'm not sure the religion angle belongs here other than as yet another harbinger of hate.

We saw a movie not long ago, the title (which I forget) was the name of a poor coal-mining town in West Virginia, and the theme of the movie was how the workers finally overcame their differences-- including religion, as well as nationality, language, and skin color-- in order to strike. (And of course the owners sent goons to thwart the strike by any means necessary, including deadly force.) My point being, the forces arrayed against us working people will use whatever works to fuck us up. (Although I've got some nerve comparing myself to working people when I've spent entirely too much of my day posting on DU :P )

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Hey, I'm sick and have the day off anyway

But, I do think the religion angle is important. Otherwise, why fund it? Why support it? Why funnel monies to religious schools and charities? As the Red Cross goes down, for example, religious organizations will get both govt dollars and donations.

I think the religion angle is crucial--not just for dividing people but for keeping them focused on impossible miracles (Jesus will get me a new car) while the economic system is shifting, the exact time when we could do something about things. Once the system is in place, there won't be anything we can do.

[CJCRANE]

11. The facts you mention

are the Achilles Heel of the neocons. They collude with the extremists and divert American rage onto other countries (like Iraq obviously).
It's such an obvious thing (as illustrated by photos of * kissing/handling holds with certain leaders, + the port sell-off etc) but the MSM and the freepers just don't see it.
If the freepers were able to connect the dots they would literally go mad.

It makes me wonder if the War on Terror is just a huge double-bluff intended to destroy America* rather than protect it.

*Financially and culturally.

[Lars39]

6. The Carlyle Group has already announced that they'll be buying

up US infrastructure, particularly roads and water systems. :scared:

[Skidmore]

8. What better way to put the worlds superpower out of commission.

If you can't beat it's weapons systems, take over its financial mechanisms and markets. Better yet. Get them to sell out at bargain basement prices, for trinkets.

[DrGonzoLives]

10. Plenty of backing? From who?

Every poll should a massive opposition to selling the toll road, and Mitch only did it because the Republican legislature is eager to lick his boots. Ditto for I-69, ditto for daylight savings time. The man has little to no backing left at this point.

The problem isn't some why-are-people-stupid argument, it's that once Republicans get in power, they do not give a shit about what the people think. They will do whatever the hell they want, and you better just live with it.

[Sadie5]

12. I was really irked

at the way Daniels slipped by the citizens of Indiana the sale of the toll road. Talk about Bush leaving a legacy. I can't imagine what they will say about Mitch the Bitch after he is gone from our lives.