Meet the W Regime... a background chronology from the 1970s to 1992

Early 1970s - the age of multiple crises begins:

- U.S. and global establishment has feeling of barely having avoided some kind of countercultural meltdown in late 1960s.

- 1970: National declaration of War on Drugs. Excellent profit margins for drug dealers and prison builders result.

- Dollar crisis: challenged by rise of Western Europe and Japan, U.S. forced to abandon gold backing for dollar. (The others as successful exporters are holding lots of dollars and asking themselves, what are these worth? Can we have some gold for that, like you claim?) Transformation and crisis of world finance system. Open acknowledgement of "trilateral" world economy: U.S., Europe, Japan. Dollar goes fiat, with basis in petro-dollarization, U.S. military power and seemingly bottomless ability as the consumer and lender of last resort.

- Big U.S. trade deficits from mid-1970s, "stagflation," export of U.S. industrial base to cheap-labor countries.

- Oil embargo of 1973-74 begins age of oil crises and raises resource questions generally.

- Environmental crises become obvious - general understanding of pollution and damage to biosphere. (This reality is still passed off by some as the nefarious work of the Club of Rome.)

- 1973: End of "golden age of capitalism," deep recession, profit crisis, U.S. wages have dropped 20% since. Establishment of Trilateral Commission by David Rockefeller and his intellctual scion, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Its only major publication ever is by Samuel Huntington on "The Crisis of Democracy." (Meaning: too much democracy is making the West ungovernable.)

- Chile coup of 1973, engineered by CIA. Chile first field of experiement for "Chicago economics": shock therapy, neoliberal paradigm. Six South American dictatorships are established and coordinated by U.S. under Operation Condor.

- Previously less significant, the IMF becomes the financial enforcer on the Third World.

- Loss of Vietnam war shows a Third World country can "win" against U.S. At home, realization so many people died for nothing. Loss of faith in military adventure creates serious political hindrance to waging of future wars.

- Exposure of Nixon's attempt at a White House dictatorship causes further loss of faith in govt. and system.

- Revelations of long-running CIA and secret government operations (assassinations, coups in many countries, COINTELPRO, MK-ULTRA) cause bad publicity (Church and Pike committees) and some loss of ability to conduct operations covertly and deniably. Growth in privatized, off-budget clandestine enterprises.

- In the culture, a feeling of crisis and corresponding congratulatory hedonism takes hold. There is a turn to more open, segmentalized consumerism; a different vice for everyone. The "Me Decade." Fat America is born.

- Through late 1970s: Mobilization of right-wing conservatism (via fundamentalist organizing on issues of abortion and culture war) and more general reaction (attitude of "country cannot go on this way!") Rise of neoliberal economic formula for world, with a populist element backing it, i.e. the anti-tax revolt.

- April 1974 - Nixon resigns. Only major cabinet member to survive into Ford: Kissinger. Bush (former head of Republican National Committee during hottest phase of Nixon campaign's dirty tricks) also makes the cut.

1974-Jan. 1977: FORD ADMINISTRATION

CHENEY, chief of staff. RUMSFELD, Sec'y of Defense, runs Pentagon.

PAPA BUSH, director CIA. Serious damage control necessary due to Church Committee revelations.

VP Nelson ROCKEFELLER, scion with his brother David of the largest oil and banking fortune in U.S., fmr. governor of New York, fmr. overseer of the CIA with Kissinger and others on the "Forty Committee." Appointed by Ford to investigate CIA abuses (Rockefeller Commission).

1977-Jan. 1981: CARTER ADMINISTRATION

- New CIA head Stansfield Turner fires 800 unnamed covert operators. They line up behind Bush for a return. This is the birth of the Bush Mob.

- 1977-78: Carter pardons Vietnam draft dodgers, institutes international cool-off, focus on "human rights," considers disarmament plans like Annex C (minimum nuclear deterrence). Attacked as weak by the Right.

- Fall of Shah in Iran. Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. The Right screams: He's losing the dominoes!

- From 1978-79, Carter turns to BRZEZINSKI geostrategy, higher Pentagon budget, MX missile plans, austerity at home.

- New oil crisis from 1978, due to Iran. Economic stagnation. Big budget deficits, reach $60 billion by 1980.

- Summer 1979: CIA covert operation in Afghanistan. Succeeds as planned in provoking the Dec. 1979 Soviet invasion (not to make any excuses for Soviets, but this is what Brzezinski proudly confessed in 1998). Cold war revived.

- 1979: Thatcher comes to power in Britain with neoliberal paradigm for the West.

- Iran hostage crisis from Nov. 1979. First in a new species of full-bore, media-staged crises. The program formerly known as "The Nightly News" turns into "America Held Hostage: Day 44..." Carter uses crisis to ward off the Kennedy challenge in 1980 primaries, then is done in by his strategy when he fails to get the hostages released in time for the general election. (Probably due to October Surprise machinations by CASEY and BUSH MOB.)

- Summer 1980: Saddam invades Iran, sparking horrible 8-year war that Iraq ultimately "wins" as stalemate.

- Official media verdict on Carter image: Too much openness about the crisis situation. Too much talk of "national malaise." Not enough good feeling, too much "micromanagement" of the issues.

- We need a man on horseback! Reagan rides the popular wave. Bush and Co. ride in with him.

1981-Jan. 1989: REAGAN-BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS

- Reagan shot on March 6, 1981. PAPA BUSH effectively president for 3 mos. His team increasingly takes charge in the later years, as The Gipper goes ever-more obviously senile on live television.

- "Financial conservatives" begin program of massive Pentagon spending increases, immediate and massive tax cuts with most of it going to rich, and deficit spending at over $120 billion per year.

- Reagan calls Soviets an Evil Empire, begins Starwars program, says "we will begin bombing in five minutes," raises serious heat in Cold War, sparks NATO/cruise missile deployment crisis of 1981-82 (an assist to rise of Kohl government in Germany). Many fear nuclear war is at hand, TV shows "Day After," etc.

- Involvements in three long, major wars: Afghanistan, Iran/Iraq, Central America.

- Arms dealt to both Iraq and Iran, from the beginning of administration (through Israeli fronts starting in 1981). Allies encouraged to do the same. The later revelation of some of the Iranian deals is covered up and explained as a quid-pro-quo in "hostage negotiations." The alliance with Iraq is made open starting in 1983, when envoy RUMSFELD shakes hands with Saddam.

- Bill CASEY at CIA - who once ran an escape ratline for Nazis - now thrilled at Afghan mujahedeen operation and the chance to give the Soviets "their own Vietnam." Later known officially as "the largest CIA covert operation in history," at least $6 billion in U.S. taxpayer money go into it. Run by CIA in alliance with Pakistani elite (ISI, Zia government, serious arms and heroin dealers) and the Saudis, who contribute financing and recruit the international "Afghan Arab" brigade under Osama and Co. Drug dealing to Soviet army (Osama/Hekmatyar's business). New age of cheap opium and heroin.

- Admin backs coups, dictatorships and death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala, militarizes Honduras. CIA organizes Contra insurgency against Sandinistas. Support for Contras meets with international and grassroots opposition, leading to Boland Amendment banning sales to Contras for two years. NORTH and POINDEXTER circumvent by financing Contras in from Iran arms sales, leading in 1986 to Iran/Contra scandal.

- Toleration of Contra drug dealing into the U.S. New age of cheap cocaine.

- New declaration of war on drugs. "Just say no." Predictable consequences: at home: higher profit margins for drug dealers and prison builders, lots more police. In drug-exporting countries: chaos and corruption.

- Massive banking deregulation from 1981 on. Directly sets off 1980s S+L operations with Bush, CIA and mafia cronies at center of a vast plundering of depositors and banks via loans to friends with fake real estate schemes, etc. etc. S+Ls go bankrupt by late 1980s. Tab later picked up by taxpayers, to tune of $200 billion and more.

- Recession of 1982/83, followed by what was called the longest boom in history, an age of opulence and conspicuous consumption, etc. etc., up to crash of Oct. 1987 (Dow Jones Index drops 25% in one day.)

- Age of mergers. Everything gets concentrated in less and less companies, most significantly the media. 56 major newspaper owners in U.S. as of 1980 become 27 by 1990. (Now they're down to a dozen?)

- Salami tactic employed to get people to like war again: Grenada 1983, Libya 1985 (to be followed by Panama '89 and a big come-back of big wars in Iraq '91...) Hollywood joins in the effort and pro-war movies met with increasing Pentagon subsidies in the way of loaned equipment, etc., extending into the 1990s and beyond.

- 1984 arrives on time with Reagan's re-election. "It's morning in America." Hate those liberals: "They are so far left, they've left America," Reagan says. Mondale triumphs in Minnesota and Washington, DC.

- 1985: Gorbachev, perestroika, glasnost. U.S. verdict: Not believable! Keep up the pressure!

- 1986: Iran-Contra revelations. Damage control time. CASEY immediately gets tumor and dies. Much different approach in Congress than with Watergate; Republicans on committee actually praise North and Poindexter as patriots. Examples: Reps. Henry HYDE and Dick CHENEY. Key Iran-Contra and Central America players who got off easy and who are in power under Bush II include: POWELL of NSC (says "he cannot recall" anything about Iran-Contra 56 times to Congress), ARMITAGE, ABRAMS (pardoned by Bush on his exit in '93), REICH, NEGROPONTE... Spin during 13 weeks of televised hearings passes everything off as Poindexter's idea.

- 1987-88: gradual warming to Gorbachev after all, as extent of Soviet crisis becomes manifest.

1989-Jan. 1993: BUSH-QUAYLE (CHENEY) ADMINISTRATION

- Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan. Mujahedeen "Afghan Arab" veterans scatter to Islamic world and West.

- 1989. Papa Bush sends 26,000 troops into Panama to arrest his renegade CIA asset, Noriega.

- The Berlin Wall falls. The map is redrawn.

- The search for a new enemy begins in earnest. Is it drugs? Terror? A "clash of civilizations"?

- 1990: Sandinistas lose Nicaraguan election, ceasefire in El Salvador. Central America has been won.

- Aug. 2, 1990: Cheney/Wolfowitz present the first of their Pentagon-must-rule-the-world plans (a.k.a. Defense Policy Guidelines for FYs 1992-1996). Lucky for them, Saddam invades Kuwait on the same day.

- Jan. 1991: the Big One in Iraq. All that atrocity, ending with Bush calling on the Iraqi people to overthrow their tyrant, for the U.S. is behind them. (Message to Kurds and Shiites: Oops, just kidding. Well you're dead now, anyway.)

- Bush loses the political war bonus, thanks to Iraqgate revelations of 1980s support to Saddam.

- Continuing economic stagnation. LA riots of 1992. General exhaustion at 12 years of right-wing rule and the Perot maneuvers all contribute to Papa Bush's election loss to Bill Clinton... that evil, womanizing, pot-inhaling communist. Right-wing to spend eight years chasing after his penis.