(Latest in a series on the California budget crisis, cross-posted at Calitics)
I've been hearing the California crisis, and the Governor's response, referred to as a kind of shock doctrine, used to transform the state's social safety net and radically alter the lives of the poor and downtrodden. And that's entirely true. But not necessarily through the budget cuts, which have met fierce opposition from Democrats and the nascent activist progressive movement. No, the real shock doctrine is happening behind the curtain, with a proposal engineered with bipartisan support, that will really permanently turn the state into an experiment in Chicago Boys free-market fundamentalism, not unlike the conservative "paradises" created in developing nations, all of which are crashing, by the way.