Tick Tick Tick

Guest Post by Jim Kunstler

Did Charlie Rose look like a fucking idiot last night on 60-Minutes, or what, asking Vladimir Putin how he could know for sure that the US was behind the 2014 Ukraine coup against President Viktor Yanukovych? Maybe the idiots are the 60-Minutes producers and fluffers who are supposed to prep Charlie’s questions. Putin seemed startled and amused by this one on Ukraine: how could he know for sure?

Well, gosh, because Ukraine was virtually a province of Russia in one form or another for hundreds of years, and Russia has a potent intelligence service (formerly called the KGB) that had assets and connections threaded through Ukrainian society like the rhizomorphs of the fungus Armillaria solidipes through a conifer forest. Gosh, Charlie, it’s like asking Obama whether the NSA might know what’s going on in Texas.

And so there is Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, having to spell it out for the American clodhopper super-journalist. “We have thousands of contacts with them. We know who and where, and when they met with someone, and who worked with those who ousted Yanukovych, how they were supported, how much they were paid, how they were trained, where, in which country, and who those instructors were. We know everything.”

The only thing Vlad left out of course was the now-world-famous panicked yelp by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland crying, “Fuck the EU,” when events in Kiev started getting out of hand for US stage-managers. But he probably heard about that, too.

Charlie then voice-overed the following statement: “For the record, the US has denied any involvement in the removal of the Ukrainian leader.” Right. And your call is important us. And your check is in the mail. And they hate us for our freedom.

This bit on Ukraine was only a little more appalling than Charlie’s earlier segment on Syria. Was Putin trying to rescue the Assad government? Charlie asked, in the context of President Obama’s statement years ago that “Assad has to go.”

Putin answered as if he were explaining something that should have been self-evident to a not-very-bright high school freshman: “To remove the legitimate government would create a situation which you can witness in other countries of the region, for instance Libya, where all the state institutions have disintegrated. We see a similar situation in Iraq. There’s no other solution to the Syrian crisis than strengthening the government structure.”

I guess Charlie and the 60-Minutes production crew hadn’t noticed what had gone on around the Middle East the past fifteen years with America’s program of toppling dictators into the maw of anarchy. Not such great outcomes.

Charlie persisted though, following his script: Was Putin trying to rescue Assad? Vlad had to lay it out for him as if he were introducing Charlie to the game of Animal Lotto: “What do you think about those who support the terrorist organizations only to oust Assad without thinking about what happens to the country after all the state institutions have been demolished…? Look at those who are in control of 60 percent of the territory of Syria.

Meaning ISIS. Al Nusra (formerly al Qaeda in Syria), i.e., groups internationally recognized as terrorist organizations.

Charlie Rose, 60-Minutes — and perhaps by extension US government agencies with an interest in propagandizing — seem to want to put over the story that Russia has involved itself in Syria only to aggrandize its role on in world affairs.

Forgive me for being so blunt, but what sort of stupid fucking idea is this? And are there any non-lobotomized adults left in the USA who can’t see straight through it? The truth is that American policy in Syria (plus Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Somalia, Afghanistan) is an impressive record of failure in terms of the one basic aim that most rational people might agree upon: stabilizing the region in a way that does not leave Islamic jihadi maniacs in charge.

Okay, so now the Russians will do what they can to try to stabilize Syria. They’ve had their failures, too (famously, Afghanistan). But Russian territory adjoins the Islamic lands and they clearly have stake in containing the virus of Islamic extremism near their borders. Is that not obvious?

Charlie made one other extremely dumb statement — he seems to prefer making assertions to asking straight-up questions — to the effect that Russia was misbehaving by deploying troops on its border with Ukraine.

Putin again seemed astonished by this credulous idiocy. The US had troops and nuclear weapons all over Europe, he answered. Did Charlie think that meant the US was attempting to occupy the nations of Europe now? Was it “a crime” for Russia to defend its own border with a neighboring state (formerly a province) that, he implied, the US had deliberately destabilized?

The Putin segment was followed by an sickening session with Donald Trump, a man who now — after a month or so of public exposure — proves incapable of uttering a coherent idea. I wonder what Vladimir Putin makes of this incomparable buffoon. Perhaps that America has gotten what it deserves.

The third World Made By Hand novel

!! Is available !!

(The Fourth and final is finished and on the way — June 2016)

Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist

HistoryoftheFuture_Thumb

My local indie booksellers… Battenkill Books (Autographed by the Author) … or Northshire Books
or Amazon

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
6 Comments
Iska Waran
Iska Waran
September 28, 2015 9:43 am

Kunstler is right about the Putin segments. They confirmed that Charlie Rose is retarded. He must have watched a different Trump segment than I did, though. Anyone who didn’t think Trump looked great was predisposed to reach that conclusion. I think a lot of Americans watching Putin were thinking “why can’t we have a guy like that?” When Trump came on, some of them probably thought “hey, maybe we can”.

kokoda
kokoda
September 28, 2015 9:44 am

Jim….on Russia and U.S. you got it right. But, your comment on Trump could apply to Obama, except that he actually delivers very coherent Lies.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr
September 28, 2015 9:49 am

Putin: 10 Rose: -10

OutLookingIn
OutLookingIn
September 28, 2015 2:13 pm

Charlie Rose = Main Stream Media Propaganda Machine from Dept. of Information.

Donald Trump = Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most…

Putin = Leadership, Intelligence, Insightful, Strong support, Moralistic, Common sense, etc. etc.

US Foreign Policy and Relations = (sound of toilet being flushed)

TE
TE
September 28, 2015 7:24 pm

Wheels on the bus are really starting to fly off now.

Financial meltdown, then big war. Play used over and over, but will SHOCK the crap out of most whom ignore cycles and history. Maybe even big war news to cover up financial meltdown. It is simply exciting to guess which meme blows up first.

It really, really, feels like it is heating up to doomsday countdown clock times.

People can FEEL that something is wrong but most are so distracted by entertainment/media, dumbed down by pounds and chemicals, that they are totally unable to figure out what is happening and pinpoint it. Let alone accept and hedge accordingly.

Meanwhile, even though our sales have been shit, and falling, all year, my hub has decided to refi our house in a 15 year note. From 2005 until 2008, we were able to go without actual paychecks and used minimal corporate resources because of MY credit cards and lower house payments due to longer terms. Without those two things he would have been bankrupt in 2006/2007. This time around, I will NOT be supporting his business again, nor will I be going in debt while he continues his fishing trips, vacations and expensive gifts for his family while I charge stuff off the clearance rank for our daughter and my family. Since he insists on the 15 year mortgage right when his best-laid, Jim Cramer and Ben Bernake approved, financial plans implode, not only will I have to go get a job elsewhere, I’ll have to move. I sure as hell ain’t using my labor to bail out his decisions (again) made against my counsel and wishes.

Tick Tick Tick, indeed. Wicked things are heading this way, both in my personal life and the world at large, are we all getting ready?

ottomatik
ottomatik
September 29, 2015 12:58 pm

At least the new season of Dancing with the Stars has started.