Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
Much as many people-who-ought-to-know-better have been enjoying the disruptive antics of Donald Trump, surely other cohorts and coteries have endured dark nights of the soul as they witness the 2016 election spin into a perfect storm of rebellion, corruption, and idiocy. Imagine the scenes in Michael Bloomberg’s drawing room the past eight months, the agonies of sensible people! And so after the close of business Friday comes news that the former three-time mayor of New York City is laying concrete plans to run for president on a third-party ticket. Extreme times call for extreme moves by non-extremists.
The Trump phenomenon is pretty well-understood: a politically paralyzed nation hostage to malign forces, mired in racketeering, captive to PC witch-hunters, and pitching into bankruptcy, turns to a TV clown with no filter on his angry brain and he acts out all the discontents of our time. Does anybody doubt that the perfidies of the day beg to be opposed? But those shadowy figures in Bloomberg’s drawing room must be saying, “is this the best we can do?” And so an honorable man steps forward. Someone had to.
Couple of gigantic problems. First, what about Bloomberg being Wall Street’s pet politician? To many, I suppose, Bloomberg is exactly that. I’m not so sure. While he made his multi-billion dollar fortune building a computerized information service for Wall Street, with a news service and some other apps pinned on, he was not a bankster. He consorted with them all the livelong day, day in and day out, for decades. Maybe that was bad enough. Maybe it also puts him at a very special advantage, since other public figures can only pretend to understand the esoteric rackets lately engineered in lower Manhattan.
For instance, Bloomberg must know what a CDO is, and how outfits like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs used them to swindle the taxpayers. I’m not convinced that Donald Trump could explain that to an audience if given an hour of airtime. He rarely speaks in two consecutive coherent sentences, for all his entertainment value. The next president will be on duty during the gravest and most powerful financial unwind in history, and it might be a good thing if he understood how it worked. He will probably be blamed for it in any case, but at least he will be a true mariner in a storm, not just a bigmouth passenger on the ship. Anyway, the salient question is whether the voters could ever accept him as something besides a tool of the banks?
The public that Bloomberg would have to appeal to has become a weird amalgam of cultural mutants, zombies, and special pleaders — Duck Dynasty and Straight Out of Compton meet The House of Wax. Worse, they are inflamed, not exactly disposed to weigh political fine points. They’re just out for blood against a system that has been bleeding them badly. Did I leave out some big wad of voters between the extremes who retain a few shreds of critical thought? I’m not sure they exist anymore. We’re about to find out in the months ahead. The group in Bloomberg’s drawing room may be deluding itself that there is any thread of clear thinking on the street outside. It would be very sad, if so.
I think it is fair to say that Michael Bloomberg’s success as the three-term mayor of New York City (2002 – 2013) was due almost completely to the financialization of the economy. A Niagara of money flowed into the city as banking ballooned from 5 percent to 40 percent of the US economy. As all the formerly skeezy neighborhoods of New York — the Bowery, the Meatpacking District, etc —got buffed up, the desolation in places like Utica, Dayton, Gary, and Memphis got worse. You might say New York City benefited hugely from all the assets stripped out of the flyover states. All of which is to say that that recent revival of New York City was not necessarily due to Michael Bloomberg’s genius. He presided over a very special moment in history when money was flowing in a particular way, and he went with flow.
For all that, it seems likely that he was also an able administrator as this occurred. A lot of out-front elements of city life improved visibly while he was around. Crime went down, the subways ran better, public spaces were improved. What would he be able to do in the compressive deflationary depression that I call the long emergency? Could he restore faith in authority? Could he comfort a battered public on the airwaves? Could he begin the awful task of politically deconstructing the matrix of rackets that has made it impossible for this country to move where history is taking us (smaller, finer, more local)?
Finally, on top of his Wall Street connection, Bloomberg is Jewish. (As I am.) Is the country now crazed enough to see the emergence of a Jewish Wall Streeter as the incarnation of all their hobgoblin-infested nightmares? Very possibly so, since the old left wing Progressives have adopted the Palestinians as their new pet oppressed minority du jour and have been inveighing against Israel incessantly. Well, that would be a darn shame. But that’s what you might get in a shameless land where anything goes and nothing matters.
For now, anyway, the real disrupter is turning out to be Michael Bloomberg. Finally a serious man enters the stage.
Kunstler, you’re nuts. Bloomberg is serious? Guy wants to take away people’s guns and big gulps. Bush has spent 75 million dollars and he’s only beating ME by three points. Bloomberg can spend a billion, and I’ll still beat him by six
Bloomberg is not “an honorable man.” More like a psycho slimeball who wants a totalitarian dictatorship for his own benefit. He makes Trump look good.
I hail from the midwest. Although I’ve visited NYC, I don’t live there, never have, and never will. I strongly dislike it in general, and hate its corrupt hold on the nation.
If the presidential race comes down to this:
-evil scumbag politician from NY/Arkansas/NYC;
-deranged socialist crazy-bum from Vermont;
-dangerous blowhard proto-fascist casino magnate; and
-evil, scheming and hateful billionaire New Yorker who lives and breathes totalitarianism
then my response is this:
***FUCK ALL Y’ALL***
Go to hell. None of you will be respected as a president or anything else in my locale, state, region, or what’s left of the once great Republic.
“Bush has spent 75 million dollars and he’s only beating ME by three points.”
Geez, only 3% behind starlicker…. that’s awful.
Whatever happened to DEEZ NUTS, anyway?
Kunstler proves again he cannot write without poking fun of large swaths of America. That and his liberal ideology clouding his judgement. Stick with telling me how ugly suburbia is, that’s something we can mostly agree on.
Trump has traction for two reasons – he’s saying what Americans think but the PC police tell us not to admit, i.e. close the borders AND (a big one) he’s not a political insider. You don’t have to agree with everything Trump says to agree that those two things are worth supporting. I love the fact that he’s got all the republican establishment worried. They deserve to have their party upended, as to the Dem’s.
Bloomberg must grow a beard. He will become Snow. Let the Hunger Games begin.
Our Saviour, Bloomberg, aka Snow, thank you Kuntsler, you sorry, good-for-nothing-but-whining asshole.
Buy more ammo and stockpile sugar, the High Liberal Nanny is getting beck on the ballot.
Fuck you again, Kuntsler. Prick.
Greetings,
Kunstler is right in that Bloomberg will be the spoiler if he joins in for the reality show that is the race to the White House. I see him siphoning votes away from Bernie or Hillary but not from Trump. Bloomberg is a Red Guard Maoists wet dream as Bloomberg did an amazing job of sterilizing New York City and making it into a place where the average person can not live.
Anyone that can command the size of a fountain drink will be seen as an ally to the far left.
Everyone tied to the status quo establishment machine is absolutely terrified of Trump.
Which is a good enough reason to vote for him even if there weren’t any others.
LOl…every time I glaze over some vitriolic missive of JHK’s disparaging the intelligence-of those he considers lesser beings, I’m always reminded of the fact that this little rat faced terrier of a man voted for Obama twice..and we’re supposed to take him serious..ha..
Kunstler has his head up his ass a usual.
Agonies of Sensible People:
You mean like allowing incompetent H1-B visa holders take our jobs, at the very least depress the wages?
You mean like if you are over 66 and collect SS, that you have to pay tax on the very money that was taxed?
You mean like paying for the education of illegal alien’s children – people who pay no tax at all.
You mean like paying for medicaid / SNAP / section 8 / you name it for entire Somali families?
You mean like not closing the boarder and allowing more and more illegal immigration every year?
You mean like everything we hear from the government is either an outright lie, or a huge distortion of the truth?
That’s why Trump will win.
THAT’S what America needs, another crony capitalist running things. Thumbs down on Bloomberg.
And a shout out to all you Trump supporters….you DO realize Trump thinks Snowden is a traitor and deserves to hang, don’t you?
@ Westcoaster —————————- And a shout out to all you Trump supporters….you DO realize Trump thinks Snowden is a traitor and deserves to hang, don’t you?
You don’t say….No kidding, really?
Westie, too many people are unable to realize that some bad guy’s enemy is not necessarily good. They see the establishment’s fear of Trump and think that means he’s good. Obviously, you also see the bad side, as do I.
So far there are no candidates getting significant poll numbers who I can support or even tolerate. To me this looks to be a repeat of 1860. Possibly worse.
Kunt proves again it’s a waste of time to read his nonsensical blathering!!
Republicans shit all over their voters, the voters get pissed and react by choosing Donald Trump. And the OP isn’t happy that the voters don’t just say “Thank You for shitting on us.”
Coastie….as I’ve said before, you are still beating that Snowden line; while true, you are using it to get voters away from Trumpy and hope to switch to Bernie – your favorite Communist.
There is always something negative about a candidate, but everything to dislike about a Communist.
Can’t you get your head out of your ass?
Of course Rumpf “says” what quite a few think. Its what demagogues do play on peoples emotions. Plus he seems to be taking advice from Rove.
Cruz is just as bad, if not more egotistical and arrogant. Cruz wants wealth and power and so he also is not only a demagogue but maniacal.
Jeb represents the establishment cons. Also he is a buffoon that will emulate his buffoon brothers plan which he as a PNAC member.
Fiorina is well…nuts.
Hilarity is a joke.
Sanders demagoguery leans populist pipe dreams
Bloomberg….governors dont make good presidents. See Jeb and Bush above.
Congress sold its offices out decades ago to special interests all they have left is saying stupid stuff on teebee and having their aides staple pork to thousand page bills while giving the oval office kingley powers.
They all suck.
I used to enjoy reading his posts. But give me a break gun grabber wall street whore bloomberg. yeah right.
Bloomberg strikes me as nothing more than a bought off Wall Streeter. I never once heard him bite the hand that feeds him while mayor. He was in the right place at the right time: money flowed (and continues to ) flow freely in Manhattan while the rest of the country , notably middle America withers on the vine. We apparently are at the point where the candidate pool is so low and pathetic that a former lib mayor (think back to the BIG issue of soft drink sizes) from NY is seen as a savior. Out.
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JHKES!
Trump is not tapping into anger. He’s tapping into the sensibility of the great majority. The people look up and see an endless parade of frivolous parasites who defend nothing but their own prerogatives at the expense of everyone else. What’s the point of voting for one party or the other when both sides are colluding against your interests? Why do we have these parties?
You don’t throw way something because it makes you angry. You discard that which you see has no value. That’s where the managerial class finds itself today. The people over whom they rule increasingly see no reason for that class to exist. Supporting a guy like Trump is not an act of anger. It is an act of disrespect. The Trump vote is the peasant who refuses to bow to his king. It’s the slave refusing an order from the master. The act is symbolic, not practical.
could have been written for JHK…
“Once you stop deluding yourself, you see Democracy as an algorithm. If you don’t like how it works, code up your own objects instead of just accepting apps from the Cathedral. Screw off your Obama and Jeb apps. Plug in a Trump or a Cruz instead. Watch how fast the typical Leftist who praises the gawdalmiddy will of the pee-pole suddenly rants and raves about the ignorant redneck mob”
http://www.amerika.org/politics/the-perils-of-democracy-fetishism/
I don’t think we quite understand yet what is happening. Does anyone seriously believe that we are going to vote our way out of this mess? Tyranny is just around the corner and it will run its’ course until we come to our senses!
One Joofuk (Kuntsler) shilling for another Joofuk (Doomberg). Well, #suck_my_uncut_dick, now that’s a surprise!
Glad i read the long emergency years ago, it helped open my eyes but for the most part JKES.
Flash says:
“The act is symbolic, not practical.”
Very true.
Unfortunately, it also bears consequences. Both the evident and unforeseen. Rocks and hard places suck, eh?
Ouirphuqd said: “I don’t think we quite understand yet what is happening. Does anyone seriously believe that we are going to vote our way out of this mess? Tyranny is just around the corner and it will run its’ course until we come to our senses!”
Well, if I don’t vote, and Bernie or Hillary gets in the speed of the crash and its ugliness will increase. If I do vote, and Trump makes it, who knows? We might have a shot at restoring some semblance of sane – less PC – civilization so my grandkids can grow up without war.
TINVOWOOT
look it up and understand it
All of the establishment-tolerated choices are terrible. Trump is too. Bloomberg is even worse, by a country mile. There are no good options in the 2016 presidential race. Study up on your 1860 history.
JHK …what the hell? Is he saying Trump is the choice of
neanderthals and Bloomberg is the choice of the reasoned
intellectuals? Well, you know what JHK…stick to talking
about urban sprawl/suburbia, (thanks Aquapura) and Do Not
try to sell us on that loathsome Bloomberg. His name pops
up here and there when it’s reported he is spending a billion
“of his own money” pushing for gun control. I can’t stand that
little freak and his power trip. Furthermore, are we not sick to puke
of PNAC, and the Jewish lobby, and the freakin’ dual citizenship
special privilege afforded to Jews alone? Nothing against Jews, but
go to Israel if you want to be a politician!!
In 1967 an American Jew, Beys Afroyim received an exemption that set a precedent exclusively for American Jews. Afroyim, born in Poland in 1895, emigrated to America in 1912, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1926. In 1950, aged 55, he emigrated to Israel and became an Israeli citizen. In 1951 Afroyim voted in an Israeli Knesset election and in five political elections that followed. So, by all standards he lost his American citizenship — right? Wrong.
See the list of politicians and know the crimes they have committed:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/we-are-all-vittorio-arrigoni/list-of-politicians-with-israeli-dual-citizenship-/175479365845092/
Dear Persnickety,
You are correct…voting by itself is not the answer. And Trump
is not a politician. That and his rhetoric appeals to people.
The politicians we have now are supremely corrupt and massively
ignorant. They, in fact, are sickening. Someone said they are
crapping on us…and we are supposed to thank them. I agree that they
are. Also, they are empty suits and void of any integrity. Me, me, me
and mine, mine, mine. Greedy and stupid = of no value. So, if we don’t
vote we get Hillary…an abomination. Someone will get into that office!!
We have to do the best we can with what we have.
1860…we are in a civil war right now. The gov against us.
So you think if Trump gets the prize we will have a street fighting war?
We already do actually. Can it be much worse? Absolutely. And it seems
inevitable sometimes. The economy will get far worse B4 it gets better.
If it even gets better…or evens out some. God help us all. Prep.
Mom went to school with him back in Medford, from all accounts he was an arrogant little prick even in jr high.
Every once in a while Kunstler says something offbeat, sensible, and witty and I begin to think maybe I’ve misjudged him. Then he writes a piece of appalling drivel like this and the spell is broken. So our density-loving Scourge of Suburbia wants to be ruled by a plutocrat who knows better than you or I how we should live and by gum, he’ll make sure we do.
Kunstler, you aren’t a complete ass. Just 95 percent or so.
Squared circle, that’s very funny. Thumbs up
Enthralled by his own cleverness, he used the term ‘drawing room’ twice in the same essay.
Lazy writing, JHK.
As a side note, if Bloomberg had a dram of sensibility he would have written volumes on the Wall Street perfidy in his magazine and broadcast it 24/7 on his channel and yet he spoke naught.
Tells me everything I need to know.
Look, it should be Trump vs Bloomburg. It would at least be an honest election. Big money vs big money. Kinda ironic. The politicians give 700 billion, bail out dodge and Chevy selling themselves and us to the highest bidder? No the worst businessmen. If you put this stuff to a book no one would believe this possible.
“As a side note, if Bloomberg had a dram of sensibility he would have written volumes on the Wall Street perfidy in his magazine and broadcast it 24/7 on his channel and yet he spoke naught.
Tells me everything I need to know.”
Exactly! I agree with others who say that there is no good candidate that has a real shot at winning. How can this ass Bloomberg be any better?! The fucker just stood by knowing what was happening in the financial sector and did NOTHING. Yet, somehow, according to this demotard Kunt he may be an actual reasonable option. Fuck….