Guest Post by Jim Kunstler
For years, it was easy to see the political storm clouds gather over Europe with its fractious coalitions and its ancient babble of conflicts. Marine Le Pen’s Daddy, severe old Jean-Marie, was on the scene in France decades before Donald Trump ascended to glory on the noxious clouds of America’s crapified culture, attended by heavenly hosts of Kardashian angels and the cherub Honey BooBoo.
For all the strains in recent American life, the two-party system had seemed as solid as the granite towers of the Brooklyn Bridge. Not even the estimable Teddy Roosevelt could blow up the system when he tried in 1912 — though his Progressive (“Bull Moose”) Party carried California, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, and he far out-polled the incumbent Republican President Taft, who garnered a measly 8 electoral votes (Democrat Woodrow Wilson won). Ross Perot made an impact in 1992 — he certainly had a good point about NAFTA and “the giant sucking sound” of jobs draining out of the USA. But his popinjay manner didn’t go over so well, and at the critical moment in the general election he lost his nerve and withdrew, only to foolishly re-enter weeks later. Then there was the Ralph Nader in 2000, whose egoistic crusade arguably put George W. Bush in the White House.
Since then, the country see-sawed between the long tenures of two Deep State errand boys from each major party, putting both parties in such a bad odor that Trump now rises on their mephitic fumes. Which raises the question, of course: what exactly is this Deep State? Answer: A leviathan of symbiotic rackets producing maximum incompetence affecting adversely the majority of citizens. It’s a blood-sucking beast of a hundred-thousand heads draining the USA of its dwindling vitality, lying about its intentions while it advertises the pietistic certainties of the Left and superstitious shibboleths of the Right, leaving a smoking hole in the middle where the practical problems of everyday life used to be worked out by practical means.
The Deep State is also the sum of unintended consequences and diminishing returns of a late-stage, bureaucratic, techno-industrial economy cannibalizing itself to stay alive. One obvious conclusion is that this economy has got to change before there is nothing left to eat, and no political figure on the scene, including Trump and Bernie Sanders, has a plausible vision of where this takes us. Both really just assume that the engine keeps chugging down the track of ever more material wealth that can be distributed differently. The truth is, there will be a lot less material wealth of the kind we’re used to, and a lot less capital representation in the things we call “money.” In fact, the scene at hand today is just a spectacle of the shrewdest and biggest rodents scarfing up the table-scraps of a 200-year-long banquet.
Hillary Clinton, of course, is the Deep State incarnate, which is the real reason so few citizens trust her. Every poor schnook getting shaken down for a $90,000 appendectomy bill looks at Hillary and knows exactly what she represents. Every 25-year-old jobless, couch-surfing millennial carrying fifty-grand in college debt sees the face of the Deep State in her self-satisfied demi-smile. Mainly, she has gulled the diversity pimps — because they are wards of the Deep State — and women, because it’s Mommy’s “turn” to direct the Deep State. Writer, financier, and Deep State rogue operative Jim Rickards keeps insisting that Uncle Joe Biden will end up as the Democratic nominee. (He said so in a Tweet just the other day). You have to wonder what this guy knows. Don’t suppose that Uncle Joe is the knight on a white horse you’ve been waiting for. After all, he’s vice-president of the Deep State.
Voters seem attracted to Trump because he’s so eager to give the finger to the Deep State. It deserves the finger, but it also needs to be carefully disassembled without blowing up what remains of this country. Trump already has a good start on blowing up the Republican Party. Never before have so many party officials dissociated themselves from the (so far) presumptive nominee. I expect to see more extreme measures against Trump to be yet attempted by the party mandarins in the two months before the convention. I doubt you will hear about them before they happen.
In the face of that, Trump’s behavior only gets more childish. His speech after the Indiana primary was a masterpiece of incoherence. Everything that reflected on the magnificence of his victory was “incredible.” Interestingly, that was exactly the right word. He’s tuned in to the national nervous breakdown underway. From time to time, when he’s not speaking emptily about how much he is loved, Trump voices some legitimate concern of the Deep State’s victims. There are few decent jobs outside the Deep State’s own rackets. We’re not obliged to take in a limitless stream of immigrants. Nation-building by military means has been a dismal failure. The national debt is a problem. The country’s infrastructure is decrepit. Trump says he can negotiate a fix to all this: the art of the deal. Blowing smoke up the Deep State’s ass is not a plan.
The tragedy is that no other serious, grown-up figures stepped forward in this dangerous moment of history. The party that Trump purports to represent lost itself in wilderness of grift, jingoism, and supernatural pettifoggery. The rival Democratic Party is high on the fumes of “diversity and inclusion,” kindergarten politics that only corrode what’s left of our tattered common culture. Hillary’s Deep State couldn’t have found a better diversionary subterfuge. Both parties are close to blowing up altogether. I’m not convinced that they’ll survive their own conventionas this summer. Then what?
We’re all fucked.
1) facebook employees have come out and said that conservative news has, a matter of routine, been depressed on facebook.
2) the aspen hill shooter, here in the DC area last Friday, was a federal cop.
2)
Really can’t find much to disagree with in this. My one hope, and one thing I do think trump has a chance at achieving, even accidentally, is the complete destruction of the Republican Party as a viable political entity. Maybe we will get really lucky and the Bernie people will stick to their guns with the Democratic Party. I doubt it, because anyone promising them lots of free stuff will probably win their support, no matter what.
It still blows my mind that people support Hillary. I understand why people like sanders, there are, unfortunately, people who want the government to be both their parents and Santa Claus. But the Clinton people really confound me. She could literally eat a love baby on television, and millions of people would still worship her and defend her. It truly is bizzare.
3) we shop at one of those big box grocery store. Two months in a row we have received phone calls to throw a food product out because it could be two Ted with listeria.
4) we at out last night. All the beef products (steak and burgers) had exactly zero flavor. The beef had NO BEEF FLA OR.
I hate typing on a shitty cell phone.
…tainted. not two Ted.
…ate. not at.
…suppressed. not depressed.
Kunstler doesnt seem to have much understanding of the deep state. He calls Biden the president of the deep state. The deep state has no president. It is beyond the presidencies, operating on an entirely different plane. So how can Biden be the vice president of the deep state?The deep state cares about Biden about as much as the rest of america.
This week Kunstler’s Words Of The Week:
Estimable
Popinjay
Mephitic
Pietistic (Is that like Pie-Tastic? A delicious pie?)
Shibboleths
Mandarins (Although, I think he used that one recently, but I forget what it means. Orange slices or Chinese chicken, I think)
Jingoistic
Pettifoggery
Also, I thought this phrase was interesting: “masterpiece of incoherence.”
Pot, meet kettle.
TRUMPTOPIA news item of the day >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Donald Trump ( the this time it will be DIFFERENT) candidate has chosen Steve Mnuchin a former Goldman Sachs PARTNER and SOROS EMPLOYEE to serve as his national finance chairman.
LOLLOLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Goldman Fukkin Sachs and Soros – This is rich Trumpeteers !! HaHaHaHaHa !!!!!
You guys are seriously maroons.
In 8th, maybe 9th grade I had a fantastic English teacher and he was always giving us these vocabulary lists that read like JHK. Not only did you have to learn them all, you had to use them in a short essay.The trick was to get all 10 in a single coherent sentence and turn that in and he’d give you and A for the week. I remember some pretty creative writing that year.
TRUMPTOPIA EXTRA >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Donald stated that there is really no need to worry about debt default BECAUSE we can just print money. He stated, “People who worry about debt default are crazy” in an interview with CNN.
WOW just WOW, the FED is going to love this guy.
Check out this story on ZH. We are soooooooooooooo fucked.
I love this guys writing style. It sucks because as petty as it might sound, I really don’t want to like anyone who admitted to voting for Obama twice.
Bea.
He’s right.
And that is the usual way insurmountable debt is handled in fiat monetary systems.
If commodity based monetary systems (i.e. gold backed systems) the usual way is to go to a fiat based system the way we did under Nixon in ’71 when we no longer had enough gold to back and pay our dollar debt amounts in gold.
http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/33
The trick is to do it in a manner that doesn’t collapse the entire economic system in the process, which may prove impossible.
Not only is Kunstler an admitted Obama voter (twice!), in a recent column he claimed that the only President that could save America was “patriot” Michael Bloomberg.
Yes, Michael “Your sodas are too big and your guns need to be confiscated” Bloomberg.
In the end, Kunstler is just frustrated that flyover America doesn’t agree with his political beliefs, no matter how many times he uses words like “shibboleth” or “pettifoggery” in his echo-chamber scribblings.
Anon-
This is the premier “Austrian school” Ron Paul (we don’t need a repeat of the Weimar Republic) collapse porn site of ALL times and YOU want to tell me that massive printing is OK if the Donald gives it the okie dokie.
Well, that just says that you approve of the job Oreo and his pals down at the Fed have done and don’t compare this to Nixon which also fubared and devalued our currency. I’m not giving you a pass and I sure as hell won’t accept a guy who said, “I love debt” as a savior. We are still paying for Tricky Dick takings us off the gold standard. Drink the Kool-Aid much Anon???
OBTW, I notice that you did not try to defend his Goldman Sachs/Soros owned POS national campaign finance manager that I listed in my above post. Jeebus H. Krist how ridiculous does it have to get before you question this cartoon election?
Bea,
“……………………. YOU want to tell me that massive printing is OK if the Donald gives it the okie dokie. ”
Where did I tell you anything is OK?
Specific wording would be helpful here.
I’m simply telling you that he is right that we will be able to cover debts by printing money and that that is the usual course of action by governments in a fiat monetary system when they can no longer pay their debts (with money of the same value as that which they borrowed whether it be gold or fiat currency. That’s what Nixon did.).
If you disagree with this show me the historical examples showing something different, where another solution was found, and I’m willing to revise my opinion in light of historical evidence to the contrary of it.
Anon- The only thing Trump is offering is a continuation of Fed policies and major ramping up of inflation which is very dangerous. Not to mention countries like China and SA who are holding large amounts of US debt in bonds are certainly not going to take a haircut because the Donald wants them to, on the contrary that kind of blather will end up in another world war.
You ask for history…….Weimar Germany, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe, Hungary, Poland etc., none of these countries could inflate away their debt nor can we. Restructuring debt on a commercial property is a far cry different than telling a country with nukes that they are going to get screwed out of their money to the tune of pennies on the dollar. Trust me, we don’t even want to go there.
hardscrabble farmer says:
In 8th, maybe 9th grade I had a fantastic English teacher and he was always giving us these vocabulary lists that read like JHK.
HF, I had to wait until hs. I had a couple of teachers like that. One was a nice lady, about the only memorable thing she did was wear a huge fancy turquoise necklace that she refused to say how much it cost. they were pretty expensive for a brief while.
Mrs Mulkern was a redhead with a favorite form fitting black dress with flower designs or birds, maybe it was a bird of paradise. She was a striking woman in that she had this shelf of a booty that would put JLo to shame.
Anyway, I do recall those word lists. I recall the lists, the words have disappeared. I’m convinced that I used to know a lot more things but after we got t-boned in a car accident, I can say what Prof Pangloss said to the Col. after the commander got exasperated with his lack of information. ‘Sir, I don’t know what I don’t know.’
Having read lots and lots of Kunstler, ever since he went bonkers over Y2k, I find him to be very repetitive, and while the vocabulary may seem exotic ter retards (see above), his usage is not precise. Go to his website and search for ‘jingoistic’, and you’ll see what I mean. He uses that word in every 3Rd article. Plus, he’s a jew.
Ed, did I not tell you this BW hillbilly is sharp? No surprise, really, BW hails from the land of Faulkner.
BW, precise is down to the last milli, perhaps you meant accurate? How freaking anal can you be about ‘le mot just?’
If he wanted to be precise, he would simply call Trump a reality tv star, instead, he goes for the flowery:
Donald Trump ascended to glory on the noxious clouds of America’s crapified culture, attended by heavenly hosts of Kardashian angels and the cherub Honey BooBoo.
Bea, if they really wanted him out, they would have waxed him already. Or they would have made him an offer he can’t refuse. Or they would force him to accept a caretaker running mate like Cheney or Biden. But no, instead they wring their hands publicly to convince the voters to vote for this Trojan Horse.
C’mon, Old Bill Clements said he refused to talk anymore to Ross Perot after Perot went to the press. Reagan took his case to the people. (Fuck you, I aint worshipping Uncle Ronnie) Here we see Paul Ryan squeezing a crying towel on national teevee. This is all a fucking show and the suckers are lapping it up, thinking they are sticking it to the man when, in truth, they will be sticking it to themselves.
“the aspen hill shooter, here in the DC area last Friday, was a federal cop.”
Comment from a youtube vid on the Aspen Hill shooting:
“+POETIC I think whenever something gets full blown attention on the lame stream news its mostly all set up for show . You know that he tried exposing corrupt cops in his division ? Funny how bad things happened to after that ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx4lo7jRZsE
“You guys are seriously maroons.”
Now, Bea. You know that the proper spelling is “morans”. Do I have to do all the heavy liftin ’round here?
“Plus, he’s a jew.”
Is he a eevull joo or a regyoulah joo?
“Ed, did I not tell you this BW hillbilly is sharp?”
Yeah, you did, kinda. Ol’ Bee Dub has probly red way moar books then Kunt Slar ever did.
Kuntsler’s piece reminds me of a famous Yogi Berra line:
“We have deep depth.”
Amazing how this Jew never mentions that the scams he talks about were created and run by JEWS. The banking scams the health care scams investment scams and the destruction by the west have all been created and enabled by his fkin people .
Ed- I say it’s maroons. Watch a shitload of Bugs Bunny cartoons and you will see I am right. Old Bugs always said, “What a maroon”.
You must be new here.
Marty- Please don’t hold your breath waiting for da joos to rat out each other, you will turn blue and die.
Oh mah gawd. How funny I got little Pepe Lopez tryin ter correct mah gawd dammed grammar, and his sodominical disciple Ed just piles on like some kind bathhouse brawl. I swear if we was in the flesh the smells and textures that would accompany yer final moments would cause lucifer his self ter pee his flamin undies. Learn uh lesson from the great slant eyed philosopher Confusionist:
‘If language is not correct then what is said is not what is meant and what ought to be done remains undone. If this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate. If justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence, there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”
Oh shit, now BW thinks this is a bath house brawl and breaks out the Confucious. I don’t think I can handle it bein as a I’m just a lowdown sodominical disciple and all that. BW, just be sure to dry off your cooter before you head home. No use gettin Billah suspicious.
The Aspen Hill shooter incident had more than a little bit of the Christopher Dorner incident in it.
Please elaborate Robert blake. Are you talking illuminati programming shit er just the fact yer got people shootin random shit er what.
Bee Dubs, that sounds more like Lao Tzu. At least you didn’t try to attribute it to Charlie Chan.