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Barbarism Versus Stupidism
Submitted by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,
In my lifetime, the USA has not blundered into a more incoherent, feckless, and unfavorable foreign policy quandary than we see today.
The US-led campaign to tilt Ukraine to Euroland and NATO — and away from the Russian-led Eurasian Customs Union — turned an “intelligence” fiasco into a strategic humiliation for the Obama White House. Notice that the story has vamoosed utterly from the American media headlines, even when the Russian Engineers’ Union issued a report last week asserting that the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was most likely shot down by 30mm cannon fire from Ukrainian military aircraft. The USA State Department didn’t deign to refute it because doing so would have drawn attention to the fact that it was the only plausible explanation for what happened.
Likewise, the campaign to paint Vladimir Putin as Stalin-in-a-judo-robe never really reached take-off velocity, since by all appearances he was the most rational and cool-headed actor on the geopolitical stage, following logical and long-established national interests. If the West had just left Ukraine alone, and allowed it to join the Eurasian Customs Union, that basket-case nation would have been Russia’s economic ward. Now the US and the EU have to support it with billions in loans that will never be paid back. Meanwhile, our European allies have been snookered into a set of economic and financial sanctions against Russia that guarantees they’ll be starved for oil and gas supplies in the winter months ahead. Smooth move.
So, the reason that all this has vanished from the news media is that it’s game-over in Ukraine. We busted it up, and can do more with it, and pretty soon the rump Ukraine region run out of Kiev will go crawling back to Russia begging for a little heating fuel.
Does any tattoo-free American adult outside the Kardashian-NFL mass hypnosis matrix feel confident about the trajectory of US policy regarding the so-called Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL)? First, there is the astonishing humiliation that this ragtag band of psychopaths managed to undo ten years, 4,500 US battle deaths, and $1+ trillion worth of nation-building effort in Iraq in a matter of a few weeks this summer. The US public does not seem to have groked the damage to our honor, self-confidence, and international standing in this debacle.
So, now we’re going to just deal “death from above” on the Black Flaggers across that stretch of their captured territory that runs from Iraq into Syria — violating Syria’s sovereignty in the process, of course. My guess is that such an operation will inspire them to bring the action straight to Europe, the USA, and the grand prize, Saudi Arabia. The movement is too broad now, includes too many psychopaths from all over the world (Europe especially) who hold passports that will enable them to travel easily out of the Middle East and export mayhem wherever they want to bring it.
The USA is stuck within so many pathways of systems criticality in this fall of 2014, that is sure to be expressed in our own internal politics very soon. We’re all set up for a classic state of siege with the Pentagon militarizing every Podunk police department in the land, and one can easily imagine a single IS operation aimed at some soft American target shoving us into hysteria.
While all this is happening, of course, Wall Street and its hand-maidens rev up the engines of malinvestment and bid up false values of things that will do nothing to get us safely into the economy of real things that awaits us. That economy of real things I speak of does not include many of the comforts and conveniences we’re used to — mass motoring, national chain retail, air-conditioning for all, 24/7 electric service — but it’s where we’re going. As reality drags us kicking and screaming toward it, the likelihood of a domestic political convulsion increases. We’ll look back on these weirdly placid years after the 2008 train wreck with amazement. These are the rudderless years of no leadership, of cowardly dissimulating midgets. A people can only take so much of that.
Finance is the weakest link in the chain of systems that allows us to run the old economy. It’s the system most abstracted from reality and the most easily manipulated into ever-greater abstraction. Hence it’s the system most easily subject to fatal slippage. And all it takes to set off the slipping is a simple loss of faith.
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death spiral
Freefall. Which ends with a really hard landing.
Forward (over the cliff)!
To this:
"Does any tattoo-free American adult outside the Kardashian-NFL mass hypnosis matrix feel confident about the trajectory of US policy regarding the so-called Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL)? First, there is the astonishing humiliation that this ragtag band of psychopaths managed to undo ten years, 4,500 US battle deaths, and $1+ trillion worth of nation-building effort in Iraq in a matter of a few weeks this summer. The US public does not seem to have groked the damage to our honor, self-confidence, and international standing in this debacle."
I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find us non-tattooed people. An even harder time finding one that wasn't the sex/death cult member. If you do though, you find out that they knew the US was fucked at least a decade ago. I knew 14 years ago FFS.
Barbourism vs Stupidity?
Given the current geo-economic-political-sectarian climate around the world, the difference between the two is a particle too small to measure...
Kunstler is stupid-squared, so I don't see why he feels qualified to open his statist, twice-Obummer voting mouth.
Worse yet, I don't know why the Tylers' aid and abet this ignorance.
He's a collectivist, redistributionist Commie Pinko, no?
He has been more right than wrong, lately... There is a difference between making some stupid things at some point in your life, and making stupid things ALL YOUR LIFE. Let's give some credit where it's due... Beside, the guy has some pretty smart opinions regarding the American architecture of late, AND is growing his own vegetables.
Last I read, he still believes the political process is beneficial to society, rather than the root cause of all of the problems we're seeing.
There are plenty of people who can properly observe problems, thing is, the vast majority of them fall into this same trap as Kunstler by believing they can be solved by the same system that created them. These people are blind to the fact that it is their own desire that is used against them in order to destroy.
Either you understand divide and conquer, or you unwittingly support it in ignorance.
"the political process is beneficial to society, rather than the root cause of all of the problems we're seeing."
All political processes are equally the result of one and the same human nature. It is not a root cause. Things like inability to delay gratification, excessive future-discounting, inordinate present-orientation, self-obsession, and ignorance of history are better candidates.
Like many people, he can't transcend his roots: he's a boomer/hippy new york jew and thus has all the biases that one would expect of one. This taints his analysis, but doesn't totally discredit it. You just need to be aware of that while reading him, I suppose.
Listen Applicable. Are you "TRYING" to control "THE" message here?
Sorry, but I don't understand your question.
Does it matter where the tattoo is?
Not really. It's basically a state of mind (and a reasonable predictor of your IQ)
I have a tattoo of a snake on my taint. IQ guess?
fully tattooed. full back, full chest, sleeve, leg... guess my IQ
There is little relation between IQ and appearance. Some of the best looking people (in fact, approximately half) have two digit IQs. Having said that, the average net worth of someone with your appearance is less than zero... present company excepted of course.
Me too and I'm a Treasurer - Boom! :)
Interesting... What does it mean ? About that IQ, a little less than before.
@Nid: +100. As for me, my "aha moment" came when the US government burned 20 plus children alive @ Waco. Knew we had crossed the Rubicon and Hell awaited our arrival.
The feds are playing catch-up on this stuff. The locals in Philly knew how to get this shit done in 1985 when they bombed and burned a group called MOVE out of their home at 6221 Osage Avenue in Philadelphia.
11 people, including 5 children, perished in the conflagration.
I know there's plenty of people old enough to remember this incident. It was all over the news at the time.
I remember watching both on the "news."
My "Aha!" moment came from watching passionate debate on CSPAN to create a nuclear stewardship program after the fall of the USSR, in order to protect the world from rouge nukes. Because if anything is legitimately worth doing in DC, it was that.
Yet after it passed, they never funded it, nor mentioned it again. So at that point on, I knew there was a much higher level of global control than I had yet to consider. If they weren't worried, then nation-state politics was not real.
With Waco I had two simultaneous aha moments: 1) that the .gov was malevolent enough to do such a thing, and 2) that my friends at work couldn't see the problem with what the US governament had done there...
>>>...the US was fucked at least a decade ago. I knew 14 years ago FFS.
William Jefferson Clinton - the last Good President.
The American Marcus Aurelius.
James, that's why we have to kill ALL of those motherfuckers BEFORE THEY KILL ALL OF US.
In this Judeo Christian/Muslim holy war we have here, just exactly WHO is your money on???
Bhudists, Zoroastrians and Deists.
Say what you will of Kunstler's politics....the man nailed our energy situation and the future repercussions of that long ago with his book "The Long Emergency".
And yes....I don't think nor believe that any solution he might offer based on his politics would be effective if not harmful. But the man constantly and accurately nails our society and culture to the bone.
I also believe, after following his work for years, that what little naivete he had left for modern day progressives has been blown away by the Unholy Trinity of Pelosi, Reid and Obama. JHK will always be a progressive. Don't get me wrong. I know that and he knows that. But I believe he now thinks that progressives are just as captured by the banksters as the Republicans are and have been. I believe some of his vitriol ( much needed and accurately applied ) is reflective of his lack of hope any more in any "White Knight" on the progressive side coming in and not only sweeping away Conservatives/Republicans.....but reforming the banker enslaved Progressives he sees corrupting the landscape.
And in a way, I think, Kunstler is a type of "Conservative" in a New England liberal sort of way. His constant themes of community, small town ethics, especially work ethics. The kinds of things that build strong, resilient, local communities.....not the flash and trash of modern day, hyper 24/7 infotainment video buzz thrill kill overload.
My politics and his on some things are as diametrically opposed as eternal north and south. On other things we very much share a libertarian streak. And on the issue of "real" things, such as family, craft, ethics, community, small towns, all things local, self sufficiency......as well as his biting and accurate commentary on the modern life which is really an illusion brought to us by a now dwindling supply of cheap oil.....well....I find common ground. Enough to put aside the political differences and buy him a beer if I were ever to find him at a bar that I was attending.
He is the old school Yankee.
Idiocracy is a documentary.
Dishonesty is presidential.
Employee exodus from Dept of Homeland Security a growing concern...
Dysfunctional work environment...
Abysmal morale...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-level-turnover-makes-it-harde...
Finally some good news!
U.S. Suspects More Direct Threats Beyond ISIS...
Suspicions Run Deep CIA and Islamic State Are United...
Panetta muddles...
Oil smuggling network...
Obama wants UN ban on fighters who travel abroad...
ISIS calls Kerry 'old uncircumcised geezer'...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/world/middleeast/suspicions-run-deep-i...
Interesting article. Saw that too.
Oh, and "Australia" that's who.
Probably New Zealand as well.
Don't underestimate Canadians/Canadiens either.
Europe just doesn't do this stuff anymore. "Too into media."
"Private-sector salaries for high-level career officials, especially cybersecurity experts, can be double or triple the roughly $180,000 they can make at DHS."
WTF?
No Limits Capitalism
The Ends Justify the Means, if you are loyal and help us tear the hearts out of other people, ... and if you keep your mouth shut. Whistleblowers will be Squashed.
It Fascism, Inverted Totalitarianism, Rule by Corporations & their Wealthy Patriarchs. Includes control over Military, NSA, CIA, Intelligence, Operations, Finance, Legislation, and they can limit the US Constitution as they have shown.
Quote: "As evidence of the toll this is taking, Kasprisin cited the results of agency tests in which undercover operatives try to sneak weapons or explosives through airport security. He said security employees are increasingly missing the contraband, with the frequency of failures reaching a “frightening” level..."
DHS
Fascist think they can solve everything with more money. Sometimes this is a new Federal Program that they don't monitor, follow through with audits, or even staff properly... Money isn't everything, get over it.
Stop taking away peoples country, civil rights, constitution, and starting wars every where with way too much secret spy stuff.
And look at the xponential spending in Federal Continuing Resolutions (This should be A Criminal Act, Congress abdicated it's duties)
When I read that quote my first thought was this: How can thay find contraband when they're spending all their time looking in Grandma's diapers and then switching to her grandson's diapers? All they'll find looking in diapers is...shit.
Hope changes back to reality.
Think this about sums up the fiscal future of the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRTdeYHoQgg
Well said. Obama and his "ideals" have done the US absolutely no good and much damage. We get for what we vote.
We get for what we vote.
We as in Diebold voting machines?
Its not just "foreign policy." What people in the US shold be more concerned about is nucelar waste and radiation that is now beginning to poison the continent. Proponents of "safe clean nuclear power" fail to mention one small little detail - that THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AND WILL NEVER BE A PLAN TO DEAL WITH ALL THE NUCLEAR WASTE." Now, the storage tanks from 40 years ago are beginning to disintegrate and radioactive plutonium is escaping into the air and water. How could this be? Simple - the nucleiar industry has long realized that its not possible to properly dispose of waste and remain profitable. But they don't care and never have. The elite have saddled the USA with debt and nuclear waste and are busing fleeing the country. I imagine they'll just set fire to the place before they leave.
http://enenews.com/tv-new-concerns-could-be-another-radiation-leak-nucle...
Not to worry
Ebola, ISIS, asteroids, solar flares, gamma bursts, suicide or bankers committing suicide hitting you will probably kill you way before nuculer shit will.
This article is alot of words, but saying nothing. Summary: The world is a clusterfuck.
The fantasy of the Democratic party was that they could make a Community Organizer look like the Commander and Chief of the US.
Not fantasy, but reality...eight years of it.
Too bad most Americans are too doped up to notice.
Hillary is a fan of Saul (Alinsky, not the lawyer on Breaking Bad) as well...
http://freebeacon.com/politics/the-hillary-letters/
And she's probably yer next El Presidente
the cycle would say other wise.. L then R then L then R.
odds are on for a R next. SSDD
The letters also suggest that Alinsky, who died in 1972, had a deeper influence on Clinton’s early political views than previously known.
Hillery Became a Fascist & a Warmonger.
It is sad that Fascism has such a corrupting effect. Everyone wants to be a player, money, and power.
Saul Alinsky is turning over in his grave right now. Maybe he learned some Hexes to put on Hillery Clinton and the Clinton Dynasty (no Pun intended on die-nasty)
"The fantasy of the Democratic party was that they could make a Community Organizer look like the Commander and Chief of the US."
The fantasy of the Democratic party was that they could make a CIA infiltrator in the capacity of Community Organizer and disguised as a Democrat look like the Commander and Chief of the US instead of the CIA and Rothschild and Israeli puppet that he is.
An American, not US subject.
"Promises, lie and bullshit. all smell the same.
lmao.. you dont actually believe repubs are any different, do you? blame is childs play.
how many tat's ya have, bro?
When SHTF someday in Amerika, there will be very few sheeple who won't be totally delusional about what is happening. Amerikans, in general, have been dumbed-down to the point where the majority don't believe anything really bad can happen. iphones, internet, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians", Directv, EBT cards, they all will always be there no matter what. Even if ISIS tamks were rolling down Sepulveda in LA, there would be people saying. "Oh, it's not so bad, can I still watch Monday Night Football and listen to itunes"? I hope I'm nowhere near here when [not if] this happens.
www.traderzoo.mobi
They are coming.
Dat contains the word 'redskins'. Dat's rayciss! BAN IT!
And screw the whole concept of 'noble savages'. Ask some of those other tribes what they thought of the Navajos.
Kunstler sure knows how to turn a phrase, but until he seeks a pardon for voting for obama [twice!], I will regard his prophecies dubiously. Usually worth reading, though I wonder how many more ways he can find to voice the same complaints...
I thought about voting for Obama in 2008. I have voted for Democrats in the past, too. "Not always a flag waving wacko." Can't really explain it this time around. I FEEL like I know why though...
I regret not Voting for Ross Perot.
Vote for the Outsiders. Kick out the incumbents.
I voted Green Party in 2012. She, Stein, is a doctor, didn't really research if she could be CIA. But she seems nice.
- John Kerry
- Hillery Clinton
- Christy
- Perry
- Jeb Bush
Probably all CIA...
I also regret not voting for Perot. I intended to vote for him until he did that "I'm pulling out of the election because the republicans were mean to my daughter and tried to sabotage her wedding", which was a bizarre story, and then he came back. In my defense, it was my first election and my first year of college.
So Meister, we must assume you voted for McCain and Paulin, then for the other idiots ran in 2008??
I can just imagine where we would be with McCain as POTUS!
.
This post even has a theme song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jnX2y30DE
so tattoos r bad? cuz they cause stupid?
I knew it!!!!
No, tats don't cause stupid. They are just a warning that stupid is likely to be present. Usually correlated to size and number of them.
Kabuki Theatre.
Why cant ALL Politicians just DIE?
Because idiots like Kunstler keep voting for their "leadership."
They do, just not fast enough for us to be happy.
Sort of like the attitude some here have toward boomers.
Fo' shizzle my IZIL...
You can imagine the Banksters sharing a helicopter on route to the Oval Office , ALL singing ' just the way you are '.
I agree - eradicate ALL islamic cult worshipers, not just ISIL.
We elected a weak President...the world knows it...the bad actors know it...and they are going to take advantage of it....someone has to stand up to the bully...but it will not be Obama....in the meantime the bully can do what he wants...where he wants...and how he wants..
Tell me again, who is the bully?
Gee. Sounds like a mess. Why don't we just ask Hillary Clinton what to do? Didn' she go to Yale?
Yale. Must be a female version of Skull & Bones there.
Eastern Star. Rainbow Girls. Steely Dan & Candles.
/s
I've had just about enough of the ridicule directed at Kim LargeAssian - LEAVE....KIM.....ALONE!!!!
So what if she has an I.Q. of a bag of rubbers!
So what if there's a paint shortage juss because there's so much of it on her face!
So what if her butt's so big that there's a family of plattipusses living in there!
LEAVE....KIM.....ALONE!!!!
Didnt read article yet..but what does a tattoo have todo with ..well with anything?
YEAH!!! Leave Brittany alone!
Kunstler can't write an article without denigrating people who either: sport tattoos, shop at walmart, or watch NASCARR. They're like his pet peeves.
What the fuck is the matter watching the NFL? Gotta have some distraction (bread and circuses)!! I know damn well how fucked up this world is, especially the current political state of affairs here in the USA. Its been getting worse and worse for decades.
Um, are those the only choices?
No, he's wrong, we didn't blunder into it, we walked a long and deliberate way to get there. If he wants a more feckfull policy he'll have to tell us first what it is. Who do we bomb? Who don't we bomb? Isn't Tea Leoni cute? Just like on TV and at ZH, they're all CIA anyway, right? Anyway you want to see feckless, just wait until the Hildabeast is in the (white) (!) house, we won't just be feckless we will have negative feck, that loud sucking sound will be the feck pump coming up dry.
"Does any tattoo-free American adult outside the Kardashian-NFL mass hypnosis matrix..."
I always thought 'Nuke the unborn gay whales' was about as encapsulating and comprehensive as it got, but that old bumper sticker may have just been 1-upped...
"If the West had just left Ukraine alone, and allowed it to join the Eurasian Customs Union, that basket-case nation would have been Russia’s economic ward.
He is joking right? Eurasia is the price, mister.
Annual amount of U.S. spending on Tramp Stamps: $1.65 Billion// Total percent of Americans (all ages) who have at least one tattoo 14 %// Percentage of U.S. adults 18 – 25 who have at least one tattoo 36 %// Percentage of U.S. adults 26 – 40 who have at least one tattoo 40 %// Total number of Americans that have at least one tattoo 45 million// Number of tattoo parlors in the U.S. 21,000// Percentage of people with tattoos who claim they are addicted to ink 32 %// Percentage of people who have some regret after getting their tattoo 17 % Percentage of people with a tattoo who are getting or have had one removed 11 %.