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Page added on July 7, 2017
Kunstler: Suicide by Stupidity
But if Mr. Trump agrees to work with Mr. Putin despite a list of Russian transgressions beginning with the annexation of Crimea and ending with its interference in the 2016 presidential election, he will also look weak while Mr. Putin can claim that he reconstructed the relationship.
—The New York Times
America wakes up to astonishing bullshit from its so-called Newspaper of Record in this lead front-page propaganda dump du jour. Granted, American education has succeeded in destroying the critical faculties of at least three generations so that the public drowns in a soup of unreality every day. In the news business now, as in the national life generally, anything goes and nothing matters.
One has to wonder, though, about the editors who serve up this baloney. Are they mere servelings of the Rand Corporation, Raytheon, and other parties with an interest in the war business, or can they possibly believe their own extrusions of fabricated agit-prop?
For instance, the imputed Russian “annexation of Crimea,” as if the place was some kind of nostalgic, sore-beset Ruritania of independent princes, colorful peasants, and earnest postal clerks cruelly enslaved by bloodthirsty Cossacks. No, Crimea had been officially a province of Russia since exactly 1783 — which was, by the way, the same year that the American Revolution officially ended via the Treaty of Paris.
After the Russian Revolution (1917) the Crimean peninsula became an autonomous province of the Soviet Union, meaning it remained a part of what was then Russia. In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev turned the administrative duties over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was then also a province of the greater USSR, i.e. Russia. Through the entire modern era, Crimea has been the site of the USSR’s, and now Russia’s, only warm-water naval bases. Ask the average American college student why that is, and you will surely receive a blank stare.
Crimea is a peninsula on the Black Sea, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea. Hence Crimea’s strategic value. For a few short years in the 21st century, following the breakup of the USSR, the now-independent Ukraine had possession of Crimea and essentially rented the existing naval bases to Russia. That provided a much needed revenue stream for the struggling country, which was also utterly dependent on imported Russian natural gas supplies, which Ukraine had to pay for.
When the elected president of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, was overthrown in 2014, with the help of the US State Department and CIA, Russia was obliged to secure its naval bases in Crimea — where the overwhelming majority of citizens were culturally and linguistically Russian anyway. A referendum ratified the transfer of Crimea back to Russia. Apart from these procedural details, it must be obvious that Russia would never have ceded its strategic naval bases on the Black Sea to Ukraine, especially when that beleaguered country was being manipulated by the USA and NATO into becoming an adversarial presence on Russia’s border.
At the same time, the US and NATO have been running war games near Russia’s border in the Baltic region and American soldiers have been deployed into Lithuania. What war are they preparing for exactly? What is supposedly at issue (besides America’s apparent lust for war)?
That last question applies equally to the incessantly repeated trope that Russia interfered in the 2016 US election. What is supposedly at issue? The New York Times has been making this empty allegation for a year now, without every specifying exactly how Russia might have “interfered.” In the process, the newspaper has squandered its credibility on what looks exactly like a witch hunt — a campaign against dark and mysterious supernatural forces. It is doing great harm to an already badly-educated, misinformed, economically distressed, drug-addled American public. It also looks like plain old war-mongering.
Coverage of the Trump-Putin meeting during the G-20 conference this week is being played like a WWF championship bout. Which president is weak or strong? Which one will be a loser of a winner? This is no way to cover geopolitical relations. The United States and its news media look like they want this country to commit suicide by stupidity.
70 Comments on "Kunstler: Suicide by Stupidity"
Apneaman on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 5:47 pm
112 year old heat record in Phoenix tumbles as a high on Friday of 117 deg F (47.2 deg C) smashed the previous record of 115 deg F
http://www.thebigwobble.org/2017/07/112-year-old-heat-record-in-phoenix.html?m=1
Run little merican monkeys run
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 6:19 pm
Hmm. Weather disasters in the Ps in 2017 to date: Zero. Yep, some earthquakes but they are normal here. Good luck America.
BTW: How’s that wheat crop doing? Any new shakes at Yellowstone? lol
Apneaman on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 6:34 pm
Nearly 2,000 firefighters battling out-of-control wildfires in B.C.
Province in state of emergency as thousands are forced from their homes
“On Friday, 142 new fires broke out across B.C., bringing the total number of blazes to 182 as of 11:38 a.m. PT.
Around 7,000 people in the Interior and Cariboo regions have been forced from their homes.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-wildfires-1.4196204
Apneaman on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 6:53 pm
Mak, so hurricanes are normal for the P’s and now you’re saying earthquakes are normal for the P’s too? Whatever, it still don’t change the fact that each one costs between tens of millions to over a billion. What’s next, are you going to try and convince
yourselfeveryone the Philippineos can live off stale air and rocks? Sounds like a nation of Superheros impervious to disasters.“The Global Climate Risk Index 2015 listed the Philippines as the number one most affected country by climate change, using 2013’s data. This is thanks, in part, to its geography. The Philippines is located in the western Pacific Ocean, surrounded by naturally warm waters that will likely get even warmer as average sea-surface temperatures continue to rise.
To some extent, this is a normal pattern: the ocean surface warms as it absorbs sunlight. The ocean then releases some of its heat into the atmosphere, creating wind and rain clouds. However, as the ocean’s surface temperature increases over time from the effects of climate change, more and more heat is released into the atmosphere. This additional heat in the ocean and air can lead to stronger and more frequent storms—which is exactly what we’ve seen in the Philippines over the last decade. “
https://www.ecowatch.com/how-is-climate-change-affecting-the-philippines-1882156625.html
Everyone is going down – everyone.
Apneaman on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 6:55 pm
New Heat Wave Bakes Southwest U.S.
Dr. Jeff Masters · July 8, 2017
“After suffering through the most intense heat wave ever to affect the region so early in the year during mid-June, the Southwest U.S. is once again roasting in record heat. On Friday, Death Valley, California hit 127°–a tie with June 20, 2017 as the hottest temperature measured in North American this year, and just 2° shy of Death Valley’s hottest reliably measured temperature on record.”
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/new-heat-wave-bakes-southwest-us
onlooker on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 7:09 pm
Mak, in Phil, you are also going to have to deal with fresh water shortages, high wet bulb temps, and like most places agriculture failure due to crop heat intolerance
Not much margin for scarcity given the population size relative to resources
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 7:26 pm
Ap, the costs to repair here are much less than in the U$. It is a way of life here for thousands of years. Both quakes and storms. The government helps to rebuild but it takes time.
You seem to suck in all of the propaganda that is posted like others here. Did you notice that the negatives about the Ps started about the time that the New prez here called Obama a bastard? I did. Ditto for China being on the U$ shitlist for similar reasons. Try to find out who pays for/supports the organizations you reference. You might be surprised.
But it is OK if it keeps other U$ refugees from even realizing there is a Philippines. They can go to expensive New Zealand. lol
Davy on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 7:41 pm
FRUIT LOOPS
“Did you notice that the negatives about the Ps started about the time that the New prez here called Obama a bastard? I did. Ditto for China being on the U$ shitlist for similar reasons. Try to find out who pays for/supports the organizations you reference. You might be surprised.”
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 7:53 pm
Onlooker, do you read the same propaganda that Ap does? Fresh water is everywhere in the Ps. Do you know that the AVERAGE rainfall on the west side (Manila) of the islands is 6′ per year and on the east side (our farm) is about 12′ per year? There is no place in America with that much ‘fresh water’ evenly distributed. Our farm water will be collected from the roof of the farmhouse and be more than we need, gravity fed. No electric needed.
High wet-bulb temps? Hmm. Well, we have average highs of about 86F in Manila. Average humidity of about 60%. It is also normal here to avoid the hottest part of the day by staying in the shade and taking a siesta just like in any other hot area of the world. But the Ps is as long as the U$ East coast from Boston to Orlando and elevations from sea level to 9,700 feet. so there is a wide range of ‘climate’. I suspect you will be having temperature/water problems before I do.
And, did you take into account that the crop growing areas are all over the Ps, not restricted to the two coasts like America? Granted the Midwest grows corn and wheat, but they seem to be in danger too. All subject to the wide temperature/weather swings caused by the Jet Stream? We have no such problems here. The Pacific smooths out temperatures. Also, there is no chance of freezing here. Never gets close. I can handle 95F easier than minus 20F.
Not saying that the Ps will not have problems and deaths, it is just that they will be fewer and easier to cope with than in the U$. Survival skills are common here. No ‘snowflakes’ and few couch potatoes or government drones. I made the choice, and, so far, it seems to be the best one for me. Good Luck!
Kevin Cobley on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 9:05 pm
No doubt Mr Kunstler can’t recall the “Soviet Union” invaded Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland in 1939 when they were allies of Nazi Germany.
Apneaman on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 9:49 pm
Mak, my comment was crystal clear and strictly about AGW/Biosphere destruction so don’t try and lay that other bullshit on me.
Duncan Idaho on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 10:05 pm
“No doubt Mr Kunstler can’t recall the “Soviet Union” invaded Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland in 1939 when they were allies of Nazi Germany.”
But not Crimea- it was part of the Soviet Union.
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 11:04 pm
Ap, your comment seems to be blurred by your American exceptionalism view of the rest of the world. You like to ref a lot of climate stuff, but how much is true or exaggerated? When did you last visit or live in Asia? Just asking.
I was pointing out that your prognostication is based on only what you read. Mine is based on living in the area you tried to put down. Yes, I said put down. I am glad there is a lot of negative ‘news’ about the Ps because it will keep the migrating hoards from America away. Let them go to New Zealand and freeze their asses off if they don’t starve to death first.
I never said living here would be easy in the future. I am only saying that it will be less difficult than in the U$. I listed a few of the reasons above in my comment. It is NOT bullshit. It is fact. Are you becoming a Davy clone? Unable to even consider that there are better places in the world to live than North America? If so, I feel sorry for you because there are and I live in one of them.
Makati1 on Sat, 8th Jul 2017 11:08 pm
D.I., Russia is NOT the USSR of WW2. You need an update in your education. Russia is not even close to the USSR in any way. Putin is certainly no Stalin.
BTW: I was 9 when Stalin died and the government changed.
Theedrich on Sun, 9th Jul 2017 2:12 am
The U.S. wants to control the world. Before its time runs out.
That is the real reason the Swamp hates Trump, its purported nemesis, even though his options are extremely limited, if not null. The morass includes, of course, Sörös & Co., the mud-importers, the CIA, State Department, assorted New-World-Orderers, NGOs, the entire bribe-ocracy (especially the Demonic Party) and their fake-media lackeys. Never mind the Euro-fantasts.
The propaganda served up to the herd is merely a smokescreen about “American interests” and “human rights” to hide the real struggle for the globe, a struggle in which no holds are barred. Meanwhile, nothing serious will be done to address evolution’s immutable thrust to attain a life form higher than current homo insipiens.
Forget about stopping biospheric poisoning or the ThirdWorld invasion. The financial fraud which allows private banks to “create” fake money out of thin air, the transnational organized crime syndicates which launder their loot through global banks (now including those in Russia and China), the American obliteration of whole countries for allegedly “moral” reasons, and the cancerous spread of a murderous creed based on the absurd ravings of a seventh-century schizophrenic narcissist — all of this depends on keeping the White race effeminized, intimidated and in mushroom status. And all as we are sinking ever deeper into the quicksand of stultification leading to extinction.
In the end, it was ingrained stupidity and internecine civil war which blocked the western Roman Empire from purging its bureaucracy and renewing its life. In effect, that empire continued to do the same thing over and over again, always expecting a different result, as Joseph Tainter has explained. Today, the Imperium Americanum is following the same path; the fake news outlets (print and TV media) are trying to repeat the “success” of the Yellow Journalism which helped drive the U.S. into the Spanish-American War (April–August 1898). Only now, they are hoping for a “successful” Third World War.
But if they achieve their aim, the Swamp and its adjutants may be in for an unpleasant and terminal surprise.
Cloggie on Sun, 9th Jul 2017 3:56 am
D.I., Russia is NOT the USSR of WW2. You need an update in your education. Russia is not even close to the USSR in any way. Putin is certainly no Stalin.
Indeed.
No doubt Mr Kunstler can’t recall the “Soviet Union” invaded Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland in 1939 when they were allies of Nazi Germany.
No doubt you understand shit of history.
The Germans were never “allies” of the Soviets. The only real (secret) allies Stalin had as of the mid-thirties were Roosevelt and Churchill, who were in agreement that Europe needed to be destroyed… because it could be done, so the Americans and Soviets could divide the loot between them.
Churchill was already in bed with Stalin in 1934:
https://s14.postimg.org/ddc0a8wtd/maisky-who-helped-hitler.jpg
And Churchill (not PM Chamberlain) was likewise in bed with Roosevelt, also since the mid-thirties.
What the Soviets and the Germans had was a non-agression agreement, not an alliance. A non-agression agreement is something you normally can have with an adversary, with whom you agree for opportunistic reasons not to attack each other. Nobody has a non-agression agreement with his mother.
This non-agression agreement was the initiative and proposal of Stalin and the entire world was struck by surprise that these two nationalist and communist arch-enemies all of sudden had made this move.
So why did Hitler go along? Because he had no choice. The conflict over the status of German town of Danzig had escalated. Why? Because the Americans encouraged the Poles whereever they could to escalate the situation, because they were keen to create war in Europe, after they had pushed the British and French in a war guarantee first. When that was in place the only thing these f* Americans had to do was encourage the Poles that they could do what they wanted, because the UK, France and the US were behind them regardless.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v04/v04p135_weber.html
And the Poles loved it and began to ethnically cleanse the Germans from Polish territory. On September 1, there were already 100,000 German refugees from Poland. And the Poles had set their sights on Eastern Prussia as well (they would finally realize their criminal intentions in 1945 when they cleansed 14 million Germans from Prussia, with 2 million killed).
Why did Stalin propose it? Because it was a trap. Stalin, like Roosevelt and Churchill (latter two under control of international Jewry) wanted the war to begin in Europe between Germany and Britain/France.
During the war, the Geneva representative Henry Ruflin of HAVAS news agency (a sort of French Reuters) reported about a secret speech Stalin had held in front of top officers of the Red Army to explain the extraordinary move of this non-agression agreeement. This speech was printed in the Journal de Geneve on July 12, 1941 (Switzerland was neutral):
http://theeasternfront.org/mein_sozialismus/downloads/articleI.pdf
[part 1]
Cloggie on Sun, 9th Jul 2017 3:56 am
There you have it, the Soviet rationale behind the Non-agression agreement: “let the war in Europe begin, let them weaken each other so we can intervene later and take the joint over” . Europe systematically maneuvered into war by the Americans and Soviets. And the naive Germans believed the Soviets, not that they had much choice. They had to believe as they could not afford to let the Poles slaughter the Germans in Poland. Initially the Germans wanted their Danzig back. The Alllies lied in Nuremberg that “the Germans wanted to conquer ze wurld” (with 10% global GDP, sure). The only ones who really wanted to conquer the world were the Soviets (13% global GDP) and Americans (29% global GDP). And they did.
Here ridiculous US war propaganda portraying the Soviets as “freedum fighters”:
https://twitter.com/jamesperloff/status/821027798945067012
Most Americans don’t have a clue who is lording over them. Even our 84 year old bobinget has no clue about the existence of a “deep state”. Meanwhile the Americans are trapped liked rats:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-us-elections-hillary-clinton-race-hispanic-black-vote-white-americans-fear-minority-a7402296.html
After Trump, demographics will be such that voting in another Trump will be out of the question. The deep state will not let itself be wrongfooted once again by an intruder like Trump. The deep state wants to ram white America into minority status, so they can never rise up again. Here deep state representative Paul Krugman gloating on Norwegian television about the demise of white America (last minute):
https://www.nrk.no/urix/–amerikansk-politikk-er-galskap-1.11457779
So white America, you either rise up, or you are history and the US will become another Brasil, nobody needs to take serious any more.
[part 2]
Davy on Sun, 9th Jul 2017 5:06 am
“Weather Gets Weird as Record Rainfall Follows Record Drought”
http://tinyurl.com/y8thjako
“Texas struggled through its driest year in history in 2011. Four years later was its wettest ever. The Mississippi River rose to all-time-high flood levels in 2011. In 2012, its second-lowest. Snowpack on California’s Sierra Nevada, June 20, 2016 – June 7, 2017. After a six-year drought that made agricultural irrigation a political hot potato, Northern California experienced nearly double the normal rainfall this year, beating the old mark set in 1983. As the planet warms, a less ballyhooed new normal is emerging in weather extremes. With deluge following dust, the record book is becoming increasingly difficult to rely on for those who study the weather. The seesaw from one record to its opposite also has problematic implications for water management, storm preparedness and even national security.”
“Hydrological extremes — floods and droughts — are the most dangerous aspects of global warming because they lead to food and water shortages”
Water Cycle
“With a warmer climate, we certainly expect that extremes at both ends of the water cycle will increase — floods and droughts,”
“The atmosphere can hold about 7 percent more moisture for every 1 degree Celsius the world’s temperature rises, Trenberth said. “In places where it’s not raining, there’s extra heat that goes into drying and exacerbating drought and wildfire,” he said. The rains in Texas and neighboring Oklahoma set records for monthly downpours. Oklahoma City had its all-time wettest month in May with 19.48 inches of rain; 7.1 inches came on a single day, May 6, National Weather Service records show. In Memphis, the Mississippi River reached its second-highest crest in May 2012 — 12 feet above flood stage. The river dropped 57.89 feet in height over the course of the next year.”
Dredd on Sun, 9th Jul 2017 2:29 pm
Kinstler be knowin’ (Stockholm Syndrome: The Declaration of Intellectual Dependence).
joe on Mon, 10th Jul 2017 7:41 am
The system is totally out of control now and is freewheeling itself to a systemic collapse, it was saved last time because the global lender of last resort took its national debt from 6 trillions to 20 trillions. That wont happen again.