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Page added on November 8, 2016
Kunstler: The Fat Lady Has a Sore Throat
A mighty nausea wells up across the land as the awful day cometh. Who will receive the black spot of fate on Tuesday? I wouldn’t want to be him or her on that dreadful day. The flagship of Modernity has lost its vaunted mojo and nobody knows what to do about it as the USS-USA pitches and yaws into the maelstrom.
Much opinion “out there” contends that we will have to suffer an election overtime, with the results contested on every hill and molehill from sea to shining sea. That scenario suggests various outcomes, all of them pretty bad: 1) the election is once again relegated to a Supreme Court case, only this time it ends up a 4-4 tie. Constitutional crisis time. 2) Perhaps as a function of No. 1, it ends up in the US House of Representatives. The catch is: members aren’t limited to Trump or HRC. They can vote for whoever they like. 3) A lot of web chatter has President Obama invoking some sort of emergency with the election postponed until some conclave of political viziers can figure a way out of it. Unlikely, but possible.
FBI Director James Comey’s eleventh hour reprieve of Hillary in the email server case sent an odor of rotting carp wafting across the political landscape. Like, his peeps actually vetted 650,000 emails in a week? I’m sure. Of course, the FBI does not issue indictments; that’s AG Loretta Lynch’s job over at the Department of Justice. The FBI only makes criminal referrals to such. But this puts too fine a point on the matter because the much more serious issue is the Clinton Foundation case, and the arrant sale of influence while HRC ran the State Department.
That currently overshadowed case is not closed. It sends up the odor not of a single rotting carp but of an entire whale pod dead on the beach. Half the emirs in Arabia dropped millions on the foundation to facilitate arms deals or to influence policy at State, and that was only part of what looks exactly like a classic racketeering operation. The Clinton Foundation story is not going away anytime soon and it will suck all the air out of the public arena for as far ahead as anyone can see when Hillary is in the oval office.
All of that obscures the gathering calamity in banking and finance that drives the waiting, whirling maelstrom. Thanks to eight years of central bank experiments, the engines of capital are hopelessly gunked up with political additives like QE and ZIRP™. Nothing is priced correctly, especially money. It’s all kept running on an ether of accounting fraud. We can’t come to grips with the resource realities behind the fraud, especially the end of cheap oil. And the bottom line is the already-manifest slowdown of global business. The poobahs of banking pretend to be confounded by all this because everything — their reputations, their jobs, their fortunes — depends on the Potemkin narrative that ever-greater economic expansion lies just around the corner.
Not so. What waits around the corner is a global scramble for the table scraps of the late techno-industrial banquet. Scrambles like that are liable to foment kinetic conflict. Neither Hillary or Trump appear to have a clue what this means and so they are likely to misinterpret the true signals amid all the noise and start an unnecessary war. Hillary is already hard at it with her cawing over supposed “Russian hackers” in the election.
The tragedy of Trump is that he represented a roster of legitimate grievances but argued them so poorly and then betrayed them with behavior so oafish and crude that he often looked not sane enough to hold high office. His partisans brushed that aside, saying it was good enough that he personified a giant “fuck you” to the political establishment. No, that wasn’t good enough because in the process he de-legitimized the issues.
For instance, There are excellent arguments for a “time-out” from immigration. Congress acted on that in 1925, after a half-century flood of immigration needed to man the factories of the early 20th century. The consensus on that policy change was arrived at with minimal rancor — and just in time, by the way, for the Great Depression, when manufacturing employment crashed. We’re also in for a collapse of activity, only this time it won’t be the few remaining factory workers. It’ll be everyone from the McDonalds counter jockeys to the bond packagers of Goldman Sachs.
The establishment will get its “fuck you” anyway. I do go along with the argument advanced by others that it would probably be better for Hillary to win, because that way the right people (the gang already in power) will be blamed for the descent into the maelstrom and will be expeditiously swept away.
Just about anything may rise up across America after that — the true corn-pone Nazi who succeeds Trump in the meshuggeneh branch of conservative politics… a second civil war… or a World Made By Hand. I detect a general awareness that the country must pass through some epic ordeal to straighten itself out. Well, here it is, just in time or the holidays.
Me? I’m going to write-in my vote for Homey D. Clown, because he don’t mess around.
36 Comments on "Kunstler: The Fat Lady Has a Sore Throat"
Plantagenet on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 1:12 pm
The Chinese have a curse that goes: May you live in interesting times.
Its getting more and more interesting here in the USA.
Cheers!
Apneaman on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 2:02 pm
Economic Undertow – The Election Today …
“The candidate’s absence of effort leaves a residue of personality: Trump is a blank page upon which others paint in the sketch, an actor who aims to meet (diminished) public expectations and nothing more, sound and fury significant of nothing in particular.
But, so is Clinton, who is distinguished as the most corrupt prospective leader in American history. Clinton’s missteps include the sale of her office to the bosses of other countries, using her position to promote of wars for personal gain as well as selling herself to the bankers and other finance criminals. ”
http://www.economic-undertow.com/2016/11/07/the-election-today/
Apneaman on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 2:40 pm
2 points I’ve harped on – humans not in control. Global system so complex that no one understands it fully. Not in control. C’mon everyone – not in control not in control.
Society Is Too Complicated to Have a President, Complex Mathematics Suggest
“Human society is simply too complex for representative democracy to work. The United States probably shouldn’t have a president at all, according to an analysis by mathematicians at the New England Complex Systems Institute.”
“It is absurd, then, to believe that the concentration of power in one or a few individuals at the top of a hierarchical representative democracy will be able to make optimal decisions on a vast array of connected and complex issues that will certainly have sweeping and unintended ramifications on other parts of human civilization.”
“In the case of a representative democracy, we are expecting a president—aided by advisors and Congress, of course—to ultimately make decisions in an environment that is far too complicated for any one person. Democracy as we know it is failing.”
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/society-is-too-complicated-to-have-a-president-complex-mathematics-suggest
peakyeast on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 3:22 pm
Totally agree with NECSI. Absurd even. Another detail: Much more easily corrupted and manipulated by lobbyinterests when only a few to corrupt and influence.
Cloud9 on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 3:31 pm
Never in the history of American politics can I remember the elites of both parties endorsing the same candidate. This is epic compounded by a general perception that the Democratic Party is in full force behind a corrupt politician who sold the national interests for personal gain. If either party survives this election cycle I will be amazed.
makati1 on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 3:59 pm
Cloud9, if the U$ survives the next 4 years, I will be amazed. This could be the last ‘election’ and it is not even over yet.
Hilary may think, as a female, she will shatter the glass ceiling when, in reality, it is the country’s glass floor she will break if she ‘gets’ enough votes to sleep with Bill in the White House again. Or perhaps she will turn the whole country into radioactive glass? We shall see.
Yes Plant, we DO live in “VERY” interesting times. A combination of World War Two and the Great Depression,… so far.
Hawkcreek on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 5:00 pm
Who do you pick in a choice between Herpes and Syphilis?
Remember Herpes never goes away. I guess that means we all got it from Bill.
Hubbert on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 6:35 pm
This Idiot Country has faced a different level of corruption. One that human-kind has never witnessed. Satanic Worshiping Loons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PFDcsV02LM
Sissyfuss on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 6:51 pm
With a Hellary win the Oval Office will now be known as the Ovary Office.
makati1 on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 7:01 pm
Hahahahahaha! Love that one Sissy! ^_^
Anonymous on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 7:48 pm
Funny, Sissy, yea, but it will the Goldstein-sachs, pentagon, CIA, clinton-fundation whorehouse, I mean white house.
IpissOnMyself on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 7:51 pm
Kunstler is an idiot libturds. More I read him more I think he is an idiot. His essay are superficial and lack depth.
you can see through his essay that he hates Trump and probably the little people. He is a pompous ass begging for money.
Go on patreon an lock at him showing $500 check he gets from his website. Only women do this type of begging.
I know trump is not perfect, but the fact the kunster cannot say one positive thing about him says it all.
There is a much more better opinion you can get.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHCul_DIM_4
makati1 on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 8:07 pm
IPOM, opinion is just that. Opinion. There are over 7 billion “opinions” in the world and maybe a few agree with yours but most don’t and never will.
You don’t have to read JHK. He is making his living just as you are, by dong what pays. Some here pump oil. Some grow goats. Some built custom homes and then retired to the Ps. So what?
While I agree that Trump is the better of the two piles of shit, that doesn’t mean that anything is going to change. The best he could do, if elected, do is to start the next Civil War, which is long overdue. The worst is, he could/will divide the country even more. No winners this round. Only losers and they are you, living in the Land of Bullshit loosely called “America”.
Davy on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 10:31 pm
handcuffs for the skankles !!!!
Davy on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 10:41 pm
“S&P Near Limit-Down, Peso Plunges To Record Low As Trump Victory Looks Assured”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-08/markets-crash-peso-plunges-record-low-trump-looks-likely-winner
“This chart tells the whole story of the night: Trump – the massive underdog – appears to have pulled off precisely what he promised to do: Brexit times 10, having won virtually every key battleground state including Ohio, North Carolina and moments ago, Florida.”
IpissOnMyself on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 11:20 pm
Trump just destroy the credibility of the main street media. This is a great achievement and it was long overdue. All the poles were wrong and bias. Nobody will ever take CNN, MSN, FOX and other networks seriously. Their reputation is finished. Hopefully people will start thinking by themself and look for other sources of news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7mkx88biOU
Say what you what about Trump, it is an accomplishment.
Davy on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 11:44 pm
The major pillars of US society have been tipped over. The people have spoken against corruption and lies. I am elated but I have no illusions of this turning out well. The beginning of volatility and destructive change has now been accelerated. What is important to me is a likely detente with Russia and a draining of the DC swamp. The swamp is too deep to drain but it can experience a drought that will halt the hijacking. The problem is reality is too painful to do much beyond a deflation of the bubble of insanity of the status quo. A big hangover is coming. Trump will preside over the end of the last vestiges of the American Empire..
joe on Tue, 8th Nov 2016 11:58 pm
Its still not totally finished. Peak oil came in 2005, followed by the biggest recession in history. Trump has no serious plan, because the forces at work are global. America led the world into the WTO and globalisation, now this is the result, the world is bigger, even than America. Hillarys plan was to fool the people, Trump will shout at the world, YOURE FIRED!
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:19 am
This election is actually too close to call especially considering the fix could be in. In any case this is a statement against the status quo. Another issue is the popular vote may go to a failed Hillary indicating a decisive devision of this country that bodes ill for social harmony. Emergency services may have a long day tomorrow putting out fires.
Truth Has A Liberal Bias on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:19 am
USA is a political sewer pipe. The American people are human garbage. I hope North Korea throws a few nukes and EMPs your way. The sooner the American people become fertilizer the better.
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 12:32 am
Truth has a libiitard bias, you do realize your stupid Montreal is within EMP range no different than Kansas, ToTo! LMFAO
Mr. Pockets on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:09 am
wow… Mr. Bias: what a complete America-hating asshole… you must be a huge hit at parties.
joe on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:16 am
It seems Trump has won. Clinton wont come out to concede. Podesta send the masses home, she will sneek out during the night to avoid the shame.
This is the result NAFTA and globalisation. Trump is Preisdent because liberal globalists forgot they have brothers and sisters who have lost out horribly so that Ahmed or Jose can have a chance because his governmentin his country is backward and barbaric. Now the message is clear. People, America is full.
Its not just America. Millions of muslims flooding Europe are signalling that the global trade system is broken beyond repair. We could all be Aleppo soon.
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:16 am
Mr.P, in most parts of the world, he would be. Americans don’t realize how much they are hated around the world. Arrogance is blind to reality. lol.
joe on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:22 am
One last point. This election was about class war, not race. The liberal media will try to claim race war, but it wasnt. Politicans need to understand the people are tired of globalisation.
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:33 am
Joe, you are 100% correct.
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:34 am
Screw you Makati. There is a difference between the 1%”er corrupt elites and the normal class who has seen their world gutted. You are blinded by your personal animosities and project those emotions like you are the spokesman for the rest of the world. You are an example of a failure of message on so many levels. Intellectual laziness is easy when you tap into populism.
Davy on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:44 am
What people maybe should have pause over is the US in the position of having Republicans in charge of both houses and POTUS. Are we setting ourselves up for real change or a new avenue for corruption. The Republicans are 1/2 the swamp. Will Trump follow the mandate or wade as so many others into the swamp of status quo corruption?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/obamacare-over-republicans-retain-senate
Anonymous on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 1:46 am
Looks like trump is in RT, reporting hes over 270. Looks like KenzBot, the exceptionalist and ghung better start packing their bags to move …somewhere. Dont move here please, Canada will slide into moron overshoot if any more amerikans threaten to move here.
Hey speaking of morons, wasn’t boat predicting a killary win? Something about Trump and President Putin being ‘beaten by a women…well pseudo-woman at any rate.
No doubt, the clinton fundation and its backers are probably livid with rage right now. They had hollyjew-wood, the entire media ‘liberal’ establishment, wall st (course), and 1/2 the ‘republican party’, backing shillary. And she still lost. Either planning a way to turn this ‘around’, or resigned to the fact they will have spend a lot of effort brow-beating Trump into ‘their way of doing business’. Shillary was already on-board with w/e the zionist oligarchy told her to do. I mean it worked with the spineless obomber easily enough, but trump has a bigger ego than most. And hes stubborn too.
LoL.
Imagine that.
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 2:07 am
Anon, he has 276 at last count. I’m looking forward to his presidency. Should be interesting.
Not to mention the ongoing Clinton Mafia fiasco. Could both Clintons end up in federal prison? Seems like they should. We shall see.
makati1 on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 2:14 am
Davy, I will answer your bullshit comment.
The 1% govern with the CONSENT/SUPPORT of the other 99% not to mention their tax money. ALL Americans share the guilt and blame for the deaths and suffering the U$ has caused and is causing around the world.
The other 7+ billion people do not separate out the 1% as the only ones to blame. America is 320,000,000 plus million people who allow their government to kill, maim, and steal, at will, all over the world. That FACT is going to come back to bite you all in the ass very soon. Be patient.
Shortend on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 3:41 am
Now to go out and grab some pus*y!
penury on Wed, 9th Nov 2016 2:51 pm
Well in Jan 17 Trump will be inaugurated, if he survives that long. Lets wait to see how he will do for at least a year before we declare him a disaster and consign him to history along side with Millard Fillmore. From the voting results at least the hates versus likes should be about equal. All of you people who were leaving, I hope you have your tickets. Good-bye
Apneaman on Thu, 10th Nov 2016 9:13 pm
It never ends
The Navy called USS Zumwalt a warship Batman would drive. But at $800,000 per round, its ammo is too pricey to fire.
“The warship is the most expensive destroyer in the history of the Navy, costing about $4.4 billion.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/11/08/the-navy-called-uss-zumwalt-a-warship-batman-would-drive-but-at-800000-per-round-its-ammo-is-too-pricey-to-fire/
makati1 on Thu, 10th Nov 2016 9:22 pm
Ap, but it is good for the MIC bottom line and the Wall Street Casinos. That’s ALL that counts in the U$ Autocracy. I read that yesterday and laughed my ass off.
I look forward to watching the next 3-4 years unfold. It is NOT going to be boring nor is it going to be fun for most. 2020 will see a much different and broken America. Buckle up!
makati1 on Thu, 10th Nov 2016 9:25 pm
Is there even a name for the current form of government in the U$? I’m not aware of any, but I know it is NOT a democracy. Not even close.