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Kunstler: That Change You Requested…?

Kunstler: That Change You Requested…? thumbnail

All the previous incidents of white cops killing blacks were just too ambiguous to seal the deal. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (a murky business); Tamir Rice in Cleveland (waving the BB gun that looked like a .45 automatic); Trayvon Martin (his killer George Zimmerman was not a cop and was not “white”); Eric Garner, Staten Island (black policewoman sergeant on the scene didn’t stop it); Philandro Castile, Minneapolis, (the cop was Hispanic and the vic had a gun). Even the recent February killing of jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, had some sketchy elements (did Arbery try to seize the shotgun?) — YouTube has scrubbed the video (?) — and then it took months for the two white suspects (not cops) to be arrested.

The George Floyd killing had none of those weaknesses. Plus, the video presented a pretty much universal image of oppression: a man with his knee on another man’s neck. Didn’t that say it all?  You didn’t need a Bob Dylan song to explain it. The Minneapolis police dithered for four days before charging policeman Derek Chauvin with Murder 3 (unpremeditated, but with reckless disregard for human life). The three other cops on the scene who stupidly stood by doing nothing have yet to be charged. Cut it, print it, and cue the mobs.

The nation was already reeling from the weird twelve-week Covid-19 lockdown of everyday life and the economic havoc it brought to careers, businesses, and incomes. In Minnesota, the stay-at-home order was just lifted on May 17, but bars and restaurants were still closed until June. Memorial Day, May 25, was one of the first really balmy days of mid-spring, 78 degrees. People were out-and-about, perhaps even feeling frisky after weeks of dreary seclusion. So, once the video of George Floyd’s death got out, the script was set: take it to the streets!

Few Americans were unsympathetic to the protest marches that followed. Remorse, censure, and tears flowed from every official portal, from the mouth and eyes of every political figure in the land. The tableau of Officer Chauvin’s knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck was readymade for statuary. Indeed, there are probably dozens of statues extant in the world of just such a scene expressing one people’s oppression over another. And yet the public sentiments early-on after the George Floyd killing had a stale, ceremonial flavor: The people demand change! End systemic racism! No justice, no peace! How many times have we seen this movie?

What is changing — and suddenly — is that now it’s not just black people who struggle to thrive in the USA, but everybody else of any ethnic group who is not a hedge fund veep, an employee of BlackRock Financial, or a K-Street lobbyist — and even those privileged characters may find themselves in reduced circumstances before long. The prospects of young adults look grimmest of all. They face an economy so disordered that hardly anyone can find something to do that pays enough to support the basics of life, on top of being swindled by the false promises of higher education and the money-lending racket that animates it.

So, it’s not surprising that, when night falls, the demons come out. Things get smashed up and burned down. And all that after being cooped up for weeks on end in the name of an illness that mostly kills people in nursing homes. Ugly as the ANTIFA movement is, it’s exactly what you get when young people realize their future has been stolen from them. Or, more literally, when they are idle and broke and see fabulous wealth all around them in the banks’ glass skyscrapers, and the car showrooms, and the pageants of celebrity fame and fortune on the boob tube. They are extras in a new movie called The Fourth Turning Meets the Long Emergency but they may not know it.

Hungry for change? You won’t have to wait long. This society may be unrecognizable in a few months. For one thing, there’s a good chance that the current violence in the streets won’t blow over as it has before. There hasn’t been such sudden, massive unemployment before, not even in the Great Depression — and we’re not even the same country that went through that rough episode. Just about every arrangement in contemporary life is on-the-rocks one way or another. Big business, small business, show business… it’s all cratering. The great big secret behind all that is not that capitalism failed; it’s that the capital in capitalism isn’t really there anymore, at least not in the amounts that mere appearances like stock valuations suggest. We squandered it, and now our institutions are straining mightily to pretend that “printing” money is the same as capital. (It’s just more debt.) Note, the stock markets are up this morning at the open! Go figure….

Change? We’re getting it good and hard, and not at a rate we were prepared for. It’s hugely disorienting. It produces friction, heat, and light, which easily becomes violence. There’s, for sure, plenty we can do to make new arrangements for American life without becoming communists or Nazis, but a lot of activities have to fail before we see how that could work. The overburden of obsolete complexity is crushing us, like Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck. They were both, in their way, common men, caught in the maelstrom of metaphor. That proverbial long, hot summer we’ve heard about for so long…? It’s here.

Kunstler



124 Comments on "Kunstler: That Change You Requested…?"

  1. Abraham van Helsing on Wed, 3rd Jun 2020 9:23 pm 

    But can these 3 million HK office dwellers pick fruit?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8385683/Boris-Johnson-right-help-people-Hong-Kong-millions-want-here.html

    “STEPHEN GLOVER: Boris Johnson is right – we must help the people of Hong Kong. But what if millions want to move here?“

    That’s a relevant question, mr Glover.

    HK gdp/capita €66k
    UK gdp/capita €48k

    On 2nd thoughts, perhaps not.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

  2. Abraham van Helsing on Wed, 3rd Jun 2020 9:38 pm 

    Bad news for mak: Ps bevoming in the Chinese crosshairs again, facing occupation in case of armed conflict:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/03/asia/philippines-us-agreement-south-china-sea-intl-hnk/index.html

    “Philippines says it won’t end US military access agreement amid South China Sea tensions“

    Donnie still kicking and ready for November:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/donald-trump-annual-physical/index.html

    “White House releases results of Trump’s annual physical“

  3. Abraham van Helsing on Wed, 3rd Jun 2020 9:48 pm 

    Floyd George was infected with corona:

    https://kstp.com/news/george-floyd-autopsy-report-shows-george-floyd-died-from-cardiopulmonary-arrest-was-positive-for-covid-19/5750262/

    “Autopsy report: George Floyd died from cardiopulmonary arrest, was positive for COVID-19”

    Did he die of corona?

    https://vdare.com/articles/ann-coulter-we-don-t-believe-the-msm-on-george-floyd-because-we-know-they-lied-about-rodney-king?scroll_to_paragraph=5

    Ann Coulter: can we have interviews with the many victims this Floyd fucker has made throughout his stinking worthless life, that doesn’t matter at all?

  4. SocialRevolutionComing on Wed, 3rd Jun 2020 9:55 pm 

    Of course he was COVID hoax positive.LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

    Fucking useless elites/globalists/politicians. They are such a bunch of fucking morons with low IQ . They have no credibility left. Everyone hates them and make fun of them.

    Go read the comments on the link below. You will see what I means when I say people hate politicians and make fun of them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaBof9yYf04

  5. joe on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:11 am 

    The useful idiots standing up, bending the knee, breaking, burning, activated by China/Russia/EUSSR. Whats really going on? Is is a new socialist workers revolution? No, of course not because there are no jobs. There is no light at the end of the tunnell for george floyds memory. What we are seeing is the consequence of lockdown, this is what some people warned would happen (Trump included ). Firing every police officer in America wont do a thing to save America, right now Obama is caught cold on a domestic spying case that the left has blown up the system rather than face justice in it, the rats on the right sense a sinking ship and are running fof their lives (so they think). If things go in America as they are, when this is over there will not be a better America, Shaqs billion dollar investments will be gone, Jordans billions will be gone in fact as usual black people (who have benefitted from the Trump economic recovery ) will lose everything and many have already. The way out of hell is possible but time is short. Only the USAs enemies will benefit from events in the last week.
    The communist workers revolution is not going to happen because the USA is not an industrialised society, it is a services led economy and right now there is no supply of services and the political structures are fractured and at war with each other. A house divided will not stand. Antifa is waiting to break into white communities and the chaos will erupt multiplied by a 100. Democracy in the world has never been closer to death. The knee is now on Americas neck, but the knee is owned by the Democrat politicians who, if they dont get off soon, will kill the victim, maybe even by accident.
    A basic analysis of the econojic situation will show that Antifas ambitions can never benefit the US as a country, their best hope is degrowth funded by China and selling the last of American capital to the last communist superpower. Obama will lead Americans into the new age of social justice and equality? No. China will not tolerate another industrialised superpower but China cannot feed itself. China also needs oil and coal and gas. Americas army is paid for by rivers of dollars which require most of the world to buy and circulate them. Right now thats not happening.
    Labour in the UK, Democrats/progressives/socialists, in the US they are fake movements because they rely not on workers in industrial heartlands but instead on denziens of coffee houses, massss of social media influencers and ranks of whats left of those emplyed in the health services and social work systems and masses of idle students with nothing to do and no prospects whoes degrees designed by subversive influencers decades ago lead nowhere. Gender studies degrees will not enrich the black communities or educate police or stop drug dealing in black communities. All the tears and virtue signalling will not save America. We were in this exact situation in 2014 when Antifa first emerged and began to ‘punch a nazi’, then SJW emerged on the scene and made eveything ‘so much better’. America still had not recovered from the 2008 Great Recession and all the Democrats could offer America was Hillary Clinton. Now all they can offer is Joe Biden and PROBOBLY Michelle Obama. With Uncle Joe sucking his lolly pop in the corner the Obamas can bury their corruption in false promises and virtue signalling. This is my prediction, most lilely leading to a 12 year Obama Presidency.
    But all that social justice and stripping of ‘white privledge’ will not save America or save the bed rock of the Democrats powerbase, poor Black America in whose name they bleet, Black America will forever be captive slaves of the Democratic party, and the neoliberal sell out to China will accelerate Americas decline. FISA abuse and drone attacks and socialist reform will become to norm, economic inefficiency will be the order of the day because that weakens a country as much as bombing it.
    The pro Democrat billionaires are the monopolistic tech moguls dying to crack China open and join with them in a non threatening way. First off China will never allow that. Not in any meaningful way, second they will extract massive security and control concessions from the US for even the smallest levels of access. 4 years of politics was always going to catch up with Trump. The age of honestly and fairly looking at facts and truth is over, it was over in 2015 when Trump took up thr slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’ , that slogan is kryptonite to the proChina proEUSSR globalist/postCapitalist/post industrialist position.
    These people are so far enamoured with Tech and subverted by utopian idealism that they cant even distinguish differnces of genders (which makes every hard nosed Chinese Marxist laugh). Americas military will be used some day to to take away the second ammendment rights of American citizens. Will that save black america? Not likely. Like all useful idiot movemnts, one the Democrats have dont the bidding of their backers and ‘reform’ is compplete Black Americs will look very much like Black Germany or Black France, suppressed, disarmed, used as stick to beat down white native discontent, but mostly ignored and much more easily controlled. When white Americs is defeated, Black America will vanish, as will your privacy and rights.

    Americas Choice for 2020 is between China and Democrats or Trump and an unknown future, good luck.

  6. makati1 on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:55 am 

    Cloggie, I prefer the Chinese to the Amerikans.

    If you think kissing the Amerikan dirty ass is a plus, think what will happen if the US decided to use the Ps like they did Europe in WW2, They want to fight on other country’s lands and have other county’s people die, not Amerikans. Not this time. It will come home to the US mainland.

    As I have said before, Chinese own the Ps already. I doubt they would bomb their own interests.

    “There are 900,000 to one million ethnic Chinese in the Philippines, roughly 1.2% to 1.5% of the total Philippine population. Half of this number live in the urban area of Metro Manila; the other half is scattered in other major urban centers, such as Cebu, Iloilo, Davao, and Bacolod.” GOOGLE

    “Filipino Chinese are one of the largest overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. There are approximately 1.35 million Filipinos with Chinese ancestry, or around 1.3% of the population. In addition, Sangleys—Filipinos with at least some Chinese ancestry—comprise a substantial proportion of the Philippine population, although the actual figures are not known.” WIKI

    Not to mention that the Chinese will not let Americans within 2,000 miles of their mainland and we are well inside that area. They can take out Guam, 1,840 miles from the Chinese mainland with their hyper-sonic missiles. Nuclear tipped, if necessary. I’m not worried.

  7. makati1 on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 1:20 am 

    Ann Coulter: one of the worlds biggest assholes.

    There are hundreds of millions of Amerikans and Europeans that carry the virus. They will never be tested. Cannot happen. Time vs $$$$.

    In a year, everyone will carry the coronavirus. No cure. A few thousand more will die every year, just as they do of the other flus we all carry.

  8. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 3:47 am 

    “Ann Coulter: one of the worlds biggest assholes.”

    And why would that be? Because she is white?

    “I prefer the Chinese to the Amerikans.”

    Come on makati, admit that you are at least 25% Asian and that you dislike American whitey because these Yanks, like umpire dave, have reminded you all your life that you are “different”.

    This place is full of american white racial leftists, like sissyfuss, derhund and to a lesser extent umpire dave. But they never gloat about their own demise.

    Something doesn’t add up with you.

  9. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 4:02 am 

    The dog is white too!

    https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1268071090389053440?s=20

    …and was strangled to death.

    That’s what you get if you let barbarians within the gates.

    Even the world’s #1 christian do-gooder Albert Schweitzer knew them better:

    A word in conclusion about the relations between the whites and blacks. What must be the general character of the intercourse between them? Am I to treat the black man as my equal or my inferior? I must show him that I can respect the dignity of human personality in every one, and this attitude in me he must be able to see for himself; but the essential thing is that there shall be a real feeling of brotherliness. How far this is to find complete expression in the sayings and doings of daily life must be settled by circumstances. The negro is a child, and with children nothing can be done without the use of authority. We must, therefore, so arrange the circumstances of daily life that my natural authority can find expression. With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: “I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.”

    There is an even more controversial quote, that the guardians of his heritage emphatically denied that he ever said it:

    I have given my life to try to alleviate the sufferings of Africa. There is something that all white men who have lived here like I must learn and know: that these individuals are a sub-race. They have neither the intellectual, mental, or emotional abilities to equate or to share equally with white men in any function of our civilization. I have given my life to try to bring them the advantages which our civilization must offer, but I have become well aware that we must retain this status: the superior and they the inferior. For whenever a white man seeks to live among them as their equals they will either destroy him or devour him. And they will destroy all of his work. Let white men from anywhere in the world, who would come to Africa, remember that you must continually retain this status; you the master and they the inferior like children that you would help or teach. Never fraternize with them as equals. Never accept them as your social equals or they will devour you. They will destroy you.

    Intellectual lazy Americans choose to ignore that fundamental lessons and will pay a heavy price for that ignorance.

  10. I AM THE MOB on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 5:43 am 

    What died faster Epstein or Corny virus?

    Look WHO is distancing themselves now?

    Maybe the greatest irony in all of history.

    LOL

    Cheers!

    Live free or die!

  11. The Nationalist on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 6:12 am 

    I just dont give a shit, Im not convinced that peasants like Floyd will ever matter to the government.
    Other peasants are having a minor revolt until their short memory runs out or they steal a tv.

  12. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 6:41 am 

    “Im not convinced that peasants like Floyd”

    He is not even a peasant, but has an impressive crime record:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8366533/George-Floyd-moved-Minneapolis-start-new-life-released-prison-Texas.html

    https://nypost.com/2020/06/02/george-floyd-had-violent-criminal-history-minneapolis-union-chief/?fbclid=IwAR23aUZQ83Dow4KRWilKhAevdE-aawXMiCkLZKrffPAi0yIRem5XH-KlF6A

    “George Floyd had ‘violent criminal history’: Minneapolis police union chief”

    George Floyd (not to be confused with Lloyd George) is a first rate thug, the new hero of the black race, as they can’t come up with something better.

  13. I AM THE MOB on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 7:02 am 

    Why you were distracted buckiham palace has been abaddonded and the seal has been remvoed.

    The queen is safe in her castle in the deep county side.

    Does it all make sense now?

    LOL

  14. Davy on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 7:34 am 

    In EuropeUp news:

    That escalated quickly:

    “Euro Surges After ECB Expands Emergency QE By €600 Billion To €1.350 Trillion”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ecb-expands-emergency-qe-eu600bn-eu1350bn-extends-least-june-2021

  15. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:11 pm 

    “Ministers plot to allow chlorinated chicken and other poor-quality US imports in to UK supermarkets under ‘dual tariff scheme’ as they seek quick trade deal with Donald Trump”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8388971/Ministers-plot-allow-chlorinated-chicken-poor-quality-imports-UK-supermarkets.html#comments

    Ministers are planning to cave in to American pressures and allow chlorinated chicken and other low-quality imports on to UK supermarket shelves.

    Brexit = choice for low, globalist (third world) standards.

    NHS retiree , Beverley , United Kingdom, 39 minutes ago

    I will continue to buy British

    Pro: 139
    Con: 1

    Unfortunately, the posters seem to forget that Britain only produces 50% of its own food and that high quality EU food will disappear behind WTO trade tariffs.

    Bon appetit!

  16. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:15 pm 

    “Unfortunately, the posters seem to forget that Britain only produces 50% of its own food”

    …Provided they can find sufficient people who can bring in the harvest, now that efficient Eastern Europeans ain’t coming anymore in great numbers to Britain.

  17. Hello on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:19 pm 

    >>> high quality EU food

    a few years back there was the german scandal of “gammelfleisch” (rotten meat). Remember that one?

    And way back was the scandal of austrian wines “enhanced” with anti-freeze.

  18. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:21 pm 

    Das waren Ausnamen.

  19. Hello on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:26 pm 

    >>> Das waren Ausnamen.

    If you say so. Why do I get a headache each time after drinking a bottle of italian wine then? 🙂

  20. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:33 pm 

    Tucker Carlson Slamming Our Leaders For Kneeling To The Mob

    “We kneel before our victors because they have won. We put down our resistance. We beg for their mercy. But mobs rarely forgive. ‘We’re on your side,’ we shout. ‘We’re in solidarity. Spare us!’ But they never do.”

    https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1268345643958800384

    Americans won’t save them selves, Europe has to do it. It were Europeans who enabled American independence from Britain, but that was a mistake. That mistake needs to be undone.

  21. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:34 pm 

    “If you say so. Why do I get a headache each time after drinking a bottle of italian wine then?”

    You should not drink a bottle of wine, you should drink a glass of wine.

    Or better no alcohol at all.

  22. Hello on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 12:46 pm 

    >> Or better no alcohol at all.

    you can’t say that, sitting next to beer paradise.
    Can you say Kwak, Duvel, Witte Rave, Morte subite, dilirium tremen, whithout a smile?

    Good thing I live far away.

  23. Abraham van Helsing on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 1:27 pm 

    Nah, yesterday, for the first time in 3 months, after the end of the lockdown, I visited a terrace in the sun and had two beers.

  24. Richard Guenette on Thu, 4th Jun 2020 1:39 pm 

    Send of all of superrich to prison.

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