The Amazing Dissolving Nation (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

July 18, 2011 -- Going broke fast is a very compelling problem.

For ordinary people it tends to induce chicken-with-no-head syndrome -- a mad burst of pointless locomotion ending in sudden collapse. If the U.S. debt ceiling is raised -- which I think is a 90 percent bet -- there will be a sigh of relief that resounds from the lobster pounds of Penobscot Bay to the parking lots of Silicon Valley... and poor dissolving America will still be stuck in its essential predicament of being broke.

So a lot of pointless locomotion will continue in the form of positioning among a troop of clown candidates for the dumbshow of the 2012 election. I wonder lately whether that election will actually happen.

Europe is arguably worse off money-wise, more broke, flimsier, crapped out, crippled, and paralyzed. Sad, because in outward appearance Europe is -- how shall I put this? -- better turned out than America.

Europe is a fit, silver-haired gentleman in a sleek Italian suit and a pair of Michael Toschi swing lace wingtips, holding a serious-looking Chiarugi leather briefcase. America is pear-shaped blob of semi-formed male flesh, in ankle-length cargo shorts, a black T-shirt featuring skull motifs, tattoos randomly assigned (as if by lottery) to visible flesh, a Sluggo buzz-cut, and a low-rider sports cap designed to make your head look flat. In other words, he lacks a certain savoir-faire compared to his European cousin.

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[Speck Tater]

1. "It's conceivable to me that Barack Obama may be the last president..."

That quote says it all. Things are falling apart in a very bad way, and few people seem to realize that fact.

[TheWraith]

6. A flashy quote from the guy who claimed Y2K was going to end human civilization.

Kunstler is a know-nothing who makes a living via grandiose claims, then pretending he never did once he's proven wrong.

[Speck Tater]

11. Granted his timing is off, but his fundamental logic is sound.

Unfortunately he's cried wolf just enough times that nobody listen any more, so when the wolf inevitably shows up nobody will be paying attention.

He's spot on about what is happening, even though he's been consistently wrong about exactly when.

[ixion]

2. a couple more choice 'graphs...

Citizens of the various lands will discover that the money being argued over, shifted around from column A to column B, assigned to this or that actuarial table or budget line or account or obligation or vault or "structured vehicle" -- that money is just... not... there. There's no money. It was pretend money. From now on, none of you will get paid. Imagine a world where nobody gets paid.

...

The two parties are unreformable and the Tea Party is the stooge of one of the two parties, and there is no other party of earnest, decisive, and sane individuals anywhere near the horizon. So some kind of convulsion is in the cards and it will be the unfortunate duty of some dutiful officer to step in and set an agenda based on something other than bluster, fakery, and pocket pool.

While there's a good chance the U.S. debt ceiling will be extended, it seems to me that meanwhile we have crossed an invisible line into a place where untoward things happen.

That's it, in a nutshell.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Don't forget the butt-crack

showing from those cargo shorts.

[cachukis]

4. I can appreciate the blind young succumbing to stupidity,

but can't the elders hold sway?

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. You mean the old fart Boomers who everybody hates today?

Or the older farts who gave us Reagan to begin with?

[pscot]

8. The elders are the pace setters for dumb

In 2010, 60% of over-60's voted for Republicans. Among white males in that age group it was even higher.

[provis99]

9. young voters are the most liberal.

So unless you consider liberal voters to be stupid, you should take back your comments.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. This is what corporatism has brought us.

Corporations are a piece of crap.

[grasswire]

10. I hope I never have to go to upstate New York where Kunstler lives.

There are enough male blobs with buttcracks around here -- he appears to have even more.