Category Archives: James Howard Kunstler

Where will this Economic Chaos lead to? (With Kevin Lynn)

Baby Boomers, Banking, Barack Obama, California, capitalism, China, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, coronavirus, Corporations, demographics, Donald Trump, Economics, Elections, Environment, Federal Reserve, George Bush, Globalization, Immigration, income inequality, Independent Political Candidates, James Howard Kunstler, Jimmy Dore, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Kevin Lynn, Leftism, Libertarianism, Oil, Oligarchy, Peak Oil, Peter Turchin, Peter Zeihan, Police Corruption, Police State, Political Parties, Politics, Progressives for Immigration Reform, Republican Party, Ross Perot, Russia, Silicon Valley, Taxation, Tucker Carlson, Ukraine, Urbanism, Wall Street, War, Water, Wealth, Zoning

Robert Stark talks to Kevin Lynn about the dire implications of economic data and trends. Kevin Lynn is executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform and founder of US Tech Workers. Follow Kevin on Twitter.

Topics:

Examples of gaslighting on the economy,  Redefining the definition of recession and declaration of a “Vibecession”
How the economic bullishness and bear rallies in stocks show the degree of disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street
The “Baking” of the Jobs numbers report and inflation data
The beginning of mass Tech layoffs
The super bubble to end all bubbles
Kevin’s article If You Thought the NIMBYs Were Bad – Meet the YIMBYs
Revisiting the pandemic stimulus and how only a fraction of stimulus went directly to the people
Federal Reserve policy, Biden’s “Inflation Reduction” Act,” and vulnerabilities of the dollar
Speculating worst case economic scenarios (deflationary depression, long-term stagflation, real estate crash, and debt crisis)
Geopolitics crisis, supply chains issues, global conflicts and civil unrest
The Fourth Turning theory and Peter Turchin’s method of measuring cycles of crisis
The political implications of the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar a Lago
Kevin’s observations from attending the recent CPAC conference in Texas on the political currents

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Robert Stark talks to Kevin Lynn about the Election & Economic Crisis

2020 Riots, Bernie Sanders, Class, coronavirus, Corporate Welfare, Corporations, Donald Trump, Economics, Elections, Environment, Free Trade, Global Warming, Globalization, Immigration, income inequality, James Howard Kunstler, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Kevin Lynn, Neoliberalism, Oligarchy, Overpopulation, Political Correctness, Politics, Progressives for Immigration Reform, Silicon Valley, Wall Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Kevin Lynn about 2020 election issues including the pandemic, economy, and immigration policy. Kevin Lynn is executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform and founder of US Tech Workers and Doctors without Jobs.

Topics:

Kevin’s past involvement with progressive politics during the Bush era, and how that movement was watered down into today’s woke left
US Tech Workers’ victory for Tennessee Valley Authority workers, and Kevin’s meeting with Trump
The recent Presidential Debate as symbolic of polarization and decline of the Empire
Trump’s initial executive order restricting foreign worker visas that was later watered down
How the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in our nation’s borders
Trump’s support for The CARES Act bailout and PPP loans for corporations with limited benefits for the public
The stock market being propped up by buybacks, the K-shaped recovery, and dangers of an economic bubble burst
The benefits of remote work
Kamala Harris – Silicon Valley Love Affair
How immigration and handling of the pandemic have become part of the divisive culture war

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and Stark Truth TV


Robert Stark interviews Linh Dinh

American Culture, Asia, Asian Culture, California, Cambodia, China, Cities, Consumerism, Corporations, Culture, demographics, Donald Trump, Drugs, Economics, Europe, Free Trade, Germany, Globalization, Healthcare, Immigration, Imperialism, income inequality, Islam, James Howard Kunstler, Linh Dinh, Mass Transit, Photography, Poetry, Silicon Valley, Social Isolation, Suburbia, Travel, Urbanism, Vietnam, War

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linh Dinh is a writer and poet. Check out his articles at The Unz Review.

Topics:

Linh’s photo journal book Postcards from the End of America
Americas economic decline and de-industrialization
Phony statistics about economic recovery
America Cannot be Great Again
On Nationalism
A Common Culture Makes the Nation
Germany’s migrant crisis
The rise of China as an economic superpower
The Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia
Rolling Into Cambodia
Cambodia’s Illegal Immigrants from Vietnam
Alley Culture, Zoning Laws and Anomic Americans
Doped Up Nation
Linh’s Poetry
Linh’s upcoming project the Obscured American which is a series of interviews

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Architect Adam Mayer

1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, Adam Mayer, aesthetics, Architecture, arcology, Art Deco, Asia, Brutalism, California, Chicago, China, Cities, Culture, Environment, Historic Preservation, income inequality, James Howard Kunstler, John C. Portman Jr, Lafayette CA, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Gatos CA, Malls, Mass Transit, Mid-Century Modern, Mount Diablo, New Urbanism, Orinda CA, Postmodernism, Retro Futurism, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, Sonja Trauss, Suburbia, Urbanism, Walnut Creek CA, Wealth, Wilderness, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Mayer is an architect based out of San Francisco. Check out his Twitter, Instagram, and Architectural Portfolio.

Topics:

Growing up in Los Gatos which is a small town on the edge of the Silicon Valley
Studying architecture at USC and observations on LA
Art Deco and Mid Century Modern Architecture in LA
New Urbanism and Retrofitting suburbia
The Bay Area Housing Crisis and the importance of developing smartly while protecting greenbelts
How ugly architecture leads to NIMBY sentiment and why the YIMBY movement needs to address aesthetics
California Senate bill would force more dense housing near transit hubs
Working on a redevelopment project at the Walnut Creek BART Station
San Francisco’s SOMA district’s new skyline
San Francisco’s new Transbay Terminal
Architect John C. Portman; The Embarcadero Center and Hyatt in San Francisco and the extension of the urban realm to the inside
Architect Jon Jerde; his projects including Westside Pavilion and the Universal City Walk in LA, Horton Plaza in San Diego, and the Wynn and Bellagio in Las Vegas
Architect William Pereira who designed the Trans-America Pyramid in San Francisco
Brutalism
1980’s architecture and whether it will make a comeback
Frank Gehry
Modernism vs. Postmodernism and where to draw the boundary
How current architecture lacks one cohesive aesthetic
Adam’s work as an architect in China, master planned projects, and observations on architecture in China
Winner Take All? Richard Florida’s ‘New Urban Crisis’
How to accommodate families in cities

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Kevin Lynn of Progressives for Immigration Reform

Alternative Left, Bernie Sanders, California, Cities, Corporations, Donald Trump, Economics, Environment, Free Trade, Globalization, Green Party, Healthcare, Immigration, income inequality, James Howard Kunstler, Kevin Lynn, Labor Movement, Leftism, Liberalism, Los Angeles, Middle East, New Urbanism, Oligarchy, Overpopulation, Political Correctness, Progressives for Immigration Reform, Ross Perot, Sam Kevorkian, Urbanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Sam Kevorkian talk to Kevin Lynn. Kevin is Chairman of Progressives for Immigration Reform and blogs at the CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE URBAN POLITICS.

Topics:

Kevin’s political background as an unrepentant Perotista, a failed Green Party member, and a frustrated Progressive Democratic Party member
Creating a dialogue with Progressives on the key issues of how immigration impacts workers rights, income inequality, and the environment
The longstanding tradition of Progressives opposing mass immigration including the early labor and environmental movements
How immigration impacts the environment
The Sierra Club Vote on immigration and how it was sabotaged by a wealthy financier
The 1924 Immigration Restriction Act and The Immigration Act of 1965
Will The RAISE Act Raise Employment Prospects
PFIR Unveils Its H1-B Visa Database
The middle class exodus out of California
New Urbanism
The dilemma that progressives are misguided on immigration while Trump and the Republicans are anti-environment, and the need for a new political paradigm

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Old Urbanist Charles Gardner

1970's, aesthetics, American Culture, Architecture, arcology, Art, Charles Gardner, Cities, Culture, Disneyland, Economics, Environment, Europe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Historic Preservation, History, James Howard Kunstler, John C. Portman Jr, Las Vegas, Market Urbanism, New Urbanism, New York, Sam Kevorkian, San Francisco, Skyscrapers, Strong Towns, Suburbia, Urbanism, Utopia, Wilderness, Zoning


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Sam Kevorkian talk to James Gardner. He is an Attorney based in Stamford, Connecticut and blogs at the Old Urbanist.

Topics:

Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Curated Landscape  and how European towns and cities have starker divides between urbanized and undeveloped land than those of the United States
The Streetcar suburb model and Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia: Robert Fishman
That 70s Urbanism, 70’s Urban Renewal projects(ex. the Embarcadero Center in SF and the Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia), and how those projects are underappreciated
Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti
Cruise Ships: The Densest (Urban) Environment in the World
Disneyland and Urbanism
Heroic materialist
Green Urbanism, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City, and the Garden City movement
Rehabilitating Walmart
The European Arcade and the Middle Eastern Souk as a model for retail
Height Acts and Restrictions
Narrow Streets
Vancouver and the Zoning Straitjacket
Lot Sizes: Regional Trends and Causes
NYC Suburban Demographics: and the  demographic collapse among the young adult population in wealthy suburbs
Urban growth boundaries

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Korezaan about Transit & Urbanism

aesthetics, Alt Center, Alternative Right, Anime, Architecture, arcology, Art, Asia, Asian Culture, Blade Runner, China, Cities, Culture, Cyberpunk, demographics, Film, Futurism, Ghost in a Shell, Giovanni Dannato, Hong Kong, Immigration, James Howard Kunstler, John C. Portman Jr, Korezaan, Lafayette CA, Laura Foote Clark, Los Angeles, Mass Transit, New Urbanism, Orinda CA, Police, Sam Kevorkian, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, social capital, Social Isolation, Strong Towns, Suburbia, Urbanism, Walnut Creek CA, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Sam Kevorkian talk to Bay Area based blogger and illustrator Korezaan. He blogs at Rezzealaux and has a Facebook Page.

Topics:

Korezaan’s political views, the Euclidean vector towards Giovanni Dannato, and the Alt-Center 
Korezaan’s article BART, Americans, and Attitudes, vs The East which has maps of land use around the BART Stations
Robert Stark’s recent meeting with Korezaan in the Bay Area and some personal observations from the trip
Transit Oriented Development and the lack of housing density around BART Stations
The importance of having retail in or near transit
The importance of pedestrian friendly development
NIMBYism, density, parking, and height limits
How suburbia makes it difficult to form communities and contributes to social isolation
Ethnoburbs
New Urbanism
Housing Crisis: Razib Khan on how $100,000 in Palo Alto is equivalent to $16,000 in St. Louis 
The misconception that suburbs are necessary for family formation
The Upscale East Bay towns of Lafayette and Orinda and Korezaan’s point that these are places where ex-urbanites bring non-suburban culture to the suburbs
Bay Area Greenbelts and Conservation in Hong Kong
Self-contained urban structures, urban oasis’s, the Embarcadero Center, and Elements, Hong Kong above the Kowloon MTR station
The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, Blade Runner, Ghost in a Shell, and Western vs. Eastern Cyberpunk
Korezaan’s artwork featured on his blog Rezzealaux

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews Jasun Horsley

4 Chan, Aleister Crowley, alienation, Architecture, Art, Aspergers Syndrome, Blue Velvet, Cinema, conformity, Culture, David Lynch, Film, Human Bio Diversity, Internet, James Howard Kunstler, Jasun Horsley, Literature, Memes, Mental illness, Occultism, Paul Schrader, Philosophy, Pilleater, Pornography, Psychology, relationships, Sexuality, Social Isolation, Taxi Driver, Travel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Jasun Horsley. He blogs at AUTICULTURE and runs the site Confessions of a Movie Autist

Topics:

Personal experiences with Autism and Aspergers
How society treats people with Aspergers; human alien hybrids
Non-conformity and rejection of social programs
Evolution and Epigenetics
Jasun’s book Homo Serpiens: A Secret History of DNA from Eden to Armageddon, written under the alias Aeolus Kephas
Online subcultures; 4chan culture and Aspergers
The autistic anime reality vision
The occult and meme magic
Jasun’s interest in the Occult as a way to break free from the socially enforced distortion of reality, but latter found it to be an illusion of freedom
How architecture and geography effects psychology
Jasun’s artwork
Jasun’s latest book Seen and Not Seen: Confessions of a Movie Autist
The film Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle as autistic, and the theme of alienation, and violence as a quest for identity
David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet , identifying with Frank Booth, and confronting ones own darkness
Dating advice
Traveling abroad and personal experiences with foreign cultures


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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!




Robert Stark interviews James Howard Kunstler

aesthetics, Alex von Goldstein, American Culture, Architecture, Banking, Consumerism, Corporations, Culture, decentralization, Donald Trump, Dystopia, Economics, Environment, Futurism, Globalization, Historic Preservation, History, Immigration, James Howard Kunstler, Literature, localism, Mass Transit, Mid-Century Modern, New Urbanism, New York, overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Rabbit, Skyscrapers, Suburbia, Urbanism, Wall Street, Water, Zoning

james-kunstler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Rabbit, and Alex von Goldstein talk to writer and social critic, James Howard Kunstler

Topics include:

The history of suburbia
James’ theory of history that things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time
How our auto oriented petroleum based society is unsustainable
How bad urban planing has negative psychological and cultural implications
The role of zoning laws, and how zoning can both encourage and prevent suburban sprawl
The future of suburbia, how some will be retrofitted into walkalble communities, while others will be abandoned
The New Urbanist Movement
Mass immigration and overpopulation
Why James does not view skyscrapers and hyper density as viable alternatives to suburbia
Robert’s point that tall structures can have aesthetic value, and how James acknowledges that the early wave of skyscrapers(ex. Singer Building, Woolworth Building, Manhattan Municipal Building) were beautiful structures but historical flukes
How European cities provide the ideal model for urbanism
Examples of sustainable American cities include Portland, Oregon, Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia
Mass Transit, and why James favors investing in existing rail infrastrusture over new high speed rail
The Streetcar suburb, and how they provide a model for New Urbanism
James’ point that even with alternative energy and technological innovation, we still have to downsize and localize our society and economy
How peak oil will lead to economic and political decentralization
How Peak Oil will make Globalization unsustainable
The future of China and the Arab Gulf States
Pre-War Japan as the best example of an advanced civilization without industrialization
The scarcity of water in the future, and how the inland water system will regain it’s value
Historic Preservation, how the movement was started in the 1960’s in response to the demolition of Pennsylvania Station in NYC, and the debate about what should be preserved
Rabbit makes the case for mid century modern
Capital scarcities in the future, and how mass development is dependent upon the financial system
James’ four book series set in a post economic collapse America, the World Made by Hand


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Robert Stark, Rabbit, & Alex von Goldstein talk about Future Trends & Scenarios

"1984", aesthetics, Alex von Goldstein, American Culture, Basic Income, California, Cities, Class, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Crime, Culture, Donald Trump, Dystopia, Economics, Environment, Eugenics, Film, Futurism, Hipsters, Immigration, income inequality, James Howard Kunstler, Negative Income Tax, New Urbanism, Oligarchy, overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Police State, Politics, Prison, Rabbit, Radical Center, Science Fiction, Soft Totalitarianism, Suburbia, Traditionalism, Transhumanism, Urbanism, US Prison System, Utopia, Wealth, welfare state

Future Trends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topics include:

The conservative concept of self sufficiency( ex.working for a corporation, driving a car, and owning a home, in the suburbs) vs. the traditionalist one(ex.growing your own food), and the futurist one
The traditionalist Larpy goal of a society where everyone grows their own food, and how local agriculture should be encouraged, but it is unrealistic for everyone to be involved in it
The growth of the suburbs, from the original Railroad suburbs of the 19th Century, to the post war car oriented suburban sprawl
How small towns that have access to both urbanism and wilderness are the ideal place to live for those who can afford them(ex. Marin County, Palo Alto, and East Bay Hills in the SF Bay Area, and parts of  North Jersey)
New Urbanism, which seeks to re-create walkable communities out of car oriented suburbs
James Howard Kunstler‘s theory that Peak oil will lead to the death of suburbia and re-creation of localized communities
Future predictions that Peak Oil will lead to a Mad Max style collapse
Conspiracy Theories, the theory that the elites want chaos vs the frog in the boiling pan theory, and Alex’s comment that the elite’s have a short time frame
A Futurist Utopian model that’s ecologically sustainable, where robots do all the work, and that has a Basic income
How a basic income could create a utopia if implemented the right way, but could also be abused by the elites
How the key problem with society is that the elites control to much of the wealth, and the underclass control a large share of the population, and how to remedy that
Mike Judge’s Idiocracy
Transhumanism
The Nineteen Eighty-Four Police State Scenario
The US Prison System, and how inhumane condition only make people more dangerous
How we have open border combined with a surveillance state
How terrorism, “hate speech”, and the underage sex hysteria have been used to justify complete surveillance of the internet
How every political ideology is tied to a cultural aesthetic
Our upcoming show on Retrofuturism, and how Retrofuturism is the perfect aesthetic for Radical Centrism, because they are both based on fusionism


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Check out Robert Stark’s Artwork