This will be one to keep an eye on, a week long series that features an interview with the authors of How Democracies Die [book review here]
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/08/how-democracies-die-by-steven-levi...
The intro to the interview:
There is an opening for the Tuesday Open Thread if anyone would like to take/try it. If so contact me via Private Messaging or the "Contact Us" link in the header at the top of the page, or let me know in this essay. To PM me click "Messages" in the header at the top of the page, then click "Write new message" and type my username (JtC) in the "To" field and type the subject and message then click "Send message".
In addition we will be going offline periodically the next week or two for regular maintenance and updates. I'll try to do most of it late at night, probably around 12:00 midnight central time. I'll try to keep the downtime as brief as possible.
Thanks in advance.
Lots of energy in the build-up to a new moon. A time for a re-gathering of forces to work in y(our) favor. Well met and well parted.
Bitcoin advocates like to think that cryptocurrencies will replace regular money. So you would think that they would be keen to show how useful it is at a bitcoin conference.
So what the heck is Carillion and why should we care?
The company that runs Britain is near to collapse. Watch and worry: Carillion builds schools, roads, hospitals – and it’s meant to be a big part of HS2. What’s more, if it goes bust, the bill will be picked up by taxpayers
Why we should care:
A Mexican cartel chief, Jorge Roman, once called the drug war ‘a sham put on the American tax-payer’ that was ‘actually good for business’.
The only thing the drug cartels fear is legalization.
Were he alive today, how sad and sick he would be to know that it’s still true 50+ years later, and that the Empire hadn’t heeded his visionary warnings. But of course, his socialist, radical warnings were what got him assassinated, weren’t they? That the amerikan military budget is now close to a trillion dollars, and that this President has even upped the ante on Obama’ Nuclear Posture, according to leaked documents on the DoD’s draft means the hegemonic impulses of the Empire are more frantic than ever, which many radical leftists believe indicates an Empire in its final throes.
I have two infuriating articles about homelessness, and then one beautiful story.
Erdogan: we will 'strangle' U.S.-backed force in Syria "before it's even born"
(Reuters) - Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Monday to "strangle" a planned 30,000-strong U.S.-backed force in Syria "before it's even born," as Washington's backing for Kurdish fighters drove a wedge into relations with one of its main Middle East allies.
