fascists

A sinister tale from Iraq. But does anyone else find the scariest bit that the mystery voice who threatened her identified itself as the “Kata’eb al-Jihad”? Yes, that’s Kata’eb as in the Lebanese Phalange’s Arabic name. Not that the originals would have had any truck with jihad, but it strikes me that it’s a great…

Read More We are the goonsquad and we’re coming to town

My thoughts on the Thai coup, free signup required. Which will explain the title. Interesting to see the classic model coup in action again. Turkey in 1997 had the so-called “virtual coup”, when the army didn’t actually leave barracks but did cause the government to fall by indicating its displeasure. But this was your Bolivian…

Read More Thax loss

St. Helena, the British island in the Atlantic Narrows where Napoleon was confined, is not well known as a centre for dubious financial activities, unlike many other bits of residual empire (the Caymans, Gibraltar, Turks & Caicos, British Virgin Islands etc). This appears to be changing. A website has appeared advertising something called safeholder.com, which…

Read More St. Helena and a Nonexistent State