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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

Thanks to every person who donated or subscribed. It continues to astonish me that people who can read my work for free like it enough to donate money voluntarily. Words cannot express my appreciation for that support, especially in these uncertain times.

 

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You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

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British parliament passes Johnson’s Brexit deal while pushing for more delays

The British parliament yesterday finally for the first time passed a deal for leaving the European Union (EU), but then rejected the timetable created by prime minister Boris Johnson to complete that exit by October 31.

The PM [prime minister] did tonight what Theresa May was unable to do in three years – get a majority in the Commons to actually leave the EU. Boris this evening said it was “joyful” that MPs had finally “embraced a deal”.

But minutes later the PM tonight lost his vote 308 – 322 on the crucial timetable motion, leaving his promise to get us out of the bloc by Halloween in tatters. Furious MPs had claimed they didn’t have enough time to look at the 100 page bill.

The PM revealed he would put the Brexit Bill on ice and hit “pause” while the EU consider what to do.

Whether Johnson will have the UK leave at the end of the month, deal or no deal, remains unclear. It increasingly looks like the EU will not give an extension, so if parliament sticks to its guns on rejecting the timetable then the exit will occur on October 31st with no deal. Johnson in turn might also trigger a general election in response.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • Andrew_W

    The EU game is to frustrate Brexit, so they’ll do whatever is necessary to delay or prevent it – so they’ll approve the extension.

    For the UK to have an early election it needs to be approved by 2/3rds of the house, if there were to be an election, on current polling the Labour Party would lose many of their MP’s, so there will not be and early election.

  • MDN

    It’s refreshing at least to know that we aren’t the only disfunctional democracy. It is disappointing however to see that it tends to be the progressive parties that increasingly are willing to go to the mattresses when they can’t get their way.

  • The book ‘Suicide of the West’ (Richard Koch and Chris Smith 2006) goes a ways toward explaining what we are watching.

  • Robert Pratt

    Blair, I don’t know that one but Suicide of the West by James Burnham is an absolute must-read classic.

  • Col Beausabre

    OK, Let’s go back to the ur-text, Ostwald Spengler’s “Decline of the West” (1918)

  • Col., on your recommendation I’ll pick up a copy. The Wikipedia article appears to give a good overview of the work, and I’ve read some of Spengler’s influencing authors. Should be interesting.

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