When Liberal Democracy is Optional How existential politics made the middle not just weak, but illegitimate

When Liberal Democracy is Optional
How existential politics made the middle not just weak, but illegitimate

Part 2 of a 3 part series

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No Center to Hold The moderate majority exists. The structure that would let it govern does not.

No Center to Hold

The moderate majority exists. The structure that would let it govern does not.

This is the first of a three-part series on the structural impossibility of political moderation in the United States.

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My Inner Poet Made Me a Better Engineer What happened when English became part of the program

My Inner Poet Made Me a Better Engineer

What happened when English became part of the program

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Force Majeure: From Acts of God to Acts of Humans A gulf state, birthday balloons, and a two-week clock.

Another headline caught my attention and once again, out came my pen.

Force Majeure: From Acts of God to Acts of Humans.
A gulf state, birthday balloons, and a two-week clock.

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Yuan-for-Oil in the Strait of Hormuz De-dollarization isn't imminent. But the early signals have a shape.

A disconcerting headline made me grab my pen.

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Agents See Poor Service as Damage And Route Around It Ticketmaster thought a bot was hitting its system and Ticketmaster thwarted it.

My latest. A true story.

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Looking down the wing of a glider at another glider under deep blue sky with bright white clouds.

Glider wingman.

Rain streaks on airplane canopy.

Snow on the ground, blue skies and mountains in the back.

Decrepit telegraph poles and lines, deep in the Sierras.

Wide shot of Las Vegas with cloud shadows, and foothills in the foreground.

I might have found Cíbola. 😸

Trona Pinnacles, Mohave Desert.

The Tale, The Teller, The Told © 2025 Kurt Thams.

New Fiction.

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The Concerts are Scheduled The robins are concertmasters

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SFO seen from 1000 feet above, just to the west

Looking out to the horizon, two areas of pink orange from the sunset. Mountains in the medium distance snow everywhere.

Sunset over Steamer Lane surf break, with big well-defined waves.

Steamer Lane is a world-class surf break, and I should have been on the water instead of in the air.

San Pablo Bay from a small airplane, at sunset

San Pablo Bay

Spectacular view of astronauts returning from the International Space Station. Heard the sonic boom in the distance. They are down safe.

The ratio of what I write to what I share is too low.

I'm fixing that.

Here's today:

Wordle has a funny Scoring System

Skill, Information Theory, and the Strange Power of Score Blocks

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This game is like I got caught smoking a baseball and now I have to smoke a whole pack of baseball

So far, even better than volume 1

If you have suffered that indignity, but want to take a second whack, I can’t recommend this book enough.

It’s particularly relevant as some national leaders work to undo things that have kept the world largely at peace, and profoundly growing, over the last 70 years.

/6 (fin)

Most of us have been forced to sit through at least one eye-glazing economics class. It’s a shame because when you grab the subject in context rather than in abstract charts and formulas, it can’t *help* but be fascinating.

/5

The book tells the story of the people who transformed the global monetary system, and did so, and only could do so, because of the horrors of the two world wars. These were machinations of some brilliant minds who wanted to make sure there wasn’t a third.

/3

It can do that because the stakes to remake the world financial system in the 1940s could not have been higher. The intrigue was real. It involved personal and national jockeying for vast power. Oh, and money money. Lots and lots of money. And spying.

/2

Normally, I only make these postings when I’m far enough to know a book is a keeper. This one I’m doing again at the conclusion. It’s a unique book appearing at a unique time. It is historical fiction, and it’s very good on the history, but reads like a page-turner spy novel.

/1

Spy fiction set before US entry into World War II, but the actors are from the US Treasury, trying to wreak economic havoc on the Nazis. It’s a good read, and you don’t need to be a macroeconomics geek to enjoy it.

But it definitely helps. 🥳

“The guiding spirit of Instagram isn’t Rumi. It’s Hobbes.”

On not being a bystander. Bright reading on a rainy morning. We have heard the message before, but here rendered with new depth and critical nuance.

Every year there is a first morning that I get to be present for the crescendo of bird song that happens most exuberantly in spring time.