Category: Fund Raising Page 1 of 4

What is says in the title!

We’ve raised a little over $1,500 over the last day, from sixteen people, out of our goal of $12,500. This helps us cover the changeover of hegemony from America to China, environmental collapse, internal US fascism, what a better society would look like, Gaza, AI, the coming stock market crash and various other issues. It’d be great if you can help out (please don’t donate if your financial situation is dire.) You can Subscribe or Donate here or contact me at admin-at-ianwelsh-dot-net if you need another way to donate (mail, usually. A lot of cash apps don’t work in Canada.)

This blog runs on reader subscriptions and donations. Reading it is free, and always will be, but it does take money to run the site and keep myself fed and sheltered. Every year (except one time when I was sick and forgot) I do an annual fundraiser, and the funds raised are what make the blog viable.

Over the last few years I’ve been writing mostly about the hegemonic changeover from America to China. Long predicted, this is still a rare event, happening only every century or so, and it’s fascinating to be living thru it. I still plan on covering it, but I think regular readers get the point.

What I plan on writing more about is what the future looks like, and what it takes to run a “good” society. We don’t have a lot of those right now, and putting down the markers for what is required to create one is important. Equally, we need to understand how good societies fail. As an example FDR created a much better America for Americans, but he left open some “windows of wealth” like taxing capital gains at much less than income. It took a while for the rich to turn into oligarchs by driving a tank thru this opening, but they managed it.

China before Xi was in vast danger of turning into an oligarchy. Corruption was rampant, and China was minting billionaires, and they were using their wealth to buy influence and power. Xi shut that down, hard. China avoided a trap which would have turned its rise, at best, into a Chinese Gilded Age and might well have derailed it entirely.

Many such traps come along, and sometimes countries recover before the harm is insoluble.

Sometimes they don’t.

So I’ll be writing more about such issues, about the future effects of climate change on governance and general life and so on.

We have two new writers, Sean Paul Kelley and Nat Wilson Turner. They cover issues I only touch on, Sean Paul is a trained historian, and former institutional broker at Morgan Stanley who has visited more countries than not–65 and counting, and Nate is good at the “bloggy” stuff, as well as (though he hasn’t written about it yet for us) the principles of ideology and how it determines history.

We’ll also make some serious predictions. Most of the big picture events I predicted over the last twenty years have either come to pass, or are in process now, like the rise of China, the fall of America, the immiseration of Americans, the rise of authoritarianism, undeniable climate change, the fall of Crimea, the 2008 financial collapse and so on. We’re due for another financial collapse, and I’ll discuss why, how it will most likely play out, why it’ll be the last one which can be “papered over” and put it in the context of the US’s demotion to regional great power.

In terms of fundraising goals, for every two thousand dollars we raised, I’ll write a long article on one of the “Laws of Heaven”, the principles which create and sustain good societies, in Machiavelli style dictums.

One of these is the “Law of the Predator”.

Anyone who will take what they want from someone weaker than them cannot be allowed to have any power.

Rules such as these, and “keep the rich poor” are foundational. When we don’t follow them, usually without realizing we are, our societies inevitably rot and turn into something hellish for the majority of people.

Readership is up a fair bit this year, even after removing bots. People want to read what is written here. But to write, money is, alas, necessary. I hope you will subscribe or donate. The goal is $12,500, the same as last year. If you’re personally in financial trouble, if food or shelter is an issue, please don’t give. If not, and you value this blog, please do.

SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TO IAN’S 2025 FUNDRAISER

(Afterword. If you had a subscription and think it’s still running, please check. When credit cards change, the subscription ends. I always let people know, but email messages don’t always get thru. If you can’t use paypal to donate, let me know. Snail mail still works or if you’re Canadian, an Interac transfer. (Most US cash apps do not work in Canada. You can reach me at admin-at-ianwelsh-dot-net, about this or anything else.)

Times are hard for a hell of a lot of people and I’m very grateful to everyone who’s given this year.

We have raised approximately $9,350 out of a goal of $13,000.

Along the way we’ve unlocked six book reviews.

1. “India Is Broken”
2. “The Invention of Capitalism”
3. “One Disease, One Cure” by Whip Randolph
4. “The Sociology of Philisophies”
5. “MITI and the Japanese Mircale”
6. “Wealth and Democracy” by Kevin Phillips.

At $10,000 I’ll write an article on one of the fundamental processes which keeps societies together and breaks them up.

I’m going to add another book review at $11,000 and $12,000. If we reach $11,000 I’ll review “A Paradise Built In Hell”, which is about how during and after catastrophes people pull together, help each other and made the community wonderful.

If we reach $12,000 I’ll review “Why Read Marx Today?” by Wolff.

At $13,000 (should we make it) I’ll write an article on the weaknesses of North American style police, and how a determined and ruthless opponent could take advantage of those weaknesses to rip them a new one.

If anyone still intends to make to a large donation, please consider doing it as a matching donation: those do usually work.

Again, I appreciate everyone who’s given, and all my readers. These years of writing for you have been very worthwhile.

SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TO OUR 2024 FUNDRAISER

This blog has been around since 2009. I had just stepped down as managing editor of FireDogLake (one of the larger progressive blogs of the time) after editorial direction disagreements. Running FDL was a seventy hour a week job for not very much money, you had to really believe in it. I had for most of my run, and under my editorship readership increased about 70%. After the election the site kept most of the readers who had started following it during the 2008 election, but I had lost my belief in the direction the site was to take. (The publisher trumps the managing editor.)

I still wanted to keep my foot in, so I threw this place up and in a fit of non-inspiration figured “fuck it, I’ll just use my name.”

Any blog this longstanding has a mix of good and bad, but there’s a lot I’m proud of. This collection of articles on character and ideology, for example. Over the years there have been troughs and peaks—ideas burst out, then there are periods of contemplation, then they come again.

I’m hoping to keep going, and to see a few more peaks and troughs. We’re up at a little over $8,300. That puts us past the second goal, adding three more books. One of them will be “MITI and the Japanese Miracle.” Industrialization and re-industrialization are among the topics of our age, and Japan pioneered the Asian model which China has since used to take the world by storm. Another will be “The Sociology of Philosophies”, which rambles over thousands of years of European, Chinese and Indian philosophy. With its rules of small numbers, the consolidation of the weak, the splitting of the strong and so on it offers both a look at the internal workings of intellectual communities and the circumstances which allow them to prosper, or which choke them into insipidness.

At $10,000, which is about 1,700 away, I’ll write an article on one of the fundamental processes, perhaps the fundamental process which keeps society together and how it renews or fails.

Thanks to all who have donated and to all my readers. It’s been a lovely and lively journey, hopefully you’ll be here with me for years more travel towards that horizon which is as far as we can imagine.

SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TO OUR 2024 FUNDRAISER

We’ve raised something over $5,400 since the fundraiser started, meaning we’ve reached the first goal of $4K and our $2,500 out from $7,000 tier, at which point I’ll do 3 reviews of important books. At 10K, which is $4,600 out, I’ll write an article on:

…the fundamental process which keeps society together, how it fails and renews and under what conditions it fails to renew.

And at $13,000, I’ll write:

an article on the weaknesses of North American style police, and how a determined and ruthless opponent could take advantage of those weaknesses to rip them a new one.

I really appreciate everyone who’s given. Donations and subscriptions from readers which have kept this blog alive and running. Times are hard, since Covid each fundraiser has become more difficult, because people are hurting, in particular from inflation.

I think this is a place where we tell the truth as we know it and where we try to make educated guesses about what the future holds. Every year it seems there are fewer places like this left.

If you’re in trouble financially, if food or shelter or medicine is an issue, please don’t give.

But if you can afford it, and you like my writing, I’d appreciate it if you did.

SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TO OUR 2024 FUNDRAISER

Without subscribers, this blog wouldn’t exist and I’d be homeless.

What I didn’t expect about subscription is that of the twenty to thirty I lose every year, only two or three are because people cancel.

Instead what happens is one month I get a notice that “payment has failed.” This is almost always because credit card details like the number or expiration date have changed. PayPal doesn’t tell subscribers, so I try and let them know, but most of the time I don’t get thru.

So, if you subscribe, I’m asking you to check if the subscription is still active. You may think it is, but don’t be so sure. You can do this by checking your credit card payments for the last month, or if you have a PayPal account, thru them.

If you find you aren’t subscribed, and you want to be, you’ll need to start a new subscription, which you can do on my subscription and donation page.

And to all subscribers and donors: past, present or future—Thank you.

As blogs go this one has been around for a long time. It started a political/economic/financial blog back in 2009, but over the years I’ve written less and less about finance and politics and turned to topics I consider more important. As the amount of “red meat” has gone down, the readership hasn’t, and I’m grateful.

When I hear from readers, they usually give one of two reasons for liking the blog:

1. It makes them feel less alone. Less like the crazy one. The Mississippi sized torrent of BS pouring thru most media will have you believing right is wrong, black is white, Covid is non airborne, Israel is humane and Russia is losing. The centrists are reasonable, the right is misguided, but the left is the true evil. Finding a place where the information stream isn’t full of shit and there are others who who seek the truth is a relief.
2. They learn from it. Quite a few people have written to express their gratitude in having their world views and their expectations of what’s going to happen in the future change to something more realistic, and hopefully more humane.

As for myself, I try to write articles that interest me and which are at least one of interesting to readers, important for understanding the world, or useful to my readership.

Every year (except once when I forgot because I was in the hospital), I do an annual fundraiser. The money raised supports me so I can keep writing. You can subscribe or donate. If you value my writing and want to see more of it, I hope you will.

This year we’ve got four goals. Each unlocks a writing project. Subscriptions count as three times their nominal value.

At $4,000 I’ll do three book reviews. Barring serious illness, one in November, December and January. The first will  be “India is Broken”, because no, Virginia, India is not going to be the next China. The second will be “The Invention of Capitalism,” about primitive accumulation: or how people were forced into factories, had their land stolen and so on. The third will be “Wealth and Democracy” by Kevin Phillips, one of the most important books I ever read.

At $7,000 I’ll do three more book reviews based on what I’m interested in at the time, again one a month. If you have nominees you’d like to see reviewed, feel free to suggest in comments.

At $10,000 I’ll write an article on the fundamental process which keeps society together, how it fails and renews and under what conditions it fails to renew.

At $13,000 I’ll write an article on the weaknesses of North American style police, and how a determined and ruthless opponent could take advantage of those weaknesses to rip them a new one.

Every dollar you give helps me. If you like my writing and you can afford to give (please don’t if you’re short yourself) I’d appreciate if you did.

SUBSCRIBE OR DONATE TO OUR 2023 FUNDRAISER

I’m going to bring the fundraiser to an end on Friday. We’re c.$900 short of the final goal. If we reach it I’ll write an article about the Medieval credentials/academic crisis. The remaining chapters of “Creation of Reality” which were part of the fundraiser will be published over the next week or two, in between more topical articles.

I’m very grateful to everyone who has given. Thank you.

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