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Come for the games. Stay for the murder. A mystery in the Gordian Division universe. The Weltall Tournament’s professional VR games were supposed to be a symbol of cooperation between SysGov and its militaristic neighbor, the Admin. But that was before star Admin player Elly Sako received a death threat, written in blood next to a copy of her own severed head. The Admin’s Department of Temporal Investigation swiftly seizes control of the crime scene, and the tournament transforms into a flashpoint of charged politics and conflicting jurisdictions. SysPol Detective Isaac Cho and DTI Special Agent Susan Cantrell—partners in the officer exchange program—are sent in to take charge of the investigation and bring the situation under control. But solving this mystery won’t be easy, and the pair struggles to determine who is telling the truth. A jilted relationship between players soon explodes into signs of a far-reaching conspiracy, and the two detectives find themselves racing against time before the tournament ends. Because the killer will be the only one who wins, should they fail. Praise The Janus File: “A satisfying, self-contained mystery for its mismatched protagonists to gradually unravel . . . moments of humor amid the expected culture clashes, and the exploration of the authors’ well-realized far-future world . . . It’s pure entertainment.” —Publishers Weekly Praise for prequel The Gordian Protocol: “Tom Clancy-esque exposition of technical details . . . absurd humor and bloody action. Echoes of Robert Heinlein . . . lots of exploding temporal spaceships and bodies . . . action-packed . . .” —Booklist “[A] fun and thrilling standalone from Weber and Holo. . . . Time travel enthusiasts will enjoy the moral dilemmas, nonstop action, and crisp writing.” —Publishers Weekly Praise for David Weber: “[A] balanced mix of interstellar intrigue, counterespionage, and epic fleet action . . . with all the hard- and software details and tactical proficiency that Weber delivers like no one else; along with a large cast of well-developed, believable characters, giving each clash of fleets emotional weight.” —Booklist “[M]oves . . . as inexorably as the Star Kingdom’s Grand Fleet, commanded by series protagonist Honor Harrington. . . . Weber is the Tom Clancy of science fiction. . . . His fans will relish this latest installment. . . .” —Publishers Weekly “This entry is just as exciting as Weber’s initial offering. . . . The result is a fast-paced and action-packed story that follows [our characters] as they move from reaction to command of the situation. Weber builds Shadow of Freedom to an exciting and unexpected climax.” —The Galveston County Daily News “Weber combines realistic, engaging characters with intelligent technological projection and a deep understanding of military bureaucracy in this long-awaited Honor Harrington novel . . . . Fans of this venerable space opera will rejoice to see Honor back in action.” —Publishers Weekly “This latest Honor Harrington novel brings the saga to another crucial turning point. . . . Readers may feel confident that they will be Honored many more times and enjoy it every time.” —Booklist “[E]verything you could want in a heroine. . . . Excellent . . . plenty of action.” —Science Fiction Age “Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!” —Anne McCaffrey “Compelling combat combined with engaging characters for a great space opera adventure.” —Locus “Weber combines realistic, engaging characters with intelligent technological projection. . . . Fans of this venerable space opera will rejoice . . .” —Publishers Weekly Praise for Jacob Holo: “An entertaining sci-fi action novel with light overtones of dystopian and political thrillers.” —Kirkus on The Dragons of Jupiter “Thrilling . . . sci-fi adventure.” —Kirkus on Time Reavers

The definitive account of the hyperinflation that occurred in the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, Fiat Money Inflation in France is a warning on the dangers of government overspending and the oversupply of paper money. A work of brevity and clarity, it is as relevant today as ever.

“This is an amazing book . . . [Desmet is] one of the true geniuses I’ve spoken to . . . This book has really changed my view on a lot.”—Tucker Carlson “[Desmet] is waking a lot of people up to the dangerous place we are now with a brilliant distillation of how we ended up here.”—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The world continues to exist in the grips of mass formation—a dangerous, collective type of hypnosis—as we bear witness to loneliness, free-floating anxiety, and fear giving way to censorship, loss of privacy, and surrendered freedoms. It is all spurred by a singular, focused crisis narrative that forbids dissident views and relies on destructive groupthink. Desmet’s work on mass formation theory was brought to the world’s attention on The Joe Rogan Experience and in major alternative news outlets around the globe. Read this book—now in paperback, ebook, and audiobook—to get beyond the sound bites! Totalitarianism is not a coincidence and does not form in a vacuum. It arises from a collective psychosis that has followed a predictable script throughout history, its formation gaining strength and speed with each generation—from the Jacobins to the Nazis and Stalinists—as technology advances. Governments, mass media, and other mechanized forces use fear, loneliness, and isolation to demoralize populations and exert control, persuading large groups of people to act against their own interests, always with destructive results. In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow this collective psychosis to take hold. By looking at our current situation and identifying the phenomenon of “mass formation”—a type of collective hypnosis—he clearly illustrates how close we are to surrendering to totalitarian regimes. With detailed analyses, examples, and results from years of research, Desmet lays out the steps that lead toward mass formation, including: * An overall sense of loneliness and lack of social connections and bonds * A lack of meaning—unsatisfying “bullsh*t jobs” that don’t offer purpose * Free-floating anxiety and discontent that arise from loneliness and lack of meaning * Manifestation of frustration and aggression from anxiety * Emergence of a consistent narrative from government officials, mass media, etc., that exploits and channels frustration and anxiety In addition to clear psychological analysis—and building on Hannah Arendt’s essential work on totalitarianism, The Origins of Totalitarianism—Desmet offers a sharp critique of the cultural groupthink that exists throughout society. He cautions against the dangers of our current cultural landscape, media consumption, and reliance on manipulative technologies and then offers simple solutions—both individual and collective—to prevent the willing sacrifice of our freedoms. “We can honor the right to freedom of expression and the right to self-determination without feeling threatened by each other,” Desmet writes. “But there is a point where we must stop losing ourselves in the crowd to experience meaning and connection. That is the point where the winter of totalitarianism gives way to a spring of life.” “One of the most important books I’ve ever read.”—Ivor Cummins, The Fat Emperor Podcast

A comprehensive and authoritative exploration of Bitcoin and its place in monetary history When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few people paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for the final settlement of large payments―a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knockoffs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘block chain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

In this wide-ranging collection of entertaining and thought-provoking essays, Isaac Morehouse shares his original, liberty-minded take on infomercials, Aristotelian ethics, squirrels, and why inflation is like an energy drink. There is, however, a central theme that runs through the whole collection and loosely ties the essays together. That theme is simple: freedom is better than force. Morehouse takes you on the journey of his own transition - from asking what works for society in the abstract to seeking what works for you as an individual. How can you become more free?

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The panic of 1819 was America's first great economic crisis. And this is Murray Rothbard's masterful account, the first full scholarly book on the topic and still the most definitive. It was his dissertation, published in 1962 but nearly impossible to get until this new edition.The American Economic Review was wild for this book when it appeared: "Rothbard's work represents the only published, book-length, academic treatise on the remedies that were proposed, debated, and enacted in attempts to cope with the crisis of 1819," the reviewer wrote. "As such, the book should certainly find a place on the shelf of the study of U.S. business cycles and of the economic historian who is interested in the early economic development of the United States."And specialists have treasured the book for years. It is incredible to realize that some American historians think of M.N. Rothbard as the author of this book and nothing else!The panic of 1819 grew largely out of the changes wrought by the War of 1812, and by the postwar boom that followed. The war also brought a rash of paper money, as the government borrowed heavily to finance the conflict. This would inevitably lead to suspension of specie payments in some parts of the country in 1814.Freed from the shackles of hard money, the suspension of specie led to a boom. When peace came, the so did the bust.But in the end, there was no widespread confusion on what caused the downturn. Instead, it was widely known that false prosperity is a very dangerous thing. It always turns to bust. But unlike today, the government didn't intervene. And precisely because there was no intervention, the panic ended quickly and peacefully.What we have here, then, is not only a dazzling historical account — the research here is deep and thorough, and the prose a model of exposition; it also points the way to how all economic downturns can and should be handled. For that reason, the Panic of 1819 offers important lessons for us today.To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

Desvela los mecanismos ocultos de la dominación mundial con Globalismo: Ingeniería social y control total en el siglo XXI. El exitoso autor Agustín Laje desentraña magistralmente la malvada realidad de nuestro mundo moderno e ilumina las tinieblas de las fuerzas de poder que tratan de controlar a la humanidad. El globalismo no es globalización, sino una demoledora ideología que supone el más ambicioso proyecto de ingeniería social y control total en curso. Institucionalizada en organizaciones que, por definición, no tienen ni patria, ni territorio ni pueblo, esta ideología pretende parir un régimen político antidemocrático de alcance global. Así la soberanía de las naciones se redistribuye entre organizaciones supranacionales como el Foro Económico Mundial o la ONU con su Agenda 2030, liberadas de las limitaciones de los intereses particulares de los pueblos, para coordinar las transformaciones necesarias para nuestra «supervivencia». El globalismo también propone nuevas formas de legitimidad basadas en la tecnocracia y la supuesta filantropía de organizaciones como la Fundación Gates, la Open Society de Soros, y la Fundación Rockefeller. En esta obra, Agustín Laje explica magistralmente el origen y la formación del contrato social de nuestros Estados nacionales sobre una base democrática, mostrando cómo el globalismo busca culpabilizar estas estructuras para llevarnos a un callejón sin salida, donde todo se cede a una gobernanza global no representativa, la máxima expresión de la oligarquía de unos pocos privilegiados a los que nadie votó, y que ante nadie rinden cuentas pero que pretenden dirigir el destino del planeta. El autor llama a todos los actores sociales, políticos, religiosos e intelectuales a unirse contra el globalismo. La paradoja de que los patriotas olviden sus fronteras para esta batalla cultural adquiere un nuevo significado. Conocer la verdad y denunciar la mentira es un arma valiosa que este libro ofrece. Globalism Uncover the secret workings of world domination with Globalism: Social Engineering and Total Control in the 21st Century. Best-selling author Agustín Laje masterfully unravels the sinister reality of our modern world and sheds light on the darkness of the forces of power that seek to control humanity. Globalism is not globalization, but rather a devastating ideology representing the most ambitious social engineering and total-control project currently underway. Institutionalized by organizations such as the World Economic Forum or the UN with its Agenda 2030, Globalism also promotes new forms of legitimacy based on “technocracy” and the supposed philanthropy of organizations such as the Gates Foundation, Soros’ Open Society, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In this book, Agustín Laje skillfully explains the origin and formation of the social contract of our nation-States based on democracy, demonstrating how globalism seeks to blame these structures in order to steer us into a dead-end, where everything is handed over to a non-representative global governance. This represents the ultimate expression of an oligarchy formed by a few privileged elites who were elected by no one and are accountable to nobody, yet aim to dictate the destiny of the planet. The author calls on all social, political, religious, and intellectual figures to unite against globalism. The paradox of patriots disregarding their borders for this cultural battle takes on a new significance. Knowing the truth and denouncing the lie is a valuable weapon that this book offers.

What is at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What does justice demand of us in this conflict? This book clarifies an intimidatingly complex issue—and upends conventional views about America’s stake in it. In this book, Elan Journo explains the essential nature of the conflict, and what has fueled it for so long. What justice demands, he shows, is that we evaluate both adversaries—and America's approach to the conflict—according to a universal moral ideal: individual liberty. From that secular moral framework, the book analyzes the conflict, examines major Palestinian grievances and Israel's character as a nation, and explains what's at stake for everyone who values human life, freedom, and progress. What Justice Demands shows us why America should be strongly supportive of freedom and freedom-seekers—but, in this conflict and across the Middle East, it hasn't been, much to our detriment.

“The most original and probably the most important writer on Magick since Aleister Crowley."—Robert Anton Wilson, author of the Prometheus Rising and other works Peter Carroll’s classic work has been profound influence on the Western magical world and on the practice of chaos magick in particular. In Liber Null and Psychonaut, Carroll presents an approach to the practice of magic that draws on the foundations of shamanism and animism, as well as that found in the Greek magical papyri, the occult works of Eliphas Levi and Aleister Crowley, and the esoteric meditative practices of classical India and China. Also very much at work in the text are 20th century scientific ideas of quantum physics and chaos theory. The result is a profoundly original work of magical studies that also includes a selection of extremely powerful rituals and exercises for committed occultists with instructions that lead the reader through new concepts and practices to achieve Carroll’s definition of magic itself: the raising of the whole individual in perfect balance to the power of infinity. This Weiser Classics edition is a thoroughly revised republication of Liber Null and Psychonaut, first published by Weiser in 1987, and includes a new foreword by Ronald Hutton, a leading authority on modern witchcraft and paganism.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize   A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll “Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, charity, range, wit, beauty, and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event. This is such a work.” —Scientific American   GEB is a unique insight into the nature of “I,” self, soul, and consciousness, centered on a notion that its youthful author dubbed “strange loop,” inspired by the twisty self-referential construction invented by logician Kurt Gödel, whereby a sentence asserts its own unprovability. The book’s chapters alternate with Bach-like contrapuntal dialogues between whimsical characters (especially Achilles and the Tortoise), and each dialogue’s intricate structure exemplifies the notion being discussed in it, thus creating indirect self-reference (a fact unsuspected by the characters). The book, filled with analogies, wordplay, humor, and mind-twisting prints by M. C. Escher, has inspired generations of bright students to study cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.

“If you only read one book this year on America’s unending ‘War on Terror,’ it should be this persuasive and devastatingly damning account of how the United States created the original al Qaeda terrorism threat by its own actions and then increased that threat by orders of magnitude by its wanton killings in one country after another in the name of ‘counter-terrorism.’ Once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop!” — Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner