Hold Your Applause!

[Update 3/30: All books have been shipped out, either 1st class mail (in the US) or international air mail. I still have a few copies left, so if you really really want one, please donate appropriate sum via PayPal to natasha dot same last name as me at gmail.com and we will mail you a copy.]

[Update 3/12: There have been some delays with the printing, and now the books are going to ship from the printer to me next Friday, March 19. They will arrive some time during the following week, and I will get them out to people as quickly as I can. Once again, thank you for your patience.]

[Update 3/7: The books are due from the printer in another week, and there is a big pile of addressed envelopes waiting for them, with first-class postage applied and customs forms filled out. Once the books are finally here, it should take me another week or so for me to sign them all and carry them down to the post office. Thank you for your patience.]

[Update 2/26: the cover thumbnail is now shown as it is printed, not the placeholder that was there up until now.]

Two years and just under a million unique visitors later it is time for this blog to ask for something back. But instead of an endless beg-a-thon, I've decided to give my readers something valuable in return for their donations: anyone who donates in excess of $20 will receive a numbered, autographed copy of a limited edition book which contains five of the most significant (and longest) essays I have published between 2005 and 2009. The meaning of the title should be obvious: since 2005 I have been predicting that the USA will go the way of the USSR, and although many of my detailed predictions of how collapse will unfold have already been reported in the press as facts, and any number of knowledgeable people will tell you that the collapse scenario is a perfectly plausible one, as of this writing the actual, sudden, unmistakable collapse hasn't occurred yet, so don't clap just yet. Nobody can tell you with any certainty exactly when this will occur, or how much longer the various web sites on which my articles have been published will stay up, but obtaining a copy of this book (which I had designed, typeset and printed at my own expense) will put in your hands an odd sort of history book: one written before the historical events it describes take place. Donating to this blog is the only way you can obtain this book, because it is strictly a promotional item and is not designed to be offered for sale. I will send out copies of this limited edition on a first-come-first-serve basis, while supplies last. Please click on the "Donate" button and donate any amount you want, provided it's above $20, to reserve your copy. Please add a little extra for international shipping if you are outside US.  Thank you!