Raymond Craib

Green Freeports, Black Holes in Democracy: How Kate Forbes Helped Hand Scotland Over To A Corporate Governance System When the Scottish Government announced with fanfare in 2022 that two "Green Freeports" — Inverness & Cromarty Firth and Forth — would anchor Scotland’s transition to a “clean energy future,” the headl...

My latest Substack article is free to read, and focuses on Kate Forbes of the SNP's signing off on 2 Scottish 'Green' Freeports with Michael Gove in 2022.
open.substack.com/pub/european...

Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I. Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.

Today, the word “Luddite” is used as an insult to anyone resistant to technological innovation. But a recent book argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.

Kennedy Curse Sure Taking Its Sweet Time With RFK Jr.

Kennedy Curse Sure Taking Its Sweet Time With RFK Jr.

Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery A beautifully illustrated children's book on the life of Benjamin Lay, a courageous little person who stood tall against oppression.

Help us reach our goal! We’re in the final stage of the campaign to support @pmpress.bsky.social‬ as it publishes our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin*! Now is the time, when children’s books are being banned and libraries purged. Link below for donor’s perks.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3...

What Is the Network State (and Why You’re Already In One) Sovereignty by Code, Rule by Wallet, and the End of the Social Contract

You didn’t opt in. You were absorbed.
Palantir runs your backend.
Your ID is rented.
And the exit signs lead to billionaires.

New drop: What Is the Network State (and Why You’re Already In One)

#SignalArchives #NetworkState #Project2025

The Private Fiefdom as Planetary Project | Los Angeles Review of Books Raymond Craib reviews five new books to show that we ignore “Freedom Cities” and proprietary states at our peril.

nice coverage. this may interest you also:

lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

Desert Land-and-Sky-Scapes: Drawing on a Rich Emptiness | Surprised Eel Maps Get more from Surprised Eel Maps on Patreon

I've been drawing desert spaces this week, and I took a few minutes this morning to write about the appeal of deserts spaces. It's a bit about the art, and a bit about my own thinking.

The post is free and available to the public, so give it a read.
www.patreon.com/posts/135214...

Highland Rim : le paradis secret réservé aux startupeurs croyants Des startupers religieux rêvent de bâtir dans les zones rurales des États-Unis, des enclaves chrétiennes ultra-connectées. Soutenu par New Founding, un fonds d’investissement conservateur, le projet H...

Getting some attention in France too—

www.numerama.com/politique/20...

Highland Rim : le paradis secret réservé aux startupeurs croyants Des startupers religieux rêvent de bâtir dans les zones rurales des États-Unis, des enclaves chrétiennes ultra-connectées. Soutenu par New Founding, un fonds d’investissement conservateur, le projet H...

here’s more: www.numerama.com/politique/20...

Highland Rim : le paradis secret réservé aux startupeurs croyants Des startupers religieux rêvent de bâtir dans les zones rurales des États-Unis, des enclaves chrétiennes ultra-connectées. Soutenu par New Founding, un fonds d’investissement conservateur, le projet H...

Good brief on another conservative exit/network state project that looks mostly like a real estate grift

www.numerama.com/politique/20...

A classic I use every year in my foreign policy/latin america class

Zone Fever is shaping up to be another 'Don't Look Up' catastrophe, all the pieces are in place, but the MSM refuses to investigate the real dangers of deregulated free zones, they seriously impact on all aspects of public infrastructure.
Please follow me, and read my research💚

Subway-style map of the itinerary in The Hobbit. The main journey is show in three different lines: red (Hobbiton to Goblin Town); green (Goblin Town to the Elvenking's Halls); and blue (Elvenking's Halls to Erebor). There are multiple stops on these lines. There is a yellow line going back from Erebor to Hobbiton, making stops at Beorn's Hall, Rivendell, and the Troll's Lair. There is an orange line directly from the Iron Hills on the map's right side to Erebor, and a purple line from Gundabad directly to Erebor. The map's title reads: "Hobbit Transit Map" and there are directions for both There and Back Again listing the lines and transfer points. Between them, in the middle of the page, is a dragon drawn to resemble the dragon on Thror's Map from The Hobbit. A key shows the names of each colored line: Red: Western Lands Line Green: Mountains and Forests Line Blue: Barrel Line Yellow: Gandalf Express Orange: Iron Hills Business Line Purple: Orc and Goblin Reserve Line Text at the bottom right reads Surprised Eel Maps, 2025

Subway style map to go with The Lord of the Rings, showing the different pathways of various parties throughout the book. The title reads: "Lord of the Rings Transit Map: One Does Not Simply Walk Ino Mordor When One Can Ride." The map takes up the middle part of the page, and there are two keys. The one on the left is titles "Standard Service Lines, and has color keys matched to the subway lines on the map. Lines are named: "Shire-Bree Commuter Line Old Forrest Crescent Wildland Scenic Line Fellowship Line Gollum / Sméagol Line Uruk Hai Express Three Hunters Line Fangorn Slow Service Rohan to Gondor Business Line Black Ships Ferry Service Oliphant Direct Line Army of the West Line Gandalf Express A smaller key on the right side of the map is labeled: "Limited Service Lines" and has color keys matched to the following names lines: "Eagle Express Paths of the Dead Line Nazgûl Search & Resuce Valinor Ltd." Two notes at the bottom read: "* Mount Doom station only accepts Rings of Power in payment. Plan accordingly. + Transfer voucher for ferry service at Grey Havens station is for outbound tafle only."

Over the weekend I drew these two subway maps for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and shared them. A lot of you asked about purchasing them, and now you can!

You can buy one or both (as digital files or as prints) at my brand new Etsy shop:

surprisedeelmaps.etsy.com

The Mieville piece is excellent. Appeared in Mike Davis’s and Daniel Bertrand Monk’s Evil Paradises. So much of Mieville’s work speaks to this stuff (The Scar; The City and The City; among others)….

This is a badge of honor for my profession: we ask the inconvenient, revealing questions that expose hollow men like Charlie Kirk.

Capital’s new vanguard pursues a planetary project of jurisdictional arbitrage for the rich. Our essay of the week examines the techno-libertarian fantasy of private sovereignty as the political endgame of neoliberalism.

By @raycraib.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

buff.ly/8VUg79R

superb!
@alltoosuman.bsky.social

#BookSky

Behind so many of these “culture” projects are basic real-estate-meets-sovereign-individual schemes—-i.e., primitive accummulation

Revealed: far-right figures try to create Christian nationalist ‘haven’ in Kentucky Venture fund and real estate startup linked to far-right groups promote residential development as community for rightwingers

EXIT Start-Up Zones for right-wing Christian communities will adopt zone fever in the US to exclude anyone who doesn't align with their ideology.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

“Entrepreneurship”…. code for so many things…..

Learning about the Highland Rim project (Christian nationalist network state?). Part of something called New Founding. Explicitly anti-DEI, as if board composed of 8 white guys didn’t give it away.
@europeanpowell.bsky.social
@larryglickman.bsky.social
@gilduran.com
@davetroy.com

Petition: Transparency and Review of the free zones and ports impacts To ensure full transparency by releasing data on governance, funding, and operations of free zones. Plus a public review to assess impacts, such as job displacement and value for taxpayers money

My petition calling for transparency on the UK Govt’s free zones has been published, the deadline to sign falls on the 30th December 2025, that’s about 6 months.
Please sign and share this petition widely. Thank you.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

I hadn’t heard of them before and didn’t know what they were, so I read up on them via authors like Raymond Craib, Matt Kennard, Claire Provost, Naomi Klein and Quinn Slobodian, and more recently Gil Duran.

From the same guy who, discussing Pinochet and other authoritarians, blithely defended the radical privatizations of the economy even though, of course, “in no case were reforms brought on by popular demand for market oriented ideas per se.” Well, gee. Swell!

Very much looking forward to this!!!

The Private Fiefdom as Planetary Project

The Private Fiefdom as Planetary Project

The Hidden Globe by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian | Penguin Random House Canada Borders draw one map of the world; money draws another. A journalist’s riveting account exposes a parallel universe exempt from the laws of the land, and how the wealthy and powerful benefit from it.

New book borrow from @glindsay.bsky.social on the world of charter cities, free trade zones, flags of convenience, and other liminal zones:

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World. Riverhead Books, 2024.

Written by @atossaaraxia.bsky.social :

The Private Fiefdom as Planetary Project | Los Angeles Review of Books Raymond Craib reviews five new books to show that we ignore “Freedom Cities” and proprietary states at our peril.

I cover a chunk of this in this recent review. The stuff is proliferating at a significant pace and no longer fringe.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

Just like Musk, who is only a billionaire because he's really good at milking taxpayer subsidies to save his firms from bankruptcy, Andreesen is a billionaire due to US taxpayer largesse--in the form of National Science Foundation grants supporting his research, which he then privatized for profit.