Alnur Mussayev: In 1987, I worked in the 6th Department of the KGB of the USSR in Moscow. The most important area of work of the 6th Department was the acquisition of spies and sources of information from among businessmen of capitalist countries. It was in that year that our Department recruited the 40-year-old businessman from the USA, Donald Trump, nicknamed “Krasnov”. ⁂

Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novel - Moonraker - published almost exactly 70 years ago in April 1955 - features a villain who’s a super-rich industrialist and rocket-maker seeking to cause chaos because he’s a secret Nazi. Such a silly idea! ⁂

“In ancient Athens, the world’s first democracy, they had a process called ostracism, where once a year the people could vote on the politician they thought was most destructive to the democratic process. The ‘winner’ was banished from Athens for 10 years.” ⁂

Declaration of Independence: “A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” ⁂

Agnorant: “People who are extremely ignorant, yet are simultaneously extremely arrogant. Example: people who think they know more about science than scientists.” ⁂

Tywin Lannister, Game of Thrones S3E10 “Myhsa”: “Any man who must say ‘I am the king’ is no true king.” ⁂

**The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, Gustave Le Bon (1896): **“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify reror, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” ⁂

Types of Irish folk songs: (1) screw the British Empire; (2) a hot girl got me sent to prison; (3) I’m having a nice time with my friends; (4) whiskey will cure all ills; (5) whiskey will ruin your life; (6) here’s everything that was on this one ship. ⁂