Morning coffee thoughts: I think it's important to remember that we are a part of the network effect. By using nostr, we make it stronger and more useful. By being bitcoiners, we make it stronger and more useful. However, if we cloister ourselves too much or for too long, we decrease the positive impact we, as individuals, can have. So, I think it's important that we remember to interact with other parts of the world. So, when we're out in the world dealing with normies, I think it's important to bring something positive to as many interactions as as we can. If we bring something positive in small, seemingly unimportant interactions with others, it's more likely that they'll be receptive if they find us talking about nostr or bitcoin or anything else. If this is true, then we need not, in most cases, try to orange or purple pill people. We just need to be a positive memory, even a small one, when they discover that we are nostr users or bitcoiners. And, rereading this before I post, I'm not sure if my coffee has taken effect yet. But, hey, I'll post it anyway in case it makes sense to some people.

When I was young growing up in the American Midwest in the late 80's through early 90's, I would have begged my father for this. Be would have laughed at me and told me to go get the chickens back in the coop.

I think much of the mainstream is missing the mark by focusing on the Yuan displacing the Dollar. No one currency needs to displace the Dollar for the Dollar to fail as the reserve currency. All that must happen is that trade be denominated in anything other than the Dollar. Trade can b be denominated in any number of currencies that aren't the Dollar and the effect will be the same. It's not about the Dollar being replaced by something specific, it's just about the Dollar being dropped. And it looks to me like that's happening very fast now. It's not a new thought, but, of course, "first gradually, then suddenly." The fun part is that this is all incredibly bullish for bitcoin adoption. Countries aren't known for their trust in one another. And while multi-currency international trade could work fairly well in the short term, in the long term they'll seek out what bitcoin has to offer.

I've been thinking about the percentage of international trade moving to a bitcoin standard or would take to force most nations to stay formally holding bitcoin on their balance sheets. At the moment, I'm just guessing and running through scenarios. Obviously, if one of the largest economies made the shift, others wold have to move in that direction. But how many mid-sized or smaller economies would it take? (I'm wording this awkwardly because I haven't throughly thought the problem through yet. My apologies.) Does anyone have any ideas on how I could come up with a general number? Does anyone have any links to any good articles on the subject? Thanks, friends.

Just getting of the second iteration of Operation Chokepoint

I'm not sure why Yellen is worried about bitcoin hurting the the dollar's status as the reserve currency. As much as I would love to see bitcoin be the reason the dollar gets dropped, the BRICS and the Yuan pose a far greater threat to the dollar's reverse status. If Yellen and her boss had any sense at all, they would be doing everything in their power to move to a bitcoin standard to avoid losing the dollar hegemony to another nation's currency. The US would certainly still loss lose a great deal of monetary and national power. But, if the choice is to lose that power to a foreign nation or to a decentralized ledger controlled by no one, it only makes sense to give that power to a no one. As it us going right now, the Administration is giving away its power to the CCP and I don't see advantage for the US in doing that. All of that being said, I've never been under the impression that the political class has ever been all that great at critical thinking or decision making. I'm not surprised by any of this. But it's still a powerful degree of "not smart" happening.

I was just able to zap a note. WoS may be back up.

So, I just shared some of #[0] and #[1] 's videos on Facebook, which is the only place I have any audience. I'm mostly off of the platform, but since a few people still listen to me there, I hope they help them. Thanks, Crypto Couple for producing those for me to share.

I keep asking myself how long the IMF will have any relevance. The International Mafia Fund exists on USDs, afterall. Once the IMF is functionally dead, I'm thinking it opens the door for more bitcoinazation for developing nations, who realistically need it the most. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

As someone with moderate colorblindness, I kind of hate the the nostr color is purple. Until I got some EnChroma glasses, purple was just some sort of conspiracy to me. I was 38 years old before I actually saw the color for the first time. But, I tend to not wear my glasses indoors or while looking at my phone, which is how I generally scroll nostr. So, all of this nostr art is just a bunch of giant blue birds to me. I don't need any blue birds in my life. Okay, okay... I don't actually care. I'm just bored and drinking a beer on a cold Saturday afternoon. Carry on.

My current favorite passtime is watching YouTube investment and trading channels. Not because I want their advice, but rather because I am getting a kick out of all the interesting ways they're seeing things breaking. The comedy is that I'm not sure that most of them are wrong even though a lot of them are focusing the blame of different things from one another. I mean, I don't think that people suffering is funny. But I do find it comical that so many things are broken that no one can agree on which broken things are causing problems today.