Political leaders don't need to be knowledgeable about everything. They must capably protect the homeland, allow citizens the freedom to pursue good, and not impose evil. It’s obvious what the choice is in the US this year.

“This deeply secularist, post-modern society knows who its enemy is, they’re naming it, and we should believe them. They’re telling us who they are. We should believe them. But furthermore, we Christians, we Catholics should not be sheepish. We should resist. We should make our voices heard.”

X (formerly Twitter)

Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) on X

Friends, my thoughts on the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. #Olimpiadas2024 #OlympicGames

Report | The Nakamoto Project

I appreciate the effort put into this report; it has excellent information. However, a statement that stuck out to me that we should do our best to avoid is: "Bitcoin ownership is apolitical." Bitcoin ownership is political. Owning Bitcoin is a statement about who controls the money in a polity. It's possible the authors meant Bitcoin is not partisan, which their data supports, but that is a very different meaning than "political." I fear framing Bitcoin as apolitical is naively walking into a bear trap. There are undoubtedly political opponents to Bitcoin owners, and we should take note of that. Instead of viewing Bitcoin as "apolitical" to explain the non-partisan support, I hypothesize that Bitcoin ownership ranges across party lines because our "conservative" and "liberal" political parties are just different flavors of liberalism. People are growing dissatisfied with the current political order because they are dissatisfied with what liberalism has produced: rampant inequality, an authoritative ruling class, and increasing social isolation. I would guess people who are harmed by the current liberal order support Bitcoin in way more proportion than those who benefit from it, which doesn't break down cleanly between party lines. Furthermore, I suggest that Bitcoin is not only a political tool; it has the potential to re-orient our political parties into liberals, those satisfied with the status quo, and "post-liberals," those trying to effect change. Expect Bitcoin to become even more prominent in the political discourse.

“When powerful people use their power for self-interest, as a master over slaves, this has the social consequence of transforming the people, over time, into people who are servile.” Good read:

NEWPOLITY

Capitalism Produces Socialism — NEWPOLITY

Socialism only emerges from the logic of Liberalism.

Political: “of or pertaining to a polity, civil affairs, or government.” Humans are political animals. What we support is a political statement. Bitcoin is a political tool.

“He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” (Mark 6:7, 13) There are still demons in the world, and the Church has been commissioned to the front lines of the spiritual battlefield.

Is he not the τέκτων? In today's Gospel reading, we learn about Jesus’s profession before his ministry. The evangelists tell us little about Jesus’s life between the age of 12, when he was lost in the temple, and 30, when he started his ministry, except that he was a “carpenter.” However, I think there is more to this word than the traditional translation portrays. The etymology of tektōn (Latinized) derives from the root techn-, meaning art or skill. It's where we get the modern English words architect or technology. It's believed that Jesus worked as a builder in Sepphoris, a new town within walking distance of his hometown of Nazareth. His work could have inspired the basis of his parables: observing the strained relations between a landowner and the tenants (Mark 12:1-12), customers running out of money (Luke 14:28-30), building a foundation for a house (Matthew 7:24-27), hiring assistants who complained about pay (Matthew 20:1-16). However, I want to propose a deeper meaning to explore. As Pope Francis explained in a homily on work, “[God] created the world, He created man, and He gave man and woman a mission: to manage, to work with, and bring forward creation. […] work is none other than the continuation of God’s work: human work is man’s vocation received from God at the end of the creation of the universe.” Jesus came to align his creation back to the Father’s plan. He did this not only through his preaching but also through his daily work. Undoubtedly, the Gospel captures the essential aspects of Jesus’s teachings necessary for salvation. But it’s worth meditating on Jesus’s three decades of life outside his public ministry, where, as an adult, he worked to continue the creation of the world aligned with his Father’s will. He planned, created, and built seemingly in mundane ways but always oriented back to the divine. In a secular society obsessed with building technology, it's easy to fall into the trap that everything we do in the material world is contrary to God’s plan, but it's not. Instead, we should work as tektōn, building new things while applying our modern scientific knowledge to continue divine creation, for this is the true purpose of work and technology. It is also worth noting, as providence would have it, the adjacent Greek root of Jesus’s earthly vocation was given to Our Lady, the Θεοτόκος, Mother of God, to remind us of her Son in our daily lives.

“Fourth of July” is the “Happy Holidays” of Independence Day 🇺🇸 🗽

I published a project I am working on to help "Uncle Jims" manage Lightning payments for friends and family. Huge shoutout to @thesimplekid for his contributions to the rust cashu libraries. Let a million mints bloom @calle!

GitHub

GitHub - sovereign-app/chamberlain-ln: Cashu Mint with Integrated Lightning Node

Cashu Mint with Integrated Lightning Node. Contribute to sovereign-app/chamberlain-ln development by creating an account on GitHub.

Catholics Should be Bitcoiners Catholics face many challenges living the faith together in an increasingly secular age. However, Catholic communities can uphold their faith in the modern world with a simple action: adopt Bitcoin. Freedom Money Pope St. John Paul II famously told his American audience, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Bitcoin gained early notoriety for its permissionless nature to enable criminals. However, just because a man can undermine his freedom does not diminish its inalienability. As a man can freely speak so others may come to know the truth, he can also use speech for harm. Similarly, the freedom to transact is necessary to provide for the common good, even if a man can use money for personal destruction. Bitcoin enables the freedom needed for the expression of public morality. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote, "It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral — and not simply economic — act. Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in-hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise." (Caritas in Veritate 66) As a large portion of the population is unbanked because of their social status and governments de-bank political opponents, protecting the freedom to transact is more crucial than ever to maintain the right to support what we ought. Sound Monetary Policy Regarding wealth concentration in 1931, Pope Pius XI wrote, “This dictatorship is being most forcibly exercised by those who, since they hold the money and completely control it, control credit also and rule the lending of money. Hence they regulate the flow, so to speak, of the life-blood whereby the entire economic system lives, and have so firmly in their grasp the soul, as it were, of economic life that no one can breathe against their will.” (Quadragesimo Anno 106) The Federal Reserve, which creates US Dollars by fiat, is the single controller of the world economy because it controls the ‘life-blood’ of the world reserve currency. This arbitrary power undermines a family’s ability to save for the future and rewards cronies of the central bank by the Cantillon effect, cementing an unjust economic order. Contrary to the Federal Reserve, whose monetary policy is at the whims of politicians, the creator of Bitcoin established an immutable and predictable monetary policy at its inception to issue all 21 million Bitcoins. Although Bitcoin may experience volatility, its sound monetary policy enables families to securely store their resources, safeguard their future, and empower them to contribute to the common good. Before Bitcoin, no one could resist the unjust exercise of power demonstrated by the central bank of the most powerful nation. However, now we can resist and are obligated to do so. Practical Distributism G. K. Chesterton once quipped, “Too much capitalism does not mean too many capitalists, but too few capitalists.” After the Industrial Revolution, while affirming the market economy, the Church has always warned against the centralizing forces of unbridled capitalism. It has sought to create a new economic framework: Distributism. “Economic development must remain under man's determination and must not be left to the judgment of a few men or groups possessing too much economic power or of the political community alone or of certain more powerful nations.” (Gaudium et Spes 65) In Bitcoin, monetary policy is decentralized to the point that any changes need unanimous consent, which means it is practically impossible to change. A prosperous nation-state has no more power than an individual running a Bitcoin server. Decentralized money is the first step toward a Distributist future from which distributed economic activity can flow. With further technological advancements, the Bitcoin network will be able to support dense local economic activity and allow a community to organize around the common good while removing the unjust influence of the central bank. Lastly, Pope St. John Paul II left us invaluable wisdom about the post-World World II attempt to create a just economic order: “In general, such attempts endeavour to preserve free market mechanisms, ensuring, by means of a stable currency and the harmony of social relations, the conditions for steady and healthy economic growth in which people through their own work can build a better future for themselves and their families.” (Centesimus Annus 19) Let us heed his wisdom and adopt Bitcoin to create a more just future for families and communities.