[Thomas Jefferson, in the early 1800s] "described the governments of Europe, which he saw at first hand as the American ambassador to France. Under the pretense of government, he said, they had divided their nations into two classes: wolves and sheep. Jefferson taught that every government degenerates when it is left to the rulers alone, because rulers—by the very act of ruling—misuse the public trust. The people themselves, he said, are the only prudent repository of power." In Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted world" (1996)

"To refuse a hearing to an opinion because they are sure it is false, is to assume their certainty is the same as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is an assumption of infallibility" John Stuart Mill, 1859

Sharing this incredible YouTube channel which does uncensored street interviews in Russia and Belarus, interviewing both sides of the spectrum. Here are my thoughts, before they inevitably censor this channel or arrest this brilliant group of young journalists: - It is horrifying to see what lack of freedom of speech does to people. Some people are afraid to answer the reporter questions, some people walk out of the interview, other people say "I'm afraid to go to Jail", others have more nuance and give cynical answers or an uncomfortable or "yellow" laugh. Lots of half sentences and unsaid truths. - Although the elections are staged and there is no real democratic process, the support for Putin is real, overwhelmingly in the older population >40. Younger people interviewed mention getting their news from Telegram, independent websites or "foreign" media, which highlights the importance of free media (or more accurately "free-er media") and how that conditions the older population, who only gets news from Russian television. A problem as old as humanity itself unfortunately. That's why we need tools like Bitcoin, Tor and Nostr, to enforce freedom through code #grownostr - "All evil in the world comes from the silence of good people" - some denounce the passivity and resignation of their countrymen who enable this as long as they can get a basic decent life. But without access to guns or even basic freedom of assembly (online and in person), it is almost impossible to see how they can fight for a better life - Everyone on either side already knows, at this stage, that there is a full scale war against Ukraine going on, especially with recent attacks by drones on Russian soil. - I am grateful that I can make this post without fear of repercussions, although I do fear that our western government are increasingly more incompetent, ignorant, corrupt, authoritarian and complacent with war crimes. Freedom is everyone's responsibility, at all times, everywhere. We must not let it get worse. The youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@1420channel?si=3SDJBrwJDa_EHPxU

Fascinating video about the struggles of gold buyers in China - bankrupt custodians, contaminated or fake gold, huge price slippage, government confiscation thoughout history. This is why we Bitcoin

I'm so bullish on Phoenix. These guys are doing all the right things. We are still so early

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Phoenix Wallet (@PhoenixWallet) on X

📯📯📯 Announcing Phoenix for server All the goodness of @PhoenixWallet, available to developers! - self-custodial, no signup - lightweight...

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The US debt goes up by $1 trillion every 100 days. And the interest on that debt is close to $1 trillion a year. When the debt spirals out of control, taxes are effectively irrelevant. Same thing happened in 1919-1924 in the Weimar Republic in Germany. Read the book "When money dies" by Adam Ferguson (1975) https://twitter.com/FilipeMartinh10/status/1765988718542782673?t=xAVbRX-czQHEix3lRTUSlQ&s=19 https://image.nostr.build/ea7b20279b6dbae0cc1e9ed96a061b9589d33fe61853ff6f7e30ebe749ada77a.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=864x1920&alt=Taxes+are+unnecessary+&blurhash=%5B25X%5BX-%3BkB%25M%7EqIAenxa-%3BM_%25Mxus%3AM%7BkCofIpM%7BaeRjM%7B-%3BtQWV00xuWDIUIp_3t7M%7BD%25x%5DNGMx&x=88a84b99db8107c21a2baecee7c56bc38aa2cc7ae964abe2bf698a134271e1cc

Or accumulating books faster than I can read them. Started reading again after a 15 year "break", and it's the best thing I've done recently https://image.nostr.build/6d21979ec13bccb69a2964c29c8591022c632c2413679e42086e83d67088c638.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=1079x360&alt=Stack+of+unread+books+&blurhash=QDLW-F%3A%2C%7D%5B%2C%3AI99aElKPyD%3Fs9sTdSzM%7Bof%252nOa0%25%24Z%7D%25NyEozRjVsITM%7C&x=ade7dd62389a299c8084036e0060af803c317a6e10b8165d052aabf049e7e310

Credit to @yellow and the meme factory for this amazing production! "At the end of the day... There is no second best" https://video.nostr.build/6e0572124af60428717c8fc47b0b808a4af38895ac668abcc9ac85a1e93a6cb3.mp4#m=video%2Fmp4&dim=1280x720&alt=There+is+no+second+best&blurhash=i79%25%40.00-%3Btkx%5EV%5DbcoMafR.RORPV%40RPj%5Df5WBWB00%7EDIVRQeobbn%25bbofeRt-%25go%7Dx%5DaykDn%2Bof_4Inxtk8NFniWBV%40M%7B&x=e492c43fa0266442b472f3f072b669b0cd3853bde167dbfad9c1659993a1c087

"A perfect money never existed before, every academic never understood what real money was, so most modern economics is a pseudoscience" - Saylor As a physicist I've always wondered this and cringed seeing how my economics colleagues handled poorly constructed mathematical methods with unrealistic assumptions and unjustified simplifications Modern economics does not follow fundamental principles of the scientific method (e.g. check your assumptions if your model does not accurately predict outcomes) yet it has an outsized influence on our modern societies. But that's about to change, and I can't wait for the improvements that will bring to the world https://video.nostr.build/4625bd4dc7bddf5fe0a5a6e35723fbbee3dccf6ae2926841f4b26356df4be622.mp4#m=video%2Fmp4&dim=480x270&alt=Michael+Taylor+on+why+a+perfect+money+never+existed+until+Bitcoin+&blurhash=iB9%24%3F%5B%7D%3DwZ%5EK%7D%3F%3D_f4%24%7E-V%5Ej%250kQ%24%7C-n-nxWxX%251OBt6%251odX4xZ%250t5k9R*s%2C%24%25oeR*WUs%3As%3AbFR*f6oMoLWBR*a%7Dspay&x=9a04b4ce3b9060df7ab227baf15631a2aa8d600b746f60de96a10403ff4f69b3

Any CS2 fans out here on Nostr? Team Spirit just won IEM Katowice with a historical performance from Donk, 17 year old prodigy smashing all previous records in 20 years of the game! One of the greatest sporting achievements of the year #grownostr #Donked #CS2

Industrial electricity prices increasing in Europe is a very bad sign, and will lead to further de-industrialization. I strongly maintain that the main culprit are government monopolies and excessive grid regulations

X (formerly Twitter)

Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) on X

Good Morning back from Germany which faces a painful reality: Its days as an industrial superpower are coming to an end. As pol paralysis grips Be...

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The co-founder of GitHub was just banned from Github. We need a decentralized GitHub on Nostr! https://twitter.com/defunkt/status/1754610843361362360?t=1Y8O6NXVoSuoqzuiHdGXag&s=19 https://image.nostr.build/68137737c747841c13d99de7f8ce4a90275957a903f3258a26d2bacfb0d7fada.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=720x592&alt=Banned+from+Github&blurhash=%23268N%24xu00xu%25MfR9ERP%25gIRRj9FRj_4oeITof.8D%25WDoes%2C-%3DkCD%24WBxu%3FcxuaxNHj%3FofIUV%40ayDhM%7Bogt5RkWC%25Mozj%3Fx%5Ej%5DocofD%24WB-%3BayRjRixa-%3BNH9Fod%25MfQMx&x=1a79b20794475731e5f427bcd7c789fb4058a71be3a8003163b95f7e51088cd9

Sharing my thoughts on the rapid growth of Photovoltaic energy in sunny yet overly-regulated Portugal, which doubled it's total installed solar power in 2 years! Much like Texas and southern US, solar power is a perfect match for such a sunny place like Portugal! https://twitter.com/FilipeMartinh10/status/1753428005144101303?t=ha7jRlsMi3nguV7c3DiESA&s=19 https://image.nostr.build/d55a95adcaac8958323936e03c5e975b2f4a0056f90319c153c6800520d42a27.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=1080x1565&alt=Growth+of+solar+power+capacity+in+Portugal+&blurhash=%5EDSiNz*JRjxZyDZ%24uOMdi%5Eo%7Da0tRNGH%3F%25hWBsotlMItmj%5DVspIVsuOVsVYgNaJj%5BQltRpIaea%7CbbyXozR5V%40ayaeaKsTkDkXaeWBnho%23f%2BV%3FbHay&x=a82f15426dcc36b04b0fd0b42bc1ebe278163ec5f43639ab2a95bbd652e2e20c

Coinstats just added a Christmas Vitalik to Eth's price chart and I think it's a beautiful reminder that Eth is a centralized shitcoin https://image.nostr.build/994da2c9e5dfbd70a0d881ae001734e979cfa63853413f79ee88e58a3fb239a5.jpg#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=864x1920&alt=Eth+price+with+Vitalik+icon&blurhash=%5B65q%7C-tSacV%40M%5Bt7o%23ax%25js.RhaxV%3BM%7Bt7oeRpIoadofS6t7RjkCMvWAt8j%5B%3FKR%25W9f6V.xubcV%40&x=ee4a1c37e69aee54367d526217b658e6e0ea6ec57ef20f80479ed73ab9306c4d

"But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance." 1984 (George Orwell)

Say what you will about the man, but this is an incredible speech by Javier Milei. Telling it like it is, not holding back. Sending my hopes to Argentinians 🇦🇷 He even mentioned the need to attract Starlink to Argentina. Incredible awareness

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DutchLibertarian (@LibertarianDuty) on X

Todays Recorded message from Javier Milei (English subtitles)

H/t @mononaut

Wrote a small thread about Bitcoin's Liquid network, arguing that although it is not perfect and has a few trade-offs regarding centralization and scaling, it is much much better than resorting to shitcoins, which do not benefit from Bitcoins network effect, and have a dilutive effect by reducing demand for Bitcoin. In contrast liquid increases organic demand for Bitcoin. I recommend a great tutorial by @BTC Sessions

X (formerly Twitter)

Filipe Martinho (@FilipeMartinh10) on X

@BitcoinErrorLog Completely disagree that it is the same as using Litecoin or Bcash. Ask yourself, what would be the #Bitcoin price if the whole wo...

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious." 1984 (George Orwell)

Heard an incredible little story on @Robert Breedlove "what is money" podcast with Bob Murphy: During the 2008 financial crisis, government officials & the federal reserve chair at the time, Ben Bernanke, met with AIG to discuss a possible $85 billion dollar bailout. During that discussion, a member of government reportedly asked Bernanke "where's the 85$ billion coming from? Whose budget will be affected?" - to which Bernanke responded "we're the Federal Reserve, we can come up with $850 billion if necessary". This short story highlights how little even politicians know about how our current money system works. Reminds me of the eternal discussion - don't attribute to malice what can be simply explained by ignorance. Is it malice, or is it ignorance? Also crazy to think that Bernanke's mention of $850 billion was obviously meant as an exaggeration, but 15 years later, seeing the >$6 trillion of covid stimulus just in US, $850 billion is just peanuts, it won't get the stimulus job done. And in 15 years, $6T will look like peanuts too!