Lots of great used book stores in the Washington, DC area. But the best, IMHO, remains the Second Story warehouse in Rockville, MD. Open every day.

I just had the chance to make an easy discretionary payment in bitcoin , but I opted to use fiat. I feel like I missed an opportunity….but the bitcoin I would have used is going one way in purchasing power, and the dollars I chose to use are going another. Have I failed?

Got my copy! Yes, Bitcoin is sound money, but it is so much more. Give this book a read. @Pierre Rochard @Bitcoin Magazine

Overall Bitcoin has made me a generally more tolerant person. Fair to say it has given me some new perspective. But what it has absolutely obliterated is any tolerance for institutions’ “processing” times for moving money. Transaction a few times on chain, and the whole logic of “processing time” is turned inside out.

Understanding he likely has few fans on this protocol, Nouriel Roubini, along with Stephan Miran, has published a paper that explains in great detail the ultimate in fiat games Treasury is playing with debt issuance. Having read this, I can’t understand how he doesn’t see how Bitcoin contributes to fixing the problem. Nonetheless, that problem is laid bare in this paper. There’s also a podcast on Forward Guidance / Blockworks. https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/635102_Activist_Treasury_Issuance_-_Hudson_Bay_Capital_Research.pdf

Assuming Harris becomes the nominee, she will be the titular head of the democrat party. She will also become the focus of effort for the vast establishment democrats rely on to keep their machine rolling. Biden might retain the title, but Harris will be in charge. At least then we’ll know who’s actually in charge….

With my daughter soon heading to college, there has been a lot of packing and organizing in my house. Among the things we got around to opening was some old storage that hadn’t been opened for many years. Mixed in with a lot of stuff we probably never needed to save were some nuggets from travels past. I found these East German coins I collected on a trip to the DDR in 1988. I was a student in West Germany and remember calling my parents to tell them I was going with friends to East Germany – back in a week. Obviously no cell phones, no email. Times have changed. I also found what I thought was a lost journal I kept during one of my deployments in the “forever wars.” I kept it as something my then infant daughter could have, should I not make it back. It’s mostly me writing to her, but consistent through it is a deep skepticism about why were there and likelihood of success. These rediscoveries are timely, with discussions about 4th turnings and global realignment dominating the Zeitgeist. They recall two periods that figure prominently in the lifetime of a Gen Xer and show how fast the forces of change can upend your reality. These experiences have made me a skeptic by nature, but skeptics can still have faith. To all you building freedom tech, thank you for what you do. Keep it up – this is your time to shine. And for the rest of us, if I can quote we all know who – stay humble and stack sats. They will serve you well.

My daughter has finally picked up a Bitcoin book - 21 Lessons. Can’t think of a better introduction to what Bitcoin is all about. Thanks @Gigi

If foreign governments won’t buy them, guess who will be the involuntary buyer of last resort? (Hint: turn on your phone camera, flip the camera direction, and click a picture to reveal the answer.)

Great day running the Aerial Adventure course at River Riders in Harpers Ferry, WV. Staff is great, the scenery is beautiful, and it is a hell of a workout. A quick hour’s drive from the Washington DC area. The view from one of the stands of the Potomac River where VA, WV, and MD all intersect.

What the hell is this Bitaxe Hex everyone is talking about? And where do I get one? Seriously.

Jamie Dimon’s flip on Bitcoin just proves what we already knew - in most cases, opposition to Bitcoin comes from self interest and a desire to protect the privileges Bitcoin disrupts.

After a long string of Bitcoin books, I’m rereading Modris Ekstein’s “Rites of Spring.” The book looks at the cultural environment that preceded WWI and the destruction of European civilization that followed. While our current civilization lacks the cultural elevation of the time, some of the threads still ring true - youth frustration, cultural norms being challenged, an elite unable to perceive the depths of institutional decadence. Any honest observer sees the institutional decadence on full display. Regardless of your politics, the metaphor of Biden, personification of those institutions, declining before our eyes despite institutional insistence to the contrary, is glaring. Everything that has been directed at Trump, culminating in the events of July 13th, all spasms of resistance to that decline. The sensation of a generational rotation is palpable. I give credit to a lot of people on this platform for building the tools that will help make this rotation a renewal. History books are replete with stories of the birth of technologies that changed the world for the better. I look forward to watching my own grandchildren read stories about the technologies being built here today, asking rhetorically, as we all do about previous generations, how anyone could have ever lived without them.

I think I’ve increasingly come to mistake cynicism for experience, or maybe even wisdom. I’ve traveled a bit, been part of a few things, fair to say I’ve been around. But it is only recently that I’ve noticed what might be an unhealthy degree of cynicism in my thinking. I think this cynicism is unhealthy, it blocks doorways and inhibits gestures that might otherwise lead to fulfilling experiences and relationships. Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the descent to cynicism. The world makes it easy, yet we can’t make it better if we too easily surrender to the temptation of extreme cynicism. I’ll keep my skepticism, but that does not prevent me from making an effort to be more faithful.

A hot Saturday in the Washington, DC area. Kinda rough on our Staffy!

Celebrating Independence Day with a family hike down Turkey Run trail to the banks of a very low Potomac River. Wishing everyone, no matter where you’re from, a happy and healthy Independence Day.

Much of social media in a nutshell.

I’m three months into my hobby mining project. If you want to contribute some low maintenance hash-rate, the Bitaxe Supra is a beast. Fire and forget. Occasional reboots, but damn it just doesn’t stop hashing.