84 - Back in Bangkok
🇹🇭 Over last weekend V and I travelled back to Bangkok. Travel was not bad but it certainly was less smooth than last year. Travel down to Dublin was a relative highlight - we took the new DublinExpress service to get to the airport; it is good - superior to Aircoach - brand new buses and friendly, helpful drivers - for example when we had managed to book (and miss) the bus at 02:55 instead of 14:55! We now have an additional check in our bus-booking process.
The flight to Bangkok was with Qatar airlines, stop-over in Doha. The aircrew were pleasant and helpful but in each location the ground staff were decidedly unpleasant. The guy who did our checkin in Dublin did not like his job and wanted everyone to know and feel it. In Doha the logistics were chaotic and, annoyingly, they do a security screening where they have started to take any liquids that you bought airside in the departure airport - plenty of people were very upset about this causing much frustration, handwaving and pointless delay for everyone.
In case you had not worked it out yet: everything to do with airport security is useless overhead - a ritual that travellers are required to submit to. All this overhead, cost and inconvenience has never achieved one single benefit - only cost. Just like the Covid nonsense - this is obedience training, designed to see how far they can push you to do and put up with ridiculous things and to normalise your acceptance of nonsense policies.
Groundhog day
One year ago we had also just arrived in Bangkok. How interesting to look back and see how things were then and how they have evolved.
It is rainy season here in Bangkok and it gets pretty wet when it rains - there is water everywhere! Wet as it is, apparently it is less wet than last year and everyone takes it in their stride:
Indeed, it was particularly wet on Tuesday - more here. If you have been in Bangkok before you will certainly recognise these spots!
Interview of the week
This week I am highlighting a truly fascinating couple of interviews hosted by Saifedean with Michael Saylor and Patrick Newman. I do feel privileged to have access to discussions like this and I encourage you to dip into them yourself.
Listen to and learn from Michael's summary: The story of the triumph of more powerful currencies, religions and governments over less powerful competitors - the triumph of power. You will get insights into American History that you could never have imagined. Michael's exploration of these topics is fascinating. The book recounts hundreds of experiments of currency, religion and government that took place over more than 200 years in the US. I had heard several people talk about "The American Experiment" but this interview really brings home what this means - something that I had never properly appreciated.
The book, Conceived in Liberty by Murray Rothbard, is freely available to read here on mises.org - you can also download it as audiobook here. It is a long read at 1577 pages plus volume 5.
And the second interview deals with the question of whether the founding fathers should have stopped at the Tea Party and what were the consequences of establishing the Federal Government and why this has evolved as it has.
I cannot claim that these interviews are full of actionable points but the discussion on the various topics is "next level" interesting and insightful. Enjoy and learn - this is certainly relevant today.
Dates for your diary
We have talked before about important dates to keep in mind this year. Suffice to say that this coming week we have Friday 13th and the Total Solar Eclipse on 14th. Arthur Hayes also feels the end is nigh - bear steepener in progress:
Yes - I know that coincidences do happen - but consider that Terra Luna collapsed on the Lunar Eclipse of May 2022 and FTX collapsed on the Lunar Eclipse of November 2022 and do give some thought to the points that Jordan makes from his analysis. Consider all that is currently happening and pressure points that are being pushed; something will pop sooner or later, likely sooner.
More in this issue
- Photo memories - back in Bangkok this week
- Project Updates - Bob Space and beyond..
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - 2001: A space odyssey - what you did not know...
🛠️ Project Updates
The following are updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. What are you doing?
₿ in Bangkok
It is nice to be back here in Bangkok where bitcoin meetups abound. I already got to join the Satoshi Square on Monday evening. Wednesday evening's gathering at Bob Space was postponed due to the severe weather alert (that never materialised). Even so, I got to go round the next day and meet the good folks there. Many things are planned and in progress - updates will follow in the coming weeks - so follow along and reach out with questions and suggestions.
And around the world
Among other things, the Bob team is busy planning their attendance at upcoming conferences. Some will be off to Bali.
My friend from Bosa is off to the conference in Lugano to get first hand experience of building local bitcoin economies - more on his project here.
For my part - I will be heading to Hong Kong and NostrAsia - what about you?
Even if you cannot make it to one of these events - you can look forward to the conference feedback and many of these will have sessions online that you can watch. You will miss out on the networking and inter-personal experience but for that I do recommend that you search out your local bitcoin meetups - meetup.com is good place to start looking - also OrangePillApp.
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Coming to your country soon
You already know that keeping money in the banks is not safe (remember Cyprus). Perhaps you thought that keeping it as cash would be a good idea. Think again - the Indians have struck again - rendering worthless any Rs 2000 notes (US$ 24) that you might hold.
For those of you in the UK - King Charles will be the excuse to render all current banknotes worthless (you can't have a dead queen on your money). You will be given a few months to turn them in at a bank or else use them as toilet paper. Of course when you turn them in they will be unable to give you new notes - you will be required to turn that into CBDC instead.
Meanwhile, Stateside....
Maverick has another good one for the new month. He does say it like it is. He also has an interesting suggestion for Las Vegas workers on the best date to make their point. It certainly sounds like the Ponzi Machine is nearing its end.
Even the Millennials are now awake to what is happening as Ellio explains.
Good as it is that the younger generation is awake and awakening, the challenge is that the incentives in this stage of a "democracy" will tend to push things further in the wrong and bad directions. History has demonstrated this many times:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
― Alexander Fraser Tytler (source)
We discussed this at length back in Issue 51 - check it out.
Speak now or forever hold your peace
Listen carefully to James Roguski explain what the unelected bureaucrats are planning. In the UK the government has ignored the petition for proper parliamentary debate. International regulations that will affect everyone are being formulated secretly and if objections are not raised now everyone will suffer.
and read the details with links to take action - speak now or forever hold your peace.
If you roll your eyes and think you cannot be bothered and this will not affect you, think back to the nonsense of airport security that we discussed above, not to mention all the criminality of Covid nonsense that prevented normal life for nearly three years and has destroyed economies around the world.
🤔 Closing Thoughts
Last week I introduced you to Rob Agar through his analysis of Eyes Wide Shut. This week we go to the next level and look into "2001: A Space Odyssey". I remember vividly the day that my father took me to watch this in the cinema in Belfast. I have to be honest that neither of us really understood what we had seen.
Rob's explanation and analysis is fascinating and this brief explainer is supported by over a dozen deeper pieces of analysis. You will likely be surprised that book was written in parallel with the movie and that Arthur C Clarke had only filtered access to the movie shooting. As Rob explains the movie has two very distinct interpretation themes: the first was for the investors for whom this was to promote (the myth of) American space travel and to manipulate the population into believing the moon landings; the other interpretation is entirely visual and non-vocal as he explains.
Especially with all that is going on these days, it is important to have a clear head and recognise the depths of the propaganda that the population is being fed.
So - have you worked out the meaning of the Monolith? Let me know - I will share my interpretation next week and it goes a little farther than Rob's analysis. Indeed some things are only visible with hindsight - but once seen they cannot be unseen.
For Rob's full in-depth analysis, see Rob's page here - this is next-level.
And Rob's page linking to his analysis of other movies check here...
❤️ Enjoy this newsletter?
Forward to a friend and let them know where they can subscribe