🇭🇰 This week we have been doing the maximum to get out and about and enjoy Hong Kong at its best. Saturday I was out with Eye Opener Hiking Group on a great hike from Mei Foo, Sunday I went with a few friends from DB to Mui Wo. On Monday V and I went up to the Peak and came back down on the newly renovated (and now rather expensive) Peak Tram. Tuesday was another Peak Hike up the Escalator from bottom to top. Wednesday was a group hike Wong Nai Chung Gap over Violet Hill and down to Repulse Bay. Thursday and Friday I got in another Peak Hike and V and I went to enjoy lunch at the Windsurfing club on Cheung Chau.

HK really should be like this all year round!

I am also busy with a bunch of business things that need to get done when we are here in HK. It is true that HK business administration is lighter than many places but the monster is here too, albeit somewhat below the surface. On the positive side it is still relatively easy here to pay for others to deal with the machine for you and they are well motivated to give you a good service.

I have also been meeting up with local bitcoiners here in HK. These really are the most interesting people to meet when you travel. One of my subscribers from HK is even nipping over to Bangkok for a few days for Bitcoin conferences and events that I am missing by being here in HK! So much going on.

Saturday we are doing a great hike to Shing Mun Redoubt - video from the last time we were there is below - should be good! If you are in HK - you can still sign up and join us here.

Book of the week

This week's book is 60 pages; I first read it quite some years ago but was reminded of it by a recent discussion with a subscriber (thanks!) - I even found my marked-up copy. It is a short read and the audiobook is just 60 minutes. Read it yourself and you will see the world differently. So many things that may have confused you will become absolutely clear.

Anatomy of the State | Murray N. Rothbard

This gives a succinct account of Rothbard’s view of the state. Following Franz Oppenheimer and Albert Jay Nock, Rothbard regards the state as a predatory entity. It does not produce anything but rather steals resources from those engaged in production.

Mises InstituteMurray N. Rothbard

Here are just a few of the snippets of wisdom you will see substantiated and explained with examples that may help you spot them:

• The State is that organisation in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area; in particular, it is the only organisation in society that obtains its revenue not by voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered but by coercion.
• The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property; it renders certain, secure, and relatively “peaceful” the lifeline of the parasitic caste in society. Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the State. The State has never been created by a “social contract”; it has always been born in conquest and exploitation.
• Once a State has been established, the problem of the ruling group or “caste” is how to maintain their rule. While force is their modus operandi, their basic and long- run problem is ideological. For in order to continue in office, any government (not simply a “democratic” government) must have the support of the majority of its subjects. This support, it must be noted, need not be active enthusiasm; it may well be passive resignation as if to an inevitable law of nature.
• Therefore, the chief task of the rulers is always to secure the active or resigned acceptance of the majority of the citizens.
• It is important for the State to make its rule seem inevitable; even if its reign is disliked, it will then be met with passive resignation, as witness the familiar coupling of “death and taxes.”

So - tell me. Have you read this? What do you think? What other relevant material can you bring to the discussion? Reach out to discuss.

More in this issue

• Photo memories - Hiking around Hong Kong
• Project Updates - from the recent conferences
• Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
• Closing out - you should know this

🛠️ Project Updates

The following are updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. What are you doing?

Network State

You will recall that I have long maintained that we are living through Chapter 10 of The Sovereign Individual - The Twilight of Democracy . As with the earlier chapters of the book that so accurately predicted just about everything significant that has happened so far this century (including the plandemic), so too Chapter 10 seems to be spot on.

One of the things that the authors expected was the emergence of jurisdictional arbitrage where islands, special administrative regions and similar constructions would emerge - enabling people to opt out of the corruption and collapse into something better. It is interesting to consider that Hong Kong was the star example of such SARs and it certainly has been till recent years; to be seen if that is a title that it can reclaim or not.

Recall that Balaji has been expounding this theory too and he, along with many others are now experimenting and taking practical steps to make things happen. The material from the recent conference in Amsterdam is below - watch for your edification - do not say that nobody told you.

For sure we are still early and not all of these will succeed and some do feel a bit too much VC-investment rather than Citadel to me. You may well decide that they are not for you. That is fine – get on with your life and do not prevent others from exiting the corruption and leaving you to it if they wish.

Payments re-imagined

Next up is a fascinating address from the Nostr conference. You really do need to listen as Bob explains how by asking a different question you get different answers that take you to a completely new place. Learn to how Bitcoin, Lighting and now Nostr make up a complete payment infrastructure that can be orders of magnitude better than what we have today with traditional finance. He demonstrates how this already works with the pieces that we have.

For sure this will be important going forward as more people wake up to the entrapment of the empire and seek alternatives. It is important that these solutions exist and that they be user friendly - we are getting there.

🔗 Links for your edification

The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - the common theme that you might detect in all of these is the failure of the government and public institutions to do what they should. Rather they have become complicit in the crimes - read on for the evidence.

Fraud and failure of the system

So Sam Bankman Fried is guilty on all charges. This should surprise nobody - the evidence and facts are overwhelming and have been right from the very beginning. What should also be apparent is the total and absolute failure of the institutions who should have prevented, detected and investigated these crimes to do so. Rather they were even complicit in covering it up and preventing justice being served.

Read Balaji's hard hitting summary below - he cites all the evidence. Failure of regulators, politicians, journalists and mainstream media. I would go further and say that not only did they fail - they were and continue to be complicit in the crimes.

Crypto Twitter Found SBF’s Fraud

The establishment did nothing until the internet revealed everything.

balajis.comBalaji

This ought to make you stop and think. Perhaps reflect on John Glubb's material that we discussed again last week. Once seen you cannot unsee it.

Peter explains other failures in plain sight

Governments and central banks deluded themselves into thinking that unlimited deficit spending financed by unlimited money printing won't do what they've done for literally millennia – plunge the economy into stagflation.

They are, of course, wrong. We're seeing the catastrophe unfold before our eyes.

Sovereign Debt is Eating the World

How did we get here?

Peter St Onge, Ph.D.Peter St Onge

...and yet another example - so illuminating.

Google does do evil after all

Louis also explains the end of empire behaviour that is now self evident from Google. Just as with John Glubb's experience (and Anatomy of the State), it is the complacency of the masses that enables them to get away with it - along with those well documented weaknesses of "Democracy" as it is implemented in western societies.

In case you missed the instructions, or are still suffering, check here and here.

Louis is right - we need to be be the change we want to become - what are you doing?

A few words of truth to keep in mind

This short read (1 minute) from Iain Davis should give you food for thought and clarify what to expect on the way forward.

The revolution won’t be televised it will just be you and me

If you are clinging on to the ‘X’ platform, before Elon demands digital ID and pay-to-play and converts it into an everything data harvesting app, I recommend you follow the excellent Nelly Tells (@NellyTells). Nelly Tells profile blurb reads: We’re having our world & our children’s futures screwed…

Iain Davis SubstackIain Davis

The question is not whether Republicans or Democrats (read your local parties) control the government - rather whether the Government is controlled by the people.  
- Dan Glickman

"The government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
- Margaret Thatcher

🤔 Closing Thoughts

We have talked before about Albert Pike's letter. I mentioned it back in Newsletter 16, along with the Report from Iron Mountain. I personally have been aware of this both of these documents for over a decade and am well aware of the conflicting views on their contents and authenticity. That said, just like with The Sovereign Individual it is a document that has been out in the open for many years and you can form your own view on the content and what has happened in real life; to me it all seems pretty accurate. What do you see?

Once you are awake with your eyes open you should understand very clearly how this (and even the controversy around it) all ties back to what Murray Rothbard explained in Anatomy of the State (above). Feel free to reach out and discuss.

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No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix

You have to see it for yourself.

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