53 - It's already March
🇹🇭 We are still enjoying the sunny weather here in Bangkok. It is certainly warm enough and it's great to have that pretty consistent sunrise that lets me sit on our east-facing terrace taking in the first sunshine before it get too hot - reading, playing scrabble and catching up on the overnight feeds. V is certainly making the most of the swimming pool and we have both got our routines worked out to our satisfaction.
Bangkok is certainly a lively place and quite "full on". Having been here now for nearly 2 months in the center of things I can see why people tell me that they need to get away for a few days now and again - heading down to the beach or up north to the cooler weather and mountains.
If you did not do it yet, I do recommend that you go back and check Issue 7 - Time to wake up, Issue 8 - How fed up are you and Issue 9 - On Location of the newsletter from this time last year. You can see how right I was in my thinking that set us out on our year on the road. While you are at it do check the others as well and let me know which was most interesting for you.
I had several interesting Bitcoin meetings this week - I had the pleasure to meet a number of people actively working on projects as well as people planning projects from the co-working spaces here; more to follow on this in the coming weeks. Even those who are not in Bangkok will be able to follow along and even contribute due to the wonders of open source development and collaboration.
During the week we also took advantage of being here in Bangkok to try out their world class medical facilities with complete health, dental and even hearing checks. You have got to appreciate that you can start on Monday morning with a website query and have a full range of tests done and fully debriefed by Thursday morning - not to mention that the cost is fraction of what similar service would have cost in HK and that from what I understand no amount of money could get you similar service in UK!
During the week I got an update from one of my subscribers who is now in HK for a couple of months and yet another of my subscribers will be there in July - I guess they can take over the baton from me; I look forward to their further updates. We do miss the place and our friends there but not the lunacy of the last year. That said on 1 March they finally dropped the mask lunacy so perhaps indeed HK will have some sort of rebound. It does feel to me like something coordinated is happening, not least with all the crypto-trading announcements - let's see.
More in this issue
- Photo memories from around Bangkok this week
- Two Must-see Podcasts - watch them and make up your own mind
- Update on my projects - Cashu and Nostr continue to amaze me
- Plenty of useful links - Inform yourself - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out as usual - challenging assumptions and making you think
🎙️ Podcasts of the week
I have two must-see items this week - the first was a clear warning from 2013 with itemised details that look surprisingly close to what what has happened in the ten years since the interview
The second is one of Charlie Robinson's recent monologues - he succinctly describes what is happening in modern day United States (and quite a few other places) and reminds you how this too follows a playbook that was presented back in 1984.
🤔 F. Willian Engdhal at Open Mind Conference - Denmark Sep 2013
It is remarkable how he correctly and calmly predicted all of the recent geopolitical events that we are now seeing and he gives plenty of background on how this happens. He is very calmly spoken and does not exaggerate on any points, rather he points to the extensive research that he has done and published.
Topics include: The "New World Order" enslavement plan; the "Climate Change" construct; The ruling elite´s successful economic crisis & The Federal Reserve; Media manipulation lies; Vaccinations and chemical medicine that makes people sick; The 9/11 lie; Oil and energy = Rothschilds vs. Rockefellers; The political voting scam; Nikola Tesla and Free Energy; GMO food poison; The Bilderberg Group and a few more...
Recall Arthur Dent's realisation and reflect on what this means.
You can read William's books here - start with Gods of Money.
Even if he is not right about everything (he might be) - the clear and apparent accuracy of so much of it really ought to have you thinking...
😱 America's Cultural Revolution - Charlie Robinson
You may or may not know or remember what happened during China's cultural revolution (and several others that have happened). In this weekly monologue Charlie reminds you and points out some things you may or may not have noticed in the US and other western societies recently - food for thought. There is a playbook in action and it has been well presaged.
Do check out that video he refers to where Yuri Bezmanov describes the playbook - click this 13m extract below or get the link to the full interview below.
You can also also watch the full interview here.
🛠️ Update on my projects
This week I have been digging into Cashu and Chaumian e-Cash - getting hands-on exposure and testing out a couple of Cashu Mints and Clients. As I have explained, Chaumian e-Cash could well one of the technologies that does bring multi-million and even billion-person scaling to bitcoin and lightning.
Listen first to @CalleBTC (one of the developers) describing how his implementation came about and how he is taking it forward. I am excited that one of the implementation team is here in Thailand and I should meet him in the coming week or so.
The best analogy that I have to explain this is: think of Casino Tokens. You get them by exchanging cash. You can use your tokens in the casino and eventually cash them out; you can also use them for goods and services around the casino where local people will often accept them at face value due to their convenience and trust in the casino. So too it is with tokens that Cashu Mints issue.
The best way to understand this is to see it in action - here Ben (BTCSessions) gives the complete A-Z demo and tutorial video - explaining clearly how it works with examples using two separate wallets and exercising edge-case scenarios like cash-out, inter-mint transfers and reclaiming unclaimed tokens.
Cashu is one implementation - the other one that I should mention here for completeness is Fedimint. As I understand it, the main difference is that Fedimint is aimed at bigger implementations and the tackles the issue of multi-signature custody of the underlying assets; for sure this too will be an important one to watch.
Continuing on my journey to learn more about Lightning I was interested to meet one of the developers of this project here in Bangkok. Birkeland is a Lightning-As-A-Service service - sounds similar to Voltage and Breez/Greenlight - I will be exploring more. Like I said, it is fascinating who you can meet here in Bangkok - it is like HK used to be...
You will recall that I actively discourage use of "Social Credit" Messenger services like FB Messenger and WhatsApp; even Signal is not great due to its central operation and the need for a phone number (and so KYC) - Signal is also very difficult if you have several phones - a situation many travellers will recognise. So - this is interesting and worth checking out. The main differentiator is keeping your profile private for each correspondent - how interesting.
Listen to this in-depth interview of Evgeny from SimpleX by Seth from OptOut. it is still very early days for this messenger and they have quite a number of challenges to solve but they do already have a MVP (minimum viable product) and the philosophy behind this is interesting. This is yet another project that could yet integrate to/with the evolving Nostr-Lightning-Bitcoin ecosystem.
or check out the Github repository here. Like he says in the interview - give it a go - just reach out to me if/when you want to try it - happy to connect. Nice that this is available on F-Droid!
🔗 Links
As always, Guy's weekly news update is a required watch - I think Guy's assessment on Circle sounds rather convincing (3-D chess?).
5:21 Everything Is A Security 9:02 Bullish Altcoin Announcements 12:37 Crypto And Geopolitics 16:16 Circle Taking Over 20:12 Ben Cowen Crypto Analysis
Richard explains things with particular relevance to those in the UK - indeed it is time to reject the nonsense and division - get on with your lives together.
Thanks to Cosmo Crixter for yet another useful Open Letter - see below and be sure to send it to your supposed political representatives.
Speak Now or Forever Hold your Peace
For those in the US - listen to this rather thoughtful explanation by Melissa of Truthstream:
Recall our discussion last week on the ineffectiveness (and oppressiveness) of AML/KYC - then read Marty's comments in similar vein:
You really must watch Guy's explainer on the WEF planning - considering how many of their previous exercises have been followed by real-life equivalent this does seem relevant.
Never forget
"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened." - Josef Stalin
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." - Hermann Goering, Nazi leader
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H.L. Mencken
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
🤔 Closing thoughts
We all remember where we were and what we were doing on 911 - just like you may well remember for the JFK assassination as well as the Moon Landings. What if things were not the way you had been told or had always believed?
Bart Sibrel is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and investigative journalist, who has been producing television programs and documentaries for forty years, starting at the age of eighteen.
Sibrel grew up as the biggest fan of the purported "moon landings", yet gradually began to recognize their unfortunate falsification. In Sibrel's mind, as well as many others, the claim that NASA walked on the moon on the very first attempt with 1960's technology, which only had one-millionth the computing power of a cell phone, when today with five decades of better technology NASA can only send astronauts one-thousandth the distance to the moon, simply defies logic.
A funny thing happened on the way to the moon
Start with this recent interview of Bart by Shaun Attwood - and click below for Bart's Website which contains links to all supporting information.
A couple of extracts from his 45 minute documentary: Firstly consider the very odd body language of the astronauts (not to mention the answer itself!) at the press conference and consider carefully their response to the question: "What about the stars?"
This next extract seems pretty conclusive - astronauts seem to have caught themselves in the act of deception along with discussions with their "handler".
Lastly: Back in 2009 when asked for the original moon landing footage, NASA said that they "no longer had these tapes" - they had been recycled! But fear not - "newly restored copies of the broadcast material look even better", NASA officials said.
Do you still trust and believe what government tells you?
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