I saw this article today...

ICE Can’t Bring Back Man Deported to El Salvador Prison in Error, Agency Says https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/ice-deportation-maryland-man-kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador-8bee52f5?mod=hp_lista_pos1#comments_sector

There are many articles on this issue, so I won't go into too much detail... except to say it is an outrageous travesty of justice.

And before you say 'oh he was a terrorist'.. 'He was a gangmember'... 'Oh he had tattoos...' 'He was a 'killer' and a 'murderer'' etc etc...

According to the article, "Abrego Garcia hasn’t been charged or convicted of a crime."

NOT convicted or Charged.

In other words... he 'allegedly' was MS-13-associated but I mean... how many Americans are? What is the 'burden of proof' for being associated with a gang? He was, according to the government, not to be deported for fear of his safety (back to El Salvador) and the government admits he was deported to a notorious prison by accident and their response...

Shouldn't this concern all Americans?

There is an unacceptable amount of extra-judicial simping for a particular American president because he will...

"own the libs" or "end the woke" or "stand up to Kamala" or call out the "radical left lunatic(s)" in the form of federal judges even if they are conservative...

So where does it end?

If 'fixing America' requires a wholesale, unabated embrace of authoritarianism is it all worth it? If Mr Trump is the "only one who can fix it" does that justify his serving a third term?

"Trump, eyeing 3rd term, keeps attacking elite institutions – and many are caving" https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-eyeing-3rd-term-keeps-attacking-elite-institutions-many-caving

We need much better privacy tools, better "freedom tools" and better education moving forwards. Plenty of folks have called out the recent 'mempool issues'...

So I don't need to do that except to say that it's not low fees that are my concern it's low utilization. And I'm not the only one.

Silent Payments, more education around Lightning, more CoinJoins and better ones, plus better 'mobile' tools (much has been said here about GrapheneOS) is only the tip of the iceberg and we should do much, much more.

Having a "strategic reserve" may be good for price (sort of?) but it does nothing for sovereignty and individualism if people don't utilize Bitcoin themselves. It would be like having a giant 'gold reserve' in the castle which the peasants have no access to... so what good does it do the peasants if they themselves don't have any gold?

ETFs are great for institutions (sort of) but they don't educate people on what Bitcoin is... they don't bring new sovereignty, freedom of transaction, or censorship resistance or freedom in general when "the gold" is in a vault held by a big company...

To the contrary, Bitcoin is healthiest in the hands of HOLDers who spend and use Bitcoin and the current 'use'?

What the heck is going on here?

I know this is a mix of politics, privacy, and Bitcoin but unfortunately they are all related. Somehow ETFs and SBRs have diluted the message about 'freedom of transaction'... and so no-one is transacting.

And in the meantime there is a tremendous assault on democratic institutions and separation of powers in the United States... in the name of "owning the libs..." leaving more Americans with less freedom rather than more.

When the dear leader does something you like, you clap. But when the "dear leader" comes for you or something which you hold dear... who is going to clap for you?

We've seen this before in history and we can and should do better.