My First Interview With A Presidential Candidate
And My Thoughts On Trump Being Shot
[Editor’s note: Please click on images to be taken to corresponding articles.]
This week, I published a piece on Maya Parbhoe, Suriname’s pro-Bitcoin presidential candidate, who is, by most measures, an absolute force of nature.
When I originally got in touch with Parbhoe, I simply planned to ask her to expand on her pro-Bitcoin platform.
However, when I asked her what her childhood was like, she discussed how her father was murdered after speaking out about corruption in Suriname when she was only 13 and how that affected her life moving forward.
I put a lot into this piece and am incredibly proud of it. I hope you enjoy it!
Bitcoin Privacy On Trial: The Second Hearing For Samourai Wallet Devs
I also attended the second hearing for the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) case against the Samourai Wallet — a privacy-preserving Bitcoin wallet — developers this week.
There’s a video summary of what I learned in the hearing embedded within the piece, if you’d prefer to take in the information that way.
Foundation Makes Great Bitcoin Wallets
I published a piece on Foundation Devices CEO Zach Herbert this week, as well.
Herbert’s vision is to make Bitcoin self-custody easy by creating Bitcoin hardware and software wallets that are as easy to use as Apple products.
Based on my research, the Foundation Passport is one of the best and easiest-to-use hardware wallets on the market right now, and is well worth the $199 it costs.
If you aren’t ready to spend that kind of money on a hardware wallet yet, you can always start with a Trezor Model One…
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The Trezor Model One is the world’s first hardware wallet, and it’s a great beginner’s wallet — especially at $59.
That’s all the enthusiasm you’re getting out of me. I don’t like doing marketing or advertising. Trezor makes a good product for the price, though.
Takeaways From The Assassination Attempt On Trump
As I mentioned in a recent edition of the newsletter, don’t give too much of your energy Trump, or to politics in general.
I don’t know whether the attempt to assassinate Trump yesterday was real or not.
As of now, I believe it was, as I find it hard to believe a shooter could reliably hit the top tip of Trump’s right ear from 140 yards out on a windy day.
Surely not a risk I would take, and I don’t think it’s a risk Trump would take either despite how much he loves media attention.
My first feeling in reaction to this event was best articulated by what Lyudmyla Kozlovska, a human rights and pro-democracy activist, put into words in the tweet below.
For the myriad of things that America does wrong, being a beacon for democracy is not one of them (though, we could do much better when it comes to election transparency.)
Political violence/assassinations undermine democracy.
If you’re one of the people who wished that the shooter had better aim, you’re wishing for violence to become the solution to political problems instead of a civil solution like voting.
If that’s your take, I kindly request that you move to Russia, Myanmar (current day), Kazakhstan or any other host of countries that don’t value democracy and where political violence is common. America would be much better off without you.
It would also be much better off with Presidents that talk about putting their opponents in bullseyes.
(Please don’t take that as an endorsement for Trump. It’s just commentary on how poor of a job Biden is doing.)
My other main takeaway from the event is that it’s quite sad that seemingly half the country believed this was staged, while the other half believes Trump was saved by a divine intervention from God.
I have nothing further to comment on that. It’s just incredibly sad.
My feelings on neither Trump nor Biden have changed in the wake of this event. I won’t be voting for either in the upcoming election.
That’s all for this week.
I hope everyone has a peaceful week ahead.
Peace starts with each of us. I’m well-aware that I have a lot of work to do on myself when it comes being more peaceful and less antagonistic. I’ll keep doing that work, because I see the importance of it, especially in the wake of events like yesterday’s.
Much love.
Best,
Frank
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