Julian
Daily Ramble
Julian Assange has been under lock and key for way too long. 9 years, to be exact. That’s for the incredible infraction of sharing information the US government deemed covert. And it was — it made the US look awful. Especially the Collateral Murder video where 12 civilians, including children, were shown being killed/injured in a sanctioned helicopter attack. The video was sourced from the US military whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
Why talk about Julian, and why now? Because I listened to a great podcast yesterday with Julian’s brother Gabriel Shipton as he sat down with Marty Bent on Tales from the Crypt. I could hear Gabriel holding back tears when talking about his brother’s treatment. The truth of Julian’s situation smacked me in a way that I felt compelled to rant, I mean ramble, about today. There’s also a strong cross-over from Julian’s WikiLeaks to the Bitcoin community. In 2011, WikiLeaks was cut off from all traditional payment networks and turned to the fledgling Bitcoin network as an alternative. It worked, and WikiLeaks became the first use case to validate Bitcoin as being outside the direct control of governments. Dissidents worldwide now use Bitcoin to fund their operations today, thanks to WikiLeaks’ example.
Now, I’ve stuck to the facts of the situation in my brief description of Julian. I don’t really care how right or wrong his publishing of leaked information was. What I do care about is the treatment he’s received. It’s horrendous. Violent criminals are treated better. It’s hard not to think the US is trying to make an example of him and chill journalistic reporting. Without effective journalism, it’s all too easy for governments to run amuck. We need some sunlight shed on dark activities to keep the system in balance.
So I was dismayed to learn that not only did the US lie about not wanting to extradite Julian from the UK, where he’s been holed up the last 9 years — the last two in solitary confinement — but that they were appealing the first extradition rejection by the UK courts. Let’s review the sequence of events :
In 2010, Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Julian for the sexual assault of two Swedish women.
Julian was arrested shortly after in the UK. He posted bail and, by May 2012, had lost all Swedish extradition appeals. Fearing extradition by the US if he went to Sweden, he was granted asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Seven years later, the UK authorities arrested Julian in the Ecuadorian embassy in April 2019 and threw him into an isolation chamber in prison for breaching his 2010 bail agreement. He was given a 50-week sentence, which he has served.
The US denied their intention to extradite, but as soon as the British arrested Assange, the US filed an extradition request.
Julian is still in isolation as he fights the US extradition charge. In 2019, the Swedish sexual assault charges were dropped — not enough evidence. The US lost its initial extradition case because the judge ruled Julian is not mentally fit. The US has appealed the decision…
Let me get this straight: innocent people were killed in the Iraq war. Wikileaks, Julian’s organization, exposed the deed. Instead of apologizing for effing up, the US decides to lie, bully, and threaten all manner of nations to get their hands on the man who exposed the deed. And now, it’s twisting arcane legal rules that threaten the ability of journalists to do their jobs — all to reach Julian. But let’s set all that aside, why can’t he at least be treated like a violent criminal while in jail and allowed to meet with his lawyer and family from time to time?
Favorite Things on the Interwebs Today
It tickle’s me fancy to see something other than “Bitcoin is boiling the ocean” creep its way into the Bitcoin energy conversation.
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $56k - $63k
Today: $52k - $58k
Tomorrow: $50k - $58k
So much for pushing for higher numbers yesterday! Yesterday’s newsletter published right at the peak of price yesterday, $59.7k, and has since sold off, reaching a low of $53.5k, much lower than I’d predicted — can’t win ‘em all! That means that we’re going to continue the chop fest between $50k and $60k for a while longer. At the moment, the door is wide open for the bears to push us down to $52k. If the bulls can hold on, there’s a chance we can push as high as $58k today. Most likely, we see the price consolidate between $54k and $56k most of the day. There is one big exception — the traditional markets are selling off. If that turns into a rout, it could lead to a knock-on effect with Bitcoin, dragging the price down as well.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: What does Bitcoin layer 2 mean?
A: Layer 2, or L2, are technologies built on top of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is not designed to manage all the transactions the world will need. There is not enough space on the Bitcoin blockchain. Space was traded for security in the design of Bitcoin. But that does not mean that Bitcoin cannot manage the world’s transactions. Instead, L2 technologies are being built, like the Lightning Network, that makes up for the space limitations on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Here’s an analogy that might help. Historically, precious metals were used as money before our current age of fiat. Eventually, paper notes were developed to represent gold. The gold was stored in banks. Banks would settle gold transactions with each other. Banks settling gold between each other is the equivalent of the Bitcoin blockchain. The Lightning Network is the equivalent of paper notes.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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