Justin Costley

Liberty & #bitcoin

[Peter Schiff @PeterSchiff]

Thanks to Donald Trump, we now have two Democratic parties. With the defeat of @RepThomasMassie for being a principled fiscal conservative, the Republican Party basically exists in name only. We have two big-government political parties, each offering its own brand of socialism.

[Tom Woods @ThomasEWoods]

The Boomers of Kentucky embarrassed the United States on the world stage today.

Around the world, people genuinely wondered: can an American politician survive who doesn't repeat low-IQ platitudes about Israel and the Middle East?

The Boomers -- with their heterodox Christianity and FOX News propaganda -- gave their answer.

Republican politics is dominated by people who for some reason still think Sean Hannity is a smart guy, and Mark Levin is a constitutional scholar.

Pat Buchanan had given them the example of the learned and articulate right-winger -- and Pat was well to the right of Hannity and Levin -- but they decided to go with Tomi Lahren and Dan Bongino instead.

Oh, Massie voted this way or that, people will say, and that's why he was targeted in this unprecedented way. Yet there's Donald Trump out there campaigning for pro-amnesty Mike Lawler. So I don't believe you that this is a question of Massie's voting record (which is stellar, by the way).

Even if Massie had had a handful of objectionable votes, a million times more important than any Massie vote is this principle:

A patriot who values his country's sovereignty cannot allow three socially leftist billionaires who represent a foreign interest to buy a congressional seat and place a ridiculous empty suit in it.

Even if for some reason you don't like Massie, you as a patriot would have to dislike THAT a hundred times more.

These three billionaires never once set foot in Kentucky -- Kentuckians, to them, are lower than dirt, and exist solely to have congressional seats bought from them.

Put up a nonentity like "Ed Gallrein" who refuses to debate (how can any voter reward that?), have him utter a few Boomer slogans to satisfy the rubes, and otherwise hide him away. That was the strategy. Boomers (yes, I know there are exceptions) are too morally and intellectually corrupt even to understand what just happened.

But the rest of us understand.

Can you imagine "Ed Gallrein" leading the charge against the Covid restrictions? He would have been first in line for the damn "vaccine"!

Remember, too, that the folks who voted for "Ed Gallrein" tonight are the kind of people who think Marco Rubio is an impressive person, so there was no reaching them.

But the younger generations, who don't get their information from the insulting caricature of conservatism that is FOX News, aren't going to fall for the nonsense that snookered the Boomers -- and therein lies hope.

Incidentally, the easiest thing in the world would have been for Massie to buckle. Nobody reading this has the remotest idea the pressure that was brought to bear against him. Not one of his detractors could have lasted a week in Massie's shoes.

If Trump can sup in happy concord with Zohran Mamdani, the radical leftist mayor of New York, you'd think he could have spared a meal with Massie, whose track record proved he was not Trump's enemy.

Not that you'd know it from the anti-Massie brigade (half of whom used to love Massie before they were instructed not to love him), Massie defended Trump through two impeachments, grilled Merrick Garland over FBI assets on January 6, and defended Trump during Russiagate. By contrast, "Ed Gallrein" left the GOP when Trump was elected, and came back only when Biden was in office.

But since we're not completely dense, we know the real reason Massie could not be tolerated.

As Glenn Greenwald put it, "If the AIPAC/Adelson crowd wants someone out of Congress for disloyalty to Israel, they will be out of Congress.

"There are a few exceptions due to unusual districts, but not many. The Israel Lobby has unlimited funding and will spend limitlessly to expunge the blasphemous."

I repeat that no American patriot can tolerate, much less celebrate, this grotesque and demeaning situation.

The polls show that this situation won't exist forever. We will reach a point at which the foreign money (and that's obviously what it is) will at last be a mark of shame for the candidate receiving it. That will be a great day for American patriots everywhere.

Thomas Massie should hold his head high: he stood up against the machine time and again, knowing that it could one day lead to this.

Tonight we have to explain to our kids: in this world, the good guys don't always win. But you fight regardless of the prospects of winning. The fight for what is good and right is an end in itself.

For that reason, people will remember the Thomas Massies and the Ron Pauls. Nobody will remember "Ed Gallrein," not even as the answer to a trivia question.

[Shinobi @brian_trollz]

When the fuck is @Tailscale going to start accepting Bitcoin? Needing a billing address for a private VPN mesh is ridiculous.

[Marty Bent @MartyBent]

Throwing open source software developers in cages for publishing bitcoin wallet software that enables people to transact with a high degree of privacy because they "enabled criminals" is akin to throwing the Spotify execs in a cage because a criminal played Coco Melon music on loop for a week straight while torturing a victim.

Completely absurd. #FreeSamourai

[Efrat Fenigson @efenigson]

Privacy is not a crime, hence people who write privacy tech should not be behind bars. Share if you agree.

[Simply Bitcoin @SimplyBitcoin]

Share, if you think President Trump should pardon the Samourai Bitcoin wallet developers
https://t.co/yVpLwBMd4k

[TFTC @TFTC21]

Bitcoin 2026 is a wrap. Plenty of white pills to go around. Ignore the noise. There has never been a better time to contribute to bitcoin, open source, and freedom tech. Don't listen to the doomers.

Go build something. Help someone take custody of their coins for the first time. There is no shortage of meaningful work to do.

And if you can't build, back the people who are. Some of them are sitting in prison right now for doing exactly what the rest of us came into bitcoin for.

We're going to win.

Support the effort to free the Samourai developers at https://t.co/5C6hs0AYRG.

[burn the bridge @econoalchemist]

2 years ago today, Samourai Wallet devs, Bill & Keonne, were arrested in multi-national raids. This is part of an on-going effort to trample your right to privacy, without which there is no freedom. Some of you can see the trajectory clearly & I thank you for speaking out.

[TFTC @TFTC21]

Two years ago today, the developers behind Samourai Wallet were arrested for building open-source privacy software.

They wrote code that lets people transact privately with bitcoin. The government called it money laundering.

This case set a precedent that should concern every developer writing freedom tools. Never forget.

[Erik @eriklocalhost]

even though i’m speaking at this conference i’ll say it:

it’s a joke to have these clowns speaking on a “code is free speech” panel while william hill and keonne rodriguez sit in jail.

pardon and release them now.

[RoninDojo @RoninDojoNode]

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the indictment and pre-dawn raids of Samourai Wallet developers. On this dark & historic day we announce the beta release of RoninDojo v3.0.0 and are proud to take a step forward for privacy-first Bitcoin tooling.
1/6 🧵👇

[Naomi Brockwell priv/acc @naomibrockwell]

Tomorrow the "Surveillance Accountability Act" will be introduced by @RepThomasMassie in the House. Please join us on the steps of the Capitol tomorrow around 10/10:30am for a quick press conference about the bill.

We must stop Warrantless Mass Surveillance.

[Proton @ProtonPrivacy]

"Why should I care about privacy? I have nothing to hide".

We hear it every week.

Today, the company that builds software for law enforcement by mining your medical records just published a 22-point manifesto about "freedom" and "democracy".

This is why you should care.

[Justin Amash @justinamash]

Vote out every single member of Congress who votes yes this week to extend FISA 702 unconstitutional, warrantless surveillance of Americans.

[Rand Paul @RandPaul]

For years, intelligence agencies have abused FISA to search Americans’ communications without a warrant.

My Fourth Amendment Restoration and Protection Act ends these backdoor searches once and for all.

If the government wants your data, they should get a warrant.

[TenthAmendmentCenter @TenthAmendment]

if you support Donald Trump or Barack Obama, or Joe Biden

You support a big spending, gun grabbing, oath breaking traitor

Get off your knees and stop being so anti-American

(yes there are a lot of other presidents to add to that list, too)

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

If America would embrace capitalism and reject cronyism

in health care, agriculture, military contracting, insurance, media, technology, and banking,

we would experience a renaissance unprecedented in human history.

[TFTC @TFTC21]

The TSA has a 95% failure rate. Not 80%. Ninety-five.

In 2015, DHS sent 70 undercover agents through TSA checkpoints with fake bombs and weapons. 67 got through. That's a 95% failure rate.

One agent set off the metal detector, got the enhanced pat-down, and still had a fake explosive taped to his back that screeners missed. The TSA's response was to classify the test results so the public couldn't see them.

In 24 years, the TSA has not foiled a single terrorist plot or caught a single terrorist. Not one. Its $1 billion behavioral detection program identified exactly one person resembling a terrorist in two decades.

This agency costs $11.5 billion a year. It was created in response to 9/11, but 9/11 was not a failure of airport security. What actually made flying safe was reinforced cockpit doors and passengers who will no longer sit passively during a hijacking. Not the liquid ban. Not the shoe removal.

80% of European airports use private screening. Israel hasn't had a hijacking since 1968. 22 US airports already use private contractors and outperform TSA-screened airports.

Abolish the TSA. Replace it with the model that 80% of the developed world already uses.

[GrapheneOS @GrapheneOS]

We strongly oppose the Unified Attestation initiative and call for app developers supporting privacy, security and freedom on mobile to avoid it. Companies selling phones should not be deciding which operating systems people are allowed to use for apps.

https://t.co/EnLzt01YYH

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

One of the most shamelessly fraudulent presidential campaigns in American history: