plebeian

Hodler, node runner, coffee drinker, book reader, coder, painter

Public Key

npub1ap9fscjl92zclacmaa0nneurr5js85ymuem6ew0ftu8f6eztvpds8qchga

NIP-57 Address

gildedmorocco51@walletofsatoshi.com

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswsj5cvf0j4pv07ud77heeu7p36fgr6zd7vaavh8547r5av39kqkcpypmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuetfde6kuer6wasku7nfvuh8xurpvdjj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcvuvh5k

Publishing to

nostr.einundzwanzig.space

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ap9fscjl92zclacmaa0nneurr5js85ymuem6ew0ftu8f6eztvpds8qchga

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-02-27 14:37:34

Are you not bullish on #Bitcoin and MSTR?
This is wonderful time to get in but that’s just me

2025-02-22 21:03:04

Bitcoin will eat the world and it will take s lot of time
We might not be alive to see it but it will change everything
Have patience
Enjoy the ride
https://m.primal.net/PHKB.jpg

2025-02-18 20:48:24

America hooked them, then fucked them. It literally forced them to screw up their own economy. They only made life difficult for their citizens, strengthened the extreme right in their countries and created a problem for the entire continent, not only the union.
Bravo you idiots
https://m.primal.net/PCAD.jpg

2025-02-16 19:11:10

https://m.primal.net/OzRA.jpg

2025-02-16 16:36:25

We all are born wealthy.
It is given to us as a default state but we spend our whole lives chasing riches and on that way we lose wealth we were given
#nevent1q…mad0

2025-02-16 15:55:43

Being wealthy and being rich are two completely different situations
Being wealthy means having full control of your time, being able to have fun with everything life brings upon, not being a slave to anything or anybody. It’s low time preference modus.
Being rich means being able to fulfill and afford any wish of the moment you might have and it takes an effort to not make it high time preference way of life.

2025-02-15 20:02:09

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I think too many people pay too much attention to aesthetics instead of functionality. The way I see it - the code has a functional purpose, it is meant to do something not to look nice or simple so as long as it does what it is useful to someone it is good.
The refactoring process to make code simpler and nicer has nothing to do with its purpose and is s endless endeavor

2025-02-15 19:51:51

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Every cycle brings new disappointments

2025-02-15 19:50:26

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Have you heard of gateway process?

2025-02-15 19:48:58

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Oh haps is coming do not worry 😉

2025-02-14 20:19:26

Every day I wake up in People’s republic of EU laughing at the pure dementia these people have
Yes, they are truly and magnificently incompetent in everything except in showing their relentless greed for power
#nevent1q…83hd

2025-02-14 20:12:42

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Would anyone expect sovereign wealth funds to hold Bitcoin keys, Caldcards, seed phrase steel plate backups and at the same time have many of them because multisig off course…
Lol… that’s just hopium based on a good night lullaby

2025-02-14 20:06:25

My OTC guy I used many times to buy/sell bitcoin just told me that he charges 10% fee for selling bitcoin for cash at the moment
10% ?!?!
Lol

2025-02-14 20:03:53

If anyone can make more of something that something is worthless
#nevent1q…eydd

2025-02-14 19:59:48

Why Primal doesn’t have notifications?
https://m.primal.net/OgMO.jpg

2025-02-14 19:51:15

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Eric was always a shircoiner

2025-02-14 19:50:04

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@nprofile…uq47 this is the way I see things also. Even if I don’t hold any Bitcoin nearly using mempool.space to see if Bitcoin is still functional IS using the network

2025-02-14 19:47:20

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Central banks will literally be the last thing they will give up before they give their last breath
Of money is power than free money is the ultimate power

2025-02-14 19:40:59

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I see neither game theory nor design flaw here - it’s just a decision on how you wanna look at things

2025-02-14 19:29:56

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This is a ridiculous take but as a freedom loving pleb I’ll die defending your right to say things you believe in regardless of how crazy they seem
Arguing about this is just a waste of time.

2025-02-14 19:23:39

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Yeah me too. Gor an email from suport saying that they are rebuilding login/verification process and should have new release in next weeks ready

2025-02-14 15:39:59

A month after being rugged by @nprofile…kfvc still can’t create wallet
https://m.primal.net/Ofsx.png

2025-02-14 15:32:12

Using advanced search on Primal filtering notes from my self crashes primal on iOS @nprofile…dc33

2025-02-14 06:44:40

It would be quite useful if these popular LLMs would have humility to say “I don’t know” from time to time

2025-02-13 16:39:23

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If only simple repricing would make things better

2025-02-12 14:24:56

Working on a bug for two days and just about to give up and go kill my self one line of code fixes everything
No AI was able to figure out this stupidity

2025-02-11 15:38:45

There's a mix of concern and optimism in the market - which means we could go up or we could go down
#Bitcoin

2025-02-10 19:49:04

Trying out #notedeck - always loved Tweetdeck back in the days. Looks super nice - smaller fonts would be super nice

2025-02-10 19:11:11

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Using X only as a news source these days and Grok gives me good tldr on current topics of interest - for true human engagement Nostr is just beautiful

2025-02-10 19:06:01

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Yeah I know thats why I’m still contemplating on this idea 🤪

2025-02-10 18:30:42

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Lol no 300sat a day it’s a solo play 😉

2025-02-10 17:47:01

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Interesting, I am considering closing my local bank accounts and moving all fiat work to Revolut because it’s cheaper and faster

2025-02-10 17:09:40

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It’s good that it’s open and not for profit. God forbid how much would it cost if it was closed for the profit service

2025-02-10 17:07:58

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Be happy you don’t have to show up personally

2025-02-10 17:06:04

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Everything I put in a quote repost I expect to be ABOVE quoted note

2025-02-10 16:50:40

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Came to the same conclusion after running Lightning node for 4 years. I just don’t need that headache

2025-02-09 21:08:16

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I’m not mad, just feel sorry for them

2025-02-09 19:12:18

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I use them less

2025-02-09 19:00:22

People spend money like there is no tomorrow.
I don’t think about tomorrow - I think about the day after tomorrow so I stack sats today

2025-02-09 18:56:41

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Everybody work for fiat but some use it to stack sats

2025-02-09 14:57:29

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I get that but Damus doesn’t have option to put in ln address only to connect to Alby or use NWC

2025-02-09 14:36:44

I use Primal and Damus interchangeably and I am bit confused with how wallets work. If I connect Damus to Alby but put WOS Lightning address in primal where do I receive zaps? How should I setup Primal to use its pwn wallet as primary (should I leave Lightning address field in wallet settings empty or what?)
#asknostr @npub16c0…6nvr @npub1xts…kk5s

2025-02-09 13:35:42

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When the pleb is ready the signal appears 😉

2025-02-09 13:34:17

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Man könnte argumentieren, Sozialismus sei ein mildes Wort

2025-02-09 13:23:54

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Yet so many people are trapped in high time preference. It’s so sad

2025-02-09 09:42:49

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Don’t underestimate the power of evolutionary adaptability

2025-02-08 09:07:55

Went on a dinner last night with a friend I orange pilled few years ago. He understands Bitcoin and is a passionate hodler but as someone who has couple of companies it was mind boggling for me that he never considered Bitcoin as a company treasury asset.
We changed that 😉

2025-02-07 05:51:53

Change is natural phenomenon. Whether we control it or not is another subject

2025-02-06 14:35:22

Do you follow naming conventions in your projects? I really try but some things just make life more difficult. Having too many files might be one thing I hate the most
https://github.com/alexeymezenin/laravel-best-practices

2025-02-04 19:12:06

When debugging complex coding issues it is still more likely to find the answer and solution with google than with AI

2025-02-04 19:08:39

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Always expect nothing and when something comes act accordingly😉

2025-02-04 19:00:53

Unpopular opinion: Bitcoin is not for spending - fiat is

2025-02-04 18:59:52

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Because it takes an extraordinary amount of special skills to wisely use wealth you did not put blood and tears into acquiring

2025-02-01 09:25:28

https://m.primal.net/OLCI.jpg

2025-01-31 20:52:48

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How do you know you’re alive? Maybe it’s just a trip in heaven 😉

2025-01-31 17:19:29

Time to write some tests https://m.primal.net/OJzm.jpg

2025-01-31 16:36:29

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The key word is “indirect”

2025-01-31 16:34:24

How to lose weight- the easy way
https://m.primal.net/OJwl.jpg

2025-01-29 21:04:54

With Bitcoin I have become so “don’t trust - verify” that more and more people call me psycho

2025-01-29 20:57:59

Is there a way to use advanced search in Primal that actually works?

2025-01-29 20:14:47

You may love or hate Elon and Xitter but the way Grok is able to merge AI and real time data that it’s fed by millions of users is so freaking useful
The way Elon is using users to feed the Grok with data in real time for free is hilarious but nevertheless quite useful

2025-01-29 20:07:58

I really love the way Deepseek gives you all the reasoning behind its answer.
For a simple calculating question about real/nominal GDP and inflation it just gave me 5 pages of reasoning and explanations before spitting out simple answer in one sentence
One can learn so much and its freaking fast

2025-01-29 19:46:52

Today's FED statement removed previous language suggesting inflation was making progress toward the 2% goal.
Translating to plain English it means inflation AIN'T going to 2% - it's going higher

2025-01-29 19:33:54

In the last month, several publicly traded companies have announced adopting Bitcoin as a treasury asset:
1. Heritage Distilling announced they are adopting Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset and will accept BTC as payment. This was noted as a significant move in the craft spirits industry.
2. Goodfood Market Corp. from Canada announced a Bitcoin Treasury Strategy with an initial $1 million investment through a spot Bitcoin ETF, indicating further corporate adoption in the food sector.
3. Critical Metals Corp. has secured financing to purchase Bitcoin for its treasury strategy, making it the first Nasdaq-listed critical minerals company to adopt Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. They have access to up to $500 million for this purpose.

2025-01-29 19:29:31

Got to love the term "Strategic National Bitcoin Stockpile", much better than "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve"

2025-01-29 12:44:26

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When you open DATUM on the clients tab you will find a table with a lot of funny acronyms for which there is no clear explanation on DATUM Github or Ocean website so let me try to figure it out:
First, "Subbed" – maybe that's short for "Subscribed"? The values here look like a combination of letters and numbers, possibly client IDs, followed by a number of seconds how long the client has been subscribed to the server.
"Last Accepted" – the time since the last valid share or block was accepted from this client. The values here are in seconds
VDiff – "Variable Difficulty" might be the current minimum difficulty setting for the client
DiffA (A) – "Difficulty Accepted" The total accepted shares at that difficulty? The number in parentheses could be the count of accepted shares. So DiffA might represent the total difficulty of accepted shares and the number of them
DiffR (R) – "Difficulty Rejected" Similar to DiffA, but for rejected shares. This column shows the total difficulty of rejected shares, their count, and the rejection percentage
Hashrate (age) – The hashrate of the client and the age in seconds indicating how recent the last update was
Coinbase – Usually refers to the address where mining rewards go
UserAgent – The software the client is using. This helps identify the miner software and version.

2025-01-29 12:37:34

DATUM is very nice and interesting project IMO. It requires Bitcoin Knots full note implementation but it does work with pruned node so if you already have for example Umbrel with Bitcoin Core node you can install and setup pruned Bitcoin Knots node on the same Umbrel machine and install and run DATUM for solo mining.
If you want to use DATUM for solo mining you need to edit /home/umbrel/umbrel/app-data/datum/data/settings/datum_gateway_config.json config file and set pool_host: "" (delete existing value). When you do that you will be running in Non-Pooled Mode (which I guess is another way to say "solo mining mode" 😉 )

2025-01-23 18:30:08

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Good question

2025-01-23 18:27:45

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Welcome

2025-01-22 17:42:46

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Intelligence comes with self-awareness, critical thinking and ability to humble your self to the reality and adapt your opinion each and every minute as the reality changes. Those virtues are very hard to obtain and sustain - that’s why we live surrounded by ridiculous amount of stupidity

2025-01-22 17:07:35

Not that I care about what he thinks but he is right.
Bitcoin not a threat to the dollar but the best asset that can help back the dollar and the confidence in it.
The real threat to the dollar is the lack of confidence and irresponsible government that does nothing to manage the debt and risks that come with it
#note1pqu…zzju

2025-01-19 10:48:34

One year later this is still the only reason I don’t use Damus
https://m.primal.net/NniG.jpg

2025-01-19 10:41:41

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You CAN’T share links or articles on TikTok

2025-01-19 10:41:07

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When I say news I don’t mean BBC or CNN news, I mean new information about whatever deserves your attention. You can share links or research articles on TikTok. And if you want to know if someone launched a nuke I bet you will find this info on X before other channels even register the event

2025-01-19 10:33:00

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I hear you and you should not confuse number of users to wide social impact. No one gets their news, latest and greatest highly engaged content from FB or Instagram, they all go to X. And the number of people who go online to get latest and greatest compared to people who go to narrow circle of family and friends to share images from their vacation (FB) is not even in the same league.

2025-01-19 09:17:57

The success of Nostr is reversely correlated to the amount of free speech that Elon enables on X
Few

2025-01-19 08:43:15

I just lost a million brain cells
https://m.primal.net/NndK.jpg

2025-01-19 08:05:15

Lets be real
TokTokers are disabled people when it comes to understanding benefits of Nostr

2025-01-19 07:53:39

If you take everything I say without critical thinking and without questioning every word I say, you don’t deserve nice things

2025-01-19 07:50:05

No one is coming to Nostr from TikTok
It’s very naive to think otherwise

2025-01-19 07:44:49

Open source and decentralized nature of Nostr makes it very challenging to promote growth in any way, shape or form. The only way always has been to rely on organic slow grind which can take years and decades
It just like Bitcoin - you can not sell the idea to someone who has no real need for it and/or is not open to jump into the abyss of the unknown
#note15ee…7042

2025-01-19 07:32:56

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It all just network effect. Until mainstream social media platforms blow up in some way that makes users angry or engulfed in fear they will stay dominant and nostr will be just a niche.
On top of that people really have no idea nostr even exists and the ones that do get really easily scared and confused with private/public key concept. All they want is simple way of logging with email and password they can remember

2025-01-18 22:00:30

Pure evil
https://m.primal.net/NnAK.jpg

2025-01-17 21:05:01

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Beethoven 9. Symphony
GnR November Rain
Sting Desert Rose
Nick Cave Red Right Hand
In no particular order

2025-01-17 20:51:39

Scrolling through “AI summaries” on Interactive Brokers
We’re safe - intelligence is no were to be seen in these AIs

2025-01-17 19:55:23

Do you have a plan for Bitcoin:
1. Going to 250k and crashing to 70k
2. Going to 500k and crashing to 100k
3. Going to 1M and crashing to 200k
4. Going to gazzilion without ever crashing again
If not, it might be good time start contemplating

2025-01-17 19:52:14

After so many years and so many rekt people I can not believe XRP is still a thing

2025-01-17 19:42:34

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It’s a side effect of socialism. I was born and raised in true socialism in eastern Europe and one of my first memories is the family drama when my father decided to quit government job (in that time all companies were owned by state so every job even in ship building company was government job) to start his own private business as this was a first time in my country when it was actually legal to own private business after 50 years. The main argument was precisely what you described - you are giving away security of government job for huge amount of risk and insecurity of operating your own business!?! In the end it was the right decision but boy was it hard for my grandparents

2025-01-17 19:36:03

I would not be surprised to see Bitcoin above 120k before Trump gets in

2025-01-17 17:40:00

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People are too dumb to figure that out

2025-01-16 20:23:43

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First instinct is to agree but being here for too long and having quite a lot of grinding and plebs observing years in my backpack I must say it is wishful thinking. People are so dumb it’s horrific.

2025-01-16 20:14:40

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Back of the envelope math:
Let’s assume the initial debt is D and the initial GDP is G. The initial debt-to-GDP ratio is D/G.
Let's say the new debt is 1.2D (20% higher) and the new debt-to-GDP ratio is 0.9(D/G) (10% lower).
We can set up an equation using the new debt and the new debt-to-GDP ratio:
1.2D / New GDP = 0.9(D/G)
We want to find the New GDP, so we'll rearrange the equation:
New GDP = 1.2D / (0.9(D/G))
Simplifying:
New GDP = 1.2D / (0.9D/G)
New GDP = 1.2 / 0.9 * G
New GDP = 1.333G
This means the new GDP is approximately 33.3% higher than the initial GDP.
To find out how much real GDP was created with the new debt, we subtract the initial GDP from the new GDP:
Increase in GDP = New GDP - Initial GDP
= 1.333G - G
= 0.333G
So, approximately 33.3% of the initial GDP was created with the new debt.
In terms of actual value, if we assume D = $100 trillion and G = $100 trillion initially (debt-to-GDP ratio of 100%), then:
Initial Debt: $100 trillion
Initial GDP: $100 trillion
New Debt: $120 trillion (20% higher)
New Debt-to-GDP Ratio: 90% (10% lower)
Using our previous calculation:
New GDP ≈ $133.33 trillion
Increase in real gdp ≈ $33.33 trillion

2025-01-16 19:58:37

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Bathia is a smart guy with a too big to fail ego

2025-01-16 19:55:20

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I would rather have a crypto tzar than anti crypto army general as president

2025-01-16 19:52:33

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In a world where everything becomes digital having digital ID becomes necessity

2025-01-16 19:42:01

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I have one and fully aware there is almost zero chance to ever get the block.
But, the key word is almost. You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy the ticket 😉

2024-10-27 15:16:57

Few days later @npub1v5u…n0v5 still wont let me create wallet
Might stop using it at all since the wallet is the only point pf using it
#note10p9…ljel

2024-10-25 16:23:32

Some people are simply out of this world. It’s rush hour but you will stop and you will melt down
https://m.primal.net/Lhvu.mov

2024-10-24 09:51:25

What happened to @npub1v5u…n0v5
I opened it today and my profile is gone, wallet gone, subscriptions gone. It’s like I just installed it but I have been using it for a year. Also when I try to create new wallet I get “Something went wrong…” error

2024-10-01 14:05:53

Julian Assange's full testimony to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg today:
"Mr. Chairman, esteemed members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, ladies and gentlemen.
The transition from years of confinement in a maximum-security prison to standing here before the representatives of 46 nations and 700 million people is a profound and surreal shift.
The experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey; it strips away one's sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence.
I am not yet fully equipped to speak about what I have endured - the relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally, nor can i speak yet about the deaths by hanging, murder, and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners.
I apologise in advance if my words falter or if my presentation lacks the polish you might expect in such a distinguished forum.
Isolation has taken its toll, which I am trying to unwind, and expressing myself in this setting is a challenge.
However, the gravity of this occasion and the weight of the issues at hand compel me to set aside my reservations and speak to you directly.
I have traveled a long way, literally and figuratively, to be before you today.
Before our discussion or answering any questions you might have, I wish to thank PACE for its 2020 resolution (2317), [pace.coe.int/en/files/28508…], which stated that my imprisonment set a dangerous precedent for journalists and noted that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture called for my release.
I'm also grateful for PACE's 2021 statement [pace.coe.int/en/news/8446/p…] expressing concern over credible reports that US officials discussed my assassination, again calling for my prompt release.
And I commend the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee for commissioning a renowned rapporteur, Sunna Ævarsdóttir, to investigate the circumstances surrounding my detention and conviction and the consequent implications for human rights.
However, like so many of the efforts made in my case - whether they were from parliamentarians, presidents, prime ministers, the Pope, UN officials and diplomats, unions, legal and medical professionals, academics, activists, or citizens - none of them should have been necessary.
None of the statements, resolutions, reports, films, articles, events, fundraisers, protests, and letters over the last 14 years should have been necessary.
But all of them were necessary because without them I never would have seen the light of day.
This unprecedented global effort was needed because of the legal protections that did exist, many existed only on paper or were not effective in any remotely reasonable time frame.
I eventually chose freedom over unrealisable justice, after being detained for years and facing a 175 year sentence with no effective remedy. Justice for me is now precluded, as the US government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot file a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even a freedom of information act request over what it did to me as a result of its extradition request.
I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today because after years of incarceration because I plead guilty to journalism. I plead guilty to seeking information from a source. I plead guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I plead guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else. I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable.
As I emerge from the dungeon of Belmarsh, the truth now seems less discernible, and I regret how much ground has been lost during that time period when expressing the truth has been undermined, attacked, weakened, and diminished.
I see more impunity, more secrecy, more retaliation for telling the truth and more self censorship. It is hard not to draw a line from the US government's prosecution of me - its crossing the rubicon by internationally criminalising journalism - to the chilled climate for freedom of expression now.
When I founded WikiLeaks, it was driven by a simple dream: to educate people about how the world works so that, through understanding, we might bring about something better.
Having a map of where we are lets us understand where we might go.
Knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand justice where there is none.
We obtained and published truths about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen horrors, about programs of assassination, rendition, torture, and mass surveillance.
We revealed not just when and where these things happened but frequently the policies, the agreements, and structures behind them.
When we published Collateral Murder, the infamous gun camera footage of a US Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to pieces Iraqi journalists and their rescuers, the visual reality of modern warfare shocked the world.
But we also used interest in this video to direct people to the classified policies for when the US military could deploy lethal force in Iraq and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval.
In fact, 40 years of my potential 175-year sentence was for obtaining and releasing these policies.
The practical political vision I was left with after being immersed in the world's dirty wars and secret operations is simple: Let us stop gagging, torturing, and killing each other for a change. Get these fundamentals right and other political, economic, and scientific processes will have space to take care of the rest.
WikiLeaks' work was deeply rooted in the principles that this Assembly stands for.
Journalism that elevated freedom of information and the public's right to know found its natural operational home in Europe.
I lived in Paris and we had formal corporate registrations in France and in Iceland. Our journalistic and technical staff were spread throughout Europe.
We published to the world from servers in based in France, Germany, and Norway.
But 14 years ago the United States military arrested one of our alleged whistleblowers, PFC Manning, a US intelligence analyst based in Iraq.
The US government concurrently launched an investigation against me and my colleagues.
The US government illicitly sent planes of agents to Iceland, paid bribes to an informer to steal our legal and journalistic work product, and without formal process pressured banks and financial services to block our subscriptions and freeze our accounts.
The UK government took part in some of this retribution. It admitted at the European Court of Human Rights that it had unlawfully spied on my UK lawyers during this time.
Ultimately this harassment was legally groundless. President Obama's Justice Department chose not to indict me, recognizing that no crime had been committed.
The United States had never before prosecuted a publisher for publishing or obtaining government information.
To do so would require a radical and ominous reinterpretation of the US Constitution.
In January 2017, Obama also commuted the sentence of Manning, who had been convicted of being one of my sources.
However, in February 2017, the landscape changed dramatically.
President Trump had been elected. He appointed two wolves in MAGA hats: Mike Pompeo, a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive, as CIA Director, and William Barr, a former CIA officer, as US Attorney General.
By March 2017, WikiLeaks had exposed the CIA's infiltration of French political parties, its spying on French and German leaders, its spying on the European Central Bank, European economics ministries, and its standing orders to spy on French industry as a whole.
We revealed the CIA's vast production of malware and viruses, its subversion of supply chains, its subversion of antivirus software, cars, smart TVs and iPhones.
CIA Director Pompeo launched a campaign of retribution.
It is now a matter of public record that under Pompeo's explicit direction, the CIA drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and authorized going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks, and the planting of false information.
My wife and my infant son were also targeted. A CIA asset was permanently assigned to track my wife and instructions were given to obtain DNA from my six month old son's nappy.
This is the testimony of more than 30 current and former US intelligence officials speaking to the US press, which has been additionally corroborated by records seized in a prosecution brought against some of the CIA agents involved.
The CIA's targeting of myself, my family and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extraterritorial means provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organisations engage in transnational repression. Such repressions are not unique. What is unique is that we know so much about this one due to numerous whistleblowers and to judicial investigations in Spain.
This Assembly is no stranger to extraterritorial abuses by the CIA.
PACE's groundbreaking report on CIA renditions in Europe exposed how the CIA operated secret detention centres and conducted unlawful renditions on European soil, violating human rights and international law.
In February this year, the alleged source of some of our CIA revelations, former CIA officer Joshua Schulte, was sentenced to forty years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation.
His windows are blacked out, and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it.
These conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay.
Transnational repression is also conducted by abusing legal processes.
The lack of effective safeguards against this means that Europe is vulnerable to having its mutual legal assistance and extradition treaties hijacked by foreign powers to go after dissenting voices in Europe.
In Mike Pompeo's memoirs, which I read in my prison cell, the former CIA Director bragged about how he pressured the US Attorney General to bring an extradition case against me in response to our publications about the CIA.
Indeed, acceding to Pompeo's efforts, the US Attorney General reopened the investigation against me that Obama had closed and re-arrested Manning, this time as a witness.
Manning was held in prison for over a year and fined a thousand dollars a day in a formal attempt to coerce her into providing secret testimony against me.
She ended up attempting to take her own life.
We usually think of attempts to force journalists to testify against their sources.
But Manning was now a source being forced to testify against their journalist.
By December 2017, CIA Director Pompeo had got his way, and the US government issued a warrant to the UK for my extradition.
The UK government kept the warrant secret from the public for two more years, while it, the US government, and the new president of Ecuador moved to shape the political, legal, and diplomatic ground for my arrest.
When powerful nations feel entitled to target individuals beyond their borders, those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them. Without them no individual has a hope of defending themselves against the vast resources that a state aggressor can deploy.
If the situation were not already bad enough in my case, the US government asserted a dangerous new global legal position. Only US citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights. But the US claims its Espionage Act still applies to them regardless of where they are. So Europeans in Europe must obey US secrecy law with no defences at all as far as the US government is concerned. An American in Paris can talk about what the US government is up to - perhaps. But for a Frenchman in Paris, to do so is a crime without any defence and he may be extradited just like me.
Now that one foreign government has formally asserted that Europeans have no free speech rights, a dangerous precedent has been set.
Other powerful states will inevitably follow suit.
The war in Ukraine has already seen the criminalisation of journalists in Russia, but based on the precedent set in my extradition, there is nothing to stop Russia, or indeed any other state, from targeting European journalists, publishers, or even social media users, by claiming that their secrecy laws have been violated.
The rights of journalists and publishers within the European space are seriously threatened.
Transnational repression cannot become the norm here.
As one of the world's two great norm-setting institutions, PACE must act.
The criminalisation of newsgathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere.
I was formally convicted, by a foreign power, for asking for, receiving, and publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe.
The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.
Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society.
Mr Chairman, distinguished delegates, if Europe is to have a future where the freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed by a few but rights guaranteed to all then it must act so that what has happened in my case never happens to anyone else.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to this assembly, to the conservatives, social democrats, liberals, leftists, greens, and independents - who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to the countless individuals who have advocated tirelessly for my release.
It is heartening to know that in a world often divided by ideology and interests, there remains a shared commitment to the protection of essential human liberties.
Freedom of expression and all that flows from it is at a dark crossroad. I fear that unless norm setting institutions like PACE wake up to the gravity of the situation it will be too late.
Let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of freedom never dims, that the pursuit of truth will live on, and that the voices of the many are not silenced by the interests of the few."
Watch the entire hearing here (includes introductions and following Q&A session) 👉 youtube.com/live/Mq85IZMei…