Here is a true story from my life.

A good few years ago I bought a derelict farm from a property development consortium. It had an agricultural tie on the land, and they couldn't get planning consent for development. It was next to a large unused field, and the place was overrun with rabbits. There was one large black one that I suspect was an escaped domestic pet. He didn't seem to be a part of any of the rabbit communities there, and I decided to write a story around him. I used the farm as a collection point for my antiques business, and the place was full of things I had acquired from house clearers. One of the items was a sporty remote control battery car toy. My idea was that this black rabbit learnt to drive the car, and he used it to tour the area looking for does with whom he could form relationships. I was going to create a website as a pseudo blog that described his adventures and activities. I even registered a domain name - Bang Bunny . This is parked at the moment, and I really ought to decide what I should do with it.

I'm quite encouraged at the moment. I've watched quite a few videos of interviews with small business owners, and I've phoned a few people. The general impression that I get is that they have all prepared for a true Brexit, which was the only option in the referendum, apart from staying in with no change of course. It looks as if the government is actually planning for this, and have reduced tariffs to boost the economy. This appears to be contrary to most of the reported facts and poll results. I have yet to find anyone who wants us to remain with the proposed government treaty, but my contacts may not be representative of the country as a whole. It certainly represents a majority of those who were born in Britain, and have a primary allegiance to the country.

I hope that I can start a few threads about using Bitcoin on the move, and include some stuff about solar power. It costs me a lot of money to use McDonalds "free" WiFi, and often I have to tether through my 'phone, as the kids are clogging it by sending stupid pictures to each other, and watching pop videos.

I think I'll try to start a Bitcoin Talk test blockchain project. I think it is important that people around the world are able to communicate, and to trade with each other outside the constraints of increasingly authoritarian governments. Lets make our own trade agreements.

It is really difficult for "outsiders" to understand the situation in Venezuela. What is certain is that Washington ( not the US ) has a policy of illegal sequestration against Venezuela., and that sanctions have weakened the country. Objective consideration of reports, and manipulated images, lead me to believe that sabotage by Washington, or its agents, was the reason for the electrical outage. The country seems to be split at the moment between the wealthy and the rest of the population, and this makes it difficult to gain an accurate picture of the situation. There are so many vested interests involved that is difficult to see a way forward. I believe that the sanctions should be removed, and the country should be allowed to regain some form of peaceful stability. At that point, it should be possible to allow the people to decide on a government for their future.

Is this video some sort of joke, or maybe it is Russian misinformation propaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGyPl9vJMcs

The camouflage stuff is the wrong colour and pattern. They are training to fight in freezing conditions, and the puddles don't contain any ice. They don't have proper clothing either, and they can't start and maintain cooking fires. I reckon I know more that they do, and I haven't had any training. At least I know that in sub-zero temperatures, you have to be able to resist the need to pee, as peeing reduces the core body temperature. I bet all that is second nature to the Russian soldiers.

Why aren't they training in Alaska anyway? Iceland, despite its name, must be a doddle with all the hot springs there.

It's certainly a good explanation, but he doesn't take it to the next level. The ministers in Westminster are not incompetent or working against their country. Their country is the City of London, and that controls the EU. A true Brexit is just the start, we have to get rid of the treasonous Eton/Oxford elite in the Civil Service and Westminster once we have regained self-determination. Theresa May is a graduate of St Hugh's, Oxford, where she gained a 2nd class degree in Geography. Amongst other jobs, she has worked for the Bank of England.

Britain purports to be a democracy, but the real truth is that unless you have political ideas that are acceptable to the City of London rulers, you will have difficult in gaining a nomination in any of the major political parties.

I believe that a WTO exit is still the most probable result. There may not be any time left for any other option. There doesn't seem to be much mention of a restriction that I believe binds the activities of a British government. This is that a government cannot bind its successors in an unbreakable treaty, and, if this is so, then May's deal could be determined to be Ultra Vires.

The EU is a minor trading partner of the UK, and most of the  EU commercial banking is routed through the City of London. I think they are extremely concerned about having to renegotiate toxic derivative agreements based on LIBOR.

I've just received this alert from the Nationwide.
https://www.nationwide.co.uk/products/current-accounts/landing-page/strong-customer-authentication#headingtag1

It would appear that the banks in the UK are tightening up even more with regards to account management. The obligation to enter your date of birth seems to be a bit of an odd requirement, and easy to uncover if one is attempting fraudulent operations. I'm considering removing my DoB from all of my forum profiles everywhere.

Also, they seem to be pushing their banking apps, and those are not something I wish to install in my computers.

Apologies for that. I changed it to "The City of London", as The City controls the EU, and undoubtedly May's terrible deal was created there.

That's a very complex topic to answer. England has a very complex social structure, and it became more polarised as a result of the abolition of grammar schools. The ruling "class" still keeps the old British Empire alive, and they now seem to regard the City of London as their country and the UK and the EU member countries as income sources and providers of assets. They control the British parliament, as well as the EU. The British Crown still has a number of global powers, for example, The Queen is still able to enact certain statutes in the US, and this goes back to the financing by the crown of both sides in the Civil War. It's the old  trick of taking assets or rights in settlement of debts.

At the moment it is not clear how the hands on the tiller are going to steer the ship in the future. There are a few clues though. The increased military spending in the US and the UK, and the disregard for social and economic projects indicates one aspect of future emphasis. The types of weapons are also significant - the type 26 frigate that is being added to the navies of the UK, Canada and Australia seem more suited to the protection and occupation of smaller islands and countries, than major international conflicts.

It is difficult to see how an unprepared complete break with the EU can be avoided. Because the 2 years that was designed to allow for an orderly re-arrangement has been abused by attempts to change the result of the referendum, the government has done nothing to create a sensible trading environment, and neither has the EU. No doubt they planned for chaos, and thus the ability to step in and "restructure" the country. Hopefully, we will be able to avoid this, and to get rid of the career politicians with no credentials other than a ppe from Oxford.

You can learn a lot from me, especially about the things you shouldn't do. For example. if you are going to have a long term relationship, don't choose a girl in San Francisco when you are living in London. One of the great inventors stated that creating successful innovations is 5% inspiration, and 95% perspiration. I have tried to reverse this, but without a great deal of success. I've also tried to split myself between HODLing and trading, and have ended up spending more time talking about it than making money.

On a more serious note - if you are going to use any crypto-currencies, I believe it is important to understand the basics of Bitcoin and its blockchain, and this forum is probably the best place for any newcomer to gain a basic understanding. Once you have an idea of the future potential of the banking revolution it spawned, then you can decide on alternatives/additions.

One thing I would like to see is a training Blockchain for Bitcoin Talk members. It could let newbies run a variety of nodes without the overhead of downloading the full blockchain. I'd support this if somebody wants to start it, but I'm having to cut back on projects that I'm ( trying ) to run at the moment. I'm aware of the Testnet, but I believe a BT members' one would attract more interest, and could be of benefit to the forum and its members.

We want our country back, and then we can reverse the decline that the EU has caused. The RU has had it. They've been letting the Chinese buy the ports in their member states ( countries ), because the states needed money to pay the tythes to the ruling bankers, and to support the profligate EU administration. Now the Chinese are starting to lean of the slave states to influence members of the EU parliament.

We want to be out of the whole corrupt, greedy organisation.

I forget to mention that we can come out of the EU under article 24. This means that we keep the same trade deals for 10 years, but not the other stuff.

Ir was fairly simple - we had a referendum, and we were told that "Brexit means Brexit". In breach of parliamentary regulations, the government printed a load of leaflets, and spent a lot of money to try to influence the country to stay. The country voted to leave, and the legally binding rules for leaving state that there should be a two year period to negotiate any new trading agreements. A remainer was appointed as prime minister, and the civil service and most politicians worked to try to reverse the result of the referendum. We are now in the position we were in when article 50 was triggered, but we no longer have the two year period to negotiate the new trade deals. The only advantage of this delay is that it has shown up many of the treasonous politicians and civil servants. Rhe question is - will we have a new government that is strong enough to "drain the swamp".

Much work seems to have been done to create a new British Commonwealth ( read British Empire ), and the military seems to be being strengthened to support this. This year will be an eventful one with the problems in France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Also there are the flash points in Venezuela, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the South China Seas, and many other locations. You can expect Britain to continue to be active in all of those potential war theatres.

I'm starting to believe that the original plan once the surprise result was known, was to push for an unplanned WTO exit. This was to be designed to create massive disruption, and then allow the bankers to return with a new plan for the British Commonwealth. We now see that defence spending is increasing, and exports of world class weapons such as the type 26 frigate are increasing. The plan is obviously to create a much stronger Britain with its own pseud-independence. The battle now is to gain real independence

The banking issues are real red herrings. Most EU derivatives are based on LIBOR, and the EU doesn't have a common language, although there was talk that they should adopt English, what an irony. The bankers are not going to move out of the City of London, and many seem to consider that it is more important than Wall Street in international finance. Banks will no doubt expand branch offices in the EU, but most of the derivatives markets are routed through London, and it will be a massive cost to change this. Sterling also has a stronger and more stable future than the debt ridden Euro, so why would they want to embrace a dying asset. The Euro was a great creation to continue the expansion of the German economy, but it looks as if it has served its purpose, and Italy and other countries will probably bring it down. That is without even considering the impact of the failure of Deutschebank.

With regard to tax havens. During the period of the decline of the British Empire, the wealthy elite created a complex structure of trusts, and there were written into UK law. Most of the Western World's wealth is hidden and accumulated in these, and this won't be changed. They are the reason that the world's truly wealthy families and dynasties don't appear in the rich lists.

I'm getting a bit discouraged. Every now and again I try to start a topic for discussion, but often they don't seem to attract much of a response. So if we leave out the primary topics of Bitcoin technicals and help, and board maintenance such as ban appeals, what would you like to see discussed in the Bitcoin Talk forum that doesn't appear regularly?  We can skip the underworld topics like bounty and ICOs as well.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but you really don't want me as a mod. Apart from the fact that I still have a bunch of members on ignore ( I really must go through that list soon ), I'm quite erratic, and I have some positive views that conflict with those of several members. For example, I would move all the bounty stuff off the board.

I'm also quite keen to set up an experiment with the new forum software, so I doubt if I would have the time to be effective.

It will be interesting to see how they handle a possible extension. If it is for more than 3 months, then the UK will be electing members to the EU parliament, and they will stay there for 5 years. Can you image the fun if all the UK members are anti the European Union, and despite the media reports, most of Britain is anti-EU. Then Britain leaves a few months afterwards, and the EU has to put up with all those anti-EU members from a country that is no longer a part of the EU.

[17:30 UPDATE]

Theresa May has refused to allow a motion to rule out a "No Deal" Brexit.

Other keypoints so far in the debate.

- Theresa May says she will vote against no-deal Brexit

- Jeremy Corbyn tells prime minister: 'This is no way to run a country'

- Philip Hammond slashes growth forecast and issues fresh warning over no-deal Brexit

- Tariffs on most imports to be scrapped if there is no-deal outcome, government says

- No Brexit is a bigger risk than no-deal, Stephen Barclay says

It's quite easy. Just have a load of minerals and assets that the ruling elite wants. They are trying it with Syria, but Assad is a stronger and cleverer man than Maduro. They achieved it with Greece, and they are trying it in Canada, Iraly, France and the UK.

China has learnt from the US, and they are trying an economic variant in Africa and some other countries.

Wall Street is associated with the British Commonwealth tax havens, and those are controlled by the City of London. Washington is one public face of the ruling dynasties, The EU and Westminster are others.

I can't reply to the Royal Scorpio as I have been ignoring him for a few months. He seemed to base his info on Fox news and CNN.

I've just been watching this video from an "Anonymous", and I won't venture an opinion as I have mixed reactions. It discusses Brexit, Russia, Washington, Trump and a few other things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD3yX708UDQ