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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @Dash_1971 8 Nov \ parent \ on: The Economics of Dating that Ruined a Generation econ
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I will think over what you wrote for a while. I suspect that the US saw China as Japan 2.0 when they allowed them in the WTO or whatever Nixon did. I.e. produce cheap goods for the US market to help keep a lid on inflation back home knowing China would have no choice but to cycle their surplus back into USTs anyway so effectively a vassal state paying tribute via the petrodollar system. And that's because of the deal with the Saudis of course and anyone who wants energy needs to pay in dollars, and I strongly suspect a nuclear armed Israel in the region strongly helps with keeping the Saudis honest in keeping up their end of the bargain. And, yes. I get Jewish control of the USG and international finance. So Israeli interests benefit from the "security arrangement" part of the petrodollar deal but also at the money laundering stage as Saudi billionaire princes manage their fortunes through London and New York. So that's a lot of incentives for a lot of powerful and influential interests to maintain the status quo.
At the same time I hear your point about China doing a good job to maintain its sovereignty. It's certainly done that with tech and done a great job to protect its own domestic players and keep the US Big Tech firms/ CIA out of running their psyops in China. Japan, in contrast, has globohomo and other US propaganda pumped through Twitter/Instagram/Facebook/YouTube to their citizenry 24/7.
But, it's all about the currency, right? That and energy security. I get that China is aligned with Iran and Russia and as those two are energy exporters there is a shot there to create an alternative energy/currency network. But, again, back to the US armed forced and Israel and bombing of Iran, the Ukraine war, etc., and we can see that the US and Israel are not going to allow other mobs to freely trade energy (in currencies other than the USD) in areas their missiles can reach (i.e. anywhere).
And, yes, I do think stablecoins are a huge factor here. The world wants digital dollars, that much is clear now. Embracing Tether is a really smart move. UST could dollarize the entire globe bottom up as everyone with a smart phone from the Manilla to Buenos Aires has their life savings in dollars in a wallet that can't be surveiled or seized (without the cooperation of the US regime). And, sure, they take a 10% haircut YoY through debasement but they don't know that and anyway it beats whatever local fiat shitcoin they would otherwise have to use. (Or worse, I read that Turks "save" by buying white goods i.e. refrigerators). I think stablecoins could indirectly fund (via exporting inflation to 8 billion people) the US empire for another 100 years.
But, there are a lot of potential surprises too. 1000 dollars of drone swarms blowing up billion USD carriers, for example. That is why the Ukraine conflict is such a big deal. It's the major powers experimenting with all of the new tech.
We are certainly living in "interesting times". It's why I like your posts. You seem very aware of what's at stake here.
But as for taking down the US/Israel... Let's just say I certainly don't have the heart for that fight. Do the Chinese really know what they're getting into? As they say, if you go at the king, you'd best not miss....
I find your posts illuminating and think you make many good points. But can I play Devil's Advocate and challenge you on two points? 1: Isn't China also failing to reproduce and facing demographic issues? 2: Isn't China essentially Japan 2.0? And look at what happened to Japan. Turned out they were working as slaves making cars and radios for entitled Americans just so they could earn dollars and buy treasuries which were unilaterally debased via monetary inflation. The life force of that one great nation has been slowly drained by the vampire squid dollar hegemony empire to the extent they are now prostituting themselves to tourists to make ends meet. How does China avoid the same fate?
I suppose it can be argued China woke up to the scam after the GFC and hence them moving to buying gold from that time. But what if China is repeating the mistake of the past of choosing the wrong collateral? As I understand from Saif's The Bitcoin Standard one of the reasons for China's fall was them choosing to stick with silver while the west moved to gold for reserves. What if that mistake is now being repeated by choosing gold over Bitcoin?
I ask these questions out of genuine curiosity. I'm open to the idea of China challenging the US but the fact is the US regime loves to have a boogie man (Germany, Russia, Japan, now China) which it likes to project on and accuse of all the things it does itself. But these boogiemen often turn out to be nothing but bums lined up to be knocked out by the great heavyweight champion the United States of America.
Also, one other thing I'd be interested to hear your take on: do you think the Israel alliance helps or hinders the US as it pertains to containing China? And by that I mean Israel is a formidable country with a population I would argue doesn't suffer the same entitlement and naivety as the US population. They are street fighters and are playing for keeps. That whole exploding pager thing showed that well enough. Does China going against US interests mean making an enemy out of Israel? Or will Israel just work with both China and the US, aligning themselves more with the eventual winner? Them being a nuclear power in the middle east and having the ties they do to Washington makes me think the Chinese need to address the Israel issue if they are ever seriously going to challenge the Petro dollar.
I'm sure conservative men will be devastated to hear that 30 year old progressive women "working" in "social media" don't want to date them
Came to leave the same comment. Nothing more infuriating than losing at online chess. Feeling stupid in a way hard to describe. Like there's no hiding place for your ego. You're not as smart as you thought you were. You've been wasting years of your life playing a stupid game that you're too stupid to ever be any good at. You've studied for hours and hours and somehow managed to get worse. Either that or getting racist feelings even against those with the same flag as you. Convinced everyone else is cheating or else the chess com matching algo is out to get you. Only ever pairing you with cheats or smurfers. Oh the black pit of despair!
Arrogant atheistic nonsense. We are totally depraved creatures and cannot save ourselves with our own endeavor or ingenuity no matter how hard we try. We need Christ.
ppq.ai lets you pay as you go using LN for cents at a time. They support multiple models including Deepseek too. No need for sign up, email or any of that.
The Bible is the word of God and is 100% true, historically, metaphysically, psychologically. You need to except every word, verse and chapter. If you don't like something in there, then it's you that needs to change, and not the Bible. It's the only book you need and is the answer to life, the universe and everything. And salvation is by grace alone and can't be bought with works. God saves whom he'll save. Not everyone will be saved and that's just the divine will and is a mystery to us creatures. Stay in your lane, read your Bible, and trust in God alone.
If Joe doesn't like it the office cubicle awaits. I wouldn't expect people to pay me to swan around the world living a Bitcoin inflooencer life. You get paid by controlling access to some resource people want or need. Or you sacrifice your time doing something someone else with money would rather not do themselves. Then, yes, there's begging, but that's never really been the royal road to riches.
I play on Zen Mode Lichess because I get tilted if losing rating points. I like how you seem to have reached your own zen state whereby you have turned the ratings grind into something enjoyable to you. I like the comparisons to Bitcoin price too. I try not to check the price like I try not to see my rating. I wish Clarke moody had Zen mode but then I suppose that would defeat the point.
Probably a canary in the coalmine for apps in general. People are sick with the gamification. People are sick with online. The trend of the latter half of the decade may well be a return to the offline world, at least for the well off.
Love to see chess content on SN!
I also enjoyed following the WC watching breakdowns on the GothamChess and also Chess Vibes YT channels.
The stuff was way beyond my level but I appreciated little things, like Ding playing the London which is an opening I have been trying to learn. Also appreciated the close nature of the matches and how brutally competitive top level chess is.