[theluckycountry]

There are many forms of slavery. In the USA health care come gia your job. So here slavery has 3 shackles: marriage and kids, mortgage, health care. That pretty well ties you into the system.

[theluckycountry]

Even if you're done with kids and mortgage, there's still property tax or rent, no escape there either.

Some say freedom is a state of mind, but those people tend to be poor or imprisoned so I can't actually identify with them. What I will say, though it goes against the 'programmed' mindset of many, is that the government steals from us and our duty as free people is to take back what is ours. Not overtly, but by exploiting their corrupt systems. Tax cheats, welfare bludgers, these terms are government terms but the average enslaved taxpayer will denigrate these people too.

Their main gripe is that 'they' have to pay extra to cover this activity. Which is true, but someone has to pay, and if a group of people are already being shafted with onerous taxes, credit card interest and all manner of other liens on their existence it might as well be them. They have become slaves anyway so let them carry the extra burden. That's a rank assessment but what other choice does a free person have, join them as a slave?

If you want to be free in this world you have to make your own way, outside the system. But balancing the books with corrupt governments is like buying and owning Gold. It has certain risks and is not for the average person to attempt. The actions take many forms though, even simple things like having two cars but only one set of registration plates is a way to counter their thievery. I did that for many years when working for myself. Every little bit helps

[Newfie]

End of September 1967, sitting in last period history class, 11th grade. I was ruminating about football practice, and Nam, and Mr. Majors blabbing away and I had an epiphany.

I saw how my life was being programmed. From Cub Scouts they were outting us in uniform and getting us all to march in line. Right through HS, into military, into college, into business suits.

I quit football, which made my last 1-1/2 years of HS pretty interesting. That afternoon thought changed my life. I superficially went along with a lot of the crap, played the game, but always had my back foot out to door. And when the time came I slipped out, started taking extended vacations, went part time, then retired when I could.

I was in deep enough to feel the bite, that is for sure. I saw so many others just loose their souls, completely loose who they were. Not all, but too many. Pretty sad.

[theluckycountry]

Yes there are a few of out there, precious few. The covid vaccine agenda flushed out a lot and it's amazing when you get talking to them how dedicated they are to breaking with the system now. Anyone willing to pushback against that, even at the cost of their job, is a real authentic human in my eyes.

[AgentR11]

I keep wondering these days if its time for me to stick that foot out the door...just a bit. My body's not up to the sailing retirement I'd hoped for though, just didn't pan out. /jealous!!

Healthcare still ties me in though, not sure how to overcome that stupid hitch.

[theluckycountry]

I won't comment on modern sickcare other than to say a lot of it's unnecessary, illnesses marketed to patients for profit. I have watched a lot of older pill poppers die in my career. Once they got over 14 different pills in a day I gave them 6 months and was usually on the money.

[AgentR11]

Probably not a bad benchmark, though I'm far short of that extreme. My docs seem kinda weird though, more interested in reducing meds where possible and trying to get me to eat keto... I've not done anything to select them that way, just the luck of the draw.

[Newfie]

As to health I have been astonishingly lucky, so far. We are all kne cancer diagnosis or stroke from catastrophe.

[Plantagenet]

As to health I have been astonishingly lucky, so far. We are all one cancer diagnosis or stroke from catastrophe.

It doesn't even take a stroke or cancer to screw everything up.

I play pickleball in the summer and ski in the winter, and a couple of weeks ago I banged up my knee playing pickleball.



I see the Sports Doctor in a couple of days.

I hope the MRI shows the knee is going to be OK, because even something as minor as a bad knee can really screw things up.

Cheers!

[careinke]

Probably not a bad benchmark, though I'm far short of that extreme. My docs seem kinda weird though, more interested in reducing meds where possible and trying to get me to eat keto... I've not done anything to select them that way, just the luck of the draw.

KEEP THAT DOCTOR!!!

Keto is hard. Granted, not as hard as dialysis, or being bound to a wheelchair, or even lugging around all that fat. But still hard. Especially with our fascist governments telling you lucky charms and fruit loops are better for you than pasture finished meat and the national diabetes foundation giving out recipes calling for added sugar.

Some tips that help me.

1. Combine Keto with intermittent fasting. It helps when you only have to worry about eating carbs during certain hours. Also realize the first couple of weeks will suck as your body dumps poisons and readjusts to decades of eating poorly. If you have never been on a keto diet and are able to water fast for a couple of days it will help.

2. When you slip, get back on the horse and don't beat yourself up over it. You only learn from failures.

3. For me, chocolate is my hardest challenge. On the other hand, breads, seed oils, potatoes etc seem to be easy for me to give up. You will probably have different challenges. Iearn them and develop tactics to avoid them.

4. Most processed keto friendly foods in the supermarket aren't.

5. Weighing yourself in the mornings focuses my brain for the day. I don't worry about a five pound swing either way from my chosen weight. Still my brain, subconsciously seems to still work on the problem.

6. Study, learn, and feel good about helping the planet heal.

Peace

[theluckycountry]

I eat apricot kernels for cancer prevention, skip meals to keep my weight down, and exercise regularly but don't overdo it. There are no guarantees but my doc says my health is good and I take no pills.

When I tore a rotator cuff 10 months ago I did 5 months of rehab exercises at home that I learned off youtube before I went anywhere near the doctors surgery. Still they wanted to give me cortisone shots, even though I was 80% recovered. I declined and took the referral to the physio and he told me that no, I didn't need cortisone, that I was well on the way to recovery and he gave me a series of extra exercises and corrected some of the techniques I was employing on my home gym. As an aside, the x-rays showed my lungs were not dark, even though I'm a smoker. Cycling probably does that, the huff and puff where I cough up muck for the first 30 minutes.

All General practitioners have are pills and knives, and when all you have is a hammer...

[Newfie]

China economic news, not great for them.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... #xj4y7vzkg


And a non paywall story.

https://www.axios.com/2023/08/26/chinas ... c-disaster

What's happening: Instead of the robust bounceback much of the world experienced with its pandemic reopening, the Chinese economy is muddling along with weak growth, falling prices, a popped real estate bubble, and mass unemployment among young adults.

Cracks have been evident in the Chinese growth juggernaut for years, as its government exerted a heavier hand with businesses, constricting private-sector investment.

[AgentR11]

They certainly had a real estate bubble to go boom, though probably not as devastating as ours was. Deflation is the scary bit though, hard to work around, stuff losing value for no reason other than just time. It does mean the renminbi is appreciating in value though, which may prove helpful to BRICS overall as it makes it an attractive settlement currency.

How much of a lump is China willing to take to progress its BRICS/SCO project? Dunno!!!

[theluckycountry]

Well China followed the western business model so to speak, market bubbles, housing bubbles. These dislocations, these bubbles, are completely avoidable as we all know. Just don't create money and give it to speculators. Most property investors wouldn't think of themselves as speculators but they are. In essence they are speculating that the value of houses are going to rise and give them a well funded retirement. People today don't see this because they have never seen a real housing reset like was experienced over the 20 year period between 1925~1945 (in Australia, and probably the US and UK) Yes of course houses go up in value over time, but not to the bubble levels we have seen repeated over and over since 1970. Each new leg up just makes the overall bubble worse. You can track it by the cost of housing in multiples of yearly incomes. In other words over time it just takes more and more years to pay off a house.

They didn't have to follow these 'Keynesian' policies but they did. Why? Because the policies are the best? Since when did any dictatorship do what was best? And they are not the best policies anyway. They are only the best at concentrating power and wealth in the hands of a few rather than build a strong resilient nation of independent people. Whatever reasons China chose to mimic the west, and I assume it had to do with luring western capital and expertise over to them, those reasons may be over now. Their leaders may now choose to allow the bubbles to deflate, reset, unlike in the west where the bubbles are constantly reflated.

What will happen then? Then you will have a nation where the people are a lot poorer for the experience but a nation that is on a sounder basis. You will also have a nation where people have a lot less to lose, and people with nothing to lose are happy to sign up and go to war, among other things. We know big changes are afoot with the BRICS so there must be a plan over there. The plan in the west, if it has a plan? Is to just try and prop up the old dying system.

Look at this crap.

France ready to support ECOWAS’ military action in Niger

The French leader stated that the rebels put Niger’s population at risk by "refusing to fight terrorism and moving away from beneficial economic policy"

"beneficial economic policy?" For who? For the French corporations of course. These western politicians are so full of it it makes me want to puke when I read them. And they keep spewing it out because the vast majority of their people's believe it. Just like Hitler and his propaganda, Stalin and his propaganda.



A starving nation and posters of bountiful harvests. Compare that to jerome powell telling the people the economy is strong where in fact it is tanking under inflation and onerous debt.

[Newfie]

More China financial news.

China's economy is turning into a big black blob.

This transformation means that while the country's economy will still be significant to global business, it will no longer be the lodestar for growth. It will still advance, but much more slowly. And while those on the outside will still be able to observe the economy, it will become increasingly difficult to truly understand what's going on within.

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-x ... ate-2023-8

What is it funny is they have a bad demogrqphic situation, too few you. Leople, at the same time they have record unemployment for this young group, like +20%.

[theluckycountry]

More China financial news.

It will still advance, but much more slowly. And while those on the outside will still be able to observe the economy, it will become increasingly difficult to truly understand what's going on within.

You might find this site interesting Newfie.

japan, South Korea, and Vietnam all have the same mentality that a resurgence of China means that they would be again to be dominated by China. For millennium, China was the sole great power in East Asia. Many of kings of South Korea and Vietnam would need to seek China's recognition for legitimacy.

Therefore, from their prospective, a powerful China is not in their interests.

https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/t/misc ... /page-7878

[Shaved Monkey]

It will be interesting to see if the expanded BRICS develop a new currency exchange that bypasses the $US

[theluckycountry]

They main players already are. The others will follow suit, that is if they want Russian energy, minerals and fertilizer.

Share of yuan in Russia's forex transactions hits new high amid closer bilateral cooperation
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1296008.shtml

Russia wants to settle its trade in yuan—and India is running out of options

Besides the Indian rupee, India’s trade payments to Russia have been a mix of UAE dirhams and the Chinese yuan so far.

Brazil decreases refined product imports from US

Brazil continues to import Russian refined products while decreasing imports from the US, market data and sources indicate, pushing the price of diesel in Brazil lower.

Brazil Takes Steps to Transact in Yuan as China Ties Grow

That's BRIC intentions and I've no doubt South Africa are in there too. Soon Saudi Arabia et el.
That's what they call "The Writing on the Wall" In a few years all that trade will be outside the $US and the US will see a flood of $$$ coming home to roost. Inflation!

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsig ... es-flow-in
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... #xj4y7vzkg

[AgentR11]

Don't have a cool article link, but China is dumping USD treasuries at a colossal rate, more than enough to disturb the exchange rate. That may explain much of the deflation, and if so, its a temporary thing once they stop (or run out of USDT ). Once done, it'll reveal the true USD/Yuan exchange rate, and barring war and weirdness will likely be moderately stable.

[Newfie]

Don't have a cool article link, but China is dumping USD treasuries at a colossal rate, more than enough to disturb the exchange rate. That may explain much of the deflation, and if so, its a temporary thing once they stop (or run out of USDT ). Once done, it'll reveal the true USD/Yuan exchange rate, and barring war and weirdness will likely be moderately stable.

Do you know why they are doing that?