In 2000, Saddam Hussein did something very few people paid attention to.

He announced Iraq would start selling oil in euros, not U.S. dollars.

Three years later, the United States invaded Iraq.

No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

But something else happened quietly.

Iraqi oil went right back to being priced in dollars.

Most people call that a coincidence.

I call it a lesson.

In 2009, Muammar Gaddafi proposed something even more dangerous.

A gold-backed African currency — the gold dinar.

It would have allowed African nations to buy oil without using dollars.

In 2011, NATO intervened in Libya for “humanitarian reasons.”

Gaddafi was killed.

The gold dinar disappeared.

Libyan oil? Back to dollars.

Another coincidence.

I’m noticing a pattern.

Go back further.

In 1971, President Nixon took the U.S. dollar off the gold standard.

The dollar was no longer backed by gold — only a promise.

By all historical logic, the dollar should have collapsed.

It didn’t.

Why?

Because three years later, Henry Kissinger cut a deal with Saudi Arabia.

The deal was simple:

Sell oil only in U.S. dollars, and the U.S. military will protect the regime.

From that moment on, every country on earth needed dollars to buy energy.

That wasn’t free-market economics.

That was force-backed monetary policy.

Or, more honestly, a protection racket.

And it works — as long as the military can enforce it.

Watch what happens when countries challenge it.

Russia demands rubles for natural gas?

Sanctions. Escalation.

Syria discusses pipelines priced outside the dollar system?

Civil war intensifies. Pipeline never happens.

Iran tries to sell oil outside the dollar?

Decades of sanctions.

I’m not saying these are good governments or bad governments.

I’m saying watch what happens when anyone threatens the petrodollar system.

Once you see it, the pattern isn’t subtle.

SWIFT is not a neutral payment system.

It’s a weapon.

Get cut off from SWIFT, and you’re locked out of global trade.

Russia.

Iran.

Cuba.

Venezuela.

Different politics. Same outcome.

They don’t teach this in school because it’s uncomfortable.

We don’t send 18-year-olds to die for “freedom.”

We send them to protect reserve currency status.

Currency funds the military.

The military protects the currency.

That’s how empires work.

Britain learned this the hard way.

The British pound was the world’s reserve currency for nearly 200 years.

After World War II, Britain lost reserve status.

Within two decades, the British Empire collapsed.

Same cycle.

Dutch guilder.

British pound.

Now the U.S. dollar.

Ray Dalio has been warning about this for years.

Late-stage empire looks like this:

• Military overextension

• Rising debt

• Currency weakening

• Rivals building alternatives

China’s Belt and Road isn’t charity.

It’s about creating debt relationships denominated in yuan.

BRICS aren’t talking about alternatives because they’re friends.

They’re building an exit ramp from dollar dependence.

When the dollar loses reserve status — not if, when — the ability to print money without consequences disappears.

- Then the military contracts.

- Then the empire ends.

- You can call this cynical.

I call it financial history.

Every war in my lifetime had a currency angle — if you knew where to look.

“Freedom and democracy” is the marketing.

The actual policy documents talk about

“maintaining dollar liquidity in global energy markets.”

I’m not anti-military.

I’m anti-bullshit.

If we’re sending people to fight…

We should at least be honest about why.

what more can i say

You don’t see the contradiction ?

what more can i say

Looking to consolidate my #alberta follows and WOT network if anyone that is in the province wants to establish some semi local trade capability wants to comment.

GM & merry kittenmas to you 🎄💜🌞

I propose a nostr hash tag that we can follow for those encountering legal issues for things posted in nostr. Let's make it #nostrreport or #reportstr #asknostr

Format:

—-------------

Report

Jurisdiction:

City/town:

Force against you:

Note:

Arrested/warned:

Charge:

Has this actually happened yet, anywhere?

Idk but it's weird how people keep talking about people getting arrested for posts in the UK like that's new when the news is it happening in the US

The hunger strikes with people almost starving to death in prison in the UK are a big current event in the UK right now, but they've had people getting arrested for posts for a loooong time

People getting arrested for posts are a big current event in the US right now

One guy in Tennessee did 37 days for a Facebook post about Charlie Kirk, for example

Before I make the investment in the hardware and the time to migrate to different apps by getting a degoogled pixel with GrapheneOS, I’m trying to decide if there will be any practical privacy benefit to doing so, given that my work phone will always be fully googled and tracked by virtue of the apps my employer insists on. The only way I can see there being any practical benefit and making this any more than a technology experiment is if my work phone only gets carried offsite during work hours. Then, thinking further:

- If I choose to only carry a degoogled phone when I’m away from work, how do I do voice comms with a KYC sim to get on my local carrier?

- If I’m constantly in the company of people with spyware phones when I’m away from work, aren’t most of my physical movements and other info able to be inferred anyway? I can’t even talk to my kids or my wife or friends about a new topic or purchase within earshot of their phones without it creeping into their ad feeds. Is any of the James Bond stuff even worth it?

#asknostr

Before I make the investment in the hardware and the time to migrate to different apps by getting a degoogled pixel with GrapheneOS, I’m trying to decide if there will be any practical privacy benefit to doing so, given that my work phone will always be fully googled and tracked by virtue of the apps my employer insists on. The only way I can see there being any practical benefit and making this any more than a technology experiment is if my work phone only gets carried offsite during work hours. Then, thinking further:

- If I choose to only carry a degoogled phone when I’m away from work, how do I do voice comms with a KYC sim to get on my local carrier?

- If I’m constantly in the company of people with spyware phones when I’m away from work, aren’t most of my physical movements and other info able to be inferred anyway? I can’t even talk to my kids or my wife or friends about a new topic or purchase within earshot of their phones without it creeping into their ad feeds. Is any of the James Bond stuff even worth it?

#asknostr

Before I make the investment in the hardware and the time to migrate to different apps by getting a degoogled pixel with GrapheneOS, I’m trying to decide if there will be any practical privacy benefit to doing so, given that my work phone will always be fully googled and tracked by virtue of the apps my employer insists on. The only way I can see there being any practical benefit and making this any more than a technology experiment is if my work phone only gets carried offsite during work hours. Then, thinking further:

- If I choose to only carry a degoogled phone when I’m away from work, how do I do voice comms with a KYC sim to get on my local carrier?

- If I’m constantly in the company of people with spyware phones when I’m away from work, aren’t most of my physical movements and other info able to be inferred anyway? I can’t even talk to my kids or my wife or friends about a new topic or purchase within earshot of their phones without it creeping into their ad feeds. Is any of the James Bond stuff even worth it?

#asknostr

Thoughts on building cities in the ocean ?

干一个小时，累死累活才拿7元人民币。就是一个1美元。给中国人可以干活一个小时。这是当今的真实中国普通人的生活。

I've been fighting for 50 years. I'm off in a little over 2. I'm done

Can't yet, unfortunately. Two years left then the world is my lobster

I believe that 1000%

Cancelled 😢

Sorry y’all, I will need to cancel tonight’s #yogastr class. We have a crazy storm hitting and I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to stay online (or that I won’t get flooded in the middle of it)

Keep an eye out for a popup class later this week to make up for it

nostr:npub16e3vzr7dk2uepjcnl85nfare3kdapxge08gr42s99n9kg7xs8xhs90y9v6 nostr:npub1y8la98zpzargx74pmlavuffagsp3vp2zgxvr8cqzd6avv5v23l6smvjeps

nostr:note1e65vdp4wnrf69xthdq06swctt2fxvmsv7ehrxwu4ljay8f8733ysfqmsqp

What's the best thing you bought this year?

#asknostr

There's so many coincidences.

#Agorism #Agorist #Libertarian #Antistate #Conspiracy #911 #InsideJob #Israel #IsraelDid911 #WTC #WorldTradeCenter #LarrySilverstein