Category Archives: Finance

December 22, 2022 · 20:03

Blame Canada

Yup, it happens, it is decently rare though. The rumour has it when the EU wants to upgrade Human Law issues, they look at the law books from New Zealand and Canada and copy what they need (allegedly). So when the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/yvr-vancouver-international-airport-flights-cancelled-dec-20-2022-1.6693067)

gave me ‘‘I may never fly again’: Horror stories from the Vancouver airport’ I definitely took notice. And I have to admit, there is an issue, a different one than reported, but there is one. It made me think back 25 years when I had the quirkiest sense of humour.  I was at Iraklion airport and the plane was delayed. 6 hours delayed. This happens, but Iraklion had no bar, no cafe a broken down coffee machine and a tax free shop. I was not going to spend 6 hours drinking alcohol, so I had to suck it up. There was no food either, so by the time the plane FINALLY arrived, I was as quirky as I had ever been. As I walked to the plane I saw a highly rusted 2” bolt, I picked it up and walked into the plane. I asked for the chief engineer (who came quickly but seemed puzzled). I handed the rusty bolt to him stating it had fallen out of his engine, he might want to hold onto it. The first 10 rows of passengers turned completely white and the demon on my right shoulder slapped my neck with the comment ‘Nicely done!’ The captain off course sought me out 2-3 minutes later telling me that one more joke like that and he would have me evicted from the plane. Ah well, the life of a comedian is never without obstacles.

So back to the article, you see, we get the part of “During those 11 hours, whenever Hudson became restless, she gave her baby some formula to calm him down. She’d brought two days’ worth — by the end, she had just one sachet left”, we get it the emotional baby stories hits a mark with every parent. As well as “When she mentioned this to a customer service agent, she was told she’d have to leave the airport to buy more formula. “I don’t know where I’m going to go and get formula,” Caley said.” In the first, weather is unpredictable and the storms they had lately are one of a kind. But there is a side that has value. Every airport the size of Vancouver needs to have a basic shop, a 7-11 like place with pharmacy where basic stuff like foods, baby foods, medication and firs aid events can be acquired. Perhaps a need for Canada to place a Shoppers Drug Mart in every airport in the checked in side, with a few optional extras like baby food and formula. About 4 hours ago CBC also gives us ‘Vancouver airport restricting international flights for 2 days to clear backlog after snowstorm’, a stage we cal all see and Canadians more clearly then most others and when we see this, there is a larger call for amenities in stores. I wonder how many are on that train with food for thought? The additional stage where these airlines hand out Tim Horton vouchers so that the people can get some coffee, some food and even as these passengers get one voucher, the option to buy more would be well appreciated. So in 327 seconds I saw options where the press (in this case CBC) reports a ‘horror story’. Don’t get me wrong a mother our of her mind because she cannot appease the baby is a real horror (and more dangerous than the Russian infantry at present), but that sets us in solution seeking mode, not in reporting the horror mode, at least not me. 

And when I see “WestJet sent Caley an email saying it wouldn’t be able to rebook until after Christmas and offered no accommodation because the delay was due to weather. They have no idea when they’ll be able to get to Toronto”, but there are trains from Toronto to Vancouver, it could solve the issue for a lot of people and that is a larger stage, now I get that places like WestJet (with a lack of margins) might not have that option, but the setting releases pressure from the airport. Just a thought, was that so hard? I know it is not feasible by bus or car, and they will have options outside in Vancouver, but that also raises the issue, what options did WestJet have? I am not blaming them, we see the news and we know that some storms could never be predicted, yet what was known? What could have been cared for? This is not a unique situation in Canada or Alaska for that matter. These are questions I do not have answers to, but the Canadians do and WestJet should have some answers (perhaps they do), but we do not see them here and that matters. The question at this point becomes was this about the bottom dollar for WestJet? I am not accusing, I am asking and that is also on the CBC, there is no article that shows how Canadian airports dal with a situation like this and for me “We sincerely apologise to all of those impacted” does not hold water. Not when people are stuck for well over a week in one location and this might be a one off, but that too was not reported on, was it? 

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December 21, 2022 · 22:42

The question remains

I got news about 10 hours ago from Al Arabiya. There we are given ‘Saudi Arabia approves draft agreements on atomic energy, economic crime’ (at https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2022/12/21/Saudi-Arabia-approves-draft-agreements-on-atomic-energy-economic-crime)

The article gives us a few items that require the limelight, even as the western papers give it no attention, the event described here is one with a lit of impact.

  • members approved a framework agreement to cooperate with Morocco in “the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy”
  • a draft Memorandum of Understanding with Uzbekistan to help allow the countries to exchange of information “related to money laundering, terrorist financing and related crimes,”
  • a draft agreement with Greece, to foster cooperation in health between the countries, 
  • a draft agreement with Italy to help encourage direct investments between the countries, and a draft agreement with Ghana to develop non-oil exports between the states.

These are the four big ones, there are four more. And when you consider the map, we see that within a year the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be the largest economic partner for the important parts of North Africa, Egypt, Morocco and as ties are stronger connected with Tel Aviv, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now the powerhouse in the Mediterranean. Greece, Italy and soon better ties with Turkey. This was always going to happen, I predicted it, but my view was that this was 3-4 years away. It seems I missed the target by at least 2 years. 2023 will open the doors and I reckon that larger gains will be Made in 2024. Saudi Arabia is now in a setting where it will be able to drive commerce that is not oil based soon enough and stronger than ever before. 

And that is before you see the steps that China is opening up, but it also implies that China is a lot stronger to become the defence dealer of choice, billions and billions of dollars that are about to be lost to the EU and US. I warned them that this was coming and now the steps of making sure it happens will become a reality. It does not make me happy as I miss out on my 3.75% bonus check and on $27,800,000,000 that is a lofty loss. Such is life!

Now there is a second stage in play, the article does not bear it out, but I reckon that the Kingdom Holding Company will get a few other options going their way. I do not know how, but the Kingdom loves partners in this (I learned that at the Saudi Consulate several weeks ago). What is in play is that there are several options for Israeli growth. Not just the NSO group, but NICE with their CXone platform will set a larger stage of cloud centres for the Line and Neom. From there as they make their solution more Arabic, they will get a handle on several fields in several nations. And we all see the stages as they evolve, well that is if you read English Saudi News casts, the west seems to filter it away and when we see too much of this, it becomes a joke what the west is and has been the last decade. Filtering news information was never a good idea and you are about to see why. Saudi Arabia is active in growing business in Egypt, Morocco, Greece, Italy, Indonesia, and China. Consider the loss of revenue for the EU and the US? Is no one asking questions? And this is merely what can be seen for 2023. I reckon that several nations will go into crises mode in the next week, because some of them were moved from consideration column A to column C. Only a blind person ignores is and one with an oversized ego ignores it. When will we learn that we cater to the players who have it and the US doesn’t have it, and the EU has even less at present. There is every indication that by 2025 the Saudi Telecom Company will be the biggest player in North Africa and the Middle East. This will have larger implications when Indonesia is added to that network. It was a simple cascade stage and it is about to become a reality. From there there is every chance that the STC will enter Europe as a new player and one wielding a formidable bat. That is what I see as optional changes. So whilst we see the EU and US with contracting economies, we get to see another one grow and it is about to grow by a lot.

Have fun!

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December 18, 2022 · 12:21

The unsettling realisation

There is a stage we all see, it is not the same for all. We see it, but the words do not completely come, there is a sort of disjointment between what we see, what we perceive and what we think is right. It was all over the field when it came to blow in my mind with a Reuters article. Weirdly enough they gave the pieces, the missing pieces to form the new image, an image I did relate to and as such the article becomes a reality.

The article in question is the article (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-twitter-suspension-journalists-draws-global-backlash-2022-12-16/) giving us ‘Elon Musk restores Twitter accounts of journalists but concerns persist’, you see, the elements start with “The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organisations from several parts of the globe on Friday, with some saying the microblogging platform was jeopardising press freedom” My initial response is that if these idiots did their job, their proper jobs, their credibility would not be on level -23. They did this to themselves. 

When you whore for digital dollars there in a consequence. In addition players like the NY Times print not properly vetted information (see one of my previous articles on the subject). The press does not bring freedom. It brings us filtered information. Information that is approved by share holders, stake holders and advertisers. So stop talking about the freedom of the press. Start doing your bloody jobs or become Uber drivers, they have a shortage at present. So when we get “A Reuters check showed the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, have been reinstated.” We do not get a clear picture on why certain issues happened, in case of the NY Times I could speculate but this is larger. These people REFUSED to do their jobs when there was time to openly ask Jack Dorsey for answers, there was time to give a clear response towards a stage where a company was overvalued by close to 100%, but you did not do ANYTHING, did you? 

And for the man blocking Elon Musk with a facial covering with license plate CJ82G38? Did you do anything, did you report on who the man was, was the car stolen, was there anything? No, you merely try to collect on digital dollars, didn’t you? 

In that same setting there is an issue with “The German Foreign Office warned Twitter that the ministry had a problem with moves that jeopardised press freedom.” We get that, but when the press isn’t taking its ‘responsibilities’ serious, should we give them any consideration? And with that we get the second part that rubbed ME the wrong way. It was “Melissa Fleming, head of communications for the United Nations, tweeted she was “deeply disturbed” by the suspensions and that “media freedom is not a toy.”” Well, see what pot is calling the kettle black. The UN made its own bed with stupid settings regarding Jeff Bezos (an anti-Saudi stage) and a few others. If the United Nations actually get things done and focussed on areas like Syria and Yemen and got communications on Houthi terrorist events started the people might get informed at some point. For example the Middle East Monitor gives us “The US Special Envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, said on Wednesday that the Houthis’ “maximalist demands” had hindered UN efforts to renew a six-month truce in the country that ended in October.” As such, these so called ‘culled’ papers. How much did they expose to the public of this? I think that Miss Fleming has other problems and making sure that the Press covers the actual news might be a clear first. It comes with the stage where she claims that media freedom is not a toy and it applies to the media just as much, in case she forgot.

So, I got that off my chest. You see, I cannot see if Elon Musk is guilty of anything at all, because we keep on getting one sided news from the media and they have no credibility left (as I personally see it). 

I will let you consider who is correct and consider what you are shown, and what is trivialised by the media.

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December 16, 2022 · 22:28

Via pellegrino

Today at 13:45 I decided to go to the cinema. My budget doesn’t really allow for it, but I haven’t seen any cinema movies since Dr. Strange 2. At times we need to treat ourselves (and pay for it afterwards). I loved the first one, so I was really into seeing number 2. The critics are all over the field. A large cluster hates it, a large cluster loves it and I am in team 2. James Cameron was brilliant, not merely for the cinematography, but the story. The way it shapes is also magnificent. The early years of exploitation in whaling. The early years of exploitation by colonists in America. Not unlike the feelings you harbour for the Sioux in Dances with wolves, we all tend to side with the Na’vi on everything. The humans (sky people) are portrayed as exploitative conquistadors, not caring about balance, merely the bottom dollar. A little part of the brain is worth $80,000,000. The rest is garbage and it sets us up for anger and hatred. What was a beautiful looking planet is soon seen as destroyed soil, and that happens from the very beginning. So we do not seem to mind every human who is killed and we see to bleed for every Na’vi that gets wounded. It is a spectacle and it is a rollercoaster ride, but one we cherish every minute of the 192 minutes we see. I saw it in 3D and it was worth it, like the first, yet now in different ways we see that the 3D is not for the main course. It is most often the stage AROUND it and it makes for a magnificent vibe. There is of course more, yet the stage is not what we see, but it is the story and it is a story really well told, the images are icing on the cake and what a piece of icing!

In the end you have to make up your own mind and consider with every 1 star rating why it was given, I and hopefully you will side with the large group of 5 star views, the movie is well worth it. The movie actually started something else as well. You see, when I arrived and there was no one behind me, I ordered tickets for the movie ‘Via Pellegrino’, the poor cashier could not find the movie, but when she learned it meant ‘The way of water’ she caught on. You think it is lame, and perhaps it was. But at times these people deserve a little entertainment too. The thought however was still in the back of my mind throughout the film. You see I have been thinking on season 3 of Kenos Diastima. And this got me there. To see a little tip of the blanket lifted we need to consider the stage of the cold war. No matter how it started in 1947, at some point you will stop at the Truman Doctrine. You can see it how it is presented “support for democracies against authoritarian threats”, yet for me, the storyteller it becomes more and more about the military advisors versus the academic advisors and that is merely one side. For me it matters that I can wield that part in a larger stage and that would be the premise of season 3. It was the images that moved in the direction of the Conquistadors that started the view and that also enhanced the image of the VoC. You see, it was allegedly disbanded in 31 December 1799, but was it really? In our society we talk about the Gnomes of Zurich (banks), The network (technology) and the Discordian society (anti government), but we all forgot about the academics calling the shots. How did that happen? They have a lot of pull all over the place and they are trivialised. Up front now I am stating that I am not against academics, I have no ill will or negativity towards Dr Fauci. But our lives have been taken over in so many way by academics, it beckons the thought why we aren’t looking there? It is in part because the Truman doctrine is about something else, and there I found the idea to propel my views for season 3. I was just amazed that no one else had made that leap of faith. And there remains not one but two hidden banking players with global pull. The first is the Rothschild banking group, the second one is the VoC, the group that was made defunct on December 31st 1799, at that time the richest cartel based institution on the planet. Did you think that those billions evaporated? And yes, it was into billions, a lot more than the Rothschild had. And that doctrine also gets us to the Bilderberg meetings. A meeting of political leaders, experts, captains of industry, finance, and academia. The group we forgot, the academia. So yes, I think I have a fair idea now how to shape season 3 of that story.

Sometimes we get the idea from the corner we never saw in the first place. So the movie got me a little more, hip hip hurrah! Also today is the day that I produce my 100th story in succession within a limit of 24 hours. I already wrote over 2625 stories, but this is the first time I get 100 within a daily limit of 24 hours. A nice achievement. I might take it easy this weekend.

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December 15, 2022 · 08:04

Bonking to a new place

It started on December 3rd (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/03/how-to-destroy-an-economy/)  with ‘How to destroy an economy’, now we see an article giving us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63948740) ‘Bali sex ban: Indonesia tourists won’t be charged under law’, it is a fair response, but one given in fear. You see it becomes LAW, and at that point there is no distinction, the issue was from the start “and foreigners alike” that is the killer, so when we see “the governor of Bali, a holiday hotspot, said authorities would not check the marital status of tourists.” We need to see that the man is acting in fear, stopping that law could have prevented it, but some lame excuse with the added “Authorities would not check” will not work, the law is in effect (well in three years). How long until some person makes an open complaint to the Indonesian media? Optionally in an election year. At that point will make an example of one or two couples to get by. Do you want to be the example they make? And lets be clear, if you are married you are fine, it is the other 60% that has a problem coming their way and no amount of wheeling and dealing will help. Their only option is to adjust the law to make sure that this law does not apply to tourists. So how many nations have you seen adjusting their laws to tourists? I personally have not seen any, as such Indonesia will see its tourist economy drain only to see it crash near completely in 2024. 

And the quote “Indonesia’s deputy justice minister promised foreigners would not be prosecuted” does not help. The next deputy Justice minister could have a very conservative islamic view and the problem rears its ugly head again. Stopping the law is the ONLY option Indonesia has at present. ABC adds to this (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-13/indonesia-summons-united-nations-official-after-laws-criticised/101763920) with ‘Indonesia summons United Nations official after criticism of newly ratified criminal code’. Here we are given “deputy chief of Indonesia’s tourism industry board Maulana Yusran said the new code was “totally counter-productive” at a time when the economy and tourism were starting to recover from the pandemic”. Yes, he would be right and he sees similar data to me, Indonesian tourism will take a 40%-60% fall in the first few years, and that is before you take the Australian backpackers and schoolies into account, the damage will hurt the Balinese economy to a massive degree and after that there is no coming back for close to a decade, the law would require a rewrite and before that is all in effect it could be 2027 with a large number of commercial places already shut down. And the tourists? They will be bonking in a new place like Singapore, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. 

I honestly do not understand what the Indonesian law bringers were thinking when they did this and the setting was three words “and foreigners alike”, all whilst the stage of “tourists are exempt” would have prevented this, three words to destroy billions. This has got to be the most expensive typo in history.

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December 14, 2022 · 10:42

The stressed mind

We all have that at times, and I am no different. Stress gets to me like anyone else and it hinders my creativity, which is mostly why I hate it. Now this story started yesterday with ‘Scuttle the ship’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/13/scuttle-the-ship/) where I offered an opponent to Epic Games and now it is time to give you the goods. This IP is one with a difference. It is a freebee fr anyone who EXCLUSIVELY creates games for the Amazon Luna, no one else. Not even Sony. It is time to bring the pain to Epic Games and even as this might not be enough, it could be a decent start and the maker could end up with millions in royalty. 

The stage
The stage is one that required thought. You can have your randomness of events and that is fine. But to create a setting that entices players you need something more. As such I created stages of war, where the stage could be NPC driven, or it could be multiplayer driven. Than that drive needs to set the stage of weapons, but here I wanted to take a different turn. So I went back to the stage. And my mind came up with several stages. These stages are part of a lager whole, not unlike the multiplayer levels in ME3 (which was a huge inspiration) so there is space to manouver, but there is also limitation to how far you can move. This was the first instance and it gave me the following options. 

Battle of Rorke’s Drift, 1879 (Zulu, 1964)
Battle of the Somme, 1917
Ludendorff Bridge attack, 1945 (The Bridge at Remagen, 1969)
First Battle of Seoul, 1950
Battle of Ia Drang, 1965

These are merely starting points, but with 5 scenarios the game could start. In battle of Rorke’s drift we are in that same farm that we saw in the movie. There we need to survive for an amount of time and kill well over a certain amount of numbers. It is imperative that it is more accurate. It is the start and it starts in different ways.

You see, when the numbers are achieved portals open, and they take you to a new event, the problem here is that the event is random, moreover when you play with your friends they are likely to end up in different areas and there is a reason for that (explanation later). You see we see the event a one whole and that is true, but I am splitting it up the stage where we fight and the weapons we fight with. 

The weapons
In Rorke’s Drift that would have been the Martini-Henry. And the game will benefit with historically accurate weapons. That is the weapon everyone will get in the game and when they get the Lee–Metford and after that the Pattern 1913 Enfield. Yet that gun will not become the gun you carry in Rorke’s drift. It will unlock that weapon for the Battle of the Somme. They also have the .303in Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) but you get the idea. Through loot boxes (which you earn through gameplay) the Martini-Henry is upgraded to MK2, MK3 and MK4 making it more efficient every time, so the score will be higher and the kill count will go up. The stage is however that you get an upgrade card and it is YOU that decides which weapon to upgrade. Thee are cosmetic upgrades (uniforms) and there are support upgrades (health boosts and support boosts). Support upgrades are for one battle only, cosmetic and weapons upgrades are permanent. And as we go from these wars we can add more and more stages to the game. As you get into different stages and unlock more boxes you will learn that there is a weapon card which is NEVER for the current stage, but goes randomly to a stage and if you get there you see the unlocked weapon, there is the grand platinum (a 50% more expensive box) which is the only box that offers weapons for the CURRENT stage as well as another stage. The rest is the same, but at times having a better weapon in that stage is important and these boxes are earned by getting the scores in the game. Money has no value here (the dead never miss their coins). 

A new stage and one that could optionally lessen the Epic Game impact. If the developer gets the idea, they will be Abe to get more out of the game, especially when the stages double over time and the stage where the weapon is much more integral and more historically accurate is a stage we have almost never ever seen, making this a fun exercise. There are a few more ideas related to this, but I think some developers have to prove their worth first. Thee is only so much we can hand out for free, they have to show that they are vested in a solution first. 

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December 13, 2022 · 23:32

Will you never learn?

I just got across an article from December 5th. It was given to us by the BBC with the headline ‘I had £8,000 stolen but Revolut won’t refund it’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63796738). When we google Revolut we get all the bells and whistles. No hidden fees, ATM withdrawals in 120 currencies and transfers in 29 currencies directly from the app and it sounds amazing. The fact that most people will never see these countries is beside the point. But what is not beside the point is “as of December 2022 they did not have a UK banking licence” and “it does not reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud.” And now for the stupid people in the back. A financial institution is not a bank, in this day and age if you are not with a bank, anything goes wrong it is on YOUR dime. It costs you! So when we get back to the BBC article we see “The fraudster said her bank account was under attack, and persuaded her to download some software that allowed him to take control of her computer.” Which is never a good idea to say the least and these fraud attacks tend to go on, and until we get clearance to execute fraudsters you are on your own and not being with a bank you will have nothing to protect you for these events. Financial Institutions wash their hands and come with some kind sounding answer that boils down to ‘Not our problem’ and that is what you face. So when we get that Revolut is an e-money company that offers digital banking services, we see the words, but the important part that they are not a bank is missing. And my idea of using targeted killing against these fraud people (not the fintechies) is not without merit. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63736573) gives us ‘Police text 70,000 victims in UK’s biggest anti-fraud operation’, which means that we could keep well over 70,000 people safe by killing these economic terrorists. Yes, they are not merely criminals and we do not care about their age. Just like they did not care about the financial situation they put their victims in. There comes a time when any action is better than the level of inaction we see here. In addition people need to know that places like Revolut is not a bank, they applied a year ago, but they are not at present and the call for reduced fee’s does not hold water, not when you end up with a loss of £8,000, but that is something you see after the fact. 

To be honest, there is another side. There is more and more indications that banks are seemingly not bringing home the bacon in regards to their customers. We saw that in the Guardian when the people were told in June 2022 “UK’s largest banks are no longer “too big to fail” and could foot the bill for their own failures, the Bank of England has said” it does not help people much, but it needs to be clear that you need your savings in a bank, because no matter what you have some protection, with e-money companies, financial institutions and other FINTECH options you have little to no protection, or you are in danger of having no protection and a banking license is pure protection for the bank and its customers. And my so called over reaction? Consider that in this economy a new criminal is born every minute, all hoping for that score. When you start executing the offenders and making sure EVERYONE knows, the wannabe’s might seek other avenues of income, not all of them legal, but avenues that keep them alive. And with 70,000 victims in the balance, I have little problems blowing off a head or two, three, four, five. You get the drill.

We want to be the ones finding a peaceful (non terminal) solution. But the police is losing this war too fast, there are too many victims and the parents do not get to cry that their son (or daughter) was such a good person, not with 70,000 people in the mix and one losing £8,000, and there is clear evidence that this was not the biggest gain. There comes a time when we need to acknowledge that the floodgates are bringing in too much trash and do not worry about where to leave them, Exmoor National Park could shelter well over 1000 cadavers, so there is space to grow.

Worried yet? 
You should be there is too much happening and nowhere near enough being achieved and I am not blaming the Police, they are fighting this war with both hands on their backs and it is time to alter the game a little, enough for some of these criminals to get worried. And the price is decent, 70,000 victims is not nothing, even as we see “as many as 200,000 people in the UK may have been victims of the scam” and to tamper your anger, we are also given “Fraudsters paid between £150 and £5,000 a month in bitcoin to use the iSpoof service, contacting, at times, 20 people a minute. Those behind the service are allegedly earning £3.2m and living “lavish” lifestyles” as such I believe they had their life, time to end it and capture these funds. Whose with me?

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December 13, 2022 · 11:31

Scuttle the ship

A thought occurred to me a moment ago. You see, we are so in a stage of what to do next, what to do in reaction and it came to me. We already have all the ammunition we need. You see to show players like Epic Games on how it is done, by actually doing hat WAS done and redoing it in a few ways. To take commercial sails away is by offering an alternative and here the Streamers (Amazon Luna) can set a new stage. Because it is not a free service we can ensure that loot boxes become free. Take a page from the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode. That part was the best multiplayer experience that I have ever seen, the best experience that I ever faced and the free loot boxes were part of that. OK, not completely ‘free’, it required effort. Yet effort is what a player brings to the stage. Consider any game, any shooter. Now add battle stages to it that are based on parts of the game. Now set a stage of 4 players versus a clever NPC part and slug it out. In the end, the ones standing get the credits and these credits go towards a loot box. In ME3 I had to play 2-4 games to get enough points for a Platinum box, and these rewards were awesome. All elements that we have now. Weapons, armour, support item, cosmetic items and with enough of that you can get a whole generation of people to the new game. Lets be clear, I do not hate Epic (I do think they were overly stupid) but we need to do something about the loot boxes and this is one way to counter them. Have a game where you can earn them without EVER spending a penny. And it will not be an easy fight, but the start is that you can get people to another solution where they do not pay and that is the start of more. Once the stage changes Epic either alters their approach or they become obsolete (that will take some time). But a player like Amazon has the option to make change happen. And this is not the new idea, I feel certain that Tencent is doing similar stuff, but their plan is brilliant (and insidious), they play the long game because they can afford to, the cherry on top of the cake is too rewarding for them and we need to see a counter move whilst we still have options. There is no talking with Epic Games, they are too far gone into the rabbit den of greed, but we can counter with new games, with altered games all with the same setup, Loot boxes for those showing effort. When effort becomes the currency the other solutions start to fade every so slightly before fading entirely. This is not a short solution and it will not come quickly, but it is a solution that has merit, because gamers are all about the showing of effort and gaining achievement that way. It is merely an idea, but I think it could work and when we start the stage of crossover loot boxes, the games will change the premise even further. Just a thought! Now Amazon needs to consider what games they will set to this stage and the first chip from the armour of greed that Epic games wields becomes a reality. 

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December 12, 2022 · 22:21

Mashed faith

That is the setting I am in. To be clear, I do not think I am in a good place right now. There is the abundance of islamophobia. There is the abundance of far right whiners, there is JustStopOil and the list goes on. To be honest I am a little at a loss on how to solve it. There is a creative idea that is forming but it is extreme to say the least. 

The first drops
In the first stage we take a look at far right person Rasmus Paludan. He is stirring hatred on many levels, the Swedish police is trying to stop him, but it is not working. He is item one. Item two id Dutch anti-islam movement Pegida, they too have made claims of burning a Quran. To stop these first drops of inciting much more anti Islamic violence I call on ALL the Arabic nations to reduce oil shipments to the EU by 500K barrels a day (250K for each and whilst these people are still alive). When the EU has to deal with the reduced oil shipments they might finally do something. And for any far right anti Islamic activity an additional 250K barrels a day are taken from the stockpile and where they go is up to these nations, to China is most likely as they require (and have requested) more oil. 

Is it fair?
No, and that is not what matters. You see this world is becoming a powder keg and we either harshly reduce the danger, or we control how it implodes, minimising casualties. These governments have had years to do something about it and they keep on screwing things up, so lets give them in incentive. This is one way and there are others, but I need to make sure that the people start seeing where the real power is and it is not in the US and not in the EU, not anymore. So we need to make sure that the implosion is directed and directing it to the far right makes perfect sense in this case. 

We are now in a dangerous stage. You see the Catholic churches have shown to be too unreliable. There is corruption, sexual abuse against minors and we saw less than a month ago that this was known all the way to the top of the Vatican a decade ago. There is now a much larger stage to massively separate church from state and it becomes massively important to reduce christian powers all over these governments. And whilst they still enjoy too many benefits of their transgressions we ned to do something. Like in politics is is about alliances and now the atheists and Muslim populations make one massive alliance, outranking christians by a lot. We can sit back and do nothing or set the stage how it really is. Not to the loudmouthed abusers, but to the people who are truly in power and it is not Strasbourg and it is not Washington DC. No matter how we slice and dice it we are running out of time to act, if there is one clear signal than that has been the signal that JustStopOil has been sounding and we see that the people have had enough in London, Munich and Paris. And we better do something clear before this all explodes, because that danger is getting bigger by the day. 

Are there better actions? I feel certain that there are, yet I do not see them and the governments are not acting as they should, as such my method comes to the top, not because it is better, but though a lack of real alternatives. Time is no longer our friend, that time has passed.

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December 12, 2022 · 10:44

Dopey and Grumpy, still dwarves

That is the setting and it is a strange setting, but it relates to ‘When it rains we call the kettle black’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/11/when-it-rains-we-call-the-kettle-black/) which I wrote two days ago. Yet I did not know there was more, and just now I come across ‘Saudi Arabia demanded defense firms set up in country by 2024. So far, most seem unmoved’ (at https://breakingdefense.com/2022/12/saudi-arabia-demanded-defense-firms-set-up-in-country-by-2024-so-far-most-seem-unmoved/), to be honest, I had heard some stuff in that direction, but I was unaware of how deep it went, and now I see “as long as it is related to the government contracts, they will have to have their regional headquarters here”, with the added “analysts said that the biggest players appear confident they can find workarounds — including the use of local partnerships and subsidiaries, as they’ve done in other countries — to keep the market open” and there the stupid factor comes into play. You see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has had enough of fake allies, fake commitments and now China is ready to make commitments and as the KSA is moving towards the 2030 mark of 50% in country defence and China is willing to play nice, the US is set to lose a whole lot of revenue. So there is your workaround, greedy and stupid working in cahoots like Grumpy and Dopey, both sides of a currency that has no meaning where they are, it is the sales prospects that counts and they are giving it all to China. You can only be the biggest player if you sell and there were markers for sale events and now there is a clear understanding in strategic papers no less that China is moving into sales column A. So when we think through what Breaking Defense gave us on December 8th, the US better realise that the age of pretending to do something and doing something else as a workaround is ending and it is ending really quickly. So when we see the larger players like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Leonardo, Thales, and General Dynamics. What happens when the representative $27,000,000,000 goes to China? Twenty Seven Billion no longer to the US, the dollar will take another dive and more importantly, the design of their stealth planes required some Saudi Funds, when they go to the Chengdu J-20, the impact will be seen all over the US, EU and NATO. I made mention of these dangers as early as September 2021. The fact that some American Fat Cats were playing stupid with a customer paying billions is a little new, but there is no surpassing the union of stupid and ego, it makes for a nice package, one that China could be enjoying a lot more than they figured on. And there is a chance that the strategic union between Saudi Arabia and China will go that far. Not only will the US lose their Middle East stage, they will in that same action lose whatever benefits they had in Egypt as well. And just to remind you on a speculative side. If China buys in this deal 2 million barrels a day from the American stack, the US is in deep manure. It does make the grass grow in Texas, but that is pretty much all it does. 

As such the last week has given us all kinds of revelations via several media sources. But the larger news is that State secretary Pompeo gives us ‘Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia a result of “bad American policy”’ and the bad news merely stacks. Yes Saudi Arabia is not squandering the connections with the US, their words and they are right. The US themselves are squandering it to China by playing chicken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to appease their ego’s, and that is what is clearly in place and will shown over the next 13 months. You see, there will not be any 11th hour changes, if these regional HQ’s are not in place by December 2023 China will end up with a massive chunk of Saudi defence spending. China is happy with it, will the US be? I doubt it, but they catered to ego, so there you have it. It does not matter who Dopey and Grumpy are, in the end they were merely dwarves and as I see it, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is willing to make a large change and it will cost the US, it will cost them so much. I wonder how they will spin this loss, because at present that is exactly what it will become. A loss to their ally list, a loss to their economy and a loss of income. All handed to China for the mere satisfaction of ego. Government handed partnerships to players like Microsoft, Sony, Samsung and a few other players for the cumulative sum of a mere 1% of that, did you think the Saudi Government wasn’t keeping tabs? Silly bunnies!

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