Category Archives: Finance

June 8, 2022 · 19:35

What the media silences

Yes, that is again the topic of discussion. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61709782) gives us ‘Elon Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal’, in there we see “Mr Musk has said he believes spam and fake accounts represent a far greater share than the less than 5% of daily users that Twitter reports publicly.” The media knows this to be true, several others know this to be true, I know this to be true and one other party that we are about to be introduced to knows this to be true too.

You see, Twitter seemingly hides itself behind ‘daily users’ yet the truth is not that nice. Ever since Covid things have escalated. Anti vaxxers creating account after account, supporting each other and their fake accounts. The Ukrainian war made things worse. Russian Trolls, politicians supporting Russian needs in the Netherlands all. Connected to trolls and troll like behaviour. There we see a new player (since around 2014). It is the firm Trollrensics (at https://www.trollrensics.com) that shows actual data. And do not get fooled by the shy “His software and algorithms have helped uncover and analyse a significant number of troll networks and disinfo campaigns.” They have 8 years of data from all kinds of sources including Twitter showing millions of fake accounts. Even as I personally thought that the fake accounts are around 20%, they have numbers that indicate that these numbers are much closer to 50% and the media is steering clear. Others are steering clear. Twitter represents billions and the media loves people who have billions no matter what foundation it is on. And there we get the new stage. With ““As Twitter’s prospective owner, Mr Musk is clearly entitled to the requested data to enable him to prepare for transitioning Twitter’s business to his ownership and to facilitate his transaction financing. To do both, he must have a complete and accurate understanding of the very core of Twitter’s business model – its active user base,” lawyer Mike Ringler wrote in the letter.” We get to see the other side. Twitter hopes for $45,000,000,000 for a 50% population, so in what universe will an intelligent person pay twice the price? In what universe will any person pay for fake data, altered and weighted data? It is raw data that counts and too much comes from Russian and Chinese trolls. Too much of it come from click farms. Too much of this comes from non people. The game has for over a decade been about engagement and Twitter failed that test (miserably) and is now in a stage where they prefer to get out with a $45,000,000,000 camping voucher. Speculatively where the women are loose, the sun always shines and the booze pours uninterrupted. 

So when we see the option below, some people might get the idea. 

Below we see the assurance and under there is how these things come to play. 

The third is a random click-farm and this one might not have been used for Twitter activities, however considering that these matters have been going on since well before 2019. 

The impact is real and it is also all over Twitter. Several sources give us that most of these activities are in China and the profits are lucrative as this is not labour intensive. Twitter is keeping its doors locked and the media is not knocking on these doors, even though there is news all over the globe on click farms. So why is the media not digging deeper? Simple it is fear. The media needs Twitter and it needs Facebook and Google (who they pissed off), so they are letting Twitter be. That is how I personally see it and in all the settings Elon Musk is correct and he is a lot more intelligent than anyone gives him credit for. He has seen what Twitter is, what Twitter can be and he is willing to pay a fair price and that goes against the grain of its board of directors who are all about ‘daily users’ all whilst some sources are setting the stage that well over 40% are fake accounts. And the 5% and its ‘daily user’ label is not bringing home the bacon and as such Elon Musk and via him Mike Ringler are asking questions. Questions that people at Twitter do not want to answer. And it is important that you do not believe me, dig yourself! When we tart digging into engagement locations and time frame of certain accounts, a new timeline becomes visible, a timeline too many do not want to see, because the impact could indicate that Elon Musk could get Twitter for a mere $15,000,000,000 and that is the fear of some. OK, I get it I would not want to lose $30 billion either, but in that is it not strange that the media is not all over Twitter asking questions? They merely need to dig into the engagement line and where these engagements come from and when you see the click farm, you might realise that a location large enough for about 15 people should not house a click farm with 150-300 mobile phones. It is like being in a sweets shop wth 150 children. You wouldn’t last a minute, but one person can click on 300 phones easily enough and there is enough data, merely an unwilling media digging deeper and as we see the Twitter folly evolve more people should be catching on how the media is BS’ing us. Because this data has ben out in the open for the longest time. And even now as the BBC gives us “Texas attorney general Ken Paxton entered the debate on Monday, saying he had launched an investigation into Twitter for “potentially false reporting over its fake bot accounts”. Twitter has until 27 June to respond to his request for information.” It does not take away the stage that this has been out in the open and the media ignored a lot of this, I personally believe that they ignored it intentionally, to what end is anyone’s guess.

The fact that players like Trollrensics have had data spanning years with supporting evidence makes the acts of the media even more debatable, but that might merely be my view on the matter.

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June 8, 2022 · 03:03

Vindaloo on the side

It started two days ago. I honestly do not remember who the source was, but it stuck in the back of my mind. It also stuck how the large media trivialised (BBC excepted) the matters at hand. So I decided to take a gander. I first stopped at Arab News who gave us (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2097311/saudi-arabia) ‘Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states and Muslim institutions denounce Indian official’s insults against Prophet Muhammad’, so not the western news, not the Italian daily prophet (Vatican News), no merely the Gulf States and Islamic Institutions. So as we are given “Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries and Muslim institutions on Sunday condemned the remarks against Prophet Muhammad by a top official in India’s ruling party, with some demanding concrete action to end such acts of Islamophobia.” So whilst the Washington Post gives us “Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science at Indiana University gives us “At home, a lynching takes place and Modi remains deafeningly silent. Now, he feels compelled to act because he realises the damage abroad could be extensive. When it comes to foreign policy, the stakes are high.”” Yes and there is the problem, an act merely because the international stakes are too high. It is time to get to part 2, that is the part given to us by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-61701908) where we see ‘Nupur Sharma: Prophet Muhammad row deepens India’s diplomatic woes’, and the power is given to us by “Ms Sharma’s – angered the country’s minority Muslim community, leading to sporadic protests in some states. The BBC is not repeating Ms Sharma’s remarks as they are offensive in nature”, the statement was SO offensive, to the degree that the BBC will not comment by quoting the statement. What we do see is “Analysts say that the top leadership of the party and the government may have to make public statements on the issue. Not doing so, they say, runs the risk of damaging India’s ties with the Arab world and Iran.” As I personally see it India has pissed off Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia all at the same time, a decent achievement if I do say so myself. And the setting of this is not whether thee are acts, the acts are too slow in a nation that has had its long term issues with Muslim communities. The lack of direct action against discrimination. I am a little on the fence. If others (christians) have to adhere to Muslim rules in Saudi Arabia, there would be the setting that Muslims have to adhere to India’s (Hindu) rules. But to allow blatant insults against ones religion is a dangerous step, not merely national, yet in this there is the international stage too and as I personally see it the (far too) slow reactions by its Indian government and Narendra Modi will have (or is that should have) repercussions and not merely in India. It is NDTV (New Delhi Television) gives an interesting view. They give us ‘PM Modi, The Djinn Is Out Of The Bottle And Out Of Control’ it shows that there is way too much support for the discriminatory views of Nupur Sharma, lets not forget here that she was until recently the spokesperson of the BJP, as such, how did she get there?

The Islamic community might be forced to dump all Indian goods and services and this now gives a massive handle to the US and the EU. If they get the $15,000,000,000 of crude oil that usually goes to India its nation will face a massive recession. India lives on cars, petrol and a mobile industry. If even over 25% falls away the Indian government will face a situation they never faced before, not to this degree. A setting where India faces more hardship as it deals in oil with Iran and Russia or see the average quality of life in India fall for well over 20%, how much it falls? I honestly cannot tell and my 20% might be overly optimistic. 

So even as the BBC gives us “Experts said the controversy could overshadow some of India’s recent diplomatic successes with the UAE and other nations.” I reckon it is nothing compared to the internal mess that could happen when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides to move the oil tap from India to the US and Europe. Their worries will be over to a much larger degree, but at that point it will suck to be in India. When 300 million cars can no longer run because fuel prices went from 96.35 ₹/L to 396.50 ₹/L that is when panic and utter chaos will rule India and I reckon Pakistan will not be overly upset about that setting either. As such the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi will need another option, another direction and it seems to me that they re stuck in the mud with no one around to help them. Some will state that it was her right to speak, but is open discrimination a right? Nupur Sharma might have started something that she was unable to contain or adjust for and we will see what happens next because something has to give in this equation and your guess is just as good as mine. There is too much I do not know on the interactions in India, but I do know that tapping a tiger on the balls was not the way to go, especially if there is no fence separating the tiger from the tapper, but that might just be me.

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June 7, 2022 · 20:22

The presentation will begin in one line

Yes, here we are one line further. In the recent past I gave rise to an innovation in presentation software that could bring a whole lot of trouble to Microsoft. They will be in denial, making all kinds of claims. Yet the foundation of worry (for Microsoft) remains. Even as I wanted to keep it exclusively for Adobe, I am not in contact with them and then it hit me. The solution could work with Google Slides as well. They are not yet as sophisticated as anything Adobe has, but to outstrip Microsoft might be a nice alternative. The idea that a free program could be enhanced so that Microsoft could lose up to 24% of their foundational corner is appealing (to me). If I get to pull it off, the station of Google Slides and optionally Apple Keynote could see a much larger pull and people will move away from Microsoft. We see Unionisation issues. We are given ‘Microsoft Issues Emergency Windows 10, 11 & Server Security Update’, as well as “Since March, however, if you run the RDgateway broker service on Server 2022 (and only that version), the monthly cumulative updates have removed that service. This behaviour is not normal; this is a bug.” Yes, we get it, Microsoft has bugs and it is having too many of those, all whilst other settings are equally problematic and that is where Microsoft finds itself. Losing with software and hardware to Sony and Apple. Losing web and cloud settings to Amazon and what do you think will happen when the foundational use of Microsoft Office loses the Powerpoint population to Google Slides? Yes, we know it, PowerPoint has so much to offer, but it merely added iterative settings over the last 10 years. You see between THEIR claim of what innovation is and what real innovation is comes with a gap and in the case of Microsoft it is the size of the Gran Canyon. So if I offer this one part, this one innovative part to Google and it shows to change the game, what will YOU do? Keep on believing that Microsoft will fix it? It was less than a week ago when we were given “Security researchers have identified a new MS Office vulnerability that could seriously affect Microsoft Word users”, and the Verge reported ‘China-linked hackers are exploiting a new vulnerability in Microsoft Office’ (at https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/1/23150318/microsoft-office-china-hackers-exploiting-follina-vulnerability-tibet), so how much longer will you take chances? I get it, there is very little that can compete with Microsoft Excel, but when I can create something so innovative, something that Microsoft should have fixed a DECADE AGO and I give it to Google (sell it, I meant). I could add it to my IP bundle 1. When I can pull that off, do you think that the 17%-29% that does not rely on Microsoft Excel will stay in that dangerous spot? I admire loyalty, but that does require the software firm to be entitled to that loyalty and they dropped the ball way too often. 

As such the game is on and this all started less than 2 months ago when I saw something in a presentation that made me shiver. In two decades Microsoft had not come up with a solution and I saw it in minutes, I adjusted that simple view, added a few elements and It could easily be added to the Google suite. Changing the game is easy when you know where to look. A setting that could cost up to 29% of a core business. I wonder what happens to the Microsoft stock when I pull this off. Perhaps someone in that company will finally figure out that what they market is not representative of the truth. I just wonder if they even realise how far of course they have gone through the presentation of spin. The fact that I can pose that much of a danger is enabling in so many ways.

I preferred to have handed it to Adobe, nothing bad about Google, but it coincides with a weird dream, one I described in ‘The hardware perimeter’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/25/the-hardware-perimeter/) and ‘Pristine and weird’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/24/pristine-and-weird/) on the 24th and 25th of February 2022. There I saw an Adobe future becoming the larger player of high end office solutions. And even as I was a dream, I saw things and applications that I have never seen before, The application of blockchain to documents and data projects. Adobe had solved certain parts that could set a Lifestage to any document, who made it, who changed it, where it was changed and so on and the legal industry as well as large corporations were going gaga (not the singer) for that solution. As such giving them the presentation edge made sense, but in this Google is just as much a player as Adobe, not as refined, but for the bulk of the users good enough. 

A simple presentation that shows where the big boys are and where they could end up if they do not fix their game. #Justsaying

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June 6, 2022 · 23:03

The mind, it continues regardless

That is my setting for today, or it was my setting for today. It started yesterday when I wrote ‘Presentation and awareness creation’ and in the mean time, my mind has come up with 7 pieces of IP. This IP is different, it is based on stuff that exists. So at best I could get some innovation Patents out of them. Both Google and Amazon have some of the goods, some of the other IP is set to a setting neither have, but it links to stuff they do have. Beyond that I created a stage that is not new, but has never been set to this stage, so I got 7 pieces of IP, pieces that a player like Google should have, and for the best of me I cannot imagine why they do not have it.

You see, it started with the Eaton Centre Mall in Toronto. Yet Canada has more than 3700 malls. The US has over 110,000 malls, yet the top three states are California, Texas and Florida and together they have a little over 39,000 malls. And the news we see is not good, so soon there will be a free fight on which mall survives. Europe has over 9000 malls. So we have a setting where Google or Amazon could have had the stage of Augmented reality in over 50,000 malls and you merely need to get 5%-10% over the bough and the rest will follow, more important, too many malls are alike. So players like Gap, Apple, Zara, Lindt and several others are nearly everywhere, so there one solution would fit all those shops, unless the shop wants to distinct itself. I even came up with an idea for Victoria’s Secret (as any guy would), all out there and no one is seeing the essential need to create a stage of engagement with its audience. Especially in the US where some claim that over the next 2-3 years 50% of all malls will perish, the essential need to create interactions with your audience becomes very important and that is where I was lat night tossing, turning, reshaping, reshaping and reshaping what was. After that I deployed, redeployed and redeployed and with every iteration the systems was upgraded, updated and improved. I cannot (and will not) claim that I fixed everything, but I got a lot done and now the mind is looking to change the stage of the people, beyond the mobile phone. I even saw another venue and whilst writing this IP number 8 was created and this is IP none have. 

So why are these two players not out there creating new markets? I set the stage of several new markets in the last three months alone. So will they all work? I cannot say and at least one IP has risks, but how much risk are you willing to take when the reward is close to $3,000,000,000? Does it warrant an investment of $50M-$75M? Then there is the stage I pose here, how long until these parties stop iterating and start true retail innovation through presented awareness? We are now in a stage where we can make the views from Blade Runner a reality, yet no one is going there. Why not? Is it the money? Yes, consider H&M, Gap, Zara, Fashion Nova and Sephora, all competitors. Do you think that when H&M starts their Augmented Reality displays that Zara, Fashion Nova and Sephora stay at home printing leaflets? One entices the other and there are over 50,000 malls. A stage where a few hundred retail brands can decide the new wave of audience engagement through Augmented Reality. It was not rocket science and I am not the first player to see this. Players like Omnicom have a decade of preaching the essential power of engagement. And now that the markets dry up, these players better take the dollars for donuts track, before the bobkis settlement comes in. 

A simple view gave me the idea of 8 IP, so what is keeping Google or Amazon from waking up? I wonder what excuse they will bring to any table.

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June 5, 2022 · 16:43

An apolitical setting

That is where I find myself. It comes from the BBC with the article ‘Ukraine anger as Macron says ‘Don’t humiliate Russia’’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61691816). I see the dangers, I see the anger and I see the fears. We are given “Ukraine’s foreign minister has hit out at French President Emmanuel Macron after he said it was vital that Russia was not humiliated over its invasion”, we are also given “Mr Macron has repeatedly spoken to Mr Putin by phone in an effort to broker a ceasefire and negotiations. The French attempts to maintain a dialogue with the Kremlin leader contrast with the US and UK positions.” Now we all feel that Russia needs to lose and the Ukraine has (for the most) clearly shown that, but the defeat needs to be worse than that. I am for the most on the side of the US and UK. Yet there is visible wisdom on the side of France. You see Russia might still at some point embrace ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ and that is the danger setting. You see, if that pound is nuclear driven there is every chance that life in France will end, as will it all over Europe, the UK and the US. But for France the cost is larger. The top exports from France will be gone forever. It will start with end of the cheese and wine clubs. This might be seem trivial, but consider that this stage will end for ALL ETERNITY French wines and French cheeses. Yes, Sweden has good cheese, Wisconsin has good cheeses, as does the Netherlands. Good wines are allegedly found in California, they are found in Italy, Greece and South Australia as well as in New Zealand. Should this go South, it will no longer be available from France. So I get the stance of France. 

If we believe that the players could be swayed by political settings, keeping one open seems imperative. Yet the setting that defeat needs to be more pronounced is also essential. I feel that it is important that after September 30th it will no longer be allowed for Russians to hold property and/or businesses outside of Russia. They cannot have anything to say in non-Russian nations. When you consider the Russian billionaires in the field and their fortunes will be destined by yachting between Dubai and Russian territory their lust for life will diminish. The family of Russians  will not be allowed schooling and life outside of Russia. When this setting is seen over generations, we see the unrest that Russia faces. It will be a situation that goes far beyond Moscow on the Hudson. As such I to a point support the setting that President Macron sets with “Mr Macron told French regional media that Russia’s leader had “isolated himself”.

“I think, and I told him, that he made a historic and fundamental error for his people, for himself and for history,” he said. “Isolating oneself is one thing, but being able to get out of it is a difficult path,” he added. Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi has aligned himself with Mr Macron, suggesting Europe wants “some credible negotiations”.” Yet I do believe that there will be the essential need for a larger cost to the Russian people. I have had some issues with the economic assault on people like Roman Abramovich, but the time has passed and they have (for the most) not spoken out loudly enough against the acts of the Russian state, its acts in Ukraine and it gets to be worse. The recent burning down of the All Saints Skete of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra in the city of Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region is merely one of the most visible settings and there needs to be a price to pay for all Russians. So to some degree I side with President Macron, but that setting is not sailing when we give a pass to certain people after the war. That much WW2 has shown us a little too clearly. So whatever comes next, Russia needs to realise that the invoice is due and it will be staggeringly high, higher than the one Germany was given on 28 June 1919 in Versailles. We can flicker over the treaty required that Germany pay financial reparations, disarm, lose territory, and give up all of its overseas colonies. We can also look at the simple setting that in that same treaty they were given the limitations of

  • The German army was limited to 100,000 men.
  • Conscription (forced army service) was banned; soldiers had to be volunteers.
  • Germany was not allowed armoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft.
  • The navy could build only six battleships.
  • The Rhineland became a demilitarised zone.

In Russian terms it means that they will be limited to protecting the China-Russia border, because the setting will play after this one. And controlling that much area with 6 ships? Good luck with that idea. Optionally only 5 as they lost another one in the Ukraine. As such I reckon that the Russian oligarchs will sell whatever they have and quietly live out their days in places like Dubai. It is not a given, merely a speculation.

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June 4, 2022 · 17:58

Two populations, both disregarded

This was on the forethought of my mind. I was aware of one group, but until last night I was unaware of the second one. I never disregarded them, I merely never looked that way, I never considered this group in any way. It was not malice, it was not intent. It was merely the stage I found myself on. Just like some will never listen to some radio stations. Some are unaware, some merely do not care about radio, as such is the second group malicious? Is there intent? No, there is not and there I find myself. My third IP bundle was worth a penny or two, but I never considered that its valuation would surpass $2,000,000,000 optionally approaching way too close to $3,000,000,000. Now this sounds fine in many eyes. Yet the setting is that the first payment for Amazon is a mere $50,000,000 (post taxation). And that is where it stays. You see the second payment gets me 10% of sales and IP value. I set it to that degree so that I et a fair share, yet I never considered that the first and third bundle would go towards the 5B mark. That gets me way more than I ever considered or hoped for. I was merely looking for a (very comfortable) retirement setting, owning that much was not planned and now I find myself in a bit of a quandary.

You see, I believe in the axiom of overestimation, its dangers and optional the delusional side of it (on me), and it made me remember a sales term “Commission-based structures can lead to problems with motivation. While the possibility of extra compensation might excite employees temporarily, it may not motivate them over the long term.” The same can be said for service minded staff, but it is not exactly the same. There we get “Income-based structures can lead to problems with creative motivation over time. While the possibility of a bonus might excite employees temporarily, it may not motivate them over the long term. More important, the promise of a golden calf tends to make service people anxious, distrustful and optionally delusional” that’s where I find myself. The anxious side is there because the parts that mattered the least are now valued well above what I imagined it ever would. Distrustfulness is there, because I do not trust myself. I presently question every number I have, all the calculations add up and I have done them  half a dozen times in the last 24 hours. And lastly the delusional side is that I fail to believe in me. I am good, but to be shown that I am THAT good is folly. It is believing that I can walk on fire, even though I know that the fire would burn me to a crisp. This is not some setting of mind over matter, which is basically the setting that I do not mind, as I do not matter. It also gets me the setting that I cannot believe that Amazon and Google are seemingly on that page yet. A station that seems too crazy to seriously consider. So I go back t the drawing board. Where did I make the calculation error? And every time I do, I get the same results and I see additional supporting sides to it all. 

At times we need to believe in ourselves and we must above all believe that we can fail, at times failure propels us, that I can agree with, but to see that I got ahead by players like Amazon and Google 4 times in a row is just weird, but here you have it, a setting of contemplated failure on one side and the idea that I am due 10% of several billions is a weird station, and I get there by enabling two populations, so how come I am sitting here alone contemplating why others cannot see what I do?

I am at a loss of words and thoughts at present.

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June 2, 2022 · 03:56

Local norms

This happens we attend or tend to adhere to “something that is usual, typical, or standard”, there is no hidden trap here. Or so I thought for the longest of times. I saw the sign outside the supermarket “Only with Face-mask are you allowed in this place”, so I adjusted my norm. However, I made a mistake, apparently the rest of the clothing was not optional. So with only a face-mask I still did not get in, silly me.

So when I saw the news ‘French restaurant in Saudi Arabia bans hijab, causing outrage’ (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220526-french-restaurant-in-saudi-arabia-bans-hijab-causing-outrage/) I wondered what possessed the restaurant holder to set the stage towards: “last week and early this week to have prevented the entry of women who wear the hijab and the abaya, the loose-fitting robe worn by women in the Kingdom. Men who wear the traditional thobe – or long robe – were also reportedly banned from the restaurant” Let us be clear. This was in SAUDI ARABIA, an Islamic nation that has (decently) strict rules on clothing and behaviour. As such Bagatelle Jeddah is not given a long life. And it seems that this is what happened. I cannot respond to “the restaurant had been heavily criticised by many due to its “tasteless” and bland food.” As I never ate there. There is also “a social media user named Ameera Al Qahtani, for example, said it “does not deserve any star. Because it refuses to allow women [wearing] the hijab, and refuses the Saudi dress for men. They need to be kicked out of Jeddah. They don’t respect our religion, and this makes me very angry.”” It seems that there is more playing, more under the populous I mean. It comes to a point at the very end where we are given “It is the most recent example of concerns regarding the societal tensions resulting from the clash between Saudi society’s conservative values and the new era of liberalisation encouraged by the Saudi government to cater to tourists” To be honest, I saw the disgusting ‘catering to tourist’ setting on Crete (Greece). The orthodox church has rules. But tourist consider themselves above that, why? People should not go into a church without proper attire (more than a tank top), I do not get it, if I were to go to Saudi Arabia, I know I have to adjust, I need to adjust to Islamic settings. Isn’t that why I go see another nation? And there are reasons to go there. The grand mosque in Riyadh is stated to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. There is the Kingdom Centre and Riyadh has several other places that people would want to see. If you cannot afford the trip (I am on that list too) there is a YouTuber named Jason Billam Travel who created some awesome videos of walking trips of Riyadh. And I got to see a little more than I bargained for, showing me jut how little I know of Saudi Arabia, but the western press is not really about informing us, are they? So (at https://www.youtube.com/c/JasonBillamTravel) you can see the Video of Riyadh (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_4wPK6oks) where you can see more than you bargained for. There was another video which I could not find but seek “Riyadh Walking tour” and you will see jut so much more (if you cannot afford to go there).

Places like ‘Boulevard Riyadh City’ that shows me how little I know of Saudi Arabia, how little we are shown of Saudi Arabia, why is that? And lets be clear, we are visiting THEIR nation, it is an islamic nation, so we know we will have to adhere to certain differences. There will always be a debate of what we expect and what is tolerated. But a nation does not changes norms to us, we adhere to the norms of them. That is expected in London, Paris, New York and why not Riyadh? I just realised that the idea I gave here months ago (Augmented reality) might also work really nice in Riyadh too, but about that another day. I get that there could be a setting of “the new era of liberalisation encouraged by the Saudi government to cater to tourists”. Yet in all honesty. At present I hav e no idea what the opposing side “Saudi society’s conservative values” are. Yet consider in the US. Do they not adhere (to some degree) to the rules of the Amish? Do the Amish have rights? So why would you deny these rights to Saudi Arabia? Are their values and norms mine? I doubt it, I was brought up somewhere else. Yet I would want to visit it, see the places with my own eyes, as such I will have to adjust that is the rule in India, in Greece, in Egypt and as such in Saudi Arabia too. Is that not why you visit places? To see the sights and feel the brush of culture in that nation? If not then like me most can do with YouTube to show us the way. And the more I see, the more I consider what is any norm, the weirder the setting of Bagatelle Jeddah becomes. Now, I will accept that we do not see both sides, but the idea to attack a national norm in that nation seems like the most stupid ways of suicide, but that might just be me.

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May 25, 2022 · 22:04

Dangerous ally

That happens, we have enemies, impartial parties, friends and allies. This is how it has been for the longest of times. Yet what happens when an ally becomes a danger? That is what the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-us-fox-news-threat-report-1.6459660) gives us with: ‘Canada should rethink relationship with U.S. as democratic ‘backsliding’ worsens: security experts’. In this article we are given ““The United States is and will remain our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability,” says a newly published report written by a task force of former national security advisers, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) directors, ex-deputy ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper.” That at least is one side. Yet the stage we see here is a little larger than we think it is. You see, we are given “There are growing transnational ties between right-wing extremists here and in the U.S., the movement of funds, the movement of people, the movement of ideas, the encouragement, the support by media, such as Fox News and other conservative media,” I believe that they are missing a few bolts in that equation. As I personally see it, the media is a lot more guilty from my point of view. At present the media is desperate for digital dollars and we see this on a global level. The best way to get this is to get clicks, as such more and more flammable materials are published, just to get clicks. No matter what the consequences are. In this I give you the guardian who gave us (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/22/rightwing-us-pundit-candace-owens-compares-australian-government-to-the-taliban-calling-it-a-tyrannical-police-state-) last October. There we are given “Rightwing US pundit Candace Owens compares Australian government to the Taliban, calling it a ‘tyrannical police state’” In that article we are given “Outspoken conservative political commentator Candace Owens has suggested the US military invade Australia in order to free its people “suffering under a totalitarian regime” while drawing comparisons to Hitler, Stalin and the Taliban.” As such, lets relabel Candace Owens as ‘Black Putin’, with her telling the people “When do we deploy troops to Australia? When do we invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime? When do we spend trillions of dollars to spread democracy in Australia?” Wasn’t that the setting Vladimir Putin used to go into the Ukraine? How is that going?

A Commonwealth nation that has shown it has Freedom of speech, freedom of religion (a lot more than the US has), it has democratic elections and so far after decades, I have yet to see a police state in action in Australia. So which media asked this Black Putin for evidence of a police state? Which media asked this Black Putin for evidence of oppression in Australia and what evidence is there of a totalitarian regime? She is ‘tolerated’ by the media as she flames stuff, she brings in the digital dollars. That is how I personally see it.

So in the report (see below) we are also given “Yet Canadians and their governments rarely take national security seriously. Taking shelter under the American umbrella has worked well for us. This has made us complacent and paved the way for our neglect of national security.” This is true and as the US falters the pressure on Canada increases. I did make mention of something similar to this, but not to this degree and it was a while back. Yet the danger station remains, when the US collapses (which is still possible) the people will try to find a safe haven, and Canada will top their list. Consider the idea that Canada suddenly needs to deal with 5-15 million Americans trying the collapse in their own country, Canada is not ready, more important. Canadian National security is nowhere near ready for that nightmare scenario. In addition, as I personally see it, the Putin’s of America (black or not) will gladly throw oil on that fire to get more digital dollars out of all of it. 

And the Ukraine adds to that setting with “Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, with its deliberate targeting of civilians and underlying threat of nuclear war, has jolted even the most sanguine of western democracies into thinking anew about security. Ahead lies a period of escalating tensions with no clear end in sight” as such the Commonwealth needs to take steps, serious steps towards keeping its territories safe, any way they can. Canada has of course the largest problem. It has 8890km of border with the US and there is no way that this can ever be kept safe or untrodden, so other means will be needed to keep Canada safe. What they are, your guess is as good as mine. But this will come to blows there is no doubt in my mind. Even now we see more and more stories and articles about the decline of the US, but they are trivialised, even the ones from the Pentagon. The power players are all in the believe that it will not happen, but they have their millions safely in a zero tax haven like Dubai, Bahama’s, Monaco or Cayman Islands. When things go south fast they take personal leave get to where they need to be and resign their posts with loads of cash safely tucked away. When that escalated the people will start running and those without cash will try to get anywhere they can and that group is a lot larger than you think. Last year all these people who got into Bitcoin, because it was such a safe bet, what they bought at 87K is now a mere 41K, they lost over 50% and when it goes from bad to worse the US will become close to unliveable. And that is what Canada needs to fear, almost more than any lone wolf terrorist. In all this, with all the things we see 2022 is the first year where several players need to consider that America has become a dangerous ally. It is not the military that Canada needs to fear, it is a senseless 329,000,000 people all trying to find some safe haven and the group that is in poverty and the elderly pushed into poverty is large and growing larger by the day. When we consider “The official poverty rate in 2020 was 11.4 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from 10.5 percent in 2019.” We think it is not that serious, but the last two years destroyed savings due to the cost of living under Covid and Bitcoins value for millions of people. There is no way that they US has accurate data at present and that is not on them, but I reckon (speculated estimation) that it is closer to 13.5% at present. As such there is a chance that as per tomorrow 4.4 million Americans will seek shelter any place they can and a sizeable chunk of those 4.4 million will no longer believe that the US can offer that. Even now with unemployment numbers at a global all time low, too many will consider the ‘get out now’ routine. Because if the US has worker issues, than Canada might have them too. Not the worst thought to have, but when millions have that thought at the same time, Canada will face a larger problem and that is before the actual national security problems stir their ugly head. I believe that the Commonwealth nations need to unite and we need to do this now, not tomorrow. Things might get pretty hairy soon enough and not being ready just doesn’t slice the cake, not in this day and age.

natsec_report_gspia_may2022Download

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May 22, 2022 · 00:21

Interchanging hope and despair

You think it is odd, but it is not, stay with me. As the body goes through a point where it can no longer tell the difference between pain and pleasure, the soul has a similar event and in that event it can no longer make the difference between hope and despair. You might think that this is some new revelation, but it is not. It is old, very old. I reckon before the first crusade. To understand this we need to take the first sidestep. 

Sheherezade
We all have heard the story of Sheherezade and the 1001 Arabian night. But which version did you read? Most of us have had some translation of Sir Richard Burton, but none of them are complete. You see, if you had the whole complete tale and you would do the math, you will find that 5 stories are missing. 5 nights are not accounted for. This is because some clerics found them too dangerous in western hands. As such the clerics decided that these 5 stories were to be removed. Do not ask me for them, I never saw them either. Only certain members of the Royal family of Saudi Arabia have seen them (if they read the book), they are in a basement, it is one of the most controlled environments in the world. In that room is an altar, some kind of book altar (I think) and on it is an exquisite piece of work, the complete stories by Sheherezade. The only place in the world where the 5 missing stories can be found.

Vladimir Bartol
This is the second sidestep. A novel from 1938, it would become the foundation of the first Assassins Creed game by Ubisoft. It is the story of Hassan as-Sabbah. This is where the slogan “Nothing is true, everything is permitted”, but that saying is actually older, older then Hassan as-Sabbah, It comes from the Arabic clerics who travelled Europe in the 9th century (Spain, Italy, Greece and Slovak areas) They founded the premise “Nothing is true, in this world perception is all. Only a blind man can see what is real. The blind man can smell what is true, can hear what is stated. Perception can not be maintained. In this world, where one is perceived to be noble, nobility tends to not ever be found there. In this world of greed and wringing, like a cloth made devoid of water, of blood. Those wielding perception are in charge of what is real. This is more often seen in clergy and nobility than anywhere else” harsh words, but that was merely the beginning. You see, we now get to the first story.

Speculated story one
The first story was based on the life of Antarah ibn Shaddad al-Absi, and Sheherezade who knew so much also knew of him, and created the story of two student knights and alternative path away from the ways of ethics. The names of these two knights I do not know, there is no hidden thing here, I never saw that book. But the story goes that these two knights plotted in the night, not against their teacher, not against his values. But the simple fact was that the Arabic people could not be protected if they adhered to all ethics, at times ethics must give way to the protection of the people. The infidels deserved no consideration. But the story was one of insight on how ethics  are the cornerstone of what was right, still the story struck to close to the real world and the story was removed from consideration. We do not know what happened to these knights, some tell us that one went north, the other south. The one who went North did not go to Lucera, but his disciples (mostly women) created a convent somewhere in southern Germany (unknown where, some assume the black forest) and in that convent the women kept up appearances and kept to themselves. Seen as a convent and a hospital of mad people, a curtain was created. One wing and its basement were the sick, the mad. The less sick were properly treated for on a higher level of that wing (I presume the second floor) and below the destitute there was a trapdoor and another layer, one where the knights trained, day and night. Where they recorded the deeds of the corrupt, the wealthy the true noble and the christian demonic types. For decades they were there recording it all, reporting it all. If I am correct, it still happens today, but the stage is not the one they had there. They have moved into a very different area and seen as some version of clergy, no one seems to check and there is the rub. In a place without ethics, ethics removed makes one more fluidic, but at a price. The question becomes what is that price?

It is there in that place where hope and despair become faded, one cannot tell the difference, because the ethical walls were removed and who can tell whether they are still a force of reckoning. There is no record of them, there is no telling, no tale. 

So whilst we try to be noble, whilst we try to be true, we act on the values that the perception makers hand us and we seemingly copy these value blindly. Consider that greed comes naturally in banks and consider the life of Bob Diamond (Barclays, 2012) and see where this so called ‘highly respectable’ man had access to, and seemingly still had. You see he was behind an IPO which raised US$325 million (and crashed in 2021). So in a place with ethics, where do you stand where a person like that is trusted with $325,000,000? In many places where the light of perception does not shine, such a person is not allowed to be an uber driver (or a barber for that matter). As such it seems that we have larger problems, because the values we seemingly embrace are the beginning of the end of our souls. When did we sign up for that? It seems that despair is all that some bankers will leave us.

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May 21, 2022 · 15:21

Feeling confused

Well, there are two things, the first is that I got a workable idea to a final twist in ‘Exhaurire vitam’ the mini series that predominantly plays in New Orleans. There are a few scenes in other places, but the bulk is there. There are a few more issues that I uncovered in ‘How to assassinate a politician’, as such I have it close to ready, a movie and a mini series. Then there was the series ‘Kenos Diastima’, I have been tossing and turning on that and I feel that leaving it (for now) with an open ending at season three is the best way to go. Then I got another idea, this one was initially for ‘Exhaurire vitam’, yet the new series (the one I talked about a few times), has more traction with it and it opens up a nice can of worms. You see, the gods are all over all places, so there much have been some dependency. So what happens when one of them is in debt, or better stated, what happens when the debt was opened to a new source? That was the setting I contemplated on the subway. As such the main character would be open to all kinds of other things. That was the setting my mind worked on. And as I contemplated what could be possible when Bastet is thrown in the mix, the equation changed and that has long repercussions, not bad ones, but unforeseen ones and that tends to be good, because the unforeseen brings more than a surprise or a plot twist, it gives the story a new direction and I am all about that. But in part I have no idea why the images are coming to me so rapidly and so directly, that is the part that has me confused. It is like your brain playing some year at Hogwarts and you create the setting, but you never created the stage. In this example we all know it is J.K. Rowling. But the stage I create is new, has never ben contemplated, or written about. I have no idea where it all is coming from, so for now I follow the thoughts and create more stories and optionally more scripts. And I have no idea where it all goes. Even as I seek the implementation of Saudi TV in the movie, I wonder where it will end. So whilst I get that “Bryan Fogel says Netflix, Amazon and others wouldn’t buy ‘The Dissident’ because they were scared of angering Saudi Arabia” my story does EXACTLY the opposite and as such might be loved there, what I do not get is why not more are considering that step. In the end, good business is where you find it and basically I found it. 3 TV series, one movie, a game, console settings and the evolution to another 50 million consoles and beyond that I reengineered several Ubisoft games and created several 5G IP. Not bad for one person in less than 5 years. So if you are wondering what stops others doing the same, I have no idea. But I do believe that they are all looking in the wrong direction and I feel that more and more of that is proven. But the confusion stays. What if this is all between my ears? I do not believe that this is so, but if you cannot look at it from opposition from a distance than it means you have gone bonkers, have gone round the bend. Oh, and I also designed a weapon to get rid of the Iranian navy, so there (and that part is already online). But the confusion stays. I have no idea what is driving this all. Perhaps a last knee jerk action by the brain before it stops? Your guess is as good as mine, I am honestly clueless.

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