Category Archives: Media

Reuter catches up

Yup, that is the frame I am looking at. A mere 2 hours ago Reuters gives us ‘Insight: Swing state Republicans bleed donors and cash over Trump’s false election claims’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/swing-state-republicans-bleed-donors-cash-over-trumps-false-election-claims-2023-07-05/) there we see “The withdrawal of bankrollers like Weiser reflects the high price Republicans in the battleground states of Michigan and Arizona are paying for their full-throated support of former President Trump and his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him” and you wonder why this is ‘surprising’. Yet, when you consider that months ago (April 20th to be exact) I wrote in ‘Is UNemployed a thing?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/04/20/is-unemployed-a-thing/) “Should Fox settle Smartmatic, or lose in the trials these small sharks will come and take huge chunks out of the Fox cadaver. No matter how you slice it, it will leave a gap for any contender of Fox to step forward because for 1-2 years it will have to contemplate how to go forward and how to invest funds going forward and that leaves their number one customer the Republican Party. Any contender could snatch that client away from Fox, which leaves Fox in a bind.” Now we see this happen and way beyond Fox, yet Fox too will be bleeding a fair bit. In the end these bankrollers need a return on investment and al things Republican are about to feel the pinch in a stage where they cannot afford to lose investors and bankrollers. I reckon that anyone on that horse will soon feel the pinch of lost revenue and more important, anyone feeling serious about their business will not do it with these people. With added “The dismissal impacted prime-time ratings at Fox News, with 20 percent of its audience dropping off between the first and second quarter of the year, according to a review of Nielsen data” this is merely one quote, but it fits the expectations I had and with that bloodletting, tapping the vein will be a lot more dangerous for all republicans involved. People like Liz Cheney have a chance as they turned away from the Trump madness from day one and t cost Liz, it cost her dearly, now she is about to become one of the few members (together with Mitt Romney) that could herald some future in the republican party. Personally I believe that they lost the honourable John McCain too early. That man would have been fifty times the president that Donald Trump imagined he could have become. But that is for another day. In the first the Republican Party needs to reset whatever idiotic view they had and they need to restore whatever they can and it better be WITHOUT Fox News. They lost whatever little credibility they had in the Dominion case and the Smartmatic case hasn’t even started yet. When you add it all up the republican party is in shambles and I saw this months before Reuters seemingly caught on. I reckon there is another side that will gradually catch on. You see bankrollers like Weiser will not ‘suddenly’ become democrats, I get that but that leaves the independent people in an interesting phase. Several states will now have a larger appeal to these politicians. I reckon that people like Cheney and Romney will try to salvage what they can, but people like Mitch McConnell have created gaps by ‘appeasing’ to all republican players (or at least those who shouted loudest) as such he will be trying to fence the republican meadow, but the sheep are already in a panic and large parts of the meadow have no fence. Plenty will side with Cheney/Romney, but too many will not and that is where the independents will have an interesting field day and for some it will be their first chance to gain foothold with corporations that preferred the republican side. The GOP made too big a mess and now the funds will walk away, add to that the dangers that Fox brings and the people they lost and we get a new setting. I partially captured it with “it will leave a gap for any contender of Fox to step forward” and Alex Jones already pushed himself out of the game with all that crazy talk, as such they both stand to lose more and more and the new players who are, what some would define as “republican readable information” will have a field day with collecting from the bankrollers and politicians that need a reliable platform and as such Fox will lose more and more and people will shun the conspiracy people like Alex Jones. As the comedians like Trae Crowder would state as “These people are leaving us? Is it my birthday, again?” And that is the larger setting for Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney (and a few more) and it will redraw republican political lines. I reckon that people like Mitch McConnell will look at the battlefield that they helped to create and wander to a paddock with a stable and intensely quietly live out their life in solitude. They literally bet on the wrong horse which becomes a ‘horse no show’. And that is the larger station for any corporation who had set their money on republican fields. They will consider what to do next and that is where independents will make larger gains, especially where the republicans bungled the ball (and their balls too). I reckon that Florida is in for a very new stage and 2026 will be bad news for Ron DeSantis who lost on a few fronts and the billion dollar losses he instilled via Disney will cost him a lot more, the 2024 elections (next to Donald Trump) first and his governor seat second (his approval rate now in the low 30’s). In this a new setting will evolve. Charlie Crist (D) is the clear favourite here, yet any Republican that did not agree with DeSantis could evolve an independent platform, especially if they want to make nice with Disney. That is merely one of several stages where the GOP will lose more and more ground. 

A lot of this is speculation, but it fits the data that is openly available, which does not make it true. Yet, consider that politicians require endorsements from corporations to continue. What corporation will continue in Florida after DeSantis blew a billion in investments from Disney? And after these fake allegations through places like Fox News, what corporation wants their name and reputation connected to these channels? It was a simple clear setting and no one looked into it at the time and now we see the Reuter stage and others will follow. I wonder what game people like Mitch McConnell will play next when they realise that the people they politically blew away are his only option to remain where he is? That gives a new interpretation to the expression ‘Will work for paddock and stable’ and yes I just made that expression up. 

And when you realise that the republicans are about to lose Arizona, Florida and Michigan (I personally think they will lose Texas too) the fact becomes clear. If the democrats win these three (or four) they will have the house, the senate and congress for at least two terms all at the same time. As I see it, for some republicans yielding the field to independents is their only option as they will need 3-5 years to clean the mess they allowed Donald Trump to create and in all this Ron DeSantis was little to no help at all and regaining hist lost estimated 25% approval will take way too long and Disney is not on his side. The one corporation that employs 75,000 people in Florida and that amounts to a total of (employed and connected) to roughly 1,683,000 votes. This gives Charlie Crist a new lease on political life. It is my personal view that for the republican party Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are their only chance to regain some of the lost fields, yet I reckon it will not be enough for the the 2024 presidential elections. The best they can hope for (for now) is limit the damage they incur. That is my own personal view on the matter.

Have a great day.

 

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The change of stages

That is what my mind is wondering about. You see we are given one thing, but is that thing correct? In this day and age where the media is less and less trusted, we are in a stage of alteration. We are seeing one thing and we are wondering another. For this I look at the BBC (one of many) and we are given (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-66073728) ‘Macron to meet with top ministers amid fears of further unrest’ which is now coming after days of unrest, massive parts of France reduced to war zones. We are given “The page claims the officer “has done his job and is now paying a high price”” with emphases on the word ‘claims’ we are also given “They say they wanted people to participate in a peaceful march, to remember Nahel, but did not want people to become violent.” We see many clips on YouTube, many from news agencies (example at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqOL9VSoOXE) but the overwhelming questions that matter are missing.

ABC gives us a little more but not much more, they do give us “Tuesday’s killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023, down from a record 13 last year, a spokesperson for the national police said.” This is an important number (I won’t call this a statistic). 13 people got fatally shot in 2022, now in 2023 the number stands at 3. So if it rises to 6 as a 2023 total, it still implies a 50% reduction in fatal shootings, which is pretty impressive. You see, what we do not see is what started this. Why exactly did the police officer grab his gun and shoot? No one has a clear report on that and overall the reaction is immensely out of proportions, but they did have time to print the T-shirts and offer them for sale, yes commerce also works in France. There is little information on the officer and why things escalated into a shooting. Isn’t that interesting that the cause of all this is not given to us, or at least missing in too many reports?

For me it is a different stage. I think that this is the impact of delusion on national scales and not just France. The reality that jobs are faltering, that polarisation is coming to every nation. In America we see MAGA and Karen’s, now we see this in France and I reckon that Italy, Germany and Spain will have their own problems soon enough. Well, Germany perhaps less. Yet I do believe that socialised systems are up for grabs and the youth is acting out in anger, frustration and rage. I personally see this as the failing of tax systems against big corporations. Corporations who reset tax systems to allow for legalised slave labour wherever they can find it and the youth is angry. It is about to get worse and also in more places. 

These are the two settings that are pushing for more revolt and many of it is non peaceful. We see the ‘just stop oil’ losers disrupting London Pride march and we need to learn that all these things are somehow connected. Some people are very willing to upset certain settings, the people behind the curtains are setting more and more revolt settings and I personally believe that the French sitting is an example. Consider that a person in Paris is shot, we do not get to see the ACTUAL stage where people ask the police how did this happen. I get it things escalate and can escalate in a nasty way. But Nahel was 17, I have no idea what escalated this. Yet in all this I refuse to believe that some policeman grabbed his gun and merely blew him away out of spite. Even then the reaction that goes on all the way to Marseille is completely out of proportions, something is escalating this. For London I had the solution. Merely reduce their storage by 500,000 barrels of oil per day less and soon the price of petrol goes from 175.9p per litre to 325.9p per litre. That should wake the people up and there is no resetting that for as long as the Just stop oil movement is still in existence. France has its own demons and it requires a different handle, but someone (or something) is pushing this agenda and until people realise that they are being used, that their anger is invoked for other reasons this will not end and it will get worse. 

It isn’t that these things happen, they will always happen, but here the media is falling short. I looked to several newspapers and not one gave me a clear recollection on how this started. How EXACTLY did Nahel get shot? ABC gives me “The teen failed to comply with an order to stop his car, to which the officer fired his gun.” So, in short a teenager refused a directive from the police and it cost him his life. Does it matter that this was a traffic violation? We see all these TV series where people carjack, speed and more things ignoring the police because it looks like fun and now they see the impact, you can get yourself killed this way. This is GTA5 with a hardcore mode, you get one life and how far will you get in that game? Interesting isn’t it? No cheating and merely one life. How far will you get? Did you consider that option? It is the way I used to play Diablo 3. One life is all you get and I did it for every character class (it took a lot longer for me as a barbarian to get to the end). 

I am not loosely comparing France to a game. Something is pushing this and it isn’t simple anger it is the driving force but not the directing force. I think France needs to investigate who is pushing these people, because what I learned in France in the 80’s, to see someone in Marseille giving a damn about a Parisian is new to me, but here we see (source: BBC) giving us “There were fewer arrests compared to previous nights – 719 – with the worst clashes in the southern city Marseille.” This (and other data) made me wonder who (or what) is pushing this. This is seemingly not (or never was) about Nahel. Yet that is my personal take on the matter and I agree that I might be wrong. Yet consider the reaction to one fatality, a fatality caused by someone refusing to stop. Yes I agree that it seems like an overreaction, but I never saw the exact setting that caused this and the media is not focussing on this, or focussing on this much too little. I will let you decide on that matter. 

Enjoy the day, Monday is about to start.

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Son of Kristallnacht

This happens, things happen again. Things are reprised and even the stupid parts are redone over and over again. I never understood the act of book burning. It does not matter what is burned. The acts of November 9th 1938 were short sighted and stupid and they reminded me of the events that led to the Bonfires of the Vanities. This event was on February 7th 1497 instigated by Girolamo Savonarola. Two events started by stupid christians (Savonarola and Hitler) as such it is a setting of a stupid event that led to the burning of Qurans. The second event was covered by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66052670) here we learn “Salwan Momika, said to be an Iraqi living in Sweden, set fire to a copy of Islam’s holy book outside Stockholm’s central mosque on Wednesday. The Quran burning was condemned by many Muslim-majority countries.” This set of a few thoughts in my mind. The first was ‘who on earth is Salman Momika?’ You see, Iraq has up to 10% that is not Muslim. This happens in many nations that has a muslim majority. So why would this person to set fire to a Quran? I am not trying to decipher it, but the irony is that the Iraqi people overtaking a Swedish Embassy whilst it was one of their own civilians to set fire to it in the first place is pretty ironic. There is a second setting that is less impressive. This is the second event that Sweden has and now if Turkey obstructs NATO entry, that is all on Sweden. They have the option to prosecute those who knowingly burn religious texts (any religious texts), they have the option to make Salwan Momika persona non grata, sending that person BACK to Iraq. At that moment Salwan’s goose is cooked, thoroughly. Something needs to be done. This is not about freedom of expression, this is about intentionally causing grief. I know that the matter is more pressing and more complex. Yet the larger station is that this was intentional, this is about someone pushing the buttons of Salwan Momika, the question is who and why. Is it Russia trying to set delays, it is a third party to create chaos? So many directions to go into and so many options to consider. The fact that someone OK’ed this is also an issue. They knew what would happen, there is no way that they did not. In the meantime Deutsche Welle informs us “Morocco has withdrawn its ambassador in protest”, which is not entirely unexpected. Sweden should expect a few more Muslim nations to be upset about the actions that were cause of them. This is not about freedom of expression, this is about creating mayhem and Sweden is letting this all happen threatening their ascendancy into NATO. There is no other way to see this. How this evolves is beyond me but Sweden is in for a few hard months and perhaps even more. But there is a larger station here and until we see a much more clear picture whatever I see is based on mostly speculation. 

On the upside, my mind came up with another game and another piece of IP, too early to tell where either will go, but the mind is firing on most thrusters.

Enjoy the weekend.

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Shoes not for dancing

It was the CBC (hours ago) who showed me an article that had me up with roughed feathers. They did nothing wrong, they aren’t making some CNN or FOX case. The article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/titan-sumbersible-anger-schadenfreude-1.6889506) giving us ‘Here’s why people are being so mean about the Titan going down’ and there the article gives us a whole range of reasons, some are accurate, some are the setting of averting emotions. Yet the one reason not given is astounding. It is not eagerness of making fun of people paying $250,000 for a near ten mile ride. We see “Other experts say it’s driven by wealth inequality, or that the response ultimately reflects a lack of civil discourse.” We also see a mention of Schadenfreude which made me giggle and made me think of the comedian Gary Delaney. He gave us “My friend asked me to spell Schadenfreude, I could not but he is dead now, so I still win” it is a darker side of us that allows us to shed discomfort. You see the one reason is not given to us here. I see the Titanic as a mass grave, a collected funeral and monument for the over 1,500 people lost that day in 1912. We have no business being there. Just like we have no valid reason diving near the USS Arizona. Some monuments are to be left alone. I get to some degree that James Cameron went down, he did so to prepare us for an Homage to the USS Titanic and he made one in 1997 that become one of the biggest successes in Hollywood history. It is now the fourth most successful movie in history. It was more than a movie, we were all reminded of dreams too big too hold, we blindly relied on the presentations like ‘The ship that is unsinkable’ and well over a thousand lives were lost. The article is showing us all kinds of reasons and they aren’t wrong but the underlying reason is not touched on. Most of us believe that this is one of these places we leave alone forever and the only group of people thwarting that common sense setting are the uber rich and they paid for it with their lives. I remember one presentation on the Titanic in PowerPoint, which still makes me giggle on the inside. The starting slide gives us “Would you like to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet without their clothes on?” And we see that question a few more times and in the end we see an image of two skeletons on the bough of the ship waving their arms (just like the movie in the flesh). A nice deceptive strike. But it touches on the one setting we need to accept, that movie is as close as we should ever be allowed to get to the USS Titanic that is the part the article misses and optionally intentionally steered clear of.

Those shoes were not meant for dancing, they were meant to tiptoe around some things and we need to take heed of that. That is merely my personal view on that matter and we need to consider that we aren’t meant to be in some places and I believe that places like the USS Titanic and USS Arizona are those places. We can pay our respect, we can accept that we need to pay homage to these places but we should steer clear of them for now and forever.

Enjoy the day, it was like yesterday but now one day closer to the coming weekend.

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Considering sources

We get it, newspapers have their opinion articles and sometimes they strike a nerve. I for one am not ever writing against the royal family, I am a royalist, like my grandfather before me. Yet when I read ‘£3m to fix the UK’s housing crisis? Ha ha ha ha ha, your royal highness’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/27/prince-william-homewards-homelessness-3m) I had a few thoughts. First of all, I had no idea where ALL the quotes come from, whether they are pulled out of context and how accurate the quotes were. You see, consider the sentence “Pull the red wire” and it gets you killed, because the complete sentence was “Pull the red wire, after you isolate the yellow wire” meaning that the partial quote got someone killed. This is how I saw the article without the complete stage. Yet it still gave me thoughts. You see, to deal with “Prince William is going to solve homelessness with a new royal foundation, launching a project called Homewards that starts with £3m for six towns and cities across the UK. It’s such a short sentence to make so little sense” we need to realise that building 50 buildings 6 floors high, each floor containing a dozen one bedroom apartment will get us 3,600 apartments, solving less then 2% of the problem, now consider the price of merely one building and we see that three million is noway near enough to solve the problem, it might be enough to pay for a paper on the problem, but that is as far as it gets. And how to pay for the building? Well, the idea is that those given a place to live will sacrifice 50% of their ‘income’ which pays for the rent, heating and electricity. Their quality of life will improve immensely. Now this is merely what came from my mind top of mind and there are better ideas out there, but the real issue is that nothing is done, there are no advances into stopping homelessness. It is not cut and dry but the lack of activities whilst a player like Apple was reported ‘UK Apple stores paid less than £800,000 tax despite £971.5m of sales’ and this gives us that Apple paid 0.0000823% in taxation. You still think that overhauling tax laws (which I have advocated for over 25 years) is out of bounds? 

I personally believe that Prince William would have known all this, I personally think that this article was meant to ruffle feathers, I merely wonder what short sighted approach was taken here. You see the end quote is “It’s baffling, this commitment to a delusion, where nothing systemic has gone wrong, there is no crash round the corner, no spectre of homelessness stalking all the graphs. It’s such an intricate phantasm, collectively constructed, of an old world in which individuals can solve all their own problems, and if they can’t, Prince William can help. I almost admire it.” You see the larger failing is Zoe Williams (et al) where I a offering the next quote “It’s baffling where this media propagating delusional thoughts whilst not informing us on matters that are actually important. where the media systemically does whatever it needs to get ‘clicks’ a wrongful setting at the expense of the people, exploiting or presenting every crash round the corner, no spectre of induced fear mongering is a stage on every graphs. It’s such an intricate phantasm, collectively constructed, to prey on fears, to prey on missing settings where people are presented that they can do better whilst the presenters know that this is not possible. Lacing income by any means and if that does not work they are happy to reset the quote of any royal, because the people to care about they monarchy even if corporations will not, it impacts their bottom line.” I might be right, I might be wrong, but that is how I feel and for the most the media has already lost over 90% of the credibility they had a decade ago, so when you wonder how much credibility they have in 2026, consider how much they cater to corporations at the expense of you. 

Have a lovely day.

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Is it the real issue?

As I was writing the previous story, the story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65997926) arrived to my desk. As we see ‘Can we stop being tricked into subscriptions?’ My mind went back to a similar story I wrote in 2022, when someone accused Amazon of porn site approaches and we see here “‘I spent £6.99 for 18 months’ A huge range of firms now offer subscriptions ranging from food delivery to contact lenses and it is a growing market. Many offer a free trial, or discounts in exchange for people signing up. However, people the BBC has spoken to say they feel they have been locked in unintentionally because they have forgotten to cancel their subscription when their free trial period has ended.” Consider, when you forget a monthly responsibility, is that the service offerer or is it the schmuck who close that deal? And in this case Schmuck is the right word. When you have a deduction on your bank statements for 18 months, that person was not on the ball, missing the point. So when we are given “John, for example, told the BBC he had signed up to Amazon Prime video for a 30-day free period and forgot to cancel it when he had to start paying for it.” As such is that on Amazon, or on the dumbo forgetting he SIGNED for a responsibility? 

As such consider WHY are you taking a subscription? Was the reason valid, or was it a short term need? None of this is on Amazon, none of this is on the subscription offerer. That is the very first thing you need to realise. Just like those Gyms offering subscriptions by letting them be offered by ladies looking really good in D cups (or larger). It was the simple stage of sex sells, there was no sex involved, but the ego of the man never figured that out until he had been there for 2 plus years. 

Yet there is a side I cannot disagree with. It is given with “But Citizens Advice says it should go further, calling for auto-renewals to be banned altogether and making firms ask people to opt in, rather than opt out of subscriptions after a free trial.” It is not what these people want, but there is a clear stage that any offer should be by monthly, quarterly or annual opt in is fair on the consumer. As such some change is required. It is not on Amazon, but Amazon will be affected as well. As such, I can get behind ““The government has to acknowledge the pressure on consumers’ pockets. This has to be the start of reforms, not the end,” says Matthew Upton, executive director of policy and advocacy.” Matthew makes a decent case, even as people like that John might be too stupid to figure it out. There is indeed a need for reform. I cannot state that Amazon needs it, but plenty do. Netflix too has a decent cancellation option. Yet which do not? I cannot tell and as such I find the opt in continuation a decent solution. But the real issue is not the actual issue. It is a person like that John is so stupid that he paid 18 months because he forgot and the BBC picked it up as news. The headline should have stated ‘Should we adjust to the need of stupid people?’ That is merely my personal view on the matter.

Enjoy the day.

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Shaping Domestic Conscription

This is the stage my mind has been in for the last 24 hours and yes it is a DC comic reference. You see, the movie Thor, Love and Thunder woke something up in me. It was the mid 80’s and there was a Dutch version of an Avengers comic book I read. In this there was a reference on a ‘villian’ which led to all kinds of things and I remember that in the end there was an image of all in hell for torment felt relieved for a second as Lucifer felt fear for the very first time. It was about the optional undoing of Eternity. The end god in the Thor movie and he was just like the real thing, except for size (the length of his foot is about the size of the Chrysler building) but lets keep this to semantics and creative freedom. Yet these is the stage, it started my thinking. You see, it started at that time and the movie Black Adam merely build on the stage my mind devised. 

I gre up being a huge Batman fan, in my preteens I grew up on the Batman that Adam West gave us and the man was dope. He was the real deal. OK, that is and will forever be the kid talking in me. But as others went for all the other comic book heroes for whatever reason they had and this tainted the thoughts I had. There was a side in that comic book that gave me pause to think, even now almost half a century later these thoughts are still there. What if the villains were right? They might go about it wrong, but what if there is truth in their actions? Joker, Lex Luthor, Ares, sorceress Circe, Lucifer, and that list goes on. So what happens when we create a hidden trap. A mindset where Batman does the ‘right’ thing, but he falters to see what he does is right. The encounter with someone like Eternity brings it to the surface? It allows for an interaction with Constantine, it allows for all kinds of options. And today’s world is all about what is legally right and what could be correct and they are not the same thing. We have all seen versions of that and as far as I can tell the comic movies aren’t digging into that, even though Black Adam gives a nice stage to exploring that side deeper. The creation of Amanda Waller allows for a deeper investigation of that side and perhaps the people behind DC movies should do just that. You see, there is too much polarisation in these movies and for the most we accept this as the villains in these movies are over the top bad. Yet what happens when the hero (unintentionally) overreacts? We see that in some cases, but at times it is some plot twist. What happens when we wrongly hunt down a person and we learn after we stop them that they were trying to set us all free? Consider that we have ben misled by the church for almost a millennium. Now consider that we have an Arabic setting where an Afreet is set free, but that Afreet is tinted by the history up to 1200AD, that character missed out on 800 years and that anger is now unleashed. We want to ‘protect’ and stop that character and we now have a setting that approximates what we are trying to achieve, because we learn of what was done is only now beginning to surface, in this we create a new level of ambiguity. One that most comics never touch on and it is these new borders where we get a much larger setting for who are the actual villains? Perhaps some are tainted through polarisation and recognising that opens a new dialogue, a new stage of more interesting movies. 

Consider an article from 2019 ‘Medusa was punished for being raped—so why do we still depict her as a monster?’ This sets a new premise towards the stage of a Medusa. In the Theogony, by the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, she is described as being the child of Phorcys and Ceto and she was raped in the temple of Athena by Poseidon and Athena punishes her of all people. So what happens when we see this in a new DC setting, but until the end of the movie we aren’t told of HOW the transgression started and that opens up new doors, opens up other doors too. What if the avenging demon is Lex Luthor, getting aid by Lucifer no less and the stage is that Constantine is trying to figure out what Lex Luthor is up to (and of course Superman gets involved). Yet as we are given a partial tapestry, the loom will see the involvement of others, but until that for example the daughter of Wonder Woman Trinity was kidnapped which starts the manhunt, but at the end we learn that Trinity feared her future and got Lex Luthor to aid in her escape her dark future. Lex feeing for her and feeling his heart for her aids her and it starts a much larger feud all fuelled by Lucifer (which gives us Constantine) and there we have the making of a larger tapestry and the loom involved has the wires in one direction and cannot vouch for the fabric of the tapestry (an Odysseus reference). The stage that still bothers me is how the loom is managed, someone is pulling the strings behind the curtains of the stage and that comes to light after we see parts of the truth involved. It creates new settings of polarisation, not entirely unlike the people choosing team bat (team Cullen) or team hound (Jacob Black). The same is said for the Underworld saga. When the people are left to chose which team is the right one, you get a lot more interaction, a lot more social contribution and that pushes the story and the movies to the top of so many lists. Ambiguity gives us one side, but not all sides. What happens when Ares (opponent of Wonder Woman) is pushed to this degree by the fates Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos? What happens when they are pushed by the future and by someone wielding that side to push towards a reality free of Αion, the god of eternity? We now have a very different setting and we get the question into the open, what makes a hero a hero and a villain a villain?

Just a few thoughts going through my head (its Sunday after all) and tomorrow is another day.

Enjoy the end of the weekend, soon it will be Monday.

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This news is not news

Yup that happens as well, sometimes the news agencies are right on top of something (in this case the Canadians) and we heard it before. That doesn’t make it not news in Canada, but when the same failings happen, it becomes a little less applauding. For this we need to take a look at the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65969970) where we are given ‘Facebook and Instagram to restrict news access in Canada’ a setting that happened in Australia in 2021, yet here too the setting is slightly irritating. You see, News agencies USE Meta to advocate their brand, They advertise. As such we might see (see images below) choices of what news they offer. For example the Daily Mail

We get a forced login at times with a paywall (like the New York Times)

This is called advertising. So not only are they advertising on Facebook (or Meta), they now demand fees for their own advertising? How lame is that? In the defence of Canada, none of the Canadian news outlets have done this Montreal Gazette, CBC to name but a few. BBC and the Guardian do not employ those tactics either. But there are too many who do and if one is set to scrutiny, it must be demanded that these news outlets either vacate Meta completely (and do so until an agreement is reached) or they offer that news freely, which is fine by me. Yet I think that they are not on board for option two. In case of the Daily Mail you get taken to a different screen with all the advertisement that they offer, which is fair enough, especially as they do not invoke a paywall that many do. In the age of digital awareness newspapers become more trivial and less of a credible news source, which adds to the equation as I personally see it. 

So when we see another imploding gas tank in a field with someone humming the music of Titanic (by James Horner) consider that this is soon to become the quality news we can expect from some sources. 

The article also gives us ““A legislative framework that compels us to pay for links or content that we do not post, and which are not the reason the vast majority of people use our platforms, is neither sustainable nor workable,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.” A stage which I have to agree with, it is not what some Canadian news outlets were hoping for, but that is what it is, and it bites in several cases, but the stage was never workable and that is the truth of the matter. We see journalists (and wannabe’s) being fired left right and center, yet the message is not that they did the wrong thing, their bosses leached on a digital platform they never properly understood and the money went nowhere and definitely not into their pockets. Some people will wonder what now. I think just like the Yellow pages lost their appeal plenty of others are on that same boat and evolution tends to do that (I am happy is solved it in other ways). 

Will certain things happen? They all will, it is a shifting timeline and it will come to everyones doorstep. As world powers collapse (which is inevitable) the media will suddenly be confronted with a new line of demarcation and there they have no say in the matter. This is starting right now and some will chose to diversify (preferably before they fire their journalists) and new grounds will open to those who can see the new fronts (and news fronts), but I give you one clear message. Those who have been screaming ‘Jamal Khashoggi’ on every turn they had are pretty much done for. A personal vision, but I feel that I am getting that one correctly.

The weekend is coming, be ready.

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Questioning the virginity of a reporter

Yup, I just went there (not for real though). I saw the headline and my mind pulled that internal question mark and on the first page, there it was, the name of that tool and her anti Saudi mindset Stephanie Kirchgaessner. There we are given ‘US Senate asks governor of Saudi wealth fund to testify over LIV-PGA merger’, which could be fair. It is after all (for the most) an American thing. What I wonder is why the Senate wasn’t all over this before the merger. The question beckons “Why is this on the plate of the US Senate”? There might be a very valid reasoning, but I am not seeing it at present. I reckon that with all the Karen’s, the destruction of the Florida economy by its own governor the Senate has a few other things on their minds, but OK, as I said. It could be valid. So then we get the byline “Invitation raises possibility Yasir al-Rumayyan could be questioned under oath about execution of Jamal Khashoggi”. Why?

In the first, that columnist no one gives a hoot about, was he involved with golf or the PGA? Was Yasir al-Rumayyan in any way involved with that missing columnist? Let’s not forget a real issue. Jamal Khashoggi is at present missing, presumed dead. There was never any bod, there was never any evidence on the things the media gives us all and essay from that UN person Calamari was as shoddy as it gets, the paper shows if anything that we are dealing with a missing person.

Was Yasir al-Rumayyan ever involved with anything, was he at any time around October 2018 in Constantinople (now known as Istanbul)?

So then we get some relevant stuff. With ““Our goal is to uncover the facts about what went into the PGA Tour’s deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and what the Saudi takeover means for the future of this cherished American institution and our national interest,” Blumenthal said.” I cannot disagree, but at what time were the board members of the PGA in the US Senate explaining why they sold it in the first place? Of course, one look at News outlet Golf Australia gives us “PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, and LIV Golf CEO Norman have been asked to appear at a meeting on July 11 to examine the shock merger.” Kirchgaesner hid that part in the smallest mentions lasting two small lines with the mention ‘were also invited’, can’t she ever do a proper job? The entire article is about boasting “Americans deserve to know what the structure and governance of this new entity will be” which is a laughable setting as most American do not give one hoot about Golf. I think their interest faded when David Leadbetter fell out of sight. Then we are given “While the focus of the hearing will undoubtedly be centered on golf, Rumayyan could also face questions about his role at the PIF and his relationship with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is the chairman of the PIF”, as such this seems like another witch-hunt and unless laws were broken there is absolutely no valid reason why a person like Yasir Al-Rumayyan should sacrifice any lunch or afternoon tea to cater to some stupid witch-hunt. If they want a real witch-hunt, go after Governor DeSantis who basically ruined the Florida economy and lost them billions in jobs and revenue to boot. 

And as we look at the proposed activity, which was co signed by Ron Johnson, will we get any chance to ask questions to Ron Johnson on five simple issues like carving out a $215 million tax loophole for just three of his billionaire backers who spent over $20 million to re-elect him; A corporate tax handout that he admitted he and his wealthy donors benefitted from; blocking an investigation into one of his Big Pharma donors, then voted against lowering prescription drug costs; using taxpayer money to fly to his beachfront mansion in Florida; and a simple matter on how his net wealth doubled during his time in the Senate, it apparently was not enough for him (according to sources). Yet as was stated, Americans do deserve to know. 

It is these double standards in America which is why they are losing ground more and more. And with the anti-Arabic penmanship by Stephanie Kirchgaessner my personal message to Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be not to go there. There is nothing to gain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will intentionally be mocked by the US senate (and the politically coloured press), at best it will embarrass Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and at worst Yasir Al-Rumayyan will be on the receiving end of political jabs that were never on his plate anyway. Personally I get that the other two would receive invitations to explain the merger, but that is as far as I am willing to go at present. The merger of two golf entities in a day and age where a Florida governor scuttles a billion a dollar investment in Florida should be on the front view of EVERY US senator currently elected. Dousing the mouse? Not on my watch.

Enjoy the day, a mere day away from that famous day we all yearn for (Friday).

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The definition of diplomacy

Yup, we have all been there and me with my mouth at least twice a day. Diplomacy is at times where it is at and I scrapped that word from my dictionary. So as I stated over the last week that Blinky Tony (aka Anthony Blinken) had a hard time coming. First he had to visit Saudi Arabia, the place where its de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud was labelled by President Biden as A pariah (before he become president) then the trip went to China where we assume that things did not go well, as we now see (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65969802) the BBC headline ‘Biden calls Xi a dictator a day after Beijing talks’. So what evidence is there that President Xi is a dictator? I am not opposing the view, I merely do not know. You see the dictionary gives us “a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained control by force.” Now, lets be clear. President Xi was elected. I do not know the election process in China, but there was an election and he was elected in November 2012. Wiki gives us “a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, since 2012. Xi has also served as the president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 2013.” There is no mention that he took that nation by force. OK, I is havening to be jesting. The reality is much more serious. I thin this meaningless jab by President Biden implies that there are a few issues. Apart from the ties with Saudi Arabia, there is now a growing concern that Taiwan could be getting a new flag soon enough (see below).

And this was going to happen. For it not to happen, the US would have had to be able to be a real superpower. This is no longer the case. It is rushing from debt ceiling to debt ceiling and the people just know that this clambake will end sooner or later and sooner is now the premise of that game. You see America made gospel of the expression ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ which has been around since 1968. Now that America has no money left, the ‘friends’ they had are walking away, the people who bled the system dry are vanishing to zero tax havens to live of their final years and the people caught in the middle will vanish without a penny in their name. 

The article gives us ““The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset, in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it, was he didn’t know it was there,” Mr Biden said at the event on Tuesday. “That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened,” he added.” There is a lot about a balloon no one cares about and there is even less known who the actual owner was. I am not debating that it was Chinese, but was it governmental, military, a science experiment from a Chinese telecom firm. There are many options, but the press is no longer to be trusted, they have been silent on too many things and the US government is all about boasting, but not on revealing ACTUAL facts (for as far as they might be known). As is see the lack of diplomacy by President Biden, there is every chance that China talks are falling flat leaving Taiwan in the middle of nothing. The other side is that there is every chance that the continuation of BRICS will have larger impact on the west and it will diminish America to a much larger degree. The larger part that we do not know is how China and Saudi Arabia will forge their connections. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now in a central setting to be the hub for connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, a strong setting and NEOM will be that hub implying that this half a trillion location will ensure trillions in business between 2030 and 2050, with news channels, sports inviting the Asian, African and European people to a much larger degree. I wonder if they have made their first designs on the F1 Neom track to start between 2030 and 2035. It will most likely be a magnificent track, add to that the most impressive golf course in history and we will see the first impressions that Saudi Arabia was not wasting money as some imply, they merely lacked vision for what was about to happen and more sport arena’s will follow. Now we see the part of China in a larger degree, the Silk Road and in all that Taiwan will play a more central role (an assumption by me). Two players who played the long game, not some spreadsheet game from quarter to quarter. By the way, what evidence that it was ‘two box cars full of spy equipment’? They blew up the evidence. I am not saying this wasn’t some agent 99 thing, I merely would like to see evidence, just like the evidence on Huawei that so far no one saw or presented. 

As such we get to the headline. The definition of diplomacy is “the profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country’s representatives abroad.”  In this I reckon that there is no managing international relations at present, whatever success Anthony Blinken might have had was undone by one sentence given by President Biden (according to the BBC). As such the situation for Taiwan is not on a good setting, but I might be wrong. And the other issues? Well, we have no idea, but I reckon that China told might have told America to put up or shut up, which is also a speculation by me. No matter how we slice it, there will be more coming soon enough, the question who will be making the initial revelations, China or America?

More soon enough and as we enter the second half of the week, this weekend might give us a little more than we expected.

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