Category Archives: Military

May 1, 2022 · 03:57

Blackmail as premeditation

These is a side to everything. Peace, War and everything in-between is in the eye of the beholder, in the wake of political needs some will say, but that too is a side of a mere point of view. So when I saw the Bloomberg article (at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-28/manchester-city-s-owner-helps-usher-more-russian-tycoons-to-uae) titled ‘Manchester City’s Owner Helps Usher More Russian Tycoons to UAE’ we see the side that many shy away from. It starts with “Sheikh Mansour also has a behind-the-scenes role that’s become increasingly important in recent months: Helping manage relationships with wealthy Russians looking to move money into the UAE, according to several people familiar with Abu Dhabi’s engagement with Russians, who requested anonymity as the information isn’t public.” With the added “Even as the U.S., EU and other countries have blitzed Russia with thousands of new financial restrictions, making it the world’s most-sanctioned nation, the UAE hasn’t imposed any. Officials in the Middle Eastern nation have taken the stance that Abu Dhabi respects international law but isn’t required to follow measures implemented by specific countries and that the UAE has the right to adopt its own policies, several people familiar with their thinking said.” It is supported by “That approach, though, has fuelled concern among some Western officials who are worried about holes in their own sanctions programs. Earlier this month, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo voiced Washington’s worries about Russian tycoons moving assets to the UAE in a call with UAE officials, two people with knowledge of the discussions said”. You see, the setting is even more different from what we see. You see, some places cannot be touched, some ships are unattainable and other material matters cannot be touched as the owners identities are hidden from view. There are two parts in all this. 

In the first there is the matter of his highness Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is from the UAE, he does what is best for the UAE, a Emiratian as it were (is that the right pronunciation?) The larger setting is not what he does, it is that there is no war with Russia in the UAE, more important, the blackmail grip on these oligarchs is not entirely legal. Lets look at the clear evidence. These oligarchs are Russians, they therefor embraced friendships with the ruler of that place (Vladimir Putin), this was never a crime. Then the Ukrainian issues started and the oligarchs were split in two teams (as Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich most likely would say) those who openly support Putin and those who do not. Take Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich he is also a philanthropist and the former owned of Chelsea FC (they might be the same). So are the acts against him valid? Consider what he did in the BEGINNING of the war. It casts a shadow over the acts against the oligarchs. And the demented statement by President Biden “We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes, and other ill-begotten gains”, really? What laws were broken, what prosecution was not correctly made? I do not care either way, but there are laws and yes, Russia has to pay for EVERY kopek of damage that they created in Ukraine. But should the oligarchs? Perhaps those in Russia, but those abroad? Those who openly supported Putin’s war in Ukraine perhaps, the rest? I feel uncertain. 

And when we reconsider “some Western officials who are worried about holes in their own sanctions programs” we see the folly of their taxation laws, the holes are large enough to park a 500 feet yacht in. Failure after failure and the entire emotional setting does not help any, mainly because the emotional setting is not a legal one and now we see that Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has a case to present to his nation. And if this works the UAE will see another wave of long term investments. Long after the US is deserted by too many players, the UAE will hold on. Is it fair? Fair does not come into it. These oligarchs are not involved in a war, they are not involved in bombing the Ukraine. That is the Russian government, the Russian army, navy and airforce. If an oligarch is part of those, then yes, he (or she) become fair game. And should the American government object, then perhaps they can pull the papers on a place called IG Farben and certain people that were given options in the US. So how come that BASF and Siemens were allowed to continue AFTER WW2? Did they not have factories in Auschwitz? As I see it, the US does not have a billionaire problem, it has a hypocrisy problem and the refusal to overhaul tax laws is pretty much a top 3 item in American economy. As I personally see it Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan found a way to propel his nation (as a citizen), is he to blame? I do not believe that he is. Yes, some people and a lot of Ukrainians have an issue with that and I accept that the Ukrainians are not happy, they have every right to be, but laws are laws and there is a dangerous line that the west is trying to avoid. It is a dangerous line as it leads to WW3 and these nations are either fully committed or they are not. I cannot judge here, because war is a dangerous play, a World War even more so and there could be nuclear repercussions, we need to accept that and that is the red line that a lot of nations are trying to avoid. It makes perfect sense. If there is on upside to all this (the UAE) it will be that the harbour that they hand the oligarchs is also the roof that stops them from becoming a nuclear target. It could be seen by some as premeditated blackmail. Can we blame them, or blame anyone for having that thought? The UAE must do what is best for the UAE and as I see it, that is exactly what Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan seems to be doing.

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April 28, 2022 · 04:43

Soup with sarcasm

There is a setting we all know, we go to a restaurant, we order menu 2 instead of menu 1 and the waiter tries to apologise when we ‘accidentally’ receive menu 1, however menu 2 will be ready in 15 minutes, and with that he hopes that we will accept what we never ordered in the first place. That is the setting I see when we are given ‘Saudis’ Biden snub suggests crown prince still banking on Trump’s return’. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/24/saudi-arabia-kushner-trump-biden-mohammed-bin-salman) gives us “Refusal to help US punish Russia and $2bn investment in Kushner fund signal crown prince’s displeasure with Trump’s successor”. You see, President Biden is playing the wrong game, he did so because he never played the right game to begin with. The US has trampled on friendships with the Middle East for too long. Russia is one option and Saudi Arabia is considering any ally that has a positive approach towards them and that puts both China and Russia on the map for Saudi Arabia. We see the news, we see the implications, but the number one setting they all overlook (whether intentional or not) Saudi Arabia must do what is best for Saudi Arabia and that is not what America wants, it is not what President Biden wants. They want ‘vassals’ yet they want them with an empty treasury coffer and at present Saudi Arabia can buy them out. That is what the US fears the most, they have become the paper tiger the feared they one day might be. 

So when we see “Prince Mohammed shows signs of betting on the return to office of Trump in 2024, and the resumption of the Trump administration’s cosy relationship with Riyadh.” We see Saudi reason. The US has not achieved anything regarding the insurrection. It has not exposed the lack of wealth of Donald Trump and as such Trump continues to incite the far right to his causes and with every win he polarises the right further and more of the centre will move to the right. We see all the news that this will never happen, but they also told us that Trump would never become president in the first place. They were wrong then and they might be wrong now. Successful prosecution of Donald Trump was essential for that, but we all forget the stage of “Trump investigations set to accelerate in coming weeks”, yes, and this has been going on for over a year and nothing was achieved and with every delay, every inability to prosecute more and more Americans start wondering if Donald Trump was right all along and that matters for Saudi Arabia, it matters a great deal. So whatever we might think of Saudi Arabia, it did come at the expense of stupid political games by the Democratic party, and Saudi Arabia is hoping for a renewed Republican White House. Will it happen? I have no idea, but the lack of success against Donald Trump implies that Biden is not in a good place and his actions against Saudi Arabia implies that Saudi Arabia has absolutely no intentions of making Russia less of a ‘friend’ Russia is heard by all the 15 OPEC members and alienating them is not in the interest of Saudi Arabia. So yes, Saudi Arabia seems to be banking on the return of Donald Trump, mainly because is serves the interest of Saudi Arabia a lot better. So when we see the view of John Jenkins, a former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia with “He probably thinks Biden is politically weak and he can therefore afford to spite him. That sends a signal not just to the Dems but also to the Republican party. And – judging by the debate raging in DC policy circles on these matters – it’s working.” Yet I believe that the larger station is that President Biden has not shown himself to be a friend of Saudi Arabia and that is the larger station. You see, we can debate every angle we are shown, but the larger station is missing:

Saudi Arabia does and must do what is best for Saudi Arabia 

And that missing part is where it all revolves around and the media seems to ignore that part, it does not make for good flames. You see that is the other part of any sarcastic view, when it backfires it is merely irony.

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April 27, 2022 · 20:15

Anger and Envy

The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61228552) ‘Anti-Semitism in worldwide surge, Israeli report says’ it also gives us “The report identifies the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia as among countries where there was a sharp rise” yet what is the core of the problem? To see that we need to investigate the word ‘semite’ which means “a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and Arabs.” Yet that is not all, when we look deeper into Semitic language we get “a language that belongs to a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic language family including Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic” It is a mess and yes, the Israelites see the strongest results, but let that not take away the mention of Arabic settings. 

The BBC then gives us:
In the US, which has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, the number of anti-Jewish hate crimes recorded in both New York and Los Angeles were almost twice that of the previous year. And that is not all, anti Arabic sentiments are up by a lot. In this the media has its own role to play. As I personally see it, the exploitation of flames (for digital dollars), the one sided reporting on events are also a factor and they are all to please certain people, people that rely on stakeholders to propagate their agenda as I personally see it. 

In France, the number of recorded anti-Semitic incidents increased by almost 75% compared with 2020. I know too little about France, yet the amount of French Jews leaving France is staggering, and as an EU nation, the fact that Strasbourg does way too little gives rise that there is a larger EU problem. 

In Canada, a leading Jewish group reported a 40-year record in anti-Semitic physical violence in one month – August. In Canada anti semitism has been a problem for decades, the fact that it is becoming worse is not a good thing. 

In the UK, the number of recorded physical assaults against Jews increased by 78% compared with 2020. Too much details on YouTube and too little action or convictions. 

In Germany, anti-Semitic incidents recorded by police were up 29% compared with 2020, and 49% compared with 2019. Germany is perhaps in the best place of all, still not in a good place mind you, the fact that in this is is likely more about hatred of Arabs than Jews is speculation, but it might be the case. Germans still have an issue being painted Nazi and are more likely to leave Jews alone (with the neo-nazis as an obvious exemption)

Australia also experienced a sharp rise in recorded anti-Semitic incidents, with 88 in May alone – the highest monthly total ever. Yes there is a rather nasty Australian setting here, not the worst, but the most isolated giving Arabs and Jews less chance to avoid the problems. And for the most, there is a second tier here, the Palestinian violence actions in Australia against Jews do not get the visibility it should. The Australia media is somehow rather generic in this, I wonder why?

I believe that the transgressors (Christians) are getting more and more angry, taking it all out on Jews and Arabs fuelling anti-semite events. In all this the docile acts of churches is one factor, the setting increases when we take into account the events of 2017 when we were given “In move that Jewish community says rewards terror, court upholds Sydney council decision that house of prayer poses unacceptable security risk”, yes to avoid a fire, you can either get a fire brigade or destroy the wooden buildings. It seems that Sydney chose option 2. 

I believe that the article only highlights the tip of the iceberg. I believe that there is a religious polarisation going on and when that escalates the consequences will be enormous in several ways. How it will evolve, I do not know, but some areas will have to give way and the fallout will be a long lasting one. Consider the idea that Eastern Suburbs in Sydney only get 10% of the petrol option they get now. How do you think it falls out? What happens when the oil producing nations state that area’s of anti-semite concentrations will receive no further oil? It is not the weirdest idea. What happens next? These areas plead for oil with Russia and Iran? 

In a stage where resources are the currency of tomorrow, they will also become political pressure points, so several governments will need to consider what they will do. If the people in Bondi Junction will have to drive to Chatswood to get fuel, how long until things really take a turn for the absolute worst? It is fictive, it is speculation but it is not wholly impossible and at some stage it will happen to some degree. Good luck to the people in Manitoba and when those in Winnipeg need to drive 135Km to get to the US fuel pump, the picture changes a lot. It is a mere application of the have’s and the have not’s. A stage that was clearly given to us in the 90’s, we thought in one direction, but there are always other directions to consider. When any resource becomes the discriminant factor in any equation, the people who forgot about that will suddenly scream bloody murder on their rights. But what rights did they leave others? Anger and Envy might be the two most dangerous elements in that equation, and in all this let’s not ignore the pride of politicians (presumed) stating that this will never happen, how wrong have they been the last 5 years?

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April 26, 2022 · 20:14

Bring out your CV

The CBC had two articles last night, the first one I dealt with in the previous tory. This one can be found (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cse-candidates-hiring-cyber-1.6426275) ‘Ottawa needs more codebreakers — but spy agency says finding them isn’t easy’ and that is not even half the story. It is not a Canadian issue, it is a global issue. So when we see “Canada’s electronic spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment, is set to receive a large influx of funding to launch cyber operations and ward off attacks on government servers, power grids and hospitals.” It’s always nice to receive funding. But the reality is a little harder. I spoke about part of this in ‘Red flags’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/24/red-flags/) there were too many red flags and they are eager to charge a fair penny. Summits, courses and in some cases you do not even need an IT education, but a bachelor education is expected. It is a Wild Wild Cyber West out there and the problem is that there are too few stages where we can separate the good from the shallow. So when we see “CSE, which gathers and decodes signals intelligence and is also in charge of technology security for the government, says it receives 10,000 to 15,000 job applications per year. But only about one or two candidates out of 100 applicants go on to be hired after the skills testing and background security checks.” We see part of the problem. Have you seen it? It is seen in “about one or two candidates out of 100 applicants go on to be hired after the skills testing and background security checks”, the funnel needs inverting. Instead of seeking in the same place, seek somewhere else. Seek in the military and governmental technical support places. Seek in the places you overlook and hire these people. It is nice to hire that one bright light. We all want that, but who considered hiring the 20-50 that can overcome the ‘background security checks’ then start TEACHING them. Out of the 50 you educate whilst they are employed in several places you end up with 10-25 people ready to take the challenge instead of relying on the 1-2 candidates. When you need 1500 of them, my approach makes sense. Yes, you can try to get to the techies from the University of Toronto, but so is commercial land and they pay a lot better, so you need to hope to get the few with a calling, or you open the stage to a larger group and set them in all kinds of governmental fields, where there is a large shortage too. All sides that needs attending too and not all will end with the CSE, GCHQ or whatever Australia and New Zealand have, but all these governments have large shortages including their Cyber police and a few other places. It is time to change the way hiring is done all over the Commonwealth field because they are all coming up short and having different divisions that have shortages, so why are they not taking a hard look at what else is possible? If not these places will all end up in a bidding war like they saw in the 90’s and they will come up short again. Oh and whilst Amazon is desperately seeking 250,000 people and where do you think they will look next? The second plan (my crazy wild idea) gives the people a long term plan, long term employment and a larger setting of choice with one application instead of 5-15 applications. 

But this is only possible when some people take a long hard look at what they used to do and see what COULD be done. 750 application runs, or 60 application runs, what makes more sense? I will let you decide.

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April 25, 2022 · 23:49

Loser investigations unlimited

This all started the day before I wrote ‘Comedy Capers it is not’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/19/comedy-capers-it-is-not/) a week ago. It was about an abduction that had the Canadian police in a twist. I reckon that this is a case that almost no police force has ever seen before, so there was no blame, there were no real issues, it was one of those weird events that make no sense. I get that. So I was quite surprised to see (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ex-boyfriend-elnaz-hajtamiri-private-investigator-1.6427398) where we are treated to ‘Elnaz Hajtamiri’s ex-boyfriend hired a private investigator to watch her before Wasaga Beach abduction’, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Clowns) gives us “The former boyfriend of Elnaz Hajtamiri hired a private investigator to keep tabs on her location in the days and weeks before she was violently abducted from Wasaga Beach, Ont., on Jan. 12, CBC News has learned”, as well as “Investigations Plus Ltd. conducted surveillance of missing woman at 2 locations in December and January” and to be honest the very first thought I had was “What kind of a loser is Elnaz Hajtamiri?” More important, in light of what has transpired, why did Investigations Plus Ltd. not inform the police MONTHS ago? And in all this the statement “One of the sources said investigators with the firm conducted surveillance on Jan. 10 and 11 outside the Wasaga Beach home where Hajtamiri was staying with relatives. An investigator, however, was called off on the morning of Jan. 12, the source says — the same day three men dressed in police gear forced their way into the house and abducted the 37-year-old Iranian immigrant.” Makes me wonder if Investigations Plus Ltd. could possibly be involved. They conduct surveillance, they get called OFF the job ON THE DAY she gets kidnapped and no one in Investigations Plus Ltd. wonders what on earth is going on? There were issues with the THREE trackers, but does the police know who owns these trackers? Are they all owned by Investigations Plus Ltd.? Questions are forming in my mind and the setting that Investigations Plus Ltd. kept the police in the dark for months is a rather large one, especially when we learn that they got called OFF the job that very same day and that is also a matter that that requires a lot of thought on what Mohamad Lilo had been up to. Especially as (I personally reckon) she ended the relationship in October 2021. As such, Mohamad Lilo hires a detective months later? What a loser! 

Now, we can blame some police members, but it would be wrong. I reckon that they will have to hold a rather large limelight on Investigations Plus Ltd. and their activities and also why no one from there made ANY mention of the investigation. In addition there are the trackers and who owned them (the timeline of the trackers) becomes a larger item in this. And more important where they all owned by Investigations Plus Ltd.? 

As I read the article, I see question after question come forward, and I reckon that they are on the mind of Ontario provincial police detective inspector Martin Graham, in addition to this, I reckon that there will be a lot of questions on the investigators (at https://investigationsplusltd.com) You see “We are dynamic professionals with a flair for solving complex cases that has been recognised by the insurance industry, law firms, large corporations, small businesses.” I reckon they forgot about the part of “losers and stalkers who might have criminal intent” I reckon it should be on their website, so if you want to become a part of that ‘renowned team’ you might need to reconsider what kind of work you could get involved in. And if you wonder why my view is so negative, the idea that investigators keep silent for this amount of time is a very different setting and anyone making claims towards ‘confidentiality of the client’ in a case that could involve them in capital crimes is debatable to say the least. 

Detective inspector Martin Graham had no chance from the start, the dice were weighted and stacked against him. Several factors are not adding up and the police is not to blame here. But we should all keep our eyes on Investigations Plus Ltd. Their setting is definitely not on the up and up as I personally see it. But that is it, it is merely my view on the matter.

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April 24, 2022 · 09:29

Gapping data

I did take notice of the story, but there were other considerations. So what is the issue with a two week old story? Actually there is nothing wrong with the time gap, it actually works out nicely. Yet before we go anywhere, lets take a look at ‘A data ‘black hole’: Europol ordered to delete vast store of personal data’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/10/a-data-black-hole-europol-ordered-to-delete-vast-store-of-personal-data) there we are given “The EU’s police agency, Europol, will be forced to delete much of a vast store of personal data that it has been found to have amassed unlawfully by the bloc’s data protection watchdog.” Here I have an issue with the stage of “amassed unlawfully”, then we get “The unprecedented finding from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) targets what privacy experts are calling a “big data ark” containing billions of points of information. Sensitive data in the ark has been drawn from crime reports, hacked from encrypted phone services and sampled from asylum seekers never involved in any crime.” There we get “hacked from encrypted phone services and sampled from asylum seekers never involved in any crime” You see, the biggest problem in any data set are the data gaps. MISSING VALUE analyses will not get you anywhere and data cannot be analysed on data that is not there. As I see it, the commercial world amasses worlds of data and the EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor) does next to nothing. We could start an argument that the EDPS is catering to organised crime, but that might be a stretch. I know my data has been collected by CIA, FBI, GCHQ, Mossad, DGSE and at least two other organisations. You think I care? I live my life and keep doing what I am legally allowed to do. The data merely reinforces this. So why is there such a rush to maim the mobility of Europol? I have nothing against laws, I believe that laws are important, but how stupid is it to set up the laws to hinder the law? When our data is all over Microsoft, Google, Amazon, GTCOM and whatever Russia has. The 4,000 TB that is to be deleted will serve organised crime and criminals, no one else. And more importantly it will not protect refugees, if anything, the data shows them to be innocent. Did no one make that leap? You see I oppose “Europol had worked with the EDPS “to find a balance between keeping the EU secure and its citizens safe while adhering to the highest standards of data protection”, the agency said.” I oppose it because data does not protect or endanger lives, it is the one wielding all that data does and whilst commercial enterprises are given a wide berth avoiding their ‘legal’ teams, the EDPS has to prove its existence by having a go at Interpol.

Yes, it is their job, but in what job do you hand opportunity to criminals, organised crime and terrorists? 

And the Guardian is appeasing the stage buy giving the simplest of examples, the example that makes you go ‘awww’. But the example “The political activist, whose only serious run-ins with police amount to breaking a window to gain entrance to a building and create a squat for homeless people, was removed from the Dutch watch-list by authorities in 2019. But a year prior to this removal he had moved to Berlin, which unknown to Van der Linde at the time prompted Dutch police to share his data with German counterparts and Europol. The activist discovered his entanglement with Europol only when he saw a partially declassified file at Amsterdam city hall.” So a criminal, guilty of breaking and entering, that is the simple truth. But we are not supposed to see that, are we? And when the next assault is not in London, but Amsterdam and the gapped data will show to have been an option to stop this, what will the EU give as a response? 

 

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April 18, 2022 · 06:04

Escalations

Things escalate, this happens and sometimes it is part of a plan, at times it is not. The Ukraine issues can only escalate. If Vladimir Putin states that it is up to the other side we can safely conclude that he is massively delusional. In between headlines like ‘Russia’s unspeakable horrors in northern Ukraine: Torture, murder and cluster bombs’, ‘Russia’s mass rapes in Ukraine are a war crime. Its military leaders must face prosecution’ and ‘Second British soldier captured in Mariupol is paraded on Russian TV’ we see little other path than the path of escalation. Of course there was good news too. 

As speculation goes, the Russian navy is just as dependable as Russian tanks. They are both equally effective in adhering to gravity and the Russian cruiser Moskva is giving testimony of that at the bottom of the Black Sea. The Slava class, Soviet designation Project 1164 Atlant, a class of guided missile cruisers designed and constructed in the Soviet Union for the Soviet Navy, and currently operated by the Russian Navy. Well there were two, now there is one, so 50% of their guided missile class has been destroyed. Is that what they mean with ‘Slava Ukraina’? 

Anyway, escalation. The Dutch are possibly restoring their active duty needs, and many nations are adhering to this as well. There is every thought that Russia woke up a setting they were not ready for and their Nuclear arsenal is all they might have between defeat and utter defeat. With all the Nazi claims they made, we see more and more that their actions represent the Nazi activities. So in the end, will we see a Nuremberg like trial in Strasbourg where the defendants will all respond in the same similar way? We will hear all of them state “Я выполнял приказы”, but in the end in Nuremberg 161 were convicted, and 37 were sentenced to death. I wonder how many Russians will end up with a death sentence. We see rape, torture, murder of civilians, we see the bombing of hospitals, the deployment of cluster bombs and the indiscriminate executions of people trying to flee the war-scene. The drones recorded a lot more than that and the Russians will face the rim reaper in many ways. That and the stage that life of a Russian outside of Russia (or Cuba) is now a thing of the past. These are all escalations that are happening now and will be happening more in the next month. Even now as Forbes is contemplating a G20 without Russia, we see the long term damage and that turns Russia in a 3rd world nation. It was going good and then it turned nearly every nation on the planet in another direction. You see commerce requires trade and how much trade can Syria, Belorussia and Cuba offer? That and the end of Gas-exports are making for a nasty treasury coffer and whilst Russia depends on its army, the hardware that army needs is sinking, destroyed or out of gas. Escalations can go in any direction, yet history shows us that most escalations go in the wrong direction and Russia is experiencing this the hard way. We sometimes forget WW1. My Grandfather was there and as such I keep tabs on that event. Does anyone remember the fallout of WW1? The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments set a massive bill for Germany after WW1, I reckon that Russia faces an even steeper bill on the damage they did to Ukraine. I reckon that 90% of al Russians will pay 20% taxes on their income for 30 years to Ukraine. That is the setting of escalation and that is the consequence of waging war, its invoice has always been the harshest message. And as I consider what might be next, we might see a new NATO, an EU army with France leading it, it is the most ready and the best equiped at present. A setting both the UK and Germany would not have held possible a year ago. What a difference 53 days can make. 

I wonder if older and very grey Vladimir Putin has any idea what is coming his way in the short term?

They say that confidence cannot escalate to arrogance, it only happens if the blood of pride is running through your veins. Knowing that picking a fight with Ukraine was not the best idea to have, but it seems he is learning that the hard way. You can doubt me and it would be fair, just ask the captain of the Moskva, he is in the Black Sea somewhere. 

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April 7, 2022 · 01:00

Home is where the dagger lands

Yes, a weird expression, it derives from ‘home is where the heart is’ (aka the office), and ‘drive the dagger home’ (aka to push the blade the deepest), and when you combine them you set the start of something rather dark. The idea (not the most tastiest of idea’s) hit me. Yes, we can make fun of the Russians a bit more and when we consider the things they are doing at present to Ukrainians, the idea has a weird sense of completion.

You see, we see all the teenagers live and relive the life of the call of duty. I think it is over the top, but then I am no longer a teenager, so I cannot identify. Now for the setting. When we consider the setting in Ukraine. We have so much material, through drones, through satellites and through many other means. So lets create a game that funds the teenager needs and the revenue will go towards rebuilding Ukraine (taxing oligarchs 100% will not be enough), but we have more, we can do it at the expense of the Russian Army. The powerful Russian bear who was made the bitch of Paddington bear (voice acted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy). As such, my mind started to wander and I suddenly realised that it was done before, but never before with live feeds that were translated to a game. So consider the image below

We get the street in a game now, the tank intact and you are a simple infantry rocket operator. As the tank goes to his demise (and you fire the rocket) reality takes over and the scene you see above becomes a reality. The points (be getting it as close to reality) will unlock new weapons, new places and new challenges. You can evolve into a group of soldiers, on route to stop Russians. Infantry, cavalry, and airforce. Not all will be set to an image, there will be other stages (you still playing the Ukrainian side) and when you resolve all the war scenes, you get to have a selfie with Putin.

It is a new setting towards war games. Yes the challenge towards the game remains, but it is time to show what the horror of war is and Ukraine has had its share of horror. Hospitals, civilian buildings and you are there as an angel of vengeance taking out the enemy forces. It is just an idea, but we never had this situation, so I do not merely want some game, I need there to be an educational side. People need to see, second hand what the horror of war is and this is as good an idea as anything else. As I said, it is just an idea, but so far no one else seems to be getting them, so I might as well put it here and see what the call of duty developers can make of it. It is not my cup of Ouzo. 

You see, the part that people do not realise is that the army that is rated 21st on the scale of power is defeating the nations number 2 largest army in the WORLD. I truly think that people have no idea what the Ukrainians are achieving here and with the inhumane slaughter of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces, the stage is growing quite dark, so it is time for people to get a real sense of just how impossible that achievement is and my mind is set as a gamer, a game might wake up the people seeing that what Ukraine is achieving is close to impossible, and that matters. It matters a whole lot.

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April 5, 2022 · 19:13

The joke that was once CCCP

I grew up in the aftermath of the cold war. My friends and myself, my street friends as well as myself, we feared Russia, we worried about what they were able to do. Russia was regarded as very dangerous. Then the 90’s came. The stories of collaboration came, the stories of acceptance came and we rejoiced in part. There was an option of co-existence. We rejoices and we saw and hoped for the best. And for 30 years that continued. At some point there were sides in me that had a pro-Russian side. I abhorred the Chechen attack on Moscow civilian buildings. There was a side we all saw that Russia was not as bad as the Americans made them out to be. An afterthought of McCarthyism and I was wondering if America would ever learn their one sided hatred.

March 2022
The Ukrainian invasion is going on for about a week, for about a week we have questions, we wonder what set this in motion. What did the EU do, what did NATO do? But there is no clear answer and within a week we get to see the other side, the side that sanctifies the position of America. At present a dozen sources show me the Putin monster. The Russian acts of crime, transgressions of the articles of war, transgressions of humanitarian war and we see this all happen and we see governments do too little, or nothing at all. They send equipment, they send hardware, they send software but the Ukrainians fight by themselves (largely) and the 21st largest army on the planet is pushing back the second largest army in the world. The Russia we feared is losing hardware, people and morality. They lose on much larger scales than ever expected and Russia merely changes what the truth is on their TV stations and via trolls all over the world. There are some who fights these parties, but too little of them are there to make sure the people get to see the truth. The Guardian gave us in one instance “He said in one interview: “You see these atrocities and you are still not ready to do anything to make Putin lose his appetite for these atrocities. How can you sleep if you find strong words after these pictures, but do nothing? What else should happen so that the toughest sanctions are put on the table? Chemical attacks, or what is it you are waiting for?”” What is it you are waiting for is a generic question, it applies to governments as well as others and it applies to a lot of governments. Russia is done for. It could start a nuclear war, but all nations will turn on Russia that much they do know. China will not act until provoked but when they do it will be the end of Russia and it is not even close to the near end. 

The BBC gives us ‘Ukraine war: The Syrians signing up to fight for Russia’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-60931180) there we are given “Social media in Syria has been flooded with requests for people to join Russian troops in return for up to $7,000 for deployment” how long do you think Russia can set this game? If these troops get paid after 6 months, they are stupid and they will die stupid, their families will get nothing. If they get paid ahead and they hand it to their families, the Ukrainians will end their lives and we will see two parts, A Syria without men, women with money and nowhere to go and Russia with even more debt. And that is not the end. Nations like the Netherlands are showing themselves to have too many pro-Putin people in too powerful places and that should worry NATO, when FVD party leader Thierry Baudet states that there is no Russian aggression. When we see the dozens of photographs, the cadavers burned, shot in the streets, the setting of a government too dangerous to be part of any decision maker stream involving NATO. There is a clear stage that this merely involved 2-3 people, but they have too much power and any intelligence going to Russia is not acceptable. We need to set a much stronger example and we need to make sure that politicians, just like the WW2 NSB politicians are set to example. If they want to run to Russia fine, but they better leave fast and no argument on ‘the stage of nuance’ will be accepted, not when one states “there is no Russian aggression” and we see dozens of photographs, videos of civilian bombings, shooting of civilians in the streets will be accepted as some form of nuance. I will personally hang that traitor in a tree and if I have to spend the rest of my life in jail for that, then so be it. 

And we are nowhere near the end yet. You see the Russian army is about to become a joke, a bad one at that and the deployment of Syrian troops in Ukraine merely because the Russians do not have the ability makes me wonder why we were ever nervous about Russia. It makes me wonder what the Russians are about, when they have such a political and military engine, when they openly and knowingly support inhumane actions against civilians, what is left of a once proud nation is not worthy of writing down. I believe that Piers Morgan stated it best “How much of a cowardly society have we become?” As I see it, the Russian bear was defeated buy Paddington bear and the other nations were for the most on the sidelines watching. And lets not forget, their inactions is what Russia is using to gain Syrian fighters and that is the next round of slaughter we get to see and it is clear that Putin is not about diplomacy, it is to satisfy the need for blood, to make sure that if Ukraine wins, it will be on the premise of scorched earth. 

And we all have front row tickets to watch these events unfold. 

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March 31, 2022 · 00:33

The forgetful disabler

This happens to us all. I believe it happened to me this evening. This is not easy to explain. At times our mind fills the void. 

For example, the simple guy (me) wants to dream of that super sexy doctor (for whatever reason) and there is Doctor Remy ’13’ Hadley that comes to MY personal assistance in feeling relaxed (Dr. House was busy) and my inner (really happy) angel smiles, it was my day to make that part of me that feels like a million bucks to feel like a vagrant. Sometimes life smiles. But the brain can do the opposite too You think you are in your apartment, relaxing on the sofa, but the sofa feels different, almost inhumane and the brain gives you a 60 minute ride that contains 4 seasons of American Horror Story and then some, and the brain kicks in and removes that part instantly the moment you wake up. I think I just had one of those, so the person is trying to remember Olivia Wilde and the brain goes ‘No, no’ you are so much better off not knowing what just happened to you. And the brain relaxes because in the corner of my mind is the phrase ‘the guardians of the realm of Hades’ and I have no idea what it really means, but for some reason it feels really good not knowing. Yet I believe that the brain is trying to teach us in the light and the dark sides, the problem is that not all lessons are sweet ones, the dark bitter ones are also not to be denied. In sports it would be like being the goalie for an NHL team and whilst the mind is trying all options of a defence, all options of blocking the puck, the brain gives you a rundown of 20 years of hard moments and that is fine, but if it leads to that one sweet moment of blocking the winning goal of the opponents, should we ignore or avoid it? Should the brain listen to Elmo Zumwalt stating that the newly designed weapon will hurt that vessel carrying his name, all whilst it will (and was designed to) stop the Iranian vessels. To listen to the captains of your better judgement sounds nice, but that voice does not tolerate the bad instances, yet those too have a lesson to teach, we all know it and ignoring the voices from the dark corner could be equally dangerous. We can listen to the environmentalist on how bad our planet has become through plastics yet plastics protect our heads in the form of helmets. They keep us safer in our cars in the form of seatbelts and the application grows in all directions. It is the application of plastics for quick consumerism, the application of cutting the corner of waste that makes it evil. To ignore one good corner because there are three bad ones is not a bad thing, but it is the rejection of our consumerism that makes it a problem. As such I feel happy that the brain denies me something, but it also makes me wonder what my own limitations are, the lesson the dark corner was ready to give me. It is its own version of safety through disaster, yet I also know (anyone from the merchant navy does) that there we see the basis of why fire and emergency services exist. Our current world environment subjects us to an abundance of hazards, risks, and dangers, both seen and unseen. And it is in that dark moment we see a new way of avoiding harm, enabling thousands to avoid harm. You see in 1860 (or around that time) that gave British Captain George William Manby an idea that he developed into the modern fire extinguisher. I truly believe he did not get to that point be thinking about his version of Olivia Wilde, his idea came from a much darker corner than anything I can design and now that dream from darkness saves tens of thousands of lives every year. So should we avoid looking there? Perhaps Hades has its own Guardians, perhaps we were never supposed to see what was there. Yet I believe that not all that is dark is truly there to hurt us. It is like a thimble-full of Bitrex into an Olympic swimming pool and you can detect the bitterness in those two and a half million litres of water. Should we therefor stay away of Bitrex? It is not dangerous or poisonous, it is merely the the most bitter of substances. You think it is a weird, but there is a reflection. A Jewish Dutch writer wrote in 1957 ‘the Bitter herb’ a book still read in preparations for exams 20 years later. A reflection of the distance and sometimes even hostility displayed by many people in the Netherlands towards returnees from the concentration camps. A lot of us seemingly forgetting the darkness of that lesson, because if that lesson was really learned we would not see Americans in Nazi outfits (something that happened this week). I believe there is danger to shy away from our darkest lessons and the brain is protecting us, but it is doing us no good at present. That is the part I fear happened to me and I know not why the brain did this. Yet we also know that the brain protects us from needless harm, yet is all harm needless? I do not really know the answer to that question, but the storyteller in me wants to know, because it allowed me to come up with the premise to several games, several concept scripts and it also drives IP innovation, if you disbelieve that ask the people who once met Captain George William Manby and the invention he left us. There are dozens of good examples and yes not all ways to Rome are comfortable ones, but is that because the journey was a bad one, or was it because some decided that it was a great way to cut corners? 

The disabler called forgetfulness is not always a shiny white steed. At times it is a simple bright coloured donkey and that cretin is a bloody stubborn one. Ask any Asinara, the mere question some have is ‘Are you an incomplete albino?’ Whilst the fact in the back is that they are the only white donkey’s and yes, that happens only in Italy. It reflects on the jackass in us, and every jackass is a MALE donkey. They said Moses was lost in the desert for 40 years, perhaps because he was too stubborn to ask his wife for directions? It is merely a thought, but that is how all things start, with a mere thought. It allowed me to create IP, stories and concepts. So where should you be looking for the next invention? In the sunshine, or in a dark corner? And if you wonder who the guardians of Hades are? Ask a girl named Felicity Heaton, I reckon that several streamers ignore looking in one direction because their male ego’s are offended, but yet there is a female director named Olivia Wilde, now if there was someone around with a large sack of coins, they might do wisely to take a gander in another direction, that is how wealth is created, not by saving £180 on a bottle of shampoo at Harrods. That does not make you rich, it merely stops you from squandering something you already had. But that is a lesson for another day.

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