Category Archives: Military

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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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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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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Stop Stupid Spending

In light of my previous article (at https://lawlordtobe.wordpress.com/2022/03/29/a-dangerous-ploy/) ‘A dangerous ploy’, we now see the BBC giving us ‘Can the super-rich solve America’s budget problem?’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60904900) the simple short direct answer is ‘No, they cannot!’ You see, it is the American administrations who clearly overspend. When you create a $1,900,000,000,000, all whilst it represents double the amount you collect through taxation, you are the losing member of a losing party. And all the clever calculator games you play will not help you. It is a sliding scale from the decline of a decent amount of wealth deep into the debt and depth of bankruptcy is all you have to look forward to ad there is no going back from this path, the US is too deep in debt already. When it was clearly visible that the overhaul of tax laws was the only real path for over two decades, the superrich will not help them overcome anything, not even their own stupidity. So when we see “The proposal aims to capture more of the wealth created by the soaring stock market of the last few years. It targets the roughly 20,000 taxpayers in the US worth more than $100m (£76m). Investor Warren Buffett, Tesla boss Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would be among those affected.” Yes you can try that approach, but in light of the money you are spending, money you do not have, it will amount to nothing. The first thing that they face is to reduce their annual budget to no more than $730,000,000,000 that is the the first thing that needs to happen, reduce it by well over 50%, that is the impact they need to face. And then those additional taxations will need to be used for 100% to reducing debt. Even then they will come up short for close to 12-15 years. Should any millionaire and billionaires have remained in the US, they could have a chance, but only if US spending goes down by well over 50% until well over 2037. That is the reality of the plight they face. So when you consider the harsh reality of “Mr Biden’s budget also calls for raising the income tax rate on households earning over $400,000 from 37% to 39.6% and increasing the tax on companies to 28%, partially reversing cuts made under the Trump administration.” It merely works if the overspending of budgets is stopped, if not this is a waste of effort and when the Americans run away from their land to try and keep what they have, we will see that zero tax havens will suddenly get an investors infuse of 200%, all whilst all this was clearly out in the open from 1999 onwards. So whilst you all consider “For the 2022 financial year, the annual deficit is projected at more than $1.2tn. Overall debt passed $30tn last month.” All whilst this administration wants to spend an additional $700,000,000,000, you see the first reality out there and it is not taxing the rich, it is controlling stupid politicians spending money they never had in the first place and it goes back to the age of Clinton, it has been going on for that long and now we see some knee jerk action that has no impact, not until the US budgets are under control. But go on, spend billions on some joke (aka USS Zumwalt class) for the amount of $4,400,000,000. And whilst we think it is cheap, consider 

That it was delivered in 2016 and from then on it faced a trial of break downs and repairs, it required redeployment of weapons, the smart guns never worked and it is now a missile launcher at 500% of the price of such a ship. That is where the budgets fall short again and again and that is merely the defence budget, a budget that has shown failure after failure. All this beside the infrastructure requirements that have not been met in close to half a decade, and they now want some lame ‘tax the rich’ approach to fix it all, all whilst the spending tap is not closed by 55%-70%. And as such, the super rich will never solve this problem. Not until Washington DC wakes up and smells the junk they shovel in. So whilst we see think tank after think tank contribute colourful mentions like “America’s 400 richest families have more wealth than all 10 million of the country’s black families combined, according to a 2020 analysis by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.” No one is asking how large the price tag of that analyses was. We see a group of people blaming a group of people all whilst they enabled all this by not overhauling tax laws, it is now well over 20 years that spending needed to be overhauled, but no, even this administration overspends by close to $1,700,000,000,000 and it does not stop with the $1.2tn deficit, the interest of $30tn is also due and there is no solution for all that, the previous leaseholders of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue made that mistake and it is about to get a hell of a lot worse, that much seems clear and when the brain drain starts in the US, whatever is left there will not be suitable or liveable, that too is a clear consequence. And it was not rocket science. When you spend more than you collect, when you spend more than you have, this happens and it is happening now and the superrich were never part of any solution, their spending and their own tax system was, and it has been clearly out there since 1999. 

And when you wonder why I mentioned the USS Zumwalt? Well Yesterday we got “With political and economic stakes possibly riding on a defense project that saw a 17% cost overrun from $12 billion to $14 billion and the number of vessels being dropped from 32 to only three, besides a raft of nagging flaws in the overtly advanced system, the USS Zumwalt series of warships will not be scrapped” three overpriced dinghy’s and they are about to refit them for “Advanced Gun System (AGS) will be replaced by another defining weapon of our times – hypersonic missiles.“ A collection of ships, not a decade old will face billions in cost for refit, its stealth hull no longer doing what it was designed to do. On the other hand, I designed a weapon to sink it for a mere $250,000 per deployment, so who was stupid enough to sign that contract at $14,000,000,000 per vessels setting the stage from 32 ships to a mere three of them? You really think the super rich were the problem or these overspending politicians with their heads in the clouds? Someone OK’ed spending $14,000,000,000 on something that never properly worked and they are about to spend more. 

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The internal battle

We all have them and I am no different, yet there is also a stage of awe, not to me, to President Zelensky. You see, here I take the backstage (happily and willingly), a nation that is not widely known (other than it had a nuclear reactor that melted down), a stage Iran could face in the near future. The Ukraine stopped the Russian war machine, the Russian war machine is now entering the second month. Not bad for a nation that has a president who sounds remarkably like Paddington bear (according to some children). So basically the Russian bear was stopped by Paddington bear. (Hunney anyone?) A nation with the size that amounts to 21st position in military power stopped the nation who is the second largest military on the planet and conventionally, logistically and communicatively the Russians are coming up short by a lot. What was first considered a milk-run is now an absolute failure for Russia. It is like watching the The Detroit Red Wings going up to the Cleveland Lumberjacks and the Red Wings are at present losing 1-4, a stage no bookmaker could have ever predicted. So why is there an internal battle? 

This battle is twofold, in the first setting the absence of hardcore support by all other nations is a bit disappointing. Yet we saw the list of stuff on route to Ukraine, but we can clearly see it is not enough, the other side of this battle is that sending more could spark a less nice stage, should we fear that? I believe we do, not because it is spoken from fear (it might be a little), it is because the escalations in the Kremlin might make the hardcore people there support one person to push a red button (I am guessing it is red). That would change the stage for all time and nearly all would be hit, optionally the only speculative safe place on the planet might be New Zealand. That is not a good place to be and we all know this. On the other hand the nuclear winter will take care of whatever global warming issues we have, so there is that to look forward to. 

So we can on one hand not give way to a bully, but this bully does not wield a bat, it wield a nuclear arsenal and that will end everything. No matter what happens after that, Russia will be done for, it will be isolated and it will be hunted by EVERY nation on the planet for all eternity and no amount of political BS by whatever Russia has left will be accepted anywhere. They were the ones who pushed the button, almost like an 80’s think-tank scenario. A stage we never thought would happen. All whilst some give us ‘NATO ready to threaten Putin with ‘far-reaching consequences’ if Russia uses chemical, nuclear weapons’ we seem to forget that Russia has 6257 Nuclear missiles, should they all be fired not much will be left, so what far reaching consequences will be done? If Russia fires theirs, there is every chance that NATO will fire the 6200 and some responses (USA, France, UK), so what in the end will be left to give consequence to? If it comes to blows, the planet will remain in the hands of China, India, 5 million kiwi’s and 25 million New Zealand sheep. With the chance that only New Zealand could supply the world with vegetables and mutton that does not make you glow in the dark. 

So yes, there is an internal battle and even though I refuse to give in that it is all fear, there will be fear because I remember the 1983 movie ‘the Day after’ and I do remember some of the inserted parts being NATO training movies. So the impact will be close to total. Should we worry? I believe we do (to some degree), we always believed that the US and Russian leaders would be solid, but the invasion of Ukraine (by Russia) proves me wrong on the very first count, which makes the rest a speculation at best.

What happens next? I have no idea, but then the rest of the world does not either know at present. 

 

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ABC to the rescue

In this case they came to my rescue, I was wondering what to write next. I was contemplating a movie revival, an upgraded gaming revival and some IP I was contemplating. But as I was pondering the issues. I saw an ABC article, 3 days old mind you. I had seen it on Saturday, at least someone (aka trollrensics) showed me the goods on Saturday and I giggled. Yet today I noticed the Russian response to Canada’s corrections (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/russia-slams-canada-un-mission-after-ukraine-letter-edits/100920686) with the headline ‘Russia slams ‘kindergarten-level libel’ after Canada’s UN group tweets annotated letter’, in this I personally find that countering the acts of a monster, treating them like children is a decent solution.

You can bomb civilian target all you want, but that does not make it OK, it merely shows the monster in you. The setting of an illegal act and those who acted in that way will have to hide within the Putin regime for all eternity, because when the reality hit the Russian people, they will not be safe anywhere on this planet. 

My issue with this thought is that it does not help the Ukraine now, now as its civilian cities are bombed, as civilians fleeing the war hazards are gunned down, as they drive away from these issues, their cars are targeted by rocket fire. And these are not figments of my imagination, there are YouTube video’s and TikTok videos out there that show what a monster Russia is. I have some issues with the oligarchs getting hit, people who might (or might not) have some say in the current Russian government. And the ‘might’ stops me currently from opposing it, but on the other side we see Ukrainians getting labelled ‘Russians’ In the US and Canada and they are getting chastised by people who cannot see the difference, a more widespread form of McCarthyism. 

So as ABC gives us “Russia has accused Canada of childishly annotating a letter it sent at the United Nations seeking support for its draft resolution on providing aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine. In a spat on Twitter, Canada’s UN mission added multiple remarks to the March 16 missive from Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.” And lets face it hen we are given “Our draft demands all parties to respect their obligations under forces that appear to international humanitarian and human rights law,” whilst that SAME nation is bombing civilian buildings, shooting civilians in the street, deploying butterfly bombs and violently disrupting people from fleeing war-zones is their anything less we should do then ridicule the people who do this and making fun of their false trumpet (aka Vassily Nebenzia)?

And the Canadian party was clear and correct, feel free to explain the bombing of a maternity ward and 200 schools. That is beside the setting that a person who is relying on ‘international humanitarian and human rights law’ denying these laws and these settings to the Ukrainian population, and as there is now more and more evidence the Russian population as well. To be honest, I am uncertain how people who set the gears in motion to shoot unarmed civilians and children can live with themselves. So as all my readers are now getting the three annotated pages through them thousands more will see the horror that was once a proud nation, a proud nation now descended to a group of nations like Nazi-Germany (1935-1945) and those military leaders hiding behind “these were my orders” they will hang in a Nuremberg trial like setting. As evidence is growing that ever the Russians will not stomach that level of actions, these people will one way or another be dealt with. My problem is that it does not help the Ukraine now. At 60 I am too old to play Call of Duty for real, but I can shine light wherever possible to show that it is Putin who has become the new Hitler (no disrespect to Adolf Hitler), a stage no Russian would ever had seen possible that the person they fought in the streets of Leningrad is now leading the Kremlin. 

So how should Canada have acted (at least they did act)? I reckon that when this does end, and in the end it will not end well for Russia, people like Vassily Nebenzia will learn that their legacy will be to be scorned by almost all nations on the planet. This letter was merely the start, I merely hope it will not be too late for the Ukraine and its people.

At present thousands of anti Russian works of art are gracing the streets more and more. I do hope that someone is photographing the art and making sure that a book will be created where the proceeds go to the Ukrainian people. You see most of the cities of the Ukraine are now in rubble and the auction proceeds of 100 oligarchs will not be sufficient to foot that bill. It will require the Russian coffers and its taxation for well over 30 years to pay for that. I just hope that enough Ukrainians can be saved before all that comes to pass. 

So as the article gives us “Relations between Russia and several Western nations continue to plummet to new lows since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he is engaged in a “special military operation”.” I think I will put that pot on a fire and add my own resolution. You see on the 14th of December 2021 I wrote ‘Keeping my promise, part 1.’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/14/keeping-my-promise-part-1/) that and the stories after that were a conceptual design to melt down an Iranian nuclear reactor and it just hit me, it is Russian design as such this method will work on EVERY RUSSIAN NUCLEAR REACTOR. Yes a bit brazen, but if proven, Russia will now have to add protection to every nuclear reactor they have and the plans are online in my blog, so have a nice day Vladimir Putin, you should never just have been afraid of the military, creative civilians can make life a lot harder for you for an eternity to come as will the stress of the 38 nuclear reactors that Russia at present has running. Will it work? I hope it does, when that does Russia will face a much harder enemy then anything the Ukraine or NATO can throw at him, the Russian people can destroy Russia from thee inside out and those in the Kremlin will not have much of an option, its own armies will turn against them. 

This Monday might not be that bad for a change. I need coffee (we all need something at times).

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Coin number two

Yes, after the first coin (previous article) the second coin becomes a reality. Yet this coin is a lot more speculative, there is a side we do not know, we cannot know because we are not in the know. Anyone not part of their operations, is not privy to a lot of it and those who are not and make claims are lying to you. That is a simple truth. I am not in the know, I do not know and I speculate, or I make educated guesses, and I tell you that I do, but the truth of the matter is that I am NOT CIA, so I cannot tell what they are doing. 

Yet here we hit a snag. You see the BBC gave us yesterday ‘Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60785339), so there we see that civilians are more successful and more clued in than the CIA is? How screwed up is that? So in the article we get “They, in turn, send information in real-time about safe roads to drivers who can rescue busloads of people”, as well as “they are crowdsourcing safe passage out of a war zone.” And this differs from CIA extractions… how exactly?

A stage that could have been set up from the very beginning and the US did not do this. A stage that would have been on the forefront of GCHQ and MI6 from the beginning. But there is a seemingly large lack in activities by a few intelligence operators aren’t there? Is this evidence that there is a lack of funds, an indication that there is a larger lack of resources? Or is it mere speculation from my side and are they operating through crowdfunded operations? It is all speculations and it is less about the speculations and less about who is right and who is wrong. It is about what can be done and what should be done for the Ukraine. I get that, I am not singular or selfishly driven. But some out there are and their game is costing lives. I understand that governments for the most cannot get directly involved. But between full in and not in at all there is a difference and I am starting to rack up the questions on how governments did not act in Syria, how they knowingly and intentionally delayed nearly all actions in Yemen, now we see too many players dragging their heels in Ukraine. The jet setting between Poland and Ukraine and the connected US and Poland actions should have raised a lot more questions then were actually asked. The stage is larger, I get that. Yet the connected inactions should raise questions. Reuter gave us three days ago ‘UK says there is “very very strong evidence” Russia’s Putin behind war crimes in Ukraine’. Really? Very strong evidence? How is that for flaccid? And the UN, on March 2nd they gave us that Russia committed war crimes, yet how many actions were taken by governments? When we rack those tallies and we see inactions we can (speculatively) conclude that governments are either too poor, or too poorly stacked for any actions. And we wonder why China does not act and why Russia does not care?

Questions are coming and no answers are coming forward, not even by the media on either side of that equation. That’s just a thought for Sunday. 

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The first coin drops

I have stated it a few times in the past. The US is basically bankrupt, it can merely feign activities and merely resort to financial pressures, as such the Canadian CBC gives us ‘After Biden and Xi speak, U.S. warns China could face sanctions if it aids Russian invasion’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-xi-call-china-russia-invasion-ukraine-1.6390235), yes, yes, yes. We all heard it sanctions. It is what the opposing parties see and expect. You see a paper tiger only looks menacing to those who cannot see that it is merely only a paper one. So when we get “President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday there would be “consequences” if Beijing gave material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, I wonder what President Biden expects to happen? I think that President Xi Jinping understands really well that the longer the Ukraine situation takes, the weaker the US looks, the less he gets involved the better China stands. If I were to move this into an old saying, for China it is better to watch the two junkyard dogs slug it out (US and Russia) and walk away with the bone when they are too tired to move. And there is a lot to be gotten. There are increasing indications that the US is done in the Middle East and when China gets their military contracts, when more Chinese firms get options towards building Neom, the US will have lost. In the Ukrainian setting, President Xi Jinping merely has to wait. The US royally screwed up too many options and they are now at the end of the options tether. In addition, with China winning options in Saudi Arabia, they will get a foot in the Egyptian door as well. A station that the EU feared for a while. Whilst they are shouting options and opportunities opposing the silk road. As the US goes, so does the EU, too deep in debt and no real options remain. For a quarter of a century they refused to overhaul the tax laws (both US and EU) and now the stage becomes too uncomfortable for both as you are about to find out. 

This takes us to the second article that the BBC gives us ‘War in Ukraine: America is learning the art of humility’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60799659), well actually they haven’t. They shouted ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and now that stage is in play. The US basically shows that it cannot afford too much anymore. So now we get treated to “The US’s leverage over China is limited, and readouts from both sides suggest the call didn’t achieve much. But it was part of an orchestrated diplomatic strategy that contrasts with much of the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency.” There is a problem here. You see ‘Inaction through inability’ is different from ‘orchestrated inaction’, when a nation is unable to fund what is needed they will desperately look towards “This was genuine alliance building”, I personally believe it to be incorrect. You see, we were given all the actions of a nation who (sort of) bullies others into complacency, but the credit card is no longer working, the US method cannot be afforded and some administrations (read: CIA and NSA) have played the wrong Trump card and now credibility is in the basement. They pissed off France, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the UK (to some extent). So when we see “US diplomacy helped win German support” we merely get a partial story, we merely get half the teacup and not that much tea. The US will not be opposing any German needs in several places, they are now that much in a state of ‘inaction through inability’. Feel free to oppose this view and that is your right, but consider what the US has actually achieved since their departure from Afghanistan. That list is short. Very, very short. 

And you do not need to consider me the problem, the problem is out in the open. It is not really President Xi Jinping, it is the fact that he realises more than ever that he gets the shielded threats from a paper tiger and that makes him giggle (I expect that he is giggling). He knows he is about to win a global war without ever firing a bullet, China is showing orchestrated inaction (as I personally see it) and when the silk road comes to the doors and windows of Europe, they know they have won. The largest win will be a direct connection to Neom, which gives them a massive boost into Saudi Arabia and most of Africa as well. That is the point the EU and the US have lost and at present neither have any option to counter the engineering path China is on. So when President Xi Jinping stated “War is not in anyones interest” He was right, it slows down his Silk Road and that takes precedence for China, so their inactions are orchestrated and as the US (EU too) show inactions towards an active field in the Ukraine there are a few reasons, a full fletched war in Europe being one of them, but their inability to afford a war is another. If only that USS Zumwalt worked, it would be a great pressure point, but wait, it was a failure on many levels and now it is useless. The United States is losing options and Russia knows this, they are also learning (the hard way) that the Ukraine is more of a threat than the US has been in close to half a decade, so cheers all around.

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Ko Inky Dink?

Before I begin, there is something you need to know. I understand and agree that we ALL need anti viral protection. In the old days there was Norton (not that great) and McAfee. There was also Virex (an unknown for Mac’s), over time the setting evolved and in the last 20-30 years it was about the 4 big players Norton, McAfee, Sophos and Kasparsky. I stuck to McAfee and later on Norton. Norton had improved its system and it was basically a turn of a friendly card when I went onto the Norton highway. So for the most I remained in the dark. I hd a program, it seemingly works (you don’t know until things go wrong) and so far no issues (touch wood). It was about 4 weeks ago when I saw something pass by. It was (at https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/kaspersky-discovers-about-100000-new-banking-trojans-and-warns-about-increasing-mobile-malware-sophistication/) with the serious ‘Kaspersky Discovers About 100,000 New Banking Trojans and Warns About Increasing Mobile Malware Sophistication’, for me it was not interesting. I do not trust banking apps, not one of them, the more they offer, the more dangerous they are and as such I do not touch them. I know from the past the X-25 issues that were there and I will not bank online, I will not bank mobile. Some things are better the old way, at least they are somewhat more secure and I have set up triggers to alert me if anyone wants to activate my online banking and mobile banking. So as the article gives us “Kaspersky’s Mobile Threats in 2021 report noted that the number of mobile trojans detected almost doubled in 2021, while the total number of mobile attacks declined during the same period. Sadly, the increased sophistication of the attacks, malware functionality, and attack vectors, coupled with the emergence of new players in the market, compensated for the reduction in the number of attacks.” I saw this coming (to some extent) a mile away, that is why I created a 5G solution that reduces the risk. It does not nullify it, but the transgressions are limited to the high tier hackers, I speculate that I can stop a third of the danger, which is not bad. At that point I did wonder why it was Kaspersky alone that reported it, nothing from the other three, but I left that in the air. So today (late last night) I got alerted to ‘Remove and replace Kaspersky AV, says German cyber intelligence’ (at https://www.itnews.com.au/news/remove-and-replace-kaspersky-av-says-german-cyber-intelligence-577390), which is odd. The timing is definitely off. I am not judging, I cannot tell whether it is true or not, the article does give us “In 2017, the United States banned government agencies from using Kaspersky products, with the European Union following suit the year after.”, as well as “BSI has now extended the advisory to all Kaspersky customers, telling them to swap out the Russian antivirus with an alternative security product.” So what evidence was there. Why was this not in places like The Verge? 

And when we get ““A Russian IT manufacturer can conduct offensive operations itself, be forced to attack target systems against its own will, or be spied on without its knowledge as a victim of a cyber operation, or be used as a tool for attacks against its own customers,” the BSI wrote.” OK, I get it, there is OPTIONALLY a risk and people need to be aware, but if this risk was known in 2017, why was it only now and not two weeks ago that we were informed. Moreover, why is this merely the German intelligence, why does Reuters not have an American point of view with all the ins and outs? There is also “Kaspersky had moved its data infrastructure to Switzerland to counter hacking and spying allegations by Western nations”, which I get. In the end I have questions, is Germany merely an American tool spouting McCarthyism to a larger degree? I wonder why the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) did not counter or support the Switzerland element in that equation. If Russia has tools and support in a place like Switzerland, I reckon that the Swiss would want to know. 

So personally the issue with a coincidence factor is just too weird here. I am not stating the BSI is wrong or misinforming us, but personally I feel that the articles in Reuters and ITNews would require adjustments. The search (Google) gives nothing on Kaspersky and the LA Times, New York Times and Washington Post. Why not? The articles are 18 hours old, one of these three should have picked them up at least 8 hours ago, as such I have questions. Don’t you?

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A symphony in only two parts?

That is the question at times. We see two events, two articles and we forget that there are a dozen other connections. I am not different, at times I overlook them too, not always but frequently. It is a mix of a larger stage, more connections, more unregistered events. Yet for now we start with the first nail in the coffin of American economy. The article from Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-invites-chinas-xi-visit-wsj-2022-03-14/) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia invites China’s Xi to visit’, the article states that this could be as early as may. Right before the Midterms in November 2022 the US is now likely to face that dozens upon dozens of billions walk from the US side straight into the hands of China (and me missing out on commission, darn). Is this a given? No, of course not. There could be a dozen reasons why President Xi Jinping might be visiting. But how often has ANY Chinese president done that? And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is eager to set his defence and SAMI to higher values and I was clear in the two years that this was coming and as far as I can tell, President Biden has soured the waters enough for this to become a reality. Some focusses on weapons being sold, I say in THIS economy you should not ignore the nations Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, who are the largest importers. In this stage where the US HELD 37% and China only 5.2% the stage is now set where China can progress a lot higher on that list and should they get the bulk of Saudi and SAMI attention there is a clear stage where the new numbers will represent (2023/2024) could state that the US hold 25% and China then could be holding 17.2%, it then places China right next to Russian exports and the US a lot more to that stage, a stage where it is now an almost fair fight between the US, Russia and China, but to be clear was that EVER an economic stage where you WANT a fair fight? A stage where China overtakes both France and Germany as supplier? This is the stage that could inhabit the Middle East and that is merely the beginning. You see the partnerships that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt have also sets Egypt in the sights of China as a defence trade partner, a stage a few people overlooked and that drives Chinese export achievable needs up a lot more. So the damage to the US might increase over the coming year and those who want to be in denial, go right ahead, the article with ““The crown prince and Xi are close friends and both understand that there is huge potential for stronger ties,” the report quoted a Saudi official as saying. “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’.”” I like the part “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’” the best, it might not be merely just, for China that is a good deal in several ways and when that deal gives China more oil, it will mean that it gives the US less oil a stage they feared for some time and the oil market has been volatile on these fears alone. So when I was mentioning that whatever relief the oil prices give us today, tomorrow will be different and now we see that fear come to fruition, not immediately mind you, but the price of fuel will go up again and again, how high? I cannot tell but the stage where we saw the American administration make statements like “You can pump more oil, so pump more oil!”, it was nice but there is now every chance that the extra oil (plus a little more) goes to China. Will the UAE do the same? I cannot tell, but the US better become best buddies with Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, because if I see this right, the US will need every friend it can muster in their oil needs (a few others too) and in that need they better realise that catering to Iran will not merely be unrewarding, it will soon become dangerous on more than one field as well. I mentioned two years ago that yielding the Middle East to China would be one of the most dangerous things ever, and that was merely economically. Now we see one field exposed and the construction opportunities in Neom could also go towards China, a stage that makes the US (EU too) more and more irrelevant, a stage the US themselves threw upon their own economic needs. Now that it is becoming more and more realistic these people will not be allowed to cry with the “Why oh why” statement like little chihuahua’s. Or as my grandmother used to say “You do not bite the hand that feeds you” a practical lesson that the US will now face within the next 3 months and the 2 years that follow. A stage that the Biden Administration failed to spot in some stage of ignorance and now as we see it optionally unfold (it might be that President Xi Jinping is visiting to buy real estate in Neom) some might see the dangers that are coming the next year or so and the impact over the next decade. I merely loose out on commission (oh, poor poor me). 

 

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