Category Archives: Politics

July 31, 2023 · 04:41

Escalation time

We see it, we ignore it and we shout issues of disbelieve. I am no different, I have ignored a few elements at times, even as the writing was on the wall (ceiling and floor too). I thought that politicians would wise up. I considered that the people would take the intelligent path, but a lot of them are not. As such I saw a wake up call. The call came from the Kashmir Observer giving us (at https://kashmirobserver.net/2023/07/29/the-burning-of-the-quran-represent-an-act-in-desperation/) ‘The Burning of the Quran Represents an Act in Desperation?’ It comes with a question mark, but I think that the question is a lot closer to the truth setting than anything I have seen so far. We are also given “West’s far right still live in their invincible, racial, never-ending civilisational supremacy.  However, the rise and fall of civilisations represents a universal fact. None of the dominant civilisations lasted forever. What is consistent in the fall of civilisations is arrogance and delusional belief of never-ending dominance, looking down in disdain at other people and values dear to them. The same arrogance that West demonstrated had been the feature of prior dominant civilisation that is Islamic golden age. That also saw barbarians among the other non-Muslim communities till savage barbarians in the form of Mongols descended on them from nowhere decimating Islam’s golden age, and palaces of tyranny, precious literature that had origin in Quran’s teachings.” I can get behind the sentiment, but there is an issue. I wonder if you can spot it. It is the use of ‘civilisation’. As we look at the settings of governments in the west, there is a claim of civilisation, but I feel that that semi tank left the building some time ago. I reckon that the setting was vacated with the departure of President Bill Clinton. He left the office with Wall Street in too much power and any setting that is greed driven will undo civilisation every single time. Civilisation does not compute to the bottom dollar and we have seen the impacts that followed. Now as the US is one step away from being a third world nation we are seeing the impact that christianity bends to the powerful players and in this case it was Wall Street. Ethicality went out the window and any secular power that enforces the bottom dollar gets to call shots and guess what, it opposes civilisation every single time. 

Then in comes Saudi Arabia, they were mostly quiet during the initial Quran burnings, but there would be a response and the Saudi Gazette (at https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/634563) gives us ‘Prince Faisal renews to his Swedish counterpart Saudi Arabia’s rejection for all attempts to offend Qur’an’, where we are given “Prince Faisal noted to Billström Saudi Arabia’s demand on taking immediate procedures to stop these extremist acts that are trying to undermine the holy books, and provoke the feelings of Muslims around the world.” An essential diplomatic step, but I personally fear it was not strong enough. I get that politically speaking as an Islamic nation Saudi Arabia is cautious on how to proceed, it makes sense, but the lack of actions and the strife of secular governments (in this case Nordic nations) make the lack of push an issue. You see, I wrote in several stories over the last few weeks that there is an issue with Freedom of speech versus discrimination, the burning of Islamic holy scriptures makes that a clear case. I am for freedom of speech, but not at the cost of accountability. That is the larger station. People think that freedom of speech is one anchor without any sides, but accountability gives weight to that freedom and that is what people forgot. To be honest at times I forget that too. Now my transgressions seem small and insignificant, but when you think of it, it matters to the value of freedom of speech and Sweden clearly forgot that part of the equation.

And in comes Iran. The funny part is that I tend to shy away from anything Iranian, yet in this case (at https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2023/07/29/2932699/muslim-nations-urged-to-cut-ties-with-countries-allowing-quran-desecration) they might actually have a more important case to bring. It starts with ‘Muslim Nations Urged to Cut Ties with Countries Allowing Quran Desecration’, not only are they correct there is a larger truth here. This is a setting that should have been championed by Saudi Arabia or even the United Arab Emirates, but it is Iran that gives us “Over the past month, the Holy Quran has been subject to acts of sacrilege by extremist elements in separate incidents in Sweden and Denmark, where authorities gave a green light to the desecration.” I do not completely agree, but I can see how Muslims would see it that way and they have every right to be angry. The larger truth was not anti Islam, it was pro ‘Freedom of speech’ and when you see coins on any table, you merely see one side (the clever people see two sides) but both forget for an instance that there was another side to that coin and it is the side we do not see, we realise that it is there, we merely ignore it and accountability would have taken care of it, but our minds crossed out the other side. And now we have a problem and it is a large one. If the Islamic nations rekindle with the Iranian sentiment and not with the cautious approach that the KSA and the UAE hold we end up with quite the problem. 

Another view is seen (at https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/quran-burnings-prompt-u-n-human-rights-body-to-urge-increased-action-against-religious-hatred/) where we are given ‘Quran Burnings Prompt U.N. Human Rights Body to Urge Increased Action Against Religious Hatred’, this sounds nice, but it is a little too late for this.

More importantly too many newspapers and media shunned this setting and it is Al Jazeera that showed us two weeks ago (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/12/un-bodys-motion-on-quran-burning-how-did-your-country-vote) the part that matters. The people against this increased action on Islamaphobia include the UK, the EU, and the US. They revere their freedom of expression and are refusing to let accountability take a center seat. A stage that they are intent on pushing, a place where there is freedom of religion as long as it is under the direction of christian based elected aficionados. Sounds familiar?

And I think it is about to get a lot worse. Personally I think it is time for the Kingdom Holding Company to take a serious look at my IP as it pushes a lot more than accountability, it unifies muslims and that could open a lot more doors, especially as it pushes western media out of the way. The fact that I had to rely on an Iranian source all whilst the western media is setting a stage that is no longer reliable or accurate is cause for concern. And this is not really the end of it all, a mere 15 minutes ago we were given ‘Denmark to put legal limits on protests involving Quran burnings’ and the setting there is “Denmark’s government on Sunday released a statement saying that it would put legal limitations in order to stop the demonstrations involving the burning of the holy book Quran in certain circumstances, citing security concerns”. Really? How about the EU charter where we are given “Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.” The burning of a Quran is a clear act of discrimination, it is time for the EU to own up to that reality and act accordingly. The cornerstone of all this is accountability, I have stated this for 13 years and now that it all comes to pass the setting becomes an accelerator for a lot of things. I saw the power that one point eight billion people have, I saw the impact and how quickly the sands of opportunity will decimate for the EU and US if they do not wisen up and that is about to happen. The three new BRICS members is one, but if they push for a ban of Nordic products is merely the first step, it could mean a lot more bans that the middle east could push for in the near future. So what happens when over 400 million people in the Middle East decide to ban products from the EU? Don’t think it will not happen because Sweden and Denmark are merely the first steps. When Asia (India and China) steps up to replace items that enrages people there will be a sudden drain of revenues all over the EU (US too). 400,000,000 people needing a new alternative for products. So what happens when these places ban all Cadbury and Nestle items and Amul items take their place? What happens when Paneer (Indian cheese) replaces European cheeses. I bet the Dutch, Swedes, French and Italians will not be happy and that is merely two out of hundreds of examples. The Middle East has buying power and what happens when that is pointed in another direction? 

That is the larger setting that we need to be aware of. Do you really think that you can have freedom of expression without accountability? We are about to enter a phase of escalations and it does not bode well for the EU (or US for that matter). Feel free to disagree, but when the clock rings and you see how in August / September revenues are down all across the board the EU finds itself in a stage that is merely less than an inch for another recession, no matter how much it is labelled an economic downturn, because that is always how it starts, but this time around it could last well over a year pushing a massive amount of businesses out of circulation. Then what?

And it is just the start of the week, have fun.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 29, 2023 · 08:55

It only took three years

That was what pushed into view. I was about to write about something else, a movie idea I had. Yet several other messages came into view which pushed me to realign my focus. You see, I had the view just before CES2020 that Huawei was going to be a large player, much larger than anyone guessed. Even I had not thought that far ahead as certain plays by the STC (Saudi Telecom Company) were not in view yet. Now it becomes a much bigger play and two players (Huawei and STC) could reenforce each other, a setting that was not visible in 2019. So lets take a look.

Article One
The first article was brought to us by the Hindustan Times last year (the year of Soylent Green, another idea that I already wrote about but came to the top of my mind again last night). Here (at https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/huawei-launches-harmonyos-to-compete-with-google-s-android-71622644049707.html) we are given the idea that Huawei is pushing for a release to 200 million mobile phones. An achievable mark to say the least, the rest was bla bla but the notion was given. 

Article Two
Tech outlook gave us two days ago (at https://www.thetechoutlook.com/news/technology/os/harmony-os-4-0-to-debut-on-august-4-mate-60-5g-expected-to-debut-alongside/) ‘Harmony OS 4.0 to debut on August 4’ and that is the part certain people were all waiting for. The text “Apart from Harmony OS 4.0, the Chinese manufacturer is rumoured to announce the Huawei Mate 60 5G at the HDC 2023 event. As mentioned above, it will be the brand’s first 5G flagship phone after facing US sanctions. While the Mate 60 series is expected to be announced at HDC 2023, the company will hold a dedicated launch event for it in September or October this year.” You see the ‘US sanctions’ part reads nice, but the play doesn’t go there. STC and Huawei has as of the coming month a larger setting. This setting will include Egypt, BanglaDash and Indonesia. This gives them a lot more than the targeted 200 million phones and the moment STC enters the EU they will have the needed traction, the STC 5G network will have some serious ‘umph’ as the expression goes. More important, a network that stretches to that degree will push the US and EU out of a few areas, or at least make them suffer the loss of expected revenue by some analytics, they will tumble twice over. 

I’ll be honest, I saw the play, but not to this degree as the STC was not on my radar. I reckon that there was always a chance that Etisalat (UAE) would grow, but that is not in the cards at present. This is important as the needs of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are in the same direction, but they are not aligned. That difference is important and there is a chance that the STC will offer services that include the UAE. I reckon that the UAE might want to connect to Center3 and the STC for the additional business it will bring them, but that would be pure speculation on my side.

What does matter is that with the release of Harmony 4, on August 4th a new play opens up and it might go a long way to allow a digital setting to the MBC group to the settings they have in play at the moment. They will push the sports and news groups that are in the making with larger digital channels, just after they make their IPO offer (which Bloomberg mentioned only 3 weeks ago), now with the channels and digital groups in play it goes well beyond the shores we see at present and with Huawei at the mobile front, they can offer something larger than most have ever had and it will appeal to the hungry revenue entrepreneurs in Indonesia and BanglaDash. They will add hundreds of millions to their pool, hundreds of millions that haven’t ever had access to anything (of that nature). I reckon that by Q1 2024 the STC could have doubled in value and they were never a small player to begin with. Now add Egypt and you get a much larger population, mostly Muslim and all eager to be economic players. I reckon that BRICS had a few ideas on adding Saudi Arabia. And the US? Well they are still screaming middle east stability and requiring cheap oil in a play that is already outdated. And as we can clearly see, Saudi Arabia and China are getting along just fine, no EU or US required. That was a danger for some time and new we are about to see the fruition of these players. You still think the US was in Saudi Arabia for merely ‘stability’ reasons? Come to think of it Janet Yellen was in China recently, with these elements now in view was it really about what they say it was? 

This is in part speculation, it does not make it true, yet you have to wonder if I saw these events unfold, they did not? I might not have seen the impact of the STC and MBC groups in 2019, but these people (Jellen and Blinken) get a large 6 figure income more than me (Jellen gets a 7 figure income), you mean they were in the dark? Go cry me a river, please.

Huawei should have enough to get their target from Egypt, Indonesia and BanglaDash alone and they have close to half a dozen nations more on their mind (China being not the smallest one) and as expansions go, with the Huawei 5G network in play, the STC can grow a lot faster, allowing the MBC sports and news channels to reach a few additional nations. This alone will make people in the EU want to see what they are missing out of. I reckon that the advertisements alone will pay for this caper and then some. A stage that grew in under 4 years, as such the EU and US now have a problem. You see all these TV channels and media players are about to become obsolete to a much larger degree. They can shout MAGA and Karen’s all they like, the rest are able to switch the channel to something they would much rather watch and there it seems that the MBC Group has you covered. I personally wonder what Murdoch is worth by the end of 2024, because when the advertisers go away, he is just shouting arranged news to people who are not interested in listening, that part of the pool he soiled himself as I personally see it.

Enjoy the weekend, or as they say at MBC in Arabic “رحلة جديدة في الخدمات الرقمية”

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics, sport

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 28, 2023 · 12:51

On the way to……

I was on route to some IP pondering when the Al Jazeera story ‘White House adviser Jake Sullivan meets Saudi crown prince for Jeddah talks’ crossed my path. Immediately the thought   “There are just so many ways you can beg for cheap oil” passed my mind. OK, that might have been out of line, but the premise still sets. The White House have send nearly every large caliber in the direction of Saudi Arabia without making it an overly clear ‘White House’ event. The story also gives us (yet again) ““We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,” Biden said during a 2019 Democratic debate.” These were hollow words given at the wrong time. And now almost 4 years later the setting is as dire as the US has ever had them, but OK. Try to make us all believe that this is about ““bilateral and regional matters”, the White House said, including initiatives “for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous and stable Middle East”” Sure, make it about the one thing that the Middle East does not need the US to initiate. It has initiated enough imbalance to last it an eternity. Even as Reuters gives us ‘Oil settles above April peak on tighter supply’ (at https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-up-supply-tightness-view-offsets-concerns-rate-hikes-2023-07-27/). We need to consider the impact of “Still, oil dropped on Wednesday after data showed U.S. crude inventories fell less than expected and the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, leaving the way open for another increase.” You see, this scorcher of a summer on the northern hemisphere is also impacting energy costs, AC and cooling units are working overtime, as such winter could be a killer. I am using could be, because there is no clear evidence that this summer will leave us with a mild winter, implying that the US and EU are facing 5%-15% more energy needs and with the price of oil that could be a massive impact. One source is giving us today “Standard Chartered analysts conclude that crude prices are finally starting to catch up with the reality of a tightly supplied oil market.” Really? I got there months ago, so how are these clowns actually making their money? A tightly supplied market is the premise of shortages close to everywhere, and if you think that the EU is a nice place now, consider 28 members fighting each other for the same oil allotment, should be fun. I will invest in popcorn, we would all want some so we can watch the nagging tea bitches fight this one. I saw some forecast charts, but I had issues with them (optionally) for the most I might not get all the elements in that forecast. That is simple as I am not in that business. Yet the larger part is how the prices (allegedly) dip a little in early 2024, as I see it as these settings continue, the world (EU and USA) will face oil prices of $90+ from December 2023 onwards. I have no idea how high they will get, but the larger setting no matter how managed it is, the shortage will continue and press pressures up to weird levels all over Europe. All that is before China achieves a larger stake in the oil supplies. The US is silently hoping that they get it all from Russia, but without the cap in place China sees a larger benefit vying for the same stack that the US and EU are vying for. Call me nuts, but I reckon that is one scenario that could go south for the EU sooner rather than later. We all see what is given to us as to the events happening, but there is something off in sending National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan a month after Anthony Blinken went there. Something does not add up and it might just be me, but there is more to this visit than the press tells us (which is what the US likely told the press), they need something and cheap oil is the first thing that comes to my mind.

And in the heat the US and EU faces? Well I reckon one barrel of oil per household to keep it cool should do it. Oh no, there are only 2 million barrels to go round (times 90 days = 180) , so what about the other 600 million people. How will they get cooling? And what about winter, which 600 million need to face it without heating? Yes, the equation is not correct, but the sentiment is. For the first time since 1973 will we face an oil shortage. I tried to warn you all but too many called me stupid and insane (the latter might be true). So I will see you buried, frozen to death soon enough. I wonder if anyone realises how dire it is about to become and don’t blame me. All these analysts should have been there long before I arrived at that station, so why weren’t they? They can ignore it for now, but in February when the death count starts, their BS reasoning will be met with the anger of people who lost someone in the big freeze of 2023/2024. What will they do then?

Enjoy the day and enjoy the AC at current prices, the weekend is about to start.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 26, 2023 · 14:41

Conscription Calamity

I heard of the notion, armies have had issues with getting meat for the grinder for as long as I remember. There were the crusades and the lords of the land beckoned with the option of wealth and the avoidance of utter poverty. And that was the feeding frenzy for those grinders. Almost 5 million people were lost over these numerous squabbles. From Accra to Jerusalem, millions were lost and the loss of people in those days implied that the shortage of manpower almost ensured the end of poverty and non-stop hunger. There was the Russian Revolution as well as WW1. By 2016 Russia was down 10 million souls and that was not the end of it all. WW1 took another 10 million souls (approximate losses both sides) and that was almost the end of it. There was of course WW2, there we have around 23 million military deaths and well over 50 million civilian losses. Yes, we have all made a mess of the setting. Yet all that fades to comparison to the Russian setting we see now. First I saw one article (see article three), then the article from the BBC giving us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66304522) ‘Russia expands pool of men eligible for call-up’, which gives us “Russia is raising the maximum age at which men can be conscripted from 27 to 30, making more of them liable to serve in the armed forces”, which was not in line with the first article, as such I looked what I saw earlier, I did not see it, but I got the Express (at https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1794927/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-conscription) giving us ‘Panicked Vladimir Putin rushes through new law allowing Russia to conscript pensioners’ with the added text (the one I saw earlier) “Vladimir Putin has ushered in new legislation which will enable him to conscript men over the age of 60 in an apparent bid to shore up his armed forces 18 months after his invasion of Ukraine.” As such, even the pensioners aren’t safe anymore. How desperate do you need to be to take such precautions? Consider that Russia has a population of well over 134 million, I reckon that 25% is of an eligible nature, which is well over 30 million and they have to resort to pensioners? The math is wrong on a few levels. I showed you all how 4 settings of the Russian Army has failed them (Artillery, Logistics, Supplies and Medic) and now we are given that the army themselves is falling apart. This has got to be the biggest defeat and humiliation of Vladimir Putin. When we look at the history of war (Crusades, Russian Revolution, WW1 and WW2) we never saw a failing of this degree and it is seemingly getting worse. The strongest part of them is a group of mercenaries (the Wagner group) that must feel downright wrong to the Kremlin. A place where they were vying for supremacy with America and they cannot hold up against the 20th strongest army on the planet (aka the Ukrainian army). And that is all whilst the Ukrainian army is depending on other sources for supplies. 

A clambake fest that should have been over in a week and so far the Ukrainians are holding out for well over 510 days and I reckon they aren’t done yet. There will be payback for all the intentional bombing of civilian targets, not sure how, but Russia might face a much tougher setting than the Germans did in the treaty of Versailles. On 28 June 1919 it was said that these reparations was assessed at 132 billion gold marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2023). I reckon that this amount will by higher by 200%-300%, this implies that all the oligarchs need to hide whatever they had, because global organisations will come for them and when they do organisations like the Dutch Heineken company (who apparently are still doing business in Russia) and numerous American and European companies will be a similar state. It will be a mess that will not stop any day soon. Those who were pro-Russian will hide behind miscommunications and they have the option to run for their lives to Russia or become the centre-point of ridicule both them and their children alike. The Dutch have some experience with their NSB people in 1945. I reckon this might be worse. The French had the Vichy France collaborators. Neither ended well, the Dutch collaborator Pieter Menten got off (after 8 months) in 1945, but the setting changed in 1976. He fled to Switzerland but was arrested soon thereafter. He died with dementia, he never escaped his fate. I wonder what will happen to certain Dutch pro-Russian people like Thierry Baudet and Wierd Duk? I have absolutely no idea, but they banked on the wrong player and there will be consequences there too. That is all in addition to the Americans supporting and going soft on pro-Russian players. And in all this the Russian army is now relying on pensioners and setting them up against Ukrainian fighters who are by now all veterans. They pretty much made short work of the Wagner group. As such I do not give the Russian pensioners much of a chance. Meat for the grinders and the Russian grinders are low on meat a setting where 5 out of 5 of the land forces are failing. That has not been the case since before the Crusades. In that meantime defence forces had Sun Tzu (the Art of war) as well as Carl von Clausewitz (On War) these two books had basic information that Russia could have used to avoid the setting that they are in now. The weird part is that Amazon dot com offers both books for a total that is less than $50. So when you look at the list of losses, how stupid was the Russian setting to begin with?

I will let you decide, the middle of the week has begun, the stroll towards the weekend is now in effect.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Law, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 22, 2023 · 18:10

Rage anonymously

Yup, we get that, although there is not really an anonymous part in this, it is me. Two things made me snap. The first one was a presentation. There was nothing wrong with the presentation, it was actually quite good and it should be regarded, but I will not mention it here (for obvious reasons). The second one is the one I am starting here. I am in favour of protesting, protesting is in the world I grew in an age old tradition. I get it, but I also regard the accountability part of any protest. Even in the army, I was in favour of the anti nuclear protests. In the Netherlands in 1981. That protest was the largest protest in Dutch history and drew in over 400,000 demonstrators, the largest in Dutch history. In addition they gathered in excess of 3.75 million signatures, close to 25% of the population in that time were against US nuclear missiles in the Netherlands. Never before did a group of people agree to that degree to anything like it.
As such I cannot oppose demonstrations. Yet it is different with ‘Just stop oil’, they went to far. They obstructed a car with a newborn trying to get to the hospital and at that point I snapped. If I was there, I would have shot at least one person in the head. I would not care about gender, both genders are equally worthless at that point. When you stop a newborn from reaching the hospital in time, optionally endangering that newborns life, you deserve to get shot in the head. I hope these people consider that, because there are a lot more angry people out there in the UK. If I had it my way, I would reroute 350K barrels of oil per day away from the UK to China (for example). I wonder what chaos that would reflect and as long as any demonstrator from ‘Just stop oil’ is still alive, that reroute would not be undone. I wonder how many of these people will suddenly realise the stupidity of their actions. I get why they are demonstrating and I get why it is done. Yet this is wrongly done and it is done in the most stupid of ways. The UK is depending on oil in many ways and when we reduce the allotment by 350K barrels a day these people will wake up fast and in not such a nice way. When they get hunted by the tradies losing their livelihood they will get a first rate education on the stupidity that they embraced. And when you consider that they endangered a new born child, the support they had will fall away quite quick. 

What?
The second part was a presentation. The presentation was good, really good, but it struck a chord with me in not such a nice way. You see, these presentations all look good, yet when they interfere  with the bonus and bottom dollar of any board of directors, the setting changes, it changes by a lot. 

So it started with:
Good Data design is purposeful
Good Data design is clear
Good Data design is balanced
Good Data design is inclusive

These were the first 4 slides of 12 excellent slides. Yet there is an issue with them and it is not on the designer, that person did his/her job. The problem is that this presentation goes somewhere, and that tends to be up the ladder. I am not giving you the other 8, because I will invade someone else’s IP too much (and I am not giving the whole slides, just the titles. But the next part will show you why it bothered me.

You see you can scream interaction and promotion of understanding all you like, but what is our understanding? The understanding of IT, its users or the understanding of the board of directors? They tend to be three different things. The promotion of inclusivity only goes to the degree that the bottom dollar is not impacted and simplicity is a whole other ball of wax. If it is (too) simple that board member is feeling the brunt of what comes next and they will oppose this and oppose what you want to achieve and that is before we get issues of legacy systems (where the current provider works with a board member wanting to stay relevant. I have been involved with fights of that nature going back to the mid 80’s. And the less said about inclusivity the better. These are all good things, but they tend to raise costs and the board members are all about the bottom dollar and that is an issue. I have had too many of these fight against wannabe’s to last me a lifetime, and the wannabe’s always get a yay-sayer making me look bad in the process. A setting many retired IT person can attest to and those who rolled over had a decent retirement, the rest had close to nothing, as such this struck a nerve with me. I hope that the presenter gets the laurel that he or she deserves, but they better be ready for a fight they never faced before. Especially when that board is filled with fakers. That was my view on the matter and these two items got to me. So my Saturday was all about controlling my anger and checking my sniperscope (I had not done that for years). So whomever wants to endanger a newborn better get ready to walk around with an added air conditioning system to the brain.

We all get angry at times, we all go overboard at times and in this case I am lucky. I am (lucky for them) 10,563.82 miles away from those stupid twats. But they will face people over there that also have had enough and they are close enough to rely on the cricket-bat to dish out the punishment. 

Well one more day until the weekend ends, I better make it count.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , ,

July 21, 2023 · 19:21

The writing is on the floor

Yes, it is the case here, never mind what the walls say. I have made mention of this again and again. The US had a piss poor approach to their innovation lack. First they tried to make Huawei their bitch and accuse Huawei of all sorts of things, whilst setting a backstabbing approach to remove Huawei from revenue streams. They did this in the worst possible way and they did it without any corroborating evidence. Then we get the setting that the media is painting China as the big evil. Yet America is not held to any standards. This is an issue for me and for most people relying on evidence. As such the article ‘Xi Jinping meets Henry Kissinger as US seeks to defrost China ties’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66106076) comes over as hollow. In this the BBC has its own share of issues here too. As such when we see ‘US needs Kissinger’s diplomatic wisdom’ I would state “How about some simple wisdom?” Today Al Jazeera gives us ‘Australia blocks acquisition of lithium mine by China-linked firm’. I am not commenting on the events because I know too little, yet it is again some event involving China. Now, there might be all kinds of circumstances that could show it to be a valid block, but the fact that this started in January implies that a block this late has other attached reasons too. The issue is that the media is adhering to the US needs to paint China negatively in many ways and there is only s much you can get away with. At present Huawei is rocking the telecom industry all over Asia, the Middle East and soon enough Africa and Europe too. That will increase and accelerate with the release of 5.5G years ahead of Nokia and others, as such China, Asia and the Middle East are about to get a huge advantage. I reckon that the United Arab Emirates are about to become a larger technology hub in the Middle East and this one will stretch wherever the STC (Saudi Telecommunication Company) reaches. I reckon that before the end of 2025 it will connect Asia, the Middle East, parts of Africa and southern Europe making it pretty much the largest telecom company around. That was what I tried to warn you all for, it opens up all kinds of doors and with the release of 5.5G, my IP now has a shining new setting. One that the US and EU cannot match. They do not have the IP, they have shown consistent cluelessness and even Google and Amazon could fall short here. So what do you think all that will cost these players in revenue? So when I see ‘US seeks to defrost China ties’ I merely laugh. This was a joke and a mistake that was years in the making, now that the events are coming to a close (as the Conversation gives us) with ‘China is playing the long game in the Pacific. Here’s why its efforts are beginning to pay off’ (at https://theconversation.com/china-is-playing-the-long-game-in-the-pacific-heres-why-its-efforts-are-beginning-to-pay-off-209960) where we are given “Other appointments suggest China is appointing higher-calibre diplomats to the region. These include Li Ming, the current ambassador to the Solomon Islands, and Xue Bing, the former ambassador to Papua New Guinea who now holds the challenging post of special envoy to the Horn of Africa. With experience in the region and good language skills, these diplomats have been more able to engage with Pacific communities than their predecessors, who largely focused on sending good news back to Beijing. More serious representatives suggest more serious intent.” A setting I never saw (because I was looking elsewhere) and when you add this all up it becomes a much larger issue (especially for America). There are unconfirmed rumours that Saudi Arabia will join BRICS in August. There is every chance that the UAE will either join at the same time or shortly after. Now with China and Saudi Arabia (STC) having a united telecom front with 5.5G years ahead of all the other players, the setting for global telecom will shine well before the end of 2023. I made mention that I had found something in the last two days and here it is. It is not merely what they are doing. Players like Amazon and Google have the option to create service centres in the UAE (Dubai or Abu Dhabi) most likely and ride that tidal wave, or whomever gets there first will have the option to take market share away from these two players. Huawei is ready to start there, but they cannot do it alone, the waves will be too high. Google is already there (I checked), but unless they get the infrastructure ready others will pass them by left and right and there is the option for billions. Whomever is there first will be able to set the score, not adhere to it and that setting will go from Shanghai in the east to Croatia in the west all whilst these networks will include China, Bangla Dash, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, from there it all goes into Europe via TAWAL. A setting no telecom company has had to THAT degree and what do we get from Washington? ‘US seeks to defrost China ties’ I think it is a bit late or that and it is about to get worse, especially if the 5.5G is launched in Q4. Those ready to upgrade will show the rest what a massive lag in streaming technology looks like. It is like watching Wall Street people deal in stocks whilst having a system that is 3-4 milliseconds slower than the other system and it takes less than 50 trades to see a decent profit be reduced to a massive loss. I haven’t even taken the lack of labour force in the US at present, which makes their $42 billion overhaul plan an Edsel to say the least. All this was visible several days ago, but go right ahead, consider that China will defrost, they have been playing the long game and now that will turn into a near total victory. The setting I never clearly looked at was the pacific region, I saw the plans for Indonesia, but not the other parts and these are all about to come into focus. As I see it, by late 2024 Germany will chose solutions for their services and Huawei will have them, others do not. The moment that happens (I made mention of that before) France will adhere to the need of economic stability and that is where the EU either overturns the US directive, or be made (close to) obsolete. And all that happens whilst Tencent Technologies is about to launch a few products as well. My IP is in a different direction and I was (sort of) testing that premise beyond the Dubai Mall. I equally looked at the settings for the Mall of the Emirates, Nakheel Mall, tourist settings as well as the Real Estate setting which was a $20 billion market in the UAE (I did not initially know that), so I looked at my Canadian ‘solution’ to the UAE, and now we are vying for the big bucks (I am allowed to dream, am I not). Whatever YOU think, these elements are out in the open and some of them were out in the open since the first Covid lockdown (2020), so players like Amazon, Apple and Google had 3 years to wake up, as far as I can tell they never did.

So the writing was on the floor (the walls too) and these players were all watching the sky to see how their revenue streams were set up and doing. The media was full of it and with the shortage of people and pretty much dumping thousands of people, they had to look at the Middle East and see if these people would be willing to move to a new shore and that is where others will soon have a larger advantage. That I how I personally see it. 

You make your own conclusions, but take the time to go through all the sources, too many media is playing a catering game and they are not serving food. The day before the weekend is underway, enjoy it.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 20, 2023 · 20:19

Freedom to discriminate

This is how I see it. Lets be clear, I am all for freedom of speech, but I do believe that there needs to be a level of accountability. This applies to every path of expression. Some believe that there is an innate need to speak the truth that you personally believe. I personally believe that Microsoft is beyond redemption, but I will speak truthful on the matter, also when they have scored a victory that they were entitled too, I will make mention of it. I did so in the past. Xbox is now personally seen as garbage, but Game Pass remains a treasure. People do good things and we do shady things, sometimes we do bad things. This is not always with intent, but it is driven by our believes. I grew up believing in the freedom of speech.Yet that freedom needs to be held towards accountability. As such I am massively in disapproval of book burning. I also think it is a waste of time. It is like these Karen’s in America protesting Bud-light, buying ten 6 packs and after that destroying them without drinking them. A pointless exercise, but that is up to these people. Burning a bible or Quran is another matter. As a christian I do not think that burning a Bible is sacrilege, but I know doing that to a Quran is. So I will never do that. You see past the point that buying a book just to burn it is a waste of funds, there is the setting that burning a Quran upsets any Muslim. Why do this? So I saw the BBC giving me ‘Protesters set fire to Swedish embassy in Baghdad’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-66252974). There two things stood out. The person who did the act was an Iraqi refugee. Yet this is the the biggest part in all this. It as the sentence “the country’s courts ruled the protests should be allowed to go ahead, citing free speech laws.” There I have an issue. First who are the people involved in setting this court case? Who were the lawyers? Who was the judge? All matters that are not discussed. One source gave me “Following appeals from both protest organisers, the Stockholm Administrative Court overturned the decisions, saying the cited security concerns were not enough to limit the right to demonstrate.” So exactly who were these protest organisers? Rasmus Paludan is seemingly one of the protesters, but who is the other one? There is also the new setting that this is the case that allows for discrimination. Free speech warrants discrimination, it is one of the most dangerous of all settings. Not in the first for Sweden who will see more and more objections to its membership into NATO and that might have been the reason for Rasmus Paludan acting the way he is. And when that happens and there is a problem with Russia, make sure that Rasmus is kept in captivity IN Sweden, so he could experience the accidental bombing (if it ever gets to that point). 

My issues is that we have forgotten to respect the believe of others, a setting that could work out well for me, but not that much for Sweden and a few other players. Reading “Swedish politicians have criticised the Quran burnings but have also adamantly defended the right to freedom of expression” reads to me like that same politician stating that these are very naughty people, the same people beating his (or her) child to death with a stick stating the freedom of speech of the tree that was cut down resulting in the stick. Yes, it does not make sense, but free speech to endorse discrimination never ever does. I personally believe that this will get a lot worse soon enough, how? That I anyones guess, yet the population of Swedish Muslims is at present 8.1%, as such a reaction will come forth and it will not merely be Turkey objecting to Swedish entering NATO. This is the consequence of sheltering discrimination under the roof of freedom of speech. Will other nations face the same issues? In France it is a different matter “It is difficult to know exactly how many Muslims of different nationalities live in France because the state does not collect religious or ethnic census data”, some estimation hand that in France 4% is Muslim, with a 67 million population that becomes a rather large number. In the UK this is 4.4%, as such we better start reconsidering the freedom of discrimination, because when these two groups get angry (and they will) thee two nations will be in serious trouble, both economies will grind to a halt when they cannot afford even one Euro to economic downturns. Germany has even more problems, there the Islamic population is expected to be around 7%, but no clear numbers were found by me. The three largest economies in Europe and they want to play footsie with idiotic christians like Rasmus Paludan and whatever national pitchfork wielding idiot they have as an anti-Islam champion? As I see it, it represents a new form of Hook and Cod wars, a war the Netherlands had between classes. The cods (conservative nobles) won, but the one element that is too often ignored is the fact that this was active for 140 years (1350-1490). Now consider the impact of a religious class war all over Europe that lasts for that long. What do you think will be left of Europe after that? There was a reason why people were speaking out against discrimination. The principle of that matter was not the largest one, it was greed and when that greed is drowned in these kinds of outbursts the people (all of them) tend to end up with the short straw. This is why I voted in favour of expelling that refugee back to Iraq (see what happens there) and putting Rasmus Paludan in Halden Prison and forget he ever existed after that. You see everyone is ‘relieved’ that Turkey is no longer stopping Sweden from entering NATO, but that does not make it a done deal yet. I reckon that several complications could possibly erupt and that would extent the timeline by months, of not well over a year. Still this last part is not based on any evidence I have and should be regarded as speculation. Still, Sweden’s place in the Middle East and parts of Africa will not be a good one for some time to come and it better realises that it needs both these places to make economic headway of any kind. 

In this I could be wrong, I have been wrong before.

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Media, Politics, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 14, 2023 · 00:00

About the other thing

That is not how it started. It started with a dream, a slightly unsettling dream and at first I had no idea what it was about and where it would lead me, but there I was on the edge of whatever I was on and then I woke up. The dream had nestled in my subconscious and that is when I realised the larger image my mind was trying to tell me. Not unlike a game like Mirror’s edge, this one had optional potential. It would not be for normal consoles, it would be for a streaming solution like the Amazon Luna or its Tencent equivalent. But more about that later. Perhaps I will mail them directly and see what they can make of it. Yet as I was having these thoughts, the BBC gave us a story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66185545) where we see ‘Ukraine war: Russian general fired after criticising army leaders’ in that story we are given “Maj Gen Popov said he raised questions about high casualty rate and lack of artillery support” this would be merely one case, yet in the past (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/02/27/on-the-subject-of-failure/) on February 27th I showed just how massively the supplies of the Russian army were failing and that is the second part of the failure of Russian bear. Now we get to the third part which we are getting from the UK Express. The story (at https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1789517/vladimir-putin-russian-army-casualties-ukraine-war) gives us ‘Putin humiliated as Russia ‘almost certainly struggling’ with medical provision crisis’ which is part number three. As such we get to the image below

There we see a generic army setup. This is not my invention, this setup goes back to the napoleonic age. And in this General Popov raises a few interesting questions. What was the goal of the Russian Kremlin? Reduce its population at any cost? The need for generals to create a safe haven is now being made in doubt from what the BBC reports, as the quote is “A top Russian general says he has been removed from his post in Ukraine after telling military chiefs the truth about the dire situation on the front line”, we are given the final part, Logistics is seemingly failing to an equally disastrous degree. That is a massive failure, for any army to fail on these four counts will diminish any army, no matter how large it is and the losses are starting to add to serious losses for the Russian army.

A disastrous set of elements are in play and not being a high military person, I have no idea how this plays out. I am not even willing to speculate on would or could happen. Yet there is an overbearing thought. As I believe that General Popov is optionally correct, how could his superiors and the Kremlin be that wrong? People a lot more intelligent than me are in control of Armies, the Russian army is no exception, as such I wonder what on earth is going on. Was my dream part of that? I doubt that, it was a lot different from reality as is the command structure that the Russians are employing and if that fails, what else is failing behind that Iron curtain and with me realising this, I reckon that China and the Middle East are already on that channel. As such I need not worry about BRICS and what Russia is trying to do, they are at present experts in making themselves irrelevant. That is how I see it and I might be wrong, but when you realise that 4 parts of an entire army is failing, is there any other conclusion you could make?

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

July 13, 2023 · 00:40

Enemy of the stated

That is sometimes the case and I got that alert yesterday. It took me a while to get on board with some of the items, yet on the other side there is more and there is something else at that. So lets start with that part as it matters. Last year, almost 1 year ago I wrote an article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/07/18/for-those-not-seeing-the-oil-field/) with the title ‘For those not seeing the oil field’. In that Article I wrote “China could sell the Chengdu J-20 at a nice price to Saudi Arabia (I admit I was trying to get my foot in the door and make a play for a simple 3.75% commission), and when you consider that this bill might go up to 15 billion, my 3.75% makes for a nice half a billion (we all have overly big dreams), and merely to play the courier? You have got to be kidding, I am so ready for that part!” And that stage as already underway at that time (alas, not for me). In an age where in Australia we see nearly the entire nation ripe with age discrimination, I was aiming for a nice job getting 3.75% (an internal joke from 1996) of whatever comes up and recently I learned that this might be as high as $23.8 billion over 2 years. This would have gotten me a $892,500,000 pay-check (over 2 years). Would I accept that? Hell yes! For being a simple courier for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? I would have been so there. Australia has no enemy relationships with either country. Is it my best case scenario? Not exactly, I am a commonwealthian after all, as such I preferred to be courier to documents for the British Typhoon. Yet British Parliament gave it up for British tea grannies and their CAAT. The Americans made a mess of everything pushing their own solutions away from a decent revenue taxable future. So I was looking out for me and I would have taken that job, no hesitation about it. 

So now you have the background, lets dig into the article that sets this off. It was the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66160979) who gives us ‘US think tank founder charged with acting as Chinese agent’. In that article we are given a few parts. First there is “Gal Luft “agreed to covertly recruit and pay” an unnamed ex-US official to publicly support certain Chinese policies, federal prosecutors say. The 57-year-old allegedly attempted to broker arms sales involving customers in China, Libya, the UAE and Kenya.” Here we have two issues. Was he a broker? Did he connect to people, who via him conducted business? Broker is a bit of a lose term. And we aren’t talking two parties, we are looking at at least 3 channels, optionally more, but what is relevant and what matters? For Americans it is a setting for courts and good luck with that evidence. The second allegation is “In 2016, officials say he failed to register as a foreign agent while acting to advance Chinese interests in the US. He is alleged to have lobbied an ex-US official who was an adviser to then President-elect Donald Trump to convince him to “publicly support certain policies with respect to China”.” Here, in the first, was he a foreign agent, or was he a (technical) consultant? They are very different and evidence is bringing that up (I never saw any for that matter). And as the ‘activity’ happened in 2016, why did it take 7 years for anyone to take actions? Which policies was he catering to? Is that not the job of any stake holder in the political field? Was the policy a legal one or a illegal one? Three questions that blow away the setting if the court doesn’t have a proper deck of Trump cards (pun intended). Then we get a very specific one “Prosecutors also accuse him of attempting to broker arms sales without a US permit. He allegedly worked to help Chinese companies sell anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers and mortar rounds to Libya.” The short and sweet is, can it be proven that he was a broker, or was he an un-sided courier? Person A and Person B do not know each other (good enough), but they both know Person C and that person couriers the papers between the two. Isn’t that what DHL does? Is DHL a courier of an arms broker? Then we get “Federal officials say he attempted to bypass US sanctions on Iranian oil by directing an associate to say that the oil was Brazilian. According to prosecutors, Mr Luft was arrested in Cyprus on US charges on 17 February this year and fled after being released on bail pending extradition.” This is a specific allegation and a big ‘no no’ Iran is on the naughty list of many nations and there they might have a case. I reckon it is stupid to do what he did as the sulphur content of Brazilian and Iran are very different, did he not think this through? Well that is a case that might stick on him and the fact that he allegedly fled to Cyprus does not help him much. So what is the difference between George Luft and me? I am not American and I will not do business with Iran. But as we are both optional couriers I am still in a much better place that he is (alas a very poor one for now). As such in the end we get “He is charged with eight counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent, evading oil sanctions, two counts of making false statements to investigators and three counts of illicit arms trafficking.” What is true? What is legal? What is unacceptable? That is for the courts to decide, but I reckon that George Luft as the head of a think tank was already making a fair amount of coins, so why endanger it all? I never get invited to US Energy Security Council conferences, so I am a little clueless at present. But it seems that America is seemingly still out to declaw whatever China does and at present I cannot say that they did anything do wrong, the courts will decide on George Luft. I look forward to seeing that evidence. In the meantime, my delusional side will dream of getting his 3.75%, as all delusional people do.

Enjoy the middle of the week. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 12, 2023 · 02:13

One voice is still a voice

I made mention of this all over June. The production cuts that Saudi Arabia set out to do would have impact. Some called me stupid, most ignored the issue. Yet Bloomberg gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s Oil Production Cuts Are Quietly Starting to Bite’ (at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-oil-production-cuts-105634851.html), as such you need to consider. Not merely that I was right. The larger setting is that this is only one week into the new amounts and it is starting to bite. So how will the setting of less oil be in a month time? And before you know it North America and Europe enter autumn with all the heat they require at that point. We are then given “Brent oil traded in London had been stuck around the $75-a-barrel mark for weeks. That shifted a little Friday, when the contracts rose to about $78, a level they have largely held at since.” A setting we get and understand, but as the supply landscape is redefined, that price cannot be held and I reckon that in a month time it will hit the $90 mark and after that it gets nasty in a hurry. And there is an additional quote that matters. We are given “In the latest move, at least two processors in Asia sought less from the Saudis for cargoes shipped next month, and another said it won’t take any cargoes after an unexpected price increase.” This sounds nice on paper, but when we have 15 processors al vying for the 1 million barrels out there, at least 5 will have no oil to process. It is simple math and at that point the item of sulphur content will not hold much water. And whilst people are shouting where is our oil, I see a group of people that forgot that Saudi Arabia is building a new refinery in China which will gobble up almost a million barrels a day and China who got the deal with a clause accepting that payments are in Yuan is slightly too happy and when Europe (America and Canada too) realise that the reduction in oil is permanent and that China is now in a stage with loads of oil to fuel their economy. That is the point when people realise that they are losing a lot more than they bargained for. If only the US hadn’t pissed of Elon Musk to the degree they had. Yet this is about oil and not about batteries. The simplest setting is that this ‘biting’ is happening after less than 2 weeks into the reductions. So what will be the case in 4 weeks? Is someone considering that Janet Yellen had a portfolio of begging prescriptions towards China? I have no idea where this will end, yet I remember the ‘carless Sundays’ in the Netherlands in 1973. We might have that soon enough and now all over Europe and optionally America too. In 1973 it was fun. I got to test my roller skates on the A27 (a Dutch highway) which extension past Hilversum was brand new and I got to test that tarmac and not a car in sight, good times. Yet now it will be different and I reckon that the economic image will change for a lot of nations. It will not be a simple ‘lets add some money we do not have’. Now several members of the EU will be waging some kind of personal war to get the oil they all need. And I gave fair warning around two years ago. And it was not rocket science, it was simply based on the old premise ‘do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and that is how the escalation wth the UK (and their CAAT) and the US with whatever premise they thought they had and now they all want oil that they are denied. It sucks to be them soon enough.

It might be quietly biting now, but in 4-8 weeks it will not be quiet and when Europe (as well as the US) enters winter that setting will not be a nice one.

Enjoy the almost middle of the week.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,