Tag Archives: CIA

Behind the eyelids

Two dreams got to me and they both happened on the same night. The first one is weird in all kinds of ways. I cannot tell whether it is the foundation of a game, a movie or something else. In this dream it is mostly about some new MMORPG. It has a scientific side. You see the premise is that in these games most people become like herd-people. They will cluster into tasks. There will always be the ‘hero’ and goes racing into enemy hands getting himself (or herself) killed. In this my mind reached back to the original Star Trek specifically the episode ‘Shore Leave’ there we learn “The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play.” That quote always meant something to me. Now consider the MMORPG and now we can monitor interactions, but not draining the game. In this two bird types are addd to the game. The Albatros, a bird that flies around the shores of a nation and it has the ability to carpet the fields collecting thoughts and observing interactions to groups of people and the second bird is the Hawk. That one focusses on smaller areas and can pick up one specific character. Now you think that there is not a lot more, but consider that these two can like the character to the actual person outside of the game. Now we have a way to tag people, the undesirable and the willing. You see, the more simplistic the setting (Roman, Greek, Carthaginians, Egyptian), the more basic the weapons, the more that person will embrace his character, the character will more and more be the real person. That also means that now those behind the screens can unite the both and find the willing, the dangerous and the unknown players. Without any real intrusion to that persons ‘privacy’ the people orchestrating the game can make a mould of groups and clusters of people. That was as far as I got. There are all kinds of ‘measurements’ in real life and for the most they are all marketing based, but what happens when games take them to the next stage? It is not out of the realm of possibilities and that could make for a nice game, or movie for that matter.

The second dream took me to Slovenia (never been there myself). In the dream it was a movie (of sorts) the main roles were a spymaster of the CIA being called to the issues in Slovenia where he spend his early years and he had fond memories of it. Slovenia was overrun by the Russians and it was a power-knot of Russian forces, the FSB and the GRU. Central in the story was a fort or castle where they were housed at. The spymaster was played by Brian Cox (the true love of Helen Mirren, R.E.D.) and his student and main protagonist Ryan Gosling (aka Barbie’s Ken). The story is that taking out the heads of the FSB and GRU will throw the entire setting in turmoil and there they have an edge. A electrician and sympathiser found a door leading to a secret exit. He closed the door and sealed the door claiming it has dangerous toxic fumes. The door doesn’t lead to anything as such it was accepted. And he leads the people through the secret exit into the castle. We see him rewire lights and rewire options and the exit leads to a small room with two connecting rooms. They smuggle in hardware, they smuggle in equipment and they are ready. They have to wait three days until that sumit starts and several Russian bigwigs are in attendance.  In the meantime Brian and Ryan are around town confirming what they can and as the buildup of Russian forces are visible they seem to be on the wining side. In the meantime the Slovenian resistance has their head people in the room as well, they all want a claim towards striking such a blow to Russia. It is whilst driving Brian notices something, He grabs a baby monitor (CIA edition) and quickly states “It’s a trap, get out, get out now”, they sit in the car surrounded by Russian trucks being as small a shadow as possible. He states to Ryan “How many Russian soldiers do you know reading the bible whilst on watch?” The electrician was FSB, this was a play from the beginning to capture the Slovenian resistance. And yes, the door opens and Russian forces come pouring in. They had set up some traps with Ammonia and bleach (creating Chlorine gas) but the two dozen soldiers are all wearing masks. The resistance is all captured. Ryan has an idea to get back in and complete the mission, but he has a trump card. He studied the plans and that room links to another place. That is where he placed some boobytrapped weapons and he gets there by stealth killing the Russian soldiers and placing MRUD’s (Slovenian claymore) on the stairwell. He then goes to the place he knew about and uses some clustered RPG on the dignitaries stand who were there to watch the resistance leaders die. He escapes as quickly as possible and we do never know how the resistance people fared. He hopes that the confusion gave them an escape option. He then aids Brian as he was suckered into this deal by finding a former CIA executive, who was a Russian double all along. 

Brian walks away from his friends corpse stating “Sometimes you bite the bear, when you do make sure you bite hard” and Ryan follows him. 

One night, optional watching two movies for free. Well, they don’t exist yet, so that is my creative mind on a binge in dreamland.

Have a great Friday, only 3 days until Monday.

Advertisement

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, movies, Science

Presentations of what exactly?

That is where my mind is at today. This is not some setting of she said…she said. This is not one against the other, this is about what is real and what is mediated fake. There is a gap there that is as wide as the Grand Canyon, but the media is intent on making that gap seem like a little bump, something that can be discussed, even if they have made no headway in over two decades. 

To see this, we need to look at two sources. The first source is the Middle East monitor (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230408-cia-chief-visits-saudi-arabia-to-express-frustration-about-iran-rapprochement/

Source 1
Here we are given ‘CIA chief visits Saudi Arabia to express frustration about Iran rapprochement’ with the text “Burns told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that the US felt “blindsided” by Riyadh’s rapprochement with Iran and Syria – Washington’s global rivals – according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. It cited a US official who said Burns discussed cooperation on intelligence and counterterrorism with Saudi officials.

This is followed by my personal view

Bill Burns, in my personal view you achieved fuck all, in two decades Iran was able to push, your governments actions had no impact and over the last three years we saw Iran successfully smuggle weapons and gear to Houthi Terrorists. The media (with a little push) ignored the presentations of Colonel Turki Al-Maliki. Your organisation ignored facts, your organisation drowned voices and all for the good of the United States at the expense of everything. It is also a personal view that the CIA has been acting to achieve maximum destabilisation so that the USA had the big presentation to be the solution to everything Middle East based. How long did you think that you could continue that path?

I believe now and have always been of the mind that Saudi Arabia needs to do what is best for its country and its citizens. On a side note ‘rapprochement’ means “an establishment or resumption of harmonious relations”, which is presently not the case and might take some time to get to that level. So as we are given “The United States and Saudi Arabia for decades have cooperated closely on counter-terrorism and other intelligence matters” I have a few other issues, it is my personal belief that the US merely wants to know everything that they can (which makes sense) and they are doing it at the cost of everything and anyone. In this we can point at the case of the alleged thief and alleged traitor Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri. So how are they working together whilst Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri controls a CIA portfolio of a lot of money. So how close is the USA working with Saudi Arabia? It is merely a question, but the numbers are starting to add up and now that Saudi Arabia has decided to lower the oil deliveries by a million barrels, the US economy is starting to hurt really bad in America. It will not be visible for at least 60-90 days, but by the summer the US will be in deep waters and they need a solution, their inactions are going to be the cause of their own downfall. 

Source 2
The second source is Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/world/cias-burns-reaffirmed-intelligence-cooperation-saudi-arabia-visit-us-official-2023-04-06/) where we see ‘CIA’s Burns reaffirmed intelligence cooperation on Saudi Arabia visit – US official’ we get to see here “The United States and Saudi Arabia for decades have cooperated closely on counterterrorism and other intelligence matters” the rest could be seen as bland bla bla. 

The US is now in a larger stage of being pushed out of the Middle East. I made references to this for at least a year, first failed strategies, then the failed actions regarding Yemen and now the economy will falter. The options for the US are now falling away faster and faster and they did it to themselves.

Saudi Arabia must do what is best for its nation and its citizens and the events we saw in the last 5 years give rise to the fact that the USA is no longer the best option. And whilst we lay blame (not me), consider the actions of the last 5 years including the UN essay writer. Consider what WAS real and what might have been, and we were given what might have been too often and now that China has been successfully courting Saudi Arabia other issues will come. Iran is considering a new stage where it cannot fight Saudi Arabia AND Israel. It is therefor in a stage to make islamic choices towards Saudi Arabia and that allows for Iran to focus on Israel. It does not sound good for Houthi terrorists, but that is life. And now the US will lose a lot more than they counted on and the damage is getting worse, a lot worse. Their arms industry is losing grounds to China, which implies that that well is drying up faster than a saucer of water in the Rub’ Al Khali. What happens next is anyones guess but as I personally see it, the US policies have failed and now they need to rectify largely or be cast out of the region, on the upside, the US can still cater to Tel Aviv and whatever space they have.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

On the subject of failure

Yes, it is a subject that we all face and no one (including me) is happy about it. We all face it in one form or another. I saw an event that could play out later this year, somewhere optionally between July and September and I was not happy on how I showed myself. How I responded, no matter how honest I was, at that moment, I saw something I never felt happy about, but no matter how valid the response was, it does not mean that I am happy that I responded in that way. It was not about finding another way to say it, it merely went on about something that does not matter now. It applies to some degree to what this is about, because it made me check news sources and in this I decided on the article (at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-director-bill-burns-china-russia-lethal-aid/). The CBS News article gives us ‘CIA confirms possibility of Chinese lethal aid to Russia’ and when I read it, I saw something different, it was not related to the earlier part, but it changed the way I looked at that news. We are given “In an exclusive interview with CBS News, CIA Director Bill Burns confirmed the possibility that China may send lethal aid to Russia in its war against Ukraine. “We’re confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment,” Burns told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan on Friday.” We are also given “I think the Chinese are also trying to weigh the consequences of, you know, what the concerns we’ve expressed are, you know, about providing lethal equipment”, this comes from CIA Director William Burn and that is fine. I am not debating that part, but when you consider what is behind it, it is a different stage. You see Russia is close the broke on a few levels and the only way that Russia can pay for this (as China would prefer it) is via massively reduced oil. Oil China needs and Russia cannot sell it to their former largest buyers. Yet behind all this is more. The logistics of the Russian armed forces are a mess. Their soldiers are ineffective, their hardware is failing on many levels and their supply systems are (from my point of view) broken in many ways. Russia has a problem. It needs drones, it needs missiles and it needs hardware that soldiers can use, Russia is falling short on several fronts and it is losing against the 21st largest army in the world. We all have seen Ukrainian achievement reports in several languages on several sources and they seemingly align. Russia could mobilise its armies, but the hardware issues remain and that could push the Russian armed forces in a direction it does not want to go, not in this stage. To give some slight reference. Russia lost more people in this war in one year than the UK and France combined lost in WW2 over the entirety of the war. In one year lost more soldiers than the UK and France lost over the entire world war, they are doing THAT bad. So now they need upgrades in hardware and that is what Russia is seemingly angling for. But I reckon that China is only considering a limited list and the payments are due in oil and upfront. Which would give them millions of barrels in extra oil, oil they need and I reckon they will get it for an apple and an egg. 

But when you think this through we could optionally deduce a lot more. You see that oil can then not be used to heat Russian houses, fuel power and fuel mobility. In addition it would be a first direct proof that the Russian Army has no place to go, or at least not operational. If it was merely missiles the issue would be small (except for the Ukraine), I am speculating that it is about a lot more, even if we accept that Russia is sending troops with 40 year old ammunition. 

The fact that they cannot do this with a renewed offensive is up on the wall and now we see how deployment and supply lines are on the front issues. If they cannot get supplies they will need to acquire them and China is nearly the only option and that is merely the beginning of the issue. Thee news has shown enough issues with soldiers personal gear and debatable mobile hardware (tanks and other things requiring wheels). This is not the stage of some new tanks, this is about the refurbished T-72 tanks that are almost 50 years old, implying that whatever anti tank comes their way will slice through their armour like a hot knife through butter and that is if the refurbishments were properly done, which in light of several issues is now a matter for debate. If Russia stages this war with its regular armies (if they can find them) Those armies will be ill equipped and ill prepared. A lesson France learned in 1812 the hard way and now Russia gets to learn that very same lesson. But is it all true? I am speculating, but I believe that I am in a stage of presumption because I do know how in parts this field is set. And the lesson is not over, not for the Russians and not for me either. Because there are many debates on what was real, I need to wonder how reliable the information I have is. I believe that I made enough sidesteps to alternate sources of information so that I believe that I am on the right track, but that too is not properly vetted information, so there could be gaps. Yet overall the news is still valid. If Russia needs China it means that they were never ready for any real combat and they were never prepared with the hardware they had, or they wouldn’t need China’s hardware. It could be a Russian ploy, but I do not think so, if that was the case the CIA would have come with a very different presentation, of that I am very certain.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Once upon a silencer

Before I begin, lets be clear the story part is all unadulterated fiction, with a capital ‘U’ no less. So do not see this as anything else than fiction. The story might not make it clear but this should and you should take care on what you trust as fact. 

There is a town, the name Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. In that overgrown village is a house, the house is filled with all manner of people, all very adapt in English. They are awaiting a signal. Until that moment comes they sit, they sit whilst the ventilators are blowing cooled air towards them. Then a mobile sounds and one of them answers. The only response is ‘Yes, sir’ and he disconnects. He stands up and holds his assault rifle in the ready position. It is the signal the other dozen people were waiting for, they all instantly stand up they set their weapons to ready and walk towards the door. No word is exchanged, they are all aware of what must be done. They silently leave the house and they are like a silenced unit in the early morning. These soldiers have a few parts in common. They have no insignia, for all intent and purposes they could be walking shadows. They are all equipped with the SR-3 Vikhr. Made to keep noise down to a minimum, all experts in targeting, silent walks and shadow dancing. They approach the house where soft voices sound. They had prepared for this and they were ready. The locks on the front door were surpassed in less than 10 seconds. They walk in each in their intended direction and everyone was dispensed with in mere seconds, the entire operation took less than 20 seconds and there were no survivors. Then three other soldiers walked in, each holding 2 jerrycans, they stand in the room awaiting a signal. The corpses were relieved of papers, quick snaps were made of the face and hands and left where they were. The man in charge point his finger to the 3 soldiers. They move to their locations and thrust a hole in each of their jerry cans when they put them in place, safety pin is removed and they move to the exit following the other soldiers. In less than 10 seconds it is done and they walk back to their location, only to exit it on the rear and move towards 4 SUV’s that had arrived without making noise. They get in precisely as practised and they slowly drive away making a left turn, they are not in a hurry. People in a rush get noticed and these people are experts in not getting notices. Before they get to the end of the street they notice smoke in their rear view mirrors, only now would people notice that something was wrong, but they were already out of the notice zone.

Meanwhile in Germany
In Germany that day the officials started to arrest members of the Reich Citizens. Yet there was more in play, members of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK) have their own charter to follow. Seven people who are part of no one, their only adherence is money and they have been funding issues that caught attention of the people who kept Germany safe and these seven people were adeptly removed from life. Each of the seven units were a mix of BND and KSK. The BND followed the KSK after people were relabelled corpses and started to gather whatever could hold intelligence that could be gathered. They were gathering intelligence but the orders were clear, passive collection only. Now the active collections started and the entire operations were completed in under 6 minutes and each team vacated the premises setting the location on fire through a short and patches of pure alcohol, nothing was left to chance.

The ugly intent
North of London is a small town named Hertford. In there is a house, a house with a young lady repeating the slogans she had taken to heart. Her dedication to JustStopOil might seem nice and even as she has no ulterior motives. She is a believer, but her ‘funding manager’ is not. It was orchestration of a new kind. And someone caught on, the man shuck in with an overgrown ratchet and crushed he skull with one precise hit, the girl falls down to the ground, dead before her head hit the floor. She was one of half a dozen targets, all done away in the same manner. The special operations branch took a different view from the others. They wanted the message to be clear to all supporters of anarchy. Your days are done!

It was then that the view looked to the west, but the members of QAnon were the responsibility of the FBI and CIA. 

Yes, this is pure fiction, but the underlying story is not. This all took month of preparations, of coaching and we see groups like Reichsbürger with sudden means for action. We see people like Prince Heinrich XIII, we see JustStopOil and we see other places. Someone is orchestrating, I have no idea who, but this isn’t some stage of lets follow someone else. This took money, it took a serious amount of coin, all anarchy requires funds to remain undetected for so long and now the governments have had enough. It is costing them too much. Now I have no idea what governments thinks (many are unable to do so). But the need to protect coffers and freedom require actions and even as I am fictionally am setting these actions in motion, I have no illusions on these governments having their needs and their solutions. That is something that is a clear stage and we need to recognise it. I once (about half a decade ago) accused a judge of cowardice. You see, I believe in laws, it sets us apart, but it is not the golden calf. There needs to be flexibility. The law keeps 95% in check, this includes criminals. The law takes care of it. 4.9% is dealt with in other ways, 0.1% cannot be dealt with, so the law wins. However 0.1% of the 0.1% is the problem. It amounts to 80,000 people who will do whatever they can to harm and hurt the 8,000,000,000 around. Which implies that on average around 400 people in a nation are extremely dangerous. Some are psychotic, some sociopaths and nature tends to deal with them, but a few of these are clever, they are hidden and they thrash out damage after damage and they need to be stopped through targeted killings. There is no other way and relying on the golden calf names ‘laws’ is a cowardly short sighted action. Actual actions are required and now we et to the stage where too many connect to social media giving these anarchy driven people a larger platform to connect to, inspiring too many people and action is required. What the best action is? I cannot tell, but with the media relying on digital dollars implies that these dangers are getting worse, as such my storytelling side is using fiction to ward of that feeling of inactions. Actual actions are the prospect of governments and it is up to them to actually act, but that might be me oversimplifying the issue.

Have a great day!

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Military, Stories

DARPA eat your heart out

Yup, I admit that this is slightly arrogant, but I am allowed to be just that at times. You see, in the previous article I had an idea to take out the protection detail of a corrupt politician and the idea was an exploding bullet. Then my mind went on a chase and the result was a new kind of bullet, one with three layer and an adjusted powder mix (like the .600 nitro express has). The idea was not to merely blow up, but to make the gun totally worthless and the Russians like multi use ammunition, as such if we can introduce 50 of these bullets in an order of 1000-3000 the demoralisation of Russian troops becomes a lot more interesting and the Russian army becomes even less useful as it already is. Now to get these bullets there takes another skill (one that I do not have), but rumour has it that there is a whole range of people with skills and they can be found at 2430 E St NW, Washington, DC 20037, United States. As such, the people at DARPA, which is supposed to be somewhere in Arlington Virginia. someone in building two, talk to those in building one and get the idea for exploding ammunition created and placed in the Russian supplies please? 

OK, I am oversimplifying the situation, yet the message is clear. We are all supporting the Ukraine one way or another and my way is to spread chaos all over the forces of the Russian bear, who is already getting slapped by Paddington bear, one of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s previous pre-presidential jobs. 

Anyway, it took me three hours to work out this idea, so this is the third time I got the goods ahead of DARPA. So, I reckon it is time to snore like a sawmill and move towards Wednesday. 

And if you think this is all arrogance, you are not wrong, but it is the second time that I created something to stop Russians in their tracks, the third one was meant for the Iranian navy, but that does not mean that it could not be used against the Russians. 

Ah well, another day spend in creativity.

Leave a comment

Filed under Military, Politics, Science

A gamer darkly

That is what we are at times, a dark player in a field of poppies trying to remember where we were in the first place. It is not some riddle, at times most of us (including me) are clueless on where we go, yet we know we need to get there. It drove Ubisoft to fame, and even now as Ubisoft becomes less and less relevant to the gamers of today players like Guerrilla take over with their Horizon games. What was the world of Mass Effect and Assassins Creed became the world of Elden ring, Horizon and the heroin Eloy. Tomorrow it seems to be a stage of the last Horizon part, Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights. And it is important that we address ‘seems to be’. You see, I have heralded moves to the streamers and there is every indication That they did not listen and Tencent did. You see, even as some state “Chinese tech giant Tencent is apparently planning to launch its own handheld gaming console, going by a patent spotted recently. (2021)” I do not think that people have any idea what gamers are about to get. You see this looks like a handheld Switch lookalike, but it isn’t. 

Jumping to the past
In 1989 Astral Software launched Archipelago. The game was decent enough, the graphics were not the greatest but with 1000 levels there was enough fun for everyone and in the end there was. Some called it ““one of the most original games I’ve seen, both in gameplay and in original concept”, with an “odd and eerie setting that works despite an eminently forgettable scenario”” Now consider that this was a game that was less than 1MB. Now reset that game with todays graphics, make it an offline game and when you consider that this was originally a 92% game, consider that this game (and well over a dozen others) could end up being 88%+ games. Now all the other streamers have a problem. They relied on ‘has-been’ Ubisoft to cater to their needs. A player that could not keep its eyes on the price and with what we were given this week

We now have two streamers that need to adjust image, adjust course on their streamers, or they will be surpassed by Tencent. Another field here China ends up getting the mustard (my 50 million console idea is still safe, I checked). And now that the facts are slowly seeping, I wonder what Netflix will do. Microsoft is not a player in this (merely a marketing idea), and if Tencent makes at least two steps in the direction I expect, before the end of this year Google Stadia will be a forgone lost solution to a direction gamers are not interested in, that leaves the Amazon Luna, it has options, but Tencent is seemingly directed into a field to capture the heart of gamers, something the others needed to have done long ago.

Even as Google is seemingly using the media to give us quotes like “After debuting to middling reviews, it had to suffer through a slowly growing library, a limited user base and the shuttering of its first-party studios. But Stadia is still alive and kicking, and Google intends to prove it next week.” They are in more trouble than they think, they relied on Ubisoft to solve their issue, but Ubisoft only tries to solve its own issues and now the earlier article makes more sense. Techspot gives us “In a nutshell: Ubisoft will decommission the servers of 15 games in the next two months, including some of the most popular entries in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Most of these titles are about a decade old, so there are likely not that many people still playing the multiplayer components. However, users also won’t be able to download DLCs they previously bought for these games.” Gamers hate to loose parts, including DLC’s, and for the “so there are likely not that many people still playing the multiplayer components” could be translated into a stage where the 2-3 games per server idea was cast aside. Now, in many cases I do not care about the online parts, but Ubisoft made it part of the game (to embrace people), and now when revenue is king players are pushed out. Gamers will see this as a betrayal. In a time when Tencent is looking for gamers to push its IP forward, Ubisoft plays right into their hands and if they considered what I put online, gamers will get dozens of golden oldies. They will feel catered to and that seals the fate of Ubisoft and optionally Google too. They decided not to develop games and now that decision will bite them. 

We now get a new pool and the streamers (seemingly) are Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and Tencent. They will vie for a slice of the entire pie that includes Sony and Nintendo. These two will see the impact, but will not lose players, if anything these players will have a streamer on the side and that is where Tencent becomes really visible, over time they could get a much bigger slice of the $200,000,000,000 that is stated to be the pie of next year. Yes, we know that a lot of it will go to mobile games and that is exactly where Tencent will see the profit, catering to gamers, catering to online players, mobile gamers and their console can store it all, they played a beautiful hand. I personally hope that Amazon gets the push it needs, I do not care either way whether Tencent gets it, as long as Microsoft does not. There should not be any award for stupidity, should there be?

A stage I emphasised over two years ago and it is coming to fruition in the next 12 months. Although to be honest, I merely saw Microsoft as the loser and I did not see Tencent coming two years ago, now they are a much larger concern to the other players. But perhaps the Tencent console will be seen as spy equipment by the CIA, they still haven’t presented any real evidence on Huawei, so why should we expect to see any on Tencent?

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, IT, Politics, Science

What happens when colours do not mix?

That is a weird question, it is actually a conundrum and as such we leave it out in the grass. A few hours ago the middle easters eye gives us ‘Saudi Arabia lifts unofficial trade embargo off Turkiye’, a stage and a half as I would think. There we see “That boycott was primarily due to the clash of foreign policy goals between Riyadh and Ankara in the region, with the two backing opposing sides in Libya and disagreeing over the legitimacy of the government in Egypt installed after the 2013 military coup. Turkiye was also pushing to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, in which it maintained that the Saudi government and Crown Prince were involved.” Which was what was expected. Whether it is dialogue, party lines or something else, the language is not a surprise. What was interesting is the article a month ago called ‘Did Turkey bow down to Saudi Arabia?’ (At https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220509-did-turkey-bow-down-to-saudi-arabia/). There we are given “Bilateral relations were also badly strained after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018. At the time, Erdogan accused the “highest levels” of the Saudi leadership of ordering the murder, but did not name any official”, as well as “Khashoggi’s murder triggered a global outcry against the Kingdom and Bin Salman, who is its de facto ruler. Turkey insisted on seeking justice in Khashoggi’s case and commenced legal proceedings; the CIA accused Bin Salman of ordering the murder. However, no country or international body has taken even a small punitive measure against Saudi Arabia.” Yet this is not quite correct is it? In the first we see “the CIA accused Bin Salman of ordering the murder” which they never did, they stated that it was highly likely (which does not constitute evidence), The UN report is out in the open, so you can check it for yourself. Then we get “no country or international body has taken even a small punitive measure against Saudi Arabia” and there lies the rub. You see if you had properly examined the UN report you would see that there was no evidence and the number one piece of evidence was that the report NEVER gave a proper digital report that the voice was confirmed and without doubt the voice of Jamal Khashoggi. We saw spin after spin, but no one properly digitally examined and tested the tapes. There is even an issue with the full tape, no report gives us any understanding that a tape even existed, merely bytes of audio and those were not properly forensically tested to ascertain the identity of the voices. When you see these two elements in a United Nations report no less, you will start to see what I saw within an hour of that UN report being made public. A hack job and a bad one at that. So after the blunders that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan committed, first with the EU, then with US, then Russia (S-400 missiles) it comes over that he need all the friends he can get and he will do whatever he can to not go under and he does not have that much options or any credibility as I personally see it. So when we see “Erdogan was enthusiastic about the meeting because he sees trade with Saudi Arabia as an important requirement for the revival of Turkey’s economy, and regards Riyadh’s political and diplomatic support as vital ahead of next year’s presidential election. He also knows that the catalyst for his country’s estrangement with the Saudis, the Arab Spring, has ended in all but name.” We need to realise that the only other option is China and China would want assurances, something Turkey has no option or intention to give. Commitment is not high on their calendar. And they need something now, it is not about “the revival of Turkey’s economy” it is about having a longer stand against whatever comes next. And now that Iran overstepped its options in Turkey, Turkey will see Saudi Arabia as the only option and they are not wrong. How this will play out? I cannot tell, it makes sense for Saudi Arabia to allows for trade with Turkey, it makes more sense for them to see all connections that nations have with Iran fade away. 

The media is to some degree monitoring what is happening here, but not to the degree I expected. You see there are a few options opening up for Saudi Arabia, and Turkey has to commit now, or learn that being alone with neighbours they sold short one way or another is not the way to go. For Saudi Arabia and the STC, Turkey is another option to get a true 5G middle east network up and going, optionally 2-3 years ahead of Europe and the US. As such STC could have surprisingly profitable franchises in Egypt and Turkey in the near future, it could set a new premise. It would also be the first time in history where the STC (and Saudi Arabia through it) would reach North Africa and optionally Southern Europe as well. Something that they never did before and that opens up more than Nokia, it speculatively opens up new options for Huawei as well. It is too early for predictions, but the idea that they grow by 50% before 2024 is not out of the question, especially if their foothold in Egypt and Turkey continues. A thought that people would have ridiculed in 2017 is now on the borders of reality. So when do colours not mix? When you never had the right colours in the first place, that is when. A stage we negated for too long a time and now with Turkey it comes to the forefront rather quickly.

613 seconds until Monday morning, enjoy!

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

The size and shape of a stage

Yes that is at times what we face and it was weirdly enough Yahoo News that got me there. Their article ‘Biden’s Saudi Arabia trip denounced as ‘frightening and enraging’ by dissidents’ (at https://au.news.yahoo.com/bidens-saudi-arabia-trip-denounced-as-frightening-and-enraging-by-dissidents-140526416.html), and yet the small part ignored is that a dissident is a person who opposes official policy. So as the US is trying to make nice with the people they need, they are hindered by the people they do not need. So when we see “the street was in front of the Saudi Embassy, and its new name was Jamal Khashoggi Way.” So in all this, how much hay is being made by a nation (Brazil) where 100% more journalists were murdered in the last week? There is a lack of the 78 million articles, a lack of some CIA report (via the UN) that it is highly likely, there is a need to paint one person white, the other person black and hoping that no one will notice that Al Jolson was not African American. That is a stage we see, that is a stage people play for and we are caught in the middle. You see, the report was dubious in a few ways. It does not make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia innocent, but it clearly shows that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is not guilty. And this all takes a harder sharp turn because the person no one (well almost no one) gives a hoot about was a columnist for the Washington Post. And the setting merely escalates from there.  

So as we see the pressing need for the US to postpone its dollar default for as much as possible, it needs business with the KSA (it is close to the only one who can afford this), they need the oil from them to be cheaper, because the US does not have enough and they all need it yesterday and the people who opposed official policy are trying to make that impossible. 

I have nothing against dissidents, some are validly so, some are to make a quick buck and get out of the mess they were in. That first group needs consideration, yet beyond them getting out they need to realise that if the dollar defaults they could end up back in Riyadh and how will they fare then? So now we get Bethany al-Haidari of the Human Rights Foundation, who gives us “Now she is worried that Biden will be sending to authoritarians around the world the message that political expediency trumps core conviction. And while that may always be the case in the world of realpolitik, the images sure to emanate from Riyadh will starkly contrast the divide between American values and practices.” It is a valid point, yet the validity is under fire from the setting of values and practices where social commitments have lost to the profits of big business. And the US government is not innocent here either. I spoke out about the essential overhaul of tax laws 24 years ago, they all called me crazy, it would sort itself out. And now? The US national debt has surpassed the $30,500,000,000,000 They are now well over $5,000,000,000,000 past the point of no return. At this point they need to reduce debt by $500,000,000,000 per year and it would still take 3 generations for the debt to become manageable. What do you think will go out the window first? Values or practices? A setting where the larger gain for the US will be Elon Musk, they know it and that is why they hate him. Mobile and energy power in the hands of one man, one man who is seemingly a lot more clever than Bill Gates and Larry Ellison combined and one generation later.  The politicians are scared, they opened a door they refused to close and now they are setting down with a mess all over the place, because they could not adhere to values and they are left with the practices that re out there at tax laws that are still unadjusted. 

The USA is about to become a mess for well over two generations and the media is silent, because they want their digital dollars, it is all they have left and it does not adhere to values, merely to the painting of flames and flaming targets. Elon Musk can wait until desperation takes over, Google, Amazon and IBM can wait and over that time Microsoft will merely become more desperate to spin their failures. Big tech in a world that merely adheres to the practices that they can adhere to for their board members and share holders. That is the world that needs to appease  to either Bethany al-Haidari or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. I reckon that the Bethany al-Haidari in this world are figuring out that they will be getting the short end of the stick, one that was handed to big business, not merely big tech. And Biden might be the last president before the Dollar buckles completely and the US becomes a third world nation. 

Are you depressed yet? 

Good, you need to see what is coming and for the longest of times, even as the media is trying to spin that all is well, all is not well and all is getting worse. As I stated, I do not give one hoot. It was clear to me when I saw the UN report that this was a hack job, that this was a well articulated magician’s trick and in the end how much visibility did we see on the 42 murdered journalists in Brazil? Journalists, not some columnist. And that is before we realise that Turkey has it own skeletons in their closet and when that gets out in the open we see the media is not indifferent, it is and has been actively hostile towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as such the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can take its time and wait and watch the US go under one step at a time and at present quicker than several months ago. That is the reality, that is the impact of what some call realpolitik. It sounds nice on paper, but realpolitik is all about the practices, especially those who bring profit, values be damned. But the people who are lulled to sleep will see and face that part soon enough. 

So consider what you read and do your own research, do not take my word as gospel. I try to be as honest as possible, but I too adhere to practice more than value. I accept values and I admire those fighting for values, but in a place with 30 trillion in debt values will not last long, because every politician will see revenue as for the good of all and in that world people like Elon Musk are the options of tomorrow and no one has a better plan, because when that was an option the flaccid politicians saw it was easier to call me (and others) crazy and not in touch with reality, and that was not that long ago, these same people will now hide behind “It is difficult, it is a complex situation”, you tell me how I could see what was coming and I do not have an economy degree. I have three degrees, none in economy.

Enjoy your Friday and try to have a little fun.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Politics

Speculation versus reality

That is what I am facing now. Yes, this article has massive speculations, that I will tell you upfront. The setting we usually see is that the media (with better sources than me) will give a more realistic view and that is how it USED to be. Yet in this day and age, the media has (as I personally see it) become the play tool of stakeholders and that means we do not get the news, we get filtered information, but filtered in what way? 

This setting started yesterday when I got confronted with ‘A source close to the family of Saad al-Jabri reveals to CNN the details of the settlement with Mohammed bin Salman’ (at https://www.dubaiweek.ae/a-source-close-to-the-family-of-saad-al-jabri-reveals-to-cnn-the-details-of-the-settlement-with-mohammed-bin-salman/) the weird part is that this is the Dubai Week, CNN has NOTHING. This is about Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri. In addition we are given “in a statement to CNN, said the White House Arranges for the meeting The meeting between US President Joe Biden and the Saudi prince is likely to take place next month. He pointed out that attempts to organise the meeting came amid a number of controversies, such as the assassination of Jamal Kashoki and the al-Jafri case. Sources said al-Jabri had recently told the White House that he would settle all legal and financial disputes with Saudi Arabia if he returned his two sons.” As such I wonder what is real. The Dubai Times gives us “US President Joe Biden” instead of US President Biden. As well as “the Saudi prince”, which prince exactly? Then we see “assassination of Jamal Kashoki” instead of ‘alleged assassination of Jamal Khashoggi’? You might remember the columnist no one cares about, his name was Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi. My first question becomes, who is this clown Bill Dittman? What gave the editor of this magazine the idea that this was journalism? Then we get “the al-Jafri case” named after Saad bin Khalid Al Jabri, when we try to name our expected traitors and alleged thieves, can we at least get some part right?

So far the Dubai Times is not impressing anyone with minimal fact requirements. Then the use of the CNN logo and the mention of CNN the way they did gives a massive question on the quality of news people are exposed to and as we see one paragraph of what ails the media, we also need to consider the fact that CNN did not allegedly state anything against this article. 

And I almost fell for it, I almost fell for the fact that this is not journalism, so how many do fall for it and how many who read the Dubai Times and do not have the knowledge of multiple languages. How many will fall for fake news? And then we have “he would settle all legal and financial disputes with Saudi Arabia if he returned his two sons.” Apart form the bad English, the setting is larger. He is accused of stealing a lot more than $990,000,000 (exact amount unknown to me). More important the US government (CIA) has been protecting him, they went so far to play the national security card to avoid evidence being shown. This is one of the larger amount of issues that President Biden is facing. He wants cheap oil, but his administration keeps on messing with the basic rights of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well as give shelter to expected traitors and alleged thieves. At what point does he expect to have a chance in this? 

We have all kinds of options, but they are drawn to the facts and what we believe, when the media plays these games what is fact becomes debatable and the amount of options that we trust and expect diminish into nothing. Don’t get me wrong there is no way that the Dubai Times is alone in this, yet the others are more subtle, more careful. They filter what we see and make the filtering smaller until only one side remains. It is a game that has been played for the longest of times, yet in this day and age, in the age where digital media is the choice of many and industrials are setting the digital voice, that stage becomes overwhelmingly large and at some point no one will be able to differentiate between the sources. That is how I see it. So in this case, how far did speculation, presumption and reality get transgressed on?

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Politics

Retail 101

One of the oldest rules of retail 101 is that you buy cheap and sell as high as possible, that is how you create profit. Add to that the simple rule that you spend less than you earn and that will make you rich on the side. These rules are not new, they were old when the crusades started (ca.1095). 

So when the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61188579) gives us ‘Oil prices have soared. Why won’t Opec bring them down?’ The setting of the American governmental license plate came to mind (Dee-You-Age). We get to see “Opec+ could also lower prices by putting more oil onto the market, which is what major importers like the US and UK want it to do.” Yes, and tarmac is made with liquorice. Opec+ has a good deal, there is a need for oil and they can set the price. The nations relying on oil have done pretty much ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to appease Saudi Arabia. We see the two largest suppliers (Russia and Saudi Arabia) but even though the US is not in that group, how much oil do they produce? 

And then we get “US President Joe Biden has repeatedly appealed to Saudi Arabia to increase its oil output, but to no avail. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also asked Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to increase production. He too was rebuffed.” In this the first part was that the US played a stupid game.

  1. A journalist no one gives a fuck about goes missing and for weeks the gossip and speculations start, even the United Nations get involved with shoddy documentation (as I personally see it). Realism tells us that something happened. Yet no one and I say again no one produced clear evidence. None gave any clear evidence of what had happened and Turkey who was playing the Iranian game made things worse. The United Nation document had issues, several players were not held to account, but that did not matter, they all got to attack the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  2. The Houthi attacks and again the Iranian factor in this was openly ignored by the media. The non Arabic nations were not informed on houthi attacks with Iranian support on Saudi civilian targets. Coalition events were exaggerated, Houthi attacks were trivialised. 
  3. Saudi and SAMI needs were stopped and Saudi defence settings were halted. Now, the west can do that, they are allowed to. Yet in that, the Saudi’s have absolutely no need to increase production, do they? If the west was so clear on their needs, they would have increased non-oil options two decades ago, but that did not really happen, did it?

Three clear events that are now biting the hands of the US and the UK, Saudi Arabia is willing to look after its friends, but these two have not really shown to be friends, have they?

And in all this Russia is enjoying what is happening, because they do not have to do anything else but watch the cost of living in the US, UK and EU to rise to almost impossible levels. A stage we never wanted and perhaps those tea ladies from the CAAT are now in a stage where they can afford the tea, but they can no longer afford the cookies. There is an opposing side to almost everything and the simple truth of protesting without understanding what was going on is now taking its toll. But the CAAT had its limelight shots in the newspapers. It is lovely to see those pictures, just too bad that the price of that limelight ended up costing some people billions and under those conditions the UK can pretty much kiss their cheaper oil goodbye.

In all this, I wonder what the CIA did last month, what they offered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, because the current administration has pretty much destroyed whatever options they had. As I see it, by the rules of Retail 101, the US has only one option, to open whatever weapon sales it can get without restrictions and with a full service package. I reckon that alone is required to lower the oil prices by 10%, they need a lot more, but as such the players will have to offer more and they need to realise that the loud words of ‘no oil’ and ‘end petrol needs’ were merely that, words. It will happen, there is no doubt in my mind, but I doubt I will be alive to see those days, I reckon kids who were born after 2000 will have a decent chance to see the end of a petrol based economy whilst they are still alive. I doubt that it will happen before that. In this, the entire stage of the BBC article was to some degree needed, but they should have given the people a slightly better information ring. Like the interactions of OPEC and airlines. You see over the last 15 years we added a total of 41000 additional flights a day, why? There is also a lack of the American numbers, how much oil do they produce and why can they not produce more? Two simple elements in this equation missing, why is that? 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics