That happens to us all and to me about an hour ago when I was about to go imitate a sawmill when a tweet reached me. The Tweet came from Democratic Jeff Jackson, United States Representative since 2023 for North Carolina. And the tweet was worth it, I would call it the best political video I saw in years.
It gives a clear concise and brief overlook of the Silicon Valley Bank situation and the actions that are in play. Now, I do have questions but not on the video, everyone should see that one. The video can also be seen on YouTube (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFo-AQ5aQm0), so watch this.
This was about soothing and assuring people and that is a good thing. It was a one of the best surprises I have seen in years. Then we get to the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/14/first-thing-global-markets-gripped-silicon-valley-bank-collapse) there we see “The bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group, and two top executives have been sued by shareholders over the collapse of SVB. The bank’s shareholders accuse the group chief executive, Greg Becker, and the chief financial officer, Daniel Beck, of concealing how rising interest rates would leave its SVB unit “particularly susceptible” to a bank run”, for this we have a few items and it is not the Simpson illustration even as that was a hilarious one (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovfap2VtpHM) and even to some degree on point even as Bart Simpson never went to the Silicon Valley Bank, the run shows that something set it off, in the case as I saw it, the bank trying to raise 2 billion dollars. Yet I still have questions. You see, I comprehend what happened, I merely do not understand it. I never understood greed (as I personally saw it). I raised the issue (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/12/i-honestly-dont-get-it/) with ‘I honestly don’t get it’, there I made mention of the European phrase CET1 (Common Equity Test), it was an essential step into Basel III. When the US (under non-leadership of the town clown Donald Trump) lifted the Dodd-Frank act which stopped banks take unnecessary risks, without that act these dangers are back and now it comes to the question as I also gave you in the previous article “mainly US government bonds” that is the setting of the question which is:
How many US government bonds did EVERY US bank buy since the Dodd-Frank act was lifted and I reckon that the SVB bought too many, but they are nowhere near the only ones and as such the US needs to look at these stages and what is required to set a decent level of footholds in place so that the US banks can pass some level of Common Equity Test. Now, there is every chance that this list of banks are limited and that is OK, but remember that a run on two banks nearly started a new financial crises, which would close to immediately sink their economy. And make no mistake, I was a Republican once and I cannot stand this level of stupidity, so the Republicans get to wear that cloak of shame, all thanks to the Trump disaster creation team. He took such great pride of dwindling down Dodd-Frank, now let him face the fallout too.
The action was great, the question remains, but that is for another day, for now this administration needs to avert a new financial crises, and they seem to be doing just this. The end will not be known until early next week I reckon, but that is a pure speculative timeline.
These moments happen to us all, some we see the moment we see them, some we see after a while when things sink in and there is a third option, but we need not think of that. This afternoon I was confronted with the first one by no one else by Arnold Schwarzenegger. That terminator, the Governator and he became so much more over time to so many of us. The man is a legend in his own time, optionally one of the most amazing governors in the history of the USA. And a lot of these actions were done before and after he was governor of California. To call him an actor is like referring to a Rolls Royce, a Bugatti, a Ferrari, a Aston Martin or a Bentley as a simple automobile. Some things cannot be defined, cannot be dimensionalised and we are all good with that, some exceptions break the consideration of any shape. We all get that (if not you need to brush up on things).
So it all started with a Tweet (at https://t.co/P0VCDqPeb6) there we see the governator, slightly posh with all that silver in his beard. He gives us an interesting approach to stop hate, it takes 12 minutes and listening will be the best 12 minutes of this month, no exceptions (unless you got lucky with Laura Vandervoort). He talks about giving into hate and it was amazing. The man is so eloquent that he should be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Let me emphasise here that this is no reflection on Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. I do not know her and I mean no disrespect to her. When you hear the words of Arnold they will hit you deep, much deeper than you think and that is the effect of a person like this. This is why he is so rare and legendary unique.
So my Monday involved an amazing moment that I never saw coming. I do not give into hate, but the reminder that not doing so is not the easy path felt good, very good. You see, I had been noticing Islamaphobia to the larger extent in the US, Europe, and commonwealth nations. It is higher now then it was during the first crusades in 1095 and that is saying something. We were actively trying to kill one another. Christians as invaders and Muslims as defenders, all due to Pope Urban II and his posse of greed driven exploiters. Something needed to be done and I created IP for that approach. The fact that it impacts Facebook, Google and optionally Amazon is merely a side effect. For me that video was in part learning, in part confirming that I was right all along and in part in awe as I saw yet another side of Arnold Schwarzenegger. So be clever and watch those 12 minutes, the link is also given by YouTube (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsETTn7DehI). Even as he focusses on anti-semitism he actually addresses all kinds of hate and he does it well. So watch and learn, optionally a lot. Those 12 minutes were truly an awesome moment.
That is at times the setting. It starts nice for me, as I got subjective confirmation that one branch of my solution is set to a stage that is unfolding EXACTLY how I expected it, and as such the first stage to 50 million subscriptions is close to set, the second branch is in the same setting, but requires something specific. Which now leaves the third branch and there is some friction there, but for the most, it should work, especially if advertisements on rules and regulations unfolds the way I hope. In this I created three advertisement tomes. Like the Yellow pages, but with a difference and if that works Facebook will see the impact too. A stage where I had the right approach all along and that feels good, especially when a player like Amazon buys it (I had hoped for Kingdom Holding to buy it), but beggars can’t be choosers.
And this gets me to the story of the day. The story came from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64859780) and is less then an hour old. And the reflection is seen in the article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/02/27/on-the-subject-of-failure/) called ‘On the subject of failure’ which I wrote on February 27th, a week ago. There I wrote “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.” And here we get Yevgeny Prigozhin complaining about a lack of ammunition. He throws it towards ‘betrayal’ but I know better, all information shows us that Russia blatantly ignored overhauls from the 90’s onwards and the Russian Mafia took whatever they could and left the Russian bear with a flask of nail polish for its claws. A nice and shiny red (like the original flag). We are also given “Mr Prigozhin said his representative was unable to access the headquarters of Russia’s military command. It is unclear where the headquarters is located. Mr Prigozhin said it came after he wrote to the chief of Russia’s “special military operation”, Army General Valery Gerasimov, about the “urgent necessity to give us ammunition”.” Yes, in what army would one need ammunition? Oh right, the winning kind. The logistical issues I saw last week and I saw it a mile away was not some business appeal. It was a simple setting from my army days in 1981-1983. Logistics was giggled at from some branches, but the supporting units are just as important. It seems that the Russian army never learned that lesson.
And it it always fun to see a mercenary use his fingers and shout “pew pew pew”, although, at that point his life expectancy is reduced to less than a minute. It will still be entertaining for the Ukrainian armed forces to see how desperate the Russian Army and the Wagner group have become. The Kyiv independent tells us that in a week over 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. I reckon that this is the Russian army and Wagner mercenaries. In addition they lost 317 tanks,120 artillery pieces, 56 MLRS and 482 cars and a lot more all over the field. These numbers are important, because when you realise that there is no train system in play to replace it all, you will get a first inkling on how bad the war is going for Russia and all these people fleeing to places like Argentina, that becomes a different story. As I personally see it under these conditions there is no life left in Moscow and the 6 million women there better start getting pregnant today, if not, by 2038 there will not be much of a workforce left in Moscow. On the upside, there is every chance that Russia could become a matriarchic society. The war took care of the man and the ones who did not flee Russia are about to be dead in an offensive that only one person seemed to have wanted. As the setting changes and the stage becomes clear there is a second danger one that becomes a big one if not tended properly. But that is a story for another day. For now realise that any organisation with substandard logistics gets run over fast and that is what we are seeing here.
That is the subject of today. I have seen the events, I saw the considerations and I saw the traitor politicians (Thierry Baudet) as they betrayed their own country for a pro Russian rhetoric. For the most I stayed away, I did not care. It is not that I did not care, I merely cared about other things more. The accusation that countries did enough to keep the Ukraine in the war, but not enough to win it struck a chord with me. It made sense and it made sense for some to keep a distance, but they kept a distance for too long and now that the tide is turning people will demand answers from these people. I expect them to hide behind settings of nuance, or that it was too complex an issue for them. But the stage is set, these weak politicians will be out of a job soon enough and whilst they cry to any entertainment channel (example Fox News) that gives them a few seconds of limelight. The people who know are the people sidetracking those weaklings.
Now the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64495520) with ‘‘I apologise to the whole Ukrainian nation’ – former Russian army officer’ or (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64470092) with ‘Russian army officer admits: ‘Our troops tortured Ukrainians’’ these people as well as the Wagner officer who ‘defected’ earlier. They are busy to create humanitarian revenue. They need good coins because they see it is the end for them. The Russian Stalin approach does not allow losers, the Russian stage is falling apart and even as I am not sure whether they will completely lose, they will lose a lot and with the exception of an execution of Putin by the Kremlin. Putin remains in charge and the losers have no place to go to. It will be a larger setting soon enough. The Russian army needs to order 129,000 bodybags (or coffins) so there is revenue for some in front of them, but the story behind them is a lot worse.
The image gives us that over 300K are wounded and they never had that much medicines to begin with, the long term cost is beyond what Russia can give to themselves so the number of Russians seeking any kind of currency that keeps them away from Russia and away from the Russian Army is going to be the choice of too many Russians. A war that was badly conceived, poorly executed and even worse considered with the opposition to have and even as Russian propaganda continues, the propaganda people are starting to realise what the bad end of propaganda is when you lose. These people have no place to go. The Russian mafia is losing grip on to many places. With the oligarchs out of billions and most of them left with nothing, the material support for them is not going anywhere and without their billions in support other groups will now push in, soon that scenery changes for a lot of people too. Tongs and Yakuza will see their options soon enough to take over terrain and as loss after loss is becoming clear, some governments will start to draw out papers where Russians without permanent residency or citizenship will not be allowed to own anything. In the mean time as the BBC gives us “Konstantin Yefremov, the most senior officer to speak openly, said he witnessed interrogations and the mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners”, it is my personal belief that he does this for a passport for him and his family. Russia is about to become an automated deathtrap for him. You see, not only did he lose, he spoke out against the Kremlin and that never ever goes good for any Russian who does so. At the same time we get ‘Fvd-leider Thierry Baudet op Curaçao om stemmen te werven’ the politician Baudet is on Curacao to get votes, but personally I reckon he is starting to feel too much pressure in the Netherlands and soon enough his voice will be shut off from politics and too many people will want him hurt, so better for him to go to a place where no one cares about him and the tropical setting of Curacao might be the last place where he has a chance to live out his life.
That gets me to the final part of this. Over the decade too many Russian primed people have had their options to fill their pockets and the hunt that will start no later than 2024 will happen all over Europe. Ukrainian coated hunts for all these people who thought that they could hide behind Russian colours will now find themselves in a new setting, a setting where they all hunt them and it will not go well for them. Beside that there will be a setting where over 300K Russian women will seek a man, any non Russian man will do. Russian lives will be slammed all over the field and Russia will see what the short end of a Versailles treaty feels like. That is a future I expect to see, I could be wrong but considering that a Ukrainian army, 21st on the army size list took Russia to town and put over 500,000 Russian troops in either a hospital bed or a bodybag is a setting no one saw coming and now that they are getting some real equipment the impact will increase dramatically. This is merely my point of view and I could be wrong. I will let you decide.
Yes, we do that at times. I use different ways, but the nightmare that formed in my mind is one that I wasn’t ready for and it shaped in one dream. You see, in intelligence there is a saying. If you want to sell a lie, cover it in truth. This is true for them and it is also true for story writers. Getting the audience invested in the story requires a stage where they can relate to and whatever truths they are given, the ones they an verify will work a lot quicker for the story.
So it started with the second thing I heard, but to each its place. The first thing I saw, source not recalled, mainly because I did not give it any value was “The US and UK are supporting Ukraine to stay in the war, but not enough to win” I cannot say who or why and I do not think it is true, but it stayed in the back of my mind. It was the second part that gave it a swing. The statement comes from a Dutchman named Rob de Wijk. He is the founder of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS). He stated “Hopefully unfounded wishful thinking about Ukraine’s chances will give way to more realism. This is necessary because the West faces a tremendous dilemma: the worse Ukraine gets, the greater the chance that NATO countries will become increasingly involved in the war. The risk of a direct confrontation with NATO is also increasing. The heavy weapons that the NATO countries will then need limit the possibilities of supplying them to Ukraine now. It is now forcing Western leaders to consider how to end this war quickly.” That started the rollercoaster. You see Russia and its Kremlin people have a new stage. With the oligarchs mostly gone and loads of their fortunes now confiscated, the sugar daddies of the Kremlin are falling away. It leaves these people with whatever they have and that is not much, or it is massively below what they are used to. Their defence is still falling short, their military aren’t hacking it and local problems are increasing.
So there we have greed driven Kremlinski’s and their need for more money, so how long until some of them strike a much larger deal with the Russian Mafia? The Russian mafia gets all kinds of support, in exchange for money and creation of Chaos all over the America’s and Europe. I reckon we can wait for that ghost to hit the brains of too many people. Now that is not enough, you see we need a plan to strike back and there I remembered a book by John Gardner called Golgotha, it was also released as the last trump around 1980. I believe that is where the scriptwriters from the New Avengers (Steed, Gambit and Purdey) with the second episode being House of Cards. That and Golgotha gives a new approach to sleepers. Added are within the team a seminole, the comm members are seminole. They are mostly outside of the team and their Mikasuki members are un-hackable. Not unlike the Navajo’s in WW2. But the larger setting is that these are 6 teams. One in the US, one in Canada, one in the UK and the other three all over Europe. They are facing Russians who are blackmailing all kinds of industry giants and governmental officials. Housing scams, grifting the rich and connected and blackmailing them in the process.
A setting where we have a counter, a Cheyenne approach to hit and run, something the Russian mafia has never faced and their orders are simple. Kill all Russians and destroy everything they have. A new lever of John Wick, but a little more realistic and within their actions we see Russian death and mayhem. I reckon that the first studio picking up this idea will have a nice sweet advantage. Anyway there is a little more but not much. I got all these elements in mere hours (whilst I was snoring like a sawmill).
Consider that nightmare whilst you leave your house untended for the day.
That is where I find myself. There are two issues on my mind. The first is that I have a definite plot twist for Residuam Vitam (the plot is isn’t everything) but it still matter to the story to have that twist, the ploy no one sees in the beginning and when you ponder it it will make sense. It is like that theft, where in the end things seemingly go sideways, but only if you see it from one side, the other side is the one many overlook. That is where I was.
As such Ereshkigal was pondering the field she stood in, she saw from here to almost eternity and the field was in disarray. It was the nuance she saw and she had been staring at that nuance since the beginning of time. So she saw any item out of place and the field was starting to skew, it did not take her long to see how it was skewing and something had to be done. She focussed for a mere fraction of a moment and that was all that was needed. As she was looking at the field something walked into her existence. It was Tia that appeared. Tia looked around, she had been here before, but to be asked to come was new to her. She bowed to Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal pointed at the field and asked ‘What do you see?’ Tia looked around and saw the field, she saw all that was and she saw the edges of what was now. She looked again and stared more intensely now. She saw nothing, she saw the patterns, she saw the colours and she saw what as once the people and then she saw the introduction of some sort of cacophony. It was the best she could see. She responded ‘Some form of chaos, a cacophony of sorts’ Ereshkigal nodded. A chaos through absence and even as I am not yet clear on the how and who are involved, the creation of this chaos will have larger impact to all of us, we must act. She then stared at Tia and told her what must be done and who was chosen for this. ‘Do you agree?’ Tia had to think it over for a moment. She was aware on interactions, she had done it many times, but now it was a rare event that involved a living person, a person linked to the Huron spirit no less. She nodded to Ereshkigal. ‘It will be done’ and Tia vanished.
It was the deep of darkness, it was around 03:30, the detective was asleep, but suddenly she wasn’t really asleep anymore. She was asleep lying in her bed watching herself and a man in a chair next to it. The man spoke, hello little utehke, the voice spoke out and she recognised the voice of her father who left her many years ago, so she knew she was asleep, but the bedroom was perfect, with the extra man. Father? She asked. No little utehke, but he is what you see. He joined me a long time ago. Listen for there is little time. There is something happening and it is impacting all lives. I cannot tell you specifics, but I can help. Be calm now, this does not hurt, but it will not be comfortable. And with that the detective suddenly felt noxious, she saw the hand of her father in her head and slowly it felt like it was in her head. Then the head slowly retracted. Sleep now, you feel better soon. You will see more now and it will help you, it might even save you. Learn first do not act rash, too much relies on it and slowly the room where she was watching herself was dissolving and the room turned black and she fell in a deep sleep, unaware what was happening around her. She was for all intent and purpose dead for the smallest moment of time and in that moment another world was revealed to her and she saw almost everything. But the mind, the mortal mind does not like that view and the mind protected itself in the only way it knew. It closed off and reset itself and in that moment the new flavours of mortality invaded her mind and took root in her where the mind, the eye, the ear and the nose met. And she continued on the dreamless sleep she started on, a little different, but still the detective she once was.
What is wealth? It is the second part that has also occupying my mind. It was given to us by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64142662) where we get ‘Third of world in recession this year, IMF head warns’ there is an issue (I always will have at least one) and lets have that summary.
“It comes as the war in Ukraine, rising prices, higher interest rates and the spread of Covid in China weigh on the global economy.” Yes they are elements, but the war in the Ukraine will mostly affect Russia and Ukraine most of all, not much more beyond that. Well, more on the Russians as they lose more and more of its citizens. As such I have issues with “We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession”, as such my automated answer is ‘What third’ Which nations? And the shallow “Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people”, so now we add ‘feels like recession’? Why is that? What is really happening? What are you the procrastinating source for? Then we get “China, the world’s second largest economy, would face a difficult start to 2023” there is another issue. I am not saying that this is not the case, I have no data to counter that, but China has been playing a long game and that is a different kind of fish. Now that it is reeling in commerce gains from Saudi Arabia and optionally Egypt as well, the silk road is getting primed for completion. A new stage of commercial China that we were warned about and it is getting her faster because stupid people (UK and US) played the wrong game and now that China is moving in these two players are missing out on dozens of billions for their economy and it goes straight to China. That I saw two years ago (perhaps three) but these two players were all about how wrong I was and how it would not go there. As such no one saw the danger when Al Jazeera gave us three weeks ago ‘China, Saudi Arabia cement ties with deals including Huawei’ whatever the west gave us was emotional mumbo jumbo with trivialisation, as well as ‘How Saudi Arabia’s crown prince snubbed Biden repeatedly to forge ties with authoritarian China and Russia’ a mere two days ago which came from Business Insider. And the voice of Jon Alterman adds “they both agree that a unipolar world led by the United States would undermine their interests” a United States trivialised by one simple sentence and China is stepping in. The US and the UK made it happen, they catered to idiots (in case of the UK that would be the CAAT) and there are a few in the US. It led to a shift of well over $35,000,000,000 in funds from both towards China and that is merely the beginning.
The 5G stages that are Huawei are now finding its stage through China and as I see it Egypt is a new choice as well, it now sets the Huawei 5G stage going West of Egypt to East of Saudi Arabia in one nice swoop and Saudi Arabia is about to own it all (via STC that is). When I mentioned that STC would be a force to watch in 5G two years ago people telecom people no less, called me a joke, a freaking joke no less and that is no longer the case, this is about to happen and when the data centres are added Saudi Arabia officially becomes a power player in 5G and on the world stage. The STC what was initially a 35 million group and as such ignored by too many is about to become a voice will well over 175,000,000 people attached for data and voice making it well over twice the size of British Telecom and that is merely the start, when this connects to Neom the damage will add and add and it takes power away from US, UK and European players and I reckon that by 2026 the electronic show in Germany has STC as a main attraction and at that point the growth will really start. Ahead of the 2030 vision Saudi Arabia will be making its international mark in several market places and it was all due to stupid people. When they had an option they were all high and mighty with voices like ‘They will always need us’ but that stage is now hanging, that is now becoming yesterday’s news and whilst these people will try to ‘persuade’ Saudi customers to some kind of bauble race, China will add real value to the table and that race will conclude with the Americans staring at some wooden spoon and no recourse left.
Here is my issue. As we see “The IMF is an international organisation with 190 member countries. They work together to try to stabilise the global economy. One of its key roles is to act as an early economic warning system” is seemingly incorrect. I would alter it into “The IMF is an international organisation with 190 member countries. They work together to try to stabilise the global economy for the US and EU as much as possible. One of its key roles is to act as an early economic warning system when its friends are threatened” and then we consider “For the next couple of months, it would be tough for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative, the impact on the region will be negative, the impact on global growth will be negative” and my response would be, no toots (Kristalina Georgieva), you saw it wrong, the data you present is correct, it is the gains that follow that makes China the winner, and these gains are not part of anything you present are they? It was the long game and the Chinese are really good at their long game. So where is the European response to the Silk Road, that news you catered to months ago on how there was an answer. There was none and now you are against a wall with nowhere to go but some cushy retirement place and watch the changing of the guards as China becomes the new president of that world economy. You played the wrong game, you catered to the stupid voices and China was fine with that because they had time. The Huawei/Saudi link wasn’t ready but now that it is the stage changes by a lot and still that link is well over 500% faster than anything the US has to offer and that difference will tilt the economic scales by a lot, and I reckon that the first companies will change to a better setting soon thereafter. I reckon that it takes less than 10% of these companies to change ‘some loss’ to critical recession points, and there is an upside. I saw and wrote about it two years ago, so there will be a record and I get to slap you with it every time around. Because these ‘voices’ with claims need to be set into the limelight and with every answer in the trend of ‘It is difficult’ I will gain a step on that ladder and whenever they rely on ‘There were miscommunications’ I gain two steps. It was never rocket science, it was about the reality of data, not the story these people gave their shareholders. And to illustrate that part reconsider what I wrote yesterday and now consider two hints “Orson Welles” and “1975”, now that tory takes a massive turn to the right, does it not? To do the game of peekaboo with an actual ghost is a lot more satisfying. There is nothing like a gasser whilst the other person has a cardiac arrest in the process. Try it, it is so satisfying.
Yup an amalgamation of expressions and in this case it is a little more applicable than expected. You see a mere 11 hours ago I wrote in ‘Ruler of law goes metric’ “should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia want it and limit the shipments of Crude Oil by an additional mere 1 million barrels a day, the US will explode in a stage of anarchy” (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/12/10/ruler-of-law-goes-metric/) and 7 hours ago we get from the ABC ‘China promises to buy more Middle East oil, urges Arab leaders to replace the dollar with yuan’ (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-10/china-xi-promises-to-buy-more-mideast-oil/101757852), it isn’t a victory when the nightmare scenario starts, but this is what the US was facing all along. Several world leaders learned the hard way what happens when you start wars on multiple fronts. People like Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler and Wilhelm 2 all learned that lesson the hard way. Now that the US has a stage with Russia, it had to play nice with Chine to some extent, but it was already too late. Huawei was fresh in China’s memory and the US did NEVER EVER produce clear reports of the dangers that Huawei was. They got tools to make similar claims and none of them produced evidence. Now China sees a way to get back at the US. You see, if China buys 2 million barrels a day the American goose will be cooked within 2 months in the middle of winter no less. This is part of the horrific result of giving Wall Street free rein and now there is no second stage, no escape. The US had clear options a year ago, now not that much and the few they have they are squandering on the wrong priorities. And it is a mere 42 minutes ago when China and Saudi Arabia signed a strategic deal, which now implies that Huawei would get free rein on technology adaption for the Line, that straight building that goes through Saudi Arabia and optionally a lot more in Neom. Did you really think I was out of my mind when I was willing to sell my 5G to Saudi Arabia? This is happening a year earlier than expected, but no one saw the Ukrainian war happen and even less saw it excelarate the way it did in the end. Now China has the option to make the impressions in Saudi Arabia and optionally soon in Egypt as well. I saw this coming and no one believed me, but there is a lot more to Neom than most see, because the US media kept on belittling it and now as the truth comes out we see knee jerk reactions and large claims of miscommunications, and that is not all, if the Yuan will be accepted as currency, the Yuan will get a tour of the Middle East and Africa giving a slam against the power of the Dollar. Now, that does not mean that the dollar ends, but there will be an impact and the dollar will take a hit. All this to a larger effect because certain people relied on ego and not on facts or true innovation. Feel free to read the article (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221210-saudi-arabia-and-huawei-sign-strategic-deal/) with the added quote “The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) also reported that Chinese and Saudi companies had signed 34 investment agreements in clean energy, information technology, cloud computing services, transportation, construction and other sectors. The agency did not issue figures for the deals but confirmed earlier that the two countries would sign initial agreements worth $30 billion.” It seems to be a simple claim that might not go anywhere, yet the adaptation for net zero carbon data centre’s in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and optionally two additional places are now supporting that my initial IP had a lot more power in Saudi Arabia than even I suspected and this also elevates the options that the Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) has in several places. What was an optional annual revenue of $763 million could start with an 800% growth and leading to well over twice that amount in less than 5 years. Should these data centres become reality than there is a clear case that these centres will be bought by European players, they would not have a choice in the matter and the US claim of danger to national security will not go anywhere, they played that card already. So when it rains, it pours as well as the interaction of the pot calling the kettle black. Two players that were ready and the others were not.
A thought occurred, it happened earlier today, but my mind was not with the program that runs within me. You see we have a foot we prefer, almost like left handed and right handed, but the foot is less obvious, it is merely in the back of our minds, perhaps it is linked to instinct, perhaps it is less than that, but the setting exists. Yet what happens after? You see we are so of the mind that we walk we do that, and sometimes we run. Then we meet with people who tells us not to run, but to walk. Some have an actual concern. It can be safety, or merely the chance of danger. The other group gives us that setting do that we can be caught up to, we do not run faster than they do, it worries them.
Yet there is another place. Where we rely on asymmetric gait, it is skipping. The interesting part is that skipping, even for 1-2 minutes a day strengthens you and increases your accuracy. Yet be honest. When was the last time you did that exercise? When do you no longer need to rely on increased strength and accuracy? You thought of that as a child’s game, did you not?
The other foot is there too. What happens when you start concentrating on moving the other foot first? It is a simple question, did you ask yourself that? What happens when people state that there is no need, you are good as you walk and for a while you suddenly get compliments. Did you consider that someone does NOT want you to increase your mobility? In the 90’s my bosses did something similar. Convince me to NOT learn Oracle. It did not sit well with their exploitation of me, yet I did not learn that lesson until much later, too late actually. Yet in my twilight I have merely a few goals. Sell my IP and get a really nice stake in my retirement. And in good faith those who wronged me will never be allowed near my IP (Microsoft is not invited either).
Yet the stage is not my IP, this stage is about you. When were you given a real option in the last two years? You see bosses are now no longer in charge (sort of). It is an employee setting and for the most they cannot get a good employee at present. EVERYONE is short of staff. As such this is the time to slam your fist on the table and set precise goals that they have to adhere to, although if you do that, you better deliver on their needs too.
The AFR (at https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/why-we-don-t-have-enough-workers-to-fill-jobs-in-4-graphs-20220621-p5avcc) gives us in a first graph that the shortage increased by 30% in the last 2 years alone and it is not merely the ageing group. Bosses have short sold their staff for over a decade and now the invoice is due. In the blue collar stage it fluctuates between 20% and a whopping 74%. As such businesses on a global scale have a problem. Fortunately for them they have some options in other fields. Instead of relying on ‘Fake it until you make it’ they need to rely on ‘learn it until you lead it’ and there could be options all over the Commonwealth, Europe and even the US. Places like Oracle can start hiring trainees and after their first courses are passed they can be placed at their customers. Rotating every 6 month until someone ‘Shanghai’ them to become permanent employees. And this is not merely Oracle. There is Oracle, IBM, Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, end a few others.
The HR departments on a global scale need to alter their Modus Operandi it no longer works the way they think it does. The old days are over and you either adjust or you restrict your business. Of course players like Oracle need an alternative workforce, but there Universities and experienced oldies might be two streams of getting the workforce enabled. In addition they have the ability to enhance cyber knowledge all over the field making their people more enticing than the other ones. There the AFR had another view (at https://www.afr.com/technology/skills-shortage-a-handbrake-for-technology-companies-20220503-p5ai8r) and here we see ‘Skills shortage a ‘handbrake’ for technology companies’ which is merely the top-line. It is “The Australian Information Industry Association’s annual member survey found 75 per cent of technology companies are expecting their revenue to grow by at least 5 per cent this year but are concerned skills shortages will be a barrier to expanding their business.” And that is merely Australia. The commonwealth (especially UK and Canada) have growing issues and the US is in deep trouble and with their approach to everything it is now becoming the least interesting place to work. Plenty of California places (as well as the large players) have an option to syphon services via Canada, which is not a great solution, but better than nothing. In addition we see “AIIA chief executive Ron Gauci says his members are looking offshore to find specialist tech talent” and there we see the first problem, they rely on HR systems that did not evolve, that did not adjust and I see the same BS emails in my inbox to prove it, all half baked ‘invitations’ to come to Malta, they even pay the first month rent. Moving to a place where ‘others’ call the shots? You have got to be joking. When you are young and in the workplace we had 7 years ago, some people might give that a try. In todays setting it does not hold water and that is also a problem in Australia, the people who fell for that approach the last 6-10 years ago now have different stories and their friends are giving it a miss. But some places have options. They merely have to wake up and look at the equation from the other side to see that opportunities and options are there, merely for those willing to throw the gears in another speed setting and start with the other foot, it is seemingly that simple.
A few hours ago I was alerted to an article on the BBC site. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63260648) gives us ‘Cyber-attacks on small firms: The US economy’s ‘Achilles heel’?’ In itself no real surprise, but then I saw “It was a total head-in-the-sand situation. ‘It’s not going to happen to me. I’m too small.’ That was the overwhelming message that I was hearing five years ago,” says Ms Graham, co-founder of CYDEF, which is based in Canada. “But yes, it is happening.” There we see the first instance of utter stupidity, a setting where insurance companies go ‘well, I am sorry to report that it is on your dime that this is happening’ and that is not a speculation, this is about to happen. In addition to that the insurance against cyber attacks will skyrocket unless you have state of the art equipment (something small businesses cannot afford). A stage that is waiting exploitation. There are all kinds of speculations. One of them is “Cyber-crimes are expected to cost the world $10.5tn (£9.3tn) by 2025, according to cyber-security research firm Cyber Ventures”, I do not completely agree, for the most I do, but the big bucks are depending on national 5G, which is not happening in many nations before 2027. You see, one source gives us “For example, in November 2020, one cybersecurity company estimated that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching US$10.5t annually by 2025, up from US$3t in 2015 (Cision 2020)” they are seemingly ALL quoting the same source and that source is Cyber Ventures. That does not make it incorrect, yet I have reservations. That number is completely acceptable under 5G, under other conditions (when big tech do not screw up and hand over the keys to hackers) should not go that fast (yet), but when 5G, a national 5G stage is there this number will increase swimmingly all over the globe, which is why I shouted for law adjustments well over two years ago, but the law is seemingly sitting on their hands, all about ‘letting all parties’ swim in the large all whilst the swimming pool has close to zero protection, so this will get worse a lot faster and the EU will see plenty of drowners (aka floaters) soon enough. My speculative view is that the larger problems are a mere 6 months away.
Then we are given “The pandemic created a whole new set of challenges and small businesses weren’t prepared,” says Mary Ellen Seale, chief executive of the National Cybersecurity Society, a non-profit that helps small businesses create cyber-security plans. In March 2020, at the cusp of the pandemic, a survey of small businesses by broadcaster CNBC found that only 20% planned to invest in cyber-protection.” This sounds nice, but I wonder what we will see in 2023. I expect that it is then that we will learn that less than 40% of these 20% will have actually done something and that is when a lot of people (insurance especially) realise that this is about to become a sinking ship. There was clear indication in 2010 that setting up cyber security was essential in players a little larger than SBE sized companies. They had issues too, but the revenue was too small. The problem is that clever hackers do not grab the whole enchilada. With “It typically takes 200 days from the moment of the hacking until discovery” we see the pattern. The clever ones will hit places for about 150 days then they go underground. That gives them enough to live like a king for a decade. They stay under the fold, they stay inconspicuous for as long as they can. They book a weekend in Vegas and then they launder what they had going home with $5-$15 million. The caper has worked and they are in the clear. Yet these same clever people can clear $50-$150 million when they get access to a fully deployed 5G network and the BS argument of “We will have a solution before that” does not fly, that excuse is a decade old and they have no adjusted laws, there is no adjusted technology and whatever the NSA has is not shared. So as you can see, the numbers are not entirely in the air (the Cyber Ventures one) but it will rely on a fully deployed 5G network which should be around 2027.
It is time that ALL businesses take cyber security serious. The moment that there is no insurance for that these Achilles heel companies go under with no options for the owner, that person will have lost everything. So when Kirsten Dunst stated ‘Let them eat cake’ (Marie Antoinette) she stated a good case for Cyber criminals. They are having cake every day and those not using Common Cyber Sense will be paying for that meal day after day after month after month after year (you get the idea). It was essential to properly adjust laws for that. And when we look at the data from April we get “according to industry data only four to five percent of hackers are actually caught, but high-profile cases showcase how even the most skilled can make simple mistakes which lead to them being apprehended” so between one in twenty to one in twenty five gets caught. Do you really want to hope on that statistic? This is not a pun against law enforcement or the FBI, they are in a fight with both hands tied behind their backs. Not a good position to win a fight. And that is before we look at state funded hackers. Lets be clear both Russia and China have every benefit for American and European business to lose way too much, proving that part is close to impossible. These players are almost never caught. The arrest by the FSB of REvil was a rare instance, but not all was lost. At https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransom-cartel-linked-to-notorious-revil-ransomware-operation/ we learn “Researchers have linked the relatively new Ransom Cartel ransomware operation with the notorious REvil gang based on code similarities in both operations’ encryptors” and that was two weeks ago. At present with Russians not being able to wage war against an enemy that is at best 15% of their own army gives rise that the people behind REvil will be out and about soon enough (if they aren’t already).
So those who want cake, better find a place to enjoy it before the hackers get it all and I will not care. I have been clearly evangelising the essential need for Common Cyber Sense for years now. And if Optus Australia is anything to go by there are plenty of big fish not too interested in that approach.
They are not connected, not in any way, but the first part is too short to make a blog by itself as such I connected the two in separate parts.
Zeus Awakens
I have been brooding on the entry for Zeus, there is no way he can be omitted from the story, it is in one part as he is father to Ares, he is the other grandfather and he will emerge. In part that as our main character is gaining strength, the main character is now becoming a larger concern to the big three. As such I had to add Zeus to some degree and the second season was a decent moment to introduce him.
It was a nice summer day in France, Nice to be more exact (as it is a nice town). I was sitting on a balcony on the esplanade of Nice, looking at the sea a mere 122 metres to the south. I heard a woman’s voice in the back asking me if I wanted any tea. ‘Yes please Lucia’ I responded and a few minutes later she came with a pot of tea. I saw her shiver and I took a gaze at the thermometer to my left. It was odd, it was slowly going down from the 28 degrees it was a minute ago. In one minute it had cooled down to 19 degrees. Grab the cat I said, I started to close the windows inside, she came in with Charcoal who was clearly feeling the lack of warmth and we closed all the windows. I moved towards the gas heater and turned it on. I didn’t need it, but she would definitely need heat soon enough. I looked at a contraction in the cupboard. It had thermometers, barometers and they were all going nuts. Air pressure was down to 950 and the temperature had gone down to 9 degrees. I looked out and I saw people run for entries wherever they saw one. It was definitely a larger problem, but I had never seen anything like this. The clouds in the air were dissolving, the sky was deep blue and the thermometer was now at 6 degrees. The sea looked calm, the air was quiet and the thermometer kept on declining. Within a minute it was down to 1 degree and it seemed to stop there, in the two minutes that I looked outside, I saw people grab coats. I saw a shopkeeper hand sweaters to some women in bikini as well as to men wearing shorts and t-shirts. The cold was felt everywhere. I noticed that the cat was keeping his body against the heater, it as not used to the cold. Then Lucia screamed, I looked at her and she pointed to the room. A man with long silver hairs was standing there. He was wearing a Victorian suit and he looked at me. I had never seen him before. He raised his hand and sparks flew out of his fingers towards the glass table, he then vanished and the heat came back, I looked at Lucia in puzzlement. I smelled a distinct Ozone air and I looked outside. The heat was coming back and I turned the heater off. I looked outside and the sun was there, the heat came gushing in everywhere and within a minute the temperature was back to 20 degrees. I looked at the table. The glass was there and so was a text, in the glass ‘Ελάτε στην Ακρόπολη, πρέπει να μιλήσουμε’. I got that message loud and clear. So this was my grandfather? Time to learn more about the other branch of the family. I send a mental note to grandpa Hades. “Zeus summoned me, will update you later” I looked at Lucia “It seems I have to make a business trip”, she nodded. She did not understand what was going on, but I got the impression that she was eager to go into denial. “Break the table into small parts, keep the cat away and be careful. Get a new table please.” I walked into the bedroom and got a small bag and from the living room fruit bowl I got my keys, wallet and some small stuff. Time to see Athens again.
Time squandered, time wasted
That was the first thought I had when I saw the Guardian article ‘Profits at world’s seven biggest oil firms soar to almost £150bn this year’. It is not their fault. The article is not what I am commenting on, not really. We get (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/27/profits-at-worlds-seven-biggest-oil-firms-soar-to-almost-150bn-this-year-windfall-tax) “Mathew Lawrence, the director of Common Wealth, a think-tank, said Shell’s zero windfall tax bill for 2022 showed the levy introduced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor in May was “not fit for purpose” and needed significant change”, yes. That is how it starts and I am not saying that the comment is wrong, because that would require me to be an expert on taxation, and that is definitely not me. But consider that I wrote ‘Heating at what price?’ On December 3rd 2018, almost 4 years go (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2018/12/03/heating-at-what-price/).
I mentioned tax overhauls before that, years before than and now we see the impact of inaction and I get that Shell is not wavering, because tax laws were never properly overhauled and now there is a problem. So in 2018 I wrote “It is the first time in history that a Middle Eastern nation has the ability to put the US and EU to shame with their lack of technological progress. They claim to have it, yet Saudi Arabia is making a move towards ‘showing to have it‘, changing the game for both the US and Europe. This is where we see the difference. China and Russia see this as an opportunity, whilst Europe and the US are seeing it as an inconvenience” and now it is no longer an inconvenience, now it is an actual problem and the UK, EU and US are not ready. I warned of these dangers 4 years ago, but they all knew better. How do you feel? Did they know better? Did they know more are were they merely playing stationary, optionally licking stamps. And the opportunity that Russia sees and the opportunity that China sees are different. Russia is out of the equation, but China is now fulfilling what I saw 4 years ago and it will get worse. As China has more and stronger ties with Saudi Arabia they can get more oil and America? They can play indecisive politician, play the pariah game a little more. The UK has its tea grannies (CAAT) messing things up and Europe has little options from the start. All things I wrote about in 2018. And the UN is useless in this case (as I see it). Two things can be seen in very different things, in different ploys. In players and receivers. In actions and lack thereof. Two things almost half a dozen times over and I made clear mention of it in 2018. So as I prepare to sell my IP, I can now see that the timing is near perfect. The players will overreact and by the time they figure out what they could have done I will be retiring. In this it will be either Google versus Amazon, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia versus all others. If one acts the other loses and it will be billions that they lose, if one accepts they will have billions in a direction they never considered before and as I see inaction upon inaction I am wondering if their inactions is why they never saw what they could have gotten. I know it I speculation, but when was the last time anyone left well over 5 billion a year on the floor? And it plays out in the same way that Shell and others are coaching their fortunes. The inactions of others is making them rich, I deeply hope that I get that same bonus, my retirement kinda depends on it.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 