Tag Archives: Iran

May 26, 2023 · 15:04

Human rights versus?

That is at times the question. Don’t get me wrong, human rights is a good thing and we need to take heed, but hat happens when it stops life in other ways? In this case the setting is against Microsoft and here I do not oppose Microsoft, that is folly in some cases and this is one. It all started when early this morning I got ‘Saudi Arabia: Microsoft Should Suspend Data Center Plans’ via some newspaper (at https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/23/saudi-arabia-microsoft-should-suspend-data-center-plans). Why? Saudi Arabia is a nation and it is entitled to have its data centres. The text that is part is “Microsoft should suspend its plans to invest in a new cloud data center in Saudi Arabia until it can demonstrate how it will mitigate potential rights abuses, 18 human right groups said today. There is an enormous risk that Saudi authorities may obtain access to data stored in Microsoft’s cloud data center, thus posing unique and direct threats to human rights and privacy, the human rights groups said.” Really? Corporate America and governmental America have been treading all over EVERYONES privacy and rights for years, so where are those warnings? In other news. I personally do not care, you see Tencent with news (at https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/20230510-05-tencent-takes-steps-toward-chinas-biggest-data-center) gives us ‘Tencent Takes Steps Toward China’s Biggest Data Center’ and I feel certain that they are ready to step in and setup a Data Center for the Saudi government in Saudi Arabia as well, just a few more billion in revenue for China. This is simple, plain and out in the open. Tencent is hoping for more options in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the Human Rights groups are handing this to them. A nation that is now almost a week from financial collapse needs whatever it can get and losing jobs and revenue to China is not helping, especially after the clambake that Governor Ron DeSantis arranged and that is costing Florida thousands of jobs and a million in revenue, so making Microsoft lose billions as well does not help (but it does aid my prediction that Microsoft will collapse, or implode in 2026). As such, when we see “Microsoft needs to conduct a thorough human rights due diligence process and publicly detail how it will mitigate the potential adverse human rights impacts associated with Saudi Arabia hosting the data center”, we need to realise that Microsoft needs to keep its head above water, it needs to deal with governments and it needs to deal with them and sell stuff. For those Humane jokes, how many from Cambridge Analytics are in prison? How many people from the ECHELON system have been prosecuted? How many privacy laws did they break? The list of questions go on and this anti-Saudi rhetoric is quite simply a joke. Is Saudi Arabia perfect? No, it is not, no nation is, but there are bigger fish to fry. Iran and Pakistan are merely two on that list and then there are the Russian transgressions. How much visibility did they push on that front? The larger folly is not what they do now, but what options would open with Microsoft for a dialogue for diplomatic conversations is one (not all but at least one) and that too will aid to what they refer to as human rights. But that part is not nice enough, too long a track, but now, if this falls through Tencent technologies will step in and take that revenue too. This is seen with “At least 10,000 servers are functioning smoothly and all the cooling equipment is installed, Wang added. Upon completion, the number of servers should reach 800,000, and the computing power should be 10 times that of the world’s most powerful supercomputing center. The Yangtze River Delta hub will provide cloud computing services to the public, including instant messaging, image processing, and medical insurance payments. Moreover, the center supports Tencent’s ChatGPT-like HunyanAide project, per Wang.” Do you think Saudi Arabia (UAE too) is ready for that kind of data center power? How many jobs will the US and US consultants lose and how many will China gain? Did you think of that and that is when you realise how the HR groups are in China, how massively did these HR groups shoot themselves in the foot? 

It might seem like a cheap joke, yet at present these human rights groups are a much bigger danger than Russia has been in the last three decades, that is something to mull over I reckon.

Have a nice day and it is now less than 60 hours until the end of the weekend. 

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April 27, 2023 · 01:51

Blocked or deserted?

That is where I felt I am. I have been bending over backwards to get season 4 of Kenos Diastima started or moving. In part is was a new cast to set in motion, in part it is the setting to connect throughout the story two very different parts, but I always go back to the foundation. The end of season 3 was an open ending. I reckon it would be the ending people like Terry Gilliam would reflect on with ‘Nice!’ And in his case nice would be a huge compliment. Still, I tried and I am coming up short. So I was retracing my steps. I avoided the first script, because that is locked at present, things need to happen before I continue. The second script is where I got to and stayed at. The script ‘How to assassinate a politician’ was my answer to certain people offending Islam. So I am putting it here, so that someone at Al Saudiya could do something with it. 

Prologue
In Dammam a man and a woman are sitting in front of the TV. It gives them the news and that a Dutch Politician named Geert Wilders is revived a Prophet Mohammad cartoon competition, both are angry and outraged on the insult to Islam and they talk about it for some time. She is the teacher at the Girls First High School in Dammam, whilst he is a teacher at the Boys Education College. It is the net morning that they have decided to hold a writing competition. They both asked if the news was seen and that starts the essay of the day. In English they have to write an essay on how to punish such an insult to Islam and the students are told that they will be competing against the other school and the two best essays go into the finals. The children start writing.

We hear narrations of children’s voices with parts of their essay. 

The winners are announced at the end of the day and both winners will get personal speech training from their teachers, so that they can present the story as good as possible. The winners are Ibrahim and Saad for the boys, for the girls they are Ayasha and Nura.

Story One, Ibrahim
The mans walks through the street of the Netherlands (set in Amsterdam), he sees the people walk, the cars ride and long boats in the canal. He looks at the street signs and the trees, he is not used to trees and he admires them for a moment. He looks like a prince like the prince in Aladdin with a face like a young Sylvester Stallone, with a large moustache. He walks through the street and sees Geert Wilders. He pulls out a machine gun (like in First blood) and he shots the street, the cars and Geert Wilders. Then with his blinking red eye he looks at the street and it states (0 faithful hurt, from Terminator 2). He walks over to the body of Geert Wilders and states, thou shalt not insult islam infidel. He then walks away, and as he walks away his weapon vanishes, as does his outfit, he suddenly no longer looks like Aladdin, now he looks like Ibrahim and Ibrahim walks straight over to a Turkish kebab shop. He orders a kebab whilst he sees policeman running all over the street looking for a man who no longer exists.

Story Two, Ayasha
We see the view from a person’s point of view, we think it is Ayasha, but we cannot tell. The person walks the streets of Amsterdam, we see him turn right into a smaller street and we watch as Geert Wilders walks out of a door. The person walks and wherever he steps we see grass grow, we see flowers erupt and the chirping of birds. We see Geert Wilders take a long look at what approaches him and he falls to his knees in tears. We hear him state “Forgive me” and the light increases and his head explodes. The person is suddenly gone and whilst policemen are blocking the streets, the people see a street covered in grass and flowers and one person with an exploding head, no one can tell who he was.

Story Three, Saad.
This starts somewhere in Egypt. Saad is watching a pyramid and makes calculations. He measures every part of his journey and at some point he starts digging. He digs for hours and then he stops. He has found a crate. He opens a crate and he finds an ancient oil lamp. He cleans it with alcohol and as he cleans it, the writing becomes clear. The text issues a warning. “Here is imprisoned the Afreet Apep, do not break the seal” the boy opens the seal and a serpent comes out, no larger than a worm. ‘What is thou wish’. The boy clever as he was. ‘The man Geert Wilders, an infidel insults our faith, for your freedom you will kill him, you will never harm any islamic person and this freedom is yours’. The serpent nods and whispers ‘As you wish’ and bites the boy. The serpent continues. The poison will make you sick, but it will not kill you, as you heal you will hear the voices of scorpions and snakes, they will never harm you and now you can keep your family equally safe. He snake slithers away. It made a long journey and in The Hague in a house, Geert Wilders takes his coat of and sits on a sofa. As he sits and reads papers he has no clue that he is surrounded by snakes and scorpions. The scream wakes up the neighbours. When the police walks into his apartment they see it overrun by snakes and scorpions and in the middle of a room, unrecognised with poisons is the body of Geert Wilders.

Story Four, Nura
In the softness of the desert, in a well to the north of Dammam is a secret. Its secret was well hidden by clerics. But her grandfather was a cleric, he was killed in Iraq whilst attending a sermon. His death weight heavily on her and she has never forgotten the pain. She carefully walks into the den that was sealed and she chisels away on the wall. She gets into a room that holds a cage with a despicable creature, after centuries he no longer has a real body. The creature is skin a bones. The creature looks at her and she speaks ‘Can you understand me?’ The creature nods. She continues ‘If you go north past the seas you will get to the old christian places. Do you know them? The creature nods again. Under no condition are you ever to come back. What you do there is your business, but one thing you must achieve. The creature looks at her. In this bag and she hold up the bag is water, some bread, some meat, a map and a photograph. That person resides in a place called Wassenaar a part of The Hague. When you get into that country you can do whatever you need to to regain strength, but this person must be taught never to insult islam again. Humble him, make him your slave, it is up to you. Do you accept. The creature nodded. Nura opens the cage and the creature slowly walks out, and grabs clumsily the bag, he has a sip of water and a bite of food. She then hands the creature a parcel of beef, he accepts and walks a few more steps. He notices that it is dark outside, he climbs the wall of the well avoiding the waters and leaves. Nura leaves the place to go to bed and dream of these people insulting the prophet with a terrible fate. In the meantime the ghoul regains strength and by the time he is in Belgium centuries of captivity are undone, he is again the ghoul he one was and he has no issues getting anywhere. When he gets to the address he casually walks in, Geert notices him and asks him what he is doing in his house. Geert merely hears ‘Never insult the prophet’, the Ghoul grabs his hand and bites it clean off. Geert Wilders screams and dis of blood loss. The ghouls seeks out the nearest cemetery and decides to feast on the corpses of the non-believers. He never believed, he was too old, but the delight of rotten flesh was never forgotten and now it lies fresh in his memory.

Story Five
A man walks through the streets of The Hague, he walks slow with a staff. He is Arabic and he hears how he is called Gandalf and sometimes Saruman. The names mean nothing to him. He walks from Mosque An-Nour into the city. Looking at the streets and the people. Whilst walking he knocks over the boombox of a person and when it falls it breaks. The man is all apologetic, the cleaning man shrugs. ‘These things happen, not to worry’ the man curiously bows to the man and apologises again and walks away. It is later when the man returns holding a box, the cleaning man  looks at the box. ‘For the damage I caused’ the man states, he bows and walks away. The cleaning man opens the box, only to see a new Sony boombox. He smiles. It is much better than the one he has and he slowly walks towards his work. The man cleans in a Dutch government building and he cleans the corridors and offices. It is well paid work and he is happy to do it, he can send more money to his family then he thought and that makes him happy. Whilst he is cleaning he notices a man with white hairs and two security people following him. He sees them every day. The man ignores him and goes into the men’s room. The cleaning man is in an office when suddenly his boombox becomes very loud. It takes him a second to come to the cart and he lowers the volume. He shrugs at the security people. ‘New radio’ he states and the security people smile. He continues his route only to hear shouting a few minutes later. 

Saruman/Gandalf is standing in a room. Across the street from a governmental toilet. His stick and water flask have been transformed into rifle, the angle was perfect, the flask was high powered air and the scope showed him more accurately what he is aiming for. It is a man with white hair in a toilet. He takes aim and he presses a button that maximises the boombox volume, he can even hear that radio and pulls the trigger. Straight in the head, the politician is dead before he realises what hit him and the man quickly disassembles the rifle, the cane is a cane again and he walks out towards the train station. On route he sees a water dispenser, he is about to fill the bottle. He hears ‘Stop!’ He looks around and a policeman takes the water bottle. The man points at the water fountain. ‘Yuck’ he states and signals a man in the shop behind him. The man hands him a bottle of water. The policeman fills the bottle and hands the water to the man. He nods, the policeman takes the few remaining sips from the water bottle and walks away. The man walks off to the strain station.

Epilogue

In a room with two people we see a window, in the background we see Azadi Tower. The first man speaks ‘Are the Dutch blaming the Saudi’s?’ The second person nods and says ‘Just as we expected’ we might not have a school, but we can act against infidels. Both man smile and drink their coffee

The end

I came up with that story in a little over an hour. I had some delays with the fourth story as it was too similar to the third one. The fifth story evolves between the four stories, with the hit happening after the fourth story is finished. I think it is nice to be creative and it was done as until that moment I never knew that making an image of the prophet was a taboo (or unacceptable). We were never told too much about islam in primary school and what we were told about the Crusades were too much of a lie. Anyway, this was my response. I hope you liked it, Geert Wilders might not, but I kind of don’t care about that part.

Have a lovely day, and let’s see what we can do to Microsoft tomorrow.

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April 11, 2023 · 13:01

It’s a point of view

This happens all the time, we all have a point of view and others have their point of view and they do not completely align. There is no right versus wrong issue, or there could be, but there is every chance that some views are based on three points. Consider a rectangle or a square, they both have points A,B,C and D, but we only see three of them, and with three you can tell whether it is a square or a rectangle, you merely miss one point and base your view on the other three points. It does not matter which point is missing, you get a decent view, but someone who sees A,B and D will draw slightly different conclusions than someone who has B,C and D. Neither is wrong, but they do not complete align because the events that surround these 4 points are different. This is how I see it and as such I took great interest in the Australian Financial Review (at https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/opec-s-gamble-can-the-global-economy-cope-with-higher-oil-prices-20230410-p5cz7f) where we see ‘OPEC’s gamble: can the global economy cope with higher oil prices?’, so whatever you see next, whatever difference I have, I am not dismissing THEIR view. I like their view, I might not completely agree, but they will have another point plotted towards their view. 

And we start with “the risks for the Saudis and the global economy are high if they push it too far. “We have high inflation, economies potentially going into recession, and this is a situation where you need lower oil prices for a short period of time for the economy to recover,” says Adi Imsirovic at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), who once ran oil trading at Russia’s Gazprom.” It is not the first part of the story but it matters. You see, the UK, EU and US are in the metropolitan areas a mobile workforce. Adi Imsirovic can cry for chap oil all he likes, but the setting of ‘lower oil prices’ all you like, but people have been playing that tune for too long and NO ONE is looking at Brent oil on this. You all became a import commodity economy and that comes at a price, especially when you piss off the exporters. In the UK take a look at the laughable CAAT, they were all crying and not to mention Just stop oil group. Now you see the impact of higher oil prices and the players did this to themselves. You cannot push around an ally (Saudi Arabia) and then demand cheap oil, a commodity supplier who can close their own supply valve. 

This also impacts “Abdulaziz also managed to confound those speculators who had bet on falling oil prices after the recent banking crisis sparked new fears about the global economy.” In a stage I warned for for well over two years, the term “confound those speculators who had bet on falling oil prices” is a joke (and a bd one at that). You see, this danger was out there for some time and betting? That is what you do in Las Vegas where the odds are wild and when the US and EU (UK too) decided to make the odds wilder by insulting their proclaimed ally the writing of higher oil prices and less oil was on the wall. And all this was BEFORE China saw its path clear to give the bird to the USA (that gesture with the finger). As such Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman did exactly what was required for the good of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it might not reflect on the needs of the cheap oil deliverers, but they could go cry at the fountain of Brent oil but the media does not report on that, Brent Crude (operating on behalf of ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell) might be ‘too big’ for the media. Yet I have not seen anything regarding Darren Woods and Wael Sawan regarding dropping oil prices. Why is that? We see all the fingers towards Saud Arabia, yet Shell beat profit expectations towards $40 billion and ExxonMobile  beat it with $56 billion. And both broke expectations above 150%, as such I have issues with the entire OPEC setting. And when it comes to ‘lower oil prices’ who bet on this on Brent Crude lowering them? I am willing to set whatever I have at present ($0.70) that the amount of gamblers will add up to ZERO. Which makes me $25.2 (not enough for my new apartment). 

So when we get to “Now the question is if OPEC’s surprise cut will raise prices too quickly for the health of a fragile global economy, especially as central bankers continue their quest to tame inflation” no one is looking at the one element EVERYONE is ignoring. Inflation is also tamed buy banks having their donkeys on a row and with Credit Suisse and a few American banks we can say that this is not the case. So when we consider last week revelation by the BBC ‘Swiss probe into UBS takeover of Credit Suisse’ as well as the news only 2 hours ago that there is something brewing with the Viva Energy deal at $1.15 billion, I reckon that inflation issues are a lot larger than merely through oil and it is time that banks are properly looked at, because they are the so called power players in any inflation deal and no one is stopping certain players. Why is that? And when you consider the larger station, no one is acknowledging that commodities are at the power of the supplier and pissing off one of the biggest suppliers whist you shun two others for whatever decent reason (Iran and Russia), you need to reconsider the stupidity of any action against the third player who basically has had enough and now that China sees a larger playing field, they will take that option, especially if they can do it for a few Yuan more. That too is missing from the equation. That gives us a new discussion or consideration. So here is the new setting, it is not whether we were looking at a square or a rectangle, but we were looking at three points of an octagon/polygon. We were seeing the points correctly, but the stage was not properly marked and that makes neither wrong, it makes us both incomplete and consider that I am a mere blogger without a economics degree and the other player is the Australian Financial Review (and many other newspapers), who has the better excuse for not seeing the whole field? Consider that for a moment and consider the people pointing fingers at Saudi Arabia, why are they pointing there and not in other directions as well. In all this I believe that they have the proper reasons, can the same be said for Brent Crude? I will let you decide.

Enjoy the day.

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April 9, 2023 · 11:44

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.

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March 9, 2023 · 21:11

Afford versus Effort

They are apart, but not in the mind of some. You see the old expression “You get an A for effort” got corrupted. I reckon it started after the 90’s when effort was no longer the main dish. It became not what we can do, but what we can afford so that the fat cats can get their bonus, whilst meeting all other obligations. It wasn’t wholly unexpected. I had spoken to some McDonalds people in the Netherlands in the 80’s. They told be about meeting expectations and not overrun it past the 100%, merely meet the expectations of their bosses. Do not be the ‘surprise’ no one sees coming. At the time it was an utter alien thought. I did not catch on to that exercise until mid 90’s. It was weird. You were hired to do your best, but that became you are to do your best as THEY expect you can be a nothing more. I touched on this slightly whilst writing ‘It was one keyword’ 5 days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/04/it-was-one-keyword/). This must have stuck in the back of my mind, because it came out yesterday with a vengeance. Two things bubbled up. One reflects on LinkedIn and Facebook. They have (for the most) been all about the quantity and not the quality of stuff. They will give you some runaround on complexity (with loads of yada yada yada), but the foundation is that this was out there years ago. I never mentioned it before as I was designing IP to meltdown Iranian (and Russian) nuclear reactors. I did find a solution with the use of a snow globe (how is that for effort?) But the larger stage is not that, it was the story from some girl with a huge smile telling us how people died. That is how it reflects because that is how her profile picture was set. Big smile, no matter what. I do not care that some people can add emoji’s, we can stage ‘emotions’ like they were sad or angry. It would have been so simple to give any person several profile pics, one solemn, one happy (default), one angry and so on. There I a limit, but I reckon that most are covered with less than 9 profile pictures. There are plenty of accounts that have one picture, these are neutral pictures and that is fine. But showing someone how mines impact the human body with a big smile gives the wrong message. And Facebook and LinkedIn could have done something years ago, there is your A for effort right there, no effort because we get some technology babble on how they could not afford it.

This gets me to the second part. The image gives us a mothers day gift. OK, nice, optionally caring, but why? Not giving the gift, I am all for that (even though my mum died almost half a century ago), but see the second image. 

Now consider this a mockup, set to about 4 inches, optionally in merely in greyscales. The edge has the battery, and an option for an micro SD slot. There would be an USB charging option with the more expensive model having some kind of dock. And we include the one cool thing Microsoft did 30 years ago. We get the about screen to give the holder who it was from and what for (like mothers day). The screen could have not merely a calendar, which the simplest UNIX command (cal), but we could add a dot around important dates, like birthday’s mothers day, fathers day anniversary days and so on. The LCD has a clock option so that they can place it anywhere where they need time and optionally showing images, like pictures. And yes the colour version would be more expensive but that is on the buyer. So why are we looking at some acrylic heart that is reduced to a paperweight within a year? It is a nice gift and the emotion behind it is most likely real, but giving something that has long term impact, is that realisation wrong? Is that now beyond achieving? Why is that? This setting came to me in mere seconds, so why isn’t a player like Amazon all over that? They have pretty much all the technology required, the digital transparent LCD clock is decades old. No one took that for a ride to the next generation? 

That is what shows effort versus afford. We forgot to go all the way, we forgot to take the train to the station past the last station. Technology is cheaper and gets to be cheaper still. In 2005 I bought a 2GB card for my camera for $850. Now that same card is $8, in less then 20 years. So what about the other technology? We forget that our bosses need us, we don’t need them that much, the Covid era made that clear, so go all in, show your maximum effort and you will soon see that the ‘fake-it-till-you-make-it’ people will try their luck in Uber or they become barbers. You need to shine and as such you need to make your maximum effort so that you get noticed by the right people, because the greed game is unrelenting, some boss will notice this and they will see YOUR value, something your boss was eager to trivialise for HIS needs.

Just consider that for a moment.

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February 21, 2023 · 00:43

The new rulings

This is change of scenery. This is not about who is in charge, even as we did set that stage, but the stage where we prefer to live. You see, the US is soon becoming a dangerous place to live, as its infrastructures are collapsing, as its debt is over-towering to such an extent that within three years the interest on that debt alone is close to 50% of all collected taxes. A stage that was visible for decades, but no one wanted to overhaul tax systems and now the rule of debt is due and the US has no solution (other than sell of its IP) and now we get a new stage, the stage we admired through the 50’s and 60’s and the US is no longer the main player. 

The new stage is seen (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230219-muslims-react-to-plans-for-new-kabaa-development-in-saudi-capital/) where we are given ‘Muslims react to plans for ‘new Kaaba’ development in Saudi capital’ and lets be clear, this is nothing to sneer at. This has NEVER been done before.

We are given “On Thursday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) announced the launch of the New Murabba Development Company, which aims to develop “the world’ largest modern downtown in Riyadh”. The project will see the redevelopment of Riyadh’s historic Al-Murabba (“The Square”) neighbourhood, which was said to be named after a square-shaped well from which the area derived its name.” And that is merely the beginning. The building will be 400 by 400 by 400 metres making it one of the largest ever build (if we ignore the line). The second building which is taking the architectonical cake. More important what happens when a building of THAT size is covered in solar paint? It could make it the first building to be carbon negative in history. There are so many other settings that need consideration, but the overbearing case is not merely what Saudi Arabia is achieving, it will soon be about how the US (and the EU) have not been able to do anything near it for over a decade and they will not be able to do something anywhere near it for decades to come. The trendsetters achieve, the rest merely watches the options go by and with the debts the US and EU are in that is what it amounts to, they are watching options pass by. 

There is a lot more to this, but that is for another day. No matter how we slice it, Saudi Arabia is now on the architectonical forefront of the world for pretty much the timespan of 2020-2050, that is the consequence of debt driven nations. We tried to all tell you, but you did not want to listen, so now the most major achievements over the next decade will be held in Saudi Arabia, now if we could do something about Iran’s nuclear hunger that would be nice too. I already submitted my idea for Iranian nuclear meltdown solutions, but that is not up to me to do, I might give it to Israel as well, just for jollies.

But the deeper truth is not that Saudi Achieving all this, it will soon become on how Iran will react and make no mistake, it is equally important. As Saudi Arabia rises, Iran falls deeper into economic holes and there is no way that their nuclear options are set to friendly needs, you do not need uranium to pure needs that Iran is making them, that level of purity is only needed for war, so when will someone wake up to that issue? Or is the US awake and they wait for the first bomb (either in Israel or on Saudi Soil) to explode before they put their foot down? No matter how you slice that, it will be much too late for that. As I see it, when that become clear the Saudi government can cut their oil deliveries to the EU and US and sell it all to China. That part was clear, was it not? Saudi Arabia is waking up to the project the US (and EU) dreamt of half a century ago and now Saudi Arabia is making them a reality showing the world that we have been watching the wrong channels for too long a time. Did you realise that?

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February 15, 2023 · 01:12

When we see a hustle

This is the idea that came to my mind when I saw ‘US-GCC meetings in Riyadh seek to counter Iranian threats’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2250361/middle-east). Thee we see “A senior US delegation led by Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley is participating in meetings in Riyadh this week focused on confronting the increasing threats posed by Tehran in the region.” My initial response would be “Oh, whoop di do”, you see, I was on that horse long before I wrote ‘The Iranian play’, which was in August 2021 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/30/the-iranian-play/)  as such, is this a covert hustle for cheap oil? Is this a fake mention to be seen as an ally to Saudi Arabia? I honestly do not know, but you can read up on Iran (try Google with “Lawlordtobe + Iran”) you’ll see articles that go back to even before July 2020 when I wrote ‘A pawn in nuclearity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/07/22/a-pawn-in-nuclearity/), it’s not rocket science (or nuclear missile science), It is all out there, with media links and all. As such when we see “US forces in Iraq and Syria “are under constant threat from Iranian allied militia groups that seek to constantly harass our forces,” which “undermines” their ability to combat Daesh.” We get to see a hollow statement. Saudi Forces have been under drone attack for some time. Perhaps Rob Malley needs to have a real conversation with Saudi Colonel Turki Al-Maliki. He has a lot more usable goods on the acts of Iran, as such the US is again late to the party, well over two years late to the party and as such I see a hustle plain and simple, what the target is is unsure, but the grasp for cheap oil seems likely. 

You see, most of us (and I at times too) see one stage, but the reality is that the stage contains dozens of stages, all with their own settings. US diplomacy, Wall Street, US congress, the seem the same, but that is not the case. They are often alike and they all have their own goals and their destination is at times anyones guess, because we are not given a clear view, we only see parts of that view and until you see the list of views and a proclaimed set of goals (if they are honest) we remain mostly in the dark and as such the arrival of Rob Malley well over two years late comes across as insincere and as such it is seen as a hustle. If the US wants to sound sincere, they need to come across with ACTUAL actions. But there is every chance that these steps come with a large fine (optionally payable in oil) and in no clear steps will we see any actions against the nuclear acts that Iran is pushing. So what do you call something like that? A hustle, or the acts of a sincere ally, because I feel certain that the Saudi government will report the acts by Rob Malley as insincere, I would too. But perhaps we will see some real actions soon enough, I am just not holding my breath on that event, I might suffocate long before the US actually acts against Iran. In part that makes sense with the Ukrainian issues in play, if only they had acted well over two years ago, that would have been nice too.

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February 2, 2023 · 03:23

Weeping Whinging Whiners (W3)

Yes, that is the double meaning and it is the stage that we need to accept. And most of it comes from the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64472806) called ‘White House calls Exxon record profit ‘outrageous’’ with the quote “President Joe Biden has sought to focus blame for last year’s high motor fuel costs on companies failing to spend their profits to boost supply.” As I personally see it, trying to set to focus blame is not just stupid, it is very stupid. You see, oil is a commodity and there is offers and there are demands. A buy and sell setting that has been here for decades. And before President Biden starts laying blame. The blame is at his own address. The White House has had its share of disappointments, but they are on both sides of the isle. Massive changes were required going back to the age of Clinton and in the last 5 years alone other options were available in the form of the Tesla battery, but you all wanted to make fun of Elon Musk, so now he has the commodity you all need (but that is for another day). We are given “Exxon’s shares sank sharply in 2020, when demand for oil tumbled, leading the firm to report its first loss in decades. But the price of the shares has soared since 2021, especially since oil prices jumped when the war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies last year”, yet the part we all forget is that oil is a commodity, and for the most (with a few small examples) it is a good commodity to have. The war is not on Exxon, the need for oil is not on Exxon, it is on the administrations of the White House. For decades you REFUSED to act when action was needed, and action was needed for close to two decades. You can blame all you want, but to see the guilty party any occupant of the White House only needs to look into a mirror. You alienated Venezuela, you alienated Saudi Arabia and you massively alienated (justly so) Iran and you are in a war with Russia. The four largest oil producing nations AFTER America. But America cannot supply its own oil, can it? It exports the bulk for cash and the American people (not just them) are short on oil, as such the price goes up. All options were cut short and you have no options left and that pesky war does not help, we get that. But none of this is on Exxon, two decades squandered and no end in sight. That is how it is. As such the White House can cry, whinge and whine, but in the end. This what they wanted and this president does not get to blame Donald Trump. Former presidents Obama and Clinton, both Democrats did far too little and now time is pretty much up. As such those who have the commodity oil will have wealth coming towards them, massive wealth until at least 2025, this will continue for a while. Even if the war ends in 2023, the shortages are getting larger and larger. Elon Musk was a solution but that bridge was burned. Cities like Austin, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles will need three to five thousand batteries to make a dent in the oil needs for energy, they will need options for heating and that list is merely getting larger and cities in Europe are in a similar state. One source gives us “Over half a million people will use wood-burning stoves this winter, and industry experts report fears of a potential shortage as thousands more turn to the appliance as demand rose by nearly 40 per cent between April and June compared to the same period last year” and this is merely the UK so what happens when heating prices grows by another 20%? Will you blame Exxon, or will you finally realise that more was required and the administrations of several governments fell flat? 

As I see it this was a system that has existed for decades and Exxon is not to blame, this shape of commodities comes from Wall Street, you do remember that greed driven institution? This problem is a lot larger than you realise and too many people are sitting on their hands.

So let them whine and cry all they like, once you realised they are partially the cause of it, that is when you get to be angry.

Good luck.

 

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January 31, 2023 · 17:01

One issue, more to come

The first issue is known. I wrote about it on January 23rd (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/23/a-national-consequence/) it was ‘A national consequence’ where we see the events unfold between Turkey and Sweden. I want to side with Sweden, but this time they broke their own windows and now we see (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64457233) ‘Swedish flag burnt in Jakarta amid Turkey Nato row’ it took a few days but now the anti-Sweden issues start rising and that is before Egypt and Pakistan wake up to the issues that Sweden allowed to be mainstream issues. As I personally see it Rasmus Paludan started this and is not only cause to Sweden being halted from entering NATO, Swedish tourists will do well to stay out of Islamic nations for a while. You all it freedom of expression, most others will call it targeted racism, but the Swedes will get all time to ponder that stage. As we get “Other anti-Sweden protests have also taken place in Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Lebanon this month.” We see that Pakistan is awake, not sure about Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but that cannot be far away. Even as we are given “We urge the Indonesian government to not just condemn this, but to also join in boycotting everything Swedish,” said one protester in Jakarta, Wati Salam. What they [the Swedes] did was an insult to our holy scripture,” said another, Junaedi Abdilla.” We recognise the Swedish defence with “the burning does not reflect the government’s opinion” which came from their embassy in Djakarta, but the truth is that they allowed the extremist to start the fire and now it is an international problem. Rasmus Paludan played you and you let it escalate. For me it does not matter, at some point one of the Arabic nations will consider my script ‘How to assassinate a politician’ and that works well or me. It was designed with the Dutch politician Geert Wilders in mind, but it can be easily reset to Denmark (or Sweden) with Rasmus Paludan being the target. There is a consequence of insulting Islam and we need to accept that these consequences have far reaching consequences. Drawing the image of Muhammad, burning Qurans. These are mere two events and the far right keeps on going to these two places. They have been doing it for years and at some point something will have to give. So what happens when Iran and Saudi Arabia stops delivering oil? Will Europe pay premium for American oil, or will they consider Venezuela as a supplier? Something has to give and in this day and age, the available options are not out there in numbers. You did realise that, did you not?

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January 23, 2023 · 00:08

A national consequence

I saw the news earlier, but I had to consider a few things, one of them not so really pro-Turkey, another set to the stage of me wondering what was going on. It all started with the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64360528) where we are given ‘Turkey condemns ‘vile’ Sweden Quran-burning protest’, and as I was wondering what was going on I saw “Rasmus Paludan, a politician from the far-right Stram Kurs”, it made me wonder what was needed. And then it occurred to me, why was Turkey the only one protesting? What if Egypt, the UAE, Iraq, optionally Iran, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Turkey all combined their protest? What if the EU had to deal with retributions from the OPEC nations closing the oil tap a little (500K barrels a day less for the EU), the other nations stopping import of Danish and Swedish goods? Would that wake them up? We might think that a person like Rasmus Paludan can insult islam again and again, but why allow it? We have rules and laws on religious prosecution, religious discrimination and should it end there? What if we make anti religious protests that continue to insult a religion (like burning a Quran) as well. Perhaps we need to state that they need to burn bibles as well, how does that go over?

I cannot claim that I have any solution here, but the levels of inactions that I see against Rasmus Paludan are getting out of hand. As such I think inaction becomes a larger issue and there is actually no real option, so what happens when the EU gets a 10% fuel rise, does that wake them up? I do not care what religion you like, and what religion you hate, but if you go as far as openly insulting that religion things get out of hand and it becomes time to act, inaction is no longer acceptable. If you allow a chaos and hatred seeder like Rasmus Paludan to continue, I reckon you get whatever is coming to you. I personally believe that when civility goes missing to this degree nations have failed on several levels. That whilst we need to realise that Sweden has 5%-10% Muslims, that is up to a million, Denmark has roughly the same percentage size, in numbers it is about half that size, but the population of Denmark is about 50% smaller. When you go out to insult that size of a population there needs to be consequences and even as people like Rasmus Paludan think that it is merely up to 10%, so that they can easily win such fights, they need to consider that there is a larger consequence and that needs to be shown to that kind of people and I reckon that Turkey alone cannot do that, it might block NATO access for Sweden, but a larger lesson needs to be taught and that is where OPEC comes in, where the bulk of its population is Muslim, so what happens when the tap is closed even just a little? For Sweden with its shortages it might become disastrous quickly, I am not sure about Denmark at present. 

Do we need to act? Yes, we all need to act. We cannot let people like Rasmus Paludan to spread hatred to the degree they do, the consequences are too dire to consider, as such I reckon it is time to fight such hatred by letting these nations be overwhelmed by shortages and make sure that everyone knows WHY this was done. You see if you hate muslims THAT much, you can get the oil from Russia or Venezuela or America. But that gets you into other deep waters, does it not? No matter how it plays out, we are too far beyond the levels of inaction we see now and consider that OPEC could close the tap by 1 million barrels of oil a day, or more. What does that give you? Not much and until summer that impact might end up being disastrous.

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