Tag Archives: Israel

Tea with Yellowcake

That happens, we have some tea and we want something to snack with the tea, I also have that need with coffee, but there I tend to simply rely on the trusty toasted Blueberry muffin. Its yummy with some coffee, preferably a cappuccino. Tea has different needs, for the most I have some Tiramisu, or a Black Forest Cake. The other thing I used to love and it seems to be the limiting Dutch option of the Cream Cake, I haven’t seen it anywhere outside of the Netherlands and Belgium. Anywhere else it is not the yummy experience.

As for yummy options, Aljazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/14/saudi-arabia-announces-plans-to-enrich-and-sell-uranium) gives us now ‘Saudi Arabia announces plans to enrich and sell uranium’ and before you start blaming Saudi Arabia with all kinds of messes, remember that the west (particularly USA) was unable to contain Iran with their nuclear messes. Remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Between 2005-2013 he made a right mess and enriched to his heart content, Saudi Arabia was confronted with over half a decade of worrisome Iranian tactics as was Israel. In that setting Saudi Arabia had set the tone that they weren’t starting this, but they would match Iran in their actions. And now we get “Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud told a conference in Dhahran on Monday that the move is part of a strategy to monetise all minerals, according to Reuters news agency.” I say if you need to do something, you better get some coins out of it. And it seems that Saudi Arabia is doing just that. It is the setting of “Trump pursued a policy of “maximum pressure”, withdrawing the US from a landmark deal which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington’s withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.” And the setting that Iran rolled back its commitments is (my personal view) the reason that Saudi Arabia made these steps. The fact that they are clever about it and let this setting evolve through its own funding might be a speculative reason for this. All that time that America and the EU smoothed over the actions of Iran is precisely the reason that we are facing this. In all honesty I feel more secure with Saudi Arabia doing this than Iran ever did. It was the initial reason why I created the (optional and untested) Meltdown solution. There is nothing like a nuclear reactor melting down on itself, and when I saw images of Chernobyl my brain went to work and the result was put in ‘Keeping my promise, part 1’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/14/keeping-my-promise-part-1/) and the hilarious part of this was that Iran would be spending a few billions only to see it meltdown in the first month. I do have a quirky sense of humor. But as things go, Saudi Arabia is in the market of selling the stuff and it is their mineral and I think that good business is where you find it. I reckon it will take America a few days to shout at the world and they will ‘demand’ a peaceful solution. I say stuff that. They could never contain Iran (and the world applauded their non-actions) and look where that has got them. So whilst we see “Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, which allows its program to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.” We have to see that Saudi Arabia is much more than sand and oil (they have tourist space as well). Now that they are moving into the yellowcake market we need to see what comes up. I reckon that it won’t be the money fountain they would wish for as yellowcake goes for roughly $60 per kilo. It is roughly the price of tuna, so there is that issue to consider. Yet the foundation of ‘part of a strategy to monetise all minerals’ is something I would applaud and nearly every country should consider this. There are of course ethical issues to consider, but if the world does nothing about Iran, they have no business interfering with Saudi Arabia either, apart from the small fact that I trust Saudi Arabia a whole lot more than Iran.

So have a great day and do try the Tiramisu today with coffee. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

UN Redundant Whining Association

Let’s see how we could optionally expose the media and set a department of the UN to the trashcan of useless to the maximum degree. It is a ride that has seen some time. The first part we got around late July 2024. The rumours went round and at some point the UN decided to put a stop to it and on August 5th (at https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/investigation-completed-allegations-unrwa-staff-participation-7-october) we were given under the headline ‘Allegations on UNRWA staff participation in the 7 October attacks’. There we see “I acknowledge the completion of the investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into the serious allegations that 19  area UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the abhorrent attacks of 7 October on southern Israel” with the added “In April, an independent Agency-wide review by three reputable research centres under the leadership of former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna concluded that UNRWA ‘possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities’. The Agency has started implementing the recommendations of the review” and is fully committed to them.” Now we can accept that for what it is (I do not), but the massive takeaways here in this brief are ‘the completion of the investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)’, ‘an independent Agency-wide review by three reputable research centres’ and ‘UNRWA ‘possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities’’ as such we could surmise that the UNRWA is well versed in tradecraft, they even pulled the wool over the eyes of the French foreign minister and three ‘reputable’ research centres. The other option is that these four players were in league with Hamas which I find unrealistic. 

Less then 24 hours ago we were given (at https://nypost.com/2025/01/06/us-news/un-watchdog-group-urges-dismantlingly-of-unrwa-for-enabling-crimes-gainst-humanity/) ‘UN watchdog group urges dismantling of UNRWA for ‘enabling crimes against humanity’’ we get the added “A United Nations watchdog group says the infamous UN relief agency that provides $1.5 billion a year to Palestinians should be disbanded for colluding with terrorists and “enabling crimes against humanity.” “The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is neither independent nor neutral,” says a scathing new report by the Swiss-based group UN WATCH.” So, why did the OIOS miss this? More important, as we see that several Israeli news sources gave us parts of this already, why were these parts (as I see it) intentionally overlooked? It was not by all media, but the largest collection of media courtesans merely used part of the past news as a source for (as I personally see it) pursuit of digital dollars. And it took the watchdog some time to figure this out. Which I do not hold against them. But the larger setting is reached. The United Nations is as useless as some say they are and now in the setting with Trump and Musk, we can safely set the premise that the UN is a cost that the United States can avoid having.  As I see it António Guterres will have to do a lot more than smooth talking. There might be a setting where the UN could be disbanded. There is every cause to consider that the organisation’s 37,000 staff members could find themself thrown of that gravy train. To illustrate further I offer the image below. I cannot vouch for the numbers, but the image is powerful. So don’t use these numbers as is, trust but verify I say and so did some marine named Gibbs.

What it does show is that the UNRWA is as useless as some expect them to be and the crying newscasts we see now like ‘7 infants dead in Gaza from cold weather, inadequate shelter: UNRWA’ and ‘Social order in Gaza will collapse if Israel ends cooperation with UN aid agency, official says’ it is too late for that, the UNRWA is done for (unless massive amounts of evidence ‘suddenly’ comes forward. We saw in the beginning of December aid from the UAE get to Gaza. In the day after that we see armed masked men (supposedly Hamas) drive of with a whole stack of these boxes. We cannot hold the UAE on that, they did the almost unthinkable, they found hundreds of volunteer who created these care packages in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. What happens in Gaza becomes the question. So was the UNRWA involved? Or was Hamas merely a block away collecting these boxes? Your guess (or speculation) is as good as mine. However, when we consider the timeline from August I have to conclude that Hamas is the cancer on the Palestine people and they will not ever find release unless Hamas has been eradicated. 

It is a harsh reality we see here (I saw that about a year ago). But change has to happen and disbanding the UNRWA might be a first requirement.

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

To box office, or not to box office

That is the question and the question is valid as the movies opened up in 2018 with a revenue of $2.6m, seems little but in the few years that passed, annual revenue went up to a quarter of a billion, as such screen daily kept an eye on the Saudi market (at https://www.screendaily.com/features/is-saudi-arabias-box-office-boom-over-or-set-to-rise-again/5199910.article) in that same setting I created the script ‘How to assassinate a politician’ about the assassination of Islamophobe Geert Wilders (the current prime minister of the Netherlands) the alternative title was ‘Essay’ (I came up with that later). I aimed it for the Arabic (Saudi Arabia/UAE) market. I contacted 2-3 player, but I never heard back from them. I thought that through streaming they could also get to the Egyptian market (as well as the Indonesian markets) The ‘bad vibe’ feelings in Indonesian markets might be well received. A Dutch politician getting the Sukarno treatment might keep Indonesian people on their couch watching the demise of the Prime Minister five times over. Anyway, those were my thoughts and it seems that they didn’t agree with me. Still the setting remains. As we get “At least one of the major exhibitor groups operating in Saudi is said to be exploring a possible sale amid high debt levels incurred during its rapid expansion. Last year, AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s biggest cinema chain, exited the Saudi market in the face of intense competition, selling to Saudi Entertainment Ventures (Seven), which is operated by the government’s Public Investment Fund.” The intense competition was why I tried the streamers as a possible interested party. We can think box office all we want, but in the end, the people need to be entertained at home. The last time I went to the cinema, it was $19 for the movie and popcorn and a soda set me back another tenner. That’s three months of Netflix. I reckon we need to consider the home office and for a lot of Saudi’s (as well as Indonesians, Egyptians and people in the UAE) the same setting is looming. It is not that streaming is better, it is merely more affordable. Now that Apple is getting more into Saudi Arabia, it will be soon that Apple TV is coming too (or already there). And with the setting of “Bidding wars for titles from major US sellers were common, but less so now. Minimum guarantees have dropped as a result, reflecting the reality of a market that has levelled out. “When Saudi opened up, almost any film would work. But now audiences are a lot more selective,” says the executive.” Makes me feel that there is still a chance of my script making it to the screens of people. The movie plays part in the Netherlands and part in Dammam (no real reason why I chose it) and one scene in Iran. The setting of a movie that deals with islamophobia was appealing to me, because it is something nearly any Islamic person is exposed to (especially in Europe) and as such I created an idea with my copy of Final Draft (given to me for that reason) and a stronger view is given with “One bright spot is the market for Arabic-language content, particularly from Egypt. The figures underline the executive’s point: the top five box-office films of the year so far include two Egyptian titles (action drama Sons Of Rizk 3 and romantic comedy Gawaza Toxic) and one Saudi comedy (Shabab El-Bomb). According to Comscore, Egyptian titles now account for an impressive 25% of the Saudi market, while local Saudi features have a 7% share. US films, by comparison, take 53% of box office in the country.” My movie is not in Arabic, but it was designed with the stage of an Arabic version in mind. I merely lack the language skills to make it directly in Arabic. Now I see that this setting is given with “Egyptian titles now account for an impressive 25%” gives me hope that my final curtain call is not here yet. Yes, it is hope because I had never written a script before this and as I look at the tally where beside ‘How to assassinate a politician’ I am working on ‘Kenos Diastima’ (a TV series in the making), ‘Engonos’ (TV series in the making) and ‘Residuam Vitam’ (mini series in the making). I created these series partly to keep my writing skills up and it wasn’t until ‘How to assassinate a politician’ had formed more completely in my mind that I decided to make it in a script (in Final Draft) and when I started pushing that title did I start to set the blackboard for ‘Residuam Vitam’ which is still forming. 

And as we see this we also need to take notice of Adon Quinn, CEO of Saudi exhibitor Muvi Cinemas, believes that Arabic content can help drive future growth. I am willing to agree, but that is really in my favour. You see it is nice that things go to cinema (happy to help), but I reckon that the streamers in the UAE (Dubai Media) and Saudi Arabia (Aloula) will make the larger difference. The need for Egypt and Indonesia seem clear and Indonesia with a population of 277 million potential viewers should not be underestimated. As Quinn tells us “He points out the wider Saudi box-office slowdown echoes what has happened in markets around the world this year. Its main cause, he says, is the depleted supply of content caused by Covid and last year’s Holly­wood actors and writers strikes. “The strikes had a big impact on the first half of 2024,” he observes. “We’ve seen when the right content is there, the audience is there.”” But he also exposes a problem. The depleted supply is seemingly due to Hollywood. Still tapping the Canadian, Swedish and western European markets might not be a bad idea. Especially as California is about to get a few additional issues and they are not yet polarised into tinseltown (Hollywood). 

There are definitely options for the Arabic market, but I reckon that the streamers will have a much better time they do not need a movie distribution system and they can get a lot of traction roping in a potential viewing group of well over 400,000,000 people. You can fish in a barrel, but the same barrel holding either 400 million or a mere 35 million, that is the setting as I see it and as I have noticed Dubai Media is ready to get on board with that setting (I saw it was ‘proclaimed’ by certain individuals on LinkedIn). 

The market is where you cater to it and I thought it was a good idea to cater to the Arabic markets. Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, movies

When it rains, it pours

That was the very first thought I had when I was confronted with the opinion piece in the Middle East Monitor (at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241129-saudi-arabia-abandons-pursuit-of-us-defence-treaty-over-israel-stalemate/) where we see ‘Saudi Arabia abandons pursuit of US defence treaty over Israel stalemate’. I have said it before and I will say it again. The US needs to stop their stop gap resolution of “We can do this, if we can have….” That is a setting that is past tense. America needs to open all valves to get any revenue out of Saudi Arabia (and other nations there). Now that we see “Saudi Arabia is now pushing for a more modest military cooperation agreement, two Saudi and four Western officials told Reuters” the US needs to stop its appeasement trajectory. On the plus side China is pretty happy with that flawed approach from America. There is every chance that China will open the flood gates and let Saudi Arabia go nuts on the Chengdu J-20. 

Is this a given? Nope, but for others to see Saudi Arabia embracing the J-20 is the first sign that America is about to lose several contracts. Not all (it fits with the modest military cooperation agreement setting) I predicted a loss of 40% towards the US defense contracts and so far there are indications that 30 billion left American shores for Europe and China (unverified numbers). But the first stage has been reached. And the setting changes if this does happen. The American loans are set to a 90%-95% fulfilment of contracts and there are larger consideration that America will at best get 60%-65% restated for America. And it gets worse for the US, Saudi Arabia has stated to grow its national defense settings and if China makes that happen all whilst Antony Blinken remains in the appeasement setting, the losses will get worse. I speculate a lot worse, but I don’t have access to anything reliable for the numbers in that game. As such, I need to add the ‘speculation’ label as I haven’t been connected to defence parties for 42 years. 

We are also given “Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has again made recognition of Israel conditional on it taking concrete steps to create a Palestinian State” I understand that setting, but I personally belief that this should be done after the eradication of Hamas. Saudi Arabia has been under attack through Iranian proxies for too long and as such the three terrorist organisations Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi their eradication becomes a near essential. You want to doubt this? That’s fair but the essential setting becomes that Iran wants to stop the achievements of Neom (including Sindalah, the Line, Trojena, Oxagon and Magna). At some point One of these three parties will be added to the work roster of them and they will introduce small flaws, flaws that might not be noticed now, but in a year or two when things start to go wrong, the costs will enormous. An Iran will be quiet for a larger share of the table that is how it starts and Saudi Arabia is too far ahead now. If we want to protect the achievements of Saudi Arabia eradicating Hamas, Houthi and Hezbollah forces becomes the larger setting. All those weakhearted lefties will argue that these people are really sorry and should be forgiven. I say hell with that and eradicate them all. Or have you all forgotten how Saudi Arabia was on the verge of setting the larger stage to include Israel? Some will say that Hamas was brilliant and I say that this is the final straw setting the stage of eradication for these three puppets of Iran. And Iran knows that Israel is about to settle the attacks on the territory of Israel and that would escalate things even further. Now that will happen in two stages. In the first the attacks that Hezbollah will vie for and the threats from Iran takes it even further. The danger here is that Iran could ‘press’ Houthi forces further and that would force the hand of Saudi Arabia. In that stage China could proceed by handing Saudi Arabia a support setting of the Chengdu J-20 as well as the primary delivery of the speculated Xi’an H-20. I reckon that it is not completed yet, but they could hand 3 of these puppies to Saudi Arabia so that the Saudi Airforce could strike against the Houthi Forces. (I did say could, not will). Consider that these two planes would be readily sought by other Arabian nations (including Egypt, Jordan and Iraq) this is largely speculative, but it allows China to take more and more slices from American defence industries. And as this happens Iran needs to hide, because these choices would reduce the Houthi forces to next to nothing and at that point Iranian actions would fall flat and at that point Israel has options and Hamas should have none left. 

As such the Saudi war hammer will carve slices of Yemen to rubble. In all this there are two sides that matter. The first is that the west ignored that stages that China prepared for and now we see that Saudi Arabia has selected for “a more modest military cooperation agreement” with America, as scheduled the door opens for China to get more of towards America assigned spending. As I personally would speculate is that Saudi Arabia is now in a good place to negotiate and as Blinken seemingly trusted on “We can do this, if we can have….” We see that America endangered its position for defence spending. I believe that I am correct, but there are signs that it is based on a opinion piece. Not on reported facts.

What people need to realise is that this all started on October 7th 2023 when Hamas struck the Nova music festival massacre, overall 1,139 people were killed and 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. That started this mess but the media is extremely willing to avoid certain matters. And now we see a larger setting Saudi Arabia is (as I personally see it) ready to find a new defence partner and spend billions with that new partner. 

So when some will call this a mild rain, consider that thought because those billions would have paid for the loans which could now fall short of payment for the next few years.

As such appeasement becomes deadening. America made a massive booboo as I see it. Have a fun day.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military

The edge of darker creativity

There is a dark corner. It is not a unique setting, it is in everyone. The problem comes when any person gets their creativity and taps into that darkness. Is everyone on board? You see, I just tapped into this and what I created scared me to near death. When we see the news, we see that there is an armistice in Lebanon. Reuters reported a mere 12 hours ago: “A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the U.S. and France as people in both countries began returning to homes in the border area shattered by 14 months of fighting.” Sounds lovely doesn’t it? Well, in under an hour all these ‘Lebanese citizens’ came out in droves waving Hezbollah flags. As such I wonder how long this seize fire will hold. Some Hezbollah idiot will think that it is a good idea to send a missile into Israel, to gain fame with others. And Israel will go berserk and strike out. That is what realism tells me. We do not know what will happen. The minds of terrorists tend to go where most are fearful. And there is a second sight. Someone has to appease the will of Iran and someone will.

As such I came up with the Bullet Plus, as you can see it seems like a simple bullet, It is however not intended to shoot someone. In the bullet is a small canister, as the bullet impacts, the canister will break and the fluid will be released. You can have any kind of fluids there. There is Sarin, Novichok (Ask the Russian GRU for details on that one), there are also diseases like pulmonary diseases. Not directly fatal (like Novichok) but now we get an area issue. You see, pulmonary poisons will affect people in an area and hospitals will pick up on these. The result of a stray bullet. Consider shooting Sarin into an Hamas building, suddenly we start getting a range of intel we never had before (Mossad didn’t have it either). Sarin is too deadly, Novichok is an option and others are options too. You see, we might know 1-2 Hamas agents, but the 5-9 support staff remain unknown. Now they come out of the woodworks. We could use something like Caesium chloride, it is highly toxic and it cannot spread from person to person. Direct interaction is needed. For this you need to look at the Goiânia accident in Brazil (1987). You see, all these terrorists and their sympathisers might scream ‘innocent, innocent’ but at some point even Saudi Arabia will need to deal with them. They need to simply because Iran will make them act in some way against Saudi Arabia. It is not a case of ‘if’ it is merely a when. And for those thinking this is an Israel issue, consider the border wall of Gaza with Egypt.

The H3 terrorists will need to be dealt with at some point. Hamas is a certainty, Hezbollah is becoming more and more needed and when these fall away Houthi actions are most likely to become zero.

Feel free to disagree with me but in all this consider that this started on 7 October 2023 with Hamas attacking a pop concert. And in all that time how many refugees were ‘allowed’ into Egypt? I will let you count the articles that have been published on this it will be less then usual. It is so much easier for the media to go anti semitic on us all. Emotional flames score more digital dollars then simple truths. That is the truth of the media. Anyhow, I decided to let the dark corner of my creativity speak and I came up with this. Perhaps DARPA had this already, perhaps they did not. I already scored 5 wins over DARPA, so my ego is just fine. If my HOPplusOne solution works I have 6 wins over DARPA. There is only so much my ego needs, for the rest I merely think of other solutions. In this, I still love the idea that I designed a solution to meltdown nuclear reactors based on a snow-globe. You probably never thought that this ‘device’ had instrumental options did you?

Anyway, we all hope that the seize fire holds, but I am not holding my breath. No matter how you slice it, 66% of damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip account for 163,778 structures in total. Consider how many Hamas people are ‘suddenly’ awarded a nice place to live and in this and the BBC gave us last week “Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said Hamas’s office no longer had a function because Qatar had suspended its mediation efforts on a Gaza ceasefire deal, although he stressed that it was not permanently closed. The Palestinian official told the BBC the Hamas negotiators had adjusted their presence in the region and were keeping their locations secret to avoid embarrassing host countries.” So why isn’t it permanently closed? I reckon that Qatar is feeling the anger from other islamic nations and Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza has issued a Fatwa against the October 7th attack. That is a bitter pill to swallow for Hamas. As such Hamas needs a different setting and remaining underground (optionally somewhere in Qatar) makes sense, because there are very little hiding places in Gaza left. When you add it all up my solution has a few things going for it. The largest issue is that it is becoming important to see how the claws of Hamas reach out and optionally the same goes for Hezbollah and Houthi. The nice part is that if this plan comes to fruition Iran will have to desert these three players because the impact of undeniable evidence would haunt Iran to the largest extent and the only thing going for these three players is that Iran under Qasem Soleimani was much better arranged then now. Now we see more and more issues out in the open and soon there is no denying what happens and the other players hurt by Iran will strike back at that point. How they strike back? That remains to be seen, but at that point Iran will lose whatever friends it thought it had in the first place. That is merely my point of view. 

Have a great creative day, possibly a lot less dark than the one I am having now.

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Media, Military, Politics

Trials of a madman

Something made me think of King George III today. He was known as the mad king. For me it wasn’t what I knew, but it was the view thrusted on me by Nigel Hawthorne who played the Madness of King George. He got assistance by Helen Mirren, Ian Holm and Rupert Everett. What mattered is that this view gave me the rest of the setting. You see the Kyiv Independent (at https://kyivindependent.com/for-2nd-day-straight-russias-reported-losses-in-ukraine-surge-to-record-levels/) gave me ‘For 2nd day straight, Russia’s reported losses in Ukraine surge to record levels’ now, war is indiscriminate for the living. The living are merely people who haven’t died yet and War in any form relishes death above all other currencies. What got to me was “This surpasses the previous record of 1,770 set just the day before. The total figure stands at 712,610.

We are also given “In a bid to regain control, Russia has deployed 50,000 troops, including soldiers from North Korea, to the Kursk region.” I tend to ask Ares for advice on these matters and he gives me that it will merely take an additional 17 days for them all to be slaughtered. The Koreans are out of their element and that implies an increasing amount of miscommunication between the Russians and Koreans will increase the rate at which their bodies and souls become separated. This reflects on ‘the Madness of King George’ as King George should have been able to see that America was lost to him, and he gave the order to battle for America. He of course didn’t count on the French who liked England to be weaker. Russia is making a generic same setting using Koreans, mercenaries, Nepali forces (about 200 of them), Serbians as well as some Bosnians. It seems that the fifth largest army is no longer depending on its 1.15 million active-duty personnel and close to two million reservists. They are willing to let the other people swallow the bullets meant for Russian forces. Yet the larger setting is ignored. Are they setting a stage where they hope that the others will swallow bullets until the Ukrainians run out of ammo? Do you remember these arrogant Russian media types claiming it was a mere 2 days exercise? We are in day 994 now and there is no letting up. Even more so, Russia has lost territory to the Ukrainian forces. There is no way that the top of the Kremlin does not see that. Lets be clear, the high command of the Kremlin is as able as most of the NATO countries and they see these numbers too. More important, they also see that Russia is now indebted to North Korea now. If someone would have told them in 2000 that this would happen a mere 24 years later, they would have howled with laughter (and rightfully so). We now see that Russian logistics are a mess, Russian hardware is failing all over the place in their own biosphere. These machines are not able to withstand the Russian conditions, a first setting that would have been required. As such, what mess is Russia in? Oh, and before you think this is the larger part, you would be wrong. The larger part are the 18750 lost drones. The cheapest military drone is about $700K, making this an effort to tap the vein at $13,000,000,000. One element is costing them 13 billion and counting. The second is 20350 pieces of artillery, wanna guess how cheap they are? And replacing them is a costly and time consuming issue. The Russian army is about to be a mere shadow of an empty egg shell. That setting was 850 days in the making and the Kremlin let it all happen. There is no loyalty towards Putin, as I see it these generals are letting this happen to the Russian population. Why? This is not some ego setting. I have never seen an ego letting this happen to 712610 fellow citizens. I get it, if you are under attack this could happen, but Russia instigated this attack and there lies the crunch. In other news Lord Hades is welcoming over 725000 souls into his domain. As I see it he is happy and Ares is merely mesmerised by the utter stupidity of people. 

We are also given “Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that as”tens of thousands of enemy soldiers from the best Russian shock units” are aiming to push Ukrainian forces out of the Russian enclave, raising concerns of a significant escalation in the war.” It is a thought that makes sense, but the other side is equally possible. If President elect Trump lets this sail, it would take the better part of two decades for the Russian forces to be anywhere near to a threat to NATO and other parties that rely on President elect Trump. In this I oppose the view by Aljazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/6/australia-spy-chief-says-west-faces-new-russia-china-iran-n-korea-axis) where we are given ‘Australia spy chief says West faces new Russia, China, Iran, N Korea ‘axis’’, I get that we are given “Andrew Shearer, said on Wednesday that the strategic impact of the emerging axis, with China and Russia at its core, had been underestimated.” As I see it, the Ukrainian offensive with Russia, North Korean and Iran is a bit of a sizzler. As Iranian drones are dealt with the weaknesses are exposed making it easier for Israel and NATO allies to create counter measures. China will keep its distance as it would be tactically sound. Iran as it loses its proxies through Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi become close to powerless. At this foundation China prefers to stand alone, with NATO allies contributing to this violent settlement, China gets a real chance to look at what their optional opponent is capable of. And with China leading an economic windfall in several places, it can afford to wait. Whatever Russia and China deal we are given, until I have investigated the source of the intelligence, I merely see that an old premise becomes optional. It comes from James Grady who also wrote six days of the Condor. This story showed us the setting of a China stage (in Montana if I remember correctly). They spoke about something called ‘Gamaljoen’, it I remember this correctly (from Dutch). A person who through attachments was ‘made’ important and that person created importance by making the connections more important than they were. The person was not that important in the end, but the intelligence network wasted resources and time to learn this. It is entirely possible that China is now employing this setting and others like Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu are voicing this setting. In the meantime (as I personally see it) China seems more clever that this and they are unwilling to claim any stake in this lose-lose battle that it represents. This is rather nasty news for Sergei Shoigu, but there it is.

Are these truly the trials of a madman? In this I accept that I could be the madman, but see at what has happened in the last 925 days, am I that wrong? 

Oh and if the Koreans are up to it, cook a decent mean for the Russians. If the South Korean kitchen is anything to go by, they could use a proper meal. In the realm of Hades those without honour feast on the bones of whomever they slay. You can ask Ares, he can usually be found in the northern part of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Hades can be found in the palace of Tartarus, getting there is however quite the challenge. The Myrmidon tend to make short work of trespassers.

So there is my happy moment of the day, you have a nice day too.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

The unspoken truth

That is a setting we relish and fear. There is no escaping it. When some people relish the setting of total freedom, they also fear how some people might abuse that same level of freedom. We applaud the freedom of speech, but we also fear the people that abuse it, like ‘Just Stop Oil’ for example. There was an advertisement the other day. The setting was an art exhibit and two “oilers” step up to defile a work of art. Then we see a middle aged man walk up to them and shoot them in the head, a simple execution. And for a lot of them (including me) there was a sense of calm, a satisfying feeling. These abusers of ‘freedom’ were dealt with. The future innocent art was saved. The art defilers were dealt with. That is the consequence of ‘freedom of speech’, you need to be held accountable. It refers to the very beginning of my blog. On June 19th 2012 I wrote ‘The accountability act – 2015’ in this I wrote “Why 2015? Well an act like this does not grow out of a goose feather and ink jar over night. If we think of a law that could make a real change, and would be a real stop to some of the acts of greed, then it will take time and a lot of effort too.” I gave the powers that could be 3 years to get their act together. As far as I know they never did. And this reverts to a new case, an act that happened that happened on 7 October 2023. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4vw1l8xvdo) gave us ‘Gaza’s top Islamic scholar issues fatwa criticising 7 October attack’ where we see “Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is one of the region’s most respected religious authorities, so his legal opinion carries significant weight among Gaza’s two million population, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.” 

The world no matter how it is tweaked by the greed driven need for digital dollars, has had enough of the media at large. There is a (seemingly) staged setting that the world of Sunni Islam is seeing the fallout the world is having. It is happening in nearly all countries in the world. Shia Islam has embraced Terrorism in Lebanon (Hezbollah), Gaza (Hamas) and Yemen (Houthi) and the world is basically fed up with this path. Now we see the BBC story and there is a chance that Sunni Islam is isolating Shia Islam and this stage could be used to isolate and invalidate Iran. So as we are given “A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic legal ruling from a respected religious scholar usually based on the Quran or the Sunnah – the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad. Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was published in a detailed six-page document, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.” There is a chance that the Gazan population have had enough of Hamas to the larger degree and this paper might push them to the curve of decisions. Lets see the impact On October 10th we were given “An estimated 75,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza with experts predicting it could take years to clear the debris amounting to more than 42 million tonnes, which is also rife with unexploded bombs. Gaza’s Media Office estimates direct damage caused by Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip at $33bn.” Now as I personally see it, the Gaza Media Office is not impartial and their data is debatable. But we also get from Unitar on September 30th we were given “Those 66% of damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip account for 163,778 structures in total. This includes 52,564 structures that have been destroyed, 18,913 severely damaged, 35,591 possibly damaged structures and 56,710 moderately affected.” I feel that this needs to be scrutinised to a much larger degree. The media uses it for digital dollars, they are willing to obfuscate the data as much as they can, but clarity could resolve a lot of issues and Dr Dayah’s fatwa could be a first step to do just that. For the people in Gaza it is imperative that they get clarity. Hamas will not give that. How many people were living in these 163,788 buildings? And this Fatwa was the one thing Iran did not count on. The Iranians are in a bind. They opened the door for Israel to attack them directly, attack their oil reserves. The oil reserves enable the terrorist acts of Iran and when these are gone Iran is in a stale mate with no option but to handover all they thought they gained. The first being the isolation of three terrorist organisation. It will isolate Iran to the largest of degrees and with that gone so do their ‘allies’ China, India and Russia. Russia might hold on as they have other needs, but without oil India and China are pretty much out. It is my personal view on the matter, however this could start a new wave. One that invalidates Iran and give the stability and powers for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to create a new foundation of stability. And lets be clear (and optionally honest) do you really want Iran, the country that embraced terrorism for decades to the largest degree at that table?

This is the setting we are pushed into and lets all hope that it works out for the best. Have a great Monday.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Military, Politics

iRan is not an Apple product

There is a larger setting in the world (predominantly the middle east). We are given by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3yqzx72zno) ‘Iran’s supreme leader says enemies will receive ‘crushing response’’. I left it to the left at first (three days ago) for the reason that the entire Iran debacle is like hauling water to the sea. Where the text starts with “The US and Israel “will definitely receive a crushing response”, Iran’s supreme leader has said, following an Israeli attack on Iran a week ago.” It sounds nice, but Iran is limited to deliver attacks through terrorist fractions. It is too scared to attack directly. In the beginning it was about deniability, but that is gone now and Iran is on the verge of be labelled “a terrorist nation” by pretty much all nations. And it is scared of that as such it is trying to kiss up to Antonio Guterres. Yet Israel decided on October 13th “Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reinforced on Sunday his decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres persona non grata over what he described as a failure to condemn Iran’s missile attack and antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.” There are other nations thinking that Guterres has outlived its usefulness as a UN tool (I speculate that Ukraine is one of them). So when we see the BBC give us “The threat comes as Iran assesses whether and how to respond to Israel’s attack last month, that Iran said killed four soldiers, which was in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack against Israel earlier in October.” There is only so much Iran can get away with and whilst the US is begging to leave the oil fields alone (they get a slice of that revenue I reckon). Iran is now losing whatever options they had. As I see it Robert F. Worth said it best “‘The Iranian Period Is Finished’. Hezbollah’s losses have led some in Lebanon to imagine a future without it.” You see Hamas might seen shelter behind civilian bodies there, but Hezbollah is merely a small part of the 5.5 million population and Israel has had enough. 

Now that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been called a persona non grata, the options for the UN will diminish a lot more and Hezbollah has none left. Their only option is for Iran to engage in a full scale war and Iran is hesitant to do so. With the attacks on Saudi Arabia (via Houthi proxy) they only stand the smallest of chances if other Arabian nations support them and those nations are not willing to do that (as I personally see it). And the issue continues (and worsens). The BBC also reported “Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” is an alliance of Tehran-backed groups that include Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and well-armed groups in Iraq and Syria. Most have been designated as terrorist entities by some Western states.” Let me be clear, they merely voiced the words of Iran and there is the problem. Do you think that the BBC would have given Germany the ‘respect’ by calling it the third kingdom? (1933 – 1945) And the larger option becomes that ‘their’ axis of resistance is in shambles. The Hamas terrorists are hiding behind the population they claim to protect. Hezbollah terrorists are relying on exploding pagers and the rest of Hezbollah has no clue what to do and Houthi terrorists are in a dangerous position. Lloyds reported yesterday “Houthis’ reported to be earning an estimated $180m a month from illegal safe-transit fees paid by unnamed shipping agents to secure safe passage through the Red Sea” as well as a report from ynet news that ‘Houthis turn to social media to raise funds for war’, this tells me that they are now cash strapped and here the UN is close to useless. They might talk a nice talk but it seems to be finally falling on deaf ears. In the meantime a report a mere 15 hours ago gives us that Houthi forces are trying to align themselves with Al-Qaeda forces. This happened whilst one source gives us “the two terrorist groups agreed to put aside their differences and focus on weakening the Yemeni government” the beginning of all kinds of escalations. And that is the setting for Iran, or as the American voices state “Become Al-Qaeda’s bitch or fall alone”, I cannot vouch for that, but Iran depended on deniability and now that this is gone Iran faces the reality of going to war. So how long until that goes wrong? In all these settings the United Nations might be out of options as well (until a new CEO is elected). You see on October 24th we got to hear “UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that his country’s on-going invasion of Ukraine violates the United Nations Charter and international law.” ‘Reiterated’? This has been going on for 10 years and now we see ‘reiterated’? I reckon that the insertion of North Korean troops is making this a larger stage. Basically it is now a world war. You see, there is no real definition, one that aligns with todays setting of “In order to qualify as a world war, at least one of three criteria must be met: the conflict takes place between multiple nations across the globe, battles are fought in many different locations, and the war must be fought against great powers with significantly advanced technology.” It now involves Russia, Ukraine and North Korea. At this point I believe that the setting of a World War is reached. You see one criteria was met and this reflects back unto Iran too. Because in this setting, Iran might be getting cozy with Russia, but Russia has its own brand of troubles and that is setting the grind in another direction. As such Iran loses whatever friends they thought they had. As such we are given “Saudi Arabia, Jordan and United Arab Emirates unite against Iran, with support from the United States.” A statement that is presumptuous, but lacks clear evidence (as I see it). It is likely to be true, but I have not seen that evidence. And in this setting Iran has two options, the first is to engage is all out war, the other is to drop the terrorist organisations Hezbollah and Houthi, leaving them to fend for themselves. 

I could be wrong but this is as I see it the political chessboard where we have three players. I would personally see a different stage where the board is used with the chess pieces of Chinese chess. It would be a decent challenge to get any player to actually win whilst the other two are hacking on the pieces and that applies to all sides in this equation. If we get a ‘dopey to dollars’ equation I reckon that Israel has a lead because Iran is about to lose two thirds of its ‘axis’ and that results in less pieces to move around and more exposure of its own pieces. And the number one weakness for Iran is that they cannot move their oil fields or oil infrastructure. That is the bottleneck for Iran, and they have less and less options for securing that financial option.

As I personally see it Iran is about to become ‘I ran’ and they now have no place to run to.  

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Military, Politics

Its not just bread

We all relish bread. It is not always clearly on the front of our brains. But the one thing that keeps hunger at bay in every day of life is a piece of bread. The Khaleej Times gives us (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/mena/uae-helps-gaza-bakeries-make-bread-again-amid-hunger-crisis) ‘UAE helps Gaza bakeries make bread again amid hunger crisis’ that the UAE has made clear moves to deal with this. 

Oh, and as far as I can see pretty much none of the others have done so. Can anyone show me clear evidence that the UNRWA has done the same to any degree? I do not see any of this information. Perhaps over the last 74 years that they were in some kind of office in Palestine whilst this oversight happened? The UNRWA gives us “Provide direct relief and works programmes for Palestinian refugees”, as such is bread not an essential initial need? Now we see “The UAE has started an initiative to help Gaza make bread again amid critical shortage due to the ongoing war. Countless of Palestinians have been surviving on bread as food supplies run out — but even bread is not always easy to find. Chaotic scenes have been unfolding at bakeries as crowds of hungry Gazan, young and old, scramble for a loaf.” As well as “As part of the drive, essential production supplies — including flour and other materials — have been provided so that bakeries could open again amid a worsening hunger crisis triggered by border closures and restrictions on food aid.

It beckons the thought, did the UNRWA get anything done? No matter how ‘political’ the UN has become. The fact that the United Arab Emirates clearly shows the world that the UNRWA as well as the UN itself has become nothing less than a joke. We are given (in other media) “The UN system’s total revenue grew to US$ 74.3 billion in 2022 – an increase of US$ 8.4 billion, or 12.8%, compared to 2021. One of the entities with the highest absolute revenue growth is the World Food Programme (WFP)” an increase of $8.4 billion (not all WFP) is shown and how much went to the UNRWA? It is the Khaleej Times that gives us (see above) “As part of the drive, essential production supplies — including flour and other materials — have been provided” as such I wonder what that Russian Tool (António Guterres) is doing. He was ‘elected’ into office in 2017. As such he’s had plenty of time to seemingly do something. 

Only one day earlier we saw ‘UAE dispatches 12 trucks with urgent relief for 30,000 Palestinians’ with the underlying “So far, the country has provided more than 40,000 tonnes of urgent aid and it will continue its work to ensure the “immediate, safe, unhindered, and sustainable delivery of aid on a wide scale, through all possible means”” with that we see a first clear sign of evidence that the United Nations has a lot of explaining to do. 12 trucks is a clear start of doing just that. Whilst the United Nations is ‘discussing’ how to best go about it, the teams of Sultan Mohammed Al Shamsi is getting it done. I believe that the west, which is so stellar about the United Nations might reconsider who they think needs to be heading this disaster loaded organisation. 

That is my overly simplistic sense of this setting.

Have a great Monday.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

The setting of coins

The BBC had an interesting article yesterday. I was drawn between two settings. There is nothing wrong with the article. It is a point of view and anyone has that right. My setting was that the dimensionality is wrong. Some see Iran as a wimpy weasel, others as a weaselly wimp. I think they are both at the same time. That is as far as the difference is seen. The BBC in the shape of Jeremy Bowen hands us ‘Iran faces hard choices between risks of escalation or looking weak’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2742rynqgo). I don’t think they look weak, they are weak. When you have to rely on terrorists to bring your message across, you are weak. And the setting that this brings is that a stabilising effect that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia brought was torpedoed (for a lack of a better word) by Iran. Iran is so afraid to be the trivialising party in the middle east that they rely on three terrorist entities. Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi forces. 

We are given “They must decide on the least bad of a series of difficult choices. At one end of the spectrum is hitting back with another wave of ballistic missiles. Israel has already threatened to retaliate again if that happens” And the options of a bad series of choices is ‘encouraged’ by the west. Politico brought me this month the setting of loopholes that were created to enable other players to sell Russian oil, all legal (which is why we call it a loophole), yet this wasn’t created for Russia. Russia got to exploit the loophole the west made for Iran (my presumptuous thinking). Do you really think that Iran could have played the game this long if they didn’t have that loophole?

We are then given “Iran’s official media in the hours before and after Israel’s attacks carried defiant statements that, at face value, suggest the decision to respond had already been taken. Its language resembles Israel’s, citing its right to defend itself against attack. But the stakes are so high that Iran might decide to walk its threats back” which sounds nice on paper, but the reality is that this weasel was hiding behind three terrorist organisation. Hamas has now been bombed back into the stone age and their leaders are hiding in Doha, Qatar (according to some sources). As far as I see it, Gaza did this to themselves. Hezbollah decided to rely on pagers and the top of Hezbollah basically messaged themselves to death. That is number two down. The assault was so complete that pretty much the entire top of Hezbollah blew themselves up. Who ever didn’t do this will follow soon I reckon. Then there is just the Houthi brach left. I reckon that the next 3-5 years amounts to Iran calling that branch with requests for the good of Shia Islam. Not sure how they will bring that news, but it is likely to take on that form. All the money that Iran invested would now be asked to validate through actions. Hamas has seemingly lost around 50% of its fighting force and the rest is dubious of continuing and finding real solutions for their family. Hezbollah has no top, this means that Iran needs to put advisors on the ground, or lose whatever they had left. And the Houthi’s will go in a new direction. As I personally see it, with the recruitment of child soldiers they are taking on the direction Hamas had and as some drone technology that evolved in the Ukraine, we will see soon a new frontier develop where drones can be sent to a generic location and start auto targeting a scope of realistic issues. There is every consideration that whatever drone abilities the Saudi government has will soon gain serious teeth. 

We are then given “Iran’s foreign ministry invoked its right to self defence “as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter”. A statement said Iran believed it was both entitled and obligated to respond to foreign acts of aggression”, this sounds nice, but Iran played the terrorist card and has done so for years, which makes its statement baseless. We can see America ‘pleading’ with Israel not to hit the oil reserves and the loophole for oil makes it a desired move, but Israel has its own concerns. These terrorist actions are funded by Iran and defund their oil is a tactical move to temporary stop funding, making the tactic valid. As we see “The men in Tehran thought they had a better idea than all-out war. Instead, Iran used the allies and proxies in its so-called “axis of resistance” to attack Israel. The Houthis in Yemen blocked and destroyed shipping in the Red Sea. Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon forced at least 60,000 Israelis from their homes.” We are confronted with the harsh reality that Iran is considering extreme options and that is the final straw for Israel. They could bring to bare 125 missiles on Iranian oil fields and with that Iran will have no more options. A setting that was accelerated since 1979 comes to a stop when the oil becomes to tainted to be sold, it will be the oil that glows in the dark. And the world is fearing that moment. Too many stakeholders with their slice of pie that came from the oil loophole will end and there will be a lot of voices trying to delay this point. On the upside it would enable Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to set some solid work to make these two the solidifying hub of international cooperation on the Arabian peninsula. 

The largest question for the world will be what will Iran decide and they could find a way to make hay out of that. Because any escalation will lead to the end of Iran, a path that started 6000 years ago. It is anyones guess if the Iran of today realises that they are out of survivable options. I see three paths and two remain silent because it amounts (without evidence) to fear mongering. And I am not inclined to openly support that view. The play nice card sounds nice, but it would require Iran to disband sections of the IRGC as well as stop supporting terrorism. Will Iran see that light? When people have been on that violent streak for decades, it is hard to stop. I get that, but does Iran have any resolution left? Empty threats will not bring home the veal as they say.

Well, it’s Monday now, so have a great new day. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Military, Politics, Science