Tag Archives: Middle East

June 27, 2024 · 01:17

The side not illuminated

The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5111qxl2nro) is giving us ‘Apple in breach of law on App Store, says EU’ We get a few sides, but one side is not given to us. We are given “European Union regulators have accused Apple of being in breach of new laws designed to rein in big tech companies” It sounds nice, but at present the station “rein in big tech companies” is at least sanctimonious. We are also given “The firm charges developers an average of 30% commission on its App Store” and the penalty is given as we are given “The firm faces a potential fine of up to 10% of its global revenue if it fails to comply with the rules”. You see the one part we are NOT given is that all these developers get a channel to publish their work. The get their million by harassing people with advertising. These developers have no interest in giving gamers a real gaming satisfaction (some, but massively too little). So the EU should consider the fallout. You see Apple and Google could do two things. Pull all the games with an advertising channel, stating that this is not permitted. The second part is that they can start charging for the service. The bulk of these gaming ‘companies’ will soon thereafter collapse. You see when all these companies get CHARGED for spreading these games and cyber security. The net thing we see is that these companies will go somewhere else and the dangers of servicing hackers becomes rather large. 

The next part is that this becomes a new setting where the UAE and Saudi Arabia will get the option to offer the same thing Apple and Google did, but charging a mere 5% to 10%, the rest will probably going to China, making the EU and US lose even more revenue. 

All this because the shareholders of Epic Games wanted more revenue and they got this by throwing a tantrum like a child so that they get charged less for services. And lets be clear, they were eager to accept the deal when they were small, now that they are big they can afford to pay for the services. But that is not the only part. Epic Games wanted another path and when even one of these 3rd parties get to be hacked and the players get the damage, Epic Games will face the largest class action lawsuit in history. At that point I wonder how the shareholders will reflect on a pay cycle that will cost them billions. They had a safe environment with Apple and Google, but when that falls away these two will help to give the victims all the numbers and all the support they need to clean out the vaults of all the game developers who took the greedy way out. In addition the EU will get a new problem. As game makers fall flat and optionally move to China or the Middle East the EU will lose revenue. In the last 8 years 10 games made $13,000,000,000. So what will the EU do when that goes to China (or the Middle East)? There are over 200 companies, 105 made over $500,000,000. This was a bad call. These politicians have a socialistic mindset, Take from the rich, but they forget that these rich companies set the foundation of growth. Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were real innovators. The mediocrity of Microsoft is pushing them back more and more. And whilst they might be shown as the richest, they are losing more and more ground. Now with the EU, more and more business will move to better (read: non-European and American) shores. 

And the EU did this to themselves. Consider the DMA:

  • Business users who depend on gatekeepers to offer their services in the single market will have a Fairer business environment (But these services come at a cost, no more Freebees)
  • allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations. (If hacked those services become nullified)

Just to part, the first will nullify these innovators, they cannot afford these services and they will go to a cheap solution making them a target for hackers. The second part will end some games, gamers have no patience and no humour. So when their game stops they will all cry like little children, their toy was taken away and when a hacker does get to upper hand, the class actions will come calling for all these companies. It is a war that the EU cannot win and the larger companies will become empty shells (my prediction). 

Until this first case was decided there was merely a threat of things, now it is coming to pass. 

I wonder what happens to the ‘fake’ economy in Europe when this starts. When advertising through gaming stops. What will the damage be? Amazon, Apple and Google have other means for getting advertising revenue. The others? Anyones guess, but there is a chance that a few hundred companies are sweating because no revenue meant no cost and that could stop now. So they need to find bankers. And what will those bankers demand? All issues that the DMA (Digital Markets Act) did not consider. I believe that this Apple case is opening a can of worms  no one is ready for and the implications are long term.

And now it is Thursday, Enjoy this day when you get to this point.

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May 18, 2024 · 21:43

Thoughts

As I am turning towards Engonos and some of the embellishments that I should incorporate I also am reminded of something I wrote in March 2017 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/03/17/the-finality-of-french-freedom/), yes that long ago I made predictions, all based on common sense. And now we see in the first Deutsche Welle (at https://www.dw.com/en/germany-faces-challenge-as-2025-tax-forecast-sinks/a-69102992) where we are given ‘Germany faces challenge as 2025 tax forecast sinks’, this sounds like a trivial matter, but if the first economy will have issues with paying for its infrastructure, the entire mess becomes a problem. So we are all given “Finance Minister Christian Lindner said it was clear that the public sector would have to tighten its belt.” And it is followed and pretty much epilogued with “What I repeat almost like a mantra in view of the exorbitant political wishes is now available in black and white: There is no new financial room for manouver in the foreseeable future.” 

There are a few sides to that. I the first Russia loses an enemy, a lame duck that is part of the EU. Germans has no moves left. The second one is ‘France faces four major economic challenges in 2024’ (the FT article was behind a paywall) and this one is found (at https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/01/23/france-faces-four-major-economic-challenges-in-2024) is is a little older but as the economic belt of France is tightened dark clouds are forming. They have one advantage, the 2024 Olympics will bring money. How much? Is anyones guess. France has problems with manufacturing, The Chinese markets are not dishing out dough for French items like wine. And behind this is “The extraordinary debt levels across the major economies in the world pose a risk to France, too, as it faces the threat of an austerity budget which directly impacts the financial health of households and consumers.” We get the ‘quote’ “The French manufacturing sector remained low throughout the year, sinking deeper at the end of 2023. If output remains at the same level, there is the possibility of a “technical recession” within the sector”, when the media starts adding ‘technical’ to the story, you know that there is a problem. To put it mildly blunt, there is for example not a technical pregnancy. My penis entered her vagina and I came. She turned out to be pregnant or not. Nothing technical about it. You can dwindle numbers around all you like, but in the end there is a recession or there is not. These two stories matter, especially when you consider the first one I wrote in 2017. There I set the EU like a pontoon, kept in place by 4 anchors, they stop the the pontoon being thrown around in the economic sea of uncertainty. 27 people on that pontoon, 4 of them were manning the anchors. These was the UK, France, Germany and Spain. Now, the UK left and both France and Germany are in a difficult position. So it come down to Spain who is not doing too well either. I saw this in 2017, but the media kept on playing its game on populism, so who looked out for the overall health of the EU economy? 

As you can see (based on Q2 2023 data) That the EU debt is partially driven by France and Spain, the UK is no longer part of the equation. The EU is in a dire position. And whilst we get jolly news all over the fields the direct problem is will the US sell the EU down the river, or will the EU chisel its marks in new ventures? Overlapping the fields where the US was sole choice. That too I set out in the past. The simple consideration is that if the world is a cake and the cake is almost none growing, the population growth and the debt growth implies that there is less to be had and you know the issue with shortages? People go hungry, the population loses it humanity because it is the era of ‘me’. So whilst we consider that different choices needs to be made, the old setting under Wall Street and the US will soon become a field of Commonwealth, Brics, China, and the Middle East. In all honesty with all the messes the US is creating none of them have a use for them. It sounds harsh but that is the reality. In a land where we have 10 people and 7 meals the hungry will not care who is humane or who is woke. 7 will eat and three will not. It is not a nice setting, but the realistic one. There were options for energy and housing all by Elon Musk. Are they true, are they false? I cannot tell. It seems to be limited to Youtube and TikTok. The media as far as I can tell have not touched it. So where is the media? Are they now governmental tools? Consider the fact that nations have an issue with homelessness. So would this Musk solution help? Would this take pressure of the stress? France, the Netherlands, Australia, they all have issues but no one seems to tackle them. This matters because when the economic drivers come calling on the EU the other settings becomes huge. And the media is doing way too little about it. Why is that? 

Just a few thoughts that came to mind on this Saturday.

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January 31, 2024 · 00:11

Forbes Foreboding Forecast

Yup, it happens. Sometimes the others are all on your train ride, but that does not make your prediction true. Yet to see this we need to take the whole image into consideration. For me I saw this come towards us like a freight train without any brakes when I wrote about it as early as September 2020. I wrote several times that these settings were a really bad setting and the outcome would not be a nice one. Then I warned that the US economy had nowhere to go, not when they insult and offend Saudi Arabia (and to some extent the UAE), as such China would gain billions in revenue. We saw last month (could have been 2 months ago), news that America was ‘worried’ about China making so much headway into the middle East. And now Forbes (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/01/29/the-us-dollar-is-finished-wall-street-legend-warns-trumps-and-bidens-china-nightmare-is-suddenly-coming-true/) gives us ‘The U.S. Dollar Is ‘Finished’—Wall Street Legend Warns Trump’s And Biden’s China Nightmare Is Suddenly Coming True’. Really? First off, this isn’t suddenly, I made mentions for almost 4 years that this stage was underway. The fact that the dollar is finished is not entirely wrong, but not to the degree we see predicted. Wall Street will take any stance to diminish that danger. People will end up with nothing, but the almighty dollar will sail on, even though the galleon it once had will be replaced by a simple sloop (as piracy goes). 

So whilst we get “The U.S. dollar is “finished as the world’s reserve currency,” analyst Richard X Bove told the New York Times just days after his retirement from a storied 54-year career as a Wall Street analyst.” I initially tend to agree. Yes the dollar as a reserve currency is pretty much a bye bye black sheep operation. It is the “Bove, who sees bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as winning in a post-dollar dominant world, predicted that China will overtake the U.S. economy” part I do not completely agree with. You see the Yuan is and will be an important part of the global economy, but China has its own skeletons to deal with. Evergrande is one and that $300,000,000,000 issue will hinder the Chinese economy to a massive degree. Not to mention the Chinese population that is hurt by that loss. I reckon that being related to Shawn Siu in China is a lot more dangerous than being a loudmouthed disrespectful American in that region, but that could merely be my take on that situation. You see, China needs both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to get the traction to push forward. Yes, they will push the dollar of its throne and Americans with their arrogance did this to themselves, but without the Middle East China has no real momentum. That was the larger station we needed to see. I tried to warn people, but to them I knew nothing. And true, I have no degrees in economy, but I have looked into numbers for decades and I have both a creative mind to see beyond the numbers and a critical mind to question any hypothesis I have. As such I saw what is now being published as ‘suddenly’. My timeline has three years of warnings of the dangers the US and its dollar were facing. I do not have the knowledge or insight to discuss or oppose the digital currency changes, but I can tell that the ego of ex-presidents with his opposition to the digital dollar will be the end of the American economy. The digital dollar would allow Wall Street to diminish the impact the slam the dollar is about to make. If that stops the damage will be enormous. I don’t think the US economy will have any cards to play. Especially now that the EU nations are vying for the same defence contracts that were once almost uniquely America alone. With France, the UK and Germany vying for whatever spending dollars they can, China might end up with a little less, but they still have a lot of billions coming their way, all billions lost to America now and the EU is trying to get a few as well, an indoor fight between the US and EU is not one they were ready for and overall the American evangelisers are now starting to be a lot more quiet. Money talks and the US has none left. Now that the Ukrainian Russian military debate is now three weeks away from two years. A short term prediction by the Kremlin is now a setting that they could actually lose. A stage not considered a year ago and that also brings a lot more problems to the EU nations as well as America. America that has been catering to Russian needs no less and that is important as the people are now a lot more eager to accept China as the new leader. This is not some Nixon fantasy, this is the case of Wall Street deciding on what is best for the world and that is not how it works. That only has any value in the delusional mind of some. So whilst we see what happens next, we see that the power players are vacating towards the UAE. Some will go to other destinations, but the mess that they are leaving behind (not all due to them) will leave the American population without anything left. So what do you think happens when the dollar collapses and 200,000,000 Americans see that their savings are gone. Do you really think they will will side with Trump and his multiple multi million lost lawsuits? Consider that no one has a clear view on how much he owns. Some state that he only has now less than 3 billion and he was dropped from the Forbes 400 list, he came up $300,000,000 short (a lot more with the lawsuits he lost). To give you some reference, Elon Musk is apparently 96 times wealthier. He has 9600% more wealth than Donald Trump and that is the person Americans pissed off, all whilst he has the foundations of a solution for the energy shortage they face. So how is ego holding up? When the UAE engages with that solution, America will come up short in funds and energy. So the ‘suddenly’ setting wasn’t there. This has been out in the open for up to 4 years. And that picture goes from bad to worse soon enough. 

Could I be wrong?
It is a fair question and I ask myself that question pretty much every day. It is not indecisiveness, it is not doubt. It is about verifying the numbers again and again from whatever reliable source I can find. Verification is everything. Richard X Bove and I got to the same conclusions via different ways and as such I wonder why others were never on that page. Why was the media not all over this? They were so ready to protect Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried, but this they didn’t see? Ask yourself that question and wonder what else they got wrong and more importantly why did they get that wrong. You might come to some conclusions that will scare you. Mainly because you all worked towards your retirement, but how many funds saw the golden future that the dollar bonds brought? When that falls flat your retirement will be gone and there is no coming back from that. I think that a few banks in America, as well as Credit Suisse Group AG (now part of UBS), isn’t it interesting that none of them were properly investigated by the media? They all gave the same story, but no one looked into how many dollar bonds these banks had. It might be nothing, but I doubt it. You see, Credit Suisse was handed a $54 billion lifeline. The fact that ANY bank needed THAT MUCH money was never properly investigated and it wasn’t just them. We see all the claims, but to need a 54 billion lifeline implies that that piece of rope is made from weaved platinum threads with diamonds. When did you ever need a lifeline like that?

And these places all matters, because that is to some extent the impact that the dollar pushed for, at least that is how I personally see it. There will be plenty of people stating that I am wrong, but after 4 years I have been proven correct too many times. Let them come up with verifiable data and clear sources to prove me wrong. I dare them.

Enjoy the day, my Wednesday just started.

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January 23, 2024 · 00:07

First the giggles, then the howls

Yup, it all started late last night when I was alerted to an article (at https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2024/01/how-china-winning-middle-east/393483/) where we see ‘How China is winning the Middle East’. It is here that we are given “China is working to present itself as a responsible alternative to the U.S. in the Middle East, just as many are questioning Washington’s long-term commitment to the region”, the article was originally from January 19th 2024. Now consider that on September 9th 2021 I wrote ‘Lemon of the Century’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/09/lemon-of-the-century/), so I mentioned that danger over 2 years ago and it started happening a year later (alas, not my involvement) I initially wrote “I made a case to sell (as a corporate individual) to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia either the British BAE Typhoon, or the somewhat better match the Chinese Chengdu J-20. Now, this is not on principles, but the US making Saudi embargo after embargo, all whilst it is mere puppet play and there was no direct need to stop the sales, especially as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was under direct attack by Houthi forces directly sponsored from Iran and the people were eager to ignore that fact. So there I was taking a stab at a 3.75% sales commission, and in light of a $11,000,000,000 sales ticket could bank me $412,500,000 over a few years. Now, I know, am I greed driven? Nope! But I am not walking away from such a massive mealticket!” As such it took defense one well over two years to see the dangers I saw clearly coming then. How laughable is that? What are these American three letter organisations doing? This wasn’t a surprise, this was clearly in view. 

So now we see “China’s narrative in this effort is one of not just opportunity for Middle Eastern states, but constant subtle or overt comparison between U.S. and Chinese goals in the region.” Say what? This was in clear view and I made several mentions in the last two years alone. So whilst you giggle on that consider that I am now calling the match Me (myself and I) versus DARPA a win with the final score being 6-0. I just realised that around three years ago I designed a stealth solution to sink the Iranian fleet (cost around $750K per vessel) yet I suddenly remembered that solution (I keep on designing other stuff) and the principles of Archimedes apply globally, as such they should have no problem with Russian vessels either. Not bad for a person that some see as a loser (well they do), but in the end it is creativity that wins innovation, it wins IP on a much larger scale and in support of that it could win a war too. If you doubt that, consider that “the basic idea of radar had its origins in the classical experiments on electromagnetic radiation conducted by German physicist Heinrich Hertz during the late 1880s.” So the Germans did not see the applications and they could have had an entire war advantage half a century long. In the end it was Watson Watt, Wilkins, and Bowen that turned it into something functional and that gave them the edge somewhere between 1930 and 1940. The application of my solutions are reimagined solutions of something that was out in the field. OK, my idea to melt down nuclear reactors came from a snow globe, so that is one that is all mine. 

When you consider that and the fact that I am calling a 6 point sore on DARPA you might howl with laughter and that is fine. But consider that I kept a lot on my blog. There is a timeline and DARPA has nothing to put against that and now we see that Defense One makes mention of a ‘danger’ all whilst I made clear mention of that well over two years ago. That is what it means to be asleep at the wheel. And I am not innocent of that either. You see I made mention of an idea some time ago and I just realised that it could be applied to the series Engonos (season 2 or 3) but I forgot about the idea (another reason to keep a blog). Now as it resurfaced in my mind I also realise that as I am concentrating on another script (How to assassinate a politician for Al Saudiya) that I am new to that. As such all writers (not just me) seem to think in active terms. There are four parts in any script (no technical reference), they are active, reactive and both can be endotherm or exotherm. Implying that from within or from outside sources. That was the part that as a storywriter you take notice on, but in writing a script that setting goes different. As such I suddenly remembered Ate, daughter of Eris and suddenly other ideas come flowing in, OK, some based on ideas my mind had created, but I never considered it as the entire setting of Engonos was not on my mind. That came well over a year later. 

You might wonder what one has to do with the other. Well, creativity goes in several directions and it was creativity in data that gave me the view of China becoming a much larger provider of Middle Eastern defence structures. It seems that Defense One only caught on a week ago. Now, that doesn’t make me ‘more’ correct, but when you see the settings how it was THEN, most people with BI insights would get similar conclusions. I did my ships engineering in the 70’s. Those principles gave me the idea for the stealth solution I designed decades later. Education matters, it might not matter now, but it allows the creative mind to see additional solutions, solutions that do not even exist when the thoughts were created. That is true innovation and that leads to larger advantages in any field. That is what some fat cats forgot about and as the stations are brought to bear they will all cry that it was unfair, but the reality was that they slept on. Only 20 hours ago the Business Standard treated us to ‘The online ad cookie is crumbling as Google Chrome secures privacy’ whilst another source gives us “Advertisers aren’t willing to pay as much for random internet users, so every time the page loads for a cookie-less Chrome user, it’s bringing in less money than it might have before.” The problem with these trains of thoughts was that I saw the announcement AT Google well before the first Covid shutdown, so it has been a while, so these people never prepared. How silly is that? Howlingly laughing silly. And that is where we see the stage. We giggle on some news, we howl at news and clams and we lose our shit laughing when we see that the non prepared mind should have known better and they all connect. Because change forces us to become creative, in two cases that wasn’t done. So whilst some may sneer and laugh at my claims, I put my claims out in the open on a blog and I did it 2 years earlier. The snow globe solution is there too, not sure how much I put online on the stealth vessel sinking solution (oh, SVSS sounds cool) but there you have it, we cannot anticipate everything. But I do like the idea that my idea could be applied to Russian vessels as well, as such, DARPA eat your heart out.

Have a lovely Monday. Tuesday started just now here.

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December 31, 2023 · 13:03

Jan Klaassen, horn blower

Yup, at times this happens. We all have a need to blow our own horn. I am no different and as the world is not giving me any interesting news items. I decided to blow my own horn (of sorts) today. The thought got to me when I saw the article (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2434076/saudi-arabia) called ‘Year in review: How Saudi Arabia made its mark in tech, tourism, diplomacy and entertainment in 2023’ where we see “Successful bid to host World Expo 2030 and ambitious infrastructure projects make the Kingdom a must-visit destination” but that is not the part I saw pondering. It was “Saudi Arabia will look back on 2023 as a year of triumphs, having hosted major events in the fields of technology, culture, sport and diplomacy, while continuing on its path of impressive economic expansion and diversification.” With the added “The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow,” I offered the Kingdom (via its Consul General) another option to impact millions of Islamics in a few ways, but alas I was turned down. This happens, no hard feelings. My thoughts might not be the thoughts of others and I did try to pass this onto The Kingdom Holdings (apparently also unsuccessful) and that is on me. It might be my wrongly stated view, but I feel strongly about that IP and I believe it would give the Kingdom additional options, especially in diversification. Now, I am trying to complete a ‘novel’ (my personal view) on a script that might appeal to Al Saudiya. Of course I have no high hopes that I will be successful, but I did put my foot in this and I plan to carry it through, successful or not. You see, we all tend to worship success, but I have seen innovation in failure. Innovation missed by Amazon, Apple, Google and IBM (no one cares about the other one, the company with the ‘M’ of mouse) and it matters. In this day an age where they are all presenting AI (which does not yet exist) where they all present on what comes next, I have shown them to miss all manners of innovation on several matters and my previous articles expose some of them. So whilst I am blowing my own horn (scandalously, I admit) we must consider that some are not as hungry for revenue as they seem to be, which was why I tried to sell some of my IP to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was not that the United Arab Emirates were less of an option, but when the IP is shown in its full view, the choice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would make more sense to a whole lot of people and both could easily (very easily) afford it, that and the fact that both want to diversify I felt comfort in making the offer I did. 

Even now I see additional options in several fields (not all directly involving the Middle East), but as time lines go, they could benefit from at least one such path (one shown yesterday at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/12/30/almost-circular/). As such when diversifying it pays to consider paths that are not on everyones mind, but when you consider that path makes sense to many people. That is one side of innovation that we tend to forget. It is not the innovation where everyone is looking at (like no real AI), it is looking in the opposite direction and see what could be done there. As no one is looking, the player doing that could be the only one for some time. And when others wake up they either follow behind, pushing you to make a better product or set the stage for others to become serious players in that field. 

All this matters as it changes the fields and it changes the interactions between players and that matters because that change could affect a whole range of other issues.

Just my $0.02 on the matter. Enjoy the day and the festivities that follow today.

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December 5, 2023 · 15:39

Let it ride

Yup, that is the phrase and in this case it is not a gamble. For this we can go back to June 2022, the 28th to be more precise when I wrote ‘Will you feel frisky?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/28/will-you-feel-frisky/) I gave the readers some inkling of this before that, but I pretty much spelled it out at that point. Yesterday I saw some of the promises that the United Arab Emirates made and I realised that they could get there a few years early. The IP that Elon Musk has could be set to public viewing there and with the UAE setting it could result in the net value of Elon Musk (which according to a source) of $300,000,000,000,000 and pretty much double it to $600,000,000,000,000. That is a lot, but it is his IP and he could pull it off. It will not be overnight, but between now and 2026  it could be doubled and it merely needs one player (the United Arab Emirates) to be on board for this. After that the flood gates open and they will all shout for this solution and upping his value even more.

Some will seek ‘cheap’ solutions and when that falls over the patient ones fall over and drown, the rest will be back on track and I reckon that COP28 will make it so for Musk incorporated. So after two years of blablabla, we see that the UAE will place themselves in a unique situation. In the first to become carbon neutral way ahead of schedule, the second side is that their reliance on oil and on oil power-plants will lessen (partially) and all that was visible well over a year ago. Now the edges start to fray the impact will become more and more visible. So whilst the EU is deciding to ‘punish’ rich people and their jets instead of the 147 facilities that cause 50% of the damage. Whilst America remains undecided to make any move and their bank balance stops them from achieving anything, the Middle East will be the driving force showing the others how stupid they were. And they kept on (still) pissing of the one entrepreneur who had the solution all along. It gives me pause to laugh. You see, I have had one saying in my banners for the longest of times. Sarcasm is fine, until it backfires when it becomes irony. Now we all get to see that one part in action. Because when it does they will all shout, they will all make demands and they will all make some case for a blame game and I showed the world before June 2022 that a solution was out there. As such it was never rocket science, it was a simple application of common sense. I wonder if the woke people had a clue what it all is (or was). There is no shame if they did not, but if they were employed to do just that, how valid has their income been?

Consider that the lesson of the day and enjoy yours. At present I feel fine. Me against big-tech, and I am leading with 4 points. It doesn’t make me rich, but the soul (mine) is at present well nourished having a blast.

Cheerio.

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July 14, 2023 · 00:00

About the other thing

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

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

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

Enjoy the day.

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June 14, 2023 · 01:11

There is a larger play

Something stirred in me when I saw the article (at https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/jun/13/saudi-arabia-golf-pga-tour-public-investment-fund) called ‘Saudi golf takeover is blueprint for what they want to do everywhere else’ and I had some issues with this. You see, we might give credence to “Players who had turned down eye-moistening sums of Saudi money out of what they laughably believed was a reciprocated loyalty to the PGA Tour found out, like everyone else, when their phones started pinging”, as well as “Even most of the PGA Tour board had no idea what was happening. Does this strike you as the behaviour of a regime concerned with winning hearts and minds? The brazenness, the wall of silence, the smoke and mirrors, the decision to present this deal to the world as a fait accompli: this is all part of the performance. The projection of power matters as much as the power itself. It says to the world: we bone-sawed a journalist, we bought golf and you didn’t even know anything was happening”. And there is more when you read the article. The largest stage is not set and not given. The largest set is that the US and EU are broke. They give a nice presentation, but the largest stage is that they are broke and the sports need to survive. As such the players, the teams and the largest settings are moving house. F1 is going because the middle east is almost the only one who can play jet set with money. Football is much harder, but the players that matter are moving house. They can try to be prima donna in a saturated world, or they can be the shining star in a place where they are alone. They can spread their wings and perhaps become a little better, or create the next generation of winners. Ronaldo and Messi are examples. The NHL is losing people to the UAE and the Middle East. Pakistan is becoming a more fearsome adversary in Cricket and that list goes on. The PG is merely one example and soon the NBA will see players go to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The middle east is becoming a sports contender and whilst we are all wondering why. Consider that these sports wanted inclusion and that is what the KSA and UAE did. Soon the KSA will have a new English news channel and I reckon about that time they will be casting sports to anyone interested in sports. A new conversation on topics we heard for decades and people will pay attention. Consider that we will get (in English) Arabic newscasts on sports and now the advertisers will take notice. These two players played the long game and the advertisers will come around. This is a given, they will go where the people are and the people want sports. It is a game that the Middle East plays well and they played it well now. The channels lost credibility, they lost teams and sports and now the harvest for the new channels will come in. Add to that the Vision 2030 by the KSA and you get to see a new stage, and in all that the interest in Islam will flourish too. The Christians who are hating everything will lose more and more. Doubt that? Look at Florida. People in Nazi outfits in front of Disney world parading? That is what remains of the US. A place no one wants anymore and the Middle East is enjoying every Karen and dopey video that graces TikTok and YouTube. The aversion against the US and EU is growing. Everyone is shouting and no one is speaking sense and the Middle East is cleaning house because of it. 

So how long until places like the UK and Australia will wonder how the Dubai White Bears are doing and what the scores are for the Emirates Hockey League this week. They will still watch their own teams, but there is a shift happening and it is happening all over the sports world. It is not merely Saudi Arabia, there are more. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is growing visibility and that is merely one of many. Until recent no one had heard of Fayik Abdi. In 2022 at Beijing Olympics he finished 44th out of 91 competitors. A man from a place where there is no snow is now in the top 50 best ski contenders in the world. Let that sink in. He beat a whole range of people who get to practice it every day, they are from places where there is snow most of the year and a Saudi surpassed them. Our view of the Middle East is off by a lot and we have been lied to by the church since 1094. We are set in a view that no longer applies. The Middle East can ad is becoming more and more a contender in sports we never considered was a threat to anyone from our local stages. Art Schenk (NL), Andrew Symonds (AUS), Lucas Braathen (NO) will soon see new contenders for top spots. Sports fans will cheer Fayik Abdi (KSA), Babar Azam (PAK) and Juma Al Dhaheri (UAE) that too is the consequence of inclusion. And the sooner we learn that anyone can play sports, the sooner you learn that these steps we see now are a natural next step in sports. We might focus on the money, but that is merely a sidestep. How much attention did the PGA get? Who now could afford to play golf? The media focusses on on every scandal it can, because scandals are emotion and emotions relate to clicks. So how many non-scandal related sports stories have you seen in the last week? When was it about the joy of a sport? Who remembers what the BBC reporter Andrew Jennings brought to light? 

Sports is not merely in turmoil, the fans are seeking a way to actually enjoy sports, something they get less and less of. And all the providers are charging for the ‘honour’. As I see it the Middle East has a larger advantage coming their way. But that is merely my point of view.

Enjoy today.

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May 19, 2023 · 10:42

The stupidity of some

Yes, we all see that and it has repercussions for these people. We might sit on the sidelines laughing, but it shows a dangerous premise, the stupidity of America, the stupidity of some Americans and how they scuttled their own ship called ‘Future of us’ and ‘us’ could also be seen as ‘US’. This is shown in two articles. The first one is from Yahoo Finance. There was a little better NY Times article, but that was behind a paywall, so you would not be able to read the whole text.

The article (at https://news.yahoo.com/disney-cancels-1-billion-florida-185105108.html) gives us ‘Disney Cancels $1 Billion Florida Expansion’. A setting that came because an idiot (aka Gov. Ron DeSantis) decided to start a war for a trivial reason. He wanted to ‘Douse the Mouse’ (sorry Brittlestar, this is too good a slogan to pass up). And now Disney has cancelled an expansion where we get “The 10-figure office complex near Walt Disney World would have brought more than 2,000 jobs to the region, according to an estimate from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity” So not only does this governor rub any fat cat the wrong way. He now has grievance with the Commercial houses of Florida, his Republican back, the Democrats of Florida and a few other people. Along with the 2000 people not getting a job, up to 8 people connected to anyone losing that job, as such he is 25,000-50,000 votes down and there is likely a larger loss for the Republican side. An ego centric stupid act on the premise of perception that should not have existed in the first place. It is stupid for a few reasons more. The American have alienated Saudi Arabia, optionally the UAE, Egypt and Lebanon as well. Billions in defence industry is now going to China, building contracts in Syria and Saudi Arabia are now going to China, as such the EU and USA are losing out on billions more. The idea that the EU will cater to another Disney-world giving the EU billions more is not out of the question, all money lost to the US, in a stage where they have over 31 trillion in debt. An act too stupid to contemplate and this could have been avoided. In the 70’s my elders taught me ‘Do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and in 1968 we have the premise ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and the US seemingly only has walking left. In this day and age I saw the option for millions more in revenue in IT and it will likely go to the UK, the EU (Germany most likely) and Australia (weirdly enough). I am not ruling out Canada, but I know too little about their abilities in that field. Millions more and the list goes on. America dropped well over $5 billion a year on my recent watch alone. And all this before you realise the blunders that signify the USS Zumwalt with its $4 billion expense and the massive drop in abilities. Just to be clear, I am no naval expert, but I dit get a degree in ships engineering and navigation in 1979, so I am not totally in the dark here. The USS Blue Ridge that launched in 1970 outperforms it by a lot and the cost of that rubber ducky is a mere 5% of the failure that the USS Zumwalt represents. I reckon the idea that a congress would not order the smart bullets that the Zumwalt needs (at $800,000 per bullet) might have been the wake up call some people needed. In that environment we get to the second linked article. 

The second article is from the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/commentisfree/2023/may/18/us-debt-ceiling-crisis-republicans) and here there is another side. I do not agree. You see, we can listen to the emotional ‘The US debt ceiling crisis is more proof of Republicans’ cynicism and bad faith’. Here I am on the Republican side. There is a folly to let 31 trillion fester and fester to something more. This is a pox on both houses and it has been for well over 25 years when a tax overhaul was needed and we all hear the same BS. Too hard, too complex. Well, they are close to default on whatever they have left and as Disney goes towards the EU they will open more doors. IBM, Adobe, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are already diversifying leaving the US with nothing (well almost nothing). And as they alienated the few allies left they see an exodus to China, China of all places. 

This is the act of stupidity, stupidity on both houses that would not act when they could and now they are in patters of indecision and they are all trying to find fat jobs in global corporations before the house collapses and it is close to collapsing. This, (and a few related items) was why I tried to sell my IP to the Middle East. In the first you go where the money is. In the second you find a place where you can enjoy your golden years. Because as I see it the US will be a very dangerous place to stay soon enough. Over 200 million desperate people? Yes, that is not a place for me and when the energy shortages hit it will get a lot worse soon enough, they had options there too, but they squandered those options in the last 5 years. 

So whilst everyone is pointing at me stating that I am the stupid one (a fair thought to have) consider that my IP was right in at least two cases, optionally two more that are now evolving. Yet I have a few more and they are all destined to go towards places like Huawei and Tencent technologies. And in all honestly between nothing and  few crumbs, ill take the crumbs, especially if that results in a view like below. 

This is not my 39 coins of silver. It is merely a retirement dream that could optionally be true. And what would you do when you have the choice between what I choose and a retirement home without resources? Because that is what the US (EU and UK too) created with their ego driven decision tree.
Dousing the mouse? When was that ever a good idea, especially when it decides to cancel a billion dollar expansion? Will it go to Euro Disney? With the economic setting the French have, that might be a realistic option for the minions of Walt Disney, and the US? Well it made its own bed, to bad for them that as the others leave that sinking ship well over 275,000,000 Americans will be caught in the middle. They had their options and they voted, or they did not vote and lost their right to complain.

Have a great Friday.

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May 7, 2023 · 12:11

Changing the narrative

That happens at times. Narratives are slightly altered, but in this case? The media to a much larger degree are changing the narrative of the strikes at the Writers Guild of America. Is it because of advertisement needs? Is it because the streaming corporations now have a hold on them? You tell me. In this I have two examples. The first is ABC and even though the headline is deceptive, they do give all the facts. 

Yet others are seemingly not doing that. They are all about the AI side, yet the two largest issues which are the unbelievable amount of underpaid writers as well as the streaming revenue where writers get next to nothing are massive issues. ABC does mention them but plenty of them do not. I saw at least a few of them copying other texts almost to the letter and no mention of streaming issues. Why is that? It is all nice that the WGA is on strike and picketing, but the media should at least take one small effort to hand the real issues and all of them to the public. The media has lost enough credibility as it is and as such we need to wake up (and fast). 

As I heard it new media (streaming) was not addressed satisfactory the last time around, because it was really new. So to read that some writers creating winning series need a government handout to get by is clearly insane. And it will cost Hollywood a lot more then they realise. What happens when the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom) take over? What happens when the Dubai stage of G5 starts catering to global streaming? What happens when China with Tencent Technologies adjusts to this stream whilst paying a proper income? America might shun it all and stats that these series are not welcome, yet I believe that parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East are ready for change and Hollywood better tarts realising really fast that the latter three players are close to 60% of their income stream. When that falls away it will be one of several multi billion income streams falling away. First Defence, then IT now streaming and as I see it both the UAE and China are chomping at the bit to take a slice of that income stage. 

So whilst the media is pondering how to cater to advertisers, they better realise that when that falls away they have nothing left. One of my IP will already hurt advertisement money to a decent amount, the streaming industry will hurt a lot more when the shift to any of the other three players come through. All stages that were out in the open for all to admire, that was until the media changed the narrative as I see it. I have no idea how long this strike will last, but at the end when writers vacate to a place where they end up having a decent income, plenty of series will collapse, perhaps not completely, but several will lose the little talent they had at their disposal. Yet for these providers there is still one option, a reality show based on republican politicians with real republican politicians. They will take any limelight that will have them and it could be hosted by Tucker Carlson, apparently he is looking for a job. So how is that future of streaming? Yes, there is an upcoming issue with AI, but that will take time. The fact that paid writers still require government handouts whilst these series make billions is disgusting and it will not take long until some will show the people this and plead that we cancel out streaming subscriptions. What happens when the people on mass agree?

Enjoy Sunday and consider the price of what you are watching on your streaming channel.

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