Tag Archives: Netherlands

October 25, 2023 · 23:51

The alignment of views

That is what I am setting this conversation up for. Well conversation? As the blogger this is my monologue, a monologue plain and simple. I had another idea regarding the approach to gaming IP, but that ill be for another day. 

Today I am talking about the ABC article (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/iran-saudi-china-middle-east-war-actress-nazanin-boniadi-profile/102996008). I am using this example for the simple reason that ABC is a good media outlet, they try to give us the real settings. As such taking the article apart in a different way might bring the points better across to the readers. 

You see, the media has squandered respectability, they squandered credibility and they squandered reliability. Not all media mind you, but a lot of them all decided to courtesan the digital dollar (whoring seems so harsh). In that setting we have a much larger station, but lets loo at the article. 

‘Actress Nazanin Boniadi on why China shouldn’t be mediator in the Middle East’ is the title.

Point 1
“Boniadi, who has dedicated much of her working life to advocating for human rights, including in Iran.” So who is Nazanin Boniadi? Is she an influencer? I never heard of her. Perhaps she is for real, but I cannot tell.

This is a setting that is partially on me. I never heard of her, but the larger media is using ‘influencers’ to taint the stories we see. It is a populist agenda that we are too often given (not accusing ABC of this) and as such we can no longer tell the difference between real, fake and deep fake. Populist sources are all about the flames, all about emotions and the larger corporations (as well as some governments) will give added ‘benefits’ to any anti-China story, that much is a given. That does not mean that there isn’t any valid anti-China materials out there. But the waves of deception have grown to a degree where we can no longer tell the difference. 

Point 2
““I think we will have to worry about autocracies taking that top spot in the world, and what that would look like for the rest of us,” Boniadi says.”

This could be seen as a valid question. Yet the sentiment is on ‘autocracies’ and the issues is that America and the EU have become such a mess that they cannot even stop in-fighting. They cannot decide on whether to counter Russia or hand over their governments to Putin, a sore setting indeed and the media is always there to push any flame that they can. You see China is regarded (to many) as a system of people’s congress with a unified state power. A communist nation. We can think what we want, but the setting of “a system of government by one person with absolute power” remains a debatable one. You see that is OUR point of view but others (especially in China) seem to believe that country’s recent economic achievements have actually come about because of, not despite, China’s authoritarian form of government. It is up in the air, but as we see that the EU and America are collapsing under their own weight of indecision, they might not be in such a setting. In addition Dutch political party New Social Contract with its leader Pieter Omtzigt was giving the press 7 minutes to time to prepare for the election papers. 7 minutes, that is a populist approach to getting votes and responses. How is that any way to treat voters? That is the setting we see and that is what we are given. 

The media has been shirking their responsibilities for close to a decade and it is getting worse. So whilst I would be willing to accept the story by the ABC, the larger setting is that the media has been flawed for some time and newspapers aren’t what they used to be. 

Point 3
The third point is a good one “We, the democratic countries, really have to unite in the same way that these autocracies are uniting to prevent that from happening.” I do have an issue with “in the same way”, you see getting them to ACTUALLY unite is one thing. America is in shambles and they are all there to address their own needs, then the needs of their ‘benefactors’ and then the rest is in play. The EU is no different, but with 19 nations all up in arms of each other, the larger station is lost to most of them. An example was seen last week when we were given “Boehringer Ingelheim and five other drugmakers have agreed to pay the European Commission €13.4 million in a hybrid settlement decision after admitting to participating in a global cartel to fix the price of an essential stomach medicine.” So, they make billions and they get a slap of €13.4 million? Things are getting worse and worse in the EU and I wonder if they even have an option to get back on track. Another example is seen with “U.S. measures to limit the export of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China may create an opening for Huawei to expand in its $7 billion home market as the curbs force Nvidia to retreat, analysts say”, it is funny as I gave the readers in ‘The definition of insanity’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/19/the-definition-of-insanity/) a day before that papers was published that very same setting. I did not give any numbers as I didn’t have any, but the larger station is now clear. The EU and USA broke their own systems a few times over and this isn’t helping any. This setting is important in light of the way that I am monologuing ‘unite’, but the lack of unity all over the western world is a clear sign that BRICS might end up being the next real power and as we are all up in arms on what  there is going on between China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Yet Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Saudi’s foreign minister is correct, something needs to happen and the wester nations are missing or fumbling the ball again and again. We get too much ego, too much presentations and no results and the media isn’t helping any.

So even a the article that is staging what we see now was all on the up and up, the questions are real. They are real because of all the Murdoch wannabe’s, glossy flames and influencer enablers we forgot what ACTUAL news is. A lot of people can no longer tell the difference and the press isn’t policing itself, so the people are on a short pier with nowhere to go. 

That is my point of view and in all this ABC is one of the more respectable sources. Too many are a lot less and the enabling of terrorist agenda’s by the media to get clicks is starting to be noticed by a lot of people. The populist agenda has never been a democratic view or a realistic democratic approach. Consider the autocracy that they will deliver when they are elected will cause a rapid decline in many nations and I might just live long enough to see that impact on a global scale. 

Enjoy the day as we move towards the middle of the week.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 20, 2023 · 02:19

Chapter 13

This is not economy (Chapter 11), or procreation (Chapter 17). This is about a very different stage. And this starts with the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66835995) where we are given ‘Biden urges UN leaders to stand together against Russia’. I agree with the sentiment. Apart from the fact that Russia has become a terrorist nation attacking unarmed civilians (and getting bitch slapped by Paddington bear), there is a much larger setting and the people are mostly in the dark here.

Russia has created a spy network on a global level and it is hindering any actions. The US is clearly in a stage of catering to Russia where its own Republican Party is trying to stop any aid to Ukraine. In addition to this there is still a large amount of American companies doing business in Russia. As such it is nice for President Biden to ask what he is and many support this, but America has to clean out its own front yard and that has not been happening for well over a year. It gives a two sided story to others.

Then we get ‘Dutch defence ministry official arrested for evasion of Russia sanctions’ (at https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/dutch-defence-ministry-official-arrested-for-evasion-of-russia-sanctions/) where we see “The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) arrested a Defence Ministry official accused of having evaded EU sanctions against Russia by exporting spare aircraft parts to Russia via third countries, the government agency announced on Friday.” This is a defence ministry official. On top of all this there are NATO links, but the concrete level and levels of access are unknown to me.

From there we get to ‘Germany charges intelligence ‘mole’ with treason in Russia spying case’ which was handed to us in the beginning of September by the BBC. The story (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66727785) is where we are given “Prosecutors believe Carsten L shared intelligence about the war in Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group and received roughly €400,000 (£340,000), according to German reports.” To make matters worse, Carsten L is a high ranking officer in German intelligence. 

These are merely a few stories in a vast collection of events. It affects The Netherlands, the US, Germany, France and a few more nations. You see, Chapter 13 is the chapter on Espionage in the Art of War (Sun Tzu). That chapter gives us that there are 5 types of spies.

Local spies
Inward spies
Converted spies
Doomed spies
Surviving spies

And Russia has all 5 types all over Europe and the US, as such the comment by Stoltenberg “Nobody knows how long this war will last, he says, but with the support of NATO and the international community, Ukraine has been able to push Russia back.” Goes wrong. The intent is nice, but as long as you do not clean your house, too many political and wannabe players will destroy whatever you are trying to achieve. It is perhaps the one part I agree on with Joseph McCarthy, until your house is clean you are headed for disaster. To be honest I never expected to EVER quote McCarthy, but the anti Ukrainian setting in the US and these fake peace proclaimers are showing him to be correct. And until the cleaning is done, matter will only get worse and I believe that some realise this, but the rest is pushed to sleep it through (until too late) which will end up being the start of a disaster. 

Sun Tzu is merely one example There is also Carl von Clausewitz (On war), yet the Art of War is (as I personally see it) much better, more generic and more versatile. The problem (for the Netherlands and Germany) is to see what kind of spy their spy was. A converted or a doomed spy. To act for money makes a person a doomed spy, but it is unclear how long this had been going on, especially when someone parks funds at the behest of a mother in laws maiden name and when that account is in a place like Saudi Arabia, finding these funds will be near impossible, making the foundation of what kind of adversary harder. 

In the case of Germany there is even more. Many parts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) support Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies. For example, AfD members and activists were listed as keeping close ties with Russian politicians and receiving financial benefits in an OCCRP investigation of Russia’s International Agency for Current Policy. And these people are part of what is said to be the AfD pro-Russia movement. Two nations and several to find. France is cleaning house and they made progress, but they are only finding those who weren’t clever enough to mask their actions and there are plenty in many nations who were that clever making progress an issue. That is what we see now, but what we do not see (and most will not know) is how the FSB (and optionally the GRU) are working in India and Pakistan. It is clear that they are there, but the level of access and how deep they are rooted in those political climates is (as far as I know) unknown and speculating is useless. No matter how you slice and dice this, until there is some proper cleaning there will be a larger problem and it is not going away any day soon.

Enjoy the mid week that is about to come (I’m already there).

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 16, 2023 · 02:30

Sentimental Journey

I just had one. Not the one you think. In the 90’s movies and games were relatively expensive in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands a company named Homesoft had control of video games, and as such in 2000 I got Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Diablo 2. One for the Dreamcast and one for the PC. The ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich (plus train to London) was around $59. The two games in the UK saved me around $40, so for $19 I went to London for the day, bought the 2 games (and a few other items) and took the night ferry back. 

I was able to upgrade to a cabin for around $30 more. It was the cheapest weekend trip and I got to walk on Regent Street, Picadilly, went to the Virgin Megastore and did a few other goofy things. I spend the day in London (from around 09:00) and for one day I felt like a king until the train around 17:00 took me back to Harwich for the night boat back to the Netherlands. 

This sentimental journey was recalled through the Khaleej Times who (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-iphone-pre-booking-draws-shoppers-from-india-pakistan-europe-to-dubai) gave me ‘iPhone pre-booking draws shoppers from India, Pakistan, Europe to Dubai’. It is here that we get “In places like India and Pakistan, iPhones can be quite expensive because of the taxes”. OK, I get that. Yet I am a little surprised that people from Europe are equally signing up for that, as we are given “A European tourist arrived in Dubai last week to get his hands on the new model. “There’s a big demand for iPhones in my country and I can get them at a relatively cheaper price here.”” It all makes sense, but I was unaware that it pays to travel to get the iPhone cheaper. It was around 6 years ago when I was ready to upgrade my old Huawei but the mobile stores did not have the 64GB edition, only the 32GB edition. Even thought here was a 64GB edition in existence. I speculated that the mobile providers wanted people to upgrade their phones every year, which would not be initially needed with a 64GB phone. In the end I found a way around it and now I rely on my Google Pixel to get me by and so far it has not let me down. The iPhone is not the cheapest and the iPhone 14 pro max is $2100 here, so I reckon that if we can get it at least 25% cheaper in Dubai it starts making sense. A flight from Sydney to Dubai (with one stop) is $961. The iPhone 15 Pro max is in Dubai $2155. You think it is the same and it is at present (I gave the 14 price as that is in the shops). You can preorder it for exactly the same price. So from Sydney a trip to Dubai makes no sense. Yet in the Netherlands it is €1.479,00 which comes down to $2,450.74 with an additional flight of around $500, so it is not that cheap, but you do get an iPhone on day one and the difference almost makes for the flight. So the math works out well for some and a little less for others, but if you have to have that version 15, a flight to Dubai suddenly makes a lot of sense. You could see it as a cheap short vacation to Dubai. When I was going over the text and I was doing the math my sentimental journey came back to me. Especially Diablo 2, which ended up giving me a massive amount of joy for a very long time. So when will people consider getting their new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air in Dubai? When you do the math, these additional items make for a free trip. A simple MacBook Pro (€ 4659) ends up being $7717, in Dubai we get it for $6961, so now we are already breaking more than even with the flight. And customs can’t do anything, just put a local sticker on the top of your new apple and it is your own already owned MacBook Pro (with non UAE stickers on top). 

I have no idea how much the people save when they get the iPhone and the MacBook Pro, yet I reckon that some might save even more. Making this and perhaps others too a really nice deal. And lets be honest. When you can get exactly the same stuff down the road or in Dubai. Who would not be willing to fly to Dubai? Even if it is just to have a shawarma in the mall (not the worst reason to go to Dubai). 

At this moment I am just smiling. It was been 24 years and we still try to get the best deal for ourselves and in this case a little more than a good deal. I remember in the 80’s it was cheaper to fly to America to get a car there then to buy an American car in the Netherlands. I never got one, but that setting also (to some degree) applied to get a car in Germany (a German model), then commerce houses started to strangle parallel imports and with the EU that all stopped. I wonder what they will do next. You see they might safe in one side, but some aren’t paying taxes, so why not get it in a tax zero nation? I reckon that this could drive commerce up in Luxembourg and Monaco. And a flight from Amsterdam to Nice is $133 (with an additional train ticket to Monaco) now the math really tanks in your favour. The train to Luxembourg is around $55, so people have options. In this day and age when the bills bite saving is key and we all try to find a cheaper way, don’t we?

Enjoy the upcoming weekend.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT, Tourism

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 15, 2023 · 06:58

Lining

That is the setting. You see, you might not be aware. You might merely see one negative article and dismiss it. That is fair enough, for the most I would have dismissed it too. Yet when you start using Google Search on topics like (for example) “Neom” the negativity list starts adding up and they all have something negative to say. 

A long time ago
So lets take a small sidestep towards the young days of your grandfather. It’s 1886 and plans are made for the world fair 1889. An architect named Gustave Eiffel ends up constructing the Eiffel Tower. It was met with ridicule, criticism and a fair amount of hatred. It is now the most recognised building in the world drawing almost 6 million visitors last year, and they all have to pay. The prices vary, but it amounts to about $75 per person. Do that 6 million times over. I reckon that that so called ugly building has earned its investment back a few dozen times over. 

So back to today and this time I am not using the media. This time I am relying on Popular Mechanics (at https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a44966174/saudi-arabia-line-city/) where we are given ‘Saudi Arabia Is Building an Entire City in a Straight Line. It Makes Zero Sense.’ I wonder why it makes zero sense. You see the start gives us “mathematicians broke down the numbers and calculated what the typical commutes in such a city would look like, discovering that it’d be better the built the city in a circle rather than a straight line” and there I am wonder for whom it would make sense to have a circle?

For the inhabitants of the Apple frisbee? For the Pentagon? Consider the life of most of us. We start at home (point A) and we go to work (point B) we travel from A to B to A and in between on that route we get our shopping done. A straight line makes perfect sense to some, not to all, but to some and the most important part in all of this. This has never been done before, just like the Eiffel Tower. I reckon that by 2050 any web satellite camera will have zoomed in on the line a thousand times a day, because as webcams and YouTube satisfies our needs now, a camera version of Starlink will most likely satisfy the curiosity of our grandchildren. 

The question
What I do not get is the massive amount of negativity around this. Neom and the line are two places that have never been done before and has never been contemplated in history. Neom might become the first megacity that writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra erected in the comic book Dredd in 1977. A city 22 times the size of New York and Saudi Arabia (not America) is making it a reality. And they are doing it all whilst they have the fastest and most complete 5G network on the planet. As such I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. I have to because in my young days I studied ships engineering, not civil engineering (long before my IT and law degrees). In California a circle makes sense, a circle surrounding a park, but Saudi Arabia has a very different eco system and it is a fir bit longer too. 

Then we are given “The city—stretching from the Red City to the city of Tabuk 110 miles away—along with its estimated 9 million inhabitants would be entirely car-less, and instead be tied together by a high-speed rail system that could travel from one end of The Line to the other in just 20 minutes.” Another thing pops up. America and Europe have entire micro economies based on cars and transportation, they would not exist in the Line. Then the train system. A 20 minute ride from end to end. Consider that this line is 170Km long. In the Netherlands that covers Groningen to Utrecht and it takes that train 2 hours to get there. 600% longer and OK, they stop a few times, and it isn’t high speed, but that is what there is and you cannot make high speed trains work there under those conditions. 

The one part we are missing is that the line is 500 metres high. As such the building is significantly higher than Central Park Tower (longer and wider too). It raises even more questions, questions I can merely grasp at, but the others are merely coming with negativity. I wonder why. What I like about it is that no one has ever done this before and here Saudi Arabia is leading the way. If they pull this off (and I hope they do), the west needs to take a long hard look at itself. We might see all the experts talking the BS they do, but when this is done we get to see the excuses, the blame game, the lack of insight and the media would be regarded as culprit number one. 

Popular mechanics also had a few good idea’s as they tend to do. They give us “Although the paper mostly focuses on the mathematical shortcomings of The Line’s design, it also brings up some good practical problems. If the city’s main train line malfunctions for any reason, for example, it could effectively cut off residents from millions of people—an idea that’s unthinkable in today’s modern metropolises.” And that matters how? I have two best friends. I haven’t seen them in decades as they live on another continent. I have video chat, phone and email to keep in touch. Beyond that my connections over the last two decades have been work and social events around me. I never had the need to meet up with millions and the train is a realistic idea, but things break and things get fixed. Perhaps the train line will have a spare line? Just a thought. In todays world people have become self isolating, it is a result of all kinds of reasons, perhaps the line will offer an alternative?

If there is my need for realism, it becomes the setting of the 500 metres height. There might be all kinds of reasons why it is that high, but on what levels will people be? And then the idea that this one line will house 9,000,000 people. The largest three cities are Tokyo, Delhi an Shanghai, still a fair bit larger than this line, but what area do they cover, what pollution do they create and how much of the ecological side are getting destroyed in the process? This is the consequence of old day thinking. As such the line is starting to make more sense, but it is also a place with more questions. I reckon time will take care of most of them, just like in the days of Gustave Eiffel. Evolution will take care of itself and when one is done the next will come and then one more and for now Neom, the line and Mukaab (which will be 400 by 400 by 400 metres). All in Saudi Arabia and all dwarfing most other architectural achievements. Three places clearly visible from space. So why the negativity? Perhaps the EU and US are realising that they are done for, but who instigated that part? Was it their lack of evidence (small 5G reference), their inability to create because they are now too broke to get anything done? You tell me, I am not sure of any of it. But no matter how these three are completed, it seems to me that Saudi Arabia has its focal point towards the future, all whilst America in true Excel style merely looks at the next quarter, a time frame that does not allow for projects that we are currently seeing in Saudi Arabia. 

There was one final thought that hit me at the end of all this. The article gives us “If its 9 million inhabitants are homogeneously distributed in the city, each kilometre will have roughly 53,000 people” from that point of view it is denser than Manilla, the most dense city in the world with 43,064 people per kilometre. You see, it isn’t the fact that Manilla isn’t the densest city, it is that these metrics would no longer matter because based on the EIU’s Global Liveability Index for 2023, Manila placed 136th among 173 cities. Then we get that the current metro area population of Delhi in 2023 is 32,941,000 almost 400% higher than the Line. Certain metrics would become obsolete and I reckon that there is every chance that a place like the Line would grace the top 10 of the EIU’s Global Liveability Index from the very start. Did anyone consider those metrics?

Enjoy the upcoming last workday of the week.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 21, 2023 · 22:11

A mindful detour

I made one hell of a detour today, it was a virtual one. So my shoes were spared the support they would have needed otherwise. It all started thinking back to an event (some time ago) when I was making a muslim friend the compliment that his beard was so pronounced, that it was the envy of every garden gnome in the state. This got me thinking of a new kind of garden gnome, one based on Muslims Clerics. The reason for that was two fold, on the one side there were the ‘empty’ gardens and lawns in Dubai Jumeirah, the other was a video of gardens in Dubai featuring Smurfs. The thought evolved from that and now we get to the good part, a additional (or new) theme part based on the Dutch Efteling. Dubai has a few theme parks, but Riyadh not that much and I believe that the Efteling part would play nice. Not a copy but one based on the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights and other fairy tales. You see I remember being young one (yes I was young once) and I must have been between 5-7 when I went the first time to the Efteling and I saw the story of the Fakir and the gardener and I thought it was magic. 

I could stare at that part for hours, it was so magical. The analytical side of my now can clearly see the elements of the show and it is not magic anymore, but whenever I think of that show I once saw well over half a century ago still fills me with nostalgia. I think that if Riyadh wants to up its tourist setting, the idea that such a themed setting is in a place like a 400-metre-high, cube shaped skyscraper named Mukaab. Not all of it, but over the first 3-5 floors giving the shops the incentive to show more, ‘lure’ in the family is not the worst idea. And the size of that cube implies that there is plenty of space for a lot of things. The lower (up to) 5 floors with souks, shops and food-stands that could compete with the Dubai Global Village. 

The only way is to be unique and there is no real timeline, as such giving a place like the Mukaab that kind of visibility could draw in nearly every YouTube travel influencer on the planet. Of course there are other places where this could be done. And I believe that Saudi Arabia needs to do its share to call in the people they are hoping to call in and why be like every American theme park? 

It might only have 4 water rides and 6 rollercoaster, but it snatched the coveted theme park price away from Disney in 1972, 1992, 1997, 2005, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. It got the best theme-park in the world ribbon (by theme park insiders) in 2017 and 2018, a Pomme d’Or and several other mentions. As such the Dutch Efteling is a great choice. I have visited that place well over half a dozen times over a period of close to 50 years and I have always had a good feeling about that place. As such it should interest people like Ahmed Al Khateeb (Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia) As Riyadh grows, so will the need to entertain local and international families and I believe that a place like the Efteling had set out its version of excellence going back to 1952. The fact that it has accumulated that many awards in its lifespan should be a good reminder that Disney is not the only entertainer in town and there is place to grow a unique form of entertainment. There is nothing wrong with the Dubai IMG Worlds of Adventure and it looks awesome and perhaps one day I will see it for myself, but it is not the only way. Even now I still have fond memories (and only fond memories) of the Efteling and as I live on the other side of the planet, I cannot go there at present, but that yearning is still in me. That place was that awesome. Even now, you might think that you are too old for fairy tales, but your mind will react to seeing that setting as long as you live. I have to accept that people like Anton Pieck made it special and I accept that, but when you realise that something like that has please people for well over 50 years, it is not the feeling of a mere fashion setting, it was a form of excellence we seldom see. 

Now consider one of the true treasures of the Efteling. The Anton Pieck Diorama. Not a simple diorama, but one that is 700cm by 400cm by 200 cm in size. It has trains, buildings, people and the moving trains make it amazing. It opened in 1971 and has been working ever since. What is nice to know is that Märklin for many years manufactured the Minex steam trains specially for Efteling. A Minex train on that big a diorama. Now consider that setting of excellence in a Diorama that has a Middle East setting. Not just trains, but moving caravans, cars and all those buildings giving you a view on the past in a fantasy setting. That is what could draw in the crowds towards Riyadh and optionally to a place like the Mukaab. I wonder if anyone has looked into this in Riyadh (or Dubai for that matter). 

Well that was my Monday being active. Time to make some food and snore like a sawmill and in western Canada enjoy Monday, you still have all day to get through.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Tourism

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 26, 2023 · 14:41

Conscription Calamity

I heard of the notion, armies have had issues with getting meat for the grinder for as long as I remember. There were the crusades and the lords of the land beckoned with the option of wealth and the avoidance of utter poverty. And that was the feeding frenzy for those grinders. Almost 5 million people were lost over these numerous squabbles. From Accra to Jerusalem, millions were lost and the loss of people in those days implied that the shortage of manpower almost ensured the end of poverty and non-stop hunger. There was the Russian Revolution as well as WW1. By 2016 Russia was down 10 million souls and that was not the end of it all. WW1 took another 10 million souls (approximate losses both sides) and that was almost the end of it. There was of course WW2, there we have around 23 million military deaths and well over 50 million civilian losses. Yes, we have all made a mess of the setting. Yet all that fades to comparison to the Russian setting we see now. First I saw one article (see article three), then the article from the BBC giving us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66304522) ‘Russia expands pool of men eligible for call-up’, which gives us “Russia is raising the maximum age at which men can be conscripted from 27 to 30, making more of them liable to serve in the armed forces”, which was not in line with the first article, as such I looked what I saw earlier, I did not see it, but I got the Express (at https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1794927/vladimir-putin-russia-ukraine-conscription) giving us ‘Panicked Vladimir Putin rushes through new law allowing Russia to conscript pensioners’ with the added text (the one I saw earlier) “Vladimir Putin has ushered in new legislation which will enable him to conscript men over the age of 60 in an apparent bid to shore up his armed forces 18 months after his invasion of Ukraine.” As such, even the pensioners aren’t safe anymore. How desperate do you need to be to take such precautions? Consider that Russia has a population of well over 134 million, I reckon that 25% is of an eligible nature, which is well over 30 million and they have to resort to pensioners? The math is wrong on a few levels. I showed you all how 4 settings of the Russian Army has failed them (Artillery, Logistics, Supplies and Medic) and now we are given that the army themselves is falling apart. This has got to be the biggest defeat and humiliation of Vladimir Putin. When we look at the history of war (Crusades, Russian Revolution, WW1 and WW2) we never saw a failing of this degree and it is seemingly getting worse. The strongest part of them is a group of mercenaries (the Wagner group) that must feel downright wrong to the Kremlin. A place where they were vying for supremacy with America and they cannot hold up against the 20th strongest army on the planet (aka the Ukrainian army). And that is all whilst the Ukrainian army is depending on other sources for supplies. 

A clambake fest that should have been over in a week and so far the Ukrainians are holding out for well over 510 days and I reckon they aren’t done yet. There will be payback for all the intentional bombing of civilian targets, not sure how, but Russia might face a much tougher setting than the Germans did in the treaty of Versailles. On 28 June 1919 it was said that these reparations was assessed at 132 billion gold marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2023). I reckon that this amount will by higher by 200%-300%, this implies that all the oligarchs need to hide whatever they had, because global organisations will come for them and when they do organisations like the Dutch Heineken company (who apparently are still doing business in Russia) and numerous American and European companies will be a similar state. It will be a mess that will not stop any day soon. Those who were pro-Russian will hide behind miscommunications and they have the option to run for their lives to Russia or become the centre-point of ridicule both them and their children alike. The Dutch have some experience with their NSB people in 1945. I reckon this might be worse. The French had the Vichy France collaborators. Neither ended well, the Dutch collaborator Pieter Menten got off (after 8 months) in 1945, but the setting changed in 1976. He fled to Switzerland but was arrested soon thereafter. He died with dementia, he never escaped his fate. I wonder what will happen to certain Dutch pro-Russian people like Thierry Baudet and Wierd Duk? I have absolutely no idea, but they banked on the wrong player and there will be consequences there too. That is all in addition to the Americans supporting and going soft on pro-Russian players. And in all this the Russian army is now relying on pensioners and setting them up against Ukrainian fighters who are by now all veterans. They pretty much made short work of the Wagner group. As such I do not give the Russian pensioners much of a chance. Meat for the grinders and the Russian grinders are low on meat a setting where 5 out of 5 of the land forces are failing. That has not been the case since before the Crusades. In that meantime defence forces had Sun Tzu (the Art of war) as well as Carl von Clausewitz (On War) these two books had basic information that Russia could have used to avoid the setting that they are in now. The weird part is that Amazon dot com offers both books for a total that is less than $50. So when you look at the list of losses, how stupid was the Russian setting to begin with?

I will let you decide, the middle of the week has begun, the stroll towards the weekend is now in effect.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, Law, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 20, 2023 · 20:19

Freedom to discriminate

This is how I see it. Lets be clear, I am all for freedom of speech, but I do believe that there needs to be a level of accountability. This applies to every path of expression. Some believe that there is an innate need to speak the truth that you personally believe. I personally believe that Microsoft is beyond redemption, but I will speak truthful on the matter, also when they have scored a victory that they were entitled too, I will make mention of it. I did so in the past. Xbox is now personally seen as garbage, but Game Pass remains a treasure. People do good things and we do shady things, sometimes we do bad things. This is not always with intent, but it is driven by our believes. I grew up believing in the freedom of speech.Yet that freedom needs to be held towards accountability. As such I am massively in disapproval of book burning. I also think it is a waste of time. It is like these Karen’s in America protesting Bud-light, buying ten 6 packs and after that destroying them without drinking them. A pointless exercise, but that is up to these people. Burning a bible or Quran is another matter. As a christian I do not think that burning a Bible is sacrilege, but I know doing that to a Quran is. So I will never do that. You see past the point that buying a book just to burn it is a waste of funds, there is the setting that burning a Quran upsets any Muslim. Why do this? So I saw the BBC giving me ‘Protesters set fire to Swedish embassy in Baghdad’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-66252974). There two things stood out. The person who did the act was an Iraqi refugee. Yet this is the the biggest part in all this. It as the sentence “the country’s courts ruled the protests should be allowed to go ahead, citing free speech laws.” There I have an issue. First who are the people involved in setting this court case? Who were the lawyers? Who was the judge? All matters that are not discussed. One source gave me “Following appeals from both protest organisers, the Stockholm Administrative Court overturned the decisions, saying the cited security concerns were not enough to limit the right to demonstrate.” So exactly who were these protest organisers? Rasmus Paludan is seemingly one of the protesters, but who is the other one? There is also the new setting that this is the case that allows for discrimination. Free speech warrants discrimination, it is one of the most dangerous of all settings. Not in the first for Sweden who will see more and more objections to its membership into NATO and that might have been the reason for Rasmus Paludan acting the way he is. And when that happens and there is a problem with Russia, make sure that Rasmus is kept in captivity IN Sweden, so he could experience the accidental bombing (if it ever gets to that point). 

My issues is that we have forgotten to respect the believe of others, a setting that could work out well for me, but not that much for Sweden and a few other players. Reading “Swedish politicians have criticised the Quran burnings but have also adamantly defended the right to freedom of expression” reads to me like that same politician stating that these are very naughty people, the same people beating his (or her) child to death with a stick stating the freedom of speech of the tree that was cut down resulting in the stick. Yes, it does not make sense, but free speech to endorse discrimination never ever does. I personally believe that this will get a lot worse soon enough, how? That I anyones guess, yet the population of Swedish Muslims is at present 8.1%, as such a reaction will come forth and it will not merely be Turkey objecting to Swedish entering NATO. This is the consequence of sheltering discrimination under the roof of freedom of speech. Will other nations face the same issues? In France it is a different matter “It is difficult to know exactly how many Muslims of different nationalities live in France because the state does not collect religious or ethnic census data”, some estimation hand that in France 4% is Muslim, with a 67 million population that becomes a rather large number. In the UK this is 4.4%, as such we better start reconsidering the freedom of discrimination, because when these two groups get angry (and they will) thee two nations will be in serious trouble, both economies will grind to a halt when they cannot afford even one Euro to economic downturns. Germany has even more problems, there the Islamic population is expected to be around 7%, but no clear numbers were found by me. The three largest economies in Europe and they want to play footsie with idiotic christians like Rasmus Paludan and whatever national pitchfork wielding idiot they have as an anti-Islam champion? As I see it, it represents a new form of Hook and Cod wars, a war the Netherlands had between classes. The cods (conservative nobles) won, but the one element that is too often ignored is the fact that this was active for 140 years (1350-1490). Now consider the impact of a religious class war all over Europe that lasts for that long. What do you think will be left of Europe after that? There was a reason why people were speaking out against discrimination. The principle of that matter was not the largest one, it was greed and when that greed is drowned in these kinds of outbursts the people (all of them) tend to end up with the short straw. This is why I voted in favour of expelling that refugee back to Iraq (see what happens there) and putting Rasmus Paludan in Halden Prison and forget he ever existed after that. You see everyone is ‘relieved’ that Turkey is no longer stopping Sweden from entering NATO, but that does not make it a done deal yet. I reckon that several complications could possibly erupt and that would extent the timeline by months, of not well over a year. Still this last part is not based on any evidence I have and should be regarded as speculation. Still, Sweden’s place in the Middle East and parts of Africa will not be a good one for some time to come and it better realises that it needs both these places to make economic headway of any kind. 

In this I could be wrong, I have been wrong before.

Enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Law, Media, Politics, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 12, 2023 · 02:13

One voice is still a voice

I made mention of this all over June. The production cuts that Saudi Arabia set out to do would have impact. Some called me stupid, most ignored the issue. Yet Bloomberg gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s Oil Production Cuts Are Quietly Starting to Bite’ (at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-arabia-oil-production-cuts-105634851.html), as such you need to consider. Not merely that I was right. The larger setting is that this is only one week into the new amounts and it is starting to bite. So how will the setting of less oil be in a month time? And before you know it North America and Europe enter autumn with all the heat they require at that point. We are then given “Brent oil traded in London had been stuck around the $75-a-barrel mark for weeks. That shifted a little Friday, when the contracts rose to about $78, a level they have largely held at since.” A setting we get and understand, but as the supply landscape is redefined, that price cannot be held and I reckon that in a month time it will hit the $90 mark and after that it gets nasty in a hurry. And there is an additional quote that matters. We are given “In the latest move, at least two processors in Asia sought less from the Saudis for cargoes shipped next month, and another said it won’t take any cargoes after an unexpected price increase.” This sounds nice on paper, but when we have 15 processors al vying for the 1 million barrels out there, at least 5 will have no oil to process. It is simple math and at that point the item of sulphur content will not hold much water. And whilst people are shouting where is our oil, I see a group of people that forgot that Saudi Arabia is building a new refinery in China which will gobble up almost a million barrels a day and China who got the deal with a clause accepting that payments are in Yuan is slightly too happy and when Europe (America and Canada too) realise that the reduction in oil is permanent and that China is now in a stage with loads of oil to fuel their economy. That is the point when people realise that they are losing a lot more than they bargained for. If only the US hadn’t pissed of Elon Musk to the degree they had. Yet this is about oil and not about batteries. The simplest setting is that this ‘biting’ is happening after less than 2 weeks into the reductions. So what will be the case in 4 weeks? Is someone considering that Janet Yellen had a portfolio of begging prescriptions towards China? I have no idea where this will end, yet I remember the ‘carless Sundays’ in the Netherlands in 1973. We might have that soon enough and now all over Europe and optionally America too. In 1973 it was fun. I got to test my roller skates on the A27 (a Dutch highway) which extension past Hilversum was brand new and I got to test that tarmac and not a car in sight, good times. Yet now it will be different and I reckon that the economic image will change for a lot of nations. It will not be a simple ‘lets add some money we do not have’. Now several members of the EU will be waging some kind of personal war to get the oil they all need. And I gave fair warning around two years ago. And it was not rocket science, it was simply based on the old premise ‘do not bite the hand that feeds you’ and that is how the escalation wth the UK (and their CAAT) and the US with whatever premise they thought they had and now they all want oil that they are denied. It sucks to be them soon enough.

It might be quietly biting now, but in 4-8 weeks it will not be quiet and when Europe (as well as the US) enters winter that setting will not be a nice one.

Enjoy the almost middle of the week.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 13, 2023 · 01:56

Forgotten numbers

These things happen, we forget things, or perhaps better stated, we often do not know the numbers and how they relate, as such they are gone from the mind the moment we see them. I made mention to some degree this on February 27th 2023 when I wrote ‘On the subject of failure’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/02/27/on-the-subject-of-failure/) there we see to some degree the massive failure that Russian supplies and logistics are. Not everyone is on that same page, but in all honesty, setting an army in a battle zone whilst they have no ammunition. What did you think would happen? Russian soldiers using their fingers and shouting ‘pew pew pew’? Do you think the people they attack would play along? Simple questions.

Now we see the numbers as given by one source and we see the losses that they Russian are having. When you consider the losses in Tanks, APV’s and vehicles you merely see a number and that is fair. But consider that most armies in the EU do not even have that many vehicles, and these are Russian losses, how large is the failure by Russian actually? 

You see, there is a number we aren’t seeing here, we see that the Russians lost 215,640 soldiers and between the previous report and now, they lost 980 troops. It now amounts to 400% of the TOTAL personal losses that the US had in Vietnam. But the most important number is missing and  it was another source that made me aware. Russia has so far lost 11 generals. That number will not be sinking in, I get that. There are armies that do not have that many generals, but that is not the important part. A general is more than merely a chief officer. Most armies employ some kind of higher tactical education (like the Dutch: HKS). When they pass this they can go beyond Colonel and become General. These people have had decades of experience putting out internal fires, setting bases in the same settings and educating their colonels to be more proficient. Pretty much EVERY army has that setting. And we would all get it, The Russian Army will have plenty of generals. Especially when the combined armies account for millions, there will be over 1100 generals. When it is merely one it seems petty, but there is a connected setting, one of them doesn’t get there easily (or at least they should not be getting there easily). And when you lose one it takes time for all this to get up to speed on a lot of things. Now with 11 lost the game changes. Just like sending soldiers into a war zone without ammunition. It pretty much becomes a turkey shot (for the Ukrainians). And that makes the Russian losses a lot bigger and it also explains why the counter offensive for Ukraine is so successful. Whatever is left cannot get the whole stage in focus and the losses are adding up. You see, it is not merely the UAV’s, the planes or the helicopters. With 2 out of 3 you also lose a pilot and that is all BEFORE you start realising the price tag of such losses. Soon Russia must choose between a solitary drone strategy or taking forces out of other areas and that could have larger long term implications. 

No matter how Russia wants to spin this, the clear setting is that with a massive lack of logistics and supply systems as well as losing this much of its highest echelon of officers, the outcome will be that Russia can only go from loss to loss. That was seen less than an hour ago when the Ukraine liberated a fifth village. In addition to that Russia is now seeking direct control over the Wagner group. Apparently the cook wasn’t hacking it. In that case you will see a more dangerous setting. I for one have never seen any successful setting where mercenaries and soldiers worked correctly together and with a lacking general this gets nasty real quick, implying that civilians will be in a lot more danger soon enough and that is not good.

Try to enjoy the day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Military

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 30, 2023 · 17:12

You wanna be this stupid?

Now this comes from a place of frustration, optionally leaning to anger. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65409971) gives us ‘What Europe’s royals could teach King Charles’ by Katty Kay. Now she could do all kinds of things (like taking care of 4 kids), she could focus on pumps, on corsages and on many things. But the idea that a yank is telling the UK what its king ‘could’ do is definitely no on with me. You see, His royal highness King Charles III has an example. A role model if you wish. His mother was Queen Elisabeth II, from 1952 until 2022, one of the longest reigning monarchs in history and perhaps the greatest monarch in human history. But the rather stupid person forgot about that part. What was this a simple article to get some money? With examples from Norway, Denmark and Belgium, so what about the Netherlands? What about Spain? Not good enough examples? So how about “After 21 years at the BBC, Kay left in May 2021 to join Ozy Media as its senior editor and executive producer. However, she resigned six months later from the digital media company following a New York Times report from Ben Smith alleging Ozy executives committed securities fraud”? What happened after that? Tail between your legs back to the BBC? This is a script by someone who made her own mistakes and that is fine, we all do. Yet this article without a mention of his mother who by a lot of people is regarded as the greatest monarch in history is one article too far. If only she had included her in this whatever you want to call it. The UK monarchy has had its share of issues, including a deceptive BBC journalist, who by my assessment is guilty of enabling the death of the Princes of Wales, formerly known as Diana Frances Spencer until her untimely demise in 1997. And it was that BBC shit Martin Bashir who had a hand in her death, you should have considered that before you opened your stupid mouth and decided to start writing silly articles. Katty might have gone further in her career writing about the latest style of pumps. 

Personally I see that it becomes more and more important to sanitise the BBC and see what other stupid people are there. It is turning into a second Fox News and we should prevent that whenever possible. 

Wow! I don’t think I have been this angry in a while, it feels good to let loose and we should. No matter how we see the coming reign of King Charles III and the challenges ahead of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, but the greatest role model was the greatest monarch in human history, his mother. I think we can just sit back and relax whilst he gets a handle on matters. His family has earned that much (and much more).

So you all enjoy Sunday. I am going to see what more I can find. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,