Tag Archives: Russia

March 24, 2022 · 21:29

The internal battle

We all have them and I am no different, yet there is also a stage of awe, not to me, to President Zelensky. You see, here I take the backstage (happily and willingly), a nation that is not widely known (other than it had a nuclear reactor that melted down), a stage Iran could face in the near future. The Ukraine stopped the Russian war machine, the Russian war machine is now entering the second month. Not bad for a nation that has a president who sounds remarkably like Paddington bear (according to some children). So basically the Russian bear was stopped by Paddington bear. (Hunney anyone?) A nation with the size that amounts to 21st position in military power stopped the nation who is the second largest military on the planet and conventionally, logistically and communicatively the Russians are coming up short by a lot. What was first considered a milk-run is now an absolute failure for Russia. It is like watching the The Detroit Red Wings going up to the Cleveland Lumberjacks and the Red Wings are at present losing 1-4, a stage no bookmaker could have ever predicted. So why is there an internal battle? 

This battle is twofold, in the first setting the absence of hardcore support by all other nations is a bit disappointing. Yet we saw the list of stuff on route to Ukraine, but we can clearly see it is not enough, the other side of this battle is that sending more could spark a less nice stage, should we fear that? I believe we do, not because it is spoken from fear (it might be a little), it is because the escalations in the Kremlin might make the hardcore people there support one person to push a red button (I am guessing it is red). That would change the stage for all time and nearly all would be hit, optionally the only speculative safe place on the planet might be New Zealand. That is not a good place to be and we all know this. On the other hand the nuclear winter will take care of whatever global warming issues we have, so there is that to look forward to. 

So we can on one hand not give way to a bully, but this bully does not wield a bat, it wield a nuclear arsenal and that will end everything. No matter what happens after that, Russia will be done for, it will be isolated and it will be hunted by EVERY nation on the planet for all eternity and no amount of political BS by whatever Russia has left will be accepted anywhere. They were the ones who pushed the button, almost like an 80’s think-tank scenario. A stage we never thought would happen. All whilst some give us ‘NATO ready to threaten Putin with ‘far-reaching consequences’ if Russia uses chemical, nuclear weapons’ we seem to forget that Russia has 6257 Nuclear missiles, should they all be fired not much will be left, so what far reaching consequences will be done? If Russia fires theirs, there is every chance that NATO will fire the 6200 and some responses (USA, France, UK), so what in the end will be left to give consequence to? If it comes to blows, the planet will remain in the hands of China, India, 5 million kiwi’s and 25 million New Zealand sheep. With the chance that only New Zealand could supply the world with vegetables and mutton that does not make you glow in the dark. 

So yes, there is an internal battle and even though I refuse to give in that it is all fear, there will be fear because I remember the 1983 movie ‘the Day after’ and I do remember some of the inserted parts being NATO training movies. So the impact will be close to total. Should we worry? I believe we do (to some degree), we always believed that the US and Russian leaders would be solid, but the invasion of Ukraine (by Russia) proves me wrong on the very first count, which makes the rest a speculation at best.

What happens next? I have no idea, but then the rest of the world does not either know at present. 

 

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March 23, 2022 · 23:28

Obsessed with doubt

We all have that at times, doubt comes in and does not leave. Sometimes it does not matter, trivial settings, unimportant settings and settings we do not care about. Then we get the important settings, the ones we care bout, we are passionate about, even if it is in the second degree. In some cases we can program around it if it is our own design (like IP) sometimes we cannot and it gets to us, because we would want to know. If it matters on a larger scale and I have been stumped on a few matters. The circle completed when something passed my eyes that was unrelated. The parts just clicked and for anyone that is a different path and a different way of resolving. We all have our tools and methods to deal with doubt. 

The resolving part
Around 4 hours ago (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60843262) we are given ‘Evan Neumann: US Capitol riot suspect gets asylum in Belarus’, so one of the man connected to the Trump Tantrum in the US Capitol on January 6th 2021. He got asylum in Belarus, one of Russia’s tools. The man could have gone to China, the Russian Federation, Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, North Korea, Bahrain, Belarus, chunks of the Middle East, chunks of Africa and a few other places. This man went to the place that directly supports Russia and their Campaign, so why is that? The entire BBC article reads like a lie, which is not on the BBC. Yet when I see ““I do not believe that I have committed any crime,” he said. “One of the accusations was very upsetting. It is alleged that I hit a police officer. That is baseless.”” I wonder how stupid this all sounds and how on earth the Republican Party keeps on protecting in what I personally see is a loser who keeps on running to court ‘Trump files appeal against Manhattan judge in latest bid to overturn subpoena’ and the American people do not catch on? How stupid can people get? 

An earlier stage
In the earlier stage we see (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/saudi-arabia-may-run-out-of-interceptor-missiles-in-months-ft) a stage weeks ago when we are given “The situation represents the latest test for US-Saudi relations, which President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to reshape in light of the October 2018 murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives in Istanbul.” The stronger language that followed was an American sign to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Which in light of ‘US sends Patriot interceptors to Saudi to ease tensions’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/21/us-sends-patriot-interceptors-to-saudi-to-ease-tensions-reports) 8 weeks later seems odd, well not if you take into consideration oil prices. Which as I mentioned in earlier articles aligns with biting the hand that feeds you. And the mention of “Riyadh has also voiced anger over the Biden administration’s decision to remove the Houthi movement from its list of “international terrorist organisations”, although Washington in recent months has mulled reversing the decision following a series of drone and missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE)” does not help the US of A, especially as the mention of Iran is slimmer than slim. The absence of simple investigations like How could Houthi forces manufacture these drones is blatantly absent, Iran is deeper involved and denying that any longer is no less than an absolute insult, but the media does not seem to think that matters, the US and the EU do not seem to think that matters. They still believe that a deal is possible all whilst that was never was a deal in the making. Iran is simply watching how the Russia setting plays out to see if there is a weaker deal to be made, and the stage is not done playing. 

Even earlier we saw
It all came after the story (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/21/ukraine-war-exposes-cracks-us-ties-middle-east-allies) giving us ‘Russia-Ukraine war shows cracks in US ties to Middle East allies’, I had issues here. Russia is part of OPEC, as such they have the table in places. The US wants Saudi Arabia and the UAE to take stands, but why should they? It is not THEIR war, it might become so, but for now it is not and if people have an issue with that, talk to Syrians and Yemeni’s who have been waiting for the US and the EU to make moves for years. Inactivity is not so much fun when you need and answer is it? So when we are given ““Al-Assad coming to the UAE, shortly after the Gulf Arab country voted to abstain from a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month, tells us that the Emiratis are very serious about asserting their autonomy from the United States,” said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, a Washington, DC-based geopolitical risk consultancy.” We can accept the line “the Emiratis are very serious about asserting their autonomy from the United States”, I am not convinced that this is the real reason. The plays give us that these nations are making the plays that do not box them in and Syria is a larger player and it makes sense that the UAE will have questions that no one would set to a simple call, a face to face meeting between two heads of state makes sense. I agree that there are cracks, yet that stage was set by the US, and it was done on a collection of moves, all populist actions and they are now biting the current administration and the current administration made several of these moves.

Yet these are the thoughts as I ended up with and they have doubts here, they do and I admit this. Yet the media is no longer a reliable source and I feel uncertain who will give us the truth not the political play and it involves the media and the United Nations. But what do you do when the sources are a source of doubt? It is not a puzzle, it is a question, I have some ideas but for now they are mine to have and you need to find yours. 

For me the situation is simplified. If there is too much doubt in one direction, see what truths another direction can give you and this is not a simple matter, some give credence to sources when others see debatability in those sources. And with me doubt is an obsession, I need to take doubt apart piece by piece and see what cogs are getting hindered, that is how I roll. You might have different methods. We all have our ways.

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March 21, 2022 · 12:07

ABC to the rescue

In this case they came to my rescue, I was wondering what to write next. I was contemplating a movie revival, an upgraded gaming revival and some IP I was contemplating. But as I was pondering the issues. I saw an ABC article, 3 days old mind you. I had seen it on Saturday, at least someone (aka trollrensics) showed me the goods on Saturday and I giggled. Yet today I noticed the Russian response to Canada’s corrections (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-18/russia-slams-canada-un-mission-after-ukraine-letter-edits/100920686) with the headline ‘Russia slams ‘kindergarten-level libel’ after Canada’s UN group tweets annotated letter’, in this I personally find that countering the acts of a monster, treating them like children is a decent solution.

You can bomb civilian target all you want, but that does not make it OK, it merely shows the monster in you. The setting of an illegal act and those who acted in that way will have to hide within the Putin regime for all eternity, because when the reality hit the Russian people, they will not be safe anywhere on this planet. 

My issue with this thought is that it does not help the Ukraine now, now as its civilian cities are bombed, as civilians fleeing the war hazards are gunned down, as they drive away from these issues, their cars are targeted by rocket fire. And these are not figments of my imagination, there are YouTube video’s and TikTok videos out there that show what a monster Russia is. I have some issues with the oligarchs getting hit, people who might (or might not) have some say in the current Russian government. And the ‘might’ stops me currently from opposing it, but on the other side we see Ukrainians getting labelled ‘Russians’ In the US and Canada and they are getting chastised by people who cannot see the difference, a more widespread form of McCarthyism. 

So as ABC gives us “Russia has accused Canada of childishly annotating a letter it sent at the United Nations seeking support for its draft resolution on providing aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine. In a spat on Twitter, Canada’s UN mission added multiple remarks to the March 16 missive from Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.” And lets face it hen we are given “Our draft demands all parties to respect their obligations under forces that appear to international humanitarian and human rights law,” whilst that SAME nation is bombing civilian buildings, shooting civilians in the street, deploying butterfly bombs and violently disrupting people from fleeing war-zones is their anything less we should do then ridicule the people who do this and making fun of their false trumpet (aka Vassily Nebenzia)?

And the Canadian party was clear and correct, feel free to explain the bombing of a maternity ward and 200 schools. That is beside the setting that a person who is relying on ‘international humanitarian and human rights law’ denying these laws and these settings to the Ukrainian population, and as there is now more and more evidence the Russian population as well. To be honest, I am uncertain how people who set the gears in motion to shoot unarmed civilians and children can live with themselves. So as all my readers are now getting the three annotated pages through them thousands more will see the horror that was once a proud nation, a proud nation now descended to a group of nations like Nazi-Germany (1935-1945) and those military leaders hiding behind “these were my orders” they will hang in a Nuremberg trial like setting. As evidence is growing that ever the Russians will not stomach that level of actions, these people will one way or another be dealt with. My problem is that it does not help the Ukraine now. At 60 I am too old to play Call of Duty for real, but I can shine light wherever possible to show that it is Putin who has become the new Hitler (no disrespect to Adolf Hitler), a stage no Russian would ever had seen possible that the person they fought in the streets of Leningrad is now leading the Kremlin. 

So how should Canada have acted (at least they did act)? I reckon that when this does end, and in the end it will not end well for Russia, people like Vassily Nebenzia will learn that their legacy will be to be scorned by almost all nations on the planet. This letter was merely the start, I merely hope it will not be too late for the Ukraine and its people.

At present thousands of anti Russian works of art are gracing the streets more and more. I do hope that someone is photographing the art and making sure that a book will be created where the proceeds go to the Ukrainian people. You see most of the cities of the Ukraine are now in rubble and the auction proceeds of 100 oligarchs will not be sufficient to foot that bill. It will require the Russian coffers and its taxation for well over 30 years to pay for that. I just hope that enough Ukrainians can be saved before all that comes to pass. 

So as the article gives us “Relations between Russia and several Western nations continue to plummet to new lows since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he is engaged in a “special military operation”.” I think I will put that pot on a fire and add my own resolution. You see on the 14th of December 2021 I wrote ‘Keeping my promise, part 1.’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/14/keeping-my-promise-part-1/) that and the stories after that were a conceptual design to melt down an Iranian nuclear reactor and it just hit me, it is Russian design as such this method will work on EVERY RUSSIAN NUCLEAR REACTOR. Yes a bit brazen, but if proven, Russia will now have to add protection to every nuclear reactor they have and the plans are online in my blog, so have a nice day Vladimir Putin, you should never just have been afraid of the military, creative civilians can make life a lot harder for you for an eternity to come as will the stress of the 38 nuclear reactors that Russia at present has running. Will it work? I hope it does, when that does Russia will face a much harder enemy then anything the Ukraine or NATO can throw at him, the Russian people can destroy Russia from thee inside out and those in the Kremlin will not have much of an option, its own armies will turn against them. 

This Monday might not be that bad for a change. I need coffee (we all need something at times).

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March 20, 2022 · 13:33

Coin number two

Yes, after the first coin (previous article) the second coin becomes a reality. Yet this coin is a lot more speculative, there is a side we do not know, we cannot know because we are not in the know. Anyone not part of their operations, is not privy to a lot of it and those who are not and make claims are lying to you. That is a simple truth. I am not in the know, I do not know and I speculate, or I make educated guesses, and I tell you that I do, but the truth of the matter is that I am NOT CIA, so I cannot tell what they are doing. 

Yet here we hit a snag. You see the BBC gave us yesterday ‘Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60785339), so there we see that civilians are more successful and more clued in than the CIA is? How screwed up is that? So in the article we get “They, in turn, send information in real-time about safe roads to drivers who can rescue busloads of people”, as well as “they are crowdsourcing safe passage out of a war zone.” And this differs from CIA extractions… how exactly?

A stage that could have been set up from the very beginning and the US did not do this. A stage that would have been on the forefront of GCHQ and MI6 from the beginning. But there is a seemingly large lack in activities by a few intelligence operators aren’t there? Is this evidence that there is a lack of funds, an indication that there is a larger lack of resources? Or is it mere speculation from my side and are they operating through crowdfunded operations? It is all speculations and it is less about the speculations and less about who is right and who is wrong. It is about what can be done and what should be done for the Ukraine. I get that, I am not singular or selfishly driven. But some out there are and their game is costing lives. I understand that governments for the most cannot get directly involved. But between full in and not in at all there is a difference and I am starting to rack up the questions on how governments did not act in Syria, how they knowingly and intentionally delayed nearly all actions in Yemen, now we see too many players dragging their heels in Ukraine. The jet setting between Poland and Ukraine and the connected US and Poland actions should have raised a lot more questions then were actually asked. The stage is larger, I get that. Yet the connected inactions should raise questions. Reuter gave us three days ago ‘UK says there is “very very strong evidence” Russia’s Putin behind war crimes in Ukraine’. Really? Very strong evidence? How is that for flaccid? And the UN, on March 2nd they gave us that Russia committed war crimes, yet how many actions were taken by governments? When we rack those tallies and we see inactions we can (speculatively) conclude that governments are either too poor, or too poorly stacked for any actions. And we wonder why China does not act and why Russia does not care?

Questions are coming and no answers are coming forward, not even by the media on either side of that equation. That’s just a thought for Sunday. 

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March 17, 2022 · 17:40

Ding, ding, prices are going up

After I wrote ‘A symphony in only two parts?’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/16/a-symphony-in-only-two-parts/) two articles appeared (might have been more, but these two lighted up). The first one is from a place called oilprice dot com. The article (at https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-Considers-Ditching-The-Dollar-For-Chinese-Oil-Sales.html) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia Considers Ditching The Dollar For Chinese Oil Sales’ with the added “According to the report, the talks with China over yuan-priced oil contracts have been off and on for six years but have accelerated this year as the Saudis have grown increasingly unhappy with decades-old U.S. security commitments to defend the kingdom.” OK, that is fine, but I reckon the way Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has been treated by some will not have helped. Moreover if China sets the barricades of pushing forward and aiding SAMI in getting the internal growth desired these pushes might come to fruition. We are also given “China buys more than 25% of the oil that Saudi Arabia exports, and if priced in yuan, those sales would boost the standing of China’s currency, and set the Chinese currency on a path to becoming a global petroyuan reserve currency.” I feel uncertain to answer that part, but consider that there is a limit to oil, consider that China will request not the 25% they get now, but 30%, with an overcapacity of amount X, now consider that Saudi Arabia (ARAMCO) does that and therefor the US (and west) will now receive 5% minus X less. Prices will skyrocket. More importantly in the last hours we saw ‘Boris Johnson Visits U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Seeking More Oil’ and here too we see the British PM go home without any commitments, CNN even gives us ‘Biden demands faster drop in gas prices as oil tumbles’, so where is he going to demand that from? Russia? Venezuela? UAE? Saudi Arabia? The man who was desperately outspoken about making Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud a pariah is now telling that same person to drop prices? Man does karma suck and then some? We see the stage of painful karma in article one, but why article two? That is seen as we contemplate the title ‘Saudi Arabia’s Oil-For-Yuan Bid Won’t Threaten the Dollar’ (at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-16/saudi-arabia-s-oil-for-yuan-proposal-won-t-threaten-the-dollar) it is a good and decent piece, but an opinion piece none the less. There we get “Is there a situation more absurd than two of the world’s most dollar-dependent economies promising to free themselves from the exorbitant burden of the dollar?” I believe that a few gaps are there. This is no longer a ‘too big too fail’ market. The US has a debt surpassing $30,000,000,000,000 and that debt is growing by billions a day. In addition in this economy that is picking itself up fuel prices could (could being the operative word) go up by 20% before October and then winter comes. You all watched the income of dreaded winter in Game of Thrones, now you get to see it in your neighbourhood (if you are north enough to see it for yourself). So the quote “it’s inevitable that the perennial chatter about the yuan challenging the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency should be revived. Such talk has always been fanciful — but it’s even more unlikely right now.” The man is not incorrect, but these talks have been going on for 6 years and in that time the largest one has surpassed a point of no return point in debts, and number two and three (EU and Japan) are not that far behind, they will take extensive damage if the dollar topples. Yes, we all here that noise “It will never happen” but really? How much debt will that take and when it happens, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have to do whatever is best for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The writer then gives us “The yuan punches far below its weight in terms of foreign exchange transactions, and the dollar punches above its weight” which to some degree gives us that Saudi Arabia might consider it and when the oil shortages start adding up, that move of Saudi Arabia solidifying longer and stronger walls with China the stage is partially set. Life in the US and EU will become unbearably hard. Even now Japan is trying to set up new stimulus packages and we saw how great that was for the EU, trillions in added debt and no restarted economy. Ad there is a direct link in support between the US, EU and Japan. So when these support structures collapse we see a sort of house of cards impact and that affects the global economy, no matter how you want to present that picture. Consider the simple stage of California. In Los Angeles fuel costs $5.876, now consider adding 20% to that, all whilst life in Los Angeles (all over California) is as expensive as it ever was. With the shortage of drivers and deliveries that market will sure to set a few more stages. In 11 districts in California fuel prices are (presently) the highest ever, so add 20% to that? You think it is impossible? Think again. The Middle East has given NO guarantees that there will be more fuel, it basically has no interest to do that, or to lower prices and around the corner is China enjoying the commercial stage the US (EU too) pushed themselves in and they get to direct the fallout of that setting. 

Now, there needs the be a clear message. “I could be wrong” an educated guess remains a guess, yet what I found is coming from decent sources and because the writers do not want to look into the dark corner does not mean that dark corner goes away, it merely means that whatever comes from there will come less expected and hits the people squarely on the jaw. And the setting that we see now has been growing month after month for about 2-3 years. So the people in that corner WANT this to happen. Like myself they are hoping for that fat bonus and some of them have received guarantees (I did not) So the people pushing this have an interest to push this. I do not care that much unless the 3.75% bonus comes my way. At that point I would state ‘Push all you want’ because that too is the result of a commerce based world and now the inhumane setting of that becomes clear. The US never cared when they got to call the shots, but that is now no longer the case is it? So when we see a president giving CNN ‘Biden demands faster drop in gas prices as oil tumbles’, they seemingly forget that oil prices were dropping when there was still supply at a higher price and there is a decent chance that these prices will go back up before those reserves are completely gone. And when they are gone oil volatility will hit American households all over (EU too). The dream of every family it own car will be to live in a stage of perpetual work at home because the people cannot afford to go to the office and then reality comes calling double quick. So perhaps yes, I do hope I get my bonus, if only to retire with a will to live and I am not alone in that setting. There are millions like me all over the world. 

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March 15, 2022 · 18:49

WTF are they doing now?

Even now, even as I am contemplating new things, I am also considering other elements from the previous article (about the slot machines), I figured out a few more things, but it seems wrong to put them here. I could, but who does it serve? Not me and not most people, it might interest the wrong people. Now in case of a previous article where I designed a weapon to sink the Iranian fleet, it makes sense to put it online (not merely to show support to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia), but mainly to show Iran that a lot of people have had enough of them. In the case of the slot machines, it serves the wrong crowd, yet the elements that I did not mention might find its use somewhere else, which might make for an interesting security setting for people like Google and Amazon, so I keep it in my back pocket. Part of it is already in my 5G IP, so there is that. 

My issue today is with the BBC. They gave us this morning (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60736185) ‘Roman Abramovich: New evidence highlights corrupt deals’, I get it, everyone is on the anti-Russia beat. For the mot I do not care, Russia will find out the hard way how stupid they have been. At present they are seen as the weak player. It has taken them 3 weeks to get here and so far Ukraine is still free. The germans in WW2 took most of Western Europe in that same time. My issue is with “The Chelsea owner made billions after buying an oil company from the Russian government in a rigged auction in 1995. Mr Abramovich paid around $250m (£190m) for Sibneft, before selling it back to the Russian government for $13bn in 2005.”

They give us “The Russian billionaire has already admitted in a UK court that he made corrupt payments to help get the Sibneft deal off the ground.” As well as “he described in court how the original Sibneft auction was rigged in his favour and how he gave Mr Berezovsky $10m to pay off a Kremlin official” my issue here is that BBC Panorama is stated to be so competent. If so, what case was it? Which court was it? These are parts that I would have added for value. Something like “On [date] in [court location] the following statement was given by Roman Abramovich”, this isn’t rocket science, this is the stage of PROPER journalism! As such the setting of “BBC Panorama has obtained a document that is thought to have been smuggled out of Russia.

The information was given to the programme by a confidential source, who says it was secretly copied from files held on Mr Abramovich by Russian law enforcement agencies” is window dressing at best. I reckon that BBC Panorama likes cloak and dagger words like ‘smuggling’ and ‘secretly’, all whilst the initial issue was in a British court. As for the Russian deal, he used opportunity to get a nice deal that got him $13,000,000,000, to be honest, who cares? So when we are given “The document says that the Russian government was cheated out of $2.7bn in the Sibneft deal – a claim supported by a 1997 Russian parliamentary investigation. The document also says that the Russian authorities wanted to charge Mr Abramovich with fraud”, as such was he really a friend of Putin? The article gives us more questions (overall) than answers. And the fact that ‘Russian authorities’ wanted to charge him and did not calls for even more questions. This looks like a simple draw in the blank space and the lack of information is staggering, is that what BBC Panorama amounts to now? And when we get “trick the government and not pay the money that this company was really worth” we ‘merely’ see a government that did not do its homework and how is that the fault of Abramovich? So when we get these emotional elements with “the document says” what EVIDENCE do they hold, what is factually verifiable? Me? I do not care, I really do not. I do not care for soccer, or Chelsea so there is that too and I find these lame articles from a place that states that they are trustworthy whilst they refuse to properly investigate the murderer of Lady Diana Spencer (Martin Bashir) that is how I see it, so personally I think that BBC Panorama needs to up their game by a lot. This article was a wash, washing what is unclear but it was not the stuff the BBC and BBC Panorama were known for in the past.

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March 14, 2022 · 21:41

Two issues connected

It is easy to see the connection, but at that point one wonders whether the real connections are made. The first article is ‘White House faces oil standoff with Saudi Arabia and UAE as prices soar’, the article (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/13/white-house-us-joe-biden-oil-output-prices-saudi-arabia-uae) gives us “Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, are yet to agree to a phone call with the west’s most powerful man”, my takeaway is the question whether the ‘west’s most powerful man’ is actually that. We also get “Each capital is a major supplier of oil, with excess capacity, which would soften the effect on US consumers through fuel prices before midterm elections in November that threaten Democratic control of Congress” and this is enough for article one. We see a few issues, the oil pries are still soaring and so far that so called most powerful man has not really achieved anything, has he? 

In the second article called ‘Iran suspends talks with Saudi, slams Riyadh’s executions’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-suspends-talks-with-saudi-arabia-nour-news-2022-03-13/), which is kinda hilarious, especially as Iran had 299 documented executions in 2021. Yet the story also gives us ““Iran has unilaterally suspended talks with Saudi Arabia,” Nor News said, without providing a reason. It said no specific date had been scheduled for a new round of talks”, not unexpected, but that is the effect of diplomacy with a toddler like Iran. You see I think there is more to it. I think Russia is trying to put the pressure on the west, the US is the weakest with its ‘nuclear deal’ ego. And as Iran suspends talks they continue to enrich uranium. Delay after delay until it is too late. 

Am I correct?
To be honest, I am not certain, I could very well be wrong. But consider Russia entanglement in the middle east and especially with Iran, it wants to play tits for dad (oops) by withholding the milk (oil) and this play seems to be actually working out. President Biden did this in part to himself. And now the larger stage is pushed into directions it should not have been going in. Yemeni’s and Syrians feel more and more betrayed by the west, and honestly, I cannot blame them for that. 

My issue is that Russia is playing a way too dangerous game, as they are now part of the delays, Iran might finish what it wants and when that goes the wrong way and Israel gets its first nuclear detonation, the bars are sealed. The USA must prove its word or be seen as flaccid and irrelevant on the political stage. And their play (as I mentioned in previous articles) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was badly managed and even worse constructed and now that the US is desperate for cheaper oil they will feel the sting of biting the hand that was feeding them. It was bad already and now there is every indication that Russia is making matters worse via Iran. 

Russia is the connection. It is souring the Nuclear deal, and it has a handle on the Middle East to some degree, how much I cannot tell, but some who can are not talking (for obvious reasons) and that sets the sliding scales for the US who is now on a worsening scale economically. Even as some state that oil prices are going down, I personally feel that it is temporary. It is nowhere near the old price and there are chances that it will go back to $123.70 (March 8th) and optionally higher than that. President Biden could influence it positively, but if he does not succeed then the first sign of failure is shown and the Russians want that because for them the Republicans are easier to deal with (allegedly). For President Biden it all hangs here, He is down in the senate, but if he loses even one more seat the senate will be overwhelmingly republican and that COULD happen. He has a majority in the house, but only by 11 seats and there is no guarantee that he can hold onto them. When the house is lost as well, the Democratic Party will find obstacle after obstacle and that is what they signed on for. 

The failures in the middle east, especially Iran will haunt this administration for a long time to come. And the oil prices? Well that is still up n the air, but there are indications that this will not go their way either, it is wholly due to the way they dealt with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

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March 6, 2022 · 22:11

The bad track

I am optionally on the wrong track, yet it is not an accident, it is an intentional choice I make. You see, we see too many ‘populist’ settings going on and I am starting to wonder if we are on the wrong track. Now, most of us are clear. The war in the Ukraine is wrong, Russia started this and there needs to be repercussions. Some have taken to confiscate whatever they could that is owned by Russian Oligarchs (weirdly enough I see almost no residence confiscations in London). Yachts and all other possessions are available. I have mixed feelings. Those with clear support to the Russian government and what is happening now is clear. The rest makes me wonder and for some reason the AP article ‘Fleeing sanctions, oligarchs seek safe ports for superyachts’ (at https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-boris-johnson-europe-united-states-10a82777a3b4a6ccafc38c223b659a03) something woke up. It was the quote ““We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets,” President Joe Biden said during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, addressing the oligarchs. “We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”” So, please explain to me (with evidence) those ‘ill-begotten gains’? It is a serious question. In this specific case we see Alisher Usmanov a metals magnate and early investor in Facebook. So how much did Facebook make him? Is that ill-begotten? There are two trains of thoughts. The first is that we see a new McCarthy mindset starting, which is their choice, but let’s be honest about it. The second track is that the US is so bankrupt that it is now in a stage to confiscate whatever it can to survive. I am not siding with Alisher Usmanov. And if he has done wrong, fine. But in that case this article was a piss poor job and then some. He was also one of the initial people connected to Mail.ru, so he seems to be a smart cookie who got involved with IT projects when it had the greatest impact, nothing ill begotten, merely good timing. Now, this does not mean that I am right, or that they are wrong. There is too much that I do not know. But this comes across as a legalised form of ‘Tax the rich’ which is now transformed into ‘confiscate whatever the rich has’ a democrat party BS approach. So what will happen when it is suddenly the wealth of Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Sergei Brin, Larry  Page, Tim. Cook and Jeff Bezos dealing with the bills the American government cannot deal with because they refused to clean house for over two decades? 

The AP does give us at the end “But actually seizing the behemoth boats could prove challenging. Russian billionaires have had decades to shield their money and assets in the West from governments that might try to tax or seize them”, which is fair enough. I am still in the mindset that SOME oligarchs should pay, not sure if all should, but I do admit I really do not know any of them and the media cannot be trusted, they are all on the populist track. OK, not all, but way to many of them are. We can consider that Roman Abramovich was either good or bad, I do not know. Too be honest, I never cared for football (read: soccer) so I am a little out of touch there. But as far as I can tell, everything Roman Abramovich did was to ensure the stage of Chelsea and it’s continuation. We can boast that giving the sale of Chelsea to Ukraine is a political push (the man is a politician after all) and a few other sides as well, and there perhaps his deception worked. Because I personally believe that the man is a soccer nut trying to preserve Chelsea. Does that make him evil? I personally do not think so. I also understand that some policies will hurt the good and the bad, but there is an increased feeling that the US is doing it for other reasons and as the media have no given us a really good stage of where all these funds go, we should wonder what is going on. 

I am not stating that what is done is wrong, but I am wondering why certain things were done and WHERE these funds are going to. Is that wrong? So I might be on the wrong track, but it is mainly because no one is properly illuminating the right track and the media are all about ‘the quote’ but are less about the clear explanation. I merely looked at two people, the US has a list of 96 oligarchs. I reckon there are clearly a few super pro-Putin people there, and we get it, it will rain on the good and the bad alike, but it seems that the media has a lot to make up for, especially when it comes to properly informing us, because that lack set me on the track I am on now.

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March 6, 2022 · 03:13

The intelligence nightmare

Yes, that is how I see it. You think that you have seen it all? It is about to get worse and the BBC actually is showing us the start of it. With ‘Thousands of pro-Russia Serbs march in Belgrade’ we are merely scratching the surface. The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60630351) does not give much, but it gives us “Friday’s march was a show of support for Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine. Serbia has religious, ethnic and political ties with Russia that have existed for centuries” You see it is a lot worse, Serbian arms dealers are all over Europe. Paces like Rotterdam, London and Paris come to mind, but there are more and now as we see all the pro Russian events starting, we see a stage where Serbs could destabilise most of western Europe. They can fuel lone wolves tying hands all over the place and they sit back and watch the chaos unfold. A setting Moscow really likes. So how speculative is this? Well the issues with arm dealers in these three places alone are worrisome and they have been for the longest of times seeing a lot more visibility in 2020. Now with this BBC article it is still speculative to connect the two, but I am not sure that it is merely speculation. There have been issues for the longest of times and it is merely brought to the surface and a more visible pedestal now. 

The problem is that a lot was not monitored for the longest of time and now the intelligence organisations are lacking information on too many sides. Some sources (unconfirmed ones) give rise to activities in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, USA, Norway, Montenegro and Austria. Do you really think it is all speculation? They have been busy under nearly everyones noses for over a decade and now that Russia is pushing the buttons, some are claiming allegiance, some are waking up and some are set to set Western Europe on fire. Which is which? I cannot tell, but there are connections on all kinds of levels. Did no one consider why Russian weaponry was relatively easy to get in Amsterdam and Rotterdam? In 2020 the Times gave us “While Serbia had a glut of Cold War-era stockpiles and a robust but underused defence industry, the Iraqi government was ill-equipped to battle an insurgency. So in late 2007 the two countries struck a £190 million deal to bring Serbian assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, ammunition, explosives and other ordnance to Iraq”, I personally believe that these pipelines were there to also get Russian weapons into Iraq, and not merely the ones they have, to a larger degree the Russians provided hardware and that sets a new station, the station of storage. The Netherlands has been (for the longest time), a transitional port of arms, but there is also the speculation (never proven) that at times a container was ‘misplaced’ and ended on Dutch soil, a container filled with arms. So, how much of this is speculation? There is a fair amount of it, but I worked in the harbours of Rotterdam, when I was young and gullible, so anything is possible. Yet in this day and age, when serbs are ‘proclaiming loyalty’ do you want to take that chance? I will let you figure it out.

And whilst you do the Intelligence organisations of Europe will have to take a harsh look at what they have on the Serbs in their domain, because they really do not get to have a choice in that matter, not anymore.

And me? I have found a few more cogs to add to the previous story, I like to remain creative.

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March 3, 2022 · 02:49

Coming from simpler times

I have been thinking of the simple time, the past, the adherence to simplicity that is within all of us. It is the time before the Romans (original Italians). It was the Greek setting of life. We worked for the glory of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. I reckon I would work for the glory of Hades, not because the others were not worthy, it would be that Hades seemed more real than the others. We are all confronted with our mortality, as such we would move towards the realm for Hades and it would be up to him if I serve him in the afterlife, or if I was destined for another place. And I would not be alone, 5000-3000 years ago many would be like me. If it was the greens versus the blues, I reckon I would be a blue. But overall the setting would be similar. Now we move to recently (1941), if any non-German would openly side with Adolf Hitler, if anyone would opt to not vote actions against Adolf Hitler, the populous (populism) would find that person and string him up  at the nearest tree. There are at times actions that are completely unacceptable and the Russians did that by cluster bombing CIVILIAN targets. And still they are malnourished, their equipment breaks down at the earliest notion and I see all levels of inactions. Just like Syria, just like Yemen and other places. Inaction for a reason that makes no sense. As such can anyone explain this list?

This is not right versus wrong, this is not communism versus the other side, this is acceptable versus unacceptable and the Russian actions have been unacceptable. People will state that I was in favour of Putin, I never stated this, I never was. Read the articles. I thought it was a stupid move to push politics into sports, sports and politics need to remain separated, it always does for all kinds of reasons, but in the first to stop sports to become the stepping stone for politics. I always oppose stupidity and the west has shown to adhere to greed over common sense (aka greed driven stupidity) too often. Consider the stage (as I see it), a nation (Ukraine) elects an entertainer (a clown) as the president of the Ukraine. We see the people laugh, giggle and I giggled too. I had nothing against the man, he was democratically elected and I am fine with that. In the time he put his positive marker on the Ukraine. I took little notice because the Ukraine is on the other side of the planet and I personally do not know too many people from there.
I am familiar with Alexei Ponikarovsky (Maple Leafs),  Dmytro Tolkunov (Ramparts) and a few others. But I know little of the Ukraine. Now as escalations have come to THEIR towns, I learn a lot more about the governments around me and their initial inactions and after that sending stuff (military and non military) all whilst civilian organisations take intelligence to a greater level (Trollrensics), all whilst the stage evolves we see their people take effort and the Dutch Nieuwsuur seemingly (according to what I have) cancelling what these people had to tell them. A person who translates, knows the places that are hit and the people that are there and the media turns away? That is what our sophistication brought, inactions towards what some call a tyrant. I am on the fence on that term, but there is an upside. Russia is 28 times the size of the Ukraine, there is more and I can list them, but I found a nice image that does it easier. 

And that image should tell you something about karma too. When the military power in 21st place can hold back the military power in 2nd place for a week, what does that tell you about the spending of the second best and the impact it has had on its population for decades? Also there are voices that are telling me that the FSB is opposing this war, how wrong was acting against the Ukraine from the very first minute?

And whilst I stop myself from posturing, taking the comedian side, I can tell you that Bette Midler stated (tweeted) it the best.

Consider where you stand, consider who you allow to represent your voice, I really hope it is not one of the earlier names seen, because in that case you are in deep trouble, because no matter how this ends, there will be a reckoning, it is the populist approach and it is bout to be turned against those relying on the populist voice to advance their political strategies. What comes around really comes around this time around. 

So for the glory of Hades, all hail the Comedian.

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