Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

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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A symphony in only two parts?

That is the question at times. We see two events, two articles and we forget that there are a dozen other connections. I am not different, at times I overlook them too, not always but frequently. It is a mix of a larger stage, more connections, more unregistered events. Yet for now we start with the first nail in the coffin of American economy. The article from Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-invites-chinas-xi-visit-wsj-2022-03-14/) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia invites China’s Xi to visit’, the article states that this could be as early as may. Right before the Midterms in November 2022 the US is now likely to face that dozens upon dozens of billions walk from the US side straight into the hands of China (and me missing out on commission, darn). Is this a given? No, of course not. There could be a dozen reasons why President Xi Jinping might be visiting. But how often has ANY Chinese president done that? And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is eager to set his defence and SAMI to higher values and I was clear in the two years that this was coming and as far as I can tell, President Biden has soured the waters enough for this to become a reality. Some focusses on weapons being sold, I say in THIS economy you should not ignore the nations Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, who are the largest importers. In this stage where the US HELD 37% and China only 5.2% the stage is now set where China can progress a lot higher on that list and should they get the bulk of Saudi and SAMI attention there is a clear stage where the new numbers will represent (2023/2024) could state that the US hold 25% and China then could be holding 17.2%, it then places China right next to Russian exports and the US a lot more to that stage, a stage where it is now an almost fair fight between the US, Russia and China, but to be clear was that EVER an economic stage where you WANT a fair fight? A stage where China overtakes both France and Germany as supplier? This is the stage that could inhabit the Middle East and that is merely the beginning. You see the partnerships that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt have also sets Egypt in the sights of China as a defence trade partner, a stage a few people overlooked and that drives Chinese export achievable needs up a lot more. So the damage to the US might increase over the coming year and those who want to be in denial, go right ahead, the article with ““The crown prince and Xi are close friends and both understand that there is huge potential for stronger ties,” the report quoted a Saudi official as saying. “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’.”” I like the part “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’” the best, it might not be merely just, for China that is a good deal in several ways and when that deal gives China more oil, it will mean that it gives the US less oil a stage they feared for some time and the oil market has been volatile on these fears alone. So when I was mentioning that whatever relief the oil prices give us today, tomorrow will be different and now we see that fear come to fruition, not immediately mind you, but the price of fuel will go up again and again, how high? I cannot tell but the stage where we saw the American administration make statements like “You can pump more oil, so pump more oil!”, it was nice but there is now every chance that the extra oil (plus a little more) goes to China. Will the UAE do the same? I cannot tell, but the US better become best buddies with Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, because if I see this right, the US will need every friend it can muster in their oil needs (a few others too) and in that need they better realise that catering to Iran will not merely be unrewarding, it will soon become dangerous on more than one field as well. I mentioned two years ago that yielding the Middle East to China would be one of the most dangerous things ever, and that was merely economically. Now we see one field exposed and the construction opportunities in Neom could also go towards China, a stage that makes the US (EU too) more and more irrelevant, a stage the US themselves threw upon their own economic needs. Now that it is becoming more and more realistic these people will not be allowed to cry with the “Why oh why” statement like little chihuahua’s. Or as my grandmother used to say “You do not bite the hand that feeds you” a practical lesson that the US will now face within the next 3 months and the 2 years that follow. A stage that the Biden Administration failed to spot in some stage of ignorance and now as we see it optionally unfold (it might be that President Xi Jinping is visiting to buy real estate in Neom) some might see the dangers that are coming the next year or so and the impact over the next decade. I merely loose out on commission (oh, poor poor me). 

 

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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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The next Furlong

Yes, that happens. We all look at races, we all enter horse racing (not betting I mean) and then we look as the wrecks stack up. This story goes back to 2019, I am certain I made mention before then. It was ‘The seventh guest’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/21/the-seventh-guest/) when I wrote “I would like to discuss the purchase of 20-30 Chengdu J-20 fighters. In light of both a first order discount, as well as a student discount (we are all students on the path of life), I believe that should the talks be successful, that 20-30 planes at a unit cost of $27.35 million (with rebates, discounts and commission applied), in addition the 2 years of full service with no regards to hours flown, mileage traveled or missiles fired. This is based on 2016 flyaway cost. The benefit is that these fighters will be directly engaging Iranian forces and as such you will have access to a massive amount of data enabling you to start on the 6th generation fighter, optionally making you the first country to have one. We would also be interested in the testing of the Xian H-20 prototype that is now nearing completion. If the specs are as they are claiming to be, it will help us in removing morale from Tehran and from the IRGC as a whole. In this the unofficial word is that the sky is the limit as regarding to the price of this place (my 2.17% commission still applies). My client is ready to upgrade several army based parts (both light and heavy guns), however I hope that this part can be tabled until Iran decides to attack directly, at which point Saudi Arabian boots on Iranian ground becomes a direct first”, and certain people laughed, the laughed loud and pointed at me. It would never come this far. And now we see (at https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254377.shtml) ’FC-31 stealth fighter spearheads display of cutting-edge Chinese equipment at Saudi Arabia’s 1st World Defense Show’, there we see “The Chinese arms industry brought a wide selection of cutting-edge weapons and equipment, including the FC-31 stealth fighter jet, to the ongoing first edition of Saudi Arabia’s World Defense Show in Riyadh. China can provide finished advanced gear and also transfer technology that enables domestic development and production, analysts said on Tuesday.” And although I lose out on a commission of 3.75% (my life sucks), the stage I saw coming in 2019 is now becoming a harsh reality for the US and the EU. Not laughing now, are they? And it is not even the worst of the setting either. That is seen when we add ‘Saudi Arabia and UAE leaders ‘decline calls with Biden’ amid fears of oil price spike’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/09/saudi-arabia-and-uae-leaders-decline-calls-with-biden-amid-fears-of-oil-price-spike) the other part I discussed a few times over is coming to fruition (for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), the entire US pariah setting on lack of EVIDENCE is a bed they themselves made. You can call the consumer names again and again, but realise that this person can shop somewhere else and can not deliver to you, ask any supermarket, ask any grocer, butcher or baker. And now these stations are coming out, China is sitting on the sidelines laughing loudly. And the entire issue in the EU is not helping any. All setting I saw YEARS ago and now it is out on the 20 yard line the US is trying to set some premise to avoid the setting that was clear in the open. So when we now see the US playing courtesan to whomever will supply cheap oil, what was the direct label for such a person? It was clear as day and I illuminated that danger years ago and the blog is ‘evidence’ that I did so. A station that could have been clearly avoided from the start and that I perhaps the biggest failure of all. If I can see it and I am not the most clever person around (around two IQ points below Alan Turing) so why did THEY not see this coming? The lack of long term vision is staggering and the need for “also transfer technology that enables domestic development and production” implies that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud implies that he is now on track with the promise towards 50% in house manufacturing via SAMI (Saudi Arabian Military Industries), so the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gets even with the people playing with them, these players are massively losing out on revenue (me on commission, darn) and these players are now in a much worse position all whilst China becomes the top dog yielding the bone the EU and US are basically fighting over. 

As such we now see how much a failure (for the US especially) Davos in the desert 2019 was. So whilst some state it was a ‘shameless return of business and government leaders to Saudi Arabia’, we can now clearly see that it is about to become a massive trove of revenue that could pass the US and EU by on a few levels and they did this themselves. It was not unforeseen and as such I wonder what the next stupid act we see coming from the US and EU? Contemplating larger concession towards Venezuela and Iran? I cannot speak on the Venezuelan side, I know too little, but the concessions towards Iran will upset both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Israel even more. And both could optionally sour the milk for both the EU and US for any 5G they hope to set in Egypt. Another place of revenue loss, was that not clear to these people?

As such I wonder how the next furlong will play out, because in the end the US and the EU are in a series of horse races. One race is defence spending, another is telecom spending and then there are still the infrastructure and manufacturing races on the schedule. All now with both the US and EU degraded to second or even third choice, because whatever you think the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to do, it needs to do what is best for the kingdom and that leaves Russia as a contender (for now). Several races with less than optimal choices and it could have been avoided to a much larger degree. Do not take my word, investigate and form your own opinion, but as I see it it soon becomes another stage where I get to say ‘Told you so!

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The first light

Yes, there is a first light, a support to my views, which was inevitable, yet I believed that it would take some time to become visible. Yet Al Jazeera (at https://aje.io/fuzpwd) gives us ‘‘Double standards’: Western coverage of Ukraine war criticised’. Here we see “the speed of such an international response – which includes the exclusion of Russia from some cultural events and treatment of it as a pariah in sports – has raised eyebrows at the lack of such a reaction to other conflicts across the world.” Now, this is nothing new. The lack of reporting on Houthi attacks on Saudi civilian targets is astounding. Yet we are also given “CBS News senior correspondent in Kyiv Charlie D’Agata said on Friday: “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European – I have to choose those words carefully, too – city where you wouldn’t expect that, or hope that it’s going to happen.”” This is the part I have been waiting for for some time. A speaker like D’Agata making the mistake of speaking out before his ‘stakeholder’ was able to correct him. It leads to “His comments were met with derision and anger on social media, with many pointing out how his statements contributed to the further dehumanisation of non-white, non-European people suffering under a conflict within mainstream media.” As I personally see it, certain key people have basically painted themselves in a corner and this is not one media, one place or one nation, this setting of filtered information bringers is very global and it includes a lot of players, yet no one is policing the media are they? Justice Leveson tried to hold people to account, but the British media bitches cried and stated that they could police themselves. So when you investigate the media and those who shied away from mentioning certain events and ignore others, especially  issues like bombing civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and they were eager to show tea grannies holding a CAAT sign, what does that tell you? And now we see people like D’Agata fumbling the ball. So as I personally see it with “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq”, it was news, was it not? What do reporters do? What do newspapers do? That is the larger problem, when I see people, citizens giving us more relevant news (you know who you are troll-hunter), more collected news than the larger news agencies, it becomes well beyond embarrassing so as such the words by D’Agata are more then red cloths on a bull, they are the stage where we are given a setting of filtered information and that needs to stop. As the news is all about circulation and revenue, digital revenue we see a media that is trusted even less than a mere gossip bringer on Facebook. Did the media not figure this out? Perhaps they do not care because the connected stakeholder does not care. Perhaps it is my personal speculated view, but the Al Jazeera article gives a view that I am more likely correct than not. And the words by D’Agata merely reinforces it. I reckon that CBS has some cleaning to do.

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The setting of what might be

I have always been a firm believer of the quote ‘Via ad sapientiam scientiam requirit’, which translates to ‘The way to wisdom requires knowledge’. It is something I have close to forever embraced. We can go into all directions on WHAT wisdom is but I have accepted that it is slightly different for every person. Yet without knowledge you will never find that place. Even blindly poking a map with a needle will never get you there. This is merely the stage of nearly everywhere.  Whilst people are focussing on what it happening between Russia and the Ukraine, whilst people are wondering if they are next (Bulgarians). I know that I know nothing on what is happening now, so it seemed wise to occupy my brain in different ways. And weirdly enough, I came up with new IP, military IP. My mind designed a new weapon system to incapacitate submarines. I have no idea if it works, but the setting is always nice to use in a story, a game or a movie. Where? I cannot tell, not yet. But the mind goes where it wants, sometime to places we desire and sometimes to places we cannot fathom. And for some reason, my mind went to the deep blue see, thanks for that granduncle! And I came up with a new submarine disabler. Now for the functionality I am all up in arms. I have several ideas on a few matters, but the targeting part is still a mystery (as I am not up to speed with submarines and torpedo’s) but I grasp the basics. The thingamajig (sonar) connects to the target and when distance becomes zero the whatchamacallit goes boom. But what happens when we decide not to go boom? And that is where my mind went and that is where the kraken torpedo becomes the reality of whatever story (or script) follows. 

You see people are all about destroying and I went in the other direction, the same as the weapon I designed in ‘The impact of insanity’, an article I wrote on January 20th 2019 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/01/20/the-impact-of-insanity/) where I designed a stealth weapon that could disable the Iranian navy. If the big boys will not deal with them, I will. So I handed the idea to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and I left it to them to decide. It is after all their direct enemy and to some degree their problem. I also came up with the idea to melt down their nuclear reactor (see other articles) and that idea came to me via a snow-globe, so my brain is as wacky as it gets. I prefer IP in IT, gaming or entertainment yet I do not have a choice in the matter. My brain goes where it wants and I reckon that if it meets up with any of 5 certain ladies it will go in a very different direction again, which could lead to really hot IP, LOL.

The setting of what might be is to be treasured yet it almost never goes into expected directions. It might just be me, but there is every chance that the makers of the Aloy series saw where their track would lead them. We can see now (3 hours ago) all the bickering, the BS accusations and small stages. For example someone gives us “The game doesn’t have any game-breaking issues, but it does have some that are vexing players. For example, everyone hates Aloy’s hair.” Yet the problem is the use of ‘everyone’, and that cannot be, because I have not found any part that I hate and after 20 hours of actual playing I am somewhere between 15%-20%. Watching the environment is overwhelming and it is the SECOND TIME EVER that I used photo mode. The first time was Assassins Creed Origins. For the most I do not care about photo mode, it is nice and some like it yet not everyone cares. I do not, it is an extra and this time I cared. I merely took one snap to show just how perfect the game looks and when you can do that at an active point in the game, that makes the game amazing. And ever as Metacritic is at a mere 88% (Xbox players will be haters) I feel certain that it will get to the 90%-95% where it deserves to be. Now, I cannot tell if the people of guerrilla adhere to ‘Via ad sapientiam scientiam requirit’ but I am curious to find out. At some point someone dreamt up Aloy, someone dreamt up the robotics that wielded Zero Dawn and now what we see now. A true new gaming IP was created and for me that matters, because the game has shown me so much innovation in one game it is game changing and that matters, because innovation will always matter. Innovation is the game changer of ANY industry and we all got there through knowledge. It is a much longer debate to see if there is a relationship between innovation and wisdom (example Facebook) because wisdom is grown and it allows us to create a safe road, a silk road or a fast road, it is the application of wisdom that matters and it is not always a guaranteed given. We are all slaves to our thoughts, we are all driven to the creative mind. We can overanalyse, we can do so much, but can we understand it? I want to because just like nearly any other gamer I would like to come up with the golden idea for a game changing game. I think I have one that sells 50,000,000 Amazon Luna’s (Google does not design software for Stadia) but it is what it is. Beyond that I made several game IP freeware for Sony and Amazon developers. My mind will not stop designing and that is fine (but it makes me lose sleep). 

We can speculate on what might be, but I believe it to be a waste of time. I merely write down the IP (not all in this blog) and move on, it is the best I can do and whatever will be will be, what might be is a road to nowhere. So there is a 4th road, so am I at some crossroad?

I simply cannot tell at present.

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I had to take this one

I was alerted to an article in the BBC, the article was about 10 hours old and gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60499391) in the headline, but only once and it does not replicate.

You see the setting of ‘Putin saw America has become weak under Biden’ is wrong, it did not become weak, it was weak and has been for some time. Getting a bully to talk loud does not make America less weak. The American inactions regarding: 

  • Chemical attack Homs Syria 2012
  • Chemical Attack Douma Syria 2018
  • Houthi terrorist attacks Yemen 2014-2022
  • Ukraine under Russian attack 2022

As you can see, Americans are all talk and lack actions. It is not because they do not want to act, it is because they can no longer act. A debt surpassing $30,000,000,000,000 is making sure that this cannot happen, the US has become nothing more than a paper tiger. And let’s be clear, this is not merely the US, the EU is in a similar state. How I went to school and heard these preaches and stories, that if there was ever a chemical attack, the nations would unite against the attackers. In 2012 we saw the reality of what was preached for decades, they merely united and scolded the transgressor making very sure that words like ‘seemingly’ and ‘alleged’ were everywhere in that text. We saw a repetition, with the western media not reporting on Iranian involvement and remaining silent on Houthi attacks on civilian targets, the United Nations added to this by calling out one party and not the other one (Iran). The complete view on the uselessness of western politics set in action.

So when we get ‘told’ the simplicity of “America has become weak under Biden”, it did not, it was weak and will become weaker still. It is the order of things when your credit card is telling you to stay at home whilst the neighbours house is on fire and you cannot afford to buy a bucket. You do not want to let the neighbour know that you cannot afford a bucket, so you set in motion talks, but the neighbour does not want to talk, HIS HOUSE IS ON FIRE! 

/so when Al Jazeera reports ‘New sanctions come as Yemeni rebels ramped up attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent weeks’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/23/us-issues-new-sanctions-on-alleged-houthi-financing-network) 3 days ago, my response is that the US gets a functional navy that can stop smugglers, so far I have seen less than 3 successes over a time of 6 years (at least) and we see how the US Navy seemingly cannot stop anything. That is not their fault (I think) and there could be half a doze reasons, but let’s be clear, the western media to a much larger degree is silencing that part all over the place. And we can shelter on the setting that no one cares about Syria and Yemen, but the Ukraine is too close to home (for the EU) and now we get to see the blame game, we get to see the opposite side, just like the US and EU were silencing any issue on Iran, we now see ‘China refuses to call Russia’s move on Ukraine an invasion’ (source: Australian Financial Review). So how does that feel? The blunt question is ‘Why would China care about Ukraine?’, Why would China push for a setting that it does not need to do? I do not think it is right, I merely think it is as it is. 

We need to accept that inaction comes with consequences and a consequence now is that Russia wants EU expansionism stopped and Russia took the step it felt it could take and that sucks for the Ukraine, but the inactions of the EU and the US (economic sanctions are not real actions), and I am proven right in another BBC article where we saw yesterday “Ukraine isn’t in America’s neighbourhood. It is not located on the US border. Nor does it host a US military base. It does not have strategic oil reserves, and it’s not a major trade partner”, it was the sad truth for Syria, for Yemen and now for the Ukraine. It is what the US calls policy and that is their take on it, it doesn’t make any president weak, but as I see it, when you need to set a filter to that degree, it also implies that you are no longer a superpower, especially if you cater to Iran who allegedly is now (or will be soon) enriching Uranium to 20%, so when this escalates in the state of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will it still a stage of inaction? I reckon so, the debt will remain for decades giving China and Russia an almost uncensored way to change the political map all over the Far East and the Middle East. Now there will be people who do not agree, and that is fair. I would merely like to point out that the past has proven me right and the present is merely continuing the stage that I am still not wrong. 

Europe is in danger of a lot more than you think and it seems that in this case the US is not playing the game to the harder degree, they seemingly no longer can.

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Seesaw without balance

This happens, a seesaw is play-toy with a shifting balance, but early in life someone thought it through, because if it works for people it works in a lot more places and balance is always option to stages. 

In this, we see two on the left and two on the right, so someone figured out that if one side is too heave, the other side will be too light, so if there is a moderator on the axial of the seesaw, that person can shift weight just before or just after the axial and the seesaw seems fair again. And it would have worked for much longer if there wasn’t someone checking the game that is being played. So today, 6 hours ago Al Jazeera gave us ‘Saudi forces destroy Houthi drone targeting airport in Jizan’ (at https://aje.io/45xbqg), so far nearly none of the western media has it, in 6 hours, no reporting and it is a repetition of an attack 2 weeks ago which came down on Abha, both attacks on civilian populations by Iranian driven Houthi terrorist forces. Yet as I personally see it there lies the rub, the media will avoid negative reporting on Iran, because there is the delusional figment of a nuclear accord shimmering somewhere and no one knows where. Yet in the meantime Houthi claimed attacks continue on Saudi Arabia and the west is not informed by its media, why is that? In this attack 16 people were wounded, and according to Saudi state TV 3 people were in critical condition. 

The problem here is that we rely on people giving us ‘Nuclear talks with Iran enter the endgame’, but not the larger game that Iran is playing and it will cost us, it will cost us all. I would not be surprised if someone at Aramco closes the European and American tap for 2-4 weeks, it would wake up useless politicians getting calls from people in their district that fuel prices have doubled, they would suddenly call crime on every street and as loud as they can, but at present the attacks on Saudi Arabia can continue, can they not? And in this we can ignore the Ukraine and the ‘danger’ that oil prices could go up by $20, if some have had enough oil prices could go up by 200%-300%, but are the people at Aramco willing to go there? Some of the big boys think that they are too big to fail, but in the Netherlands the SNS bank made that very same mistake in 2013. So when someone figures out that there are two parties, the heavy players on one side and the moderator in the middle pretending that this is a fair setting are part of the problem, we will see a much more intense and volatile setting come into play and in this Aramco closing the tap might become the least volatile of all moves. 

This is not speculation, this is merely the optional stage of available strategies that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has at its disposal, you see, the west ignoring and refusing to give the people all the information is becoming a larger problem. Beside the fact that the KSA has embassies everywhere, and as such they see all the papers. The internet is showing everyone the lack of reporting and as such we all have access to Al Jazeera and Arab News. The idea that these news bringers are backwards was proven incorrect for well over a decade and as such people can look beyond their own papers to get a much better view of what is going on and when the people wake up to some media whoring to digital dollars, they could optionally stop looking there for filtered information and look in other places for actual news and at that point the game changes, the axial grinders for the seesaw become no longer needed, but the people employing them will have to keep on paying them, they saw too much. They took calls from stake holders, they took meetings with media parties and they have seen the larger field. I say this not in some speculation, or hiding behind some conspiracy theory. This is simple tactics. The seesaw principle when you start taking notice of all the news that was ‘filtered away’. And when we consider the media greed ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ we see that ignoring international events made no sense. It cannot be because they ran out of space (internet space is obscenely cheap), it cannot be because people did not care (see a casualty and a thousand eyes become instantly interested), someone was filtering. You see tactically speaking Aramco can make a move, or the KSA can force the hand of someone else, and there is every chance that they know who the stakeholders are. So the game is soon coming to fruition and I personally believe that any Nuclear accord that is too weak will suddenly get the larger interest of the KSA and the state of Israel. Thee two settings are a larger play and the media ignored these settings for too long. How long can you say ‘nothing is happening there’ whilst smoke is coming from there? How long until people will take another look via other means? I think we are getting close to that point at present, but that would be speculation. There is no way to tell at present, but the fact that those we trusted to bring us news, those who seemingly shifted to bring us presentations, those are becoming a larger problem and the people seem to be walking up to that part, but that could be my delusional insight in this. 

There is a larger play afoot and we are not given the real deal, a mere ‘Putin is testing ‘how far he can push us all’, US tells Ukraine crisis talks’, not that that statement was wrong, but the story we were given by many over time is watering down, it is how the game is played say some. I wonder what else we are not told, and that might just be me.

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Complying idiocy

Yes, that is what we see, round after round of BS (very expensive BS) we are now, month after month of babbling. We are now (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/20/irans-parliament-sets-conditions-for-return-to-nuclear-deal) where we see ‘Iran’s parliament sets conditions for return to nuclear deal’, which Al Jazeera sees as “an agreement may be reached in Vienna with world powers within days”. ABC voices this (at https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-lawmakers-guarantees-us-leave-revamped-deal-83012473) as ‘Israeli PM: Iran nuke deal will bring ‘more violent’ Mideast’ with the byline of “Israel’s prime minister has criticised an emerging deal over Iran’s nuclear program”, personally I do not think the the Israeli PM is wrong, we could take notice of Arab News giving us ‘Tehran eyes prison swap if Washington offers help on nuclear deal’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2028401/middle-east), yet it is weirdly enough FoxNews who shows us the farce of it all with ‘Iran could supply an ‘initial 1.3 million barrels a day’ to global market if nuclear deal reached, expert says’ (at https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/oil-gas-iran-nuclear-deal). It is a joke (a bad one) and the joke will be on us soon enough, not that much on Israel where its population will start to glow in the dark quite soon. Iran desperately needs the funds for Houthi activities (also against Saudi Arabia) to appease Hezbollah and Palestinians and to complete their nuclear arsenal, so the US who needs cheap oil will provide all of the above providing they get the 1.3 million barrels a day. Is anyone else willing to comply to this charade? You see, Al Jazeera gives us “parliamentarians also asserted all sanctions imposed under “false excuses” must be lifted”, so are we that stupid? Optionally several nations are, because they think that once they give in and Israel is no longer a chess-piece on the board, they are in the delusion that they can muzzle Iran, but they merely open the doors to a much larger field of violence. Houthi and Hezbollah will see it a a sign that terrorism is the way to go and it will topple stability in the Middle East and you think I was stupid to put my idea for melting down their reactors online? It has been clear since 1979 and that was no April fools joke. We have seen issue after issue and Iran has NEVER acted responsibly towards a global world. The evidence is all over the Middle East and worse. Perhaps the Americans need a little history lesson, it was given to them by the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence of the committee on homeland security house of representatives in 2011.

the Islamic state has used terrorism as an integral part of its foreign and military policies. It provides funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups, most notably those operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. Iranian-backed political violence has killed more than a thousand people in over 200 terror attacks, including the 1983 suicide bombing of American and French military barracks in Beirut, killing 299 people”, perhaps the US wants to return to those years to cull the population a little. Let’s face it, for them 20 million Israeli’s mean nothing but the global stage is not merely them, it is a lot more people and the setting that Iran becomes nuclear is a big global problem. The age of inaction is over and if these setting continue, the Iranian proxy war with Saudi Arabia will become very real and we are all letting this happen. The problem isn’t merely Iran, it is their lack of credibility and in such a state no one in their right mind can allow Iran becoming nuclear. It will take only the next Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to really make a mess of everything, but perhaps these layers like their oil to glow in the dark (easier to clean oil spills at night), OK if people didn’t recognise it, the previous moment is an example of feigned sarcasm. So, as we are given by ABC “That “leaves Iran with a fast track to military-grade enrichment,” Bennett told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations. In the meantime, he said that lifting sanctions right away will deliver billions of dollars to Iran to spend on hostile proxy groups along Israel’s borders.” It is possible that this was the intent of America all along. Let’s face it. If they are broken down and bankrupt, the only way they can gain traction if the rest of the world is burning. It is not the best solution, but for them it might just work and there is the Atlantic river between the fallout and America, so they might just have a solution there (a bad one). Yes, there is a lot of speculation here, but the idea to appeasing Iran really appeals to no one, optionally Russia, but I do not think China will be happy about the Middle Eastern changes. Is it too soon for what I am saying? I honestly do not know, but the papers show a different stage, each to its own population as one might expect, but no one is setting the clear message that Iran should not allowed to become a nuclear player, they all seem to accept that near future event. Although in all fairness the Wall Street Journal gave us ‘Rushing to a Weaker Iran Deal’, a collection of idiots racing to get some ‘title’ of being able to get Iran to sign a deal is what we see and they are not realising that a toothless deal is toothless and therefor useless. In the situation we see now, at 1,300,000 barrels a day, Iran only needs to be nice for 5-10 days before resorting to its extremist side and the problems will stack up on all other sides for years to come, enough to finish their nuclear plan leaving Israel and Saudi Arabia as the piggy’s in the middle, so how will that ever be a good idea? 

Perhaps it is just me, it could be. Yet consider how much people are complying to idiocy, is that the way we want to go? Is it just me? The newspapers from America, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel imply it is not. I will let you make up your own mind. 

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Unintentional?

Whilst playing a game (Horizon 2, Forbidden West) my mind was drawn into a setting I have not openly done before. In the intro part we are (optionally) drawn into the conflict of intentional versus unintentional shortsightedness. A thief preventing theft is the clue (not giving away anything. But consider that I consider Microsoft to have shown (several times) the application of intentional shortsightedness. This goes back from the Xbox One and after. For whatever reason they did this, they set up intentional shortsightedness on storage for the longest time (since 2011).  And I have scolded them for it, I could do so because their competitor (Sony) set up an option where it could be solved. They did this in the PS4, PS4Pro and PS5. Microsoft since the Xbox One avoided that and only now (2020) offered another option, I reckon because they could no longer avoid that. Now we see streaming and I warned about congestion, the setting in the UK is now “UK’s biggest network operator, might soon become its biggest 5G provider. EE currently has 5G live in the UK in 160 places and plans to cover the whole country by 2028.” So proper national 5G in the UK by 2028, implying congestion in a lot of rural places. Europe and the US are in no better state. There we see “All of the major U.S. wireless carriers say they have nationwide 5G service, but industry analysts say that service is largely indistinguishable from 4G LTE service”, yet 4G LTE and 5G are not the same, in no uncertain way! So we see an industry who is hiding behind  shortsightedness to leave one third in the dark and that applies to the UK, US and Europe. 1/3rd is not worthy to be properly connected and in that we see a problem, it will taint streaming systems (and it works for Sony in no small way too). But I am not here pleading for Sony, I am here pleading for gamers.

The game gives us the stage of unintentional shortsightedness, because can we predict what happens or what is needed in 1000 years? Of course not, but the clarity we could see in 2011 was addressed by one and not the other, that makes it intentional. They cannot hide behind ‘We did not see that coming’ because nearly all could see it coming a mile away. Some hid behind what would expected to come (trade agreements) and someone boasted his trumpet too soon and the brand suffered, the other one made a video of one person handing a disc to another person and made short of the situation, but they too hoped for change and it is seen in there terms of service, the media largely ignored it whoring for digital dollars, but they too are guilty. 

These are all stages of intentional shortsightedness. So when does it become unintentional shortsightedness? Because of the filtered business approach, the approach of common sense or the approach of what a board of directors stipulates? I honestly do not know. I am willing to go with common sense, but common sense and business sense are not aligned, or better stated they are more often not aligned than aligned. There is the stage of common sense versus service level agreements, there is the stage of common sense and dependancy of suppliers and there are a few other stages. Yet if the the UK is any indication, the delay to national 5G (real 5G) until 2028 sets a much larger premise. The ability to offer 5G solutions and 5G added abilities to a nation when it needs to rely on other means. It is (as I personally see it) as the 80’s setting that Dutch Luc Sala stated as the have’s versus the have not’s and it is coming to actual deployment in the next 5 years and not merely in the Netherlands, it will be seen on the global stage. A stage of technological discrimination, the problem is to see the difference between intentional versus unintentional shortsightedness, because even as a game brings it to the forefront, this stage has been deploying for close to 3 years and if you want to refresh your information (I stated it several times) at present only Saudi Arabia has a national deployed 5G network, and it is more than that it is merely 700% faster than the US, it is a nation that took serious steps to make its nation 5G and over the next 5 years it might get a lot more benefits in its wake than any other player. South Korea might have an advantage as well, but that will be seen over the next 2 years. A stage that we saw coming a mile away, so is it at that point intentional or unintentional shortsightedness? I will let you decide. But the lack of services that we will see pop up all over whilst some providers hide behind ‘It works fine under 4G LTE’ and whilst the media keeps n ignoring certain steps should inspire you to seek out the real information bringers and make sure that the media starts operating less under the appeasing structure and more supported by the common sense pillar. 

Just to recap the important setting “In theory, 5G is likely to reach speeds that are 20 times faster than 4G LTE. 4G LTE has a peak speed of 1GB per second; 5G could theoretically achieve speeds of 20GB per second. … But where you might get 10Mb per second from your 4G network today, 5G could possibly provide 100MB per second everyday speeds”, so it becomes the “Do you really need 20GB per second?” And you think you are swayed, but the part ignored is that banks and others can have 20 times the transactions, so when you are in a bidding war and you will (nearly) always be missing out on a bid, it becomes the option where those who have will get the goods, those who have not will miss out on the goods. Transactions that are 20 times faster, the seesaw in a truly unbalanced stage. Consider your business where the information is brought to you at 5% speed, how appealing is that to some?

All matters that were out in the open for 4-6 years, now slowly pressing on your business, on your home, on your gaming and on your stream speed. You really think I was kidding when I saw congestion as the next big evil coming to your front door? So when short sighted people give you (on June 4th 2018) ‘NBN chief blames online ‘gamers predominantly’ for fixed wireless congestion’ and whilst we see see “The fixed wireless component of the NBN covers approximately 600,000 Australian homes. 234,000 homes are currently connected.” The larger ignored setting is that “streaming 4K video can use as much as 7 gigabytes (GB) per hour”, a clear setting of intentional shortsightedness, as (Australian) Netflix users surpassed 11,000,000 the Q1 2019, as such we see a massive cluster of shortsightedness. The issue here is prediction when does prediction become intentional? I cannot tell and Covid changed the metrics by a lot, but the levels of congestion were clear, they were clear before covid (2018), there are cogs that are connected, but I can tell you right now, that those claiming to see the difference can not always tell (including me), but I saw a lot of the factors upfront and I blogged them at the time since before covid. As such I feel that I have proven that a lot of unintentional shortsightedness was indeed intentional shortsightedness. Yes, I agree that some cases can be made in a few directions, but not all and too many points were unattended by too many industrials, and not merely in one nation, but near global and in the upcoming 5G commercial wars it will give raise to several failings that we are bound to see in 2023 and 2024. Perhaps suddenly the issues I raised in the streaming wars are a little less innocent, especially from the view of some of the industrials as they gave them. Consider some ‘stream’ presentation and consider who in the end they are really for.

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