Tag Archives: UK

September 16, 2023 · 02:30

Sentimental Journey

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy the upcoming weekend.

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September 13, 2023 · 01:19

The rivers Wept, Wimper and Whine

So this is a story with an edge and with a side that I am ill suited to respond to. Yet, when I saw the Guardian with ‘Megacities in the desert: the human cost of Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s bold new projects’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/11/egypt-saudi-arabia-megacity-human-cost) I just had to respond. You see, we might give weight to “In their rush to claim the future and concrete over the past, these vast rebrands are demolishing people’s homes and their heritage” but did anyone remember the people and the heritage demolished around London, around Paris, Im most of the United States, parts of Canada, massive parts of Australia and we could go on for a long time to come. How much consideration were they given? So now as Saudi Arabia is pushing borders in unimaginable directions, now we complain? Go whine me a river (pretty please).

And when we consider the amount of people who ‘lose’ a part in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which I am happy to consider is true. Let’s put them against lists of people in the UK, France and the United States, who had to give it up for progress. There is also a chance that Japan unsettled scores of people building through their industrial age, so that list might dwarf the events in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to almost nothing, almost I said. When you consider that NEOM and the Line are projects never undertaken ever before. When you consider that NEOM will be 22 times the size of New York, making it the biggest city on the planet. We need to consider that this has never been done before and it dwarves the achievements of the USA, Russia and china to several degrees. Yet, the Guardian gives us “Hussein Omar’s mother, as well as some eight generations of his family, are buried there, and he hoped one day to lie next to them. He tells me that for years his family has been in deadlock with the state over what rights they have to visit, but that has now escalated, as the graves themselves have come under threat of removal” As such one source gave me the 10 Cemeteries that were relocated to make way for human progress. So how much thought did the Guardian give for these events? How many in the UK, how many in France. You get the idea. And the fact that Saudi Arabia has 36 million souls (living), the UK has 68 million souls (sort of living) and in this case Saudi Arabia is (roughly) 782% larger. As such, how many people are really being ‘dislocated’ and how many were dislocated when the UK decided to put in the train tracks, the subways and we can go on a little while longer. The same could be said for France and a lot can be said against the US who made a whole lot of native Americans extinct in the name of progress. 

Progress has been the handle to use by many, as such it will be handled by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as well. But who is giving us a clear top-line of numbers and areas as each nation is affected, yet we do not get that will we? It pushes the story of Hussein Omar and its writer Nesrine Malik in a different category. I am not stating that the story is wrong, or should not be given, but should we not get the real picture? Should we not get the real impact and optionally the amount of jobs created, the amount of economy served to better the setting for that nation? Just a question, feel free to give it a swing to your own liking. I am merely trying to keep it real, did I succeed?

Have a great day.

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September 8, 2023 · 09:28

Has the world gone mad?

Yup, this was my very first thought, it was not a nice thought (I’ll admit to that) and it was given to me by Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/6/us-eu-uk-officials-visit-uae-to-discuss-russia-sanctions-cnn-report) where we are given ‘Western officials visit UAE in efforts to halt exports to Russia: Report’ the byline of “The Wall Street Journal initially reported plans to jointly press the UAE to halt shipments of goods to Russia” does not help much. In all honesty, who the fuck do they think they are? You see, we were only given a week ago ‘Beer giant Heineken sells its business in Russia for one euro’ (at https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/beer-giant-heineken-sells-its-business-in-russia-for-one-euro/news-story/1f6e65254890bfbd6d1757d70deb351c). In part I think that it is nice that it happens after well over a year when things should have stopped, but let things flow (especially beer). You see, the largest problem is that places like Align Technology (USA), Cloudflare (USA), BT Technologies (UK), Fenzi group (Italy) and a whole range more are according to sources still operating in Russia. Yale is giving us a list (at https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain) where we find ‘Over 1,000 Companies Have Curtailed Operations in Russia—But Some Remain’ after 560 days of war. I admit that the list is from 2022, yet there Heineken wasn’t even on the list. So I would kindly like to request that the representatives from the United States, British and European Union who are visiting the United Arab Emirates amid concerns regarding shipments of goods, including computer chips, to Russia that could help Moscow in its war on Ukraine would kindly ‘Shut the fuck up’ and clean their houses first. This group of snivelling little clowns do not get to tell anyone anything until their citizens and corporations seized all operations. I think that same message could be given to anyone visiting any Middle Eastern nation with a similar request. I do not disagree with the sentiment, but to do that whilst your places are still operating in Russia is just too hypocritical for any consideration. And even after that, there is still China to consider, they will never consider that request beyond certain levels and as such, why is this request coming to the UAE? Are the American parties making money of puppets in the UAE to keep their hands clean? I cannot say that this is happening, but there are plenty of ways for zero tax nations to make a bundle being the front person of a large deliverer. Oh, and by the way in 2021 on September 20th, Jesse Benton and Doug Wead pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to charges of making a straw donation to the Trump campaign in 2016 on behalf of a Russian national. So is that case going? I am just asking, because On February 17, 2023, Jesse Benton was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the other one died in time to avoid conviction. With the US in shambles and the US setting up all kinds of foundations of avoidance by US Republicans into stopping assistance to the Ukraine, I think that envoy should take a breather and stop being silly. Some of that ‘anti-assistance is less than a month old’, as such I wonder who on earth would be this stupid. So when we are given “The senior Western officials arrived in the Gulf nation this week to discuss sanctions on Russia, as concerns mounted that Moscow was bypassing them through various means, a US embassy spokesperson told CNN on Wednesday.” All whilst the US, UK and EU are still very much invested in Russia is just too crazy for words. 

I am not stating that you should believe me, I added the sources that were available to me and that list, I made mention of it earlier this year (might have been in 2022), so when I saw this article in Al Jazeera I wondered why the other media are shunning investigating businesses with vested interests in Russia, there are apparently well over 1000. So why is the UAE such an issue? I honestly do not know, but the idea that there are western politicians with a ‘look there’ all whilst they are filling their pockets (the Trump Case) is just too silly for words and these representatives should take a hard look at what they are not doing at home. Just a thought to entertain.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend that is for most a mere day away.

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August 25, 2023 · 19:06

And then there were 6 more

I have been expecting this, I have been awaiting it. OK, I have a few different reasons, but the added BRICS members (from January 1st 2024) are Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I don’t think that the people get how much of a issues this is going to be. BRICS members, just like any other membership (like EU, NATO) will give preference to its own members first. On ‘the seventh guest’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/21/the-seventh-guest/) I wrote “I am certain that Russia and China will use this opportunity that opened up, I just do not know how at present.” That was June 2019. There was no war looming in the Ukraine (and BRICS was not on anyones radar). This setting would be coming naturally from China and now we are about to see that play. Now consider that Saudi Arabia imports from United States was a simple US$16.22 Billion during 2021, now also consider that U.S. Exports to Saudi Arabia constitute 14.2% of total U.S. exports of those commodities worldwide. Now consider that these two numbers will diminish by at least 50% and those trades all go to China (optionally Russia too). I reckon that January 2024 will be the start where the debt levels the US currently has can no longer be allowed. Doing so will end its existence sooner and sooner. Should the US default, they will drag the EU and Japan down with them. A sentiment that China will not shed a tear about. Egypt is interesting as it propels the Saudi plans for their global G5 plans a lot further and a lot faster and it puts the EU and US out of the game pretty much overnight. As such there are signs that the latter two are racing to get agreements in play now. Something Saudi STC and Chinese Huawei are eager to block. Now consider a second part. The quoted setting was “the relationship is that the United States of America (USA) provides military protection of the Kingdom in exchange for a reliable oil supply from the Saudis, pricing of oil in USA dollars, and Saudi support for American foreign policy operations across the world” under those steps China is the most likely party to enlarge their options and they stand to get a lot more oil, oil that is likely not to go to the US and EU from January 1st 2024 (or at least a decent part of it). The latter one is a speculation, but it fits the long term play China is employing and in this I could be wrong. The KSA has long term agreements with the USA. The larger concern isn’t merely the KSA. In this new agreement Iran and the UAE join and now there is a new balancing point in the Middle East and the Emirates are part of that. So how much import does the UAE get from the USA and EU? So when they too go from “United Arab Emirates Imports from United States was US$16.88 Billion during 2021”as well as “European Union Exports to United Arab Emirates was US$37.38 Billion during 2022” and now consider that these two will go down by at least 50%, if not a whole lot more. That gives us $99,000,000,000 in lost commerce from these two places alone and that is merely the start. So how will their government credit cards go when they do not have these revenue streams continue? After that consider the damage that lost revenue from Egypt could get up to as well as increased revenue to China and this is not new, that danger existed from 2019, but certain American politicians were to ego driven and now it all comes to a speculated halt in 16 weeks. For China it will turn out to be a very merry Christmas this year. For the EU and USA a lot less so. But they were warned (not by me), these so called wannabe’s making the calls had more than information I had and they played the ostrich game. So how is that playing out for them? If you were hoping for some miracle cure from me you would be wrong. As I see it, it is too late for that. The US and UK should have adjusted their courses at least 3 years ago (7 would have been better). In the end for several players their upcoming BRICS membership is merely  business decision and that is what China and India are hoping for, because it opens their options by a fair bit starting in 2024. 

As I personally see it, the endgame will play itself, I see no moves left for the Commonwealth, the EU or the USA. Setting that should and could have been avoided for close to 5 years were never done and now with an enlarged new player on the global stage we can watch and see Wall Street implode on itself. To see the desperate go nuts on greed missed all because of some ego driven politicians will be stellar on a few levels. You see a secular population is a weird thing, the moment things go really south, they will rely on the faith of others to let them continue. Does that make the profoundly lost sentiment a drive of sarcasm or a natural wave of irony? I am not sure what applies more but as an antithesis they might be feeding each other for some time to come (especially when the media wants to get as much digital dollars as it can). 

I honestly wonder which systems will still be in play by April 1st 2024, what a joke that will be. Enjoy the weekend.

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August 16, 2023 · 18:03

Evolution is not merely the person

The setting started a few days ago, yet the new stage we are shown is merely hours old. Even as it seemingly started on August 12th with ‘Tapping an economy’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/08/12/tapping-an-economy/) the stage is getting redefined, almost as we speak. This is seen with ‘Saudi Arabia and UAE race to buy Nvidia chips to power AI ambitions’ (at https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-and-uae-race-to-buy-nvidia-chips-to-power-ai-ambitions-20230815-p5dws6). I believe personally it is merely one of two sides. You see, we are given “Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are buying up thousands of the high-performance Nvidia chips crucial for building artificial intelligence software, joining a global AI arms race that is squeezing the supply of Silicon Valley’s hottest commodity.” But it is merely one side and this side is putting pressure on the US, it’s companies are running out of funs and their credit cards are reaching limits. These two players have the cash to run circles around dozens of nations and that is not the only place they are in an advantage. I will not go back to my IP (no mater how valid it is). The larger station is that these two players will need data centres and that is where EVROC (as discussed in the earlier article 4 days ago) has the ability to set up national data centres, a stage that takes American companies out of the loop. I am not anti-American, I am anti-stupid and the catering that data centres have given the US companies all whilst places like Cambridge Analytics opened up to is now starting to show. There is the added setting that nationally speaking these two players prefer to be set in, the stage is not merely based on national needs. I personally believe that they have a ‘non-American’ involvement mindset. And I reckon that evidence will be proven when EVROC is allowed these two new data centres as well. It puts the USA in a massively decreasing setting. Another (non-related) stage is added to this. Only a few hours ago Yahoo Finance (merely one source) is giving us (at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dollar-being-dethroned-india-just-201500390.html) ‘India just bought 1M barrels of oil from the UAE using rupees instead of USD for the first time’, we can chalk this up to a whole set of reasons and if someone states that this will be the pro-forma setting of BRICS, I will not be able to support or oppose it. There is not enough data accessible to me. The larger stage is set that the US is being ignored for too man settings and that is merely in the last week. I do not care how many Pizza al Fungi’s Janet Yellen has consumed, or how magical that dinner was. The stage is that the US has become trivialised and a lot of it is by their own doing. So whilst some are staging to trivialise that India is not using the US dollar. The reality is that only 3 years ago that option would be ludicrous and here we see it play out. So is BRICS becoming more powerful, it the US becoming weaker and just how much gains will Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make in this year alone? EVROC is still a Swedish conundrum, but there are too many voices out there that are too anti-American voiced (which is not anti-stupid, my personal setting). I know I am seeing my own prophecies come to reality, but not in a way I envisioned. It could be that I never had the proper glasses to see it all, or it is because new elements are coming to bear and that second part is the larger stage I am now worried about. Not because of what the KSA and UAE are doing, but because of the US and its Trump and Karen setting, it is highly likely that it will drag the EU and Japan down with them. These latter two made the wrong calls a few times and now that the endgame (of the US) is starting to show, the back paddle actions of the EU (optionally towards China) might not be enough. I have no idea how this will play out for the Commonwealth. The stage of Canada with wildfires and 90% of the NWT being a goner looks more like a scene from ‘How it ends’ (2018) than reality, no matter how surreal both are. As such this stage will impact the rest of the Commonwealth. The UK is close to broke, and with Canada in the state it is in, the Commonwealth needs to find a safe place and footing and the US is less likely to be that place at present. It needs to find a solitary road to link to nations and that is the hard part. I have no idea what the safe route is, but I do feel certain that the US is no longer that part. I feel that finding a way to connect to the Middle East is presently safer than a link to China, but in reality I am speculating on what the safer route is. 

The setting we see now (the Nvidia AI chip) where we were given (at https://www.crn.com.au/news/ai-chips-could-save-future-data-centres-money-nvidia-599254)“Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has a mantra that he has uttered enough times that it almost became a joke during his SIGGRAPH 2023 keynote last week: “the more you buy, the more you save.”” Yet the setting is not merely ‘the more you save’ it is about to become who owns them and those who cannot afford them and now the KSA and UAE will have additional power positions. So consider “AI chips can save companies significant money on costs compared to traditional CPUs for what he views as the future: data centres, fuelled by demand for generative AI capabilities, relying on large language models (LLMs) to answer user queries and generate content for a wide range of applications” and a place like EVROC could set up two data centres all whilst these two nations provide the AI chips required, now we get an entirely new play and it will give these two nations the power to set a stage that excludes the US or their tech-firms. A stage none of them ever had before, as such do you still think I am boasting or creating non-sense? Too many sources had the elements available and the larger media ignored the puzzle pieces. So, is my puzzle correct? Not necessarily, but the pieces fit the image we have all seen before. This does not make the image correct, but it makes it decently likely and the more BS the American media spouts the less reliable it should be seen. This does not make China or the Middle East more reliable, but in the setting I currently see it makes the Middle East (KSA and UAE) a lot safer than the US has been the last few years and that counts, because that reinforces the image that Nvidia and EVROC are giving us, with optional speculations from yours truly (aka moi).

Your guess is as good as mine as to what comes next, but the larger fighting ring (a square setting) is about to show us who the contenders are and the amount of underdogs they face. Because no matter how much BS an underdogs brings to the table, in the ring it is what you can achieve and as I personally see it, the US, EU and Japan are starting to become the largest underdogs this century, which could be a stage pushed in by evolution.

Have fun today.

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August 12, 2023 · 22:39

How on earth?

This was my first thought that went through my mind. It came from the BBC and I was reading this in a decent degree of unknowing. The title ‘China property giant Country Garden warns of up to $7.6bn loss’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66470170) where we see “Country Garden, which is one of China’s biggest property developers, has warned that it could see a loss of up to $7.6bn (£6bn) for the first six months of the year” and I am quite frankly at a loss. You see, a developer gets (read: buys) a piece of land, he places a building on it and sells this place(s) and in the end there is a profit, it might not always be a great profit, but a profit nonetheless. So when I see a loss of $7.6bn, the math in my head goes that at $250K it sets the stage for 30,400 houses and if a place costs 1.5 million we see the bungling of 5,065 places. Now it is not that simple. I get that, but the idea that someone set a stage where 30,400 houses are sold for $0 is equally laughable, implying that the problem is a lot larger than we can see. We saw it in the UK with Carillion, we saw a few examples and they all wanted ALL the profit and as such they did it all, all the elements of construction and all elements of the service. That never works, the moment a short cut is made, people start filling to holes and creating more holes in the process. 

Then there is the larger financial impact. How does a company like Country Garden has any setting that allows for that kind of a loss in the first 6 months? Even as the article gives us “The expected loss compares to a $265m profit for the same time last year. The firm also said it has set up a special task force, headed by its chairman Yang Huiyan, to find ways to turn the business around”, I reckon it might be close to ‘too late’, which is seen with “rating agency Moody’s downgraded the company’s rating, citing “heightened liquidity and refinancing risks”” and don’t expect me to give explanations. I have none. I have a few speculation, the first we saw in the beginning. But there was also the 2021 event when 15 buildings were demolished all in one go (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6b0_ffyFQ), I cannot tell you the reason, I merely saw the YouTube on USA Today, and we get that one building needs to go at times (still sloppy), but 15 buildings? Now consider those costs and I am certain that those building in total would not have surpassed $2 billion. So now consider that one developer has well over 300% of those losses. Something does not add up and I cannot tell you what it is. In the first I do not have an economics degree, I have engineering, IT and Law degrees and I am still grasping for nothing at this time. The speculation I made earlier makes the most sense of stupidity. Yet it was speculation, so I could be wrong. As such, in an age in China where there are no jobs, there is a housing shortage and there are a few more issues. The 15 building demolition raises questions, the loss by Country Garden gives even more question marks. The Financial Times gives us “Nine months later, it is dangerously short of cash. The company expects to have lost Rmb45bn-Rmb55bn in the first half of the year and is confronting what it calls “the biggest difficulties” in its history.” (At https://www.ft.com/content/c266f377-33dc-4cf6-89a1-b62998896027) and it is not the first time. Evergrande in 2021 has a massive default and it seems to me that all these firms ‘doing it all’ are imploding. Is it a mere setting of idle time? Me and idle time go way back, all the way to the early 90’s and it is not the first time that idle time is overlooked or seen as a linear event, which it is not. It does not explain these billions of loss, it really does not but to see this in China implies that there is a lot more going on than we are able to see and that is never a good thing.

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 5, 2023 · 06:49

When is a ball not dropped?

That was the first question that came to mind, the answer is simple ‘when it is not a ball’. This might confuse you, but read me out. It will make sense soon enough. I took notice of the next episode of the Tate event (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66405285), you see in the story with the headline ‘Andrew Tate’s Romania house arrest lifted’ one thing stood out, it was “The indictment says they and two female Romanian associates formed an organised criminal group in 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, but also in other countries including the US and the UK.” Can you see what stands out? It is “including the US and the UK”, so in over 6 months, the BBC gives us nothing on the UK side? Even if it is a ‘no comment’ setting, the BBC kept us all in the dark, all whilst accusing the Tate’s between the lines. So where are these American accusations, where are the lines of the FBI giving us ‘no comment’? This all does not add up and gives me more in regards to the speculation I had in an earlier article speculating that this was a move by organised crime and certain so called captains of industry to take away the business that the Tate’s have and claim it for their own. It must bite these wannabe’s for a kickboxer to add up to hundreds of millions, all whilst these wannabe’s are worth severely less than 1% of what the Tate’s achieved. And the media is largely helping these wannabe’s out. Feel free to disagree, yet consider that on January 10th 2023 in ‘Andrew Tate, the man, the exploited’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/10/andrew-tate-the-man-the-exploited/) I wrote “In this day and age when we can see cyber transgressions in every direction. Does it make sense for someone like Andrew Tate to go ‘after’ the daughter of some mogul? And this is not America, this is Romania, as such a man like that has all kinds of connections. The math just does not work out. Any loser or non-wealthy might make a move like that. It does not make the Tate’s guilty, not innocent either. EVIDENCE is required and I have so far seen close to ZERO evidence on anything that could prosecute Andrew Tate.” With the additional “The media exploiting whatever they can to get the digital dollars. And Andrew Tate makes a fine target for the media. For 2 weeks the media did not dig into the accusation, merely focussing on misogeny.” Then we get to this story, we get “Andrew and his brother Tristan were arrested in March and charged in June. They deny the charges.” No, this is not true. They were placed under house arrest on December 29th 2022, so why is the BBC suddenly so inaccurate? Then we get to the US and UK side of things. Were are the arrest and extradition requests? So where was the US in all this and why is the journalistic investigated more leaky than a sif? I cannot tell whether the Tate’s are guilty or innocent, I do not have access to any evidence, yet the bad reporting and the balls dropped on nearly every side of the equation makes me wonder if the Tate’s were ever guilty and when they are acquitted, or the trial finds them not guilty, how much trouble is the media in? Because they never had that much credibility to begin with and with the additional sides not properly investigated, the Tate’s have a case to show that the media is no longer to be trusted, and what happens when these 6 million fans tell people not to buy certain papers in the UK because of fake press credibility? I wonder which paper is left standing at that point. You can turn any man into a boogeyman, but when you get that wrong there is no going back and certain media could be getting the short end of that equation soon enough, but with the fumbled settings in the UK and US they might already be realising that.

And feel free to read up on this, but I had my doubts on this going back to January 2023, and it was the piss poor quality of the press that got me there. 

Enjoy the weekend.

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July 20, 2023 · 20:19

Freedom to discriminate

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

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

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

Enjoy the day.

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July 13, 2023 · 00:40

Enemy of the stated

That is sometimes the case and I got that alert yesterday. It took me a while to get on board with some of the items, yet on the other side there is more and there is something else at that. So lets start with that part as it matters. Last year, almost 1 year ago I wrote an article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/07/18/for-those-not-seeing-the-oil-field/) with the title ‘For those not seeing the oil field’. In that Article I wrote “China could sell the Chengdu J-20 at a nice price to Saudi Arabia (I admit I was trying to get my foot in the door and make a play for a simple 3.75% commission), and when you consider that this bill might go up to 15 billion, my 3.75% makes for a nice half a billion (we all have overly big dreams), and merely to play the courier? You have got to be kidding, I am so ready for that part!” And that stage as already underway at that time (alas, not for me). In an age where in Australia we see nearly the entire nation ripe with age discrimination, I was aiming for a nice job getting 3.75% (an internal joke from 1996) of whatever comes up and recently I learned that this might be as high as $23.8 billion over 2 years. This would have gotten me a $892,500,000 pay-check (over 2 years). Would I accept that? Hell yes! For being a simple courier for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? I would have been so there. Australia has no enemy relationships with either country. Is it my best case scenario? Not exactly, I am a commonwealthian after all, as such I preferred to be courier to documents for the British Typhoon. Yet British Parliament gave it up for British tea grannies and their CAAT. The Americans made a mess of everything pushing their own solutions away from a decent revenue taxable future. So I was looking out for me and I would have taken that job, no hesitation about it. 

So now you have the background, lets dig into the article that sets this off. It was the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66160979) who gives us ‘US think tank founder charged with acting as Chinese agent’. In that article we are given a few parts. First there is “Gal Luft “agreed to covertly recruit and pay” an unnamed ex-US official to publicly support certain Chinese policies, federal prosecutors say. The 57-year-old allegedly attempted to broker arms sales involving customers in China, Libya, the UAE and Kenya.” Here we have two issues. Was he a broker? Did he connect to people, who via him conducted business? Broker is a bit of a lose term. And we aren’t talking two parties, we are looking at at least 3 channels, optionally more, but what is relevant and what matters? For Americans it is a setting for courts and good luck with that evidence. The second allegation is “In 2016, officials say he failed to register as a foreign agent while acting to advance Chinese interests in the US. He is alleged to have lobbied an ex-US official who was an adviser to then President-elect Donald Trump to convince him to “publicly support certain policies with respect to China”.” Here, in the first, was he a foreign agent, or was he a (technical) consultant? They are very different and evidence is bringing that up (I never saw any for that matter). And as the ‘activity’ happened in 2016, why did it take 7 years for anyone to take actions? Which policies was he catering to? Is that not the job of any stake holder in the political field? Was the policy a legal one or a illegal one? Three questions that blow away the setting if the court doesn’t have a proper deck of Trump cards (pun intended). Then we get a very specific one “Prosecutors also accuse him of attempting to broker arms sales without a US permit. He allegedly worked to help Chinese companies sell anti-tank launchers, grenade launchers and mortar rounds to Libya.” The short and sweet is, can it be proven that he was a broker, or was he an un-sided courier? Person A and Person B do not know each other (good enough), but they both know Person C and that person couriers the papers between the two. Isn’t that what DHL does? Is DHL a courier of an arms broker? Then we get “Federal officials say he attempted to bypass US sanctions on Iranian oil by directing an associate to say that the oil was Brazilian. According to prosecutors, Mr Luft was arrested in Cyprus on US charges on 17 February this year and fled after being released on bail pending extradition.” This is a specific allegation and a big ‘no no’ Iran is on the naughty list of many nations and there they might have a case. I reckon it is stupid to do what he did as the sulphur content of Brazilian and Iran are very different, did he not think this through? Well that is a case that might stick on him and the fact that he allegedly fled to Cyprus does not help him much. So what is the difference between George Luft and me? I am not American and I will not do business with Iran. But as we are both optional couriers I am still in a much better place that he is (alas a very poor one for now). As such in the end we get “He is charged with eight counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent, evading oil sanctions, two counts of making false statements to investigators and three counts of illicit arms trafficking.” What is true? What is legal? What is unacceptable? That is for the courts to decide, but I reckon that George Luft as the head of a think tank was already making a fair amount of coins, so why endanger it all? I never get invited to US Energy Security Council conferences, so I am a little clueless at present. But it seems that America is seemingly still out to declaw whatever China does and at present I cannot say that they did anything do wrong, the courts will decide on George Luft. I look forward to seeing that evidence. In the meantime, my delusional side will dream of getting his 3.75%, as all delusional people do.

Enjoy the middle of the week. 

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July 12, 2023 · 02:13

One voice is still a voice

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

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

Enjoy the almost middle of the week.

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