Finding the Drones - It's Hard

Iran is a large country and the drones they use are small. They're hard to find and knock out. Moreover, drones are cheap to make compared to the missiles used to destroy them.

LIV Golf Could End Soon

Reports are coming in that the Saudi backed golf tour, LIV Golf, could have the plug pulled on it. It makes sense as Saudi Arabia has suffered a severe hit to its revenues. They can still ship oil out through their Red Sea port, but the capacity there is limited, so the double-blockade of the Strait of Hormuz must end soon.

Saudi Arabia spend a lot on sports in an attempt to soften their image worldwide. They invest in major soccer teams, boxing, motor sports, sailing, the list is endless. 

What will happen to the golfers now playing on the LIV tour? My guess is most of them will find a way back into the PGA. That's because the PGA really does need them for their talent. If they try to ban them, then that leaves a player pool wandering around the place who may form into another tour and, perhaps, outdo the PGA. It's an old quandary any business faces; don't leave assets out there that someone else may operate better.

Professional sport across the world is about to have a serious haircut if this conflict goes on much longer. That's because it isn't just Saudi Arabia sports washing, add the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain to the list as well. Take away that money and the value of many pro sports franchises starts to plummet.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/apr/16/liv-and-let-die-golf-rebels-count-cost-saudi-cutbacks

A slowdown in Saudi Arabia’s lavish spending on sport, which is conservatively estimated to have cost the kingdom more than $10bn in the past five years, had been expected, but its Public Investment Fund’s withdrawal of financial support for the rebel tour – which was first mooted to LIV execs on Monday – has caused shockwaves throughout the wider industry.

Significantly, the possibility of PIF’s withdrawal was not even addressed in an email sent by the LIV chief executive, Scott O’Neil, to his staff on Wednesday evening, which has left many of them more fearful for their jobs. Such concerns are not limited to golf, with other sports administrators fearful that similar cuts in Saudi’s budget could be coming their way.

Start Pumping Oil

Current so-called renewable energy is now economically viable due to the current oil price. But that oil price is held up by Venezuela's lack of output. They only pump about 900,000 barrels of oil a day, when they should be pumping about nine million barrels. Even at that higher rate, they'd have about 100 years of production left based on existing reserves.

The renewables sector is living in a false economy. The price of oil can only come down. That's because Venezuela won't continue to live in the Dark Ages much longer, plus new oil fields are coming on soon in Africa. As well, there is much oil yet to be discovered.

Study the graph which shows how oil reserves amongst the top five countries have increased. The graph starts in 1980; the year before I studied the oil crisis of the 1970s. I had a lecturer, a colossal fool this person was, an intellectual minnow who opined that oil was finished, nothing new was to be found, and it would all be gone by the year 2000. Back then, in 1979, people actually believed that kind of nonsense. There was also the big ice age about to happen, and it was in all the newspapers and magazines; we were preparing to freeze because oil was running out.

Well, how did that work out? 

You know - science!

Top 5 Oil Reserves 1980-2015

Magdeburg

So, the media are telling us a Saudi Arabian, AfD supporting far right medical doctor who is against Islamism, drove his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing many and injuring far more.

Do they think we are all gullible? 

Saudi Woman Jailed

Saudi Arabian activist, Loujain al-Hathloul has been jailed for driving a car. Let's face it, that's about the strength of it.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/28/saudi-court-hands-jail-sentence-to-womens-rights-activist

Here's an idea, how about the western world get together and invade Saudi Arabia, freeing the women and stealing their oil. Everyone wins. Shouldn't be too difficult to do as Saudi soldiers run away when shot at, that's been well documented in Yemen. Let's do this.

Oil Price Tumbles

The oil price is tumbling and that's a good thing. Oil feeds into every part of the economy and now the price of goods can come down. Consumers are going to have some hard earned cash in their pockets for a change.

The collapse in oil price is partly due to the Coronavirus and a fall in demand as people stay at home, but also because Russia and Saudi Arabia disagree on oil output and have begun pumping furiously. They can keep that up as far as I'm concerned.

This spells trouble ahead for Wall Street. Many American companies associated with oil have loans maturing soon, and they don't look as good with the price of oil being so low. I explain it like this; if a company is now worth $10 billion and has $6 billion in debt all maturing soon, and the price of oil slips leaving the company now worth $7 billion, it cannot roll over the debt as it doesn't have enough net equity on its balance sheet. It would be able to raise about $4 billion, meaning $2 billion has to be tipped in by shareholders. Across the board that's going to embarrass many investors and some companies will collapse. The message is - don't have too much debt.

USA and Saudi Arabia v Iran

A rather obvious question this but I haven't seen it addressed very closely. If - and that is a big if - Iran has attacked Saudi oil installations, knocking out about 6% of global oil supply, why is the USA so keen to fight Saudi Arabia's battles? The Saudis have spent a lot of money buying American equipment, can't they look after themselves?

War with Iran

Who is behind the ramping up of tension between Iran and the USA? Would it be Saudi Arabia? A bit obvious this, given that the Saudis are under investigation for murdering the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the bombing of civilians in Yemen, and now they're under attack from Houthi rebels on Saudi territory with the Saudi Army apparently running away whenever they come under fire.

Saudi Arabia and Jamal Khashoggi

It's getting really bizarre now with the Saudi explanations changing by the hour. Clearly they don't know how to run a country. The most stupid story so far was that Khashoggi, an ageing journalist, died in a fist fight inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Have you ever heard anything more ludicrous? It's an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Deal of the Century

Is it really all about Iran? I found Marwan Bishara's examination of the issues in the Middle East to be interesting (see link below). Basically what he's saying is the US needs a new enemy to focus on and the old foe Iran, arguably easy to hate, is in the cross-hairs again. The Palestinians are expendable in this new Israel and Saudi Arabian manipulation of the US.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/trump-iran-israel-doctrine-180509070744972.html

...Saudi leaders expressed openness to Trump's "deal of the century" that paves the way for new relations with Israel at the expense of Palestine.