Silly Silly Najib

You know, here's the point behind what I was saying recently about the acclaimed super-wealthy, and their chances of experiencing real happiness. At the heart of all stories of wealth, big business, material riches, lies not money nor even intelligence but raw power - the ability to control what a group of people are doing. And as soon as this ability starts to fracture and fray, suddenly the underlying stupidity of those involved at the top becomes exposed, and shortly afterwards the wealth is all entirely lost.

A little something from Redondo Beach and
Beverly Hills designer Bijan Pakzad

It's easy enough to note that the recent huge scandal involving the one-time Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, more or less really began when one of the corporate officers 'broke ranks' and began releasing computer data showing swathes of suspect bank transactions involving very very large sums of money. The guy himself was threatened, he was jailed in Thailand in a clear-cut act of criminal corruption by the Thai government, senior police and judiciary (uh-oh, I can't go there now!!) but the whole corrupt endeavor was so incompetently handled that it all turned into a major mess in which hardly anyone knew what their roles were to the extent that nothing planned actually worked and people meant to remain silent spoke to the media and those meant to talk, didn't!

Now at this point I have to state that not everything currently out in the press, in the media, is 'as stated.' And by that I mean to say that there is some surreptitious involvement on the part of not one, but several foreign intelligence services acting in concert, and some meddling by foreign governments acting adversely against the interests of Najib Razak - he has a point when he says charges against him are politically-motivated and involve state secrets and foreign interference; those things are perfectly true.

But for me the most salient part of the whole sad and sorry episode is that underneath everything that was 'meant to be' going on - what was going on - are clear indications of arrogance and ignorance about capital, and especially, utter insanity when it comes to techniques of money laundering. Absolute utter derelict stupidity and ignorance. These people yes, accessed power and pushed some big dollars around, but ridiculously pathetically. 

After many decades in the business of high level professional money laundering, the one thing I can tell you about governments, big businesses, and well-known names who come asunder, is that what you are told is 'big money' or 'big capital' is almost always based on no money at all when claims are made that the money is there.

You see, 1DMB (the Malaysian government enterprise that is now the corporate front-end of the whole financial scandal) was originally based on a Terengganu State capital fund which had monies owed to it in the present, and at a future time, but which it had not yet received in any legitimate liquid form other than 'promissory notes.' Now I'm going to assume that Goldman Sachs 'made' those promissory notes which derived from investment they made on behalf of Terengganu State in ordinary Wall Street term investment products, converted into so-called 'Islamic Halal' investment notes... And I think, Goldman Sachs knowing that the Muslims would be able to do nothing about it, never paid up on time or at any time.

A simply massive amount of 'luxury items' plus 30 million
dollars in cash were seized by the Malaysian authorities from
residences of the ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak

But, 'someone' proffered some idiots to the Malaysian Government to nonetheless 'capitalize' on the 'income' and 'royalties' from those initial 'notes' and brought in Prince Turki (one of the 'Prince Turki's,' at least, because there are several of them).

For me I'm seeing a trap having been laid by maybe Goldman Sachs here...

Because I need to tell all fifty of you who read here, none of whom are in 'sovereign wealth funds' nor are any of you Najib Razak or any government leader in fact and so on who naturally enough knows far far far more than a simple world class money launderer who has never been apprehended, like myself (why do fat people never ask thin people for advice by the way?) - that from what I can 'see' of the story about 1DMB, there never ever needed to have been a scandal, nor a mess, and that in fact, the 3 billion claimed by Turki to be able to result from his oil extraction businesses, was EASILY attainable.

For god's sake, how is it possible that there are that many bloody damned idiots walking around the world stage doing this crap that 1DMB did and utterly FAILING, at what was essentially a completely simple thing!

Macron - The Danger Of Rhetoric

I think there are several unforeseen 'issues' with the present era of global internet communications - firstly and probably foremost being that in every other phase in which there was a broad stock market collapse, the 'insider' distribution agenda was signaled quietly and surreptitiously as the professional short-sellers 'took their bacon,' as they say. This time around - not that we are exactly close to the collapse right now, but - everyone will be acquiring 'hacked' information and there will be no secrets as to who was there 'too quickly'/first with best information, and knowing what is being sold and where all the money is actually going.

This is a beautiful 'messenger bag.'
You have to have a message, though, to be worthy of owning such a thing...
Don't you think...

Secondly, I think politically we are at around the same kind of moment that ancient Athens saw, when the public was exhausted from the lies about state finances, and they were used to the rhetoric that politicians employed, and it became too transparent that politicians were only relying on rhetorical tricks.

I think the public in France finds Macron's rhetoric far too transparent - he is very clearly not being at all forthright about who he is working for, and he is using fairly obvious rhetorical tricks to try and convince the general public to 'feel' good about him; it's just plain not working!

The internet has succeeded in quickly spreading knowledge to the broader public, including enlightening them as a majority about high-quality analysis of politics, and this has meant politicians themselves are being caught on the back foot as far as being able to rely on tools and techniques they used in the past to get away with stuff.

There may not be that many of you who will quickly
'get' what the implication of this pic is.
Anyway, it is a pic of a foulard. As in Foulard Rouge.

But you can also see these same people are apparently incapable of adjusting quickly enough so as to be able to find and to use different techniques and skills and then hang on that way - and yet all the same they still want to cling on regardless; they will definitely not just let go and re-group and come back with better ideas. No, they are intent on using the idiotically bad ideas they have to remain. These people are going to take the public on head-on with force and with naked violence in order to grab onto absolute power - which is in any case what they are lusting for really. If they were not, they would at least try to be a little more inventive in their rhetoric: Macron actually managed to say this kind of thing - 'if it means higher pay (my brackets; 'to me'), then I am a Yellow Jacket!' This is a fairly standard fallacy of argument by association with however, completely different underlying qualifications.

Seriously, does he - did he ever - hope to get away with it?

You see either he is wildly incompetent and will therefore easily be kicked out - or he is a right little *hole and quite capable of murder to remain in power.

Now, there are those people in France who know him well enough to know which of these really does apply...

Without question this is a tragedy unfolding in front of our eyes.   

Baba au Rhum

This dessert - which can today be bought basically in Paris from the exact same family whose ancestors invented it - is not 'babka cake infused with rum.' Although that is more or less what you are getting technically these days...

It's in fact an Ottoman Turkish thing; even an Arabic Muslim item - since originally it was made using saffron and soaked raisins and fresh grapes, and a Spanish wine known as Malaga Wine.

This is the Stohrer 'Ali Baba.'

'Rhum' is a place, not a type of alcohol; ancient 'Rhum' is the coast of Ionia, Turkey. In it's modern form, the dessert was created in Venice, where the Far East, and the near East, and pretty much everywhere else, met the West. 'Bab' means 'gate,' not 'cake.'

I mean it is still called 'Baba au Rhum' not 'Babka au Rum.' And it is indeed historically and literally the case that the person for whom the dessert was made, was a fan of the story of Ali Baba and the use of 'Baba' was quite deliberate and intentional.

Stohrer, the family company that makes the original versions in Paris today, still call the main example the 'Stohrer Ali Baba.'

Now I tell this story to tell you this other one...

Today when people talk about wealth they talk about money. The gods only understand wealth in terms of food.

And the opposite of the supernatural powers of Good, are spoken of in terms of spoiled food: 'Lord of the Flies,' 'neither cold nor hot I spit you out...'

The greatest mind today who speaks about fashion and clothing to the cognoscenti - Robert Pante says things like: 'you have to dress, not tasteful, but tasty!'

I have a copy of the highly secret movie that John Malkovich made for Remy Martin, which has been placed inside a 'time-capsule' to be opened after a hundred years - the amount of time it takes for a Louis XIII cognac to be made. I don't know anyone from the layers of the super-wealthy who are at all interested in seeing it for money (they of course want to see it for free) - but they will pay for all kinds of other things, always which they are sold on as 'urgent/critical/important.'

Same thing but from Alain Ducasse

Now here's the rub see - the great ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides said it first as far as I know: 'if you are seeking pure happiness in the highest order, the philosopher and the one who finds and comprehends Truth has it, while the individual who thinks money and power provide the greatest rewards as far as happiness goes are not just mistaken but wildly so.'

The secret movie was hacked by the exact same people who got all those emails of John Podesta and Hillary Clinton but I don't think the media is going to care about the Remy Martin cognac flick. They'll probably want RM to pay for the exposure. 

It's an absolutely great movie, by the way. 'It'll make your life better,' as food blogger Mikey Chen often says.

Only Enough Oil For My Lamp

One would like to think that they (IE 'we,' 'I') could have some knowledge or skill or value to other human beings... I no longer think that way.

There are a lot of things I can do - but I cannot do them for others, mostly; mostly I cannot. But I can do them for myself and a few, a tiny handful of friends who in any event all have similar skills and kind of manage to get by.

One friend of ours here very recently got a personal 'invite' to a really upscale hillside restaurant to view some presentation or other about gold and pink diamonds.

Hundred grand at least

I don't think he will go but in case he's tossing up whether to or not I'd advise against it (IE against going).

If those people had have asked him to give such a presentation well, that would be a different matter... Now do you see, Smithy? What's the possible chances they would ever give a better presentation than you could, Smith? Zero Nil Nothing; None At All. 

Selling is a peculiar business. Not all that many really know how to do it although they all claim they can and are experts and everyone in business in the world does it to some lesser or greater extent and everyone has a 'rule book' about it.

Pink diamonds... Hard stones, light or pale red/reddish. Expensive, tend to be small. Hand over your money; and now here's your small pink stone/s. Bye y'all.

In our immediate last article we talked about M. Christophe Claret, the watch-designer and watch-maker. He's been designing and making high end watches for most of the really big brand names for quite a few years - Ulysse Nardin's famous chiming alarm watches were all designed and made by him, to name just one truly prominent brand.

Any kind of quality minute repeater or chiming watch retails for at least a hundred thousand US dollars - but I as I said the actual legit authentic Christophe Claret is half a million. So if you had a half a million, you face the choice of buying either the Rolls Royce Dawn, or a wristwatch... And you'd have no change left over.

FIVE hundred thousand bucks...

But you know the world goes through 'vogues,' sometimes there is a lot of buyer cash sloshing around, sometimes there is very little.

I shouldn't be unkind to pink diamonds per se - I like pink diamonds. 

I'm definitely never unkind to decent restaurants - love those!

The problem today with all of these fellows who make out they are the main game - you know, people like Emmanuel Macron, for example, for god's sake they wear damn notch-collar jackets...

These people are going to end up in the ditch and they will take a lot of other people there with them.

And how do I know this? Because I have this lamp, see, which shines a light a little further ahead into the darkness of the future.

Frankly, the question you want to ask is, what is the 'oil' for said lamp.

Bond Movie Producers Have 'All The Money In The World'

Meaning, they have way enough money to arrange for any car to be in the flick, any accoutrements, any types of guns, planes, helicopters, ships, space-ships, whatever.

Or clothes, shoes, champagne, vodka.

I hope you can start to see the problem with all of these present-day 'action/adventure/thriller' movies - yes they have this formula about playing chase-y around the park, in hot cars, being pursued by serious men in black helicopters, while Bond or Tom Cruise or Matt Damon or Mark Wahlberg or whoever never creases his Savile Row threads not even just a little (slight exaggeration there because I think this latter thing has happened; but you get my point), but is it actually true that the gear is all that hot, really...?

Part of the whole attraction is the suave mindset being show-cased as amazing clothes, and expensive cars - and sheer style.

Or it's meant to be that.

You are forced to watch these 'Eau Sauvage' ads with Johnny Depp right now on Fox, where he drives a classic American car up Route 66 and digs some sand in the cactus desert, and buries something - none of which really makes any kind of sense at all... 

I feel sorry for the kids these days - they are getting a hapless mish-mash, a parody of the old school hard-boiled Raymond Chandler thriller thing, but which doesn't genuinely add up to the genuine article.

You see, no rich person who is savvy, about clothes, or cars, or accessories, or style, uses the kinds of high-priced junk being foisted onto the mass market as 'the genuine article.'

I promised a friend here that I would post a few examples of today's 'real thing' but that I would also pull these pics and articles down after a short while - and I will, so you'd better take note now if you're interested in this kind of affair even just slightly...

Here is a real watch - it costs half a million dollars (literally it is $500,000 and worth every penny:

The Christophe Claret Soprano Minute Repeater -
which chimes out the exact peal of the famous Westminster Cathedral Bells

And here is a brand new - and by that I mean these things are fully handmade brand new from scratch in England - car, about a million bucks each:

You think Lancia is out of business? Oh but no - this is the Lancia Aurelia Outlaw,
and it is brand new to you for around $1,000,000. Cheap at twice the price.

Aurelia Outlaw - better than a Pagani Huayra? You bet.

And here is the proper Chelsea Boot - most kids have no idea that this, is the kind of shoe (boot) worn by John Steed of the Avengers, beneath his Savile Row trouser; this is a Tony Gaziano special (Gaziano & Girling):

Even the great Jason King wore Chelsea Boots, as well as 'whole-cut' loafers and benchmade suedes too, which are among the most difficult of shoes to make properly:

All from the great Tony Girling of Gaziano & Girling, in London and Northamptonshire.