stevenyeko

Valar Morghulis…..Valar Dohaeris!

[Cinema Tweets @CinemaTweets1]

Season 2 of The Agency (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟) is sheer Cinema. You guys know by now that I strongly prefer Cinema to television as a form of art, but when excellence calls, I answer. And while my understanding is a third season of this show has yet to be confirmed, if The Agency were to conclude with its second season, it would conclude with one of the best seasons of television I can remember. A cast made up of Oscar nominees (Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright & Richard Gere) every last actor is at the top of their game. I’m genuinely sad to have finished this season. The following review is spoiler-free for those who haven’t seen season two, but if you have yet to see season one, I’d refrain from reading further. 

I think one of the great pleasures in life is finding a show that you can binge. Whether it be because you love the characters or because you love the various plots, sinking into a show you can’t put down makes daily life so much better. With that said, one of my biggest complaints about television has always been that with the average show, you’re bound to be uninterested- or sometimes even annoyed- with at least a few subplots or characters. There are exceptions to that complaint (see The Sopranos/Breaking Bad) and The Agency is absolutely one of them. 

The second season of The Agency juggles a few complex plot-lines but does so to perfection. The balance of each sub-plot is fascinating. The primary plot here is Martian (Fassbender) has now been recruited as a double agent for the British in exchange for their help in freeing Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith). It’s the storyline that drives this entire season and influences almost every other character. We also have the CIA’s hunt for a rogue mercenary group Valhalla and an intelligence operation in Iran. But as I mentioned, all of these storylines converge & unite around Martian’s exposure to the British.

It’s not just that this show does the perfect job of juggling complex stories around espionage, it’s that the production is top-notch, even by Cinema standards. London plays a constant, hovering role throughout & there’s a deft combination of action set pieces mixed with heavy dialogue. All of which rolls into 10 episodes that constantly jack up your heart rate and engulf you in the show. For 10 episodes, I was taken to London & I was a fly on the wall within the CIA. That’s how immersive this show felt & a big part of that is due not just to the story & script, but the production. 

Then there’s the acting. This is some of the best work of Fassbender’s career & his career is loaded with excellent work. Fassbender borrows parts of his performance from David Fincher’s The Killer, but there’s a quiet vulnerability that Fassbender brings to Martian that feels 1) believable and 2) raises the stakes of the show, especially when it comes to Martian’s interactions with his daughter & Samia. Fassbender is the show’s heartbeat but Jeffrey Wright (Henry) is the perfect second-in-command. Wright’s skepticism of every last person around him throughout this season is his secret weapon. You never know who he trusts or who we’re supposed to trust. Lastly, Richard Gere- my guy, my boy. At 76, one of the greatest actors of the last 50 years still has his fastball. There are moments in this season where Gere walks circles around Fassbender & Wright both together. It’s acting of the highest order. 

I truly hope there’s a third season of The Agency because season two could not have been better.

[Shadow Intel @TheShadowIntelX]

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou dropped the scariest sleeper agent story you’ll ever hear.

The Russians (and others) take kids basically from birth, rip them from their families, and raise them in fake American towns deep in Russia. American food, American TV, perfect American accent — the whole thing.

Then they steal the identity of a dead American baby, get them a legit passport and Social Security number, and drop them into the U.S.

They live normal lives for decades — travel agent, dad, neighbor, until one day they get “activated.”A coded radio message. Or a stranger whispering in their ear on the subway:

“Report back… or I have to kill you.”

One guy turned himself in to the FBI the second his daughter was born. He couldn’t do it anymore.

This stuff is happening. How many “Americans” around you right now are actually waiting for that call?

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

This man stole a country from his own father and spent the next 18 years buying the West with gas money.

- He deposed his own dad in a palace coup and left him in exile for nearly a decade
- He founded the news network that aired Osama bin Laden's tapes
- He built America's largest military base in the Middle East and charges no rent for it
- He bought Harrods, the Shard, Canary Wharf, Paris Saint-Germain and 17% of Volkswagen
- He won the 2022 World Cup for a country with no football history

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani died this morning at 74.

Here's how bought the world:

In June 1995, he waited for his father to leave the country, then took the throne. The coup was bloodless. His father spent nearly a decade in exile.

Qatar is about one third the size of Belgium, and its population was barely two million, most of them foreign workers.

But it was sitting on one of the LARGEST natural gas reserves on Earth.

He bet everything on liquefied natural gas. Qatar became the world's biggest LNG exporter and one of the richest countries alive per person.

Then he hit the problem every commodity business hits:

Gas is gas, anyone with a tanker can sell it, and a tiny country with no army and that much money is a snack for its neighbours.

So he bought two things nobody else in the Gulf thought to buy...

The first was the world's attention.

In 1996 he issued a decree and Al Jazeera was born. Within a few years it was the most influential news network in the Arab world.

He owned the loudest microphone in the region and never had to speak into it himself.

The second was the American military.

In 1996, Qatar spent over a billion dollars building an air base at Al Udeid, outside Doha. It got the longest runway in the Gulf and shelters for nearly a hundred aircraft.

Qatar's air force only had about a dozen fighter jets.

In 1999 he reportedly told US officials he wanted 10,000 American servicemen stationed there permanently.

Then 9/11 happened, and they came.

The genius part:

Al Udeid is now the forward headquarters of US Central Command and the largest American base in the Middle East, with roughly 10,000 troops.

Qatar charges no rent.

He built the asset before the customer existed, handed it over free, and bought the one thing cash cannot: The US military parked permanently between his gas and everyone who wanted it.

The network broadcasting bin Laden and the runway flying America's war sat in the same tiny country, paid for by the same man.

Then he went shopping...

He set up the Qatar Investment Authority in 2005:

- Harrods
- The Shard
- Canary Wharf, London's largest property owner, bought with Brookfield for 2.6 billion pounds
- 17% of Volkswagen
- Paris Saint-Germain

All his.

In 2017 the Telegraph ran the headline "Qataris own more of London than the Queen."

Then 2008 arrived. Barclays needed billions or the British government was going to own it. Qatar wrote the cheque and its stake climbed to 12.7%. Barclays was later charged over how it disclosed that Qatari money.

In 2010, FIFA handed the 2022 World Cup to a desert country with NO football history. Corruption allegations shadowed the bid for over a decade, and the treatment of the migrant workers who built it drew brutal criticism.

Yet he walked into the opening match in 2022 and the stadium gave him a standing ovation.

Every other Gulf state was selling the same molecule at the same price. Hamad spent his money on a newsroom, a runway, a football club and half of London.

A country of two million now brokers hostage deals and hosts American presidents.

He built all of it in 18 years, and he took the throne from his own father to start.

Truly an unmatched legacy.

[Business Nerd @Business_Nerd_]

Pavel Durov owns 100% of Telegram, a company used by over a billion people and has hundreds of millions in the bank.

He doesn't own a house. No jet. No yacht. No real estate. Nothing.

Tucker Carlson was visibly stunned: "I've never heard of that before."

So why?

Durov's answer cuts straight to his core philosophy:

"My number one priority in life is my freedom. And once you start buying things, it will tie you down to a physical location."

It goes deeper than minimalism.

He explains that the reason he never took venture capital even as Telegram scaled to a billion users was independence:

"We knew that our mission and our goals are not necessarily consistent with the goals of funds that could be investing into us."

Most founders take the money. The valuation goes up. The cap table fills with names. And slowly, almost invisibly, the mission starts bending toward returns.

Durov refused to let that happen.

And the same logic applies to his personal life. Every asset you own doesn't just cost money, it costs attention. He puts it plainly:

"I know that if I buy a house, I buy a jet, something like that, I would be spending time on trying to make it nice. This will require a lot of time and effort."

Tucker jokingly asks: "Would you go with leather seats or velvet seats?"

Durov laughs, then delivers the line that says everything:

"For me, I would rather make decisions that would influence how a billion people communicate rather than choosing the color of seats in a house that only I and my relatives and a bunch of my friends will see."

That's the trade-off he's made deliberately, consciously, and completely.

No distractions. No investors pulling him sideways. No assets demanding his calendar.

Just the product, the mission, and the freedom to pursue both on his own terms.

[Every Movie Plug @everymovieplug]

This opening sequence was an instant hit.

[Gavin McHugh @gavinmchughh]

LeBron James.

[khaleesi🧍🏽‍♀️ @shelovesore]

Unrelated but still a bit related, but “abbreviation” and “acronym” are not the same thing at all.

An abbreviation is basically you shortening a word for convenience, but you still pronounce the full thing, like Dr., Revd.

An acronym, on the other hand, is a whole new word formed from the first letters of a phrase, and you actually pronounce it as a word, like LASER, NASA

Now if you have to say the letters one by one like NBL, OAU or LMAO, that’s neither an acronym nor an abbreviation, that’s an initialism.

[A Moving Woman🚀🚀 @riittaaje]

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity.

To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees Celsius.

The Russians used a pencil.

[Saniya Sayed @Ssaniya_]

In a few years, Hollywood will make a movie called ‘Escape from the Strait of Hormuz,’ in which a US Marine fighting through the conflict helps an Iranian girl who dreams of becoming a scientist escape the constraints of her society, start a new life in the United States, and discover her identity as a lesbian.

[Kunal Sharma @kunsha51]

If someone has withdrawn completely from your life, know that they loved you truly.

[Bron’s Best @LBJsBest]

This vid of LeBron leading the 2016 Cavs 3-1 comeback still gives me chills 🔥👑

(vid credit: @bronhistory)

[LeBron Factory @LeBronFactory]

Protect this man at all costs. His LeBron over MJ GOAT case is 🔥🐐👑

[𝐀𝐬𝐚𝐤𝐲𝐆𝐑𝐍 @AsakyGRN]

In 2003, Peak 50 Cent era the feud with Ja Rule and Mvrd3r Inc. was already boiling. While 50 cent was performing “What Up Gangsta,” he applied pressure on stage while Ja Rule and his entourage were reportedly sitting front row. Ja Rule’s Entourage unhappy about 50 performance started throwing Objects at 50 on stage.

50 Cent got angry and jumped into the crowd to fight them.

Over 10 G-unit member followed.

[OurFaveOnlineDoc 🇬🇧 🇳🇬 @OurFavOnlineDoc]

Everything he said in this video is 100% true

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

Father recorded his music-loving daughter's growth over the years.

[𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖔 @hwloiza]

When Coco Jones and Chico Bean were rapping to Busta Rhymes’ verse in Look At Me Now.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

This man has been walking for 27 years around the world, and is now close to home

[Hits Junkie @hitsjunkie]

Affirmative Action Live - Nas feat. AZ, Cormega, Foxy Brown (1996) 🔥🔥

[⟡ 𝙸𝚜𝚘 ⟡ @LockedByBron]

When LeBron scored 25 straight points.
29 of the last 30.
At only 22 years old 🐐

[²³ @SpeakContext]

Ima just set this here…