Category Archives: Finance

March 1, 2022 · 22:51

The thin ice

We all step on it at times, at the moment it is me, I am standing on the thin ice, but I feel it is important to stand here. I see all the anti Russian propaganda and tweets and I get it, I really do. But then two events were shown that made me wonder. The first one was given to us by Reuters. It was (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us-orders-12-russian-un-diplomats-leave-by-march-7-russian-envoy-2022-02-28/) ‘U.S. expels 12 Russian U.N. diplomats over security concerns’, not just diplomats, UN diplomats. It is true, the UN value has been overrated for some time, but in this case, I am not sure it is a good idea. The article gives us “The U.S. mission to the United Nations described the Russian diplomats as “intelligence operatives” who had been “engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.”” It does have the term ‘national security’, so I reckon we will not hear the actual truth until 2042. Then we get “Those diplomats that have been asked to leave the United States were engaged in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats”, I cannot oppose it, I cannot disagree with this, because I actually do not know, but it was ‘months’ in some setting of investigation and they chose today of all days to come forth with this? That does not make it not true, but it raises questions, it raises several questions and I am not the person with the answer. Perhaps they interfered with the US shakedown on oligarchs, perhaps they were actual spies. And when I saw it I initially shrugged and let it go. But then David Heroux (CBC) gives us the image below and it is important to see it. 

You see, I have always been a fan of the idea to keep politics OUT of sports. Sports are to be left alone, now that does not mean that it is always possible, but really? Throw the Russian Paralympic committee out? Of all the places they COULD have been thrown out, that was the Paralympic place. And at present the least said about the UEFA and FIFA their actions the better, these money grabbing dodo’s are not worth any consideration at all.

You see, this is not merely about the Russians, it is about us. What did WE actually do in Syria? What did WE do when there was a chemical attack? The US was cowardly enough to keep to the left and out of it, yes that was not what they investigated. The doctors reported, the US has several satellites overhead, but NO ONE saw anything. Then we see a similar setting in Yemen again. How many actions AGAINST Iran were taken, I am not talking about economic sanctions. I am talking ACTUAL actions. Some might have seen news (somewhere in 2021) that Iran exported more oil, yet did not make more money, they stated that middle men gained more profits, so the CIA and FBI can hand over a list of those middle man people can it not? I reckon not. A nation that is bankrupt needs every coin they can get and this game has been going on for years.

It is the hypocrisy we see. I am all for Ukraine, I think they are allowed everything we can offer, but that was not the case for Syrians, that was not for Yemeni’s was it?

I get it, that some people have vested interests and that is fine, governments should keep vested interests out of it. At present Syrians and Yemeni’s wonder why the Ukraine can get help in days, whilst they were waiting for years. I cannot explain that injustice, can you? So, I here admit that I am on thin ice, I really do. Yet there is a larger injustice seen and it should not stop people from helping people in the Ukraine, but they need to understand that there have been fires going on since March 2011. I would state that we do not close ALL the doors towards Russia, which makes me wonder about the UN issue, but I admit, it might have valid reasons, the timeline is just a little too warped and there the media is optionally equally at fault. Yet at present I feel convinced we need to keep politics out of sports, there will be a time when that informal route is the only route we have and we should keep it safe, in addition we keep the athletes out of politics, games are for us all, politics are (alas) not. We are given an hour ago by the Guardian ‘Russia’s NHL hero Alex Ovechkin has a rare chance to hit Putin where it hurts’, I disagree. He is an athlete, in the NHL and he is very good. He is not someone’s political tool. We get that people need to speak out, and if he does it of his own accord that is fine, it is his right. But it is not ours to make him our political tool. A lot of people might not agree with me, but that is where I stand. I get it, in the past he was pro-Putin, his choice and at present he most likely regrets this and it is his option to alter that course (make amends seems to crass). It is not treason, he is still Russian, he merely plays a game in the US an he is one of the best on the planet. We all make mistakes, some small, some larger. Yet should he be held accountable for actions he cannot control when the CIA refuses to shine the limelight on Iranian actions because the national security agenda has different topics? There are two measurements in play and we are fed both at the same time. It is dangerous and it is wrong. Feel free to disagree (it is your right) yet also take time to ask people in Syria and Yemen how they feel about these two measurements. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 1, 2022 · 13:11

Doubt favouring speculation

This is what we have at times, we see the news, we do not completely trust the news but we see what we see and we think we are being deceived. This is not at the front of our minds, but it is definitely in the back of our minds. I a not different, I tend to check several sources, but in the end, this is not always possible. So the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60525591) ‘IPCC report warns of ‘irreversible’ impacts of global warming’ you would think this was serious enough, and you could (not would) be wrong. You see, we see “the authors of a new report say that there is still a brief window of time to avoid the very worst”, is there? We are also given “there’s hope that if the rise in temperatures is kept below 1.5C, it would reduce projected losses”, now for the bad news. You see on the 11th of February the BBC also gave us “The number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation for the same month last year, according to government satellite data. The area destroyed was five times larger than 2021, the highest January total since records began in 2015”, as some might say it, that weasel Jair Bolsonaro was so eager to be seen ‘positive’ at the COP26, yet we also get (from the HRW.org), ““The Bolsonaro government now wants the world to think it is committed to saving the rainforest,” said Maria Laura Canineu, Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “But these commitments cannot be taken seriously given its disastrous record and failure to present credible plans for making urgently needed progress in fighting deforestation.”” The Brazilian government (those connected) are eager to fill their pockets before some deforestation commitment will more and more likely be delayed by 3-5 years. So matters will go from ‘worst case’ to ‘worse then worst case’ soon thereafter and most reports seemingly do not take that into account, so when I see “a brief window of time”, I wider what window they are talking about, we are being buried alive and governments are letting this happen. Although, my sense of humour tells me that Vladimir Putin could save is here. If he presses the nuclear button, we will see a global population drop of 60%-85%, at which point the problem is solved. There is no deforestation required when no one needs wood and what forests are left will be enough to give oxygen to the 15%-40% remaining. You think I am kidding? You thought that America would intervene? They did less then that, as I personally see it they are more likely filling their credit cards as we are given “the Biden administration recently announced the creation of a taskforce that will take aim at their lucrative assets, including yachts and mansions”, the media does not give us the list of where those ‘registered’ assets will go. I doubt that 100% will go to the Ukraine. Yet I am diverting. You see, the article also gives us “Coral reefs are being bleached and dying from rising temperatures, while many trees are succumbing to drought” which is inaccurate, in Australia, the delicate balance was disrupted for some time through pollution and overfishing, all whilst the lame reactions to overfishing and the Australian super weak legal responses is making that happen again and again. Then we get the angering quote from the UN ““I’ve seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this,” – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres”, you see if he never seen anything like this, then the United Nations have a much larger problems, because environmentalists have been saying issues in this direction for a decade, so someone (or a collection of grapes) at the UN is not doing their job, most likely they are given a too specific brief and waste year after year (with a high income) on that brief and whose fault is that?

So far the only truth at the COP26 was given by Greta Thunberg with the accurate setting of “just more bla bla bla” And when I wrote about it, I already predicted it (well not Putin pushing the button). And in the end, did anyone pause at “since records began in 2015”? Perhaps I was asleep, but was the environment, pollution and deforestation not a larger stage for well over 25 years? We could of course go for the extreme solution and just get rid of 95% of the population, it solves employment issues, agism, population, housing issues, deforestation, overfishing issues, and carbon footprints. If a person is not there, they have a carbon footprint of zero. You see, the worst could be just around the corner and you won’t see it until you wonder why you are glowing in the dark. Nuclear winter will clean up the rest, that is now becoming an actual possibility.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 26, 2022 · 23:19

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 24, 2022 · 06:29

The stage I cannot see

If you have seen my articles, you see that there is very little, basically almost none on the Bitcoin. I do not know Bitcoin, I do not trust bitcoin and when it collapses you lose everything you invested. It is not secured by Gold, not supported by banks and that list goes on. From November 8th 2021 the price was $91,150, on January 22nd 2022 the price was $48,800. As such over a period of less then 3 months its price was reduced by 46%, optionally wiping out the retirement funds of all these wealth seekers. This is not negatively meant. Some do it because they are desperate, their retirement funds were already diminished, driven by speed marketing on social media, after all the media advertisement making the weak approach “If you bought 10 bitcoin in 2010 you would have made $500K by now, how much could you make over the next 10 years?”, mind you nothing illegal is done here, it is merely the application of imaginary wealth appealing to the desperate. 

Could I be wrong?
Absolutely! That does not mean that I will trust the Bitcoin (ever), and if consultancy is paid in bitcoin, I would transfer it to normal currency immediately. So as Reuters gives us ‘Bitcoin’s true colours shine in stampede to safety’ (at https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/bitcoins-true-colours-shine-stampede-safety-2022-02-23/) we see “as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deepened on Tuesday read more , the price of bitcoin fell as much as 5% from last week’s close, to around $36,348. The decline marks a notable contrast to the rally triggered in traditional safe havens like U.S. and German government bonds, or gold, whose price on Tuesday hit its highest since June 2021”, this makes sense to me. Gold is something we can touch, German bonds less so, but Germany has a massive manufacturing and resource options. So it makes sense to me. As such the statement “Volatility can therefore bring big rewards when the cryptocurrency rises. It also means outsized losses when it falls”, yes that makes sense, marketing sets the view to the positive whilst trivialising, or not mentioning the dangers and at present I personally believe that dangers are seen that remind me of the great depression (1929-1939), now one event does not make for a nuclear winter, neither does two or three, yet the stag is getting more and more like the stage that drove the great depression. Unfair trade events, connected triggers like we see in “The Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Hedge Fund Index, for example, which tracks fund managers focused on decentralised digital money, fell about a fifth in January, its biggest decline since November 2018. It was a tough month for hedge funds in general, but a broader industry benchmark declined only about 1% during the same month”, this seems to reflect on events that we saw in the great depression, but you would be wrong, I would be wrong too. In the great depression there was a large shift, but it was based on a few local events. This time around the events are global and they trigger global events, the impact could be a hell of a lot larger and the impact could be felt a lot longer, but that would be pure speculation from my side and a side that has NO ECONOMIC degrees. I create stories and I create IP, the critical mind is required in all three fields as is creativity. It allows me to see past the normal view.

As I always saw it the bitcoin is not a sanctuary, more often it is not even a shelter, or a simple rain shield, that being said, it could be one hell of a ride for thrill seekers and I get that. 5 years ago the Bitcoin was $1,650, today it is $52,260. If you could invest 5 years ago and you are willing to consider 100% loss it would be a thrill ride that made you a winner. But the other way around? It is not out of consideration, what was $90,000 in 2021, will that be higher or lower in 2026? There is no way to tell and some thrill seekers are willing to make that bet and that is their right, but there should be better protection for the desperate. You see, I accept that no one broke laws, the ‘investment seekers’ are allowed to do what they do, I get that. But what is next? Take a chance on being a drug mule? Transporting a box for a party? That is the dangers a lot of places are facing and in this time and age, that is too big a danger. Exploitation is seen everywhere, there is a sucker born every minute. It is their own fault to a larger degree, but does that mean we should remain inactive? 

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media

Tagged as , , , ,

February 23, 2022 · 01:27

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.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 22, 2022 · 10:15

The speculative rage

Yes, there is speculation, there is rage, there is the play and there are the consequences. As I stated about a day ago in ‘The presumption is mine’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/21/the-presumption-is-mine/) where I stated “so all that space on what amounts to 0.03% of the entire amount. Just like the ICIJ, shortsighted and a waste of time. So we get repeated invitations to explain 0.03% of what is such a massive leak? Is anyone waking up yet?” A stage play and the Guardian is milking it for EVERYTHING it can, but in doing so it gives a larger play away, and this is not presumption, it is speculation. Yet to see this we need to look at more than one article.

The first one is seen (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/revealed-king-jordan-used-swiss-accounts-hoard-massive-wealth) where we are told ‘Revealed: king of Jordan used Swiss accounts to hoard massive wealth’, all yada yada, bla bla and more emotion and the basic part of evidence is missing. What crimes did the King of Jordan commit? We get “According to a massive trove of data leaked from the bank that names both royals as account holders, one account would later be worth a remarkable 230m Swiss francs”, again and again the mention of leaked data, all whilst we need to consider there was no leak, but more about that soon. Now we see 0.28% of the total money mentioned. Then we go on with the next article (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/tax-timeline-credit-suisse-scandals) where we are treated to ‘Crooks, kleptocrats and crises: a timeline of Credit Suisse scandals’, we see the list and I am not debating the list, yet how much ‘effort’ did the media do when it comes to investigating players like Price Waterhouse Cooper? You see, it is not about this, or about that, we see the larger play with ‘Switzerland at risk of EU blacklist after Credit Suisse leak’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/switzerland-at-risk-of-eu-blacklist-after-credit-suisse-leak), and again the mention of leak. This is (a personal speculation) the EU and US needing to button down, but with a place like Switzerland, there is no stopping what they desperately need, they need revenue and they need their cup filled, the bankrupt are now desperate.

The leak never made sense. I have worked in several places where I get access to data, but never to this degree and that wasn’t even a bank, the bank laws in Switzerland are no fun for bankers. This, as I personally see it, was state orchestrated. 

To see this we need to take the quote “The fallout from a huge leak of Credit Suisse banking data threatened to damage Switzerland’s entire financial sector on Monday after the European parliament’s main political grouping raised the prospect of adding the country to a money-laundering blacklist.” We cannot get the EU to agree on anything. Consider the Politico quote on the EU and covid “The Council press office said the Nice summit took over 90 hours in a tweet Monday afternoon to rein in already spreading rumours claiming the ongoing summit could become the longest by midnight.” There has been a long standing issue on Switzerland and the EU, but times are dire and something will have to give. So when we see “A move to the blacklist would mean Switzerland would face the kind of enhanced due diligence applied to transactions linked to rogue nations including North Korea”, this is one setting, but the larger stage is that the people they want could move their fortunes to the UAE or the Bahama’s all zero tax nations. And in all this with all these articles we still have not seen any collection of data that sets the stage to 7.5%, you know why? Because that was the PWC oversight regarding Tesco, a mere $6,000,000,000 and we see less than that here. But the biggest failing is that we see no transgressions of Swiss Banking Laws. We are given “how a massive leak of Credit Suisse data had uncovered apparently widespread failures of due diligence by the bank”, it is not the leak (well that too), but it is ‘apparently widespread failures’, ONE BANK! Yet now we get “When Swiss banks fail to apply international anti-money-laundering standards properly, Switzerland itself becomes a high-risk jurisdiction”, a statement by Markus Ferber, the coordinator on economic affairs for the EPP, the EPP or sometimes referred to as the sanctimonious Christian fucks of the European Union. So we have one bank, the Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. And we optionally have ONE bank transgressing, but for this the entire nation is set on fire. And that is before some people realise that a leak of this nature is not possible under normal conditions. It requires a state player like the NSA, GCHQ or DGSE to get involved. So who was it? 

And in all this the Guardian is again and again all about emotion and less about evidence, why is that? 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

February 22, 2022 · 02:20

Paranoia helps

This is a case, you might be paranoid, that does not mean that people are not out to hack your life. We seem to forget that, and the second part we forget is that big corporations do not care, it is the cost of doing business and that is what insurance is for. But the stage is growing and with full national 5G insurance companies will not take that stance, they would want assurances and that is when the consumer gets to pay for it all. One small slip up, one error and the consumer pays. That is where we are heading. 

This all started when I saw ‘Walmart ships fraudulent order to hacker’s address then leaves customer to recoup cost’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/walmart-fraudulent-order-online-account-hacked-1.6353016). The story gives us all kinds of information and in some cases the consumer made the easy choice, the ‘this is so much easier’ path and hackers tend to rely on that. But it is not all bad news (well mostly it is), so let’s start.

Item one ‘fraudsters were using it and his credit card on file’. This is with the consumer. Yes it is easy and most e-commerce sites use the same good encryption. Yet as I see it there are two issues. It is easy to order when the credit card is on file, so DO NOT DO THIS! Consider what you are doing every time you use your credit card. More important, when it is on file anything can happen as this consumer found out. I have two instances where a credit card is on file. One is a monthly payment of less than $10 a month, the other is even less. I enter my credit card information with every purchase. Commerce like people with credit cards on file, it is easier to make them buy, but consider that your budget is limiting and when you still have a week to go at the end of your credit card, life gets worse really fast.

Item two are two items, and they are on WalMart. We see ‘Walmart had cancelled the first three orders on its own, but Tomlinson noticed the last one for an Apple TV had just been shipped.’ In the first part why did three stop and one did not? If they are based on the same data, there is a flaw in the system, there is close to no other option. In addition we are given ‘he was not able to access the address and Walmart wouldn’t provide details’, this is clearly on Walmart. In addition, it should be in these systems that there is a permanent record of the last 10 addresses that are not linked to the credit card that paid for it, 10 is an arbitrary number, but it happens that a family member pays for another members item, or something like that. 

Now we get to the rather nasty stuff, we are given “In 2021, e-commerce retailers surveyed said they prevented about 4,860 attacks, but failed to stop about 4,800 others. The survey also suggests online and mobile fraud attacks on retailers appear to be rising since the pandemic started, up 45 per cent in Canada from 2020 to 2021.” In a full 5G network this number can go up by a 600% to 19500%, consider that 93,600 fraud cases are not stopped under 5G, do you really think that the insurances are going to sit back and let the numbers rise from 4,800 to 93,600? You have got to be kidding me and those who do will do so at horrendous premiums and the consumer gets passed on that bill. A setting I have foretold for years and people are still not waking up to Common Cyber Sense. Not all of it is the consumer. Yet look in your own home, how many use passwords like ‘QWERTY’, or something that simple? I thought I was clever in the 80’s when my password was ‘password’ and I learned quickly that there is more to safety and security. Then there are those who use the SAME password in all places and those people also have all their passwords on file. How long until deeper machine learning can make the jump from where we are, to what we are and how lazy we are? The algorithm is already out there, with 5G it gets the speed to really rake in the dollars. So whilst some might ry for big business when they give us “While Walmart says Tomlinson’s problem was caused by compromised credentials — not a cyber attack — Sutherland says companies across the board are dealing with such attacks on a regular basis.” And when we hear the sob story of covid made it worse, we need to consider that I saw issues like this in 2015, a massive overhaul of the e-commerce system is becoming essential and most of them do not want the cost, but the issue of fraud is happily passed on to the consumer. We need to accept that this is not merely Walmart, it hits e-commerce in Europe, US, and Asia. This is a much larger problem and a better system is required. Consider that we blame the NSO group for many hacks, but the basic issue is not merely the NSO group, they merely ‘Exploit Security Flaws in Phones’ Operating Systems’, so when this gets to e-commerce in the same way, we get a flaw exploiting a flaw and our goose is cooked. Hundreds of hackers hope to find that ‘Zero-Click’ flaw that makes the hacker rich whilst the hacker is sleeping and in a 5G world that will happen more often. It is not paranoia when they are all out to get your money, and there are many who want to do just that.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 21, 2022 · 16:31

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. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 21, 2022 · 04:59

The presumption is mine

There is a setting that does not agree with me and I have seen this before. Yet before I do that there are two words we need to look at. The first one is speculation, it means ‘the activity of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain’, then there is presumption ‘the ground, reason, or evidence lending probability to a belief’. So one is a guess, the other is an educated guess. It is always stronger than a guess, but it is till lacking certain levels of evidence and that is important to know.

This all started as I was just unwinding of several (too many) hours playing Horizons 2: Forbidden West. I started that second play-through without completing the first. I did this with the first game. You see, Eloy needs power and skill and running after the main quest (something I erroneously did in the first game) will not do it. You need skill points and the game is large, really really large and when you start finding adversaries that are (on land) a lot bigger than you think you will be either running for your life or running for cover. Those who go meet the challenge head on are shredded. Yet I digress (or do I)?

The Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/20/credit-suisse-secrets-leak-unmasks-criminals-fraudsters-corrupt-politicians) where we see ‘Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians’. There Is one problem. You see I do not think that this is happening, the Guardian was a happy tool just to get the exclusive. So as we are given:

Massive leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank
Whistleblower leaked bank’s data to expose ‘immoral’ secrecy laws
Clients included human trafficker and billionaire who ordered girlfriend’s murder
Vatican-owned account used to spend €350m in allegedly fraudulent investment
Scandal-hit Credit Suisse rejects allegations it may be ‘rogue bank’

You see, my issue is that just like the ICIJ Pandora papers farce, this is an orchestration. I cannot say by who, we can point towards the NSA or a likeminded player (GCHQ), but the setting is larger. The US and EU are close to bankrupt, they play a nice tune, but the musical instrument has not been tuned for too long. A debt surpassing $30,000,000,000,000 and the EU is set to be in debt for about €10,973,338,444,376. They need to do something and going after some specific people is a first need. You cannot overhaul finances until certain ‘progressive entrepreneurs’ (aka white collar criminals) are dealt with ad the courts take too long, the problem is two fold. In the first the ICIJ was all about tantrums and BS, not much real useful info. We saw the accusations here and there with added ‘No actual laws were broken’ additions and it was a farce from beginning to end. Basic intelligence gathering acts were ignored, basic dashboarding was cast aside, and after 304 messages I know it was a wash. It was all about the power towards a ‘tax the rich’ flame which was happily drowned in whatever they used. Now we see the scolding of Credit Suisse and there are two parts here: 

  1. In the first they are accusations, so there will be a time gap, not a short one either. But it will be a message to ALL other banks that certain people have had enough.
  2. We see “billionaire who ordered girlfriend’s murder”, which might be fine, but which of the 2,755 billionaires was it? Well, the article gives us “his Lebanese pop star girlfriend”, so it might not be that hard. 

The issue is not the article perse, it is “A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. Details of accounts linked to 30,000 Credit Suisse clients all over the world are contained in the leak, which unmasks the beneficiaries of more than 100bn Swiss francs (£80bn) held in one of Switzerland’s best-known financial institutions.”

Let me take you through the numbers. There is not one employee that has access to the 30,000 accounts, so it is the CEO, CTO, CFO, or something like that. Do you think that they are the whistleblower? Nope? Neither do I! Then there is the IT, but Credit Suisse is global, so it we get back to the CTO. One IT person does not have this kind of access without getting caught. This level of data has all kinds of security. It needs to have it. Then there is the inside part Who is the drug trafficker? Who is the corrupt? Who is the torturer? This is not set into an account, it requires data aggregation, something a way to large computer can do but leakers tend to now have that access, without getting caught. And the Swiss laws are strict, massively strict so there is doubt on the stage of “held in one of Switzerland’s best-known financial institutions” as well. The levels of security and insight cannot come from a leaker, just like with the Pandora papers. I stated that from the beginning. This was a state operator and the NSA is the most likely culprit. The USA is in too much debt, it needs to release pressures and they are out of options. So when the ICIJ strikes out, we get this. 

I have worked in data for decades and I have had less then 5 instances where I had national levels of data access, but I was monitored all the time (as one does), one protects the data it has. And I was able to do my job and aid the people involved. In an age of data being currency, do you think this is some leak? An £80bn leak no less? Then there is “leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank”, a bullshit header if ever there was one. You see Swiss bank laws are strict, very strict and have been for a very long time but someone wants access and a leak would never reveal that. Such information can only come from state players, players with aggregated data on a very large level and there is every indication that the dat did not come from the bank but from other sources who transferred the funds from one to the other. The setting of ‘Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians’ debunked in mere minutes. It took me at least 4 times longer to type this all. And when we get one example where the article is so ‘huge’, we get “the leaked Credit Suisse data shows his accounts were left open until at least well into the last decade. At one point after he left Siemens, one account was worth 54m CHF (£24m). Seidel’s lawyer declined to say whether the accounts were his. He said his client had addressed all outstanding matters relating to his bribery offences and wished to move on with his life”, as well as “The lawyer did not respond to repeated invitations to explain the source of the 54m CHF. Siemens said it did not know about the money and that its review of its own cashflows shed no light on the account”, so all that space on what amounts to 0.03% of the entire amount. Just like the ICIJ, shortsighted and a waste of time. So we get repeated invitations to explain 0.03% of what is such a massive leak? Is anyone waking up yet? 

This is about something else, it always was and in this the Guardian is allowing themselves (yet again) to be the tool in all this. It is not rocket science and it took me minutes to debunk a setting that is intentionally being misrepresented by 5 writers, I did this all alone in less then an hour (including the writing), so what fairy tale will the newspapers (via a state actor) serve up next?

Charging in full frontal will get some state players shredded, so they decided on the Eloy solution, illuminate from the tall grass and stay out of sight, plenty of players eager to take that limelight.

2 Comments

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 15, 2022 · 22:14

What did I say?

I have said it again and again. The US is in several dangers, financial being a large one and Al Jazeera gives us ‘UAE arms deals: What weapons is the Gulf state buying and why?’ (at https://aje.io/pn5gad), it is the second line that should concern people. The mention of “purchases from South Korea, Israel and France”, Israel makes sense, its Iron Dome is pretty essential in any defence setting, yet the US is not one of the mentioned, so no Northrop Grumman or Raytheon. It is South Korea and France. France needs the sales, but in the end, the US is overlooked (again). There is a setting that the US could still set itself on and that is to grow UAE defence growing, Manufacturing plants in the UAE (or Saudi Arabia), but there is no real information on where the GAMI is going at present, so when we see “has one of the most potent air defence systems in the region, relying mainly on American-made weapons like the older HAWK missile, the more capable Patriot PAC-3 missile and the THAAD air defence system which was used for the first time in combat this year, destroying a Houthi missile” we also see that out with the old and the new is increasingly likely not going to be American, so when one changes, where does that leave the sales pipeline of the US? When one falls over, where do the others go? Consider that the HAWK was not the latest solution when I left the army 20 years ago, so why are the American salespeople not all over that wreck from day one? It should have been a clear path for the US to cement a better stage with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and optionally Qatar. If they can keep one of these four it is close to a miracle. And at the edge is China, ready to sell whatever they can and when I initially stated that the US could lose hundreds of billions everyone was stating that I was nuts, that I was demented and I didn’t know what I was talking about. Over the last months we have seen activities that show that the US is in a sliding place and now Al Jazeera adds to that. People might laugh at the size of the UAE, but with the UAE the options for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt will also grow and neglecting any options is folly and it could cost the American industry a lot more than anyone bargained for. It might be merely my view, but so far I have been spot on, something the others will yet have to prove. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,