Category Archives: Finance

August 11, 2025 · 04:38

It’s not the smell

During today’s pre-morning (last night) I was alerted to a story on the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckglnk6yxlko). Now, I get the sentiment, but there is something off about it all. 

It is about Bourbon and the headline gives us ‘How Kentucky bourbon went from boom to bust’ and we get a few issues in this article. But first (famous last words). I am not a great drinker. I have a sip every now and then and my personal favourite is Cognac XO. I am driven towards Martell or Hennessy. I had a Cognac booklet on Cognac Brands at some point and these two were set to 95.2 and 95.1 (I honestly forgot which got which) there was also a brand (forgot the name) that scored a little higher (around 97.4) and it was almost twice the price. I had one glass and I could not tell the difference and why pay twice as much when my tastebuds cannot differentiate? So I kept to these two and budget driven as I tend to be, the cheapest of the two. Beyond that I drink Rum, Glenfiddich single malt and the last bottle of Rum I bought was three years ago and I still haven’t finished the bottle. So, you can say I am not much for drinking, but I am not anti-alcohol (except when driving a car). 

So what gives?
We are given the quote “President Donald Trump’s global tariffs have been the final straw. The EU has announced retaliatory tariffs against US goods, including Kentucky bourbon and Californian wine, although implementation has been delayed for six months. Meanwhile, most provinces in Canada have stopped importing American alcoholic beverages in retaliation. The country accounts for about 10% of Kentucky’s $9bn (£6.7bn) whiskey and bourbon business.” And to this (in part) I say ‘Yay Canada’ but that is not the part that ‘bothers’ me. The response was nice to read, but it wasn’t it either ““That’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, completely removing our products from the shelves … that’s a very disproportionate response,” Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman, which produces Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve and Old Forester, said back in March when Canadian provinces announced their plan to stop buying US booze.” (That will teach yanks not to mess with our Canadian brethren and the BS quote of “Canada would make a great 51st state”) The issue is seen down the article. It starts off with:

  • Liquor giant Diageo, reported that sales of Bulleit, a Kentucky distillery that makes bourbon, rye and whiskey, were down 7.3% this fiscal year.
  • Wild Turkey – a Kentucky bourbon owned by Campari – sales were down 8.1% over the past six months.
  • While big, international brands will likely be able to weather the storm, the sales hit has led to a growing list of casualties.
  • In July, LMD Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy – just one month after opening the Luca Mariano Distillery in Danville, Kentucky.
  • This spring, Garrard County Distilling went into receivership.
  • And in January, Jack Daniel’s parent company closed a barrel-making plant in Kentucky.

It is the setting I gave above. What business model is set to “The country accounts for about 10% of Kentucky’s $9bn (£6.7bn) whiskey and bourbon business.” To set the stage where one country is responsible for 10% of its revenue and we see businesses go into receivership. That part does not make sense. As I see it, there are more places where US drinks are starting to get banned, or the reason of bankruptcy is not what we read here. So where one country stops drinking and we see the setting of a ‘bust economy regarding Whiskey sours?’ Perhaps not the most eloquent setting, but the stage seems to be ‘rigged’ in some way.

So as we are focussing on the smell, I will ‘plagiarize’ Shakespeare and hide behind William’s  quote “Something is rotten in the state of Kentucky” There is a chance that these distillers were barely making the revenues and that is fine. But for one nation (named Canada) to have this big an impact all while we see drops in revenue around 10% does not make sense to me. I reckon that America needs to ‘embrace’ its local product and not hide behind the sour grapes from France (ok, that’s funny).

I am not a drinker, but I know what I like and it is a distinct taste and it includes bourbon, which I haven’t drunk in years and at present I support my Canadian brethren (sisters too) and I stopped buying American Drinks (sorry Ryan Reynolds) for now. Fortunately for me Cognac is French and Glenfiddich is Scottish, so for the next few years I’m good. 

Did anyone else pick up on the skewness of this setting? And if we are not given the right parts in this equation, what else in America’s economy is not sounding right to you?

Anyway, I am now 240 minutes from breakfast, but whose counting? Canada has its own versions of Whiskey, Rum and even a butter tart vodka. So look hard and you’ll find a reason to support Canada, so Commonwealthian’s unite.

Have a great day and consider Rum from Quebec (just learned about this, I never knew).

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August 10, 2025 · 15:25

An upcoming stage

There is a new, or better stated upgraded stage on the Horizon. Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2611276/business-economy) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s drive to build a defense powerhouse’ Where we see “Saudi Arabia’s military equipment manufacturing sector is undergoing a significant expansion, emerging as a pivotal element of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 economic diversification strategy to boost domestic industrial capacity.” It is not new, we were alerted to this years ago. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made it clear that near 2030 it needed to be able to create its own defense needs. This was clear from the beginning and as Such I kept tabs on this as anyone working in this sector tends to make clear and precise coin and a lot more than anyone else does. It is not greed, but it is the ethical need to get more money the traverses the need of the many. And it is not that I want to do things, but the need to create financial independence is pretty strong in any of us. But I looked deeper. I looked at the options of the day after tomorrow, not the next hour or the next day. Plenty can do that, it is the deeper look and the settling of possible accounts is where AI cannot take us. I can only look from the data it has and the ability to look to the day after tomorrow takes a lot more, it requires the ability to look at lateral processes, to see what comes after next and I reckon that I am seeing a few options here. 

The Arab News gives us “Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to localize 50 percent of its military spending by the end of the decade. The sector’s regulator, the General Authority for Military Industries, reported notable progress, with localization rising from 4 percent in 2018 to 19.35 percent in 2024 — reflecting steady advances toward self-sufficiency in defense manufacturing.” This is fine and predictable as most of it was advertised by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia years ago. Yet at present I was thinking what comes next. You see, this is what I expect to come next (after 2027) Saudi Arabia completes its first factories in Saudi Arabia, I expect at least one in Jeddah. When that is up Saudi Arabia will create larger client drives. I expect Egypt, Pakistan, Oman and Jordan are an expected first. They will grow and get the contracts. I reckon that Pakistan is the greater challenge as China has a lot of goods and effort put into that place. But the setting everyone is forgetting is that there is one sizable pie and what Saudi Arabia gains, others will lose. So consider that America is losing Tourism, Technology and Finance, so as we get closer to 2027/2028 and America also loses out on chunks of Defense, which was $117.9 billion for the FY2024. As such I reckon that a mere 10%-20% should push America over the edge and it is not only Saudi Arabia, The EU is also fishing for the billions in contracts that are up for grabs and as America is alienating it former allies, they will fish for larger snacks from that dinner plate there is every chance that not only will Saudi Arabia succeed, but there is the chance that there will be a stronger union between Saudi Arabia and Europe. After the G5 settings we now get a larger defense stage. And in all this, it simply weaken America to an other stage.

Am I right? Am I wrong?

I reckon that the ‘AI surfers’ will tell you that I am wrong and that is fine. But the signs are already there and I do know data. I worked on such a setting for decades. So as we are given “According to its April 2024 report Trends in World Military Expenditure, SIPRI said global military spending exceeded $2.7 trillion in 2024, marking a decade of continuous annual growth and a 37 percent increase between 2015 and 2024” everyone wants in and it merely makes America weaker. Don’t get your hopes up that it ends for America. This is too big for anyone. The setting that follows is that America will need to compete for contracts with Saudi Arabia and Europe for contracts that ended up being for America by default. When that stops we see yet another field where it must compete, a setting they haven’t had for decades and soon there will be another player vying for the $2.7 trillion. In this field “Saudi Arabia led the region with $80.3 billion, ranking seventh globally, just $1.5 billion behind the UK.” And the setting here is that by 2030 the rest of the world will be default lose $40B that Saudi Arabia will now keep in-house and it also means that their defense spending will go down. But when at least two of the aforementioned nations will get their defense spending at least partially from Saudi Arabia. The pie parts will take on new dimensions. And that is before we consider that some player might get access to materials they never had access to.

It will grow the Saudi Arabian slice a lot more than ever considered and that is before we consider the parties that once turned to Iran, Saudi Arabia will grow into a defense power player (to some extent) and will gain larger momentum in the industry. So don’t look at tomorrow, plenty of people do that, consider what could happen the day after tomorrow, where others aren’t looking for now and where predictive analytics does not work because the data does not yet exist. Will it help me?  I don’t know. The simple setting is that traversing any path where it merely serves you will project the simple setting of delusion. That is not my path or goal. So whilst she will go in an islamophobia rage, others might see that this is exactly how others lost revenue and this path is not nearly done yet. 

Have a great day.

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August 10, 2025 · 02:10

The emotional grab

That is at times a setting. I got this article two days ago in my sights, but I rejected it for the obvious reasons. But today I had some second thoughts, so I took a hold of it. There are a few settings that I need to explain. When a newspaper needs 7000 words to give you the issues that you could have gotten from 700 words, we usually see that there is something under it all. In this case we see all these ‘emotional’ settings, because there is basically nothing to be seen. This isn’t entirely true, but the gist of it comes to that. The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/07/long-read-british-bribery-britain-arms-deals-saudi-arabia-ian-foxley) gives us ‘Very British bribery: the whistleblower who exposed the UK’s dodgy arms deals with Saudi Arabia’ and the headline gives us ‘dodgy arms deals’ and that takes some explanation. The United Kingdom is a nation, a monarchy no less. As such it can sell weapons to other nations. Saud Arabia is a monarchy too, as such is there something dodgy going on?

And in that story, we see one photo of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which was taken in Riyadh, May 2009. It is the only time that his royal highness is mentioned. There is no mention of him anywhere in the article, I checked. So why is he there? Because of the mention of Saudi Arabia? 

Then we get the wife Emma, she is mentioned four times, and twice by name. What is her involvement? Or is she merely dressing (like a Window) making this story more ‘humane’ The more I read it, the less it makes sense. The first is that it took 7000 words to say nothing, the second that it is lacking a few items. The first is that Declassified (at https://www.declassifieduk.org/britains-secret-saudi-military-support-programme/) gave us a lot more information which was RELEASED in 2019. A simple setting is that the London School of Economics had 24 alumni working there. So at what point did the Guardian interview, or at least try to interview any of them? The 2019 story also gives us “Earlier this year, another US military official, Colonel Kevin Lambert, manager of the US’s own SANG modernisation programme, confirmed that the SANG was “executing combat operations in the Yemen conflict”.” The Guardian article doesn’t even mention Yemen once. In addition, the story is riddled with emotion. Things like “an accountant called Michael Paterson, was “a madman”” this might be true, but what purpose does it serve? If it is about dodgy deals, why is the wife involved? I get that she gets to be mentioned once (at the beginning) optionally twice (at departure), but the other two mentions? As I stated, the more data you see, the less is valued and it is not valued because there is more useless data, at times more data is to hide that you have none. So, then we get the ‘abundance’ of data. In this I refer to “Another time, a colleague casually joked about a Saudi general being willing to sign anything GPT suggested, on account of something called “bought in services”. Foxley didn’t recognise the term and when he began asking about it, he received only vague non-answers about “things we buy in”.” 47 words that could have been set through “GPT used ‘bought in services’ to hide acquisition of Saudi top military signing for services” I simplified it in 15 words, one third and then I would set the situation to evidence, which is massively lacking here. Then we get the word ‘bribery’ used 13 times, but how? Once is to mention the Bribery Act which was passed in 2010. It is important three times. The first is “Foxley could not have known bribery was rife in Saudi Arabia” (i’ll get to this later) and “Not only had the government ratted him out to GPT when he discovered the bribery conspiracy”, so who did rat him out? And is ratting him out the correct phrase here? The third time is “The MoD and the government “had been running the scam, the bribery, since 1978, ever since the project was set up”” So, exactly what scam were they running? A scam implies that criminal acts are being committed by the UK government. What is the scam exactly and who is involved? Then we get the one setting where it is important. It is given with ““Do you know about the Cayman Islands?” Paterson asked. Over the following 90 minutes, the accountant set out a series of discoveries that implicated GPT in years of bribery and corruption. What neither man knew was that the scheme they had stumbled upon had been overseen and authorised for decades, in both Britain and Saudi Arabia, by the highest levels of government.” Here we get the following settings. The Cayman Islands and what evidence is there of bribery and corruption? The setting is given in the article as well. “It doesn’t invalidate the invoices and the payments to Simec” as such, bribery is merely a smudging word and there is no evidence of bribery or corruption. 

As I see it, the United Kingdom needs to walk a fine line to make deals with some nations and these high ranking officials are entitled to a commission, or a consultancy fee and as Generals were mentioned they are most likely allowed consultancy fees. I am using ‘most likely’ because I do not know Saudi law in these matters. In case of Simmer, that is up to the Saudi government. This article is a simple act of slinging mud, see what sticks and I fear it is very little as this article is missing all kinds of connections and evidence. So when we see “Eight Saudis received a collective £10m between 2007 and 2012 alone” and weirdly enough, this article doesn’t name these people as we are also given “the British government had authorised the entire scheme – had won out.” As such 7000 words to fulfill the setting that was decided over a year ago. So, what exactly was the meaning of this? Seems a fair question as there are settings that are not given, too much emotion in the entire article and a massive amount of facts that just aren’t there. 

So what was exactly the call for this article? To smear the Saudi Government? To smear the British government? As such we also get both Cook and Mason were acquitted. Then a mention that one of them is separately convicted for taking kickbacks, while he was a civil servant at the MoD, before he became part of the GPT. A simple unrelated misconduct offence.

In the end I wonder what this article served. It was not the truth (too much emotion and too little evidence for that), was this another anti-Saudi smear campaign? I am not sure but as we see the lack of evidence and no reference to the declassifieduk site, which could have been used to spice up the article. I reckon that this counterbalanced the article and the article would make even less sense. But that is merely my view on the matter.

Have a great day, 360 minutes until breakfast.

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August 6, 2025 · 14:17

The implied stage

This is not fact, but it is implied and I will explain the logic behind this. Less than 24 hours ago  Time and Travel World (TTW) gave us ‘Tunisia Joins Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and UAE in the Booming Tourism Sector with Record Tourist Arrivals and Earnings in First Half of 2025: New Report’ (at https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/tunisia-joins-spain-mexico-brazil-costa-rica-greece-saudi-arabia-and-uae-in-the-booming-tourism-sector-with-record-tourist-arrivals-and-earnings-in-first-half-of-2025-new-report/) Here we see among more given facts “Spain has been one of the top performers in the global tourism recovery of 2025. The country welcomed nearly 25.6 million international tourists in the first four months of 2025, marking a 7.1% increase compared to 2024. Spain’s tourism numbers have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, highlighting the nation’s enduring appeal. Notably, April 2025 set a record with 8.6 million visitors, marking a 10% rise from the previous year. This surge was driven by a strong recovery in both leisure and business travel.” This doesn’t seem like a lot. But take the slightly more complete setting of

This gives us 80,000,000 tourists most of them only able to pay for one vacation a year and they are not going to America. As such (and taking notice that this does not include Canada) I feel certain that the damage to American tourism will surpass the $29 billion we are currently given. How much more, that is hard to say. So whilst we are now given smash articles (as I call them) to voice applause for all the efforts that Epic Universe gives us in Orlando (and I do agree what I see on YouTube does look amazing) the American tourism industry will face at least until 2027 to return to some kind of normal and that is optimistically speaking. I reckon that it will take 3 years after President Trump leaves office for this to get back to some kind of normal. And I get that Florida is now casting the heave rods to get national tourism up. Yet without international tourists it will become a nasty time of hardship for the places that rely on international tourists. 

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Florida, New York will all feel the pinch that these millions of tourists used to bring with fat wallets and they are now going anywhere else. That is money no longer in the bank of America and likely these people are unlikely to revisit America at present. A lot needs to change for that.

The most conservative calculations I get to implies that the losses for America start at $80 billion and might get to $115 billion by the end of the year. I also think that the Winter vacations are less likely to be affected. The snowboard and ski population tend to rely on what they know and slopes can be dependable. As such people who were bound for Aspen will return to aspen (the largest part), people tend to ski what they know and it makes for a loyal crowd. Places like Aspen have in addition a social side and these two make for a dependable setting. And it is not that place. Likely places like Deer Mountain Village (South Dakota) have a similar stage. But this implies that America needs to regain most of their losses from the winter vacation people. At this point there is no predicting on how the winter locations will be hurt by what is called the “visa integrity fee” and now we get the visa bond which will hurt winter tourism as that is a young persons game and they are massively unlikely to dish out ‘US to charge some foreign travelers up to $23,000 in visa bonds’ (source: ABC News), as such there is no way to tell how it will affect winter tourism, yet I feel certain that Whistler (Canada, B.C.) and Blue Mountain (Canada, Ont.) will be able to accommodate these people, and beyond that there is Europe with their snowy hills (aka mountains). 

So, at present I feel that the damage is likely to be the conservative number I gave earlier and it might be higher, but there is no data on this. This is a setting that has never happened before and as America is getting confronted on the silly notion that you can keep any hotel filled to over 90%, that cluster of delusional thinkers are getting a massive boost of reality at present. Three days ago we were given Las Vegas is empty, given to us by a ‘tourist’ wearing a Vegas Golden Knights polo. Now we see: ““Las Vegas is empty”: Viral video sparks alarming questions about US tourism decline” this is a bit late, isn’t it? I predicted some of these elements almost a week earlier. I never discussed Las Vegas airport, but that should have been done by the local people and now we see “Viral video sparks alarming questions”? How delusional do you need to get to the ostrich effect (bury your head in the sand) to avoid clear settings? This is setting the larger stage (source: money control) “The viral moment comes on the heels of an official report by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), which noted a 6.5% drop in hotel occupancy and a fall in average room rates from $194 to $163. Even more alarming was a 41% year-over-year decline in traffic at Harry Reid Airport, according to the same report.” So, who had been sitting on these numbers? What doesn’t the American administrations want Americans want to know?

Simple question, yet are the answers as simple as it seems? When will Florida present the numbers and when will they sound the alarm? I simply crunched the numbers and I saw this a month ago (July 9th) in ‘Age of BS (Bill Sightseer)’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/07/09/age-of-bs-bill-sightseer/), as such where did you see this in American media? Only 14 hours ago, the American people were given ‘Orange County Tourist De­vel­opment Tax col­lec­tions surge 10.3% in June from a year ago’ and I need to give the larger setting. A Disney Tourist blogger gave us on May 25th “Epic Universe is almost empty. Dead. Devoid of guests. A ghost town.” Someone on YouTube gave a similar story but that is about it. Americans are allergic to bad news. I get that, none of us like this, but when the bills can no longer be paid as people al over Florida get the axe is news people need to know, but that might just be me. 

So the stage isn’t set, it is implied. A set stage has proper numbers and the media is giving half stories (as I personally see it) but the signs are clear. This doesn’t make it set stage, a mere implied stage and when the numbers come out in Q4 2025, a lot of people get a rude awakening and when they have invested in a bad and breakfast solution they might require a larger stage to survive the 3-8 quarters that follow. There is no way to be more precise than that.

Try to have a great day today.

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August 5, 2025 · 13:12

Where the coins are

Yup, there it is, I said it. The article (at https://ara.tv/4eecj) gives us ‘US, Saudi Arabia hold high-level defense meeting at the Pentagon’ and right of the bat, we are ‘fed’ a lie (as I see it). We are given “The Pentagon’s top policy chief called Saudi Arabia a “critical, longstanding defense partner” working to become more capable and self-reliant.” Why is it a lie? Well, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been waiting for inclusion into the F-35 program. So, even as Belgium is included into that program, they are still awaiting delivery. Belgium a European nation that was overrun by the German army in 18 days (it took so long as most German soldiers were on foot or on bicycle) that country is more prestigious than Saudi Arabia? #JustSaying

I reckon it is the reason that China is making massive headways into the Arabic nations. And there it is, the additional quote ““The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a critical, longstanding defense partner for the United States that seeks to grow more capable and self-reliant in its defense. We are working hard to partner with Saudi Arabia to enable it to do so,” Colby said in a post on X.” I wonder when the defense department relies on X instead of the world wide news to disperse that information. It is a hard thing to comprehend.

I reckon that America is so desperate for cash (now that they damaged their tourism industry) that they can only turn to China and Saudi Arabia for additional funds. As Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil, the UAE was overlooked. But the setting is here America needs coins and as such I would have thought that someone in the Pentagon (it is rumored that this is managed by people at 1690 Air Force Pentagon, Washington, DC 20330-1670)

That being said, someone should have whispered to them to include Saudi Arabia to the F-35 list, but who am I saying this? I am still happy to get a nice bonus from the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) (at No. 88, Weiyi Road, Huang Tianba, Qingyang District, Chengdu City, Sichuan, China, postal code 610091) If you can’t beat them, join them I say. And I was always happy to get a nice (optionally fat) check. The new apartment will set me back $7M and there is the need to get some cash to the UAE (my optional Yas Island retirement location), as such bringing a customer the size of Saudi Arabia might get me my dream retirement.

As such you might wonder why this byline? That is easy as we are given “Colby welcomed Saudi efforts to build up its self-defense capabilities and “to make greater contributions toward achieving shared regional objectives,” Parnell added. The meeting came amid a series of recent US arms sales to the Kingdom. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved a $3.5 billion weapons deal that included 1,000 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and 50 AIM-120C-8 guidance sections.” I say that either Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby has a doofus (aka dodo) as a personal assistant, or he has been missing briefs for years. Saudi Arabia steered to self reliance in several fields (including defense) even before 2019, so the response you read before might be seen as nothing less than a joke. As for the ‘funds’ already spend, as I see it, Chan is just as willing to receive such payment for its abilities for Saudi Arabia to defend itself. I get that there is one stronger and one weaker. But I do not know who that is between these two. As such it might be anyones guess. I suggest you ask someone at Raytheon who has the better equipment and why.

So it is nice to see this article and there is no blame on AlArabiya, but until it refers to America seeing Saudi Arabia as a full fledged partner in global defense by selling them the F-35, these stories come across like that moment in Oliver Twist asking for some more. Charles Dickens wrote about that little orphan in 1838, so it might have been a while. Still the setting of America bothers me, not the meeting with Saudi Arabia, but the building of not-so-good moments in several areas in America going from tariffs to tourism. America is bleeding and through their own actions they are bleeding allies just as quickly as anything else. Not even the penguins on McDonald Island are happy to see President Trump.

So as we are given the final quote ““Both leaders recognized US-Saudi defense cooperation as a force multiplier for regional security, and reviewed opportunities to deepen cooperation,” said Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman.” Well, as a non-Pentagon source might I suggest including Saudi Arabia as another party for the F-35? That should deepen cooperation by a lot. #JustSaying

It is moments like these that I wholly embrace the old saying “Sarcasm is great, when it backfires it become irony” and that is important too, so just in case AlArabiya is hungry for more stories, the address of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation can be found in the story. 

Have a great day this Tuesday, it’s still Monday in Vancouver, so they get this article in about 14 hours.

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August 3, 2025 · 17:59

The need of some

That is what I see, the need of some. You see, as far as I can tell, we see all kinds of pretenders (especially around Gaza and Palestine) but for the most, these losers are all about the limelight and none of them are about resolving anything. They go on binges around anti-Israel events, they go on binges around Palestine, but in the end, they merely like the limelight. Yes, it is getting to me. For the most I am on the “Eradicate Hamas” train. But there is a setting that needs illumination. You see I have already done this 3-4 times over the last two years. Arab News gave us yesterday (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2610380/saudi-arabia) ‘KSrelief extends support to 5 nations in need’ actual events that the west is oblivious about. KSrelief has done plenty in the Arabic settings and now we see that Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Pakistan and Lebanon are getting help and I reckon that some of this has been going on for some time. 

We are getting that “In Yemen’s Aden governorates, the agency concluded a week-long general surgery project recently, during which 18 volunteers performed 26 operations.” It comes with the additional “KSrelief also launched the distribution of 6,000 cartons of dates in Yemen’s Al-Mahrah governorate, benefiting 42,000 displaced and vulnerable people — part of a broader plan to distribute 625,000 cartons across 12 governorates.” You can read the rest in the article. What I do want to give you is the end, which is “Since its launch in May 2015, KSrelief has implemented 3,612 projects worth more than $8.1 billion across 108 countries, in partnership with more than 325 organizations.” As I see it, KSrelief has achieved more in 10 years than the United Nations has in over 25 years. There is a chance that I am getting it wrong, but that is the political side of this that we are seen BS on many levels even though we get through AlJazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/26/israel-says-its-distributing-aid-in-gaza-so-why-are-people-starving) where we get ‘Israel says it’s distributing aid in Gaza, so why are people starving?’ Where we are given “Israel claims that shortfalls are occurring because much of the aid lies “rotting in the sun” because the UN has not distributed it. Israel’s military radio, Kan, recently reported that the Israeli army has burned or buried some 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid that it deemed spoiled or expired.” I personally feel that it is a setting of she said versus she said and the media cannot be trusted to give us the truth. There are too many games played by the United Nations and by Hamas. This is a personal feeling, but there are too many factors and in earnest none of them can be trusted. I don’t trust the Israeli side, I do not trust the UN side, not the BBC side and certainly nothing that Hamas gives us. 

Yet what is done and I feel that I can trust this is what Arab News gives us about KSrelief and I feel I can trust what I see on these fields. The assistance that KSRelief gives us in these last 10 years sits well with me. My problem is that I hope that the western media will give KSrelief that they deserve. I feel that I am about the only non-muslim that is paying attention to what they do. 

I went through the first 5 pages of links searching for KSrelief and none of them are western media. It is basically despicable to see such non-caring and I personally blame the western need for digital dollars. We might ‘hide’ behind that things are more complex and that is fine, but at present Saudi Arabia is getting aid to 5 places that seemingly are ignored by western media. Mostly I stay away from Gaza issues as I was there in 1982 and I have had my fill of it, It is a drawn setting of something I do not understand. It is prolonged by politics I do not consider valid and politics that seems weird (optionally because I do not understand it) But I was there (44 years ago) and nowadays I still do not understand it and don’t try to convince me as most people are shouting what they read, but what you read is basically false, so there. Yet KSrelief is giving us the setting that matters and even as it seems trivial they are getting help to the people who need it, one package at a time and in this we see That in these 5 nations they brought relief and aided over 50,000 people. That is real assistance and it might not be enough, but it is a start and in the end they will have given “a broader plan to distribute 625,000 cartons across 12 governorates” in Yemen, a setting that is working, and as I see it more was achieved than the United Nations, now my thought might be off here, it is fair to say that, but at present we see all these political settings and we do not see any actual results in Yemen. That is what the thoughts get to when we see the media. There is a larger need other instances to show us what is done, the media is not giving them to us, so who can? Perhaps Arab News could follow through with an expose as to what the United Nations achieve and what KSrelief gets done. The issue is that at present KSrelief has implemented 3,612 projects worth more than $8.1 billion across 108 countries. Whilst on the side of the UN (regarding the UN) we are given “From 2014 to 2020, U.N. agencies spent nearly $4.5 billion in Gaza, including $600 million in 2020 alone” seemingly it isn’t working in Gaza, so what did they achieve in Yemen? These question are important, because as I see it the UN is merely a political beast and no one knows what funds are used and what makes it to these people out there. We might get images of rotting food at Rafah, yet what is true remains to be seen and too many media is a political tool for the ones that care of self, not of the victims. 

And that needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed soon. I personally believe that any media guilty of spreading disinformation needs to be held to account and with that the media guilty needs to be blocked from transmitting and other needs to give voice to these media players to be cut short from transmitting. I know it is a tall order and I have no idea how to do that (verification of data) but something needs to be done. For the same setting is the question of I am a source of information or a source of disinformation. It will be a fair question, because I no longer know and my visit to rafah in 1982 is no guarantee that I am giving information regarding Gaza. I feel that Arab News is correctly informing me regarding KSrelief, but that is all. 

We need to see where aid is required and the media needs to illuminate this, not illuminate the path that it is giving regarding what the media stakeholders what us to know and how much we are told. That is all.

So I apologise is this writing is a little all over the place, but there are issues with this setting. I hope I made at least that clear. So have a great day and try to find some joy this Sunday.

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August 2, 2025 · 21:20

As Hogwarts expands

That is the setting. We are given ‘Miral extends deadline for tender to build Abu Dhabi’s ‘Harry Potter’ land’ (at https://blooloop.com/theme-park/news/miral-construction-tender-harry-potter-land-abu-dhabi/) the quote is that “Miral has extended a bid submission deadline for a tender to build the new Harry Potter-themed land at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi on Yas Island. Per a report from Middle East media publishing company MEED, the deadline has been extended from 28 July to 4 August.” Implying that next week the Start of a  $545 million – $816m expansion is due to begin. And in addition we are given “Three new rides in Harry Potter land Miral announced the Middle East’s first Harry Potter-themed land in 2022. It will feature iconic locations from the Wizarding World, as well as three new rides, retail outlets, and F&B facilities. The 40,000 M2 addition to Warner Bros. World will join six existing zones in the park – Warner Bros. Plaza, Bedrock, Dynamite Gulch, Cartoon Junction, Gotham City and Metropolis.” As such The staff of Hogwarts will have to endure a rush of people howling “Yabadabadoo” whilst assaulting the death eaters. These death eaters are in a pincer setting as the other side will be shouting “Yibbity-Yabbity-Doo!”, those poor death eaters won’t know what hit them (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)

And as I see it, the quote “Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of Miral, said: “This is yet another testament to our commitment to continue to position Yas Island as a top global destination for entertainment and leisure, and a great addition to Abu Dhabi’s tourism offerings, contributing to the growth and economic diversification of the emirate.”” Is not entirely accurate. It is that international tourism will see Abu Dhabi as a much more appealing destination and with the ‘idiocy’ (as I personally see it) settings that America is setting with immigration, the costly ‘visa integrity fee’ and several other settings. So as I see it, Universal just dished out $7.7 billion USD (Hogwarts is merely a part of it) and the other park in Orlando will have a rather large problem. With the Hogwarts expansion, Yas Island becomes the most appealing choice for a whole flock of tourists, now definitely deciding that there will be a viable alternative for Orlando, and when Disney arrives in 2027/2028 also on Yas Island, Florida will see the largest downfall in economy they have ever had. When millions of tourists will select Abu Dhabi over Florida, the rest will become a mere escalation of something you could have seen coming miles away. But not to worry, I had the setting in view even as the media seems to be coming up short. In addition Abu Dhabi has the Formula 1® Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 4-7 December 2025. I have no idea yet when the 2026 race is on, but for a lot of people combining the two would be preferable. Also there is a lot more around Yas Island. And the UAE has a much better visa setting where it is offered at a mere fraction of what America offers it. The setting was debatable (at best) when America was the only option, but that hasn’t been the case for almost 4 years. So now as America is bleeding money in almost every direction, the people in Europe, Canada, UK, India, Australia, New Zealand and China will consider Abu Dhabi and Yas Island as their destination in 2026, 2027 and 2028. So how many million of people will seek their preferred choice in EuroDisney (Paris), Efteling (Netherlands) and parks in Belgium, Sweden and several others. A setting that was there from the start. 

A setting that will also propel the UAE as a global tourist destination. They already were that, but the millions of Harry Potter fans had Florida, London and Tokyo in their sight, with Abu Dhabi added to the HP arsenal, I reckon that Florida (at present) is allegedly decently  much done for.

Have a great day and when in Abu Dhabi try the Emirati Chabab, it is a famous dish and decently yummy. 

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August 1, 2025 · 23:28

The Nintendo Charge

Nintendo makes another blitz record, it is not the first one, but this one is one for the record books. The story (at https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-has-sold-6-million-switch-2-consoles-and-almost-the-same-number-of-mario-kart-world/) gives us ‘Nintendo has sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and almost the same number of Mario Kart World’ as for my excuse not being part of that cluster is simple. I just don’t have the money at present. Nintendo played a near perfect awareness game. They went global with the teaser, they followed up with YouTube video’s and gave online presence. When Zero-hour was here. The streets were aligned around shops who sold it with people. We all wanted one, even the ones that couldn’t afford one. And there was a lot of interest. The expanded memory, larger screen, higher resolution, snap click controllers with magnets and the controller was also used as a mouse. 256GB against the 32GB of the original Switch. Basically everything was stronger. One exception, the battery life seemingly is not. I run my Switch on the TV, so I won’t ever see this one issue. And on the TV, you now get 4K. Cheaper than either Xbox or PS5 (not by that much) Nintendo made the record books yet again. In the first 7 weeks the Nintendo sold 6 million Switch 2 consoles and the real screamer is that nearly all of them got Mario Kart World, it sold 5.63 million copies. That is huge. I saw the videos and I would get that as my first game too. 

So when we se all this we tend to think, what is next? But that is it, this setting will hurt Sony as well as Microsoft to some degree. People can no longer afford it all and when they get a Switch 2, their coffers are nearly empty as such, no direct sales for either Sony or Microsoft. Microsoft with its Game Pass will have an advantage over Sony (for the first time) and it will not be as hindered by Nintendo as Sony is, but they too will feel the pain. I reckon that this will continue straight through Christmas 2025. Because those who can not afford it at present, will work harder to get one before or at this Christmas (hopefully me too). 

So whilst we get the quote “Despite being a launch title and being constrained by its user base, Mario Kart World is the series’ second biggest launch behind Mario Kart Wii.” And that makes sense. I see the improvements and the plusses that Mario Kart World is bringing and I reckon that this game alone is the largest push to get the Nintendo Camera as well. It goes further, As of June 30, 2025, the Nintendo Switch has sold a total of 153.10 million units worldwide. This makes it the third best-selling video game console of all time and now add the 6 million Switch 2 systems and we see that Nintendo is overtaking Microsoft by storm. Consider that at present Xbox Series X/S (2020): Estimated over 28 million units as of June 2024. This implies that Switch 2 is already at 21% of Xbox Series X/S lifetime sales. And the Switch already surpassed that. This sets the  Microsoft systems in third position and should Amazon agree to my terms Microsoft becomes the 4th player. Not bad after spending Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. That was money well spend wasn’t it? And should Amazon agree to surpass Microsoft too, that 68 billion dollar anchor will weigh harshly on their actions. The funny part is that neither Sony or Nintendo had to pay that much for anything they bought (as far as I know). And there is more (there always is) Nintendo is should of breaking its own record of the Nintendo DS which sold 154 million consoles. The Switch is now less then a million away from that record. It is anyones guess how far the Switch 2 will make it, but as I see it the numbers are in favor of Switch replacing a lot of systems within the next year. Nintendo said there were no changes to its financial forecast for this fiscal year, which is to sell 15 million consoles by March 2026. I tend to think that this number will be broken in several ways by Christmas 2024. That is before we consider the pleasing notions of all the Harry Potter fans who will be driven to this game on the Switch 2 as well. Yes, Nintendo is about to break record and this is the first time that I am saying this, but Nintendo is now approaching the pole position that Sony holds, as such they will have to up their game considerably if they do not want to be taken over by Nintendo, because that is no longer impossible. I don’t think Sony was ready to see the Switch family as a threat to their number one position, but that is the setting that they face in 2026, as such I wonder what Sony will come up with next. 

The armistice race on consoles tends to be a fulfilling one and there is the second step. When Nintendo get that done, it will find more gamers switching to their side. Although I have always stated that the Nintendo is the system you get next to your usual console, I still believe that and as such Nintendo tends to have great options. I merely wonder when Hogwarts Legacy 2 is released will it be released on day one for Switch 2 too? You might think that this doesn’t matter, but it does. It will be the first moment when Nintendo will have surpassed Sony and that is the kind of news that is massive in its own right. Sony released its PlayStation on December 3, 1994, it went straight to the top from the start and it will have taken Nintendo 32 years to overtake Sony and that is not something to think lightly of. I certainly am not. 

So, I merely have this to say “Well done Nintendo”

Have a great day today 

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August 1, 2025 · 04:58

The accusers

I saw a message fly past and it took me by surprise. It was CNBC (aka Capitalistically Nothing but Crap) and the accusation was ‘Microsoft and Amazon are hurting cloud competition, UK regulator finds’ (at https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/uk-cma-cloud-ruling-microsoft-amazon.html) with “The regulator is concerned that certain cloud market practices are creating a “lock-in” effect where businesses are trapped into unfavorable contractual agreements.” So, that’s a thing now? The operative word is concerned. So, is this the way former Amazon UK boss, Doug Gurr, on an interim basis is showing the world that he released the chain and necktie from Amazon?

There is ‘some’ clustering and as the setting is advocated by some the score at present is “AWS holds approximately 29-31% market share, while Microsoft Azure has around 22-24%, and Google Cloud holds about 11.5-12%” The only surprising thing here is that Google is remarkably behind Microsoft by a little over 10%. Nothing to be worried about, but still the numbers set this out. The infuriating setting by the the CMA giving us “The CMA recommended a further investigation into Microsoft and Amazon under a strict new U.K. competition law to determine whether they have “strategic market status.” I am not ‘attacking’ the CMA, but as the old credence goes “Innovators create corporations, losers create hindrance for others” I suggest you take that as it goes. 

Yet there is more behind this all. Forbes gave us last week ‘Microsoft Can’t Keep EU Data Safe From US Authorities’ (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2025/07/22/microsoft-cant-keep-eu-data-safe-from-us-authorities/) where we see “Microsoft has admitted that it can’t protect EU data from U.S. snooping. In sworn testimony before a French Senate inquiry into the role of public procurement in promoting digital sovereignty, Anton Carniaux, Microsoft France’s director of public and legal affairs, was asked whether he could guarantee that French citizen data would never be transmitted to U.S. authorities without explicit French authorization. And, he replied, “No, I cannot guarantee it.”” And this is how Microsoft faces a near death sentence by the American administration. So much so that Microsoft seemingly is creating a data centre solely for the EU. Julia Rone gave us last year (late 2024) “It has been well acknowledged that the European Union is falling behind the US and China when it comes to cloud computing because of its lack of technological capabilities. In a recently published article, however, I argue that there is another important and often overlooked reason for EU’s laggard status: the persistent disagreement between different EU member states, which have very different visions of EU cloud policy.” I take that at face value, as I am considering (through mere speculation) that these member states are connected to American stake holders in media trying to hinder the process, but that is another matter.

So as we see ““Microsoft has openly admitted what many have long known: under laws like the Cloud Act, US authorities can compel access to data held by American cloud providers, regardless of where that data physically resides. UK or EU servers make no difference when jurisdiction lies elsewhere, and local subsidiaries or ‘trusted’ partnerships don’t change that reality,” commented Mark Boost, CEO of cloud provider Civo.” It makes me wonder how America is different from the accusations that America threw in the face of Huawei. It is like the pot calling the kettle black. And this also gives wonder where the accusation against Amazon and Microsoft ends, because the cloud field is seemingly loaded with political players. They all see that data is the ultimate currency and America (as it is near broke) needs a lot of it to pay for the lifestyle they can no longer afford. In Europe the one that stands out (at least to me) is a firm I looked at in 2023 and it is growing rapidly. It is Swedish and not connected to any of the three and could become the largest in Europe. Its long-term vision involves operating eight hyper-scale data centers and three software development hubs across Europe by 2028, employing over 3,000 people. By 2030, the company aims to operate 10 hyper-scale data centers and employ over 10,000 people. There is too much focus on 2030, as I see it the American economy collapses on itself no later than 2028 and as I speculatively see it, it will drag Japan down with itself. That setting required a larger acceleration in both Europe and Asia as America will not play nice as per late 2026. At that point too many people will see where showboat America is heading too and the reefs in that area will be phenomenal. So, as I see it, the entire political swarm behind data centers and fictive AI will require a whole new range of management and I reckon that players like Amazon and Microsoft have never been dealt these cards before, so I shudder to think what will happen when it faces accusations from the EU, the CMA and others. This aligns with the accusation (from one source) giving us “An antitrust complaint filed by Google to the European Commission in September 2024, alleging that Microsoft’s licensing terms unfairly favor its own Azure cloud platform, making it difficult and expensive to use Microsoft software like Windows Server and Office on competing clouds.” I wonder, didn’t Microsoft played a similar game with gaming?

So whilst the infighting is going on on a continued setting, I wonder where Oracle will end up being? As I see it this is rather nice, but I am accusing myself at this point that we aren’t face with a tidal wave, but merely with 5 cups of tea all stating there is a storm happening and whilst the teacups are talking to each other and showing how bad the storm is, the reality is that it is not smooth sailing, but seemingly as close to it as possible. For that you need to see where Evroc is standing, where it is going and how fast it is achieving this. The second market is Oracle, how it is progressing and who it is partnered with (pretty much everyone) and these two elements show us that there are governmental captains stating that their pond is in a dreadful state (whilst presenting their cup of tea as a much larger pool then it is) the corporate captain stating there is a storm brewing, but absent of evidence and the media is flaming every storm it can so that they can get their digital dollars. But consider that Oracle is presenting good weathers and there are alternatives whilst the media actively avoid illuminating Evroc, with only TechCrunch giving us in March “Amid calls for sovereign EU tech stack, Evroc raises $55M to build a hyper-scale cloud in Europe” there were a few more and they are all technical places. The western media is largely absent as there are no digital dollars to be made here.

So consider what you see and try to see the larger picture, because there is a lot more, but some players don’t want you to see the whole image, it distorts their profit prediction. So did you see the little hidden snag? Where is Huawei cloud? Whilst this is going on ‘Huawei hosts conference on cloud technology in Egypt’ where we see that “the event drew more than 600 government officials, business leaders, and ecosystem partners from over 10 countries and regions”, as I see it, this is a classic approach to the “While two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it” expression. So consider that part too please.

Have a great day.

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July 31, 2025 · 10:22

Drowning in misrepresentation

That is the setting as I personally believe it to be. The problem isn’t me, the problem is that politicians are clueless and as such the people will end up suffering. As we get the article (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/30/zuckerberg-superintelligence-meta-ai) telling us ‘Zuckerberg claims ‘super-intelligence is now in sight’ as Meta lavishes billions on AI’ the dwindling situation is overlooked. This is not on Meta or on Mark the innovator Zuckerberg, well, perhaps it is a little on him. But the setting of “Whether it’s poaching top talent away from competitors, acquiring AI startups or proclaiming that it will build data centers the size of Manhattan, Meta has been on a spending spree to boost its artificial intelligence capabilities for months now”. So, what are you missing? It is easy to miss it and unless you are savvy in data, there is absolutely no blame on you. I will blame politicians shoving the buck to a pile that has no representation and I do see that the political mind is merely ‘money savvy’, it does not have an alleged clue on data verification. There is a second point, it was given to me by someone (I don’t remember who) who gives us “All AI startups are their own shells linking to ChatGPT” I see the wisdom of that, but I never investigated that myself. You see, all these shells have issues with verification and these startups don’t have the resources to properly verify the data they have, so you end up having a bucket with badly arranged and misliked data. You would think that if they all link to ChatGPT it is a singular issue, but it is not. Language is one, interpretation of what is, is another side and these are merely two sides in a much larger issue. And hiding behind “build data centers the size of Manhattan” is nothing else than a massive folly. You see, what will power this? Most places in this world have a clear shortage of power and any data centre relying on power that isn’t there will crash with some regularity and these data links are maintained in real time, so links will go wrong again and again. And that link is seen by ‘some’ as “A new study of a dozen A.I. -detection services by researchers at the University of Maryland found that they had erroneously flagged human-written text as A.I. -generated about 6.8 percent of the time, on average” that implies that 1 in 15 statements are riddles with errors and there is no way around it until the verification passes are sorted out. Consider that one source gives us “monthly searches to more than 30.4 million during the last month”, this gives us that AI events resulted in 2,026,666 possible erroneous results and when that happens to something that was essential to your needs? When technical support and customer care fails because the number, aren’t right? How long will you remain a customer? That is the folly I am foreseeing and when all these firms (like Microsoft) are done shedding their people and they realise that the knowledge they actually had was pushed out of the side door? Where does this leave the customers? Will they remain Microsoft, Amazon, IBM or Google customers? This is about to hit nearly every niche in America business. The ones that held on the their people knowledge base tend to be decently safe, but the resources needed to clean up the mess that this created will scuttle the European and American economies as they overextended the new they spun themselves and when reality catches up, these people will see the dark light of a self created nightmare.

So in retrospect consider “Behind the hype of Microsoft backing and a $1B+ valuation, the company reportedly inflated numbers, burned through ~$450M funding, and collapsed into insolvency.” This setting was hyped on every channel and praised as a solution. It took less then a year to go from a billion to naught. How many even have a billion? Considering that Microsoft backed it, implies that they were unaware how they were, driven by a simple setting that should have been verified before they even backed it to over a $1,000,000,000 plus.

Now, we can feel sorry for Zuckerberg, not for the money, he probably has more in his wallet, but the ones wanting in on such a ‘great endeavor’ are bound to lose everything they own. This is a very slippery slope and as governments are seeing what some call as AI as a solution to solve a expensive setting in a cheap way are likely to lose the ownership of data of their entire population and these systems do not care who the owner is, they copy EVERYTHING. So where will that data end up going? I wonder who looked at the ownership of collected data and all the errors it has within itself.

The fear is not what it costs, but for billions of people is where their information will end up being and these politicians sell ‘sort of solutions’ which they cannot back with facts and in the end it will end up being the problem of a software engineer and that setting was too complicated to understand for any politician who was too eager to put his name under this and merely will shrug saying ‘I’m sorry’ whilst he is exiting through any side door with his personal wallet filled to the brink to a zero tax nation with a non-extradition treaty.

A setting we will see the media repeat time after time without seriously digging into the mess as they told us “Wall Street investors are happy with the expensive course Zuckerberg is charting. After the company reported better-than-expected financial results for yet another quarter, its stock soared by double digits.” All whilst the statement “Zuckerberg did not provide any details of what would qualify as “super-intelligence” versus standard artificial intelligence, he did say that it would pose “novel safety concerns”. “We’ll need to be rigorous about mitigating these risks and careful about what we choose to open source,”” is trivialized to the largest degree and in all this there is no setting of verification. Weird isn’t it? 

So feel free to enjoy you cub of toffee and don’t worry about the jacked setting of demonstration which was tracked by the original AI as “enjoy your cup of coffee and don’t worry about the impact of verification” because that is the likely heading of the coming super-intelligence

Have a great day (not have a grate clay).

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