Category Archives: Politics

Changing tracks

CBC informed me a few hours ago that(at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-alstom-train-deal-1.7609756) that ‘Toronto pursuing sole-sourced deal for new TTC trains in wake of U.S. tariffs’, so this is another fine mess that Trump left America. It might be seen as the cost of doing business, but consider the amount of business that America lost and is still losing against what they made. And you need to see this in additional light of what the department of labor statistics I also giving the American people. I don’t mind. I reckon that Canada could easily get this stuff from Australia or the United Kingdom, as such no biggie for Canada. As such there might be a need to get both involved as it concerns “Officials say deal is for 70 trains to run on Line 2 and for Yonge North, Scarborough extensions”, a setting where both leading to all three profiting on this deal alone. In light of “In a news release issued Friday morning, officials said both the federal and provincial governments, alongside the city, gave the TTC the go-ahead to pursue a single-source contract “in the face of U.S. tariffs and economic uncertainty” in order to support Ontario workers.” So, Canada needs to pick one of them, either will do, yet we also need to see that France is a viable option for Canada. Their subways have been running (not walking, but operating) for more than a century. In 2024 it transported over 1.5 billion passengers. As such Canada seemingly has three options. Of course I am biased as a Commonwealthian and I would prefer to see this deal go to either Australia or the United Kingdom, but it is what Canada needs is what counts and they are telling us that America is no longer a viable option. 

Ands as we are given “Officials say the base procurement is for 70 six-car train sets in total — 55 to replace aging trains on Line 2, and 15 trains for the Yonge North and Scarborough extensions.” I reckon that both Australia and the UK are chomping at the bits to get into this deal. In addition we are given “The Ford government had expressed its desire to see the train cars built in the province amid the ongoing trade war with the U.S. All three levels of government have committed money to buy the new rolling stock, which is expected to cost some $2.3 billion.” As such there is an additional need to get them built in Ontario, but there is the setting. These parts might be ‘built’ in another place and completed (see assembly, adjusted, and painted in Canada) as such there is a larger setting to give the Commonwealth the larger setting. And this approach will give the Commonwealth a setting for other regions. So this does not hurt the approach that is given through ““Our government is proud to protect Ontario from U.S tariffs by ensuring the TTC’s Line 2 subway trains will be made in Ontario, by Ontario workers,” said Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria in a statement. The current, almost 30-year-old trains, as regular commuters will tell you, are nearing the end of their lifespan and are vastly different from the Toronto Rocket trains that service Line 1. ” It doesn’t matter how this plays out, the important setting (for me) is that America is stumped out of a race yet again. And that needs the proper illumination. So how many American jobs would be endangered to this setting? 

It is a virtual little circle in here. We deprive America from getting the jobs and America remains in denial and tells the world that it is doing well. How much longer do they think they can maintain this delusional illusion? 

So whilst Canada is changing tracks we are starting to see the cracks in the delusions that America is trying to show us through film flam artists. So whilst the ‘world’ is wondering whether ABC giving us “The war in Ukraine will continue and Vladimir Putin has outmaneuvered yet another US president.” Whilst news.com.au gives us “Vladimir Putin was treated to a show of US military might when he arrived in Alaska for his high-stakes talks with Donald Trump, with a row of aircraft proudly lined up on display in view of the leaders’ motorcade.” As such, which version do you want to hang onto? So is this a PR masterclass, or should someone ask President Volodymyr Zelensky what is happening to the Ukraine? Did America do right by him, or is Europe seeing another example of what needs to be done? It matters, as the Trump Administration is seemingly abandoning Ukraine, it will be in hands of Europe to make progress and as such The Canadian trains cannot fall in the hands of America. This needs to be in hands of the Commonwealth and the hands of Europe. With the hardship they are about to face, we need to make sure that their wallets gets filled with all kinds of jobs. The trains might be an indicator, but the larger story tends to be “Broke superpowers aren’t anything” and that needs to be said. And when you realize that America is playing a juggling game with Energy requirements, nonexistent AI, manufacturing jobs lost and rare earth requirements and they are juggling so that you can’t see the full picture. That is the job of the film flam operator and as we realise that each of these jobs are time sliced we get to see that we merely get to see that any job gets a mere 25% of the time slice. Are you catching on?

Have a great day today.

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The small stuff

That is where we need to look, the small stuff. In the first there is the BBC, who gives us a story that seems nice in one setting, but in the other setting we need to ask ourselves serious questions. Now as a warning I need to give you a fair warning. I am a person of ‘decent’ taste. Yet in tis universe you have people that are ‘allowed’ to give fashion knowledge and I couldn’t be further away from that cluster anywhere else in this universe. So, when you seek fashion advice. I am not part of that cluster, so be aware. As I said the BBC has the first setting (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zwdy98k8o) where we see ‘Claire’s falls into administration with 2,150 jobs at risk’ and the hidden gem is already there. You see when we see “Fashion accessories chain Claire’s has collapsed into administration in the UK and Ireland, putting 2,150 jobs at risk. The company has 278 shops in the UK and 28 in Ireland but has been struggling with falling sales and fierce competition.” Now consider a simple truth. 278 shops. Now it is seen as a little speciality, yet how many fashion accessory shops are there? Now consider that there was a setting that the quality of life would be dwindling down as it has been for around 20 years. So in what universe does it make sense to have a cluster of 278 shops? In a world where there are “Over 10,000 businesses in the broader Clothing Retailing sector. This includes everything from large chains to smaller boutiques and specialized stores.” So, this has been going on for the better part of a decade and Claire’s could have been dwindling down for half a decade, but they didn’t and now they collapsed into Administration and put 2150 jobs at risk. So, as we are now given “Caitlin, 21 (left) and Amy, 16 (right) from Oxfordshire were shopping at Claire’s in central London on Wednesday and said the news was “quite sad because people have been going there since they were little. It’s a part of my childhood personally, said Caitlin, said she used to go a lot when she was around 11 years old.”” So, how was that realistic? I get it, we all want our knick knacks and that cluster can be found on both side of the specter of genders, But as we see it this group largely caters to one gender. This is not an issue, but with the dwindling down of the quality of life you cannot hide behind “But it is only £5-£7” in an age where many people have to turn over every penny to make it through the month. Don’t think I am ‘heartless’ (I kinda am) and people should be able to afford that once a month, but that is a far stretch from ‘once a week’, as such the setting was already a decrease of 75%, as such steps had to be taken years ago, but the ego of the people behind Claire’s had to intervene years ago. So what gives people the idea to make a ‘terrible’ setting from this?

The (sort of) hilarious stage from “The move in the UK comes after it filed for bankruptcy in the US earlier this month, where the firm said it was suffering from people moving away from bricks-and-mortar shops. The firm has $690m (£508m) of debt.” What were these ego trippers hoping for Unicorns? The setting from a $690 million gives a straight setting to my point of view. So whilst it is nice to give two people a voice, the setting is that every woman from 15-21 should be handed £5 to spend at Claire’s and when you see that isn’t possible you can clearly see that the people behind Claire’s should have acted years ago and not hide behind the wish for unicorns. Not when you are a mere 2.78% of a group and you are $690 million in debt. Seems a little short sighted doesn’t it? So, when we get “Claire’s and Icing, and is owned by a group of firms, including investment giant Elliott Management.” We might consider the setting that investment giant Elliott Management had made a silly investment in an economic downturn of the people. Some win, some lose and they lost. It is as simple as that.

In that same setting the ending of the article is sort of hilarious when we consider ““A lot of that category is sourced from Asia, and any increase in import costs hits hard when your price points are low and margins are tight,” retail analyst Catherine Shuttleworth” It isn’t merely that, the setting is that there are less pennies for the cluster they were aiming for, for over a decade. I am willing to go one step further. This step could have been predicted since 2008. I am willing to lay a bet that people at Elliott Management would have ‘stated’ “This will turn around, the economy is expanding. Wait and you’ll see” That is my speculated view, and I am seemingly right, to wait until there was a debt of $690 million could be construed as evidence. 

So this is the first story, the second one is given to us by CBC. I have written about this side for over two weeks and here I have a few issues. The story reads correctly and I have no issues with the story itself, but it also hits on a few sides that has ‘shortfalls’ (as I personally see it). The story (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/las-vegas-tourism-canadian-slump-1.7607707) gives us ‘Las Vegas is hurting as tourism drops. Are Canadians behind the Sin City slump?’ There is a larger setting and we love to take credit at times as it is the right of Canadians. So when we see “Las Vegas is in the midst of a slump, with the number of tourists down sharply as Canadians in particular avoid Sin City amid bilateral bad blood over trade. The total number of visitors is off more than 11 per cent year-over-year, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, one of the most dramatic declines in recent memory outside of the pandemic.” After which we are given the numbers of “Drop in Canadian air travelers to Las Vegas” and these numbers are swallowed whole. My issue is that there we see less than 100K visitors, that’s fair and it matter, but the other side of the equation is that we see a top of 11%, so at what point do we get to the point that these 11% are in no way to be seen as the ‘hardship’ given to us, unless the 11% is a lot bigger than anticipated I reckon that we might see an 11% loss as Canadians avoiding Las Vegas and they are merely a small group of a much larger issue. If we now see a $15,000 bond for tourists, which might give us that 80% of all foreign tourists are avoiding America. You see, 89% of tourist should support the larger setting of Las Vegas, unless someone was living under the assumption that Las Vegas could continue to support itself with 92% filled. Now we get the betting place long out on a mere 3% shortfall, not the best betting setting for ‘the’ house, is it?

So when we are given the stage by MGM Resorts president and CEO Bill Hornbuckle said the number of Canadian visitors started to fall earlier this year and they hold some of the city’s top properties, such as Aria, Bellagio and the Cosmopolitan and part of the NHL rink, T-Mobile Arena. A dire setting for a company relying on 92% filling and coming up short 3% of that number. I reckon that more than one person are on the betting stage of numbers and when you come up short over the whole range by 3%, you will toll the bells of panic. 

Yet then we get the ‘goods’. You see, the numbers do not add up. We are given “As the director of the university’s business and economic research centre, he crunched the numbers and found Canadians contributed $3.6 billion US to the local economy last year. Canadian spending supported some 43,000 jobs in the region, more than those employed in the manufacturing sector, Miller said. That $3.6-billion figure comes close to the economic output of the local Nellis Air Force base — and that’s saying something, given it’s one of the largest and most important military installations in the U.S., with some 15,000 personnel.” In the first setting, some might find the ‘observation’ of “he crunched the numbers and found Canadians contributed $3.6 billion US to the local economy last year” I reckon they had to have these numbers clearly ahead of schedule as it sets the advertisement budgets (nearly everywhere) and if the loss of these numbers are set to 11%, the news is much worse than we get and the setting of Las Vegas is likely more dire than we are meant to believe. It implies that Asian and European visitors are connected to this and the losses are worse than given at present. And my view is warranted by other views. A source gives us that “Passenger volume at Harry Reid International Airport also declined 6.3%, from 5 million to 4.7 million” that number implies that the numbers are down from one source by over 300K visitors. I reckon that the bulk of tourists would come by plane. Another source gives us “Visitors to Las Vegas mainly come from Mexico (989,000 arrivals), Canada (886,000 arrivals), the United Kingdom (482,000 arrivals), Australia (152,000 arrivals), and Germany (125,000 arrivals).” That sounds nice, but the (as the expression goes) whales from Asia is the larger setting and when they stay away Las Vegas hurts a lot more. These 12 people represents millions of dollars and a decadent lifestyle. When that falls away the pressure isn’t merely 11%, it is a lot larger. The setting is a lot larger as we don’t have anything passed November 2024 yet and that is the larger setting as we get the larger stage of Visitor volume and convention attendance. I reckon that in Q4 2025 we are likely to get to see the larger downturn and when we get to losses of whales the larger truth of what Las Vegas is losing in income. As I see it, there is a larger truth behind the second part of the headline ‘Are Canadians behind the Sin City slump?’ I think they are part of it, but there is a larger truth hidden, America (basically its president) gave us all a headache and the fact that there are larger settings in play make it clear to me that it isn’t just Canada, there are more settings in play for Las Vegas and the news is a lot worse than anyone is willing to admit. The simpler setting (a highly speculative stage) that the loss of 100 Asian Moby Dicks represent almost the entire 11% loss that Las Vegas sees as represented, so the losses are a lot worse than given at present. When you consider that the ‘panic’ we see is more represented by 22% loss, a stage no one in Las Vegas wants to admit to is driving people like Bill Hornbuckle to near desperation, especially as his bonus is likely linked to ‘continuance’ of revenue.

So my speculation might be wrong but it seems to make sense. But I need to emphasize that my view is speculative.

Have a great day and don’t put it all on number 10 (it is crowded by labor). 

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The setting stage

There is a setting stage is sight, but is it truly a sewing stage? It is a valid question because these things matter. This who only see doom tend to be conspiracy sayers, not conspiracy slayers. We all have the rational of insight, but to what degree?

As I said in ‘The Implied stage’ five days ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/08/06/the-implied-stage/) that the expected damage to American Tourism would be a lot worse than $29 billion. I speculatively expect it to be at least 80 billion. Now we get in the first instance mere hours ago (at https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/las-vegas-tourism-figures-plummet-as-potential-us-downturn-looms/news-story/1a3f72933d35041549684453c0756cc2) “The figures coincide with a downturn in international tourism to the United States and come amid President Donald Trump’s intensifying trade war, which has frustrated travelers. Las Vegas saw around 400,000 fewer visitors in June 2025 compared with the same month in 2024.” This is only at the halfway point so the damage is still intensifying. We are seeing this in several articles all over the internet. Then we get, AS (aka Diario AS S.L.,  at https://en.as.com/latest_news/these-states-are-feeling-the-pain-the-number-of-canadians-travelling-to-the-us-has-dropped-by-more-than-30-n/) giving us “Data from Statistics Canada shows the number of people driving back to the Great White North from the U.S. in June was down 33.1% compared with the same month last year. It was the sixth consecutive month in which a year-over-year decline was recorded. As for air travelers, the same figure dropped by 22.1%.” Lets make this clear, this is just Canadian data, I reckon that globally there is a clear slump and the whole of America is feeling that slap and even as it is not everywhere as bad as it is, the impact on tourism related settings is massive and they all have to pay monthly bills. This is the the largest unexplored setting. So as News also gives us “The city’s fortunes, buoyed by its large gambling market and appeal to travelers with disposable income, are often seen as a bellwether for the broader US economy.” The one fact that is not seen here is that these hotels made investments and in that setting payments are due. So as we ignore the fact that these hotels might be going short for at least a year, we get a edited setting. A setting  where Las Vegas (and other places) will drain whatever they bring to the banks to overcome these shortfalls. In addition we are given ““This is a wake-up call for the US government,” said Julia Simpson, president of the World Travel & Tourism Council. “While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign.” The Trump administration did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment. While some industries have benefited from the tariffs, others have struggled and may be forced to pass costs on to customers. Some travelers have also pledged to avoid visiting the United States as a form of protest against the administration’s policies.” It is the last sentence “Some travelers have also pledged to avoid visiting the United States as a form of protest” I would be in this group as I take offense of our Canadian sisters (and brothers) being seen as part of the 51st state, as do most Canadians. Then there are the LGTBBQ groups that took offense to Florida taking a hostile stance on their lifestyle. Yes, I was making a funny, I don’t understand these groups, but I am not hostile to them. I don’t become violent to them, I tend to deflect with humor (or what I consider to be humor). 

That is the larger setting we all should have. There are too many hate groups all over the map. Anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, racial groups, the list goes on and as America showed that they were not ‘welcome’ they and their friends took offense and decided to go somewhere else. Now this might not amount to much, perhaps a 2% impact, but these are merely 3 groups and now we get to 6% and as they have larger groups of friends the impact merely increases. And friends are a weird group, they tend to feel that they do not want to be seen as ‘offensive’ to their friends and as such they have no problems with realigning their destination. As such Canadians go somewhere else and so do the Europeans. When you consider these elements there is no way that this damage is limited to $29 billion. And as they leave America, so will bed and breakfast places look at 30% less guests. They will suddenly have to fire staff all over the place making this tumble-block events all over the place. So, whilst we tend to focus on Orlando and Las Vegas as the impact is sene the clearest there, but take the larger tourist traps like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Miami they will all feel the pinch and the escalating of a downturned economy. 

Yet it isn’t all negative. Gambling News (at https://www.gamblingnews.com/news/las-vegas-casino-boss-challenges-claims-of-tourism-downturn/) gives us ‘Las Vegas Casino Boss Challenges Claims of Tourism Downturn’ I don’t believe he is right to the larger degree, but he makes a fair point. He gives us “Circa Resort & Casino CEO Derek Stevens argued that claims of declining interest in visiting Las Vegas do not apply across the board, describing the broader “Vegas is dying” narrative as overstated”, as well as “The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reports that 3.1 million people visited the city in June, which is 11.3% less than the same month last year. This has led some to think that fewer people want to visit. Yet Stevens said this is not true for all parts of the industry, calling the wider “Vegas is dying” story an exaggeration, reported Fox News.” He gives a fair point and I do not support the thoughts that FoxNews gives us all with “Vegas is dying”. As I see it, Vegas will get wounded, it will lose air, but it will not go down. When it all comes to blows Las Vegas will survive. Still Derek Stevens has a valid point that it will not hit across the board. Some will get hit harder, some less so. I reckon those who diversified their income settings have a much bigger chance to make it through. The one statement I disagree with is “He thought that by next year, both tourism and the broader Las Vegas economy would be on more solid ground.” I disagree because President Trump will at present remain in office until 2029 and if he doesn’t do an about face, America will suffer until at least 2028. By next year some other tourist places will gain momentum in part at present by all the people who took it as ‘an alternative’ will now see that their alternative was excellent and that will drive more people to alternative destinations. So many places will not be dead, but they will suffer the hardship of over-tourism getting replaced by a massive streak of under-tourism and there is a chance that it will set a new record explosion of crimes in America, so they will see what London has been experiencing for 5-10 years. We are given “In London, the most recent crime data (April 2024 – March 2025) indicates a rise in overall crime, with approximately 132.6 crimes per 1,000 people, according to Plumplot.” This implies that a tourist to London has a one in eight chance of getting robbed, or some other setting towards losing what they have. At that point people are reassessing their chances and when that comes to America, the tourist settings will merely dwindle down to a much larger degree. It is a new setting of cause and effect now to a string of domino’s. One domino pushed over the next and the next, but now we get a domino chain effect. The first domino pushes over the next which is up to 50% larger than the previous one, the second pushed over the third domino up to 50% larger than the second domino and so on. This stage is overlooked as people focus on one field but this setting is larger, it affects a lot more and that becomes an increasing scope. This is what I predicted 5 days ago and now we see the domino’s topple. I might have been ‘cautious’ with my $80 billion damage, I know that but as far as I can see it, I got there ahead of media (yet again) and when the people wake up because the media tried to keep them asleep there will be a larger impact. How is anyones guess and I have no clue because this is the kind of impact no one can really predict as there is no data aiding us. So how is AI helping you now? Will it have a meltdown calling itself a failure or will it show that capital punishment is the only solution? The fact that there is no data on this, is why I never considered it a solution, not yet anyway. 

So have a great day and I reckon that you need to look at where your next vacation should be, there is every chance that it will be the last vacation a lot of us will be able to afford for some time to come.

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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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Contemplations

We all have them and in this day and age we kinda need them. The idea that you are weighing issues that might not be important at first. I got to this stage in a few ways and they all relate (in my mind). It started with Denmark and their ‘fight’ for digital independence. 

This got Libreoffice on my retina’s 

I currently do not need it as my Mac comes with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, but I am always looking for a next challenge and as Australia is drowning in Ageism (I am no longer a teenager) getting a larger field of interest is not a bad thing. The additional setting is that Microsoft keeps on pissing people off and that could result in drastic acts from all kinds of people. So when the Commonwealth throws out Microsoft, there will be plenty of people needing people who have knowledge of something beside Microsoft. The smaller setting is that Libreoffice comes with Draw and a Database and I have been away from databases too long. As I see it there will be a need for people with data cleaning skills. This is an undeniable fact and that means my skills might come needed in the near future. As such these settings all mean that I will have to set a larger stage and I reckon that starting with LibreOffice is a first stage. So when areas of Europe goes ‘non-Microsoft’ There will be an optional need for me. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? 

In other news I started shaping my second script Residuam Vitam now. It will be a jumpy ride as this is the first mini-series I create and I am still getting the hand of Final Draft, so it will be a sort of rollercoaster ride to say the least. The script is still forming and so far I seem to get things wring in casting the right ‘illumination’, some parts of the script seem to get the format wrong, so I am doing something not correctly and that is the short and sweet of it, so whilst I am ‘shipping’ the script from blog original to script original I seem to be making a few ‘errors’ (or so I think) and that is also the need for the LibreOffice text component. It might give me the visibility of the format codes before I copy it back into Fina Draft, or so at least I hope.

The Mini series should be set over 6-8 episodes all an hour long. But it is still shaping and as such I have no idea how this fares in the end, and it is spread over dozens of blog writings going back to August 2021 and ending in February 2024. I reckon that over those times there will be gaps and that will be done in this stage as well. There is always the chance that Baron Samedi (or Maman Brigitte) might take offense, but I hope they will not. In that setting there are a few other players like Lady Jiang and that gives me options, because script wise I am using the tales and ‘myths’ of people that tends to be missed by others and I combine them, something that has been done before, but never with these people and as such I might have a new original out here.

Still, the ‘offset’ of text formats is a little infuriating, especially as I am doing it all in Final Draft. It is infuriating as I am making mistakes, or at least that is what it seems to be. We have been brainwashed to the larger degree by Microsoft settings we adhered to using MS Office that we forget to keep and open mind in resolving issues. Perhaps LibreOffice will aid in this new mental ploy. It is the new age. Microsoft got us to think in certain ways for decades and now that we ‘see’ that it is bad to be depending on one solution, we see that we lost a little more than we bargained for. This is not on us or on Microsoft. They did develop ideas and drawing air from the solutions handed to us and now, after decades when we consider that there must be another way we see that we are pushed in a mindset that favored them (which is fine) but we lost something along the way. I thought I had resolved part of this when I stated using the Adobe way of things. But that way also has its mentality to resolve things the Adobe way. It is how we tend to be wired. 

So what to contemplate?
First is the way we think around programs, you might think it is simple, but it is not, we get trained in thinking a certain way and when we are comfortable with that way of thinking we forget other options. It is said that the dangers of too much comfort include stagnation, a lack of personal and professional growth, and missed opportunities, preventing you from reaching your full potential. I kinda agree with this, but it is not that clear cut at times. In addition staying comfortable also hinders the development of resilience by keeping you from facing adversity and can create a cycle of self-doubt that makes you less likely to pursue dreams. This is said, but in this I disagree. I do not think there is a lack of development of resilience, it is merely the thought of looking the other way, the road less travelled. I have done this plenty of time and the ‘connecting’ path to pursue dreams is as I see it massively American. 

You don’t need to pursue dreams, you merely have to recognise these ‘dreamy’ moments as milestone you might encounter. Or to be ‘fashionable’ with the influencers Sydney Sweeney wasn’t wearing American Eagle for me, she merely felt good wearing them and American Eagle paid her handsomely for posing in them. I was never a factor. Influencers use her to tell me that this is what I wanted all along and it is not. OK, she is pretty, the advertisement is nice and that is it. I am utterly convinced she has never heard of me. Influencers are making you doubt this small certainty and people fall for that setting of doubt. So resilience of self delusion is part of that larger stage that you face. To go your own way (sorry Fleetwood Mac) and drive yourself where you WANT to go, not where others expect you to go. 

As such I will beat Ageism, I will beat stupid people as I am now working realising the completion of my second Script. Just two more to go after that and whether or not they become real is not the issue. It was the creation my version of self required me to complete. That was all. Yes, it is ‘intoxicating’ that my dram state sees Matt Damon and Ridley Scott buying my creations, but it remains a dream. The reality is that I had to create them getting to howl laughter at my previous bosses who blindly follow Microsoft (or others) to get to the ‘success point’ they considered real. I might not fill that hole (I came up with a version of Facebook 5 years before Facebook and my boss said it had no future, he told me to focus on the mission statement). In the meantime I created more IP and created new lanes to solutions that made me feel good. And now I started my second Script. I am rolling in creativity and I reckon that is what I need to develop further as the world is rolling after AI and what it isn’t this world will soon come to a setting that the creative people are the actual gold any company has. And some might not work, but consider Nintendo, the failure that was WiiU caused the development of the Switch and Switch2. Since 2017 they sold 154 million consoles beating Microsoft and the Sony PS4 (117 million) and Sony had 5 more years to get the numbers. So creativity was as I see it the ruling factor and as I see it, certain bosses have little clue how to harvest creativity. I reckon that the setting for LibreOffice might get people thinking in different ways, optionally creating new technology. 

So whilst I see the soup vendors, I also see the myth of Lady Jiang and Meng Po Soup. I do advise you not to drink the soup, the old soup and certainly not the new soup. You’ll learn that lesson the hard way. Creativity is a bitch at times, but there you have it.

Creativity runs amok (I never knew that it could run a mock) and feel free to delusionally consider that a girl in good looking jeans is thinking of you (like some will suggest) but the critical mind knows better and you know it. We might all have creativity, but it requires a critical mindset to instill self doubt on what you design. I did it on at least 3 IP projects. The doubting mind searches deeper on itself. 

Have a great day. 

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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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By German standards

That is at time the saying, it isn’t always ‘meant’ in a positive sight and it is for you to decide what it is now. The Deutsche Welle gave me yesterday an article that made me pause. It was in part what I have been saying all along. This doesn’t mean it is therefor true, but I feel that the tone of the article matches my settings. The article (at https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-expands-use-of-palantir-surveillance-software/a-73497117) giving us ‘German police expands use of Palantir surveillance software’ doesn’t seem too interesting for anyone but the local population in Germany. But that would be erroneous. You see, if this works in Germany other nations will be eager to step in. I reckon that The Dutch police might be hopping to get involved from the earliest notion. The British and a few others will see the benefit. Yet, what am I referring to?

It sounds that there is more and there is. The article’s byline gives us the goods. The quote is “Police and spy agencies are keen to combat criminality and terrorism with artificial intelligence. But critics say the CIA-funded Palantir surveillance software enables “predictive policing.”” It is the second part that gives the goods. “predictive policing” is the term used here and it supports my thoughts from the very beginning (at least 2 years ago). You see, AI doesn’t exist. What there is (DML and LLM) are tools, really good tools, but it isn’t AI. And it is the setting of ‘predictive’ that takes the cake. You see, at present AI cannot make real jumps, cannot think things through. It is ‘hindered’ by the data it has and that is why at present its track record is not that great. And there are elements all out there, there is the famous Australian case where “Australian lawyer caught using ChatGPT filed court documents referencing ‘non-existent’ cases” there is the simple setting where an actor was claimed to have been in a movie before he was born and the lists goes on. You see, AI is novel, new and players can use AI towards the blame game. With DML the blame goes to the programmer. And as I personally see “predictive policing” is the simple setting that any reference is made when it has already happened. In layman’s terms. Get a bank robber trained in grand theft auto, the AI will not see him as he has never done this. The AI goes looking in the wrong corner of the database and it will not find anything. It is likely he can only get away with this once and the AI in the meantime will accuse any GTA persona that fits the description. 

So why this?
The simple truth is that the Palantir solution will safe resources and that is in play. Police forces all over Europe are stretched thin and they (almost desperately) need this solution. It comes with a hidden setting that all data requires verification. DW also gives us “The hacker association Chaos Computer Club supports the constitutional complaint against Bavaria. Its spokesperson, Constanze Kurz, spoke of a “Palantir dragnet investigation” in which police were linking separately stored data for very different purposes than those originally intended.” I cannot disagree (mainly because I don’t know enough) but it seems correct. This doesn’t mean that it is wrong, but there are issues with verification and with the stage of how the data was acquired. Acquired data doesn’t mean wrong data, but it does leave the user with optional wrong connections to what the data is seeing and what the sight is based on. This requires a little explanation.

Lets take two examples
In example one we have a peoples database and phone records. They can be matched so that we have links.

Here we have a customer database. It is a cumulative phonebook. All the numbers from when Herr Gothenburg got his fixed line connection with the first phone provider until today, as such we have multiple entries for every person, in addition to this is the second setting that their mobiles are also registered. As such the first person moved at some point and he either has two mobiles, or he changed mobile provider. The second person has two entries (seemingly all the same) and person moved to another address and as such he got a new fixed line and he has one mobile. It seems straight forward, but there is a snag (there always is). The snag is that entry errors are made and there is no real verification, this is implied with customer 2, the other option is that this was a woman and she got married, as such she had a name change and that is not shown here. The additional issue is that Müller (miller), is shared by around 700,000 people in Germany. So there is a likelihood that wrongly matched names are found in that database. The larger issue is that these lists are mainly ‘human’ checked and as such they will have errors. Something as simple as a phonebook will have its issues. 

Then we get the second database which is a list of fixed line connections, the place where they are connected and which provider. So we get additional errors introduced for example, customer 2 is seemingly assumed to be a woman who got married and had her name changed. When was that, in addition there is a location change, something that the first database does not support as well as she changed her fixed line to another provider. So we have 5 issues in this small list and this is merely from 8 connected records. Now, DML can be programmed to see through most of this and that is fine. DML is awesome. But consider what some called AI and it is done on unverified (read: error prone) records. It becomes a mess really fast and it will lead to wrong connections and optionally innocent people will suddenly get a request to ‘correct’ what was never correctly interpreted. 

As such we get a darker taint of “predictive policing” and the term that will come to all is “Guilty until proven innocent” a term we never accepted and one that comes with hidden flaws all over the field. Constanze Kurz makes a few additional setting, settings which I can understand, but also hindered with my lack of localised knowledge. In addition we are given “One of these was the attack on the Israeli consulate in Munich in September 2024. The deputy chairman of the Police Union, Alexander Poitz, explained that automated data analysis made it possible to identify certain perpetrators’ movements and provide officers with accurate conclusions about their planned actions.” It is possible and likely that this happens and there are intentional settings that will aide, optionally a lot quicker than not using Palantir. And Palantir can crunch data 24:7 that is the hidden gem in this. I personally fear that unless an accent to verification is made, the danger becomes that this solution becomes a lot less reliable. On the other hand data can be crushed whilst the police force is snoring the darkness away and they get a fresh start with results in their inbox. There is no doubt that this is the gain for the local police force and that is good (to some degree). As long as everyone accepts and realizes that “predictive policing” comes with soft spots and unverifiable problems and I merely am looking at the easiest setting. Add car rental data with errors from handwritings and you have a much larger problem. Add the risk of a stolen or forged drivers license and “predictive policing” becomes the achilles heel that the police wasn’t ready for and with that this solution will give the wrong connections, or worse not give any connection at all. Still, Palantir is likely to be a solution, if it is properly aligned with its strengths and weaknesses. As I personally see it, this is one setting where the SWOT solution applies. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats are the settings any Palantir solution needs and as I personally see it, Weakness and Threats require its own scenario in assessing. Politicians are likely to focus on Strength and Opportunity and diminish the danger that these other two elements bring. Even as DW gives us “an appeal for politicians to stop the use of the software in Germany was signed by more than 264,000 people within a week, as of July 30.” Yet if 225,000 of these signatures are ‘career criminals’ Germany is nowhere at present. 

Have a great day. People in Vancouver are starting their Tuesday breakfast and I am now a mere 25 minutes from Wednesday.

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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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Saudization

A term I got introduced to last week. It stands for “the Saudi nationalization scheme and also known as Nitaqat, is a policy that is implemented in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, which requires companies and enterprises to fill their workforce with Saudi nationals up to certain levels” I think it is a great idea. I think more countries need to embrace such a scheme for a few reasons. I believe it is essential that skills are moved locally to avoid being at the massive risk of an American need and that is a bad idea on a few levels. Now, this is not an anti-America sentiment, but the media (America too) have left us with the notion that we cannot be certain of almost anything and there is the larger setting that it goes to other countries too. Perhaps there is an Emiratization, an optional Indonesization (these two words might not exist) and several others (Pakistan, Bangladesh) and so on. So why is there not an open video channel with options on both YouTube and TikTok handing these skills? If I merely push this to myself. There is the option to train people (non-Arabic) in IBM Statistics (formerly known as SPSS) I trained people for over a decade and that is a skill that can be taught. Edit the movie with a localised soundtrack and you have a solution to optionally train dozens of people.

If we create a few hundred videos we could optionally train a whole legion of people and as the elder generation (including me) could leave a footprint handing this knowledge out to others we continue training people after we are gone. I also worked in call centers and whilst the world is filled with silliness and chases after AI, the skills that are out there will be lost soon enough. As such we (read: some)  need to create the stages for the next generation. Whilst all are on the AI train we might see a setting of dwindling down sources and in a decade when AI misses its target the world will suddenly see that they lost more than they bargained for. As such a video station that allows Saudization to grow into the people who cannot see what they need and can freely learn to grow their own future is a proper way to harvest talents where they freely grow.

So you might think that this comes for free and that might be the case. Yet the older generations feels that they can contribute to any setting that will listen. As such these skills will require verification so that quality will prevail. Yet is it such a hardship on the older generation? They contribute to all kinds of non profit organisations. Is it so hard to believe that they would assist in creating the future generations? The world is not what big corporations believe it to be, it is what the next generation wants it to be and as such this idea stands a chance. In the setting we see now it might benefit Saudi Arabia. Yet when these movies get a larger setting in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uruguay and other places, we grow the knowledge in all kinds of directions and as it should be offered free knowledge will emboss all people, not just the ones who can afford it. 

It is just a little idea I am playing with, but I reckon that some governments will embrace what hundreds of people could contribute to their national causes.

Have a great day

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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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