Category Archives: Politics

Dangerous Speculation

This article is almost pure speculation. The people said what they did, as they always do, but the dots are connected differently. So as some dots will connect to a degree to one, there is nothing to stop anyone from connect the dots until they see a dragon, so beware. In the first, I have nearly always said that the United States of America was pretty much broke. The problem is that some connect the term ‘pretty much’ to a term thinking it can better that beast, but that is nearly always folly (court jester folly). So when we see that David Kelly gave us that the country is “going broke slowly.” No one really doubted this because going slowly can be almost any timeline. At present, the debt is 38.8 trillion. Then we get three quotes that kinda connect. The first one is “Trump is lying. I serve on the intelligence and armed services committees. There’s no intelligence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. or the American people” This allegedly comes from congressman Jason Crow. I cannot say for certain that he actually said that, so be aware and I use it, because it fits a picture, let’s say it is one of the dots. Then we get Anne Applebaum saying: “He does lie all of the time. And I find it fascinating (and sick) that he lies even “when he doesn’t need to”” Too many people and fat checks give her setting a thumbs up, but is it really connected? That becomes the question. The third statement comes from Bernie Sanders. He stated “Trump said we had to attack Iran because we can’t allow it ‘to have a nuclear weapon.’ Really? This is the same president who, in June, said: “Iran’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated.’ Vietnam. Iraq. Iran. Another lie. Another war.!” We saw the comments. We saw the outbursts and we saw the stage, Now, I am not saying that Iran is an innocent victim, there is enough to thwart that suggestion. Yet I have always accepted that if you do the right thing for the wrong reason that action becomes the debilitating act of corruption that we all face. I get a different picture. Americas is now (almost) broke, it will have to get its fingers on oil. Canada wasn’t giving up theirs, Europeans and Canadians were blocking America from getting its fingers on the spoils of Greenland and the oil from Venezuela is in the short term useless. So what remains? It is simple Russia and Iran, Iran is ‘relatively’ easy and Israel was able to help because Iran was a clear and present danger to the state of Israel. And now President Trump will accept someone ‘acceptable’ to the United States of America, as this person will allow America to drain the oil from Iran and the son of Ali Khamenei will never suffice. Trump says he wants to be involved in picking Iran’s next leader, and that is the leader that will allow America to drain its resources (at $0.10 per barrel) America is that desperate now (as I personally see it).

It has now and lately always been about the resources. America is as I see it, broke. And that is not a story any President is willing to tell its people, this is what you get when you cannot control Wall Street or the greed of people. And Iran is now paying that price. For the USA, the fact that Iran fired its missiles every where works, because as I see it, Iran isolated themselves perfectly , which works for President Trump, an isolated enemy has no friends to fall back onto and Russia cannot intervene, it has blocked itself and China doesn’t want to get into the middle of this. I reckon that on the side the fact that America is in this predicament works for the long game they have running, because President Trump exposed its weakness. They merely have to make sure that too much of that oil gives nowhere and China will come out victorious.

So is my setting that of the conspiracy theorist? Some say that the dots connected to a unicorn, not the realism that it was an anorexic rhino. When are dots dangerous? Well in the first is comes in waves and it often comes to images that aren’t anything. As such am I right (to a degree) or is the image too distorted due to sources? I let you decide that, but I gave at the beginning that there is a chance that I am writing an article “is almost pure speculation” so be weary of what you accept, even if the sources are spot on. It is one of the dangers of unrelated quotes. 

Have a great day. I am sad as my TV will take almost a week to arrive, no movies, no PS5. My life sucks (at present).

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Can we say Ole?

This is a setting that remains to be seen. Not from my side. I am fine with it and there are a few reasons for that. But it all started with a few news casts were we see (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/spain-baulks-at-trumps-threat-to-cut-off-all-trade-over-nato-iran-stance) the Al Jazeera setting. The title ‘Spain baulks at Trump’s threat to cut off all trade over NATO, Iran stance’ and it comes with “Spain has said the US should be mindful of international law and bilateral trade agreements with the European Union, after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with the country for refusing to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.” And it is a simple setting and in this I stand with Spain. No formal declaration of war exists between a NATO ally (or NATO) and Iran as such there are issues with international law and simply put, it makes the United States of America the aggressor (together with Israel). I am not against these hits, but that is me, a person, an individual that does not matter, an individual that has no bearing on international law. So for the Bully named Shit (or was it bullshit named something) to set the premise of what some describe as “US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut trade with Spain over the ban on using their military bases during the Iran war.” And this act will bite back. Of that I have no doubt. You see America was never directly attacked, this is the ‘benefit’ of a proxy war. Don’t get me wrong. What was done had to be done and it had to be done a lot sooner than now. We might notice it not that Iran is attacking Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia all in one setting. But it started that the United States and Israel decided to preemptively strike against Iran. There was never a formal declaration of war, as such there are all kinds of labels we can throw at this, but in international law the NATO partners are playing a dangerous game. Iran now has (to some extent) international law in its side. And bullying Spain with trade sanctions because Spain will not allow attacks on Iran from base activity in Spain is understandable. Al Jazeera also gives us “On Tuesday, before a meeting with German Chancellor Frederich Merz, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, that “Spain has been terrible” for not allowing the US to use its bases. He said that he had told his secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, to “cut off all dealings” with Spain. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” the US president said.” It seems nice, but President Trump might want to talk to congress, he avoided them in the past and now that he is attacking Iran without a formal declaration of war there might be legal sides to all this. As such, how are the facilities in Germany used? Can we get a run down on them? What about the logistical sides? What is run from Italy or the UK? What are the settings there? I got word that the UK is allowing the attacks on Iran, but hat about the other bases? There is no clear indications of who is allowed and who is not. It seems like merely Spain does not and I see their problem. There is no declaration of war, USA is merely bombing Iran. And what evidence is there? We are merely given ““It was my opinion that they were going to attack first,” the president said. And with that, the botched rollout of the Trump administration’s case for war enters yet another chapter.” What evidence is there? Iran attacked with “The UAE’s ministry of defence said that 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 541 drones had been launched from Iran towards the country so far. Three people have been killed and 58 injured, the authorities said.” (Source: the independent) Between Iran and the UAE is a little river called the Persian golf (I believe that is Iranian propaganda, I personally believe the its real name is the straight of Dammam), so if you consider this, how successful would any attack on the USA be? I get that Israel would strike against Iran and the need to strike Iran is there, but the United States of America should have given a declaration of war with the approval of Congress. As stated (in senate.gov) we see “The Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war. Congress has declared war on 11 occasions, including its first declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812. Congress approved its last formal declaration of war during World War II. Since that time it has agreed to resolutions authorizing the use of military force and continues to shape U.S. military policy through appropriations and oversight.” As far asI can see, President Trump did not do this and did not let Congress proclaim a war. Now they are in it and likely it comes now, but that also gives other players a disastrous setting on international law as after all what Iran has done, there is every chance that the United States of America is seen as the aggressor in this. So what was this about? Iranian oil? Your guess is as good as mine, because things were done out of synch as the IT term goes. 

So, is ‘Ole’ the proper term here? If so, it will be up to Spain to shout that word but the setting is a lot more complex that most of us can see and as I see it Saudi Arabia has a first strike option as it has under proxy war attack by Iran for at least two years now by Houthi terrorists (using Iranian equipment to attack Saudi Arabia). 

So what comes next? That is the question, but this setting has every chance of escalating at present. The question becomes how many attacks will Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar endure over the next week. We will see what comes next and I do not think we have to wait long.

Have a great (and peaceful) day.

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Glow in the dark today

Yup, glow in the dark today, so you can have a safe tomorrow. It’s not the Windscale advertisement, but Europe is coming to the conclusion that there is no longer a United States of America. And Al Jazeera is letting us know that there is a new setting in town. The article (at https://aje.news/wza18x) is letting us know that ‘France to increase nuclear warheads, lend nuclear aircraft to Europe allies’ where we see “French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will increase the number of its nuclear warheads and allow the temporary deployment of its nuclear-armed aircraft to eight European countries to bolster the security of the continent. His speech at France’s Ile Longue nuclear submarine base on Monday introduced the idea of “advanced deterrence”, a deeper, structured nuclear-security relationship with key European partners that he said was distinct from but complementary to NATO’s nuclear arrangements.” As I see it, it is the “complementary to NATO’s nuclear arrangements” that matters. There is no way that they will ever get close to the 3,700 warheads that America has, but the setting is such that there is now an advanced tactical arrangements with a number of NATO lands and these extra warheads should make all the difference between an adversary seeing the difference between ‘could we’ and ‘should we’ it might be the smallest setting but for those wanting to attack Europe and NATO it means that there will be a number of additional warheads going for their terrain and a player like Russia might take notice that attacking NATO would become severely less than folly. No matter what some ‘claim’ the additional firepower will be noticed and so far Europe has never shown itself to be the aggressor. So as we are given “Macron’s speech, which was scheduled before the widening conflict in the Middle East, was aimed at quelling European security concerns amid recurring tensions with United States President Donald Trump and growing fears of Russian aggression amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“We must strengthen our nuclear deterrent in the face of multiple threats, and we must consider our deterrence strategy deep within the European continent, with full respect for our sovereignty,” Macron said.” President Macron is correct and as I see it, with the escalations in the Middle East with the United States, it would be presumptuous that America is not willing to tap into their nuclear arsenal for any reason and that leaves NATO with a rather nasty problem. Even as France and the UK will have enough to turn half the planet to a cinder, this is one situation that is kinda the same as sex, bigger is better and as France is adding to the equation, the bigger is better equation is filled and with the lending of the nuclear aircrafts to other nations, the short term setting for both Russia and China (not accusing either) will become more of a question mark for either. As such it seems that France is playing the ‘safe’ card for NATO and Europe. This is how I see it and I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

And that is seen in the next paragraph where we are given “The eight European countries that have agreed to participate in Macron’s scheme include Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark. They will be able to host French “strategic air forces”, which will be able to “spread out across the European continent” to “complicate the calculations of our adversaries”, he said.”  There is more, but it might be better for you to read the article. The thing of this setting is not ideal. I reckon that France was always ready to do this, but with the attacks by Iran on the whole Middle East and both Israel and the United States attacking Iran a new conflict escalation seems to exist, how far this will go is anyones guess. I reckon that the escalation that Iran called on itself over attacks on Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar has had the counter effect that a desperate Iran could have hoped for. All nations are in support in what either Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Qatar wants to call on Iran. It lost whatever support they had on the world stage and the Iranian regime has launched over 588 missiles and 893 drones at 11 countries across the Middle East. There is some damage, some lives were lost, but as I see it, less than 1% made it through and considering that a Shahed drone is around $30,000 and they fired 893 of them amount to at least $27 million, considering the damage, that was a tremendous waste of money. And the missile damage at the price it cost them to fire these missiles is even worse. What some people tend to forget, there is a limit to what they can fire before depletion sets in and there is a limit they can fire before other nations will take out whatever they thought they would ending up having (it is vague, I know). It all connects, because France is setting the larger powerplay, but Russia who was going after Ukraine now has to realise that Iran is firing whatever they wanted to get and that side is now gone. So there is a link between the two and whilst we see that Russia is staying in touch with Iran, it is likely upset about Iran using what he needed for the Ukraine. As such there is an upside to all this for the Ukraine. 

What is a larger issue is that there are messages getting out there that the Straight of Hormuz would become a problem. I actually resolved that situation in my article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/02/01/sinking-a-dilemma/) titled ‘Sinking a dilemma’, the solution isn’t immediate, but it opens up a few settings of commerce for the UAE, Iran out of the picture and additional commerce for the UAE. Should this plan go ahead, there might be some delay on this (no idea how long) but with every knee-jerk reaction from Iran that solution will increase in value (as I personally see it). You can confront an enemy, deflect an enemy or evade that enemy and that was the simple setting I used. 

So have a great day and enjoy your day on route to the upcoming weekend, which is only 80 hours away for me.

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As I say it is

That is the setting now, I am making assumptions and I prefer to call them prepositions. I know that I might be wrong, but in this day and age, the stories we were told bring across the pictures we are set in and today the stories come from the Khaleej Times. The first one (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-president-advisor-anwar-gargash-regional-tensions) where we see ‘‘Your war is not with neighbours’: UAE diplomat calls on Iran to act responsibly’ and I agree with Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Advisor to the UAE President. He gives us ““The Iranian aggression against the Gulf states has miscalculated and isolated Iran at a critical juncture. Your war is not with neighbours, and this escalation only confirms the narrative of those who see Iran as the primary source of danger in the region, and its missile program as a constant source of instability. “Return to reason, to your surroundings, and deal with your neighbours rationally and responsibly before the circle of isolation and escalation widens,” he added.” For part I completely agree with him, the part of me that does not is seeing the panic rising in Iran and now that Ali Khamenei has been proclaimed dead I fear that the panic will merely increase. 

So, how am I getting to the conclusion? For that we need the second article of the Khaleeh Times which we see (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/emergencies/killed-injured-uae-intercept-iranian-ballistic-missiles-drones) where we see ‘3 killed, 58 injured as UAE intercepts 165 ballistic missiles, 541 Iranian drones’ I likely could do more damage with one drone in Dubai as we see that Iran fired 165 missiles and 541 drones. The equation is severely out of balance, it feels like desperation and when a nation like Iran is desperate with the only friendly nation is likely to be Russia, as such I see that the desperation might lead the ones who are now in charge into a more desperate situation and that never ends well. 

So, we are given “Since Saturday, February 28, a total of 165 ballistic missiles launched from Iran toward the UAE have been detected. Of these, 152 were destroyed, while 13 fell into the sea. Two cruise missiles were detected and destroyed. Additionally, 541 Iranian drones were detected; 506 were intercepted and destroyed, while 35 reached UAE territory, causing material damage.” It shows me that the Iranian is massively inaccurate. You see, these nations are on par with each other Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran will have similar abilities, so to see Iran to fail to such an extent merely shows me that their abilities are failing and against both Israel and the United States they have zero chance of getting out of this. I don’t feel sorry for them, they did this to themselves, but to see a nation like Iran get lost in the weeds to this degree is more then slightly unsettling. As I said, they did this to themselves, but to see any nation to be this close to the edge of an abyss at a point whilst the other nations are seemingly unaware of how close to the edge they are is at least unsettling. 

Am I right? Am I wrong? I can leave it up to you to decide, have a great day today.

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Desperation is their middle name

There is  setting I was confronted with this morning. At first I wouldn’t believe it, but as the evidence came in over YouTube (via a massive amount of sources) I had to admit that Iran should now be known as the Desperate Islamic Republic of Iran. The fact that Iran is slamming Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and a few other places (also in Saudi Arabia). It shows that Iran is now desperate. Don’t get me wrong, they are also hitting US base locations, which makes sense, but the locations in the UAE in Abu Dhabi and Dubai do not (except for a Trump location hit). So the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c204px4zddro) ‘Luxury Dubai hotel hit as Iran launches retaliatory strikes across region’ where we see “A luxury hotel in Dubai was hit as Iran launched strikes across the region in retaliation for a “massive” and ongoing attack against it by the US and Israel. Video verified by the BBC shows a fire raging at Fairmont The Palm Hotel on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates’ largest city. Thick black smoke rises into the sky.

Local officials also said four people were injured in a blaze at a building in the Palm Jumeirah area. They gave no further details.” I (to some extent) know that area and as far as I can tell there are no military targeting in, around or near the Palm Jumeirah area. This shows the desperation of Iran, like a toddler thinking that if they hit the nations around them, the others will scream at America and Israel. As I stated mere desperation. And as we are given “Iranian media earlier said that it had launched an attack on Dubai, although it is not clear what they are targeting. A British woman told the BBC that she was at the Dubai Marina, just off Jumeirah Beach, when the strikes hit on Saturday. She heard a “loud bang” and saw a “big puff of black smoke” before a “flurry of missiles were intercepted” above her for around five minutes.” To be honest, there is nothing military in Dubai to be targeting. The Port of Jebel Ali is likely to be used a a naval resupply point, but it is over 5km away from Palm Jumeirah. So this calls in the question on how accurate are these missiles to being with and the Shahed drones are ‘piloted’ which merely supports the desperation of Iran. 

So then we get to the second article, also from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0z9012291o) there we see ‘Bowen: A dangerous moment, but US and Israel see opportunity not to be missed’ where we see “It will have become even more so after US President Donald Trump said that Iran’s long-time Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on day one of the US-Israeli air strikes. His death was later confirmed on Iranian state TV.” In addition we are given “Israel and the United States have calculated that the Islamic regime in Iran is vulnerable – dealing with a severe economic crisis, the fallout from the brutal crackdown on protesters at the start of the year and with defences still badly damaged by last summer’s war. Their conclusion seems to have been that this was an opportunity that should not be squandered.” All that makes sense to me and as I see the Iranian regime as utterly evil. I am not willing to give them an inch on the some bleeding heart setting, especially as they are launching drones and missiles on population area’s. Not merely American, but an Islamic nation. As I see it, all nations need to rescind their pleads for Iran. I would like to add that they targeted places in Saudi Arabia as well, but I do not know where these attacks took place at present, the News outlets were focussed on the attacks on Dubai and Doha. 

No matter how you slice it, as I see it, Iran is pretty desperate at present and it will get worse as the Islamic nations will let them rot by themselves. As far as I can see it Amy nation that was attacked with drones and missiles is not that eager to give financial support, but that might merely be me.

Have a great day

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Confusion speaks its mind

So here I was, one day in the past and I see a BBC article. I saw the headline, I saw the ‘bully approach’ and initially I ignored it. It was not the BBC, there was no setting that seemingly truly interested me. I was thinking of a few settings towards IP that could give Apple (and optionally Meta) a nice boost. As I was mulling over the ideas I was having, in comes the CBC about 10 hours ago, or better stated I noticed their article and now something clicks in my mind. I started rereading the two articles. The BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn48jj3y8ezo) gives us ‘Trump orders government to stop using Anthropic in battle over AI use’ with ““We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday.” Of course if he doesn’t want it, there must be a good reason why people might want to use it and we are given “Anthropic is mired in a row with the White House after refusing demands that it agree to give the US military unfettered access to its AI tools. The refusal led US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to say he’s deemed Anthropic a “supply chain risk”.” And we are given the quandary that there should be some clarity. The idea that the US Military has unrestrained or uninhibited access to any AI is dangerous. And that is merely to look at it from THEIR point of view. We saw over the last 5 years a few examples where Pentagon staff used whatever USB key they had optionally opening their systems to backdoors and this can result in several ways where the Pentagon would be affected including: Human Interface Device (HID) Spoofing, Malware Infection via Social Engineering, Exploiting OS Vulnerabilities or Juice Jacking (Compromised Public Ports/Cables) and a few other ways. Even in this decade more than one system seemingly ended up on the danger list. So, ‘someone’ now wants to grant AI unfettered access which opens the doors to AI accessing data involves sophisticated, automated, and often, continuous interaction between intelligent systems and vast data sources, including internal corporate databases, cloud storage, and public web content. It constitutes a critical, high-speed, and high-stakes component of the modern AI ecosystem that raises significant security and privacy challenges. And this is not some ‘fear mongering’ There is a lot of AI works that is still to be considered and because AI doesn’t exist and this is all DML on several layers that interact there are dangers to be seen. As we saw a mere week ago that Microsoft had to ‘confess’ that it had accessed confidential emails of Microsoft users. Now consider this happening on a serious level in the Pentagon. It has well over 50,000 desktop computers within its building, with reports from 2014 indicating at least 18,000 were part of specific virtualized infrastructure. Now consider that we have seen the accusation of “Based on reports in early 2025 and 2026, OpenAI has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of “inappropriately” distilling, or copying, the capabilities of OpenAI’s models (specifically ChatGPT and its reasoning models like o1) to train its own competing, low-cost models (such as DeepSeek-R1)”. As such, the dangers of unfettered access can go in two directions and that sets the bar of distilling from the Pentagon a lot lower than anyone could find acceptable. As such there is every chance that Russia is already considering the massive win they could gain once the unfettered access could merely hit one system that was transgressed upon. Because the greedy and the stupid will do anything to propel the setting of self, whilst not caring what others could gain in that setting as well.

So whilst some will consider the dangers of “The company said that “designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk would be an unprecedented action — one historically reserved for US adversaries, never before publicly applied to an American company.” Anthropic said the “designation would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government.”” No one seems to be considering that the opposite is a lot more dangerous. So whilst some focus on the stage of “Anthropic had said it sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that its AI chatbot Claude would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon said it was not interested in such uses and would only deploy the technology in legal ways, but it also insisted on access without any limitations. The government’s effort to assert dominance over the internal decision-making of the company comes amid a wider clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance. Trump said Anthropic made a mistake trying to strong-arm the Pentagon. He wrote on Truth Social that most agencies must immediately stop using Anthropic’s AI but gave the Pentagon a six-month period to phase out the technology that is already embedded in military platforms.” As I personally see it, it is the accumulation of stupid and technologically ignorant all combined in one package. And that is before we get to mass surveillance. You see combine mass surveillance with data distilling and the United States of America will be handing the data on 349 million Americans straight to China and Russia. This is not AI, this is DML. That means it comes with the hangups and limitations of a programmer. So when this goes wrong it goes wrong in a massive way. 

As such what will people like President Trump and Pete Hegseth say? Do they think that the response ‘Oops’ will cover it?

So whilst CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump-anthropic-feud-ai-9.7109006) gives us “U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials took to social media to chastise Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a Friday deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.” And this is the setting we expect to see and it will be the undoing of several people, because as I see it “U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials” is the start of what comes next. You see, the internet doesn’t forget and these ‘other officials’ have sealed their fate with this action and there is no ‘He told me to do that’ they were instrumental in assisting to hand over the data of the population of the United States of America to optionally both China and Russia. Do you feel safe now?

And in response to this setting we see “The dispute stunned AI developers in Silicon Valley, where venture capitalists, prominent AI scientists and a large number of workers from Anthropic’s top rivals — OpenAI and Google — voiced support for Amodei’s stand in open letters and other forums.” And that should have been a clear message that the competition was on the side of Amodei, so, why would that be? Whilst people in the Pentagon (seemingly) forgot about that router with password ‘Cisco123’ there is every chance that these DML engines will be cleverly distilled by people controlling systems like DeepSeek and whatever the Russians have. I should buy another egg timer, because this is a setting that might gain me a few coins, especially as several people are blind to the danger that is coming for them. And consider one additional setting. It is said that:

So what happens when distilling comes with an additional insertion of data? I can’t wait for that setting to lose balance and the training data in American data centers start losing authentication and reliability markers. But that is  likely a story for another day.

Have a great day today.

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The fear behind us

There is a setting, one that requires scrutiny and one that demands closer looks. You see, I do not completely agree with the setting that The Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/26/how-to-replace-amazon-google-x-meta-apple-alternatives) with the illustrious title ‘Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more’ the first big thing is that there is no mention of Microsoft in that title. So that is the very first thing that comes to mind. Especially as CoPilot was mentioned earlier this week of sifting through our confidential emails. I can drop the ‘alleged’ as Microsoft admitted to this and basically said ‘Oops’ as an implied reason. So what gives?

It starts with “So many ills can be laid at its door: social media harms, misinformation, polarisation, mining and misuse of personal data, environmental negligence, tax avoidance, the list goes on. Added to which, Silicon Valley’s leaders seem all too keen to cosy up to the Trump administration, to shower the president with bribes – sorry, gifts – and remain silent about his worsening political overreach. And that’s before we get to the rampant “enshittification”, as the tech writer Cory Doctorow describes it, which means that by design many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them.” OK, I can go along with this. And the sentence “many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them” gets a mention from me because some of these ‘culprits’ seemingly have no idea what innovation is, for the you have to look towards China, specifically Huawei and Tencent. So we get to the first hurdle. 

Google has cornered 90% of the search market for the past decade, but it is often no better, and sometimes demonstrably worse than its rivals, perhaps on purpose – Doctorow has called Google: “the poster-child for enshittification” citing its alleged strategy of worsening search quality so that users spend more time on the site. But changing the default search engine on any device is extremely easy. I’ve been using Ecosia for years. Instead of using your searches to fill corporate coffers, it uses them to plant trees. The Berlin-based company claims to have planted nearly 250m trees since it launched in 2009 (you can even get your own personal counter to feel extra virtuous). Ecosia commits 100% of its profits to climate action (over €100m so far), produces more clean energy than it consumes via its own solar plants, and collects minimal data on its users. Ecosia’s search results are not always as thorough as Google, admittedly (in the “news” category, for example), though the toolbar does give you options to search via Google and Bing if you need to.” The issue is that Ecosia is for all intent and matters Microsoft Bing. So this is seemingly a sales talk by a journalist because there is a massive problem finding anything by Microsoft reliable. And then we get the real stuff, Microsoft knows it is in hot waters, so we are given “The French company Qwant is similarly privacy-oriented (its slogan is “The search engine that values you as a user, not as a product”) and is now mostly independent (having started out based on Bing). It is now partnering with Ecosia to build a new “European search index”.” Yes but Microsoft is American ands as such your data will be copied and frowned on, browsed through to all their hearts content. If this is wrong, Ecosia and Qwant better clearly state that they are independent of Microsoft, because it is still the issue in Europe and for what they state the their DATA is completely secure, the issue becomes where are the backups? If they are on an American cloud or server, the setting of privacy is set to 0%. 

I can agree with the Browser chapter and even as I still rely on Google (it has never failed me), I get that no everyone is in that chapter of things. I get the Office part. I myself downloaded LibreOffice (download only, no installation yet) and I will look at it at some point, the Apple apps do their work brilliantly. So we are given “Many of them, including Austria’s military and local governments in Germany and France, are switching to LibreOffice, created by the Berlin-based, nonprofit, The Document Foundation. Businesses and individuals are doing the same. Ethical Consumer has used LibreOffice for some time, says Fraser. “It’s an open-source version of Word, and all of the Office tools. It works and looks basically the same.”” I personally reckon that this is the problem Microsoft has and getting the data from Ecosia might be their last handhold to European data, this is not a given, but I expect that this is the inside not Europe to some degree. And whilst everyone is concerned with the privacy of data, I reckon that similar to the setting of 1998-2002, no one is digging and questioning the stages of backups. But that might merely be me and as I am no longer living in Europe, I casually don’t care.

Then we see the mobile settings with a shoutout to Fairphone in the Netherlands. I have nothing against Fairphone, but it always makes me wonder if Fairphone had the same idea that Tulip had in the 90’s. That doesn’t make it wrong, it is merely a Business Ploy that should be considered. I am now and always have been a Google guy. So when we see “There is a catch: most of these phones still rely on Google’s Android operating system, but any phone can be fully “de-Googled” with the /e/OS operating system (it comes as standard with Murena phones), developed by the global, mostly European, nonprofit, e Foundation.” I can think of a way where Google can set this with their Pixels. When the consumer can select Google or A Linux version that does most of the stuff, Google clearly wins in several chapters. I reckon that these flower can merely snap market share because of this, when Google leaves it to the consumers, Google wins nearly automatically. Oh and in all this there is no mention of HarmonyOS in this and I reckon that these smaller players are adjusting to HarmonyOS as we speak, or cater to, or appease that branch. Not everyone in Europe is ‘China hating’ material. And that is merely the smallest setting of these parts. I am personally not touching the shopping side. I was raised as a follower of ‘Support your local hooker’ a phrase from the late 70’s. In that age we got malls, supermarkets and such and die to that escalation loads of local stores went through a foreclosure setting. In that same way I don’t order from Amazon. I have nothing against Amazon and they closed the gap of rural places having no way to get stuff to them having plenty of stuff and over 60% or Europe and 71% of rural USA is now served. As such Amazon did them right. I just believe that I should get to the local stores to get what I need. I only had to resort to Amazon twice in the last 10 years. So I am happy. And all these Amazon haters can go sit in a corner trying to work out the function of a cheese slicer (revelation: the red corners that are diminishing have figured it out).

But my issue is that Microsoft is shown in a ‘favorable’ light, they aren’t and they aren’t due that setting as I personally see it. The fear behind this is not the Big-tech, it is the policy that comes through the CLOUD Act (2018), it gives America too much ability to get to out data and in several cases non-American IP, which is even more frightfully. these hundreds of data centers have no reason to exist if the CLOUD Act (2018) what made illegal, that is how I see it and there is no saving Microsoft, because we get ‘blunder’ after ‘blunder’ and how long until we get another ‘Oops’ setting but now corporate IP was set in some AI hole? That is the larger fear that I see and there is no stopping it, whilst corporations are breathing the AI cloud through wannabe’s who want to move up in the world, that data is most likely to get compromised and as corporations are not setting the HR and data loops to any scrutiny, this is likely already happening and will continue to happen until the then valueless corporations see that they had to act a lot sooner than the day before all their data is in other hands. We already have Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence (2025), Bartz v. Anthropic (2025/2026), Disney & NBCUniversal v. Midjourney and the best case is United States v. Heppner (2026) where we see that documents drafted using a public, consumer-grade AI tool were not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine. And that is the setting that people miss. Should someone at IBM use that setting this work becomes public, so consider that this is not IBM, but Microsoft using Copilot or OpenAI (ChatGPT) the work of your corporation becomes for all intent and purposes Public Domain, did you sign up for that?

There is plenty in the article that makes sense, but the ones that aren’t mentions are a larger fear creator than anything you are trying to hide from. Just an idea to consider. Have a great day this day.

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Today is the difference

That is what people will tell themselves and I would agree, but there is a setting that no one ever expected. You see, America has just had its State of the Union. And the ‘books’ say that the state of the union is:

So we can assume that the Americans will be given a true representation of what is, what might be and what is desired. So we get two sources. First the Dutch NOS who gives us “‘US stronger than ever,’ Trump says in campaign speech riddled with falsehoods” (in Dutch, at https://nos.nl/artikel/2603925-vs-sterker-dan-ooit-zegt-trump-in-campagnespeech-vol-onwaarheden) and to avoid translating the whole enchilada, we can turn to CNN who gives us (at https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/24/politics/fact-check-state-of-the-union) ‘Fact check: Trump makes false claims about the economy, elections and crime in State of the Union’ and CNN fires of the first sinker of whatever battleship opposes it with “Many of them were long-debunked falsehoods familiar from his rallies, interviews and social media posts. These include various lies disparaging the fairness of US elections, his false claim that he ended wars that were never actually wars or never actually ended, and his fictional “$18 trillion” figure for supposed investment in the US over the past year. The subject on which he was most frequently inaccurate was the economy. Among other things, Trump overstated the performance of the economy during this presidential term to date, overstated the inflation he inherited from the Biden administration, used highly misleading figures when discussing gasoline prices, and wrongly asserted, twice, that foreign countries are paying the tariffs that are actually being paid by US importers.” And weirdly enough I get it, a nation that is broke is the most unlikely to state in its statement of the budget “We are destitute, we squandered all you have and the United States doesn’t have anything left, we are a drowning vessel with no hope for shore. It sounds like a passenger on the Titanic that asks “Is land far away?” And the crew member states, no madam, it is a mere 3,800 meters to land. The lady asks what direction she should swim. The crew answers straight down. 

That is the setting as I see it, that the United States of America is in. The 18 trillion is to avoid the discussion of the United States defaulting on its loans, because that will be the next setting to scuttle Wall Street, pension funds and several other funds who have been banking of US Treasury bills. And I am not alone, David Kelly (JP Morgan) stated last October that the United States was going broke slowly, I am no longer convinces that it is going slowly. As the America administration is vying for the next hype, they are banking with funds they no longer have and as I see it, any nation with US treasury bills is about to sell them with a loss and there is no going back. I warned for this for almost a decade and no one wanted to listen. In stead of overhauling the tax system, people started screaming that they should tax the billionaires whist that might merely stop the avalanche that comes for a mere week and it would be unlawful. But that is for another day. CNN also gives us “As of the night of Trump’s address, the White House’s own website said the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term was “$9.7 trillion,” and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.” Sol why did he double it? I reckon that the economy is at a massive decline with waging war on Canada, Greenland and a few other places. Canada and the EU are don’t with him. I personally believe that China is too, there is too much in the recession pipeline, China has won and the United States lost. A war that never had any chance of success. Why? When you consider the ‘innovation’ that some tech companies proclaimed all whist they cannot figure out the innovation that Huawei is sporting, that should be enough and now that we see some political game between OpenAI and Microsoft with hundreds of billions at stake, the AI war is seemingly settled in favour of Google, AWS and IBM. So whilst we get all kinds of innovation speech on how AI can replace COBOL programmers (downgrading IBM stock by 10%), we are unlikely to see that happen, as such IBM stock will repair itself and the proclaimers of that setting (Anthropic) fail to deliver, their basket will be floating down the Nile to the space of a hungry Crocodile. And in all this no one is asking how Anthropic got the trained DML engine that could do this, because if it only went from the manuals, they are in for a big surprise as I see it. IBM programmers got COBOL to cry ‘mommy’ whilst getting 12 statements out of 8 lines. I know it does not make sense, but there is a bigger setting and whilst I only casually did COBOL in 1985, I am in no way an expert. Yes there COBOL AI can run circles around me, not IBM programmers wit decades of experience. And that is merely one of many setting where the America Economy falls flat. And the United States are making it harder on itself with every iteration of tech enterprises that are playing some bluff game and are setting the bar to miscommunication in the 11th hour. That Is how I personally see it and the media is chasing digital dollars, so they are mostly no help. 

Then CNN gives us “Trump claimed gas prices are “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places, $1.99 a gallon.” But no state had an average gas price on Tuesday below $2.37 per gallon, according to AAA; only two states had an average below $2.50 per gallon. And while there are some individual gas stations selling gas for below $2 per gallon, they are scarce; Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the firm GasBuddy, said during the speech that the firm found just four stations across the country below $2 (aside from special discounts) out of the roughly 150,000 stations the firm tracks, so about 0.003% of the total.” As such we see the state of the union a setting where the United States might actually be broke, I have no evidence to that effect, but it renders correctly with all the other facts we are given and the other settings we have been watching for years. As such today is the difference and I wonder who will actually as the president of the United States whether it is acceptable that the State of the Union was based on incorrect miscommunications. 

A fair question, not?
And now I hear (unverified) that Canada has told StarLink to vacate Canada, its allocated frequencies have been retracted, its hardware must be removed in 60 days and as I see it, that will imply that America gets even less money now. As I stated, this was unverified and asI had only one source, it is not enough. Perhaps I get more data later, but for now, whomever hears that news, take it with a spoonful of salt. 

So have a great day and feel free to question the data your government gives you. 

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Hat in a hornets nest

That is the expression I was given, or better stated that is the expression I remembered as I read something in the Arab News. The actual expression is ‘kick the hornet’s nest’, which translates to “Saying something that makes a large group of people angry or upset all at once.” Which pretty much translates to the setting we have here. And in the Arab News we see “Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned remarks made by the US ambassador to Israel suggesting that Israeli control over the entire Middle East would be acceptable, describing the comments as reckless and a violation of international law.” And as I see it (no disrespect to Israel) is that the middle east can only set in a normalized way when it is controlled by Saudi Arabia and the UAE (a setting I always had faith in) and as far as I know, so does the larger international community. I have no problem that Israel is part of all this, as that is how I personal see it, but the remark by Ambassador Mike Huckabee is quite literally kicking the hornets nest. As such US envoy to Israel Mike Huckabee is trying to carry favor in Tel Aviv (my view on the matter) and that was ‘transmitted’ to Riyadh and the news we see now is the direct result of this. As such we now see “The ministry said the remarks represented a dangerous precedent, particularly as they came from a US official, and amounted to a disregard for relations between the US and countries across the region. It warned that such positions carry grave consequences and threaten global peace and security by inciting hostility toward the peoples and states of the Middle East, while undermining the foundations of the international order based on respect for sovereignty and internationally recognized borders.” I think that (should he have been directed by Washington, that Washington is trying a slightly different tactic, that optionally is shaped by some in a setting towards the Gaza ‘solution’, but I am grabbing at chopsticks at present. And that is a ‘variation’ of ““Grabbing at” food with chopsticks refers to the impolite, frantic, or picky behavior of searching through dishes to find specific pieces, rather than taking the item directly in front of you.” Washington seemingly wants to set the table by picking out the good pieces trying to carry favour and possibly trying to get to the larger stage by seemingly implying that they are making headway whilst the stuff in front of them aren’t being dealt with (or so it would seem). A setting that is my view on the matter. Weirdly enough, I am actually listening to Jesus Christ Superstar at present, which was unintended, but the setting brings a smirk to my face. 

So whilst the New Arab end the article with “The Kingdom reaffirmed its firm opposition to any actions or statements that infringe on the sovereignty, borders or territorial integrity of states, reiterating that a just and comprehensive peace can only be achieved by ending the occupation and implementing a two-state solution. That solution, the statement said, must include the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.” I like that setting as Hamas didn’t exist in those days and any solution that filters Hamas out of that is all right with me. I reckon that I am not alone in this, but that is what it is. I was around Rafah in 1982 and that mess was never dealt with and seeing that same mess half a century later gives me the thought that there is no hope for Palestine, not whilst Hamas is part of that. They did that to themselves and I feel it is essential to clean up that part of Palestine, only then can Palestine be pushed to something real. But as I see it, the remarks by the US Ambassador has no grounds, it was not to get a conversation started, it was merely to seemingly prepare the table with the big chunks of meat in front of the United States whist ignoring the larger settings that are driving any conversation nowhere. Because as I see it there will never be any solution in play whilst Saudi Arabia, the UAE and in this case Egypt are out of that equation. It makes sense that Israel is included in this conversation, but I don’t see it help any, it merely requires a solution they could live with, it is not something Tel Aviv would care to heard, but that is as I see it the reality we have here and no ‘Board of Peace’ is setting that scenery by whisking away the ‘good’ pieces of meat from that table setting. I could be wrong but that is my view on the matter. 

It might be simplistic, but that is what I see after watching that mess for almost 44 years. Have a great day out there. In this heat I feel the need for a cheese sandwich, a sandwich with cold pieces of cheese, for refreshment value of course.

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By the numbers

As things go, late last night (roughly 20.435 hours ago) I was directed towards a CNN article. The article (at https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/politics/economy-gdp-trade-deficit-trump-tariffs) gives us ‘These two new economic numbers blew a hole in Trump’s rosy narrative’ where we see the following issues. The first is “Two new pieces of economic data, one released Thursday and one released Friday, blew another hole in President Donald Trump’s triumphant narrative about the effects of his tariffs. The figures released early Thursday showed Trump had wildly overstated the impact of the tariffs on the trade deficit. The figures released early Friday showed he also had wildly exaggerated economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2025.” My first thought was ‘what else is new’ and it is not based on data. It is based on the presentations that we are given in several ways. As I personally see it, he cannot deal with the thought of being seen as a loser (the bully in him won’t allow this) and we then get to issue number two. “Trump has for years highlighted the trade deficit – the difference between the value of US imports and exports – as a supposed example of how the US is being “ripped off” by other countries. (Many economists disagree with his characterization.) On Wednesday evening, he posted a celebratory message on social media. “THE UNITED STATES TRADE DEFICIT HAS BEEN REDUCED BY 78% BECAUSE OF THE TARIFFS BEING CHARGED TO OTHER COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES,” the all-caps post began. The next morning, though, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed the actual 2025 trade deficit in goods and services. It was nearly identical to the 2024 deficit, down just 0.2% — nowhere close to Trump’s professed “78%” decline. And the trade deficit in goods, the items subject to Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, was up 2.1% compared to 2024.

So as we are given “Trump didn’t make up the “78%” figure out of thin air, but it was still deceptive.” I am on the fence there. Pretty much every politician I have ever met uses some form of ‘deceptive presentation’ I have made presentation in the past doing exactly that, although not the the effect that is stated here. Then we get “Trump’s Wednesday post was also inaccurate in suggesting his tariffs are paid by foreign countries. Tariff payments are made by US importers, not foreign exporters, and those importers often pass on some of their costs to consumers. While foreign exporters may sometimes drop their prices to try to keep their products competitive, various  analyses have found that the overwhelming majority of the costs of the tariffs Trump has imposed this term are being covered by a combination of US businesses and US consumers.” So here we are with a CNN article that is like Dynamite (I am certain that Daniel Dale, the writer,  doesn’t have a explosive permission, handed to him by the RCMP)  and it gives us some great settings, settings a lot seemingly have missed. So as we are given “The figures released Friday show just how far from reality his “5.6%” claim was. The economy actually grew at an annualized rate of just 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, much slower than the 4.4% growth in the third quarter of 2025.

The fall government shutdown was a significant factor in the weak figure. Still, Trump claimed growth was 5.6% despite the shutdown, which wasn’t close to correct.” You would think that this is the end of it, but you would be wrong. It kinda connects to something else (or at least this is what I think). The article (at https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-crackdown-drives-80-plunge-221101694.html) gives us ‘Trump crackdown drives 80% plunge in immigrant employment, reshaping labor market, Goldman says’ where we see “A sweeping crackdown on immigration in President Donald Trump’s second term, characterized by elevated deportations and strict new visa bans, has precipitated an 80% collapse in net immigration to the U.S., according to a new analysis by Goldman Sachs. The report, released Feb. 16, warns the dramatic contraction in the flow of foreign-born workers is fundamentally altering the nation’s labor supply mathematics and lowering the threshold for job growth needed to maintain economic stability.

So not only are the American getting hoodwinked now, but the hoodwinking will continue and get worse as I see it. The setting of “The investment bank’s U.S. economics team, in a report led by David Mericle, projected a precipitous drop in the arrival of new workers. While net immigration averaged approximately 1 million people per year during the 2010s, that figure fell to 500,000 in 2025 and is projected to plummet further to just 200,000 in 2026, Goldman said. That represents an 80% decline from the historical baseline, a shift the report attributes directly to aggressive policy changes, including “elevated deportations,” a recently announced pause on immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, and an expanded travel ban.

The economists note these measures are likely to “slow inflows of visa and green card recipients” significantly, while the “loss of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from some countries” poses further downside risks to the labor supply. The report explicitly links the forecasted drop to elevated deportations and tighter visa and green card policies.” It relates because the view that it gives me is that the ‘true’ setting of 1.4% might go down further to a mere 1.12% and that is really not good news for the Americans, I might even call it massively drastic. Should the AI drive decline further (which I personally expect to kick in this year) there is a chance that the American economy might rise no more than 1%. Do you actually think that the current president of the United States is willing to hand out that result to the public? His current rating is set to 36%-47% and it is about to get a few klicks worse, how much worse? I have no way of knowing that, but the CNN article and the AOL data might give rise for American to dislike him a little more than they did yesterday. I reckon that the 80% plunge in immigrant employment data will set certain people up the wall and I believe that there is a certain relationship and as I see it, people on nearly al levels are no longer smitten with him and I reckon that it is about to get worse. But in this I am speculating and I have no data other than the one I see and it gives what some call a ‘hinkey’ setting of the American economy is about to take a dive, because as I see it, there is only so much you can ‘misrepresent’ and deception gets seen by all who are mulling the numbers over and the captains of industry that the USA has, will see that the ride is over. As I see it, the the numbers are given and the United States of America is showing a mere 1% gain, the threshold for pushing that place into a recession will be met and as I see it, it will be a nasty separation between the United States of America and the business world. The place to hide it all will be goin, going, gone. 

Could I be wrong?
That is an important questions, I always look at the setting that I could be wrong and it is the same here, But when you look at the AOL article in combination with the CNN article shows a setting and it is not alone, the stage that David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management gave us last October is showing us that these two articles are a little more alarming than we think they are. And when we see that the Strategista Globalis Princeps was a little more on the money than perhaps even he saw the stage towards recession is almost complete. It merely needs 2-5 American billionaires to take a runner towards the zero tax sands of Monaco, the UAE or the Bahamas for the panic buttons to be pushed which will make the lines of recession to be a decent certainty.  But in all this I still could be wrong because I react to media and as long as their reliability is too low, there is every chance that my view will be wrong too.

So have a great day and feel free to enjoy the last day of your weekend. The end of mine is a mere 100 minutes away.

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