Category Archives: Politics

November 17, 2022 · 20:13

Brain drain, by design

I was sitting in my room, enjoying the sounds of David Bowie. Then the track ‘This is not America’ came. It took me back to 1985, the movie ‘The Falcon and the Snowman’ which uses that song was released. I saw it, but I did not get it. You see, we steal for our governments and we commit murder for our governments, these things happen, yet I personally never understood treason I never accepted that act. I believe traitors are due a bullet to the back of their head. They are a little better than child molesters, but not by much. 

And at that point the mind started to move the cogs. You see we see acts of treason against employees all the time, but we ignore it. Some listen to the reason of Wall Street and that is when people get hurt, it is business as usual for Wall Street and America. But what happens when someone takes that given foundation am makes something of that. In this we see India and a conglomerate is acquiring talent. These people are offered a choice of two places. One in Himachal Pradesh and one close to the Kumarakom Lake Resort. To places, one for summer and one for winter. These are closed resorts and they are set as 5 star resorts. The difference is that these two resorts are only for the invited. As India sees the betrayal of staff, these people are approached and offered a different way of life. They merely have to create IP, the value is the ante for staying there, when breakthroughs are made, when these people make the numbers they are off for the rest of the year if they want. Optional these people can work forward, as such if they create the IP that exceeds the numbers they are given the option to relax and rest. A person could work three months in year one and if the value exceeds the numbers he has a paid vacation until the end of year two. All orders these people have are managed online. And that is how their version of paradise works. Yet there is more, that project is managed by India and China. They are sitting on a wealth of IP, and as the people create and commit, they are treated like kings, nothing is missing in their lives, their kids get the best private tutors and their partners have access to a life of wealth and good health. The one downturn is that they cannot leave the resort. 

The beginning of a miniseries, it will be too large for a movie, but a 4-6 episode mini series with a run time of 60-90 minutes could work. China remains below the surface (at lest in the beginning) and the idea that we see a list of damages

United States $275 billion, United Kingdom $43 billion, European Union $27 billion (and so on) and now consider that the stage where two 5 star resorts are created to facilitate for the acquisition of $345 billion dollar. This could work and the settings I saw over the last week where Google and Amazon are firing staff, people are in a runt to make ends meet and they casually left $6 billion on the floor, I reckon this approach to a new kind of logistic assault on nations is merely a heartbeat way. It is not 5G, it is not the stage of greed. It is facilitated by the simple need of people wanting a decent life, the question is do the people still remember what a decent life was? In this day and age the cogs of labour are changing and companies are finding out that holding the people against the bottom line of a corporation will facilitate such places and there is a chance that some will be willing to move to a place like China. The US has a much bigger problem than they realise and that is the setting for this script and exercise. It took me 3 hours to set up the station for this story and consider, what happens when 200 engineers take the road towards a decent life and a decent way of life. You figure out how much certain places could lose and more importantly how that impacts their economies, because the last time I checked the loss of $275 billion in value could drive a place like the US into utter bankruptcy. They all forgot about what happens when the makers and creators leave, just like Covid, they were never prepared for that scenario. Why not? And if that I true why not treat those people better? The foundation of  story and optionally a TV series.

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November 16, 2022 · 10:58

Bullshit and Hypocrisy

Yes, two elements, more important, can you tell the difference? Can you tell the difference when it is the media doing both? In this case it is the Guardian who had the hypocritical balls to give us the article (at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/15/the-guardian-view-on-cop27-this-is-no-time-for-apathy-or-complacency)

To understand this we take a quote, like “That’s why today more than 30 newspapers and media organisations in more than 20 countries have taken a common view about what needs to be done. Time is running out”, and why does this get to me?

I wrote on August 26th ‘As credibility moves to the arctic’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/08/26/as-credibility-moves-to-the-arctic/) where I confront Matt McGrath with a few items. Then there was July 31st 2021 where I gave the readers ‘Place with a view’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/07/31/place-with-a-view/) and not to forget ‘Uniform Nameless Entitlement Perforation’ on December 10th 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/12/10/uniform-nameless-entitlement-perforation/) which has the ACTUAL EEA report as well. A report that to the best of my knowledge was never seen on the BBC site and not on the Guardian site either. No Matt McGrath was all about the rich people and their jets, whilst over the last 15 years over 41,000 flights a day were added. I feel absolute certain that at least a third could be scrapped. There is no need to have 15 flights a day between Amsterdam and Stockholm and that is merely one example. That is the first setting, the second was the EEA report, which gives us that 50% of ALL damage is done by merely 1% of the facilities. 50% of all damage comes from 147 facilities and as I can see it they ALL ignored that. Why is that? So please stop the hypocrite bullshit of “more than 30 newspapers and media organisations in more than 20 countries have taken a common view about what needs to be done”, you should have done your job for years but you would not, you have (as I personally see it) no credibility left. 

As such the laughing suggestion “Impose climate tax on fossil fuel giants, media groups urge”, so how about you 30 do your fucking jobs for a change and have a hard look at these 147 facilities, or perhaps the list of airlines that added over 41,000 flights every day and dig into that part before you look at some ultra rich person with their fuel efficient jets that give a fraction of the carbon emissions that a normal jet gives. 

And the masses, the flammable masses love the idea of taxing fossil fuel giants. So how about this. I am hereby requesting that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reduces delivery of crude oil to the West (Europe and America) by 1 million barrels a day, how does that sound? I reckon the first hour idiots like ‘Just Stop Oil movement’ will love me, but that is the first hour. When the deal becomes as long as any of them are still alive, the limitation of oil remains their feelings will change very fast. We are our own worst enemy and the media has become the enemy of all. It is simple, the media are for the most are no longer bringing us the news. They are bringing filtered information, information that is approved by shareholders, stakeholders and the advertisers. So how does that grab you? There is a second solution, we release a biotoxin that removes 80%-90% of the human population, it actually solves everything, but certain greed driven people will think it is over the top.

Until real reporting is done by these 30 newspapers and media organisations in more than 20 countries, they should shut the fuck up (I apologise for my wording here). But there comes a time when Bullshit and Hypocrisy are just a little too much, especially when out of these 31 groups (me included) I am the only one handing the people the EEA report and looking into it. The media has done jack shit on that element. This editorial was a bit too much to me and it should be way too much to all of you.

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November 13, 2022 · 22:16

Discrimination by media

It bugged me yesterday yet it it was Forbes with their BS. And now the Guardian most useless person and champion for discrimination (aka Stephanie Kirchgaessner) makes another anti-Saudi Arabia article. I wonder why the Guardian keeps Katharine Viner around. As I see it, she is as useless as some other person we might know. So lets have a look at the article that angers me so.  It is ‘Alarm on Capitol Hill over Saudi investment in Twitter’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/03/saudi-twitter-investment-us-national-security-risk), yes it is 3 weeks old, but that was in this case intentional. It starts right off the bat “Possible access to users’ data could pose national security risk and could be used to target kingdom’s dissidents”. Well Stephanie (Katharine too)? You used ‘possible’ which is neither here nor their, which is not a yes or a no. You have had three weeks and the both of you get enough money to sort it out. Is it a yes or a no? And where is the national security? As such what ‘rights’ does an investor like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal have regarding Twitter and its data? And then when we look at it we see “his investment company, Kingdom Holding, which first invested in Twitter in 2011”, as such Prince Alwaleed bin Talal had been an investor in Twitter for 11 years and it took you this long to figure out that there was a national security issue. How fucking useless are you two? (Reference to Viner and Kirchgaessner) And after three weeks we still do not know anything, do we? I am not interested in these putzes Ron Wyden and Chris Murphy as I see it near useless politicians who seek the limelight and Kirchgaessner when it comes to anti-Saudi articles is happy to oblige. And then we get “The Twitter investment does not appear to offer either Alwaleed or the Saudi government any formal control over Twitter. Musk is now the company’s sole director. But the kingdom’s known use of the platform as a propaganda tool”, as such it has been three weeks, do they or do they not have any formal control? You have had three weeks to figure it out. We see no response of such questions from Twitter or its spokesperson either, do we?  And when we see “Rules surrounding such reviews by the US Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), which has the power to unwind transactions if they are deemed to threaten US national security, have usually been triggered when the foreign entity (in this case, Saudi Arabia) has assumed control of a company or asset” but they weren’t were they? So do you have any evidence in the last three weeks that sheds light on any of this or are you as useless as I always have found you to be and in this case your editor in chief with you? 

I have no idea who Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is, but I have a mindset to sell him some of my 

iP just to piss you off. How about my 5G IP, should fetch me a pretty penny? Or perhaps an additional $6,000,000,000 in annual IT revenue for starters (it could grow). I am so sick and tired of your BS and unsubstantiated issues that go nowhere. First Forbes with its slapping of Elon Musk, never ending slapping, now another piece by you two (the editor in chief is guilty by association) and no one is looking into the partnership between Microsoft and Tencent, why is that? Or were the so called ‘animosity’ pieces by Microsoft stakeholders enough? But the indications are that the Tencent device is running Microsoft at the core, so is that true or is that false? I cannot tell, but it is not my job, it is yours and you aren’t doing yours.

It pisses me off to no end.

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November 11, 2022 · 19:25

First of two issues

I had a rage attack today, it was right after some stupid set of saggy t*** decided to attack Elon Musk in a Presidential briefing. It feels like she is from Forbes. They have been pushing the Musk envelope. It is my personal belief that they are close friends with Jack Dorsey, a person they seemingly never asked any serious questions from and ‘the national security danger that is Saudi Arabia?’ Oh, I got her number and then some. But there is time for that and I have seen that death is not the worst a person can experience. It will be my delight to introduce that terror to her. But there is time for that and certain plays are not completed. But then something happened. 

A tweet brought Me back to my senses. This lady is totally nuts about Elden Ring. I get that drive, that devotion, optionally that obsession. I do not agree with her, but that I her right. I did not play Elden ring. I could never finish BloodBorne. I still have it as it is one of the most beautiful games I have, next to Dark Souls 3, a game I equally never finished. Both utterly sublime, but in my lifetime I doubt I will ever finish that. Yet it was about her feeling. I thought I had the same with Horizons: Forbidden West. But then God of War: Ragnarok came. I am taking me time as every corner, every sight is a feast for the eyes. I lost a few lives, but that is OK. The game delivers again and again and the story is magnificent, as is the music. I do not believe that Guerrilla software has anything to fear. There is space to love control of both Kratos and Aloy. Two amazing pieces of faming IP, this was a good gaming year and I am not forgetting Gotham Knights. Three Amazing journeys. Yet at present I am knee deep in Asgardian folklore and epic myths and Santa Monica Studios deliver in ways you cannot believe (unless you are playing the game) it is good that in the twilight of my life I can still be amazed by games. I started gaming in 1984 and I never stopped. I might not have the drive I once had (like playing 167 levels of Loderunner on the CBM64 in one sitting). I did take a sickie for that event. It was a time when you could pause a game, but you could not save a game. Still, 38 years later and that gam is still part of me. Games evolved from CBM64 we got the CBM Amiga, then PC, then the PlayStation range one through five and gaming never disappointed. I might not like everything, but that is not required. There is space for the yearners of Elden Ring, the obsession with Quake, Halo and Bethesda games. It is an inclusive group, the more the merrier. 

There is no hindsight, not a new piece of IP (other than the ones I already have). Many forget that gaming is not a business (to some it is), it is the ones that see games as art, those are the games that get the 90%+ reviews and Sony has a basket full of those, no matter how many ‘opponents’ troll rating into the basement. The gamers know what is what and they are driven to success. To achieve the end of the story. Anyone finishing Horizons Zero Dark can tell you about that. There is a need to finish the story and God of War: Ragnarok is no different. Do not worry, no spoilers here. 

Passing that line yourself is so fulfilling it gives value to a game and you will cherish EVERY dollar you spend on it. Today was a great day for gaming. I wonder if that is why I became angry at Forbes with its BS sense towards an owner and a partner who owns a mere 4% of Twitter. Which is interesting as the China hatred in the US does not give rise to the partnership that Microsoft and Tencent have, not even from Forbes, where is their national security interest there?

I am contemplating words I once got from Frank Herbert “He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing”, he published it in 1965, 57 years ago. Words to live by and I am feeling rebellious and frisky, a dangerous combination in someone with my mindset, but Forbes will soon learn that lesson. I’ll give fair warning a day after I have completed the exercise. Only fair, not?

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November 7, 2022 · 22:32

The simple truth that matters

I saw an article at the CBC which was a month old. The article (at https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/aviation-emissions-flying-climate-change) gives us ‘Yearning to fly’, I get it, most love a plane ride, for most it is the official beginning of a vacation. For some it is the beginning of more and for yet more others it is merely a business trip. There we get “Airports around the world — including, infamously, Toronto’s Pearson — buckled under the strain.” Yes we get it, COVID-19 was an element no one has ever lived through, businesses were unable to fathom impact, retention the workforce and keep their KPI on some level of bonus giving. But the problem is a lot larger. Then we get “Many observers say the current growth trajectory is unrealistic — and that the aviation industry isn’t being frank about it.” This sounds nice but there is a part missing. There was more we were also given “To give a sense of just how much we fly, there were nearly 39 million flights worldwide in 2019; that was up from 25.9 million in 2009.” And that is merely the beginning. Now we need to take a step back. On November 13th 2021 I gave the world ‘A COP26 truth’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/11/13/a-cop26-truth/) with reference to an article two days earlier. I wrote at the time “the larger issue is that over the last 15 years 15,000,000 additional flights were added. That amounts to 41,000 flights a day, every single day. So how much CO2 do these flights create? More people and more flights, not the flights from the uber rich, no normal airline flights. I am willing to take a bet that at least 25% of those flights are useless and could be scrapped.” A statement that implies that we could remove 10,250 flights every day, so how much carbon does that take off the table? And the governments all over the world are unwilling to make that registration, consider one destination Amsterdam International (Schiphol), they get an average of 1166 flights a day, every day. There is not a bone in my body who tells me that this makes sense. London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Munich, Atlanta, San Francisco. I truly believe that it has come to the fact that the world has annual 38.9 million flights. If we merely scrap 2%, that amounts to 778,000 flights. So how much carbon emissions do we safe then? And we get some BS reporter at the Guardian give us the the pointing finger at the uber rich? Gimme a break!

They have ignored a EEA report (I think it was 2020) where the report states that 50% of all pollution came from 147 facilities. I initially mentioned it on December 10th 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/12/10/uniform-nameless-entitlement-perforation/) I even included the report. The article titled ‘Uniform Nameless Entitlement Perforation’ gives a lot to think about and the Guardian did nothing (well neither did the BBC), so whilst we yearn vacations and in many cases preferably per plane, there is still the matter of Carbon emissions and the essential need to scrap at least 778,000 commercial flights FOREVER. The Dutch KLM flies 15 flights a day to Stockholm. Really? Do that many people travel? If we examine and dig into the manifests of EVERY plane we will see gaps, too many gaps. There is no way that we need 15 daily flights to Stockholm, we can do with 6 easily. That is one route and we scrap well over 50%, we need to dig into these realms and we need to start scrapping presentation flights. The simple truth is that we seemingly think that there are so many people flying, the fact is that the entire setting is loaded from the start and it is time to get rid of a lot of them, if we need to create time we need to cut where we can. 

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November 7, 2022 · 09:12

Start with the blabla

Yes, that is what it seems like. It feels like merely yesterday that we had COP26 and a young lady calling it a ‘bla bla’ moment. And with the actions of the exiting Brazilian president we might hope that the dangers to the Amazon are over, but I am not convinced. They were given until 2030 to fill there pockets and there is every chance that all but the final 1/3rd of the Amazon will be gone by November 2029. There is also other news COP27 will be held in Sharm-el-Sheikh. It is nice when these things are held in a place I know to some degree. I was there in 1982, there will be a lot of changes, but for some reason it clicks a lot more. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63517078) ‘COP27: ‘Climate chaos’ warning as UN summit begins’ where we are told:

At last year’s summit in Glasgow a number of pledges were agreed:

  • to “phase down” the use of coal – one of the most polluting fossil fuels
  • to stop deforestation by 2030
  • to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030
  • to submit new climate action plans to the UN

Developing nations – which are at the forefront of climate change – are demanding that previous commitments to finance are upheld.

It is nice to stop deforestation, but Brazil saw that as a moment to increase deforestation by well over 20% at present, so we have that to deal with. In other news the Guardian gave us a list on November 2nd. This list (at https://green-alliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Global-methane-pledge.pdf) offers “a series of low-cost measures, which it says could reduce methane emissions from their 2020 levels by 43%.” I would state that we do not give livestock Mexican food, but the document is a lot more serious and they give us “The feed additive Bovaer/3-NOP, manufactured by DSM, could cut methane emissions from dairy cows by at least 40 per cent, if it was approved by the Food Standards Agency. It must be fed to cows regularly, making it immediately suitable for dairy cows but less so for outdoor reared beef cattle and sheep.” The two issues I currently have with it is the question whether ‘Bovaer/3-NOP’ has been properly tested for long term issues in beef and milk. We made similar mistakes before, lets not do that again. On the other hand it seems that the stock of DSM will go the roof if this happens. To be honest, with all the issues at hand, I cannot say how useful this meeting will be. Call me a pessimist, but the events following COP26 in Brazil made me weary of progress here and lets be clear Brazil will be the first screaming for money, yet where exactly are these deforestation profits going? 

In other news

I woke up from a weird dream this morning. I was in some kind of marketing trailer. They were running a large screen (85”) and the image war sublime, it allowed for 4K where on the image of a salesperson, and whilst we walked and moved in the trailer the image was captured and placed on the TV, we were midgets walking all over the person on the screen and it was uncanny. The feet the stance were all instantly adjusted to the new stage based on the images captured in the trailer. The angle of the feet, the angle of us as we ascended or declined the salesperson laying on a couch. They called it Oracle Eloquent, and it gets weirder. I looked it up a minute ago and it exists. Or at least Oracle Eloquent exists. I was unaware, I have not talked about Oracle for at least a decade. I learned two things in the dream. Oracle Eloquent was free with the video equipment, it was (I think) a stage of new marketing and direct editing to make video and events in Meta, in addition to this a person had a work login, a deployment login and a third login (not sure what it was). It allowed for some kind of AI based deployment (read: deeper machine learning), it seems that some players are ready for the big players in Meta, what I saw was overwhelming and I think that something like this will appeal for the entire top tier of the Fortune 500. I partially recall seeing some Apple advert and it was amazing, but even now the dream is falling into the realm of shades and beyond my grasp. The trailer was set up for a team of 6, they would be Abel to interact and combine options to create new miracles in a setting that is mobile. As such the trailer could be moved to different Coca Cola locations. But that trailer could be placed in a specific place, linked to power and AC units. A locked setting to get the next Meta trend event to take place. It was all I saw but the thing that threw me the most was “Oracle Eloquent Model. Updating Blob directly using OracleEloquent.” I found it half an hour after the dream, so I am in the dark. I searched my history but for the last two years I have not looked at anything Oracle related. I might have seen something in a place like Verge, but I am unaware of it. The brain makes the weirdest jumps at times. As such I am willing to accept that I could see the name subconsciously, but the rest, I am drawing a blank.

So, that is enough bla bla from me for at least 10 hours.

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November 6, 2022 · 13:33

MHW anyone?

Yes, it seems puzzling, but it is not. I have seen in the last 48 hours more than anyones share of hatred, the Musk Hatred Wave and I absolutely have had enough of this collaborated pile of bullshit. It is time to set the record straight. The first guilty party is the Media, these cocksucking stakeholder appeasing bunch of wannabe journo’s. Almost no one is asking serious questions towards Jack Dorsey and the hidden accounts of fake followers. Can someone please nail this joker to a bloody cross please? It is getting close to Christmas, so that solves one part. The Guardian goes on (t https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/05/twitter-elon-musk-jack-dorsey-apology) by catering to all this with “I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation – I grew the company too quickly” as I personally see it when Elon Musk is forced to deal with “apologise for the state of the site, which has laid off thousands of workers” when the new person has to lay off thousands of people, you weren’t growing the company to quickly, you were orchestrating a stage and still the media is not asking the questions they should have asked for months. So when we get to see “At least one class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter on behalf of former employees who say they were not given adequate notice of their termination.” I need to wonder if this is actually the case, Elon Musk stated on Titter that these people were given TWICE the redundancy that a person is eligible for. I cannot state if that was indeed true, but the media gives us “Elon Musk has a history of violating California’s labor law” loading the stage against Elon Musk yet again. And true, a little later we see “Musk has defended the layoffs, tweeting that fired employees are receiving three months of severance as the company reportedly loses over $4m a day.” Another clear stage that gives us that someone needs to ask Jack Dorsey serious questions, but he is off with billions, so he will not care about any of this. It merely shows how useless the media has become. 

Then we see more and more hatred on Twitter with quotes like Justice giving us that Free Speech should not cost $8 month. 

My answer would be:

“No Moron he is not charging $8 for free speech, he is planning to charge the blue checkmark. The sign that you are a real account. A sort of elite status that too many people enjoyed for the longest of times. The new owner states that this elite status comes at a price and most of them will do the math $96 a year or lose the mark. Plenty of those can hand that invoice as an expense to their TAX LAWYER.” 

Then we get loads of people stating they lost hundreds or thousands of followers. I am merely adding one example but there are legions out there. 

The question becomes were they really followers or are certain bots vacating the space in fear of exposure? In one week Musk cannot push for such larger changes to a working system with all these people losing their jobs. We could argue that some Twitter employees had scripts that fattened the accounts of their idols. I am not stating this happened, I am wondering if this could have been the case. And yes there are plenty of people whose hatred made them leave Twitter, that is their choice, but those followers stopped being followers too. There are many options, but we need data to prove or disprove some of these assumptions (read: presumptions).

The largest issue is the mass firing. The issues is not whether this is happening, but if proper procession is used. That is a case for California labour laws, I know too little about these, but considering the Jack Dorsey ‘apology’, I am willing to speculate that everything was done to give Elon Musk a stacked hand against him and with the media being as biased as it seems to be, when it comes to discrimination and a few other elements the media is every bit as guilty here. That is how I see it. When you get over the feigned anger, what are your thoughts? 

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November 3, 2022 · 15:18

That second police force

Yes, it comes as a shock. I know it. Although, it does not affect me (I think). But there is also a weird balancing act that derives from there. It was given to me by the Dutch NOS. You see the stupidity of one opponent (Russia) should not decide the inactions towards another (China). So there I was reading (at https://nos.nl/l/2450783) giving us : ‘China denies existence of police bureaus in the Netherlands, calls them ‘service points’’ there we learn that China has at least two of them in the Netherlands. One in Amsterdam and one in Rotterdam. Stations that China erected without informing the Dutch authorities. Next to the usage for administrative duties like the Chinese authorities self indicates, there are strong suspicions that China uses these offices to keep track of the Chinese with critical views of China. 

China responded “They are meant to assist local Chinese citizens who apply for an expired driving license. The people are ‘enthusiastic oversea Chinese people’ not police officers. 

The Dutch ministry of foreign affairs have stated that these offices are unacceptable and must be shut immediately. In other news, Germany is now investigating whether such an office exists in Frankfurt. 

No matter how this plays, China seemingly has a much larger intelligence operation in Europe, or did you think that ‘offices’ would be erected for expired driving licenses? The problem that this creates is twofold. What is merely for China, and what is used to give Russia additional material? The fact that Pro Russian collaboration is going on in the Netherlands has been clear for well over a year and it goes way beyond the borders of one seemingly mentioned name like Thierry Baudet. It goes a lot further and the question is how far? The fact that Russia’s efforts are monitored is one, the fact that China has an intelligence structure beneath the waterline is quite another and that is a setting that neither the Dutch or European forces will find acceptable, and the very same could be said for their alleged German activities.

Is one true? It is hard to say but the Dutch tend to have a sober view on matters, and the fact that the NOS gives us this hours ago whilst Reuters made mention 5 days ago implies that certain evidence has been checked and categorised implies a foundation that some will see as evidence. Of course we wonder how Reuters had it 5 days before the Dutch NOS, but one might have been a rumour, whilst the other one is verified information. The one question the UK (and commonwealth) needs to question is how far does this go, especially with a larger Chinese contingent in Australia, especially Sydney and Melbourne where we find a huge chunk of the 1.3 million Chinese immigrants.

Yet, that is not my concern, but it should be someones concern, don’t you think so?

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November 2, 2022 · 17:43

And you still want cake?

A few hours ago I was alerted to an article on the BBC site. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63260648) gives us ‘Cyber-attacks on small firms: The US economy’s ‘Achilles heel’?’ In itself no real surprise, but then I saw “It was a total head-in-the-sand situation. ‘It’s not going to happen to me. I’m too small.’ That was the overwhelming message that I was hearing five years ago,” says Ms Graham, co-founder of CYDEF, which is based in Canada. “But yes, it is happening.” There we see the first instance of utter stupidity, a setting where insurance companies go ‘well, I am sorry to report that it is on your dime that this is happening’ and that is not a speculation, this is about to happen. In addition to that the insurance against cyber attacks will skyrocket unless you have state of the art equipment (something small businesses cannot afford). A stage that is waiting exploitation. There are all kinds of speculations. One of them is “Cyber-crimes are expected to cost the world $10.5tn (£9.3tn) by 2025, according to cyber-security research firm Cyber Ventures”, I do not completely agree, for the most I do, but the big bucks are depending on national 5G, which is not happening in many nations before 2027. You see, one source gives us “For example, in November 2020, one cybersecurity company estimated that global cybercrime costs will grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching US$10.5t annually by 2025, up from US$3t in 2015 (Cision 2020)” they are seemingly ALL quoting the same source and that source is Cyber Ventures. That does not make it incorrect, yet I have reservations. That number is completely acceptable under 5G, under other conditions (when big tech do not screw up and hand over the keys to hackers) should not go that fast (yet), but when 5G, a national 5G stage is there this number will increase swimmingly all over the globe, which is why I shouted for law adjustments well over two years ago, but the law is seemingly sitting on their hands, all about ‘letting all parties’ swim in the large all whilst the swimming pool has close to zero protection, so this will get worse a lot faster and the EU will see plenty of drowners (aka floaters) soon enough. My speculative view is that the larger problems are a mere 6 months away. 

Then we are given “The pandemic created a whole new set of challenges and small businesses weren’t prepared,” says Mary Ellen Seale, chief executive of the National Cybersecurity Society, a non-profit that helps small businesses create cyber-security plans. In March 2020, at the cusp of the pandemic, a survey of small businesses by broadcaster CNBC found that only 20% planned to invest in cyber-protection.” This sounds nice, but I wonder what we will see in 2023. I expect that it is then that we will learn that less than 40% of these 20% will have actually done something and that is when a lot of people (insurance especially) realise that this is about to become a sinking ship. There was clear indication in 2010 that setting up cyber security was essential in players a little larger than SBE sized companies. They had issues too, but the revenue was too small. The problem is that clever hackers do not grab the whole enchilada. With “It typically takes 200 days from the moment of the hacking until discovery” we see the pattern. The clever ones will hit places for about 150 days then they go underground. That gives them enough to live like a king for a decade. They stay under the fold, they stay inconspicuous for as long as they can. They book a weekend in Vegas and then they launder what they had going home with $5-$15 million. The caper has worked and they are in the clear. Yet these same clever people can clear $50-$150 million when they get access to a fully deployed 5G network and the BS argument of “We will have a solution before that” does not fly, that excuse is a decade old and they have no adjusted laws, there is no adjusted technology and whatever the NSA has is not shared. So as you can see, the numbers are not entirely in the air (the Cyber Ventures one) but it will rely on a fully deployed 5G network which should be around 2027. 

It is time that ALL businesses take cyber security serious. The moment that there is no insurance for that these Achilles heel companies go under with no options for the owner, that person will have lost everything. So when Kirsten Dunst stated ‘Let them eat cake’ (Marie Antoinette) she stated a good case for Cyber criminals. They are having cake every day and those not using Common Cyber Sense will be paying for that meal day after day after month after month after year (you get the idea). It was essential to properly adjust laws for that. And when we look at the data from April we get “according to industry data only four to five percent of hackers are actually caught, but high-profile cases showcase how even the most skilled can make simple mistakes which lead to them being apprehended” so between one in twenty to one in twenty five gets caught. Do you really want to hope on that statistic? This is not a pun against law enforcement or the FBI, they are in a fight with both hands tied behind their backs. Not a good position to win a fight. And that is before we look at state funded hackers. Lets be clear both Russia and China have every benefit for American and European business to lose way too much, proving that part is close to impossible. These players are almost never caught. The arrest by the FSB of REvil was a rare instance, but not all was lost. At https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransom-cartel-linked-to-notorious-revil-ransomware-operation/ we learn “Researchers have linked the relatively new Ransom Cartel ransomware operation with the notorious REvil gang based on code similarities in both operations’ encryptors” and that was two weeks ago. At present with Russians not being able to wage war against an enemy that is at best 15% of their own army gives rise that the people behind REvil will be out and about soon enough (if they aren’t already). 

So those who want cake, better find a place to enjoy it before the hackers get it all and I will not care. I have been clearly evangelising the essential need for Common Cyber Sense for years now. And if Optus Australia is anything to go by there are plenty of big fish not too interested in that approach.

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November 1, 2022 · 18:57

Fear is the key

Yes, it is a setting, but also the title of a Alistair McLean novel. And fear came to mind when I saw ‘New EU law could open up messaging and app buying’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63458377), for the most I am all for open markets, the problem however is that these small players aren’t too concerned about safety. The fear becomes that these small players will be a platform for hackers and criminals to propagate THEIR agenda and I do very much have a problem with that. So as the article gives us “Under the DMA, smaller messaging apps will be able to ask the tech gatekeepers to allow their users to send and receive messages via the bigger firm’s platform. However, large firms will not be required to make more advanced features interoperable immediately. Under the plans, audio and video calls between two individual users or groups of end users on different platforms will not happen for four years.” This statement gives us two dangers. Danger number one is that the small player is propagating party X (aka hacking party), we cannot state that there was intent, or that there was malicious intent. There is every chance that these maker are unaware. The second danger is that the absence of ‘advanced features’ which would include certain security measures. Yes, that is a speculation, but these security measures tent to be more advanced, hence the danger of missing out. I wonder what excuse these ‘enablers’ have when things go wrong, because there is EVERY chance that this will happen. In certain cases, could the BEUC be held accountable for damages to mobiles and persons? It is a fair question, because the rules of torts tell is to go after the money and the EU has plenty, not?

So as we are given “Margrethe Vestager, the commissioner for competition, who originally proposed the legislation said: “We invite all potential gatekeepers, their competitors or consumer organisations, to come and talk to us about how to best implement the DMA.”” I personally wonder who will ask the EU to be held accountable for any hacks that get propagated this way and more important can these smaller players be held liable? That last part is dicey on a few levels. It sets the stage that the consumer has to agree to an ‘as is’ policy, which means that the consumer gets to be held accountable for any damages. This is not a good setting to be in. 

I am all for open markets, but until the EU (US too) has actual victories against hackers, I fear the worst will happen and it tends to happen too soon when no one is prepared or has a clue, a mindset the EU is well familiar with.

I have every intention to ban messages that are not from my provider, which is dangerous as Optus has been hacked into to the largest degree, so I am not holding my breath regarding any mobile safety at present.

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