Tag Archives: BBC

September 26, 2023 · 05:37

The confused mindset

We all have that at times and I am no different. I have had a few ideas and they were merely that, ideas. An idea for Kruger Products to increase their offset by 10% (or more), which sounds ludicrous, I know and it is not because Kleenex bailed out of Canada. It was one thought that painted over another and then a third thought came into play and as such the idea was born. I still think it could work, but not sure how to push it through. Lets be clear, I do not need to push it through, I am on the other side of the planet. Then the idea came for a mobile case addition. Not merely a new mobile case, there are 13 in a dozen, but an addition to every case, all in light of stupid people who lose their mobile phones on planes, in rollercoasters and that list goes on a bit. So, when you consider that the new iPhone 15 PRO MAX is well over $2K, the idea has merit. How long until you no longer have it insured. How long until the insurance companies use these videos to show you do not care for your product like a good father (yes, that is an expression used for over 30 years) and as such nullify your insurance and you will not get back the insurance premium already paid. All these thoughts invaded my mindset. All whilst other things pre-occupy it.

You see, the looming US shutdown and the FTX case involving Bankman-Fried (aka Bankman-Fired) is merely showing me how the media is set to fear mongering, involving as many as they can for the digital dollar and that list goes on. Yet one source, the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46927916) gives us beside ‘What happens in a US government shutdown?’, whatever is about to come. Yet I think that this is fear mongering and a last minute solution will be found, but certain people on the republican side will want their pound of meat as well as their 15 minute of camera time. Yet the chance of this going wrong will increase with every iteration of this circus. I mentioned it before. It will not be long until it actually happens. To keep the fear alive and there is supporting evidence (straight from the BBC). You see, we are given “Congress is also not affected – its members are exempt and, in any case, its funding bill has already been approved. The US Department of Justice is among those affected – with many lawyers and judges not working during a shutdown. Others are working without pay.” With the added ““Essential services” – mostly related to public safety – continue to operate, with workers being required to show up without pay.” So, isn’t that called slave labour? And the republicans are steering for this? I am not entirely unsympathetic as the US debt keeps on growing, but this is a dangerous step. The second danger is “A right-wing faction in the House is demanding deep cuts and wants to stop further funding of the war in Ukraine” A republican side that is so driven with greed that they will support Russia in the process, that must be the most un-American part I ever beheld. Yet my mind also thinks that if the world goes this without the US, then the world must ALSO make the US pay. As such it needs to remove import of American products, it needs to shun American services and there are options. It fuels certain EU options (EVROC anyone?) And that is merely one of many. The media is so driven not to look into the US corporations that are STILL doing business in Russia and that list also goes on. There needs to be a price for everything and America will have to pay its pound of beef as well. Greed comes with a price and that price is always higher than one thinks. 

To illustrate one small part, the last one in 2019 “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that it reduced economic output by about $11bn, including $3bn that it never regained.” Over 36 days that much, never regained. That is the loss people face in a time when they cannot afford anything. So how much longer until the EU nations seek an audience with President Xi? Do not think that this cannot happen, BRICS has grown massively and now that Saudi Arabia is part of that, the EU and the US will face tougher times. The candyman is gone, he has vacated the building and is now part of the Asian collective and that sits well with China, the moment several European nations join that part, America is truly done for. No fear mongering, merely a simple fact that the media is not reporting on, because its stakeholders will not allow that and that is the linked danger. You think the last $3,000,000,000 is much? China now has lucrative construction contracts and lucrative service contracts that span the 5 year horizon (as I personally see it) to well beyond $75 billion, funds that the US can no longer appeal to and that list grows shorter every year. Saudi Arabia and the UAE represent a massive amount of revenue and it is all going towards China and BRICS members. So the idea that the EU members will want to appeal to President Xi is growing larger by the day and that is all linked to the game that Republicans are playing with. A compact combination of greed, stupidity and ego. Winning big in Vegas has better chances than the game we see now and the media is keeping you all in the dark.

The media stakeholders are that powerful now and it is all for the larger good, but the good for who? A few hours ago I saw ‘BRICS Countries Dump $123 Billion in U.S. Treasuries in 2023’ (source: Watcher Guru). First of all this is unverified news and I only saw one source, but if this is REAL news and the other media is shunning this fact, we see two parts. The first is that the media is losing credibility fast, the second is that the US is facing more and more hardship. That being said, I have no idea how reliable Watcher Guru is, so be careful what you take for gospel without decent verification. I am not accepting the news, but the setting would be what any tactical party (especially BRICS) would do to make things hard for America and BRICS includes Russia AND China, so make from this what you want, yet that too relates to the Republicans wanting to side with Russia AGAINST Ukraine, as such that step makes less and less sense with every hour I see news articles pass by. Perhaps we should call them the Republittlecans? 

No matter how you slice these events, the Anti-China acts buy the US is driving the EU members into the arms of China, an outcome they apparently did not see coming. If they did these steps seem extraordinary stupid to me. Yet my mind is merely turning trying to create more ideas as I go along with whatever silly events is happening around the corner.

The mindset can get confused, also the mindset of any focussed person. Confusion sets in when the data that it registers (reads) becomes conflicting on several levels and as I personally see it the involved stakeholders are creating more confusion in the process of hiding news others do not want you to see. You might think the Watcher Guru is such news and I would doubt it too as it is merely one source, but this is nowhere near the first time and other news has been hidden or trivialised for well over a decade now and the people are starting to catch on all over the world they are catching on that the media has lost credibility all over the place.

Enjoy the day, the week is really on route now.

 

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September 20, 2023 · 02:19

Chapter 13

This is not economy (Chapter 11), or procreation (Chapter 17). This is about a very different stage. And this starts with the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66835995) where we are given ‘Biden urges UN leaders to stand together against Russia’. I agree with the sentiment. Apart from the fact that Russia has become a terrorist nation attacking unarmed civilians (and getting bitch slapped by Paddington bear), there is a much larger setting and the people are mostly in the dark here.

Russia has created a spy network on a global level and it is hindering any actions. The US is clearly in a stage of catering to Russia where its own Republican Party is trying to stop any aid to Ukraine. In addition to this there is still a large amount of American companies doing business in Russia. As such it is nice for President Biden to ask what he is and many support this, but America has to clean out its own front yard and that has not been happening for well over a year. It gives a two sided story to others.

Then we get ‘Dutch defence ministry official arrested for evasion of Russia sanctions’ (at https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/dutch-defence-ministry-official-arrested-for-evasion-of-russia-sanctions/) where we see “The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) arrested a Defence Ministry official accused of having evaded EU sanctions against Russia by exporting spare aircraft parts to Russia via third countries, the government agency announced on Friday.” This is a defence ministry official. On top of all this there are NATO links, but the concrete level and levels of access are unknown to me.

From there we get to ‘Germany charges intelligence ‘mole’ with treason in Russia spying case’ which was handed to us in the beginning of September by the BBC. The story (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66727785) is where we are given “Prosecutors believe Carsten L shared intelligence about the war in Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group and received roughly €400,000 (£340,000), according to German reports.” To make matters worse, Carsten L is a high ranking officer in German intelligence. 

These are merely a few stories in a vast collection of events. It affects The Netherlands, the US, Germany, France and a few more nations. You see, Chapter 13 is the chapter on Espionage in the Art of War (Sun Tzu). That chapter gives us that there are 5 types of spies.

Local spies
Inward spies
Converted spies
Doomed spies
Surviving spies

And Russia has all 5 types all over Europe and the US, as such the comment by Stoltenberg “Nobody knows how long this war will last, he says, but with the support of NATO and the international community, Ukraine has been able to push Russia back.” Goes wrong. The intent is nice, but as long as you do not clean your house, too many political and wannabe players will destroy whatever you are trying to achieve. It is perhaps the one part I agree on with Joseph McCarthy, until your house is clean you are headed for disaster. To be honest I never expected to EVER quote McCarthy, but the anti Ukrainian setting in the US and these fake peace proclaimers are showing him to be correct. And until the cleaning is done, matter will only get worse and I believe that some realise this, but the rest is pushed to sleep it through (until too late) which will end up being the start of a disaster. 

Sun Tzu is merely one example There is also Carl von Clausewitz (On war), yet the Art of War is (as I personally see it) much better, more generic and more versatile. The problem (for the Netherlands and Germany) is to see what kind of spy their spy was. A converted or a doomed spy. To act for money makes a person a doomed spy, but it is unclear how long this had been going on, especially when someone parks funds at the behest of a mother in laws maiden name and when that account is in a place like Saudi Arabia, finding these funds will be near impossible, making the foundation of what kind of adversary harder. 

In the case of Germany there is even more. Many parts of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) support Russia, its foreign policy, and its allies. For example, AfD members and activists were listed as keeping close ties with Russian politicians and receiving financial benefits in an OCCRP investigation of Russia’s International Agency for Current Policy. And these people are part of what is said to be the AfD pro-Russia movement. Two nations and several to find. France is cleaning house and they made progress, but they are only finding those who weren’t clever enough to mask their actions and there are plenty in many nations who were that clever making progress an issue. That is what we see now, but what we do not see (and most will not know) is how the FSB (and optionally the GRU) are working in India and Pakistan. It is clear that they are there, but the level of access and how deep they are rooted in those political climates is (as far as I know) unknown and speculating is useless. No matter how you slice and dice this, until there is some proper cleaning there will be a larger problem and it is not going away any day soon.

Enjoy the mid week that is about to come (I’m already there).

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September 18, 2023 · 00:14

A dark journey

This journey isn’t for every one. I have hd the same setting earlier and the same conclusion as well, but I was never outspoken about it. I got there via two articles. 

Overdose
The first article is given to us by BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-66810832) where we see ‘UAE seizes billion dollar amphetamine haul’ there we are given “A portion of the 86 million Captagon pills police in Dubai say was seized”. You see, there is literally no reason to be this stupid. This amounts to 10 tablets to EVERY citizen in the UAE. The UAE has a remarkably well organised detection team as well as a well organised cyber investigation team. This was never going to go right. And lets be clear, the idea to set a market to serve 100% of a population is just insane. And I am not the only one thinking this. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are thinking pretty much the same thing (my speculation). This is either a distraction or it is about destabilisation. How? Your guess is as good as mine, but I see o other setting than these two. Perhaps they whistle this load whilst 100Kg (or more) gets safely transported via other places. Now, that would make sense. The materials cooked are not the issue. If you can make that much, you can make 100Kg more. But was it really about the drugs or the distraction. Perhaps it was about finding the right people to assist them in this endeavour. As I said, your guess is as good as mine.

The second article is also from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66826895) with ‘How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US’ there we are given “the US witnessed a grim milestone: for the first time ever, drug overdoses killed more than 100,000 people across the country in one single year. Of those deaths, more than 66% were tied to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.” It seems that the war on drugs is not working. I see only one solution. After the arrest, just put drug dealers to death, no long trial, no long Rebuttal. As their stuff kills millions, they too should die. And after Breaking Bad, drug dealers have been romanticised. No matter how this plays out, we need to change the game. All this lame war on drugs is as useless as anything we see. Its like throwing your 17 year old daughter naked in a room full of horny sex depraved men thinking she will still be a virgin in 300 seconds time. It is time to change the game with deadly precision. The talkative weak minded liberal politicians have had decades and nothing was achieved. 

Consider 2000, the movie Traffic is released. We see several sides of the drug market and that market had been growing for decades, now a quarter of a century later, it drains healthcare, it drains prison space and it drains the patience of the parents of the victims of drug trafficking. 

Patients and funds are gone. Now, why didn’t I speak up earlier? I did, but not to this degree. You see when nations are attacked and the intent is destabilisation of a government it becomes a very different problem. You see it might start in the US, but the greed driven are never satisfied. The EU is next and after that who knows? With the UAE it becomes a different game, but when you see a board and you do not know whether the data refers to Chess, Checkers or Go it is a hard issue. The hard issue is whether the data supports the view, whether the game presented reflects the real issue or whether it is merely a smokescreen telling us it is one of those three. This matters because in an age where we cannot afford these leaps, we need to make sure that any false leaps are stopped and fast, which is why I am on this dark journey.

Is there another option? 
It is a fair question, but the death graphs from the US implies that it is already to late for that. Before this is stopped hundreds of thousands will die. Now, we have plenty of people (8 billion), so this could go on for a little while longer and if it does the US will be without healthcare funds. This will not take long, I reckon that it collapses within 5 years. So what will we do after that? What will the US do, what will Europe do? Your guess is as good as mine. I reckon that the UAE and other Arabic nations will see that the US is on track to lose it all, and after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia locked down on drug offences and last year performed at least 20 executions for drug offences, the UAE might follow that course. When the deaths and the cost of healthcare starts adding up, it might not have another option open to them. The fact that they captured 13 tonnes of amphetamine pills smuggled in furniture is one side, the other side is that there is no prediction on what got through via other means. It is speculation on my side, but when you consider the data, I am very likely to be right on this (a little less on the reason on why it is done).

Enjoy the day, Monday is almost here.

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August 30, 2023 · 23:53

A king sued tomorrow for issues today

Yup this happens, Kings, Emperors and admirals, they all get sued. In this case it is King Burger, or as you would know this force of nature namely Burger King. The story (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66654440) gives us ‘Burger King faces legal claim over size of Whopper’ a story a mere 9 hours old and that matters in this case. You see, in September 2015 (yes, almost eight years ago). I wrote ‘Ronald McDonald died!’, the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2015/09/05/ronald-mcdonald-died/) gives a similar setting.

I even added graphics with my finger as a reference. So this stuff is not new. To be honest, I never had size issues with Burger King, I did have one with the McDonald clan of fast foods. With added references on profit margins for an extra slice of bacon which is set well over 400%. Here in today’s story we get “The lawsuit accuses the fast food giant of misleading customers by showing the burger with a meatier patty and ingredients that “overflow over the bun”. “The plaintiffs’ claims are false,” Burger King told the BBC.” A setting for the courts to decide, yet when was the McDonalds case? And when we consider that this has been going on for almost 8 years, at what point did certain parties consider taking a long hard look at the fast food industry? Because I give you now that this is not merely a ‘Burger King’ setting. As such the supporting line “Rivals McDonald’s and Wendy’s are facing a similar lawsuit in the US” comes a bit late, well over half a decade late. We are also given “The class action lawsuit against Burger King alleged that the Whopper was made to look 35% larger, with more than double the amount of meat compared to what was actually served to customers.” To this I am not saying that this is not the case, I am wondering how many graphics they have to support this. I am asking because one image does not give you the sunshine of summer, so this case has all kinds of issues and this is not pro-BK (even though I love their stuff), and they are not alone as my 2015 story shows, but the larger setting is that the stage of ‘deceptive conduct’ has been out in the open for a long time, so how many cases made it to any court (in any nation) and how many cases were settled? All what I consider to be good questions. Yet in all this one setting is “US District Judge Roy Altman said it should be left to jurors to “tell us what reasonable people think”. However, he dismissed claims that Burger King misled customers with its television and online advertisements.” To be honest, I am not certain where I stand there. You see, there is a side we aren’t looking at. How EXACTLY are the advertisements made? How insulated is that marketing team? What is the foundation that drives the claim of ‘deceptive conduct’? These are elements that are connected and not just to Burger King. McDonalds is in a similar boat. I go for similar, because if the stage gets differences in adjustments, they could not be in the same boat. Other cogs are connected to the stage we see here. They are optionally all ‘deceptive conduct’ but if different approaches were made, different claims are open to interpretation and that is a much harder stage to settle. So are all advertisements done by the American HQ of BK? How would that impact Canada, Australia and Europe? If BK paid each continent to do their advertisements, the stage alters. We can accept the defence of “Burger King had earlier argued that it was not required to deliver burgers that look “exactly like the picture”” and we accept that, but the fast food industry is based on machines for replication, as such my question becomes ‘Why not?’ And that question applies to both BK and the big M in the same way. There are more questions and I am a little surprised that the BBC did not cover them, but they have no fault. Reporting on a case tends to have its own limitations and I get that. What does surprise me that it took so long to see a setting after I reported it in 2015, and it is surprising because I do not go to these places that often. In addition there is no way that I am the only one who had this issue, so have we numbed from certain exposure? 

I will let you consider that part. Enjoy the day, we are almost past the 50% point of the week, so make today count as it is the final uphill battle for the next weekend.

Ciao!

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August 29, 2023 · 11:08

Scripting a new reality

It is an idea that had been floating in my mind for some time. Yet the BBC article brought it to to front line of my (slightly despicable) brain. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-65377361) shows us what is wrong with this world and I decided to play on that. There was the added Sun article (at https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23668092/just-stop-oil-recruit-kids-as-young-11/) throwing oil to the fire (pardon the pun). As such I came up with the idea of ‘Vigilante’ partially in light of the old classic The Exterminator (with Robert Ginty). This doesn’t have a script yet (standing firm with actors here), the idea is simple. We see a man clearly with support, but alone standing about 120 metres from a 5G mast. Soon thereafter a ute arrives with 5 people, 2 women, three men. They are unloading all kinds of stuff, clearly wanting to harm the 5G tower. The man takes aim and kills all 5 and walks away, the police will clean up the next day. We see 2 more events, all taking aim at tech terrorists. The second event is a just stop gravity event (pun intended). The man had prepared for over a week, and in the last day when he figured out the where part. In the night he installs the speakers within speakers. And he attaches the vaporisers to the corners of the pillars so that they will be out of sight. The day starts and the people from ‘Just stop Gravity’ sit for a nice meal. As they start to eat they are so content and the man, whilst walking away presses the button. The speakers second set start screaming an inaudible sound damaging their hearing. They never wanted to listen then, they never need to listen again and the vaporisers release skunk scent all over the room, they all reek and as they run outside to hide from the stench, they find out that their hearing is now impaired. 

This gets us the first flashback, a man is crying, his wife (implied) is on the stretcher, critically  injured. There is little hope for her, but they hope that they can get to the hospital in time to save their yet unborn baby. The just stop gravity march stops that and the ambulance is not in time to save the baby. The man screams and his reality shatters. 

We now get back to the current stage and we see that this vigilante has help, people who lost businesses to these protesters and they are helping him. They will never act and they will never be placed in the front lines. He made that promise as he lost everything he cared for, they never need to face that reality. We get one more event with fatalities and now we get the phrase ‘Our lives matter too’ then the next event the police captures him and the court setting is set upon us. The man keeps his word and never reveals his sources. He merely stares at these so called ‘victims’ as they are all about ‘their’ rights and the lawyers are all set to avoid the rights of the vigilante and his lost family. We see the evidence and we are presented ‘the side of the tech terrorists’ and as the case goes on we see that the crucial piece of evidence. One vaporiser with his fingerprint on the inside. Then on day 3 of the court case, the prosecution cannot show the evidence with the fingerprint and the court adjourns for 24 hours as we see the sides all mingled in their private hell. The next day the court resumes and the evidence is not found, as it as the critical part in the case the case is dismissed and as the vigilante is kept in a holding cell in the court (reason not set at the moment, but I am going for an emotional outburst from the vigilante) he is placed in a holding cell for the court case (from day 2 onwards), and after the dismissal he is packing his stuff in the holding cell, the judge approaches him. “You kept your word, my brother lost his son to these terrorists. Our lives matter too” he nods and walks away. End of movie.

All this done in under 4 hours. I am clearly not the worst in this, so feel free to use the idea for whatever studio you work for. Have a nice day.

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August 12, 2023 · 22:39

How on earth?

This was my first thought that went through my mind. It came from the BBC and I was reading this in a decent degree of unknowing. The title ‘China property giant Country Garden warns of up to $7.6bn loss’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66470170) where we see “Country Garden, which is one of China’s biggest property developers, has warned that it could see a loss of up to $7.6bn (£6bn) for the first six months of the year” and I am quite frankly at a loss. You see, a developer gets (read: buys) a piece of land, he places a building on it and sells this place(s) and in the end there is a profit, it might not always be a great profit, but a profit nonetheless. So when I see a loss of $7.6bn, the math in my head goes that at $250K it sets the stage for 30,400 houses and if a place costs 1.5 million we see the bungling of 5,065 places. Now it is not that simple. I get that, but the idea that someone set a stage where 30,400 houses are sold for $0 is equally laughable, implying that the problem is a lot larger than we can see. We saw it in the UK with Carillion, we saw a few examples and they all wanted ALL the profit and as such they did it all, all the elements of construction and all elements of the service. That never works, the moment a short cut is made, people start filling to holes and creating more holes in the process. 

Then there is the larger financial impact. How does a company like Country Garden has any setting that allows for that kind of a loss in the first 6 months? Even as the article gives us “The expected loss compares to a $265m profit for the same time last year. The firm also said it has set up a special task force, headed by its chairman Yang Huiyan, to find ways to turn the business around”, I reckon it might be close to ‘too late’, which is seen with “rating agency Moody’s downgraded the company’s rating, citing “heightened liquidity and refinancing risks”” and don’t expect me to give explanations. I have none. I have a few speculation, the first we saw in the beginning. But there was also the 2021 event when 15 buildings were demolished all in one go (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om6b0_ffyFQ), I cannot tell you the reason, I merely saw the YouTube on USA Today, and we get that one building needs to go at times (still sloppy), but 15 buildings? Now consider those costs and I am certain that those building in total would not have surpassed $2 billion. So now consider that one developer has well over 300% of those losses. Something does not add up and I cannot tell you what it is. In the first I do not have an economics degree, I have engineering, IT and Law degrees and I am still grasping for nothing at this time. The speculation I made earlier makes the most sense of stupidity. Yet it was speculation, so I could be wrong. As such, in an age in China where there are no jobs, there is a housing shortage and there are a few more issues. The 15 building demolition raises questions, the loss by Country Garden gives even more question marks. The Financial Times gives us “Nine months later, it is dangerously short of cash. The company expects to have lost Rmb45bn-Rmb55bn in the first half of the year and is confronting what it calls “the biggest difficulties” in its history.” (At https://www.ft.com/content/c266f377-33dc-4cf6-89a1-b62998896027) and it is not the first time. Evergrande in 2021 has a massive default and it seems to me that all these firms ‘doing it all’ are imploding. Is it a mere setting of idle time? Me and idle time go way back, all the way to the early 90’s and it is not the first time that idle time is overlooked or seen as a linear event, which it is not. It does not explain these billions of loss, it really does not but to see this in China implies that there is a lot more going on than we are able to see and that is never a good thing.

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 11, 2023 · 08:43

Dee Jay Eye

Yup that is the saying. It is written DJI and would you believe it, it means Dopey Justice Investigations. Of course in this case we have to go to that place that Europeans regard as the land west of the Atlantic River, the Asians and Australians see it as land east of the Pacific river and we all agree that it is south of Canada. It is known as the USA. The BBC gave me 22 hours ago ‘Boy, 6, boasted about shooting Virginia teacher Abigail Zwerner’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66451768), it is there we see “The boy’s mother, however, Deja Taylor, has been charged with felony child neglect and misdemeanour recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child. In June, she was also charged with unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm.” This all sounds nice, but when you consider that in January I wrote in ‘Little Shits’ (at https://wp.me/p1RftY-2mn) “So far NO report shows that the parents were arrested, or interrogated over the case. If that is the stage, the US has earned the right to see many more shootings in schools until they fix this mess”, as well as “So what part do the parents play? Well, as I see it the mindset tends to come from parents, not peer pressure, not at that age. But no one is looking at the parents, why not?”, as such I got to this setting MONTHS before the American authorities got there and the evidence is clear, the media had nothing. And you wonder why nothing gets to be resolved during mass shootings? Well here you have the evidence. As such as we are given “His teacher, Abigail “Abby” Zwerner – who survived – filed a $40m (£31.4m) lawsuit earlier this year.” I personally believe that Abigail should have (at least) doubled her claim, with incompetence seen to this degree there is a fair case that her life was trivialised to a much larger extent. I get that the boy was not charged, the rule of Doli Incapax is pretty much all over the common law nations and this means that you cannot be seen as responsible as a 6 year old. I mentioned that in the first article on this event, but how the kid got the firearm as well as the parents (I did not know the household setting there) were not. And now 7 months and three days later we see this play out as being the correct path. Yes, we saw the reference to June, but the media was not all over that, were they? So when we now see “While being restrained after the shooting at a Virginia school, the boy is said to have admitted “I did it”, adding “I got my mom’s gun last night”.” Consider looking back to the media covering in those days, none of them mentions that small part, did they? Why not? Especially the small part of “the boy is said to have admitted”, why was that omitted from the media coverage? The fact that he got his mom’s gun last night is a pretty clear indication to arrest the mother at that moment. The unsafe handling of a firearm leaving it open for a child to get is pretty indicative of the blunders made in this case. To Abigail Zwerner, the 25 year old teacher I say “I hope you get well over 300% of what you ask for”, the media, the authorities and the school all trivialised your life for what? Political points? Business points? There should be a price for that and after that, use that money to retire to a nice happy safe place and enjoy your early retirement, you definitely earned it.

I think that it is time for the dopey justice system of America to wake up and see the mess you are at present making, I have said well over a year ago that upgrading the ATF and giving it actual teeth would be essential in cleaning this mess up and again I am proven correct. 

As I see it, there is no fault at present to its director Steven Michael Dettelbach, but I do believe that he has his work cut out for him and I reckon that keeping scores of whoever block essential needs for the ATF will be required soon enough. You see, 1.5 billion does not go far, not when you have 5,285 people trying to sort the gun mess out. Some might see the mention of “The ATF has received criticism over the Ruby Ridge controversy, the Waco siege controversy and others.” Yet no one is mentioning a story from 2022 “Missing weapons, false records: Franklin Gun Shop owners plead guilty to federal charges”, the Tennessean gave us that one (at https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2022/11/23/franklin-gun-shop-owners-plead-guilty-over-missing-weapons-false-records/69671186007/) there is a larger stage that gun shops are falling short, and it could have been prevented years ago by giving the ATF teeth and a real budget. There is also a larger stage of automated systems to see where the history of guns are at and I am referring to the NBC article (at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/s-just-insanity-atf-now-needs-2-weeks-perform-routine-gun-trace-rcna39606) where we see ‘‘It’s just insanity’: ATF now needs 2 weeks to perform a routine gun trace’ with the by-line “Boxes of paper records fill nearly every corridor of the ATF’s National Tracing Center, where agents are struggling to keep up with surging requests from local police.” Red tape might be stated to be the source, but I see this as the failing of a justice system. We might take notice of “A 2023 report published in JAMA covering 2014 to 2022, found there had been 4011 mass shootings in the US”, with over 4000 mass shootings in almost 10 years we come to the generic 400 mass shootings a year and you don’t think that the ATF needs an upgrade in IT systems and other materials? Don’t make me laugh, this is beyond dopey and you better realise it. For the American parents it is easy. 400 mass shootings a year comes down to almost 8 a week. So how long will you roll the dice until it is YOUR child you get to bury? It is simple (yet somewhat deceptive) statistics, but feel free to blame the people who are almost certain no part in that play and ignore those who could make a difference because that would be the US Senate and US congress. Did you think that ‘Red tape’ or the ATF was to blame. Someone pushed for that ‘Red tape’ and it is time to wake up and see what causes your children to die. I can assure you it is not the maker of the gun, it is the lawmakers that enable to hobble the ATF. And that gives us the Senate and Congress. And when exactly did either call out to enforce the ATF with the equipment and budget to give the Americans a safer place to live? I am willing to wager you cannot really find that part of the equation. Why not?

Weekend is soon upon us, so enjoy the day and go shopping for a bulletproof vest for your child, you might need one soon.

 

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August 8, 2023 · 22:26

Moments of remembrance

This comes out of the blue. I knew of the event, I saw the messages pass by. Yet until the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66432558) I had no idea what an impact she had. I remember the single Nothing Compares to U, I have the single CD, I also bought the album but that is pretty much as good as it got. I was one of millions that got the song and until recently I was unaware that it was a song made by Prince. It was then that I learned that she had dwarfed him with his one song. I am not dissing Prince, he has made his mark on the world of music, but to be that good and then to be surpassed by someone with your own song takes a special kind of musician (or singer) and Sinead was that. 

Today I saw the BBC article with images (image below is from the Independent) and then it hit me. To have thousands of people pay respect to a musician takes a very special kind of musician. 

And it seems important to me that we stop for a moment to remember her, not because of what I say, but when that many people want to pay their last respect, when millions more on a global level say goodbye to this woman. There is no doubt that this woman was special and to coin a phrase, as far as I can tell nothing compared to her. Born in Dublin on December 8th 1966. This Irish lady’s best-selling album was “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” which sold over 4.95 million copies. That puts her in the highest ranking order, especially as this album was released in 1990. This puts her right up there with Elton John, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston and Madonna. I never knew this until I started to dig a little. And no matter how we like her music (or not), that is an achievement worth remembering. So I take a moment of silence, I bow to her album and raise a glass in her honour. I do not know much about her, or her life. But the massive amount of people paying her last respect give me moment to realise that not knowing her makes me the lesser person. There was no intent, but the realisation that what she achieved was beyond remarkable needs to be remembered and that is what I am doing now.

I would like to end with something profound, but words fail me at this time. So take a moment and pause. Think of the people you knew in the past, the movies they were in, the music they made and think of the happy feelings these moments instilled.

Have a great day.

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August 5, 2023 · 06:49

When is a ball not dropped?

That was the first question that came to mind, the answer is simple ‘when it is not a ball’. This might confuse you, but read me out. It will make sense soon enough. I took notice of the next episode of the Tate event (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66405285), you see in the story with the headline ‘Andrew Tate’s Romania house arrest lifted’ one thing stood out, it was “The indictment says they and two female Romanian associates formed an organised criminal group in 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, but also in other countries including the US and the UK.” Can you see what stands out? It is “including the US and the UK”, so in over 6 months, the BBC gives us nothing on the UK side? Even if it is a ‘no comment’ setting, the BBC kept us all in the dark, all whilst accusing the Tate’s between the lines. So where are these American accusations, where are the lines of the FBI giving us ‘no comment’? This all does not add up and gives me more in regards to the speculation I had in an earlier article speculating that this was a move by organised crime and certain so called captains of industry to take away the business that the Tate’s have and claim it for their own. It must bite these wannabe’s for a kickboxer to add up to hundreds of millions, all whilst these wannabe’s are worth severely less than 1% of what the Tate’s achieved. And the media is largely helping these wannabe’s out. Feel free to disagree, yet consider that on January 10th 2023 in ‘Andrew Tate, the man, the exploited’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/10/andrew-tate-the-man-the-exploited/) I wrote “In this day and age when we can see cyber transgressions in every direction. Does it make sense for someone like Andrew Tate to go ‘after’ the daughter of some mogul? And this is not America, this is Romania, as such a man like that has all kinds of connections. The math just does not work out. Any loser or non-wealthy might make a move like that. It does not make the Tate’s guilty, not innocent either. EVIDENCE is required and I have so far seen close to ZERO evidence on anything that could prosecute Andrew Tate.” With the additional “The media exploiting whatever they can to get the digital dollars. And Andrew Tate makes a fine target for the media. For 2 weeks the media did not dig into the accusation, merely focussing on misogeny.” Then we get to this story, we get “Andrew and his brother Tristan were arrested in March and charged in June. They deny the charges.” No, this is not true. They were placed under house arrest on December 29th 2022, so why is the BBC suddenly so inaccurate? Then we get to the US and UK side of things. Were are the arrest and extradition requests? So where was the US in all this and why is the journalistic investigated more leaky than a sif? I cannot tell whether the Tate’s are guilty or innocent, I do not have access to any evidence, yet the bad reporting and the balls dropped on nearly every side of the equation makes me wonder if the Tate’s were ever guilty and when they are acquitted, or the trial finds them not guilty, how much trouble is the media in? Because they never had that much credibility to begin with and with the additional sides not properly investigated, the Tate’s have a case to show that the media is no longer to be trusted, and what happens when these 6 million fans tell people not to buy certain papers in the UK because of fake press credibility? I wonder which paper is left standing at that point. You can turn any man into a boogeyman, but when you get that wrong there is no going back and certain media could be getting the short end of that equation soon enough, but with the fumbled settings in the UK and US they might already be realising that.

And feel free to read up on this, but I had my doubts on this going back to January 2023, and it was the piss poor quality of the press that got me there. 

Enjoy the weekend.

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August 2, 2023 · 19:41

My presumption is real

This article goes over several parts, parts you might agree with and parts you will not agree with. That is fair! You see several parts are set to presumption, which is still better than speculation. The difference is seen in the meaning. Presumption is an idea that is taken to be true on the basis of probability. There is more than probability in my case. I have worked in IT since 1983, as such I have been around (at least twice). Speculation is the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence. And both are important because I am talking from the past, which is not always seen or accepted as evidence. This is fair, and this is why people might disagree and I get it, never take anything for granted, not Ven when I say it. I love the expression from NCIS in this case ‘Trust but verify’ Gibbs was right, always verify what you learn. It is the only real way to move forward.

So this all started yesterday with an article. The article (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66118831) gives us ‘Gallium and germanium: What China’s new move in microchip war means for world’, they say it is 8 hours old, but I saw the article a little over 25 hours ago, so not sure what changed. The setting is “Under the new controls, special licences are needed to export gallium and germanium from the world’s second largest economy. The materials are used to produce chips and have military applications. The curbs come after Washington made efforts to limit Beijing’s access to advanced microprocessor technology.” You can turn and twist this to your heart content, but the setting is inaccurate and largely incorrect. Not what you read, that is fine. But there is a whole mess that precedes this and to see this we need to go back to the 90’s. You see, the IT world saw hoe the arms race was going and how military contractors were filling their pockets and the IT world took a page from that stage and started its IT Armistice race. I was caught up in it as well. A 386, a 486, a 486DX2, the Pentium, the Pentium 2, the Pentium-450, the Pentium2, as such between 1993 and 2002 I had wasted thousands on 7 systems, 7 systems in 10 years and I had enough. You see for the most the Pentium2 was enough to do 90% of everything I did, except gaming. Then I switched to consoles and saved myself thousands more. As such I avoided to the largest extend the graphic card war which might seem small but high end gaming needs a $1200 card, my PS5 was less then a thousand dollars on day one. In this Microsoft also pushed the borders, making us upgrade again and again. Oh, they played their cards cautiously and they played it well. Yet consider “Vista alone had 50 million lines of code, 10 million lines more than its successor, Windows 7. Because of the excessive amount of bloat and code, it was very slow on devices at the time, even on the latest and greatest hardware of 2007. This meant that it was more expensive to buy a machine that ran Vista properly.” Between Windows XP and Windows 7 we had the Vista nightmare and it cost too many too much. Yet weirdly enough with a little effort (Suse Linux at $99) you had an equal if not much better option, it would work on most Pentium2 systems like lightning. You could download it for free but for that money you got the discs and a DVD, the DVD had all the discs which included Linux and a truckload of programs, even open office I believe. If not it was easily downloaded. A linux lookalike version of Microsoft office that was free. It had an SQL database and so much more, even a nice collection of games, but they were not high resolution games. Fo that you needed a console and you saved thousands. It is this armistice race. We went though thousands of processors and that is what counts, because that drained the Gallium and Germanium we had and now China is one of the few that has it now. You see, we might act against China, but Gallium is found in Japan, South Korea, and Russia as well. China has however 90% at present. That does not mean there isn’t more, but finding it is not easy. Germanium is also found in Canada, Finland, Russia and the United States. China has about 60% and that is where we see the odd duck out (on your left). And is it not interesting that the second material is not mentioned that it is also found in Canada and the US? In this greed was again a much larger stage to this. The IT Armistice race dwindled whatever the west had and now China and Russia seem to have the upper hand. Still the larger stage is not merely who has it, but it becomes who can find it better, because that is where this is heading. I get it, we all need the latest PC (or MAC) but ask yourself, what allows you to do what you need to do? That is the question that IT providers like Dell and HP were eager to avoid at all cost as it impacted their bottom dollar. They will make the ‘party line’ To enjoy the best of Windows (whatever version) you are best off having a (the latest chip). That is what caused a large part of the drain and I was every bit as guilty. By the time I figured out what was going on I my bank account had about $22,000 less (11 systems with 2 still in use). You can scream whatever you want on how I could ‘save’ some dollars, but the truth is that we all enjoyed that feeling of the latest system, but it came at a price. So when we now see “a Pentagon spokesperson said the US had reserves of germanium but no stockpile of gallium” and why is that? It it is such a crucial element, why is there no stockpile? That is an easy answer, but no answer will be forthcoming. A race for supremacy, all whilst at least two racers are no longer able to keep up and that race is about to turn nasty for at least one of them. The Commonwealth might rely on Australia, but until the deposits are found the UK is in a tight spot. As I personally see it we might have to take a step back and see how else we can get the job done. As such I am phrasing an extremely speculative question. French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran found in 1875 the substance we now know to be gallium, it is in group 13 of the periodic table and is similar to the other metals of the group (aluminium, indium, and thallium. My question becomes Is there another solution that employs indium or thallium? I honestly have no idea, I do not even know where these two are found and whether they can do what Gallium does. Also there is Rhodium, can it (or a combination) get the job done? I have no idea, but it seems to me that the head-banging against a wall we raised ourselves is massively stupid to say the least and there is every chance that there is a chemist and an electronic engineer who will laugh at my suggestion, which is fair enough. To see this we need to look at 1965 when Friedrich Schächter created a ballpoint that works in space as it is a pressurised ink solution. In in 1967 it was reported that NASA purchased approximately 400 pens for $2.95 a piece, all whilst Bic pens were $0.29 in those days. Russia decided to solve it by using a pencil, which costed $0.39 at the time. So we can caress our ego’s or find another solution.  And this is merely one of many issues. So will you embrace someone who adds 10 million lines of code, or seek whatever else is out there? I get it, the other solution will not work for everyone, but over 2 billion people use a PC out there. I am willing to bet the bank that at least 25% could do with a cheaper solution. There are (according to some) an estimated 300 million computers in production annually. I feel certain that at least a third doesn’t need to be bought and if Microsoft woke up and recreated Windows XP for households and adds a decent office version to it several other gallium issues could suddenly be less stringent. In 2018 970 units of Gallium were used. In 2022 it was almost 3500 units (the chart did not clearly give me what the units were). Why is that? I know that PC output is not over 300% in 2022. There might be other uses as well, but I would not know that, but the more I see the more questions I end up with and the BBC (or its article) isn’t giving me the goods. There was no mention of Canada or the US in it, was there?

It is time for plenty of people to wake up, I for one would send a wake up call (plus coffee) to Dr. Stefanie Tompkins of DARPA, perhaps they can find alternative options for these two metals? Not the weirdest idea and as the Pentagon needs these materials it seems to me that between lunch and diner DARPA might find an answer, these boffins are kinda clever so it is one way to go. What do you think?

Enjoy the middle of the week, its all uphill in anticipation to the weekend until Friday. 

 

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