Tag Archives: CBC

December 22, 2022 · 20:03

Blame Canada

Yup, it happens, it is decently rare though. The rumour has it when the EU wants to upgrade Human Law issues, they look at the law books from New Zealand and Canada and copy what they need (allegedly). So when the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/yvr-vancouver-international-airport-flights-cancelled-dec-20-2022-1.6693067)

gave me ‘‘I may never fly again’: Horror stories from the Vancouver airport’ I definitely took notice. And I have to admit, there is an issue, a different one than reported, but there is one. It made me think back 25 years when I had the quirkiest sense of humour.  I was at Iraklion airport and the plane was delayed. 6 hours delayed. This happens, but Iraklion had no bar, no cafe a broken down coffee machine and a tax free shop. I was not going to spend 6 hours drinking alcohol, so I had to suck it up. There was no food either, so by the time the plane FINALLY arrived, I was as quirky as I had ever been. As I walked to the plane I saw a highly rusted 2” bolt, I picked it up and walked into the plane. I asked for the chief engineer (who came quickly but seemed puzzled). I handed the rusty bolt to him stating it had fallen out of his engine, he might want to hold onto it. The first 10 rows of passengers turned completely white and the demon on my right shoulder slapped my neck with the comment ‘Nicely done!’ The captain off course sought me out 2-3 minutes later telling me that one more joke like that and he would have me evicted from the plane. Ah well, the life of a comedian is never without obstacles.

So back to the article, you see, we get the part of “During those 11 hours, whenever Hudson became restless, she gave her baby some formula to calm him down. She’d brought two days’ worth — by the end, she had just one sachet left”, we get it the emotional baby stories hits a mark with every parent. As well as “When she mentioned this to a customer service agent, she was told she’d have to leave the airport to buy more formula. “I don’t know where I’m going to go and get formula,” Caley said.” In the first, weather is unpredictable and the storms they had lately are one of a kind. But there is a side that has value. Every airport the size of Vancouver needs to have a basic shop, a 7-11 like place with pharmacy where basic stuff like foods, baby foods, medication and firs aid events can be acquired. Perhaps a need for Canada to place a Shoppers Drug Mart in every airport in the checked in side, with a few optional extras like baby food and formula. About 4 hours ago CBC also gives us ‘Vancouver airport restricting international flights for 2 days to clear backlog after snowstorm’, a stage we cal all see and Canadians more clearly then most others and when we see this, there is a larger call for amenities in stores. I wonder how many are on that train with food for thought? The additional stage where these airlines hand out Tim Horton vouchers so that the people can get some coffee, some food and even as these passengers get one voucher, the option to buy more would be well appreciated. So in 327 seconds I saw options where the press (in this case CBC) reports a ‘horror story’. Don’t get me wrong a mother our of her mind because she cannot appease the baby is a real horror (and more dangerous than the Russian infantry at present), but that sets us in solution seeking mode, not in reporting the horror mode, at least not me. 

And when I see “WestJet sent Caley an email saying it wouldn’t be able to rebook until after Christmas and offered no accommodation because the delay was due to weather. They have no idea when they’ll be able to get to Toronto”, but there are trains from Toronto to Vancouver, it could solve the issue for a lot of people and that is a larger stage, now I get that places like WestJet (with a lack of margins) might not have that option, but the setting releases pressure from the airport. Just a thought, was that so hard? I know it is not feasible by bus or car, and they will have options outside in Vancouver, but that also raises the issue, what options did WestJet have? I am not blaming them, we see the news and we know that some storms could never be predicted, yet what was known? What could have been cared for? This is not a unique situation in Canada or Alaska for that matter. These are questions I do not have answers to, but the Canadians do and WestJet should have some answers (perhaps they do), but we do not see them here and that matters. The question at this point becomes was this about the bottom dollar for WestJet? I am not accusing, I am asking and that is also on the CBC, there is no article that shows how Canadian airports dal with a situation like this and for me “We sincerely apologise to all of those impacted” does not hold water. Not when people are stuck for well over a week in one location and this might be a one off, but that too was not reported on, was it? 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

December 10, 2022 · 11:33

Ruler of law goes metric

Yes, we all have settings that are part of us, for the most the rule of law is accepted by nearly all. But when do we realise that it is not that simple? There is the notion that this rule of law has an Imperial and a metric setting and that is the core of what we face today. I got my view from the Canadian CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-khashoggi-lawsuit-dismissed-1.6676798). There we get ‘U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit against Saudi prince over Khashoggi killing’, s0 at what point does the US set the stage for events that took place in an alleged Saudi environment in Turkey no less? Lets look at the simple facts, Jamal Khashoggi is as far as I can tell a Saudi dissident, not an American citizen and I do not care what was planned. It never got to be. This person has gotten more ‘alleged’ assistance in a month than most American citizens have seen in a decade. Then we are given “U.S. District Judge John Bates suggested he was reluctant to throw out the lawsuit but had no choice given the Biden administration’s decision.” And I will get back to this in a moment. We are also given “Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in October 2018 by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul” which is the supporting lie. You see, his body was never found, there is absolutely no evidence that he was dismembered, or killed. For all we know he is spending the rest of his days with his new mistress of 19 years old in a luxurious hotel on Bora Bora. It is equally speculative, is it therefor more wrong?

And we do take notice of “Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice said in a November court filing that the Biden administration had determined that Prince Mohammed, “as the sitting head of a foreign government, enjoys head of state immunity from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts as a result of that office.”” It is the stage that was always going to happen, there was no evidence of any kind, mere speculation and Daily Mail categorised forms of speculated innuendo that never goes anywhere. Lets be clear, I cannot prove the innocence of certain people, but I cannot prove their guilt either and a person is innocent until proven guilty. That is the law and there is no metrical version of that, it is imperial, it is black letter law and that is what the law is. The media wants you to forget this so that they can cater to the digital dollar a little longer. And you are the tool they are using for that. In the mean time Jeff Bezos (via Andy Jassy) denied himself an annual 6 billion and change going up to close to $30 billion in full deployment mode. This is the damage Amazon did to themselves and it is fine by my book, although a little less nice as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decided not to buy it either. My loss and I get that. But below all this is a stage where the US is in a lot more problem. You see, they desperately need the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia assist them with cheap oil and I have stated this before. Why would they do that? The US has proven themselves to be a fleeting and unreliable ally to say the least. Do not take my word for that, look at the victims in Yemen and Syria and ask yourself, what did the US achieve? Close to nothing and now that they are at the abyss, the hangman’s rope has a very uncomfortable feeling. And as I see it, should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia want it and limit the shipments of Crude Oil by an additional mere 1 million barrels a day, the US will explode in a stage of anarchy, just before Christmas and that realisation is at stake. The US overplayed its hand for at least two years and now we see that anarchy could become the turnstile of events. So do not think this is something that President Biden started. This is the stage 4 previous administrations colluded under (sort of) and yes, former president Trump might be the only one trying to turn it around but it would have been too little and optionally too late too. The previous congresses made sure of that. They were all too ego driven to see that impact grow and grow. And before you consider the immense state of “Khashoggi had criticised the crown prince’s policies in Washington Post columns. He had travelled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers he needed to marry Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.” You see the US had the option to make him a citizen from 2017 onwards but they chose not to do that (optionally it was in the hands of Khashoggi). So for over a year there was a stage where he had the option to make a change, optionally the US intelligence office could have prevented it if there was a voice, but there wasn’t one. This implies (to me) that there was no real warning, no real danger which now sheds a light on a lot of issues and it does not look good for the US. Hiding behind some metric version of the law was never going to work well and I have highlighted close to half a dozen issues from the beginning and the fictional book of Blood and Oil merely worked for my case. When you see all these articles, all these media evidence and it comes with words like ‘alleged’ and ‘could have’, how wrong do you think I am? 

It is sad watching governments trying to cater to ego and to the clear need of a commodity that their non-allies have, it is a pathetic view and it is not getting better any day soon.

I will let you investigate that, just be sure you rely on the sources you can rely on.

 

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 25, 2022 · 22:04

Dangerous ally

That happens, we have enemies, impartial parties, friends and allies. This is how it has been for the longest of times. Yet what happens when an ally becomes a danger? That is what the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/national-security-us-fox-news-threat-report-1.6459660) gives us with: ‘Canada should rethink relationship with U.S. as democratic ‘backsliding’ worsens: security experts’. In this article we are given ““The United States is and will remain our closest ally, but it could also become a source of threat and instability,” says a newly published report written by a task force of former national security advisers, former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) directors, ex-deputy ministers, former ambassadors and academics. Members of the group have advised both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former prime minister Stephen Harper.” That at least is one side. Yet the stage we see here is a little larger than we think it is. You see, we are given “There are growing transnational ties between right-wing extremists here and in the U.S., the movement of funds, the movement of people, the movement of ideas, the encouragement, the support by media, such as Fox News and other conservative media,” I believe that they are missing a few bolts in that equation. As I personally see it, the media is a lot more guilty from my point of view. At present the media is desperate for digital dollars and we see this on a global level. The best way to get this is to get clicks, as such more and more flammable materials are published, just to get clicks. No matter what the consequences are. In this I give you the guardian who gave us (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/22/rightwing-us-pundit-candace-owens-compares-australian-government-to-the-taliban-calling-it-a-tyrannical-police-state-) last October. There we are given “Rightwing US pundit Candace Owens compares Australian government to the Taliban, calling it a ‘tyrannical police state’” In that article we are given “Outspoken conservative political commentator Candace Owens has suggested the US military invade Australia in order to free its people “suffering under a totalitarian regime” while drawing comparisons to Hitler, Stalin and the Taliban.” As such, lets relabel Candace Owens as ‘Black Putin’, with her telling the people “When do we deploy troops to Australia? When do we invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime? When do we spend trillions of dollars to spread democracy in Australia?” Wasn’t that the setting Vladimir Putin used to go into the Ukraine? How is that going?

A Commonwealth nation that has shown it has Freedom of speech, freedom of religion (a lot more than the US has), it has democratic elections and so far after decades, I have yet to see a police state in action in Australia. So which media asked this Black Putin for evidence of a police state? Which media asked this Black Putin for evidence of oppression in Australia and what evidence is there of a totalitarian regime? She is ‘tolerated’ by the media as she flames stuff, she brings in the digital dollars. That is how I personally see it.

So in the report (see below) we are also given “Yet Canadians and their governments rarely take national security seriously. Taking shelter under the American umbrella has worked well for us. This has made us complacent and paved the way for our neglect of national security.” This is true and as the US falters the pressure on Canada increases. I did make mention of something similar to this, but not to this degree and it was a while back. Yet the danger station remains, when the US collapses (which is still possible) the people will try to find a safe haven, and Canada will top their list. Consider the idea that Canada suddenly needs to deal with 5-15 million Americans trying the collapse in their own country, Canada is not ready, more important. Canadian National security is nowhere near ready for that nightmare scenario. In addition, as I personally see it, the Putin’s of America (black or not) will gladly throw oil on that fire to get more digital dollars out of all of it. 

And the Ukraine adds to that setting with “Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, with its deliberate targeting of civilians and underlying threat of nuclear war, has jolted even the most sanguine of western democracies into thinking anew about security. Ahead lies a period of escalating tensions with no clear end in sight” as such the Commonwealth needs to take steps, serious steps towards keeping its territories safe, any way they can. Canada has of course the largest problem. It has 8890km of border with the US and there is no way that this can ever be kept safe or untrodden, so other means will be needed to keep Canada safe. What they are, your guess is as good as mine. But this will come to blows there is no doubt in my mind. Even now we see more and more stories and articles about the decline of the US, but they are trivialised, even the ones from the Pentagon. The power players are all in the believe that it will not happen, but they have their millions safely in a zero tax haven like Dubai, Bahama’s, Monaco or Cayman Islands. When things go south fast they take personal leave get to where they need to be and resign their posts with loads of cash safely tucked away. When that escalated the people will start running and those without cash will try to get anywhere they can and that group is a lot larger than you think. Last year all these people who got into Bitcoin, because it was such a safe bet, what they bought at 87K is now a mere 41K, they lost over 50% and when it goes from bad to worse the US will become close to unliveable. And that is what Canada needs to fear, almost more than any lone wolf terrorist. In all this, with all the things we see 2022 is the first year where several players need to consider that America has become a dangerous ally. It is not the military that Canada needs to fear, it is a senseless 329,000,000 people all trying to find some safe haven and the group that is in poverty and the elderly pushed into poverty is large and growing larger by the day. When we consider “The official poverty rate in 2020 was 11.4 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from 10.5 percent in 2019.” We think it is not that serious, but the last two years destroyed savings due to the cost of living under Covid and Bitcoins value for millions of people. There is no way that they US has accurate data at present and that is not on them, but I reckon (speculated estimation) that it is closer to 13.5% at present. As such there is a chance that as per tomorrow 4.4 million Americans will seek shelter any place they can and a sizeable chunk of those 4.4 million will no longer believe that the US can offer that. Even now with unemployment numbers at a global all time low, too many will consider the ‘get out now’ routine. Because if the US has worker issues, than Canada might have them too. Not the worst thought to have, but when millions have that thought at the same time, Canada will face a larger problem and that is before the actual national security problems stir their ugly head. I believe that the Commonwealth nations need to unite and we need to do this now, not tomorrow. Things might get pretty hairy soon enough and not being ready just doesn’t slice the cake, not in this day and age.

natsec_report_gspia_may2022Download

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 26, 2022 · 20:14

Bring out your CV

The CBC had two articles last night, the first one I dealt with in the previous tory. This one can be found (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cse-candidates-hiring-cyber-1.6426275) ‘Ottawa needs more codebreakers — but spy agency says finding them isn’t easy’ and that is not even half the story. It is not a Canadian issue, it is a global issue. So when we see “Canada’s electronic spy agency, the Communications Security Establishment, is set to receive a large influx of funding to launch cyber operations and ward off attacks on government servers, power grids and hospitals.” It’s always nice to receive funding. But the reality is a little harder. I spoke about part of this in ‘Red flags’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/24/red-flags/) there were too many red flags and they are eager to charge a fair penny. Summits, courses and in some cases you do not even need an IT education, but a bachelor education is expected. It is a Wild Wild Cyber West out there and the problem is that there are too few stages where we can separate the good from the shallow. So when we see “CSE, which gathers and decodes signals intelligence and is also in charge of technology security for the government, says it receives 10,000 to 15,000 job applications per year. But only about one or two candidates out of 100 applicants go on to be hired after the skills testing and background security checks.” We see part of the problem. Have you seen it? It is seen in “about one or two candidates out of 100 applicants go on to be hired after the skills testing and background security checks”, the funnel needs inverting. Instead of seeking in the same place, seek somewhere else. Seek in the military and governmental technical support places. Seek in the places you overlook and hire these people. It is nice to hire that one bright light. We all want that, but who considered hiring the 20-50 that can overcome the ‘background security checks’ then start TEACHING them. Out of the 50 you educate whilst they are employed in several places you end up with 10-25 people ready to take the challenge instead of relying on the 1-2 candidates. When you need 1500 of them, my approach makes sense. Yes, you can try to get to the techies from the University of Toronto, but so is commercial land and they pay a lot better, so you need to hope to get the few with a calling, or you open the stage to a larger group and set them in all kinds of governmental fields, where there is a large shortage too. All sides that needs attending too and not all will end with the CSE, GCHQ or whatever Australia and New Zealand have, but all these governments have large shortages including their Cyber police and a few other places. It is time to change the way hiring is done all over the Commonwealth field because they are all coming up short and having different divisions that have shortages, so why are they not taking a hard look at what else is possible? If not these places will all end up in a bidding war like they saw in the 90’s and they will come up short again. Oh and whilst Amazon is desperately seeking 250,000 people and where do you think they will look next? The second plan (my crazy wild idea) gives the people a long term plan, long term employment and a larger setting of choice with one application instead of 5-15 applications. 

But this is only possible when some people take a long hard look at what they used to do and see what COULD be done. 750 application runs, or 60 application runs, what makes more sense? I will let you decide.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Law, Military, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 25, 2022 · 23:49

Loser investigations unlimited

This all started the day before I wrote ‘Comedy Capers it is not’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/19/comedy-capers-it-is-not/) a week ago. It was about an abduction that had the Canadian police in a twist. I reckon that this is a case that almost no police force has ever seen before, so there was no blame, there were no real issues, it was one of those weird events that make no sense. I get that. So I was quite surprised to see (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ex-boyfriend-elnaz-hajtamiri-private-investigator-1.6427398) where we are treated to ‘Elnaz Hajtamiri’s ex-boyfriend hired a private investigator to watch her before Wasaga Beach abduction’, the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Clowns) gives us “The former boyfriend of Elnaz Hajtamiri hired a private investigator to keep tabs on her location in the days and weeks before she was violently abducted from Wasaga Beach, Ont., on Jan. 12, CBC News has learned”, as well as “Investigations Plus Ltd. conducted surveillance of missing woman at 2 locations in December and January” and to be honest the very first thought I had was “What kind of a loser is Elnaz Hajtamiri?” More important, in light of what has transpired, why did Investigations Plus Ltd. not inform the police MONTHS ago? And in all this the statement “One of the sources said investigators with the firm conducted surveillance on Jan. 10 and 11 outside the Wasaga Beach home where Hajtamiri was staying with relatives. An investigator, however, was called off on the morning of Jan. 12, the source says — the same day three men dressed in police gear forced their way into the house and abducted the 37-year-old Iranian immigrant.” Makes me wonder if Investigations Plus Ltd. could possibly be involved. They conduct surveillance, they get called OFF the job ON THE DAY she gets kidnapped and no one in Investigations Plus Ltd. wonders what on earth is going on? There were issues with the THREE trackers, but does the police know who owns these trackers? Are they all owned by Investigations Plus Ltd.? Questions are forming in my mind and the setting that Investigations Plus Ltd. kept the police in the dark for months is a rather large one, especially when we learn that they got called OFF the job that very same day and that is also a matter that that requires a lot of thought on what Mohamad Lilo had been up to. Especially as (I personally reckon) she ended the relationship in October 2021. As such, Mohamad Lilo hires a detective months later? What a loser! 

Now, we can blame some police members, but it would be wrong. I reckon that they will have to hold a rather large limelight on Investigations Plus Ltd. and their activities and also why no one from there made ANY mention of the investigation. In addition there are the trackers and who owned them (the timeline of the trackers) becomes a larger item in this. And more important where they all owned by Investigations Plus Ltd.? 

As I read the article, I see question after question come forward, and I reckon that they are on the mind of Ontario provincial police detective inspector Martin Graham, in addition to this, I reckon that there will be a lot of questions on the investigators (at https://investigationsplusltd.com) You see “We are dynamic professionals with a flair for solving complex cases that has been recognised by the insurance industry, law firms, large corporations, small businesses.” I reckon they forgot about the part of “losers and stalkers who might have criminal intent” I reckon it should be on their website, so if you want to become a part of that ‘renowned team’ you might need to reconsider what kind of work you could get involved in. And if you wonder why my view is so negative, the idea that investigators keep silent for this amount of time is a very different setting and anyone making claims towards ‘confidentiality of the client’ in a case that could involve them in capital crimes is debatable to say the least. 

Detective inspector Martin Graham had no chance from the start, the dice were weighted and stacked against him. Several factors are not adding up and the police is not to blame here. But we should all keep our eyes on Investigations Plus Ltd. Their setting is definitely not on the up and up as I personally see it. But that is it, it is merely my view on the matter.

1 Comment

Filed under Law, Media, Military

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

March 20, 2022 · 03:53

The first coin drops

I have stated it a few times in the past. The US is basically bankrupt, it can merely feign activities and merely resort to financial pressures, as such the Canadian CBC gives us ‘After Biden and Xi speak, U.S. warns China could face sanctions if it aids Russian invasion’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-xi-call-china-russia-invasion-ukraine-1.6390235), yes, yes, yes. We all heard it sanctions. It is what the opposing parties see and expect. You see a paper tiger only looks menacing to those who cannot see that it is merely only a paper one. So when we get “President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday there would be “consequences” if Beijing gave material support to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, I wonder what President Biden expects to happen? I think that President Xi Jinping understands really well that the longer the Ukraine situation takes, the weaker the US looks, the less he gets involved the better China stands. If I were to move this into an old saying, for China it is better to watch the two junkyard dogs slug it out (US and Russia) and walk away with the bone when they are too tired to move. And there is a lot to be gotten. There are increasing indications that the US is done in the Middle East and when China gets their military contracts, when more Chinese firms get options towards building Neom, the US will have lost. In the Ukrainian setting, President Xi Jinping merely has to wait. The US royally screwed up too many options and they are now at the end of the options tether. In addition, with China winning options in Saudi Arabia, they will get a foot in the Egyptian door as well. A station that the EU feared for a while. Whilst they are shouting options and opportunities opposing the silk road. As the US goes, so does the EU, too deep in debt and no real options remain. For a quarter of a century they refused to overhaul the tax laws (both US and EU) and now the stage becomes too uncomfortable for both as you are about to find out. 

This takes us to the second article that the BBC gives us ‘War in Ukraine: America is learning the art of humility’ (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60799659), well actually they haven’t. They shouted ‘Money talks, bullshit walks’ and now that stage is in play. The US basically shows that it cannot afford too much anymore. So now we get treated to “The US’s leverage over China is limited, and readouts from both sides suggest the call didn’t achieve much. But it was part of an orchestrated diplomatic strategy that contrasts with much of the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency.” There is a problem here. You see ‘Inaction through inability’ is different from ‘orchestrated inaction’, when a nation is unable to fund what is needed they will desperately look towards “This was genuine alliance building”, I personally believe it to be incorrect. You see, we were given all the actions of a nation who (sort of) bullies others into complacency, but the credit card is no longer working, the US method cannot be afforded and some administrations (read: CIA and NSA) have played the wrong Trump card and now credibility is in the basement. They pissed off France, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the UK (to some extent). So when we see “US diplomacy helped win German support” we merely get a partial story, we merely get half the teacup and not that much tea. The US will not be opposing any German needs in several places, they are now that much in a state of ‘inaction through inability’. Feel free to oppose this view and that is your right, but consider what the US has actually achieved since their departure from Afghanistan. That list is short. Very, very short. 

And you do not need to consider me the problem, the problem is out in the open. It is not really President Xi Jinping, it is the fact that he realises more than ever that he gets the shielded threats from a paper tiger and that makes him giggle (I expect that he is giggling). He knows he is about to win a global war without ever firing a bullet, China is showing orchestrated inaction (as I personally see it) and when the silk road comes to the doors and windows of Europe, they know they have won. The largest win will be a direct connection to Neom, which gives them a massive boost into Saudi Arabia and most of Africa as well. That is the point the EU and the US have lost and at present neither have any option to counter the engineering path China is on. So when President Xi Jinping stated “War is not in anyones interest” He was right, it slows down his Silk Road and that takes precedence for China, so their inactions are orchestrated and as the US (EU too) show inactions towards an active field in the Ukraine there are a few reasons, a full fletched war in Europe being one of them, but their inability to afford a war is another. If only that USS Zumwalt worked, it would be a great pressure point, but wait, it was a failure on many levels and now it is useless. The United States is losing options and Russia knows this, they are also learning (the hard way) that the Ukraine is more of a threat than the US has been in close to half a decade, so cheers all around.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 1, 2022 · 22:51

The thin ice

We all step on it at times, at the moment it is me, I am standing on the thin ice, but I feel it is important to stand here. I see all the anti Russian propaganda and tweets and I get it, I really do. But then two events were shown that made me wonder. The first one was given to us by Reuters. It was (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us-orders-12-russian-un-diplomats-leave-by-march-7-russian-envoy-2022-02-28/) ‘U.S. expels 12 Russian U.N. diplomats over security concerns’, not just diplomats, UN diplomats. It is true, the UN value has been overrated for some time, but in this case, I am not sure it is a good idea. The article gives us “The U.S. mission to the United Nations described the Russian diplomats as “intelligence operatives” who had been “engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.”” It does have the term ‘national security’, so I reckon we will not hear the actual truth until 2042. Then we get “Those diplomats that have been asked to leave the United States were engaged in activities that were not in accordance with their responsibilities and obligations as diplomats”, I cannot oppose it, I cannot disagree with this, because I actually do not know, but it was ‘months’ in some setting of investigation and they chose today of all days to come forth with this? That does not make it not true, but it raises questions, it raises several questions and I am not the person with the answer. Perhaps they interfered with the US shakedown on oligarchs, perhaps they were actual spies. And when I saw it I initially shrugged and let it go. But then David Heroux (CBC) gives us the image below and it is important to see it. 

You see, I have always been a fan of the idea to keep politics OUT of sports. Sports are to be left alone, now that does not mean that it is always possible, but really? Throw the Russian Paralympic committee out? Of all the places they COULD have been thrown out, that was the Paralympic place. And at present the least said about the UEFA and FIFA their actions the better, these money grabbing dodo’s are not worth any consideration at all.

You see, this is not merely about the Russians, it is about us. What did WE actually do in Syria? What did WE do when there was a chemical attack? The US was cowardly enough to keep to the left and out of it, yes that was not what they investigated. The doctors reported, the US has several satellites overhead, but NO ONE saw anything. Then we see a similar setting in Yemen again. How many actions AGAINST Iran were taken, I am not talking about economic sanctions. I am talking ACTUAL actions. Some might have seen news (somewhere in 2021) that Iran exported more oil, yet did not make more money, they stated that middle men gained more profits, so the CIA and FBI can hand over a list of those middle man people can it not? I reckon not. A nation that is bankrupt needs every coin they can get and this game has been going on for years.

It is the hypocrisy we see. I am all for Ukraine, I think they are allowed everything we can offer, but that was not the case for Syrians, that was not for Yemeni’s was it?

I get it, that some people have vested interests and that is fine, governments should keep vested interests out of it. At present Syrians and Yemeni’s wonder why the Ukraine can get help in days, whilst they were waiting for years. I cannot explain that injustice, can you? So, I here admit that I am on thin ice, I really do. Yet there is a larger injustice seen and it should not stop people from helping people in the Ukraine, but they need to understand that there have been fires going on since March 2011. I would state that we do not close ALL the doors towards Russia, which makes me wonder about the UN issue, but I admit, it might have valid reasons, the timeline is just a little too warped and there the media is optionally equally at fault. Yet at present I feel convinced we need to keep politics out of sports, there will be a time when that informal route is the only route we have and we should keep it safe, in addition we keep the athletes out of politics, games are for us all, politics are (alas) not. We are given an hour ago by the Guardian ‘Russia’s NHL hero Alex Ovechkin has a rare chance to hit Putin where it hurts’, I disagree. He is an athlete, in the NHL and he is very good. He is not someone’s political tool. We get that people need to speak out, and if he does it of his own accord that is fine, it is his right. But it is not ours to make him our political tool. A lot of people might not agree with me, but that is where I stand. I get it, in the past he was pro-Putin, his choice and at present he most likely regrets this and it is his option to alter that course (make amends seems to crass). It is not treason, he is still Russian, he merely plays a game in the US an he is one of the best on the planet. We all make mistakes, some small, some larger. Yet should he be held accountable for actions he cannot control when the CIA refuses to shine the limelight on Iranian actions because the national security agenda has different topics? There are two measurements in play and we are fed both at the same time. It is dangerous and it is wrong. Feel free to disagree (it is your right) yet also take time to ask people in Syria and Yemen how they feel about these two measurements. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 22, 2022 · 02:20

Paranoia helps

This is a case, you might be paranoid, that does not mean that people are not out to hack your life. We seem to forget that, and the second part we forget is that big corporations do not care, it is the cost of doing business and that is what insurance is for. But the stage is growing and with full national 5G insurance companies will not take that stance, they would want assurances and that is when the consumer gets to pay for it all. One small slip up, one error and the consumer pays. That is where we are heading. 

This all started when I saw ‘Walmart ships fraudulent order to hacker’s address then leaves customer to recoup cost’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/walmart-fraudulent-order-online-account-hacked-1.6353016). The story gives us all kinds of information and in some cases the consumer made the easy choice, the ‘this is so much easier’ path and hackers tend to rely on that. But it is not all bad news (well mostly it is), so let’s start.

Item one ‘fraudsters were using it and his credit card on file’. This is with the consumer. Yes it is easy and most e-commerce sites use the same good encryption. Yet as I see it there are two issues. It is easy to order when the credit card is on file, so DO NOT DO THIS! Consider what you are doing every time you use your credit card. More important, when it is on file anything can happen as this consumer found out. I have two instances where a credit card is on file. One is a monthly payment of less than $10 a month, the other is even less. I enter my credit card information with every purchase. Commerce like people with credit cards on file, it is easier to make them buy, but consider that your budget is limiting and when you still have a week to go at the end of your credit card, life gets worse really fast.

Item two are two items, and they are on WalMart. We see ‘Walmart had cancelled the first three orders on its own, but Tomlinson noticed the last one for an Apple TV had just been shipped.’ In the first part why did three stop and one did not? If they are based on the same data, there is a flaw in the system, there is close to no other option. In addition we are given ‘he was not able to access the address and Walmart wouldn’t provide details’, this is clearly on Walmart. In addition, it should be in these systems that there is a permanent record of the last 10 addresses that are not linked to the credit card that paid for it, 10 is an arbitrary number, but it happens that a family member pays for another members item, or something like that. 

Now we get to the rather nasty stuff, we are given “In 2021, e-commerce retailers surveyed said they prevented about 4,860 attacks, but failed to stop about 4,800 others. The survey also suggests online and mobile fraud attacks on retailers appear to be rising since the pandemic started, up 45 per cent in Canada from 2020 to 2021.” In a full 5G network this number can go up by a 600% to 19500%, consider that 93,600 fraud cases are not stopped under 5G, do you really think that the insurances are going to sit back and let the numbers rise from 4,800 to 93,600? You have got to be kidding me and those who do will do so at horrendous premiums and the consumer gets passed on that bill. A setting I have foretold for years and people are still not waking up to Common Cyber Sense. Not all of it is the consumer. Yet look in your own home, how many use passwords like ‘QWERTY’, or something that simple? I thought I was clever in the 80’s when my password was ‘password’ and I learned quickly that there is more to safety and security. Then there are those who use the SAME password in all places and those people also have all their passwords on file. How long until deeper machine learning can make the jump from where we are, to what we are and how lazy we are? The algorithm is already out there, with 5G it gets the speed to really rake in the dollars. So whilst some might ry for big business when they give us “While Walmart says Tomlinson’s problem was caused by compromised credentials — not a cyber attack — Sutherland says companies across the board are dealing with such attacks on a regular basis.” And when we hear the sob story of covid made it worse, we need to consider that I saw issues like this in 2015, a massive overhaul of the e-commerce system is becoming essential and most of them do not want the cost, but the issue of fraud is happily passed on to the consumer. We need to accept that this is not merely Walmart, it hits e-commerce in Europe, US, and Asia. This is a much larger problem and a better system is required. Consider that we blame the NSO group for many hacks, but the basic issue is not merely the NSO group, they merely ‘Exploit Security Flaws in Phones’ Operating Systems’, so when this gets to e-commerce in the same way, we get a flaw exploiting a flaw and our goose is cooked. Hundreds of hackers hope to find that ‘Zero-Click’ flaw that makes the hacker rich whilst the hacker is sleeping and in a 5G world that will happen more often. It is not paranoia when they are all out to get your money, and there are many who want to do just that.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 3, 2022 · 02:45

Can I have some more harshness?

It is 02:00 and I find myself at odds with a CBC article. Now, let’s be clear and upfront. CBC did nothing wrong, this is all me. The article ‘Canada’s English dictionary hasn’t been updated in almost 2 decades. What does that say about us?’  (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canadian-english-dictionary-two-decades-1.6291089) set something off in me. In  world where for the most people cannot tell you clearly what is going on, the media is in a stage of deniability by using ‘could’ and ‘might’ and we see politicians spinning 7 colours from Sunday and all these elements had nothing to do with a dictionary. Even a dictionary from 1855 might have been a better setting than the one we face nowadays. So I was feeling oddly agitated by the headline. So when the article gives us “Hailed as the “maven of Canadian English” by the Washington Post and known widely as Canada’s “word lady,” Katherine Barber was renowned for researching and documenting how language works in this country. In 1991, she became the founding editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary — the country’s first authoritative and comprehensive reference work for Canadian English — with the first edition publishing in 1998.” I had to take a step back. As a residing non-Canadian (I reside in Australia) I get the need for identity, I get the need for what can be seen in Canada as a personalised dictionary for all Canadians. Yet why am I so agitated? A Canadian dictionary does not affect me, so why does it bother me? It was then that the words “hasn’t been updated in almost 2 decades” seem to sound like the drumming distance of change. You see, there was a work that did sound like the stuff of nightmares. It is called ‘the use of euphemisms in mass-media discourse’ and there is the rub, the last two decades has been more and more about political correctness, now I am not against political correctness, the problem is that for the most we end up saying forms of insincerities and only in part saying what is the matter. Euphemisms are to some degree part of the problem. When we look at that meaning we get “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” There are two issues here, the first is the mild substitution, the second part is the event of ‘too harsh or too blunt’, we end up saying something that is seemingly a form of dancing around the subject. And this has become worse and worse over the last two decades. Which is where I have a problem with the event, not with the sentiment of the article or some idea of it. The problem as I see it is that too often euphemisms are used to downplay events and that tends to have other reasons none of them about being politically correct, or less harsh. Merely more facilitating for the people telling the story and that inaccuracy is a much larger danger. I tend to grasp back at the most ridiculous of phrases “I lost my Husband”, I wonder if she checked the second drawer of her desk. Nope! He was not lost, he merely drove his car into another, the man is dead! There is no non-blunt way to say dead, we can go by non-living as: at present 5,458,856 people have joined the non-living via means of Covid. 

OK, that was not too subtle but at times that is the only way to get things across. The problem is that the act of downplaying is massive in social media, as such the mis use of euphemisms are abundant and they are continuing to muddy the waters of clarity. As I personally see it, there is no need to update the dictionary over two decades, there is however a much larger need to properly use the dictionary that we do have and that is not happening either, the new words will nit change that, we need to be clear, we need to be precise and at times that is blunt and it is not extremely PC. Sometimes the truth and the precise truth is not nice and it is harsh, it happens. Downplaying events and hiding behind euphemisms helps no one, that much has been crystal clear for many years. Yet this is merely my view, you have every right to oppose my view. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

Tagged as , , , ,