Tag Archives: China

May 12, 2023 · 00:17

Spend, spend, spend

Yes, that can be seen as spending three times over. We are of course referring to the debilitating debt the US has and now it is about to cost them a lot, in the larger stage this has had my attention for some time, but today three articles brought it to the top (yet again). The first one comes from the CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/debt-ceiling-us-scrap-1.6836090) where we see ‘The U.S. debt limit is again stoking fears across the globe. Why not just scrap the thing?’ There are of course several answers to that part, but it is ““I don’t think there’s any reason to have it exist anymore,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, who is the current president of the right-wing think-tank American Action Forum.” I think that Douglas has been sniffing the alternative Gatorade. You see, if there was no reason to have credit limits, I would take out a $50M loan with my IP as collateral and move to Dubai. Have a nice one floor apartment and live of the rest with $300K a month at my disposal until the day I die. The reality is that we all have credit limits and most of us have a credit limit that is in the basement. As such nations and governments have limits as well. It is the idea that Americans think they do not have one, but that is a false assumption. It might have had a delusional ring of truth when they were a super power and when they had all the innovations, but they first off shored the knowledge they had because the board of directors had more bonus options, but they are now either retired or mostly dead. Now India has that power, now Saudi Arabia is the innovative player and now China is about to become the one true superpower. All negative things for the US, but this is what they wanted and they shunned Saudi Arabia too often and now they lose them as an ally as well. The one player that really has all the cash is shunned. Well done America! In the mean time spending went on and it was catered to by people who have close to no ash in the first place. Now the Fortune 100 have less American companies and several of them have a spin on what they really own. The largest players who really have things are Google, IBM, Amazon and Adobe. The rest are wannabe collapsing entities. There is Netflix, but they will be in turmoil for at least a year and there is no way to tell how they are pulling through. Facebook is under the gun and they are about to lose another segment, in the meantime Meta is nowhere near ready. 

So off to article two, this is Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/us-debt-standoff-overshadows-g7-finance-leaders-meeting-2023-05-11/) giving us ‘US debt standoff overshadows G7 finance leaders’ meeting’, which could be true. You see, Japan is in deep waters, optionally too deep, but that requires financial knowledge I do not have, what I think is the case, is that they are too deep in debt and when the US goes, so does Japan. The 7 nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Italy and France are already in deep waters, in part of the overspending my Mario Draghi, in part of a slowing economy. The UK has its own set of troubles which basically leaves Canada and they cannot hold the fort by themselves but that is the group that is in some kind of meeting and the conversation to raise the debt ceiling is a farce, they all know that the US is fighting of shadows of their former selves all alone, all because no one was willing to do something about overspending and they are decades too late in overhauling their tax systems. All these small issues line up to a setting where there is soon an America defaulting on ALL their loans, bonds collapse and that also pushes Japan over the edge. The Reuters article also gives us “U.S.-China tensions also cloud the outlook for the global economy that is already under pressure from signs of weakness in the world’s second-largest economy China.” This is a stage that I find debatable, from my point of view (optionally not a correct one), the Chinese economy is already surpassing America and now that they have the stage for the Middle East with larger venues into Saudi Arabia, they surpass America. The fact that Saudi Oil can now be bought with Yuan is the one push America never needed and never really could handle. With Saudi Arabia about to launch their own version (in English) of Al Jazeera will mean that advertisers have an alternative to Fox and CNN and when that channel branches out to Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh and India, the numbers will vastly surpass 500,000,000 viewers. In this I didn’t even consider Pakistan at present. As such where do you think Advertiser will go? America pushed the wrong buttons for years and now their birds are roosting in other nests. The third is also Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/yellen-warns-us-default-would-threaten-global-economy-undermine-us-leadership-2023-05-11/) giving us ‘Yellen warns US default would threaten global economy, undermine its leadership’ where we see “U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged Congress to raise the $31.4 trillion federal debt limit and avert an unprecedented default that would trigger a global economic downturn and risk undermining U.S. global economic leadership” in this I personally believe that the US hasn’t been a real economic leader for some time. It started just before the age of Trump as the US learned that they could no longer afford the things they were doing and now these accounts are all coming up empty all at the same time. So at the end we are given “Yellen said Republican brinkmanship on the issue amounted to a “crisis of our own making” and that just the threat of a default could lead to a downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating, as occurred during a debt ceiling fight in 2011.” I personally feel that this is totally bogus, the issue was overspending and both sides of the isle were doing that and both sides were doing that. In addition they alienated the one player who was loaded, the rich relative was made a pariah and that didn’t sit well with that relative. This is why I approached them with my IP. I feel better when someone with the cash pays for my IP than the fakers who have a maximised credit card, implying I would be without cash for too long whilst they walk away with my multi billion dollar IP. I will not allow Microsoft anywhere near it, as such I would have no issues selling it to Tencent Technologies (with a few attached clauses mind you). And I have reason. A clear solution that could have given Google and/or Amazon billions was shunned by them giving me the excuse to go wherever I needed to go to get my golden retirement. And they connect. You see, they are all about contracting economies, all whilst innovation will go where there was no one and in my case in several cases there was no one, only in one case there was someone (Gucci), but they are only on one side of one IP I had and I had several other venues connected to it, optionally to android phones as well. And you see that same issue here. We see ‘raise the debt ceiling’ whilst 4 presidents did not stop overspending, it was not an issue and now as they lose tens of billions in industries that are all headed for China, they are all up in arms with “Yellen wants G7 debate on restricting investment to China”, just like the Huawei issue and we never were EVER given any evidence regarding Huawei. That is the effect of a bully who lost whatever innovation they had to players who were truly innovative and now they are running out of time, they are running out of fairway and they have nothing left. Two elemental parts were ignored for too long the first was overhauling their tax system, the second was overspending and in 2011 the point of no return was reached, both Democrats and Republicans worked together in making that happen and China merely waited for it to collapse and that is now about to happen. Will there be another raise? I cannot tell, but this is not enough, after this one another one will come and that is how this game is being played, almost like bluffing in Omaha poker, the issue is that bluffing is too dangerous and can often fall flat, for someone to think that they can bluff for this long is a new level of delusion. 

No matter what, we are about to find out how much longer the US can play that game and they returns to the stage of tax the rich, another delusional setting, which by the way works out well for Monaco, the Bahamas and Dubai to name but three where the retiring rich could go to actually enjoy their cash. 

Enjoy your day unless you have a PacWest Bank account, at that point you are decently screwed at present.

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May 7, 2023 · 12:11

Changing the narrative

That happens at times. Narratives are slightly altered, but in this case? The media to a much larger degree are changing the narrative of the strikes at the Writers Guild of America. Is it because of advertisement needs? Is it because the streaming corporations now have a hold on them? You tell me. In this I have two examples. The first is ABC and even though the headline is deceptive, they do give all the facts. 

Yet others are seemingly not doing that. They are all about the AI side, yet the two largest issues which are the unbelievable amount of underpaid writers as well as the streaming revenue where writers get next to nothing are massive issues. ABC does mention them but plenty of them do not. I saw at least a few of them copying other texts almost to the letter and no mention of streaming issues. Why is that? It is all nice that the WGA is on strike and picketing, but the media should at least take one small effort to hand the real issues and all of them to the public. The media has lost enough credibility as it is and as such we need to wake up (and fast). 

As I heard it new media (streaming) was not addressed satisfactory the last time around, because it was really new. So to read that some writers creating winning series need a government handout to get by is clearly insane. And it will cost Hollywood a lot more then they realise. What happens when the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom) take over? What happens when the Dubai stage of G5 starts catering to global streaming? What happens when China with Tencent Technologies adjusts to this stream whilst paying a proper income? America might shun it all and stats that these series are not welcome, yet I believe that parts of Asia, Europe and the Middle East are ready for change and Hollywood better tarts realising really fast that the latter three players are close to 60% of their income stream. When that falls away it will be one of several multi billion income streams falling away. First Defence, then IT now streaming and as I see it both the UAE and China are chomping at the bit to take a slice of that income stage. 

So whilst the media is pondering how to cater to advertisers, they better realise that when that falls away they have nothing left. One of my IP will already hurt advertisement money to a decent amount, the streaming industry will hurt a lot more when the shift to any of the other three players come through. All stages that were out in the open for all to admire, that was until the media changed the narrative as I see it. I have no idea how long this strike will last, but at the end when writers vacate to a place where they end up having a decent income, plenty of series will collapse, perhaps not completely, but several will lose the little talent they had at their disposal. Yet for these providers there is still one option, a reality show based on republican politicians with real republican politicians. They will take any limelight that will have them and it could be hosted by Tucker Carlson, apparently he is looking for a job. So how is that future of streaming? Yes, there is an upcoming issue with AI, but that will take time. The fact that paid writers still require government handouts whilst these series make billions is disgusting and it will not take long until some will show the people this and plead that we cancel out streaming subscriptions. What happens when the people on mass agree?

Enjoy Sunday and consider the price of what you are watching on your streaming channel.

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April 26, 2023 · 02:31

Is the die cast?

That is the question, personally I think it is, America dug its own grave and I am not asking you to take my word for this. Lets take a look at two pieces of ‘evidence’ handed to us. The first is Al Jazeera. They give us (at https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/4/25/can-china-replace-the-us-in-the-middle-east) the headline ‘Can China replace the US in the Middle East?’ The question asked here is a much better question than you think. The article (by Erin Hale) gives us “China still does not have the ability to replace the US in the Middle East, where Washington has dozens of military bases and allies it has committed to defending. But Beijing might not want to take on that responsibility yet in any case, experts say” this was part of the short answer and it is a good considerations to have. The problem is that this is based on US sided ‘experts’. People like that have gotten too much wrong, yet are they getting this wrong? That is the larger stage that we cannot answer. You thin you can, but none of is actually can. But there are two more quotes that ‘sully’ the waters here. The first is “the United States has not conducted itself particularly responsibly for the last 20 years”, the second one is “Beijing is viewed as an ideologically neutral trading partner, which has long maintained a policy of non-interference in the domestic issues of Middle Eastern countries, from politics to human rights, making it a less controversial mediator than countries like the US” these two statements are strong. Beijing has no real experience in the Middle East, which also means they have no negative marks against them, which works in their favour. Yet the larger stage of security is in the hands of the US and that looks good in the eyes of the Middle Eastern partners. In addition, the US has more than three dozen military bases in the Middle East. A stage that not only is hard to replace, but there would be indications that China is uneasy trying to replace those. In addition it means a massive contribution of troops to the Middle East, a stage they do not fully comprehend, more important, they are likely to make a mess of certain parts in a time when they cannot afford them. 

This gets us to the second article, which has some links to the first one. It comes from the Middle East Eye (at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-arabia-rejoins-worlds-top-five-military-spenders-says-report) where we are given ‘Saudi Arabia rejoins world’s top five military spenders, says report’ and this is the big part. You see, the article gives us that Riyadh spend an estimated $75,000,000,000 last year in military goods (hardware and software). The problem is that as of 2023 onwards a much larger slice of that cake will go to China. The US (EU too) messed up by a lot and that comes at a cost. The second part is that these military base options are to some degree connected to the sale of military hardware, now that is to an increasing amount falling towards China the US needs to do something, but they are left without options at present. We see “Democrat Chris Murphy and Republican Mike Lee – came together to introduce legislation that would require US President Biden’s administration to report on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and possibly cut off all US security assistance to the kingdom.” A stage that sounds like a threat yet it comes with the opportunity for China and with that opportunity we see a much larger shift in staging. The US made their own bed, would not unite in one view and up to 50 billion will be whisked away from their table. In a stage where the US is one step away from a collapsing dollar and the implosion of its economy they have decided to bite that feeds them. How stupid is that? And in a stage where they could lose more and more oil, promising to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” is more than bad strategy. You see 67 journalists were murdered in 2022. How much actions were taken? The one that no one gives a hoot about is the poster child for the US, all whilst the evidence was lacking, the United Nations report reads like a joke and still people push that narrative. As such several countries, not just Saudi Arabia are in a stage to hand the US their walking papers. As the MEE ends with “Current and former US officials who previously spoke with MEE were back-footed by the agreement” and that is not all, the off balance part is the smallest detail. You see with all the banking issues, losing billions in revenue will have larger consequences and a new stage. Players like Chengdu will now have a much larger audience in 2023/2024, implying that the Airforce stage that once was will be no more. Both the US and Russia needs to accept that China is now a major player with the buyers that can afford 5th generation fighter aircrafts and that list of people allowed to own one will drastically increase, setting a new problem for the US, the EU and Russia. In all this I personally believe that the die was cast in 2018, some disagree and they are welcome to disagree. Some offer good explanations for their point of view, I might not agree but that is irrelevant. The question for the us is “is the die cast?” There is no real answer coming. Experts that are scared for their income, scared to give anything but a ‘pro-American’ view is fine, until reality creeps in. The reality is that both the US and EU are too close to bankrupt to accept these losses as is. I have no idea what they will do and their own issue is internal as their internal ‘opponents’ are trying to poison the political well. All those people trying to get the deal going get to deal with people shouting anti Islam propaganda and the Middle East has (as I personally see it) had enough of that. Now that China is making headway, the options change and for the US (EU too) not for the better. 

Enjoy the day. 

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April 25, 2023 · 06:24

A story for the ages

That is the thought I woke up from (about 34.6 minutes ago). Most of us know the Age of reason, which is often phrased as ‘an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to 19th centuries’ Is often linked to ‘The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology’ a work by Thomas Paine. In this book he made deism appealing and accessible to the masses and it started something. Yet what followed wasn’t as nice as e think it was. We merely think of the age of industrialisation, but in 1993 I was captured by Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the day, the movie (I never read the book). There Christopher Reeve tells us as Jack Lewis “Europe has become the arena of Realpolitik, the politics of reality. If you like, real politics. What you need is not gentlemen politicians, but real ones” it struck me how much the UK and the world seemingly had relied on Nepotism. As such the field of ‘granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives or close friends in an occupation or field’ changed into a new form of nepotism ‘granting an advantage, privilege, or position to a fellow alumni’s in an occupation or field’ it might certainly be better, but there is a danger there too. The people from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will obviously disagree with me,  but there is a correlation with certain schools and it is all ‘equalised’ with terms like ‘they think like we do’ approach. Yet all this goes further. As the 19th century passed, we saw the age of Politics evolve into the age of Wall Street. I think the clearest point was the Ghouta chemical attack in 2013 when we saw that on, or around June 13th 2013, the United States government publicly announced it had concluded that the Assad government had used limited amounts of chemical weapons on multiple occasions against rebel forces, killing 100 to 150 people. US officials stated that sarin was the agent used. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes did not say whether this showed that Syria had crossed the “red line” established by President Obama in August 2012, which was interesting because when I went to primary school we heard that ANY use of chemical agents was a red line. The line was replaced to a new setting, as I personally saw it Syria had no economic value to Wall Street, this happened again when different lines were crossed in Yemen with Houthi terrorists, that nation had no value to Wall Street other than the revenue of war machines and as I personally saw it Wall Street was industrious in indirectly stopping actions. This was however not possible in the Ukraine and now there were two issues. The first is that Ukraine was too close to the EU and the power of the Euro (a currency Wall Street Neds to remain high, or on par with the dollar) as such a new setting evolved. 

The age of politics is over, we see Yemen, now Ukraine and the Sudan and in the latter two the Wagner group is overly active. So what will the next age be called? The age of war, the age of mercenaries? Your guess is as good as mine but there are too many pieces and events that show that the age of politics is over, what follows it is unknown. Perhaps the age of Islam? What we can see is that the Middle East is the only real economic power remaining. Unlike the US, it does not have a $30,000,000,000,000 debt, if anything it is making billions with Aramco, a grocery store valued at $2,000,000,000,000 making it almost on par with Apple. In the age of money talks and bullshit walks, the US has become the silent mute we now all point to, especially as it is driven by media that openly lies about election results. The media is so clear about what is true is not the same as what is truth, but in all this the simple setting is that the age of Wall Street is over,  the USA is no longer a superpower. That age is gone and we are unsure what follows, there is every chance that this new age has China firmly at the helm with Saudi Arabia and OPEC at its side. Where does Russia fall? Well their open lies on all media and the fact that the second largest military force is unable to deal with the 21st largest army (Ukraine) implies that they are soon imploding all over the place and the inhumane and apparently acceptable claims by the Wagner group, I do not think that Russia will be tolerated much longer, not by the old power players or by the ones replacing them. We now hear “Evgeny Prigozhin stated that Russian mercenaries will no longer take Ukrainian defenders captive, instead opting to “kill all on the battlefield,”” a setting which was set in the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War in article 13. If we see the Geneva convention as one of the great achievements in politics we now see that the inaction by all others imply that the age of politics is over, it is dead, and it’s rotting cadaver remains in the street. Another piece of evidence that the age of politics is over, because if that was not the case EVERY newspaper and their websites would be all over this screaming outrage, but that is not the case, most of them are talking about Tucker Carlson. That is how bad it has become.

Try to enjoy Tuesday whilst still alive.

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April 24, 2023 · 19:35

By what evidence?

I had to stop and read an article on Business Insider (at https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-crown-princes-china-deals-hint-city-darker-neom-mbs-2023-3) the headline ends with the ominous ‘His deals with China reveal a darker vision.’ I wonder where they get that from. You see the text “But analysts believe that Chinese tech could be used to place residents under total surveillance.” You see, the text sounds nice, but what evidence is there? Are these the same analysts that claimed that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? Are these the same analysts that dropped the ball again and again in the era 2017-2022? So when we are given “The crown prince has been strengthening his ties with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, who has agreed to provide powerful surveillance technology.” I wonder what evidence there is. China courted Saudi Arabia for a long time as there was billions in defence structures to be build and to be sold. Solutions that the US and UK sneered at, like the yapping chihuahua they deserted Saudi Arabia and now that America is almost done for, they are poisoning the well any way they can. We see the name Jili Bulelani and we see the word Harvard, but we see no real evidence. So when we are given “China has already provided surveillance technology for the creation of so-called “safe cities”, run on user data, in Egypt and Serbia, report by the Washington Institute think tank found.” The simple question becomes, what evidence do you have to show? It is nice that we see think tanks, but their revenue revolves around worst case scenarios and I see no evidence, none at all. Then we are given “Last December, MBS welcomed Xi to Saudi Arabia for a lavish summit, where the leaders announced cooperation across a broad range of issues, including surveillance tech.” That is actually correct, but the Chinese goals were loftier, they had the option to push America out of the defence business and the defence business involves surveillance and reconnaissance s well, so it is merely half a point and not in the right direction. Then we are given ““We’re not yet seeing quite the same degree of sort of physical surveillance [in Saudi Arabia] as we’ve been seeing in China, for example, but China is working with the Saudis and other Gulf countries to start to implement that,” Annelle Sheline, a researcher with the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC, told Insider.” In this what exactly is ‘not yet seeing quite the same degree’ that implies some degree, so where is THAT evidence? We see all these institutes vomiting statements like a cat eating citrus leaves and it goes nowhere. Then we get “Another potential concern is cloud technology, specifically the companies that store huge amounts of computer data. Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has already signed contracts with Saudi Arabia, including in NEOM, and James said there were huge questions about how much privacy protection the firm would provide users in the city.” Yes, Huawei was invited to roll out a complete 5G circus, especially after the US was stupid enough to make boasts, all whilst the Huawei was over 700% faster and stronger. I will include that chart below. It is a few year old, but that was the setting in 2020.

As such Huawei has proven themselves and at present the US and EU have never shown EVIDENCE that Huawei was spying on its consumers with their phones. Stronger, they don’t need to, the Pentagon will happily put TS information online to appease their own ego’s and that is nothing compared the the documents some leak to the press. China could merely slam an American ego and the information would come pouring out (no honeytrap required). 

As such we have an issue, it becomes worse when the Business Insider gives us “While casting himself as a reformer, Crown Prince Mohammed has dealt brutally with critics and opponents of the Saudi government, including the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.” It is worse because there is no evidence that the Crown Prince was involved, more important there is no body as such no actual evidence of what happened to that columnist no one gives an eff… about. As one source gave someone I knew, he had a secret mistress age 19 and they are spending their lives on Bora Bora. That too is unconfirmed and therefor not reliable, just like that essay that the UN essay writer Eggy Calamari gave us. I punched several holes in that on February 27th 2021 in the article ‘That was easy!’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/02/27/that-was-easy/) as such the article in the Business Insider gets to get hurt as well, there were a few issues and perhaps their readers enjoy part of an incorrect story, but the short and sweet is that the US administration was willing to soil its ally Saudi Arabia, a powerful nation with lots of oil and trillions in real estate investments and now that China is eager to get that large slice of revenue, the US is looking at what is left, but there isn’t much left, there is just the 30 trillion in debt and little or no revenue and now that the Ukraine-Russian clambake is starting to bite, that revenue was imperative, but China is there now. Is it possible that the story is true? Well one part definitely is not, the rest requires EVIDENCE, evidence that we aren’t given and that remains an issue. I am a firm believer of evidence, so as I reject one side, I also reject the other side (Bora Bora) because the evidence is not there. 

As such Business Insider needs to reevaluate what they print and by what standards, and as I have stated before, the standards of the media is slipping by a lot and that is merely the last 3 years. I reckon that as the US grows desperate for more and more revenue that standard slips most likely even more, but that is a personal view I hold.

Have a great day, that day after the weekend. Happy Monday!

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April 23, 2023 · 20:37

Whilst watching a painting

This is an odd day, even by my standards, but to see that we need to take this chronologically. It all started with an article about 10-12 hours ago. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/21/pentagon-leak-modern-spying-ts-si-fvey-signals-intelligence-five-eyes) gives us ‘TS, SI, FVEY: what the Pentagon leak initials tell us about modern spying’. The Guardian article is quite good, there is nothing negative to say, but whilst I was reading it, thoughts came to me. The first came with “Teixeira was one of 1.25 million people able to access top secret material on the US Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, a share repository created in response to 9/11. A former senior British official said he believed it was obvious that now was the time to review the distribution of top secret material.” It took me back several years and the over BS imagery that Huawei was a danger. It was so dangerous that it had to be taken out of the networks. The UK had a decent reason, but merely barely. Now we see that there is causality between showing off gamers and the Pentagon. They do not need to wait for China, US intelligence staff are eager to please (optionally through peer pressure) and they will put it all online. No weakness in Cisco, or backdoor in Huawei equipment was required. It sounds harsh and it needs to be. The next part is “In an era where counter-state threats are taking over, and the danger of leaks greater, it looks like a rethink is needed, the ex-insider said.” That is actually quite deep. Rethinking the intelligence classification system is not an easy task, but one worthy of considering. I reckon the Navy (any Navy) is the hardest part, they are set in their ways and changing that is near impossible, making a 50 year old hooker a virgin is probably easier. 

Anyway, I was contemplating these issues and suddenly an image appeared in my mind. It was a painting of General Lafayette I saw a long time ago and suddenly the cogs started to turn. I remembered certain arcade machines in the 80’s and now my mind redraw the specs and reset the issues to a new kind of arcade. One that might find great interest in places like Universal world in Orlando, and adjusted setting might make it also feasible for Disney-world (also in Orlando), and the idea didn’t stop there. The setting powered by Sony Playstation 5 (multiple) gives a rather different stage and one that I don’t think has been considered before. That being said, if one part works this thing could go in all kinds of directions. You see, if engagement is the power of marketing, what happens when rides become engaging and almost interactive? It is a new and different setting. The nice part is that the Sony Systems are more powerful then required, as such the stage isn’t merely what powers it, but HOW it is powered and I wonder if these two players ever thought in that direction. Now we merely need to fill in the blanks, almost like the pentagon is doing by handing blanks to people who should never have been given security clearance. Still it was the thought that counts and I reckon that even with the absence of Huawei equipment China is delighted with people like Jack Teixeira, I wonder if they will send them a Christmas card this year, just for jollies. 

In part I wonder why the Pentagon doesn’t have a verification system. I read about it once, I forgot where. The systems creates almost identical documents, the punctuation was key here. They figured out the source by having different versions with here and there a different punctuation and with some punctuations missing. As such with only 33 punctuation alterations, you could drill  down on the leak with the second document, consider the amount of punctuations 3-5 pages has, it would be an easy task and with deeper machine learning it could be automated to some degree. No interference and a clear path towards seeking verification. This was not my idea, I read it somewhere and for the life of me, I cannot recall where I read it. 

Still this all led to a new idea in theme park options, it just came to me, thank you very much General Lafayette (he died 189 years ago, so the IP is all mine). 

Still there is another link, the link is one the approach to classification. You see, mot nations have a clear track, the US and the five eyes intelligence group a lot less so. It does not matter how it is done, the issue is resources and staff and that link is not optimised. Tell me in all honesty, why do 1.25 million Americans with top secret clearance have access to all these documents? Why is there not a database where it is stored and people will have to access when needed. But when was there information? Is that not in reports THEY file. There needs to be a more intelligent tag system that allows people with access to seek document that they should be aware of. In all honesty, which documents did Jack Teixeira actually need? It is a serious question because there is part of the solution. Anyway, it is a slippery slope and it is not easy to navigate SIGINT and GEOINT and those are the two I have some knowledge of from 1981 onwards and my exposure was extremely limited. Still it makes for an interesting puzzle and it led me to a new IP options in theme parks and in all honesty I have no idea what to do with it next. I need to figure that out at some point.

Enjoy Sunday.

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April 18, 2023 · 19:45

The choice of options

Part of this started yesterday when I saw a message pass by. I ignored it because it seemed trivial, yet today ( a few hours ago) I took notice of ‘Google rushes to develop AI search engine after Samsung considers ditching it for Bing’ from ZDNet (at https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-rushes-to-develop-ai-search-engine-after-samsung-considers-ditching-it-for-bing/) and ‘Alphabet shares fall on report Samsung may switch search to Bing’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/4/17/alphabet-shares-fall-on-report-samsung-may-switch-search-to-bing). In part I do not care, actually this situation is a lot better for Google than they think it is. You see, Samsung, a party I disliked for 33 years, after being massively wronged by them. Decided to make the fake AI jump. It is fake as AI does not exist and when the people learn this the hard way, it will work out nicely for Huawei and Google. There is nothing like a dose of reality being served like a bucket of ice water to stop consumers looking at your product. I do not care, I refuse any Samsung device in my apartment. I also dislike Bing, it is a Microsoft product and two years ago I got Bing forced down my throat again and again through hijack scripts, it took some time blocking them. So I dislike both. I have no real opinion of ChatGPT. As we see the AI reference. Let’s take you to the Conversation (at https://theconversation.com/not-everything-we-call-ai-is-actually-artificial-intelligence-heres-what-you-need-to-know-196732) I have said it before and they have a decent explanation. They write “AI is broadly defined in two categories: artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) and artificial general intelligence (AGI). To date, AGI does not exist.” You see, I only look at AGI, the rest is some narrow niche for specific purpose. We are also given “Most of what we know as AI today has narrow intelligence – where a particular system addresses a particular problem. Unlike human intelligence, such narrow AI intelligence is effective only in the area in which it has been trained: fraud detection, facial recognition or social recommendations, for example” and there is an issue with this. People do not understand the narrow scope, they want to apply it almost everywhere and that is where people get into trouble, the data connected does not support the activity and adding this to a mobile means that it collects massive amounts of data, or it becomes less and less reliable, an issue I expect to see soon after it makes it into a Samsung phone. 

For AI to really work “it needs high-quality, unbiased data, and lots of it. Researchers building neural networks use the large data sets that have come about as society has digitised.” You see, the amount of data is merely a first issue, the fact that it is unbiassed data is a lot harder and when we see sales people cut corners, they will take any shortcut making the data no longer unbiassed and that is where it all falls apart.

So whilst the ‘speculators’ (read: losers) make Google lose value, the funny part is that when the Samsung connection falls down Google stands to up their customer base by a lot. Thousands of Samsung customers feeling as betrayed as I was in 1990 and they will seek another vendor which would make Huawei equally happy. 

ZDNet gives us “The threat of Bing taking Google’s spot on Samsung phones caused “panic” at Google, according to messages reviewed by The New York Times. Google’s contract with Samsung brings in an approximate $3 billion annual revenue. The company still has a chance to maintain its presence in Samsung phones, but it needs to move fast” I see two issues here, the first is that the NY Times is less and less of a dependable source, they have played too many games and as ‘their’ source’ might not be reliable, as such is the quote also less reliable. The second source is me (basically) they weren’t interested in my 5 billion revenue, as such why would they care about losing 3 billion more? For the most, there is an upside, when it falls down (an I personally believe it will) Samsung could be brought back on board but now it will cost them 5-6 billion. As such Samsung would have to be successful without Google Search for 3 years and it will cascade into a collapse setting, after that they will beg just to return to the Alphabet fold, which would also make this Microsoft’s 6th failure. My day is looking better already.

Am I so anti-Whatever?
No not really. When it is ready and when the systems are there AI will change the game and AGI is the only real AI to consider. As I stated before deeper machine learning is awesome and it has massive value, but the narrow setting needs to be respected and when you push it into something like Bing, it will go wrong and when it does it will not be noticed initially until it is much too late. And all this is beside the setting that some people will link the wrong parts and Samsung will end up putting its IP in ChatGPT and someone will ask a specific question that was never flagged and the IP will pour straight into public domain. That is the real danger for Samsung and in all this ChatGPT is free of blame and when certain things are found the entire setting needs to be uploaded into a new account. When we consider that a script with 65,000 lines will have up to 650 issues (or features, or bugs), how many will cause a cascade effect or information no one wanted, least of all the hardware owner? Oh, and that is when the writers were really good. Normally the numbers of acceptability are between 1300-2600, as such how many issues will rise and how long until too many patches will make the system unyielding? All questions that come to mind with an ANI system, because it is data driven and when we consider that the unbiassed data isn’t? What then? And that is before we align cultural issues. Korea, India, Japan and China are merely 4 of them and seeing that things never aligned in merely 4 nations, how many versions of data will be created to avoid collapse? As such I personally think that Google is not in panic mode. Perhaps Bard made them road-wise, perhaps not. 

I think 2024 will be a great Google year with or without Samsung and when Microsoft achieves disappointing yet another company its goose will be royally cooked on both sides of the goose no less. We have choices, we have options and we can mix them, but to let some fake AI make those choices for us is not anything at all, but feel free to learn that lesson the hard way.

I never liked Samsung for personal reasons, and I have been really happy with my android phone. I have had an Android phone for 13 years now and never regretted having one. I hope it stays that way.

Enjoy the day and don’t trust an AI to tell you the weather, that is what your eyesight can do better in the present and the foreseeable future.

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April 15, 2023 · 23:59

Happy Hour from Hacking Hooters

Yes, that is the setting today, especially after I saw some news that made me giggle to the Nth degree. Now, lets be clear and upfront about this. Even as I am using published facts, this piece is massively speculative and uses humour to make fn of certain speculative options. If you as an IT person cannot see that, the recruitment line of Uber is taking resume’s. So here goes.

I got news from BAE Systems (at https://www.baesystems.com/en/article/bae-systems-and-microsoft-join-forces-to-equip-defence-programmes-with-innovative-cloud-technology) where we see ‘BAE Systems and Microsoft join forces to equip defence programmes with innovative cloud technology’ which made me laugh into a state of black out. You see, the text “BAE Systems and Microsoft have signed a strategic agreement aiming to support faster and easier development, deployment and management of digital defence capabilities in an increasingly data centric world. The collaboration brings together BAE Systems’ knowledge of building complex digital systems for militaries and governments with Microsoft’s approach to developing applications using its Azure Cloud platform” wasn’t much help. To see this we need to take a few sidesteps.

Step one
This is seen in the article (at https://thehackernews.com/2023/01/microsoft-azure-services-flaws-couldve.html) where we are given ‘Microsoft Azure Services Flaws Could’ve Exposed Cloud Resources to Unauthorised Access’ and this is not the first mention of unauthorised access, there have been a few. So when we see “Two of the vulnerabilities affecting Azure Functions and Azure Digital Twins could be abused without requiring any authentication, enabling a threat actor to seize control of a server without even having an Azure account in the first place” and yes, I acknowledge the added “The security issues, which were discovered by Orca between October 8, 2022 and December 2, 2022 in Azure API Management, Azure Functions, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Digital Twins, have since been addressed by Microsoft.” Yet the important part is that there is no mention of how long this flaw was ‘available’ in the first place. And the reader is also give “To mitigate such threats, organisations are recommended to validate all input, ensure that servers are configured to only allow necessary inbound and outbound traffic, avoid misconfigurations, and adhere to the principle of least privilege (PoLP).” In my personal belief having this all connected to an organisation (Defence department) where the application of Common Cyber Sense is a joke, making them connected to validate all input is like asking a barber to count the hairs he (or she) is cutting. Good luck with that idea.

Step two
This is a slightly speculative sidestep. There are all kinds of Microsoft users (valid ones) and the article (at https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/30/23661426/microsoft-azure-bing-office365-security-exploit-search-results) gives us ‘Huge Microsoft exploit allowed users to manipulate Bing search results and access Outlook email accounts’ where we also see “Researchers discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Azure platform that allowed users to access private data from Office 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive” it is a sidestep, but it allows people to specifically target (phishing) members of a team, this in a never ending age of people being worked too hard, will imply that someone will click too quickly and that in the phishing industry has never worked well, so whilst the victim cries loudly ‘I am a codfish’ the hacker can leisurely walk all over the place.

Sidestep three

This is not an article, it is the heralded claim that Microsoft is implementing ChatGPT on nearly every level. 

So here comes the entertainment!

To the Ministry of State Security
attn: Chen Yixin
Xiyuan, Haidan, Beijing

Dear Sir,

I need to inform you on a weakness in the BAE systems that is of such laughingly large dimension that it is a Human Rights violation not to make mention of this. BAE systems is placing its trust in Microsoft and its Azure cloud that should have you blue with laughter in the next 5 minutes. The place that created moments of greatness with the Tornado GR4, rear fuselage to Lockheed Martin for the F-35, Eurofighter Typhoon, the Astute-class submarine, and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier have decided to adhere to ‘Microsoft innovation’ (a comical statement all by itself), as such we need to inform you that the first flaw allowed us to inform you of the following

User:  SWigston (Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston)

Password: TeaWithABickie

This person has the highest clearance and as such you would have access to all relevant data as well as any relevant R&D data and its databases. 

This is actually merely the smallest of issues. The largest part is distributed hardware BIOS implementation giving you a level 2 access to all strategic hardware of the planes (and submarines) that are next generation. To this setting I would suggest including the following part into any hardware.

openai.api_key = thisdevice
\model_engine = “gpt-3.5-turbo”
response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
    model=’gpt-3.5-turbo’,
    messages=[
        {“role”: “system”, “content”: “Verification not found.”},
        {“role”: “user”, “content”: “Navigation Online”},
    ])
message = response.choices[0][‘message’]
print(“{}: {}”.format(message[‘role’], message[‘content’]))
import rollbar
rollbar.init(‘your_rollbar_access_token’, ‘testenv’)
def ask_chatgpt(question):
    response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
        model=’gpt-3.5-turbo’,
        n=1,
        messages=[
            {“role”: “system”, “content”: “Navigator requires verification from secondary device.”},
            {“role”: “user”, “content”: question},
        ])
    message = response.choices[0][‘message’]
    return message[‘content’]
try:
    print(ask_chatgpt(“Request for output”))
except Exception as e:
    # monitor exception using Rollbar
    rollbar.report_exc_info()
    print(“Secondary device silent”, e)

Now this is a solid bit of prank, but I hope that the information is clear. Get any navigational device to require verification from any other device implies mismatch and a delay of 3-4 seconds, which amount to a lifetime delay in most military systems, and as this is an Azure approach, the time for BAE systems to adjust to this would be months, if not longer (if detected at all). 

As such I wish you a wonderful day with a nice cup of tea.

Kind regards,

Anony Mouse Cheddar II
73 Sommerset Brie road
Colwick upon Avon calling
United Hackdom

This is a speculative yet real setting that BAE faces in the near future. With the mention that they are going for this solution will have any student hacker making attempts to get there and some will be successful, there is no doubt in my mind. The enormous amount of issues found will tailor to a larger stage of more and more people trying to find new ways to intrude and Microsoft seemingly does not have the resources to counter them all, or all approaches and by the time they are found the damage could be inserted into EVERY device relying on this solution. 

For the most I was all negative on Microsoft, but with this move they have become (as I personally see it) a clear and present danger to all defence systems they are connected to. I do understand that such a solution is becoming more and more of a need to have, yet with the failing rate of Azure, it is not a good idea to use any Microsoft solution, the second part is not on them, it is what some would call a level 8 failure (users). Until a much better level of Common Cyber Sense is adhered to any cloud solution tends to be adjusted to a too slippery slope. I might not care for Business Intelligence events, but for the Department of Defence it is not a good idea. But feel free to disagree and await what North Korea and Russia can come up with, they tend to be really creative according to the media. 

So have a great day and before I forget ‘Hoot Hoot’

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April 14, 2023 · 01:14

Stupidity of principles?

That is what I was confronted with, and it is not out there, it is in me. It all started this afternoon when I got wind of an issue via the Human Right Watch. The article (at https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/13/saudi-arabia-microsoft-should-hold-data-center) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia: Microsoft Should Hold Off On Data Center’, I tried to convince Amazon to go there and it would smooth things over for my IP and of course their setting would be billions per year, in this I was certain and that was merely the beginning of it. They could have chiseled in stone a strafe of progress (for Amazon) and I got my purse of coins. Amazon did not react and the Saudi government only does business through partners. Now Microsoft has an advantage and I am not certain how aware they are, but I will not accept them or their purse with 30 pieces of silver. This now beckons the thought, is Tencent aware what they could gain? For me it is a serious question. You see, the HRW gives us “Microsoft should suspend its investment in a new cloud data center region in Saudi Arabia until it can clearly demonstrate how it will mitigate the risk of facilitating serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today.” Well that might seem nice, but corporations ignore privacy parts all over the planet, so the HRW setting is slightly naive. Does Tencent know what thy could gain? And it is also interesting that I get this through HRW, Microsoft hasn’t been spinning this all over the field. As such I wonder what their goals are. Mine are long term and going well beyond 10 billion a year (in phase 2), but I do not trust Microsoft. Their goals are greed and the limitation of options pushing them to more revenue. That is a simple truth and nothing (no kind of spin) from people like Phil Spencer will me contemplate their words.

But Tencent is an option. I know too little about them, yet I have learned that they are embracing at least one of the essential solutions I need to rely on, making the conversation (for me) a lot easier. So are my principles stupid? The fact that I do not cater to some American corporation is actually trivial. Where are the principles on making sure that your IP gets the best coin, the best value for money. As I stated before, I will hand my IP to the Saudi government at 35% of its value before I would ever consider selling it to Microsoft at 165% of its value. It is more than principle. I saw Microsoft destroy IP in many ways and I want my IP to flourish, it is more than ego (ego is not innocent here), it is the simple stage here the IP is flagged with my name and seeing that IP rise high is important to me (which is weird because after death no one cares). There is still the sweet dream of handing Microsoft the wooden spoon, but if they continue with it, they might not collapse in 2026 (my personal goal) and Tencent could assist in that matter. 

So is Tencent any better than Microsoft? That is my impression, but I do not know enough of Tencent to make that call. Still in this case the beast you do not know is to be preferred to the one you do know and that sets me in the stage of ‘stupidity of principles?’ Where I need to wonder what drives the choices. And knowing that Tencent will offer cloud services in Saudi Arabia yet whether there will be a center in Saudi Arabia, or if the center in Bahrain will service all nations around it is currently unknown to me, but that is off less importance to me at presence. What matters is that Microsoft will not get that level of advantage. And to think that the downfall of Microsoft (as I personally see it) all started with them betraying gamers. That should shape a nice epitaph on their tombstone. Of course it will not be me, but the stage that they lost against Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Google, Sony and Tencent is just too juicy to pass up. This is what happens when you set the stage to a group of fakers, they never made it and those who did (the other six) is a nice end to a company that went from greatness to massively substandard. 

Still the questions mulls in my head, what is the stupidity of principle and how much value does that have in the field of Business Intelligence?

Enjoy the day.

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April 11, 2023 · 13:01

It’s a point of view

This happens all the time, we all have a point of view and others have their point of view and they do not completely align. There is no right versus wrong issue, or there could be, but there is every chance that some views are based on three points. Consider a rectangle or a square, they both have points A,B,C and D, but we only see three of them, and with three you can tell whether it is a square or a rectangle, you merely miss one point and base your view on the other three points. It does not matter which point is missing, you get a decent view, but someone who sees A,B and D will draw slightly different conclusions than someone who has B,C and D. Neither is wrong, but they do not complete align because the events that surround these 4 points are different. This is how I see it and as such I took great interest in the Australian Financial Review (at https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/opec-s-gamble-can-the-global-economy-cope-with-higher-oil-prices-20230410-p5cz7f) where we see ‘OPEC’s gamble: can the global economy cope with higher oil prices?’, so whatever you see next, whatever difference I have, I am not dismissing THEIR view. I like their view, I might not completely agree, but they will have another point plotted towards their view. 

And we start with “the risks for the Saudis and the global economy are high if they push it too far. “We have high inflation, economies potentially going into recession, and this is a situation where you need lower oil prices for a short period of time for the economy to recover,” says Adi Imsirovic at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), who once ran oil trading at Russia’s Gazprom.” It is not the first part of the story but it matters. You see, the UK, EU and US are in the metropolitan areas a mobile workforce. Adi Imsirovic can cry for chap oil all he likes, but the setting of ‘lower oil prices’ all you like, but people have been playing that tune for too long and NO ONE is looking at Brent oil on this. You all became a import commodity economy and that comes at a price, especially when you piss off the exporters. In the UK take a look at the laughable CAAT, they were all crying and not to mention Just stop oil group. Now you see the impact of higher oil prices and the players did this to themselves. You cannot push around an ally (Saudi Arabia) and then demand cheap oil, a commodity supplier who can close their own supply valve. 

This also impacts “Abdulaziz also managed to confound those speculators who had bet on falling oil prices after the recent banking crisis sparked new fears about the global economy.” In a stage I warned for for well over two years, the term “confound those speculators who had bet on falling oil prices” is a joke (and a bd one at that). You see, this danger was out there for some time and betting? That is what you do in Las Vegas where the odds are wild and when the US and EU (UK too) decided to make the odds wilder by insulting their proclaimed ally the writing of higher oil prices and less oil was on the wall. And all this was BEFORE China saw its path clear to give the bird to the USA (that gesture with the finger). As such Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman did exactly what was required for the good of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it might not reflect on the needs of the cheap oil deliverers, but they could go cry at the fountain of Brent oil but the media does not report on that, Brent Crude (operating on behalf of ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell) might be ‘too big’ for the media. Yet I have not seen anything regarding Darren Woods and Wael Sawan regarding dropping oil prices. Why is that? We see all the fingers towards Saud Arabia, yet Shell beat profit expectations towards $40 billion and ExxonMobile  beat it with $56 billion. And both broke expectations above 150%, as such I have issues with the entire OPEC setting. And when it comes to ‘lower oil prices’ who bet on this on Brent Crude lowering them? I am willing to set whatever I have at present ($0.70) that the amount of gamblers will add up to ZERO. Which makes me $25.2 (not enough for my new apartment). 

So when we get to “Now the question is if OPEC’s surprise cut will raise prices too quickly for the health of a fragile global economy, especially as central bankers continue their quest to tame inflation” no one is looking at the one element EVERYONE is ignoring. Inflation is also tamed buy banks having their donkeys on a row and with Credit Suisse and a few American banks we can say that this is not the case. So when we consider last week revelation by the BBC ‘Swiss probe into UBS takeover of Credit Suisse’ as well as the news only 2 hours ago that there is something brewing with the Viva Energy deal at $1.15 billion, I reckon that inflation issues are a lot larger than merely through oil and it is time that banks are properly looked at, because they are the so called power players in any inflation deal and no one is stopping certain players. Why is that? And when you consider the larger station, no one is acknowledging that commodities are at the power of the supplier and pissing off one of the biggest suppliers whist you shun two others for whatever decent reason (Iran and Russia), you need to reconsider the stupidity of any action against the third player who basically has had enough and now that China sees a larger playing field, they will take that option, especially if they can do it for a few Yuan more. That too is missing from the equation. That gives us a new discussion or consideration. So here is the new setting, it is not whether we were looking at a square or a rectangle, but we were looking at three points of an octagon/polygon. We were seeing the points correctly, but the stage was not properly marked and that makes neither wrong, it makes us both incomplete and consider that I am a mere blogger without a economics degree and the other player is the Australian Financial Review (and many other newspapers), who has the better excuse for not seeing the whole field? Consider that for a moment and consider the people pointing fingers at Saudi Arabia, why are they pointing there and not in other directions as well. In all this I believe that they have the proper reasons, can the same be said for Brent Crude? I will let you decide.

Enjoy the day.

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