Tag Archives: France

July 1, 2026 · 15:52

The way fences crumble

That was the setting that I saw, the Wall Street Journal gave an article (that I didn’t read because it was behind a paywall) where we are given ‘A Dispute Over Opening Hormuz Drives a Wedge Into U.S.-Saudi Relations’ where we are given “Trump threatened kingdom’s supply of drone and missile interceptors when it refused access to bases and airspace for Project Freedom.” That is all I have, but I do not need more. You see, one of the oldest expressions I know if is about mending ones fences and the entire setting that Saudi Arabia gets bullied because of their inability to adhere to (what some call) an illegal war is beyond stupid. You see, Saudi Arabia could ask the Ukraine to deliver 50-150 drones, that request could also be made from China, as such Saudi Arabia has options, but at present the United States is left with less and less options. As Saudi Arabia pulls out whatever they have economically in the United States, amounts up to an estimated $490 billion, with an expanded, long-term commitment expected to scale toward $1 trillion, the united States could now lose that and be left to dry. The bully approach from President Trump is costing the United States more and more. In addition, whatever rare earth mining options Saudi Arabia has could now be awarded to Australia and the EU, costing the United States billions more. So what does a person this stupid do in the Administration of the United States? I am willing to believe that his advisers put this forward, but I reckon that this might be a lose cannon setting, as I personally see it, a stage for the current President. In addition to all this, Saudi Arabia now has an option to demand the extraction of United States troops and Saudi Arabia asking China if they are willing to replace the United States as a preferred option. This enables Iran to vacate Saudi Arabia as a target, because they are unwilling to hurt China, it would be the last mistake they ever made. 

So whilst we mull over the setting that Saudi Arabia is facing with China as the up and coming preferred partner for defence, mining, construction and tourism, the chances of the United States making it with an intact budget to 2028 is getting rather small. And should President Trump now threaten Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal for whatever tourism gap comes, I have a few ideas that could spell a lot of bad news. In addition I am certain that China has its own version of entertainment in the works. Everyone is forgetting that Saudi Arabia has something that the United States desperately wants. So as we were given: 

“The US government is aggressively pressuring oil and gas companies to lower prices. President Donald Trump and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have berated retailers and the Department of Justice is actively investigating accusations of price gouging. They are demanding retailers drop pump prices to target $2.50 a gallon”

And whilst it came with:

“Direct warnings by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a veiled warning to big oil, independent, and international retailers to be “good actors” or face “big problems” as the administration watches their record profits”, “Department of Justice investigations into claims that oil companies are failing to lower gasoline prices in line with crude drops” and “Market friction towards demands for cheaper gasoline heavily conflicts with their “drill, baby, drill” campaign promises, because prolonged low prices will disincentivize American drillers from expanding production” 

As such I will take this rare setting where I (with a lack of economic education) teach that administration a few things: 

“Commodities are dependent on what is available and what is needed. As such the strait of Hormuz is a setting for over 20% of what is needed and as such prices are going through the roof. Closing it, or better stating, your enemy closing it was perhaps one of the worst ideas for the United States ever.” 

Starting that attack on Iran was badly considered. I gave Saudi Arabia and the UAE defensive settings in March and I also gave a few tactical settings that could have hobbled Iranian tactics and in light of that their refineries are still pumping oil. Before I was, the art of war was and they told generals (2500 years ago) how you scuttle an enemy resources. This pentagon clearly never learned from that. This pentagon also never learned from the French resistance (aka clambake 1939-1944) and that also gave me some ideas in March. As such I became the March Hare (I just saw Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland) everyone seemingly ignored. What matters is that Saudi Arabia has a few more options at their disposal, it does not require the United States as much as the United States requires the coffers of Saudi Arabia. And Saudi Arabia can sell to China and the EU, so it has options. I reckon that should Saudi Arabia play less nice, Iran will run for the hills. And as I personally see it, Saudi Arabia has the intent and motivation to make sure that Iran sees the light for their stupidity. 

And the was merely the first part. You see, Saudi Arabia is deep into construction for what they need for Vision 2030 and they cannot do it alone, so these contracts are now considering the EU and China as contributors. So what is this bully tactic costing the United States? I warned them for this in ‘When it rains, it pours’ on December 2nd 2024 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/12/02/when-it-rains-it-pours-2/), I feel decently certain that there is some MoU between China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia floating around in the Ministry of Defense (the one on the King Abdul Aziz Road) as such the entire bully setting against Saudi Arabia was short sighted and ill conceived. As the image (implying) that this threat was directed at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud might not have been a stellar idea, but I reckon that President Trump is likely a ‘thanks you’ notice from the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping. Personally I am hoping that I still get the 0.25% commission for enhancing the chances of China selling the 20 Chengdu J-20, which comes at a total of $2,200,000,000 ($110M each), which leaves me with a shabby $5.5 million making me happy beyond believe. So I have an illusional vested interest in all this, and who doesn’t want to retire with $5,500,000?
So the United States can cry me a river, but they elected the current president, as such they dug their own grave as I see it. So you all have a great day and consider what you will lose out on in the long run. I am likely not getting that commission, but that is the cross I have to bare, or is that bear? Gee, I made another funny, must be the Tim Burton effect of Alice in Wonderland.

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June 29, 2026 · 15:44

Surprise from the left of the UAE

This is what we see and it shows. You see, I (silly old me) for the longest time saw the Tour de France as a European event, often ‘dominated’ by the Italians and the French. We saw the greats get the golden shirt, the green shirt and all the other shirts, but now, today, I got introduced to another player getting its non-oil hands on that tour. Non-oil because it is a setting using a muscular vehicle called a bicycle and this 2026, sponsored by Emirates and XRG we see that the UAE is contributing its team to this event. And (at https://www.tour-magazin.de/en/professional-cycling/tour-de-france/2026-tour-de-france-teams-uae-team-emirates-xrg/) we are given ‘UAE Team Emirates-XRG’ and the image there shows us 12 cyclers and a captain (likely cycling too) whilst we see “Top favourite with a top team: Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates are heading into the Tour de France brimming with confidence and self-belief.” With the added “With three riders leaving and four joining for 2026, UAE resembles the Tudor squad in this respect – albeit on a completely different level. Whilst all eyes are invariably on top star Tadej Pogačar, who has won almost every race he has entered this year; the 44 victories this season – achieved by the team leading the world rankings by the end of June”, the Tour de France 2026 will start on Saturday, July 4, 2026 until Sunday, July 26, 2026. This 113th edition of the race (it started some time before I was born) spans 21 stages, beginning with the Grand send off in Barcelona, Spain, and concluding on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. I would advice the team not to engage the senoritas in Barcelona and prepare for that race on the 4th of July. I just remembered, s there is something all people in Canada can tune into, to avoid seeing that 250 year event in Washington DC, they can watch the start of the Tour de France. What a nice coincidence. 😛

If you want to catch up on that official tour, (at https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route) you can see the whole map and all the stages it contains. For me it was a sentimental journey. I personally saw parts of the 6th tour taking us to Gavarnie-Gèdre, I fell in love there with a French young lady called Solange (in 1982) seeing that map brought on a few silly feelings. The only thing that I am missing is, nothing. I saw that place, I have seen France in a few ways and I saw several places. Orleans, Lourdes and one other place (I forgot the name) are still on my mind. The tranquility and the blessed silence from enjoying a Spanish coffee (cafe-ole) which was my interpretation of Cafe au lait (I didn’t speak a word of French) in those days (I still don’t) and the baguette with Cheese or pate my mouth still remembers. Still, today after 44 years. They were that good. Still, the UAE team will take that monumental and titanic event. If you want to follow them you can do so at:

Website: https://www.uaeteamemirates.com
Instagram: uae_team_emirates

The only thing I question is that they also give us that “Training wheels Enve” Why would a tour team need training wheels?

My apologies for this little created giggle, but I just couldn’t resist. I wonder how they hold up against Nils Politt (Germany) and Adam Yates (UK) who both have done this 9 times, so they are up against some serious competition, there are a lot more teams, but you can read that in the article as well as the amount of times they have started, there is even an Australian team (which until now I did not know). So you all have a great day and consider what sport you want to embrace, I say when you are in the UAE or the KSA, biking might not be a great idea. The sun is ruthless there. You all have a great day today.

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June 23, 2026 · 15:57

As one door closes

That was the setting I saw this morning as I took notice of ‘MGX could purchase APAC data center operator DayOne’ (at https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/mgx-could-purchase-apac-data-center-operator-dayone-report/) with the juicy (for some) subtitle “Comes ahead of DayOne’s $20 billion IPO” it opened another avenue for the UAE, you see as the United States has pissed of pretty much every country with their cloud act, the setting that I see is that if MGX embraces the GDPR and adheres to this in several means, Microsoft, Google and IBM will lose the traction they have all over the EU and the commonwealth. So whilst we take notice of “Reuters’ sources said that the MGX acquisition is not finalized and a DayOne IPO could still go ahead. DayOne currently runs a portfolio of more than 500MW of data center capacity in service and under construction, with another 500MW held for future development across Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan. The company also has sites in Thailand and Finland.” 

And in case if ChapsVision, it is nice it is getting the Palantir account in France (and optionally in other EU countries as well) but that comes with the addd need for stronger data centers and not in American hands. The Edge (at https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/807778) gives us ‘Abu Dhabi’s MGX weighs multi-billion deal for data centre operator DayOne — Reuters’, which gives us (at https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/807778) that “Abu Dhabi-backed artificial intelligence investor MGX has been exploring buying Singapore-based data centre operator DayOne, three sources said, in what would mark a major step in its global expansion into the technology. MGX has been working with an investment bank in preparation for the potential transaction, said two of the sources, who declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential.” Which implies to me that this is not yet a done deal, as such it is likely to happen, especially as countries are making moves to pull away from the United States and their Cloud Act, but that might not be enough, the secondary stage is that Microsoft as a data Endor is seemingly already on the way out in a few places, so that would be setting the stage that this could indeed happen. So whilst we see “A deal for DayOne could mark MGX’s first acquisition in Asia as the company pursues a lightning-fast international expansion. It was set up a little over two years ago with the US$385 billion sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and AI company G42 as its founding partners. MGX falls under the purview of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of the president.” The setting might be that Europe is ‘hesitant’ to replace the yoke of the United States with a Chinese replacement, but if there is a common ground between the UAE and Europe and a (for a lack of a better term) a Chinese wall is inserted in the European centers, a larger benefit to Emirati revenue could be right here. It all depends on how the UAE plays this ad what guarantees they could give the EU and the Commonwealth. As such there could be a new player in the town of Europe and under the much stricter rules of the GDPR, solution could be drawn. On a personal note, I reckon that China does not fear being left out of data as long as the United States loses a mouthful of revenue. Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft could all lose a chunk of their revenue and that puts the United States on the defense to keep whatever they can hold onto, as I see it, at present it sucks to be the President of the United States. And after the folly that is called “the Iranian peace treaty” and President Trump implying that they could ask for Tolls in the strait of Hormuz, angering many nations, especially ones trying to get oil across the strait, (source: Al Jazeera) as such the world is looking for other solutions and several firms might regret ever giving the keys to the united States to President Trump. But as I see it, the UAE is on the job and when one door closes, another tends to open and this might be the moment for the EU and Commonwealth to talk to the UAE in finding a solution that they can live with, the question is, will the UAE play game with Europe and the Commonwealth? My guess is yes, especially is China at the stage realizes a massive drain on the revenue of the United States, it could be the death stroke against the coffers of America and from there is goes downhill fast in the former land of opportunity.

I reckon that the next stage becomes opening another site in France, giving more power to ChapsVision, not sure if it is needed, but all the traction helps. And a second data centre in Europe would give several benefits, especially if these two centers are connected and support each other in case of data congestion, because that is bound to happen, but if two centers are connected, there is a larger solution for that. There is still the power use issue, but that is for tomorrow, it all depends on how stretched the power settings in France are and secondary, if Google, IBM and Microsoft are on the way out, there will be room for more. I actually hope that Google and IBM find another solution, but as American firms the Cloud Act is hanging over their heads, so that is the way in for MGX and the United Arab Emirates. 

Have a great day.

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June 22, 2026 · 18:20

Journey with a twist

Several things happened in the last 24 hours. A LinkedIn post set it off. It was about that Palantir was finished, it was a done deal. That stirred a few memories. You see I was introduced to Palantir Government in the late 90s, before it became Palantir Gotham. There was Palantir Finance (I think that this is what now goes for as Palantir Metropolis), but I never saw that. It was a good program and it was powerful. It did not have the bells and whistles that Clementine (now IBM Miner) had, but it was an excellent program and I was looking for my next Customer Service role (I was in a bit of a bad space), so as I had heard of the Palantir events over the year, that post did not make sense to me. So I decided to take a look and find out for myself (I don’t trust anything on social media that I have not personally verified with at least one good source (like a decent newspaper). I found out a lot more than I bargained for. In the first Palantir Technologies Inc is valued at 307.98 billion, this makes sense later on. 

Then I saw ‘Palantir trades into the week as France move puts ai at risk in Europe’ (at https://ts2.tech/en/palantir-trades-into-the-week-as-france-move-puts-ai-at-risk-in-europe/), there we see “Palantir ended June 18 at $128.47, dropping 1.65% for the day but up roughly 0.4% from where it closed on June 12. France’s DGSI is moving to ChapsVision, selecting the company to take over from Palantir as its supplier over several years. Palantir said its current contract is still active.” The French Connection (sorry Popeye) is about to make sense. You see, the rumbling that this White House has embarked on is now showing its rather large nasty feathers. The world is shunning anything from the United States and France sees the setting that and is moving and banking on the French solution called ChapsVision, we are given “ChapsVision is a leading player in the field of artificial intelligence and data processing. With proven technologies that accelerate data acquisition, preparation and processing, ChapsVision supports businesses and government organizations in their digital transformation.” As I see it, it is a (largely) financial solution, and getting up to speed of where Palantir is will take a few years. But France is banking on its ‘local’ solution and with that the European market opens up to France and yes this is likely to be a drain on where Palantir wants to be. So in comes the second story.

This comes from Simply Wall Street (at https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/software/nasdaq-pltr/palantir-technologies/news/palantir-technologies-pltr-stock-could-be-20-overvalued-even) where we see ‘Palantir Technologies (PLTR) Stock Could Be 20% Overvalued Even If Growth Stays Strong’ and here the first red flag comes up, Simply Wall Street does not give a writer, just hide it under the rug (as the expression goes) but there is where the loon try to find stuff, so now we see the initial; value, Which was $308 billion, now we get the other part (which I left out) “Palantir reported a record annual revenue of $4.475 billion for fiscal year 2025. This marked a 56% year-over-year growth compared to their 2024 results, heavily driven by massive domestic adoption of their artificial intelligence platforms.” So when you see this, the 20% overvalued does not make sense. We see what might be coming in 2027/2028, but that is not now and the stages are set to what I personally believe is that someone wants to play a little game called ‘shorting the stock’, if there is enough babbles and bitcoin people, they will overlook what matters and just dump their Palantir stock. Now, be mindful, I am not an economist and I have no economic degrees, but I have three University degrees and a few more ‘accolades’ as I think they are called in data technology and data analyses. I believe that some are thinking that Palantir is a weakling waiting to be plucked and that is not happening on my watch as as I see it, LinkedIn is being used for that and political endings too much. These people are hiding behind “That is what I see and I have a right to speak” that’s fair, but we can expose you as well, so that is the other side of this and Palantir has some of the most powerful software in the world to do just that. I think that Palantir needs to look into the enemies they have. But that is up to them and I wasn’t done yet.

There was more, you see the Guardian gives another side (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/13/palantir-loses-legal-challenge-to-force-swiss-magazine-to-publish-rejoinders) where we see ‘Palantir loses legal challenge to force Swiss magazine to publish responses’, I feel uneasy on this. I get that Palantir wants to learn “to force a Swiss independent magazine to publish its responses to articles about how the Swiss government rejected its services.” My doubt is that any government can reject services, but they tend to give reasons, isn’t that the case? So when a magazine collects responses, would that not be in the interest of the world to learn the how and why? I agree that this cannot have personalized data, but the entire mess comes across as weird. But the entire setting is what this White House is inflicting on the business end of the businesses of the United States. I saw it coming to some degree, but not to this degree (as I personally see it, the US Administration comes across as absolutely bug-nuts), if you doubt this, consider the simple setting of Measles in the United States, what it was in 2024 and what it is now and that is just for starters. The world is, as they say, fed up with the United States. Should you think I am wrong you could ask that bella bambina Meloni, you can find her at Via dell’Impresa 89, Rome, Italy. Believe me, she has a story for you, it will knock your socks off.

The stage is not her, or what Palantir is facing, but as we see this evolve we see more and more American services being rejected by the EU and Commonwealth to a larger degree. And as I see it, some (like Microsoft) are already running like chickens without a coup in all the offices, because there bonuses are set to keeping the status quo, so the larger bulk of CEO’s are seeing a rather large bump in what they could expect to see diminish.

And for one, Simply Wall Street (yet again) now gives us ‘Palantir Stock And 2 Software Picks With Earnings Growth And Strong Balance Sheets’ (at https://simplywall.st/stocks/jp/semiconductors/tse-285a/kioxia-holdings-shares/news/palantir-stock-and-2-software-picks-with-earnings-growth-and) giving us a second different view. Where we see “Palantir generates about US$2.8b in revenue from Government customers and US$2.5b from Commercial customers, with most of its sales coming from the United States and the rest split between the United Kingdom and other international markets.” As I see it, that sounds more like it and it is about what I have seen and expected, and with the additional “Palantir Technologies has become a focal point for investors looking at real world AI adoption, as its platforms power everything from U.S. defense programs to fast growing U.S. commercial clients. Recent revenue growth of 133% shows how quickly customers are scaling usage. The company combines very high profitability, including a 43.7% net margin and 26.8% return on equity, with a debt free balance sheet and strong cash holdings, which stands out in the software sector. At the same time, the stock trades on rich valuation multiples, insiders have been selling shares and contracts such as the UK NHS data platform face political scrutiny. That mix of quality fundamentals, AI partnerships with groups like Google Cloud and concentrated government exposure creates a story that deserves closer inspection.” At what point does that give credence to the setting that it was 20% overvalued? Perhaps that might be true (I am an economic noob) as gamers would state, but the settings are off. I get that Palantir will face a much harder 2027 and optionally 2028, but ChapsVision isn’t in all the other places yet, this could happen and it will eat away from the pie that is now Palantir, and I for one do not think their excellence in Gotham is easily matched, but give it time and in 2029 it might be a different story, but that is looking too far ahead (I might not even be alive then) and with the way the United States is taking its international responsibilities there is a larger setting that this could happen and there is no way I can type this blog whilst ‘enjoying’ sunshine at 2354 rads. I have medical evidence of that (read: Google Scholar)

So you all have a great day and consider limiting your exposure to LinkedIn, it will become the next hotspot for influencers and BS artists alike. 

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June 11, 2026 · 13:25

Partially delusional

That is the setting and it is not on anyone other then myself. You see, I saw the news and I saw a page that they didn’t advertise, as such I gave it my own whirl and it might be a delusional side to myself. I am warning you in advance, so you do not think that I have ‘some secret source’ to divulge a side that isn’t there. So be warned.

This morning I saw ‘Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE invited to G7, Macron says’ (source: Times of Israel) where we see “Leaders from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will be invited to participate in a G7 session in France next week to discuss the war with Iran, French President Emmanuel Macron says. Next Tuesday’s summit session will focus on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, which has “a real impact on our economies” due in particular to soaring fuel prices, and on “negotiations on Iran,” Macron says.” And I have a personal view on this. I expect that at some point there will be singular meetings with a few designated officials and they will likely be PM Mark Carney of Canada, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and they will have meetings with the representatives of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt. These last 4 will have a separate meetings with the big three. I believe that it is the next stage to get America out of every meeting, because the EU (Canada too) has had enough of the United States. The underlying setting is that the United States is likely to fail to fit the setting of a major industrialized democracy soon enough. And the other members are looking to replace the United States with at least one of them. My voice will be both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but that is my view. What seems to be the case that optionally Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission will make a ‘sudden’ appearance but that is the gist of it. The United States let itself be dictated by a useless bully and they are likely striking back. In addition, we got news that ahead of the G7 meeting, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to hold talks with China. Not sure yet how China fits in, but the setting that the United States is on the way out, implies that the EU needs to have a meeting with China, optionally the setting that BRICS represents gives me pause to consider what else is on the table. But that is the setting I see (and I could be massively wrong). But the field without the United States if one that regards considering, because in that field the Euro needs a new anchor and if it not the US dollar, I reckon that field becomes open and whilst the Yuan could be an option, my economic knowledge leaves me at this moment (I never had much economic knowledge to begin with). 

But that is a path that is likely opening up and whilst I have advocated for UAE and Saudi tourism, there is a larger offering on the table, but I have no menu and I have no idea what is happening. But PM Carney with his knowledge of the economy and his knowledge as Governor of the Bank of England is a good cause to consider what is coming next. As Canada is also in the G7, there is a larger picture to paint, the doubt becomes wither this picture had the stages of vibrant red and golden yellow of the Chinese flag, or it is painted with the fading colours of the American Red, White, and Blue remains a question, but the United States did this to itself when it decided to bomb Iran from 28 February 2026 onwards is one setting, the additional settings are the tariffs that were deemed illegal by the courts of America and then ‘reenacted’ by President Trump on other matters. The nation is out of control and the EU has had enough. Now we see the alternating sides where the United States has no longer any influence and without influence the United States doesn’t seem to amount to anything serious. Take in account that ‘Trump says he is ‘not looking to renew’ CUSMA trade agreement’ (source: Global News) implies that the United States is heading for a lot more serious negative times ahead and the other G7 parties need a way out. It is my believe that they will see it, by replacing the United States by both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, optionally it becomes the G10 if Qatar and Egypt are added too. 

So is this real? It is my believe that this is where the EU is headed, but we will know more in  Évian-les-Bains, France, from June 15 to 17, 2026. So next Monday will be the start of the meetings, but I reckon that Tuesday will give some light on this, because this event is not secret for much longer after that. I wonder what bully screaming we will hear from Washington DC at that stage, it will be anyones guess. But as some ‘vocally’ gave us that they didn’t need anyone, consider that commerce requires clients, so why will they sell to? Their local population requires services and goods. So what services does the United States have? What goods do they have? It was all intertwined with foreign settings and they cut it all off, all whilst they have no self servicing settings. So whilst they proclaim that they have it all, Brent oil will not look kindly on cheap oil walking away, their own oil is sold and when that falters, icon take a deeper dive and it is all against a debt that amounts to $39.23 trillion, with an interest of well over a trillion a year and now more and more is regarded as ‘no-go’ zones. There is little doubt that the US economy will implode. And these ‘generating’ data centers, all whilst the EU is cutting access off? There is little doubt in my mind that a panic will set into the United States and likely it will be visible before next week ends. But then, these are merely my thoughts and there is every consideration that I am wrong. Because I have no data to support any of this, but it is drenched into my views on data that I have seen over the last few years. So there is that.

Have a great day today.

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May 29, 2026 · 10:01

As ideas go

Just before I started writing yesterdays blog, I saw a walkthrough on Monaco. I watch them every now and then. Monaco, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Dubai all the places I cannot afford to see myself, others make sure that this becomes an option. I reckon that the first Covid shutdown gave people ideas. Anyway, why I was watching the Monaco walkthrough, I suddenly realised around when the camera came to the Elle Style clothing store that something was missing. An adaptation of 5G and wearables. Consider the you pass a billboard, it gives a great style and you are a tourist there, so how to find this? Well, that is where this IP becomes a solution. You are on the Avenue de la Costa and you want to get to that store. So you need to find a map, a direction and if you are shabby in French you will face a few more issues. So here comes Lawrence (aka Garfield, aka Lawlordtobe, aka yours truly), and voila: 

So here we see the  the model, and that billboard at that point also gives the ‘willing recipient’ (the active instigator) the map tag, an optional Lightbox advertisement, the advertisement itself to be stored (if so set in your mobile) and in seconds you are ready to visit this place. A setting that the tourist, or local traveller can use to get to where they need to be. And it goes further, consider malls in Dubai, London, Toronto, they all get to have this added feature. Some will reject this, but most see the stage that this as added visibility  

So where we had nothing, we now have a solution that could be globally rolled out, I mention the famous places, but there is not a mall that cannot benefit from this and that is merely for starters. Government settings of advertising their events and event places become eager new customers, so consider that at any given year 16 million routine events are taking place, and now they get another channel to give visibility, millions of sport events and hundred of thousands of fair events. As I see it all optionally customers to the setting offered here and that is before you need to find the Apple Store in Monaco (hint: there isn’t one) but a new day is dawning (Google is here and me too) to make it all a little easier for the traveler and local stumped person trying to find out where Monaco is holding its Fête de la Mer (June 20th) or perhaps the Live Jazz at La Note Bleue in Lavrotto beach. All places that could benefit from visibility and that was merely one place. Now consider what shows Harrods is giving, a setting more tourists miss, so when these 300,000 daily shoppers get to see what is going on, I reckon that there will be loads more visibility and that is merely two location all whilst the USA has over 135,000 malls. So what are they doing? Well, optionally Google seemingly has your back and even outside the malls and places, there can be added visibility. That market is about to fuel itself to a much larger degree.

So whilst some will put this idea down (some always do) consider that as I see it, no one had this idea as no one moved in this direction and now there is an option for visibility that does not rely on taking notes. It is all downloaded to your mobile at the press of a button and streamed to your smartwatch so you can see where you have to walk to. And is there an exception? Yes, the Formula is making such a ruckus you can hear it in every part of Monaco, but that might be the only event in that monarchy that doesn’t need the advertisement. 

Have a great day all.

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May 11, 2026 · 02:51

By the numbers

There is an old ‘saying’, it comes from the late 70’s and it goes a little like this:

There are three ways to lose your company:
Through women, which is the prettiest method.
Through gambling, which is the fastest method.
Through Statistics, which is the most certain method.

In the 50 years that followed we learned that the first option might be the prettiest, but you still end up with a working company. The second one is still an issue, but the third one is still under consideration, Especially with the presumed setting of AI (or as I call is NIP or Fake AI.

This all came to me when I was bombarded with charts and there are numerous ways that we are handed these charts, but it also gave me a consideration. You see, no matter how deep you believe the data to be true, it remains a consideration that any data is flawed and through that setting not entirely trustworthy. 

You see, this is the country with the most migrants, but what I am missing is where they came from. I saw another article in the BBC, which gave us ‘La dolce vita: Is Italy the new tax haven for the global rich?’ (at https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260421-is-italy-the-new-tax-haven-for-the-global-rich)here we see “In France you also have to pay a property tax (taxe foncière or land tax). “We don’t have that here for the prima casa (first home),” says Robert, although he notes “there is a high charge for refuse collection”. The best thing as far as he is concerned is that there is no inheritance tax on property you own in Italy up to €1 million ($1.1 million) and it’s only 4% beyond that threshold. In France the tax-free limit is much lower – €100,000 ($110,000) – and beyond that it’s a sliding scale up to a top rate of 45%.” The story is about the ‘global rich’? All this might be true, but I believe that there is a larger migration into Europe. The setting that Americans are leaving, a setting we got in the Wall Street Journal on February 25th 2026, where we saw “The U.S. experienced net negative migration in 2025, with an estimated loss of 150,000 people, a trend not seen since the Great Depression.” And if you are ‘really wealthy’, you skip Italy and go straight to Monaco, which is a zero tax nation. So that first chart is nice, but where they came from is more interesting, especially in the era 2026-2028. 

We then get the second chart, which shows us where the youth is scientifically. Here we get the first issue. There is consideration that these numbers are flawed n some cases. As some give us: “There are approximately 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 globally”, and I know enough of the failing of data, to give you the fact that there are no data sets giving us 1.2 billion records. As such plenty of nations have worked with mean values and that is the first failing on that chart. Second it is nice to see the USA in 17th position, but they have a population of 349 million and not all can afford to go to University, then we get foreign students in MIT, UCLA,
Princeton, Harvard and Yale. So how are they counted and what is disregarded? Several questions on a chart because the data is missing (and footnotes too). So whilst these numbers might be indicative that those scoring over 500 are in a ‘safe’ place, but that is if we accept this number. And the explanation of those scores, with added footnotes on what is regarded as ‘valid’ is up for grabs. 

And then we get the main event, the one that baffled me for a moment, because is gave my thoughts optional validity, but then I need to be wary of a few settings, because without data, a chart is merely a weighted result and without N (total responses) there are reliability issues. 

We now see the top countries by natural resource value. It gives me my validity as the United States is show to have $45T in value and that is the setting that makes them optionally almost insolvent. Their debt is growing faster and faster and as it is now said to be $38.9 trillion, which amounts to exceeding 100% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but as we see it, they have almost spend the total of their natural resources. I have an issue with that, because the rare metals are not in that list all whilst Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona have it, as such that number is off (by a lot) and other nations have more (or less) natural numbers as the chart sets out, all whilst these numbers are not given either as such it is a nice chart, but incomplete and as such redundant. If I was to hazard a guess, this was a chart to show how ‘good’ Russia is doing, but as I never saw data on it all as such I have my issues with it. All charts look pretty cool, but cool doesn’t pay the baker (or the butcher for that matter). As such we need to wonder what the chart was doing, not what they tell you, but what they aren’t telling you.

That was just my setting on this and there is a lot more to consider so whilst the first chart gave us “The U.S. hosts 17% of the world’s migrants”, my initial question was “Based on what data?” And as people m ight give us the setting that the AI gave them the numbers and we know that AI doesn’t yet exist. We are given the thought that it is merely DML and that is done by a programmer and that programmer might miss a few beats to be optimistic (many more beat are likely to have been missed) and all this on flawed data? 

So what was the designer of that chart trying to persuade you to consider what was ‘their’ issue? Because when someone makes a chart, they want you to look into a specific area, or not look in an area that also mattered. Have a great day, another Monday parked on front of my door, Vancouver still has the bulk of Sunday to get through. Ah well.

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May 3, 2026 · 12:03

That turning point

We see all kinds of turning points. We see the mess some leave others and when they get ‘hindered’ by their own ego, the damage can be massively debilitating. So as the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9pn541jjlo) gives us ‘Germany says US troop withdrawal ‘foreseeable’ as Nato seeks clarification’ with “Germany’s defence minister has said the US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from his country was “foreseeable”, as the Nato military alliance says it is seeking clarification from Washington.” I see a turning point. A turning point that takes away whatever credit they still had in Europe. Let me explain, the 5,000 troops are not there for a gimmick. Russia could see a (delusional) massive opportunity to make Europe theirs, but that fictive setting is now an option for China to become the ‘salvation’ for the fictive danger Russia presents. There is no longer a United States, as such China could come in and offer help. There will be cautious settings by Germany, but as the danger from Russia is ‘presented’ as real, they will accept and that s the sign for Huawei to offer its infrastructure to Germany. Its data centers, its optional DeepSeek and whatever else China can offer and Germany gives China the opportunity too show its technological prowess to The Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg and France. When Germany goes over, all other nations will see the direct benefit that Huawei and others bring and the United States lose these settings. It might ‘threaten’ with its tariff game, but they are soon to become a population of one. China will take this route for the tremendous benefits their industrials get and as they represent a population of 1.4 billion consumers, Europe will take the setting as the United States merely represents the options to be a consumer base of 25% of what China represents, there will be captains of industry who will chomp at the bit to get into that market. The allegedly viagra overdosing captains of industry in the United States will have to consider what to do next. I reckon that they will go after that President of the United States on a mere need for the loss of industry that this president is exposing the United States to, especially as they have a debt that surpasses their GDP now (source: Financial Times). And let me explain, the same person who stated in March 2026 that the U.S. had “decimated” the Iranian regime and achieved a “total and complete victory”, In early April 2026, this same president said the U.S. was “finishing the job” and that the military objectives would be completed in “maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer”, which was followed by the U.S. would leave Iran “very soon,” but only when it was certain the regime could not build a nuclear weapon and threatened that if Iran did not comply with demands, “lots of bombs start going off”. It is now may and he is pulling troops out of Germany after President Donald Trump criticised German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for saying the US had been “humiliated” by Iranian negotiators in the ongoing war. It was not humiliating. Humiliating is me stating that the Secretary of war Pete Hegseth could’t win a war against a self opening tin of baby carrots even if he was armed with a tin opener. The rest are simple statements of facts. Deal with it and now as he is pulling troops out of Germany, China gets the inside track on a new setting, a direct triangle with China, the Gulf States and Europe all connected to each other, optionally connected through Huawei centers, A Chinese opportunity. And that is before the 2027 setting of the Vatican where the Pope gets his new and lasting nickname “Leonardo da Vici” when he decimates the Republican Party even more. A final lasting tombstone and it will be written by Tatiana Schlossberg when she publishes her book “Before 300” a lasting story about the United States and how it went wrong with the final chapters speaking about the downfall of the United States due to the mindless settings of President Donald J. Trump, he was not the actual cause but he removed whatever escape points Wall Street gave them. Some say it is mere ‘Science Fiction’, but I advice you to preorder that first edition hardcover when it comes in 2031, those hardcovers will be worth a lot down the track.

We can debate all the settings we want, but the settings China is about to get because of the ego of some is beyond belief. So enjoy this Sunday, although Vancouver and Toronto are slow, it is still Saturday there. Enjoy this day and see the opportunities that come knocking all over Europe. 

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May 1, 2026 · 16:42

The tourist enticer

That is what I saw yesterday (among other ideas). Although this morning I hoped to run into Mal Lanyon APM (police commissioner Sydney), he got into this job today, making my giggle moment even better. You see, I was going to walk up to him and inform him that I increased in rank today as the new Commodore (I turned 64 today) and see how that goes over. I am not anything but a dedicated glutton for chaos when the setting gives me the opportunity. 

But that is neither here nor there.

The setting is tourism in the Middle East and as I have given a few ideas to the UAE, it only stands to right I do something similar for Saudi Arabia. The first thing that came to mind was what was there’ and we can see that Hollywood Boulevard is there, but as I see it nearly 249 million Europeans (aged 15+) made at least one personal tourism trip in 2024, as well tens of millions of Canadians make travel their touristic setting and I am happy to see more than 90% that will no longer make the United States that destination. A lot will seek out Europe and Asia their destination, yet it would be nice to see a lot more going to the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) as such I thought of reasons for them to seek the locations out. The UAE has its pigeons in a row and I added an idea or two there, but now it is time for Saudi Arabia to get a few ideas. They have several options, but I reckon not enough. You need to ‘entertain’ these flocks for over a week and here I see options. One of them is that the Netherlands has the holy land foundation, the idea is nice, but what if this village is more representing an educational view of Saudi Arabia from before it was founded? A place representing the looks of an Arabian village (circa 1700-1900) complete with the guides and ‘local’ population to give it form? It could serve as an educational setting for the local population as well. Combine this with a few of the 1001 tales, not the politically correct ‘adjusted’ version of Ali Baba and the 40 fighters for the Palestinian cause. So consider that the 1001 tales includes numerous stories depict jinn, ghouls, ape people, sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, I reckon that you could have at least a dozen stories all over the place and there are more to include or even replace the ones that have been there for a few seasons making the attraction a long term want to see idea. I reckon that it should be in Riyadh, but that would be up to the Saudi government to decide upon. In addition, the Dutch also have the Archeon, a place with historic settings of three villages, a bronze age dwelling, a Roman dwelling (complete with a fighting rink), a bathhouse and a few other settings and a middle age village (from around 1400), these places are built using the materials that were available in those days and they had their own cuisine. The roman lamb was magnificent and the Abbeys Waffles with hot cherry sauce and whipped cream has to be tried to be believed. There are merely two settings and there is a lot more. Stockholm has the Vasa museum, and it has power because of the only almost fully intact 17th-century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The idea cannot be replicated, but France has the Puy du Fou in the Vendée region being the most prominent, offering an immersive walkthrough attraction titled Le Mystère de La Pérouse. That idea can be translated to a walk though on a replication of a VOC ship (I wrote about this earlier) and these settings are for the Saudi population just as entertaining as it is for tourists. Add to that a eating place (you cannot call that a restaurant) in the image of the galley of a Man of War which should hold enough place and it could evolve into a place with more than this, optionally a modern submarine (complete with periscope) would be the tourist setting that Saudi Arabia adds to this collection. It was my thought to stay away from the ‘American’ entertaining ideas. Abu Dhabi already has these settings in place and they did this rather well. As such the idea is to create things that are NOT there. And these are the three ideas I see. So whilst we are now given ‘Most Americans Now Say U.S. Foreign Policy Ignores the Interests of Other Countries’ it is now the goal to isolate ‘that’ United States from the rest of the world and fortunately Europe and Asia have plenty of ideas to fuel the beacons of Saudi Arabia and its tourism attractions. It might be shallow but I came up with these settings in merely a few days and these setting s could be transferred to other places. It might not all be placed in Riyadh, for example the Puy du Fou could be added to the Sindalah resort, right next to its Marina. And other places could be considered as well as Saudi Arabia seeks to franchise a new setting that is created with branding and visibility, so that tourists and Saudi’s see the places they recognise from other places and they need not be identical. It was one of the attraction that gave places like Planet Hollywood its attraction on a global setting. 

So as I see it, there is plenty to do and as Saudi Arabia gets a slice of these 249,000,000 tourists, the setting is to do this now, when the United States is creating global disgust. A good place to start I say. 

Have a great day, Vancouver joins us to today in 15 minutes.

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April 13, 2026 · 16:16

With the coming of Linux

That is not entirely the truth, Linux has been here for some time but now France is going the way of Germany and Denmark, pushing Microsoft out of the door. I reckon that Microsoft played their cards too early and against the wishes of their audience. We cannot blame the Trump administration for everything, so as France goes. I reckon that Monaco will also dial down the Microsoft beast and not to forget Lichtenstein. It has deep roots with both France and Germany, as such there is every chance that they, labeled one of the world’s wealthiest countries, boasting a GDP per capita exceeding $200,000. Which is uncannily high. It has a specialized financial services industry and also has deep roots with Switzerland. So, there is a chance that this might also end the power of Microsoft in the land of cheeses (banks also). I don’t think that Microsoft will yield the field, Excel for its origins in Lotus 1-2-3 has become the power system to call home for many in the financial industry snd there is no way that others can dethrone Excel, but that is pretty much the only application that is sitting safely and pretty. 

TechCrunch gave us (at https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/10/france-to-ditch-windows-for-linux-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-tech/) the setting “The country said it plans to move some of its government computers currently running Windows to the open source operating system Linux to further reduce its reliance on U.S. technology.” It is high time that this happened, but it still might be done in time before all these data centers would be holding onto EU data, they’ll still hold a lot, but not everything and that is when the dollar value of Microsoft goes into decline. Brian Sozzi (Executive editor Yahoo Finance) gave us “Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges pinned the company’s 23% plunge this year to two factors in a new note on Monday. First, upward revisions to capital expenditures without commensurate upward revisions to Azure cloud sales. This resurfaced concerns about returns on investment and Azure’s competitive positioning against peers such as Amazon’s (AMZN) AWS.” I reckon that the hundreds of millions of users that Microsoft will lose in 2025 will add to that pain, but to what extent, I personally have no idea.

With the American Administration the way it is, that pain is only getting worse, because the bulk of the world does not like that this American administration can get access to any data server that is founded on American soil, even if these data centers are in Denmark (or France, or the EU), these people want out as fast as they can. And that is happening right now. I don’t think that all EU nations will leave, still the idea that Satya Nadella lost roughly 450,402,641 users will have to hurt his ego a tiny bit. And I reckon that the stock price of 370.87 will equally take a hit, as such the valuation of 2.75 trillion (aka 2,751 billion, or 2,751,000 million) will decrease. I have no idea how much it will decrease, but as I see it, the gaming section was hit harder then they expected and now we see other venues take the proverbial dive. That is before people realize that the 27% stake in OpenAI is also seeing some ‘hindrance’ and as they quite recently invested $13 billion in that field. All whilst OpenAI also had a deal with AWS for $50 billion, rumors are there that the Microsoft legal divisions are ready to get their shares back, but I have no idea how deep this is and how far along this is. But when we see this on top of the setting with Fractal Vision (aka DeepSeek with AI for a fraction of the cost OpenAI is heralding), it seems that when the dust settles, the chance of Microsoft seeing 2 trillion vanish like snow in a volcano is not entirely unrealistic. 

How deep this losses go is unknown to me, but you could optionally ask Jamie Dimon (phone: +1 212-270-6265) at JPMorgan Chase & Co. He would know better than me. Still, France is a new cog in this delayed revenue fading machine. And it has the option of dragging several nations with them and from there the losses merely increase. The old expression goes ‘It never rains when it pours’ and I reckon that Satya Nadella has never seen a version of Compound Troubles seen explode on his table and here I was thinking that Microsoft CT was about community training. Ah well, you learn something new every day.

Well, I have to stop now, because I am giggling slightly too intense to enjoy coffee at present. So you all have a great day and consider downloading LibreOffice, it is 245 MB, free and installs easily. Time for me to consider another setting in gaming later today.

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