Tag Archives: France

September 23, 2025 · 11:30

The time has come

I have been sitting on a story for about three days. I have been hesitant as it is a field I am thoroughly unaware off, but it could hit me in the future and as we are given (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-19/first-guardian-shield-collapse-asic-and-superannuation-flaws/105783328) the setting of ‘First Guardian, Shield superannuation disasters expose deep flaws in Australia’s $4.3 trillion retirement system’ we see that ABC is giving us not only cause for pause, but also cause for alarm we are set in a stage of almost desperate inability to protect our retirements. And lets be clear if Australia is set to a $4.3 trillion danger, what is the dangers towards America, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany? 

I tried to illustrate dangers like this in ‘Wages of fear’ which I wrote in May 2023, two years ago (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/05/02/wages-of-fear/) and there I wrote “Lets be clear, this was NOT his fault, but the point where we cannot avoid what comes next was achieved. If only people had woken up a lot sooner. But there we got past a point where the problems would accelerate and now we are almost at that point. And the banks will be no help. I tried to warn you a few times over. Some of their risk and liquidity is in US bonds and when the US forfeits payment your 401K and many other things will become worth close to nothing” Now the fair question is, is this the same? I don’t think it is, but there is a larger failing into the retirement systems as it is not a hands on pathway. ABC in another story hands us “Ms Wohlers is one of about 12,000 Australians haunted by the loss of more than $1 billion of retirement savings after the collapses of First Guardian and Shield.” As well as “ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court, who has commonly described the First Guardian and Shield cases as “industrial-scale misconduct”, says the regulator acted as soon as it could. “We don’t think we missed red flags,” she told ABC News ahead of ASIC’s appearance at a parliamentary hearing on Thursday, when she was grilled by politicians about whether it was a tough cop on the beat properly identifying financial misconduct.” And it relates to the story we are given with ‘140 targeted by ASIC on Shield, First Guardian’ as I see it, a mess of a disastrous kind. Where the latter gives us “So, for example, the financial advisers are saying to us ‘you can’t hold us accountable for this because the ratings house had rated the Shield Master Fund as of investment grade’, while superannuation fund trustees are telling us the same – ‘well, we relied on the ratings houses’, or ‘we relied on the fact that these members had financial advice’,” (Source: Financial Newswire) I see it as a setting where there is a ring setting with no beginning and no end. I am in a setting where Microsoft could steal my IP and my only defense would be to convict 280,000 Microsoft employees to death and kill them myself. I get that this is utter madness, but that would be the result of one party just playing a game with other whilst that party knows that they cannot be held to account. I remember the rating houses in 2008 and they got away whilst millions lost it all. I see the simpler setting “You take from me, I take from you” and the setting that Microsoft losing over 45% of its staff (I am utterly destined to fail) making it implode on itself. Now take that to the setting of rating houses and the the truth comes out (if it ever does) the people need to react and react harshly. It is not ‘business as usual’ it will become business at the cost of souls and that is a harsh reality to face.

So whilst some will lawyer up and that is their right, they should not be allowed to walk away with even a dime. I reckon that they will sue the rating houses and those rating houses will need to get sanitized (to some extent) because losing billions is a larger setting and when Australia with their billions in losses (up to 4,300 billion) the setting for America and Canada is a lot more severe. And America up to ten times as much as Canada faces. And about a month ago we were given ‘ASIC takes further action against Ferras Merhi over First Guardian and Shield superannuation advice’ where we are given “ASIC has sought leave from the Federal Court to expand its existing proceeding against former financial adviser Ferras Merhi to allege he engaged in unconscionable conduct, failed to act in the best interests of clients, gave conflicted advice, and provided defective statements of advice whilst receiving millions of dollars.” Yet my question becomes did Ferras Merhi do anything illegal? You see, in my setting I would be, but did he do anything illegal? The setting revolves around “provided defective statements of advice whilst receiving millions of dollars”, so what makes a statement ‘defective’? You see, I am not protecting Ferras Mehri. I am looking at the following:

s12CB of the ASIC Act – engaging in conduct in connection with the supply or possible supply of financial services, which was in all the circumstances unconscionable.

So, what makes the setting of “all the circumstances unconscionable” an economist looks at this in one way and I as a law graduate and IT technician in another way. 

Then we get:
s952E of the Corporations Act – providing defective disclosure documents. As such, what makes the documents “defective disclosure documents”, I do not know and I look at them separately as that is what the law does and when merely one law falters, it all collapses (it matters later on).

Then we get:
s961B of the Corporations Act – failure to act in their client’s best interests, and what is that at the start? Most clients are ‘greed’ driven, they want the highest return and that is ‘their’ best interest. It is a hard lesson to learn that looking back the client gave the wrong advice to the advisor. I myself only work a balanced portfolio, I will never make large leaps but then again I am unlikely to lose a lot either. 

So in that setting we see:
the Court made interim freezing orders over Mr Merhi’s property. These orders remain in place until 12 December 2025 (25-024MR).
ASIC cancelled the AFSL of FSGA, effective 7 June 2025 and permanently banned its responsible manager (25-102MR).
In July 2025, the Court made travel restraint orders against Mr Merhi. Those orders prevent him from leaving or attempting to leave Australia until 12 December 2025, or until further order of the Court (25-024MR).

That is fair enough I reckon. But now we get to the settings that ABC at the top gave. We see there “In all of these cases, no criminal charges have been laid, but ASIC is heading to court to make allegations against the people at the centre of the Shield and First Guardian funds — those involved in managing and promoting the schemes.” The no criminal charges gives pause to consider that no criminal acts have transpired and when we look at some of the allegations the two that take the cake (a Tiramisu cake) is that the settings of “defective disclosure documents” must be proven and the lawyers will fight that. Then we get “all the circumstances unconscionable” and that is the ballgame, ‘unconscionable’ is not per se illegal and it is about the legality of the matter in court and that is the setting we see. So when I made a statement two years ago saying “Some of their risk and liquidity is in US bonds and when the US forfeits payment your 401K and many other things will become worth close to nothing” we see what bonds were worth 5 years ago. There we see “For the year, long-term U.S. Treasuries were by far the best-performing fixed-income investments, with a nearly 17% gain,” (source: Reuters) at present they are “the 10-year yield settled around 4.36%” that represents a loss of 13%, so who pays for that bond? This was a danger I saw 5 years ago (as uneconomical as I am) and 10 years ago I heard people to buy bonds as the interest is like free money and I stopped. There is no free ride and this is almost pushed into the AI field all whilst there is no verification in place. All settings that are interconnected and we now see the ABC giving us “expose deep flaws in Australia’s $4.3 trillion retirement system” so, what do you think you will end up with because as I see it, there is the chance that these people can do what they like all whilst there is no criminal accountability. Yes, he is stopped for now, but Ferras Merhi is about to walk away with more than $19 million in payments. As such he is willing to sweat it out for a few months. It is a lot more (like 79.2581 times more) than I ever made in my lifetime. 

So I see this case that ABC alerted me to with some suspicion. These people live by the setting of walking the edge of legality, there is no risk at that edge and I expect that Ferras Merhi is doing just that not doing anything illegal. As such 12,000 Australians are about to learn that they could lose it all without any illegal actions transpiring and I fault it to two settings (mentioned above) and we all considering setting the clocks to Islam where we see “Islamic banking prohibits the use of interest, speculation, and excessive risk. It emphasizes profit and loss sharing, fairness, honesty, and transparency in financial dealings.” By the way this setting was in place for hundreds of years. 

Have a great day and see that Statista gives us “Robusta, named because it can grow at a wider range of altitudes and temperatures, sold for 1.87 U.S. dollars in 2018, projected to sell at 5 U.S. dollars per kilogram in 2026” did you predict in 2018 that you would be setting your retirement to pay 267% for your coffee?

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September 19, 2025 · 11:27

Trinity of Doom

That is the setting I am invoking. It started innocent enough and that start came from the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg3llj5nxdo) where we see ‘Macrons to offer ‘scientific evidence’ to US court to prove Brigitte is a woman, lawyer says’ and my first response was ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ You see, the response is as seen “Their lawyer says the French president and Mrs Macron will present the documentation in a defamation suit they have taken against the right-wing influencer Candace Owens after she promoted her belief that Brigitte Macron was born male.” And as I see it, that ID10T error named Candace Owens came after Australians after she claimed “Candace Owens compares Australian government to the Taliban, calling it a ‘tyrannical police state’, and “When do we deploy troops to Australia? When do we invade Australia and free an oppressed people who are suffering under a totalitarian regime?”” At that point I saw her for what she was a simplistic rabble rouser. And the best way to avoid her is not to listen to her. But at some point people like this as liable for what they say and here I am completely on the side of President Macron. So whilst I see “Speaking to the BBC’s Fame Under Fire podcast, the Macrons’ lawyer in the case, Tom Clare, said Mrs Macron had found the claims “incredibly upsetting” and they were a “distraction” to the French president.” I am definitely on their side giving no value to “Ms Owens’ lawyers have responded with a motion to dismiss the claim.” There is no avoiding the hardship, because people like this are all about making the ‘claim’ and then saying quietly sorry after dismissal. I think it is great that the Macrons take her to the cleaners. And that sets a rather large (and I am about to enlarge that stage too). You see, if convicted, she will not be able to enter any European country as she will be extradited to France and I reckon that this will happen in the United States too. The second stage is given (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c203n52x1y9o) also by the BBC. You see, these two elements started a rather nasty setting. I am not about to give voice to what it all is set to the stage of ‘ABC takes Jimmy Kimmel off air over Charlie Kirk comments’ and I wonder who was the simple soul here? I am not judging Jimmy Kimmel and I am not for (or against) Charlie Kirk. Never met the man, never heard his speeches. I am on the side on Mia Farrow here. She wrote on BlueSky “I disagreed with Charlie Kirk on every issue. But political violence is always reprehensible and horrific. A political motivated assassination is a tragedy for our country” I can identify with that, no matter how comedians twist whatever topic they embrace. This falls back to the Candace Owens setting as there is optionally a setting for liability and not just the one spouting this setting. There are issues with the Media Law as well and they could be a little different in France, but there is only so much ‘freedom of the press’ and when outright ‘incorrectness’ is spread. There are larger options to consider. 

This now reflects on these comedians and on advertisement. You see, Canada can now offer a juicy deal to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel to host these two shows in Canada (one in Vancouver and one in the West (Ottawa or Quebec) and now see what happens when the advertisers come to Canada to spend their budgets. As the budgets come to Canada so will the listeners. This might be the first instance where the political administration of America sees Advertisement money go to Canada and it does not end there.

There is a larger setting that Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Egypt and a few others could set. You see, France has a while range of missiles that could be deployed and bought these country customers. So consider now the impact on Raytheon and Northrop Grumman and what revenue they could lose. So the smallest setting is that America politics impacted revenue from Tourism, Advertisement, Media and Defense spending. As such the words from US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/us-ambassador-to-canada-disappointed-anti-american-campaign-1.7637534) where he gives us “I’m disappointed that I came to Canada — a Canada that it is very, very difficult to find Canadians who are passionate about the American-Canadian relationship,” Well, my view is that the remarks on Canada becoming the 51st state have everything to do with that and the Tariffs are just icing on the cake. And these remarks pissed off the larger Commonwealth. So in less than a year we see that Tourism was affected and still is, now there is a chance that Defense Spending is also speculatively effected and when two comedians move to Canadians channels advertisement money and media revenue go down (the way of the Dodo) as well. Is that enough clarity mister Ambassador?

As such there is word out that plenty of nations have had enough of President Donald ‘the duck’ Trump (according to a nameless source). I am sitting on a fence seeing it all happen and the moment that CTV signs up Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert the larger change to media will happen. It might take a little longer, but the change will be felt all over California and New York and they didn’t have enough bad news at present (to they?) 

America showing these fields giving way to France and China will start a panic drive from Wall Street and I am speculating that this presents itself all the way to the Banks all over America. A setting we saw partially coming, but the setting of Jimmy Kimmel will be a lot more profound. I wonder if the man can transfer to talking Canadian soon enough (like: a boot, instead of about) and so on.

Have a great day, and don’t forget Digital advertising in Canada can be done through Pound & Grain, Major Tom and GVN Marketing. Both Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert could receive pages on https://www.ctv.ca/ as soon as they switch channels. So how is that for thorough?

I reckon that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE can find their way around https://www.mbda-systems.com/

So, now lets see if I can get a few dollars out of that setting? (One has to respect one’s bank manager).

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August 17, 2025 · 11:06

Changing tracks

CBC informed me a few hours ago that(at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-alstom-train-deal-1.7609756) that ‘Toronto pursuing sole-sourced deal for new TTC trains in wake of U.S. tariffs’, so this is another fine mess that Trump left America. It might be seen as the cost of doing business, but consider the amount of business that America lost and is still losing against what they made. And you need to see this in additional light of what the department of labor statistics I also giving the American people. I don’t mind. I reckon that Canada could easily get this stuff from Australia or the United Kingdom, as such no biggie for Canada. As such there might be a need to get both involved as it concerns “Officials say deal is for 70 trains to run on Line 2 and for Yonge North, Scarborough extensions”, a setting where both leading to all three profiting on this deal alone. In light of “In a news release issued Friday morning, officials said both the federal and provincial governments, alongside the city, gave the TTC the go-ahead to pursue a single-source contract “in the face of U.S. tariffs and economic uncertainty” in order to support Ontario workers.” So, Canada needs to pick one of them, either will do, yet we also need to see that France is a viable option for Canada. Their subways have been running (not walking, but operating) for more than a century. In 2024 it transported over 1.5 billion passengers. As such Canada seemingly has three options. Of course I am biased as a Commonwealthian and I would prefer to see this deal go to either Australia or the United Kingdom, but it is what Canada needs is what counts and they are telling us that America is no longer a viable option. 

Ands as we are given “Officials say the base procurement is for 70 six-car train sets in total — 55 to replace aging trains on Line 2, and 15 trains for the Yonge North and Scarborough extensions.” I reckon that both Australia and the UK are chomping at the bits to get into this deal. In addition we are given “The Ford government had expressed its desire to see the train cars built in the province amid the ongoing trade war with the U.S. All three levels of government have committed money to buy the new rolling stock, which is expected to cost some $2.3 billion.” As such there is an additional need to get them built in Ontario, but there is the setting. These parts might be ‘built’ in another place and completed (see assembly, adjusted, and painted in Canada) as such there is a larger setting to give the Commonwealth the larger setting. And this approach will give the Commonwealth a setting for other regions. So this does not hurt the approach that is given through ““Our government is proud to protect Ontario from U.S tariffs by ensuring the TTC’s Line 2 subway trains will be made in Ontario, by Ontario workers,” said Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria in a statement. The current, almost 30-year-old trains, as regular commuters will tell you, are nearing the end of their lifespan and are vastly different from the Toronto Rocket trains that service Line 1. ” It doesn’t matter how this plays out, the important setting (for me) is that America is stumped out of a race yet again. And that needs the proper illumination. So how many American jobs would be endangered to this setting? 

It is a virtual little circle in here. We deprive America from getting the jobs and America remains in denial and tells the world that it is doing well. How much longer do they think they can maintain this delusional illusion? 

So whilst Canada is changing tracks we are starting to see the cracks in the delusions that America is trying to show us through film flam artists. So whilst the ‘world’ is wondering whether ABC giving us “The war in Ukraine will continue and Vladimir Putin has outmaneuvered yet another US president.” Whilst news.com.au gives us “Vladimir Putin was treated to a show of US military might when he arrived in Alaska for his high-stakes talks with Donald Trump, with a row of aircraft proudly lined up on display in view of the leaders’ motorcade.” As such, which version do you want to hang onto? So is this a PR masterclass, or should someone ask President Volodymyr Zelensky what is happening to the Ukraine? Did America do right by him, or is Europe seeing another example of what needs to be done? It matters, as the Trump Administration is seemingly abandoning Ukraine, it will be in hands of Europe to make progress and as such The Canadian trains cannot fall in the hands of America. This needs to be in hands of the Commonwealth and the hands of Europe. With the hardship they are about to face, we need to make sure that their wallets gets filled with all kinds of jobs. The trains might be an indicator, but the larger story tends to be “Broke superpowers aren’t anything” and that needs to be said. And when you realize that America is playing a juggling game with Energy requirements, nonexistent AI, manufacturing jobs lost and rare earth requirements and they are juggling so that you can’t see the full picture. That is the job of the film flam operator and as we realise that each of these jobs are time sliced we get to see that we merely get to see that any job gets a mere 25% of the time slice. Are you catching on?

Have a great day today.

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August 8, 2025 · 04:49

What the flip?

Roughly 10 hours ago the TTW (Travel and Tour World) released an article (at https://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/saudi-arabia-joins-france-turkey-uk-mexico-and-egypt-as-australia-issues-new-travel-advisory-amid-unstable-security-conditions/) called ‘Saudi Arabia Joins France, Turkey, UK, Mexico, and Egypt as Australia Issues New Travel Advisory Amid Unstable Security Conditions’ and my first thought was “what the hell”. You see, American tourism is mostly at an all time low and now we get that these countries are called ‘dangerous’?

Lets be clear, EVERY country has some risk, this is nearly undeniable. The two exceptions as I see it are the United Arab Emirates and Iceland. For Iceland there are two risks. The first is falling into a volcano (yes, it happens) and being attacked by a Arctic tern because you got too close to its nest. For the UAE it is a little larger and involves cobra’s and scorpions, but unlikely to be in any of their cities. 

But back to the article and lets keep a few things clear.

Saudi Arabia
I get that some parts of Saudi Arabia are not the greatest settings to go view and we get “Travelers are advised not to travel within 30 km of the border with Yemen due to ongoing conflict in Yemen and the associated risks of missile and drone strikes.” With the additional “Australians are encouraged to read the general advice on terrorism risks and personal safety during conflicts.”

Now, first of all, when you are as dim as a soup plate, you need to realise that common sense is expected from EVERY person on the planet. You might be one of the biggest idiots and featured in YouTube videos for doing stupid things, but that doesn’t make it the problem of that nation. You are expected to get an apartment with a balcony and spend your vacation in said balcony. As such when considering the distances from Yemen “approximately 200 km for cities like Jizan and Abha to over 1,000 km for Riyadh.” As such if your vacation is in Medina, Riyadh (most likely), Dammam or Jeddah, you are unlikely to travel within that 30 km. In the second part (it is said) that “personal safety during conflicts” is a bit vague. A conflict could exist during a misunderstanding in a shop or restaurant and that is not a likely case. Muslims are proud of their shops (restaurants too) and they have a set standard of hospitality (something you are less likely to experience in London) in further noticing ‘conflicts’ Saudi Arabia strikes down any military conflict in Saudi Arabia with extreme prejudice. As such you are seemingly less safe on the Sydney Harbour bridge in Sydney during a pro-Palestinian rally then ever in Saudi Arabia. 

Turkey
Here we see a more changing setting. I went to Istanbul once and I never ever felt unsafe or unwelcome. But it is the only part of Turkey I have ever see and as there are issues. The one that strikes me as a plausible setting is “Smart Traveller has specifically warned Australians to avoid public demonstrations and large gatherings, as these events are often strictly enforced by the government, with severe penalties for suspected participants. Monitoring local news and following the advice of local authorities is crucial.” And this setting makes sense on a few levels as you need to be fluent in Turkish to avoid certain complications, as such this travel advice makes sense.

United Kingdom
We are given “The national terrorism threat level in the UK remains substantial, indicating that an attack is likely. Smart Traveller has warned travelers that the possibility of terrorist activities, particularly in crowded public places, is elevated.” As well as “Travelers are reminded that petty crime, such as pickpocketing, mobile phone snatching, and theft from cars, is widespread across the UK. Visitors, especially in busy areas like London, should be extra cautious with their belongings.” There is no contest in any of this. But this was already the case for years. Still it requires mention.

France
Has a similar spread of issues, so there is no contest. But people traveling to these places should have been aware from them at least two years. There is no contest on any of this. You tend to get unlucky when you get in this situation. You would be in a similar setting when traveling to Amsterdam or Berlin.

Mexico and Egypt have their own settings and these are fair as I know the published facts to be (I have never been to Mexico).

My issue is why Saudi Arabia was added, was it because Saudi Tourism grew by over 100% and America is losing dozens of billions at present? The Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Germany (Berlin) are not on this list and I reckon a lot less safe than Riyadh, Dammam, Medina or Jeddah are. There is something of being too prepared for bad luck (as I call it) and I am not saying that this was bad advice, but you tell me, how likely are you to go within 30km of Yemen? The fact is that as far as I can tell, every major city in Saudi Arabia is well over 200km away from Yemen. Even the Neom projects are way too far away from that setting. As such you are likely to walk into the desert getting stung by a scorpion or ripped apart by a pack of hyena’s long before you get close to Yemen. So why the mention and why the instillment of fear towards Saudi Arabia? Now, lets be clear. There is some need to be aware of terrorism, but as I personally see it, these tend to be ‘confined’ to Houthi terrorist attacks and so far there has not been any serious incidents in the major cities of Saudi Arabia. So why the addition of Saudi Arabia? These terrorist issues have been in play for over 10 years. So, why the addition now?

Is it to make other places to seem less appealing over America? This is pure speculation from my side, but I reckon someone saw the 102% tourism growth I illuminated yesterday and someone must have seen that number in the source article and thought, lets make Saudi Arabia less appealing. This might be the wrong thought, but it is the speculated one I am having. You see, the warning given were in play for at least half a decade, so why now?

Have a great day and don’t get mauled by a pack of hyena’s today.

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July 28, 2025 · 22:07

On the cheap

That is at times a worry, when things go on the cheap it tends to be the more expensive setting you are driven to select. But as I see it, it isn’t always bad. Abu Dhabi (capital of United Arab Emirates) have a few options here. So to show this lets take the ‘normal’ setting.

Warner Brothers Theme park $129
WaterWorld $123
Sea World $177
Ferrari Them park $144
Yas Mall Free

You would think that this will be the master of all bills, but you would be wrong. You see when you get into the Warner Brothers hotel you automatically get a ticket EVERY DAY to one of the theme parks for that day. There are more hotels on Yas Island that give that option. In case of the Warner Brothers hotel, its theme park is across the street (WaterWorld is its neighbour). Oh, and enjoy breakfast there is to be cherished. Don’t take my word for this, YouTube is filled with walkthrough videos of the Hotel and the Theme parks, see for yourself what you could be enjoying.

There is however more. Tourists have the option of buying a 4 Park Ticket for a mere $184 which allows you to visit any of the Yas Island theme parks within 6 days of activating your pass. You have to consider this setting as this implies hundreds of dollars saved per person and you get to select which park you will select. You could spend 4 days in the same park. To give you a comparison a Universal theme park ticket will set you back $600 and that is also per person. So that implies a saving of an easy $400, so what would you select? The added benefit is that the UAE is a zero tax country, so there is a decent reason to visit the Apple Store in Yas Mall and get yourself the apple extension you always wanted. 

So as America is setting the additional $250 visa cost, as such Abu Dhabi becomes the premiere location for people wanting the theme park experience. The news (up to recent) was that America is getting a $29,000,000,000 pain invoice from lost international tourists and as I was looking at the presented data from several sources pretty much anywhere, I reckon that by late September, the presented damage will be worse, much worse. 

So, why am I focussing on Abu Dhabi? Well, the theme parks are advertised by people who were there as top notch and when you consider the setting that the Diamond pass is annually AED 3,295 ($900) for a whole year with additional discounts all over Yas Island. A full year of access for $900? It is worth retiring there and cool down and soak twice a week in WaterWorld. Nearly all theme parks are indoors in air-conditioned settings and as I see it, next year we get the Harry Potter expansion and the year after that Disney will grace that setting too. In addition (at present) you also get a Unlimited Quick Pass Access, also there is the 25% discount on Dining (at places that support this and also the 25% Discount on Shopping and several other benefits. That implies that the price of the pass will be earned back in just over a week, as such you have 50 weeks of true profit. So what retirement setting offers that? The universal annual pass is seemingly set to $1,095 before taxes. As such Abu Dhabi is seemingly giving you a blast for your bucks. 

As I see it, Universal has blacked out dates, Abu Dhabi gives you 365 days of fun. Seems like the optimal saving.

So what is behind this? I am not paid by Miral Experiences (the operator on Yas Island), there is nothing in it for me. But this shows you the utter stupidity of the Trump administration adding a new $250 ‘visa integrity fee’ and when you consider that in 2023, Florida’s theme parks welcomed close to 77 million visitors, merely one state, so when you consider that a massive part of International tourists now have an alternative and a much bigger resentment of America, that are merely two of a bigger set of anti-America setting. Together with decreased rights of privacy at the border. To be clear, I am not anti America, I am merely anti-stupid and at present America is no longer worth it. This is beside America trying to push the 51st State into the face of Mark Carney (Prime Minister of Canada) and his 40,100,000 Canadian brothers and sisters. As such America is getting massive doses of hardship. So when Florida and California loses millions of tourists, what do you think will happen. I see the adjusted ‘videos’ that it will not get back to normal until 2026. Well, that time has gone. As I see it, as there are alternatives America will see this hardship in 2026, 2027 and 2028. There might be some revival in 2028, yet I doubt it, as America sees hardship beyond 2026, crime numbers will accelerate and the quality of life in America is unlikely to see any bright spots before 2029. And that is if America stops being stupid tomorrow morning before 03:00. After that the setting becomes near disastrous and that is merely the summer, at this point their winter seasons are not looking too great either. Winter is a different chicken, most ski and boarding fanatics have their slopes and that’s fine, but at present as places lose control over staff, infrastructures almost everywhere will be near collapse and without infrastructure the tourists will become absent. As a source gave me “Tourists, particularly from Australia and Canada, are increasingly rebooking or cancelling trips away from America due to concerns about border security, perceived political tensions, and a general sentiment of unease, leading to a significant drop in visitors to the US and a surge in interest for alternative destinations like Europe and Bermuda.” As such the setting for America looks grim, very grim. 

In an age and a stage of seeing the cheap route thee is a massive setting of people who will be resetting their vacation to the UAE and Abu Dhabi with Dubai a mere 35 minutes away per train. And when you consider that a 30-day tourist visa fee: AED 200 ($54). A 60-day tourist visa fee: AED 300 ($81), seems a lot less than the ‘added’ $250. So how was their ‘visa integrity fee’ a good idea? If my initial understanding is correct and America is utterly broke, then America stops being the place to go until far beyond 2030, but in the meantime the UAE and Saudi Arabia become places to go to. And that is not all, there is every chance that Europeans will return to places like Acorn Adventure (UK), as I see it, there are several places in Europe who will see a returning tourist option. 

For me there is this dish which I enjoyed in Ghent in the 11th century (before embarking on the Crusades) and that was possible as the Medieval times are set in the Archeon. They also have a Roman age (complete with gladiator arena and bathing house) and a prehistoric area. 

And the Netherlands has more. The Efteling, a theme park that won the biggest theme park award at least twice, making it the biggest contender for Disney parks. And it has its own charm. All places that will feel increased attention as America is slowly strangling its influx of tourists to death.

As such America is due a massive downturn, they forgot that they are not all powerful and other nations have alternatives to what they offer and as they are now raising prices by at least $250 the stage changes. Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, France, London (UK), Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia are all in the running of welcoming the tourists who are now over the American BS (that stuff that makes grass grow in Texas). As I see it, $29 billion was a understated and that will go on for at least 3 years. With border controls impeding out privacy, the setting for business tourists will go down more and more as well. But not to fret, Canada has a welcoming position for these business vendors as well,  a visitor visa (single or multiple entry) costs CAD 100 ($72) per person, also a lot less than $250 and that setting will continue for some time. 

It is a shame for some, but if America prices itself out of the running, the impact is on themselves. Have a great day and feel free to dream yourself into the past with pastries, I am still dreaming of Dutch poffertjes. And I have an art work by Anton Pieck to assist me in this matter. 

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June 24, 2025 · 19:51

Stupid people

Yup, that is what we are surrounded with. So lets get to it showing WHY I think that the bulk of these people are stupid. Because there needs to be a reason, doesn’t there?

So before I start with the article, let us get a little refreshment. I have taken a stand as early as 2014, and this article I wrote on October 13th 2017 called ‘Strike a match’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2017/10/13/strike-a-match/) gives us: 

“So, when was the last time that a corporate CEO got time with a national ruler to discuss national taxation? Because that is exactly what Tim Cook CEO of Apple seems to have been doing in France. With one source giving us “So, when Tim Cook meets with French President Macron, the matter of taxes could make for an icy situation between the two men. Macron has said he wants to promote France as a place for tech companies to set up shop, but he has also been critical about the role internet companies, in particular, play in society. Macron has been pretty vocal lately about how France and other E.U. countries should close up the loopholes that Apple and other tech companies have been able to use to move their earnings around to more tax-friendly countries, such as Ireland and Luxembourg“, is it a first indication that the French economy is in a much worse shape than expected? The fact that Tim Cook is visiting Élysée Palace not because President Emmanuel Macron is buying his wife the new iMac Pro (an assumption from my side). I am not thinking the worst of the French president, but the issue is questionable, especially as Apple is about to open a massive site in the Battersea Power Station, so as Apple (as I personally see it) is trying to spend the money twice, once by spending it in London and the second time by getting tax deduction for the amount just spend in London so he can get a second building for free in Paris.”

This doesn’t make you stupid, but the larger setting that we see in the newspapers and in this case ABC News who (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-23/jeffrey-bezos-lavish-wedding-in-venice-why-people-are-protesting/105445512) gives us ‘Jeff Bezos is getting married in Venice. Here’s why people are protesting the wedding’ where we see that “One group has plastered banners on the Italian city’s famous Rialto bridge reading “No space for Bezos!”” I think it is utterly BS that anyone would disrupts another man’s wedding (the wife’s anyway), We might take the setting of that is in their hearts, which is “Activists are protesting billionaire Jeff Bezos’s wedding in Venice with calls for a global billionaire tax.” That is what makes them utterly stupid and the amount of stupid people are not to be underestimated. You see the media is fueling that and they go about it like “You need to have your say” even though it will never matter as that is what they are about. Appeasing the shareholders and stakeholders who are AGAINST fair taxation and taxing these billionaires is just not fair. You see, governments (America, EU and Commonwealth) are all about the ‘best’ deal and taxing that is against the need of these long time politicians. So they give you a ‘tax the rich’ stage which would never work and I have been saying this for the better part of a decade and now it is too late the shouting increases and that is where things go from bad to worse. Because the media is not properly enforcing you, keeping these shouters stupid. Because the media relies on these corporations for advertising and when they pay taxation, there is not enough money for advertising. 

People like Jef Bezos, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Ellison are billionaires as they implement tax laws to the letter. And that setting is where it is at. Governments have need to overhaul taxation for decades, basically sing President Clinton was in office and he left office in 2001. Even then the overhaul was essential. As such for over 15 years to stakeholders have benefited from the setting and as such the corporations too. Did no one ever considered that the dice were stacked against you when Microsoft and Apple became (multi) trillion dollar companies? 

We need the media to push for tax overhaul and they won’t because a shouting and cursing mass of people bring in more digital dollars and the flames is what they live off and as such you will never be correctly informed. And it is not merely America, it is a near global setting that hits the Commonwealth, The nations in the EU and Europe as well. And the lager fear is that if one does it, their business walks to another country and that is the setting that Ireland has used to it advantage. Unless there is proper taxation nothing will change and all of us will end up with nothing. As an example I give to you Netflix, who paid just $868,000 in tax in Australia in 2021, so as their profit went up by 49% from the previous year, their tax bill went up from from $554,000 to $868,000. Even though they have millions of subscriptions in Australia. We merely get “Australian Netflix users are billed by the company’s Netherlands-based entity. A Netflix spokesperson said: “We have filed our financial statements as required.””

The issue is the tax bill that governments allow for. Consider that Australian subscriber are ‘collected’ by a Dutch company on the other side of the freaking planet. So take a sip of air considering that the governments set out this tax avoidance setting (avoidance is not illegal, evasion is) and that is a setting that is done all over the planet. As such the BS of tax the rich needs to stop. These shouters need to put the limelight on the lawmakers. They needed to do this for well over a decade. 

As such pushing someone’s wedding in the nasty hatred lights is totally unacceptable. If Mr. Bezos can afford to give his new bride the dreamiest of all weddings and the mayor of Venice approves this, then why not? I would never consider this, but I never had access to 220 billion and even if I had this is not how I would spend it, but that is me. Born a miser and never rose above the wealth of a church mouse. I am in the same sloop that some others are and I know better then to shout at a meaningless futile cause. And the weird part is that when it all goes south, these people will still be shouting at the wealthy, all whilst the politicians have filled their pockets and have considered moving to a tax zero nation, living it up until the bulk of the people are dead 15 years later. For them it will be a problem solved setting.

So, consider who you need to look at. Not the wealthy, but the lawmakers who appeased the corporations and the people who got rich from them.

Time for me to consider a new weapon system. With Israel and Iran striking blows, there will be a small time gap when people will consider my stealth system to keep Iranian harbours empty and I think I can create more IP to give their armies a hard time too. I need to put my thinking cap on.

Have a great day.

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June 20, 2025 · 10:25

No war, no politics

That is a mouthful and optionally a wrong frame of mind. Yet I have always been a massive supporter of keeping politics out of sports. I don’t mind that this stage could be used for politicians to meet ‘outside’ of the normal playing field but that is a side gig that does not need to involve sports. As such when I saw (in the wee hours of this morning) the CBC article ‘60% of Canadians say perception of women’s sport has improved over 3 years’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/sports/womens-sport-perception-improvement-report-1.7564670), my mind went slightly into overdrive. You see, as America is getting worse and worse. There is a rather large reason to get some of the sports out of America. And here I see the option of what could be the WGHL (Women’s Global Hockey League) to get set in (for example) Canada. It is be far the best solution. And in that trend consider the WGHL setting new stations in the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand for starters. These countries revere sports and women are a massive part of that. It could grow support in Germany, France, Sweden and Norway. In that trend as it grows, the United Kingdom (that is Albion for the really old people here) and from there it can grow in many directions, Including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

So as we see “New data on the explosive growth of women’s sport in Canada underscores its rising popularity, but also reveals that its structural supports still lag behind. Jessica Doherty, vice-president of strategy and growth at Torque Strategies, presented findings from a new national survey on Wednesday morning at the espnW Summit Canada at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works. One of the study’s main findings is that 60 per cent of Canadians believe perceptions of women’s sport have improved over the past three years.” Personally it is my believe that nothing gets the blood flowing than finding out that you are becoming part of something bigger, and as such I reckon that the ‘structural supports still lag behind’ is merely a temporary setting, but as such countries need to fuel this fire. And in this (as the viewing of America is seen) getting Canada to start driving this horse might be the better solution, the fact that Canada has a rising reputation among Female hockey players tends to make matters easier for some. And in this setting Saudi Arabia could be a larger setter. The stage of NEOM Trojena is supposed to be completed by 2026, so wouldn’t it be great is the first set of the WGHL is played there in 2031? 

Now consider that we already have the Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge,Toronto Sceptres, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, New York Sirens and in 2025 the teams from Vancouver and Seattle are being added. Now consider that Sweden has Brynäs IF, Djurgårdens IF, Frölunda HC, HV71, Leksands IF, Linköping HC, Luleå HF/MSSK, MoDo Hockey, Skellefteå AIK and SDE Hockey. Considering the number of teams there are as well in Norway and the Netherlands, uniting them in a global banner could drive the acceptance levels to an all time high. As there are teams in Australia and New Zealand as well, the mix to get acceptance levels to much higher settings is almost a given. If only Australian media would do something about them seemingly ignoring that branch of sports, would be nationally well received. And don’t forget Saudi Arabia. It apparently has the The Riyadh Wings, as such there is a start to giving women a global visibility stage and as plenty of Canadians can be seen all over the world, it makes sense for Canada to take the baton to give the world a larger view of Canada. So as the UAE and Saudi Arabia joins  this band of athletes, there will be global visibility and when you consider if a place like Trojena would be the global setting of women’s Hockey, I reckon that the even Canada will go nuts for these global plays. There is every indication that with Europe a critical mass will be achieved in gaming a better view for all Women Hockey players. As I see it, Europe might have a larger lead at this point, but as some see, teams from Saudi Arabia might grow close to faster. This is seen with “The hockey team includes all ages and the youngest member is a 10-year-old, Tolay Ahmad, who has been skating for two years” this was in 2018, implying that she might be seen as a seasoned veteran equal to any player in Sweden, Canada, or America. As such this might be an interesting match to say the least. Some of these players have been driven to such a chance for close to a decade and when you are driven to that degree, the outcome tends to be uncertain for anyone crossing them in a match.

As such have a great day and consider that some sports just fall in our viewport and it doesn’t need to be tracking or football games. 

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June 3, 2025 · 16:56

It is time

That is something we often hear, yet I haven’t said these words for almost ever. You see, news media is now realising that the Russians are closer to losing the war that ever. For this I think it is time that we go back to (the beginning) February 24th 2022. This set it all in motion and we were given “The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was accompanied by practices of information warfare, yet existing evidence is largely anecdotal while large-scale empirical evidence is lacking. Here, we analyze the spread of pro-Russian support on social media. For this, we collected messages from Twitter with pro-Russian support. Our findings suggest that pro-Russian messages received ∼251,000 retweets and thereby reached around 14.4 million users” these are the opening words of Dominique Geissler, Dominik Bär, Nicolas Pröllochs & Stefan Feuerriegel. We are then given “A widespread concern is that practices of modern warfare in form of large-scale Russian propaganda campaigns are used to shape the narrative around the war, yet corresponding research is still nascent. On the one hand, the Russian government enforced new legislation exerting power over traditional media outlets to persuade citizens to support the war. As a result, domestic media outlets are forced to adopt the official narrative. On the other hand, Russian propaganda has been suspected to influence other countries outside Russia, in particular, by using social media to promote hostility against the West”

The funny part is that as far as I have seen, the western media largely ignored this setting and the consequences of that setting. This paper was published in 2023 (at https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-023-00414-5) and was readily available. But the western media at large, always happy to cater to clicks and being the bitch of the digital dollar left it standing as it was. They also give us the settings that they used (particularly the numbers involving ‘#1standwithruss1a’ (I changed two digits as not to ‘support’ Russia) and that gives us that The Atlantic (at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/russian-propaganda-zelensky-information-war/629475/) gives us the story by Carl Miller. There was a much larger setting to the Putin war and as I see it, the media left left it alone. I reckon the revenue that the digital dollars gave them was preferred against informing the people in what dangers they were. These four also looked into the Botometer and several other methods, relying on verifications by Prolific. The results are pretty horrific “We applied further filtering rules to select only messages where the content was pro-Russian (see Methods). Overall, this yielded messages. The messages further generated nearly 1 million likes. To measure the global exposure to pro-Russian messages, we estimated the overall readership based on the number of unique users that followed authors of pro-Russian messages in our dataset, amounting to ∼14.4 million users.” As I see it, Twitter is big business and they (of course) partially relied on these ‘bots’ to spice up advertisements. 

As such Russia had taken out all stops to present their ‘winning’ war. The Guardian reported on February 27th 2022 ‘‘Don’t call it a war’ – propaganda filters the truth about Ukraine on Russian media’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/26/propaganda-filters-truth-ukraine-war-russian-media) there we see “Kremlin clamps down on Facebook and threatens to muzzle outspoken independent news outlets” with the supporting text “the Russian government has taken extraordinary steps by throttling Facebook and threatening to shut independent media outlets such as TV Rain and the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which published an edition in Russian and Ukrainian this week with the banner headline “Russia is bombing Ukraine”” and that is merely the tip of the iceberg. The larger setting becomes that people like Weird Duk (a Dutch Telegraph reporter) was, as I personally see it ‘filtering’ the anti-Russian news away. The setting we were given by Ukrainian writer and analyst Mykola Riabchuk was ‘Wierd Duk’s silence on Ukraine is deafening’ with the implicated “What is strikingly missing in Duk’s deliberations is Ukraine, and the silence is deafening. Omissions can be as important in rhetorical strategies as words. In his article any reference to the war, to its victims and culprits, would immediately put in question his central argument: that the West shares equal responsibility for the crisis with Russia” That is the larger setting. I am happy that at this point I don’t work for the AIVD, because in a few months they will have their hands full. You see, the Dutch will be experiencing a setting (not unlike) that dwarves the Dutch hunt of NSB agents (and operatives). And in Dutch media land there will be a culling of these people. I reckon that this will happen in Belgium, Germany, France the UK and Canada too. And all these people will cry like little bitches on the freedom of expression, the freedom of speech and the freedom to expose the ‘facts’ as they saw it. But one-sided reporting makes that harder and a lot more finicky for them to keep up. Partially I am curious what will happen to Thierry Baudet, massively pro-Russian. He is the founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD). Baudet is opposed to the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement. Together with GeenStijl and the Burgercomité EU association, Forum for Democracy was one of the behind the campaign to collect the signatures required for the 2016 Dutch Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum. Why this is important is that during the campaign, Baudet at multiple occasions spread fake news, including false reports of purported crimes by the Ukrainian military, and associated himself with pro-Russian activist Vladimir Kornilov. A setting that seemingly connects to the entire social media warfare by Russia.

So as we take tally:

We see that after three years the Russians are down almost one million soldiers and they still are nowhere near a victory. I would like to start an autograph collections on confiscating the entire Hermitage collection to hand over to the Ukraine for reparations that was done by over 7,400 missiles and 3,900 Shahed drone strikes against Ukraine. And when President Putin has to hand over that collection, he will start feeling the sting of starting a war he had no business of starting. 

And when some people say that this is merely speculation, consider that the media collected this evidence for publication, even the pro-Russian media did that and now as the pebbles are in boiling water, these weak minded people (traitor is seemingly too harsh a word) will need to set their tally to a new horizon, because Russia is no longer clearly winning and the moment President Putin sees that the game is up, he will cut loose all connections he had to social media and pro-Russian reporters, and as such the lives of people like Wierd Duk and Thierry Baudet will become massively complicated and they will hand over any name they can to get clear of the blast zones, where they are the target. The Dutch might remember that setting during the manhunts they had in 1945-1947.

A nice sidestep is the interrogation of Max Blokzijl the radio reporter of the NSB, yet the freedom of the press didn’t stop him being put in front of a firing squad in September 1945, as such I wonder how people like Wierd Duk think they will do. They might get some support form the 60,163 members that the FvD has, but the Netherlands has roughly 18,000,000 people, not really a majority seeing that he would hope for. And lynching in 1945 was not unheard of. So here are two people that might apply for a high life insurance, but only with the death by natural causes  clause in place.

And the Netherlands is not the only place that will face this. I reckon that the bombings of Olenegorsk air base in Murmansk and the Belaya air base in Irkutsk might have something to do with that. 

So have a great day and consider what you think is the right move, who should you support and I am not saying that you need to be an outspoken supporter in whatever direction you take. Because sometimes, certain choices are harder than you think. But the media gets no sympathy, they were paid to do a certain thing and they decided on other actions and that will scar them for life as they have been part of the ‘Digital Solution’ for years.

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May 30, 2025 · 15:34

The size of that

Something no woman has ever sad to me, but that is for another day. You see, the story (at https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/saudi-arabias-ai-co-humain-looking-for-us-data-center-equity-partner-targets-66gw-by-2034-with-subsidized-electricity/) In this DCD ( Data Center Dynamics) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia’s AI co. Humain looking for US data center equity partner, targets 6.6GW by 2034 with subsidized electricity’ and they throw numbers at us. First there is the money “Plans $10bn venture fund to invest in AI companies”, which seems fair enough. But after that we get “The company said that it would buy 18,000 Nvidia GB300 chips with “several hundred thousand” more on the way, that it was partnering with AWS for a $5bn ‘AI Zone,’ signed a deal with AMD for 500MW of compute, and deployed Groq chips for inference.” I reckon that will split and split again, the shares of Nvidia. Then we get the $5 billion AI zone and then the AMD deal for 500MW of compute and deployed Groq chips for a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. Yes, that is quite the mouthful. After that we get a pause for the “How much of Humain’s data center focus will be on Saudi-based facilities is unclear – its AMD deal mentions sites in the US.” As such, we need to see what this is all about and I am hesitant to mention conclusions for a field that I am not aware of. Yet, the nagging feeling is in the back of my mind and it is jostling in an annoying way. You see, lets employ somewhat incorrect math (I know it is not a correct way). Consider 18,000 computers draining the energy net of 500 watt per system per second. That amounts to 9,000 GW energy (speculatively), and that is just the starting 18,000. As such the setting will be several times the amount needed for fueling these AI centers. Now, I know my calculations are widely of and we are given “At first, it plans to build a 50MW data center with 18,000 Nvidia GPUs for next year, increasing to 500MW in phases. It also has 2.3 square miles of land in the Eastern Province, which could host ten 200MW data centers.” I am not attacking this, but when we take into consideration that amount of energy requirements for processors, storage, cooling and maintaining the workflow my head comes up short (it usually does) and the immediate thought is where is this power coming from? As I see it, you will need a decently build Nuclear reactor and that reactor needs to be started in about 8 hours for that timeline to be met. Feel free to doubt me, I already am. Yet the needed energy to fuel a 66GW Data centre of any kind needs massive power support. And the need for Huawei to spice up the data cables somewhat. As I roughly see it, a center like that needs to plough through all the spam internet it gets on a near 10 seconds setting. That is all the spam it can muster in a year per minute (totally inaccurate, but you get the point). The setting that the world isn’t ready for this and it is given to us all in a mere paragraph. 

Now, I do not doubt the intent of the setting and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is really sincere to get to the ‘AI field’ as it is set, but at present the western setting is like what builder thought it would be and overreached (as I see it) and fraudulently set the stations of what they believed AI was and blew away a billion dollars in no time at all (and dragged Microsoft along with it) as they backed this venture. This gives me donut (which I already had) on the AI field as the AI field is more robust as I saw it (leaning on the learnings of Alan Turing) and it is a lot more robust then DML (Deeper Machine Learning) and LLM (Large Language Models), it really is. And for that I fear for the salespeople who tried to sell this concept, because when they say “Alas, it didn’t work. We tried, but we aren’t ready yet”, will be met with some swift justice in the halls of Saudi Arabia. Heads will roll intuit instance and they had that coming as I foresaw this a while before 2034. (It is 2025 now, and I am already on that page). 

Merely two years ago MIT Management gave us ‘Why neural net pioneer Geoffrey Hinton is sounding the alarm on AI’ and there we get the thing I have warned about for years “In a widely discussed interview with The New York Times, Hinton said generative intelligence could spread misinformation and, eventually, threaten humanity.” I saw this coming a mile away (in 2020, I think) You see, these salespeople are so driven to their revenue slot that they forget about Data verification and data centers require and ACTUAL AI to drag trough the data verifying it all. This isn’t some ‘futuristic’ setting of what might be, it is a certainty that non-verified data breeds inaccuracies and we will get inaccuracy on inaccuracy making things go from bad to worse. So what does that look on a 66GW system? Well, for that we merely need to look back to the 80’s when the term GIGO was invented. It is a mere setting of ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ no hidden snags, no hidden loopholes. A simple setting that selling garbage as data leaves is with garbage, nothing more. As such as I saw it, I looked at the article and the throwing of large numbers and people thought “Oh yes, there is a job in there for me too” and I merely thought, what will fuel this? And band that, who can manage the see-through of the data and the verification process, because with those systems in place a simple act of sabotage by adding a random data set to the chain will have irreparable consequences in that data result. 

So, as the DCD set that, they pretty much end the setting with “By 2030, the company hopes to process seven percent of the globe’s training and inference workloads. For the facilities deployed in the kingdom, Riyadh will subsidize electricity prices.” And in this my thoughts are Where is that energy coming from?” A simple setting which comes with (a largely speculative setting) that such a reactor needs to be a Generation IV reactor, which doesn’t exist yet. And in this the World Nuclear Association in 2015 suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030 (exact date unknown), yet some years ago we were given that the active member era were “Australia, Canada, China, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), France, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States” there is no mention of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I reckon they would be presenting all kinds of voices against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (as well as the UAE) being the first to have one of those. It is my merely speculative nature to voice this. I am not saying that the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) is a passively safe generation III+ reactor could not do this, but the largest one is being build by Hitachi (a mere 4500MW) and it is not build yet. The NRC granted design approval in September 2014, and it is currently not build yet. That path started in 2011. It is 2025 now, so how long until the KSA gets its reactor? And perhaps that is not needed for my thoughts, but we see a lot of throwing of numbers, yet the DCD kept us completely in the dark on the power requirements. And as I see it the line “Riyadh will subsidize electricity prices” does not hold water as the required energy settings are not given to us (perhaps not so sexy and it does make for a lousy telethon) 

So I am personally left with questions. How about you? Have a great day and drink some irradiated tea. Makes you glow in the dark, which is good for visibility on the road and sequential traffic safety.

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May 14, 2025 · 13:04

The price of stupidity

That is at the foundation of the severe conditioned setting of what can now laughingly called American stupidity. CBC reported yesterday ‘Conferences relocating to Canada over harsh new U.S. border measures’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6758054) with the underlying text “As Canadian travel to the U.S. continues to drop, CBC News has found several professional conferences relocated to Canada to avoid harsh new U.S. border security measures. One sociologist describes being grilled by U.S. customs officers who searched his phone and wallet.” As such not only is there grilling (and no grilled sandwich), but searching the phone and wallet? I wonder what deeds custom officers have to copy this all to third and fourth party intelligence gathering settings. I get that a passport needs to be checked (read: validated), but a phone? I might agree that a wallet could be seen as reasonable. But consider this. Tourism already is down and now conferences are the new goal? Consider that the CES has over 100,000 attendees and the SEMA show over 150,000 attendees. Then there are the defence shows and IT shows. How many events will it take for these show runners to go to Vancouver, Toronto, or Ottawa? Is this the price of stupidity? How many millions will America lose in 2026? How long until the larger players will offer their shows in Abu Dhabi where the tourism spike is going on. How long until only gamblers will visit Las Vegas? Nevada have poured serious cash into Las Vegas and now that it is regarded as hostile terrain, what will they lose? There is little interest to move to London or Paris (too touristy saturated), but Dubai and Abu Dhabi have options. Soon so will Monte Carlo and now there is already space in Toronto among the 14 locations are Metro Toronto Convention Centre and Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. Ottawa has the Ottawa Convention Centre and a few others. Basically should you consider the Mississauga location (Oracle) for a place to show the CES, America will have close to two dozen locations for people no longer interested in America violating their privacy and as the Canadian places (optionally the UAE too) show bang for their bucks. Plenty of organizers will relocate their shows. 

And there is data. CBC reported in late April that ‘Nearly 900,000 fewer people went to the U.S. in March as cross-border travel plummets’ so what damage will Florida with their Universal and Disney parks endure? Especially as their is a great alternative in Abu Dhabi. As such there is a larger case we see when we consider the Oracle CloudWorld. It was in Las Vegas, September 9–12, 2024. As such Oracle now has a larger case to present their 2025 show in Mississauga or even in Dubai (if the clientele is enticing enough). Dubai has a whole highway of entertainment structures. There is the option of renting a boat for their guests and make a presentation on the Alexandra Dhow Cruise in Dubai Marina. A setting that reeks of elegance and fine foods. America is no longer the place to be, their U.S. customs protocols made sure of that. And I only mention two locations. And after the Guardian reported last week that ‘Stockholm rejects ‘bizarre’ US letter urging city to scrap diversity initiatives’, I reckon that Stockholm would be willing to cater to American shows that now seek entertainment elsewhere. Don’t let the location fool you. Stockholm is magical and it has an amazing cuisine all over town. I reckon that soon enough the high chefs in America will seek their fortune elsewhere. So how much longer will America cater to the stupid minded? I reckon this might be the last year and anyone thinking they will be safe is likely to unknowingly handing their IP to U.S. customs (they might be in denial, as these costume officers will claim that it is protocol). So how long until that damage becomes completely non-reversible?

I will let you decide. And as I see it, Iceland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France might have similar issues down the line. So how many tourists and conference dwellers will miss America out of from now on until December 2026? Oh and before I forget Saudi Arabia is about to set new settings in at least 3 locations, so there are these locations to consider too. 

So, good luck with the excuse of protocol and watch what the price of stupidity is about to cost America, as one source gives me “The index now sits just above the historical low of 50 in June 2022. Current Economic Conditions registered at 56.5, compared to 63.8 in March. The Index of Consumer Expectations was at 47.2, compared to 52.6 in March.” So economic expectations is at least 5 points down in about 2 months. So what more losses can we see? Canada looks forward to having a great year in catering to conferences and tourists. As is the UAE. But America is doing great (apparently), as Reuters gives us “Approval of Trump’s economic stewardship rose to 39% from 36%. Trump began his term with a 47% approval rating, and saw his popularity tick” as such how many more shocks to the system can America survive? As I personally see it: retail, tourism, and business have been hit and will be hit a few times more this year, so by the time high summer hits places like Venice beach and other tourist location will suffer the lack of tourist. But not to fret, you can find them in Canada and a few other places.

And as the larger places expand Mississauga and add a European location or one in the UAE, we will see a larger exodus to these safer places and that is a trend that is set to continue until deep into 2027, because conference are usually planned up to two years in advance. Oracle might be the most visible one but I reckon they are not alone. All these players (like Snowflake and Palantir) have customers very worried about their IP and they will press for change a lot louder than I am.

So have a great day and if you want to have fun, pass US customs with a box of 5.25” floppies and see the question marks on their eyes as they are uncertain how to proceed. 

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