Tag Archives: LCBO

Political Dundie Awards anyone?

There is a special award that people fear. It is a lot worse than the Razzies (Golden Raspberry Awards), it is the “Dundie Award for Worst Salesman of the Year” and this year it goes to President Trump. In one swift setting he made the Commonwealth drop America as an ally and in the second setting over two articles the first being (at https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/portugal-wary-trumps-nato-policy-pick-fighter-jets-2025-03-14/) ‘Portugal wary of Trump’s NATO policy in pick of fighter jets’ where we see “Portugal could replace its aging American-made F-16 fighter jets with European jets rather than F-35s following U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy shifts, the country’s defense ministry said on Friday.” And the second one is seen (at https://news.az/news/canada-explores-alternatives-to-us-made-f-35-fighter-jets) with ‘Canada explores alternatives to US-made F-35 fighter jets’, where we are given “Canada is considering alternatives to the U.S.-made F-35 stealth fighters and has begun discussions with competing aircraft manufacturers, Defense Minister Bill Blair announced late Friday, shortly after being reappointed to the role in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly established Cabinet.” The F35, which is currently going as hot cakes although each of these hot cakes go for the price of $109,000,000 each. So I reckon that Lockheed Martin is out a few pennies now and in light of the fact that sustainment costs are estimated to be around $1.58 trillion for the entire life cycle, these pennies tend to add up. And that is before you realize that several countries are still on the fence to change their order now. As such we might think that Saudi Arabia now certainly gets consideration as a customer (after a few years of denying them as a customer), yup President Trump really put his foot in that one. The nice part is that Portugal wasn’t a factor until yesterday and now it is costing Lockheed Martin billions. Considering that Norway recently got three of them nearly completing their order of 52 of them bad boys, consider what Portugal is now replacing and Canada is openly seeking another vendor. Of course, the Eurofighter (Eurofighter Typhoon) might have the inside track here. Yet wouldn’t it be the icing on the cake if China with its Chengdu J-20 wins that one? The irony to this  will be seen as howling with laughter.

OK, I admit that it is unlikely to happen, but the setting that President Trump started with the option of gaining a 51st state and now needs to build second wall to the north to keep the dozens of mighty dragons at a walls length. Canadians merely will have to fill the space between the two walls with water and we have a whole new setting movie like setting. I merely ask that they send 10 canoes to every Native American community there is (there are a few dozens), as such we get a new setting. It is as far as I can tell the first time a president became a clear and present danger to its own defense system selling on a near global scale. The distance between Canada and Portugal makes it near global as I see it. A parameter I actually didn’t see happen as a president is there for a mere 4 years and these babies get sold with decades in mind, but there you have it and there is more. YouTube is getting more and more video’s with American shops (Supermarkets and LCBO shops) where alcoholic drinks from the US and groceries from America are banned by the thousands of Canadian customers, this is all adding up. Perhaps the White House could consider pissing off the people with a nationalistic view? As I see it America first is now becoming America dropped first. In the last week we saw headlines like ‘Jack Daniel’s maker says Canada pulling stock worse than tariffs’ and in this case it grows with “Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Serotta said in a note to investors that tariffs would pose unique challenges for Brown-Forman, with the effects likely to linger. He added that 55% of the liquor manufacturer’s sales come from outside the U.S., and bourbon laws require domestic production so it cannot be produced internationally.” And this opens the doors of ‘connoisseur’ of that liquid as they might now explore the excellence of Japanese Whiskeys. A worry that the makers of Jack Daniels never had before. It makes it not a temporary, but a permanent loss. That threat is now at Lockheed Martins door if these nations pick the Eurofighter. It makes a tremendous win for Eurofighter GmbH, BAE Systems, Airbus, Alenia Aermacchi, and DASA. They are now offered billions of new business on a silver plate because of this and that could also mean that Saud Arabia might now set their sights to the Eurofighter as well. The one nation that was fixed on the F35 could now be shopping somewhere else. That implies a loss of planes, support systems and infrastructure spanning up to a new market of up to 283 combat aircrafts. How many trillions will that amount to? I reckon that it is up to five times the infrastructure of Norway, making the RSAF a $6,000,000,000,000 crown jewel for any company. All that lost by trying to force annexation down the throats of Canadian and pissing off NATO by catering to President Putin all whilst they are in a stage to denying assistance to NATO. So what is next? Consider that The Five Eyes is comprised of Commonwealth nations plus America, it is not without risk that the four will go it alone. You see intelligence merely matters as long as you have it and that is where the CIA might come up short soon enough. A larger setting that short sighted people in the White House administration overlooked. That can be considered as we saw the news by AP yesterday ‘Musk meets with head of National Security Agency to ensure it is aligned with Trump, spy agency says’, I reckon that there will be a certain level of panic whilst the CIA reports that their meeting could get seemingly cancelled. Now the NSA will have to focus on local issues and read in the FBI to at least a dozen projects. I know, it is merely speculative what I say, but that danger wasn’t even realistic last August, now in less than 9 months the pregnancy issues of intelligence might become a massive issues for America and it only recently got over the issues of that traitor Manning and COVID issues. So that is another mess America now has to deal with.

In the second stage, why was Elon Musk dealing with this? Shouldn’t the NSA address any issues directly with the President of the United States? And the questions rise. And the Political Dundie Awards (PDA) has a nice ring as Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is a pattern of behavior in which kids go to extremes to ignore or avoid anything they perceive as a demand. That aligns here just so beautifully. 

Ah well, Another day another giggle with a coffee. So you all have a nice day and Canada, I have your back (although from a distance). By the way congrats to Markie Mark of the British Bank, now to be known Markie Canuck of Canada.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

As ideas go

I just had another idea hit me square in the face. I cannot tell if it is a good idea, but as the evolution of eCommerce is going, there is space for this idea. In this case it is fledged to the conscription of Al C. O’Holloway (aka alcohol) and I just had an idea. To see the idea, you need to consider the elements. There are 3.2 billion video gamers in the world, and 1.17 billion play online. Now the idea is not set to online gamers, merely gamers. You see, when you are gaming you get hit by hunger and thirst. I for one rely on coffee and fruit juices. But not all are like me (I do like a drink every now and then). As such I was considering the online options of getting what you need and I tend to not like this. Going through the lists, or offerings tend to make me not like the order. I like to be in a store seeing what gives and that applies to food and drink. Now consider a gamer where he can walk into a store. Any store that offers the option like Dan Murphy (Australia) or LCBO (Canada). Now the store could be specific (like a location) or generic. You walk the isle and you see the bottles (an in per Unreal Engine 5 created). No list, just you strolling the lanes for what you feel like is a good choice. And the mind (read: brain) will link this to your actual visit to these places. The brain has that ability, more so then going over a list in catalogue. 

As we linger on the options, we get to add a certain bottle or brand to our Wishlist. I got this basic idea of the system (see below)

We have a walk through the booze browse place. We select items and we can then decide if it is an order, a consideration or a mere preferred drink (Wishlist). And as we walk and profile our drinking needs, we also get above the red line an update to our profile, more exact, it considers what you have placed in your profile any hidden traps. Perhaps you dislike beers, or wines and someone adding beer or wine will get red flagged and the fraud detection goes into high gear. This is not the final trigger, because you might order it for a guest. There is however a larger need to engage fraud detection in this day and age. As we keep on browsing we get to the end where the list is given and we decide making any item a Wishlist item, a preferred item or an actual purchase. The purchase is finalised and the delivery address is recorded (you might be gaming at a friends place) and the purchase is received and delivery is made through whatever option you like, possibly just an in-store pickup. Now you might want to think that there are other ways and you would be right. But eCommerce has its own grips on the matter and whatever the customer wants he or she can get. This way you are appealing to 3 billion gamers. That is not a simple Direct Marketing fling, that is a long term option and this market has been overlooked for too long. Optionally we see “They can get it in another way” vibe and that is not incorrect, but the sentiment in this day and age is just plain wrong. How long until this method is used for super markets? Consider that Dubai has a temperature of 33 degrees. Some like to go out and endure it, but as streaming systems evolve they want to walk around in their homes and see what gives at  Carrefour they have foods and fashion. And there is a larger need. It is obvious that the larger places will adapt to this first. But as this system evolves more will crowd the place. The idea that was started (to some extent) by Sony Home is now in a stage where a lot can opt to move in and it will go to a much larger place. You see 3 billion gamers are about 40% of the planet. I merely wonder why it has taken so long for others to adopt the idea.

And there is a secondary option. This might be easier way to stop fraud, because gamers will have profiles that have been around for years and these places will be able to find a lot more data on the transgressors of fraud as well as the stores trying a fast one on the customer, they are likely a lot easier to find, but that is merely a gut feeling of mine.

Have a great Saturday.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Gaming, IT