Tag Archives: Monaco

March 30, 2025 · 06:45

The need for a credit card

That is what we all think at times. There are two stages that stop us for getting one, or to get the credit limit upgraded. The first is work. It is hard to tap into that ‘virtual’ resource when you are out of work. The second stage is that if you have a job and it pays, the future of the company you work for makes upgrading limits a genuine problem. Even if the bank approves it, you yourself at times wonder if you should make that jump. Rightfully so as you soon realise that you are merely working to pay the interest bills.

So where is this going?
Well America is in that situation right now. It failed to ‘bolster’ its size by claiming Canada and it is now in a bullying stage then there is Greenland, which is funny because no one wanted Greenland for the longest of times and now it get ‘courted’ by America. Of course the courtship (like any courtship) is usually based on lies and on presentations in a different direction. Like most men, the first notion of a courtship is to push his dick onto her vagina no matter the cost to her. This reminds me of a joke Jack Whitehall stated: “We all look at the village idiot in some way, here in the UK we put him on the street, In America you love village idiots. They end up in the White House” and that is basically the setting they face. His bully tactics are coming up short and for the most part the skeptics are watching what is coming next. I considered the options and as I have been keeping an eye on the American economy, I see the play they essentially need to play. You see, America has run out of Credit Card Space and they need to upgrade their credit card. So first they talk trash on Canada and try to make it their 51st State. But now that it is failing they need alternatives. 

But the cause is worse than the need, they now face massive changes as Canada, part of the Commonwealth is seeking alternatives with Commonwealth nations. Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom seem to be on board to support each other and that is what America never counted on. Then there is the EU and some of these nations (two at present) are dumping their F35 aspirations and they are looking elsewhere for their planes. It might not be large customers, but it is a beginning and that gives rise to alternatives.

Getting back on point.
We see news by several channels, ABC for one gives us “Mr Trump iterated that the island was important for US national security. The US president has not clarified how or when he aims to annex it, but he has not ruled out using military or economic power.” As I personally see it, the real reason is “Greenland has rich untapped mineral resources and oil and gas, but development has been slow” that same setting exists for Canada and the US desperately needs to upgrade its Credit Card and that is one way to set it to a reality. As I see it, as a Courtesan truly worthy of the name village idiot he sets the trash talk to stellar to make these two ladies drop their briefs and that isn’t happening. Moreover (I for one) and plenty of others feel very protective of Canada. Greenland less so, but that is a Danish/EU setting. The method employed is just too icky. And now as American debts are surpassing thirty six trillion dollars with no handle on spending, the credit card needs to be upgraded before America has to default on things. As such Canada needs protection from the Commonwealth nations or it gets dragged into that hole named America. And that debt is shown as $36,000,000,000,000 and two elements will hammer America. The first is that the debt is now higher that its GDP, this might not seem like it is a big thing, but these are trillions and there is no stop spending in effect. Also the larger issue is interest. You see, then we look at that we see that Australia has a 3.28% debt setting. I cannot say exactly what America’s is but it should be over 2%, this means that 720 billion dollars interest will be due every year (a little over simplified) and seeing that the American tax office collected $4.9 trillion in FY 2024, we see that 14.693% of the taxation is lost on interest payments and it is getting worse. So a nation that is spending in all the wrong places gets to live of 85% of its budget and last year (2024) it was dealing with a deficit of $1.8 trillion (or 1800 billion dollars). So what happens when you have to do this on 85% of your budget?

This is why America needs to upgrade its credit card and it is falling short. Especially as nations rally against the baboonic trash-talking bully tactics of the president of the United States. As well as national interest, particularly Canada and Denmark.

There is but one larger solution in play. When America defaults before it resorts to military options, the game is over for America. It would become a third world nation over night. If not than we have a non-preferred option and that is to run into the arms of People’s Republic of China. There is the chance that the world will react to a larger degree all American items, which is bad news for Apple and Microsoft, but that is the stage that is evolving.

I have the stage (personally fueled) that America collapsing is not the worst thing, but all those enjoying retirement plans that they saved up for their whole life, they can rejoin the workforce until they die. I reckon the ultra rich will lose a chunk of their value and they will evade to Bermuda, Monaco or the UAE to life out their lives. The rest will learn that the vote of 2024 was the worst day in their life but that is what we face. The rest of the nations have no reason to celebrate. When the dollar goes, so do the Yen and the Euro. As I see it, President Xi was ready for this by playing the waiting game. He will gain the economic options of 27 EU nations and up to 56 Commonwealth states. On the upside, Canada might get an infusion of cash as they build several airbases on their southern border (a presumption of me). The irony is funny, to pretend to serve national interests, president Trump caused the creation of Chinese airbases on their northern borders.

As Wall Street fixes on what is likely to happen, they need to set the shores of financial options and as I personally see it, those shores remain under attack for the better part of a decade and the is bad news for Wall Street as the economy doesn’t have that much time anymore. Im actually not sure how America survives 2026 at present. 

Well, have a nice day and consider where you are and where you are likely to be soon enough.

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November 24, 2024 · 19:58

Bee, Bee, Bee, the Eye Pee

Yup, I am going off the simulated drive straight to the edge of what I consider wonky space (aka idea town). I have two reasons to do this. In the first there are a few indicators that LVMH is already on route to this and there is nothing more fun than to blow the surprise of the biggest baddest luxury brand on the planet, so that they know they are less ahead of the pack than they think they are. As for the second reason. It is always fun for a blogger to be able to say that I got there two years ahead of the rest and that is done by publishing the idea now and not when they want it to be published. Its al connected towards he said, she said and I merely show the published article to prove my point.

As such we get to the first hurdle. I was walking around in nowhere land and I got to mix what I designed two years ago after seeing malls impacted by COVID issues. At that point I designed a new technology for interacting retails and consumers. It was based on mobiles and glasses to give the people more. As such I had a thought today. To get you on board I need to take you on a mission of mercy (to protect your mind) to something that is 70 years old.

We get to so see two images, one red based (for the left eye) and one green based (for the right eye) these two images do not interfere, but with the glasses you get to see a 3D image of the image. One image for the left eye, the other for the right eye. Almost like a mono coloured view-master. We adapted the technology to use grey scaled glasses and that is how I saw Gravity in 3D in the IMAX theatre. A movie by Alfonso Cuarón with George the Nespresso man Clooney and Sandra Speedster Bullock. Gravity was the most impactful movie in my life and I still think of that movie has had the most impact on me. The technology employed that is, it was a great movie all around. You see, I thought of another ploy. The grey screen with glasses can give us an additional privacy filter. We have a mobile screen where we can filter what people see and only if you are directly facing the screen can you see the information. On an angle you can not. So this already exists, so what the beef? Well, I reckoned that a screen with ‘intelligence’ could interface with the grey glasses.

Now consider that the glasses could be given a setting that gives any wearer of these glasses individual privacy and in the second setting 3D capabilities. And with the interactions you get a new level of 3D interactions (and privacy) to new tablets (and mobiles). 

The main event
Yup, now we get to the main event. You see as I stated, I was there over 2 years ago and I wrote about it in ‘The mind it continues regardless’ on June 6th 2022 (and before that) where I saw a new application to augmented reality. Eaton Centre was the first application where I saw it, but it would be highly regarded in places like the Dubai centre. I also wrote ‘A Promise kept’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/04/05/a-promise-kept/) that is more up to date to this story. You see what people fail to see is that malls rely on engagement and these times (the COVID era) are bringing that need to the surface. As such I also I got to an idea that would offer a lot more to jewellers (see A promise kept). You see, there are two phases. The first is a QR code.

This code could be outside any jeweller, but in my view I saw the jewellers in Monaco and the millions of tourists they have to ‘appease’ to. As such I formed the idea that we would add the code to the image of a hand and the image of your hand (your finger) will be placed inside of the image of the ring you wanted and there we have an approximation of Deeper Machine Learning in use with a mobile and the retail industry. I worked out parts of it and I gather that LVMH has even gotten further with this. Well, you gotta admit that they are are being paid to work on it every day and I thought that android systems (iOS too) and by next week Huawei could implement this using HarmonyOS, this could have an interesting setting where everyone could have an image of an unaffordable ring on their finger, without LVHM endangering their stock and this would be an eye catching ability in Monaco to say the least. And this could be pushed even further when we consider the privacy shield with 3D capabilities and glasses. The Deeper Machine Learning options we now have could design an image from the 3D stage and the ring (as a QR code) and create a perfect fitting ring where a $26,500 ring might merely be owned by a few, but in this setting millions could see themselves graced with such a ring and when LVMH does this every quarter you get more than a return population, you create a global wave. And that is what I saw and now with the alternative idea we could see our hand graced (in 3D) with rings we could never image ever holding (I reckon that gets 98.3433% of the female population eager to try it).

Just my sneaky sneaky sense of humour. Because I wanted to state (for some kind of record) that I got there first, well kinda anyway. So all those people making claims, I have 3288 articles in my blog showing for over 10 years a few ideas that others dream of (or so I hope). It was a stage of innovation, which is why I can call Microsoft as the masters of mediocrity. I am ahead of them by miles.

You all have a great day, I am now 4 hours from Monday and perhaps another new idea.

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October 3, 2024 · 21:35

When books are more

That was the setting I saw myself in this morning. As you (optionally) read this morning, I had given a walk down on a piece of IP by Meta, with the reference to stories more then two years old on my view on what is now the Orion with references to tourism advertising and a few settings towards creating awareness. But whilst I was writing that setting, I thought of another stage. The stage that reverts by to books. 

Consider the TV series I, Claudius. A drama that is the best drama ever written. Now I had the ‘initial’ version released in the 80’s, now it’s a Penguin title. The nice part of Penguin is that it is cheap. But my mind took it to a new direction and with augmented reality it is possible. Consider the story (which plays in ancient Rome) but now add augmented reality and at that point we have access to artwork like the statues of the old Romans like Augustus (Brian Blessed), Tiberius (George Baker), Caligula (John Hurt), Sejanus (Patrick Steward) and many more. Not the actors (or optionally included), but the art work, the statues, the places like the Colosseum, the royal palace and many more places that we might have seen. Draw the reader in with the art and references of how those people likely looked with ‘A.I.’ as the sculptures are drawn the the living version of these people. The stage is never ending. We could enable a much larger realm that some books give us. I, Claudius might show us how that world might have looked. Even as there are still issues to be resolved (Meta does little for free), but the sights could open a much larger world and Orion could bring that to the living room of anyone who has an Orion, the spectacle that brings a spectacle to the living room (to coin a phrase). 

I for one would like a little more spice with some of my books. It is OK if this title has these views added to a new version (like a limited edition), but the art still needs to be initially created. And there is no reason that these works of art cannot be accessible by the Orion glasses. Especially if one grows the tourism stage with these places and items. Consider if you are at the Colosseum, you put on your glasses, or see though your mobile art and stages of places at the simple connections? Wouldn’t that be great? I took this example as this is the best series the BBC ever created. But in my writing of ‘The opportunity for 2022’ on February 1st 2022, I used the option of Monte Carlo, through QR codes the people saw a much larger stage using a mobile. There is no reason that the Orion glasses couldn’t be used. I reckon that these glasses paired with your mobile wouldn’t do the trick too (a lot more comfortable) and with that we see the new tier of these glasses as it fuels tourism. Seeing the augmented reality of the winner William Grover-Williams driving his Bugatti Type 35B on 14 April 1929 on the track (which in Monte Carlo still exists), it gives the people more then they had and now we are literally off to the races. Augmented Reality is merely constraint by the limitation of the creative thinker and Meta removed several borders. That is the larger stage we need to embrace. I get that some people will state that there is enough tourism there. But the early bird will gain access to the revenue worms that are out there. Like the malls they need to push borders to engage the people and the malls are now feeling the pressure to create engagement and you merely need to see the amount of people who attended the malls in 2019 versus 2024 to see that places like Eaton centre mall (Toronto) and Dubai Mall (Dubai) have lost visitors (Dubai not that much) but the keep on top of matters is done by offering people more then before. That has always been proven (again and again).

America had 116,000 malls and there is no real list where I could read the numbers. But the Dubai Mall has a good amount of visitors. Now the top three malls in Dubai are the Dubai Mall, the mall of the emirates and Nakheel mall. Still there is (or soon will be) the Dubai Hills Mall. So how will you keep people engaged? By offering more and optionally something that the others do no have, as such there is apace and place for augmented reality and I saw that years ago. Now that Meta has the Orion there will be space and a place for growing that market. Funny, this was out in the open for years and both Google and Amazon were both asleep at the wheel. Now Meta has a new realm to grow a few markets and could end up being the game changer in certain fields.

Have a great day and for the Vancouverians out there, nothing will happen at 21:21 in the evening. I just learned that. I love my time based jokes, like photo bombing, it is an acquired guilty pleasure.

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September 14, 2024 · 11:05

The change of a name

That is on my mind. What set it off was a response (not by me) to a story on Twitter. It amounted to something that would optionally happen under the upcoming wannabe Trump regime. The story went that a settlement would be struck with Russia that Ukraine would hand over a slice of their land to Russia, something I find utterly unacceptable. It would trigger me to change atlases and maps changing all references from USA (United States of America) to FBP (Federated Bitches of Putin). My reasoning? 

Look at the losses that they so far have under Putin, 631 thousand soldiers, 17,000 AFV (troop carriers), 18000 artillery systems, 28 warships, a submarine and 24500 vehicles and fuel tanks, 368 airplanes, 945 anti aircraft systems, over 300 helicopters and more than 8600 tanks. They lost this to the 20th size army in the world. So when Trump negotiates this ‘settlement’ America loses the right to call themselves some united sort of stated, they become Putin’s bitches. Plain and simple. 

The other side
There is another side to this. As America hands lands to the loser there is every indication that several nations in Europe, optionally in Australia and oceania as well will turn to China to become a more close friend than America will be. We already heard (lacking evidence) that Huawei was a danger, something that has met with large opposition, particularly in Germany and the world has had enough of a collection of Karen’s and their joker (Donald Trump). The larger setting could be that they would agree to enter BRICS under condition that Russia is evicted from that group which could coincide with alignments to Beijing. And this would only be opposed to Russia, not much of an opposition after 2025. In one strike the new world order would have taken Russia And America out of the equation. Is it a real chance? I am not sure, but the powers that currently are have a setting to obliterate any view that takes Wall Street out of this equation. At present the largest danger that America faces is that the age of McCarthyism went south on May 2, 1957. The day Joseph McCarthy died. We all thought he was no good, but all those who had that opinion (me included) can now see that Joseph McCarthy might not have been wrong at all, ask any Ukrainian for a first opinion. 

Is there any good to report on this setting? It is an election year and as such there is a larger stage where neither side will give the goods on the Ukraine. This is partially seen in “Russian restraint in the expectation of a potential Trump victory in November is also matched by caution on the part of the Biden administration for similar reasons. The overriding priority of the US and its allies in their support for Ukraine has always been guided by the desire to avoid the conflict between Ukraine and Russia escalating into a wider war with Nato” There is also the second threat, which a see as a primary threat to Russia. When Europe and allies side with China. Russia and America will both be out of the race. All whilst they think that they are both ‘semi-courageous’ (read: cowardly hyena’s) the setting that comes is economic betterment and as Europe and others side with China, the two who need the recovery the most are abandoned at the drop of any conical hat.

Could I be wrong?
Yes, but this is (as I see it) the very tactic that Beijing would employ. To be certain of their economic rise over the next 10 years. Together with Saudi Arabia and the UAE they could even employ larger stages including introducing of free language skills and get the voice of the people by handing them a voice to employ in a non English way. Don’t think this will not happen, Saudi Arabia is already doing this for other reasons as well. It will not be long until universities will employ those stages to students. As I need to see the stage that I could be wrong. I have been correct too many times as well as the stage that certain greed driven policies are abundantly strong in Europe. That takes America with their $35,300,000,000,000 debt is forcing them to consider. As that pile of debt comes crashing down on America, all with connected debts will choose a safer path for themselves. As I see it France and Germany are the first to switch. Germany now has the AfD to deal with and they will see the debts they have and easily switch to China, no matter what the media states. The Media is too linked to American ‘values’ and there the larger stage is thrown over, especially as their influencers (read: stakeholders) will be trying to find a safer harbour to keep whatever they had. As I personally see it, with that large debt it would only take one third of the 760 billionaires in America for the walls of the American economy come tumbling down and I reckon that it will be the first half of the 253 billionaires to switch another country for the American administration to throw out the ‘freedom’ that these people had to shore up the banks and financial institutions. As such the ‘wealthy’ will secure whatever they can via Monaco (optionally), Nassau and the United Arab Emirates. They will merely take small portions on a monthly basis (until a few panic) and they will suddenly leave with whatever they can and live somewhere else for no less than two decades. And that is the second marker Beijing needs. When it is shown to be not on the premise of national security China will buy it all for approximately 16.55 cents on the dollar. That is how I speculate the hardship for America starts and they did it themselves by electing a greed driven idiot (read: Donald John Trump). A stage that I at present speculative, in part presumption. But in this greed driven tactics are a lot more easy to foresee. So how is that peace stage with Russia going now? 

What can be done?
Not a lot, certain stages are seemingly already happening. As I see it the softness (aka anti-McCarthyism) on Russia will be the straw that breaks the camels back. As I see it, the masses that choose Trump are the second marker, his one sided view with both Russia and against China currently complete the picture.

Try to have a good weekend and ‘أتمنى لك عطلة نهاية أسبوع جميلة’

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August 25, 2024 · 22:28

When one bank wins

This is the setting I am facing. It is set to the speculative setting of we all have a certain amount of money (me not that much), still the Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2568749/business-economy) gave me something to ponder. 

So it all starts with a certain amount of speculation. In any given en time there is an amount named X. X is a little fluidic, but X represents a real number, what that number is, will be known to just a few people, it tends to shift a lot on a day by day basis. So when we are told ‘UAE banks see 8.9% rise in short-term deposits to $14.7bn by May’ it infers that someone else lost this, optionally several players a part. Natixis made a profit and several other banks do. As of July 2024, the United States government has a monthly interest rate of 3.33 percent on its debt of over $34,000,000,000,000 dollars, which amounts to 11.2 billion. If you say that fast it doesn’t seem so much. As I personally see it, the chains around the debt driven economies are about to choke the living daylights out of its population. Yet, as some are trying to avoid to become another Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and two months after that the First Republic Bank. That was in 2023. So what (or who) handed the UAE-based banks such as neat little profitable setting? Wouldn’t you like to know? I would and there is every indication that it was all on the up and up. And the article ends with “Profitability surged to 21.5 billion dirhams, driven by higher net interest income and a significant drop in impairment charges, according to New York-based global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal” it is interesting that we do not get where these funds originated. I can understand that banks do not wash their laundry out in the open, yet after the SVB debacle, the media should hand us the goods, or at least partial goods. It is nice to see all the banks do well, yet the setting is that it comes from somewhere and the people have a right which banks are not performing as well as they should.

I reckon that this is a dangerous stance and it could fuel several other bank runs, but the reality is that the western media is not to be trusted, so where can we get the goods?

We get that debts seen all over the planet also inclines that someone is making a bundle out of that. Merely the US needs to make good on $96.8B EVERY MONTH to keep their image of ‘we are doing so well’ up, but who pays for that? Especially now that business is going to China and some to Europe. Soon, I believe that this point was already passed, to US cannot even keep up the interest payments, then what? As I see it, the big players and billionaires will place their trust funds in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Nassau. So what happens then?

I have no idea, but it will not be pretty, not for Europe, not for Japan and not for the USA. Japan has $9.2T debt, Europe has accumulated an impressive €12,732,445,200,000 debt, if the percentages are the same, we see Europe needing to find €35.3B each month and Japan a mere $25.4B a month. That money come from somewhere, does it not? Last year the US collected $4.44 trillion, this sets a dangerous premise. The interest in the US over a year is $1.16T, a simple 26% of the tax budget, lost to nothing (read: banks) and this implies that to break even the budget needs to set to 70% of the money and as we were told “The U.S. government has spent $5.60 trillion in fiscal year 2024 to ensure the well-being of the people of the United States”, which implies that not only are they not keeping a budget, they haven’t been able to keep it for years and now we see other nations getting a larger slice of the revenue pie. So, how much longer can this game be played? You think Russia is bad? I wonder how bad the USA can become when this setting implodes on America. Are the two connected? Not directly and it floats on my assumption that if one bank wins, another bank loses, which bank loses is unknown to me, I don’t have a clue, but as I see it, the media faltered in their jobs to inform the public. 

And should I be wrong, I apologise. Yet I believe to inform the readers when I can. Have a lovely Sunday, which is now starting in Vancouver, they are ready for breakfast (it’s 5AM there). 

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January 27, 2024 · 22:48

That one sided conversation

We all have them, we tend to have them with ourselves. We see things, at time we extrapolate and we come to singular conclusions. I did too. You see, ever since we have been treated to Pretty Woman (1990) we al wanted to see Rodeo drive, we wanted to see the shops and during the first covid we all took that option and had a look. However, most of us felt slightly betrayed. The view was not what we expected and today I looked at three other YouTube videos. The bulk is concentrated on the block surrounded the via Rodeo. The shops seem empty, some shops show nothing outside (or very little) and Rodeo drive is diminished to a crowd of tourists and vloggers with here and there a person quickly walking to or from their jobs. The other side is that Dubai has the mall of the emirates, the Nakheel mall that are on par with Rodeo drive and the Dubai Mall outshines Rodeo drive by a lot. And you might wonder why Dubai is such a sought after destination? The Americans let things slip all over the place and the turning point is just about here. I reckon it is already here for Las Vegas and as we see what tranquility, cleanliness and amazing views we get from these malls, as well as malls in Riyadh and you wonder why. London might have Harrods and it is amazing, but London is showing additional issues making Harrods and the streets surrounding it unsafe for tourists and shoppers. The downfall will be harsh and it is getting worse. The malls in the UAE and KSA have options towards driving engagement, making these places even more appealing. Places like Rodeo Drive and London have waited too long and there is a clear indication that their revenues cannot be maintained and the solution was online (my blog) well over two years ago. It was creating engagement. Engagement is only working if you have a population that you can serve and that is missing outside the middle east. Where was the Rodeo drive diner, preferably filled with people? Where were the real shoppers? They might show revenue for now, but when did we see a real stage of physical versus online revenue? In the Dubai mall I see shops and well over 75% show shopping and buying people during the YouTube pass. People eating, people drinking, people walking (not vlogging) dozens of eateries and many of them filled with people. The vlogging and posing women on via rodeo aren’t showing too much shopping, are they? Now, lets be clear. I could be wrong, but I feel certain I am not. I warned about creating engagement, they did nothing. I warned about creating awareness and too little was done. Now we see things changing. Even the Eaton Centre Mall in Toronto shows more live and living shoppers than Rodeo drive does, so how’s that for leaving it in the middle east? I get the distinct feeling that should Riyadh and Dubai embrace engagement, the impact on London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles will be felt to a much larger degree. The equation was not a mystery, it was simple and it has been simple for over a decade. The customers expect more and too many places aren’t showing any. Engagement was key in this and it was ignored. The moment some of the jewellers in Dubai show the engagement solutions I had thought up the change will be close to immediate a race in time will happen. Oh, I almost forgot about Monaco. They are good for now, but they too need to embrace an engaging nature. They recorded 218,400 tourists and they are not doing bad, but the idea is to address this before it turns bad and so far they (seemingly) haven’t done enough. The dozen of hot women and fast cars videos seem nice, but one video tells it nearly all. Monaco has a lot more to offer and videos clearly show this, but when the  numbers dwindle the act of engagement is shoddy and optionally too late. These solutions tend to work when there is too much to see, too much to do and too many places left that alone for too long. Optionally they relied on the wrong numbers and the wrong stories, but this is pure speculation from my side.

Consider that the Dubai Mall has all the best brands of the world, all the sought after brands and articles for purchase and they are a zero tax nation. You still think that my feel is wrong? Some people travel to Dubai just to get the new iPhone at 0% taxation. If you are willing to do that, the rest seems easy to place and engaging your customers becomes a dream ride to keep revenues up. Oh, and here (unlike in London) you can buy a watch and walk safely home. So this might be one sided, but I am leaving you with enough pointers that you can verify for yourself.

In a one sided conversation, the best you can hope for is for someone else to listen (or read), I leave it up to you to decide.

75 minutes to Sunday for me. Have fun.

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December 16, 2023 · 20:00

Rats on a ship

We know these exist and ships aren’t happy to have them, neither are the ports where they embark or disembark. But that is the setting of life. As such we see today (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/15/rudy-giuliani-pay-damages-election-workers-defamation-trial) that Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay $148.1m in damages for lies about election workers. Now lets take a look at the idiocy that Donald ‘the Duck’ Trump escalated (sorry Disney). 

  1. FoxNews versus Dominion $787 million settlement.
  2. FoxNews versus Smartmatic $2.7 billion (still pending)
  3. 4 cases against Donald Trump (The Federal Election Interference Case, The Georgia Election Interference Case, The Classified Documents Case and the The Hush Money Case)

These three alone would sink any political career, but no Trump is still setting himself up for re-election and the American people are letting him. This is about the stage to rake in the money and I am almost ashamed to admit that the Republican Party is indeed that desperate at this time. The party is over, the last songs are playing and this upcoming election will drown the American Economy, as such the Republicans are desperate to set to shores whatever they can, even if it is to only open a door to legally push all their money and wealth to a zero tax nation. 

That is what it looks like, the rats on the ship know that this party is at an end and they want to secure whatever they can, evade to whichever nation will have them (Monaco, Bermuda and Dubai are the most likely candidates). That is what the case of Rudy Giuliani is making me consider. And this is merely to two women. I reckon that now the flood gates will open. Rudy’s legal team gave us “Their lawyers asked the jury to award them each at least $24m in damages. Giuliani’s attorney said earlier this week that awarding the plaintiffs their sought damages would be a “death penalty” and would be “the end of Mr Giuliani”.” It seems to me that this team didn’t consider the death penalty against these two women and I reckon it is merely the beginning. Not just this, Giuliani apparently also owes approximately an additional $275,000 in legal fees. As such if these aren’t paid the former mayor will need to rely on public defense. I wonder how that will go. Whatever friends Donald had, they are evaporating quicker than snow in a flamethrower. We are also given “Giuliani pledged to appeal and will probably use every legal manoeuvre to block payment.” Yup, that is open to him and we are starting to see a pool of people (him and Alex Jones) the concept of lies is still protected. These people aren’t used to having a larger setting escalated against them. As such I can also report that an appeals court in Connecticut upheld a $75,000 fine against right-wing personality Alex Jones due to him missing a deposition in March of last year Friday. It just adds to the $1.1B outstanding, a nightmare that just will not go away for him and even in the larger setting the lack of actions against Alex Jones are stacking up.

This all matters as we see (via Reuters) “A New York state appeals court on Thursday denied Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a gag order restricting the former U.S. president from publicly talking about court staff in his New York civil fraud trial.

The judge overseeing the case, Justice Arthur Engoron, issued the gag order on Oct. 3 after the former U.S. president shared on social media a photo of the judge’s law clerk posing with U.S. Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and falsely called her Schumer’s girlfriend.”” AsI see it, for America 2024 will be the year of paid and unpaid settlements. This will not be small, it already stacks up to billions and the connected Republican people need a way out, they desperately want out before that firecracker wakes up the rest of America. With a little bit of howling laughter I now see the chance that Americans will be spicing the wealth of the Saudi Banks, as such the Saudi Ministry of Finance will soon have a new line in their spreadsheets. American expat investments and the percentage it represents. It is a little unlikely as Dubai has a more open setting here, yet I know that Saudi Banks do not share any information. I do not know how Emirati laws are in that case. 

Perhaps the UAE will put in a new ride in their theme parks. Rides that are avoiding people, a speedy ride that avoids people by going fast left and right. The kids version with Alex Jones, the intermediate ride with Rudy Giuliani and the ‘expert’ ride with Donald Trump, complete with lookalike animatronics. It might make the world news for some time to come and it follows my sight. Lets them become entertaining for all time through history.

A setting we tend to forget about. Especially as the liars and misrepresenters have been given too much leeway against the victims they created. And now that Alex Jones cannot hide behind bankruptcy according to U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston the gig might be up for Rudy Giuliani might be up soon enough as well and that will get the rats running for their life. The Chapter 11 workbook will not work and now they get to pay a massive slice to whatever they thought they had and with that certain FoxNews people will become equally scared. They worked in the limelight and they could end up with less than a baggage person in a supermarket. 

What a lovely way to go through the weekend. The rats are running and I am watching it from a distance unfold.

Enjoy your day.

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October 2, 2023 · 06:27

Just now

I was just about to snore (loudly) when I remembered a message pass by on LinkedIn. It was the fact that someone I am most loosely connected to one attending the Monaco Yacht Show last week.

So, I went to YouTube to see some of the video’s there and there was plenty to see, but it occurred to me that one of my IP, the one for real estate could easily also apply to these places. The exhibitors and sellers having one channel that does not rely on paper and it will be there offering its services to all who pass 24:7. That setting is one we tend to forget. The people passing by in the evening, they pass by on day 1 and they pass by when it is super busy and this service will provide all who pass their vessel. So when you are trying to sell the vessel of choice and you want in excess of €8,000,000. The idea of having a $149 solution that works those three days 24:7 is not a real investment. It was meant for the $1,800,000,000 Dubai real estate market as well as the Toronto market (which made me design the solution). As this IP becomes more and more valued due to a larger deployment, as well as my first IP reinforced by the Mississauga Center Mall. I feel that 2024 my actually be my year and that could guarantee a 3 years early retirement (wishful thinking by the workaholic I am). 

Still, the larger station gives me pause to consider where else this IP could work and I see that there are more places to go. You see if it works for Monaco, it would most certainly work for the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. The IP would not be ready for their 2023 boat show, but the 2024 boat show is an optional setting and when the Monaco results would come in, their hunger for this new sales channel is almost a definite given. Then there is the Dubai International Boat Show, which in light of the real estate angle could be a double whammy for little old me.

No matter how much this is wishful thinking, the application of an IP to a larger area is always a reason to feast (I had Spaghetti Bolognese) and as the idea is set to my blog (and is still mulling over a few more items in my mind) I see that what started as a simple retail tool could optionally become a lot more. The fun part (which I mentioned in the past) is that Amazon, Apple and Google do not have this and they should have been way ahead of me. Sucks to be them I say.

Monday is here for me, let’s make it a lovely day.

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September 16, 2023 · 02:30

Sentimental Journey

I just had one. Not the one you think. In the 90’s movies and games were relatively expensive in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands a company named Homesoft had control of video games, and as such in 2000 I got Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation and Diablo 2. One for the Dreamcast and one for the PC. The ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich (plus train to London) was around $59. The two games in the UK saved me around $40, so for $19 I went to London for the day, bought the 2 games (and a few other items) and took the night ferry back. 

I was able to upgrade to a cabin for around $30 more. It was the cheapest weekend trip and I got to walk on Regent Street, Picadilly, went to the Virgin Megastore and did a few other goofy things. I spend the day in London (from around 09:00) and for one day I felt like a king until the train around 17:00 took me back to Harwich for the night boat back to the Netherlands. 

This sentimental journey was recalled through the Khaleej Times who (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-iphone-pre-booking-draws-shoppers-from-india-pakistan-europe-to-dubai) gave me ‘iPhone pre-booking draws shoppers from India, Pakistan, Europe to Dubai’. It is here that we get “In places like India and Pakistan, iPhones can be quite expensive because of the taxes”. OK, I get that. Yet I am a little surprised that people from Europe are equally signing up for that, as we are given “A European tourist arrived in Dubai last week to get his hands on the new model. “There’s a big demand for iPhones in my country and I can get them at a relatively cheaper price here.”” It all makes sense, but I was unaware that it pays to travel to get the iPhone cheaper. It was around 6 years ago when I was ready to upgrade my old Huawei but the mobile stores did not have the 64GB edition, only the 32GB edition. Even thought here was a 64GB edition in existence. I speculated that the mobile providers wanted people to upgrade their phones every year, which would not be initially needed with a 64GB phone. In the end I found a way around it and now I rely on my Google Pixel to get me by and so far it has not let me down. The iPhone is not the cheapest and the iPhone 14 pro max is $2100 here, so I reckon that if we can get it at least 25% cheaper in Dubai it starts making sense. A flight from Sydney to Dubai (with one stop) is $961. The iPhone 15 Pro max is in Dubai $2155. You think it is the same and it is at present (I gave the 14 price as that is in the shops). You can preorder it for exactly the same price. So from Sydney a trip to Dubai makes no sense. Yet in the Netherlands it is €1.479,00 which comes down to $2,450.74 with an additional flight of around $500, so it is not that cheap, but you do get an iPhone on day one and the difference almost makes for the flight. So the math works out well for some and a little less for others, but if you have to have that version 15, a flight to Dubai suddenly makes a lot of sense. You could see it as a cheap short vacation to Dubai. When I was going over the text and I was doing the math my sentimental journey came back to me. Especially Diablo 2, which ended up giving me a massive amount of joy for a very long time. So when will people consider getting their new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air in Dubai? When you do the math, these additional items make for a free trip. A simple MacBook Pro (€ 4659) ends up being $7717, in Dubai we get it for $6961, so now we are already breaking more than even with the flight. And customs can’t do anything, just put a local sticker on the top of your new apple and it is your own already owned MacBook Pro (with non UAE stickers on top). 

I have no idea how much the people save when they get the iPhone and the MacBook Pro, yet I reckon that some might save even more. Making this and perhaps others too a really nice deal. And lets be honest. When you can get exactly the same stuff down the road or in Dubai. Who would not be willing to fly to Dubai? Even if it is just to have a shawarma in the mall (not the worst reason to go to Dubai). 

At this moment I am just smiling. It was been 24 years and we still try to get the best deal for ourselves and in this case a little more than a good deal. I remember in the 80’s it was cheaper to fly to America to get a car there then to buy an American car in the Netherlands. I never got one, but that setting also (to some degree) applied to get a car in Germany (a German model), then commerce houses started to strangle parallel imports and with the EU that all stopped. I wonder what they will do next. You see they might safe in one side, but some aren’t paying taxes, so why not get it in a tax zero nation? I reckon that this could drive commerce up in Luxembourg and Monaco. And a flight from Amsterdam to Nice is $133 (with an additional train ticket to Monaco) now the math really tanks in your favour. The train to Luxembourg is around $55, so people have options. In this day and age when the bills bite saving is key and we all try to find a cheaper way, don’t we?

Enjoy the upcoming weekend.

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May 12, 2023 · 00:17

Spend, spend, spend

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

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

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

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

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