Tag Archives: President Biden

February 26, 2022 · 23:19

I had to take this one

I was alerted to an article in the BBC, the article was about 10 hours old and gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60499391) in the headline, but only once and it does not replicate.

You see the setting of ‘Putin saw America has become weak under Biden’ is wrong, it did not become weak, it was weak and has been for some time. Getting a bully to talk loud does not make America less weak. The American inactions regarding: 

  • Chemical attack Homs Syria 2012
  • Chemical Attack Douma Syria 2018
  • Houthi terrorist attacks Yemen 2014-2022
  • Ukraine under Russian attack 2022

As you can see, Americans are all talk and lack actions. It is not because they do not want to act, it is because they can no longer act. A debt surpassing $30,000,000,000,000 is making sure that this cannot happen, the US has become nothing more than a paper tiger. And let’s be clear, this is not merely the US, the EU is in a similar state. How I went to school and heard these preaches and stories, that if there was ever a chemical attack, the nations would unite against the attackers. In 2012 we saw the reality of what was preached for decades, they merely united and scolded the transgressor making very sure that words like ‘seemingly’ and ‘alleged’ were everywhere in that text. We saw a repetition, with the western media not reporting on Iranian involvement and remaining silent on Houthi attacks on civilian targets, the United Nations added to this by calling out one party and not the other one (Iran). The complete view on the uselessness of western politics set in action.

So when we get ‘told’ the simplicity of “America has become weak under Biden”, it did not, it was weak and will become weaker still. It is the order of things when your credit card is telling you to stay at home whilst the neighbours house is on fire and you cannot afford to buy a bucket. You do not want to let the neighbour know that you cannot afford a bucket, so you set in motion talks, but the neighbour does not want to talk, HIS HOUSE IS ON FIRE! 

/so when Al Jazeera reports ‘New sanctions come as Yemeni rebels ramped up attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent weeks’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/23/us-issues-new-sanctions-on-alleged-houthi-financing-network) 3 days ago, my response is that the US gets a functional navy that can stop smugglers, so far I have seen less than 3 successes over a time of 6 years (at least) and we see how the US Navy seemingly cannot stop anything. That is not their fault (I think) and there could be half a doze reasons, but let’s be clear, the western media to a much larger degree is silencing that part all over the place. And we can shelter on the setting that no one cares about Syria and Yemen, but the Ukraine is too close to home (for the EU) and now we get to see the blame game, we get to see the opposite side, just like the US and EU were silencing any issue on Iran, we now see ‘China refuses to call Russia’s move on Ukraine an invasion’ (source: Australian Financial Review). So how does that feel? The blunt question is ‘Why would China care about Ukraine?’, Why would China push for a setting that it does not need to do? I do not think it is right, I merely think it is as it is. 

We need to accept that inaction comes with consequences and a consequence now is that Russia wants EU expansionism stopped and Russia took the step it felt it could take and that sucks for the Ukraine, but the inactions of the EU and the US (economic sanctions are not real actions), and I am proven right in another BBC article where we saw yesterday “Ukraine isn’t in America’s neighbourhood. It is not located on the US border. Nor does it host a US military base. It does not have strategic oil reserves, and it’s not a major trade partner”, it was the sad truth for Syria, for Yemen and now for the Ukraine. It is what the US calls policy and that is their take on it, it doesn’t make any president weak, but as I see it, when you need to set a filter to that degree, it also implies that you are no longer a superpower, especially if you cater to Iran who allegedly is now (or will be soon) enriching Uranium to 20%, so when this escalates in the state of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will it still a stage of inaction? I reckon so, the debt will remain for decades giving China and Russia an almost uncensored way to change the political map all over the Far East and the Middle East. Now there will be people who do not agree, and that is fair. I would merely like to point out that the past has proven me right and the present is merely continuing the stage that I am still not wrong. 

Europe is in danger of a lot more than you think and it seems that in this case the US is not playing the game to the harder degree, they seemingly no longer can.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 7, 2022 · 08:10

The street we know

It is a different setting, we tend to relate to the streets we tend to know. Any technology is set upon a familiar setting. The benefit is that we know where we are and as such we get to where we think we want to go faster. The negative part is that this is a problem when it is true innovation, we cannot continue an iterative line if we want true innovation. 

So when I saw ‘Saudi Arabia announces $6.4 billion investments in future tech’ (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/saudi-arabia-announces-64-billion-investments-future-tech-2022-02-01/) I took notice last week but merely that, it was to be expected. So when I looked at it again this morning, I noticed “include a $2 billion joint venture between eWTP Arabia Capital, a fund backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Alibaba, and China’s J&T Express Group, minister Abdullah Alswaha said”, I had overlooked that initially. But it makes sense, as ties with China grow, the Chinese IT sector would come in. It spells bad news for the US, for Amazon in particular. The options that were there are shrinking, they are not gone, but China is now in position to take the cream from the barrel and become the new fat cats. My IP still has options, but it might not go the highway I had hoped for (we all have that), still I do have the innovation advantage and when others fail I can step in. 

There is another side, a side that Amazon had in hands, you see with Neom and Vision2030 Amazon had a larger option if there was a data centre in Saudi Arabia, not a simple online store, but a real data centre, they would need one for a few reasons and even as the media gives us “showing its continued business interests there despite a public dispute between Riyadh and the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos”, we can see the hindrance there, we can see that there are issues (I am ignoring the FTI Consulting issues here), but in a larger stake worth billions, the need to find solutions are clear for Amazon. They could walk away and leave it all to AliBaba and the J&T Express Group yet who profits then? Not Amazon, not the US and it is another spark that goes into the direction of China. It is a problem for the US for two reasons. The first one is simple revenue, the US desperately needs that. The second one might not be that clear. You see Saudi Arabia has at present a full fletched 5G network, so those there can do all kinds of prototyping to a much larger extend and see the impact of congestion in a complete 5G network. You see at present we see assumptions via 4G LTE and other settings, this implies that other issues will not be captured when things go wrong. And with all the transgressions we have seen in 2020 and 2021 these systems need proper adjustment. Saudi Arabia has the advantage and now it seems so does China (outside of China), another step not to the advantage of the west (as expressions go), so how many steps do we all need to fall behind before people take this disadvantaged setting seriously?

Even now, the aftermath of Davos will be in favour of both Saudi Arabia and China. Al Jazeera reported “Observers see the high-profile conference as a way for the kingdom to redeem itself in the eyes of US President Joe Biden and the wider international community”, yet my question becomes ‘Why?’ You see, the EU and the US have shown themselves to be unreliable, all setting concepts to presentation in stead of evidence. Now that China is showing themselves to be a much larger player and a willing player could spell a massive loss in revenue. 3 billion here, 6.4 billion there, and several more billions left, right and hither. How much longer until we face the direction that we are losing out? Now this would not be a problem when we have alternatives, but there aren’t that many are there? And consider that one side gives us ‘Deficit shrinks in the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency’ (around $500,000,000,000 less loss), it is a joke when you consider that the deficit is still $2,500,000,000,000,000. And less than a months later the people are given ‘Biden’s $1.7trn social policy will send deficit soaring’, it is another setting of managing bd news and on top of that they lose revenue option after revenue option. So how does that look? The US debt has now surpassed $30,000,000,000,000,000, you have that kind of money? I do not and none of the others have it and an additional problem for the US is that the EU wants to dig into the Saudi revenue pie as well, yet at present China has the upper hand. A setting we ignore because we are lulled to sleep, and that time is gone, when the US debt comes crashing down the EU will join a massive loss and no amount of promise will aid anyone at that point. All because certain players underestimated the impact of innovation and innovation like some are marketing it is not innovation, it is a presentation nothing more. We all tend to keep to the street we know but when that street is on fire, will you merely stop the fire or see what resources are available in the next street? 

China did just that and now we see the fallout of political stupidity. Oh, and when Iran does not come across with promises that they made to some middle man, when the unfortunate adjustments come, the middle man will not care, he got his oil barrel bonus, he is just fine, but those who were behind it will get to say ‘Oops!’ Just as I expected them to do. At that point we will see another advantage to China, good going! And what happens in May/June when Iran has enough nuclear materials? What then?

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 6, 2022 · 20:38

Time on my side

Yes, this is what it seems to be and there are no rolling stones going my way. I saw the news yesterday, but I was busy with a few other parts. So when I recall ‘Early Christmas for China’ on January 10th and ‘Just like the moon’ on September 20th 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/20/just-like-the-moon/), there were even a few more mentions before that and people called me nuts, I was talking like Mr. Serious Hit. And now we see the continuation in the Business Insider with ‘As Biden struggles to define his relationship with Saudi Arabia, China is stepping in to fill the gap’ (at https://www.businessinsider.com/china-saudi-strengthen-ties-biden-struggles-define-mbs-relationship-2022-1). A stage that was out in the open, a setting where China is now ready to set the caper to take billions from the EU and the US and direct it towards China. I stated it before and now we see the mention of “In recent months, China and Saudi Arabia have grown closer, establishing new fronts of cooperation in defence and trade.” A setting that could cost the two dumb parties (EU and US) hundreds of billions. So where do you think they will get the heating relief for? How does it look when the BAE has a good system but these tea grannies protesting on behalf of the CAAT are now the cause of prolonging the UK hardship for another decade, well done ladies! A perfect setting where you had no clue what you were talking about in the first place. 

So whilst we take consideration of “Saudi Arabia has long been China’s biggest trade partner in the Middle East — Saudi goods accounted for 17% of Chinese imports in 2021”, yet that is not really the real deal, it is when Saudi Arabia extends towards 25% of Chinese imports to include defence materials and optionally consultation you will see a much larger change. You see, The UAE will be invited for a special tour, Oman and Bahrain perhaps too and someone from Egypt. That is the moment when the EU and the US needs to fear the impact of reduced revenue as well as losing a political ground. You see these people were listening because the US was bringing them stuff, when that falls away the political ground changes. It is the application of money talks, bullshit walks. Political people will call it ‘A complex situation that is being monitored and looked at in conjunction with the state department and others to see what we can achieve’, but the people around that setting will have their own version of applied stupidity in politics. It was always simple. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to defend itself from future attacks from Iran and the politicians in Eu and US have done EVERYTHING to trivialise that and now another step (by China) is being made to approach Saudi Arabia. That implies that the ball is no longer on the US side, it is on the other side and is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides to lob it towards China the US will lose more than 3-5 years of decent revenue. They will have to sell to nations that do not have the cash, their credit cards are strapped as such larger discounts will be required. The UK is in no better setting, they will lose less, but they stand to lose a massive amount of cash that was meant for the British coffers that pays for all that can soon no longer be afforded. 

So whilst Chinese President Xi Jinping sings to the record of the Rolling Stones singing ‘Time is on my side’ in the halls of the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, the people who hear it will realise that the US is now in a stage where the debt surpassed $30,000,000,000,000 and the incoming revenue is decreasing. The EU might not be in such a setting yet, but both the EU and UK will see that life will become harder soon enough. All because alleged individuals decided to dance to the needs of Iran, well played, stupid, but well done. Perhaps you will get a Harrods Christmas hamper from China. 

Oh and the fact that I saw this months ago was not future prediction, it was the simple approach towards logic; there were always two alternatives and China got there faster and more convincingly.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 29, 2022 · 13:01

That one flaky promise

This story get you from Reuters. It was the article (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-highlight-manufacturing-jobs-gdp-growth-pittsburgh-2022-01-28/) giving us ‘Biden visits Pittsburgh bridge collapse, vows more U.S. investment’, so how is this going to get done? We think it is a simple exercise, but in reality it is one of the hardest and it is seemingly going to infrastructure, which has close to zero return in investment. Making the exercise even harder.

So how did I get there?
In the first this is not specifically against President Biden. He inherited a debt from both the Democratic isle and the Republican isle, both sides are equally guilty and consider that the US last had a surplus in the Clinton Era (1993 to 2001) and 8 months later the World Trade Centre went down. At present the US has a debt that is now $29,800,000,000,000. It will hit $30 trillion in a weeks time. So how does one invest more when the debt is 30 trillion? It is a simple enough question and with the interests going up, the US will not be able to make interest payments in the next quarter. Yes, they will pull a rabbit out of a hat and some weird accounting principle will used to borrow $999,999,999 from 100 sources so that they can pass it without opposition, but that tends to be the final straw, the final nail in a coffin called economy. Consider that the UK only has a £2,000,000,000,000 debt and we saw only a few days ago that they are now staring at inflation giving them “£8.1bn last month – up from £2.7bn a year earlier” (source: BBC). It is a 300% increase due to inflation. So at what point does the US (Japan too) feel the brunt of $89.4Bn against the expected $29.8Bn (speculated interest numbers)? Now I cannot vouch what the actual numbers are, but if inflation hits the UK, it will hit the US as well, the nice part of setting debt to equal levels (EU, US, JPN) implies that debt interest will grow on near equal terms and the US is in it too deep. So how will the Biden administration invest more? There is no money left and infrastructure has been getting slammed for 2 decades now and as previous administrations did not do nearly enough, present and future administrations need to do more whilst there is no money left. 

So whilst we see the setting of a tragedy in Pittsburgh, it is in no way the proper setting of a fairy tale, because that is what I personally believe that the Biden administration is trying to sell. I would be delighted to be wrong, I truly do. Yet in the light of debt and interest all whilst US taxation got the US $3.46 trillion (actual 2019) and $3.71 trillion (estimated 2020), now consider that in 2021 the deficit will grow by $3,000,000,000,000 all whilst the additional interest payments will grow too. So the setting of a $6,800,000,000,000 budget that is close to 50% short of what is collected, so how exactly will these so called US investments be done? How can you invest in something you have no cash for?

Is the image too blurry or are you starting to see the greater picture? And now we see the dangers that the US is close to no options left but to take control of US set USPTO patents and IP’s. The US can only continue by setting US based IP to government leverage. So does it now make sense that I prefer my IP to remain in the Commonwealth? The EU an optional second choice? The smaller IP owners will soon feel the dangerous breath of a ‘social’ minded government to ‘share’ their IP with all Americans, all whilst their government will spend money they never had. I am on the ‘screw that idea’ mindset and prefer my IP to remain solidly within the Commonwealth. Thank you very much. 

So when that prediction come to term and when the brain-drain in the US does happen (still speculatively) what will the US have left to pay for the bills they have. 

And if you wonder if Wall Street pays for that, consider that they will have a 96 hour window to get the hell out of there with whatever portable wealth they have, and my guess is that they have been setting up nesting eggs in every zero tax place that they can call home next. The Wall Street Journal reported on this on December 10th 2021. There we see “thousands of millionaires have relocated to the city and the wider United Arab Emirates, drawn by zero income tax and relatively relaxed pandemic restrictions. The city’s bars, restaurants and hotels are packed, real-estate prices have surged, workers are returning to offices”, it is the first wave of what I think will be a growing wave all over the zero tax places. Let’s be clear, this is my speculative view, because people are increasingly eating oranges does mean they stop eating apples, but if a certain group gets loaded on one fruit there is a decent speculation that other fruits will not or at least less eaten. There is a wave and it is starting almost exactly around the time I predicted it to happen to some degree in 2014. There were doubts, but we were heading in this way and now we are almost there. And those economists who called me raving mad? Weird, I have not seen them around for some time. I wonder why? 

Just in case, do not just believe me, do not trust me (trust no one) and do your own math, consider common sense and wonder where your retirement fund will be when you are American in 2024 (most likely it stopped existing). Do your own math and do not accept answers from economists “This is too big too fail”, or “We expect it to stay around the same as it is now”, party lines that ignore inflation debt payments that cannot be met and an annual deficit of trillions. That is the reality your funds face. So when we see ‘Biden visits Pittsburgh bridge collapse, vows more U.S. investment’ I wonder where he is getting those numbers from, because the balance of the books do not support that promise, it seemingly stopped supporting that promise 5-10 years ago.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 10, 2022 · 00:40

Early Christmas for China

Yes, it is not the headline you wanted to see, but there is a not unrealistic chance that Christmas for China is coming 10 months early. It is seen in the first in ‘Saudi Arabia may run out of interceptor missiles in ‘months’’ (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/saudi-arabia-may-run-out-of-interceptor-missiles-in-months-ft). Al Jazeera tells us here “As Houthi rebel attacks escalate, Riyadh has ‘an urgent situation’ as it runs out of missiles for its air-defence system, Financial Times newspaper reports” this is the wake up call. It is “There is an interceptor shortage. Saudi Arabia has asked its friends for loans, but there are not many to be had,” one of the people told the publication” that takes the cake. Terrorists are firing missiles (with Iranian support) on Saudi Arabia and civilian targets and we have to be serious on “there are not many to be had”?  Are you freaking kidding me? Well, there is an alternative, a Chinese alternative and when someone states that the interceptor is better, I cannot really counter that with other than “You have no stock, so what do you care?” A stage where the Americans decided to upheave their arms sales, first planes, then Navy and now Interceptor missiles. Well, the Chinese have the HQ-9, or Sea Red Banner-9 missile. There are a few alternatives so the Chinese will have a few versions for Saudi Arabia. So when we see “In February last year, Biden said he would end US support for Saudi Arabia’s “offensive operations” in Yemen, including “relevant arms sales”” we can all nod or realise that the interceptor has a defensive nature. But that might be me. In all fairness, my goal is still to get the 3.75% commission, and on sales that now could extend well beyond the $300,000,000,000 ends up being a really nice sum of money and as I see it, America does not need that revenue, they can go bankrupt with or without it. And there is the other side that Saudi Arabia would enable a much larger set of infrastructures to go via China, the EU seemingly not needing international revenue to go their way either.

When will people realise that it is too late for some high moral point of view? It is nice if you have the coffers to feed nations, but the US and the EU nations gave that away to banks and meaningless spending, as such they have to chose whether it is a population going hungry. It is just like these politicians having a go at Google and Amazon, all whilst Microsoft is overlooked as they install bloatware after bloatware interaction reducing the options and rights of billions. So when will these people take the proper scope in sight? For me there is a selfish reason. I am not Saudi, but I am massively anti-stupid and anti-enabling. So when the media gives us “in light of the October 2018 murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives in Istanbul” all whilst no clear evidence has ever been reported or presented is just too stupid for words. So if I can get a few crumbs of billions by high lighting that, why would I not do that?

And in the second setting. The fact that Houthi forces have anything left to fire on Saudi Arabia and no one has stock to replenish, what does that tell you? When will these idiots act against Iran? Whilst we are treated two hours ago to ‘Iran denies interim nuclear deal reached – report’ (source: Jerusalem Post), so why are we getting denials, deferences and deflection in a stage where one player is becoming more and more dangerous. There is now an actual stage where at least one nation is willing to go to war. I tried to avoid that by making an idea to melt down the Iranian reactors without the need for bombs, so I did my bit and it is growing ever more likely that China will do their bit to, so where does all the inactions leave President Biden with the USA and his administration when inaction is all that they can offer? It is the worst political stage of enabling a competitive nation (China) I have ever seen and the EU is in a stage not much better at present. 

So where do they go when they have nothing left? I reckon it will be the path of the Chihuahua, but that might just be me.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 4, 2021 · 11:07

Merely a dream

I had a decently weird dream last night. It might be a movie, but I think it is not good enough for that. It might be a popcorn movie, merely for streaming and DVD sales and that would be fine too. The setting is that the dream started a few other things and I wonder where we are in less then a year.

It started in Toronto, I was there for whatever reason. There was a lot of chaos, a lot of shooting and a lot of damage. It was primarily in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. It is around February 2022, the US has defaulted on its loans. The people lost almost everything they ever owned and the stage is that ultra right angry people are whipping up the others who are coming to terms that their politicians are as useless as everyone expected them to be. Canada suddenly has to deal with 30-50 thousand invaders all angry and all taking whatever they can, they have nothing left. I saw police officers in Yorkville getting shot, store windows were getting crashed and houses are overrun. The American had turned into rabid dogs. The army was trying to create bottlenecks but an army spread over Canada having to deal with three clearly way to large fire points and a lot more in the rural areas is not an army that can get a whole lot done. And nearly all Americans were wielding firearms. It is then that I see the army starting to shoot to kill and I wake up.

Now, that was merely a dream, but the larger station remains. Everyone is in this ‘lets hope’ phase, but America has been utterly broke for well over three years. And every time the debt ceiling is raised. A political system that cannot take responsibility, that uses the blame game and points at the previous party if it is a different political party. They both failed and they both refused to overhaul tax laws for well over over 25 years. In the 90’s the idea of a trillion dollar firm was ludicrous. Now they have 2, maybe 3. These firms did NOTHING wrong. They adhered to tax laws and they did what the tax laws demanded that they would do. So every time I see another tax the rich, whilst these people look at three parties (ignoring 15 others), I get nervous. The larger station is not that they refuse to overhaul tax laws. It might be that they are too stupid to overhaul them.

And this too is nothing new. What will be new is that the US government will take a look at their patent office and make (forced) deals with any isolated (registered in America only) patent and demand a financial deal with that owner. So lucky my IP is not registered in the US. A setting of grab it whilst you can will start soon enough and whilst the US will be in denial, there will be behind the scene deals with Google, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft and IBM. All to get a little more use and traction out of the failing US economy. All whilst it has been clear for decades that the tax laws need a complete rewrite, a setting where everyone is taxed fairly. But that will not likely happen. That will upset the large donators and political friends they have and they would lose them, so nothing will happen and the dream that I have will come closer to becoming an optional reality. 

Is it a wish or a dream? No one wishes for this. Not when you consider all the innocent lives struck by American stupidity, but the larger station is that a lot of Americans are close to desperate and the default will push them over the edge, I feel certain of that. Even as the news (mainly media) is now flaming their need for digital advertisement, hiding behind the announcement that the US of A could default next week, we also get a mere 16 hours ago that ‘U.S. Senate passes bill to avert government shutdown, sends to Biden for signature’, but that is not the same is it? A shutdown is one thing, a default is something else. There are paths that they could walk, set up a massive loan with JP Morgan, Blackrock or Morgan Stanley, the turnaround will need to be massive and that is how the slippery slope becomes a diagonal sheet of ice. A timeline extended and extended, all whilst the premise of stopping this going from bad to worse is ignored.

It was but a dream, I realise that, but perhaps my brain is working out a few financial items covered in nightmares. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, movies, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 8, 2021 · 18:01

The call of a budgie

Yes, that is almost the foundation of a new cartoon, the story of Sylvester the cat and his sunny side show, Tweety. A show that was funny when we were younger than 13, but now? That is the stage we face (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59182278) with ‘Twitter poll calls on Elon Musk to sell 10% stake in Tesla’. What is this? It is like the BBC has lost its senses. Just like the Dutch government who claimed that they gave in to Twitter pressure when they made a deal with Sywert van Lieden, and no one is asking questions that matters. 

In the first Twitter is no valid source of information, none of the vote can be verified. It could will be three politicians each wielding a troll army of 235,000, we cannot tell. Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter, it updates me from sources that give me information. Newspapers that have a good reputation, movie productions that give me time lines and optionally a trailer or two, new games. And sometimes a link to something that matters, but polls? A shouting app that allows the rude and the loud to set policy? Never! Its like giving the power of policy on meat to the vegetable store down the road. Or perhaps it lets the NBA make NHL rulings. The proverbial ‘fuck that!’ comes to mind. 

So in this case it is about a poll that allegedly (because a Twitter account can always be hacked) Elon Musk put in the field and the BBC turn it into a lie. They give you “Voters in a Twitter poll have urged Elon Musk to sell 10% of his stake in Tesla in order to pay tax.” That is not what happened. Elon Musk (allegedly) put a question to an audience where he stated “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” The response was that 57.9% said yes. We see no numbers, but it could be that 579 out of 1000 said yes. And it is a mere question he aired. And the setting is more. Tax avoidance, or black letter law is legally allowed, it merely means that he would pay what he is due, not what we THINK he is due and the larger stage is that it is again about tax laws, a setting both democrats and republicans have never ever adjusted, not in 2 decades. 

Then we see a part that matters, the BBC gives us “In an earlier tweet on Saturday, Mr Musk said he took no salary or bonuses from any of his companies – meaning he has no earnings on which to pay income tax. But he has made billions of dollars through a compensation package, which gives him power to exercise large amounts of stock options when the company meets performance targets and its shares hit certain prices.” He is legally allowed to do this and certain stupid players need to stop baiting the hook, the law is there, he can do this and he does. It is not good, it is not bad, it is allowed. To be honest, it a certain Randy Lennox takes the steps I could (hopefully) end up with 10% of $400M-$600M. Do you think I will not take these steps? You have got to be joking. The tax laws allow me to do this and I will, it is the law. 

And I am not alone, more and more take this step, because the law allows me to do this. The tax overhaul,. The one step that stops this is avoided by politicians, why is that? Why are these (stupid) people relying on Twitter to try to pressure people? We know it is not a valid source, it can be an informative source, but cannot be verified (so you need to take care on what to believe) and the list goes on (and on and on and on). So there we have a setting and the BBC justly adds to this with “Mr Musk has an option, which expires in August next year, to buy 22.86 million Tesla shares at $6.24 each – a fraction of Tesla’s closing share price on Friday of $1,222.

Under plans proposed by the Democratic Party in the Senate, billionaires could be taxed on “unrealised gains” when the price of their shares goes up – even if they do not sell any of their stock.” This would add another $23,000,000,000 non taxable funds (at the moment). The law allows him to do this, I saw some of my bosses (in the past) do this with much smaller numbers and it has been legal for at least 30 years. If it was such a taboo why didn’t they stop it them. In that time the US had Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and now President Biden, and so far none have done anything. Well the proposition is from the current president, but I reckon that the votes will fail. And even if it holds up, I feel 99.335% certain that there will be a hiatus and there will be ways around it. Thousands of tax lawyers ill be ready to take that proposition apart and drive wedges through its X, Y and Z axis. 

And as some players claim, the value does not always go up. Elon Musk is one man but hundreds of others do the same, if one gets taxed up to these hundreds can use that setting to make it all tax deductible a side the people are eager to avoid staring at, because they see this one Elongatedly uberly rich Musk and they forget that the one winner comes with 999 losers. Do you really wanna give a tax cut to the 999 that follow?

And credit to the BBC to add the comment by Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman who gives us “Looking forward to the day when the richest person in the world paying some tax does not depend on a Twitter poll” the one sane view in the article. Especially as one of the other Musk polls or statements got ‘altered’ to attain the flaming audience. I too would have questions for Elon Musk, but it would be on his new mobile and other settings that accompany this. I wonder if there is a side that is the danger of a much larger dangerous issue in the works. I am not claiming it is, I am merely wondering on the chances of this, and not from him or his endeavour, but on the dangers of third parties doing something stupid (as they tend to do when their pupils turn to dollar signs). For now I merely wonder, perhaps I will see an opposing view when the clear facts are presented to the world. 

I know, it is merely the view of little (and seemingly old) me, and that does not constitute evidence, but it calls for all kinds of questions, does it not? The call of a budgie is nice when you are drinking tea (or coffee) yet the stage of Twitter remains that we can switch it off when we do something that is important to us, did you consider that? And I get that the BBC saw this as an opening, but I reckon they could have written it differently, but that is my personal view on the matter. Have a fun day!

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Law, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 3, 2021 · 18:48

We stand on guard for thee

This is a special edition, this is for my Canadian fans (there are a few). And there are a few items that concerns them. First off, we have a little funny go at their prime minister Justin Trudeau (for form sake). I see the too much negative stories about him.

I do wonder about that at times, but others have their right to a view too. In this side there are two images. And yes, I do have a reason, you see the home-front is part of him, he married Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, a lady of 27 springs, which is fine, but why does he insist on looking 10 years younger than her? All men know that looking younger than your wife will be our downfall in a few ways, so as I thought he had gained insight during the pandemic, we suddenly started to see him with a posh beard (a beard loaded with silver), so we thought someone whispered a few facts of life to him, but no, recently he has gone beardless again and I reckon there will be a fallout in Maison Trudeau soon enough, but that is enough about him. 

You see, Canada will be in a tough situation soon enough, I reckon in 4-6 weeks hell comes calling. And when we realise that Canada got through the pandemic a lot better than plenty of others. The NY Times reported that 1,639,169 had the disease, less than 28,000 died from the disease making them 26th on the mortality list. With 72% fully vaccinated and 78% at least one shot they are in a good place, the US has only 56% fully vaccinated and 65% with one doze. 

The Canadian setting is a lot better than many European nations and it comes to 0.7% of American casualties of a permanent nature. Canada has reason to be proud and it happened when Trudeau was at the helm. Here I distinguish ‘was at the helm’ versus ‘was steering the nation’, that difference requires me to know a lot more and I do not.

But the pandemic is merely one side, the larger problem will be the US, when the debt ceiling is reached the impact will be seen in many ways. Not merely in the stage of the debt, larger changes, dangerous changes are at foot. The IP Watchdogs might trivialise it with ‘Leahy Bill to ‘Restore the AIA’ is Too Unbalanced to Pass’ yet, I am not convinced. The senator from Vermont has a collection of powerful companies backing him, optionally merely to protect their own needs. A source gives us “Bernie Sanders supported some parts of the bill but had misgivings over the “no strings attached” emergency appropriations available to the semiconductor industry”, it is a fair call and both sides have merits, but the larger station is now, when the US decides to use ‘nationalised’ patents and IP to bank the second credit card, the US will give a larger chunk of the battle field to China and South Korea, who have a massive IP setting. That stage and the debt default gives rise to the dangers. Millions of Americans will choose larger taxation and safety over US exploitation, in the we end up seeing Canada in the same predicament that the US had with Mexico and there is no Rio Grande between the US and Canada, there are the Niagara Falls, but apparently you can cross it in a barrel. I wouldn’t know. The larger station for Canada is now 4-6 weeks away and it sets a awkward stage. How dangerous is this? It is not merely the US, there are plenty of people in the EU and Australia that see more options in Canada and the Pandemic is pushing for brain drains all over the field. One might argue that we have seen this before. In the era 400AD – 600AD change hit Europe “The Great Migration took place in the waning days of the Western Roman Empire. Hunted by the advancing Huns and lured by the riches of the politically weakened Western Roman Empire, from the fourth century onwards several mainly Germanic tribes invaded Western Roman territory.” We now see something similar as the US is crumbling as the powerhouse the once were and then pretended to be a bit longer. I do not think it is the blame of President Biden, the six presidents preceding them did close to nothing to stem the debt and as it is now surpassing $25,000,000,000,000 (25 trillion), all whilst we see arms deals cancelled, fiasco’s in naval and airforce construction, fiasco’s that wasted well over 10% of the entire US education spending, two projects the waste was THAT much and the people will see the numbers and realise that staying in the US is going to get less and less healthy, as such the problem for Canada, they will get a massive influx of people hoping that they might find happiness there. I would like to state that the Commonwealth nations stands with them, but to be honest, I have no idea where the G20 Commonwealth politicians from Australia, UK, South Africa and India stand. They are too much about enabling America and too little about holding them too account and I fear it might cost Canada at some point. What happens then? 

I honestly do not know.

Yet we need to return to the Prime Minister. We see several online settings of anti-Trudeau. One seen in the Conversation is “Accusations that Trudeau has betrayed Canada was a common theme as we began studying grassroots Facebook pages in 2019, another election year. We found no Trudeau meme pages celebrating the leader. Instead, we watched anti-Trudeau pages describe him as a traitor who deserved to be treated with contempt.” It seems to be that there is a flock of Trudeau trolls and the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) as well as the RCMP will need to look into this sooner rather than later, because trolls are like rats, they will leave the sinking ship at the second sign of trouble and they will become a Canadian problem soon thereafter. This gets us to one source (a debatable one) called the Hill Times. We see there (at https://www.hilltimes.com/2021/09/30/canzuk-time-is-canada-ready/319763) ‘CANZUK time, is Canada ready?’, there we see “Canada has a chance to be a major player in CANZUK to usher in a more politically stable and mutually beneficial version of a modern Commonwealth”, in this weirdly enough it is Canada and New Zealand that are the stable making elements, the other two are deep in the American pockets and that is about to backfire largely. This is not about submarines, it is not about local settings it is about them siding with the US against Chinese matters all whilst there is a failing level of evidence. No, China is not innocent, but it all got tainted through the Huawei stage and China (understandably) took offence. There is no way that China can absolve too many events, but some they can and the US in a failing IP grip, a failing debt grip and a failing power grip is trying whatever they can to seem important. New Zealand has been steering clear and Canada needs to make up what to do, they do have the US (aka South Canada) on their border so it is not an easy decision, yet should all talks in the US fail and the debt ceiling becomes cemented, the people harmed by it will desperately seek a way out and north is the one move that makes perfect sense to many American.

Canada, we stand on guard for thee, yet the clarion call can, and should only be made by Canada, we cannot do it for them.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 17, 2021 · 03:36

How stupid are we?

Yes, let’s come with a question that optionally offends us all straight from the barn, because we deserve to be asked the hard questions. I have been accused of being ‘all’ pro Saudi, all ‘pro’ China and why? You see, two players (US and UK) have a product, OK the USA less so, if you ignore 900 flaws and that would be fine, but then the US gives the KSA ban after ban and for no good reason, merely a morel approach whilst the opponents of the KSA are not held to ANY standard. So, if I see an option to make 3.75% from $11,000,000,000 I will do so. Australia is not in a war with China. Now, as a commonwealth citizen I would have preferred to sell the KSA the UK solution, but here we see that the UK is as stupid as the US and they all listen to the wrong people and they are now losing out on billions, billions THEIR government coffers desperately need (the US needs them as well, but I remain a commonwealth citizen, so fuck ‘em). And China has a product and personally so does Russia, but in that equation I would prefer to ‘sell’ the Chinese solution. There are no morals, this was all about common sense (and me getting a few coins in light of an upcoming retirement event).

Now was it good, was it bad? It is neither, a buying party needs their nation safer (KSA) and the USA and UK have an issue with that, so along comes a valid alternative (China) and so I take a gander being the courier here. 

That does not mean that others are not to be held by standards and that is where we are. You see Al Jazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/9/15/what-could-an-evergrande-debt-default-mean-for-china-and-beyond) is giving us the stage where we see ‘What could an Evergrande debt default mean for China and beyond?’ And the stage is not a small one, the debt is now at $300,000,000,000. It is larger than the national budget for quite a few nations. I am wondering, was no one awake when we were confronted with the utter stupidity of a place called Interserve Plc? Oh, and only earlier this year we were fed ‘Interserve Construction suffers £108m loss’, and that was not even the worst. In March we get ‘Losses from Interserve’s energy-from-waste disaster top £300m’, did no one catch on and after we had the Lehman brothers, the Dutch SNS bank who relied on ‘We are too big to fail’, we now see Ever Grande and the risk of running short on $300,000,000,000 which looks like a thousand times worse than Interserve, now Tilbury Douglas and the hard times are nowhere near over. Yes, the board of directors will fill their pockets on the way out and I reckon that Hui Ka Yan and his $11,000,000,000 plus fortune will not face the danger of hunger any day soon. Now, whatever China does is up to China, yet I believe that the setting of “Evergrande currently has 1,300 real estate projects in 280 cities in China” shows that there is a larger need for governments to step in, especially when we are confronted with “the real estate developer may not be able to make the interest payments on some of its $300bn in liabilities next week and could also miss a principal payment on at least one of its loans”, I personally never believed that there is anything like ‘Too big to fail’, just offer some of these contracts and the payments to their competitors and see what happens. So even as Hui Ka Yan believed in the alternative Tom Cruise with “I feel the need, the need for greed” there is a larger station, we do know that governments tend to be a lot more stupid then people, but there are well over half a dozen examples of stupidity, did no one catch on? And here we need to take notice that people are on average as stupid as the average of the total amount of stupid people. Yet governments and companies doe not share that. They are as stupid as the sum of all the people working for them and that tends to be a lot worse. According to Deutsche Welle it is already there. With “Some 1.5 million people have put deposits on new homes that have yet to be built” (at https://www.dw.com/en/evergrande-why-the-chinese-property-giant-is-close-to-collapse/a-59175953) we see a setting where a place like San Diego, California where every person in that city loses ALL of their lifetime savings, it is that bad and we tend to wonder what will any government do, I wonder how these people will not lose everything. This is not some collection of shareholders, this is a stage where 1,500,000 people become optionally homeless overnight, it is a lot worse and it could hit the Chinese economy in a few ways and as some people sit hiding behind their dark shades, nodding and state “We feel the need, the need for greed”, all whilst the cadavers of circumstance pile up. When will governments learn that there is a need for oversight, especially when the impact is THAT big. So whilst we take notice of “Evergrande has expanded into other areas of the economy, including food, life insurance, tv/film and leisure”, can anyone explain to me why a property giant was even allowed in food and life insurance? Never mind the bollocks (aka: the 122nd largest group in the world by revenue, according to the 2021 Fortune Global 500 List), too many are heralding and applauding stupidity and greed. As such I feel perfectly fine trying to be the courier between two parties grabbing a decent coin in the process. Oh, and as the Chinese government is seeing what is rolling their way, the KSA deal might be one that diminishes the impact of Evergrande, so whilst we see three people (Biden, Johnson and Morrison) plot to become a new world power by handing nuclear submarines to Australia, all whilst we know that this is merely setting a stage to strut around like peacocks, no one is looking how much more Australian defence budgets will get with nuclear submarines in the mix, all whilst they still need to realise the impact of the F-35 folly. As such I wonder who is aware of what will be left to other people past 2035 when the defence budget will require a 45%-61% top up. I believe in defence as much as the next person, so whilst we accept “Last month the Australian government signed a $50 billion contract with the French company DCNS to build 12 new submarines”, do you think that such a contract will not come without cost? Yet here too (source: ABC News) we are told that “that program has come with delays and blowouts, and would have delivered conventional diesel-electric submarines, like the Collins Class”, so at least there is a decent reason and it makes sense, but still, there is a larger concern, not the coming of nuclear subs, but the realisation that Australia has an antiquated submarine stage and it does need to take care of 2,137,000 meters of beach front property, something needs to be done and that is good, I do not object.

Australian Navy too small

I merely wonder (at times) why it took this long in the first place. When we dig deeper we see why the US wants it because the foundation of nuclear submarines need to be build there, which makes me a bit hesitant after the failures that the F-35 (with 900 design flaws) as well as the failure that the Zumwalt class represents (at $21,000,000,000), the US wants to shout that this will be a success, but I have concerns and fortunately I do have a degree in ships engineering (which I never used). The larger stage is seen but so far governments are seemingly deaf as their irresponsible teenagers (aka politicians) are living off someone else’s credit card and there is the rub, there is the danger. They all live by the rule “We are too big to fail” and China is seemingly no different, its corporate greed is just like all the other greed driven players. So whilst a few players are trying to push the borders, we need to consider what happens when someone in that pool of overspending delusional players panics, because that will be the ball game when things escalate and explode in all our faces. 

How stupid are we to not loudly protest as corporations and governments remain absent in actions, especially when there is a $300,000,000,000 issue? Why was there no action when the danger was a mere $5,000,000,000? Even for China 300 billion is too much and when did we see a positive outcome when that much money was lost? I do not remember any positive impact. Not in 2004, not in 2007 and this time around it will be no different. Yet when the amount is that big it will impact a lot more people, all over the globe. 

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 30, 2021 · 01:53

In retrospect

I (for the most) react to facts, as I do now, but the results are not anticipated new facts, what comes next is pure speculation, no matter how correct I think I am, it is speculation and that needs to be said up front. Even as I start now, my mind is racing through speculative ideas and options in other realms (science realms no less), but I digress. The thoughts started with a Reuter article called ‘Analysis: Biden’s COVID-19 strategy thwarted by anti-vaxxers, Delta variant’, the article (at https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-covid-19-strategy-thwarted-by-anti-vaxxers-delta-variant-2021-07-29/) gives us “Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said the Biden administration’s acknowledgement of the “terrible impact” of the anti-vaccine movement was important, but he said the government could do more. “Anti-science is arguably one of the leading killers of the American people, and yet we don’t … treat it as such. We don’t give it the same stature as global terrorism and nuclear proliferation and cyber attacks,” he said”, it might be a mere quote, it might be the paraphrasing from the article writer, which is not a negative view, but it got me thinking. When we see the anti-vaxxer movements in the US and EU, they are uncannily effective, they are almost too effective. For the most and proven since the 90’s, the anti-vaxxers are either religiously inclined like the Dutch people in Giethorn (their ‘sort of’ version of Amish) or loons (often people who are one shade away from being absolutely bug-nuts). In the first, these people are driven and they are also self isolationists, it is merely about them and their community, it makes them a danger to themselves, not to others. The second group is a danger to all, but often so stupid they merely hit other stupid people. These anti-vaxxers are driven, not merely by intelligent people, no, they are driven like they are terrorist tools, like biological DOS agents and they are growing. These people are not accepting any scientific evidence, they forward non-scientific papers as ‘their’ evidence and they are not merely more effective, they are almost centrally driven by a similar source. 

In the UK the Guardian is giving visibility to Kate Shemirani, in the USA we see Alabama Curt Carpenter and the list grows. Someone is somehow fuelling this, yes this is speculative and this is not merely the power of social media, someone had months to prepare the weaker minded and target them in a direction, limelight seeking nobodies all wanting their limelight with as large as an audience as possible. The evidence is not clear and as such this is speculation, yet consider the timelines of each of these Anti-vaxxers, what their audience was a year ago and each month after that. This goes beyond buying likes on places like Facebook. Some people are fuelling these ‘bright’ illumination spots and they are not done, even as they are retracting their ‘assistance’ there is still a digital footprint and it is now diminishing. Yes, I admit upfront that my view is speculative, but my speculation fits the profile, are the US and the EU under attack from bio-terrorists? You might think that they are not the same, but there you would be wrong. In this I grasp back to a writing from 2012 called ‘A Proposed Universal Medical and Public Health Definition of Terrorism’. Here we see “We propose the following universal medical and public definition of terrorism: The intentional use of violence — real or threatened — against one or more non-combatants and/or those services essential for or protective of their health, resulting in adverse health effects in those immediately affected and their community, ranging from a loss of well-being or security to injury, illness, or death”, in this, if even one of my speculations are proven, these anti-vaxxers become complicit in acts of terrorism. Did you even consider that? Now, there is a dangerous fence. I am not debating THEIR right to be anti vaccinated. If they die, they only have themselves to thank, just like Curt Carpenter. Yet by attacking science by non-science and debunked non-facts, the setting changes and that is where we are now. What should have been a straight path to recovery is now a much larger issue. The delay is not on President Biden, and now that we can optionally see that the US is yet again under terrorist attack his priorities need to change, attacking big-tech is futile and counter productive, the laws needs adjusting free speech, it needs to be validated by accountability. 

And for the love of god, can some well trained data analyst please take a look at the timeline of these anti-vaxxers? I think it is time to look at timelines here and that is when my brain went into some sort of overdrive. It goes back when I designed an intrusion system that stayed one hop away from a router table between two points and to infect one of the routers to duplicate packages from that router on that path, one infection tended to not be enough, 2-3 infections needed to be made so that the traffic on that route between two points could be intercepted, I called it the Hop+1 solution, I came up with it whilst considering the non-Korean Sony hack. That  thought drove me to think of an approach to find the links. In the first we most likely need to find on where and when they accessed the dark web, then we see another part, because if we can find their access, we can optionally see others too, when we have that list and we can correlate it to other anti-vaxxers we have an optional pattern for action. No matter how this is seen it will be staged towards my speculation, something that needs proof, proof is required to give validity to actions that follow. I believe that I am correct, but I admit that it is a speculative push in a path towards thinking something is what I personally think it is, not a path towards evidence, evidence needs to be found and the evidence that is made to fit the solution, is no evidence, it is like stating that there is a linear relationship when you only have two plot points. A pattern of evidence is required, it is always about the patterns. 

So when I look at the ‘in retrospect’ part, I am wondering when the connections were there in the early stages and I also wonder why the others are not on that path yet (or seemingly yet). The media is only partly to blame, yes they give limelight, but that was their job from the early days, like the people exploiting Google cookies, the media can be exploited too, seeking the limelight is not a crime, but in conjunction with a terrorist agenda we are on new shaky grounds, and that is the problem, any law eagerly over-quick created is pointless whilst inaction is useless, caught between two rocks whilst the floor is not lava it is the ever exploiting media, exploiting for clicks, for visibility and circulation, whilst calling it ‘the people have a right to know’. This has the option of heading into a really bad direction soon enough. Will it? I have absolutely no idea.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,