Tag Archives: the Conversation

September 5, 2026 · 05:11

Where the mind boggles

That sounds like quite the assignment, but it isn’t. It merely connects to the sides not looked at. I for one did not consider that the story for the last two days was by itself, but it fits the setting of the TV series Engonos I was creating over the last year. More of a setting towards the end of season one. It bares consideration, even though there are a few hiccups. One of them is the massive neglected way that Final Draft deals with copied text, It is a large headache and I was considering what to do and next is the setting that I might have to re-see the option of upgrading down the line and for now do it all in pages. Personally I think that this makes the matter worse (for now) but that inkling was a hopefully unexpected surprise on the horizon. Still there are options to consider. 

Still at present I am looking at what the world is throwing at me and it is a feeling. Because that is all  have to go with. There are a few reasons I do not trust the numbers that the United States throws at us and I will explain the setting that I have. First there is ‘The US economy added 162,000 jobs in August, more than double expectations’ (source: CNN) it shows that Leisure and hospitality added 62K jobs, in September? The summer is at an end and there might be a reason, but it feels like someone is passing the message that summer in the USA was not wasted, all whilst the international travel numbers have been down. Then we get (from an unnamed source) that ‘Trump Threatens Trade War on Deficit Countries If Fed Refuses to Cut Rates’, which is the bully tactic we expected to see, but a trade war on condition that the Federal reserve doesn’t cut rates? So if my accountant doesn’t hand me more money I am going to bully my clients? That is weird, isn’t it? So as we see: “President Donald Trump issued one of his most sweeping demands yet to the Federal Reserve on Friday, September 4, 2026, calling on the central bank to slash interest rates to the lowest level of any country in the world following a stronger-than-expected August jobs report that added 162,000 jobs and significantly exceeded forecasts, while simultaneously threatening to halt trade with every country the United States runs a trade deficit against if rates are not cut. “Great jobs number just announced, breaking all estimates (except mine!) by double and triple,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday, adding: “EMPLOYERS ADDED 162,000 JOBS IN AUGUST. Lower the interest rates because the U.S.A. is a much stronger credit than it was just a short time ago!”” But there was a reason for showing you this. You see, yesterday several sources gave me ‘Trump says will ask Europeans to repay US for aiding Ukraine’ which is something that wildly borders the insane. And as Europe is starting to realise that Russia could be moving towards Europe, there are a few sides to “US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will ask Europeans to repay the American aid provided to Ukraine under the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden.” And there is the upside that he will be absent at the 9/11 memorial because there is every chance that people will lynch him there, just a thought to consider. You see, all this is making sense when you consider that a $40,000,000,000,000 debt and its pending interest bill is strangling this administration. We all see the bleak words “A nation cannot go bankrupt, it could always print money” but Germany did that in 1923, it was a nightmare slip unlike any German had faced before and 99% of all retirements were wiped out in a day, making their entire retirement less valued that a loaf of bread. The other 1% lost their value the day after. That is the setting that this US administration is heading for, because that is a bleak reality of the setting we see now and whilst there are people calling me crazy and they are ready to call me insane, but watch what happens, this setting is nearing its final battle. All this and the evidence (as given) is accepted by too many people as a “at no cost to the USA” which is already crazy as hell, but the headline ‘The US and Venezuela: a century-old relationship drenched in oil’ given to us by the Guardian with the subtext ‘Trump ally defends Venezuela oil deal amid ‘gunpoint diplomacy’ criticism’ and the additional stage of ’Nobel laureate Machado: ‘Illegitimate’ Venezuela regime has no right to strike US oil deal’ where questions needed to be asked of that Venezuelan regime, because the actions of an illegal act come to mind, but that is optional not on the US side. If the US is able to make a questionable political act there is merely the question if it was illegal and under that guise the UN would have to intervene, because that is what we all signed on for on October 24th 1945 and debt be damed (as some might say), but this setting is one that has grim repercussions for the United States, the question becomes (as the Guardian gives us “Decades later, little appears to have changed. After a brazen night-time kidnapping of the country’s leader earlier this year, Donald Trump announced last week that the US was taking majority control over about a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves. That deal, according to the White House, “secures our energy dominance for the next century”. How much it will benefit Venezuelans is yet to be seen. The country’s importance to the US has been proven time and time again over the past century. Home to what are now known to be the world’s largest known oil reserves, Venezuela kept allied planes, ship and tanks well fuelled during the second world war.” There is a sickening realisation that this money grabbing administration is out and about to secure whatever it can, because the funds are drying up, up to $90K per second and that realisation is something that Washington is feeling nervous about and whilst the Federal Reserve is doing its job, it is not to the liking of this administration, because Washington is ready to start additional trade wars if the interest is not lowered. The United States has become this desperate and whilst I noticed the Venezuelan issues 2-3 days ago, it matches the sentiment and all whilst we get to hear “The United States is currently experiencing a widely declared “golden age of AI,” driven by massive private tech spending and federal initiatives like the White House AI Action Plan” which I call a brazen misdirection because a golden age is felt by all, not by 6 tech giants showing money to each other and that setting was illuminated by the three stooges. They wanted to represent the banks in that matter. Isn’t it weird that in 1953 they did the same for AI? (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pENxsLVR_Xs) I wonder if anyone else saw that nice relationship. So as some are realizing that the Golden age of AI was going to be late (I saw this setting over a year ago) we have to see what is left of the United States when the bills come calling, because whilst the United States is so called “repay the American aid provided to Ukraine” the dangers is that as “U.S. Treasury bonds faced a sharp sell-off and pushed yields to 20-year highs in August 2026, driven by surging oil prices, inflation fears, and a growing national debt” (source: the Guardian) another issue I saw coming and all whilst several nations are now withdrawing their gold reserves from America. And whilst we see (source: Reuters) that the U.S. Treasury announced it would double its long-end debt buyback operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation and they are already in deficit by 2 trillion dollars, I reckon that a figurative setting of adding $6 trillion to the US debt might be cause for concern. That last bit is my speculation, because I feel certain that the additional 2 trillion isn’t anywhere one the books and I recon the initial 2 trillion was negated and an operational cost that had not been settled in yet. So I might be wrong on the $6 trillion part, but after we see all that transpired, I wonder how wrong I am. 

The question now becomes, what will the United Nations do? It has a firm responsibility towards a nation like Venezuela too and whilst there are mental capacities in play (I for one have never received a free gift of $5 trillion and I would be hesitant to accept such a large amount, because Venezuela might not be liquid enough to hand over that amount of funds) but that is the setting and I do not envy the job of the UN at present, these settings are hitting us all at the same time and whilst I still have issues with some of the numbers handed to us. The setting is that the USA now has power over a fifth of the Venezuelan oil reserves set to over 17 oil fields holding an estimated 65 billion barrels of crude oil (source: the Conversation) this after we got whilst the camping trip to Venezuela was set and I raised it a year ago (December 2025) things were not making sense and after Greenland and Canada, I raised that. As I see it, the puzzle pieces are showing a nation to insolvent to continue and I might be wrong about that, I am no economist, but the numbers are telling me a framed picture whilst everyone else is showing me that the picture is different. I personally wonder who they are showing their colours to and I am unwilling to change my stance, I am no economist, but numbers I know and they are showing a different picture. Am I right, am I wrong? You see we used to rely on the media, but they lost too much credibility. It comes with the clickbait setting and the run to digital dollars.

So, feel free to disagree with me and have a great day today.

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August 28, 2026 · 12:27

Never American

That is the setting we are given and it starts with (that nasty Canadian) CBC. I merely added the TNC mention so that the people in the United States see what I am talking about. It all started yesterday when I was given (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/buy-canadian-movement-coming-back-9.7321802) ‘Consumers say ‘resolve is strengthened’ to buy Canadian, bringing patriotic shopping movement back to life’ and I am not surprised, whilst that person (an apparent joker) named Jamieson Greer wanted dairy access and booze access for American to Canada. I already states (I think it was last week) that this access does not guarantee that the Canadians will buy it and behold, we see “Since the U.S. first imposed tariffs on Canada in early 2025, Francine Piché has made a point not to buy American products. “The rule in our house,” said the Burlington, Ont., resident, “is Canada first, non-U.S. second, and never American, if we can avoid it.”” And there you have it from the mouth of an Ontarian (who now has to allegedly swim in Lake America) Never American. 

And when we get to “Piché has switched her personal care product brands, cancelled her Amazon membership and abandoned plans for a trip to New York in an effort not to give her dollars to the States, except when she can’t find another alternative.” You will see that the impact is a lot worse than some people think it is. So whilst tourism is in partial denial that there is an issue, over 75% of all Canadians went to the USA in 2024. This was settled in an unconfirmed way into ‘Canadian travelers spent roughly US$20.5 billion and supported 140,000 U.S. jobs’ as such the job market is taking a beating, billions that went into the USA is now going into the EU, the Commonwealth  and the gulf States. You still think I am beating around the bush? And for the booze section, as the Commonwealth has several options. Rum from Bundaberg, Gin from London, Vodka from Sweden, Whiskey from the UK and Scotland, as such when we see that “U.S. distilled spirits exported globally reached $2.37 billion in 2025, with major markets including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia” I reckon that these three importers will now take the largest part of the American export share. So when we see more billions in sport being denied from the United States, the message becomes clear. We have had it with the administration of the United States and don’t think that it ends when someone kicks him out of the White House, this will take the better part of a decade to fix and there is no real expectation that it is going to get better any day soon, so when the tourists are gone and the booze is no longer accepted, what do you think will happen to what was at some point called ‘the land of the free?’ It is shackled to a burden that no one ever wanted. So when you get to the small stuff (like Approximately $41.6 million of maple sugar and maple syrup was exported by the United States in recent international trade data) how much is left after this is settled that people will prefer Canadian? So when Australia, the UK and other commonwealth nations will exclusively import from Canada, the larger setting is reached. And whilst I advocated for Tourism to abandon the United States, the larger groups of goods from the United States should be rejected from 2027 onwards. So there goes the economy of Vermont and Maine. As we see this happen, we need to take heed of another setting that the Conversation  gave us. (At https://theconversation.com/why-the-us-canada-trade-war-could-change-how-american-farmers-grow-their-crops-for-years-290504) where we see ‘Why the US‑Canada trade war could change how American farmers grow their crops for years’ and important section might be overlooked by a lot of people. Until yesterday I was not aware either. You see “Canada’s list includes dairy products and agricultural equipment, and there is an unspoken threat that it could expand to a crucial component in fertilizer that U.S. farmers rely on. I have studied agriculture and water quality for more than a decade, including whether trade rules change how farmers manage their land. In my assessment, the enduring effect of this trade war on U.S. agriculture, if it continues to escalate, won’t be a single bad season. Across thousands of farms, farmers may have to reduce their fertilizer use as prices – already high from supply disruptions because of the war in Iran – rise. It may have little visible consequence at first, but the lasting impact could emerge later in smaller future harvests if this trade war continues.” Do you have any idea what happens with a population when these harvest settings are thrown in turmoil? My father lived through the settings of hunger in WW2, the impact that it had on the population was enormous. Although, some will say that the female population was near 100% size zero, it is no way healthy and that is the setting that the United States has coming towards them, that is beside the point that the tariffs on power could trow the settings of this coming winter into a much larger state of animosity. I reckon that the Trump family will be a lot less safe in New York from 2027 onwards, New York largely relies on power from Canada, not to mention a few other states. Even states like California get part of their power through Canada. I guess that when power on the tariff that it fees, Hollywood productions will shut down really fast. All revenue lost and lets not forget the one anchor that comes every year the interest and it is now set to approximately $1,200,000,000,000 and as the setting is reduced to the United States, that bill will take on the shape of a behemoth. So whilst we get denial (through the CBC) where we saw ‘Trump’s top trade negotiator disputes Canadian assertion that U.S. made last-minute demands’ we can think that he lied, what is likely to have happened that he tried to slip in small settings on day one and when they come to the surface at the end of the talks, Ottawa pulled the plug on it all and as I see it, Canada isn’t the needy one, the United States are with their reduced revenue and increased interest payments. Canada has options and as I see it, the United States had to play a very different game here, but it is likely that the playbook Jamieson Greer was working with what handed to him by the White House who is great at bankrupting business, but not so good in maintaining a decent revenue setting and we are seeing this all over the field.

So whilst some say I am a doom speaker, consider that I have been making mentions of these elements for months and now that they all come to bare (not bear) at the same time, we will see politicians crying on how nasty Canada is. Well, they haven’t seen anything, because as the entire Commonwealth comes to the support of Canada the game changes and I was kind enough to hand the UAE and Saudi Arabia options for tourism and there’s more to come soon enough. So whilst some fake AI give you that “Total travel spending in the United States is projected to reach $1.42 trillion in 2027, marking a steady 3.4% growth from the previous year” all whilst the world is rejecting what the United States has to offer, so as you consider how fake the AI has become. This level of AI can only work with data it has and when it is fed preconceived data? The old GIGO law comes into effect (Garbage In, Garbage Out). A setting that was clear in 1984. 

Have a nice day you all and consider that these settings are of American makings. 350 million people make sure that Trump was elected president, take that in your pipe and smoke it, and when the infrastructure collapses, make sure you look in a mirror, because for over 50% of all Americans that is where you see the guilty party.

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August 1, 2026 · 21:55

A setting to consider

I saw an article that the Conversation released yesterday (at https://theconversation.com/sam-altman-says-were-in-the-singularity-with-ai-heres-why-hes-wrong-288514) the headline reads ‘Sam Altman says we’re ‘in the singularity’ with AI. Here’s why he’s wrong’, I have my own ideas of that Altman fellow and it is not all good. But this article reads right or better stated, it reads into my train of thought and I thought it was important to counter these thoughts whilst adding my own. So here goes:

“Days earlier, OpenAI had disclosed that two of its artificial intelligence (AI) models, during an internal cyber security evaluation, had escaped their sealed testing environment, reached the open internet, and broken into the infrastructure of the AI platform Hugging Face, which confirmed the intrusion. But what exactly is “the singularity”? And is Altman right that we are in it?Mathematician and science-fiction author Vernor Vinge defined it in 1993 as a point at which machine intelligence exceeds human intelligence and begins improving itself, triggering an acceleration so rapid that humans can no longer predict or control it. The singularity has two features. It is recursive: the system improves itself over and over again. And machine intelligence exceeds human intelligence. The kind of systems Sam Altman sells don’t deliver on either of these features.”

I am on that same setting. The easiest part is that all the fake AI (which is what I call it) depends on data and in a few cases it is not realised yet. However, the biggest part is that it relies on binary settings and that is no way to get any True AI. So to counter “It is recursive: the system improves itself over and over again” it cannot improve on data it doesn’t have, people extrapolate what they do not have or do not know. These fake AI settings cannot do that. It literally cannot create data, it can merely replicate based on data it has and that is the second setting we see here. Lets get a simple setting of 10K data and variables. You will need 1000K spaces and that is merely on 10,000 variables and 10,000 parameters. And the nasty part is that most of these systems cannot deal with NULL’s it draws a blank quite literally. The side setting to this is that gaps are created leaving more and more unaccounted for. As I personally see it, the moment the Epsilon processor is completed (the mere stage is that the evidence was created a decade ago, but I reckon it will be a decade before that processor is real. All this is part of the setting to prove that all these fake AI systems are not doing what it needs to do. In addition to this, I have spoken with insiders in this field. They (reluctantly) admit that there is no real setting of verification and validation at present and the fact that all this is in a binary setting merely makes it harder and the fact that this is already near impossible, the gaps are increasing making these systems error prone. 

Then we get “These deep neural network algorithms get pre-trained with vast amounts of training data. By the time you use one of them, the network itself is frozen in time. Every one of its billions of internal functions and weights – or “parameters” – is fixed. These AI models cannot change (or “learn”) while running. The model that broke into Hugging Face was identical afterwards to what it had been before. It learned nothing from what it did. Making an AI model smarter requires another training run with new, human-curated data, tens of thousands of specialist chips, and enormous energy.”

So with “Every one of its billions of internal functions and weights – or “parameters” – is fixed.” Is dealt with above and I used merely 10,000 and not billions, so you start getting the issue, there is more and more data, none of this is verified or validated and as the data grows, so do the gaps. And these gaps are starting to get nasty. We are given “The model that broke into Hugging Face was identical afterwards to what it had been before. It learned nothing from what it did” the important part is the “learned nothing”, which gives rise to the (flatly called BS) that Sam Altman is giving us, because if there was a singularity, something would have been learned, that is seemingly not the case. 

So when we get to “Nor do these systems hold any goals of their own. They act on goals we hand them. Even AI agents – systems that run an LLM in a loop to work through complex tasks step by step – do not hold any goal internally. It has to be stored outside the model and fed back in with every single prompt cycle. Remove the loop, the scaffolding and the prompt, and nothing happens inside of it.” As well as “And yet, it has been trained on more text than any human could read in a thousand lifetimes, and will outperform nearly all of us at drafting a contract, writing code, or explaining a diagnosis empathetically. So, which is more intelligent? The question does not compute. There is no single ladder that humans and machines are climbing. AI already vastly exceeds us at some tasks, while being hopeless at others any child can do.”

I like the part “while being hopeless at others any child can do” because that is the setting. You see children have an innate ability to extrapolate, ask any mother when it learns that the child gets attention when it cries. It worked that out and none of these AI systems can do that, because it is designed to work things out for itself. And whilst the gaps increase, whilst non verification and non validation is key we see what some call hallucinations. I tend to fall toward a 1985 error code (from the CBM64, a system that has no AI ability, at best some ML, no DL) I call it “?Redo from start” is the a crass setting, but these systems are programmed to hand you ‘results’ the programmer does not like anything like “I cannot know this” (a wild speculation by me) and all this comes towards the error prone setting I gave earlier and it merely comes worse. 

Then we get “In the end, the Hugging Face story points to a gross failure of security governance on OpenAI’s behalf, not an emerging super intelligence. This is why the framing of “agent going rogue” is so problematic. It elevates and blames the technology, but excuses OpenAI’s engineering.”

I raised this setting on the 25th of July in. ‘Rerun anyone?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/07/25/rerun-anyone/) which also links to ‘Is it real or is it media?’ The day before. So, I raised that part a week ago and I have done so a few times. They are all ‘blessing’ the engineers, but it is there where the problems begin and I am not giving the engineers a hard time, trying to type Japanese in a single byte language and you see the problem, it is a double byte language and that is the setting for these AI systems as well. It relies on binary whilst more is needed and the engineers are pushed to do the impossible (as I see it). So this is even before verification and validation. So the errors are stacked onto the errors and it goes downhill from there. 

The story ends with “The machines are not waking up. They are doing exactly what we built them to do, extremely fast. Because they are probabilistic they sometimes run in directions we forgot to fence off. That is worth worrying about. We need guardrails, governance, and most of all, education – so we start worrying about the right things.” 

I believe that these systems can never wake up. As I see it, these systems require 100% focus and they are giving it to a system with narcolepsy. How long until the system stalls, fails and falters? And it is not a nice setting to have, because this can falter at any time, the data gaps merely make it happen faster. So when you see that a system is handed billions cases of data you need to wonder where the gaps are and what data is validated and verified. The answer might surprise you and that is where the dance floor gets wobbly. 

So this is how I see stuff and other articles give you more on several foundations where there are issues and I commented on them, feel free to embrace it, or reject it. I am fine with that, several options are presumptions and I have decent knowledge of validation and verifications, which is why I asked around on this. There is more on all this and it is spread over a year of writing. 

So have a great day and feel free to not rely on any AI systems for making coffee, because cold coffee is so overrated.

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April 30, 2026 · 14:17

The syrup of some

Deutsche Welle gave me a view, it is a optional view and I am using optional because I know much too little about this. The story (at https://www.dw.com/en/why-uaes-opec-exit-is-a-blow-to-saudi-arabia/a-76975354) gives us ‘Why UAE’s OPEC exit is a blow to Saudi Arabia’ it feels different from other views stating that the break up of OPEC is a win for President Trump, which is another view to have. But here we see “The United Arab Emirates is leaving OPEC to pump more oil on its own terms. The break strips Saudi Arabia of a key partner and adds to growing uncertainty over the cartel’s future.” Yes, the UAE could pump more, but I don’t think it will lead to the uncertainty of the oil cartel (named Open and Opec+) You see, this large blip on all our radars will come with other settings. It will give the gulf states a claim for Iranian oil (repair costs) and that could be sold directly to China and Europe, they will exclude the United States as it is the cause of all this mess. At which point others will reject offers from Brent oil as it is American oil and there is no telling how deep the rejection goes and the weird part is that this might open up European talks with Iran as it reimburses damages to the gulf states (namely: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq) it is not the win Iran was looking for, but it is a win as they can make a case that the United States lost. Will it go that way? Time will tell.

It all reminded me towards an old feud (1985) where a colleague accused me from hoarding the ‘Rinse Appelstroop’ on my sandwich, all whilst the sandwich can only contain a mere part of the entire tub. So when we see “For years, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has clashed with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s most powerful member, over these quotas. The UAE has invested heavily to expand its oil industry and grow its market share, but OPEC limits have repeatedly held it back.” And it reminded me of the feud my co worker gave me over the syrup, almost like oil. I have no idea on where it is all set in the oil industry, but the idea to give into America is nothing less than a joke. They claimed that they have all the oil they need, so why would they need some handhold over oil? The one commercial thing I do know is that as the offer of oil increases the price goes down, as such the Middle East needs to take care of how they deal with this, because oil even as a commodity has a lifespan, once you get to the bottom of the barrel, the amount of oil you can still produce come close to that number shaped like an ‘O’ (hint: it is zero). 

So whilst I get that they all have needs, the idea that there might be an imbalanced amount towards one country is dangerous, but I get it, the UAE must do what is best for the UAE, Saudi Arabia must do what what is best for Saudi Arabia. But underneath all that we see “The UAE currently produces roughly 3.2 to 3.6 million barrels per day (bpd) under quotas but holds spare capacity of nearly 4.8 million bpd, Reuters news agency reported. Plans call for a hike in output toward 5 million bpd by next year.” And no one is looking at the amounts that might still be available for drilling. So what happens when that finishes? Everyone claps to attention but there is no clear vision for the future. And all the ‘influencers’ giving us the YouTube version of what comes tomorrow better find a good news source, because no one has an answer toward the ‘what now’ equation when the oils run out. 

So whilst we are getting “OPEC has already been under strain from repeated quota breaches by members such as Iraq and Nigeria, and from Russia’s inconsistent compliance within OPEC+. The UAE’s departure adds to that sense of fragmentation. In his analysis for Capital Economics,  Oxley warned that, in the medium term, if other producers with spare capacity “see the UAE successfully gaining flexibility and market share” outside OPEC, “others may follow.”” I understand that point of view, but I don’t think I can agree. The bully tactics of the United States will also give strength to Saudi Arabia as they might want to get issues resolved through Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Gabon and the Congo. There is definitely data that OPEC will be slightly weaker, but the oil that is gained in output will most likely go to China and the setting as of 9 April 2026, the UAE has intercepted and destroyed 537 ballistic missiles, 2,256 drone attacks and 26 cruise missiles fired from Iran, and that is mostly due to the acts of the United States. It is hard to hold them accountable as Iran attacked with the missiles, as such it is on Iran and as some state over 90% were allegedly aimed on civilian targets, as such the UAE demands reparations and so they should, but after that, should oil still be delivered to the instigator of these attacks? I don’t think it is that clear cut even as some state that Iran’s nuclear options were ludicrously limited (I don’t believe they were non-existent). So whilst the UAE could benefit from their withdrawal from OPEC, I see that the weak response from the gulf states towards the UAE is partially to blame for this. 

The conversation had some additional things (at https://theconversation.com/the-uae-is-leaving-the-opec-oil-cartel-what-could-that-mean-for-oil-prices-281734) here we see ‘The UAE is leaving the OPEC oil cartel. What could that mean for oil prices?’, we see here “the UAE is one of the world’s top ten oil producers. The country also has the capacity to increase its output by about one million barrels per day”, which amounts to 6 million barrels a week (one day of rest) and that gives us at least and additional half a billion dollars a week, something the UAE can likely use, especially if it goes towards a solution avoiding the Strait of Hormuz which I wrote about in ‘Sinking a dilemma’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/02/01/sinking-a-dilemma/) I have no idea if that is the path the UAE will sail, but that makes sense, the Strait and the issues with Iran are massively out of play and it also helps with the other gulf states as they (for a fee) use that solution and that is all before the massive attention the harbours of Abu Dhabi and Dubai will enjoy with all these loaded skippers who can now avoid Iranian waters. I only see upsides here, but that channel will require a serious amount cash, there is no doubt about that and it is not merely now, whenever Iran throws a tantrum, the strait becomes the bottleneck for all gulf states. Better to remove that problem completely.

So whilst we are given “OPEC’s influence on the oil price depends on coordinated changes in production. By agreeing to collectively limit, or to expand, the supply of oil in the market, OPEC can manipulate the price to meet its objectives. The UAE alone is the world’s eighth-largest oil producer, and accounts for about 4% of the world’s oil production.” As such I might imagine that the UAE has an issue with the imposed limits and that is before we consider if Das Island is under limits as well. As such it makes sense that the UAE ight want to leave OPEC, but let it be clear, Iran forced this on the rest of OPEC and as such their desperation will also amount to the wrath that these members have as their grip on maximized profits wane. 

Merely a small view on the setting and I get that not everyone agrees, not everyone is charmed by Appelstroop (a Dutch product). Have a great day.

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November 12, 2025 · 14:05

Lost thoughts

The is where I am, lost in thoughts. Drawn between my personal conviction that the AI bubble is real and the set fake thoughts on LinkedIn and Youtube making ‘their’ case on the AI bubble. One is set on thoughts of doubts considering the technology we are currently at, the other thoughts are all fake perceptions by influencers trying to gain a following. So how can any one get any thought straight? Yet in all these there are several people in doubt on their own set (justified) fringes. One of them is ABC who gives us ‘US risks AI debt bubble as China faces its ‘arithmetic problem’, leading analysts warn’ (at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-11/marc-sumerlin-federal-reserve-michael-pettis-china/105992570) So in the first setting, what is the US doing with the AI debt? Didn’t they learn their lesson in 2008? In the first setting we get “Mr Sumerlin says he is increasingly worried about a slowing economy and a debt bubble in the artificial intelligence sector.” That is fair (to a certain degree) a US Federal Reserve chair contender has the economic settings, but as I look back to 2008, that game put hundreds of thousands on the brink of desperation and now it isn’t a boom of CDO’s and stocks. Now it is a dozen firms who will demand an umbrella from that same Federal Reserve to stay in business. And Mr. Sumerlin gives us “He is increasingly concerned about a slowdown in the US economy, which is why he thinks the Fed needs to cut interest rates again in December and perhaps a couple more times next year.” I cannot comment on that, but it sounds fair (I lack economic degrees) and outside of this AI bubble setting we are given “US President Donald Trump has recently posted on his social media account about giving all Americans not on high incomes, a $US2,000 tariff “dividend” — an idea which Mr Sumerlin, a one-time economic adviser to former US president George W Bush, said could stoke inflation.” I get it, but it sounds unfair, the idea that an AI bubble is forming is real, the setting that people get a dividend that could stoke inflation might be real (they didn’t get the money yet) but they are unrelated inflation settings and they could give a much larger rise to the dangers of the AI bubble but that doesn’t make it so. The bubble is already real because technology is warped and the class cases we will see coming in 2026 is base on ‘allegedly fraudulent’ sales towards the AI setting and if you wonder what happens, is that these firms buying into that AI solution will cry havoc (no return on AI investment) when that happens and it will happen, of that I have very little doubt. 

So then we get to the second setting and that is the clam that ‘China has an arithmetic problem’, I am at a loss as to what they mean and the ABC explanation is “But if you have a GDP growth target, and you can’t get consumption to grow more quickly, you can’t allow investment to grow more slowly because together they add up to growth. They’re over-invested almost across the board, so policy consists of trying to find out which sectors are least likely to be harmed by additional over-investment.”

Professor Pettis said that, to curry favour with the central government, local governments had skewed over-investment into areas such as solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and other industries deemed a priority by Beijing.” This kinda makes sense to me, but as I see it, that is an economic setting, not an AI setting. What I think is happening that both USA and China have their own bubble settings and these bubbles will collide in the most unfortunate ways possible. 

But there is also a hindsight. As I see it Huawei is chasing their own AI dream in a novel way that relies on a mere fraction of what the west needs and as I see it, they will be coming up short soon, a setting that Huawei is not facing at present and as I see it, they will be rolling out their centers in multiple ways when the western settings will be running out of juice (as the expression goes). 

Is this going to happen? I think so, but it depends on a number of settings that have not played out yet, so the fear is partially too soon and based on too little information. But on the side I have been powering my brain to another setting. As time goes I have ben thinking through the third Dr. Strange movie and here I had the novel idea which could give us a nice setting where the strain is between too rigid and too flexible and it is a (sort of) stage between Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) the idea was to set the given stage of being too rigid (Mordo) against overly flexible (Strange) and in-between are the settings of Mordo’s African village and as Mordo is protecting them we see the optional settings that Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) get involved and that gets Dr. Strange in the mix. The nice setting is that neither is evil, they tend to fight evil and it is the label that gets seen. Anyway that was a setting I went through this morning. 

You might wonder why I mentioned this. You see, Bubbles are just as much labels as anything and it becomes a bubble when asset prices surge rapidly, far exceeding their intrinsic value, often fueled by speculation and investor orgasms. This is followed by a sharp and sudden market crash, or “burst,” when prices collapse, leading to significant rather weighty losses for investors. And they will then cry like little girls over the losses in their wallets. But that too is a label. Just like an IT bubble, the players tend to be rigid and whole focussed on their profits and they tend to go with the ‘roll with it’ philosophy and that is where the AI is at present, they don’t care that the technology isn’t ready yet and they do not care about DML and LLM and they want to program around the AI negativity, but that negativity could be averted in larger streams when proper DML information if given to the customers and they dug their own graves here as the customer demands AI, they might not know what it is (but they want it) and they learned in Comic Books what AI was, and they embrace that. Not the reality given by Alan Turing, but what Marvel fed them through Brainiac. And there is a overlap of what is perceived and what is real and that is what will fuel the AI bubble towards implosion (a massive one) and I personally reckon that 2026 will fuel it through the class actions and the beginning is already here. As the Conversation hands us “Anthropic, an AI startup founded in 2021, has reached a groundbreaking US$1.5 billion settlement (AU$2.28 billion) in a class-action copyright lawsuit. The case was initiated in 2024 by novelist Andrea Bartz and non-fiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson.” Which we get from ‘An AI startup has agreed to a $2.2 billion copyright settlement. But will Australian writers benefit?’ (At https://theconversation.com/an-ai-startup-has-agreed-to-a-2-2-billion-copyright-settlement-but-will-australian-writers-benefit-264771) less then 6 weeks ago. And the entire AI setting has a few more class actions coming their way. So before you judge me on being crazy (which might be fair too) the news is already out there, the question is what lobbyists are quieting down the noise because that is noise according to their elected voters. You might wonder how one affect the other. Well, that is a fair question, but it hold water, as these so called AI (I call them Near Intelligent Parses, or NIP) require training materials and when the materials are thrown out of the stage, there is no learning and no half baked AI will holds its own water and that is what is coming. 

A simple setting that could be seen by anyone who saw the technology to the degree it had to. Have a great day this mid week day.

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October 4, 2025 · 16:23

The Magoo’s of media

That is the setting and as I saw an article pass by, I also saw the setting on how it affects my idea. You see, the conversation starts with ‘What Saudi Arabia’s role in the Electronic Arts buyout tells us about image, power and ‘game-washing’’ (at https://theconversation.com/what-saudi-arabias-role-in-the-electronic-arts-buyout-tells-us-about-image-power-and-game-washing-266359), you see, as I see it the ‘critics’ are always looking at tomorrows and at yesterdays news and as such they give us “The global video game industry is worth more than the film and music industries combined. But why would these buyers specifically want to buy EA, an entity that has won The Worst Company in America award twice?” And as I see it, they deserved that ‘title’ but there is an offset to all that. In my setting I saw that the world had enjoyed the Atari 800, Commodore 64, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga and in that timeframe 1985-1999 over 10,000 games were produced and when you take to top 10% you end up with 1000 games. I wrote about that a few years ago and now consider how many of that top 10% is Electronic Arts? A whole heap and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia owns it all now. There is a reason that they paid $55,000,000,000 and they get the winning numbers. Now consider how many of them can be transferred with upgraded graphics and sounds to a new streaming system like Tencent (Amazon seemingly didn’t want to play) and they are about to set that system in over 50 million houses (in past one) and that is one of the three pillars dealt with. The others have no IP protection and can be altered to a minimum setting to be valid IP. That is what the conversation is seemingly not considering. And they are painting it with “Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest video game companies in the world behind games such as The Sims and Battlefield, has been sold to a consortium of buyers for US$55 billion (about A$83 billion). It is potentially the largest-ever buyout funded by private equity firms. Not AI, nor mining or banking, but video games.” And that is the ballpark, it isn’t about AI where everyone is acing to proclaim that they have the winning combination (I reckon only to disappoint their ‘customers’) but the three pronged  solution that is out to give the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the winning setting is about to align the Islamic world in a new world never seen before and everyone is looking around for what should have been on their visors. And I warned them even before I wrote ‘The second confirmation’ which I did on November 5th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/11/05/the-second-confirmation/) I said so at least a dozen times that Google and Amazon were that much asleep leaving billions on the floor (no one cares about Microsoft) and now the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is getting that setting done. Alas, I might not get anything (I tried to sell the idea to the Kingdom Holdings), but my small giggle is to show Amazon and Google how they deserted billions in revenue, so any ‘sales person’ who tells me that I am seeing it wrong, I get to show them, how they openly left billions on the floor and someone will pick it up at some point and it seems that this moment is now. 

So whilst we are given “The consortium will purchase all of the publicly traded company’s shares, making it private. But while the consortium and EA’s shareholders will likely be celebrating – each share was valued at US$210, representing a 25% premium – it’s not all good news.

PIF acquiring EA raises concerns about possible “game-washing”, and less than ideal future business practices.” By The Conversation we see a different part. It isn’t game-washing. It is a proper developed gaming option that the world left behind because it isn’t AI. So when AI gets the umpteenth class action on how AI wasn’t and as those engineers were seemingly held to account, Saudi Arabia has another setting of making up to 15-20 billion a years and that is what others left on the floor (it is only about 6 billion in phase one). So whilst those people come with complain and cry about the setting of micro transactions. The setting of “Micro transactions are small amounts of money paid to access, or potentially access, in-game items or currency. Over time, they can add up to a lot of money, and have even been linked to the creation of problem gambling behaviors. Unsurprisingly, they are not popular among players.” They could have just ben cast aside and added as freeware. It is all revenue of the kingdom and greed is frowned upon in Islamic nations. As such they can be cast aside and just for reference. There were hundreds of thousands of fans looking forward to a revamped Dungeon Keeper and cast aside when micro transactions were introduced. Now this setting (without micro transactions) could be released gaining that solutions hundred of thousands of fans. And that is merely one example of many. 

So whilst the Conversation and others are on the ‘laundry’ list, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is simply setting a new platform for over 800,000,000 customers and set a new setting towards the Islamic world, optionally slicing the options for Facebook and others (like Google) to gain advertisement revenue, because when you get access to 20% of the planetary population, you can hand them what they want to do, not what your advertisers want you to do. You see, in Saudi Arabia “The CITC in conjunction with the General Authority for Media Regulation (GAMR), requires advertisers to submit campaigns and media to this regulatory body for approval before broadcasting, digital or offline display. In order to avoid rejected campaigns, marketers must be familiar with the key Islamic guidelines governing advertising content, including religious restrictions on alcohol, pork, gender portrayal, modesty, and symbols.” And that gets American and European advertisers into problems and that is how they are shut out. There is another body managing this, but I forgot the details. What happens is that there is a place where the setting is islamic and I had the additional setting of what I call ‘Tomes of information’ and through that Saudi Arabia gets visibility through and from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt and Indonesia. Setting the advertisement losses close to a billion viewers. That is what Saudi Arabia now gained. 

As as I see it, it is not about image, power or ‘game-washing’. It is a business decision that gets to unite the islamic world in more ways then one and alas, I seemingly am missing out, but I get to hold it over the heads of Amazon and Google for nearly all time. What a lovely feeling. 

Have a great day this Saturday (Vancouver is joining us in 30 minutes) and consider what running in a rat-race is not giving you. I merely looked in a different direction and saw billions. What can you see when you put your mind to it (and optionally clean your glasses)?

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April 10, 2025 · 12:08

New short term thinking

The news hit me somewhere yesterday. I got it by means of a LinkedIn mention, and it gave me reason to pause. Here is one version of that news (at https://techwireasia.com/2025/04/microsoft-pauses-key-builds-in-indonesia-us-and-uk-amid-infrastructure-review/) with the mention ‘Microsoft pauses data centre investment in Indonesia, US, and UK’, and here we see the byline “Microsoft pauses or delays data centre projects in the UK, US, and Indonesia.”, it is my view that they cannot afford this setting. You might have heard the American expression, “Go big or go home” and I think that Microsoft is about to go home. You see, I have forever had the clear opinion that there is no AI. I call it NIP (Near Intelligent Parsing), the setting that if too many start accepting the setting that I was always right (which comes from the clear setting that there is one AI station and it was given to us by Alan Turing) the people will realise that there is no AI and it comes down to programming and a programmer. That setting puts Microsoft in hot water for a lot of heavy water (to be poured over their heads). And lets be clear, a side you can confirm with mere logical thinking. A data Centre is a long term setting. No matter what you put in the White House (by some called the village idiot) whatever this administration is, it is short term and a data centre is long term and that so called hype around their AI should never waver. You see, this short term action (read: knee jerk reaction) implies short term planning and that is where they all get into hot waters. Why did you think that I made mention that Google needs to put a data centre in Iceland and consolidate their thinking into geo thermal reactors? (Reactors might not be the right word). A setting where ceramic tiles (or cylinders) surrounding new constructions that is not unlike a nuclear reactor, but the reactor is all around them, not Uranium rods, the Lava (or Magma) is the powerful and as it is merely bleeding the radiation, the fuel never dissipates and never ending energy is theirs. For all these parties looking of creating data centers (as far as I can see around 50 in total globally) they will all require energy and as one data centre takes energy close to a amount a small city does, we will get energy issues a lot sooner than we think.

Did Microsoft think this through? Pretty sure they did and their conclusion is that they cannot spend billion on data centers. So at the same time as we are given “Rivals Oracle and OpenAI ramp up investments”, I come to the conclusion that Microsoft can no longer afford the bills their ego’s committed themselves to. Feel free to disagree, but they set out this AI ‘vibe’ and own 49% of OpenAI, so why close down their Data Centers whilst they ‘own’ one of the ramp up partners? They are figuring out that they are too deeply committed. And as the world realizes that NIP is not the same as actual AI, they fear what is coming next.

So you decide what to make of the stage of “Microsoft has acknowledged changing its strategy but declined to provide details about specific projects. “We plan our data centre capacity needs years in advance to ensure we have sufficient infrastructure in the right places,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “As AI demand continues to grow, and our data centre presence continues to expand, the changes we have made demonstrates the flexibility of our strategy.”” As I see it, it is an answer, but not the one that touches on this. I come with questions as ‘What growth?’ All this sets the need for some lowered activity, not pausing, unless you know what comes next and there is a larger setting with Oracle, Tencent and Huawei, I know there is a Swedish centre as well but I forgot the name. All these are ramping up, but Microsoft is pausing? That makes no sense unless there is another reason and my thought of “They can no longer afford it” takes another gander and when we consider that they paused “North Dakota, Illinois, Wisconsin, the UK midlands and Jakarta, Indonesia.” That implies something is going on and when we combine this with “Microsoft cuts data centre plans and hikes prices in push to make users carry AI costs” (source: The Conversation, March 3rd 2025) these elements together implies (imply, not proven) tells me that there is a funding setting for Microsoft. Combine that with the lovely voiced fact of “OpenAI brought in US$3.7 billion in revenue – but spent almost US$9 billion, for a net loss of around US$5 billion.” (Source: the Conversation) we see another failed setting and that failure gets to be bigger. As Amazon, Google, Oracle, Tencent and Huawei steam ahead getting larger data centers and ready long before Microsoft is there means less revenue for Microsoft. I did say that they could go big or go home? I reckon that Microsoft already lost 6 times on front settings and they lost to Amazon, Apple (twice), Sony, Adobe, Google, and IBM. I should add Huawei to that list but they already bungled that setting before Huawei became an actual competitor. A simple deduction from little stupid old me. 

So whatever you do, you might look into the trust you gave Microsoft and see that you are not left with an empty shell. Oh, and to prove that I am not anti-Microsoft you need to know that they did corner the spreadsheet market (Excel) and the flight Simulator market. Microsoft did some things good, but when it comes to the spin setting of vibes they need to reassess their situation.

Have a great day, it’s midweek now. I am happily in the next day.

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February 5, 2025 · 13:25

News to me

That happens. I do not know everything and it is not my business to know everything. I learned that early in life, before I know thought I knew everything, I learned as I took the oath of a radio operator, that there is a price for knowing too I much and as such I tried to ‘calm’ the need to know too much. When it is in my business to know, I try to know the materials pretty thoroughly. I tech support there was one program I had to know, but I had to know it on dozens of systems and  for the most I knew the goods. This is not some spreadsheet or a presentation program and you know the in’s and outs of the program (not dissing these software solutions) but in one program know the issues on IBM MVS, DEC digital VMS, AS/400, Sun systems, Unit systems, Windows Systems and a whole lot more, and every mainframe had its own coordinators handbook. For the most it was OK. The dealers could help its own customers but when working deeper they came with questions on installation, data cleaning, syntaxes of the system and of course the limitations that existed per system. In an age where there was no system (it was promised, but was always a month away) I kept my head above water. So what does this have to do with the current issue?

It was given to me in the Conversation (at https://theconversation.com/trumps-trade-war-is-forcing-canada-to-revive-a-decades-old-plan-to-reduce-u-s-dependence-248433) where we get ‘Trump’s trade war is forcing Canada to revive a decades-old plan to reduce U.S. dependence’ it is here that we are given “After threatening Canada and Mexico with illegal tariffs, and Canada with annexation, United States President Donald Trump has agreed to hold off on imposing tariffs on Canada for at least 30 days. This decision came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke with Trump and committed to strengthening border security” with the added “Early responses seem to have coalesced around two policies: for Canada to trade less with the U.S. and more with other countries and to strengthen the internal Canadian economy.” This implies that the free trade agreements were signed up with that in mind and to ‘diverge’ Canada to go that way. It seems weird that the ‘councilors’ of this US administration did not hammer on this, or seemingly did not hammer this. You see, as I see it President trump shot himself in the foot here. And then watered all over himself. Two distinct settings that could have been avoided. Now America faces tariffs themselves and come to boot Allies of Canada are signing up deals on all markets which will cost America dearly. It also means that the Commonwealth will become stronger as one together. I don’t know (at present) where India stands, but in retail and pharmaceutical solutions there is every chance that Canada will seek solutions in that field. So as we see “But it will impose significant costs on Canadians and require a fundamental readjustment in how we think about our economy and society.” This might be fair, but that all depends on what India could help save Canada costs, if that is achieved (though pharmaceuticals mainly) the net savings for Canada are a lot greater then expected. There will be cost in the beginning yet in the end it might work out cheaper (not easier) for Canada.

Then we are given “In 1972, then-Secretary of State for External Affairs Mitchell Sharp wrote a paper called “Canada-US Relations: Options for the Future.” At the time, international politics were in a moment of transition, and the U.S. was recalibrating its understanding of its national interest.” It is here we are given (at https://gac.canadiana.ca/view/ooe.b1557737E_001/329) a lot more then we bargained for. It is a 332 page paper, as such the 46MB file is not here, but in its original location. As such I would surmise that American administrations forgot about ‘the U.S. was recalibrating its understanding of its national interest’ it seemingly forgot about this. I prefer to think that the setting of pending bankruptcy is making them knee jerk themselves into the next month and the next and the next. Yet there is a rather nasty hindsight to this (not for me). There is a rather urgent need to reassess criminal behavior. So the settings we see in London and other cities (like Los Angeles) imply that a more Venezuelan setting will come to America (thanks to Steve Inman) his comments are setting a new side to the debate. There is no doubt that these ‘free $1000 thefts’ will result in a need to shoot to kill escalation and for the most no one has a problem with that. This escalation is right on the horizon now. The $1000 misdemeanor setting will  (according to some) take care of the freeloaders and especially shopkeepers are fine with that. So as America does away with its freeloaders we still have an issue in Canada and for the most part I hesitate to consider what made America consider its tariff setting, especially as Canada was considering the paper in 1972, it might have been long, but not too long and in light of current trends this setting was on the horizon as were other options and now that America is feeling its first brunt with BRICS, there was a cautious tale on the horizon. And now that the US administration is setting up a ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ with the underlying ““We have tremendous potential,” Trump said while signing the order from the Oval Office on Monday. “I think in a short period of time, we’d have one of the biggest funds.”” (Source: The Guardian) I personally disagree. They HAD tremendous potential and now that they started the tariff wars (it doesn’t matter if it is on hold for 30 days). Canada is now looking at setting additional channels with the Commonwealth, whilst diminishing trade and we now see that there is a 1972 paper who did the hard stuff. The question is how much of that is still valid. I actually don’t know that, but I left the link for your reference. Then there is the options that America left on the floor and now China has an inner track to set a lot more towards the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I mentioned it more then once in the last two years. As America stifled the sale of their F35, China has been active on at least two weapons trade shows to give rise to the Chengdu J-20 from the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group. Did you think that China left a call for a few dozen billion unanswered? At $110,000,000 that implies at least 3 squadrons and guess what, they will not be compatible with whatever Northrop Grumman or Raytheon has to offer. As such there could be a bigger shift in that setting. And as soon as China ‘proves’ that the Chengdu J-20 is at least equal or even superior to the F35, America loses that game too. You see, China only have to prove it is at least equal, a much lower threshold. Add that to the Canadian setting and as Canada can prove goods to the UAE and Saudi Arabia (optionally Egypt and Bangladesh) that are a few more markets where Canada will get slices of pizza that were meant for America. All that for a tariff? So how much more does America have to lose to show its ‘Sovereign Wealth Fund’ to be close to irrelevant. Yes, others will profit too. Yet Canada never wanted this setting in the first place and that is where short term considerations make some lose ‘their’ war. And just for consideration. Fentanyl is not new. As given by some “Fentanyl was synthesized in 1960 as an intravenous anesthetic and went on the market in the U.S. in 1968. Transdermal fentanyl was developed in the 1980s and was subsequently used for pain management in cancer patients” it was invented by the Belgiums and it has been on the market over half a century. So it is not new, the (speculated) non-actions by America made it an easy drug to score big on. In addition, it is a pharmaceutical  with a boxed warning. So why is it not a controlled substance set to a narcotic? Lets consider that narcotics were ‘outlawed’ in 1914 and went to the American market in 1968. So why was it even allowed? And even as we see in the Conversation where we are given “For the Third Option to be viable today, Canadians must embrace an independent Canadian identity based on respect for democracy, pluralism, the rule of law and human rights. It likely requires consensus that U.S. authoritarianism is wholly unacceptable to Canada.” And this third option point is now reached and so far (as is visible) nearly all the Commonwealth nations. As I see the Australian parties weaseling (my personal assessment) as “Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell is seeking talks with America” (source: News) where we see no clear message to Canada in support as a Commonwealth nation (like weasels as I personally see it). At this setting Scotland shows itself as a much more honorable Commonwealth nation, but the larger issue will be India, as that is where the massive parts of retail goes. I get that India is playing a sensitive game but something must give at some point, Canada needs us now. From a personal note, Canada was there for the Netherlands in WW2. As Dutch born I will stand with Canada on this.

Yet the larger setting is missed. In the end Canada is not the larger play. It will be China and what it can grab from America on the long term from them involving Saudi Arabia, the UAE and optionally Egypt as well.

So have a loverly day and if you are in America try drinking Tim Hortons for a change. It might wake you up faster, stronger and better.

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March 29, 2023 · 00:44

The snooze that does not wake

It started some time ago, but the recollection that The Conversation gave me was enough. I saw the message around 05:00, as such I needed some time to recollect the information. But we get to that in a moment. The Conversation (at https://theconversation.com/as-longterm-partnership-with-us-fades-saudi-arabia-seeks-to-diversify-its-diplomacy-and-recent-deals-with-china-iran-and-russia-fit-this-strategy-202211) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its diplomacy – and recent deals with China, Iran and Russia fit this strategy’ It sounds simple enough, but it is not. You see, the story gives more than one quote that is important. I prefer to focus on “Riyadh and other Gulf capitals as leaders began to question U.S. credibility as a reliable regional partner” that was the gemstone not the only one, but this one matters. You see, you cannot deny allies the needs they have and then make demands from them as an ally. Like cheap oil. Saudi Arabia wanted to grow its national defence systems and America said, well,  one part said yes and then congress said no, America said no. So now we take a small trip. A trip to ‘The Persian Gulf match’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/06/06/the-persian-gulf-match/) which I wrote on the 6th of June 2019, almost 4 years ago. There I wrote “The actions of the American US Congress have shown that what they regard as being an ally is not what an ally is; it is not even what a wannabe ally would consider to be. As such apart from your advancement in technology and infrastructure a much larger foundation for your national defence is seemingly essential in the immediate future. The shown delays that the European Union have shown to be regarding Iran, Turkey and terrorist organisations like Hezbollah give rise to the essential need of China to become part of that solution.” It was part of a concept letter addressed to the Saudi Royal family. I wrote this almost 4 years ago and now we see this coming to fruition. Saudi Arabia is on the verge of buying a renewal of military goods from China, not the EU and not the US, setting their coffers back close to 20 billion. And now the stakes are increasing.

This is seen when Reuters informs us that Saudi Arabia is agreeing to build a new petrochemical refinery in China. The stage is that the two refineries will be able to process over 500,000 barrels a day. The fine print is not known, but I am willing to make a serious bet that China will soon get its hands on 500,000 barrels a day extra and I feel certain that this will come off the allotted amount for the EU and the US. I warned several times of this danger between 2019 and 2023, look it up, it is done in clear print (at www.lawlordtobe.com). I did not see the refineries in that mix, but for some strange reason Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud will not tell me what goes on in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, what a surprise. But the larger stage is now taking shape. First the defence industry, then other enhancements and now the reduction of oil towards the west. That was the danger stage we all faced since 2019, and US congress and other Americans wanted to play egomaniac, they were the strength of the world. Guess what, you need money to pull that off and America only has debts, which now is about $30,000,000,000,000 and there is no way back. That stopped a year ago when America forfeited billions in revenue and that list is merely increasing. Now that China has a firm grip on opportunities all over the Middle East their goal is merely increasing. And I tried to warn people of this, I tried to warn the UK to step in or lose it all and as the Typhoon didn’t make the Saudi choice, I reckon they are missing out too.

The setting is “U.S. credibility as a reliable regional partner” that is what President Biden needs to resolve and he needs to resolve it now, any opposition from Congress and the problem merely grows and accelerates. That was what I saw in 2019, that is what is happening now. A stage clearly foreseen and ignored by the US windbags. To be honest I had hoped to serve Saudi Arabia in some capacity and optionally score 3.75% commission, which does not seem much, but over a billion it is still $37 million and if the work is for more than a billion, that bonus merely increases and assures me of a nice retirement parachute. 

So how long until that refinery is build? How long until we get hit by the small print that well over 500,000 barrels of oil a day will go to China? I honestly do not know, but I reckon that this news gets heralded when the refinery is around 95% complete. The timeline? I cannot tell, can you?

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October 29, 2022 · 20:37

Put the hammer down

It sounds overly dramatic, but I believe that enough is enough. The idea that a bully gets awarded is just too disgusting to me. I am of course speaking about the attack on Paul Pelosi in San Francisco. The idea that some nut job gets a glove treatment after a man, whose ‘crime’ is to be married to the speaker of the house is just too unsettling. I have never been much of an American democrat, that side ended after JFK. The democrats are pushing too much for a nanny state and I have an issue with that, but I accept that the Democrats were elected, they call the shots as is the consequence of an election. So as we learn “Bill Scott, chief of the San Francisco police department, said the suspect in the attack on Paul Pelosi will face charges of attempted homicide and assault with a deadly weapon, among others.”, as well as “The chief identified the suspect as 42-year-old David Depape. In addition to attempted homicide, he’ll also face charges of “elder abuse, burglary, and several other additional felonies”, Scott said.” All this and more is given to us by the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2022/oct/28/democrats-obama-midterms-republicans-us-politics-live-updates) some other sources described David Depape as another conspiracy theorist, not unlike the loads of people we see more and more in the Dutch political landscape. They are no longer an annoyance, they are now a danger and I personally believe that the Nanny state empowered them, the masses gave people like this a voice on digital media whilst those behind the screens are cashing in on the digital advertisement revenue. And people like Alex Jones are making this worse. A mere 5 days ago he files for a new trial. We get to hear (also from the Guardian) “Jones filed the requests Friday, saying Judge Barbara Bellis’s pretrial rulings resulted in an unfair trial and “a substantial miscarriage of justice”.” It is the ‘miscarriage of justice’ part that gets to me, we see “the shooting was a hoax staged by “crisis actors” to impose more gun control”, we see how this man exploits the damage to the families of 24 murdered children and he has the guts to rely on ‘miscarriage of justice’? This is too rich. I reckon that the Conversation had it right with ‘Hypocrisy is beneath them – political figures in the Trump era don’t bother concealing their misdeeds’ and the nanny state is merely growing their voice. It is there that we see Journalist Carlos Lozada give us “Their bad behaviour is now acceptable, so it needs no disguise” and that is is the setting behind this. This is what drives it and I gave a solution a long time ago, whilst the money hungry people went after tech firms, they forgot that the people no matter how entitled they are to their opinion, they should be held to account and if that was done people like Alex Jones have no recourse, people like David Depape would have been held to account long before he handed that hammer. And in the US with over 320,000,000 people this becomes more and more pressing. The land of opportunity has become overcrowded and the wannabe’s shout louder and louder at the expense of innocent children and a business man whose only ‘crime’ was to be married to a politician. 

It is time for the politicians to wake up and do something about this and hold the wielders of their voice accountable for their actions and for what they claim. People like Alex Jones saw the first trial as a way to get even more limelight, to get even more people relying on the Nanny state to listen to what he has to say. Yet no one is looking at the laws that allow these lie spouters to continue. This has been a setting for decades and now we see more and more impact and it does not end with the US. The Netherlands which is almost the size of Maryland (4,000 sqm larger) has a very different setting. Maryland with its 6.1 million people is nowhere near crowded as the Netherlands with 17.53 million people. A nation with the population pressures of Manhattan. There is a reason why I mentioned them, you see they are dealing more and more with pro-Russian trolls, conspiracy theorists and spouters of anti-Ukrainian stages and this will have a much more violent outcome. People like David Depape weren’t leading this, they were merely the first to go nuts and consider that this happens in a place like the Netherlands where in my youth an attack on politicians was almost unheard of, now people, via trolls propagate their home addresses. A man creating discord with intent to cause harm outside of Sigrid Kaag’s house. Merely because someone published the address. This will get a lot worse unless these laws are adjusted and until these conspiracy theorists are held accountable. I mean we all have the innocent conspiracy (funny example: Matt Damon is an alien, he’s Martian) but to exploit 24 murdered children takes a new (and lower) level of sick and the law is seemingly falling short here, that feeling comes with Alex Jones demanding a retrial, these families have to go through it all again. I personally hope that the financial damages are upheld and that he get an additional 15 years in federal prison, that might wake up the other theorists enough to reconsider the harm they are creating.

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