Tag Archives: the Guardian

August 10, 2024 · 13:06

A little late aren’t you?

It was the setting I was waiting for. The US has given in to its economic pressures and possibly the fear that China might get to much of a headway. Reuters this morning gives me (and other readers) at https://www.reuters.com/world/us-lift-ban-offensive-weapons-sales-saudi-arabia-sources-say-2024-08-09/ the headline ‘US to lift ban on offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia’, which sounds nice but is possibly a little late. Colonel Turki Al-Maliki a member of the Saudi airforce had given us the goods, going all the way back to February 2021. Reuters reported on these attacks in March 2021. In this Reuters is important as they give us ‘Houthis have fired 430 missiles, 851 drones at Saudi Arabia since 2015 – Saudi-led coalition’, the setting is important because civilian targets were aimed at by Houthis amongst them were Saudi airports and structures. So the blockage by the US was weird, especially as the Houthis are a terrorist organisation. So the about turn under the guise of “The Saudis have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours”, a little late, isn’t it? But at present the Chinese representatives of parties like the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group is nothing to be sneered at, with the Chengdu J-20 as an optional buy which was (allegedly) discussed at the World Defense Show 2024 in February 2024 (a speculation from me) is giving the Chinese hope to gain much more from the American Defence Industry. Should the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia take that offer, the setting would open the doors (for China) to larger possibilities in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as well. The damage to the American Industry could amount to an estimated loss of $30-$50 billion over these three nations alone. Not to mention the lucrative service and consultancy jobs. It would be the first definite slam to the value of the US dollar. China is rearing to take up that option in a heartbeat. I discussed (and partially speculated) this in ‘The next Furlong’ which I wrote on March 10th 2022 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/03/10/the-next-furlong/), as such I was and am now in a stage to emphasise the term ‘told you so’. This setting was clear then and it is a speculated more clear now when we see “Under U.S. law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are made final. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years, citing issues including the toll on civilians of its campaign in Yemen and a range of human rights concerns.” We are about to go into election mode and some politicians will fear for their job a lot more than the American Economy. As such China has a decent chance to crush the American Defence industry. I doubt they fear the Russian abilities as the Russians are getting clobbered by the 20th largest army in the world. The Ukrainians are still damaging the Russian, even after the Russians bombed Ukraine into the stone age. That is not a good sales talk, especially  with the current Russian losses stated below

As such we can accept the Reuters statement, because of its projected validity, yet the words we are given “Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned the provision of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia in recent years”, yet the article doesn’t emphasise the attacks by Houthi’s on Saudi civilian targets, which Colonel Turki Al-Maliki showed many clearly going all the way back to 2021, many articles were drowned out by (speculatively speaking) by anti Muslim and anti Saudi voices. Now that China gets to move into a much stronger position, the American administration is taking the gloves off and do what needed to be done in 2021. I reckon that people like Stephanie Kirchgaessner will possibly raise anonymous sources to throw sand in the cogs of common sense. China will love this as this will enable them to get a squadron on Chengdu J-20 into place and optionally ‘gift’ three service teams in the mix, two for maintenance and one to train  Saudi troops. The losses to America will be vast and it will a long term loss. 

As such I think that they were over 2 years late to the party. The initial transfer settings were optionally carved (I have no clear evidence of this) in the airshows of 2021 by SAMI. That would have been the first introductions of Chinese hardware that was to replace whatever America wasn’t giving them at that time. As I personally see it, it might be too late now. You see the Russian losses as shown above are the second piece of evidence. In that setting Russia is no longer a contender and as they are now ‘acquiring’ missiles from North Korea we see a larger question mark, is it merely the lack of missiles or does Russia have a larger problem. I do not know, but Russia isn’t telling, so we are left to our speculations and the Kursk clambake of 2024 Makes things worse for Russia. And in that setting China gets to be the big winner. OK, I admit, this victory would be largely held by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (and supporting parties).

Have a nice day and feel free to watch American revenues move to the far east.

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July 31, 2024 · 16:40

It was never rocket science

Yup, that is the gist of it. And it seems that people are starting to wake up. You see the biggest issue I have had with any mention of AI, is that it doesn’t (yet) exist. People can shout AI on every corner, but soon the realisation comes in that they were wrong all the time will hurt them, it will hurt them badly. And this is merely a sideline to the issue. The issue is Microsoft and lets get through some articles.

1. Microsoft says cyber-attack triggered latest outage
The first one is (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c903e793w74o) where we see “It comes less than two weeks after a major global outage left around 8.5 million computers using Microsoft systems inaccessible, impacting healthcare and travel, after a flawed software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. While the initial trigger event was a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack… initial investigations suggest that an error in the implementation of our defences amplified the impact of the attack rather than mitigating it,” said an update on the website of the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.” The easiest way of explaining this is to compare Azure to a ball. A foot ball has (usually) 12 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. They are stitched together. Now under normal conditions this is fine. However software is not any given shape, implying that a lot more stitches are required. Now consider that Microsoft 365 is used by over a million corporations. Now consider that a lot of them do not use the same configuration. This implies that we have thousand of differently stitched balls and the stitches is where it can go wrong. This is where we see the proverbial “the implementation of our defences amplified the impact of the attack rather than mitigating it” Microsoft has been so driven by using it all, that they merely advance the risk. And it doesn’t end here. CrowdStrike is another example. We see the news and the fake one person claiming responsibility for it. Yet the reality is that there is a lot more wrong than anyone is considering. These two events pretty much prove that Microsoft has policy and procedure flaws. It is easy to blame Microsoft, but the reality is that we see spin and the trust in Microsoft is pretty much gone. People say “Microsoft’s cloud revenue was 39.3% higher”, yes this is the case, and considering that Amazon was originally a ‘bookshop’, so they went against the larger techies like IBM and Microsoft and they got 31% of the global market share. Not bad for a bookshop. And the equation gets worse for Microsoft, these two events could cost them up to 10% market share. In which direction these 10% go is another matter. AWS is not alone here. 

I was serious about not letting Microsoft near my IP. I had hoped that Amazon would take it (they have the Amazon Luna) but it seems that Andy Jesse is not hungry for an additional 5 billion annually (in the first stage). 

And as Microsoft adds more and more to their arsenal these problems will become more frequent and inflicts damage on more of their customers. Do I have evidence? No, but it wasn’t hard and my example might give you the consideration to ponder where you could/should go next. 

2. Microsoft Earnings: Stock Tanks As AI Business Growth Worse Than Expected
In the second story we see (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2024/07/30/microsoft-earnings-stock-tanks-as-ai-business-growth-worse-than-expected/) that Forbes is giving us “shares of Microsoft cratered about 7% following the earnings announcement, already nursing a more than 8% decline over the last three weeks” with the added “Microsoft’s crucial AI businesses was worse than expected, as its 29% growth in its Azure cloud computing unit fell short of projections of 31%, and sales in its AI-heavy intelligent cloud division was $28.5 billion, below estimates of $28.7 billion” As stated by me (as well as plenty of others) there is no AI. You see AI would give the program thinking skills, they do not have any. They kind of speculate and they have lots of scenario to give you the conditional feeling that they are talking “in your street” but that is not the case. For this simple illustration we get Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-ai-copilot-chatbot-election-conspiracy/) giving us ‘Microsoft’s AI Chatbot Replies to Election Questions With Conspiracies, Fake Scandals, and Lies’, so how does this work? You see the program (LLM) looks at what ‘we’ search for, yet in this the setting is smudged by conspiracy theorists, troll farms and influencers. The first two push the models out of synch. Wired gives us “Research shared exclusively with WIRED shows that Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot, often responds to questions about elections with lies and conspiracy theories.” Now consider that this is pushed onto all the other systems. Then we are treated to “Microsoft’s AI chatbot is responding with out-of-date or incorrect information”, so not only is the data wrong, it is out of date, as I see it what they call ‘training data’ is as I see it incorrect, out of data and unverified. How AI is that? A actual real AI is set on a Quantum computer (IBM has that, although in its infancy) a more robust version of shallow circuits (not sure if we are there yet) and is driven not by binary systems but framed on an Ypsilon particle system, which was proven by a Dutch physicist around 2020 (I forgot the name). This particle has another option. We currently have NULL, Zero and One. The Ypsilon particle has NULL, Zero, One and BOTH. A setting that changes everything.

But the implementation into servers is to be expected around 2037 (a speculation by me) then we get to the thinking programs and an actual AI. So when we see AI, we need to see that is a program that can course through data and give you the most likely outcome. I will admit that for a lot of people it will fit, but not for all and there we get the problem. You see Microsoft will blame all sources and all kind of people, but in the end it will be up to the programmer to show their algorithm is correct and as I am telling you now that it comes down to unverified data. How does that come over to you? 

When you consider that Wired also gave us “it listed numerous GOP candidates who have already pulled out of the race.” The issue of how out of date data is becomes clear. We see all these clever options that others give us, but when some LLM (labeled AI) is un-updated and unreliable, how secure remains your position when you base decision making streams on the wrong data? And that is merely a sales track. 

The last teaspoon is given to us by The Guardian. The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/06/microsoft-ai-explicit-image-safety) gave us on March 7th 2024:

3. Microsoft ignored safety problems with AI image generator, engineer complains
So when you consider the previous parts (especially CrowdStrike) “Shane Jones said he warned management about the lack of safeguards several times, but it didn’t result in any action” Microsoft will state that this is another issue. But I spoke about wrong data, out of date data and unverified data. And now we see that the lack of safeguards and inaction would make things worse and a lot faster than you think. You see as long as there is no real AI, all data needs to be verified and that does not seem to be the case in too many setting. I spoke about policy issues and procedural issues. Well here we get the gist “it didn’t result in any action” and we keep on seeing issues with Microsoft. So how many times will you face this? And that is before people realise that their IP are on Azure servers. So how many procedural flaws will your research we driven into until it is all on a Russian or Chinese or North Korean enabled server (most likely by Russia or China, which is a speculation by me).

As such, it was never rocket science, look at any corporation and in their divisions there will always be one person who thinks of number one (himself) and in that setting how safe are you? 

There is a reason that I do not want Microsoft near my IP. I can only hope that someone waked up and give me a nice retirement present ($30M post taxation would be nice).

Enjoy the day.

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July 4, 2024 · 20:03

In the beginning

Two issues came to light, the first one is about an American cop. The BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ver6172do) where we see ‘A Bugatti car, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans’. We are given “A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.

A former Florida police officer who relocated to Moscow is one of the key figures behind it.” We knew this, it is nothing new. The Dutch company Trollrensics is actively hunting down trolls and illustrating all the fake news we see (well most of it anyways). This article brought a small art to light that requires actions by both Amazon, Google and Microsoft. You see the BBC gives us “But before the truth could even get its shoes on, the lie had gone viral. Influencers had already picked up the false story and spread it widely”. This is a dangerous setting. Influencers are all about the traffic, they mostly lack integrity and have no clue on the desire to gain followers and their desire to get their golden YouTube sign. 

It is time that the United States and the European Union start to pressure these tech firms to chastise these influencers. If they cannot give ample validation of how they got the evidence how they verified the authenticity they get the full brunt of the consequences. If they are found spreading fake news, their Google rating is diminished, their video’s are all downgraded. And their video’s are skipped in searches unless a person asks for this (former) influencer by name (at which point several people can find the seekers). It is a little crude but the Russians are becoming too much of a nuisance. Oh, and by the way if they follow through on the threat to bomb the Netherlands, I will put my nuclear deterrent (a solution to make a nuclear reactor meltdown) on every BBS in Chechnya. See how they like that condition. Russia made enough enemies, if they have to protect every nuclear reactor in Russia they will lose 15% of their deployable troops protecting buildings they never had to before. Actions are needed and no one is doing them, they are all concerned with the bottom line. You see spreading fake news and false information is not a freedom. In this day and age it is a duty of everyone to not spread fake news and misinformation. Now I understand that not everyone is able to distinguish fake news from real news. I usually seek two official sources (the Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera, Arab News, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times) there are more but you get the gist. The complication is John Mark Dougan, an American ex-cop. Just questioning. Why would anyone in Florida relocate to Moscow? No matter how valid his reason is. As we are given “an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election” we are given the notion that this is all about Trump (my speculation) and it goes from bad to worse. As such I need to do something. I am not a man of action (when you pass the 60 mark that happens) but I have a decent imagination to look outside of the box. Russia has 38 active nuclear reactors. They collectively have 200,000 people working there. Consider that the Russians would need to check them all, secure them all. That implies thousands of troops. Then they need to inspect all new arrivals. It will be a nightmare I reckon. In the mean time they face Chechnya and Pro Ukrainian Russian troops. Plenty to worry about and with the solution out in the open, the Russians get a new danger and optionally their other enemies come out of the woodwork. 

But that is another matter. For now we need to take care of the influencers. They are the first hurdle to stop traction of fake news. In this Amazon, Google and Microsoft could change the rating of anyone spreading fake news, Google especially. Put their ratings to minus 150 and the influencers seize to be a relenting problem. Remove these accounts and their flocks disperse. Now I am not sure if Google can do that. You know that any account holder of a Google/Youtube account has rights. Just changing this on the fly does not go over well. But Google can stop the fake news from spreading, they can also look at the followers of that influencer. But I get ahead of the issues. Something needs to be done and not enough (as far as I can tell) is being done. 

Enjoy the day.

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June 22, 2024 · 23:25

In the heat of the night (and day)

I got news yesterday, I had to mull things over as this is not something I have know how on. The article was from the BBC and as they lost a lot of credibility, I had to investigate a few things.

The article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxrrzp479r4o) gives us ‘Egyptian pilgrims ‘totally abandoned’ in Hajj heat’, I found it to be a blatant inaccuracy given (to say the least). But let me give you the information that matters.

The article gives us “Effendiya, a widow, went to Mecca on a tourist visa, not on an official Hajj visa. She was among hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims who hoped to fulfil their religious obligation this year without obtaining special Hajj permits”, as well as “Pilgrims usually stay in air-conditioned tents, have buses to drive them between holy sites and are provided with medical care. Sayyed says Effendiya and other unregistered pilgrims “had none of these facilities, they were totally abandoned”. He adds that they tried to protect themselves from the searing heat by using bedsheets to make a tent.” All this comes across as true, I cannot fault that. Where the BBC (and others) fall short is the fact that Saudi Arabia has rules. Mecca has a little over 2 million people. During the Hajj the population there is doubled. This year it had 1.8 million pilgrims. So those are the official numbers. Unregistered pilgrims are not part of this, as such they do not get any of the facilities. I certain path to death, especially as this year the Hajj was done under a searing sun pumping up the temperature to 51.8 degrees (Celsius). So these unregistered pilgrims are not given air-conditioned tents, bus rides or medical care. 

The Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/19/hajj-heat-deaths-missing-pilgrims-search-saudi-arabia) gives us with ‘Search for missing pilgrims continues after hajj heat deaths’ an additional “Arab diplomats on Tuesday told Agence France-Presse at least 550 pilgrims had died this year, the majority due to heat-related illnesses after temperatures reached 51.8C (125F) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.” I believe that the BBC fell short of exposing of creating a clear message that there is a risk by going to Mecca on a tourist visa during the Hajj. The guardian gives us “Each year, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits. This had become easier since 2019 when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa, said Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.” You see there is a reason that the official permit comes at a price. The air-conditioned tents and busses as well as medical posts cost a fair bit and when you have to deal with 1.8 million pilgrims that cost will increase. Consider Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The cost of a stadium with 96,000 people. The cost of that and multiply it by 20, that is the reality. Compare that to the Super-bowl 2024 where only 61,629 attended. The Hajj attracts the biggest audience in the world and this year is was unduly hot. They might not have known this before they attended but that is a large slice of the issue and the BBC did not clearly identify it. They stated this, but not the indirect issues that are in play. I wonder if the 550 pilgrims mentioned are merely the registered ones. Those who had access to air-conditioning, water, busses and medical options. I reckon that there are more elements in play. They might not have directly mattered, but indirectly they could have set an influence. None of that is seen in the articles. 

In other light, the New Arab gives us “According to multiple testimonies, the deaths were caused not only by heat but by poor management of the disaster by Saudi authorities.” The question that comes to mind is due to unregistered or registered pilgrims? It matters as there are lager issues in place. As it happens we might not be able to tell who was registered or not but the unregistered pilgrims are the weight that changes whether a boat floats or sinks. In addition, 51.8 degrees is largely unheard of, even if you are in an air-conditioned tent with a fair supply of water. In addition we see “Saudi authorities have struggled to crack down against the practice, particularly this year when over two million pilgrims were expected, although they reportedly turned back over 250,000 unregistered pilgrims”, in this setting I wonder what investigation the BBC (and the Guardian) did to investigate the Egyptian travel agent that did this, because it is always about the money, which indicates a paper trail. These people had arranged flights, that means a passport. That part took less then 5 minutes for me to figure out. So when we see “Hesham’s wife, walked tens of kilometres under the scorching sun from one holy site to the next, unable to board the official Hajj buses made available to pilgrims” it is the grim reality doing that under the condition of 51.8 degrees Celsius. I doubt I would last half that distance, a 70 year old person won’t last even that long. Were mistakes made? I reckon there were, little to no doubt about that. But in regards to the unregistered pilgrims I do believe that the Saudi Arabian government and Tawfig Al-Rabiah, Minister of Hajj and Umrah are as I see it not to blame. I might alter that point of view when Saudi Arabia has conducted its own investigation, yet I also believe that these travel agents need to be hunted down and prosecuted. In addition their businesses are to be taken away from them and they shouldn’t ever be allowed to be allowed in a tourism position. They pretty much send these people to their deaths. And these people know that they are in trouble, as the BBC reports “Her family say they have been unable to contact the broker who organised her trip”, an unreachable travel broker? He probable fears the consequences (a speculation by me at present).

Enjoy this Saturday, mine is almost over.

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June 3, 2024 · 14:55

Stupidity, bigotry, you tell me

I was alerted to a situation to days ago in the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/31/robert-de-niro-denied-award-trump). Now we all have thoughts on that person that elevates to ‘Orange is the new black’ person also known as Donald Trump. In this we see ‘Robert De Niro denied leadership award after speaking out against Trump’ there we are given “the group has rescinded the award after the celebrity spoke out against Donald Trump outside the former president’s criminal trial in New York this week”, it is my firm believe that he showed leadership in that place (a lot more than any Trump figurine). The hollow statement of “Mr De Niro’s recent high-profile activities will create a distraction from the philanthropic work that we were hoping to recognize”. In addition we see, stated by Mr. De Niro “We’ve forgotten the lessons of history that showed us other clowns who weren’t taken seriously until they became vicious dictators,” he said. “With Trump, we have a second chance and no one is laughing now. This is the time to stop him by voting him out once and for all” is just another setting where De Niro is showing a form of true leadership. This is not a point of view that all republicans accept but that is the nature of free speech. Some will agree and some will not. That is the nature of the beast. As such the fact that the National Association of Broadcasters punished him shows us more about the rotten nature of the National Association of Broadcasters than the upright views of Robert De Niro. And even as we see “A spokesperson for the group told the Hill on Thursday that the event was “proudly bipartisan”” gives me the view that these people are trying to remain on good terms with both sides of the political isle even as one side now has a registered felon (by 34 counts) on their pedestal. It is my believe that it is time for Republican voices to state how weird the decision is by the National Association of Broadcasters. Consider the setting where broadcasters are opposing freedom of speech. Even as they said that they support free speech, but it comes with punishment if you do. It does give me the idea that President Biden should present Robert De Niro with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the earliest opportunity. 

A recognition that he deserves and one that will show the National Association of Broadcasters how irrelevant they are becoming. And I am stating this whilst my heart is Republican at heart. It might be nice if Arnold Schwarzenegger would second that event, attendance by Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley might be nice too. The governator was after all the Republican Governor of California. 

There is a lot more to say, but it seems hollow. The fact that the press didn’t speak out against this (as far as I could tell) is another side to this equation, but I will look into this later on. You see the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a following of 8300 radio and television stations. So where are they all? In silent agreement? This is how media gatekeeping progresses. 

It shows that gatekeeping on issues have already started. Perhaps the Presidential Medal of Freedom will stop this to some extent. Yes, this is my feeling and I could be wrong. 

What do you think?

Enjoy Monday.

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February 7, 2024 · 22:41

Once more for fun

This started with a headline that caught my attention. It was ‘Top US consultancies face scrutiny over role in Saudi Arabia’s sports push’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/consultancies-saudi-arabia-sports-us-senate-disclosure-subpoena) there I immediately saw that it was written by everyones favourite Saudi basher Stephanie Kirchgaessner. Before I go out and draw first blood (always fun) I wanted to see if she had learned her lesson from the previous few times I slapped her silly online. So I decided to have a closer look. Here we are given “Major US consultancies who have advised Saudi Arabia on its global sports spending spree – including its proposed takeover of golf’s PGA Tour – are coming under fire in Washington for possible violations of federal disclosure laws.” That got my attention, but there are a few sides that need clarification. You see what exactly are the ‘federal disclosure laws’? It comes with the added “the senator has also strongly suggested that the consultancies could be violating federal disclosure rules – known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara) – by not formally declaring to US authorities that they are acting as agents of the Saudi government.” And now we have a problem. You see, when we consider that the “The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA requires certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities” This is not politics, this is a bloody sport organisation and Kirchgaessner should know better than to be the willing tool of Richard Blumenthal. As such, The FARA Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD). This implies that Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the NSD should be part of this and he is not mentioned, not once. So what is this about?  

Well, we get an idea in the article with “The Saudi public investment fund (PIF), a sovereign wealth fund chaired by the crown prince and de facto Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and is worth an estimated $776bn, is at the heart of Blumenthal’s inquiry” and my question becomes. ‘Why is the investment fund of a sovereign nation the interest of Blumenthal?’ Anyone? You see what does a democratic United States senator from Connecticut got to do with this? We never see that explanation. Don’t get me wrong, this man has done plenty of good for America and for his constituents. I merely wonder what is going on. Part of this is seen in the Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/7009a1a9-8e07-4113-a47d-ee4724d3d427) when we are given “You say you are between a rock and a hard place but you have chosen sides; you have chosen the Saudi side, not the American side” with the added “US PGA Golf Tour” is a global sports organisation, PGA stands for Professional Golfers’ Association of America. Yes, the term America is in there. But the side we do not see is “Overall, the PGA Tour reported $1.9 billion in revenue in 2022, up from $1.59 billion the previous year, thanks to new multibillion-dollar TV deals. Expenses rose as well, with the organisation reporting $1.87 billion in costs, up from $1.55 billion in 2021.” So this is about $300,000,000 in debatable profits. And in all this we see certain people in the dock for explanations. Yet at what moment in time did Richard Blumenthal and Stephanie Kirchgaessner look at its board of directors? This includes Ed Herlihy (lawyer), Jimmy Dunne, Mark Flaherty, Joe Gorder and Mary Meeker? When were questions asked of them? McKinsey is a consultancy firm, gold is a sport, it is not any kind of bloody intelligence with foreign agents. That shallow ice allows me to slap Kirchgaessner yet again. And all this is out in the open, she merely reported like a meek little sheep making the Guardian a bigger joke. I saw the wreck unfold in under 10 minutes. 

So when we get to “The PIF has routinely objected to being subjected to US laws and has rebuffed repeated requests by the Senate committee to hand over documents subpoenaed by the panel. To get around the issue, Blumenthal looked to gather information from the US consultancies that have advised Saudi Arabia for answers.” It is the ‘to get around the issue’ that matters. Blumenthal wasn’t ready, wasn’t prepared and was out of his depth in this case. The first question in a senatorial interrogation would be ‘How does FARA apply to golf?’ Then I would go towards issues like outsourcing. America outsources to China for well over $23,130,000,000 billion all so that they end up with an average workforce spend of $29.10. Yes, that is America. But no one steps in on that step of greed, not even towards China, so the PGA is outsourcing itself to Saudi Arabia for the opposite reason, not to get the cost down, but to get profits up and it seems that McKinsey and Company investigated and reported on this for their client. All settings that are out in the open and the joking duet called Kirchgaessner/Blumenthal missed this? 

So when we get back to “Major US consultancies who have advised Saudi Arabia on its global sports spending spree – including its proposed takeover of golf’s PGA Tour – are coming under fire in Washington for possible violations of federal disclosure laws.” Why aren’t we seeing the board of directors of the PGA tours in the limelight? And when it comes to the US consultancies, if they are advising, there is the question will others follow that advise and if so is the acting party not up for optional consequences if laws are BROKEN? Were laws broken? Not as far as I can tell and we can point at ‘to get around the issue’ implies that Richard Blumenthal wants something else. Perhaps dip his …. In the PIF (Public Investment Fund) and slurp up whatever he can. Oh and a thought just occurred. What do you think happens when Saudi Arabia retracts all fundings from America? Did you work that out? When Saudi Arabia sells all the US treasury bonds they have, will the heartbeat of America be measured in Weeks, or seconds? If Saudi Arabia offloads $107,000,000,000 in bonds the US economy will face a harsh reality that it needs money overnight and when others leave America to get by it is all over. Perhaps the ultimate nightmare for Wall Street that desperately requires some kind of soft landing at present. And it could have been averted, just like the losses that the US defense providers face to the extend of many billions (up to 50 of them close to immediate). How much losses can America survive? If there was a clear case of national security I would be fine with this all, but the Guardian gives us no information other than a Saudi hater who is out of her depth and no clear information on the entire McKinsey setting. Too much alleged emotions and no relevant information. 

So this was one more slap just for the fun of it. Enjoy the midweek.

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January 31, 2024 · 21:45

On one side

That is the setting I was confronted with early this morning. I actually am not sure where I stand, this happens. It started with the Guardian article ‘Telegraph takeover: UK issues ‘stop meddling’ order to UAE-backed consortium’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/30/telegraph-takeover-uk-issues-stop-meddling-order-to-uae-backed-consortium). As such there are issues. In the first we get “The UK government has issued a legal order stopping a UAE-backed consortium from meddling with the Telegraph, including making any changes to top management and editorial executives, until investigations into its proposed takeover are complete.” As such, this is the Telegraph, not some newspaper with credibility like the Times. The Telegraph has been throwing its credibility down the drain faster than a nymphomanic hooker on roofies (just saying). 

We are also given “Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, issued the pre-emptive action order after RedBird IMI’s last-minute move to create a new UK holding company to house the Telegraph and the Spectator if its complex deal with the Barclay family to take control goes through.” So it was pre-emptive? Fair enough but in that same light we got last November “Lucy Frazer said the Media Bill puts ‘protection of our free press’ at its core.” I don’t think she has a clue what freedom means until it serves HER purpose. In all this there is a side the Guardian and plenty of others ignore. It is seen with “house the Telegraph and the Spectator if its complex deal with the Barclay family to take control goes through.” As such who spoke to the Barclay family on this? I cannot find any article in that regard. This is just another Islamophobia setting and the media is key to reducing that tension, so I wonder what Frazer has on her order list. We can assume that “It is the latest skirmish in the battle for control of the Telegraph in a pivotal year for UK politics, with a general election due to be held in the autumn.” You see the Telegraph is conservatively tainted, as is Lucy Frazer. Is there a chance that they fear that reduced exposure could cost them the elections? It is highly speculative from me, but we cannot see ANY evidence that the acts by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan are evil, nothing more than a man being a shrewd business man and I think the UK needs more of those (but that too is my speculative view). Still there is an enormous amount of evidence missing. So what made this deal is such a “complex deal with the Barclay family”? It could be, but we aren’t given this part are we. Just a lot of emotions of some cultural sheila in the fear group (Australian expression). You see what everyone is forgetting is that the Barclay family is largely linked to the Telegraph Media Group. It represents (apparently) a value  in the region of £500m to £700m. Lets not forget how they were duped by Bjorn Lomborg’s climate propaganda, covid misinformation and that list goes on for some time, so how is not prosecuting those people, avoiding Leveson and some other small stuff serving the people and selling the paper to a UAE corporation is not? Lets not forget that the UK has 12 daily newspapers in circulation. As such I have questions and so should you. Perhaps there are valid reasons to fear PR settings, but that fear was taken away from that person in the Mummy 4 (Rupert Murdoch), so why are they still afraid? I think I know, but I will let you figure that part out for now. We are also given ‘Telegraph could become ‘PR arm’ of UAE after proposed takeover, MPs warned’ (source: Guardian) and  consider that the UK population is 68 million, the Daily Telegraph represents a circulation of around 318,000 a day, that represents a mere 0.4%, so where is the danger? I cannot see it, but perhaps someone will put out a much larger article (in an actual newspaper) to debunk my setting and give us the real deal. I could be wrong, I really could be and I am not certain where I stand, but at present it seems that this Frazer girls is responding to a different match ring and we aren’t told what exactly it is. 

The other part is that (no matter how complex), was the move legal. So now we are stopping legal moves whilst governments all over the world can’t be bothered to stop criminals? What kind of place are they running there? 

I will let you figure it out as you start the midweek and I await the arrival of Thursday.

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January 30, 2024 · 00:57

The Apple conundrum

Yup, it is a mystery and honestly I do not get it. Now lets be clear they haven’t done anything wrong. But a few cogs started grinding after an article in the Guardian. The article (at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/11/apple-macbook-pro-m3-review-beloved-laptop-is-back-in-black-battery-screen) was placed last year, on December 11th. There we see the new MacBook Pro and it is a beauty, especially when you have been exposed to silver editions for about a decade, that jet black is a black diamond, nothing less. It isn’t cheap, but the Apple M3 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU and 16‑core Neural Engine can be upgraded to 128GB RAM (I would select the 64GB RAM for sentimental reasons) and can be upgraded with 8TB storage, a little much to my liking, so I would chose the 4TB edition. I wrote some time ago about an Apple/Adobe deal and Apple should consider it for the configuration I am ‘considering’. You see vloggers either go big or they can go home. The market is that way and too many are working below par. They either strap up or become irrelevant and the MacBook pro could allow for that. But that is not why this article is here. You see, Apple has another stallion in its stables

The old iMac’s were not my thing (I had the G4, G5), the old iMac didn’t do it for me, this one is a beauty and for vloggers the workstation to have, or is it? You see the iMac can only have 24GB of RAM, which is enough for the bulk of all vloggers, but the limit of 2TB is not. I have no idea why Apple didn’t allow for the upgrade to 4TB. Now, with the vlogging groups and medium format digital camera’s (at 100MP), having 4TB makes perfect sense. Why don’t the people at Apple see that? Doing the Microsoft path with extra external drives doesn’t hold the mustard. And this is not a time setting, the MacBook Pro is out for a while now, that means that in addition to that, Apple had 3-8 months to mull things over. So why wasn’t this done? The iMac is gorgeous, as such any vlogger would love many hours behind their workstation with that 24” screen making their videos look absolutely perfect. And yes, to get that level of result Adobe is pretty much a minimum requirement. Nothing against the GoPro and its software, which (as far as I have seen it) is pretty good, but today’s vlogger needs to edit and past basic options the only real player here (with no competition) is Adobe. 

All this is pretty much basic information out in the open, am I the only one seeing that? Consider that 2TB is a lot, but it already needed the operating software, other software (whatever you also need it for) and 100GB for the complete Adobe suite (as far as I can tell), now at this point you will see that 2TB is enough. However, 4K vloggers need 45GB per hour, as such you require the max of that iMac within a year and then you better clean up fast and much of it. This is why the 4TB is enough and gives you enough time. Consider one project, 2 hours, editing space that is quickly amounting to 200GB space, so 5 of these and the first TB is gone. Space gets lost pretty quick and those salespeople relying on you keeping your space clean have never considered the creative mind. This is why the 4TB matters and the MacBook Pro does that (even more then needed), so why wasn’t the iMac offered that option at present? I get that it might not have been an option when it released, but now? And consider that this requirement was clearly visible for almost a year. The lack of space doesn’t make sense to me. Should that person rely on medium format digital camera’s that space gets lost even faster. Consider that this could allow for PSD files up to 2GB (their Maximum), consider that a photoshoot could be anything between 50-300 images making this a 600GB nightmare and nightmare is the right word. You see any pro photographer has 1-2 photoshoots a day and managing system space is not their highest priority, making the Apple stance even less comprehensible (to me at least).

I see a lack of interactions, a lack of outreach to the photographer environment (a slight assumption) and in all this Apple is coming up short. What frightens me is that I expect these shortcomings from Microsoft, to see them from Apple is a little bewildering. But that could be me.

Enjoy your day.

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January 26, 2024 · 17:00

What is the real fear?

That was the first thought that hit me when I saw several articles like the one (at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/25/emirates-backed-stake-vodafone-security-risk-uae-uk-government) where we are given ‘UK says Emirates-backed stake in Vodafone poses national security risk’ and my first thought was ‘What?’ Now, lets be clear, I have no idea how true the statement is, for the longest time I saw Vodafail as a joke (I was a victim of their not so nice side a decade ago). Vodafone is almost everywhere (EU, UK, Australia) so why is the UK the only one crying foul? 

The article gives us “The Cabinet Office issued a notice late on Wednesday warning that the 14.6% stake held in Vodafone by Emirates Telecoms, amounted to a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in the UK’s telecommunications services.” Now, I don’t see the danger, but that might clearly be me. This is not my cup of tea. But all these companies whoring for dollars and investors have been playing on every field and now it is an issue? How about the board of Vodafone not whoring for investors? And why is the less than 15% a security risk? Then we are given “That move triggered the government to look into the deal under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, owing to Vodafone’s importance as strategic supplier of the UK government and being involved in the country’s cybersecurity infrastructure. However, the government had not previously made any public announcements saying it was looking into the partnership.” Now, as I personally see it, that act is 3 years old. At the moment of creation, why was there not a clear message that anyone involved in investing in infrastructure is prohibited in ‘courting’ investors? There is a clear case that if this is indeed stamped a security risk, there is a chance that the UAE can reclaim investment plus 50% damage bonus and Vodafail better cough up that dough (obviously they will charge the UK government for that).  

My question becomes ‘What is the real fear?’

In sight of “Under the terms of the strategic partnership, Emirates Telecom can increase its stake to just under 25%, while also having the opportunity to add another executive to the board if its ownership tops 20%.” I merely wonder what the danger (if any) there is. I honestly don’t know. You see Vodafone is in 16 countries and is stated to have over 160 million customers. If I had the money I might consider that and there has been several messages over the last 2 years that Vodafone cleaned up their act and services. There are several deals, mergers and investigations in place that give rise to the simple fact that certain people are placing their chess pieces (corporations) and they are (my speculation) in a stage that they do not want the UAE to be part of any of this. There is of course another option for the UAE. They could start to collect other telecom corporations and chisel the Vodafone slice down to a manageable size. I personally would start by grabbing places that give access to Germany and France, Vodafone has too much power there (and in some places too shoddy reception) and form there grow the market. France and Germany when properly grown would give access to Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. From there Germany allows growth towards Poland and Czech Republic. It is a much slower path, but I reckon that these loud mouthed politicians will run for cover when Vodafone suddenly is worth 25%-35% less. Let’s be clear, I have no idea how there is a security risk ad we aren’t given that in any clear way, but as I personally see it “a security concern given Vodafone’s strategic role in the UK’s telecommunications services” if that was really true, why was Vodafone allowed to start partnerships? Is it to attract American dollars alone? I have no idea but the UAE and the KSA are the only ones with a credit card that is not maxed out at present. 

I am not telling you this is wrong, I cannot tell. I am asking what is the real fear? Because that is the larger issue in this instance. Just my €0.02 on the matter.

Enjoy Friday that is about to start for most of you and it is gone for 71% for me at the moment, but Saturday is just behind it.

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January 21, 2024 · 13:32

Pink is the colour of ignorance

That is what set this in motion. All the (as I would call them) stupid people all having their own little opinion devoid of facts. It is the devoid of facts that makes them stupid (as I personally see it). Still, you need to be forewarned of this article. To see this you need to realise the difference between speculation and presumption. One is a guess, the other is an educated guess. The difference is all about knowledge of the subject matter and in this case I do not have that. So even as I rely on facts, on given knowledge my guess remains that, a guess, optional pure speculation. I think it will be better than what some will give you, but that will be up to you to decide. This was all set off by a story in LinkedIn. 

The story (at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/codepink_today-when-we-asked-senator-menendez-when-activity-7153799630453923841-xIln) gives us the accusation, and the BS from a group of people (all women) that have a point of view, but like the irrelevant tea nannies all against arms for Saudi Arabia via Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), they cannot see the whole picture and they caused the loss of billions to the United Kingdom treasury coffers. You see this all started with Hamas. On Sat, Oct 7th 2023 Hamas attacked Israel. The result 1,139 deaths – 695 Israeli civilians (including 36 children), 71 foreign nationals, and 373 members of the security forces. Approximately 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. It was quite literally the straw that broke the camels back and Israel responded, harshly I might add. This is what set it off and the ignorant are eager to ignore this fact. Now we see SBS giving us that Gaza now has 25,000 casualties, and several sources give us the starting point. It wasn’t Israel, it was Hamas and we better wake up and we need to wake up fast.

The guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks) gives us ‘Evidence points to systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas in 7 October attacks’ with the text “Israel’s top police investigations unit, Lahav 433, is still poring over 50,000 pieces of visual evidence and 1,500 witness testimonies, and says it is unable to put a number on how many women and girls suffered gender-based violence”, so how many media outlets gave us that part of the equation, or how many media outlets give us the fact (recorded by IDF) that Hamas has weapons caches and connecting tunnels straight into Gaza hospitals. None of the hospital staff ever came forward with that, did they? When you add these parts to the equation we see that Israel pretty much has no choice and as long as Gaza protects Hamas, they are in for a rough ride and soon they will stand alone. 

Standing alone?
Yes, you see what Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates clearly see is that Hamas is not some muslim solution. They are a liability and they are a danger to middle eastern stability. The moment that comes out clearly to all muslims, Hamas will be deserted by the population of Saudi Arabia, The Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt and Oman (I’m not sure where Iraq stands). In that setting Qatar giving refuge to the heads of Hamas will have to choose to be out of the game or throw Hamas out. Qatar for now has Al Jazeera, when the KSA starts its international English news channel that advantage is gone. As such Qatar will have to openly side with Iran or be made the irrelevant player of the Middle East. In that regard when the UAE and KSA do start the stability setting, Egypt will get on board fast because of the economic benefits, as will Oman, as will Bahrain. The rest will have to chose and as I see it that leaves very little options for Hamas, they were close to irrelevant 5 years ago, now they are out of options. And the middle east needs stability, something America is fearful of. They had a good thing going in instability. Now the game changes and the largest economic hub could be the middle east by 2032. The EU is in shambles, it is all about presentations and not about providing results, merely quoting the image of results (where did I see that before?) Overall the larger game for the middle east is to set a table with the largest players. I believe the three players are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, the rest is not unimportant, but these three are the founding pillars. When that happens Hamas is a liability and Iran becomes obsolete. So where will Qatar end? Hard to say, it largely depends on Qatar handles that situation, but as long as it gives refuge to Hamas their options will be dwindling down and I reckon faster than they are happy about, especially after the KSA starts its global English news channel. 

Yes, they are all facts, but in the end my point of view is speculative, no matter how many facts surround this. When you start looking at some of the actions and the inability of the media to give us facts. Where can we look? Consider that the media has been soft on Houthi activities for three years, now that they are attacking ships and impeding profits, now they are all out on these Houthi’s? These terrorists? So where were they in the last three years when Hezbollah allegedly and Iran were supplying these forces with arms and drones. Where was the media when Iran backed Houthis were attacking civilian Saudi targets? Investigate for yourself and see what we weren’t told. Consider these parts when forming your point of view instead of blatantly following the colour of ignorance.

Enjoy the weekend.

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