Tag Archives: Wall Street Journal

April 20, 2023 · 10:21

Is UNemployed a thing?

In the first we need to put a pin in the end of yesterdays mentions. The presentation I saw yesterday l saw literally blew me away. It involved Snowflake and Coalesce. It makes the show for the new Bentley look feeble. What a show and what an approach. Players like Aramco need to taker a look, because the future of data mobility was shown to me and they can check it out in June in the SumIT in June in Las Vegas. They would be able to show people like Brent oil how far they are behind the curve. 

But today it is about something else. It is about the Dominion (not the Star Trek one), they went after Fox and Fox was eager to settle, the spinners of lies and misdirection got their First Amendment handed to them in a few ways, which beckons the thought ‘Should Fox be allowed to  exist as a news organisation?’ But about that more at a later date. 

First up is the Guardian (at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/19/the-legal-problems-still-overshadowing-fox-news-after-its-dominion-settlement) who gives us ‘The legal problems still overshadowing Fox News after its Dominion settlement’ there we see “Fox agreed to pay voting equipment company Dominion US$787.5m, ending a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election” in this I personally believe that they settled because of the roll call to the court. These people would paint themselves in a corner to such an extent that it would cost more then viewers. Several of them would pretty much end their TV careers, not even E! Entertainment would hire them as a joke. Yes, it is a personal view, but I think I am hitting the nail on the head in one. In the second degree the fact that Rupert Murdoch would be in the dock as well. So what will the Wall Street Journal do? What will the Times, or several of its other papers? Spin the story and lose a bulk of readers, or just keep silent? It is anyones guess and the setting is far from over, the settlement which was only $787,500,000.00 is small fries against the claim that Smartmatic launched and it has been given a green light. Their claim comes in at $2,700,000,000 which is decently higher and even if Fox settles that one, it will be a much higher settlement. Smartmatic has no free ride, it must prove malice and even as Fox wants to hide behind ‘reporting’ and relying on the freedom of the press. But with the Dominion settlement the stage of lies has been proven and there the shoe becomes tight. You see, when you report on lies is that freedom of the press? And there is a catch the Smartmatic people must prove the addition ‘knowingly’ and that is a much harder case. There are the bulk of the views which include that Tucker guy who will still enter the dock for testimonies. I wonder how many of them will rely on ‘I don’t recall that’, still if the attorneys taped the events, they might have a decent case (in case Fox accidentally loses all their recordings) in addition there is one reflection from the side of Fox as well. It is Bill O’Reilly, who (at https://www.billoreilly.com/b/Special-Message:-Fox-News-Settlement/883858753726419363.html) gives us “Going forward, Fox News faces a similar lawsuit from the Smartmatic Company and perhaps thousands of lawsuits from Fox shareholders. What a disaster. This is what happens when money becomes more important than honest information. Since I left FNC, the template changed from “Fair and Balanced” to “tell the audience what it wants to hear.” And millions of Trump voters, to this day, want to believe the 2020 election was rigged. That opinion can certainly be presented if you provide a counter opinion – equal time.

However, once the facts begin to overwhelm any point of view, a news agency has an obligation to say that. On BillOReilly.com, I examined all the fraud charges and concluded that no federal court would accept the cheating allegations. Therefore, the election was not going to be refuted by our legal system.” This shows that Bill O’Reilly might not have been everyones taste, but he was a real voice and he might have lost a thousand premium members but he remains a winner until the very last, what a class act and as I see it Fox lost the one Republican beacon it actually had, all for weak minded people catering to the voice of ‘THEIR’ people. The loss will be unmeasurable for Fox in the end. I reckon that is what happens when you become friends with a former president, the man who has no real funds, lots of debt, lots of losses and is proven to be nothing more than a paper tiger at best.

Last there is the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65320001) and with ‘Fox News lawsuit: Can it afford the $787.5m Dominion settlement?’ And with that article they do not offer a lot more, but they do give us “It still has outstanding cases against Fox’s smaller rivals Newsmax and OAN plus several of former President Donald Trump’s associates.” As I see it, these small players have their own legal sharks and they smell blood in the water. Should Fox settle Smartmatic, or lose in the trials these small sharks will come and take huge chunks out of the Fox cadaver. No matter how you slice it, it will leave a gap for any contender of Fox to step forward because for 1-2 years it will have to contemplate how to go forward and how to invest funds going forward and that leaves their number one customer the Republican Party. Any contender could snatch that client away from Fox, which leaves Fox in a bind. Because the Democrats will not do business with them and as the Republican Party goes, so do their advertisers. A future happily bestowed on them by some loser paper tiger and they ‘associates’ of that paper tiger are going after the paper tiger as well, they have too much to lose now. For some TV presenters it will mean the end of their careers no one will hire them after this law setting, they are scared for their own stations and media. Now these people will be set into a new setting. They will allegedly be working for the United Nations as they are soon to be UNemployed?

Enjoy the day

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April 17, 2023 · 22:23

Dimension of oversimplification

This all started a few days go when I initially saw the article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/toronto-pearson-airport-delays-1.6534360) where we are given ‘Toronto’s Pearson airport has a PR problem: It’s known as the worst airport in the world’ the article was one that had been around since October 2022, as such I reckon they wanted to pour salt on the wound. I am more of a solution kind of man, I wanna find out what the target makes it tick. Yet in the heart of the matter for any service set location, it tends to boil down to two elements. Resources and funding. The heart of the matter always boils down to these two, there tends to be no alternative. As such when it comes down to an airport, especially an essential one like the one for a village the size of Toronto, things did not make much sense to me. So lets take a look at the article.

“Disgruntled travellers passing through Pearson are posting about their bad experiences on social media, complaining about long line-ups, flight disruptions and missing baggage.” There are three items on this list line-ups, flight disruptions and missing baggage. The flight disruptions are put aside. Flight disruptions can have all kinds of reasons and none of them need to be the airport (not a given). But the other two are, as such I focus on them.

Luggage on the left
Yes, we all see luggage as a massive number one issue and besides my encounter with British Airways in 1998, I never had an issue with it. That is one issue in 25 years and the delay was send to my front door 12 hours later, as such not really an issue. But so many complaints tends to be noticed and there is a simple path The path is from plane to pickup point. Something does not add up for this many complaints to come to the surface. So when did Pearson makes its last assessment? There are logistical elements and manpower elements. The logistical is the hardware moving luggage from point one to point you and that consists of trolleys and runways. The trolleys are man operated and the runways are automated, but something in these two elements is not aligned. The people have managers and the runways have optional tag readers. Something here does not work properly and that is how I see this oversimplified in mere minutes. And this is not rocket science. The setting of plane to destination point with a suitcase has a few simple elements. So what aren’t they seeing? 

The simplest of reasons could be seen by trying to set a report from students from the University of Toronto to create a business Intelligence report on how to improve this path and how toe create rollback points. This took less than 10 minutes, the report might take a few weeks, but the score of this airport hasn’t changed in a while and the title ‘Toronto’s Pearson Airport is a special circle of hell. The worst airport experience ever’ should have been looked at some time ago. So was the first element funding or resources? Optionally a mix of both, so why do we look at this now, what has Deborah Ale Flint flint done? She was the big wig for almost 3 years now. Is it manpower, IT, hardware failures, something does not add up and this title needs addressing.

Lining up towards tomorrow
This tends to be resources, either manpower or check in points (which might be funding). When was it last looked at? How many check points are there and how many passengers do they deal with? Then there is the side setting that lineups are from departure and arrival, the departure points are the airlines problem, the arrival is customs and passport check. I am more interested in arrivals as they are on the airport. Are there enough arrival points? One source gives me that there are over 1000 daily departures from the Toronto airport and there is daily service to more than 180 destinations across 6 continents. 1000 flights implies up to 300,000 people every day. This gets us to 12,500 an hour. As such you need to process over 200 a minute. This implies 15-24 passport gates, are they there? How many gates are there to process passports? Then there is the IT and logistics and making sure that 20 are operational gates at pressure times is a minimum. So is this funding or resources? It is not directly a given, but it is either the gates or the people, people is funding (and availability), the other one is funding. How many gates are there and how long have they been there? Is the IT properly working, are the scanners up to date? All simple questions and I saw this in minutes. I am not an authority, but in my time I travelled by air 26 weeks a year, as such I have seen my share of airports and for the most I never had an issue, some waiting time in Heathrow, but a place that big, some waiting time is to be expected and still I got through it in mere minutes. So why is Pearson an issue?

Both could have been driven to the surface with BI students at the University of Toronto. I saw that in minutes and I cannot say what they will find, yet I believe it is enough to give Pearson Airport the ability to shed the title ‘The worst airport experience ever’ which is a really bad achievement to have. So whilst we mull over “The airport’s troubles have also been featured in major international publications this month, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the BBC.” What was actually done to address the issue? I never saw the articles and I do not have to, they tend to be emotional driven and it is facts that we need to look at. Any BI analyst knows this, the numbers speak and they tend to push the ugly parts to the surface. 

Perhaps I am oversimplifying the matter, but something needs to be done, I believe I pushed that element to the surface, in case people were blind for the obvious. The idea that the worst airport is a Commonwealth one offends me, that is something we leave to the Yanks at best, or a Russian or Asian airport we do not care for, the idea that Pakistan has better airports than Canada, should also appeal to the dark side of Canadian pride, but that might be merely me, as I said, oversimplification gets people mad and that results in actions.

Have a nice flight (or day).

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December 6, 2022 · 16:06

The other white paper

Yes, there are always white papers, but which one is true? You see, they are all true, they are all a point of view. Yet the truth from a point of view is relative, that has always been the case. This is why we have peer criticism for academic papers. Yet that is not the case for the media, they are all fighting to remain around with some feigned form of value. This has been the case for over a decade and now the BBC gives us (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63869013) ‘Meta threatens to remove US news content if new law passes’, you see the truth of the matter is that the people no longer need the news, the news is no longer if value. It started when the media starting soliciting (aka whoring) for digital dollars. Flamed bring revenue, actual news not so much. The events surrounding Elon Musk, the abstinence around Jack Dorsey and a dozen other cases made it so. The newspapers are irrelevant and they know it, so in a last gesture to remain not completely irrelevant they rely on laws to force funds from social media. Even as the shared instances from places like the Australian link to paywalls, they are all about ‘lost revenue’ And the Australian is not alone, loads of American newspapers and media (like Forbes) do EXACTLY the same thing. They will tell you the scoop AFTER you pay, so how is that lost revenue? Not all papers are like that, but many are and now we get “It would give publishers and broadcasters greater powers to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of ad revenue”, I believe this is to be a false setting and Meta gives it to you in the form of “Meta claims their platform, in fact, provides increased traffic to struggling news outlets.” They are correct. Consider the truth, it I simple, how many times did you go to the news site? How many times was this because THEY shared news on social media? This has been the case for a decade and now that Meta is taking off the gloves, we see how irrelevant the media has become. In the last year alone I highlighted close to a dozen cases of incompetency and a lack of information vetting by the media, so why should they get paid for shortcomings? It is almost like the decapitated chicken.  It’s running around, but it is already dead, the rest of its body did not figure it out yet. Is it fair? Does it matter? No, the media had the option to evolve, it merely decided that is was cheaper and more profitable to hang onto someone else’s coattails. It did not work out well for them and now they cry foul, almost like the yellow pages. Their era died and they just never adjusted in time and I am adding to the pain as my 5G seemingly goes to China. Setting a new stage in several ways and taking advertisement power away from all and leave it where it should have been all along, with the advertising people. With the locations of advertising and that is the lesson that they never picked up on, and it is not their fault. A place like Google missed it too and I mentioned it at least twice this year. 

A stage that is moving away from them faster and faster and if Meta makes the move it is threatening to a lot of players in the media world will be done for. Such is life, Media Erectus is getting eaten before passing on its whinges. So do not focus on the whinge, consider the place technology had for almost 2 decades and see where the media is not, and they have not been where they needed to be for almost a decade and now that they are about to become irrelevant they cry laws. Bu the way these same people never championed law changes to the environment, law changes to taxation and they simply went for the emotional targets, it had more expected digital dollars, so where are these dollars now? 

And when we see “Media companies argue that Meta generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on the platform.” So where is THAT evidence? Meta generates advertisement towards people through free accounts, and this gets me to (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2H8wx1aBiQ) the congress statement April 2018 where the answer is ‘We run ads’ a setting that was in place for well over a decade. The news was never an element and as such the media better be quick with presenting ACTUAL evidence in that case.

When I see how irrelevant the media and Microsoft have become and I see them cry like little chihuahua’s all whilst they screw up options left right and centre, what the actual F*** (censored word) the world around them is doing protecting something this irrelevant is beyond me, it actually is.

We can debate things but look at the numbers. the Paris based World Association of Newspapers, which represents 18,000 newspapers gives us that there are a lot more. The world has 8,000,000,000 people, which implies that there is an average of 445,000 people per newspaper. When you start doing the math, you will see that the numbers o not add up. The newspapers that are still relevant are so as they have well over 2 million subscriptions. The Washington Post has 3 million, and The Wall Street Journal 2.4 million subscriptions. The Dutch Telegraaf had in 2001 807,000 subscriptions, in 2017 it was only 393,000. The larger national newspapers are losing ground and now we see the larger play. There are 195 countries in the world. So why are there 18,000 newspapers? They nearly all rely on Reuters, making at least 17,000 irrelevant already. But these are the numbers no one looks at, and they are all vying for advertisements. Look at ANY newspaper and look how many advertisements they have and how much they charge and you will see their actual loss. They are no longer a relevant advertisement group, digital media replaced them, they lost relevancy by allowing to become a family of 18,000 brothers and sisters and that is before you see the rest of the media relying on advertisement sales to qualify their existence. But no one looks at that side are they?

The other white paper that no one gets to see is the one no one in media wants to look at, it merely shows how irrelevant they have become.  

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November 21, 2022 · 19:12

Theranos the Vampire

Yes, it was a stage in the making. The media painted every railing in immaculate white. The media made sure that she always looked her best but last week the hammer fell down and 4015 days in Hotel Penal became her new lodgings. Yet the stage was for a lot not that clear was it?

So let do some recap (my way). First there is the Wall Street Journal (at https://www.wsj.com/articles/theranos-has-struggled-with-blood-tests-1444881901) with ‘Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology’, the headline avoids a few terms and gives us “company founder Elizabeth Holmes holds up a tiny vial to show how the startup’s “breakthrough advancements have made it possible to quickly process the full range of laboratory tests from a few drops of blood.”” It also gives us the fact that the firm was at some point valued at 9 billion dollars. USA Today (at https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/03/15/behind-theranos-rise-and-dramatic-fall-powerful-backers-money-tech-and-politics/426364002/) gives us ‘Behind Theranos’ rise and dramatic fall: The powerful backers in money, tech and politics’ and there we get “Theranos raised money on the strength of Holmes’ ability to pitch her vision, whose reality often didn’t match up. But there were plenty of takers. Theranos’ fundraising resulted in a valuation of $9 billion — half of which belonged to Holmes, making her one of the youngest billionaires on the planet, at least on paper.” This article leads to “Shultz quit, and despite warnings from Holmes — she allegedly called the elder Shultz to warn him about his grandson’s threats to expose the company — decided to contact New York state’s public-health lab and alleged Theranos had manipulated its test results. This was the first known regulatory complaint about Theranos, whose issues would soon grow exponentially.” As such Tyler Shulz was the first brick that decided that the wall did not make sene, the wording “she allegedly called the elder Shultz to warn him about his grandson’s threats to expose the company” making the words ‘intent’ finally float to the top and an issue was finally raised. As stated the first. So how long was she out and about with this at present? Then we get the BBC (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63672103) where we are given ‘Theranos: Silicon Valley holds breath for Elizabeth Holmes sentencing’, the article also gives us “In January a jury concluded she had deliberately misled investors. She was convicted of four counts of wire fraud – with a maximum sentence of 20 years. However, it has taken an eternity to get this point – sentencing. Her legal team is arguing for 18 months of house arrest. The prosecution wants her to serve 15 years in prison and to pay back the best part of a billion dollars to investors.” So one side wants her to bake in sing sing for 15 years and the other side want to give her house arrest for 18 month a sway of no less. A mere 10% for the fraudster with nice tits. You think this is crude? How about the investors? So we get things like the dozens of letters have been submitted vouching for Holmes’ character. Character of a Fraudster? “one from Cory Booker, a US Senator for New Jersey, who wrote to the judge.

The Democrat said they’d bonded over vegan food at a dinner six years before she was charged with fraud, and they had remained friends. He appealed for clemency.” This can be seen in two ways. One is what we read, the other one is the one where the Fraudster is setting up a hedge fund of good calls, at the expense of other people. You decide. 

Last there is the BBC again (at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63685131) where we see ‘Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes jailed for fraud’ it is here that we get “Once hailed as the “next Steve Jobs”, she was at one time said to be the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. She launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19, and its value rose sharply after the company claimed it could bring about a revolution in disease diagnosis.” And how did faking test results help there? How do we get “Holmes, 38, who is pregnant, tearfully told the court she felt “deep pain” for those misled by the scam”? I am of the mind that she got pregnant to soften the blow of punishment, but that might merely be me. And how can she feel deep pain? The actions against Tyler Shulz seem to indicate that, I feel for Tyler Shulz who is the one setting this in motion. I cannot state that others were aware, well one other seemingly was. But he is the one who stopped it, but the Wall Street Journal wrote that away in an epitaph easily enough. It seems that only NPR took a better look in appreciation of what he did, what he found and how the ball got rolling. The Wall Street Journal went straight for daddy.

NPR gives us “he was the first to report troubling findings at the company to regulators. At the time, it was a risky and bold move, but it helped accelerate scrutiny that would ultimately end in the company’s implosion.” I have two issues here. The first I why only NPR is taking that stand, the second one is seen with “it was a risky and bold move” it was risky to warn the SEC for fraud events? In addition we get “Shultz had worked countless hours in labs. Armed with this scientific know-how, he quickly realised something was amiss when he looked inside of the Edison device.

“There is nothing that the Edison could do that I couldn’t do with a pipette in my own hand,” he said. Then he discovered another alarming thing: When Theranos completed quality-control safety audits, it was running tests not on the Edison, but on commercially available lab equipment. That did not seem right. “It was clear that there was an open secret within Theranos that this technology simply didn’t exist,” Shultz said.” The article (at https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1070474663/theranos-whistleblower-tyler-shultz-elizabeth-holmes-verdict-champagne) gives a rundown that none of the papers hd and NPR had it in January 2022. It seems that the media is all very forgiving towards fraud, it implies that fraud is applauded as long as you get away with it. So how come NPR has what the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the BBC do not? In addition the fact that the hard and ‘risky’ choices that Tyler Shulz made, not his father are seemingly ignored all over the place. And you wonder why I do not trust people with my IP? You have got to be joking. In the end we have a much larger problem, the media! They have gone out of their way to give space to a fraudster and only now, only after the verdict of 11 years is passed do we see the rundown, but till to the smallest degree and that is proven with the NPR article that was given to us 9 months earlier. Hell, a woman can get pregnant in that time. The fact that most media steps largely over Tyler Shulz might be seen as additional evidence.

Was it a simple story, or have they all been compelled by a vampire? I reckon someone has to ask the expert witness Sarah Michelle Gellar for insights.

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March 16, 2022 · 09:31

A symphony in only two parts?

That is the question at times. We see two events, two articles and we forget that there are a dozen other connections. I am not different, at times I overlook them too, not always but frequently. It is a mix of a larger stage, more connections, more unregistered events. Yet for now we start with the first nail in the coffin of American economy. The article from Reuters (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-invites-chinas-xi-visit-wsj-2022-03-14/) gives us ‘Saudi Arabia invites China’s Xi to visit’, the article states that this could be as early as may. Right before the Midterms in November 2022 the US is now likely to face that dozens upon dozens of billions walk from the US side straight into the hands of China (and me missing out on commission, darn). Is this a given? No, of course not. There could be a dozen reasons why President Xi Jinping might be visiting. But how often has ANY Chinese president done that? And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is eager to set his defence and SAMI to higher values and I was clear in the two years that this was coming and as far as I can tell, President Biden has soured the waters enough for this to become a reality. Some focusses on weapons being sold, I say in THIS economy you should not ignore the nations Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, who are the largest importers. In this stage where the US HELD 37% and China only 5.2% the stage is now set where China can progress a lot higher on that list and should they get the bulk of Saudi and SAMI attention there is a clear stage where the new numbers will represent (2023/2024) could state that the US hold 25% and China then could be holding 17.2%, it then places China right next to Russian exports and the US a lot more to that stage, a stage where it is now an almost fair fight between the US, Russia and China, but to be clear was that EVER an economic stage where you WANT a fair fight? A stage where China overtakes both France and Germany as supplier? This is the stage that could inhabit the Middle East and that is merely the beginning. You see the partnerships that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt have also sets Egypt in the sights of China as a defence trade partner, a stage a few people overlooked and that drives Chinese export achievable needs up a lot more. So the damage to the US might increase over the coming year and those who want to be in denial, go right ahead, the article with ““The crown prince and Xi are close friends and both understand that there is huge potential for stronger ties,” the report quoted a Saudi official as saying. “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’.”” I like the part “It is not just ‘They buy oil from us and we buy weapons from them’” the best, it might not be merely just, for China that is a good deal in several ways and when that deal gives China more oil, it will mean that it gives the US less oil a stage they feared for some time and the oil market has been volatile on these fears alone. So when I was mentioning that whatever relief the oil prices give us today, tomorrow will be different and now we see that fear come to fruition, not immediately mind you, but the price of fuel will go up again and again, how high? I cannot tell but the stage where we saw the American administration make statements like “You can pump more oil, so pump more oil!”, it was nice but there is now every chance that the extra oil (plus a little more) goes to China. Will the UAE do the same? I cannot tell, but the US better become best buddies with Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, because if I see this right, the US will need every friend it can muster in their oil needs (a few others too) and in that need they better realise that catering to Iran will not merely be unrewarding, it will soon become dangerous on more than one field as well. I mentioned two years ago that yielding the Middle East to China would be one of the most dangerous things ever, and that was merely economically. Now we see one field exposed and the construction opportunities in Neom could also go towards China, a stage that makes the US (EU too) more and more irrelevant, a stage the US themselves threw upon their own economic needs. Now that it is becoming more and more realistic these people will not be allowed to cry with the “Why oh why” statement like little chihuahua’s. Or as my grandmother used to say “You do not bite the hand that feeds you” a practical lesson that the US will now face within the next 3 months and the 2 years that follow. A stage that the Biden Administration failed to spot in some stage of ignorance and now as we see it optionally unfold (it might be that President Xi Jinping is visiting to buy real estate in Neom) some might see the dangers that are coming the next year or so and the impact over the next decade. I merely loose out on commission (oh, poor poor me). 

 

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February 11, 2022 · 21:35

The headers of maximum data

Every now and then I keep my eyes on Zendesk. There is a reason for that, my origins are technical support and customer support. I am proud of my past, I went from nothing to a decent high ranking technical support person and I always fought for EVERY customer. I did not care whether they had one single license, or if it was an important customer who owned a site license (which drove sales insane). All were equal in my eyes and all deserved and received 100%. So when the article (at https://www.reuters.com/business/zendesk-rejects-16-bln-offer-private-equity-consortium-2022-02-10/) passed me by, I took notice. You see, the header is one ‘Zendesk rejects $16 bln offer from private equity consortium’, I remember that it started not too long ago (2007) and it grew fast. Well there is a reason for that. No matter whether you look at SCOPUS, SIEBEL or another CRM solution, they claim that they have a technical support part, it was meagre and all based on a sales foundation, which makes it (in my eyes) not a technical support solution. So beyond Zendesk there was nothing. It is a good place to be in, it allows for the growth they had. Yet the article sat with me and not entirely in a good way. The first one “facing calls from activist investors, including hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, to abandon its proposed acquisition of SurveyMonkey parent Momentive Global Inc , which it agreed in October”, is regarded (by me) as moronic, you are about to see why. The second one “Thoma Bravo had made a takeover approach to Zendesk” with the added “Thoma Bravo and Jana declined to comment.” As I personally see it, it is not about Zendesk, it is about the amount of data they wield via 17 offices in a lot more countries than 17. They are after the data. A Company with an operating income of $175,000,000 is not valued as a $16,000,000,000 on the value of its SAAS operations, that has to be about the data and that will be a scary thought. When my technical support skills, given to the customers will be used to bleed them dry of intelligence. It is a scary thought. Then there is the added. You see Marketwatch gives us “Jana Partners LLC, which is opposed to Zendesk’s deal to buy Momentive Global Inc., is planning a proxy fight, according to the WSJ report. Momentive shares were down 3%” me thinks that the acquisition implies that too many eyes will be on Zendesk for some time to come and that does not sit well with Barry Rosenstein. So for me the response becomes: “A reactive and impulsive decision? My ass!” I think that Rosenstein had similar plans as the other (unnamed) player and it seems that these management firms have data currency on the mind and Zendesk in its near unique position is one juicy steak (with sauce). So no matter how unique the placement is, as long as it has data these Investment management companies will see the long term gains and there is a larger stake (or is that steak) in play, it is not Schrems 2 (discusses yesterday), it is all those nations that lack that level of protection and it seems that these Investment management companies have an additional customer that needs no mention, no written agreement and that makes for a lot of coins and they will hand it over eagerly, especially in light of the escalation we globally see, in that setting data is everything. To add to that, I have to admit that there is another setting, which I still cannot see, it is because I know next to nothing on Orlando Bravo, the man behind Thoma Bravo. It might be that he is on the same track sharing the risk and revenue with Rosenstein, yet they are lonesome hunters (optionally predators), but because Orlando the software esquire also has Proofpoint, Sophos, Kofax, Motus and Aptus there is every consideration that Orlando Bravo has other considerations including solidifying fleet contracts to a larger and more complete approach and having a more substantial SAAS umbrella. So he is the larger unknown and there is a rather large expansion option for Zendesk, so I am not certain, but I feel certain that Orlando might have been better off without Barry, but that is just an initial vibe I am getting and that vibe is not evidence based.

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February 4, 2022 · 14:57

Talk about something in a boring way?

Yes, that is one way to put it, you see we can drone all we like, but until certain players wake up, smell the coffee and realise that they are aiding Iran through silence, we will never get anywhere. It started yesterday (actually a few days earlier) and I did mention an event before that. But yesterday it started as Reuters gave us ‘UAE says it blocked drone attack, shadowy group claims responsibility’ (at https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/uae-says-it-destroyed-3-drones-that-penetrated-its-airspace-wednesday-2022-02-02/) there we see “The first three assaults, including a missile attack on Monday during a visit by Israel’s president, were launched by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in an escalation with a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and which includes the UAE.” In this we are also given “Wednesday’s drone attack was claimed by little-known “True Promise Brigades”, citing UAE interference in Yemen and Iraq as justification, according to U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which follows militant websites”, which I personally reckon is one of two players. The article does give us “the group, which is unknown to Iraqi intelligence or security officials, is actually active or capable of such attacks, or if it is a front for Iran-allied militias”, but that is not all. I get the setting we see here. Yet when we consider the gathered intel from Saudi Spokesperson Turki Al-Maliki who gave is last month and showed us all video that not only is Iran actively involved in Yemen, but so is Hezbollah and there is no mention of Hezbollah at present is there? More important, the western media shunned any mention of Iran and Hezbollah in Yemen ACTIVELY attacking the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There is not the question whether it has happened. The attacks on Aramco (14 September 2019) could not have ben done by Houthi forces, or Hezbollah for that matter. The attacks and the precision clearly implies an attack by Iran, but that as never properly investigated by the west was it? So I decided to design a weapon system to stealthily sink their navy and I gave it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (as well as put it online), the idea of melting down their reactor I put online. It needs to be clear that if no one will deal with Iran, I will (I needed a hobby anyway).

But this is not about me. This is about Iran and this is about the UAE attack. So the second article comes from Arab News (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2017681/middle-east) there we see ‘UAE foreign minister condemns Houthi attacks in call with Iranian counterpart’, I personally wonder what UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed actually told Iran, but I think it is clear that these attacks are not the result from Houthi forces. I am also amazed that the drones got that far. There is more in this and the technology required to get that far implies clearly that it is Iranian hardware, definitely training by Iran or Houthi forces and the reach of the hardware implies stronger measures have been delivered to Houthi forces and only one source is the delivery agent. It was Iran, whether they went via Hezbollah is another matter. Yet the text “the UAE’s air defences intercepted and destroyed three drones on Wednesday before they had reached residential areas” the question becomes was the target military or civilian? That is not easily answered, but the setting requires a much larger response from the west, If they want any credibility at all. Yet there is a larger station to consider. Why is the west (aka US Navy) unable to stop Iranian (or Hezbollah) smugglers? This setting is already beyond 7 drones, the hardware required is not a simple setting. There needs to be at least three teams or more advanced cluster Drone control and the second part implies a lot more training and a lot more knowledge that previously expected and there is no way that this advanced expertise of drones is in the hard of Houthi forces or Hezbollah. 

The second part is drone control, there are at least 3 stations available. Whether we track or hack, something needs to be done and so far the failures of the blocking navy (US, UK) is out there and more questions are out there on smugglers making it though. I might pull a rabbit with a solution out of my hat, but I got nothing (at present) yet the Americans and Brits out there are not getting it done either so something new is required and if I create a new IP on taking out Iranian interest I will put them here, but at present smugglers are the problem and so far no one has anything to stop them and the one that got caught is not enough, the weapons might count, but drones and drone control is making it through and that needs to stop. It needs to stop because soon the stage becomes that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are forced to set the tone to open warfare with Iran. The flaccid politicians (Us and EU) will be too late then and no one will give them any consideration, at that point we can no longer be neutral and as I personally see it, the commonwealth will have to openly support the UAE and then what? You see at that point we are at a point of no return and we had the option to stop it earlier, if only politicians and their stakeholders had a clear solution to avoid the point of no return and as we can see it will soon be too late for that. At least I offered at least two parts in stopping Iran, more needs to be done and the west is not doing it. The Wall Street Journal gave u 17 hours ago ‘U.S. Sees Iran’s Nuclear Program as Too Advanced to Restore Key Goal of 2015 Pact’, the Jerusalem Post only 11 hours ago gives us ‘The US is negotiating a shorter, weaker Iran Deal’, and I wrote on November 19th 2021 ‘Uranium, Iranas, Iran it again’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/11/19/uranium-iranas-iran-it-again/). There I stated (almost three months ago) “the first dose of reality is only a week away, when we see the absence of strong media representation, the absence of strong language and the absence of clear shot time lines, I feel that my point will be made and I only need to see one of the three to be proven correct. This has been going on for 7 years, enough is enough I say”, and that is all after the stories going back to July 2020, there has been that much inaction from the west, and equally that little achieved. 

It is clear that Iran is using flaccid western politicians and western stakeholders to get their message and levels of inactivity out. So as the New York Post now gives the people ‘New Iran deal wouldn’t stop production of nuclear bomb: White House’, so as the gloves come off, the stage of either support Saudi Arabia or face the chaos that will ensure for decades to come will pass through inaction, or through actions done too late. Inactions will have pushed the Middle East to a brink of chaos and we are all in part to blame, we have seen a year of inactions and filtered news so any journalist now making claims that they were caught unaware can go screw themselves. This has been out there for years and we are soon in a stage where we could face the ordeal of letting it all get out of control. 

We can drone all we want, but we forgot that there was a larger stage and not calling that one out was on the plate of all these so called reporters, yet they didn’t do that, did they?

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January 29, 2022 · 13:01

That one flaky promise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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January 11, 2022 · 17:08

Media in Limelight

That is the setting, is it time to put the media in the limelight? It started yesterday in Al Jazeera which was based on an article that came from the Wall Street Journal. The article (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/9/iran-likely-smuggling-weapons-to-yemen-confidential-report) gives us ‘Iran ‘likely’ smuggling weapons to Yemen: UN report’I got there over three years ago, with a little later, in December 16th 2019 when I wrote ‘Joke of 2019: United Nations’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2019/12/16/joke-of-2019-united-nations/), where we see the UN giving us in some delusional Tate of denial “The UN has reportedly so far been unable to confirm Iran was involved in drone and cruise missile attacks on two key Saudi oil facilities in September”, they were that much in denial, one could argue that the UN allowed itself to be steered clear of any evidence involving Iran and the media was happy to oblige. If you search for these elements in Western media you will find very little. The Wall Street Journal who gave us two days ago (at https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-navy-port-emerges-as-key-to-alleged-weapons-smuggling-to-yemen-u-n-report-says-11641651941) “Thousands of weapons seized by the U.S. along supply routes for Yemen’s Houthis likely originated from Jask in Iran’s southeast, according to a draft report” might be one of the first that takes a larger look at the acts of Iran, well, I have to say that it took them long enough. I have a three year head start on most of them as such I wonder which stakeholder is out in the cold now?

A stage most ignores for the longest time is now a hot potato. So we do hope that General Turki Al-Maliki, serving the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will get the support he has been entitled to for well over two years. And all this is before you realise that Arab News gave us (at https://youtu.be/6Ab-8bIHY90) the setting of what Saudi Arabia was getting done in Yemen. Now, I am willing to be skeptical and not one sided, but the media did not report on any of that did they? It would be fair to see opposition, there always is, yet that part is also missing. We see blunt debatable attacks by tools like Stephanie Kirchgaessner (the Guardian, Washington DC) and a few other tools, but that is the extent, this is one of the larger first articles that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in particular General Turki Al-Maliki has been rowing upstream for far too long all whilst the media shuts down any reporting on Iranian actions towards and in Yemen, why is that?

If there was opposition, disagreements on matters it would show, it always does, one side reports on knives being delivered, the other party will state that the manufacturers of stone knives are being pushed out of a job. This is life, but the shutdown on news regarding Iranian actions is another matter and the Wall Street Journal (as well as Al Jazeera) seemingly broke rank. And when we see the response in the WSJ “Iran’s mission at the U.N. said Iran doesn’t interfere in the conflict in Yemen, as a matter of policy. “Iran has not sold, exported, or transferred any arms, ammunition, or related equipment to Yemen in contravention of Security Council resolutions,” the Iranian mission said in an emailed statement.” We get the political side of the statement, yet the part where we see “thousands of weapons seized” tell a very different story. So whilst there will be twisting and turning for some time (which always happen) the one side that does not get to be in denial is the media, two sources? The media are all over each other whenever possible and Yemen is no exception. We need to consider the media and the irresponsible acts of keeping news from us. Keeping us in the dark on what Iran is doing, we need to set the limelight on the media and their stage of denial, it is that simple. When they all start doing their job, the job of some become more outspoken and we see a much larger wheel in motion, and perhaps the headline we saw in September 2021 ‘Iran Selling More Oil In 2021 But Middlemen Reap The Profit’, the setting is simple. In what universe does the middlemen reap the profits, close to all the profits? I wonder if the media will grace us with a list of names, yet I doubt that, the stakeholders on a few levels will not allow for that. This is of course personal speculation, yet consider the revenue that oil has and now we see that the alleged Iranian profits go somewhere else? Do you not think we need to know where they go? Do you think that the CIA, FBI (and many others) are not interested where billions in profits sailed to? The media is suddenly not interested?

If Toyota released another ISIS model, the media would be all over the design teams and asking them which of the members had middle eastern relatives. Now they are quiet? I do not think so! I believe that the Wall Street Journal (al Jazeera too) is exposing a little more than they bargained for and the call for exposing and illuminating the media in the limelight is the right call to make. 

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December 11, 2021 · 19:16

A two sided sword

It is nice (novel too) when the press does your work. Al Jazeera (at https://aje.io/xvndmj) with the headline ‘Nobel Peace Prize winners warn of growing disinformation threat’, which sounds nice, but the complication is that the press is part of the problem, in the last two years 

I looked at issues with the NSO group, Jamal Khashoggi (the reporter no one cares about), one sided accusations against Saudi Arabia, bungled investigations involving Jeff Bezos (and the UN), Ignoring the events from Iran and Houthi forces and that running joke known as the ICIJ with their papers of hope (Pandora papers). All issues that show the press being part of the problem, not a solution. All vying for digital dollars any way they can. 

So when I see “Maria Ressa of the Philippines said the greatest threat to democracy is “when lies become facts”, while Dmitry Muratov of Russia said society is currently in a dangerous “post-truth period””, I am not opposing Maria Ressa, I am stating that the disinformation problem is a lot larger than what we hear and journalists are part of that problem. 

Journalists have with some regularity placed themselves on the axial of a seesaw and tried to keep a balance between events taking place and Stakeholders that need things go certain ways (my speculation/presumption). It is a setting that have been going on since 2012 (which is when I started to take notice). So when I see “Muratov also told Al Jazeera that disinformation was a significant and growing threat. “Manipulation leads to war,” he said. “We are in the middle of a post-truth period. Now, everyone is concerned about their own ideas and not the facts,” Muratov said” I feel an involuntary giggle coming up. It is correct what he states, but the part of ‘Manipulation leads to war’, was this communicated to the morning breakfast shows? Was this communicated to newspapers who do this way too often? 

Yes there are problems and they are all over the place, yet the press is part of the problem, it stopped being part of the solution when shareholders needed to see more money from news outlets. A plate for pigs and there are too many pigs and the plate is seemingly getting smaller. 

So it needs to be clear, I am not opposing the person who achieved the standing of winning a Nobel price, I am however pointing towards the wannabe’s behind these people maximising digital coins at the expense of clear reporting. In case of the ICIJ, has anyone seen a clear dashboard giving us numbers of people per nation, nations with government people involved and non-government people? No, you haven’t. More importantly when we see the stage of those in zero tax nations (and their right to be there), what is left? In that stage we see the ICIJ speak like parrots, repeating the same thing over and over without any real revelations, any real criminal activities. So when you see “The new data reveals confidential information about the owners of offshore entities mostly registered in the British Virgin Islands, a notoriously secretive jurisdiction, between 1980 and 2018.” You get no real information, merely some silly essay person waving his dick. The problem is that this so called “confidential information about the owners of offshore entities”, is absent of criminal activities. It is about tax laws and these clowns have not achieved anything, merely made you all angry that some people get LEGALLY away with avoiding taxation. So Boo Hoo flipping Hoo. 

So I get it that some journalists should receive protection, but in my personal view, we could do without those 600 at the ICIJ brilliantly. The term of “when lies become facts” sounds really nice, but that means that we hold journalists and what they write accountable, an act that hasn’t been the case for the longest of times, should you doubt that, read the Leveson report. The stage is changing and to some degree journalists and news outlets are responsible for that mess. Consider that the big papers which include the Wall Street Journal, The Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, the Boston globe and the NY Times. How many did a real piece on how tax laws have failed a nation? None as fr as I can tell, they are all screaming ‘Tax the Rich’ but it were these tax laws that got them in that setting. The disregarded acts by Iran are visible all over by the bulk of these papers seemingly disregard these parts, just like the assaults by Houthi’s but they are all eager to slam the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one sided reporting is disinformation, I hope that this is clear? Filtered information (like morning shows) is also a form of disinformation and they all serve some stakeholder (as I personally see it).

A stage that has to change and it should start with those calling themselves journalists. 

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