El Presidente

It is a challenge to get ahead of the AI transormation currently underway. I can't tell you how many cigar deck discussions I have had with accountants/lawyers/data analysts - psuedo be it government or private. From what I can see real time, this is happening everywhere. Starting again (my businesses) in this age of AI, has me thinking long and hard. I have few answers bar trying to be exceptional in the customer experience. However, I am not in that data/white collar game. This is one of the tougher emails I have received.

Here we have cigars bunched by Carlos being checked. We plan to have a video in the coming weeks with our draw machine operator explaining the process, the details of the machine and what constitutes a fail/fail rates and the post fail process. VID-20260120-WA0040.mp4

Hi Rob, Hope you and the Czar crew are doing well. A lot of you here have been in business a long time, across just about every lane there is, so I’m throwing this out to the group. I’m a data analyst based in New York. Last full-time role was in 2022. Since then it’s been contracts: government, finance, insurance, which was fine… until it wasn’t. I’m good at what I do, but my last three 12-month contracts didn’t get renewed. Finding work in 2023 and 2024 wasn’t hard. 2025 was a different story. And 2026 is looking worse as more of the traditional work starts getting replaced or augmented by AI. Bottom line: fewer seats, more competition. I’m 38. Mortgage. Two kids. Dog. Not exactly the stage of life where you can just “figure it out later.” So the honest question is: where the hell do you pivot from here? If you’re open to it, Rob, I’d appreciate this being posted on FOH. Any insight, perspective, or hard-earned advice would be genuinely appreciated. Thanks in advance. __________________________________________________________ Over to you good people. I haven't put together a reply as yet.

https://asiatimes.com/2026/01/why-cambodia-deported-scam-boss-chen-zhi-to-china-not-the-us/ Why Cambodia deported scam boss Chen Zhi to China, not the US Scam center kingpin could have disclosed incriminating evidence about those benefitting from the fraud if in US custody On January 7, Cambodian authorities announced they had detained and deported Chen Zhi, founder and former chairman of Prince Group, a multinational conglomerate accused of fronting a global multibillion-dollar fraud operation. Chen, a former advisor to ex-Prime Minister Hun Sen, became a key figure in a joint US-UK response last year when he was personally indicted for wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges and included in an unprecedented sanctions program targeting the Prince Group and other organized crime syndicates in Southeast Asia. Chen’s arrest — and his subsequent extradition to China — surprised many because he had such powerful backers in Phnom Penh. He held the government’s bestowed honorific neak oknha, meaning “prominent tycoon”, and had long been allowed to operate largely unrestrained at the head of a burgeoning network of scam centers. Despite long-standing promises by the Hun regime, now led by Hun Sen’s son, Prime Minister Hun Manet, to tackle cybercrime within Cambodia’s borders, Chen proved untouchable, even as NGOs and cybercrime experts repeatedly called for action against the Prince Group in recent years. This raises questions about why the regime chose to intervene only now, months after Western demands, and why it handed Chen over to Chinese authorities rather than to countries with active warrants for his arrest, including the US and UK. Until recently, Chen lived as a free man in Cambodia. The regime continued to shelter him and deflect investigations into his business dealings, apparently to avoid disclosing the tycoon’s location. Calls for action following the October 2025 sanctions and charges package were ignored despite intensifying Western pressure. This included a report accusing the Cambodian government of colluding in human trafficking for the cybercrime operations and the introduction of a US bill naming several high-ranking Cambodian officials as complicit in the operation of scam syndicates. The reluctance to act in the face of clear evidence suggests that Chen’s detention and deportation were less about tackling cybercrime and more a response to shifting geopolitical developments. Indeed, the decision to deport Chen came just days after the brazen extraction of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to the US on narco-terrorism charges. While observers continue to debate the legality of that intervention and its implications for other Latin American countries, the message was clear: Donald Trump’s America is willing and able to enter foreign territory to apprehend individuals it deems a threat to US national security. While Chen is a far lower-profile figure than Maduro, his operations through the Prince Group have undermined US economic and security interests. In an industry dominated by individuals close to ruling elites, allowing Chen to fall into US custody — where he could potentially disclose incriminating evidence about the players, enablers and transnational nature of scam networks — was a risk Phnom Penh was unwilling to take. That is especially true given that cyber scams are estimated to generate revenue equivalent to 30.2% of Cambodia’s formal GDP. As Cambodia seeks to secure its illicit revenue stream, the decision to deport Chen to China — a country that claims to have solved 285,000 online fraud cases in 2025 and cracked down on responsible groups — may initially appear unusual. However, a November report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China has “selectively cracked down on scam centers that target Chinese victims, leading Chinese criminal organizations to conclude that they can make greater profits with lower risk by targeting the United States instead.” It also suggested that scam centers are used as a pretext for expanding China’s security presence and influence in the region. Given the scale of the problem, it is not difficult to see why some governments may turn to China for assistance. Cybercrime in East and Southeast Asia was estimated at nearly $40 billion in 2023, with Cambodia accounting for $12.5 billion alone. Some ASEAN nations, such as Malaysia, lost more than 1.22 billion ringgit ($300 million) to cybercrime in just 10 months of 2024, while Indonesia recorded 3.6 billion scam attacks in the first seven months of 2025. While regional efforts have had substantial impact — including the release of about 7,000 of the estimated 120,000 victims held in Myanmar alone in February last year — many of those behind the industry remain untouched. A recent UN Office on Drugs and Crime report found weak governance and high levels of corruption allow the industry to thrive. The Hun regime has long been linked to cyber syndicates, with several individuals named in the US Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act (H.R.5490) being deputy prime ministers, ministers and advisors to the government. The October sanctions demonstrated that such actors can be identified and targeted. The Hun regime is no doubt watching closely who may face charges or even extradition next — and responding accordingly. ASEAN leaders cannot afford to let Beijing or Phnom Penh determine who is held accountable for scam center crimes and losses and which countries’ economic and human losses are deemed acceptable. As a regional bloc, ASEAN must push for coordinated action against those responsible. That will require more than statements. It demands coordinated diplomacy, targeted sanctions and multinational law enforcement efforts —all calibrated to avoid overt interference but robust enough to deter criminal elites from using state cover as protection.

You won't be returned to the UK as a US citizen Many like Jimmy have had no issues. However you are flying into Miami where several here have had issues over the past year. Small number of sticks. Roll the dice.

Not legal. Unlikely an issue. Generally not a problem for loose numbers. However: Deband Right now is not the best time for a foreigner to be caught coming into US carrying Cuban cigars

This week, FOH Video Cigar Lounge Tuesday 21st 8:PM PM NY, 11:00am Wednesday local. (AEST). Grab a cigar, pop a bottle, pour a drink and let's enjoy a cigar together. This weeks discussion: Has the "Cigar Influencer" train running out of steam? I am talking about the influencer "genre" in general. What happens when you have taken all the short vids possible of yourself lighting/cutting/puffing a cigar? You start to insta/you tube short vids of you and other cigar influencers lighting/cutting/puffing a cigar together It reminds me very much of what is happening to the podcast world right now. There are so many podcasters and podcasters devoid of interesting content, that shows are taken up by podcasters interviewing other podcasters. They literally do a podcaster circuit. It is certain death So what are the next "trend/s" in the cigar world? Topic of discussion in this weeks FOH Video Room Session Tuesday night NY 8PM.

.....certainly on my long lunch list

Another relationship done. Another house gone. You will bounce back, start again and this time build your special man cave. I mean....why should it be restricted to just a room? Pffft! The whole house will be a man cave! The whole house will be a celebration of me and my own personal style! I am going to start with these stained glass windows! I blew the budget on these stained glass windows! €55,000 EUR($63,788 USD) Micheline House Stained Glass Windows - London - Bibendum Set of two large-scale reproductions of the stained glass windows that once adorned the Micheline House in London, created after the famous posters 'Le Coup de semelle' and 'Pneu Vélo Michelin.' These compositions feature the character Bibendum, created in 1898 by O'Galop (Marius Rossillon, 1867-1946). One panel depicts the Michelin Bibendum, cigar in mouth, presenting his studded sole; the other shows him riding a bicycle while smoking a cigar. Produced by an Italian workshop, these works stand out for their vivid colours and exceptional quality of execution. Each stained glass panel is protected by a front glass pane and housed within a reinforced metal frame.

A large Italian Murano red/orange glass cigar ash bowl, mid 1900's,

They aspire to appalling....but I am not the doyen of taste Native American, Southwestern United States, Acoma, ca. mid to late 20th century CE. A set of 2 pottery ashtrays, one in the shape of an avian-form plate and the other a minimalist jar

"The progressive mania for regulating the lives of others is highly addictive." Great line Killjoys want to stub out this guilty pleasure Tobacco and Vapes Bill risks self-styled ‘public health’ lordships putting an end to the old-school charm of cigar lounges Juliet Samuel FULL LINK TO ARTICLE Monday January 19 2026, 12.01am GMT, The Times Ihave found a way to travel back in time and it’s by visiting a cigar lounge. The one I went to was small, wood-panelled and served by neat, attentive men in ties and jackets. The walls were lined with glass cases of the type a Victorian gentleman would use to display his butterflies but here were filled with perfect rows of cigars in their little gold-foil bands. On the wall hung a large portrait medallion of Sir Richard Grenville, the 16th-century explorer. I’m not much of a smoker but I held on to a cigarillo for 20 minutes, puffing at it and talking about Lords reform, feeling briefly as if I were an Edwardian gentleman. In fact, the Lords is a topic of great contemporary relevance to a cigar lounge because of a recent attempt made by some of its most sententious members to ban these very places. The vehicle was the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, that pernicious and unnecessary assault on liberty originally dreamt up by Rishi Sunak when he was prime minister and now revived, which the self-styled “public health” lordships tried to amend in November. Cigar lounges operate on the basis of an exemption to the 2007 smoking ban, which, among its more moderate provisions, concedes that someone splashing out £800 on a luxury item ought to get a chance to sample the goods. So you can’t bring your own smokes; you can only visit to try before you buy from the lounge shop. And because cigar pricing is more liberally regulated in Britain than on the Continent, London has become a hub for the luxury humidor tourist, keeping these little vignettes of old Europe alive. But the killjoys must have an outlet for their bloodlust. Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath, preaching in support of Lord Faulkner’s industry-killing amendment, begged the Lords to consider the health of the staff (those in the lounge I visited were, unsurprisingly, cigar connoisseurs) and the children (one lounge in Sheffield, she noted with horror, was actually “within 400 metres of a school”!). Their attempt to protect local children from the irresistibly alluring pull of a £70 cigar being quietly smoked in a hideaway for old men failed this time. But I’m sure they’ll be back. The progressive mania for regulating the lives of others is highly addictive.

Some good points raised

Taken LCDH Tijuana January 2023