Friends, Trump's cabinet meeting today projected optimism and a degree of self-congratulation, as per usual, but the truth is that we seem to be stuck in the same old loop regarding the conflict with Iran. Negotiations continue, as do occasional military strikes and dueling blockades, but neither side appears willing to give significant ground. Liberals and most Trump haters worldwide believe implicitly that Iran has won so far, is winning, and will win in the end, but I, for one, am less sure. Trump seems gun-shy about launching major new strikes, but despite this reticence I don't see how Iran can survive the shuttering of its oil industry for much longer, or indeed how the world can continue to tolerate Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz much longer. Of course, timing is everything, and we can't rule out the possibility that midterm-minded DJT will blink before the mullahs. My advice, at any rate, is to tighten the screws economically and drop bombs liberally, if that's what it takes to drive home the futility of Iran's strategy. And -- for the love of all that's holy -- let's seize that Strait and stop allowing a few Islamist motor boat enthusiasts to hold the world hostage!!! Enough is enough.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74dy9jw1q9o
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98r2qy5809o
In other news, Chinese carmakers are coming on strong in many parts of the world, including China itself. One wonders, furthermore, what share of the U.S. market they could capture if prohibitively high tariffs weren't keeping them out. Deindustrialization may have been all fun and games up to now, or at least it may have been broadly survivable for the West, but could we withstand the evisceration of our auto industry? We may someday find out. And, frankly, we may deserve to, given the ridicuously high cost of new cars these days.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8vg72z43o
Finally, the Pope has decided to expend a lot of political/spiritual capital in the fight against A.I. He wrote a whole encyclical about it. I must admit, I don't understand half of what the Pope says about A.I., which isn't a great surprise since no one really seems to comprehend what A.I. is, what it can do, and what its proper role ought to be. My own view is that no one needs to worry about A.I. replacing humans, because it was never designed to do so and is no substitute for humanity, but what we do need to worry about is humanity giving up on itself. Our self-confidence, our sense of meaning, and our grasp of any kind of collective purpose are waning. Neo-Marxism offers nothing except a warmed-over materialism. We should be very anxious, therefore, not about A.I. itself, but about what jaded, depressed, and fundamentally lazy humans will do with it. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves..."
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeletePersonally, I miss The Yugo, very much.