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.
RAY TO DR. WADDY
ReplyDeleteFor Chinese made SUVs, how about a top of the line Chairman Mao, complete with a complimentary copy of Quotations by Chairman Mao in the glove compartment? Hot Damn!
Dr. Waddy from Jack: The Czech philosopher/economist Friedrich Hayek opined that no one person or one one cabal , no matter their intelligence , perceptiveness or degree of control , can guide a phenomenon as endlessly complex as an economy. Perhaps Pope Leo is saying the same about artificial intelligence.
ReplyDeleteThe endless variety of views, skills , motivations , luck , dependability, honesty or lack thereof, locations, intelligence etc , etc ad infinitum are apparently of decisive importance to both the Holy Father and Hayek. To them, these human traits , left reasonably free and sensibly regulated ,manifest the proven attainable best of human well being.
If AI somehow arrogates to itself the historically proven catastrophic presumptuousness of those who have since 1917 sought to impose seemingly neatly planned national economies, shown 109 tragic years later to be utterly condemned misapprehensions and misinterpretations of history; then AI would be proven equally incapable of ordering a beneficial economy .
The Holy Father maintains that faith in God is necessary to the responsible accomplishment of a free economy by a free people and I think history bears him out. Well, we have seen how that goes when those who casually dismissed religion as "the opiate of the masses" had their way with entire lands.
Its only common sense that humanity , which has proven itself capable of monstrous evil, must temper freedom with freely conceived and promulgated restraints. And that requires a moral foundation and (BINGO!) religion "conveniently "provides that support. The faith that an inconceivably omniscient, omnipotent and perhaps good willed power expects redeeming behavior of us and may exact punishment should we relent, is a powerful incentive and disincentive. In their reckless dismissal of this , the Marxists who yet threaten our free country, have wrought and now openly seek to advance , historically proven misrule and consequent incalculable human misery.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteI thought the Holy Father was our God in Heaven, and not some man living in Vatican City? What's holy about the Pope?
Dr. Waddy from Jack: "Chinese carmakers coming on strong in many parts of the world, INCLUDING CHINA ITSELF." What wonderful news that is!
ReplyDeleteOwnership of an automobile is a prime indicator of a powerful and benevolent economy. How terribly welcome that must be in a China within living memory cursed by destitution and even worse, murderous Marxist misrule. The hard working now once again real China is fully capable of offering a redeeming standard of life for much of its population and the astonishing wide availability of the automobile is a prime indicator of a level of material well being which incalculably enhances a civilization.
RAY TO JACK
DeleteLooks like your are saying the the PRC is transitioning from Mao Marxism to some sort of Chinese capitalism.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Again, I agree with your view on the present Iran situation but I still expect our President to have been proven right in his management of this fluid development.
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: I think China has renounced Maoism and has freed up the intense work ethic and entrepreneurial drive of a traditional China the Maoists cruelly and futilely sought to supplant with their ridiculous dreams. Constructive individual self seeking, necessarily tempered vitally by the proven moral foundation of Confucianism, drives Chinese enterprise now. I know next to nothing about economics but I'd suggest that the productive Chinese economy manifests a kind of capitalism.
ReplyDeleteTrue , the Chinese "personality" evolved in an almost entirely agricultural country with a central monarchical government but one which usually did not reach into the everyday lives of most people other than to command their labor on public works or military service. . It was administered by the mandarinate. This was a class of rigorously proven scholars of the fine arts. It was assumed that this intellectual refinement made them just. They left most of the routine enforcement of order to the male heads of extended families. They had the power to judge and punish destructive behavior and to guide the family's fortunes. To overgeneralize, it was a government of men, not laws. In many periods of its history China had the highest civilization in the world. The Han and Tang dynasties rivalled Rome and early Islam.
Such a culture had to change with the Industrial Revolution but I think its moral foundation remained. Marxism, despite its incalculable folly and oppressiveness, "only" suppressed it for an interval. We can see demonstration of its virtues in the myriad Chinese family businesses to be found in almost any American city and many smaller towns.
I meant the mandarins left routine enforcement of order to the male heads of extended families . The family leader could even level capital punishment in some circumstances. Jack
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: Another thing which convinces me that China has renounced Marxism is what I think to be a fact: it is impossible for Marxists to build a thriving economy. They don't have a clue.
ReplyDeleteRay from Jack: Also, in its approximately 2200 year united history China has gone through several intervals of dissolution and chaos. It always recovered well. From approx. 1820 to the 1980's when Teng Hsiao Ping opened the door for China to resume its essential self, China again suffered one of its terrible "interludes" of misfortune. But its back now, once again, as the true China I think.
ReplyDeleteI know we have serious differences with them. Their authoritarian form of government is contrary to what we are devoted to. Their quest for perpetual security from the humiliation and oppression dealt them by foreign powers in that last period of vulnerability and their tragic domestic Marxist reaction to it which brought them even worse agony, may lead them to oppose us in the world. I hope not; I hope their people continue to enjoy the limitless benefit of material well being coupled with their strong moral fiber. And of course for the sake of peace I hope we never have to directly confront them, though I'm confident we would be equal to the task should it ever become unavoidable.
Ray from Jack: I use the term Holy Father out of the great respect I have for Catholicism. I understand it to be a term of reverence used by Catholics for the Pope (?).
ReplyDeleteRAY TO JACK
ReplyDeleteNo matter what you think of China, I think you will agree with me, that both of us are exceedingly glad to be Americans celebrating the 250th Anniversary of our fine country (with all of its flaws) in the Year of Our Lord 2026.
Ray is right: who wouldn't want to own a Maomobile? It would be like a Lada, only less so.
ReplyDeleteJack, no doubt it is true that freedom is a necessary precondition to human flourishing and human virtue, but why would we see A.I. as a threat to that freedom? Now, the PEOPLE WHO OWN AND CONTROL A.I., by contrast, could easily be a threat to our freedom, but aren't the people who own and control...Hollywood, the media, Big Tech, etc etc etc...already a potent threat? I say A.I. is a just tool, not a malevolent force in itself.
Oh, I agree that it's great that more Chinese can now afford a car, but they used to buy a lot of our cars, and now they make their own. Pretty soon they'll make their own jets, and high-end chips, and, well, everything. That certainly does imply that the global industrial landscape is shifting in their favor.
I would say modern China is capitalist, yes -- in the same sense that the U.S. is capitalist. Both economies are heavily modified by state intervention, mind you, but that doesn't change the fact that basically one gets ahead based on one's own talents and exertions.
Jack, I don't think there's any fundamental reason why the U.S. and China need to be adversaries, BUT a considerable proportion of the elite in both countries find it convenient to demonize, from time to time, foreign devils, and that, sooner or later, could spell trouble.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!!! 250 years may not seem like much, by world historical standards, but it's a good run for a "free" and mostly democratic people. Usually, putting the hoi polloi in charge is a good recipe for disaster. The USA is the exception to this rule...at least so far.
Ray from Jack: Oh goodness yes! One has won the lottery when one is born in this mostly free , fantastically prosperous country. Our well being has motivated people to undergo harrowing risks to get here.
ReplyDeleteMaterial prosperity is the font of many wonderful advantages I think. I know some ascetics and intellectuals disdain the pursuit of it but as long as they keep to themselves they are relatively harmless. But when they seek power, always it seems, in totalitarian form, they do their murderous best to fit their "subjects" to their Procrustean bed . Procrustes was the monster from Greek mythology who bade weary travelers enjoy a bed he had prepared for them. Once they were in it , he perversely chopped them or stretched them to fit his tortuous and intolerant bed. Its a good analogy for Marxists and their ruthless attempted manipulation of realistic results to satisfy their utterly unreachable expectations for the populations catastrophically subjected to their inhuman tyranny.
To be a citizen of a country which rejects such sophistry is an incalculably good fortune. But just now in the US we face a doctrinally hypnotized far left movement which dreams that its fanatic quest for "equity" ( excused of those who recklessly work this chimera) will work perfect justice and consequent bliss for all who submit. History proves that in practice this only manifests universal want and misery. Human nature after all. . . .
I challenge those who disdain honest labor for material reward to consider the lives of those truly deprived of it. I saw it first hand in what was considered by some commentators to be the worst slum in the world: Tondo , outside of Manila. I lived voluntarily without modern utilities for 8 years. It was hard. Most of these evanescent pukes who castigate the proven productive who take responsibilty , within the lucky practical parameters of a modern society for their personal and family well being, would, I think, refrain in mewing fear and regret from any subjection to a life bereft of redeeming modern technology and comforts.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I'm confident that US productivity, tempered as it is now by the sobering East Asian competition which shamed it in the late 20th century with its clearly superior attention to quality, is enhanced by Chinese competition. Let us remain true to our proven free enterprise essence; I'd suggest we need not fear foreign competition.
ReplyDeleteI shunned Ford vehicles all through my car and truck buying days in the 20th century. But Ford has demonstrated that it has learned its lesson and I think its trucks now ,at least ,are of good value.
Since I own several acres of woodland fuel I would be attracted to the celebrated Soviet Trabant smoke spewer. Did you ever hear the one about the Soviet citizen who managed to secure permission to buy one of those contraptions? The automobile commissar said "you are approved Comrade and will be graced with delivery exactly 10 years from today in the AM. But the citizen was as reckless as to say " but Comrade I require delivery in the PM" "But why !?" bellowed his benefactor. "Because Comrade Commissar , the plumber is scheduled for the AM on that day." No doubt the KGB was apprised of the counterrevolutionary attitude of the citizen . .
No wonder we out produced those doctrinally shackled unfortunates. But a China freed of such wrong headed control and returned to its essential productive enterprise, presents us, I think , competition which can benefit both countries, if we will but remain true to our economic ethic.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Certainly , the neo "robber barons" might well use AI as a tool to enhance their control and consequential enrichment and satisfaction. But I'd suggest that the concern about AI assuming a will of its own remains legitimate. Maybe it could turn on those powers who misuse it in some form of indignation.
ReplyDeleteThe solution to the robber barons' ravages in post Civil War America was increased government control, led by visionaries like TR. But government oversight now carries with it the specter of incipient and maybe now increasingly assertive control by Marxists. Should they gain power thus , they would of course strive to throttle our economic and political freedom in order to force their historically proven folly on us all and there would not remain a US to give us hope of deliverance, as it did in Marxism's first catastrophic ascension in the 20th century. So what to do? Free America must stand up for itself; that could start by the democratic discreditation of the now Marxist captured DSA/Dem party. I.E. , don't vote for ANY Democrat even at the most local level. "You wouldn't knowingly vote for commies, yes? Then don't vote for a party which is now their vehicle to tyrannical power."
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I agree with your paean to America above. Certainly those who cynically and disingenuously affected "power to the people " actually regimented and oppressed "the people" beyond measure. But our country has institutionalized an organic democracy and its consequence is a degree of well being which would have astonished even those proponents of the preRousseau Enlightenment.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet our country faces in this banner year
a credible threat of "fundamental transformation" by a domestic movement following an historically proven dysfunctional and tyrannical doctrine . The essential evil of their Marxist humbug is obvious at least to the leaders of this onslaught on all we cherish in America and confirms their personal ill will. As for their worker ant cadre , most of them are emotionally driven and thoroughly bigoted.
Benjamin Franklin opined that we had established "a republic, if you can keep it". He was of course not referring to the bawdlerized version of commie "People's Republics" we have witnessed since then. But we would do best to renew our commitment to keep it in this thought producing anniversary.
Dr. Wady from Jack:Re artificial intelligence: we have many examples from history of technological break throughs about which it can be said "we didn't know what we didn't know". Eg. gunpowder; the printing press; the telescope and the microscope; the European discovery of America and the globular shape of Earth; steam and internal combustion engines; the existence of and even possible manipulation of the atom. Today there are maybe three fields which may manifest this promise(?). They are space exploration, manned , unmanned and earthbound; the swiftly burgeoning acceptance of the presence of UFOs and, AI. In all of them, I'd suggest, "we don't know what we don't know ". So AI may have manifestations incredible to us now but. . . .
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Fox today showed a list of DSA/Dem Congressional candidates which it said were socialists in the increasingly fashionable Comrades Mamdani and AOC mold. One of them was the DSA/Dem pretender in our Congressional district(more on that anon).Actually though why pay any attention to any DSA/Dem's place on a sliding scale of Marxist intent? By that I mean any candidate on the "Democrat" party line.
ReplyDeleteWe must assume that the formerly "Democrat" party has been taken over by its heretofore Bernie Sanders Marxist rump. They are in charge and are moving swiftly to purify their party. Some polls show America hating radical AOC their #3 Presidential (!) candidate.
Those "moderates " who remain on their very back benches are becoming very lonely.
The object of the "American "far left has always been to reach a tipping point where their near future totalitarian takeover is guaranteed. They thought they were there before the Nov. 2016 election . And of course they had in grimly vindictive Hillary a very promising prospect for directing the Executive and Judicial branches to that end. Now they think they have a serendipitous foil in President Trump, whose insolent opposition to them excites their most intense antipathy. They believe that he has fomented a degree of outrage with his anti far left measures which they can use in the midterms to hobble his final two years to futility. With him a lame duck and out of the way in 2029, they believe they can work the final victory he denied them in 2016. After that , their inevitable progress to dictatorship can progress in expeditious steps with triumph assured.
With the DSA /Dem party now firmly in their hands it is vital for America to consider ANY member of their party, at any level , to be subordinate to their far left leadership. That means that good old local "Democrat" who is "one of us". Now, that person cannot but be on the far left bandwagon or he or she will be powerless. Marxists are of course very strict on party discipline. If you vote for that local Dem, you vote for the "Democratic" Socialists of America.
In the majority common sense American Congressional district I live in: I've always been amused when Dems run to be our "Representative" in Congress. They are incapable of representing us and that is obvious from their membership in a party which works to "fundamentally transform" America to the dictatorial and dysfunctional marxist humbug they fanatically intend. That is anathema to us.
Jack, what is this "swiftly burgeoning acceptance of the presence of UFOs" of which you speak? Have I missed something? I looked into it, and I don't see any polling evidence of a large shift in public attitudes...although something like a third of Americans believe we have been visited by aliens.
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