Why Iran? China Fading. AI in Bubble-Trouble
IRAN. Max Boot actually has a point: Why Iran? He says we’re sleepwalking into war with Iran, and the White House won’t say why. Max is, dare I say, correct. There was nothing Trump’s State of the Union address about Iran, or the largest US military buildup since Gulf War II. Ian Carrol posits that the U.S. is doing Israel’s dirty work, and he makes a decent point: Iranian missiles penetrated the Iron Dome, reportedly killing 28 and injuring over 3,200 Israelis.
Carrol figures if the U.S. hits Iran, that protects Israel, as they won’t be the trigger man, and thus not be the target this time around. Maybe. Another commentator says that Iran has a whole helluva lot more firepower than we think, and the US war may not be a cakewalk. This is what the late great Charlie Kirk warned about.
The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may be betting on a war with the U.S. to help him stay in power. His bet is this: while students protest and demand change, and while the government killed many thousands, the Iranians hate the U.S. more than they hate their own government, and push come to shove, they will choose the Ayatollah over the U.S.
ENTER The U.S. “Discombobulator.” The success of the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife were revealed by the Pentagon: “we have an exotic arsenal of directed-energy weapons that could signal a new ear of lethality in warfare,” according to David Ignatius. According to Venezuelan security, “We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation. As one point they launched something-I don’t know how to describe it…it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.”
Can our new “energy directed weapons” shut down any and all Iranian response? Time may tell.
CHINA — In the run up to a Trump Xi meeting in April, the Supreme Court handed China a major win, effectively reducing the initial Trump Tariff down 7.1% to Trump’s newly imposed across the board 15% tariff…for 150 days. Congress must actually do its job and “manage the purse strings.” But the reduction in tariffs is not the win the Communists need right now, as their $1.5 trillion investment, commonly referred to as “debt-trap diplomacy” “creditor imperialism” or the “Trojan Gift” has come tumbling down like their birth rates—and they are strapped. Matthew Lynn of the Spectator, whose column appears (shockingly) in the WaPo is a worthy read. In it, Lynn lists the “set-backs” — Panama ruled against China’s attempt to lease the east and west ports of the canal; their investment in Venezuela vanishes; their investment in Iran not looking good, and Africa is typical—zero ROI on the continent for 6,000 years...and counting.
AI — Either AI was responsible for 92%, or 39% of the growth in the US economy last year. Or, AI had zero impact on the economy, and was a net drag on the economy. That according to Goldman Sachs. They argue that most of the money spend to equip AI data centers — natural gas, electric power, cable lines, infrastructure—are a huge drag on economic growth—because those costs are passed on to…you and me.
Mrs. Spanberger, does your “Affordability” campaign slogan ring a bell? Speaking of what used to identify as Virginia—but now leaning a little more Turkmenistan—is now also dubbed “Data Center Ally,” as it is the largest data center market in the world, with energy consumption that rivals small-to-mid-sized nations...like, well, Turkmenistan. Is this all for AI. Surveillance? No one knows, and the Data Centers won’t say. Hum. That sounds sort of like this um, Jeffrey, um, Epstein fella, no?
Well, yes, especially when reporters asked Fundamental Data about their off-grid data center in West Virginia. “The company declined to say how many gas turbines it plans to use…it would not comment on whether the data center would be for AI development, crypto mining, or something else.”
But back to AI. This week we’re told…
The auto script email responders are awful, and your recipients know you are feeding them non-human garbage…and your recipients feel like garbage. This is something Margaret McGirr of Greenwich, CT agrees with, saying, “Why are we content to use these colorless, generic communications with our fellows?”
AI moves quicker in many sectors, forcing those in those sectors to keep moving quicker—with zero down time. Sarah O’Connor uses the intensity of working in a call center as an illustration. The operators field hundreds of call, some are routine, others not so much. The easy calls give operators an emotional break between the harder calls. If AI answers all of the routine calls, then the operators deal with the hard stuff, 100% of the time. Newsflash: we’re not machines. John Burn-Murdoch adds that AI is actually extending work days, not shrinking them, as employers and employees push harder for more output. Often, they have to learn entirely new things. He uses the example of managers writing code that they would have previously outsourced.
HEADLINE: Amazon service collapse caused by AI coding bot: The recent 13-hour disruption was because of Amazon’s own AI.
HEADLINE: Robots only half as efficient as humans, claims leading Chinese producer
AI today is not unlike the first early stage of the Internet. Back then you type in the word family, and you learn about the family. Today, you type family into your browser, and Family Dollar pops. The purported investment of $600 billion by U.S. giants Microsoft, etc. into AI this year — with no matching revenue stream—mean only one thing: AI is replacing the Internet for search, paid ads, key-ad words, etc. And it’s already started.
