Thank you again for another great piece. It seems like we’re in a cascade of failure unable to find a path to exit and peace. But perhaps that’s the point of it all. Control of the economy, politics, and media. With that, you have autonomy to control the narrative. Even if people see what’s happening, it’s just something else to watch happen. It’s a passive action. I am just as guilty. The only thing I can manage to do is educate myself. Outside of work, caring for patients, family life, and occasionally writing or posting, I see no path to exit other than buckling down and watching along with everyone else…
Again, thank you Carol for your work and journalists like you in exposing much of what we are bearing witness to.
Yes, that's what we do: buckling down and watching along with everyone else. But there is a path to exit: Speaking Truth to Power. I looked the phrase up and it originated from the Quakers in the USA, and became much used in the BBC Reith Lectures by Edward Said, a Palestinian academic.
Speaking Truth to Power is what Carol and her colleagues do, taking their risks in doing so. Keir Starmer could easily and powerfully criticise all atrocities carried out in this war. This truth-speaking should apply to all participants whether so called "allies" or not. Nor is there any difference between "attack" and "defence" if you are the ones being bombed. Should Starmer be worried about any risks? Surely not: any negative responses will simply confirm the Truth he is speaking. Other Heads of State would surely follow suite. And so can we all, from writing to our papers to well targeted graffiti.
As I watch everything unfurl around us, I am reminded of Episode 6 of The Cosmos. Sagan describes a statue in the entry hall at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam that depicts Justice, sword in her right hand, flanked by death and punishment, and scales in her left hand. Underfoot she tramples avarice and envy - the gods of the merchants. At that time the Dutch understood (at least in theory) that "the unrestrained pursuit of profit poses serious threats to the soul of the nation.”
We have allowed avarice and envy to wield the sword and scales to pass judgement on anyone that gets in the way of ideology.
But that’s the main problem - ideology and power. Throughout our history, any group that possesses enough power to control ideas and restrict them into a rigid belief structure can maintain control. We’ve been pushed so far down the lane of identity politics that we are convinced that we threaten each other when we disagree. That is the part that I’m unsure of how we recover.
As the writer of " Everyone-Will-Have-Always-Against" wrote the smallest act of resistence , the smallest act out of the greed and individualistic system , is confronting the power.
the governments of israel and the united states are presently terrorist regimes. others, those they are missiling, may belong to terrorist regimes also -- but once we held that to be wrong. our actions against those regimes have been predicated on considering terrorist tactics -- bombings and assassinations -- illegal and illegitimate.
now that we engage in those same tactics, what right have we to criticize theirs?
i think it high time to deny the terrorist regime in america our pecuniary consent -- do not give them a single cent that they do not rip out of your pocket. file, don't pay -- send no checks to this irs! nonpayment is no crime -- it's just a debt to the government, considered like any other debt.
I agree with your sentiment, but I am not one for tax evasion. Rewriting or readjusting the tax code is something I can get behind. In addition to that let’s throw in limiting campaign contributions by wealthy individuals and corporations, as well as re-expanding the definition of corruption beyond the narrowest version of quid pro quo. These items, among others, have been the long-term plan for those with financial capital well before Project 2025 was ever considered.
Reorienting power dynamics from financial capital to labor capital to re-establish balance is a start, but we always have to be vigilant against accumulation of power in any form. It’s cliche but true - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
it's not evasion. evasion is lying about what you owe. nonpayment is just a debt.
the purse strings are held by the people, and while we are nominally represented by Congress, which consents presently to give our money to a tyrant, i do not consent personally, and so, they can well take it if they like, but i well not lift a finger to help them to fund their terrorism.
Thank you, and I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments here. Your journalistic integrity and stellar investigative journalism is needed more than it has ever been. Its climbing to 300 journalists murdered in Gaza alone, if not more by this writing. Lebanon's number is growing also. We cannot afford to lose our independent journalists. I remember watching old newsreels of the Vietnam war when journalists were all over that country, in the thick of it, reporting home and across the world and it was they who helped end that godforsaken war. They spoke and showed the truth of that war, so the President and Congress propaganda was moot.
Thank you so much for your powerful writing. I have been shocked at the way the American/Israel war on Iran has been reported, or not reported. Almost more shocked that the language used by much of our media to describe their atrocities attempts to hide or soften the impact of what they are doing.
In 1920's Italy Benito Mussolini pretty much invented the fascist state. He was subsequently aped by one Adolf Hitler who turned Germany into a military powerhouse which unleashed the serious violence. We seem to have something of a repeat, with first Netanyahu turning Israel full fascist, then the Trump team tagging along and blowing everything up with the heavy metal.
It didn't work out well for the first two, but not until they'd dragged in most of the world. We need to neuter these two criminals before they cause too much more damage than they've already done.
In 1982 I was working on an excavation in Syria, near the border with Lebanon, when Israel invaded.We felt the upheavals. A Lebanese comrade had family caught in the attacks, thrown into a mass grave, alive, tg, rescued.
(The year before, I worked at the Israeli-Lebanese border, experiencing frequent Katusha attacks. The violence I saw against Palestinians, though, changed my views fundamentally.)
Thank you for writing this.
Reporters Withouts Borders gets too little recognition.
Israel's crimes are not ignored in Europe. But a mechanism for accountability is sorely lacking.
CNN's reporters being detained, and one beaten, while reporting in the West Bank, is only newsworthy for a short time, though more than these reporters' murder.
Thank you Carol, and all the other journalists who are trying to show us what is going on. Rest in peace all those who have been targeted and killed. It’s up to us though, to join the dots. The BBC and all the other mainstream media outlets report the sanitised ‘events’. But it is only on platforms like Substack, double down news etc, that we get the analysis and truth. Israel is fulfilling its Zionist mission to take over the entire area, ethnically cleansed of all Arabic people and have the rest of the Middle East as vassal states. The US, under its narcissistic, paedophile, rapist leader, is happily going along for the ride rather than face disgrace and prison, with its self proclaimed ‘minister of war’ delighting in his mission to bring about Armageddon. Oh, and let us not forget the weapons, the tech and oil and gas fortunes being made. All while the UK and Europe stand respectfully back, with their words of support and diplomatic and economic commitment. But the Epstein files still won’t go away.
Thanks for this profound post, Carole. The shit has hit the fan again for the people at the end of the Silk Road.
IRAN IS STEEPED IN DEEP HISTORY THAT NO ONE IN THE USA CAN BEGIN TO FATHOM
Somewhere back in the 13th century, the Mongol forces conquered the Iranian tribals, even overwhelming the great market at Tabriz. The Mongol forces, led by Genghis Khan’s generals, Jebe and Subutai, are the most severe war fighters—aside from the Comanche Peoples—that ever existed. The pathetic hyena clan in D.C. in 2026, are sniveling nincompoops compared to generals Jebe and Subutai, and will never overwhelm the middle east. The only serious lesson for WE THE PEOPLE is to force the 1%ers to get off the fossil fuel, fist fuck, bandwagon and nourish the rebirth of the desert. Somehow the Iranian tribals, the vast market at Tabriz lived on for a thousand year after the Khans. TODAY IT’S LIKE THIS: A horse covered with oil | Jarhead | CLIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16TN8PFh9S4
Could you please provide your evidence, rationale, and/or background on the claim that "when Sam Altman’s business crash and burn, it’ll likely take down the global economy (and your pension)?
Perhaps it is from common referencing around the subject rather than any specific report? For instance the Economic Policy Institute suggests about 50=60% of stock market growth since 2022 is AI related, noting that "AI-related spending is providing much of the growth in the U.S. economy today. Business investments in structures and equipment (capex) that are driven by AI firms have accelerated noticeably in the past year." This includes intense demand on power supply, by the way, including installed generators which would be sensitive to global fuel supply and prices. You can check the Insititute's blog from two weeks ago here https://www.epi.org/blog/how-ai-spending-is-impacting-the-u-s-economy/ , or quite a few of Paul Krugman's substacks on the subject, etc. He suggests similar levels of impact on GDP and the stock market. I am not sure if the level of usage of AI tools in actual productive commercial work is also being referenced. I'd be fascinated to see that data. Arguable accuracy in the statement is perhaps less meaningful than the rhetorical point, which I'd say is well made?
You might also consider https://substack.com/home/post/p-191842048 which includes excellent perspectives on financial market impacts of the current crisis (including a planned $1.5 trillion AI spend). It includes the comment: "Problem is, as Richard Heinberg pointed out recently, that “today’s AI financial bubble is four times bigger than the subprime mortgage bubble of 2008 and 17 times bigger than the dot-com bubble of 2000.” And if that weren’t enough warning signs were already flashing red on the real economic front—well before the war started." I hope that helps.
Thanks, all very helpful. I get that AI as a whole is a big part of the economy; it's the claim that one company could bring it all down that stumped me, because economics is more complicated than that. In the US, having the current administration gut renewable energy investments is going to hit the AI/data center issue really hard, but the admin isn't exactly good at planning.
They need energy to run their data mining centers, as well as rare earth minerals, helium for the chips, etc. Wall Street is being run by the craze for investing in surveillance state companies. Without those companies "succeeding", our economies are failing. And if those companies do succeed, our economies will fail. Research how much your state has invested their state pension system in Israeli bonds, as well as these AI companies. And then look at the health of the Israeli economy. Without tech they wouldn't exist today. They also need energy and rare earth minerals. And people. The IDF is "collapsing", according to their leaders. Collapsing. Focus your economic health on real things, like land. Ways to create (and control) your own energy sources like woods and moving water and sunlight. All else is fool's gold. It's not sustainable. And it's sooo easy these days to plunder "public" resources because of private/public partnerships. It's the logical end of capitalism as we know it, held aloft only by the general public's naive belief that it will. Computers don't live in the "metaverse". They live here, probably in a neighborhood near you. Chances are you are subsidizing their energy bills so they can eventually take you out. Super computers are not sustainable. A member of my family has made a very lucrative career out of advising other countries how to make their super computers more "efficient". Frankly, I doubt it can be done. Right now these billionaire bros are focusing on transferring wealth from normal citizens to their stupid data mining centers. When it crashes, it's going to be a humongous failure. Stick with physical reality and you'll be all right. Read about the economic history of your country's crashes. You'll see the same corporate entities and super rich and power families in all of them. All of them. As long as you focus on your humanity--all the ways of knowing and "thinking" that the billionaire bros are retarded in--you'll be okay. They are focusing on building and buying bunkers. What morons. If we have a nuclear war--and we very easily might because people believe what they want to believe rather than having the courage to learn about what actually IS--, I don't want to survive. And the truth is that bunkers will save no one. Israel is not going to survive this war. At this point, that's a fact.
I lived in Lebanon for the first half of my childhood and was there in 1956, then the civil war no one talks about in 1958 when the Sixth Fleet occupied the Beirut harbor. I missed all the bombing and destruction of the mid-60's and on, thank god. Most Americans have absolutely no idea what a wonderful country Lebanon is. Comparing the war in Ukraine with the invasion by Israel of southern Lebanon is beneath you, Carole. I have great respect for you. But let's be honest. Israel is an entity (it's not even a state since it has no declared permanent legal borders) that has invaded and occupied the land south of Lebanon illegally and with no concern about destroying the civilization that pre-existed even the ethnic group indigenous to that land. In truth, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria should be one country as the indigent populations have peacefully co-existed as one, and many are inter-related, for millenia. Millenia. I know that word doesn't mean much to Westerners since they have little remembered experience of more than two millenia at best. The Israelis are expanding their borders because another country (a real country which has existed as a people for more than ten millenia, FYI), Iran--another country I grew up in, by the way, and about which I know more than the so-called Western experts, which is sad since many of them have focused their professional lives on the subject and my knowledge just comes from being a teen when I lived there and being an eyewitness to a lot of--well--crap, shall we say. I would say I digress but it's not really a digression since the US is trying to do to Iran what the Israelis have spent a good 70+ years doing to Lebanon, along with the Americans and British. And I suppose I should point out they have failed for 70+ years. Britain has attempted this even longer. The situation in Ukraine/Russia is very different. Both are--compared to the countries in the MIddle East--much younger. And the land we call Ukraine today was in the past part of several countries--including Russia, as well as Poland, Germany, and even Finland for a time. NATO promised not to move further east than it was already in 1991; the CIA broke that promise. The peoples of both nations are related. Many Ukrainians have Russian backgrounds and their first language is Russian. The US/CIA used Ukrainians horrendously in an attempt to destroy Russia's sovereignty and take possession of their raw resources so that they can surveil and control the entire planet. The Israelis are seeing now that Iran has the ability and the will to destroy them as a country--and thank god for that--so they're just moving northward. They also want to control the oil and natural gas fields offshore--fields which belong to Lebanon. And Lebanon is strategically important to their ridiculous, infantile desire to own and control the entire Levant. Russia has no such goal. For one thing, Western Europe does not have these raw resources. I also quibble with your characterization of Iran's leadership as a "truly terrible regime". You are not the only intelligent, informed, humanistic Westerner I've heard this from. But I ask you: What do you base this characterization on, besides your country's (and other Western countries') official propaganda? Given what your country and mine (US) have done for centuries, how can you characterize the leadership of Iran in this manner? I'm sorry but that is truly laughable. From what I have seen over the past three years, Iran has behaved in a very ethical, honest, and admirable way. I wasn't crazy about the Revolution ending in an Islamic state, but I do understand why it happened that way. Partly that's due to MI6 and CIA, and partly that's the logical reaction to the very real and super disturbing cultural (and well as other kinds of) rape that both Britain and the U.S. inflicted on Iran for two centuries. Of course they returned to traditional, Islamic values and frankly watching what Christian "values" constitute according to Westerners today, I say thank god for that. I don't need to bore you with a compendium of Western sins against that country.
I agree with your disagreement with killing journalists. Obviously. But I don't think it's any worse than killing other sovereign states' leaders, which both Israel and the US (and let's be honest the UK as well) have been doing for a very, very long time--longer than either Ukraine or Israel have existed. And any journalist who works overseas without realizing the dangers implicit in their work is a fool. I grew up (and began as a student journalist) under the Shah/CIA/Mossad/SAVAK rules of self-censorship and state censorship. I knew what can happen to journalists writing honestly about international stories when I was barely pubescent. I know what being "disappeared" really means. I know people who have been disappeared when before their adult lives had really begun. Everyone living in the Middle East knew and knows that. It has happened in the West as well. And their technocracy is turning on not only journalists but your average citizen. Journalists are nobody without average citizens being willing to risk their throats and speak the truth.
They are killing journalists, but more to the point they are killing lived truth. They are killing primary sources. Or perhaps it is more honest to state that WE are killing primary sources, the only people who actually know the truth. I'm sorry to write at such length, but please proof your copy for cultural indoctrination that you are not fully aware of. And don't tell me we want to defend women! Criminy. Look at what Western cultures are doing to their own women. But that's another story...
Just refuse to participate in all these computer-based systems. Grow your own food. Transfer your energy systems to sources you can buy locally (like wood) or own (like solar). Cut your consumption. FIgure out alternative transportation systems (like at least one electric bike) to minimize your dependency on what these morons do. Set up a rainwater catchment system with effective filter. No need to despair. Our humanity will save us. Not money, not electricity. The Amish are right. Electricity brings with it a lot of unnecessary problems. And don't allow SMART electronics in your home. Realize they are watching you and recording you and selling that info to these idiot companies. Try to live with ethics at front of mind. And cook whole foods. Stop buying into convenience. It's not convenient at all--or not to you, at least!
Hezbollah has been an enemy of Israel and an enemy of the U.S. since Day 1 of it's existence. Hezbollah killed over 300 American Peacekeepers and French troops in Lebanon in 1983 with truck suicide bombs. Hezbollah had no consequence from President Reagan for this enormous killing of Americans. Hezbollah have killed numerous Israelis over the years and attacked Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon again and again. Hezbollah's goal, similar to Hamas' and Irans--is to get rid of Israel. Hezbollah supports itself with internatiional crime and is supported by Iran, who leads them. Hezbollah has taken over much of the Lebanese government by force. I don't know why you don't think they are our enemy.
I don't believe she is defending Hezbollah at all. However with all the deaths piling up on Israel's part, including 300 journalists killed, countless Red Cross & Health workers, woman and children. I for one really wonder who are the terrorists? I am not defending Hezbollah or Hamas in case you wondering, the lines just seem very blurred to me & Netanyahu is just as bad as those he calling terrorists..
If Israel is not dismantled, it will destroy the rest of the world, including themselves. Hezbollah was created because of what Israel did in and to Lebanon in 1982 (and before, truth be told). You are heavily indoctrinated by an illegal and immoral entity that doesn't give a F about you. It's pathological. Wake up. The US/CIA/MI5 controls Lebanon right now--not Hezbollah.
If you scaled the world down to the size of a football field, Israel is the size of a postage stamp. They murder whom they want to with impunity. ‘The world’s policemen’, of course, allow them free rein. It’s way beyond time for Europe to stand up.
Thank you again for another great piece. It seems like we’re in a cascade of failure unable to find a path to exit and peace. But perhaps that’s the point of it all. Control of the economy, politics, and media. With that, you have autonomy to control the narrative. Even if people see what’s happening, it’s just something else to watch happen. It’s a passive action. I am just as guilty. The only thing I can manage to do is educate myself. Outside of work, caring for patients, family life, and occasionally writing or posting, I see no path to exit other than buckling down and watching along with everyone else…
Again, thank you Carol for your work and journalists like you in exposing much of what we are bearing witness to.
Yes, that's what we do: buckling down and watching along with everyone else. But there is a path to exit: Speaking Truth to Power. I looked the phrase up and it originated from the Quakers in the USA, and became much used in the BBC Reith Lectures by Edward Said, a Palestinian academic.
Speaking Truth to Power is what Carol and her colleagues do, taking their risks in doing so. Keir Starmer could easily and powerfully criticise all atrocities carried out in this war. This truth-speaking should apply to all participants whether so called "allies" or not. Nor is there any difference between "attack" and "defence" if you are the ones being bombed. Should Starmer be worried about any risks? Surely not: any negative responses will simply confirm the Truth he is speaking. Other Heads of State would surely follow suite. And so can we all, from writing to our papers to well targeted graffiti.
As I watch everything unfurl around us, I am reminded of Episode 6 of The Cosmos. Sagan describes a statue in the entry hall at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam that depicts Justice, sword in her right hand, flanked by death and punishment, and scales in her left hand. Underfoot she tramples avarice and envy - the gods of the merchants. At that time the Dutch understood (at least in theory) that "the unrestrained pursuit of profit poses serious threats to the soul of the nation.”
We have allowed avarice and envy to wield the sword and scales to pass judgement on anyone that gets in the way of ideology.
But that’s the main problem - ideology and power. Throughout our history, any group that possesses enough power to control ideas and restrict them into a rigid belief structure can maintain control. We’ve been pushed so far down the lane of identity politics that we are convinced that we threaten each other when we disagree. That is the part that I’m unsure of how we recover.
https://prnews.io/blog/list-of-top-female-journalists.html
As the writer of " Everyone-Will-Have-Always-Against" wrote the smallest act of resistence , the smallest act out of the greed and individualistic system , is confronting the power.
the governments of israel and the united states are presently terrorist regimes. others, those they are missiling, may belong to terrorist regimes also -- but once we held that to be wrong. our actions against those regimes have been predicated on considering terrorist tactics -- bombings and assassinations -- illegal and illegitimate.
now that we engage in those same tactics, what right have we to criticize theirs?
i think it high time to deny the terrorist regime in america our pecuniary consent -- do not give them a single cent that they do not rip out of your pocket. file, don't pay -- send no checks to this irs! nonpayment is no crime -- it's just a debt to the government, considered like any other debt.
I agree with your sentiment, but I am not one for tax evasion. Rewriting or readjusting the tax code is something I can get behind. In addition to that let’s throw in limiting campaign contributions by wealthy individuals and corporations, as well as re-expanding the definition of corruption beyond the narrowest version of quid pro quo. These items, among others, have been the long-term plan for those with financial capital well before Project 2025 was ever considered.
Reorienting power dynamics from financial capital to labor capital to re-establish balance is a start, but we always have to be vigilant against accumulation of power in any form. It’s cliche but true - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
it's not evasion. evasion is lying about what you owe. nonpayment is just a debt.
the purse strings are held by the people, and while we are nominally represented by Congress, which consents presently to give our money to a tyrant, i do not consent personally, and so, they can well take it if they like, but i well not lift a finger to help them to fund their terrorism.
Thank you, and I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments here. Your journalistic integrity and stellar investigative journalism is needed more than it has ever been. Its climbing to 300 journalists murdered in Gaza alone, if not more by this writing. Lebanon's number is growing also. We cannot afford to lose our independent journalists. I remember watching old newsreels of the Vietnam war when journalists were all over that country, in the thick of it, reporting home and across the world and it was they who helped end that godforsaken war. They spoke and showed the truth of that war, so the President and Congress propaganda was moot.
Thank you so much for your powerful writing. I have been shocked at the way the American/Israel war on Iran has been reported, or not reported. Almost more shocked that the language used by much of our media to describe their atrocities attempts to hide or soften the impact of what they are doing.
In 1920's Italy Benito Mussolini pretty much invented the fascist state. He was subsequently aped by one Adolf Hitler who turned Germany into a military powerhouse which unleashed the serious violence. We seem to have something of a repeat, with first Netanyahu turning Israel full fascist, then the Trump team tagging along and blowing everything up with the heavy metal.
It didn't work out well for the first two, but not until they'd dragged in most of the world. We need to neuter these two criminals before they cause too much more damage than they've already done.
Thanks for this refresher!
Reminds me of Naomi Klein's observation some time ago.
"Impunity breeds a kind of delusional decadence."
Seems now to apply to any level of hierarchy -- from school boards to military -- when accountability is removed.
Thank you Carole for your foresight - it's much needed now. Six years ago foresight, not hindsight was 2020. In 2026, we need crystal clear vision.
Beirut was once the "Paris of the Mediterranean".
In 1982 I was working on an excavation in Syria, near the border with Lebanon, when Israel invaded.We felt the upheavals. A Lebanese comrade had family caught in the attacks, thrown into a mass grave, alive, tg, rescued.
(The year before, I worked at the Israeli-Lebanese border, experiencing frequent Katusha attacks. The violence I saw against Palestinians, though, changed my views fundamentally.)
Thank you for writing this.
Reporters Withouts Borders gets too little recognition.
Israel's crimes are not ignored in Europe. But a mechanism for accountability is sorely lacking.
CNN's reporters being detained, and one beaten, while reporting in the West Bank, is only newsworthy for a short time, though more than these reporters' murder.
Thank you Carol, and all the other journalists who are trying to show us what is going on. Rest in peace all those who have been targeted and killed. It’s up to us though, to join the dots. The BBC and all the other mainstream media outlets report the sanitised ‘events’. But it is only on platforms like Substack, double down news etc, that we get the analysis and truth. Israel is fulfilling its Zionist mission to take over the entire area, ethnically cleansed of all Arabic people and have the rest of the Middle East as vassal states. The US, under its narcissistic, paedophile, rapist leader, is happily going along for the ride rather than face disgrace and prison, with its self proclaimed ‘minister of war’ delighting in his mission to bring about Armageddon. Oh, and let us not forget the weapons, the tech and oil and gas fortunes being made. All while the UK and Europe stand respectfully back, with their words of support and diplomatic and economic commitment. But the Epstein files still won’t go away.
I'd have sworn the IDF was the most moral army on the planet. Thank God they're not also torturing children to pressure parents or raping prisoners.
This is sarcasm, right? … right???
Correct. The IDF is comprised of many barbarous butchers. And its political bosses and Zionist supporters revel in its depravity.
Thanks for this profound post, Carole. The shit has hit the fan again for the people at the end of the Silk Road.
IRAN IS STEEPED IN DEEP HISTORY THAT NO ONE IN THE USA CAN BEGIN TO FATHOM
Somewhere back in the 13th century, the Mongol forces conquered the Iranian tribals, even overwhelming the great market at Tabriz. The Mongol forces, led by Genghis Khan’s generals, Jebe and Subutai, are the most severe war fighters—aside from the Comanche Peoples—that ever existed. The pathetic hyena clan in D.C. in 2026, are sniveling nincompoops compared to generals Jebe and Subutai, and will never overwhelm the middle east. The only serious lesson for WE THE PEOPLE is to force the 1%ers to get off the fossil fuel, fist fuck, bandwagon and nourish the rebirth of the desert. Somehow the Iranian tribals, the vast market at Tabriz lived on for a thousand year after the Khans. TODAY IT’S LIKE THIS: A horse covered with oil | Jarhead | CLIP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16TN8PFh9S4
Could you please provide your evidence, rationale, and/or background on the claim that "when Sam Altman’s business crash and burn, it’ll likely take down the global economy (and your pension)?
Perhaps it is from common referencing around the subject rather than any specific report? For instance the Economic Policy Institute suggests about 50=60% of stock market growth since 2022 is AI related, noting that "AI-related spending is providing much of the growth in the U.S. economy today. Business investments in structures and equipment (capex) that are driven by AI firms have accelerated noticeably in the past year." This includes intense demand on power supply, by the way, including installed generators which would be sensitive to global fuel supply and prices. You can check the Insititute's blog from two weeks ago here https://www.epi.org/blog/how-ai-spending-is-impacting-the-u-s-economy/ , or quite a few of Paul Krugman's substacks on the subject, etc. He suggests similar levels of impact on GDP and the stock market. I am not sure if the level of usage of AI tools in actual productive commercial work is also being referenced. I'd be fascinated to see that data. Arguable accuracy in the statement is perhaps less meaningful than the rhetorical point, which I'd say is well made?
You might also consider https://substack.com/home/post/p-191842048 which includes excellent perspectives on financial market impacts of the current crisis (including a planned $1.5 trillion AI spend). It includes the comment: "Problem is, as Richard Heinberg pointed out recently, that “today’s AI financial bubble is four times bigger than the subprime mortgage bubble of 2008 and 17 times bigger than the dot-com bubble of 2000.” And if that weren’t enough warning signs were already flashing red on the real economic front—well before the war started." I hope that helps.
Thanks, all very helpful. I get that AI as a whole is a big part of the economy; it's the claim that one company could bring it all down that stumped me, because economics is more complicated than that. In the US, having the current administration gut renewable energy investments is going to hit the AI/data center issue really hard, but the admin isn't exactly good at planning.
They need energy to run their data mining centers, as well as rare earth minerals, helium for the chips, etc. Wall Street is being run by the craze for investing in surveillance state companies. Without those companies "succeeding", our economies are failing. And if those companies do succeed, our economies will fail. Research how much your state has invested their state pension system in Israeli bonds, as well as these AI companies. And then look at the health of the Israeli economy. Without tech they wouldn't exist today. They also need energy and rare earth minerals. And people. The IDF is "collapsing", according to their leaders. Collapsing. Focus your economic health on real things, like land. Ways to create (and control) your own energy sources like woods and moving water and sunlight. All else is fool's gold. It's not sustainable. And it's sooo easy these days to plunder "public" resources because of private/public partnerships. It's the logical end of capitalism as we know it, held aloft only by the general public's naive belief that it will. Computers don't live in the "metaverse". They live here, probably in a neighborhood near you. Chances are you are subsidizing their energy bills so they can eventually take you out. Super computers are not sustainable. A member of my family has made a very lucrative career out of advising other countries how to make their super computers more "efficient". Frankly, I doubt it can be done. Right now these billionaire bros are focusing on transferring wealth from normal citizens to their stupid data mining centers. When it crashes, it's going to be a humongous failure. Stick with physical reality and you'll be all right. Read about the economic history of your country's crashes. You'll see the same corporate entities and super rich and power families in all of them. All of them. As long as you focus on your humanity--all the ways of knowing and "thinking" that the billionaire bros are retarded in--you'll be okay. They are focusing on building and buying bunkers. What morons. If we have a nuclear war--and we very easily might because people believe what they want to believe rather than having the courage to learn about what actually IS--, I don't want to survive. And the truth is that bunkers will save no one. Israel is not going to survive this war. At this point, that's a fact.
I lived in Lebanon for the first half of my childhood and was there in 1956, then the civil war no one talks about in 1958 when the Sixth Fleet occupied the Beirut harbor. I missed all the bombing and destruction of the mid-60's and on, thank god. Most Americans have absolutely no idea what a wonderful country Lebanon is. Comparing the war in Ukraine with the invasion by Israel of southern Lebanon is beneath you, Carole. I have great respect for you. But let's be honest. Israel is an entity (it's not even a state since it has no declared permanent legal borders) that has invaded and occupied the land south of Lebanon illegally and with no concern about destroying the civilization that pre-existed even the ethnic group indigenous to that land. In truth, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria should be one country as the indigent populations have peacefully co-existed as one, and many are inter-related, for millenia. Millenia. I know that word doesn't mean much to Westerners since they have little remembered experience of more than two millenia at best. The Israelis are expanding their borders because another country (a real country which has existed as a people for more than ten millenia, FYI), Iran--another country I grew up in, by the way, and about which I know more than the so-called Western experts, which is sad since many of them have focused their professional lives on the subject and my knowledge just comes from being a teen when I lived there and being an eyewitness to a lot of--well--crap, shall we say. I would say I digress but it's not really a digression since the US is trying to do to Iran what the Israelis have spent a good 70+ years doing to Lebanon, along with the Americans and British. And I suppose I should point out they have failed for 70+ years. Britain has attempted this even longer. The situation in Ukraine/Russia is very different. Both are--compared to the countries in the MIddle East--much younger. And the land we call Ukraine today was in the past part of several countries--including Russia, as well as Poland, Germany, and even Finland for a time. NATO promised not to move further east than it was already in 1991; the CIA broke that promise. The peoples of both nations are related. Many Ukrainians have Russian backgrounds and their first language is Russian. The US/CIA used Ukrainians horrendously in an attempt to destroy Russia's sovereignty and take possession of their raw resources so that they can surveil and control the entire planet. The Israelis are seeing now that Iran has the ability and the will to destroy them as a country--and thank god for that--so they're just moving northward. They also want to control the oil and natural gas fields offshore--fields which belong to Lebanon. And Lebanon is strategically important to their ridiculous, infantile desire to own and control the entire Levant. Russia has no such goal. For one thing, Western Europe does not have these raw resources. I also quibble with your characterization of Iran's leadership as a "truly terrible regime". You are not the only intelligent, informed, humanistic Westerner I've heard this from. But I ask you: What do you base this characterization on, besides your country's (and other Western countries') official propaganda? Given what your country and mine (US) have done for centuries, how can you characterize the leadership of Iran in this manner? I'm sorry but that is truly laughable. From what I have seen over the past three years, Iran has behaved in a very ethical, honest, and admirable way. I wasn't crazy about the Revolution ending in an Islamic state, but I do understand why it happened that way. Partly that's due to MI6 and CIA, and partly that's the logical reaction to the very real and super disturbing cultural (and well as other kinds of) rape that both Britain and the U.S. inflicted on Iran for two centuries. Of course they returned to traditional, Islamic values and frankly watching what Christian "values" constitute according to Westerners today, I say thank god for that. I don't need to bore you with a compendium of Western sins against that country.
I agree with your disagreement with killing journalists. Obviously. But I don't think it's any worse than killing other sovereign states' leaders, which both Israel and the US (and let's be honest the UK as well) have been doing for a very, very long time--longer than either Ukraine or Israel have existed. And any journalist who works overseas without realizing the dangers implicit in their work is a fool. I grew up (and began as a student journalist) under the Shah/CIA/Mossad/SAVAK rules of self-censorship and state censorship. I knew what can happen to journalists writing honestly about international stories when I was barely pubescent. I know what being "disappeared" really means. I know people who have been disappeared when before their adult lives had really begun. Everyone living in the Middle East knew and knows that. It has happened in the West as well. And their technocracy is turning on not only journalists but your average citizen. Journalists are nobody without average citizens being willing to risk their throats and speak the truth.
They are killing journalists, but more to the point they are killing lived truth. They are killing primary sources. Or perhaps it is more honest to state that WE are killing primary sources, the only people who actually know the truth. I'm sorry to write at such length, but please proof your copy for cultural indoctrination that you are not fully aware of. And don't tell me we want to defend women! Criminy. Look at what Western cultures are doing to their own women. But that's another story...
Thank you for more excellent reporting. What can we do? I feel nothing but despair.
Just refuse to participate in all these computer-based systems. Grow your own food. Transfer your energy systems to sources you can buy locally (like wood) or own (like solar). Cut your consumption. FIgure out alternative transportation systems (like at least one electric bike) to minimize your dependency on what these morons do. Set up a rainwater catchment system with effective filter. No need to despair. Our humanity will save us. Not money, not electricity. The Amish are right. Electricity brings with it a lot of unnecessary problems. And don't allow SMART electronics in your home. Realize they are watching you and recording you and selling that info to these idiot companies. Try to live with ethics at front of mind. And cook whole foods. Stop buying into convenience. It's not convenient at all--or not to you, at least!
:-) I do at least some of those... Thx for the reply.
Hezbollah has been an enemy of Israel and an enemy of the U.S. since Day 1 of it's existence. Hezbollah killed over 300 American Peacekeepers and French troops in Lebanon in 1983 with truck suicide bombs. Hezbollah had no consequence from President Reagan for this enormous killing of Americans. Hezbollah have killed numerous Israelis over the years and attacked Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon again and again. Hezbollah's goal, similar to Hamas' and Irans--is to get rid of Israel. Hezbollah supports itself with internatiional crime and is supported by Iran, who leads them. Hezbollah has taken over much of the Lebanese government by force. I don't know why you don't think they are our enemy.
She’s not defending Hezbollah, and the purpose of the piece isn’t to designate enemies.
I don't believe she is defending Hezbollah at all. However with all the deaths piling up on Israel's part, including 300 journalists killed, countless Red Cross & Health workers, woman and children. I for one really wonder who are the terrorists? I am not defending Hezbollah or Hamas in case you wondering, the lines just seem very blurred to me & Netanyahu is just as bad as those he calling terrorists..
If Israel is not dismantled, it will destroy the rest of the world, including themselves. Hezbollah was created because of what Israel did in and to Lebanon in 1982 (and before, truth be told). You are heavily indoctrinated by an illegal and immoral entity that doesn't give a F about you. It's pathological. Wake up. The US/CIA/MI5 controls Lebanon right now--not Hezbollah.
Terrific piece Carole. Thank you, as always
If you scaled the world down to the size of a football field, Israel is the size of a postage stamp. They murder whom they want to with impunity. ‘The world’s policemen’, of course, allow them free rein. It’s way beyond time for Europe to stand up.