Commentarii et Sententiae IV...I’ll Take Cleveland.

 

_When one thought the bar could not get much lower, the United States Congress has managed to lower it even further by digging a deeper hole.  The record-breaking shutdown of our federal government is just another sad chapter in the story of an ever- failing legislative body. The latest survey shows the country is divided (no surprise) on who to blame for the shutdown.  35% blame Republicans, 32% blame Democrats, 28% blame both parties and 5% blame “Other”.  I’m in the 5%.  I blame “we the people”.  We voted for these yahoos and those who don’t vote are no less guilty.

 

_Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming the 21^st Century’s “Easy Button”.  Much has been written about the impact AI will have on how we work, how we solve problems, how we communicate and perhaps most ominously, how we think. Every major step forward comes with both a blessing and a curse.  The Reformation and the printing press totally disrupted and transformed Christian Europe.  It spawned wars and revivals; and played no small part in the migration of millions of Europeans to the Americas.  The Industrial Revolution transformed manufacturing, agriculture and how we do battle.  It also elevated the power of capital and drove labor to organize in self-defense.  Without the Industrial Revolution there likely would have been no World Wars, no Holocaust and certainly no weapons of mass destruction. The Digital Revolution was another leap forward, totally transforming how we live today from the way things were when us older folks were growing up. The Digital Revolution opened the door to AI and now there is no turning back.  It is now up to us to adapt, adjust and overcome.

 

_And finally, there is New York, New York.  I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures.  So now New York City has a Social Democrat (in reality a Marxist) mayor.  It will be interesting to see how Mr. Mamdani runs New York City.  It will be even more interesting to see how many other Mamdani-like candidates run for other offices around the country. And there are several other cities, congressional districts and perhaps even a state or two where a Mamdani could win. Tennessee Williams, the great American playwright and screenwriter once said America has only three great cities: New York, San Francisco and New Orleans; and everything else is Cleveland.  These days, I’ll take Cleveland.