On the latter, yes I consider them to be the greatest current threat to humanity, not bureaucrat-dictators like Putin or Xi, or aging wannabe-dictators like Trump. You know this XKCD.
There have always been people like this around, but there needs to be enough disorder and conflict for them to rise to power and implement their ideas. I think they will fail, but I am sure they will try.
When I talked about value above, it was in the economist sense. Not social or personal values, but neither monetary income or profit. Rather valuation, what economic actors value. The model of people-as-value-maximisers has shortcomings, but for business purposes it serves. And yes, work has value, and not just social. There is a value in making things with others that you don't get if e.g. you were playing cards with friends.
The type of work shifts with the entrance of the machines. Things that used to be expensive/limited, food, clothing, lighting we now have an abundance of, and it is largely produced by machines. Instead we get paid for things that would not possibly be a vocation in the past. We got professions like streaming your game play online.
This didn't turn out too badly for Panama in the long run, but not that great in the short run. But Panama was in many ways easier, Panama is pretty much the best case for Venezuela. Worst case would be decades of warfare between different security forces and criminal gangs.
The consequences for the US, with an even more flagrant breach of international law, and for the world at large remains to be seen. This is not a stabilising move. And even if it were, this administration is not the one to hang around to make sure they get it right.
Machines will take over human jobs when, and only when, the economic value of that job is lower than cost of doing that job (in time, effort, inconvenience) is to the employee. That is, when it is no longer profitable to hire any human.
Most of human effort in history has been to produce food, clothes, transport and shelter. This has mostly been taken over by machines. It would take half a year to a year, starting with the sheep, to produce one woolen sweater. Less if heavily industrialised, but the carding and spinning and knitting would take a minimum of three (wo)man-months. Practically nobody would be willing to pay 3-12 months wages for a handmade sweater, so that job is lost.
We may pay a premium for hand-made (though that hand is very much machine-assisted), but manufacture is very much a machine's job these days. But as machines makes products cheaper, we have more resources to appreciate services, and there the human premium is often very large. The nurse may be machine-assisted, but we very much appreciate the nurse, or the teacher.
There has always been infighting, Trump likes that, Like a certain chancellor of inter-war Germany, he finds a Social Darwinian pleasure and utility in that. But unlike Trump 1.0, surrounded by "adults", and even beginning of Trump 2.0, he seems to be losing control. If that is the case, the wild ride in 2025 may become wilder in 2026.
Whatever the lowest common denominator, you can always go lower. Not an Overton window, an Overton floor.
Shoddy journalism is a threat to any organisation that tries to be reputational, so obviously the BBC must intervene. But there has always been shoddy journalism in the BBC and in every other news organisation. Probably more than ever because of resource constraints. The goal is to destroy all independent journalism, in the Trump regime's War on Facts.
Payday for the Paypal mafia. While the US has given carte blanche for private surveillance, they have been absolutely paranoid about any register that could make the government more effective or useable, where anything that could join two tables is akin to 1984. E.g. ATF is crippled by design.
Which foreign words to a language is used, for what purposes, is a fascinating topic, as is their transcription. Greeks seem fine with keeping Western foreign words in Latin alphabet. Chinese tends to translate into Chinese characters, which can make it quite the guessing game, which name or word was originally meant.
Japanese is importing more either by keeping it into romanji, or put it in katakana, which is another return to rebus-like guessing games. ナイフ is na+i+fu, in other words "knife". ネクタイ is ne+ku+ta+i, or tie ("necktie"). テレビ, te+re+bi, is television ("re" is closer to "le" than rolling Rs, and Japanese doesn't have the v sound). "Mozart" is モーツァルト (Moo+tsu+a+ru+to) in Japanese, and 莫扎特, Mò+zhā+tè, in Standard Chinese.
The video is a fairly charitable take on the pivoteer faction of the Trump administration, the likes of Elbridge Colby. And they have had some significant wins, particularly the proposed budget. It is very consistent with the goal of fighting (or deterring) China, and fighting them soon.
Though there are severe problems with the acumen, efficacy and internal consistency of the goals and methods, and not least consistency with the rest of the administration. Calling it "The Trump Doctrine" highlights the largest problem. Trump is not on board, and while naming flattery is cheap and possibly effective, clearly he has other interests and whims directly detrimental to this "Trump Doctrine". The tariff war is a good example, weakening rather than strengthening this strategy.
It is also an effective screen for pro-Russian forces within the Trump administration, some that seem even more adverse than Trump himself. In the process crippling the pivoteer goals.
There are all these analogs around what kind of totalitarian regime Trump is aiming for, like Orbán's Hungary, Putin's Russia, Xi's China, or historically eras like Italy's fascism, the Third Reich, Stalin's Soviet Union. Right now most of all it is reminiscent of Mao's China in the 1950s.
Of course it's none of these really. Society is different in the information age. But it shares the shambolic governance, corruption, and capriciousness with the early phases of all of these. Overt loyalty to the ruler is the most important attribute, both among henchmen and media. Those with anything to lose fear crossing him, and the rule of law is unable to react effectively.
I think this takeover will fail. His cult is intensely loyal to him, but the rest of the Americans aren't, the oligarchs are now less keen on him, and he doesn't have the siloviki of Russia to put them in their place. If it doesn't those who succeed him will be less shambolic.
The checks and balances don't work if they don't check and balance the executive. The US is not a soviet state yet, but it is well on its way, and that in less than three months.
Putin is in a weak position, but Trump has been his biggest gift in the war so far, and the Mar-a-lago administration is agog to become a part of the Moscow empire. Were Trump to turn, he has the capability to undo the very same empire. It is a much greater win for the US and for Trump himself supporting Ukraine than trying to please the Putin mafia. But Trump is besotten. That is what the Ukrainians are hoping and aiming for, that his unrequited love for Putin will turn to hate.
Why would anyone want to travel to the US these days? We've cancelled all plans to go there for the foreseeable future. Maybe to Canada or Mexico, and I've just returned from China.
You could start by reading de Tocqueville... But your worship of bureaucracy has long been obvious, and un-shakable: You would, no doubt, invoke the "only following orders" defense for any crime! But -to play your game: Didn't the bureaucracy under Woodrow Wilson revive the Klu Klux Klan? (After un-desegregating...) Was that one of the "achievements" you refer to?
Good governance is the fundament on which all improvements are built. That includes the rule of law, and the rules of law, like the US Constitution, which was ahead of its time. Or the free markets, who cannot be free unless there is governance.
Now that is a bit of an imposition, as bureaucracy is usually limited to those who actually maintain and suggest improvements to those rules and workings, not those who put the rules into law, in a democracy the politicians. Then again you included police among the bureaucracy, which is another imposition.
A good bureaucracy is not a big bureaucracy, governs best who governs least and all that. And it must continuously be challenged, checked, and improved. It cannot be a world unto itself. Impartiality is a difficult requirement. Especially as a bureaucracy must be forward-looking to coming challenges.
US bureaucracy used to be pretty dynamic, except where it was designed not to be. Unfortunately for the US, there has been a growing desire among the politicians that it shouldn't be. And lately making it so unattractive to be a bureaucrat that any clever or skilled person would seek employment elsewhere. And the consequence of a bad bureaucracy is bad policy decisions poorly implemented. That will last long after Trump.
Usually, when faced with evil, it is preferable that evil is stupid as well.
However, in this case the stupidity and incompetence of the Trump administration isn't helping, as the US is by now a Russian vassal state. That shifts responsibility toward the centre of power, and the Kremlin is combining evil, stupidity and brutality.
