The Trump Administration’s seemingly arbitrary suspension of US military aid to Pakistan has sparked a fair amount of debate and primed a potential shift in US-Pakistani relations. Although Pakistan’s shortcomings over the years likely justify the Trump Administration’s decision, no emerging public policy issue appears to be motivating Donald Trump’s decision. Upon learning about the US-Pakistani relationship, Trump may well have simply been motivated by Pakistan’s apparent lack of honesty and loyalty to the US. From the perspective of Pakistani officials, who have embraced policies the US finds counterproductive for years, the US is arbitrarily singling out and punishing Pakistan. From the perspective of US officials, the US is recalibrating a faulty policy, which is an important message lost due to Trump’s public admonishment of Pakistan for its “lies & deceit.
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Democracy, Power, and Chaos Doctrine: Combating Special Interests and Unresponsive Government1/5/2018 Today, the Iranian Protests and the Trump Administration’s departure from traditional US policies dominate the news. The first part of the Twenty-First Century has, of course, been defined by numerous democratic uprisings in the Middle East, North Africa, and, to a lesser extent thus far, Asia. Most of these revolutionaries were not necessarily seeking democratic governance as their primary motivation was economic freedom and opportunity, but these protesters have embraced the democratization process by asserting their interests and demanding control over their governments. Although the populations of Europe and the Americas enjoy varying degree of democratic revolutions, they too have protested in pursuit of greater economic freedom and opportunity. Unfortunately, their efforts have had mixed results, at best, because their successes have been hijacked by those who seek power.
The Iranian Protests of 2017-2018, called “Sedition 1396” by Iranian officials, are interesting to Americans for several reasons, including President Donald Trump who has tweeted about them repeatedly. First, the Iranian government is a US adversary, so the failures of Tehran and/or any civil unrest directed at Tehran is favorable to Western audiences. For Trump, then-President Barack Obama’s attempt to work with Iran, even in the wake of the brutal 2009 crackdown on Green Revolution protesters, creates a political and personal incentive to support Iranian protesters. Second, Iran is a distant land, so it is easier for Americans to unite against the Iranian government instead of agreeing on what needs to be changed in the US governments. Third, Americans, like most Peoples, sympathize with the plight of the Iranian People, because they feel just as economically marginalized as the Iranian protesters.
Automation Is Taking Humanity Beyond A “Jobs Economy,” Utopian Paradise and Dystopian Nightmare?1/1/2018 The future is often envisioned as some scenario between a utopian paradise and a dystopian nightmare. Sometimes, it is a utopia for an elite few and a dystopia for the rest of humanity. Technology almost always plays a central role in determining the fate of the world. As the year 2000 approached, the so-called Y2K Bug fueled fears modern technology would suddenly be lost. At the time, the modern lifestyles of those living in the developed world were increasingly dependent on technology. A programming oversight, i.e. the truncation of the year by the majority of software, had the potential to shutdown critical computer systems and infrastructure. Years later, the human race is unable to function without technology as it continually finds new technologies to do new things. While key advancements in automation and artificial intelligence have been made over decades, the introduction of Tesla’s semi-autonomous truck in 2017 may well prove to be a defining moment.
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