Madness spins unchecked,
Echoes shatter silent minds—
Ruin wakes, and smiles.
- Of all the things that transpired in the last two weeks, this judgement by the Supreme Court in the US will perhaps be the most damaging in the long-term. While the world’s attention is focussed on the economic damage of the Trump tariffs, the preeminent court in the US just gave the authoritarians even more power to act with impunity. At this point, why bother with laws? Why pretend like the courts matter? The partian judges who are fine accepting bribes now get to hand over judicial power to the fascists.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent, identified how much is at stake: “The implications of the government’s position” are “that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal. History is no stranger to such lawless regimes, but this nation’s system of laws is designed to prevent, not enable, their rise.”
- Gary Kasparov exudes clarity, and he writes powerfully about the need for leadership, and courage that is required in these troublesome times. Writing such as this, gives us hope – hope that we are worth saving.
President Trump’s return to office has already produced chaos: market upheaval, purges of independent civil servants, politicized targeting of perceived critics, and demands for personal loyalty over respect for the Constitution. This is not speculation. And yet, when presented with a rare opportunity to resist the steady march of authoritarianism, the Democratic leadership chose to stand down without demanding anything in return.
Later, he writes,
Leadership in times of crisis demands courage. It sometimes means taking a risky move when it is the necessary one.
And, a final indictment of the Decmocrats and their cowardice when the rest of the world needs them to stand up and act.
Here’s the most important message I can offer: now is not the time for managing decline. It is the time for bold, even risky moves. Schumer had a chance to force a confrontation—to deny Trump his façade of an undisputed mandate, to put his dangerous methods on full display. He chose the illusion of normalcy instead. But there is nothing normal about this moment.
Democracy does not die from a single blow. It erodes through a thousand missed chances to stand up. This was one of them. Let’s not miss the next.
After 6 years of being bound to the American continent, I took a vacation this year. This time, we spent 8 days in Singapore, and 14 in India. I was astounded how much AI changed my travel experience, and equally surprised by the progress in Asia 1. I finally found value in paying $20/month for ChatGPT. However, it is useful to ground oneself in the reality of value created by AI, and temper the hype around it. Gary Marcus, demands more that demos and proof-of-concepts, and provides a counter-balance to the all the hype.
AI hitting the wall – something that Gary had called out in 2022, now being echoed by several industry leaders. Worrisome times if you own a lot of AI-tethered stocks.
I will have to write about that soon. ↩︎