As Israel continues building its counterattack following Hamas' horrific slaughter and kidnapping of civilians, Israelis (and the world) are left wondering how a country known for its elite intelligence capabilities could have been so wholly shocked by the unprecedented incursion, and so unprepared to defend its own citizens once all hell broke loose. One lesson for Israel and America: Strongman authoritarians build their own power, not their country’s. In the face of unthinkable tragedy, Israel is racing to form a unified government that can manage the fight that its divided government didn't see coming. Unifying after an attack is too late. Governments must be unified and functioning ahead of the worst of times and any moment could fit that description. It should worry you that America's government is so broken by extremists that it can't even effectively offer aid to an ally because of the GOP house dysfunction that shows no sign of abating. (Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.) 2Rules of the Road Ahead"The Hamas terrorists paid no attention to any modern laws of war, or any norms of any kind: Like the Russians, Hamas and its Iranian backers (who are also Russian allies) run nihilistic regimes whose goal is to undo whatever remains of the rules-based world order, and to put anarchy in its place. They did not hide their war crimes. Instead, they filmed them and circulated the videos online. Their goal was not to gain territory or engage an army, but rather to create misery and anger. Which they have—and not only in Israel. Hamas had to have anticipated a massive retaliation in Gaza, and indeed that retaliation has begun. As a result, hundreds if not thousands of Palestinian civilians will now be victims too." Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): There Are No Rules. (There are also no signs of this trend reversing.) 3Money Talks (And Walks)"Imagine trusting your life savings to a group of strangers you know only via WhatsApp. Some affluent Chinese people are willing to make that gamble to get part of their wealth out of the mainland." Bloomberg(Gift Article): China’s Rich Entrust Total Strangers to Sneak Cash Out of the Country. 4Betting the Under the Covers"I had never before attended a business conference with a 28 percent chance of an orgy." Kevin Roose in the NYT (Gift Article): The Wager That Betting Can Change the World. "These people believe the world is full of bad information — biased news, out-of-touch punditry, loony conspiracy theories. Much of this information is spread by people without skin in the game. (Or worse, people with incentives to lie.) And many people have lost faith in the experts and institutions, such as the government and the media, that once served as trusted referees. Prediction markets, they believe, offer a better way to search for truth — rewarding those who are good at forecasting by allowing them to make money off those who are bad at it, while settling on the facts in an unbiased way." 5Extra, ExtraGap Year: "Harvard University's Claudia Goldin has won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on women in the labor market. She studies the changing role of working women through the centuries, and the causes of the persistent pay gap between men and women." 6Bottom of the News"A new speaker can rearrange its seven 'self-deploying' microphones to partition a room into so-called 'speech zones,' allowing it to track and identify different voices, even as they move." Scientists Say They've Invented a Speaker That "Mutes" Annoying People. (Ironically, science might liberate us from hearing from people who don't believe in science.) + (Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.) Get a copy of my 📕, Please Scream Inside Your Heart, or grab a 👕 in the Store.
|
