Now is all there is. That is not an ad text. It is a basic philosophical premise.
There is the past. There is the not yet. Every blessed soul on the planet from puling infant to drooling nonagenarian is living in the now. We are experiencing the collapse of conventions we once used to help us deal with this truth.
Hence this little experiment.
Here in a few words culled from Mike Allen, the compulsive center of Axios, Thursday's curtain-raiser. I say that because to me Mike seems to have understood. Life really is 24-7.
Axios am on Axios https://t.co/xGo5noP3Kf pic.twitter.com/pcCfOh8qKH
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) July 6, 2017
The digest
trump is in Poland on his way to a Germany meet-up with the G-20.
Today he gives a landmark speech. In it, I am afraid he will try to present himself as a world leader who is hardly a reconciler. Instead, he may emerge as a sort of Godfather wannabe who wants to take on Iran and North Korea so American civilization can be great again.
This is an echo of W without the globalism.
Russia
In a news conference, Trump says Russia and possibly other countries meddled in the 2016 election. He says Obama "choked" and did nothing on the assumption Hillary would win. Unless Obama has a rebuttal that is stellar, this may well be the sum total of Trump's defense on the Russia matter.
North Korea scenarios are frightening
The prospects for a surgical strike on the North are nil unless you are willing to expose South Korea to a bloodbath.
The North is poised and it has targeted the south. No one is prepared for what might happen.
At the same time, US missile defenses are deemed unsatisfactory by military experts. Regardless of North Korea's capacities, this verdict means that time is not on anyone's side.
Tesla's mistake
Elon Musk is mistaken by betting on cars for the future.
He doesn't believe it but it's true. One confirmation is that Volvo and others are jumping on the electric car bandwagon. That means is that more and more efforts will be aimed at making cars last a century past their prime.
Finally the frosting
Two things. CNN is looking to do merger actions. Guess who decides? Conflict of interest?
But the best thing of all are some closing evergreen observations. The first is that Trump was actually doing great with minorities as the "Apprentice" guy. But then he found out that birther stuff got ratings. The presidency tempted. Now we have dictator Donald.
Not least is this: Describing our TV all-the-time, on-demand world, we now have "endless choice" with a diminishing power for premieres and such. More and more we are both linked and in some respects in control.
