Energy beat: AI Requires an Explosion in Power
Every tech report acknowledges “that deploying AI at scale will lead to massive increases in electricity demand,” since “the digital economy runs on hardware, and hardware consumes a lot of energy,” notes City Journal’s Mark P. Mills. “A single large AI data center can use as much electricity as 2 million households.” Offsetting the costs of this soaring demand will “exponential” gains in “energy-efficiency.” Then again, AI will boost productivity, adding perhaps “a cumulative $10 trillion above projections to U.S. GDP over the coming decade,” and so sprak further “spur growth in energy demand.” Hence the tech community’s demand for an “all options on the table” energy plan, ending “the past decade’s monomaniacal obsession with wind and solar as the only options.”
Liberal: Both Parties Are Losing Ground
Most political commentary is missing “the collapse of trust in the two traditional parties, increasing independence among voters, and rising allegiance to an undefined ‘neither’ party,” warns the Liberal Patriot’s John Halpin. Per ample polling data, “lots of Americans do not like the positions and brands of the only two parties” they can “choose from in most elections,” nor do they fit any “alternative third party at the moment.” “Given the mounting number of economic and social concerns among Americans, a failed two-party system cannot endure indefinitely.” Today’s parties must each “bring in more voters with more diverse views” with an “agenda that delivers for people,” or “dwindle in membership” and “retreat into ideological purity” while “other Americans search for alternatives.”
From the right: Dems’ Identity-Politics Blinders
“Liberals are in denial,” contends The Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley, but even The New York Times admits “Republicans are overwhelmingly making gains in working-class counties,” while Democrats are losing “Black, white and Latino” working-class voters alike. Blame the left’s “identity-based appeals,” argues Riley. “Minority voters are courted as minorities rather than as Americans who have the same priorities — good schools, safe neighborhoods, gainful employment — as everyone else.” Dems pretend “Hispanics don’t care about illegal immigration” and that “blacks think policing is a bigger problem than crime,” though polls suggest the opposite. “This is what happens when a small subset of progressives set the policy agenda for tens of millions of people.” And as long as Democrats refuse to change, “Republicans stand to benefit.”
Libertarian: JD’s Free-Market Double Standard
Veep JD Vance’s “position on bitcoin is” seemingly far out of step “with his stated views — and those of the Trump administration, more generally,” on market forces, snarks Reason’s Eric Boehm. In a Newsmax interview, Vance explained the administration’s hands-off approach to cryptocurrency: “What you shouldn’t have is a dictatorial government that tells certain industries they’re not allowed to do what they need to do.” Says Boehm: “That’s exactly right,” but “from trade to immigration (which is an economic issue, yes) to minutiae” like “how many dolls American kids get to play with, the Trump administration is demanding more dictatorial government that tells industries exactly what to do.” Sorry: “The benefits of the free market should not be reserved exclusively for people who invent and use cryptocurrency.”
Media watch: They Just Don’t Learn
“If you thought that the media would have a come-to-Jesus moment” after their “debacle” covering the Biden presidency, “think again,” scoffs Joe Concha at the Washington Examiner. A recent Media Research Center study shows President Trump has gotten just 8% positive coverage and 92% negative in his first four months back in office on ABC, NBC and CBS, despite his great results on the border, inflation, unemployment and other issues. The “good news”? Trump won last November despite negative coverage: “Legacy media influence is a fraction of what it once was.” So “for the next 42 months of Trump’s presidency, expect more of the same”: “Ratings will continue to fall, as will readership.” And for the old media, “so will trust.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board