On Friedman and the world – Friedman in NYT:

‘I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime — precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election.’

(…)

‘Because this is no ordinary hinge of history we are at. We are at the start of the biggest technological disruptions and the biggest climate disruption in human history. We are at the dawn of an artificial intelligence revolution that is going to change EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE — how we work, how we learn, how we teach, how we trade, how we invent, how we collaborate, how we fight wars, how we commit crimes and how we fight crimes. Maybe I missed it, but I did not hear the phrase “artificial intelligence” mentioned by either man at the debate.’

(…)

‘Biden has been a friend of mine since we traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan together after 9/11, when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so I say all of the above with great sadness.’

(…)

‘If he insists on running and he loses to Trump, Biden and his family — and his staff and party members who enabled him — will not be able to show their faces.
They deserve better. America needs better. The world needs better.’

Read the article here.

I don’t know any columnist who can be so amazingly pathetic as Friedman. He is well-informed, I read his book on Lebanon and the Lebanon war with pleasure, but then he became important and after that some people become self-important.

I love also his use of capitals, it reminds me of an angry lover.

I never travelled with Friedman to Afghanistan, but I say this with sadness.

In LA, where I had an event yesterday, the moderator announced wisely that it’s better not to watch the debate. You can save yourself trouble.

Rumsfeld would say: ‘Freedom is unruly.’ The electorate is even more unruly freedom.