> Even Saudis couldn't have stopped them. That's not particularly American election issue
Energy prices are absolutely an American election issue. Variations in real personal disposable income growth and inflation predict a vast majority of the variation in election outcomes after accounting for incumbency.
And Iranian proxies seizing the Bab el-Mandeb–and the U.S. being unable to help Saudi Arabia respond militarily while Iran cements control of the Strait of Hormuz–is the direct result of an American foreign policy choice to, once again, blunder into a war in the Middle East.
Uh... and Iran and the Straight of Hormuz?? Did you forget to mention that? Is that an election issue? And who funds the Houthis? And why would they want to close the straight to us? Is it something to do with supporting Israel? No? Ok.
Houthis were in a weird truce with Saudis and Yemeni government for the last few months. Without US war in Iran destabilising the area, I am pretty sure houthis diplomats wouldn't have been bombed by Saudi Arabia. They might have broken the truce anyway, Houthis still claim south Yemen (wrongly imho, South Yemen is probably the most secularised area of the middle east, probably due to its high literacy rates and Marxist leanings, this would be a really hard sell. Also, Houthis, like Saudis, and former north Yemen leaders, has a clan-based leadership, which isn't a thing at all in South Yemen).
Imho a peace over the old borders could have been possible without additional destabilisation from the US. The Iran war made that impossible. Hopefully a peaceful resolution can still be found, quickly.
Houthi's were also recently active against Israeli assets as Palestinian solidarity. Another situation that could not have happened without US intervention (support in this case).
The houthis are part of Iran's 'Axis of resistance' and have also publicly stated one reason for their recent increase in activity being Palestinian solidarity.
Given the Iran war and Israels genocide only being possible through US support I'd say the US has a pretty big hand in the matter.
The PISA assesses student learning of 15-year-olds around the world every three to four years. While performance in most countries has declined since 2018, math scores in China have improved by an impressive 21 points (equivalent to roughly one year of learning) while those in the U.S. have fallen by 15 (three quarters of a year of learning).
As a result, the math skills gap between U.S. and China students has grown to the equivalent of more than seven years. Ponder that for a moment. While 8% of U.S. students rated “top performers” in math, 54% did in mainland China. Wonder why U.S. employers seek to hire high-skilled workers from abroad?
U.S. schools simply aren’t producing enough students with advanced engineering and math skills. A report last year from the University of California, San Diego, found that one in 12 freshmen had math skills below middle-school level.
The teachers’ union response to evidence of learning decline is always to spend more on public schools, but the gusher of federal K-12 spending during the pandemic didn’t improve performance. The PISA report notes that the relationship between a country’s wealth and test scores “is not linear and it flattens among those with relatively higher national incomes.”
Once cumulative spending per student from ages six to 15 exceeds roughly $85,000 per student—all U.S. states spend more than that—the relationship with student scores begins to “decouple.” “Higher spending per student does not automatically relate to higher performance scores,” the report says. Maybe because more spending rewards education failure, rather than success.
I just read that book. Embarrassingly enough, given the context, I got chatgpt (or whatever) to recommend me a list of books based on ones I'd previously enjoyed and that came up. As a mathematician it really sang to me, given the current situation. Bearing the torch forward, I mean.
It's possible that LLMs will be a commodity in the future. Just like airline industry, AI will be tremendously important for society, but AI companies will not be making lots of money. It will be Nvidia, Micron, Dell and others shovel makers making money.
How is the world so difficult? People live nowadays better than kings of France used to live. In the last hundred years we've been going through an unprecedented wealth creation, not just in the West but accross the world.
I played three games, and every time the third word for me was difficult. I bet I am not alone. Not sure it's a game I want to return to just for two first words.
You would think that Fauci et al would have a plan for respiratory epidemic: make people stay outside as long as possible. And yet, they kept people inside and closed parks and beaches. Makes no sense! And yet lots people think Fauci was some kind of hero.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries. That's not particularly American election issue.
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