Geothermal: Clean Energy for People Who Like to Drill
Today, most people view artificial intelligence (AI) as a cultural phenomenon—think chatbots, deepfakes, existential essays on consciousness, and fears about AI replacing jobs. Beneath these ideas lies the AI industrial effort—artificial intelligence as physical infrastructure, including transformers, substations, and silicon warehouses that operate nonstop. They are forcing the idea of reliable power, a concept California once outsourced to natural gas. … (read more)
Trump’s attacks on California condemn America to dependency on China
The 21st-century economy — from our smartphones and F-35 fighter jets to wind turbines and electric vehicles — runs on 17 obscure metals known as rare earth elements. Control their supply, and you control the technological high ground. For decades, America ceded this control, a strategic blunder that left our security perilously dependent on China, which now dominates over 80% of the global supply chain.… (read more)
In India-US deal, there is a dangerous asymmetry. California can bridge the gap
The prevailing narrative surrounding the US-India relationship is one of triumph. As the world’s oldest and largest democracies, we often celebrate our converging strategic interests, robust trade, and deep cultural ties. Yet behind the handshakes and headlines, the cold, hard statistics on foreign direct investment (FDI) reveal a structural vulnerability — a dangerous asymmetry that threatens to undermine the long-term health of our partnership… (read more)
Trump’s Catastrophic War on Global Talent
America is just beginning to tally the cost of our catastrophic, self-inflicted wound. During Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0, by assaulting immigration and global engagement, we have also banned and discouraged the globe’s most talented students from being educated here, hurting ourselves and our economy. After green shoots of recovery under Joe Biden, the data reveal the profound price we’re paying…(read more)
As Washington Falters, California Leads the Way on Scientific Research
The government and its people are bound by a compact: Citizens finance their government, delegate it life-and-death powers, and expect security. This is not just a military or police matter; it also concerns protecting public health through vaccines, food inspection, and cutting-edge scientific research. In recent decades, however…(read more)
H-1B fee kills two birds — and America’s golden goose — with one stone
President Donald Trump has found yet another way to weaponize immigration: a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applicants. The policy lets POTUS kill two birds with one stone: By targeting mostly India, he also…(read more)
Make California a G7 Member
Donald Trump may have personally run exclusive clubs, but America, under his presidency, is dropping its membership in global clubs left and right. His administration recently severed our ties to the World Health Organization…(read more)
The Tip Is the Distraction, and the Wage Is the Scandal
Gesturing, I caught the waiter’s attention to pay my restaurant bill. He hustled over and brought with him the now-ubiquitous handheld payment device. I tapped the prompts and noticed something unsettling…(read more)
Zonkeys & Trade: USMCA Gives Mexican Economy a Kickstart
Tijuana, Mexico – Zonkeys are a unique animal inhabiting this Mexican border town and found mainly along the central commercial drag on Avenida Revolución. A zonkey is a donkey painted white with dark zebra stripes in order to stand out in its unnatural habitat and attract both sober and drunk visitors onto their saddles and into pricey tourist photos. Zonkeys are a symbol of this border town and, like so much else here, appear to be one thing but are actually quite another…(read more)
Americans are real victims of our trade war with Mexico and China
America has declared war on China and Mexico, but it is a new style of warfare. Or at least it seems so. With the latest volley of levied and threatened tariffs on Chinese and Mexican exports, POTUS has thrust the U.S. into a new phase of economic warfare against both competitors and friends…(read more)
Political power and electrical power are inextricably linked. Ask Arnold Schwarzenegger
Earlier this millennium, a series of power brownouts and blackouts in California led to the recall of a sitting governor and a special election for his replacement: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Argentina’s leadership is running for reelection this October, and if it can’t keep the lights on, it may not be welcomed back to power…(read more)
California ‘White House’ would help Pacific pivot
Symbolism counts for a lot in foreign policy. Adversarial leaders are photographed smiling and shaking hands to show thawing relations. They grimace to show public displeasure. Nonthreatening and soft symbolism makes a point about state relations without allowing for dangerous misinterpretation or miscalculation between nations…(read more)
Trump moves fast and breaks things to disrupt world
Hang out in any Silicon Valley café and the word “disruption” is sure to be uttered at a nearby table. It is the keyword to unlock funding for forward-leaning ideas and the approach toward cutting out the middle man in transactions, leaving behind the inefficiencies in mediation, and burying the slow-to-change and inertia-bound in industry. Disruption is everything and everyone wants a piece of it. Including the American people…(read more)
That little fishing boat might just be a weapon of war
Deep-sea fishing charters are a staple of most American coastal marinas — from Miami to the San Francisco Bay. Boats loaded with fuel and fun rock their way out on gentle waves to open waters and ocean sunsets. Summer freedom at its finest.
Now imagine if the million registered floating funhouses in Florida and the million plus in California were suddenly impressed into the U.S. Navy to run offensive operations ramming ships or sent on snooping day-sails. If you can picture this, then you have a sense of other countries’ new hybrid navies. Around the world, fishing boats have become the new warships…(read more)
The West has long militarized space. China plans to weaponize it. Not good.
Neil Armstrong brought the world to the moon. As the first man to tread on that rocky surface, he reminded us that this was not only an American achievement but another link in humanity’s aspirational chain. It was “one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.”
That happened almost 50 years ago. Lunar landings are now back in the news, not because the marginal scientific or symbolic value of the current missions is high for mankind on Earth. Rather, it’s because national pride is driving America’s strategic competitors to escape gravity…(read more)
When Hollywood endings turn deadly
Hollywood is the new 21st century think tank. Policies, projects, political personalities — not to mention plot twists — are cultivated in entertainment industry hothouses.
Donald Trump is only the latest manifestation of a TV personage to turn his reality show ratings and rantings into real political power. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan also come to mind. This phenomenon has been a growing and gathering domestic trend…(read more)
Cheating for gold defies purpose, spirit of Olympics
Athletes competing in the ancient Olympic games were venerated for their prowess and ability. Here, on these original Olympiad grounds of now toppled temples and former glory, visitors are reminded of the elevated role honor played within competition…(read more)
Foreign graduates of U.S. colleges become agents of change abroad
College acceptance letters landed in mailboxes across the country these last few weeks. Proud families now need to figure out the finances of higher education while managing household teenage exuberance.
Americans entering the Class of 2019 will be joined by a record-breaking number of impressive and competitive foreign students. They bring cultural diversity and will yield future dividends as many foreign students later join elite business and political leadership ranks in their home countries…(read more)
Thank you, America, for fueling the Chinese Dream
It’s nearly graduation time around the country, which can only mean one thing: Boring commencement speeches to indifferent students.
The “Coronavirus Commencements” will be different, however, because graduates will not go through a public processional of pomp and circumstance. They also won’t dine with grandparents who traveled great distances to get to the ceremony. Travel curtailed, campuses closed, bookstores stuck with unsold “Class of 2020” swag. Graduation speakers will stay home to deliver their laugh lines and sage advice as webcammed words of wisdom…(read more)
China’s prying eyes may shut down U.S. universities’ academic freedoms
During the height of the 1950s Red Scare, when there were Communists under every bed and spies in every closet, America saw threats to its national security everywhere. Justifiably, there were purges of those who really sought to sneak state secrets to the Soviets. War plans and bomb-making schematics were the most important of those confidential documents. Accusations abounded; not everyone was guilty…(read more)
The reality about water and the rest of the world
A decade ago, I would represent Gov. Gray Davis at some Sacramento meetings with international dignitaries when the governor was out of town. In my role as vice chairman of the California State World Trade Commission, I once met with a young African prime minister at a business hotel near the majestically flowing Sacramento River. As per protocol, I asked what California could offer the prime minister’s country, Cape Verde, in terms of trade and commerce. His response that evening still takes me aback…(read more)
Think doomsday scenarios are just some film fantasy? Think again.
Security threats do not always come from a determined adversary or sworn enemy. What if, like in the age of dinosaurs, we faced an external threat? A huge, hurtling meteor, for example, that could destroy most life on Earth as it did 66 million years ago?
It’s a scary thought to contemplate this early in the new year, but the question of whether we humans could deal with a real and credible global threat to our species is both timely and real…(read more)
The Europeans have a different, darker Green New Deal
Continental elections last weekend gave anti-nuclear Green Parties a huge boost, installing the Greens into a European Parliament kingmaker role. As a result, the rest of Europe is likely to follow the lead of Germany’s environmental party and movement, turning further against civilian nuclear energy and, especially, against coal-fired plants…(read more)
Foreign tourists avoid America in “Trump Slump”
SAN FRANCISCO
Brown soot-filled skies darken this San Francisco day as homes and fields burn a few miles north in Napa and beyond. It is the worst regional fire here in generations.
Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and now Northern California — tourist destinations all — are reeling from a death toll and economic hit brought by hurricanes, floods, and fires. Rebuilding everywhere will be expensive, and federal money will only go so far. America’s nearly $500 billion annual tourist industry would be expected to help fuel the revenue growth that will fund local economic resurgence….(read more)