Commentary on Spies in Our Cars, YouTube’s Dangerous Precedent, and More
China watch: Spies in Our Cars?
“The latest threat” from China is “a technology, soon to be ubiquitous, called LIDAR,” argues Nadia Schadlow at The Free Press — “a system of complex sensors that can, for instance, serve as the ‘eyes’ for a self-driving vehicle.” Hesai, the tech’s “leading manufacturer,” supplies “12 of the top 15 autonomous driving companies.” And “the Chinese government likely sees in Hesai another means to capture information from the West” — like “detailed geospatial maps” generated by LIDAR’s networked sensors of military bases and other sensitive areas where autonomous vehicles go. “America today is beholden to Chinese companies for antibiotics, lithium batteries, 5G equipment, and more. Allowing a Chinese company to take control of the LIDAR market would be economically foolish — and likely very dangerous.”
Eye on the economy: Bidenomics Can’t Last
“By heavily subsidizing unionization, Bidenomics is likely to raise production costs, drive more-frequent strikes, and erode America’s international competitiveness,” warns Stephen Miran at The Wall Street Journal. E.g.: Its manufacturing tax credits come with “prevailing wage” rules that make it harder to cut labor costs. Its manufacturing grants program favors projects that retain or expand high-paying jobs. Yet unless “driven by labor demand and productivity enhancements that make workers more valuable,” forcing higher pay leads to job losses. It’s a “great way to lose” manufacturers to other countries. “Biden’s economic vision” can last only as long as taxpayers keep paying for it and “is unlikely to result in a sustainable increase in manufacturing capacity or jobs in America.” Any reindustrialization it sparks will contain “the seeds of its own unraveling.”
RFK, Jr: Anthony’s Working-Class Truths
“Oliver Anthony’s anthem captures the overwhelming sense of despair among our working poor as they watch the American Dream disintegrate along with any hope that their children will lead better lives,” thunders Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his campaign Substack. “Oliver understands” how “the nexus of state and corporate power that resides inside the D.C. Beltway” has “systematically strip-mined Americans of their equity, their hope, even their sanity.” And he’s rightly “distressed by the identity politics that keep the working poor locked in orchestrated conflict with each other: Left vs. Right, Republican vs. Democrat, Black vs. White.” Yet: “His words arouse hope for the healing of these divides. One need only look at the hundreds upon hundreds of response videos by Black men to see the stirrings of a powerful and unifying populist movement.”
Libertarian: YouTube’s Dangerous Precedent
Days after actor Russell Brand was accused of “sexually assaulting multiple women during the time period from 2006 and 2013” (which he’s denied), reports Reason’s Robby Soave, “his talent agency dropped him” and “YouTube has demonetized his channel, meaning that he can’t make money from advertisements.” “YouTube’s actions should raise eyebrows” as Brand is being punished for “conduct that took place entirely off the platform and does not involve speech at all.” It’s worth complaining about because “Brand has not been convicted of any crime.” That YouTube is putting itself in the position of policing “contentious off-site personal behavior” clearly “sets a very dangerous, quasi-dystopian precedent.”
Border beat: Migrant Mess Dogs Prez All Over
Only “a few city blocks separate” Midtown’s UN building, where President Biden spoke this week, and the migrant-shelter Roosevelt Hotel, note Eduardo Cuevas and Michael Collins at USA Today. “They feel worlds apart,” yet the migrant-crisis issue trails Biden “wherever he goes, even as he tries to project power on the world stage” on issues like Ukraine and climate change. Indeed, “the influx of migrants over the past year has devolved into a full-fledged crisis, overwhelming” New York’s “shelters, schools and other resources.” Mayor Adams has “slammed the Biden administration’s response.” But the crisis hasn’t stopped the president from announcing “that the future of the country is on the ballot” and “that if he’s reelected, ‘We will have saved democracy.’ ”
Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
