Wilfred Takken in the Dutch newspaper NRC: ‘Although California's creative sector lost 114,000 jobs (14 percent) between 2022 and 2025, it was precisely the occupational groups that work the most with AI—screenwriters, artists, and software developers—that experienced growth.’

And: ‘When the market was saturated – about three years ago – streaming services started watching their pennies, producing fewer series, taking fewer risks, and investing more in reality TV and sports. (…) Furthermore, producers prefer to film in other states and abroad, where they receive greater tax benefits, for example.’

The usual suspects are to blame: ‘YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.’ But AI is off the hook.

The Hollywood Reporter published an article in March with tips to prevent Hollywood from dying: ‘To be successful today, we must take a cue from these consumers, and identify creativity wherever it resides.’

If this secondhand peptalk is the cure, maybe dying is bliss.

Jonathan Lis in Haaretz: ‘The partial understandings between Iran and the United States released so far, expected to form the basis for negotiations in the coming days, appear to undermine one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's central wartime objectives: creating conditions for the collapse of Iran's clerical regime.’

And: ‘In a recorded statement, Netanyahu said Israel aimed to prevent Iran's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that would "threaten Israel, the United States and the entire world." He then added a third objective: "At the same time, we are working to create conditions that will allow the Iranian people to remove the cruel, tyrannical regime that has oppressed them for nearly half a century."’

As has been said before, to win the war the ayatollahs just had to stay put. That’s what they did.

Killing senior leaders didn’t eliminate Hamas, it didn’t eliminate the Ayatollahs.

Different war, same mistakes.

(a sf 2100)

Chris Cameron in NYT: ‘Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday likened the rescue on Easter Sunday of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Minutes later, speaking at the same news conference describing the military operation, President Trump asserted that God supports the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, which has killed thousands, including many civilians. “Because God is good,” he said, “and God wants to see people taken care of.”’

Well, the pope disagrees. He believes that the message of Christ has often been ‘distorted by a desire for domination.’

And please remember Hegseth’s tattoo.

‘Tattooed on Mr. Hegseth’s right biceps is the Latin phrase “Deus vult” — “God wills it”’. A reference to the Crusades.

The modern-day crusaders are more interested in Tehran than Jerusalem. After all, they believe that the US is the true promised land.

The Apocalypse is just a victory party.

(a sf 2099)

Michael D. Shear in NYT: ‘The world is on edge. One minute, President Trump says the war in Iran is nearly over. The next he says it will continue for weeks. (…) A huge bombardment, he says, might begin in five days, or 10 days, or on Tuesday at precisely 8 p.m. Eastern.
If the president means what he says, the world could be about 24 hours from a devastating escalation in the war.’

And: ‘In Japan, which is deeply reliant on oil imports from the Middle East, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday that she would seek direct talks with the Iranian government as soon as Wednesday.’

Pakistan proposed a 45-day ceasefire and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

According to newspaper reports, both Iran and the US believe they are winning the war.

Winning, also, is in the eye of the beholder.

(a sf 2098)

An entertaining interview with philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in the Süddeutsche by Jens-Christian Rabe.

Sloterdijk: ‘Politics is in some ways similar to modern art. The viewer almost automatically thinks: I could do that too.’

But modern art (wherever it began and wherever it may have ended) is relatively innocent compared to politics. The discussion about Picasso is about the women he treated badly. The discussion about Trump is, where will the madness end? At the gas station, or just before another world war?

Sloterdijk about Trump: ‘His psychological development clearly came to a standstill before the anal stage. That is, before the age at which, according to psychoanalysis, one learns to feel shame. He doesn't use that register. He doesn't even have to simulate shamelessness; he embodies it.’

And: ‘Mature democracy always involves managing disappointments.’

Unfortunately, too many politicians have an incentive not to manage disappointments.

(a sf 2097)

Jon Henley in The Guardian: ‘Emmanuel Macron has sharply criticised Donald Trump’s inconsistent and often contradictory pronouncements on the Iran war and Nato, saying if “you want to be serious” it was better not to come out with a [sic] something different every day.’

And: ‘Trump has suggested variously that the war was as good as won and the US did not need the support of its allies; that he expected allies to join the US military operation; and that they should act alone and “go get their oil” in the strait of Hormuz. He also said this week at a private White House lunch that Nato had “treated us very badly”. (…) In comments to Reuters, he said he was “absolutely without question” considering leaving.’

According to Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk, the situation looks like a ‘dream plan’ for Putin.

Trump’s quagmire, Putin’s dream.

(a sf 2096)

Gal Hertz in Haaretz: ‘French philosopher Michel Foucault's enthusiastic support for the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978-79) served not only as a basis for accusations against him and disdain for his theories, but also for a sweeping dismissal of left-wing postmodern thought's challenge to binary distinctions – between West and East, liberal secularism and religious subjugation.’

And: ‘Why did Foucault see the Iranian Revolution as such a pivotal event? Why did a thinker who opposed the intellectual's role as a preacher so clearly take the side of the protesters?’

Foucault on Iran in 1979: ‘Nobody has ever seen the “collective will” and, personally, I thought that the collective will was like God.’

According to Hertz, Foucault wanted to know: ‘Can those who are subjected to power transform themselves through the revolutionary process, and establish a regime not based on oppression?’

Rarely.

Even the oppressed have a healthy appetite for power.

(a sf 2095)