Today's Liberal News

Trump’s Monumental Obsession

Donald Trump is facing multiple challenges. The United States is losing to one of its worst enemies in a war that has left the American economy mired in the sludge of growing inflation and rising energy prices. His popularity is now hovering around second-term George W. Bush levels, and may even be headed for end-stage Richard Nixon numbers. His party faces the prospect of a crushing defeat in midterm elections that are only six weeks away. (In some places, early voting has already begun.

Pinballing

I was pinballing/
slamming the back glass/
hitting every outlane/
triggering a ramp shot/
spinning red after years/
of running/nights/
of crashing/I wanted power over something/
anything/thought:
what would it look like/
the glistening body/cut open/
the jewels of itself/turning?
The back glass of the body/
breached? Would I come
alive in the cut/you could say seeing
my inside body/its wires &
circuits/my spiky wrist/you could say
gleeful at the sight?

What Is Humanity’s Place in the Cosmos?

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For all of history, humans have been fascinated by the heavens above us. We’ve used the stars to navigate Earth, to predict the future, and to understand our place in the larger scheme of things. Changes in our view of the cosmos—from the Copernican revolution that “uncentered” the Earth to the discovery of the Big Bang and the recognition that the universe is expanding—have invariably changed our view of ourselves.

50 Songs That Explain America

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I wouldn’t be here—in America, or inside my nervous system as it’s currently constituted—without American music.
That’s no exaggeration. As a metalheaded, punk-rock-obsessed, hip-hop-curious English teenager, I projected my mind toward America. The music summoned me: I couldn’t wait to be around it.

“We Are the 99%”: 15 Years Later, Occupy Wall Street’s Impact Is Still Being Felt

Fifteen years ago this week, thousands of activists marched on the Financial District in New York City. They formed the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park, launching a movement focused on economic inequality that spread across the nation and globe under the slogan, “We are the 99%.” Protesters would go on to sleep in Zuccotti Park for nearly two months before police raided the encampment.

“Inequality Emergency”: Ahead of U.N. General Assembly, Oxfam Urges Action on Climate, AI & Gaza

As world leaders prepare to head to New York for the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week, Democracy Now! speaks with Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International. “We live in a very different world from 1945,” when the U.N. was formed, says Behar. “You cannot continue with the veto power.” And with António Guterres soon stepping down, Behar stresses that the United Nations’ next secretary-general must be a woman — “a fundamental shift we need to make.

“Call It Evil”: Philosopher Susan Neiman on Why Moral Clarity Matters in the Trump Era

We speak with moral philosopher Susan Neiman, author of the new book Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era. Neiman argues that evil — far from being an outdated religious concept — is a vital way to understand how injustice works in the world. The Trump administration’s abusive policies have been aided by a general reluctance to call them out as evil, part of how people are “brainwashed … by the idea that morality is for losers, suckers, fools,” she says.

Treat AI Like a Normal Crisis

One 27-year-old quit his job, and everybody (including but not limited to the singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow) appears to have lost it.
The past two weeks have been dizzying. The 27-year-old, Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic, went public with an alarming allegation: That the people inside Silicon Valley’s leading AI companies truly believe their products might pose an extinction level threat to humanity. This claim isn’t exactly new.

Kara Swisher: AI Isn’t Going to Destroy Humanity—But the People Building It Might

As the AI industry likes to tell it, superintelligent bots could one day cure cancer and end poverty. Or in the worst-case scenario, they might wipe out all humans from the face of the Earth. In recent weeks, Silicon Valley’s existential concerns about the technology it is racing to build have blown up. The tech journalist Kara Swisher sees it differently. “We have to stop thinking AI is going to kill humanity,” she told Atlantic executive editor Adrienne LaFrance at The Atlantic Festival.

What AI Anxiety Looks Like in China

Anxiety about AI in the United States appears to be getting worse. Prosaic concerns about machines disrupting industries, stealing jobs, and compromising schoolwork are giving way to more harrowing fears about the end of humanity.  
Even after top AI executives in the U.S. called for slowing down the breakneck pace of development, President Trump dismissed these safety concerns as a “hoax” that would hand China an advantage in the race for AI supremacy.