Today's Liberal News

The Alien Intelligence in Your Pocket

One of the persistent questions in our brave new world of generative AI: If a chatbot is conversant like a person, if it reasons and behaves like one, then is it possibly conscious like a person? Geoffrey Hinton, a recent Nobel Prize winner and one of the so-called godfathers of AI, told the journalist Andrew Marr earlier this year that AI has become so advanced and adept at reasoning that “we’re now creating beings.

Mahmoud Khalil Hails Judge’s Scathing Ruling Against Trump Efforts to Deport Pro-Palestinian Students

A Reagan-appointed judge has issued a scathing ruling rebuking the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestine students. Judge William G. Young called the case AAUP v. Rubio “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court” and ruled that contrary to the State Department’s claims, “non-citizens lawfully present here in [the] United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.

Chicago Mayor on Trump’s Threat to Use “Dangerous” Cities as “Training Grounds for Our Military”

We speak to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as President Trump singles out the city as a training ground for the military and National Guard deployment. Militarized federal agents from the FBI and Border Patrol have already joined ICE agents for a city-wide crackdown against immigrants and protesters. Felony charges have been brought against protesters at ICE’s Broadview detention center.

Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream

In the end, it was mostly blither. When Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth announced a gathering of some 800 generals and admirals (with their senior enlisted advisers), rumors ran wild.

The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s convocation of hundreds of generals and admirals today turned out to be, in the main, a nothingburger.

Hundreds of Generals Try to Keep a Straight Face

In the days before Pete Hegseth stepped onstage to address the hundreds of generals and admirals he summoned for a mysterious meeting outside Washington, D.C., officials at the Pentagon joked that the defense secretary could have saved a lot of time and money by making his remarks via email instead.

If the Urgent Trump-Hegseth Address to the Military Had Been an Email

To: Entire Military Leadership of the United States, Stationed All Over the World, Who Would Have to Be Flown In Very Disruptively and Expensively If This Weren’t an Email but for Some Reason Were an Urgent In-Person Address
From: Pete Hegseth
CC: Donald J. Trump
Subject: WARFIGHTER ETHOS
PLEASE DROP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING TO READ THIS EMAIL AT ATTENTION.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia

In the 1960s, the authors of one of the world’s first popular compendiums of fun and interesting facts entreated readers not to mistake the “flower of Trivia” for the “weed of minutiae.” Trivia stimulates the mind, Edwin Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky wrote in More Trivial Trivia; minutiae stymie it.

Chicago Activist on Organizing Community ICE Patrols as Trump Escalates Immigration Crackdown

Tension between immigration agents and community activists is growing in Chicago, where ICE agents have deployed tear gas and pepper balls against ongoing protests outside Chicago’s Broadview ICE detention facility.
Democracy Now! speaks with community activist Cristóbal Cavazos, who says that the people of Chicago have been steadfast in their mobilization against ICE, with communities engaging in daily protests and community safety patrols.

“We Do Not Want Federal Troops”: Oregon Rejects Trump’s Plan to Send Forces to Portland

President Trump has directed 200 members of the Oregon National Guard to be deployed to Portland, claiming troops are necessary to “protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.” Trump’s order comes after he signed an executive order claiming the decentralized antifa movement is a “domestic terror organization.