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AI Needs To Be Regulated Now

From AI Needs To Be Regulated Now:

What we need is a dedicated [Federal] agency to regulate A.I. … There is precedent for establishing a necessary agency to protect people from harm. How molecules interact with millions of unique human beings is a complicated subject and not well understood. Yet we created an agency — the Food and Drug Administration — to regulate pharmaceutical drugs.

This critical and necessary endeavor needs to proceed in steps. That’s why I will be introducing legislation to create a nonpartisan A.I. Commission to provide recommendations on how to structure a federal agency to regulate A.I., what types of A.I. should be regulated and what standards should apply.

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The House Freedom Caucus push to diminish the imperial speakership

From The House Freedom Caucus push to diminish the imperial speakership:

As Republicans head into the new year with a looming razor-thin majority in the House, …a group of GOP representatives often viewed as “far right,” “radical” or even a threat to democracy…are leveraging their votes for speaker to push for the diminishment of the imperial speakership and a return of power to individual members and committees.
And they’re absolutely right.

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Joe Manchin’s reconciliation memo: What to know

From What Joe Manchin Wants, Decoded:

Simply put, Manchin wants to be fully in control of any new mandates or regulations of the coal and energy industry that has fueled his state’s economy for more than a century…He opposes any new energy standards falling under the control of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has traditionally been dominated by coastal liberals hostile to coal- and energy-producing states.

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On Concerns About Debt and Disregard for Climate and Child Poverty

From On Concerns About Debt, and Disregard for Climate and Child Poverty:

The Democrats trying to scuttle Biden’s agenda are more accurately described as the party’s corporate wing than as “centrists.” After all, polls suggest that the policies they oppose are highly popular, so in that sense they’re well to the right of the political center.

But not everyone defining conventional wisdom is on the take. There also seems to be a sort of social dynamic in politics and the media, perhaps reflecting the circles in which opinion leaders move, that treats people who want to make the lives of ordinary Americans harder as courageous, while considering those who want to raise taxes on corporations and the rich flaky and unrealistic.

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“Elect More Liberals”

From House Democrats delay planned vote on $1 trillion infrastructure bill amid dispute between party moderates and liberals:

“I’ve never been a liberal in any way, shape or form,” [Democratic Senator] Manchin said. “I don’t fault any of [my fellow Democrats] who believe that they’re much more progressive and much more liberal. God bless ’em. … For them to get theirs — elect more liberals.”

West Virginia: Please take Senator Manchin up on his suggestion and vote the stonewalling fucker out.

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The Framers Would Have Wanted Us to Change the Constitution

From The Framers Would Have Wanted Us to Change the Constitution:

Some believe that we should refrain from tampering with the Framers’ handiwork. Others suggest that amending the Constitution is impossible or think it wiser to spend political capital and resources on more attainable goals. None of these responses is new. Throughout history, advocates of an unworkable status quo employed the language of constitutional idolatry and pessimism to oppose sorely needed change.

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Progressive Pressure Over the Budget Reconciliation Bill Is Creating Establishment Pushback

From Progressive Pressure Over the Budget Reconciliation Bill Is Creating Establishment Pushback:

It seems that a prerequisite for a TV anchor job or a Beltway reporting gig at a corporate media outlet is an ironclad commitment to standing in the shadow of a Mount Everest–sized pile of corporate campaign cash, and insisting with a straight face that politics is just a battle of ideas between earnest statesmen presenting different visions for the country’s future.

Jacobin follows the money. You should too.