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March 23-29, 2025 News

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

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Feature Post: Department of Homeland Security
Focus on DHS mission and organization

The feature US onAir post this week is on the Department of Homeland Security.

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries.

Its stated missions involve anti-terrorism, border security, immigration and customs, cyber security, and disaster prevention and management.

OnAir Post: Homeland Security Department (DHS)

Supreme Court hears arguments on gerrymandering and race in Louisiana
PBS NewsHour, March 24, 2025 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (ET)
Facing the Future: There are No Publications, Just Communities
Facing the Future, Dana F. BlankenhornMarch 24, 2025

But there is no such thing as a newspaper, a magazine, a TV news channel or even a news website anymore. There is only the Web. If you want to live there, you must build a community within it.

That means doing something I hate, namely specializing. It also means creating a two-way street, like Facebook without the sludge. A safe place for locals to not only vent but connect, emphasis on the word SAFE. You’re about as safe on Facebook as you are on an unlit alleyway behind a strip club after midnight on a weekend.

Once you build a community, you can build another, but it won’t be any cheaper than the first one was. Doing this takes deep learning, expertise, and a desire to serve. The best publishers have always identified with their readers, sometimes to a ridiculous degree. Their business is creating =communities around shared needs, through unbiased journalism and a clear delineation between advertising and editorial.

From HAL to Helpful: Appreciating How AI Reshapes Power and Knowledge
SNF Agora Institute, ndrew LentiniMarch 17, 2025

Henry Farrell, SNF Agora Institute Professor of International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), along with co-authors Alison Gopnik (University of California, Berkeley), Cosma Shalizi (Carnegie Mellon University), and James Evans (University of Chicago), challenge the idea that large AI models are becoming independent, intelligent agents in a new paper published in Science. Instead, they argue that AI functions as a cultural and social tool, much like writing, printing, markets, and bureaucracies.

Farrell and his co-authors explain that large AI models do not “think” or “understand” the world as people do. Instead, they process vast amounts of human-created information and organize it to make it more accessible. Like earlier technologies that transformed communication and knowledge-sharing, AI influences politics, business, and decision-making.

Farrell sees this article as a crucial step in shifting how people talk about AI. “We need to stop imagining AI as super-powered individual intelligences and start seeing it for what it is, a system that reorganizes information and power” he says. “When we compare large models to economic markets or government systems instead of spinning out speculative science fictional scenarios, we can ask more useful questions. Who controls them? How do they shape our understanding of the world? How do they shift influence and decision-making?”

How online misinformation is ‘supercharging’ conspiracy theories
PBS NewsHourMarch 23, 2025 (07:16)

Can conspiracy theorists be shaken from their firm — and unsubstantiated — beliefs? Podcaster Zach Mack wanted to find out, so he turned to someone he’s debated about conspiracies for years: his father. He tells what happened in “Alternate Realties,” a three-part podcast from NPR. Mack and science writer David Robert Grimes join John Yang to discuss.

Who Does Elon Love?
Notes From The Circus, Mike BrockMarch 24, 2025

Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And who we love—what we ultimately care about, what we’re willing to sacrifice for—reveals more about our vision for humanity than all our stated intentions and proclamations. In asking who Elon loves, we’re really asking what kind of future we’re racing toward under the influence of those who share his loves and priorities.

A future shaped by Musk’s loves would be efficient, optimized, and profoundly lonely. A society built on democratic love would be messier, slower—but it would be built for people, not just progress. The choice is ours. The question is not merely academic but existential: will we surrender our future to those who love ideas more than people, or will we insist on a world shaped by more humane loves—loves that recognize both our limitations and our dignity, our need for both innovation and connection?

Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves not just who Elon loves, but what kind of loves should be shaping our collective future.

Monopoly Round-Up: The Democrats’ Corporate Lawyers Get the Humiliation They Deserve
BIG, Matt StollerMarch 23, 2025

The Democratic establishment brain was at the giant law firm Paul Weiss. They just bent the knee to Trump. Plus, tennis players revolt, and Google accidentally confesses to monopolization.

For a long time, I’ve discussed a secret center of power in America, what is known as “Big Law,” a network of law firms who serve as a shadow government for the out-of-power party.

Lawyers have always had a special place in America. They must maintain a dual loyalty, serving clients with advice and court representation, but serving the public as officers of the court. There’s a dense ethical code lawyers must maintain. For instance, they can’t help their clients break the law, and they can’t switch sides in a dispute

Building the Future We Want AI: Empathy, Connections and the Future of Humanity
The One Percent Rule, W.P. LewisMarch 24, 2025

On my AI courses, I don’t just teach how to build AI; I emphasize understanding what it is. Most importantly, I explore the what and the why. My goal is to leave no stone unturned in the minds of my students and executives, fostering a comprehensive awareness of AI’s potential and its pitfalls.

Crucially, this involves cultivating widespread AI literacy, empowering individuals to responsibly understand, build, and engage with these transformative technologies. Our exploration centers on developing applications that enhance societal well-being, moving beyond the pursuit of mere profit. My AI app for a major bank, designed to assist individuals with vision impairment, exemplifies this philosophy.

This focus on ethical development and human-centered design underscores my conviction that the future of AI depends on our ability to move beyond simplistic narratives and embrace a nuanced understanding of its potential. Whatever we may think of AI, and I have many conflicting thoughts, it is certain that it will foretell our future, so we must learn to shape it and rebuild our humane qualities.

Social Security: A Time for Outrage
Paul Krugman (Substack)March 24, 2025

Trump’s policies attack his own base — but who will tell them?

Donald Trump is often described as a “populist.” Yet his administration is stuffed with wealthy men who are clueless about how the other 99.99 percent lives, while his policies involve undermining the working class while enabling wealthy tax cheats.

What is true is that many working-class voters supported Trump last year because they believed that he was on their side. And that disconnect between perceptions and reality ought to be at the heart of any discussion of what Democrats should do now.

Right now the central front in the assault on the working class is Social Security, which Elon Musk, unable to admit error, keeps insisting is riddled with fraud. The DOGE-bullied Social Security Administration has already announced that those applying for benefits or trying to change where their benefits are deposited will need to verify their identity either online or in person — a huge, sometimes impossible burden on the elderly, often disabled Americans who need those benefits most. And with staff cuts and massive DOGE disruption, it seems increasingly likely that some benefits just won’t arrive as scheduled.

“Will We Have Future Elections?”
Pepperspectives, David PepperMarch 24, 2025

Not because we won’t have elections.

But because if enough people start to believe that the answer is “no,” then they won’t engage. They won’t prepare. They won’t bother. And the loss in the elections that do take place becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. (Trump sparked this precise effect in the Georgia run-offs for US Senate in January 2021).

Of course….we can’t know for sure what will happen in the coming years, let alone days and weeks. And we should be prepared for a continued parade of terrible actions by Trump and his henchmen.

Discuss

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