Voter News

Lawmakers and activists are becoming increasingly alarmed that the proposed legislation will stall and put Democrats at a disadvantage in coming elections. WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans were expected again on Wednesday to block action on voting rights legislation, intensifying calls by activists and lawmakers for Democrats to finally do away with the filibuster or find…

In the game of historical “what ifs,” it’s worth imagining what might have been if Colin Powell — who in the early 1990s was among the most admired figures in America — had heeded conservative pleas to seek the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, won it and then defeated Bill Clinton that November. Our first Black…

Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska, was accused of lying to F.B.I. agents investigating illegal foreign donations. He said he would fight the charges. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Tuesday charged a Republican member of Congress from Nebraska with lying to the F.B.I. during a campaign finance investigation, an allegation that the lawmaker vowed…

Sam and Emma host Kate Crawford, Research Professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg, to discuss her recent book Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence, on our relationship with big tech, and the concept of the AI industry as a continuation of the extractive practices and power dynamics in the workplace that we have been building for centuries. They start off with a discussion on how Professor Crawford got into AI, and how her perspective on it has changed, from the view of the industry as one defined by algorithmic capacity and data infrastructure to an industry of extraction and exploitation, jump-started by diving into the stages of production from lithium mines to Amazon fulfillment warehouses to labs. Getting into the abstraction and depoliticization of artificial intelligence, Professor Crawford explores how Big Tech has become perhaps the most concentrated industry since the railroads, hiding behind an ideology of technocratic utopianism that has built a fear of regulation, a consolidation of power, and a growing perspective that it is essential to our way of life. Next, she, Emma, and Sam dive into the relationship between AI and labor practices, looking at the hyper “efficiency” created by workplace algorithms (e.g. at Amazon warehouses) as a revolutionary progression of Frederick Taylor’s factory ideology, and exploring how this disembodied management serves to hamper organizing, particularly with the effect of the bias to believe technology. They then move onto the importance of highlighting the overlap of the surveillance state and corporate surveillance, this creation of a multi-headed hydra, and why the American public only sees the state as a threat, before expanding on the surveillance apparatus are already working to reinforce power structures that have exceeded regulation, looking particularly at the Police state and counter-terrorism measures. They wrap up the interview by discussing the future of regulation in the industry and the impact anti-trust measures could have (and why that won’t be enough). Sam and Emma read some Majority Reporter updates on the mass unionization efforts going on in the US, and discuss Manchin’s posturing with Bernie (physically). And in the Fun Half: Nomiki Konst joins Sam and Emma as they cover the New York democratic machine getting blindsided by a democratic socialist woman of color taking on an established incumbent, inspiring Chuck Schumer to take a break from politics, Chris Leal for TX House District #114 gives some updates on his campaign, and the MR crew discusses the judgments of Meghan McCain in the workplace for simply acting the part she’s paid for. They also cover the silencing of Bari Weiss with her free airtime on CNN, Dan Bongino’s poor connection in the Glenn Greenwald telephone game, plus, your calls and IMs! Become a member at JoinTheMajorityReport.com Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here. 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WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Tuesday, bowing to an aggressive lobbying campaign by the banking industry and pushback from Republicans, scaled back a Biden administration plan for the Internal Revenue Service to try to crack down on tax cheats. The new proposal, which would help pay for the expansive social policy and climate change bill…

This article is part of the Debatable newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you’re active on social media there’s a decent chance you came across this chart this month from a Times article about how much less the U.S. government spends on young children’s care than other…

Experts report that similar technologies were developed by Russia and the United States starting more than a half century ago. The news report that emerged over the weekend sounded alarming: China, a rising military power, had unexpectedly fired a novel space weapon two months ago. It circled the planet and then re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, gliding…

By Charlie Le Maignan In one of my first newsletters, I discussed an opera about Black people written by white men and suggested that we attend, as well, to operas written by Black people. I’ve experienced two of them lately. They, like “Blues Opera,” put me in mind of our current discussion about cultural appropriation…

In yet another challenge to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in December on whether Mississippi can restrict abortion access to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. There are few greater constants in American life than legal challenges to Roe, which is remarkable in a country where so much else has…

The expanded child tax credit is not the most ambitious policy in President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan, but it might be the one that says the most about the current direction of the Democratic Party. The monthly payment to most families with children — authorized, on a temporary basis, by the American Rescue Plan…