Source: Independent Institute
by K Lloyd Billingsley

“Dr. Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control, comes billed as a ‘home run pick’ but may face pressure from the ‘vaccine-skeptical’ Robert F. Kennedy’s HHS. Kennedy ally Aaron Siri recalls that Schwartz, ‘with threat and force, mandated almost every major vaccine on civilians and military members’ and disciplined those who refused. Others see the Schwartz pick as a political move in the run-up to the midterms. While confirmation awaits, the people might look back to the way the CDC handled COVID in the election year of 2020.” (04/29/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/29/trump-cdc-pick-not-just-about-vaccines-or-elections/

Source: Niskanen Center
by Anna Heetderks

“President Trump’s dismissal of 17 federal inspectors general en masse; high-profile IG investigations of alleged mismanagement at two Cabinet departments; a high-stakes controversy over the Government Accountability Office’s finding of Impoundment Control Act violations — over the past year and a half, the behind-the-scenes work of the federal government’s oversight entities has never been so front and center. That makes it a good time to ask: What exactly is the purpose of this ordinarily low-key government function with the ability to shape public policy, public programs, and public opinion?” (04/29/26)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/oversight-is-good-news-for-state-capacity

Source: UnHerd
by Richard Dawkins

“When Turing wrote — and for most of the years since — it was possible to accept the hypothetical conclusion that, if a machine ever passed his operational test, we might consider it to be conscious. We were comfortably secure in the confidence that this was a very big if, kicked into future touch. However, the advent of large language models (LLM) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others has provoked a hasty scramble to move the goalposts. It was one thing to grant consciousness to a hypothetical machine that — just imagine! — could one day succeed at the Imitation Game. But now that LLMs can actually pass the Turing Test? ‘Well, er, perhaps, um … Look here, I didn’t really mean it when, back then, I accepted Turing’s operational definition of a conscious being …'” (04/29/26)

https://archive.is/tN5Or

Source: In These Times
by Maya Ragsdale

“This May Day, we are sounding the alarm. On a plane, ‘Mayday’ is a distress call. When a pilot says it three times into the radio — ​’Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!’ — they’re saying we need help, we need it now, we cannot do this alone. We are calling Mayday because billionaires and corporations have rigged the rules, authoritarianism is tightening its grip, and because the people facing the sharpest edge of both cannot fight alone. Here in Florida, anti-immigrant laws weaponize fear in workplaces and neighborhoods. Attacks on free speech and public education are routine. The category of ‘“criminal’ expands year after year, absorbing more of our neighbors into a carceral system designed not only to punish, but to discipline labor, suppress wages, and push millions into precarity. This week, hundreds of us are gathering in Miami for two days of public testimony, training, and action.” (04/29/26)

https://inthesetimes.com/article/may-day-working-class-organizing-florida