Discourse: Fordies in the news, spring 2023

May 3, 2023

"The Republicans are just in a really difficult situation, because their margin is so small and this bloc is so determined. They want to be able to stymie things if things are not going their way. This is an effort to wield as much power as they can possibly wield."

Edie Goldenberg discusses the prolonged Speaker of the House vote. The Globe and Mail, January 4, 2023.

"Hopefully, what this will help do is ease the burden on families and also help them to access the kind of high-quality care that they want. These public investments can address market failures in which early educators aren't getting the wages that they [need]. It really takes public investment to be able to pay early educators fairly and to offer them a living wage."

Christina Weiland on Governor Whitmer's universal pre-k plan. Detroit Free Press, January 28, 2023.

"In a nation honest about its historical and pervasive racism, individuals couldn't hide behind their love for America and love for a whitewashed history of America as excuses to deny racism's existence. Changing policy without engaging hearts only ensures the continued creation of policies but not the promise of equality. In doing so, we remain blind to the heart of the matter: hearts matter."

Matthew Alemu on confronting racism in America. Bridge Detroit, March 11, 2023.

"Until recently, methane has remained far less prominent than carbon in climate policy. But significant change appears to be on the way, including a proliferation of corporate and governmental reduction pledges from the oil and gas sector. A common theme among policy leaders involves taking advantage of low-cost opportunities, from plugging leaks to equipment electrification, reflecting energy methane's abundant 'low hanging fruit.'" 

Barry Rabe on progress in methane policy. Brookings, January 6, 2023.

"Besides directly producing toxic content, there are concerns that AI chatbots will embed historical biases or ideas about the world from their training data, such as the superiority of particular cultures. Because the firms that are creating big LLMs are mostly in, and from, these cultures, they might make little attempt to overcome such biases, which are systemic and hard to rectify." 

Shobita Parthasarathy on the implications of AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Nature, February 6, 2023. 

"(Biden's visit to Ukraine) shows the U.S.'s and NATO's support for Ukraine. It is also a warning to Russia and Putin not to escalate. Putin knows that a nuclear exchange would destroy Russia as well as a number of countries in the surrounding territory. His own military might stop him if he were crazy enough to order a nuclear first strike. Still, any threat of that kind should be taken seriously and prepared for." 

Melvyn Levitsky on Ukraine. Money Control, February 24, 2023.


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