Even in the better case where both sides take their fingers off the triggers, the nuclear taboo has been broken, and we are in an entirely new era: two nuclear superpowers have used their nuclear weapons in a war. The proliferation consequences alone would be far-reaching, as other countries accelerate their nuclear weapons programs. The very fact that the nuclear
On February 15, Amnesty International published a report exposing how the New York Police Department has constructed a vast metropolis-spanning surveillance network heavily reliant on highly controversial facial recognition technology (FRT), which serves to “reinforce discriminatory policing against minority communities.”
Once a science fiction staple, the Orwellian technology is quickly becoming normalized, wholeheartedly embraced by police forces up and down the nation. FRT allows police to compare CCTV imagery and other sources with traditional photographic records, as well as databases of billions of headshots, some of which are crudely pulled from individuals’ social media profiles without their knowledge or consent. The NYPD is a particularly enthusiastic user – or, perhaps, abuser – of FRT, with 25,500 cameras spanning the city today.
There is also a clear racial component to FRT deployment in New York – Amnesty found that in areas where the proportion of non-white residents is higher, so too is the concentration of FRT-equipped CCTV cameras. As such, the organization argues it has supplanted traditional ‘stop-and-frisk’ operations by law enforcement.
Nelson Rockefeller was a businessman, foundation head, cabinet-level US government official, and four-term governor of New York. He was engaged throughout his life with shaping public policy in direct and indirect ways, often alongside his younger brother Laurance, with whom he worked on some of the same business, philanthropic, and governmental initiatives. One of Nelson Rockefeller’s most passionately-pursued ideas during the 1950’s and 1960’s was the necessity of fallout shelters for civil defense.
People for a long time proposed re-drawing Upstate and Downstate New York into two different states. I think there should be a national dialogue about state borders, as many do not represent community interests anymore and are inherently anti-democratic or lack any logic or reason except history.
The Northern Tier of Pennsylvania and Southern Tier of New York are communities of common interest, but they are separated by the 42nd parallel, and vastly different set of laws and representatives. The same is true with the North Country of New York and Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Or Northern New Jersey, New York City, and South-Eastern Connecticut — it’s logical that the entire New York City Metropolitan area be in one state. Likewise, should Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota be consolidated into one state?
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But that’s a federal, not a state question. Redistricting all of America into new states with be very disruptive of business and culture, which is why it’s never been attempted. But it makes sense to group communities of interest together. But it would require the creation of a whole new set of state laws, replacing ones that have been created over centuries, and would upend almost all political structures that currently exist.