Author | Lightnews

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

@blonderipley.bsky.social

740 followers 700 following 690 posts

Professor, author, lover of words. Feminist, cat lady, liberal hippie Christian. Old school SFF nerd. Studying beauty, appearance and cosplay in the Americas, advocating for immigrants. Bilingüe. She/her/ella

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 1d

CACKLING!!!!

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 4d

#Solidarity and #MutualAid is what will get us through, friends. Big shout out to #Purdue and the Boilermakers!

Gabrielle Hecht has no more spoons @gabriellehecht.bsky.social · 4d

Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!

Sara Whitmer
• • •
1h • 8
I'm sure many of you have heard by now that earlier this week, IU k*lled the print edition of its student paper, the IDS. The issue that was supposed to print this week contained criticism of the Whitten regime and IUs further slide into scist control, and they couldn't allow that to happen during Homecoming, when all the rich alumni are in town.
Enter Purdue! The Purdue student paper, The Exponent, owns its own presses. Yesterday, in an act of tremendous solidarity with their biggest rival school, they printed the forbidden issue of the IDS. They then drove it to Bloomington overnight and stocked all of the IDS boxes on campus, just in time for Homecoming.
Solidarity is what makes us stronger, and solidarity will be what ultimately allows us to triumph, if we can ever truly get it together. I hope everyone has a fun, safe day if they're going out today, and I hope we can think about what acts of solidarity we can begin taking to really make this movement MOVE - beyond a permitted expression of upset into more active resistance.
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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 4d

#NoKings
My 85 year old father and 26 year old daughter

Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 4d

all these people protesting today in groups of a few dozen on the main streets of small towns in deep red Trump country - where they will absolutely take shit from their neighbors about it at church tomorrow or at work on Monday or next time they go to the grocery store - are braver than the Marines

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 4d

Wait- they're not?

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 10d

#asshat

It's not Harrison Butkers fault he missed that kick, there was a woman in the stands making her own decisions and that distracted him

Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 15d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

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Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Amy @lolennui.bsky.social · 15d

George Orwell’s Animal Crossing

Someone in a frog costume facing down a line of police in riot gear

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Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 18d

UPDATED: The third-country removal tracker now has entries for Guatemala and Honduras.

If you have any information on migrants who have been removed from the US to the custody of a country not their own, please contact me on Signal at gbrockell.44.

hardghistory.ghost.io/tracking-all...

Tracking All of Trump’s Third-Country Removals (That We Know Of)

Bookmark this post, it will be updated.

hardghistory.ghost.io

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 18d

Appearing without context has me wondering if this is a sex note or football observation

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 20d

Jorts, you look quite pleased with the quality of your scream meows

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 20d

I'll be filing today. #AcademicSky, you should check and see if your books are listed. One of mine and @thefoxyhag.bsky.social is.

John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 20d

Some brief thoughts on the Anthropic settlement, and why I think most authors should claim their share of the settlement if they can, inadequate though I think it is:

whatever.scalzi.com/2025/10/02/a...

Authors, Time to Get That (Anthropic) Bag

To begin, for those of you who do not follow such things with intense interest, a little context about the “AI” company Anthropic being sued for stealing authors’ works and reachi…

whatever.scalzi.com

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 21d

Me feeling a bit jealous of people getting a peaceful death about now probably isn't healthy, is it.

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 21d

RIP a true earth goddess.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 21d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

poorly drawn cats @poorlycatdraw.bsky.social · 23d

it’s time 🧛

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Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 22d

OK I finally had time to sit down and watch Hegseth pretend to be George C Scott pretending to be Patton

Cutting through the bullshit: here's what he wants to change (and my analysis as a veteran):

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 22d

Who's your favorite Jedi? Wrong answers only

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 22d

I'm actually the lady General saying "WTF" with my face to the guy beside me.

A bunch of generals. One with his head in his hands. Two looking at each other in disbelief

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 23d

I got this fundraising text from the democrats today. They are 1. Vastly underestimating how pissed I am at uselessness of the Democratic Party and 2. Vastly OVERestimating how much I like icky Alec Baldwin. #NO

A fundraising text with a photo of Baldwin thinking he looks cook

Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 25d

As an adult learner and teacher of adult learners- can confirm all of this. #languages

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 25d

The biggest obstacle to learning a foreign language as an adult is accepting how stupid you will feel, in public, with other people. If you can move through that you can do anything

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 26d

Anyway, learning another language is good for you because you die a thousand deaths of embarrassment and then you come out more humble and even more aware of your various human failings

Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

Dan Lamothe @danlamothe.bsky.social · 27d

WAPO EXCLUSIVE: Pete Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals, sowing confusion and alarm

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals

The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · 27d

So are we worried about this? Is it just play acting- or are we starting WWIII? #news #Hegseth

Hegseth brings in hundreds of generals and admirals for rare urgent meeting per the Washington post

Reposted by Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD

The Volatile Mermaid @ohnoshetwitnt.bsky.social · 29d

Something I think we’re not talking about enough with all this autism bullshit is how, no matter what, it’s always blamed on the pregnant mother.

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Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols PhD @blonderipley.bsky.social · Sep 22

I hope I am not too white to say. WORD.

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