Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

There’s a right wing protest happening about 200 yards away. It’s a bit more sparsely attended.

61 140 1.2K

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 1d

can i get an lol

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

There’s a right wing protest happening about 200 yards away. It’s a bit more sparsely attended.

170 400 3.9K

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 20h

They heard the GOP keep trying to sell off public lands and came down to support the protests

Joanna Grossman @joannagrossman.bsky.social · 1d

Four bull elk took time away from mating to join the No Kings protest in Estes Park, Colorado. That’s how serious this is.

74 410

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Joanna Grossman @joannagrossman.bsky.social · 1d

Four bull elk took time away from mating to join the No Kings protest in Estes Park, Colorado. That’s how serious this is.

16 200 860

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 18h

Perfect storm of this and us crazy teachers thinking that grownups still read to and/or had conversations with their children when not at school.

It’s not our responsibility to raise your children.

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 20h

I’m going to get so much hate for this but I can deal. Ms. Burns, I love your work so much. My daily job has me working with children and families directly impacted by this regime. Some of us have to show up in other ways so we can get back to work on Monday without arrest and/or injury.

1 4

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 21h

Same for my dad. She played him on the way out of this world. I managed to get in touch with her, an absolute angel on this earth.

2

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Oregonizers @oregonizers.org · 1d

SMOOSHES 🥰

Tula-Tu celebrated her first Squishing of the Squash at Oregon Zoo https://loom.ly/7tIQqUE

Oregon Zoo elephants squish sizable squashes for a delighted audience

Elephants at the Oregon Zoo squished giant squashes, except for Tula-Tu, who had her own small pumpkin to kick around.

www.oregonlive.com

1 2

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 1d

“I’m a good boy.”

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 1d

“He’s such a good boy,” the U.S. President, caught on a hot-mic, told Indonesia's President. “I’ll have Eric call.”

CNN asked about this instance of POTUS using his office to advance family business interests. Eric Trump, 41, said: “I’m glad he acknowledges that I’m a good boy.” trib.al/gpStfyD

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Jesse Duquette @jesseduquette.bsky.social · 2d

Cmon everybody they’re just kooky 30-year-old kids, give em a break

15 140 450

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks for saying this. It’s a little sus when people are trying to tell others how/ how not to protest. Weird hill to die on. Lots of different ways to do the work.

1 30

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 5d

Lmao I almost tagged you in a reply to this post before I realized you posted it

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 6d

He has…sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people…

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

—Declaration of Independence, 1776

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 9d

ICE agents to US citizen: Turn around or you're getting the dog.

5 370 980

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 7d

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from).

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

12 450 1.2K

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 6d

Awwww it’s so sweet how he feeds his brain worm tho

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 6d

Omg memory unlocked. I loved this movie and bought the soundtrack on cassette and listened to it over and over.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 6d

watching the warren beatty DICK TRACEY movie and it is insane? legitimately wild to me that it was a hit?

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 7d

Amen, brother

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 10d

Please I need this episode!

3

Eliza Bennet (she/her) @cedarsalmon.bsky.social · 12d

Listen the cheddar & bacon spray cheese used to slap on those chicken in a biscuit crackers

1

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 13d

If you are in the National Guard or ICE and have any information or tips you’d like to share, text me on Signal premthakker.35

Your anonymity will be protected

4 210 630

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 13d

It was a beautiful Sunday in Portland. Farmer’s markets, the Portland Marathon, peaceful protests, and some views of Mt. Hood. This city is vibrant, peaceful, and resilient. We do not need a federal occupation, and we sure as hell don’t want one.

100 1.1K 3.5K

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 17d

I wrote this piece about 7th anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

On the costs of speaking the truth in today's world.

And how Jamal's memory still stalks Saudi Arabia--- and the Washington Post.

open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post, and the Cost of Speaking Out

As Saudi Arabia hosts comedians and courts gamers, the silenced voice of Jamal Khashoggi still echoes.

open.substack.com

24 500 1.4K

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Kara Swisher @karaswisher.bsky.social · 18d

Fat Man and Little Boy bombed.

680 2.7K 13K

Reposted by Eliza Bennet (she/her)

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18d

Elizabeth Warren: "If fighting to reduce the cost of healthcare and avoid a coming catastrophe is not worth fighting for, then I don't know what is."

280 4.2K 18K