Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 18h

"1200 land-thieves rolling on MDMA" yikes

Reposted by Indiscreet Function

Barry Deutsch @barrydeutsch.bsky.social · 19h

Danielle Sassoon is full of shit. There is no speech more censored on campus than pro-Palestinian speech. Pro-Palestinian speech is canceled by police crackdowns, by speakers being canceled after politicians pressure the universities, and - yes - by citing (real or fake) safety concerns.

Students who object to policies of the Trump administration or oppose Israel’s war in Gaza or who advocate abortion rights rarely have to worry that their campus speakers will be disrupted by protesters or generate security concerns related to the backlash of a student mob. Security concerns, real or fabricated, arise when a speaker promises to buck campus orthodoxy.

A collage of headlines about pro-Palestinian speakers being canceled due to safety concerns.

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 20h

But Biden's record is utterly, utterly indefensible on this.

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 20h

The January 2025 ceasefire also wasn't accompanied by a guarantee from Trump that the war will end--the better point re Trump is that he could have and should have done this in early 2025 instead of greenlighting Israel breaking the ceasefire

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 20h

I think this is misleading. The November 2023 ceasefire was a temporary ceasefire to exchange Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages. The January 2025 ceasefire began nominally under Biden but reporting made clear that it was driven by Trump

Jonathan M. Katz @katz.theracket.news · 20h

There were at least two ceasefires under Biden! In which more than five times as many living Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians! Has everyone forgotten this?

Coffee Indiana @coffeeindiana.bsky.social · 20h

Also, ceasefires have happened under prior Presidents! The day he gets Palestine their own country he can be told he's the most special boy deserving of a shiny prize.

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Reposted by Indiscreet Function

Abby Chava Stein @abbystein.bsky.social · 20h

Statement from @rabbis4ceasefire.bsky.social:

We Recommit to Freedom for All
21 Tishrei 5786 / October 13,2025

The Talmud teaches: “One who sees their friend after twelve months says, Blessed are You… Who revives the dead.”

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Reposted by Indiscreet Function

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 22h

“I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They beat us while we were naked day and night.

Until our last day, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.

We couldn’t even sleep. They told me they killed my children.”

- released Palestinian prisoner

Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Seed has given a harrowing account of life inside an Israeli prison after his release as part of the ceasefire deal.

“I went hungry for the past two years. I swear to God, they didn’t feed us. They kept us naked. They beat us while we were naked day and night. We were tortured,” Abu Seed said.

“Until our last day in Israeli prison, they cut us and hit us and abused us. We endured every kind of torture, emotional and physical.

“We couldn’t even sleep. They threatened us with our children. They told me they killed my children. They told us that Gaza was destroyed. I arrived here and found that everything was gone. It looked like the end of the world. Everything is different.”

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

It takes this article four paragraphs before saying it is ADF.

Jane Bradley @bradleyjane.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

www.nytimes.com

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

It's totally correct for the non-far-right Israeli politicians to hug Trump and Trump's ceasefire proposal, it gives them leverage against Netanyahu sabotaging it, but I don't have to like it (I do not like it)

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Poor guy--would love to go but just needs to be home for yom tov. We've all been there

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

But I won't forget that it could have and should have happened in November 2023

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Hostages are free, hundreds of arbitrarily detained Palestinian prisoners are also to be freed, this evil murderous war looks likelier than ever to actually be over

הושיעה את־עמך וברך את־נחלתך ורעם ונשאם עד־העולם

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I always go to synagogue on Hoshana Rabba because it's my father's yahrzeit but this one is going to be special.

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

ברוך מתיר אסורים

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

So to me it is ethnic supremacist rather than racial supremacist, parallel to say Serb ethnonationalism more closely than to the racial ideology of Jim Crow or South African apartheid

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I think that distinguishes religious domination (which usually involves conversion efforts) but not ethnic. The distinction isn't clean but I think of "ethnic" as tying to an older notion of "people group with shared ancestry/culture" and "racial" as about the more modern continent-wide groupings

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

This is a pedantic question that isn't relevant to your main point here: what in your view makes it "racial" as opposed to "ethnic" or even "ethnoreligious" (obviously any of this being a defense to the apartheid charge is laughable)

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

cc @lawsomepup.bsky.social

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

- no intermediaries
- thinking Pol Pot will eventually make it (which I do basically think) does not entail thinking he has already made it

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

There definitely should be tighter rules about gifts and outside income but the basic problem with the Supreme Court is just that it has a partisan Republican supermajority

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

It's appropriate for them to be cautious about them taking strong public positions on issues that could come before them, but that's a narrower rule and I wonder sometimes if even it makes sense (justices obviously often vote based on prior commitments, public or not)

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think it would be a good thing if justices stopped doing public commentary outside their opinions:
- it's good to know more about how the justices think (though you can't always take the commentary at face value)
- it's actually bad for justices to use the US Reports as soap boxes!

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Also like. You can get Ashkenazi food in Israel. The diaspora was not negated

Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Yes most vegan restaurants that are certified get relatively lenient certifications because most of the customers don't care and it's cheap for vegan restaurants

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Indiscreet Function @homotopic.bsky.social · 1d

Name?

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