Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 5d

So I know I'm like a million years late on this (I only got a chance to listen to the record yesterday), but is Taylor Swift giving the Pixies a songwriting credit on "Actually Romantic," because that opening chord is absolutely just "Where Is My Mind?," right?

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 5d

So we’re going to pay for idiotic austerity in two countries and not just one by tanking our own economy partly to fund a bailout, all so a bunch of armchair libertarians can pretend their ideas about economics that would embarrass Friedrich Hayek haven’t made Argentina worse?

Deeply embarrassing.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 5d

The Trump administration confirmed that the U.S. bailed out Argentina.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had directly bought Argentine pesos in global currency markets in a bid to relieve pressure on the nation’s embattled President Javier Milei, a supporter of President Trump.

The U.S. just bailed out Argentina, Treasury Secretary confirms

The US Treasury has finalized a $20 billion financial rescue of Argentina, including a currency swap arrangement with the country's central bank.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 5d

We're spending $20B to bail out Argentina, but they cut USAID down to the bone, causing deaths around the world. The entire budget of USAID, the whole agency, was $21B last year. Shameful.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 5d

The Trump administration confirmed that the U.S. bailed out Argentina.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had directly bought Argentine pesos in global currency markets in a bid to relieve pressure on the nation’s embattled President Javier Milei, a supporter of President Trump.

The U.S. just bailed out Argentina, Treasury Secretary confirms

The US Treasury has finalized a $20 billion financial rescue of Argentina, including a currency swap arrangement with the country's central bank.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 7d

Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina
Adam Scharpf and Christian Gläßel

Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 7d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 7d

"We should be exceedingly clear:

There is no crisis in Chicago that requires the National Guard. To the extent that there is civil instability in Chicago it has been caused by Trump’s surge of federal agents into the city and their lawless assault on the citizens of Chicago."

Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 7d

NEW: "I don’t like sending out 'emergency' newsletters, but I’ve had my eye on the situation in Chicago all day....This moment has elevated the crisis so that it is no longer just a conflict between the federal government and a state, but between two states."
www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 7d

It's been a few decades since I read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I'm pretty sure there was an entire volume about DHS weighing in on Zach Bryan song lyrics.
pitchfork.com/news/united-...

United States Department of Homeland Security Responds to Anti-ICE Lyrics in Zach Bryan Song Snippet

DHS assistant secretary of public affairs Tricia McLaughlin told Bryan that he should “stick to ‘Pink Skies,’” referencing a song from his last album

pitchfork.com

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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 8d

Oh FFS. Because what overburdened peer review systems really need is more noise between the reviewers & ACs. Yeah, that's the ticket.

aaai.org/aaai-launche...

>>

Screenshot of AAAI automated review announcement reading:

1. Supplementary First-Stage Reviews: LLM-generated reviews will be included as one component of the
initial review stage, providing an additional perspective alongside traditional human expert evaluations.
2. Discussion Summary Assistance: LLMs will assist the Senior Program Committee (SPC) members by
summarizing reviewer discussions, helping to highlight key points of consensus and disagreement among
human reviewers.

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

Heard an ad were the voiceover actor was Chris Parnell, and I wonder if whoever put it together knows all millennials will take their product less seriously because we’re subliminally hearing their product being endorsed by Dr. Leo Spaceman from 30 Rock.

a man in a lab coat and tie is talking to a woman

ALT: a man in a lab coat and tie is talking to a woman

media.tenor.com

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 12d

I have recurring nightmares about that game, which for the record is not known in this home as the Liván Hernández game, but as the Eric Gregg game.

Passanthallich @passanthalbot.bsky.social · 12d

@JeffPassan tweeted
Cam Schlittler is the first rookie to strike out 10 or more in a postseason game since Oct. 12, 1997.

The pitcher that day: Livan Hernandez, who punched out 15 thanks to the worst strike zone in the history of baseball. https://t.co/me6MQUq2uZ

@JeffPassan tweeted Cam Schlittler is the first rookie to strike out 10 or more in a postseason game since Oct. 12, 1997. The pitcher that day: Livan Hernandez, who punched out 15 thanks to the worst strike zone in the history of baseball. https://t.co/me6MQUq2uZ

t.co

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 12d

They're not one of the three candidates that are most likely to actually win the election, but somebody running for mayor in New Orleans quotes Simone Weil in one of the local voter guide interviews!

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 13d

What elite academic institution is going to be the first to pull a Frankfurt School and actually just leave America over this stuff?

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 13d

Breaking News: The White House asked nine top universities to pledge support for President Trump’s agenda to help ensure access to research funding.

Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference

Demands sent to nine top schools included pledging to freeze tuition for five years and to commit to strict definitions of gender.

nyti.ms

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14d

We are now in the domain of not just illegal impoundments, but targeted illegal impoundments to punish liberal spaces. Not different from what Trump is doing to to universities.

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · 14d

OMB Director Russell Voight says that US DOT will announce that the federal government is "pausing" funding for both Gateway and the Second Avenue Subway because of "unconstitutional DEI principles" -- x.com/russvought/s...

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 13d

What elite academic institution is going to be the first to pull a Frankfurt School and actually just leave America over this stuff?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference

www.nytimes.com

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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 14d

NEW: Sen. Tammy Duckworth is calling for Pete Hegseth to resign.

"If this PR stunt proved anything, it's that the best thing Pete Hegseth can do to strengthen our military is resign in disgrace immediately."

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Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 14d

We are subsidizing AI usage.

More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 15d

Electricity now costs up to 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring

Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.

www.bloomberg.com

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 14d

“But in a rambling and sometimes incoherent speech in which he praised his own tariffs and insulted former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trump disclosed that he had told Mr. Hegseth to use American cities as ‘training grounds’ for the military.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...

Trump and Hegseth Recount Familiar Partisan Complaints to Top Military Leaders

www.nytimes.com

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 14d

This. Is. Not. Normal.

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 18d

At Rilo Kiley in Atlanta, but the Faint opened, so it’s even more like 2005 than it was in DC.

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 19d

Oh, there are literal criminal enterprises I suspect of having more developed senses of propriety and higher ethical standards than FIFA, I’m not expecting anything good from then on any front.

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 19d

For the record, Chicago SHOULD be hosting World Cup matches, but yeah, this was an . . . own goal.

I’ll see myself out.

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Laura Portwood-Stacer @lportwoodstacer.bsky.social · 19d

"I want to encourage a sense of solidarity in my relationships with my authors, and in the ways that we recognize all sorts of disruptions are happening for people right now and how we have to accommodate the work that we do to account for that."

newsletter.manuscriptworks.com/posts/alyssa...

Meet an acquiring editor at Columbia University Press

An interview with editor Alyssa M. Napier of Columbia University Press by Laura Portwood-Stacer of Manuscript Works

newsletter.manuscriptworks.com

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 19d

I mean, at least the Springer guests presumably got a free trip to Chicago out of it. What did Sunstein get out of pretending he didn’t know what Kissinger did to Cambodia?

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 19d

Best part of people walking into the abattoir of a Chotiner interview is they clearly think of themselves as erudite people, but by accepting the invitation prove they’re the 2025 version of anybody who got invited to be on the Jerry Springer Show in 1997 and thought “What could go wrong?”

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Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 19d

I would pay a probably irresponsible amount of money to do this, and that’s to people I consider my FRIENDS.

Jacob Harris @jacobharr.is · 20d

I know it's ethically a no-no, but I still think the New Yorker could make a fortune if they had a Cameo-like service where you could pay for Isaac Chotiner to call a friend saying he'd like to schedule an interview to ask them a few questions.