Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Kate Harding

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 3h

AI has lost the dunce vote. It’s over

Nate Silver
@NateSilver538 • 5h
•.°
I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

94 630 5K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 8h

Locally, in recent weeks especially, our communities have been very well served IMO by @blockclubchi.bsky.social @thetriibe.com @southsideweekly.bsky.social @unraveledpress.com @chicago.suntimes.com @wbez.org They are on the ground doing good work on the daily, give them support/$$ if you are able 💚

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 5d

once again encouraging you all to support independent, worker owned, billionaire free News media when and how you are able

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 5d

Installing someone like Bari Weiss as the head of a major news organization isn’t even about profit or longevity. In effect it’s about continuing to shrink the traditional news industry smaller and smaller and weaker and weaker and less and less journalism based until it ceases to exist

1 19 54

Kate Harding @kateharding.bsky.social · 2h

Whose orders are they following here? And what were the orders, exactly?

Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 3h

Illinois State Troopers if I'm not mistaken @govpritzker.illinois.gov

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 3h

Troopers just violently attacked protesters, tackled several, several arrests, shoving activists and press with batons.

1

Reposted by Kate Harding

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 7h

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

240 1.5K 7.6K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 23h

Yes, because NYT is a fascist institution

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 23h

Douthat is laundering hard core white Christian supremacy into the mainstream, with the NYT's blessing.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 1d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

6 110 500

Reposted by Kate Harding

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 12h

They're talking about killing leftist activists. They're talking about murdering people organizing in defense of immigrant communities, doing mutual aid work, and protesting their violence. They are talking about murdering people like me and my friends. We must do more than acknowledge it's fascism.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 3d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

24 980 2K

Kate Harding @kateharding.bsky.social · 11h

My white American mom absolutely reeked of narcotics through the '80s, I guess.

Chris Lombardi @chrisblue.bsky.social · 1d

Indian immigrant fights deportation after police mistake perfume labeled 'Opium' for the narcotic www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-a...

Indian immigrant fights deportation after police mistake perfume labeled 'Opium' for the narcotic

Kapil Raghu, 28, was arrested in May after an officer in central Arkansas spotted the rollerball perfume bottle in his car during a routine traffic stop.

www.nbcnews.com

1 3

Reposted by Kate Harding

Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 1d

Among other updates, ICE/DHS were told -- again, this time by a judge -- to remove the fence around ICE Broadview. It was still up when I left at noon. And as this story reports, today IL Sens Duckworth & Durbin were denied entry, as other local officials have been for weeks.

Block Club Chicago @blockclubchi.bsky.social · 1d

Protesters gathered Friday outside the Broadview ICE facility, as they have for weeks in resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. blockclubchi.co/48oEVt5

2 110 330

Reposted by Kate Harding

Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social · 1d

My god why won’t anyone ask how that’s possible

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Dr Oz: "Drugs for lung diseases are discounted massively. The president highlighted 650%. Significant discounts ... "

79 240 1.1K

Kate Harding @kateharding.bsky.social · 1d

War-torn Chicago

Marc Fischer @marc-fischer.bsky.social · 1d

What a scene! Everybody in the neighborhood is trying to dig into this squirrel’s plastic bag of snacks.

1 2

Reposted by Kate Harding

Caleb Crain @calebcrain.bsky.social · 1d

At least talking green frogs are on our side again.

1 17

Reposted by Kate Harding

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

Oh, does it benefit the US to provide aid to foreign countries? That would have been good to know back in January and February.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“Stabilizing Argentina is ‘America First’.”

🇦🇷 🇺🇸

110 850 3.8K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 2d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

96 3.2K 11K

Kate Harding @kateharding.bsky.social · 2d

I can't stop watching.

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 5d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

1 8

Reposted by Kate Harding

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 2d

"I see no credible evidence there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois," Perry adds.

1 57 220

Reposted by Kate Harding

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 2d

There has been a lot of ICE activity in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago today. There has also been a lot of ICE watch and rapid response activity. We love our community, and we are showing up for each other.

20 430 1.6K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston @portersqbooks.bsky.social · 3d

One easy way to support your local bookstore WITHOUT SPENDING ANY $$$ is to nominate their booksellers for a James Patterson holiday bonus www.bookweb.org/james-patter...

James Patterson Holiday Bookstore Bonus Program 2025

www.bookweb.org

1 17 22

Reposted by Kate Harding

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 2d

Doug Wilson co-authored a (plagiarized) book that defended the institution of slavery *as it was practiced in the antebellum South*. This is how Douthat introduced the subject while providing him with the NYT's platform:

Douthat: So, just to take a related example, one of the controversies of many that you’ve been mixed up in has to do with slavery, and whether slavery is absolutely forbidden by the Bible, absolutely forbidden to Christians, or whether it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: And you think it is critiqued, but allowed for.

Wilson: Right.

Douthat: On this, on a straightforward reading of the New Testament, I would agree with you. I would say, pretty clearly, there is a pretty clear path from the message of the Bible to the abolition of slavery. But there is no moment in the New Testament when Jesus insists on the manumission of slaves.

Wilson: Right.

55 140 550

Reposted by Kate Harding

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 3d

he's going to come after you either way, so you might as well act with integrity

38 1.1K 5.2K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 3d

no they're LITERALLY exaggerating this issue. there is absolutely no data backing up their claims. ffs just say that!!

NBC news: The discussions come as Trump has sought to deploy National Guard troops in several major cities — including Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland, Oregon — saying they’re needed to reduce crime and protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from protesters. Critics have said that the Trump administration is exaggerating issues in those cities.

100 580 2.9K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Ashley C. Ford @smashfizzle.bsky.social · 3d

Listen. ONE of the reasons I rock with Dolly (Capricorn Gang) is because she’s always proven to me that integrity may cause you pain, but it will never be the reason you suffer. Which is not to say that suffering won’t come, but it’ll never be because you abandoned yourself. That’ll keep you going.

PJR23 @stixx23.bsky.social · 3d

I hear she has supported school bands as well: www.thepinknews.com/2022/10/10/d...

Dolly Parton quietly funded Black school bands: 'The woman is a national treasure'

Dolly Parton paid for band uniforms and instruments for kids at majority Black high schools with zero publicity, a writer has revealed.

www.thepinknews.com

11 220 1K

Kate Harding @kateharding.bsky.social · 4d

The thing that makes eugenics bad is literally that it's about real people. This isn't even a hard one.

Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 4d

A someone who has written extensively about the eugenic roots that permeates those who claim to be building so-called artificial general intelligence, I'm here to tell you to please NOT compare criticism against corporations claiming to build a machine god, with eugenics. The audacity.

if you're writing a sentence that sounds like eugenics but you go "oh that's fine to say because it's not a real person" (whatever that means) you may want to consider what made you okay with saying that.

3 32

Reposted by Kate Harding

James Hell Brooks @kleinman.bsky.social · 4d

Cool, man. Hope you like Zooms where nothing happens.

Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 4d

Citing the “martyrdom” of Charlie Kirk, Texas AG Ken Paxton says his office is pursuing sweeping undercover investigations into “leftist” groups. “To those demented souls who seek to kill, steal, and destroy our country, know this: you cannot hide, you cannot escape, and justice is coming."

"Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. Corrupted ideologies like transgenderism and Antifa are a cancer on our culture and have unleashed their deranged and drugged-up foot soldiers on the American people," said Attorney General Paxton. "The martyrdom of Charlie Kirk marks a turning point in America.
There can be no compromise with those who want us dead. To that end, I have directed my office to continue its efforts to identify, investigate, and infiltrate these leftist terror cells. To those demented souls who seek to kill, steal, and destroy our country, know this: you cannot hide, you cannot escape, and justice is coming."
The radical Left has incubated an environment where political violence is not only justified but celebrated and praised. In July, nearly two dozen armed leftists connected to various Texas-based Antifa-like groups ambushed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") facility in Alvarado, Texas. On September 10, 2025, a leftist assassin connected to the radical transgender movement murdered Charlie Kirk because of Kirk's bold support for truth, love of country, and unshakable faith. Two weeks later, another deranged leftist opened fire at an ICE facility in Dallas.
President Donald Trump has officially designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and instructed his administration to "utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa." Building on President Trump's bold actions, Attorney General Paxton has instructed his office to initiate sweeping investigations into radical leftist organizations engaged in or providing support to those performing political violence.

13 21 300

Reposted by Kate Harding

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 4d

He was always going to do this. Chicagoans have not rioted, so the administration just lied and said we have. We have not attacked ICE agents, so they just lied and said we did. There was no chaos here, so they created chaotic scenes by attacking people and filmed that shit.

2 280 1.2K

Reposted by Kate Harding

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 4d

Y'all who keep lecturing protesters to "not give them an excuse" need to pause for a minute. Imagine yourself telling a DV victim, "Be sure not to mouth off or make any mistakes so he won't hit you. Don't give him an excuse! It's what he wants!" That's what you fools sound like.

14 1.3K 4.9K