Author | Lightnews

Steve Casburn

@scasburn.bsky.social

750 followers 550 following 1.5K posts

Librarian. Data analyst. Music lover. Native of Benicia, California. Now in Portland, Oregon. Stops in Ohio and Texas along the way. May Bluesky change the world rather than the world change Bluesky.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · Nov 17

Just to plant my flag in the earth on this point:

If my posts to Bluesky are in any way making your life worse, then please block me. I'm begging you to go ahead. I want to be shut out of your life if I'm somehow making it worse. You deserve better.

6 2 30

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 15h

📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).

It’s also concerning. 1/

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 7d

PSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.

35 950 2.5K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Doug Aoki @nantanreikan.bsky.social · 12h

2 70 340

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Rigorous, Fred-based Reporting @thefred.bsky.social · 11h

"President Trump strikes bold, manly new path by breaking laws and constitution in ways not thought possible."

4 24

Reposted by Steve Casburn

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 11h

you might as well do good things, because even if you do bad ones to appease shitty people the right will lie about it anyway.

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 11h

A lesson for the Labour Party - even if you deported a hundred thousand migrants, or five hundred thousand, Nigel Farage would just tell people you hadn't, and they'd believe him.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 11h

Yeah this makes me annoyed not because I am a grand defender of Biden's record on the border (I am not), but there is this utterly false perception that the Biden admin did nothing. That could not be further from the truth. The Biden admin carried out over 3 million repatriations in 4 years.

1 43 230

Reposted by Steve Casburn

I Nied to drink your blood! 🧛 @nied.bsky.social · 11h

Jake Tapper you little bitch, come out here and explain why it's not a big deal that the President is talking about how taking the Montreal Cognitive Test is "very hard".

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 15h

Trump: AOC is low IQ. If you give her an IQ test, have her pass like the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. Those are very hard…

The first couple of questions are easy. A tiger, an elephant, a giraffe..

16 85 340

Reposted by Steve Casburn

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 11h

In anticipation of Nov 4’s coverage:

Adams squeaked out a 0.8 point victory in the primary and was hailed as The Future of the Dems. Nate Silver thought he had Presidential possibilities.

Mamdani won by 13 points and ~100,000 more votes, and is still treated as some strange aberration.

8 74 350

Reposted by Steve Casburn

John Collins @logicallyjc.bsky.social · 14h

Some are mad because people are on SNAP and not working.

I’m mad because people are on SNAP even though they are working.

330 2.6K 10K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 12h

Gallego: "How can I negotiate? The president is in Asia for 5 days. Johnson is basically keeping the House out until January to protect pedophiles. So who am I negotiating with right now?"

260 2.9K 9.9K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 11h

Why is this reported as some cutesy story every time it comes up, rather than the affront to the Constitution that it is? There is no context in which this is funny, quirky, or just "Trump being Trump." This is not charming patter; it's Putin territory.

14 100 460

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Ben McAdams Memorial Act. but on BlueSky @purrtah.bsky.social · 11h

You can see how differently the media covers Republicans perfectly in just this post alone

No panicked follow up on his health, no pushback on the batshit 3rd term non-sense.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 11h

President Trump said he had an MRI earlier this month, telling reporters Monday that the results had been “perfect” but declining to say why his doctors had ordered the scan. He also reiterated that he was interested in serving a third term.

Trump Says a Recent M.R.I. Scan Was ‘Perfect,’ and He’d ‘Love’ a Third Term

President Trump made the comments on the second day of his trip to Asia. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms, but Mr. Trump has suggested he might try to circumvent it.

nyti.ms

56 420 1.6K

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · 10h

I usually block an account on Bluesky when the account holder presents themselves as the epitome--the human embodiment--of a non-human thing, rather than as a person.

An account that presents itself that way is lying from the get-go, and who has time these days for yet more lies?

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 11h

This piece is terrific, and this line had me thinking about a Chuck Klosterman essay from 20+ years ago, about how early "Real World" cast members got edited into caricatures, prompting future cast members to sell themselves as caricatures.

Presaged our influencer dystopia now eating journalism.

Reposted by Steve Casburn

a pun that sound like 'Tod' but scarier @rtodkelly.bsky.social · 11h

One of the things I've learned about the path men travel to violent political extremism in the age of the internet is that while all roads almost always eventually lead to antisemitic conspiracism, all of those same roads almost always begins with misogyny.

1 7 18

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 10h

He's talking about a cognitive test for dementia.

A black-and-white scanned form titled “Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Version 7.1 Original Version.” At the top are blank fields for name, education, date of birth, sex, date, and points. The first section shows a trail-making exercise with circles labeled 1 to 5 and letters A to E connected by dashed arrows. Next to it is an outline cube to be copied, and a box titled “Draw CLOCK (Ten past eleven)” with scoring checkboxes for contour, numbers, and hands. Below is a “Naming” section illustrated with three animals: a lion, a rhinoceros, and a camel, each with an empty checkbox underneath. The “Memory” section lists five words to be recalled—FACE, VELVET, CHURCH, DAISY, RED—with spaces for two trials. An “Attention” section includes repeating digits forward and backward, tapping on the letter A in a letter sequence, and performing serial 7 subtraction starting at 100. The “Language” section has two sentences to repeat and a fluency task asking for words beginning with the letter F. The “Abstraction” section asks for similarities between pairs: train-bicycle and watch-ruler. A “Delayed Recall” section again lists the five memory words, with spaces for recall and category/multiple choice cues. The “Orientation” section has blanks for date, month, year, day, place, and city. At the bottom is copyright by Z. Nasreddine MD, scoring ranges (Normal ≥ 26/30), and an area for the administrator.

68 430 1.4K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Anil Dash @anildash.com · 11h

It’s too bad only farmers are people and not librarians or artists or healthcare workers or researchers.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 14h

NYT puts farmer pain on Page One:

@nytimes.com

120 900 4.2K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 10h

Not a hard question, except for the culture that pretends it's not the answer

1) right-wing media lies incessantly, so anyone truth-based doesn't trust it, and anyone who trusts it doesn't trust anything else

2) other media treats those lies as legitimate, for "fairness," getting trust from no one

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 11h

lol

Why Doesn’t Anyone Trust the Media?
Anatomy of a credibility crisis
by Jelani Cobb, Taylor Lorenz, Jack Shafer, Max Tani

48 710 2.5K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Materialist Gnostic @walmsley.bsky.social · 2d

Bret Devereaux makes a very good point about the way it is in the interest of stable, developed, democratic countries for other countries to be stable, developed, and democratic for pretty much this reason

someone should explain that to the leadership of western democracies

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2d

America is very upset about migrants and drugs coming from Venezuela

So America is trying to destabilize the Venezuelan government

Which would create a lot more migrants

And open up more space for drug traffickers

9 34

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Rev. Benjamin Cremer @brcremer.bsky.social · 2d

A Christianity that causes the hungry to go without food, the sick to go without healthcare, the stranger to be mistreated, and God’s creation to be ravaged, all while the greedy and cruel satisfy their every desire, is a Christianity that can no longer claim to follow Christ.

86 370 1.1K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

David Waldman @kagrox.bsky.social · 2d

I’m certainly in agreement. But don’t overlook the national security risk that comes with allowing a foreign puppet—who came to the job with a surveillance fetish and a taste for blackmail—to build from secret plans, right inside the White House compound.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 4d

After authoritarian regimes are toppled, monuments to the authoritarians are *always* removed. If America's republic survives, the ballroom should be treated no differently. www.thebulwark.com/p/we-will-te...

We Will Tear Down the Trump Palace Ballroom and Casino

Thinking like a dissident movement.

www.thebulwark.com

4 32

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · 14h

I remember him from when he was a blogger at The American Scene. He's just a mediocrity who bends with the wind.

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · 14h

Over-estimating themselves. Under-estimating the task. Yes.

I've been watching the Trump administration's two-week-long effort to impose itself on Bluesky. The QAnon remoras that came in with them seem to be doing far better at consolidating a presence, and even they're not doing well.

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 2d

Three months from now:

Why Trump Was Right to Put the New York Times Editors into a Work Camp

Joe Stieb @joestieb.bsky.social · 2d

JESUS CHRIST DUDE

110 560 2.8K

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 3d

dear US friends, when a sitting president (re)builds the seat of government, it almost always means the president has no intention of leaving at the end of term. your African friends with decades of experience

7 3.4K 12K

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · 14h

The ballroom will be run by the pros at @riversidecasino.bsky.social!

Steve Casburn @scasburn.bsky.social · 14h

In 1999, John Peel made a list of 400 recorded musical tracks from the 20th century, four from each year.

Here is track #90 (1922).

(Sixty-five years after this track was released, I had a co-worker at a fast food place who would sing its chorus at random moments.)

Al Jolson - Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo'bye) (1922)

YouTube video by CatsPjamas1

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Steve Casburn

Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social · 3d

Steve Bannon's "third term plan" is that you become so convinced that Trump will cancel and/or rig all future elections that you disengage from democracy, don't volunteer or donate or run for office, and think your vote doesn't matter so why bother. It only works if you let it work.

10 66 220