Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

@thejeffbyrnes.com

1.1K followers 470 following 3.9K posts

🎸 🎻 bassist 👨🏻‍💻 SRE manager @ athenahealth 🏗️ Steering Committee member & co-founder of Somerville YIMBY 🎮 video gamer 👔 snappy dresser 📚 avid reader 🗺️ Somerville, MA, USA

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · Nov 12

Co-founder & steering committee member of @somervilleyimby.org, member of Abundant Housing MA, trying to foster housing abundance to bring down prices & make our cities & towns more welcoming! #MApoli #VilleMA #SomerPoli #YIMBY

1 14

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Dana Houle @danahoule.bsky.social · 11h

Just about everyone vulnerable has been told to stay inside. There are literally hundreds of trained emergency response people on the streets of the 1.8 sq mile neighborhood. ICE is driving through alleys looking for anyone who’s brown

This is Fugitive Slave Act stuff + foreign occupation

Dana Houle @danahoule.bsky.social · 1d

Rogers Park

Northernmost lakefront n’hood in Chicago

Home of Loyola U (RIP Sister Jean)

One of few n’hoods w no racial majority. One of the most densely populated places in America, & one of the most racially/ethnicly/religiously/linguistically diverse

An amazing community

And under attack

5 110 220

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 6h

It doesn’t. The federal gov’t has no part in elections, they are entirely run & administered by states at the county or locality level.

There literally aren’t enough federal troops to stop even a small set of elections.

1 9

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 6h

As history shows us, you don’t need to be a sociopath to do evil acts like this. Any of us is capable of it.

It’s one reason why equal treatment under the law, and consequences for evil acts, is so important.

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 6h

While I think ICE agents should face criminal charges for their kidnapping of immigrants, they should face long, and perhaps lifetime, prison sentences for anything like this involving kids. An ICE agent willing to do this is not someone who should be out among society even after Dems retake power.

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 8h

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

31
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

17 88 310

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 6h

Yes, but it also includes a robot driving the car, which so far has a checkered record.

Also: Tesla’s robotic operation has been programmed to speed so… doesn’t always include obeying the law.

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 6h

“Slithery” Jesus what a fucking gutter bigot

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Ryan Broderick @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social · 24d

In the 2010s, this country's elites were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else and could finally read what we all think about them and it caused them so much psychic damage that they decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 24d

If this is what it took for you to be pushed into fascism you were probably already there

This predates the social media wars of the late 2010s: One Trump appointee told me that a radicalizing experience was being booted out of the Gawker comments section, way back in the day. But as progressive movements swept through social media, others were tossed off Twitter and Facebook for stepping over a variety of lines, from allegations of harassment to claims of election misinformation. Pandemic era public health rules and fevered enforcement cost others their accounts.

65 3K 9.2K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

vought's view is that the president is an elected dictator and lo and behold he is seizing outright the power of the purse

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 1d

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

73 1.2K 4.4K

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 10h

Looking at history, it seems like this level of ideological warfare is more typical than the late 20th C. setup we had in the USA.

I also think social media & current journalism has circled back to what yellow journalism was doing in late 19th & early 20th C. “Remember the Maine” & all that.

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

TrainsBikesBus 🚂 🚲 🚌 @trainsbikesbus.bsky.social · 11h

Newbury Street and downtown crossing absolutely should be 💯 pedestrian and the north end main Street should be buy a street tram should be installed linking the city up more

The Boston LOL 💜 🚲 ⚡ @thebostonlol.bsky.social · 12h

If you can pedestrianize Broadway in NYC, Boston can make Newbury St permanently car free #CarLiteBoston

Qagggy! @qagggy.bsky.social · 1d

Some of the urbanism happening in New York City…is stunning.

1 4 11

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · Jul 19

The actual public service chatgpt provides is in demonstrating the effect of never hearing the word no on the human psyche, it has made billionaire brain pudding a condition accessible to everyone irrespective of net worth

25 670 2.7K

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 10h

It’s going to be Very Bad™

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Justin Elliott @justinelliott.bsky.social · 12h

Here is our full story that Vance is dismissing, with primary source documents showing Trump cabinet members with multiple primary-residence mortgages

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

130 1.6K 4K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

talia jane ❤️‍🔥 @taliajane.bsky.social · 11h

Nobody wants it as a story but I have multiple NYPD sources who voted for Mamdani, are eager for his win in November, and who say their colleagues quietly feel the same.

They like that he wants NYPD to focus on crime, not quality of life enforcement.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

24 320 1.4K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

kat, ghost of helenruthsghost @chaoskat.bsky.social · 1d

Salvation Army seen feeding ICE today. For anyone who doesn't already know about their bigotry, here is more, No need to give them your money this Christmas, or ever.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 1d

It’s dinner time for the police. Appears to be pizza from a Salvation Army van.

Broadview’s “free speech” curfew starts soon, at 6pm.

6 4.4K 7.8K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

evelyn maguire @evelyn.fyi · 1d

I am resigning from the @salesforce.com DX Advisory Board, effective immediately.

I joined when asked because I was naive enough to think that I could throw my clout and technical prowess around to offer a dissenting voice.

I was wrong.

The link in the email: www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

I am tendering my resignation for the Salesforce DX Advisory Board, effective immediately.

At this time, I believe my efforts in the ecosystem are better spent working directly with admins, developers, and aspirants.

Thank you for this opportunity.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/11/slap-in-the-face-marc-benioffs-trump-turn-stuns-san-francisco-00604421

Evelyn Maguire
--------------

Salesforce Developer and Architect

linkedin.com/in/evelynmaguire

github.com/evelyn-fyi

evelyn.fyi

3 28 120

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

1.4K 3.4K 16K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 16h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

65 1.3K 3K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 16h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

270 3.1K 13K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 17h

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

320 5.3K 10K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Paid Leave for All @paidleaveforall.bsky.social · 15h

“Inaction on common sense bipartisan things like paid leave goes hand in hand with the gutting and the undermining of the little social safety net that we have.” @dhuckelbridge.bsky.social www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Republicans Aren't Just Gutting Health Care. They're Taking Your Sick Leave, Too

Republican-controlled legislatures have rolled back state level sick leave policies, leaving gaps in access amid the party's attacks on health care.

www.rollingstone.com

7 8

Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️ @thejeffbyrnes.com · 14h

There’s quite a lot of women & POC in Congress, seems like those elections work pretty well.

We’ll have elections, they’re run by the states, there’s thousands b/c each state has its counties & localities run them, & there’s not enough Feds to squash even a tiny number.

We’re gonna fix this!

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 16h

The deportation order is based on Vedam’s conviction for murder—a crime he did not actually commit and for which he’s now been wholly exonerated. He entered the US at 9 months old and was a legal permanent resident before his conviction. We are so, so, so far from the light of justice.

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 1d

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

65 1.5K 4.2K

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Dr. Tara L. Conley @taralconley.com · 15h

for active military or if you know someone in the military:

“The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may not be legal.”
www.nimj.org/top.html#/

Orders Project

The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may....

www.nimj.org

1 330 590

Reposted by Jeff Byrnes 🚰 🏙️

Joe Patrice @joepatrice.bsky.social · 15h

Amazing

Tweet: @vexwerewolf
Right-wingers literally straight-up admitting "it's harder to discredit the left because the left is almost always telling the truth"
Scott Jennings @Lum 21h um, yes, that's really a problem
Show this thread
9 paints • 12 hrs
The problem with left-leaning media is they're intrinsically more strict with their propaganda to only using verifiable sources so it's really hard to poke holes in their ideology and arguments in comparison to a lot of low quality rightwing content.
That makes attacking their points with fact checkers not very effective unless the fact checkers use misinformation tactics as well.
In essence people on the right have to work harder and more creatively to push their agendas as statistics and studies frustratingly arent usually on our side.

86 1.2K 3.5K