Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 12h

If you are going to a protest where you think you might get arrested (and certainly do this if you intend deliberate civil disobedience) make a plan for this stuff in advance. It might just be writing some phone numbers on your arm or hand

1 6

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 12h

It is also super duper common for the cops to confiscate your phone when they arrest you because they want to dump it for evidence. If this happens you probably won't get it back for months (if you get it back at all)

1 8

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 12h

Fortunately it's not super common, but I definitely get clients who tell me they can't post bond because they can't call their families without getting the number from their phone, which they can't access while incarcerated

CJ 🏳️‍🌈🤘 @nemoblue.bsky.social · 14h

not that I'm trying to put anyone on blast here, but an employee of mine at my last job caught a DUI last year. he found out the hard way what all young people need to know: if you don't have any phone numbers memorized, you literally have no way to get in touch with ANYONE while you're in jail.

CJ 🏳️‍🌈🤘 @nemoblue.bsky.social · 14h

if you are ever arrested or on your way to the ICU or operating room, you are going to need to have someone's phone number memorized if you want someone to know and/or need emergency help!

3 23 86

Reposted by Don Zeko

Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 15h

How W. E. B. Du Bois responded to government policing of "anti-American" sentiment during the 1910s:

"I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, 'We are seeking to have the Constitution of the United States thoroughly and completely enforced.' ”

Federal agents invaded even the offices of The Crisis and the National Association for the advancement of colored people and asked searching questions: " just what, after all, were our objects and activities?” I took great satisfaction in being able to sit back in my chair and answer blandly, “We are seeking to have the constitution of the United states thoroughly and completely enforced.” It took some ingenuity, even for Southerners, to make treason out of that.

18 1.1K 3.4K

Reposted by Don Zeko

Jonathan Bernstein @jonathanbernstein.bsky.social · 14h

Whatever one thinks of Dem tactics, the core of the issue was that Republicans - including those who voted to convict Trump and others who condemned him but claimed he couldn't be impeached after leaving office - did *zilch* to follow up their votes with action.

1 14 66

Reposted by Don Zeko

Zeddy @zeddary.bsky.social · 17h

I have identified the cops always telling conservative tabloid reporters that they'll quit if the election doesn't go their way

Detective Patrick Mahon...useless cop on loan to the task force from Property Crimes. THE WIRE S1

Detective Augustus "Augie" Polk. Drunk useless detective on loan to the task force from Property Crimes. THE WIRE S1.

3 8 110

Reposted by Don Zeko

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 18h

one thing that has been obvious for a while is this aspect of the authoritarian internationale: they recognize that their allies abroad are not *countries* but *political movements* within foreign countries.

time we liberals woke up and recognized this--because it's the truth.

Rigorous, Fred-based Reporting @thefred.bsky.social · 22h

Or maybe, just maybe, what was obvious in 2024 was correct: Netanyahu fully backed Trump and would not deal with Biden because Trump would give him a free hand to escalate the starvation, bombing, and do full ethnic cleansing. Which he then did, until Netanyahu embarrassed him by bombing Qatar.

20 320 1.3K

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 18h

I have no idea what he means by this but it would be hilarious if Trump blew up Israel's strategic ambiguity policy about their nuclear program

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19h

Trump on Iran: "If we didn't hit them on the nuclear, I don't think we would've been able to have this incredible deal."

1 3

Reposted by Don Zeko

zoot car @bookhouse.bsky.social · 20h

Resetting the "years since Republican party coordinates with foreign country to manufacture crisis for incumbent Democrat" sign to zero, for the fourth (?!) time

1 40 280

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 21h

You can understand the minds of politicians by looking at their behavior, not by listening to the things they say about themselves to justify that behavior. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.

6

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 21h

If your spouse keeps telling you that they only have eyes for you but then you catch them cheating six times, you're not going to take it at face value when they keep telling you that. If John Roberts says he's an Originalist and you're a Supreme Court reporter, on the other hand....

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 22h

Originalism has coherence as an abstract legal theory.

In practice in the Roberts court, it means BS to get to a policy outcome, distorting and ignoring the text and contemporary explanations as needed.

So I’ll believe “conservative lawyer makes strong originalist argument” matters when I see it.

Originalist ‘Bombshell’ Complicates Case on Trump’s Power to Fire Officials

www.nytimes.com

1 3 15

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 23h

It is entirely possible that this all comes down to what happens when a bunch of Texas NG guys or US Marines get ordered to open fire on a crowd. We want that crowd to be full of people that they don't want to shoot.

WhatSaraSaid @whatsarasaid.bsky.social · 1d

protests against this government should include white Boomer grandmothers who meet for pilates class, get a pitcher of mimosas & walk together to the public space

we need people in the street who think everyone can talk their way out of a speeding ticket, they're key to winning

1 5 11

Reposted by Don Zeko

🎃scarecrowcialism👻 @swolecialism.bsky.social · 1d

Seeing dudes try to step to the menswear guy makes me understand better the mentality of the regular Street Punks who keep hassling Kiryu in Act 3 of every Yakuza game when hes got all the abilities unlocked

9 79 620

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

The only way I can explain it is if you can't distinguish the movies from reality and therefore think there's a list of designated Bad Guys who are only at large because the cops can't win a firefight with them.

1 2

Reposted by Don Zeko

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

federal agents stealing children and sending them south. where have i heard about that before?

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 1d

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.

240 5.1K 14K

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

I think the evidence of dementia is a lot stronger than the evidence of imminent death.

1 4

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

My bottom line is just that we don't know and probably won't know until it happens.

3 6

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

Right. He might well be dying, but he can be quite unhealthy and in rapid cognitive decline without actually dying on a timescale that will matter for the purposes we all care about.

1 10

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

I really hope you're right

1 12

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

I mean if we're being pedantic then we're all dying. We don't all know it, though

1 11

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

I haven't done any research on the efficacy of eye spots or camouflage just yet.

1 12

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

You should also try changing your stance to appear bigger and hanging your food in bags high enough off the ground that they can't reach.

1 2 47

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

(with a lie, of course)

1 10

Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 1d

She won't explain her decisions from the bench, but she will explain her refusal to explain

1 27

Reposted by Don Zeko

Missing The Point @missingthept.bsky.social · 2d

“Can you explain this gap in your resume?”

Me thinking quickly on my feet to explain the period when I worked for ICE: “I was selling drugs… ,uh, to children.”

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 2d

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

27 350 2.3K