Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Humza K

Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 5h

I had a call today with someone in OR who was talking about the need for more “agitation theater” in street protests to humiliate ICE and make people laugh.

Well done Portland chicken and Portland frog.

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5h

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.

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Minilla Jovovich 🍉 @minillajovovich.bsky.social · 1d

It's lesbian day?! Boy howdy have I got two cool ones for you!

Do you like ass-kicking butches? Femmes who get away with *anything*?

They literally fight comphet demons in the second story!?

Zeynep & Kawtar are your gals!

Minilla Jovovich 🍉 @minillajovovich.bsky.social · 9d

Zeynep ain't much for talking. Kawtar wants to be heard *at all costs*.

At the demon-haunted barrier between our world and the outer dark, they found each other.

How it started: swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/loves-red-bl...

How it's going: swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/the-dream-qu...

A line art drawing of a high femme princess leaning against a marble pillar, with a tall butch warrior in leather armor leaning over her. They gaze at each other lovingly.

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Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 3d

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

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Regime Accountant, CPA ☠️🎢 @regimecpa.bsky.social · 3d

Do you think the gestapo would do that? Just log on and tell lies?

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 3d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Phineasferatu @phineas.bsky.social · 3d

We are under siege by an army of Paul Blarts that all think they are Judge Dredds

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 5d

Jesus Christ. DHS has held this guy in the hospital handcuffed to a bed and under constant guard for over a MONTH without ANY warrant or even ANY steps taken towards putting him into the removal system!

Petitioner’s counsel has requested documentation of a judicial warrant for his arrest, any charging documents, or other authority supporting his detention. See Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 18–20. ICE has provided no response. Id. To date, ICE has not placed Petitioner in removal proceedings, charged him with violating immigration law, set bond, issued a Notice to Appear, or otherwise processed him. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 49. In Respondent’s Opposition brief, the government states “ICE intends to take further action consistent with the laws prescribed under the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) once Petitioner is released from medical care and it can conduct the examination as [prescribed] in 8 C.F.R § 287.3.” Opp. at 4. Neither Petitioner nor Respondents have provided the Court with information about Petitioner’s citizenship, whether he has violated any law or regulation, or any information that would suggest that Petitioner is a flight risk.

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 5d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 6d

@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com has been putting out some great pieces recently, but I'm going to be particularly interested in the ones drawing from Clausewitz...

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 6d

this piece has been in the works a while but honestly i could not have asked for a better foil than ezra klein's interview with ta-nehisi coates. klein longs for peacetime--but you don't get to decide when you're in a fight.

www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset

We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 7d

I lost the post, but someone was going into the methodology used and it seemed...suspect to say the least.

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sisi jiang / 姜思琪 @six6jiang.bsky.social · 7d

i just think of this quote whenever i’m forced to interact with an AI engineer who actually believes LLMs will revolutionize the world. upton sinclair you will always be famous

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

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Anna Phylaxis @quatoria.bsky.social · 7d

It's really important to understand how Bill Burr, and the others like him who attended, have demonstrated that everything they've ever said about what they believe and what they stand for was nothing but a hollow lie.

They believe in money. They believe in power. They believe in getting theirs.

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 7d

"The royals loved the show. Everyone was happy. The people that were doing the festival were thrilled." -- Bill Burr on the Riyadh Comedy Festival

Andy Carvin @acarv.in · 7d

The Saudi government murdered Jamal Khashoggi seven years ago today. His editor @karenattiah.bsky.social wrote this two years ago.

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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 7d

Washington Post dismantled the platform Jamal wrote on. Discarded the fellowship they created in his memory.

They fired me unjustly for speaking the truth.

But I’ll never stop talking about my friend, writer, and amazing human, Jamal Khashoggi.

RIP, Jamal.

open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post, and the Cost of Speaking Out

As Saudi Arabia hosts comedians and courts gamers, the silenced voice of Jamal Khashoggi still echoes.

open.substack.com

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Dr Una McIlvenna @unamcilvenna.bsky.social · 7d

My timeline is always dominated by Americans talking about politics - where is the outrage about this? Do you not know this is happening?

Dr Una McIlvenna @unamcilvenna.bsky.social · 7d

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Gaza aid flotilla: Israel intercepts vessels but one ship reported to have got through blockade – live

One boat, the Mikeno, reported to have escaped the maritime blockade and to have stopped inside Palestinian territorial waters

www.theguardian.com

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 7d

yessssss

Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 7d

Do you know if ppl's saved G+ histories would be useful to those folks?

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Quinn murphy @gamefiend.bsky.social · 7d

Here is my occasional note: if you are black TTRPG designer and can use help with anything - design advice, brainstorming, connections - please feel free to reach out and I will do what I can to help or find someone who can help.

We need more black TTRPG designers.

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 8d

I can't stop giggling at "Mr Pope"

worm @rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 8d

really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today

Pope Leo XIV
Today, more than ever, we must return to the heart, the center of feeling and emotion, the locus of freedom. Though it includes reason, the heart transcends and transforms it. Only by returning to the heart can we undergo a true ecological conversion that transforms our personal

Austin
I reject this whole heartedly. What you fail to see Mr Pope, the Bible says

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 8d

Shutdown rules aren’t neutral. They favor agencies aligned with GOP priorities, while those aligned with Democratic priorities bear the brunt of furloughs.

Furlough Rates:
EPA: 89%
Dept. of Education: 86%
Dept. of Labor: ~75%
DHS / ICE / CBP: ~0%

Bad incentives → biased outcomes.

Scatterplot of federal agencies showing furlough rates vs ideological leaning. Liberal agencies (EPA, Dept. of Education) have high furloughs; conservative ones (DOD, DHS) nearly none. Rules structurally protect GOP priorities.

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Mircalla @inplacesdeep.bsky.social · 8d

Over at the Nightwick patreon, @umlauthuth.bsky.social provides a very spooky demon bat! It's good!

www.patreon.com/posts/140179...

A bat demon that's also kind of a single wing with a bunch of little hands

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 8d

Yom Kippur is a day of reflection, of forgiveness, of restoration. This year, may we all pray for a better, kinder, more peaceful future.

Wishing all who observe across the five boroughs and the world a meaningful, easy fast. G’mar chatimah tovah.

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 8d

Seeing Raege and Boone art AND finding out that @mculexus.bsky.social is on Bluesky? Double win.

(Culexus's take on the 40k universe is one of the things that wound up getting me solidly into the setting.)

Mister Culexus @mculexus.bsky.social · 8d

When the smol psyker can't keep up.

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 8d

Shoutouts to Jazzer, t0mbking, God45 (actual forum handle, not the WoD NPC), Grey Starr and the castle residents...and especially sufirjp. Miss all y'all.

✨ Anuvia ✨ @anuvia.bsky.social · Sep 5

For some of us who’ve been online a long time; do you ever think about the friends/people you knew a long time ago that just disappeared or maybe you hadn’t spoken to in a while to find they’re nowhere to be found?

There’s so many people I catch myself wondering “hope they’re doing okay, I miss em”

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Aditya Mukerjee 🦦 🏳️‍🌈 @chimeracoder.bsky.social · 8d

This is a great piece about how Zohran Mamdani is one more sign of the growing power of Bangladeshis within New York, a city that has had a Bengali diaspora for over a century, but which has rarely recognized it as a political bloc - until now.

profhuq.bsky.social @profhuq.bsky.social · Sep 8

When Mamdani gave a shoutout to the “Bangladeshi aunty” during his primary victory speech for the Mayoral race, the clip quickly went viral among Bangladeshi Americans" "a rare moment of visibility in a city that has long overlooked them."

#nyc #diaspora

huqit.substack.com/p/bangladesh...

Bangladeshi New Yorkers: Growing Political Power in a Shifting City

No campaign in New York can win without us.

huqit.substack.com

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Valk @einherjarvalk.bsky.social · 8d

This was something that kept running through my mind when Hegseth got in front of a camera and went "The Wounded Knee Massacre is good, actually."

The message being sent is "if you kill unarmed civilians and commit atrocity in uniform, this administration will reward you and call you a hero."

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 8d

In the wake of this excellent report by the New York Times's Matthieu Aikins into a culture of lawlessness that has suffused parts of US Special Operations Command and some of its vets I was left wondering how many with such broken SOF CVs have been recruited into ICE
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/m...

They Celebrated Vigilante Justice on the Battlefield. Then They Brought It Home.

www.nytimes.com

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Humza K @humza.bsky.social · 8d

kermit the frog from the muppet show is holding his hand to his chin .

Alt: Kermit the Frog looking at the viewer, shaking back and forth, hand to his mouth

media.tenor.com

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