Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈

@maxdubler.com

Tapping the sign again.

@jasonc_nc:

I don't think a lot of people appreciate how much of their overall lifestyle and relative certainty is backstopped by a steady, boring stability of systems they don't understand or even realize exist.

Max Dubler:

That old saw about how "good times make weak men" is true in the sense that stable times with material abundance create reactionaries who want to destroy the systems that protect them because they're too sheltered and stupid to understand that things can get meaningfully worse.

True decadence looks like people who are three generations removed from the cultural memory of polio refusing to vaccinate their children against deadly communicable diseases because they don't like needles and don't think there will be any consequences, not queer dance parties.

December 14, 2025 at 6:36 PM

kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

@kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

One of my fav pods-the discussion about hitchhiker and 42!?! His take away is basically to build a better computer like they do in the book?!? Thank you for the amazing work you do.

If Books Could Kill @ifbookspod.bsky.social · 5d

Episode 47: Elon Musk

Walter Isaacson’s definitive biography poses the question: is it ok to be a pathetic, cruel, lying reactionary if it kind of helps you build cars?

Elon Musk

Podcast Episode · If Books Could Kill · 12/09/2025 · 1h 28m

podcasts.apple.com

December 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM

Reposted

Kelsey Atherton

@atherton.bsky.social

Every legal story now is either

Ancient Circuit Judge Delivers Crystal Clear 100 Page Rebuke To Trumpist Overreach

or

In Unsigned Shadow Docket Decision, 6-3 Majority Declares Trump Can Hunt People For Sport

October 3, 2025 at 10:26 PM

kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

@kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

There is a war on Christians but it’s not the one the media is screaming about. Clergy who speak up for the downtrodden are targeted.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 9d

Kristi Noem's war on Christian ministers and churches has become increasingly violent and vicious. As we see here, priests are specifically targeted for shooting because they are priests.

December 5, 2025 at 2:10 AM

Reposted

Benjamin Riley

@benjaminjriley.bsky.social

Last week @theverge.com published my essay exploring the limitations of large-language models. This week, that same essay is cited by a federal judge in Michigan to distinguish the process of human reasoning from what these models do. Very, very gratifying.

ali alkhatib @ali-alkhatib.com · 11d

h/t @robertfreundlaw.bsky.social

holy shit, an accurate legal critique of LLMs. LLMs don't reason because they're just stitching together plausible-looking sentences indifferent to the content

What happens when ChatGPT cites to a real case but misstates what the case stands for?

That doesn't fly for Judge Behm in Michigan.

The court says that while a litigant could make the same error based on faulty reasoning, LLMs can't, because they can't reason.

And while a litigant might get away with similar overstatements because they could, perhaps, reason their way to showing how a case's stated holding might extend to novel situations, an LLM does not reason in the way a litigant must. To put it in a slightly different way, LLMs do not perform the metacognitive processes that are necessary to comply with Rule 11.

When an LLM overstates a holding of a case, it is just piecing together a plausible-looking sentence

December 3, 2025 at 9:04 PM

Reposted

Andrew Hickey

@andrewhickey.500songs.com

The latest 500 Songs bonus is now up for paid backers! Terry Gilliam! Vampirism! Brian Eno! Emperor Haile Selassie! Pete Waterman! Linda McCartney! It's the story of Lee "Scratch" Perry "Return of Django" (and not "The Return" as I typoed in the post and so the preview says, even after fixing)

500 Songs Bonus: "The Return of Django" by The Upsetters | Andrew Hickey

Get more from Andrew Hickey on Patreon

www.patreon.com

November 29, 2025 at 12:15 PM

Reposted

Kyle Cheney

@kyledcheney.bsky.social

BREAKING: Magistrate orders DOJ to turn over grand jury materials to Comey, finding real prospect that "government misconduct" may have tainted the case.

November 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM

Reposted

It's Goo Amelia

@idiotwitchamelia.bsky.social

Megyn Kelly should be fed to a woodchipper for justifying the sexual abuse of minors, we all believe this. Suspend everybody.

daniel s. @self.agency · Nov 14

patton oswalt has been suspended from bluesky for saying that megyn kelly should be fed to a woodchipper for justifying the sexual abuse of minors

November 14, 2025 at 4:01 PM

Reposted

Thomas Long

@rayosunlong.bsky.social

4 1/2 hours later…

November 13, 2025 at 10:27 PM

Reposted

John Scalzi

@scalzi.com

I mean, who wants to stay in a country actively stripping away your rights and personhood?

Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · Nov 13

"In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups."

Record Numbers of Younger Women Want to Leave the U.S.

The percentage of younger women in the U.S. who express a desire to migrate permanently has surged in the past decade.

news.gallup.com

November 13, 2025 at 3:48 PM

Reposted

Schooley

@schooley.bsky.social

Writing about Elon Musk’s pay package without leading with this is like profiling John Wayne Gacy’s booming party clown career.

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Nov 6

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands

The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

newyorkermag.visitlink.me

November 7, 2025 at 2:44 AM

Reposted

unraveled

@unraveledpress.com

Reverend David Black has a Bible open and is preaching to the police now, inviting them to join him in standing with the persecuted inside the detention center.

"Which side do you think Jesus wanted his followers to be on?"

November 1, 2025 at 8:06 PM

kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

@kevinmurphylaw.bsky.social

Remembering friends and family and telling their stories today

Remembering friends and family and telling their stories. Collection of photos in an ofrende

November 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM

Reposted

🗽LOLGOP🗽

@thefarce.org

I've given my new Senator a lot of shit on here. But I don't think anyone with power has laid out the stakes of what we're facing as clearly as she does right here.

And if she's saying this, it's because she feels she must.

November 1, 2025 at 10:05 AM

Reposted

Dr James Alexander Cameron

@drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com

shouldnt be surprised really but still funny to see the East Wing of the White House, built 1941 is actually a reinforced concrete frame? When I first saw it last night I thought it was just the 1970s porte cochère but it seems the whole thing is concrete and rebar

View from behind trees from the adjacent Treasury building of a pair of excavators working on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House. A large amount of the roof has been removed as well as the supporting frame under it, with a mass of rebar revealed as the main frame is demolished.

View of the upper part of the structure with the thin white render removed revealing the concrete frame

October 21, 2025 at 1:07 PM

Reposted

Kat Abughazaleh

@katmabu.bsky.social

This morning, I was hit in the face by a baton.

I’m going to have a pretty gnarly bruise but we need to remember why this is happening: Trump and ICE are rounding up our neighbors, treating them as subhuman, and shipping them off to labor camps in foreign countries. It has to end.

October 17, 2025 at 8:24 PM

Reposted

Monica Martinez Morgan

@mmmtexas.bsky.social

Texas Voters starting Monday 10/20 there are 17 Constitutional Amendments on everyone’s ballot! Get out and vote 10/20 to 10/31, Election Day 11/4.

October 17, 2025 at 4:18 AM

Reposted

Rhashanna Jasmine Grant

@rhashanna.bsky.social

October 16, 2025 at 12:18 AM

Reposted

Ron Filipkowski

@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social

We got $20 billion for Argentina though.

October 15, 2025 at 4:37 PM

Reposted

Rich Raho

@richraho.bsky.social

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

October 11, 2025 at 9:10 PM

Reposted

37 Dolls For Your Popehat

@kenwhite.bsky.social

I’ve never seen anything remotely this petty charged as bank fraud.

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Oct 9

NEW: Here's the two-count indictment against NY AG Letitia James. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

INDICTMENT
October 2025 Term - at Alexandria, Virginia
THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT:
GENERAL ALLEGATIONS
At all times relevant to this Indictment:
1. Letitia A. James ("JAMES) was a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and the borrower on a
Fannie Mae-backed mortgage loan for the property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue,
Norfolk, Virginia.
2. OVM Financial (also known as Old Virginia Mortgage / AnnieMac) was a mortgage lending business located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, engaged in the business of originating and underwriting residential mortgage loans, including those backed by the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"). OVM Financial qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(10).
3. Fannie Mae was a federally chartered corporation that purchased and guaranteed mortgages,
operating as a government-sponsored enterprise under the oversight of the Federal Housing

Finance Agency ("FHFA").
4. First Savings Bank was a state-chartered, FDIC-insured financial institution (Certificate
#29961), headquartered in Jeffersonville, Indiana, which acquired mortgage loans through assignment or acquisition. First Savings Bank qualified as a "financial institution" within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 20(1).
5. On or about August 17, 2020, JAMES, as sole borrower, purchased the three (3) bedroom,
(1) bathroom property located at 3121 Peronne Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23509 (the
"Peronne Property"), for approximately $137,000, financed with a mortgage loan of approximately $109,600 (Loan #4430025978) backed by Fannie Mae.
6. The loan was originated by OVM Financial under a signed Second Home Rider, which required JAMES, as the sole borrower to occupy and use the property as her secondary residence, and prohibited its use as a timesharing or other shared ownership arrangement or agreement that requires her either to rent the property or give any other person any control over the occupancy or use of the property.
7. Despite these representations, the Peronne Property was not occupied or used by JAMES as a secondary residence and was instead used as a rental investment property, renting the property to a family of (3).
8. This misrepresentation allowed JAMES to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties, including a note rate of 3.000% (avoiding a 0.815% higher
comparable investment property rate of 3.815%, resulting in approximately $17,837 in rate savings over the life of the loan), a seller credit of approximately $3,288 (exceeding the seller credit for investment properties by approximately $1,096), for total ill-gotten gains of approximately $18,933 over the life of the loan.
9. JAMES' Universal Property application for homeowners' insurance indicated "owner-

occupied non-seasonal use," further misrepresenting the intended use of the property.
10. JAMES filed Schedule E tax forms), under penalties of perjury, treating the Perrone Property as rental real estate, reporting fair rental days, zero personal use days, thousand(s)
of dollars in rents received, and claiming deductions for expenses relating to the property, further contradicting the second home classification.
11. The loan was acquired by or assigned to First Savings Bank by March 2021, exposing it to risks associated with the misrepresented loan.
12. The acts described herein occurred within the Eastern District of Virginia.
COUNT ONE
(Bank Fraud - 18 U.S.C. § 1344)
13. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.
14. From on or about August 7, 2020, through at least January 2024, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly execute and attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud OVM Financial and First Savings Bank,
financial institutions, and to obtain moneys, funds, and credits owned by and under the custody and control of OVM Financial and First Savings Bank by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises.
15. The scheme involved falsely representing the Peronne Property as a secondary residence to obtain favorable mortgage terms, while using it as an investment property with no intended
or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344).
COUNT TWO
(False Statements to a Financial Institution - 18 U.S.C. § 1014)
16. The allegations in paragraphs 1 through 12 are re-alleged and incorporated herein.

17. From on or about July 28, 2020, through at least August 31, 2020, in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere, the Defendant, LETITIA A. JAMES, did knowingly make and cause to be made false statements and reports for the purpose of influencing the action of OVM Financial, a Fannie Mae-backed lender, upon an application for a loan, in that JAMES represented and affirmed in uniform residential loan applications and related documents that
the Peronne Property would be used as a secondary residence, when in truth and fact, as JAMES then knew, the property was intended and used as an investment property with no intended or actual personal occupancy or use by her.
(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1014).
FORFEITURE NOTICE
Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2(a) and Title 18, U.S.C. §
982(a)(2)(A), upon conviction of the offenses in Counts One and Two, the Defendant, Letitia
A. James, shall forfeit to the United States any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of such violations, including but not limited to a money judgment in the amount of $18,933.
If any of the property described above, as a result of any act or omission of the Defendant: (a) cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence; (b) has been transferred or sold to, or deposited with, a third party; (c) has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the court; (d) has been substantially diminished in value; or (e) has been commingled with other property which cannot be divided without difficulty, the United States shall be entitled to a forfeiture of substitute property pursuant to Title 21, U.S.C. § 853(b), as incorporated by Title
18 U.S.C. § 982(b)(1).
(In accordance with Title 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C) and 982(a)(1); Title 28, U.S.C. § 2461(c); and Title 21 U.S.C. § 853(p).)

October 9, 2025 at 10:11 PM

Reposted

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs

@500songspodcast.bsky.social

A reminder that A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is brought to you by the generosity of Patreon backers. If it weren’t for those, no new episodes would exist. Which would be sad.

Sign up today!

www.patreon.com/AndrewHickey

Get more from Andrew Hickey on Patreon

Creating Writing and Podcasts

www.patreon.com

October 8, 2025 at 11:09 AM

Reposted

The Tennessee Holler

@thetnholler.bsky.social

Trump’s #MassDeportation agenda just killed good-paying jobs for Tennessee. This is a company Gov. Bill Lee recruited! Are we great now, GUV?

tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/02/e...