Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Portland Frogs @portlandfrogs.bsky.social · 1d

Keep Portland weird!

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 21h

So, js Bessent admitting that Trump is king?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Bessent: "No Kings means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government."

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Therese 88 @therese88.bsky.social · 1d

Every Day Should Be Earth Day!!

Sunday's Peaceful Moment of Zen with this beautiful Capybara holding her adorable young pup as they are out for a swim. The Capybara is the largest rodent in the world and are native to South America...enjoy!!

💚🌎💙

Picture of a Capybara and young pup swimming underwater. Message "Everyday Should Be Earth Day!!
Sunday's Peaceful Moment of Zen with this beautiful Capybara holding her adorable young pup while out for a swim. The Capybara is the worlds largest Rodent and native to South America...enjoy!!

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Johnnie Jae @johnniejae.bsky.social · 1d

Tommy Orange, the Cheyenne and Arapaho author of There There and Wandering Stars, has been named a 2025 MacArthur Fellow, one of the highest honors in the arts.

redpopnews.com/wandering-st...

#macarhurfellowship #MacArthurFoundation #redpopnews #tommyorange

Wandering Stars Align: Tommy Orange Named A 2025 MacArthur Fellow

When the MacArthur Foundation announced its 2025 Fellows, one name carried through Native communities like a spark. Tommy Orange, the Cheyenne and Arapaho author from Oakland, was named one of this ye...

redpopnews.com

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Lara T is a museum nerd @museumlara1.bsky.social · 1d

#poetry #mpprompt

a swirl of pistachio cream
rough grit toasted bread
furry cloud of blanket
old lumpy couch hug
feet slowly warm
wet socks now gone
while the Book of the Dead
with gold leaf words
lapiz scarab shining
opens to cast dust
& ancient magic on the night

Malachy Moran @malformed-poetry.bsky.social · 5d

Today’s #poetry #prompt:

Write me a collage poem, piece something together out of disparate imagery.

#MPPrompt
I repost replies. Follow for daily prompts.

#poetrycommunity #writing #writercommunity

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Lara T is a museum nerd @museumlara1.bsky.social · 1d

#poetry #mpprompt

This table whispers to me
tales of growing up,
memories of family game nights,
& long homework struggles.
We ate together every day, with hopes, fears, & plans, loves & betrayals.
Now the scarred wood
reminds me,
burns, dents & stains,
are echoes of losses & laughter
shared.

Malachy Moran @malformed-poetry.bsky.social · 3d

Today's #poetry #prompt:

I read a poem today about the items in an apartment speaking to the owner. Write me a poem in conversation with an object you can see

#MPPrompt
I repost replies. Follow for daily prompts

(#Poem is 'en mann med egen leilighet' by Nil-Øivind Haagensen. It's in Norwegian)

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Lara T is a museum nerd @museumlara1.bsky.social · 1d

#poetry #mpprompt

Never trust the sea
she is fickle
one day, green glass shimmering sun-bright
calling you to swim & glide
the next, foam-topped grey steel peaks tearing at the ship side
don't turn your back
even her playful days have rip-teeth
dragging you to deeps
turning your bones to pearl

Malachy Moran @malformed-poetry.bsky.social · 2d

Today’s #poetry #prompt:

Never trust ______

#MPPrompt
I repost replies. Follow for daily prompts

#poetrycommunity #writing #writercommunity

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Joe Sudbay @joesudbay.bsky.social · 1d

This is real fucking talk about something horrific we all see happening everywhere

This is the energy and messaging we need rolling into 2026 and 2028, not tepid focus group tested pablum

consequences

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 1d

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 2d

“You’re so lucky! I wish I didn’t have to work!”

People act like we’re getting a permanent vacation.

The reality is we are forced to live in legislated poverty.

Barred from earning or marrying without losing our meagre benefits.

Denied autonomy.

And we’re sick & in pain.

It’s a 24/7 job.

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Eric Weinberger @ericweinberger.bsky.social · 1d

ICE sent a Massachusetts 7th grader 500 miles away without his parents or even telling them

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

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.

www.bostonglobe.com

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 1d

“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

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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 1d

Anyone come to mind?

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 2d

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from).

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

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dBCoatl @ Screw Censorship! @decibelcoatl.bsky.social · 3d

Call your reps and tell them to OPPOSE this nightmarish bill NOW!

NOT tomorrow! NOT next week!

RIGHT. NOW!

There’s still a chance to beat this to the ground, so get going!

Dieselbrain @dieselbrain.bsky.social · 3d

#SaveSpeech

KOSA has amassed more cosponsors recently, jumping from 42 to 60 total

You need to call your reps and DEMAND that they oppose this legislation ASAP

The link below contains more info about KOSA and an easy way to contact your reps
5calls.org/issue/kids-o...

Please call DAILY

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Freedom of the Press Foundation @freedom.press · 2d

Censoring the press isn't enough for the Trump administration. Now they're even trying to censor court records that discuss the press's reporting.

This is unheard of.

Opposition Filed Against DOJ Effort to Strike Context from Complaint About Qatar’s ‘Gifted’ Jet to Trump Administration - American Oversight

As the DOJ refuses the prompt release of a memo clearing the Qatari jet ‘gift,’ Freedom of the Press Foundation, represented by American Oversight, argues against erasing this context and the agency’s continued delays.

americanoversight.org

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Ify Nwadiwe @ifycomedy.com · 2d

I think we really should stop using antifa and just fully say anti-fascist and get them saying they are against anti fascism. Using antifa is giving them some distance and I genuinely think some of their base don’t even know that’s what it stands for.

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allie10.bsky.social @allie10.bsky.social · 3d

Good! 👏👏👏🫶🗽🇺🇸⚖️🇺🇦🤦🏻‍♀️🫂💙🩷🍀

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M Meerkat @kackbro.bsky.social · 3d

This Is The Real Reason For The
Chump/RepubliKKKan ShutDown !

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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 2d

A very good thread on masking, especially in these hellish times when the systems meant to protect us are being spitefully destroyed by evil little power hungry gremlins. Mask up! Protect yourselves and your community! 😷😷😷

bats 🦇✨ @itsbabs.bsky.social · 2d

if you are rightfully concerned if not frightened about the continued dissolution of U.S. healthcare infrastructure, would you take an action every day to resist it?

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Russell D. @russell529.bsky.social · 2d

Will all be peacefully protesting Saturday, October 18 on
No Kings Day.

We’re all doing it because we support our Democracy, our Constitution and our Rule of Law.

And we’re doing it for free‼️

💙🌊🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🔥👍🏽🔥👍🔥👊🏽🔥☝️✌🏽🇺🇸‼️

Protest poster: Nobody paid us to be here! We all hate you for free!

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

an incontestable fact of the second trump administration is it is actively trying to sicken and kill as many americans as it can

Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Jack Hopkins-The Original @therealjackhopkins.bsky.social · 2d

This isn’t about politics; it’s about ownership of the scoreboard. When the scoreboard changes owners, the game changes. The sale no one voted on...and why you should care.🔥👇
www.jackhopkinsnow.com

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 3d

Our nation's federal employees are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet.

They make sure we have clean water.

They protect us from financial fraud.

They provide healthcare to our communities.

They make our government actually work for people.

Do not forget this.

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Jamie Schler @lifesafeast.bsky.social · 2d

Life is either boredom or whipped cream. - Voltaire

The most fun thing about researching the history of whipped cream is discovering that for centuries before it became a topping, whipped cream WAS the dessert!

jamieschler.substack.com/p/creme-foue...

Crème Fouettée, Crème à la Chantilly

“It’s only whipped cream.”

jamieschler.substack.com

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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 2d

I got an advance copy of @johnchu.bsky.social's debut THE SUBTLE ART OF FOLDING SPACE and it's so good. Toxic family dynamics, humor, fabulous language, and quantum mechanics.

Like, literally. Quantum *mechanics.*

It's a book about the universe gnomes. And a terrible pun.

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