Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Simon McGarr

Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 20h

I see they’re taking the genAI, ‘You’ve-committed-too-many-crimes-to-be-punished-properly’ approach to protecting the environment.

ProPublica @propublica.org · 21h

NEW: Nevada could’ve fined Elon Musk’s Boring Co. more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

Elon Musk’s Boring Co. Accused of Nearly 800 Environmental Violations on Las Vegas Project

Nevada could’ve fined the company more than $3 million, but regulators are seeking a reduced penalty of $242,800, citing an “extraordinary number of violations.”

www.propublica.org

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14h

US lawyer John Yoo wrote a series of memos for the Bush administration in order to create a legal cover for torture.

He suffered no negative consequences. He later was made Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Rob from Chicago (Sleeper Service) @robfromchicago.com · 1d

Portland right now.

Kermit the Frog sitting in his swamp and paying his banjo, singing:

Fuck you I won't do what you tell me Fuck you I won't do what you tell me Fuck you I won't do what you tell me

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Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 13h

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

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Dermot Casey @dermotcasey.bsky.social · 16h

We need to stop the small number of people objecting to infrastructure AND
We need not to annoy the small number of people objecting to saving the planet is an interesting set of beliefs to hold at the same time

Joe Noonan @joenoonan.bsky.social · 1d

“I don’t think we can mitigate for climate change.”

- Mícheál Martin, Taoiseach.

www.independent.ie/business/tec...

Taoiseach says some climate projects will not be fulfilled because they risk polarising society

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rowed back on climate change commitments, saying Ireland may not be able fulfil all current initiatives due to the polarising effect it could have on society.

www.independent.ie

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 10h

They retired, never prosecuted and never having faced official censure for their part in designing a torture programme.

One of them even published a book to explain how he was right.

Again, a failure to visit consequences on malign actors leads to more extreme acts by later malign actors.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 10h

The psychologists who designed the actual torture programme which was given legal cover by the John Woo torture memos were also given cover by their ethics body, the APA whose rules were “approved by a panel carefully selected by APA officials, the majority of whom had close ties to DOD.”

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Shablo Pleye @shablopligh.bsky.social · 11h

John Yoo wrote that it was legally permissible to crush a boys testicles in front of his father to get the man to talk. abovethelaw.com/2019/09/john...

He advised that pain akin to organ failure isn’t torture. www.thefreelibrary.com/The+torture+...

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social gave him a job.

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Stephen West @stephenwest.bsky.social · 12h

Counterpoint:

You absolutely do not have to hand it to enslavers

Wilson: Now, one of the things I want to do is say: I’m really glad that slavery’s gone, and good riddance. And I want to say that the Southern slave owner, who read the books of Ephesians and Colossians and 1 Timothy and treated his slaves decently, remembering that he had a master in heaven who he studiously tried to obey — what Paul said slave owners were supposed to do — I would say he was not an orc, and he is part of the reason why slavery ended. In other words, I would say he’s a good guy.

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Jean-Charles Geslot @jcgeslot.bsky.social · 12h

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Uncle Duke @uncleduke1969.bsky.social · 1d

salt-n-pepa: *nod approvingly*

Several signs on a door instructing to "Push to lock" without turning the lock.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 13h

I mean, the photos I have all backed up.

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Reposted by Simon McGarr

Alan @whataskeets.bsky.social · 15h

4 panel meme image in the style of Padme Anakin meme.

Jim Gavin says "I paid your fecking 3 grand back"
Niall Donald asks "with interest?
Jim Gavin glares
Niall Donald asks "With interest right?"

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lex luddy (ichiban appreciator) @lexluddy.xyz · 13h

No interest and no inflation accounted for with €3,300 owed from 2009.

Average classy landlord.

The Journal @thejournal.ie · 15h

Jim Gavin has paid back the €3,300 he owed to a former tenant of the apartment he owned - money which has ended Gavin's presidential campaign.

The tenant received the money owed since 2009 this afternoon. http://jrnl.ie/6841325

Jim Gavin has repaid his former tenant the €3,300 that ended his presidential campaign

The money was received this afternoon, The Journal has confirmed.

jrnl.ie

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 13h

Update: Bari Weiss’s first pitch at CBS — a roundtable with Antony Blinken, Mike Pompeo, and Hillary Clinton that ended up being a virtual interview with Clinton & Condoleezza Rice — has about 150 viewers on YouTube.

Added with the 24/7 CBS stream, it’s just over 1200 viewers.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 13h

-How should we encourage people to vote in this European election

-Giant Chickens.

-Rob, you can’t just propose Giant Chickens for everything.

flic.kr/p/6px8V8

3D Chickens of Doom

As feared by Libertas.

flic.kr

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 13h

Empire State of Mind

flic.kr/p/2bbHM5Y

Empire State building in mist

flic.kr

Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 13h

I wonder if I should go back to using Flickr to post photos?

flic.kr/p/2hheQQH

Depressed Yeti

A pencil drawing of a rather down at mouth cryptid.

flic.kr

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Jonathan Healey @jonathanhealey.bsky.social · 22h

It was two OUP books.

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Privacy International @privacyinternational.org · 14h

🚨 BREAKING: Microsoft illegally tracked students, data watchdog finds.

The Austrian DPA has ruled that Microsoft 365 Education used tracking cookies without consent — illegally collecting student data - following a complaint supported by @noyb.eu

noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-...

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Reposted by Simon McGarr

DB Maggi @dbmaggi.bsky.social · 14h

Ms Rachel schools Obama on why he really should stop using dehumanizing language.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14h

The best reporting on the obscenity of the Bush/Yoo torture policy, which I am proposing as the originating moment for the current administration, is by David Cole in the New York Review of Books.

www.nybooks.com/online/2012/...

No Accountability for Torture | David Cole

Sometimes I think being American means never having to say you’re sorry. On Wednesday, May 2, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a federal appeals court in San Francisco, unanimously dismi...

www.nybooks.com

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14h

Only by changing the calculus of risk/reward can malign people’s behaviour be moderated.

There must be the credible threat of a reckoning.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14h

When that administration’s actions similarly faced no consequences for their actions, Trump II administration appointees knew they could do literally anything and look forward to nothing but rewards for the rest of their life.

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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14h

Because of the extremity of this refusal to ever have executive appointees face consequences for their actions, Trump I appointees could (correctly) assume zero would be done, even up to an armed insurrection to reverse an election result.

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