Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 11h

Some on BlueSky debate whether to say "Christofascists aren't true Christians" and others who say "They aren't the Christians you like, but it's a part of Christian history."

Importantly, I want to point out:

Christofascists don't think other Christians count as Christians. They're merely targets.

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 13h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 12h

I've known people who hear or read words like "everyone," "anyone," or "all," and think, "That means just a couple people like me. A handful at most."

One person legit stared at me in confusion when I suggested "the world" meant something extremely inclusive. In the end, he remained unconvinced.

Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 12h

For a real president, "our people" means "Americans."

Every day, in every way, he's telling millions of Americans that they don't count.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 18h

“.. we’re going to take care of our people,” Trump added. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of. And we’ll take care of them in a different way.”

@thehill.com
thehill.com/homenews/adm...

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 13h

Lots of 2nd A'ers who claimed kids had to die in order to ensure the government didn't turn tyrannical being very quiet lately.

Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 14h

as a kid growing up right-wing i regularly heard people express their desire for "a government so small I can drown it in the bathtub". imagine my surprise growing up to realize i was the only one who actually believed that.

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Will Kunkel @whatwilliplay.bsky.social · 22h

Oy! You there! With the face and the brain full of seasonal depression! Your brain is lying to you! You are a sparkly wonderful gift to the world and a joy to the people who love you. The lumpy lightning bacon is confused by the seasons changing. Be kind to yourself, you're worth it.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 13h

Best of luck to you and everyone on the coast. I'd worry that any storm would be worse than other years -- not because it is necessarily stronger (but that, too) but because of the post-storm chaos with everything useful getting gutted.

Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 14h

Charles I to Cromwell were always skipped over in my courses, when I was a student. When I still taught, I did my best to give them weight. Always seemed very relevant, not just for *waves around* but for understanding what those colonials were doing in Philly and their thoughts on tyrant precedents

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Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 1d

OMG! Just look at that headline! "Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border"!!!

Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 1d

“We’re operationalizing our old corridors—taking ancient trade routes our elders told us about and articulating them in a modern context,” said Solomon Cyr, spokesperson for Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation.” — Love it when people take advantage of political opportunities.

Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border

“We’re not begging for crumbs anymore. We’re demanding what’s rightly ours."

www.motherjones.com

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 4d

Questions to law enforcement agents that amount to "Are you following the law?" should not cause someone to be arrested.

Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 4d

ICE just blatantly violated the law and arrested sitting Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes while seeking to illegally arrest a patient in a hospital. Fuck these fascists.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 5d

My benchmark for "impressively fast" remains forever based on seeing "Rookie of the Year" (1993), where a 99mph fastball thrown by a 5th grader is neigh unhittable.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 5d

Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles Peleus’ son, the ruinous wrath
that brought on the Achaians woes innumerable, and hurled down into
Hades many strong souls of heroes, and gave their bodies to be a prey
to dogs and all winged fowls.
Congress has not authorized the use of military force.

Nicolas Roman Posner @nrposner.bsky.social · 5d

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Congress has not authorized the use of military force.

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 5d

Attention I ask from all the sacred people, greater and lesser offspring of Heimdall! Congress has not authorized the use of military force.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 6d

amazing watching tradcath converts discover they are protestants.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 6d

Holy SHIT they've identified an actual biomarker!!!

Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 6d

Scientists Finally Reveal Biological Basis of Long COVID Brain Fog.

Patients with brain fog may have disrupted AMPA receptor (AMPAR) expression—key molecules for memory and learning. Imaging of Long COVID patients showed elevated AMPAR density tied to more severe cognitive impairment.

Scientists Finally Reveal Biological Basis of Long COVID Brain Fog

Researchers employed a specialized brain imaging technique to identify a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for Long COVID. More than four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, scien...

scitechdaily.com

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Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · 6d

RIP Jane Goodall. There's so much to say about her career, her activism, her science. Primatology was the home of so many bigoted approaches to race, gender, and animality when she arrived and the field became more humane because of her. A truly transformative figure.

Photograph of a young Jane Goodall and chimp

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Scarry HAGerty @lrshagerty.bsky.social · 6d

Doodle Day 1: archaeological evidence suggests that women were the majority of the world's first artists. #Art #Doodle web.archive.org/web/20131008...

Pen and ink sketch of a woman squatting in front of a cave wall as she finishes painting a prehistoric horse.

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Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 7d

Just gonna keep tapping the sign*

*𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

"It is hard to conceive of the perseverance and effort needed to bring it to its present state of relative perfection. ... [Many died working on the sewers] ... No bulletins signalled these acts of bravery, more useful than any battlefield slaughter."
Hugo, Les Misérables, Part 5, Book 2, Chapter 6

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo stops talking about Jean Valjean's escape during an attempted revolution to GUSH about the Paris sewers--past, pressnt, & future--for 15 pages. He considered improving it in his day to be like curing "the disease of Paris" and it's workers civic heroes.

Ken Burnside @kenburnside.bsky.social · 7d

I'm a historian. Sewage systems have saved more lives than any medical intervention. Vaccines are second and antibiotics third.

Prior to the 1880s, the urban annual death rate was ~25%; it dropped to ~0.5% in under a generation.

Support your sewage system. Dispose of bodies responsibly.

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 7d

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

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Ken Burnside @kenburnside.bsky.social · 7d

I'm a historian. Sewage systems have saved more lives than any medical intervention. Vaccines are second and antibiotics third.

Prior to the 1880s, the urban annual death rate was ~25%; it dropped to ~0.5% in under a generation.

Support your sewage system. Dispose of bodies responsibly.

NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 7d

I’m a sewage system. I also have a great personality.

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD
@elizabethjacobs.bsky.social
I'm an epidemiologist. Sewage systems are sexy.

Dosco Jones @doscojones.bsky.social
I'm an engineer. Sewage systems are sexy.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

I don't mean to impugne the prayer, in case that was unclear. The mish-mash is purely on the WH's part.

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

It's a mish-mash of the Epistle of Jude and Revelation.

In Jude, Michael contends with Satan over the body of Moses. "May God rebuke him" in the prayer comes from here.

In Rev. 12, Michael casts Satan down from heaven, but *not* at the time of his rebellion. Implied in the future but it's Rev so ?

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 7d

COVER REVEAL AND PREORDER: The Public Scholar - A Practical Handbook.

"Perry focuses on the practical details of how to approach public scholarship. How do you pitch a piece to an editor? When should you follow or ignore the rules of the genre? And what happens once your piece is out in the world?"

The Public Scholar

A Practical Handbook

www.press.jhu.edu

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

🧵

AltSSA @altssa.altgov.info · 7d

This is one of those subtle ways systemic racism shows up y’all. It sounds innocuous right? Gotta be clean shaven in the military so if you can’t do that well you gotta go. But this isn’t innocuous. Because Black men are the largest group of military members that get what’s called a shaving profile.

AltAirForce @altairforce.altgov.info · 7d

I may or may not have already posted this but in case I didn’t and you need another example of how Kegsbreth is a flaming racist asshole, here ya go. This is absolutely disproportionately affect black male service members. Tell me about this “fighting force” you’re gonna have, Petey…

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Bailey Poletti @baileypoletti.bsky.social · 7d

Great 🧵
Read it!

Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 7d

US farmers are saying they "just need temporary help, until things get better."

Here's the thing. US farm exports- which are mostly soy- CANNOT get better.

Other countries expanded their soy industries to fill China's demand.

We've walled ourselves out of the global market, folks. This is it.

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 7d

This is where we are.

Say it plain.

He's trying to become a dictator.

Turning the military against Americans who oppose him is a pretty sure sign, folks.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 7d

I hope it's clear to everyone now that Trump really is going for it - he's trying to become a dictator. I don't know if he'll succeed, but he's working to install himself as an autocrat unaccountable to voters. And he's weaponizing the military against Americans who oppose him as part of that effort

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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 7d

You know, as bad as this is - and it's really, really bad - I'm kind of relieved that it's out in the open now, and we don't have to pretend this was headed anywhere different. The stakes are obvious and anybody choosing not to see them now is a quisling at best.

NPR @npr.org · 7d

JUST IN: President Trump has told top U.S. commanders that the military would be used against "enemy within."

Trump defends use of U.S. military against 'enemy within'

Earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the purpose of the department would exclusively be "war fighting."

n.pr

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