Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Benjamin McKean

AAUP @aaup.org · 20h

NO LOYALTY OATHS IN HIGHER ED!

Trump's attacks on our universities are an attempt to consolidate power. This loyalty oath directly undermines our right to academic freedom & goes against every democratic principle our country should uphold.

Please click below, sign, & share.

#DefendHigherEd

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts

The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

actionnetwork.org

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill @haydonmp.bsky.social · 1h

Add it to the tally.

Seems like we’re getting up to 20+ grand jury no true bills just from what I’ve seen. Absolutely remarkable.

Seth Stern @sethstern.bsky.social · 9h

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said, Megan Crepeau and @benjaminpenn.bsky.social report

news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Two Chicago-Area ICE Protesters

A federal grand jury declined to indict two people charged with assaulting law enforcement agents outside a suburban Chicago ICE facility, an attorney for one of the defendants said.

news.bloomberglaw.com

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 1h

I joined a flotilla to deliver aid to Gaza. After Israeli forces seized our ship, I spent five days inside al-Naqab prison, witnessing the cruelty of Israel’s detention regime.

I Spent Five Days in Israel’s Desert Prison

I joined a flotilla to deliver aid to Gaza. After Israeli forces seized our ship, I spent five days inside al-Naqab prison, witnessing the cruelty of Israel’s detention regime.

jacobin.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 57m

“OSU’s Indigenous student population has consistently declined over the past 15 years. In 2011, Ohio State had 169 American Indian/Alaska Native students. Of the more than 67,000 students enrolled for the 2025-2026 school year, only 46 are American Indian/Alaska Native.”

NBC4 Columbus @nbc4i.com · 1h

Ohio State University has banned certain statements that acknowledge lands historically occupied by Native Americans. No other university appears to have interpreted S.B. 1 the same way. https://nbc4i.co/46HguWn?utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky_

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 59m

some local news from Central Ohio’s finest USA Today franchise

The Columbus Dispatch @dispatch.com · 1h

Domino's is updating its logo with bolder colors and font – extra 'm's in its name – plus a new jingle created with music star Shaboozey.

Domino's Pizza updates its logo's look, colors and gets jingle from Shaboozey

Domino's is updating its logo with bolder colors and font – extra 'm's in its name – plus a new jingle created with music star Shaboozey.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 8h

Columbus City Schools may have to stop bussing high school students entirely because Ohio law requires public school districts to prioritize bussing for charter and private school students - and the state is already fining Columbus more than $10 million/year for not complying enough

Honesty for Ohio Education @honesty4ohioed.bsky.social · 12h

Columbus City Schools Board of Education has voted to remove a requirement that the district provide busing for high schoolers as a potential cost-saving move amid district financial challenges.
www.dispatch.com/story/news/e...

Columbus Schools board votes to remove requirement to bus high schoolers

Columbus City Schools voted to remove a requirement that the district provide busing for high schoolers as a potential cost-saving move.

www.dispatch.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1h

I see the rest of Bluesky still finds this as outrageous as I do

Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · Sep 6

Was talking to someone from another state yesterday who couldn’t believe it but yes, Ohio law not only requires public school buses to transport kids to private schools, it actually *prioritizes* public bussing for private school students over public school students. Total insanity.

Honesty for Ohio Education @honesty4ohioed.bsky.social · Sep 6

Thousands of Ohio students left without a school bus ride as private school transport expands
by Julie Carr Smyth
apnews.com/article/scho...

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 8h

Columbus City Schools may have to stop bussing high school students entirely because Ohio law requires public school districts to prioritize bussing for charter and private school students - and the state is already fining Columbus more than $10 million/year for not complying enough

Honesty for Ohio Education @honesty4ohioed.bsky.social · 12h

Columbus City Schools Board of Education has voted to remove a requirement that the district provide busing for high schoolers as a potential cost-saving move amid district financial challenges.
www.dispatch.com/story/news/e...

Columbus Schools board votes to remove requirement to bus high schoolers

Columbus City Schools voted to remove a requirement that the district provide busing for high schoolers as a potential cost-saving move.

www.dispatch.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 11h

"Many said they had come to Fort Jackson because they saw no other choice. 'I was tired of being homeless,' a 22-year-old trainee, who had grown up on a South Dakota Indian reservation, said. A 34-year-old from Ivory Coast graduated from an online college that...left him $90,000 in debt."

Patrick Hruby @patrickhruby.bsky.social · 11h

This story isn’t really about the program, and what it is about is deeply grim

Robert Farley @drfarls.bsky.social · 12h

This Program Rescued Army Recruiting www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/u...

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Ben Leland @benlelandoh.bsky.social · 14h

Early voting for the 2025 General Election started today. Vote Jesse Vogel for Columbus City Council.

Early vote center is at 1700 Morse Rd, and is generally* open from M-F 8am-5pm for the next few weeks, w/ expanded hours closer to election day. Info: vote.franklincountyohio.gov/voters/absen...

Selfie of me with an "I ohIo voted" sticker

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 14h

I know these people mean well but I would rather be tear-gassed by the National Guard than watch them perform a full set

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 17h

Shoutout to the Boomers, really showing everybody else up in 2025

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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 16h

this is literally stuff King Charles did, like not only did the American colonists have a revolution to not have this happen, but they did so in the wake of the English revolution, which was about not having stuff like this happen

George Pearkes @peark.es · 17h

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Kevin Reuning @reuning.bsky.social · 19h

So are we going to be in a place where states can ban gender affirming care but cannot ban conversion therapy?

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Mel Buer @melbuer.bsky.social · 20h

Mark Bray is a brilliant scholar and by all accounts a caring and wonderful educator, and is now moving to Europe because the fascists doxed him and his family

Feels pretty huge that he’s forced to do this—the harassment was bad in ‘16 but I don’t think he’s ever felt compelled to leave the country

Rutgers professor moving to Europe after threats over antifa accusations

Mark Bray says threats intensified after a Turning Point USA petition accused him of promoting political violence

www.theguardian.com

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 19h

welcome to the resistance, Kennedy School of Government

The Independent @the-independent.com · 20h

Anti-woke crusader Pete Hegseth praised DEI and working with Democrats while at Harvard, report says

Pete Hegseth praised DEI and working with Democrats while at Harvard, report says

www.independent.co.uk

Reposted by Benjamin McKean

utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 20h

The VP of the united states was open and forthcoming when he said the GOP’s plan for housing and the affordability crisis was to simply steal from deported migrants. He obviously assumed nobody would care if this also included black and brown Americans in the crosshairs.

utopia deferred @utopia-defer.red · 20h

there it is

The building was purchased by Wisconsin-based investor Trinity Flood in January 2020, according to Cook County records. On October 1, the day after the raid, a judge reviewed an emergency motion from Wells Fargo seeking to appoint Matthew Tarshis of Frontline Real Estate Partners as the
property's receiver. Flood purchased three multifamily properties in South Shore in 2020. The neighborhood, which had the highest number of eviction filings in Chicago from 2015-2019 according to the Law Center for Better Housing, has seen a rise in outside real estate investors since the 2017 announcement of the Obama Presidential Center's construction in the
neighboring Jackson Park.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

I always appreciate ending with some drive-by anti-Zappa invective

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

👇🎯🧵

I'm tired of so many in higher ed feeling like we can only defend higher ed by first granting the premise of every right wing attack on higher ed.

The trust trends don't correlate with tuition/deb trends but do with the GOP's collapse into far right authoritarianism & ongoing media Discourse.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

All the evils and failures of Bush’s Global War on Terror combined with Reagan’s War on Drugs - marvelous

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

Just as it was impossible to fast for Yom Kippur and not think of the famine inflicted on Gaza

Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 1d

Sukkot hits differently when almost all of Gaza is dwelling in temporary booths if they have any shelter at all, and have been for months.

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Reposted by Benjamin McKean

Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social · 1d

Immediately after writing this she gave $100,000 in unmarked bills to someone representing the Federal Bureau of Wallet Inspection

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

This is very bad, obviously, for all the reasons detailed in the thread, but the fact that they keep giving these goons multiple jobs underlines how few of them there are

Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 1d

Giving themselves completely made up titles to avoid Senate confirmation in a legislative body controlled by their own party.

Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 1d

Alarming news this morning that Social Security head Frank Bisignano has been named “CEO” of IRS, a move that raises 3 major concerns:

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

Links to all the new-ish rules restricting when and where freedom of expression can be exercised without OSU arresting you or bringing in snipers

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

When an email starts out like this, there’s no way it’s going to be good

Email screenshot
Freedom of Expression Reminders
OS
Ohio State Department of Public Safety
To You
3:54 PM
•••
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

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Andrew J Douglas @ajdouglas.bsky.social · 1d

Good piece.

What I just can’t shake these days is the specter of “end times fascism.” The thought that certain oligarchs foresee only crisis with no viable fix. That their abandonment of the future, so stupid by our standards, has a certain rationality for those who can provision some kind of exit.

n+1 @nplusonemag.com · 1d

It’s hard to identify anything functional about Trumpian stupidity, which is less a form of organizational inertia than a slash-and-burn assault on the very things—universities, public health, market data—that help make the world intelligible. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...

Stupidology | William Davies

The challenge posed by this political crisis is how to take the stupidity seriously without reducing it to a wholly mental or psychiatric, let alone genetic, phenomenon. Stupidity can be understood as...

www.nplusonemag.com

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