C.Basquiat
LightNews LightNews
blvckczvr.bsky.social
C.Basquiat
@blvckczvr.bsky.social
8 followers 20 following 5 posts
TN↔️DMV
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by C.Basquiat
npr.org
Hundreds of public safety grants cut, worth $500 million, funded initiatives like drug treatment and gun violence prevention programs.
Justice Department cuts to public safety grants leave police and nonprofits scrambling
Hundreds of public safety grants cut, worth $500 million, funded initiatives like drug treatment and gun violence prevention programs.
www.npr.org
May 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
tashajane.bsky.social
Please sign on to this. The treatment of Gazans on this app literally just trying to survive day to day and feed their families is appalling. Bluesky has to do better.
mommunism.bsky.social Molly Shah @mommunism.bsky.social · May 24
We were hoping that this letter to @bsky.app could first be shared by a Gazan, but we were too worried that doing so would get their account deleted so we are sharing first.

You can sign on to the letter about the unfair treatment of Gazans on Bluesky here:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...
[CLICK here if you would like your name added to this letter] النسخة العربية من هذه الرسالة متاحة أدناه. Open Letter to the Bluesky Team About Their Treatment of Palestinians in Gaza The signatories of this letter are all members of the Bluesky community, many of us have actively participated on the platform since its inception. We came to Bluesky because it was a breath of fresh air, a place that felt different from many of the other social media platforms. The lack of a central algorithm, the ability to build and use custom feeds, and the lack of penalty for link promotion contributed to an environment that allowed diverse and interesting voices to find their footing and community on Bluesky. While some of the signatories of this letter have had no issues with speaking their mind publicly on Bluesky, unfortunately that is not true for all the signatories because many are Palestinians currently living in Gaza. These Palestinians are journalists, artists, engineers, teachers, grandmas, entrepreneurs, a man who owned an ice cream shop, a pediatrician who has been featured on CBS Morning News, aid workers, architects, waiters, pharmacists, students–and perhaps most essential to the backbone of Bluesky, posters. All of these people provide unique and interesting voices to the Bluesky community. However, unlike the other signatories of this letter, these Bluesky community members have struggled to keep their accounts on the platform. Most of them have lost multiple accounts and/or have had their accounts labeled as spam. Some cannot even make an account without it immediately being removed from the platform. Gazans undertake immense efforts to simply be on Bluesky. Sometimes, they walk for miles just to have access to the internet. They scale rooftops where they are exposed to potential military attacks just for the opportunity to get better cell signals–one signatory of this letter tragically lost her brother this way. They use what little money they have to pay … Gazans have also been aggressively targeted and unfairly reported by bad actors. Many accounts openly encourage the reporting and targeting of any Palestinian. Several groups exist for the express purpose of looking for Palestinian accounts to report. We believe Bluesky owes Gazans, and the entire community who benefits from their voices, a greater duty of care especially in the context of the horrors they are enduring. We ask Bluesky to implement the following changes: Provide information on all Bluesky-affiliated websites in Arabic that explains the rules and expectations of the site in clear language. Investigate the accounts that are mass-reporting Palestinians on Bluesky. The mass reporting of Palestinians on Bluesky is a group effort to render the platform a hostile place for a community based on their ethnicity. As such, it is racism, and should be understood as such. Reports against Palestinians who have broken no community guidelines must be understood as racism, and the accounts that submit those reports should be disregarded in the future. Many Bluesky users encourage Gazans to tag or reply to them, and this is not always understood as unwelcome behavior. If an account is reported as Spam for tagging or replying to others, treat only reports from the tagged/mentioned account as legitimate, seeing as they were the only ones who received a notification. Send emails regarding disciplinary action every time it is taken. Gazans do not always get an email explaining what they did wrong, and those that do are required to parse a language they do not speak in order to understand their violation. Have these emails contain an easily visible link to information about their violations in Arabic. Respond to appeals in a timely fashion, many Gazans simply never hear back from Bluesky after they appeal a decision. In addition to removing Gazans for alleged spam behavior, Bluesky has also sometimes indicated that they are deleting an account for being a scam or … End IP bans on any account from Gaza and allow them to make new accounts where they can comply with Bluesky rules and continue to be valued members of the community. We understand that even if all these changes are made, many Gazans may still violate Bluesky rules in the future, but we hope that Bluesky will abandon their punitive approach to these violations and instead embrace an attitude of education, cooperation and community care– one that works to ensure people in Gaza can participate in a way that keeps their voices heard. We also call on the Bluesky community to help and support these accounts however they can. We want to continue to build a healthy community with better community members and this cannot be done if Gazans continue to be shunned. We can use this as an opportunity to show how to protect all vulnerable groups in the future. We hope that Bluesky does not follow the path of other social media platforms and instead forges ahead with a different philosophy. After all, that is the reason so many of its users are there. Bluesky's ethos of "No Caesars” should apply to all members of its community. [To add your name to the list of signatories, click here.]
May 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
youranoncentral.bsky.social
How it feels when Twitter (X) goes down
May 24, 2025 at 1:01 PM
blvckczvr.bsky.social
That other social media is garbage. Musk ruined it.
May 24, 2025 at 2:56 PM
blvckczvr.bsky.social
I think I’m finally going to be here full-time
March 17, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
catdabrat.bsky.social
January 4, 2025 at 11:18 PM
blvckczvr.bsky.social
pauleric70.bsky.social Paul Eric @pauleric70.bsky.social · Jan 1
The birth of a star captured by JWST 💫✨💫😲💫✨💫
January 2, 2025 at 3:31 AM
blvckczvr.bsky.social
Maryland really does have the best shooters on and off the court.
December 9, 2024 at 8:43 PM
blvckczvr.bsky.social
December is a month where angels come and go. 💜💜💜LongLiveMarco
LongLiveDire
LongLiveJEM
December 6, 2024 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
astroroyalscot.bsky.social
To anyone in Europe who is feeling super sad that our US cousins are having all the total solar eclipse fun without us: fear not, we only have ~2 years to wait. 🔭🧪

12th August 2026: Eclipse party just North of Madrid!

ℹ️ www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/...
A map of Europe with swopping colour bands over it showing the path of a total eclipse on the 12th August 2026. A dotted red line shows where observers will see 100% total eclipse, passing through Spain. From https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2026-august-12 A zoom in on a map of Spain showing the path of totality just missing Madrid. FromL https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2026-august-12
April 7, 2024 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
sciencegoddess.bsky.social
Go to Google, search for "April 8 eclipse," your screen will dim, and you'll see a virtual total solar eclipse. 🧪🌑🌞🔭
April 7, 2024 at 12:09 AM
Reposted by C.Basquiat
jongreen.bsky.social
I am *extremely* happy to share that "The Rhetorical 'What Goes with What': Political Pundits and the Discursive Superstructure of Ideology in U.S. Politics" is conditionally accepted at Public Opinion Quarterly: osf.io/vwqnf
Title page (too much text to paste here) A figure showing a) the strength of covariation in between different political concepts and b) the overall centrality of these concepts. Abstract organizing labels such as parties and ideologies, as well as race and immigration, are relatively central; discrete policy issues tend to be more peripheral.
March 20, 2024 at 11:35 AM