Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 11h

Hey guys. It's your boy J Edgar here. I have something new that I'm really excited to share with you—it's called COINTELPRO and I really think you're gonna love it

Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 11h

Obviously not the main point here, but it's interesting how this is framed as content rather than policy.

"BREAKING" is typically what journalists or influencers say when they have a big story -- not what government officials say when they launch "undercover" operations

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 12h

Latest: I have a feature story charting the brief but insane history of Florida’s Everglades detention camp reason.com/2025/10/07/a...

Alligator Alcatraz was built on secrecy, expansive emergency powers, and an unprecedented state power grab

Shadowy deals and unilateral powers created Florida's notorious immigration detention camp.

reason.com

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 17h

you can find your biological name under your armpit next to your VIN and recommended tire pressure

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 17h

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 17h

The end of the Lovecraft story was also a crude metaphor for miscegenation, because he was super racist, but that would kind of bring the joke down.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 18h

Spoiler: Grover discovers that HE is the monster at the end of the book, which I believe is also an HP Lovecraft story.

A children’s book titled “The Monster at the End of this Book, starring lovable, furry old Grover.”

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Ben Conarck @conarck.bsky.social · 21h

NEW: A few weeks ago, @muckrock.com
shared the Brady list for Baltimore County. Scanning it, I noticed the police chief was on there. I then spent weeks trying to figure out why. But no one — not the state's attorney, nor the police department — is explaining it. www.thebanner.com/community/cr...

Baltimore County’s police chief is on a list of cops with credibility concerns

Robert McCullough, the Baltimore County Police Department chief, appears on a list of law enforcement officers whose potential credibility concerns require disclosure to defense attorneys if they’re c...

www.thebanner.com

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 1d

3/4ths of the Federation HR department's caseload is "somebody did something weird on the holodeck again."

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 1d

Love to go to work at my job at the antifa headquarters, where I hold the position of Senior Bouncehouse Attendant

Decoding Fox News @decodingfoxnews.bsky.social · 2d

Last week Jesse Watters spoke to man named Eric who claimed he was formerly a member of antifa. Two years ago Watters interviewed Ramon "Mundo" Mendoza, a former Mexican Mafia member. Some folks thought the men looked similar. This is a side by side comparison. 🤷‍♀️

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 1d

I've got the cover story on the latest issue of @reason.com. It's about how culture war legislation on everything from library books to lab-grown meat is feeding the police state reason.com/2025/10/06/c...

Texas and Florida have become national models for using the police state to wage culture war battles

From library books to abortion, gender, and even food, the culture war is now feeding the police state.

reason.com

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 4d

Happy Orktober to all who celebrate. Here’s one of my ork warbikers In progress. Still a lot of detail and touch-up to do but love these guys’ vibes.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 4d

This is the stupid little game where white nationalists adopt something innocuous or vague, get the media to acknowledge it, and then say, "wow you're being ridiculous," while winking to all their creep friends.

Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 4d

Shout out to @eyesontheright.bsky.social for spotting this white supremacist meme on the DHS Twitter last night.

I followed up and DHS responded with more memes. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dhs-inc...

DHS Includes ‘White Supremacist’ Meme in Video Promoting Deportation Blitz

A video posted on X by the Department of Homeland Security included...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 4d

Doubt the FBI will give me these records, but it would be real funny if they did.

o Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any records regarding the design and purchase of challenge coins for Director Kash Patel. For the purposes of this request, this includes but is not limited to communications on both official and private devices concerning government business regarding challenge coins, including emails, chat logs, and text messages; invoices, receipts, and any other billing records for challenge coins made for the director; and design images and concepts of these challenge coins.

For assistance in locating these records, reporter Ken Dilanian posted a picture on Oct. 3 of a challenge coin issued by the director's office: https://x.com/DilanianMSNBC/status/1974109240374484999

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 4d

"And it should have spiders for pupils and guns for teeth!"

Motherfucker, go out and solve a crime.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 4d

The Whitest Kids You Know sketch where the guy asks for a tattoo of Bowser surfing while playing a double-necked Les Paul with a weed leaf and cross behind him.

Sam @samd.bsky.social · 4d

reddit occupied government

Ken Dilanian
@DilanianMSNBC
Follow
The challenge coins being handed out by @FBIDirectorKash. Seems someone put a lot of thought into this.

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 4d

Crowd chanting, "lick them boots! Lick them boots!" at ISP.

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle.bsky.social · 5d

It got lost in other news, but last week President Trump reinstated the death penalty in D.C., where it hasn't been used in 70 years. For @51st.news I did a dive into what exactly Trump's policy change means, who might be impacted, and what residents can do to push back: 51st.news/trump-reinst...

Capital punishment: What it means that Trump reinstated the death penalty in D.C.

D.C. did away with the death penalty 44 years ago, but the president is bringing it back.

51st.news

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 5d

Brother, you broke into the wrong gotdamn rec room.

Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social · 5d

MMA fighter takes down intruder during South #Florida home break-in: "I don't have guns ... just God and my hands." www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/m... via @cbsnews.com.web.brid.gy

MMA fighter takes down intruder during South Florida home break-in: "I don't have guns ... just God and my hands"

A trained MMA fighter in Broward used his skills and faith to subdue an alleged intruder who broke into his family's home, leaving the suspect injured and later jailed.

www.cbsnews.com

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 5d

You can't raid and arrest everyone in an entire apartment building, or even legitimately get a warrant to do that, any more than you could for a whole neighborhood. That would be a general warrant. This is the most specific core the-British-did-it-to-us thing the Fourth Amendment is written to ban.

The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 7d

NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.

thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...

Feds detain dozens of immigrants in 'massive' South Shore apartment building raid in Chicago • The TRiiBE

An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in the course of the overnight raid in the predominately-Black neighborhood.

thetriibe.com

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 5d

Don't have full confirmation on this yet, but hearing that Guevara was sent to El Salvador this morning, which is just fucking shameful. He was here with legal permission and this was 100% punishment for his journalism about protests.

Shawn Musgrave @shawnmusgrave.bsky.social · 5d

Like Mahmoud Khalil's case, Mario Guevara's shows how courts will let the Trump administration use facially legal, bureaucratic mechanisms in unconstitutional ways. In a concurrence, Judge Kidd stresses that the First Amendment protects Guevara. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 5d

Still in awe of this statement that DHS gave me in response to a lawsuit by a U.S. citizen who was arrested twice by ICE officers, quite obviously because he was a Latino construction worker reason.com/2025/10/01/i...

Screenshot of article text: In a statement provided to Reason, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called Venegas' lawsuit "baseless" and said it was "race-baiting opportunism" that contributed to an alleged 1,000 percent increase in assaults on ICE officers.

"Allegations that DHS law enforcement officers engage in 'racial profiling' are disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin said. "What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity. Under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses 'reasonable suspicion' to make arrests. There are no 'indiscriminate stops' being made. The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question. DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice."

The DHS Office of Public Affairs did not respond to a follow-up questions of why, then, Venegas was targeted if he was a U.S. citizen and what reasonable suspicion officers had to detain him twice, including after he presented a valid ID.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 5d

I recently tried using ChatGPT to build a FOIA request calendar and Python script to automate sending requests. It was pretty good, but it had a weird tendency to forget things during revisions or change the structure or strategies it was using. It's like a coding savant with a mild concussion.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 5d

In Schedule I you can buy it in gas stations.

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Reposted by CJ Ciaramella

Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 6d

Portland enacts emergency powers of nudity to check federal overreach.

Emergency World Naked Bike Ride planned in Portland, with blurred photi of naked bicyclists.

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 6d

All the toughest guys I‘ve met regularly say “I am hardcore.”

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