Amber
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dr-fun-sponge.bsky.social
Amber
@dr-fun-sponge.bsky.social
Author and political science professor focusing on law, policy, and research methods. Check out my podcasts: Birthzillas and The Civic Flame! https://linktr.ee/ambervayo
I was still processing the mass violence in Rhode Island when I heard about the antiemetic murders in Australia. Now this.
#robreiner
www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...
Rob Reiner, Legendary Director and Actor, and Wife Found Dead
Rob Reiner, the director-actor who starred in All in the Family and directed This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, and The Princess Bride, died at age 78.
www.rollingstone.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:03 AM
The relentless violence that has captured lives around the world continues.
Weird to go to bed reading about the Brown shooting. Waking up to news about the Bondi Beach shooting and to be heading to bed reading that Rob Reiner and his wife were apparently stabbed to death.

I hope everyone affected finds some kind of peace.

JFC
December 15, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted by Amber
Rob Reiner, the legendary director and actor who rose to prominence in 'All in the Family' and went on to direct classics 'This Is Spinal Tap,' 'Stand by Me,' and 'The Princess Bride,' was found dead in his home alongside his wife.

Story: rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...
December 15, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Reposted by Amber
Australia, like other countries, has seen a rise in antisemitic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza. n.pr/4pF3Vlz
Deadly attack on Bondi Beach follows rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia
Australia, like other countries, has seen a rise in antisemitic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.
n.pr
December 15, 2025 at 3:45 AM
The reason to go after those who risk their lives to expose human rights violations is to dissuade people from exposing your own human rights violations.

#humanrights #genocide #ice
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.

He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.

www.wsj.com/world/china/...
ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps
Heng Guan is awaiting an immigration hearing on Monday that could lead to his removal from the U.S. and ultimately land him back in China, according to his lawyer and a New York-based activist group.
www.wsj.com
December 14, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Amber
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, accused National Guard shooter once served in a CIA-backed Afghan “Zero Unit,” notorious among human rights groups as a “death squad.” Journalist Spencer Ackerman argues that the US turned Lakanwal into a child soldier & is now facing the consequences.

youtu.be/czUlh32m0Lk?...
New Disturbing Details Emerge In National Guard Shooter Case
YouTube video by The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder
youtu.be
December 14, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Amber
Local reports of many victims in a mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Shooter is now believed to be in custody.
December 13, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Me and my favorite hat wishing everyone good luck at the end of the semester. #endofsemester #exams #goodluckoutthere
December 8, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Amber
Reminder about Jan 6:

it really happened
It was a horror
140+ police were injured
A range of violent weapons were used by attackers
Chants to hang Mike Pence were heard
There was a gallows and guns
Pipe bombs diverted police as mob approached
December 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
More icy goodness. #icy #pictures #winter
December 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Joy comes in the morning. Or at least a cool sunrise does. #winterishere #sunshine #icytrees #wednesday

I hope everyone has a cozy day.
December 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Amber
Since I haven’t seen anyone mention this: When the U.S. commits war crimes it puts our troops in danger also, as it gives a green light to other countries that they can do the same to us
December 2, 2025 at 4:27 AM
I don’t have enough middle fingers for this.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 19d
Louisiana's surgeon general Dr. Ralph Abraham, who has praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tenure as health secretary and called COVID vaccines "dangerous," will become the second-highest ranking official at the CDC. n.pr/49Af0z8
Louisiana's top health official, a critic of the COVID vaccine, will be CDC deputy
Louisiana's surgeon general Dr. Ralph Abraham, who has praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tenure as health secretary and called COVID vaccines "dangerous," will become the second-highest ranking official at the CDC.
n.pr
November 26, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Today's campfire deals with Twitter and X's new geographic revelation, astroturfing and the Tea Party movement, and the role of bot Farms.

It's not the Rapture, it's the algorithm.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
Campfire Part 4 on Bot Farm, Elon Musk, and why I told you so!
Podcast Episode · The Civic Flame · 11/25/2025 · Bonus · 11m
podcasts.apple.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:24 PM
This week we go back to our episode on #botfarms and take a look at the not so stunning announcement that a lot of right-wing Twitter was bots. Check out the Civic Flame's Campfire series on rage farming and get ready for this week's "It's not the Rapture."

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...
November 25, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Amber
This young man has it exactly right.
November 21, 2025 at 11:30 PM
If TikTok Were Honest: Honest Ads
YouTube video by Honest Ads
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Amber
ICE agents in Queens, New York break down a bedroom door and point guns at a mother & her four US citizen children

They dragged the mother out by her hair while yelling at the kids to “put your hands up, stupid!”

This is tyranny

These kids are traumatized

It was warrantless and no ID was shown.
November 21, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Really solid use of their time. So happy that nothing else important is happening that they have time for posturing and fear-mongering.
House votes to denounce ‘horrors’ of socialism ahead of Mamdani-Trump meeting
House votes to denounce ‘horrors’ of socialism ahead of Mamdani-Trump meeting
The House voted 285-98 to approve a resolution condemning the “horrors of socialism” Friday morning, just hours before President Donald Trump is set to meet with New York’s incoming democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani. Eighty-six Democrats joined with Republicans to approve the measure. Two others voted present. No Republican voted to oppose it. Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders have decried Mamdani’s election as the next mayor of the country’s largest city, citing his left-wing politics and arguing he is the new, radical face of the Democratic Party. They’ve vowed to make him a centerpiece of their attacks against Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats on Capitol Hill have dismissed the Republicans broadsides over Mamdani, and party leaders criticized the GOP-written measure ahead of Friday’s vote, saying it “selectively lists certain despotic leaders and the harms of totalitarian regimes self-labeled as ‘socialist.’” They did not, however, formally recommend a no vote. A swath of moderate Democrats, especially from New York, are uncomfortable with Mamdani’s rise in their party. The debate over the symbolic measure was derailed for about 10 minutes after Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) verbally attacked Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on the floor, accusing her of being a “friend” of the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro despite traveling to the country and seeing the abuses of his regime. Waters asked for Salazar’s words to be taken down, but Salazer instead withdrew her remarks, allowing the debate to continue.
dlvr.it
November 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Amber
Kelly: "I never expected after serving 25 years in the Navy flying combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, flying the Space Shuttle, that now I've got to worry about my personal safety and that of my wife, Gabby Giffords, who was already nearly assassinated, because of something the president said."
November 21, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Amber
It's always hard to pick a worst day politically, but today the president called for the death of members of the opposition party, and the administration decided that people were being too hard on the swastika
November 21, 2025 at 4:15 AM
November 20, 2025 at 4:42 PM
The CDC changed the vaccines page again.

I wish more people were more outraged that this careless “move fast and break things” type government is destroying fields and institutions that took decades to build.

#cdc #vaccines #vaccinesdonotcauseautism #rfkisunqualified #fraud #hack
November 20, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Amber
Five corporations control 90% of the US media market.

Airlines merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today.

Four giants control 80% of meat processing.

A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry.

The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.
November 19, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Wearing my second most ridiculous #hat and reminding people that since the #governmentshutdown is over, now would be a great time to check out my #podcast The Civic Flame as we finish Article 1, the powers of Congress. #congress #civiceducation #constitution podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
November 19, 2025 at 11:45 PM