Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 7h

What a wonderful con activity. Wow!

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More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 12h

"For instance, CNBC found that one Microsoft data center in Illinois received more than $38 million in data center sales tax exemptions but created just 20 permanent jobs."

www.cnbc.com/2025/06/20/t...

In race to attract data centers, states can forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to tech companies

Amazon, Meta and Google are among the beneficiaries of state tax exemptions for data centers that help power AI.

www.cnbc.com

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 8h

I am never going to be a fan of a politician. That way lies disappointment. But Pritzker right now is the person I think is calibrating it right.

This isn’t negotiating about social security with W. You either get that or you don’t.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 9h

If you come for my people, you come through me.

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 8h

DISGRACEFUL. Absolutely disgraceful.

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Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 10h

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 8h

You know the Diaks? I have a set of their interchangeable needles from before the Dymondwood factory burned down.

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✪ Jonathan H. Gray: “Professor of Halloweenery” ✪ @jongraywb.bsky.social · 10h

If you are willing to throw away entire groups of people to protect your insular strategy that will only protect you instead of protecting everyone then I don’t want your leaders and I sure as hell don’t want to be associated with you.

the tallest stone @talleststone.bsky.social · 13h

I hate to say it but the majority of the country is not going to die on the hill of trans rights. We can’t protect ANY groups if we can’t win a national election, so purity tests only serve to make specific groups feel triumphant. That’s not “erasing” them; it’s long-horizon strategy.

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 8h

A US Bishop says they're "trying not to get into the political fray"?

What the hell does he think they've been doing about abortion all these decades?

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 8h

Oh — new reporting on Pope Leo from El Paso Matters, citing footage they have of yesterday's meeting.

Sounds like the pope was even *more* forceful in urging U.S. bishops to speak out about immigration than first reported.

I mean, that's…not subtle. elpasomatters.org/2025/10/08/e...

“I was struck at the beginning (of the video), it talks about the feeling of powerlessness, which I think is so much. I think it’s so important that we as a church give a message of hope in the midst of these horrible struggles, what’s going on in so many cities in the United States right now. At least the church cannot be silent,” the pope told the El Pasoans, according to a video of the meeting provided to El Paso Matters by Hope Border Institute.

Seitz responded: “You’ve spoken very strongly. We’re trying to do the same in our country and yet not get into the political fray the best that we can.”

Pope Leo told Seitz that he’d like to see the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops become more vocal on immigration issues.

“I mean, even within the conference, there are challenges. That’s one place they should be … I wish they were stronger in their own voice,” Leo said, adding that Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the conference, should speak out more on immigration.

“There’s been some good movement in that sense, but I certainly intend to continue to encourage” U.S. bishops to address immigration, Leo said.

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kate conger @kateconger.com · 10h

Jonathan Rinderknecht, a white man, was charged with starting the Palisades Fire. But on X, the company's news summary tab shows a photo of a black man.

Screenshot depicting posts on X, one showing the suspect accused of starting the Palisades Fire, a white man. The X news tab reports on the suspect's arrest, but shows a photo of a black man instead.

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Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 10h

Shar Lady of Loss symbol

Forgotten realms bg3 netherse symbol for

.

.

Loss

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 10h

It's Wednesday. You need some eels in your life, right? And some otters?

Here you go!

A scene of otters & eels, from an early 15th C. copy of Gaston Phoebus's Livre de la chasse. Eel blood is toxic to mammals, but otters don't care. They love them some eels.

Can you blame them?

A medieval painting of otters playing in a pool, chasing and catching eels and other fish. There are 10 adult otters, and what look to be 2 younger otters in a den at the base of a tree. They are all doing serious otter things: playing, eating, cavorting, eating, gamboling, eating, swimming, and eating. They are having a good time. For now.

It can't last, though. This pond seems way too small to support all of these otters, and the painting has a border around it. They can't leave, and soon they will turn on each other in a bloodbath that will make the Donner Party look like a tea time at the Rotary Club. If you check back with these otters in two weeks, I suspect you'll find only carnage.

That, though, is a problem for Future Otters. Today's otters are carefree, with spotless souls.

Source:
Morgan (MS M.1044 fol. 28r)

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 10h

I love Lovable Furry Ol' Grover.

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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 11h

Opinion | Yes, I voted for Trump three times, but I gave Obama $250 in 2008 and have a gay client at my brokerage. Treat me as the independent-minded voter that I am.

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Xiaoyi @cleefouti.bsky.social · 10d

Been trying to read some isekai lately.

Four frames comic about two types of Isekai I found and read lately. The first frame shows a young man with a sword. He says: "My name is Josh Itcantbehelped and I used to be a loser before a car crash brought me to a world where I am a god and half the population is made of SLAVE CATGIRLS". The second frame shows him crying and clenching his fist, with many a cat behind him, wearing bikinis. He says "To make it here I guess I have no choice but to own as many catgirls as I can...how tragic...". The third frame shows another character from another type of Isekai. She's a woman with a fluffy dress. She says "My name is Elise Robespierre and after being hit by a truck of terminal cancer I am now in my favorite 900 pages novel. With many a hot man.". The fourth frame shows her giving a board presentation to citizens, with graphs and pictures of plants on it. She says: "Hello citizens. This is my plan to modernize the agricultural system and prevent any further plague by creating medicine [...] taxes which ..." the text becomes unreadable as she keeps talking to her captive audience.

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Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 1d

Claude AI’s logo is unironically Kurt Vonnegut’s butthole drawing

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Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 13h

The fact that they can't get a random sampling of citizens from any city to indict people for interfering with ICE seems more informative than any political poll, tbh

Seth Stern @sethstern.bsky.social · 1d

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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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 13h

They’re just gonna do a little lite slavery.

In addition, the new rule allows farm employers to charge H-2A workers for their housing, which was not allowed before. "It's a way for employers to continue to house workers and also charge them, and bring down effective wages," said Marcos Lopez of the Labor and Community Center at the University of California, Davis.

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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 14h

The Post laid off seemingly the remaining of their liberal-leaning staff members on Opinion last Thursday, when some of them were observing Yom Kippur.

from @oliverdarcy.bsky.social for Status
status.news/p/washington-post-opinion-cuts-adam-oneal

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 13h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 14h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 12h

Tradcaths genuinely believed that a college of cardinals whose voting members were largely appointed by the last two Popes would elect another Benedict.

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GabbyPentin @gabapentinstatist.bsky.social · 1d

Bluesky is updating its community guidelines

Dave Hutchinson @hutchinsondave.bsky.social · 1d

‘Six words or _fewer_.”

A meme. There’s a skull at the top, followed by the words ‘WRITE A HORROR STORY IN SIX WORDS OR LESS’

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 1d

This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 1d

Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...

Post Traumatic Disorder

Adam O’Neal says he’s bringing “intellectual diversity” to The Washington Post’s opinion pages—but the moves he’s making behind the scenes tell a different story.

www.status.news

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Madame Hardy @madamehardy.bsky.social · 1d

Sounds lovely; I'm envious.