Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2h

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2h

"Top Chef gave viewers a shared language to speak about food in their own lives. Now, people who would never taste these dishes had a visual and linguistic reference." www.eater.com/food-culture...

Nobody Wants to Be a Foodie

How “foodie” went from badge of honor to cringey term to pejorative smear and all the way back again.

www.eater.com

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 6h

"Now characterizing the additional funding as a 'Biden-era slush fund,' the second Trump administration cut $500 million that had already been allocated."

"THE EMERGENCY FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAM was created in 1983 to purchase farmers’ surplus food and distribute it to low-income people. The program’s budget is typically authorized every five years as part of the Farm Bill, but in 2018, the first Trump administration added funds to help farmers struggling under retaliatory tariffs the U.S. faced amid trade disputes. The additional, discretionary federal funds helped food banks serve more people; last fiscal year, they got nearly twice as much money from the fund as they did from their congressional allocation."

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 6h

"The cancellation of these deliveries comes at a critical time for food banks. Food insecurity is higher than at any time since the aftermath of the Great Recession, according to federal data, and many food banks are reporting higher need than they saw at the peak of the pandemic."

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 6h

"Demand is only expected to increase; this summer, President Donald Trump signed into law the largest cut to food stamps in the program’s history." projects.propublica.org/trump-food-c...

Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid. Here’s What Never Arrived.

ProPublica obtained records from the Department of Agriculture that detail the millions of pounds of food, down to the number of eggs, that never reached food banks because of the administration’s cut...

projects.propublica.org

1 1

Reposted

Sham Jaff @shamjaff.bsky.social · 19h

It’s a "crisis" when immigrants "take jobs away", but "innovation" when machines do. Funny.

52 1.2K 4.3K

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

Some Tuesday night music: So Easy (To Fall in Love), by Olivia Dean. youtu.be/3sur4BmjQt8?...

Olivia Dean - So Easy (To Fall In Love)

YouTube video by OliviaDeanVEVO

youtu.be

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

"As desired by President Donald Trump, Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, leaving about 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations to find alternative funding sources."

kottke.org @kottke.org · 1d

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal funding cuts. What stage of anti-democratic capitalism is this? *paints huge, angry clouds* [apnews.com]

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal funding cuts

Thirty paintings by Bob Ross are set to be auctioned to support public television stations. The Bonhams auction is to begin Nov. 11 in Los Angeles with three of the paintings.

apnews.com

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

Has a manager ever been fired in the middle of a playoff game?

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

"On previous records, Le Bon delighted in abstraction, writing askew verses about isolation and the relationship between art and artist. But on her seventh album, Michelangelo Dying, Le Bon plunges headfirst into craggier depths: pervasive heartache."

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

"For the past 15 years, Cate Le Bon has been constructing her own warped world of sound. In Le Bon Land, guitars bend and liquify like Dali clocks, synthesizers echo into an infinite horizon, and familiar words stretch and contract within her steely register." pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

Cate Le Bon: Michelangelo Dying

Read Madison Bloom’s review of the album.

pitchfork.com

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 1d

Some (more) Monday night music: Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, by Elton John and Brandi Carlile. youtu.be/ephQ7huVYsk?...

Elton John & Brandie Carlile LIVE 4K - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Dodger Stadium) | 2022

YouTube video by Elton John HD Collection

youtu.be

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2d

Some Monday night music: A War With Time, by Brandi Carlile. youtu.be/gwRMMJEGPp4?...

Brandi Carlile - A War With Time (Official Lyric Video)

YouTube video by Brandi Carlile

youtu.be

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2d

And including: "Few outcasts. A healthy society will have relatively few outcasts — prisoners, homeless, unemployed, insane."

AND: "Widespread participation in the arts."

The whole list is worth thinking about.

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2d

A really good list, beginning with: "Sustainable relationship with the environment. In a healthy society, the present generation doesn’t strip-mine the soil, water, forest, minerals, etc., leaving the future impoverished and the beauty of the world degraded." kottke.org/25/10/what-m...

What Makes for a Healthy Society?

In a 2014 preface for his 1978 book The Ohlone Way, a description of how the indigenous peoples of California’s Bay Area liv

kottke.org

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2d

"I see action—frenetic, violent action—as a fixation of Hegseth’s. It’s there even in his constant framing of soldiers as 'war fighters' and military engagement as 'war fighting.' The individual, lethal action ... is heightened, and Hegseth is clearly hankering for a chance to unleash it."

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 2d

"This should make our blood run cold. Consider Trump's words alongside Hegseth's declaration that 'You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don't necessarily belong, always, in polite society.'" www.liberalcurrents.com/war-fighters...

War Fighters and the Enemy Within: Trump, Hegseth, and the Assault on the American People

Trump and Hegseth are cultivating a military that sees liberals and minorities as enemies to be fought and is willing to follow orders to do so.

www.liberalcurrents.com

1 4 4

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

Some Sunday night music: So Long, Marianne, by Leonard Cohen. youtu.be/3XzAjfwQtvM?...

Leonard Cohen - So Long, Marianne (Official Audio)

YouTube video by LeonardCohenVEVO

youtu.be

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

"Mr. Brody said the 33 documented cases in Nicaragua were believed to be an undercount because many families are too afraid to file a complaint with human rights organizations."

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

"The flurry of arbitrary detentions with no transparent judicial process represents a new tactic, rights groups say, in a yearslong wave of political oppression in Nicaragua."

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

"Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, who are co-presidents, have since 2018 eliminated nearly any vestige of opposition that could threaten their grip on power." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/u...

A Chilling New Tactic in Nicaragua: Arrest, Then Silence

www.nytimes.com

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

"I had not touched a cat in 15 years when an orange kitten wandered over to sit with me in the grass one day. I was left without adequate words to describe that experience. It reminded me that I am alive. It instilled in me a raw, unbridled happiness that I had never felt before."

1

michaellasley.bsky.social @michaellasley.bsky.social · 3d

"Prisons are concrete and steel and stocked with hard people doing hard time. Toughness is mandatory, brutality a virtue, as we resist — are forced to resist — the human urge for comfort. Those who do not forge themselves into weapons are viewed as prey ...

Perhaps. But then there were kittens."

kottke.org @kottke.org · 5d

When Kittens Came to My Prison, I Had Not Petted One in 15 Years. “All those hard cases doing hard time melt like butter on a summer sidewalk when they visit the felines, feed them, watch them chase the birds and bees…” [prisonjournalismproject.org]

When Kittens Came to My Prison, I Had Not Petted One in 15 Years

I had not touched a cat in 15 years when an orange kitten wandered over to sit with me in the grass.

prisonjournalismproject.org

1 1

Reposted

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 3d

The government does not have the power to declare “free speech zones.” And the violent arrest of the rabbi should set off some alarm bells.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 4d

Heard an officer say "let's do it" and then, in the dark, they tackle Rabbi Ben to the ground. He's being loaded into a CCSO wagon now. Broadview police also here screaming at people.

71 960 2.1K