Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor

A New Social @anew.social · 2h

Today, we announced our next Bounce Beta that lets you migrate your Mastodon profile into any existing ATProto account, whether you're on Bluesky or any other PDS provider!

We'll be going live with Bounce Beta 2 on October 20th.

Read more here:

Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky

With our next Bounce Beta, you will be able to Bounce your Mastodon account to Bluesky!

blog.anew.social

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 4h

hyperallergic.com/1045489/acti...

Activists Condemn Arrest of NYC Protest Photographer Alexa Wilkinson

Wilkinson was charged with a hate crime for social media posts critical of the New York Times’s executive editor over the publication’s Israel coverage.

hyperallergic.com

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 4h

I was in the first 25000 users here.

I know his motivations. I also know they quickly became irrelevant as the current bluesky team brought their own prototypes in and Dorsey exited the process, and Twitter/X cut the contracts after the sale.

The current protocol is a distinct thing.

Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 4h

Every motivation traces back to dorsey wanting to dodge regulations

Twitter Wants to Reinvent Itself, by Merging the Old With the New (Published 2022)

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor

Alan Zibel @alanzibel.bsky.social · 17h

White House offers white glove, concierge service to fossil fuel companies.

Meanwhile, wind and solar aren’t even allowed to check into the Motel 6.

Great scoop from @jakespring.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

White House offers ‘concierge’ service to fossil fuel firms, official says

Brittany Kelm, a senior policy adviser for the National Energy Dominance Council, detailed in a podcast how the council works to advance fossil fuel projects.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 5h

> no moderation responsibilities

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 21h

When US citizen Leo Garcia Venegas tried to prove his identity by showing federal agents his REAL ID, they dismissed it as a fake and kept him detained, releasing him only after they bothered to run his Social Security number.

Just a few weeks later, they detained him again:

Mass Deportation Is A Threat To Us All

Aided by the Supreme Court and the insidious "Kavanaugh stop," the administration's chaotic mass deportation operations are sweeping up Americans – including children and U.S. military veterans.

americasvoicecnn.substack.com

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Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor

Fighting Against Fascism @fightinginjustice.bsky.social · 20h

Stephen Miller states that Trump has plenary authority, then immediately stops talking as if he’s realized what he just said.

The fact that he knows he's not supposed to be just saying it out loud like that because it's not true and he didn't mean to telegraph their intentions that clearly

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 7h

I’ve been worried a lot that this is right. Gold is skyrocketing in value because the world is losing faith in the role of US as guarantor/backstop of global economy open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Ingots We Trust

Are soaring gold prices telling us something important?

open.substack.com

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Weekend Editor @weekend-editor.bsky.social · May 26

If your business cannot prosper without breaking the law, then it is not a business. It is organized crime.

Like those dependent on slavery, child labor, or wage theft, it should go out of business as soon as possible.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 8h

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 7h

JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom are doing something new and important: They understand Stephen Miller's theory of fascist power politics, and they've developed a theory on how to combat it. More Dems need to reckon with Miller's understanding of the moment.

New from me:
newrepublic.com/article/2014...

Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule

He wants to supercharge searing civil tensions to get low-information voters to embrace their inner authoritarian. Exactly two Democrats appear to fully grasp this.

newrepublic.com

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Joshua Failé @joshuafaile.bsky.social · 7h

Pam Bondi, in this single exchange, confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is not the Attorney General of the United States.

She is Attorney Specific of Donald Trump.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

COONS: How did you conclude that these strikes on boats in the open ocean are legal?

BONDI: I'm not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have issued

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Ray Radlein @radlein.bsky.social · 6h

Just look at photojournalist Linda Tirado (killermartinis here, though I'm not tagging her in), shot in the facce by a pepper round in 2020 while covering the George Floyd demonstrations in MPLS.

She not only lost her eye, but suffered brain damage which will be fatal to her (she's in hospice now).

A journalist shot by police while covering the 2020 protests is dying of her injuries

Linda Tirado, 42, lost her eye and suffered a brain injury after being shot by Minneapolis police in 2020. The National Press Club said she developed dementia as a result and "is at life's end."

www.npr.org

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 6h

I really believe that huge majorities of Americans don’t want masked soldiers shooting priests in the street. They don’t want naked children ripped out out of their apartments in the middle of the night and handcuffed. We win by making sure these stories get told.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 6h

The same people who insisted devout Catholic Joe Biden was leading a “war on Christianity” are now cheering Trump on as his armed goons assault clergymen.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 7h

WATCH: Trump’s lawless Ice goons shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper ball. Completely out of control.

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 7h

Pope Leo tells US bishops to address Trump's immigration crackdown

www.reuters.com/world/pope-l...

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 5h

All he did was specify that Twitter wanted a protocol based version of the site (mostly so he could dodge moderation requirements, dumping that responsibility on others).

The bluesky team brought their own vision for what the protocol would look like.

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Thomas Dickerson @elfprince13.mumak.app · 6h

“Dull, dirty, dangerous” is the catchphrase for good robotics uses, and it applies just as much in virtual space

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 6h

For image moderation systems there are only three possible choices:
1: automated / “AI”
2: make humans see horrible things
3: no images at all

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 5h

Please, please, please

Would love to see a repeat

After Alex Jones’ lawyers accidentally leak years of emails, Infowars financial documents are revealed in court

A lawyer for two parents suing Jones said the emails showed that Infowars at one point in 2018 was making over $800,000 per day.

www.nbcnews.com

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twiceborn.bsky.social @twiceborn.bsky.social · 6h

Trump's prosecutors failed to get grand juries to indict a ham sandwich, and now they are failing to get grand juries to indict an italian beef sandwich

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Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill @haydonmp.bsky.social · 6h

Add it to the tally.

Seems like we’re getting up to 20+ grand jury no true bills just from what I’ve seen. Absolutely remarkable.

Seth Stern @sethstern.bsky.social · 15h

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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ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 6h

I believe these are the first Chicagoland NTBs, which is significant because grand juries sit for a long time— we didn’t previously know that Chicago’s GJs were fed up with this stuff and now we do.

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill @haydonmp.bsky.social · 6h

Add it to the tally.

Seems like we’re getting up to 20+ grand jury no true bills just from what I’ve seen. Absolutely remarkable.

Seth Stern @sethstern.bsky.social · 15h

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/...

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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 7h

"It wanted to signal strength. Instead, it’s revealing its weakness. The administration’s need to break the academy is forcing it to make a desperately risky gamble." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

Opinion | You Beat Trumpism by Banding Together. It’s as Hard and as Simple as That.

www.nytimes.com

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Keith Edwards @kedwards.bsky.social · 6h

The thing about the Nazis is they were sadistic as hell, but went to great lengths to portray themselves in their propaganda as wholesome defenders of virtue. MAGA revel in their sadism. They want us to fear them show off their atrocities. This isn’t going to end well for any ICE thugs or admin.

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Natanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 5h

top but in cursive