Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

@polar-journal.bsky.social

690 followers 1.1K following 920 posts

Devoted to the ethnographic and interdisciplinary study of law and politics, broadly conceived. Journal: PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. polarjournal.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal @polar-journal.bsky.social · 1d

A (Non?)Travel Toolkit for Anthropologists (and anyone!). AAA meetings are coming up next month, so be prepared...
politicalandlegalanthro.org/2025/05/23/t...

A (Non?)Travel Toolkit for Anthropologists (and anyone!)

The academic year is finally winding down and many of us are hoping to travel— for research, fun, or a bit of both. But things look very different under Trump 2.0—particularly for international tra…

politicalandlegalanthro.org

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 1d

New from me and @brendannyhan.bsky.social

Why Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence" is a devil's bargain and should be rejected in all forms

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.

Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.

www.msnbc.com

48 140

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Daniel Kibblesmith @kibblesmith.com · 11h

I’ve been circling a cursed thought for a while and it’s time to let it out: These guys are Disney Adults for fascism.

the corgi from cowboy bebop @realqrampage.fightins.online · 1d

LMAO LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH
EVERY TIME I DO IT MAKES ME LAUGH

Kash Patel in his own merch looking fucking embarrassing as hell lmao

he’s so fucking ugly

28 560 2.8K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Mon Mothra @flobbert.bsky.social · 11d

Excited to see how they Justify none of this applying to the next president

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 11d

BREAKING: The Supreme Court greenlights Trump's "pocket rescission" of $4 billion in foreign aid appropriated by Congress.

Kagan, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson, has a sharp dissent. She says this "result conflicts with the separation of powers." www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

deliberation. So the standard for granting emergency relief
is supposed to be stringent. The Executive has not come
close to meeting it here. And the consequence of today’s
grant is significant. I appreciate that the majority refrains
from offering a definitive view of this dispute and the questions raised in it. But the effect of its ruling is to allow the
Executive to cease obligating $4 billion in funds that Congress appropriated for foreign aid, and that will now never
reach its intended recipients. Because that result conflicts
with the separation of powers, I respectfully dissent

6 19 110

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Branden McEuen but he’s spooky @bmceuen.bsky.social · 1h

I really feel like millennials especially resent the copyright theft part of these AI data centers because of this.

Strange Days at Blake Hol(e)sey High 👻 🍑 @reactionordinary.bsky.social · 1h

The RIAA was suing teenagers. We had to sit through ⬇️ this shit anytime we wanted to watch a DVD. A whole generation shamed for using Limewire and torrents. Only for these silicone valley assholes to now find copyright infringement a necessary evil they shouldn’t have to answer for

3 28 110

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 19h

Kristi Noem confronts enemy combatants in the Portland war zone today.

4.6K 7.7K 25K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 14h

We need to have solutions for the Collaborator Problem: the way the fascist takeover of all our institutions has led to the promotion of soulless, facile, subservient mediocrities filling vitally important roles across the breadth of our society

10 36 320

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Eric Blair @protecttruth.bsky.social · 13h

We are in late-stage authoritarian media takeover.

Fox and CNN are owned/controlled by rightwing billionaires.
Twitter and Truth Social
WSJ and WaPo
CBS and ABC
Newsweek, Sinclair, now Tegna; TikTok getting close.

We are far along in the Putin-mold media takeover plan.

6 92 250

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 13h

It's a well-established global phenomenon: secret police organizations always recruit losers, mediocrities, people who can't succeed in a competitive environment, whether bureaucratic, academic or commercial. These are people who will follow orders and engage in depraved, violent conduct when asked.

11 130 340

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 4h

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.

800 5.7K 19K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 2h

ICE is not only chasing down every random brown person in Chicago, they have a cameraman following them to film this for social media. Cruelty and inhumanity as content.

140 1.4K 3.4K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 2h

Just openly cheering the destruction of any representation of gay people in public space. They think their power is totally unrestricted, and the entire country will support them rolling back society to the 1950s, or maybe the 1850s

120 440 1.8K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 4d

Chemerinsky: The Trump extortion demands are unconstitutional as well as odious (gift link). Me: Any school that signs must be shunned, faculty affected must walk. No room for this.

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

5 71 290

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 6h

More propaganda with painfully normal people zip-tied at the side of the road please, this will for sure convince the American people that you're the good guys

Homeland Security @DHSgov

We're having an All Night Revival

Still frame from a video: Painfully normal people zip tied on the side of the road, sitting on a guardrail in a row

14:30 07 Oct 25 2.1M Views

5 Reposts

940 Quotes 42.2K

2,584 Bookmarks

250 1.8K 6.2K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Sarah McLaughlin @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social · 4h

It isn't just that you can't express verbal support for Palestine Action. You may also not even be free to simply question the government's decision to ban it. This is the most basic political expression — challenging how leaders govern. And yet.

Rick @rick-sco.bsky.social · 4h

Yeh, you can't even disagree with the action of declaring Palestine Action a terrorist group. Pretty sure they will just try to arrest anyone with the words Action & Palestine in what they deem to be the wrong order at this point. Some politicians are really in need of swift replacement.

Woman 'arrested' over 'I oppose proscription of Palestine Action' sign

A PROTESTER has claimed she was arrested for holding a sign saying “I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action”.

www.thenational.scot

3 59 250

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

58 1.8K 3.8K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Plenary Popehat Power @kenwhite.bsky.social · 3h

Mike Johnson’s position is young pregnant American women shouldn’t have to wait before being turned away to die in the parking lot from an ectopic pregnancy the hospital is afraid to treat

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

230 1K 4.6K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Michelangelo Signorile @msignorile.bsky.social · 3h

This is a good way to hit back at Trump's deranged statements and calls to jail Democrats.

Media needs to focus on his mental decline. Democrats must force media to do it.

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Gov. JB Pritzker says President Trump deploying troops to Chicago due to ‘dementia’ and obsessive fixations

In a scathing critique of President Donald Trump, Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday accused the Republican president of deploying National Guard troops to the Democratic cities of Chicago and Portland based...

www.yahoo.com

17 200 770

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 7h

Once again, I’m wondering why Democrats aren’t running with a straightforward message of “despotism is un-American and unaffordable” right now and all the way into the midterms.

150 400 2.2K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 2h

DEI for me, not for thee.

20 290 940

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 8h

It's out at the Dispatch:

DHS Says Videotaping ICE Agents Is Illegal. Federal Courts Disagree.

Filming law enforcement serves important goals central to a free republic.

thedispatch.com

6 96 290

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

David Hudson @dwhdaily.bsky.social · 8h

“Far from comprehensive, the list does not include the thousands still buried under the rubble.”

@theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

3 200 490

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Adam "I Was Hoping We Could Keep It" Laats @adamlaats.bsky.social · 6h

Here is is, from Bryan Stevenson @eji.org.
What's wrong with "heroic history?"
"It’s like saying, 'I’m going to the doctor, but I’ve already instructed my doctor, Don’t give me any bad news' ... if you don’t want to be sick... you have to be willing to hear the truth of your condition."
[gift link]:

Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told

www.nytimes.com

5 76 400

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 19h

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

1.6K 20K 52K

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

Scott Lemieux @lemieuxlgm.bsky.social · 14h

Kavanaugh search and seizures

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 15h

Monstrous.

"federal agents detained nearly every resident of the 130-unit building—including children and babies—placing them in zip ties and separating them by race into vans for more than two hours early Tuesday morning."

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 17h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

19 160 880

Reposted by Association for Political and Legal Anthropology / PoLAR journal

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 5h

i think it is cool that a government run by fanatical bigots is on track to plunge the economy into a mountain and cause a food crisis

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 5h

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

87 710 2.7K