Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 1d

This essay is a really succinct and important read. The manufactured crisis in Chicago is an attempt to use state violence to justify more state violence to oppress whole cities, breaking every norm about democracy. www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

We should say what is going on here in clear and unsentimental terms:

The president instructed federal agents to use extralegal violence against both immigrants and citizens in Chicago. When the citizenry of Chicago objected to these violent acts, the president used their First Amendment demonstrations of protest as pretext to deploy the Texas National Guard into the city, so that armed soldiers from Texas could impose the president’s will on the people of Illinois.

2

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 1d

"There is no crisis in Chicago that requires the National Guard. To the extent that there is civil instability in Chicago it has been caused by Trump’s surge of federal agents into the city and their lawless assault on the citizens of Chicago." Some examples:

September 12: ICE agents shoot and kill Chicago resident Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park. ICE claimed that González was shot after he “seriously injured” an ICE agent. But bodycam footage shows the same agent immediately after the encounter describing his injuries as “nothing major.”

September 30: Some 300 federal agents raid an apartment building in the dead of night. Some rappel from a Black Hawk helicopter positioned over the building. They ransack apartments and detain not only children but several U.S. citizens

October 4: CPB agents shoot an unarmed woman, Marimar Martinez. They claim that she provoked them by ramming their vehicle with her car. Martinez’s lawyer tells the Chicago Sun-Times that there is bodycam footage that shows an agent turning left into Martinez’s vehicle, after which an agent says, “Do something, bitch.” The agent then gets out of the vehicle and shoots Martinez.

October 7: A masked federal agent is caught on camera aiming a weapon at a resident who is reportedly doing nothing more than documenting his activity.

1 1

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 1d

"We now have armed soldiers from the state of Texas eagerly volunteered by their governor to impose the president’s will on the citizens of Illinois. I don’t want to be alarmist, but this is an emergency." www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

1

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 7d

More here: www.studlife.com/news/2025/10...

WashU Med labeled ‘DEI Indoctrination Training Camp,’ DOJ investigation requested - Student Life

On Sept. 15, 2025, America First Legal (AFL) filed a complaint against WashU School of Medicine for its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices, asking the Department of Justice to issue an in...

www.studlife.com

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 7d

Shit just comes coming

WashU Med labeled ‘DEI Indoctrination Training Camp,’ DOJ investigation requested | On Sept. 15, 2025, America First Legal (AFL) filed a complaint against WashU School of Medicine for its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices, asking the Department of Justice to issue an investigation into the medical school’s alleged “illegal DEI practices.”

1 3

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 15d

From @aaup.org's new report on Title VI and academic freedom: www.aaup.org/reports-publ...

On Title VI, Discrimination, and Academic Freedom

This report considers how Title VI has been used to create an enforcement apparatus that sidesteps long-established AAUP-recommended procedures of shared governance and offers recommendations for facu...

www.aaup.org

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 15d

...of discrimination that prevent or limit educational access. The Trump administration’s attempt to unmake the Civil Rights Act by hijacking the language of discrimination is nothing less than an attempt to rewrite the history of the nation."

1

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 15d

"There is no doubt that the Trump administration has wielded Title VI with the goals of discrediting institutions of higher education, undermining academic freedom and institutional autonomy, and unmooring the Civil Rights Act from its foundational commitments to addressing structures...

1 1

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 16d

How Can We Live Together? www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

1 3

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 16d

Another must-read response to Ezra Klein's "Charlie Kirk did politics the right way" argument, this from @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social in @bostonreview.bsky.social on political correctness, stigma, and shame as fundamental to living together.

The challenge for Klein and his fellow travelers is to specify what sort of ground rules could make life livable and social situations manageable for such a wide array of people whose values, commitments, and interests differ so sharply—that is, on terms other than various sorts of segregation or the most naked forms of domination and subjugation—if not precisely “social shame and cultural pressure,” now contemptuously referred to as “political correctness” or “wokeness.” We might more accurately call it exactly the “civility” that centrists like Klein otherwise pretend to champion, even while they seek to hollow out even this meager social protection of its efficacy. These codes of neighborliness or of common decency are, in other words, the bare minimum for us to exist peacefully as profoundly different people who nevertheless share the same time and place.

Common decency, then, stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association, as Russell exemplified. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply.

1 1 7

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16d

"Common decency stigmatizes people that do not participate in it—removes them from voluntary association. We indeed have to live with one another, but terms and conditions apply."

me on why Ezra Klein should be ashamed / why shame is Good Actually

www.bostonreview.net/articles/how...

How Can We Live Together? - Boston Review

Ezra Klein is wrong: shame is essential.

www.bostonreview.net

200 1.9K 6.7K

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 16d

As this column summarizes, Schmitt's speech is "full blood and soil" nationalism, refuting ideas about equality and opportunity and doubling down on white supremacy: missouriindependent.com/2025/09/15/m...

Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt openly promoted white supremacism in a public speech • Missouri Independent

Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt suggested true Americans are “the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores.”

missouriindependent.com

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 16d

Oh nothing to see here, just a Missouri U.S. Senator spouting white and Christian nationalist rhetoric about how America is only for descendants of "Western" "European" "settlers" and non-white immigrants are not American: www.dailysignal.com/2025/09/02/s...

They believed they were forging a nation—a homeland for themselves and their descendants. They fought, they bled, they struggled, they died for us. They built this country for us.

America, in all its glory, is their gift to us, handed down across the generations. It belongs to us. It’s our birthright, our heritage, our destiny.

If America is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all. But we know that’s not true.

America is not a “universal nation.” It is something distinctive, unique, and real—unlike any other place or people in the history of mankind.

1 1

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

Tony Clark @anthonyclark.bsky.social · 24d

In Pam Bondi's America bakers may refuse to make cakes for gay or trans people, medical pros may refuse to provide women with complete healthcare, military personnel may refuse vaccination orders—all for "religous" or "conscience" reasons—but an Office Depot employee may not refuse to print a flyer.

Mediaite @mediaite.com · 24d

Pam Bondi Threatens Charges Over Office Depot Employee Who Refused To Print Charlie Kirk Flyers: ‘We Can Prosecute You’

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Department of Justice is considering bringing charges after a now-fired Office Depot employee refused to print flyers advertising a vigil for Charlie Kirk. The post Pam Bondi Threatens Charges Over Office Depot Employee Who Refused To Print Charlie Kirk Flyers: ‘We Can Prosecute You’ first appeared on Mediaite.

dlvr.it

22 380 1.3K

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 24d

"Over the past 23 months, Israeli forces have killed nearly 3,000 people attempting to get aid in the Gaza Strip and wounded almost 20,000 others." New @newhumanitarian report with open database and timeline of aid killings in Gaza: www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigatio...

EXCLUSIVE: Israel has killed nearly 3,000 Gaza aid seekers

Our interactive database shows nearly 200 attacks, and a sharp uptick since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operations on 27 May.

www.thenewhumanitarian.org

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 26d

"Many of the facile defenses of Kirk and his legacy are predicated on the idea that it’s acceptable to spread hateful ideas advocating for the persecution of perceived enemies as long you dress them up in a posture of debate. This is just class privilege." www.thenation.com/article/poli...

www.thenation.com

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 27d

Israeli commander says that the IDF has killed more than 200,000 people in Gaza - 10% of its population - and has not been constrained by the law one time: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

‘We took the gloves off’: ex-IDF chief confirms Gaza casualties over 200,000

Retired general Herzi Halevi says ‘not once’ had legal advice constrained Israel’s military decisions in the strip

www.theguardian.com

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 28d

Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way: www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

This does not mean Kirk deserved to die or that political violence is ever justified. What happened to Kirk is horrifying, and we fear deeply for whatever will happen next. But it is undeniable that Kirk was not just a part of the extremely tense, very dangerous national dialogue, he was an accelerationist force whose work to dehumanize LGBTQ+ people and threaten the free speech of professors, teachers, and school board members around the country has directly put the livelihoods and physical safety of many people in danger. We do no one any favors by ignoring this, even in the immediate aftermath of an assassination like this.

Kirk claimed that his Turning Point USA sent “80+ buses full of patriots” to the January 6 insurrection. Turning Point USA has also run a “Professor Watchlist,”and a “School Board Watchlist” for nearly a decade.

1

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · 28d

Seven Theses Against Viewpoint Diversity: www.aaup.org/seven-theses...

Seven Theses Against Viewpoint Diversity

Demands for “viewpoint diversity,” a pillar of the Right’s strategy to remake higher education, collide with the pursuit of truth.

www.aaup.org

1

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · Sep 8

this is such a grotesquely cynical excuse for letting both gigantic tech companies and Donald Trump's MAGA aristocracy run rough-shod over the interests of everyone else

Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · Sep 8

Last Fri., Anthropic paid $1.5B to settle a copyright case. Stewart Baker argues that this type of litigation could hinder AI innovation and looks at how President Trump could invoke the Defense Production Act to ensure the U.S. wins the AI race against China.

Anthropic’s Settlement Shows the U.S. Can’t Afford AI Copyright Lawsuits

Copyright plaintiffs are squeezing enormous sums from AI companies. That's bad for the US and great for China. It's time for President Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act and resolve the…

www.lawfaremedia.org

20 160 780

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

m @keptsimple.bsky.social · Aug 27

like so many products to come out of silicon valley in the last decade or so, AI is a legal innovation masquerading as a tech innovation. the legal theory seems to be that AI is entitled to everything but liable for nothing.

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · Aug 27

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action

Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.

arstechnica.com

24 510 1.8K

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Sep 8

the maga constitution doesn’t allow any institution, public or private, to explicitly work to ameliorate racial inequality but allows the government to racially profile

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Sep 8

BREAKING: By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court halts an injunction that had prevented immigration agents from racially profiling Latinos in central California.

Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26085894-25a169-order/

110 1.5K 5.8K

Scott Ross, animate candy corn @skort.bsky.social · Sep 8

In addition to their redistricting attempt to gain a seat in Congress, Missouri Republicans are seeking to make citizen-led initiatives more difficult to pass. MO voters recently overruled the GOP statewide on abortion, minimum wage, marijuana, sick leave. missouriindependent.com/2025/09/04/a...

As few as 5% of voters could defeat initiative petitions under Missouri GOP legislation • Missouri Independent

A Missouri House committee passed a proposal Thursday to place restrictions on the initiative petition process.

missouriindependent.com

2

Reposted by Scott Ross, animate candy corn

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Sep 8

no surprised that brett ”almost certainly flunked his remedial classes” kavanaugh thinks the constitution authorizes a race-based federal “papers please” regime. quick, someone ask him what he thinks of the fugitive slave act.

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Sep 8

This is a paragraph Brett Kavanaugh wrote on his little computer and then sent out into the world:

Moreover, as for stops of those individuals who are legally in the country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.

330 2.4K 10K