Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 14h

Literally hunting people for likes.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 17h

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.

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

South Side Weekly @southsideweekly.bsky.social · 14h

Let us be clear: The President of the United States is levying war against American cities and American citizens—and we cannot rely on the other branches of government to save us.

It’s up to us.

It’s Up to Us to Protect One Another

As Trump sends troops to Chicago, we will continue to investigate and report. Readers have a role to play, too.

southsideweekly.com

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Chris Morran @themorrancave.bsky.social · 19h

Those influencing Trump education policy aren't shy about wanting to eradicate public schools.

Asked what % of kids she imagines should be in public schools, Tiffany Justice -- Moms for Liberty cofounder, now with Heritage Foundation -- told @propublica.org

“I hope zero. I hope to get to zero.”

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of publ...

www.propublica.org

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ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 2d

i don’t really understand why this made me start bawling i just really love seeing people try to help each other in creative ways and that this shit is necessary

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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 2d

It's the first Monday in October which means the Supreme Court is back in session. Here's my preview of all the cruelty and evil they will visit upon us this term.
My *cover story* in @thenation.com :)

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

The Supreme Court v. Democracy

The Nation’s justice correspondent previews the court’s coming term—and explains why it will never stand up to Trump.

www.thenation.com

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Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 1d

I am finding two ways of thinking about this in South Africa

1. USAID cuts immediately closed SA trans clinics, and trans ppl, cut off from gender affirming care, have since died by suicide

2. USAID cuts have cut HIV/AIDS medication access, which takes months or years to manifest in deaths

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 1d

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted “no one has died” as a result of U.S. foreign aid cuts. In Myanmar, the grieving father of a 2-year-old boy who died after their food rations were cut calls such claims a lie.

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

bit.ly

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 21h

When people ask what is happening at the ICE facility in Broadview, IL this is a place to start the conversation.

But then we need to ask, if this is what they do in the open to religious leaders, what are they doing to those they have taken from us behind closed doors?

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

David Hudson @dwhdaily.bsky.social · 23h

“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

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

Antonia Juhasz @antoniajuhasz.bsky.social · 23h

Well, this is telling. The second most-searched word on Merriam-Webster today? #Fascism.
"...associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition."

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 1d

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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Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 1d

Pretty excited about tonight's Full Moon. One 6 minute time lapse, cut with a full speed video taken immediately after. This is my first time shooting the moon coming out from behind a building, and I want to start doing this more often incorporating friends and enemies in the windows.

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 23h

"There just isn’t enough time. There’s only what we manage to make of it—what we build, what we protect, what we remember to carry to the car. The gas mask. The snacks. The question we forgot to ask. The name of the person taken." My latest.

The Emergency Is the Atmosphere

“It’s meant to exhaust us. It’s meant to destroy us."

organizingmythoughts.org

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

ProPublica @propublica.org · 22h

NEW: Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools.

It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department.

Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.

www.propublica.org

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 22h

A classic

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

doomscroll break

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 2d

It's a pretty big deal that the NYC Bar Association--one of the most prominent and respected bar associations in the country--is accusing the President of ordering the "unlawful summary execution," i.e. murder--of civilians in violation of US and international law. www.nycbar.org/press-releas...

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 2d

Illuminating 🧵re: press lawsuit v. Ice and DHS

Dave Byrnes @djbyrnes1.bsky.social · 2d

@unraveledpress.com & other press have been threatened, shot with less-lethals and arrested while reporting on federal immigration activities in Chicagoland and on the resulting protests at Broadview.

I'm now at a hearing asking the federal court to rein ICE & co in. I'll let you know how it goes.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

Well, yeah, we're suing ICE.

This wasn't really a hard decision. As little faith as we have in institutions, we recognize the value of drawing visible lines in the sand. We drew ours personally a while ago, but better late than never.

May every protester be freed and may this occupation end.

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 2d

They lied.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 2d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

James Stout @jamesstout.bsky.social · 2d

I’m glad people are aware of this, but it isn’t new. People in immigration detention were consistently moved away from their attorneys in the Biden admin. We reported on it then, but very few people cared about migrants when they weren’t a partisan tool.

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 2d

ICE abducts people and then immediately moves them around to prevent access to lawyers and habeas corpus petitions. @emmarjanssen.bsky.social has the story on this consistent game being played to frustrate due process.
prospect.org/justice/2025...

How ICE Hides Detainees From Their Lawyers

‘It seems like cruelty is the point,’ one attorney said.

prospect.org

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Reposted by Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom

Lisan Al Gai-Skeet @tcrimson05t.bsky.social · 2d

I'm fine with this in theory but I need to know what this means in practice.

I need to know how this will be enforced.

Because otherwise it's just suggestion.

The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 2d

HAPPENING NOW — This morning, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order establishing “ICE-free zones.”

“That means that city property and unwilling private businesses will no longer serve as grounds for these raids,” Johnson said to applause.

thetriibe.com/2025/10/mayo...

Mayor Brandon Johnson signs executive order establishing ‘ICE-free zones’ • The TRiiBE

Johnson is calling for a full investigation into “all of the brutality” that federal agents have conducted this past week.

thetriibe.com

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Jeff Nichols @backwardsriver.bsky.social · 3d

The last stanza of "Maxwell Street" by Galway Kinnell, Chicago 1955

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 2d

ICE abducts people and then immediately moves them around to prevent access to lawyers and habeas corpus petitions. @emmarjanssen.bsky.social has the story on this consistent game being played to frustrate due process.
prospect.org/justice/2025...

How ICE Hides Detainees From Their Lawyers

‘It seems like cruelty is the point,’ one attorney said.

prospect.org

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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson asked a federal judge Monday morning to block President Donald Trump from deploying 400 members of the Texas National Guard to Chicago alongside 300 members of the Illinois National Guard. @wttw.bsky.social

Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson Ask Judge to Block Trump From Deploying 400 Texas National Guard Troops to Chicago

The lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago officials calls the looming deployment of both Texas and Illinois National Guard troops a politically motivated and unconstitutional federal overreach.

news.wttw.com

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Joey Scott @joeyneverjoe.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago press organizations, along with @unraveledpress.com, @peoplesfabric.com, and @blockclubchi.bsky.social are suing DHS and ICE for detaining and assaulting journalists. Journalists in LA were successful in their suits against the dept.

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 2d

JUST IN: Chicago journalistsa re suing DHS and ICE over force used against reporters:

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Under the Tree w/Bill Ayers - A Seminar on Freedom @underthetreepod.bsky.social · 3d

With everything happening in our cities and on our blocks, it’s easy to forget about the people on the other side of the world. But we are all connected and it’s all the same struggle.

Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 3d

MALDIVES "ETERNAL" RECORD HEAT
Maldives has been with relentless record heat for years breaking records continuosly
Today Min 28.5 Male
MALDIVES HOTTEST OCTOBER NIGHT IN HISTORY

Record hot nights are falling from Japan to Caucasus in every country (even >32C in Oman!).

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