Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 10h

More blooms! 🥰
This one is Huernia Schneideriana, or red dragon flower.
Still waiting on the Stapelia Gigantea. Maybe tonight?🤞

Cluster of tall, narrow, spiky succulents with a tiny, five-pointed, red flower.

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The Shumater @theshumater.bsky.social · 13h

235 Arkansas state employees furloughed due to federal govt. shutdown. 167 are federally funded state employees who work for Dept. of Military at Camp Robinson & Ft. Chaffee; 59 work for state health or human services departments.
www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/oc...

235 Arkansas government employees furloughed in executive branch agencies due to federal government shutdown | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

The number of Arkansas state government employees furloughed in executive branch agencies as a result of the federal government shutdown totaled 235 during the week that ended Friday, according to a s...

www.arkansasonline.com

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 17h

They get a paid vacation while my BIL, a federal firefighter, continues to work without pay 😡

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 18h

Thank you!

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 18h

😂😂😂

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 19h

ICYMI: “And now, a response from the leader of the frog resistance...” 🐸 🎵 #Colbert

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 20h

My night-blooming cereus bloomed! I think it will be another day or two before the carrion plant blooms, but it looks like it’s going to be enormous! #plantsky #stapeliagigantea #queenofthenight

A large, white flower with many narrow petals and a pink/yellow center. The background is out of focus.

A succulent with tall, narrow, four-lobed segments and a large bud about to bloom.

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Jeanine 💙 @madammaleficent.bsky.social · 21h

REMINDER: For anyone confused, your political views are more than opinions. They're a reflection of your values, your empathy, and the way you see humanity.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 1d

The concentration of wealth in the hands of a few isn't just bad for our economy. It's corrosive to our democracy.

When the wealthy and well-connected control our political system, regular people don't have a voice.

The result? The demagoguery and corruption we're seeing now.

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 1d

This is beautiful!

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George Gantsoudes @pedsortho.bsky.social · 1d

Please remember that the disgust people have over Christopher Columbus is not based on some modern, 21st century “woke” ideology, but rather on contemporaneous accounts of atrocities that make many modern genocides appear quaint in comparison.

Below, are the accounts of Bartlomé de las Casas.

But too many of the slaves died in captivity. And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had in-vested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

After each six or eight months' work in the mines, which was the time required of each crew to dig enough gold for melting, up to a third of the men died.
While the men were sent many miles away to the mines, the wives remained to work the soil, forced into the excruciating job of digging and making thousands of hills for cassava plants.
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides... they ceased to pro-create. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and fam-ished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desper-ation.... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk ... and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fer-tile... was depopulated... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write....

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50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 1d

5 day countdown until the largest protest in American history.

Find an event near you:

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

NoKings.org

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 3d

Best I can tell, they’re trying to conflate lawfully present, documented non-citizens as “illegals”

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

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50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 3d

NoKings.org

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 3d

Foraged a few persimmons on this lovely Saturday. Looking for joy where I can find it 💛

A few persimmons gathered in my shirt. They look horrible–soft, wrinkled, with dark spots– but that’s the only way to eat them! (If you’ve ever bitten into a seemingly pristine, firm, beautifully orange persimmon, you know! 😖

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 3d

I got this mystery succulent from my husband’s late grandmother several years ago, and it is putting on ENORMOUS buds for the first time. The internet tells me it is a carrion plant, and it will smell like rotting flesh when it blooms. (Maybe in time for Halloween?!?) 😳 #plantsky

Several potted plants on a cluttered porch table. One, a succulent with clusters of long, thin, spineless fingers, has sprouted bulbous buds. I believe it may be a stapelia gigantea, aka carrion plant, aka Zulu starfish plant. Excited to see it bloom for the first time!

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50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 3d

No Kings,
For the love of America.

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

nokings.org

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 4d

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 4d

I think it will backfire on them. If anything, they’re giving the protests free publicity.

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 4d

Mabel says to go outside. It’s good for the soul 💛

Mabel, a black and white coonhound mix, looks back at the camera with a goofy grin. She is walking along a serene, leaf-strewn trail beneath a backlit tree. There is a sun-flare in the corner of the image.

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Indivisible Northwest Arkansas @indivisiblenwa.bsky.social · 5d

Have you invited three people to join Indivisible NWA for the No Kings event?

More info and sign up here: mobilize.us/s/Mx6slV

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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 4d

So Trump gave Argentina a $20 billion bailout and is now building a Qatari military facility in Idaho.

While Americans can’t afford groceries.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 5d

They are obfuscating and misleading around the definitions of “illegal” and “emergency care” to make it sound like Democrats are asking for things they are not. I think it is important to call them out for this and clarify what is actually at stake.

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 5d

The “1.4 million illegals” Mike Johnson keeps lying about are, in fact, lawfully present, documented migrants who are doing everything right in the process. This is who republicans are dead-set on denying medical access to. I have found this NBC article helpful.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...

There are an estimated 1.4 million people considered "lawfully present" in the United States - including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program beneficiaries, who came to the U.S. illegally as children; people who have Temporary Protected Status; and refugees and people seeking asylum who are still going through the legal process.
Republicans are seeking to prohibit Medicaid or
ACA eligibility for those groups.

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Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 5d

They also have wonderful customer service!

Jo @artsyjo.bsky.social · 5d

If you are looking for an Amazon replacement for ordering books, I highly recommend ThriftBooks. Just had one of the most quick/positive customer service interactions I’ve ever had after a book arrived damaged. They’ve already got another copy on the way!

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