Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 4m

"In Southwest Virginia, music is passed down through families—shared between grandparents and grandchildren, cherished as something to do together both on stage and off."

The Heartbeat of American Roots Music Is Alive in Southwest Virginia

A century after the Bristol Sessions, the region is still producing vital Americana.

daily.bandcamp.com

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 27m

"Empires, in their militarism, expect numbness about the human cost of war. Corporate economies expect blindness to the cost in terms of poverty and exploitation. Governments and societies of domination go to great lengths to keep the numbness intact. Jesus penetrates the numbness by his compassion"

Prophetic Solidarity and Compassion

Old Testament Scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann (1933–2025) witnesses Jesus’ prophetic role in his solidarity and his compassion for those on the

cac.org

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 45m

King Harvest (Has Surely Come) - The Band (The Band 12 of 12)

YouTube video by Nalencer

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Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 1h

"John Roberts’ lifelong assault on voting rights for Black Americans is the culmination of a half-century of efforts by the Old South to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights era. They accomplished that task [by] packing the Supreme Court with justices hostile to equal rights for Black Americans."

John Roberts meets his Dred Scott moment.

October 16, 2025

open.substack.com

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 3h

Mosaic Fish

to read the new Berry or the

open.substack.com

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Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 3h

“No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”

October 15, 2025

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Louisiana v.

open.substack.com

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ChicagoVintageTileFloors @chicagovtfloor.bsky.social · 14h

A little something wavy from @larjguy.bsky.social

A colorful vintage tile floor pattern from hexagon tiles.

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Patrick De Klotz @patdeklotz.bsky.social · 1d

Really important that we don't become numb to the President designating unspecified groups as terrorists who he can just kill without any process and without much evidence that the allegations against the unknown people are even actually true.

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Henry Gould @henryghenrik.bsky.social · 16h

Poem # 10 from *Parmenides in Minneapolis* : Summer Horses
open.substack.com/pub/henryghe...

Summer Horses

poem # 10 from *Parmenides in Minneapolis*

open.substack.com

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Indivisible Chicago Alliance ❌👑 @indivisiblechicago.bsky.social · 22h

A child - a Black child - only 15 - was zip-tied and held by federal agents for hours, unable to contact his mother. Here in Chicago on the Southeast Side. tinyurl.com/BlackChildHeld @blockclubchi.bsky.social

Screenshot of photo of mother embracing her son and the words: 15-year-old U.S. citizen taken by feds for 5 hours after East Side protest, attorney says

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Indivisible Chicago Alliance ❌👑 @indivisiblechicago.bsky.social · 21h

ICYMI: In Chicago, Maria Greeley, 44, was on her way home from her job earlier this month when she was surrounded, seized & zip-tied by three ICE masked agents w/o cause or warning & interrogated for an hour. ICE determined she was an undocumented immigrant because she didn’t “look like” a Greeley.

Ray Beckerman @raybeckerman.bsky.social · 1d

ICE Detains U.S. Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look” American newrepublic.com/post/201745/...

ICE Detains U.S. Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look” American

She even had her U.S. passport on her.

newrepublic.com

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𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚟𝚎 𝙼𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚎𝚜 @stevenpmillies.com · 19h

The Catholic Church showed up in Chicago on Saturday. And, we need to keep showing up.

"They are afraid of people of faith."

religionnews.com/2025/10/15/i...

ICE turned away the body of Christ. Catholics must keep showing up anyway.

(RNS) — Catholics processed in prayer had hoped to send eight people into a Chicago-area ICE facility to distribute Holy Communion.

religionnews.com

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Sandra @vintageunicorn.bsky.social · 17h

Gerbera for #colorADay #YellowThu

#photography #flowers #photographersUnited #photographersofbluedky

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Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 20h

Muzika

YouTube video by Vopli Vidopliassova - Topic

youtu.be

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 1d

"Culture might seem a less consequential right than due process or free assembly. Its infringement makes less spectacular news than police action, protests, or Washington partisanship. In this way, the gross repeal of a right that took decades to build is at risk of going unreported."

How to Protect Your Right to Culture

The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.

hyperallergic.com

Reposted by Tom Murphy

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 1d

Pope Leo at General Audience: Hope “does not mean thinking in an optimistic way: often optimism lets us down, causing our expectations to implode, whereas hope promises and fulfills.” www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

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Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 1d

Bricks in Muck

easy to select one morsel of news

open.substack.com

Tom Murphy @brtom.bsky.social · 1d

"How did we arrive at the point where untrained, masked government agents, accountable to no one but the president and his henchmen, pepper spray a priest with impunity? How, in less than a year, has America been so utterly transformed?"

How Did We Get Here?

What led us to a world in which pastors get pepper-sprayed in the face?

open.substack.com

Reposted by Tom Murphy

Henry Gould @henryghenrik.bsky.social · 1d

In the US we have a constitutional right to freedom of speech as well as a poetic license to be a goofball.

Henry Gould @henryghenrik.bsky.social · 1d

Reading himself into poem #7, from PARMENIDES IN MINNEAPOLIS : Firecrackers open.substack.com/pub/henryghe...

Firecrackers

poem # 7 of *Parmenides in Minneapolis*

open.substack.com

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 1d

It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.

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Joe Ferullo @joeferullo.bsky.social · 1d

Much worse than you imagined
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 1d

Statement of Cardinal Cupich on the Moral Imperative to Uphold Both Security and Human Dignity.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 1d

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

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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 1d

There’s a reason we all feel crazy. Orwell knew it.

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Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 2d

History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."

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