Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jesse Zaneveld

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 6h

Six people had their visas revoked due to their social media posts.

Six people are being deported because of what they said online.

Six people have had their freedom of speech suspended.

It won’t stop with these six people.

Either we all have freedom of speech or none of us do.

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 8h

The bias toward artificial, sterilized images of people in content moderation is *already* reported by (often queer-owned) brands that use unairbrushed humans in photos posted to e.g. Instagram

Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 8h

There is this weird thing where I think there will be a tendency (that we must fight) for AI words and imagery to be accepted as less vulgar than actual humanity.

Partially clad AI "beauty" = normal

Actual human with a human body in same state but with hair and wrinkles and so on = pornographic

Alex Degen (Magic Serple 2025) @adactivity.bsky.social · 21h

This is cool after the war on everything called “porn” by platforms and payment processors. A machine that stole all your words can generate and sell “erotica” but you can’t haaa

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 22h

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 9h

Paperwork, but make it smell amazing.

(Love this)

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 7d

Very cool:

The shallow recesses in these Roman wooden tablets were filled with wax, and a stylus was used to inscribe writing into the wax. Once the written information had been conveyed, they were reused.

www.heritagedaily.com/2025/10/roma...

Roman writing tablets discovered in ancient wells

Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have discovered a rare collection of wooden writing tablets dating from the Roman period. - HeritageDaily - Ar...

www.heritagedaily.com

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 7d

Very cool:

The shallow recesses in these Roman wooden tablets were filled with wax, and a stylus was used to inscribe writing into the wax. Once the written information had been conveyed, they were reused.

www.heritagedaily.com/2025/10/roma...

Roman writing tablets discovered in ancient wells

Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have discovered a rare collection of wooden writing tablets dating from the Roman period. - HeritageDaily - Ar...

www.heritagedaily.com

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Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley.bsky.social · 12h

Hey. Hi. Tom Homan is on camera taking a $50k bribe and no one knows where the money went. If this was any other administration, this would be non-stop on the news. Why are we normalizing this stuff?

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Bolts @boltsmag.org · 21h

Yesterday, California adopted a law to raise the pay received by incarcerated firefighters when they’re fighting a fire from $1 to $7.25 per hour—meeting the federal minimum wage. Four other new laws also give new rights to incarcerated firefighters.

California's incarcerated firefighters to see a ‘historic’ pay increase in laws Newsom signed

Hundreds of California state prisoners worked to put out this year's deadly Los Angeles wildfires, inspiring new laws that will improve their pay and open other opportunities.

calmatters.org

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 12h

The mark of good oratory is that you have to force people to watch it.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14h

NEW: Pentagon officials are forcing staff to watch Pete Hegseth's "Warrior" speech he forced generals to listen to.

Officials are even "testing" staff to see if they watched — and are threatening consequences if they lie about watching it or if they mock it, sources tell @swin24.bsky.social and I.

The Pentagon Is Ordering Staff to Watch Hegseth’s ‘MAGA Garbage’ Speech… Or Else

Defense Department sources tell Zeteo that staff have been warned that if they don’t watch or read the speech, or if they speak negatively of it, they could face severe consequences.

zeteo.com

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 12h

Same time that Pritzker is telling city and state officials to start arresting and prosecuting federal officials for assaulting Illinois citizens.

OT1H, this is clearly really bad.

OTOH, our federalized design might end up being an absolute godsend.

JB Pritzker looking at prosecuting ICE agents in Chicago

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has suggested that state prosecutors might examine the conduct of ICE agents.

www.newsweek.com

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 13h

To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids

Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

abcnews.go.com

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Maxine Joselow @maxinejoselow.bsky.social · 16h

Before catastrophic floods swept through the Alaska Native village of Kipnuk on Sunday, the EPA canceled a $20 million grant intended to protect the community from extreme flooding. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/c...

Before Alaska Flooding, E.P.A. Canceled $20 Million Flood Protection Grant

www.nytimes.com

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 15h

Indiana University has fired the staff director of the student newspaper, after disputes in which university leadership tried to pressure him to prevent students from publishing news.

IndyStar 2 . Follow
1h:
"All Media School and IU students, faculty and staff
should be scared by this blatant attack on someone
standing up for what's right," student Editors-ln-Chief
Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller said in a statement.
Read more: bit.ly/43ebKW1
IndyStar.
IDS
The original investigative student
newsroom of Indiana University
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Indiana University fires IDS
adviser amid push to control
student newspaper's content

The director of student media at Indiana University was fired amidst a dispute between university leadership and editors at the Indiana Daily Student over what content gets printed in the student newspaper.

As director of student media, Jim Rodenbush did not directly oversee or have any say over the content published in the IDS, per a charter between the IDS and the university. But he told IndyStar his firing follows a series of meetings with IU Media School leadership in which it grew increasingly apparent they were expecting him to officially prohibit students from publishing news.

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Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 21h

“At least one person in the Telegram chat works in the Trump administration: Michael Bartels, who, according to his LinkedIn account, serves as a senior adviser in the office of general counsel within the U.S. Small Business Administration.”

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Politico @politico.com · 21h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘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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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 21h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 21h

Young Republican leaders:

"I’m ready to watch people burn now"

"Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chambers"

"easy racism and casual cruelty played out in often dark, vivid fashion inside the chats....blurred into streams of slurs & violent fantasies"

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

Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 23h

It's so cheap! The 1-time price of diverse, un-cancelable public media endowments with *interest* equal to Fox levels of funding each year would be exactly at the lower end of funds Congress frees up if it cancels extra ICE /deportation funding ($185 billion).

www.epi.org/blog/house-r...

House Republican budget bill gives Trump $185 billion to carry out his mass deportation agenda—while doing nothing for workers: Immigration enforcement would have 80 times more funding than labor stan...

House Republicans recently passed Trump’s budget reconciliation legislation that massively redistributes income from some of the poorest households to the richest. It is now under consideration in the...

www.epi.org

Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 23h

Conversely, given the national costs exacted by e.g. Fox News, it's shocking how cheap it is.

ALL of Fox corporation is $13 billion/year.

An endowment eternally funding PBS - or better a diverse array of independent news outlets- to similar levels would only take a one-time cost of $185 - $320b

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 23h

The story of Bezos and the WaPo illustrates why it's a Problem if people have so much wealth that even profit from multimillion dollar investments are trivial and don't actually have to make money for them.

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

Why would a billionaire want a functioning paper? Functioning papers cover shit like “did you know this billionaire makes his workers pee into bottles instead of taking a break” and “you pay way more tax than a guy with ten yachts”

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

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Jesse Zaneveld @jessezaneveld.bsky.social · 23h

It's so frustrating because back on Twitter I followed Magdi for quite a while on other issues and she often had quite thoughtful, nuanced takes. The exceptionalism is jarring.

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 1d

Very bad: OSU unilaterally cancelled the registration of grad students attending the joint conference of the National Society of Black Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists. And OSU won't fund recruiting at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science.

Ohio State changes policy on group conferences after Trump administration threats

A federal investigation into potentially discriminatory practices at Ohio State prompted the university to change its policies regarding conferences.

www.dispatch.com

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 1d

Solidarity is the only way

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t want to jinx anything, and I am so grateful for them and their hard work and kindness right now, but I do think we can and perhaps should have a civil, candid conversation about the ceiling light at my emergency vet

Uhhh. I’d rather not describe it honestly. I’m sorry. Let the replies do it for you

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she 'doesn’t look like' a Greeley."

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

Chicago Tribune: Greeley, who was born at Illinois Masonic hospital and is adopted, carries a copy of her passport just in case she runs into federal agents.

“I am Latina and I am a service worker,” Greeley said. “I fit the description of what they’re looking for now.”

During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she “doesn’t look like” a Greeley.

“They said this isn’t real, they kept telling me I’m lying, I’m a liar,” Greeley recalled. “I told them to look in the rest of my wallet, I have my credit cards, my insurance.”

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

This is a very big deal 🧵

Deborah McDowell @dem8z.bsky.social · 1d

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!

The University of Texas-Austin is beginning a process to eliminate the Black Studies, Latino Studies, and Gender Studies departments in the College of Liberal Arts. This is a grave threat to the educational liberty of students, faculty, staff, and the people of Texas. 1/

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