Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 10d

ICE has been paying private security for 24/7 guards to watch a guy with no record whose leg they fucked up so badly he has been in a hospital for over a month, and we wonder why people were handing Tom Homan bags of cash.

Via @kyledcheney.bsky.social

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

On August 27, 2025, Petitioner was arrested at the Carson Car Wash in Carson,
California by uniformed Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) officers and unidentified
plainclothes federal agents. See Pet. ¶¶ 16, 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 3. During the arrest,
Petitioner sustained severe leg injuries. See Pet. ¶ 48; Santiago Decl. ¶ 5. He was
handcuffed and transported by CBP to the emergency room at Harbor-UCLA Medical
Center in Carson, California. Id.
At the hospital, Petitioner was admitted under a “blackout” procedure for patients
in law-enforcement custody and was registered under the pseudonym “Har Maine UNK
Thirteen.” Santiago Decl. ¶ 7. Federal agents remained at Petitioner’s bedside during
admission, transfer to non-public treatment areas, and throughout his stay, keeping him
handcuffed to his hospital bed. Id. ¶ 6.
On or about August 27, 2025, CBP transferred custody of Petitioner to ICE. See Pet.
¶ 48. He remains detained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center under the supervision of ICE,
which has contracted with Spectrum Detention Services (“Spectrum”) to provide guards.
See Santiago Decl. ¶ 8; Pet. ¶ 48.
Since that date, two to four uniformed guards—either Spectrum employees or ICE
agents—have been continuously stationed in Petitioner’s hospital room, monitoring him at
all times, including while he sleeps, eats, uses the restroom, or receives medical care. See
Santiago Decl. ¶¶ 9–10.

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Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 15d

I'm hiring! www.aacu.org/about/employ...

Associate Director | AAC&U

A VOICE AND A FORCE FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION. AAC&U advances the vitality and democratic purposes of undergraduate liberal education.

www.aacu.org

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 15d

Been a while since I saved the humanities singlehandedly and very quickly. Today, on my dog walk, I noticed, though it was quite early, a group in the park that was on day two of reading Don Quixote aloud. They waved their thanks. I smiled and nodded. Clyde let out a humanities-celebrating "woof!"

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 19d

I have been on a”victory tour” to celebrate how I recently saved the humanities. In every state, someone comes up to me and says some variant of “Sir! No one thought the humanities could be saved. But you saved them very quickly!”

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 20d

Some professional news. I have saved the humanities. The humanities are safe, thanks to me.

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 19d

I have been on a”victory tour” to celebrate how I recently saved the humanities. In every state, someone comes up to me and says some variant of “Sir! No one thought the humanities could be saved. But you saved them very quickly!”

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 20d

Some professional news. I have saved the humanities. The humanities are safe, thanks to me.

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 20d

Some professional news. I have saved the humanities. The humanities are safe, thanks to me.

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 22d

People are unfair. In my own recent speech at the U.N., I focused on when I sent a letter to them suggesting they change their name to the Justice League, because of the crossover potential. They went in a different direction, I said, and now they're doing badly and I'm amazing.

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 23d

Me: I consumed some hummus today and can't figure out whether this means I'm anti-Palestinian or implicitly killed Jesus or Charlie Kirk. Or does it mean all of these things? I mean, I just like hummus.

My sensitivity consultant: Was it ultraprocessed?

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · 23d

I wrote this, re: Kirk's organization, in 2022. None of it was or is grounds for suppressing TPUSA on campuses (which was attempted at some), or for the loathsome killing of Kirk. But, amid a push for new chapters it shouldn't get to sail under false colors either. www.chronicle.com/article/red-....

Opinion | I’m a Conservative. I’m Dismayed by Right-Wing Campus Activists.

A populist conservatism that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to McCarthyism confronts colleges.

www.chronicle.com

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 24d

Personalist regime tries to set up another mechanism of control. Silicon Valley firms will be subject to the whims of the mad king.

Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 25d

The H1-B visa thing is, like everything else in the Trump administration, set up to carve up exceptions for friends and punish enemies. It’s the authoritarian thru-line that stitches everything together.

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Reuters @reuters.com · Sep 11

Rubio vows US response following conviction of Brazil's Bolsonaro reut.rs/4piCG0f

Rubio vows US response following conviction of Brazil's Bolsonaro

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said the United States would "respond accordingly to this witch hunt" after former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election.

reut.rs

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Sep 6

I reviewed Eve Grace and Christopher Kelly's Letters from Rousseau, which includes some letters never before available in English and fresh translations of letters that are hard to get now that the Collected Writings are, lamentably, out of print. lawliberty.org/book-review/...

Rousseau’s Republic of Letters – Jonathan Marks

A new edition of Rousseau’s letters sheds light on the personality and thought of one of the Enlightenment’s greatest and strangest figures.

lawliberty.org

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Sep 6

Can’t believe I wasn’t consulted. We should have held out for a year’s supply of dry erase markers.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Aug 31

This Is What—and Who—We’re Losing in RFK’s Purge open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

This Is What—and Who—We’re Losing in RFK’s Purge

The story of one scientist, a career in public health, and the crisis at the CDC.

open.substack.com

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · Aug 31

"Agnes Callard’s Socrates is not merely depressing. He represents a new achievement in tragic literature." Mary Townsend reviews "Open Socrates": www.thebulwark.com/p/agnes-call...

Agnes Callard’s Insistent Answers to Life’s Deepest Questions

The University of Chicago philosophy professor invites readers to join her on the higher path, but she loses the spirit of her ancient Greek avatar along the way.

www.thebulwark.com

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Aug 30

Now that the Trump death hoax is off, what am I supposed to do with this piece of bread, on which an imprint of his head appeared this morning?

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Apr 30

Surely with RFK Jr.s nuanced and careful public health messaging, trust in public health is at an all-time high.

headline: There’s a Better Way to Talk About Fluoride, Vaccines and Raw Milk
by emily oster

headline
RFK Jr revealed what is missing in public health messaging
by Emily Oster

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Aug 27

Tough 1st class of the year. Entering to "When the Man Comes Around" went fine. But the colleague I asked to fire t-shirts into the crowd accidentally hit a kid in the first row. I broke the class into groups to devise an "innovative first aid solution." But they were shook.

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Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · Aug 24

A national corporation changing its branding is actually a secret message to me mocking my values stop laughing I am not “crazy”

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Aug 12

Getting ready for fall semester but can’t decide: a) whether I should have grok or Chat GPT boil Moby Dick down, so that we can master it in one class. b) Whether having “AI Zach Bryan” sing a countrified Moby Dick ballad will be seen by students as a pander.

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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · Aug 9

Karen Henderson is the longest-serving Republican appointee on the D.C. Circuit. She’s deeply conservative but not Trumpy.

In ordering the Trump administration to restore a congressionally mandated database of federal spending, she strongly suggests the president is engaging in king-like behavior.

Screenshot of opinion by Judge Karen Henderson:

KAREN LECRAFT HENDERSON, Circuit Judge, statement respecting the denial of a stay pending appeal:

“Throughout the 1600s, the Stuart monarchs engaged in a titanic struggle with Parliament regarding who would reign supreme over the public purse. That struggle was marked by civil war, regicide and a new wellspring of liberty in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
By the end of the upheaval, Parliament emerged supreme in matters of taxation and spending. Our Constitution followed suit, granting the Congress plenary control over the public fisc.

Recently, the Executive has once again locked horns in a struggle for control over the purse strings. Across a slew of cases, recipients of congressional funding have challenged the President's ability to unilaterally freeze or "impound" spending.' Today's case is but the latest chapter in the ongoing saga.”

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · Aug 8

Deaf guy tried to show ICE his ID. An agent grabbed it and didn't return it.

So he tried to type a message about his disability but an agent grabbed his phone.

He was left w/ no way to communicate w/ the men seizing him.

He was a DACA recipient (a "dreamer"). He spent nearly a month in detention.

Dreamers Face ‘Greatest Threat’ Yet in Trump Immigrant Crackdown

The DACA program has survived years of political siege—but recent arrests have dreamers shocked and worried.

www.thebulwark.com

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Jul 29

www.thefp.com/p/matti-frie...

Matti Friedman: Is Gaza Starving? Searching for the Truth in an Information War.

When I asked a former senior government official if there is mass hunger among Gazans, he answered me honestly: ‘I don’t know.’

www.thefp.com

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David Shor @davidshor.bsky.social · Feb 8

Explicit antisemitic attitudes are now much more common among young voters - 18 year old registered voters are now ~5x more likely to say that they have an unfavorable view of the Jewish people than 65 year olds.

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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thank god we are early in the summer and August isn’t coming soon. Now let me just take a big sip of coffee before I check the calendar

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Jul 24

Even my beloved alma mater, although it raises about a kajillion per year in gifts, is feeling the pinch of anti-higher-ed policy. Luckily, these proposed changes affect only teaching and research, rather than core university functions, such as fundraising.

Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · Jul 22

"The charges, Delogu said, stem from a growing need in higher education to justify the existence of the humanities at large and to demonstrate the value of humanities students beyond academia" bit.ly/46TruQP

UChicago Arts & Humanities Division to Restructure Amid “Historic Funding Pressures”

“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty on June 18.

bit.ly

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Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Jul 23

Reassembling my marketing team to get "Let's Be Reasonable" discussed on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum. So far, getting little traction as DayTraderRousseau but am hopeful.

Jonathan Marks @marksjo1.bsky.social · Jul 22

Worth reading.

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · Jul 22

"Many persons I’d think would know better have affixed their names to a new and highly illiberal set of demands on colleges and universities." New from me at @theunpopulist.net, on the appalling "Manhattan Statement."

A Manhattan Institute Manifesto Would Give this President Sweeping Power to Force University Compliance with Right-Wing Demands

The statement is selling a naked ideological agenda as a defense of campus free speech

www.theunpopulist.net

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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · Jul 22

"Many persons I’d think would know better have affixed their names to a new and highly illiberal set of demands on colleges and universities." New from me at @theunpopulist.net, on the appalling "Manhattan Statement."

A Manhattan Institute Manifesto Would Give this President Sweeping Power to Force University Compliance with Right-Wing Demands

The statement is selling a naked ideological agenda as a defense of campus free speech

www.theunpopulist.net

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Rob Townsend @rbtownsend.bsky.social · Jul 22

"The charges, Delogu said, stem from a growing need in higher education to justify the existence of the humanities at large and to demonstrate the value of humanities students beyond academia" bit.ly/46TruQP

UChicago Arts & Humanities Division to Restructure Amid “Historic Funding Pressures”

“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty on June 18.

bit.ly

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