Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 2h

Gotta replace all those kids about to die from measles.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

RFK Jr: "When my uncle was president, the fertility rate in this country was 3.5%. Today it is 1.6%. The replacement rate -- in other words the amount of fertility you need to keep your population even -- is 2.1%. We are below replacement. That is a national security threat to our country."

David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 7h

This is one of the things I'm most interested in, personally. It's something that intuitively seems important (lot of word counts devoted to finding "chemistry"), but seems like it's been tough to get clear empirical evidence for. Effects of coaches/system on players would be my other curiosity.

David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 7h

We're living up to the stereotype of "being literate."

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 7h

Author never asked ChatGPT if libraries exist.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 1d

For a boat to be responsible for that magnitude of American deaths, it'd have to be carrying RFK Jr.

Brian Finucane @bcfinucane.bsky.social · 1d

Some unsubstantiated nonsense from POTUS.

—Claims "couple of days with no boats to be found." US struck a boat *yesterday.* (Perhaps Trump didn't write yesterday's post announcing the strike...)

—Claims each boat is killing 25,000 Americans. Boats not carrying fentanyl. Don't appear headed for US.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump says he's now "looking at land" strikes on Venezuela

Reposted by David

Kurtbert Barlowko @albertburneko.bsky.social · 1d

"disliking me is persecution" describes so incredibly many people's entire outlook these days defector.com/free-press-r...

Free Press Reporter Discovers That Being An Amoral Dickhead Can Cost You Friends | Defector

It can be hard to maintain friendships as an adult. People move to new cities, start families, and experience all sorts of other life events that make it difficult to keep in touch. Sometimes, you end...

defector.com

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 1d

I've seen this denoted as the "reverse Spider-Man principle": "With great power comes no responsibility".

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Reposted by David

Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 19d

What we might refer to as a "Kavanaugh Stop"

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21d

WOW. The lead plaintiff is a Latino man who's been here legally for 24 years. He was grabbed off the street by plainclothes federal agents who didn't even ASK about his status.

He was detained overnight and only released once a supervisor realized he had been illegally arrested.

PARTIES3. Plaintiff José Escobar Molina is a 47-year-old man who has lived in D.C. for 25 years. He has maintained valid Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”) for El Salvador since 2001. On August 21, 2025, Mr. Escobar Molina was walking from his apartment building in Northwest D.C.to his work truck, about to start his workday, when two cars pulled up next to him. As he was about to get into his truck, plain-clothed and unidentified federal agents exited the cars and—without conducting any inquiry—seized Mr. Escobar Molina, grabbing him by the arms and legs and immediately handcuffing him. The agents arrested him without a warrant and without asking for his name, his identification, or anything about his immigration status. The agents also did not ask him where he lives, whom he lives with, how long he has lived here, or anything else about his ties to the community prior to arresting him. After ICE detained Mr. Escobar Molina overnight at its processing center in Chantilly, Virginia, the next day an ICE supervisor finally realized that he had valid TPS, which statutorily prohibits ICE from detaining him, and released him. Due tohis Latino ethnicity, Mr. Escobar Molina fears being arrested and detained again while going about his daily life in D.C.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 2d

That's a lot of Wyrmspan! So glad to hear you've enjoyed the game so much, and had a good play with the expansion!

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Reposted by David

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 3d

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...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

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Reposted by David

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2d

ICE is probably causing an increase in crime.

I’m not referring to the many crimes committed by ICE officers—though one certainly could—but to how they’ve enabled criminals by giving them opportunities to impersonate masked ICE officers and by pulling cops off of police work to do harassment.

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Reposted by David

Mx. Tiffany Leigh @tiffanyleigh.bsky.social · Jul 4

Alternatives to NY Times Games & Puzzles 🧵

If it bothers you that your passive games subscription and clicks to the NYT Games cartel is funding their awful OpEd army and "journalism," there are a wealth of puzzle/game options less iffy/yikes complicit, and many are direct clones to your NYT faves.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 2d

Honestly, I'm not sure if it's better to bump him up the lineup, or hope he can help stabilize our bottom 6.

David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 3d

Honestly, I think that threat alone falls under the category of "undermines their ability to do their job" and should be grounds for dismissal.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 4d

I've been playing and enjoying the new FFT. I also keep recommending Unicorn Overlord to people who haven't played and like tactical RPGs.

Reposted by David

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 5d

theonion.com/ice-raids-my...

MYTH: ICE agents lack proper training.

FACT: Most have been racists their entire lives.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 4d

I got called in to jury duty for the first time a couple years ago. I was very excited to potentially serve (and did end up getting selected). I was much less excited when I had to watch an orientation video of Alito telling me about the importance of the judiciary.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 5d

The perfect Swiss prince wills things to happen!

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 5d

I was gonna make a snarky reply, indicating my frustration, but I can't do it better than this.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 5d

Also, the government lost a lot of "good will", which is a quantifiable commodity in the market. Who wants to work for them or take a contract/grant from them (even under a future administration) when it's shown extreme instability and lawlessness?

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 5d

The problem isn't that he said that. People say wildly untrue things all the time. It's that people heard many such statements and then chose to make him President.

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 5d

I am old enough to remember when Trump said he would lower grocery prices on Day One.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5d

A rare admission from the administration that policy choices have knock-off effects.

In this case: immigration crackdowns raise your grocery bill.

@washingtonpost.com
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Reposted by David

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 6d

Thiessen having a good chuckle about his fired liberal colleagues - some of whom he worked with for 15 years - is a good reminder that token conservatives at mainstream news outlets are/were there to destroy them, not to contribute to them.

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 6d

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 6d

Not sure where we can "hide" Palat. 3rd line seemed to get demolished, so by the end they stuck him with Jack and Bratt.

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David @hexstardragon.bsky.social · 6d

I'm worried the coaches will keep Palat with Bratt and Hughes. He doesn't get as demolished with them as he does on the third line, but he's such a boat anchor on our top players.

Reposted by David

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 6d

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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