Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dj Connell

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 14h

Big roar for AG Letitia James at the ZOHRAN rally👇🏽

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Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 3h

Yesterday, the premiere of a documentary called The Farmers of Kherson by Caolan Robertson took place in the UK

This is a powerful story about Ukrainians, about the farmer Oleksandr Hordiienko and his colleagues who demine, cultivate and harvest their land despite Russian attacks, drone safaris

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The Spirit of Lorenzo the Cat @lorenzothecat.bsky.social · 1d

Standing in Solidarity with the Portland frogs. 💚

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 20h

😍🧡👏👏👏

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 1d

For those of us who love PDX an excellent thread.

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 1d

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 1d

#IndigenousPeoplesDay “is not just a counterpoint to Columbus Day—it’s a declaration. A refusal to be erased. A reminder that we are more than what happened to us. We are who we have always been.”

“Today and every day, it’s a good day to be Indigenous.” nativenewsonline.net/opinion/we-r...

We're Still Here: Why It's Still a Good Day to Be Indigenous

Opinion. It’s a good day to be Indigenous.

nativenewsonline.net

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Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 1d

My latest is the story of how my community has rallied to protect and defend our neighbors in recent days, as ICE has targeted the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. "This is not a story about a moment of victory, but a moment of being reminded of our power."

They Came for Our Neighbors. We Showed Up.

Before long, there were dozens, and then hundreds of people in the streets, watching and responding.

organizingmythoughts.org

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 1d

Feline photography.
The image of the tapetum lucidum image is stunning.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/stun...

See Stunning Feline Photography Revealing the Science of Cats

Tim Flach captures his fascination with the science of cats in stunning photographs from his new book Feline

www.scientificamerican.com

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 1d

Portland vs
Portland in the news.
#dogs #monsters #ICE #Protests #Propaganda

Photo of a happy Golden Retriever (Portland) sitting next to a vicious looking Sculpture of a Werewolf which is growling and showing it’s fangs. (Portland in the News)

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 1d

We have some good news. 😺💜👇
#cats #kittens #CatsOfBlueSky
#DisabledPets
#AdoptDontShop

Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 1d

Tater Tot, our blind foster kitten was adopted yesterday. He is loving, cuddly, playful and brave. Tater will have a gentle cat friend (who was downhearted, missing their cat companion who had passed) and a loving, cat savy Dad who is up for the challenge.
Lots of hearts being healed right now. 🧡

A blind gold and white 5 month old male tabby kitten is standing by his bed waiting for some treats. His eyes had to be removed due to infection. He’d had low vision most of his life and adapted well. He is one of our favorite fosters, ever, and we’re glad he got such a good home. Have a great life sweetheart.

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 1d

Tater Tot, our blind foster kitten was adopted yesterday. He is loving, cuddly, playful and brave. Tater will have a gentle cat friend (who was downhearted, missing their cat companion who had passed) and a loving, cat savy Dad who is up for the challenge.
Lots of hearts being healed right now. 🧡

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 2d

This heartfelt and meaningful statement by Portland resident and author Cristina Breshears on another social media platform bears reposting here. I don't think the intent is to idealize Portland but to remind all of us what is important and why. (Posted here with permission.)

For nine nights now, the steady thrum of Black Hawk helicopters has circled over Portland. The sound is constant, invasive; a low mechanical beating above our homes. It’s expensive. It’s intimidating. And it’s unnecessary.

Our protests have been largely peaceful. There is no insurrection here. Yet this federalized military presence makes us feel like we are living in a war zone (the very kind of chaos this administration claims to be protecting us from).

The irony is painful: it is only this occupation that makes Portland feel unsafe.

Each hour of helicopter flight costs taxpayers between $2,000 and $4,000, depending on crew, fuel, and maintenance. Multiply that by multiple aircraft over multiple nights, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars burned into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Woodstock Food Pantry at All Saints Episcopal Church — which feeds working families, elders, and people with disabilities — has seen its federal funding slashed by 75%. How can we justify pouring public money into intimidation while cutting aid to those who simply need to eat?

This is waste, fraud, and abuse in plain sight:
* Waste of public resources on military theatrics.
* Fraud in the name of “public safety.”
* Abuse of the communities that federal agencies claim to protect.

Portland is a Sanctuary City. A sanctuary city is not a fortress. It’s a promise — a living vow that a community will protect the dignity and safety of everyone who calls it home. It means that local governments and ordinary people alike will refuse to criminalize survival. That schools, clinics, churches, and shelters will remain safe spaces no matter who you are or where you were born. But the term reaches far beyond policy. It’s an ethic of belonging; a refusal to criminalize need, difference, or desperation.

Sanctuary isn’t weakness. It’s courage. It takes moral strength to meet suffering with care instead of punishment, to believe that our neighbors’ safety is bound up in our own, to insist that safety is not achieved through force but through community, inclusion, and trust. It is living Matthew 25:40 out loud and in deed. It is an act of moral imagination and moral defiance. To hold sanctuary is to say: you belong here.

When we hold space for the most vulnerable — refugees, the unhoused, the undocumented, the disabled, the working poor, the displaced — we become something larger than a collection of individuals. We become a moral body. We do more than offer charity. We offer witness. We declare that the measure of a nation is found not in its towers or tanks, but in its tenderness.

Sanctuary cities are not lawless; they are soulful. They represent the conscience of the nation, a place where the laws of empathy still apply. To make sanctuary is to affirm that the United States is not merely a geographic territory, but a moral experiment: a republic that must constantly choose between fear and compassion, between domination and democracy.

A nation’s soul is measured not by the might of its military, but by the mercy of its people. When helicopters circle our skies in the name of order, while food pantries struggle to feed the hungry, we are forced to ask: What are we defending, and from whom? The soul of a nation survives only when we make sanctuary for one another. Not through walls or weapons, but through compassion and collective will. If we allow intimidation to replace compassion, we will have traded our conscience for control.

Please know that despite the hum of war machines overhead, the conscience of our city — whimsical, creative, stubbornly kind — can still be heard.

Portland is not the problem. Portland is the reminder. A reminder that a city can still choose to be sanctuary. That a people can still choose to be human.

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 2d

Please join me in a new campaign to help protect Ukrainians in a very special way. My Ukrainian friends chose to call this campaign Freedom is Action. They are making an important point. One way to find our own courage is to act in support those who are showing it
snyder.substack.com/p/freedom-is...

Freedom is Action: A Campaign for Ukraine

A fundraiser for life-saving drone-jamming cars and trucks

snyder.substack.com

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Jess Zafarris @jesszafarris.bsky.social · 3d

My new pup is named Fable. It sounds silly, but before I got her, I had a dream about a little black and white dog with that name, and I loved its whimsy and the fact that it evokes storytelling.

Tell me the story behind your pet’s name!

(Your story might appear in an episode of Words Unravelled!)

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bookletting.bsky.social @bookletting.bsky.social · 2d

Not only a book about a remarkable woman & the tradition she kept alive, but deeply reflective about the natural world, our role as stewards, and how we must not lose sight of the true value of finding harmony with both nature and each other. 📚 #Booksky

James Rebanks @herdyshepherd.bsky.social · Jul 4

My new book The Place of Tides is now available as a paperback in the U.K., and a hardback in the US

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 2d

Word 💔🗽

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 2d

Hear, hear.

I’ll just have to do without my second viewing of Andor, and we may never finish Murders In The Building.

(Sigh) I really wanted more Ms Marvel but I doubt the suits will give us that.

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you for the wonderful stories. Pet the cats for me.

Illustration of a black cat wearing a dark orange and forest green sweater and holding a coffee cup.

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 3d

Happy #Caturday to all those helping cats in need.

Hachiko is a nonprofit dedicated to helping animals, including former pets, that are trying to survive in the war zones and abandoned villages of Ukraine 💛💙
#cats #kindness #UkraineWillWin

Nate Mook @natemook.bsky.social · 3d

The leaves are turning 🍂 and it’s getting cold in eastern Ukraine, so the Hachiko team is out making sure the feeders are filled & the cats displaced by war and living in the skeletons of buildings have food today. 😺

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 3d

I love my town 🐸
#Portland #ICE #Protests #Whimsey #costumes

Night Photo NBC News: Portland protestors wearing colorful inflatable costumes: a panda, a blue unicorn, a dinosaur, a peacock, and a purple unicorn are featured.

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Dj Connell @itbodes.bsky.social · 3d

Buy this book. You can thank me later. 🪿 Extract below.

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 4d

How A Publisher Almost Killed The Book I Waited My Whole Life To Write: a thread

My novel Villager came out in 2022. It was published by Unbound, who had little marketing/sales power. But I was excited & proud, since I worked so f-ing hard on it.

Here's an extract: www.tom-cox.com/the-village-...

our cat Charles with Villager, shortly after it was published

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Dec 6

One thing you will never think after reading a great book or listening to a great album or seeing a great piece of art is, “I’m really glad this person remained cautious while they were making this and guarded against being perceived as weird.”

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 3d

Make your plans for #NoKings. October 18th. Free speech is action. Please join in. You'll see me at one of the events.
www.nokings.org

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 ...

www.nokings.org

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TrustedReveler @trustedreveler.bsky.social · 6d

LA: we will fight you.

Chicago: we will fight you.

PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 3d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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