Author | Lightnews

Jeffrey Parker

@jnparker.bsky.social

1.8K followers 770 following 640 posts

NC to NOLA via Chicago. Urban sociology, doughnuts, indie rock—order depends on the day. Views my own, but ultimately a singular instantiation of the collective process of knowledge production, so really who’s to say. https://www.jeffreynparker.com

www.jeffreynparker.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · Mar 19

New Orleans, LA, USA
March 18, 2025

2 23 220

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 20h

“Your boos are not scaring me! I know most of you are not ghosts!”

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 1d

I know other people have pointed this out, but it really is an underrated joy watching a Wembanyama highlight, seeing something amazing, and then realizing that there are like 20 second left in the video and you have no idea what else he's going to do.

1 2

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 1d

It's like they're vertically integrating corruption.

Seriously, this has the potential to give us the first presidential administration in history to point shave elections. Real innovation in the field of graft.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 3d

Excuse me? So the company the President currently owns is teaming up with a cryptocurrency company to create a prediction market, which will take bets... on things the President himself has quite a lot of control over?

Gosh, I'm sure nothing bad will happen.

www.ft.com/content/4855...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/485594b3-5a72-4ae1-aa93-8ee987be1569

Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform is to offer users the chance to trade on the outcome of elections and sports games, extending the US president and his family’s involvement in the booming prediction markets sector.

The Trump Media & Technology Group, which controls the social media platform, on Tuesday announced it would partner with Crypto.com to introduce “Truth Predict”, which would allow users “to react instantly to developments in major current events”.

Crypto.com previously donated $11mn to Trump causes. Earlier this year the Securities and Exchange Commission closed an investigation into the company, and on Friday, it announced that it applied for a US bank charter.

In August, TMTG also signed a multibillion-dollar deal to buy Cronos, the tokens issued by Crypto.com, which sent their price soaring.

“For too long, global elites have closely controlled these markets — with Truth Predict, we’re democratising information and empowering everyday Americans to harness the wisdom of the crowd, turning free speech into actionable foresight,” said Devin Nunes, TMTG’s head.

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 4d

Dominos meme
White Sox fan forced to accept Cubs jersey

Assyrian bishops refuse to condemn Nestorius's 431 challenge to the use of the title Theotokos ('Bearer of God'") for Mary.

100 4.5K 15K

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 4d

I think that disincentivizes teams from building teams to protect absurd hitters. What’s hilarious about Ohtani is who’s hitting behind him and they’re STILL walking him.

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Bridget O’Brien @bridgetemob.bsky.social · 7d

Went to a prayer service tonight at St. Mary of the Lake, where they have cardboard cutouts throughout the church representing parishioners afraid to come to Mass because of ICE.

a photograph of the interior of a church. Several people are visible sitting in pews. In the pew immediately in front of the photographer, a black human-sized cardboard cutout in the outline of a woman is visible, as though a shadow is sitting in the pew in front of you.

370 4.4K 14K

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 7d

Arsenal fans, this is a safe space: you don't actually LIKE this guy, do you?
www.espn.com/soccer/story...

Arteta: I envisioned set-piece goals '10 years ago'

Mikel Arteta has revealed Arsenal's set-piece prowess was a decade in the making.

www.espn.com

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 7d

Please understand that the only reason this has been released is because of the UCLA faculty association who filed a request and challenged the refusal in court. If you are a UC faculty member, join your FA!

Jaweed Kaleem @jaweedkaleem.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING: The California Supreme Court has DENIED the University of California's request that it block the release of a 28-page, $1.2-billion fine Trump administration UCLA settlement offer. UC is required to give a faculty group the document today. www.latimes.com/california/s...

UC must publicly release Trump administration's $1.2-billion settlement proposal

The California Supreme Court on Friday declined a request from the University of California to block the release of a roughly $1.2-billion Trump UCLA settlement. UCLA is required to share the document...

www.latimes.com

6 210 770

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 7d

Luke Kornet out here on his way to dropping 30 entirely on uncontested dunks like he’s young Shaq because the Pels have to triple team Wemby.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

Also, what Wemby did to AD last night had vibes of that two-leg Champions League knockout between Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan back when Maicon was arguably the best right back in the world and then it took two games for Gareth Bale to basically end his career.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

Really wish Bill Walton was around to be the color commentator on last night's Wemby game.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

Moderates DO control the party and that’s how we got Schumer and Jeffries, neither of whom is remotely capable of meeting the moment with Trump. The NYT can talk about purple districts all it wants, but one reason people hate Democrats is because they think they don’t stand for anything.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

This is something the piece misses. It’s not just about winning elections, but governing. Emanuel got a bunch of Blue Dogs elected in 2006, and they all lost the next cycle because they didn’t do anything anyone liked AND they impeded progress on things like the ACA.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

They also sort of bury the lede, waiting until the 38th(!) paragraph to point out that the last four Democratic presidential candidates— all moderates— have been terrible. Seems kind of important!

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Patrick Iber @patrickiber.bsky.social · 9d

From the article referenced below: tldr esp. in authoritarian systems, mediocrities and worse tend to go into the secret police b/c those with better performance have better opportunities elsewhere, so secret police gets the dregs who are extra-dependable because the thing they can offer is loyalty

Regimes, on the other hand, have good reasons to ad- mit underperformers to their key coercive unit and to not counteract the self-selection of such officials. From the perspective of leaders, underachievers are beneficial be- cause they must diligently work toward the autocrat's in- terests to retain their career chances. For example, Alexan- dru Drâghici, the former interior minister of Romania, was well aware that his secret police agents "had a fairly low level of training and general knowledge, but that these shortcomings were compensated for by their powerful revolutionary enthusiasm" (Deletant 2005, 304). By con- trast, leaders who assign high-performing officials to serve in the secret police must fear that their subordinates will not execute unpleasant orders. Having lucrative career options, competent officials make unreliable secret police agents, as they are likely to stay passive when the regime
is under attack (Zakharov 2016).

20 240 630

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 9d

I’ve been thinking about how hard the founding fathers cooked with the Third Amendment.

Imagine being forced to house ICE. I can’t imagine they wash their hands. They’ve never done laundry in their lives. They’d break your stuff if you didn’t cut the crusts off their sandwiches.

320 1.5K 10K

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

But taking Dem wins in Trump districts and SHOCKINGLY finding that they’re moderates, and then extrapolating that to a generalizable statement about appropriate political strategy elsewhere is just bad methodology. I’m agnostic as to whether it’s bad out of ignorance or cynicism.

1 2

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

There are of course all sorts of times when it’s totally fine to sample in the dependent variable— you might want to understand extreme cases, for example, so you look for them.

Jeffrey Parker @jnparker.bsky.social · 9d

“One way to see the pattern is to examine the 17 Democrats — 13 in the House, four in the Senate — who last year won in places that Mr. Trump also won.”

I don’t expect very much from the NYT, but come on. I’ll take “sampling on the dependent variable” for $500, Alex.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/o...

Opinion | America Still Has a Political Center, and It’s the Key to Winning

www.nytimes.com

1 3

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 9d

lol lmao (via @krisap.bsky.social) x.com/krispursiain...

13 31

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

The People's Fabric @peoplesfabric.com · 9d

Off the top of my head, in the past few weeks ICE/CBP has:
- handcuffed/detained an alderwoman
- pointed a gun at a state rep
- threatened another alderwoman w/ arrest for watching them
- abducted an alder's chief of staff & elected district councilor

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 10d

FULL STORY: “These federal agents are operating lawlessly, demonstrating utter disregard for our constitutional rights,” Ald. Mike Rodriguez said. @wttw.bsky.social

Border Patrol Agents Detain 2 City Employees During ‘Lawless’ Little Village Raids, Ald. Rodriguez Says

“These federal agents are operating lawlessly, demonstrating utter disregard for our constitutional rights,” Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward) said.

news.wttw.com

2 120 180

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

shawn @mulchy.bsky.social · 9d

it was la. then dc. then chicago. now san francisco.

begging people to pay attention to what’s happening. it’s not just *somewhere else*—it’ll be your city soon.

Matthias Gafni @mgafni.bsky.social · 10d

EXCLUSIVE: @sfchronicle.com learns that more than 100 agents, including ICE and CBP are headed to San Francisco

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

Exclusive: Major federal immigration operation headed to San Francisco Bay Area

More than 100 federal agents, including some from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Alameda base.

www.sfchronicle.com

5 67 160

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

jenn m. jackson @jennmjacksonphd.bsky.social · 10d

I want more people to care that SNAP benefits are being cut off on November 1. 40% of SNAP beneficiaries are children. This is callous and vile.

430 7.1K 17K

Reposted by Jeffrey Parker

Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · 10d

Haunting photo posted by the 40th Ward Instagram. The caption says that the photo represents the remnants of two workers who were taken by ICE today. Chilling.

Black and white photo of a two story house and front lawn. Two ladders lay against the front.

Full caption at https://www.instagram.com/p/DQGHh3vDabK/?igsh=MWwyenE3ZDYyMmE0MA==

3 150 620