Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by newmethos

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 3h

This is one reason why I keep pushing on how small Fed law enforcement agencies are.

“Let’s fire the US military and start over” would be an insane thing to say.

“Let’s scrub ICE and start over” is numerically QUITE FEASIBLE.

1 14 78

Reposted by newmethos

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 3h

Gotta think this helps justify a future Dem administration’s decision to essentially terminate ICE and redesign from the bottom up.

The enforcement arm of ICE (ERO) has generally had ~3,500 ppl.

A President could easily fire the entirety of ERO and temp nationalize some Nat Guard to fill in.

Hunter Walker @hunterw.bsky.social · 8h

NEW: I took a long look at the Proud Boys and found some of their most extreme chapters are sharing ICE recruiting materials on encrypted apps and even suggesting members have joined up. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-the-...

The first
Antifa
Counter Terrorism
Task Force
Trump already gave so many of us jobs with ICE. We may have to start recruiting soon to fill all these spots.

5 46 120

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 6h

My podcast feed is also full of ads from like Hims and other companies that make compounded drugs that require a prescription but whose actual efficacy is simply not evaluated by the FDA. That's just not a good way to live!

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 6h

Like, this grey should simply not exist, the Food and Drug Administration should have clear standards on stuff this that they inspect for and enforce regularly, that's good government

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 6h

i was surprised to learn that bc most protein powders are considered dietary supplements, they basically fall into a regulatory grey area

there's no federal limit on the amount of lead they can contain and neither manufacturers nor the FDA have to prove these products are safe before they're sold

Protein powders and shakes, like all dietary supplements, fall into something of a regulatory gray area.

There is no federal limit specifying the amount of lead allowed in protein powders. And while the FDA requires that manufacturers keep their products free of harmful contaminants, it largely leaves it up to companies to decide what counts as harmful and test their own products for compliance.

Before 1994, manufacturers had to prove herbal products were safe before selling them. That changed after Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. The law sharply limited the FDA’s authority, leaving supplements far less regulated than drugs.

Today, supplements are “presumed safe unless found otherwise,” says Cohen at Harvard Medical School, and most products face scrutiny only after reaching the market—meaning unsafe or contaminated supplements can reach consumers before problems are caught.

1

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 6h

This is such a startling example of how under-resourced the FDA already was before this Trump admin even began dismantling the rest of it.

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 6h

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 6h

It was right around ICE/CBP's enthusiastic enforcement of family separation that I realized that the right wing militia networks were no longer threatened by the federal government; they had become employees of the federal government and that scared me a whole lot

TPM @talkingpointsmemo.com · 7h

Members of the most extreme Proud Boys chapters are on encrypted appa sharing DHS recruiting materials and memes about joining ICE.
talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-the-...

In the New Trump Era, the Proud Boys Are ‘Not Apologizing Anymore’

To hear him tell it, Gavin McInnes’ recent return to the site...

talkingpointsmemo.com

Reposted by newmethos

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 6h

Governing with the notion that elections alone will not keep authoritarians at bay means taking seriously the question of how to use power while you have it, ideally how to build that power *beyond just winning elections* to make sure that progressive policies endure and reactionary harms mitigated

2 10 73

Reposted by newmethos

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 6h

Here is an enduring challenge in my field, foreign policy. For decades, there was a broad and bipartisan consensus of US foreign policy abroad, within which presidents would vary. Things like "treaties will be honored" and "basing commitments will last as agreed to by our predecessor", predictable.

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 1d

“Win every election” is not a viable strategy for preventing authoritarianism

4 74 420

Reposted by newmethos

Elana Levin @levin.bsky.social · 7h

D'Angelo speaking out about the physical and emotional burden of maintaining a nearly unobtainable physique and sexy image as a Black male artist should be taught in labor studies. It absolutely impacted how I analyze pop culture.

GQ Profile Of D'Angelo Explores The Perils Of Being Sexy

Visit the post for more.

uproxx.com

8 320 840

Reposted by newmethos

Hannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 8h

Super fun how we basically don’t have a Fourth Amendment anymore thanks to a shadow docket decision

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

The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.

Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.

15 32

Reposted by newmethos

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 9h

Emily Tucker argues that the AI regulation debate largely misses the point: the real threat to democracy is the unchecked data extraction and accumulation that is fueling corporate power. “We can have mass surveillance, or we can have political self-determination. We can’t have both,” she writes.

To Have Democracy, We Must Contest Data | TechPolicy.Press

Emily Tucker makes the case for redlines for data, not AI—real limits on corporate data collection to protect democracy and political self-determination.

www.techpolicy.press

2 30 77

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 20h

It's essentially an artsy film about the Republican National Convention by an ardent, uncritical Republican. If you are not on board with it, it is absolutely unforgivably boring

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 20h

There is a mythology around this film because it is so ardently pro-Nazi, that is unmistakable, but also because a lot of the initial reactions to it are from a very unsophisticated place of film criticism that doesn't even understand the state of the art at the time (which this film is not)

1

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 20h

I am a Germanic Studies student from way back and it was illegal for a German to rent this film back in the day. I'd heard the same stories, so when I finally saw it as a film studies student, I was wildly underwhelmed. It is exceptionally boring.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 20h

I'm watching Triumph of the Will (1935) because I haven't seen it in a long time and people are insisting to me that you have to admit it's a good movie.

It's not a good movie. The idea that it has any value, even technically, is literally Nazi propaganda that's just endured.

Here's a real clip:

2

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 20h

The only PA I could watch of this Dodgers game was the final one, jeebus, what a high stress series this is gonna be

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

And well, look, a lot of management techniques can be summarized like that: "highly probable word salad." A solid summary of how useful those management techniques as well

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

IIRC, there is an element of seeded noise in the LLM response, so the "advice" you get isn't stable or repeatable, because it's not advice, it's just a highly probable word salad

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, good, a non-political litmus test for which leaders to get rid of

Business Insider @businessinsider.com · 1d

Some military leaders are turning to AI chatbots for help with decision-making, seeing this tech as a way to get the advantage.

Even top generals are looking to AI chatbots for answers

Some military leaders are turning to AI chatbots for help with decision-making, seeing this tech as a way to get the advantage.

www.businessinsider.com

2

Reposted by newmethos

Chrononaut @chrononaut.bsky.social · 1d

4 62 170

Reposted by newmethos

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 1d

👀

Broadway Musicians Have Voted to Authorize a Strike

Musicians and actors are currently negotiating with the Broadway League for a new labor contract—and a strike is now officially on the table.

playbill.com

3 26 110

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

Why is the Swedish men's football team so bad right now? Like, they have 1 point from 4 matches in their qualifying group and they just lost to Kosovo at home

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

My first literary theory course was a probably apocryphal quote from Wittgenstein to the effect when you study how words mean things, you learn that it's not a miracle how much we can do with words, it's a miracle we can do anything with them at all

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

It felt unhinged when I encountered it repeatedly in the course of my studies

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

So, in the world of critical studies, it's not even that unhinged to suggest that no one ever really knows what anyone else means for sure, but somehow we still do roughly get sense that we just read/watched the same thing, but to normal people who don't think about how words mean things?

newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · 1d

Look, I used to be a literary theory nerd who read the Postmodern Condition as a primary text and drew connections between the German romantic concept of irony and its use as a tool of analysis in post-structuralism