Rolando Valdés Aguilar
LightNews LightNews
banner
rvathz.bsky.social
Rolando Valdés Aguilar
@rvathz.bsky.social
430 followers 350 following 710 posts
Dad, husband, physicist, educator. Research on quantum materials, mostly topological magnets. THz and Raman spectroscopist.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca
Over the past months (and at least 11 versions!), I was lucky to work with 11 amazing colleagues on a call to action to reform academic publishing.

Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n
November 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
As Bovino and masked DHS officers sweep another Home Depot looking to round up day laborers, a reminder of the meeting in May when Stephen Miller screamed at ICE to stop doing targeted enforcement, start hitting Home Depots and 7/11s and “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens.”
Even with the high-profile arrests of suspects by masked immigration agents and the plane loads of migrants swiftly ferried out of the U.S., President Trump was falling short of the number of daily deportations carried out by the Biden administration in its final year. So in late May, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and the architect of the president's immigration agenda, addressed a meeting at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn't pleased. The agency had better step it up. Gang members and violent criminals, what Trump called the "worst of the worst," weren't the sole target of deportations. Federal agents needed to "just go out there and arrest illegal aliens," Miller told top ICE officials, who had come from across the U.S., according to people familiar with the meeting. Agents didn't need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away. "Who here thinks they can do it?" Miller said, asking for a show of hands.
November 16, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
willmckinley.bsky.social
PBS NEWS WEEKEND has been cancelled and 34 jobs will be cut at WETA in Washington D.C.

The NEWS HOUR West Coast bureau will also close and the updated daily West Coast broadcast will end.

“We cannot fully compensate for the scope of the federal funding loss.”

current.org/2025/11/weta... #PBS
WETA to cut staff, cancel ‘PBS News Weekend’ and close News Hour West bureau
The restructuring includes the elimination of 34 positions, following another round of cuts made in September.
current.org
November 16, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
prchovanec.bsky.social
A reminder of what their campaign ads looked like:
November 15, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
chanda.blacksky.app
How. Does. This. Story. Keep. Getting. Worse.

Also ANYONE can report this to the Harvard Title IX office
econmarshall.bsky.social Marshall Steinbaum @econmarshall.bsky.social · 15h
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
bencollins.bsky.social
Epstein’s War
November 15, 2025 at 10:47 PM
rvathz.bsky.social
what a creep.
econmarshall.bsky.social Marshall Steinbaum @econmarshall.bsky.social · 15h
The emails have Summers reporting to Epstein about his attempts to date a Harvard economics student & to hit on her during a seminar she was giving.
November 16, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
robertscotthorton.bsky.social
Trump is grooming and preparing his private terrorist militia. Hitler and Mussolini did exactly the same thing, using the pardon power as a recruitment tool. bsky.app/profile/kyle...
kyledcheney.bsky.social Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 1d
NEWS: President Trump has issued a *second* pardon for Jan. 6 defendant Dan Wilson.

Wilson, a militia member, remained in prison on a firearms conviction unrelated to the Capitol attack. But Trump's new pardon explicitly covers the gun charges. www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
November 15, 2025 at 9:36 PM
rvathz.bsky.social
It is important to note that OSU let all this antisemitism happen on campus while punishing students who peacefully demonstrated last year against the genocide in Gaza. It was never about antisemitism and now the bad-faith right-wing capture of the university is complete.
November 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
blmckean.bsky.social
This is not an exaggeration by the way - note the university's response to Myron Gaines's Nazi salute on the left (condemn but allow) and their policy restricting land acknowledgements on the right (prohibited from event programs, meeting agendas, etc)
"The behavior you described is abhorrent," Chris Booker, university spokesperson, said in a statement. "Ohio State strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of discrimination." Ohio State policy protects free speech on campus and encourages "everyone to participate in public discourse and exercise their democratic rights by voting, advocacy and civic engagement," according to the university's Freedom of Expression website. Land acknowledgements Consistent with Ohio State’s Philosophy on Institutional and Leadership Statements and Ohio SB 1, the university – including colleges, departments, units and those acting in their official university capacity – may not issue statements that take a position on, endorse or oppose, or engage in advocacy or calls to action on any topic that is unrelated to the subject matter being researched or taught. This includes, as an example, land acknowledgment statements that do any of those outlined actions. Such land acknowledgement statements cannot be issued on behalf of a unit, college, department, etc., or placed on university channels or resources such as websites, social media posts, signage, meeting agendas and event programs unless they are factual statements directly related to the subject matter at hand. The same principle applies to other statements by the university on controversial beliefs or policies pursuant to the provisions in SB 1.
November 14, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
blmckean.bsky.social
At Ohio State University today, your campus event is allowed to have a Nazi salute but not a land acknowledgment
Uncensored America comes to Ohio State, spreads anti-semitic, sexist rhetoric
Anti-semitism, controversial statements about women and debates on the Israel-Gaza conflict filled the Browning Amphitheater during an Uncensored America event on Wednesday.  Over 200 people, mostly m...
www.thelantern.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
pftompkins.bsky.social
I am calling upon the people of Ireland to immediately begin construction of a thread on this site about how you or someone you know was roasted for a fashion choice. We need it.

All roasts must have come from Irish people *only*. Please respect this important rule, it makes a difference.

Tanks
November 12, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
rvathz.bsky.social
Under the definition of research collaborator there are many loopholes possible that may cover grad students. E.g. if a grad student goes to China (located in) for a conference, would that suffice? Also if a Chinese grad student gets a job in China postPHd, that would make the advisor ineligible.
November 15, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
mickeykats.bsky.social
I deleted my top post because the Science article I learned about this act from (www.science.org/content/arti...) says the the Act bans US scientists from training Chinese students, but as I am reading the bill I don't know that it does

Though the language is vague which is really bad.

The act:
amendments-rules.house.gov
November 15, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
dennycarter.bsky.social
Jamelle was cooking.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...
If they win, Democrats will have to use their newfound authority to rethink, even dismantle, agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They may need to walk back the Bush-era decision to consolidate those agencies and others under a single department, given the wild abuses perpetrated under this administration and its predecessors. It will need to give serious thought to major political and social reform, including D.C. statehood, a federal ban on partisan gerrymandering, a new voting rights act and federal protections for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, including the rights of gender and sexual minorities. Democrats will also need to embrace the legislature’s constitutional authority to structure the executive branch and the judiciary, up to and including Supreme Court reform. If they win next year, Democrats will need to treat the next Congress not as a return to the status quo ante but as the beginning of a new era in which the principal task is to roll back the president’s effort to create and consolidate a personalist dictatorship. They’ll need to fortify the American political system against future attempts to play dictator and lay out a project of genuine democratic renewal. None of this is possible without a willingness to use power rather than just hold it. What we’ve seen this week is that there are still too many Democrats whose instinct is to retreat to normalcy rather than face the conflict at hand.
November 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
mcbridetd.bsky.social
Alan Dershowitz is one of those claiming Epstein was not a pedophile because he pleaded guilty to one count of having sex for money with a 17-year-and-10-month-old person. "That’s not a pedophile." See this important response from Julia Brown, the brave reporter who broke the news on this
November 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
A deep dive on how Mr. Populism himself, Steve Bannon, was Epstein’s legal and media coach — “devising responses to the gathering storm of public outrage about Epstein’s criminal history.”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
November 15, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
mbkplus.bsky.social
Yikes. Banning people for activities such as co-authorship and advising a graduate student is completely unreasonable in a modern research environment. And a retroactive 5 year ban is wildly unfair.
The Securing American Funding and Expertise from Adversarial Research Exploitation (SAFE) Act would deny federal funding to any U.S. scientist who collaborates with anyone "affiliated with a hostile foreign entity," a category that includes four countries: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.
November 15, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
darthbluesky.bsky.social
so trump just out there getting standard MRI scans as a standard part of the standard multiple annual check ups a president gets in the first ten months
November 15, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge blocks Trump from immediately cutting funding to the University of California over discrimination claims.
November 15, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
flingjore.com
Federal commitment to special education collapses. For 50 years, Congress failed to pay its promised 40% share. Now, the Trump administration is using the shutdown to fire federal oversight staff. This abandons 8 million students, leaving their education rights entirely up to individual states.
The Slow Death of Special Education
The government has abandoned its commitment to an equitable education for all children—if it ever had one.
www.theatlantic.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
helenkennedy.bsky.social
ICE vs the clergy
Faith leader, Michael Woolf, minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston, is detained by Illinois State Police during a protest against immigration actions, outside the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska A masked ICE agent sprays David Black, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, directly in the face during protests outside the ICE processing facility in Broadview, Illinois. Sept 19 2025 Photo by Ashlee Rezin of the Chicago Sun-Times. Pastor David Black of the First Presbyterian Church in chicago being hit in the head with a pepper ball Sept 19 at the Broadview ICE facility An unidentified federal agent fires a chemical weapon into Rev. Jorge Bautista's face during a protest outside of Coast Guard Island in Oakland on Thursday Oct. 23, 2025. Credit: David Bacon
November 15, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
bencollins.bsky.social
Although many people are saying it, I do not believe our current president sucked off former president Bill Clinton on camera. I have not seen sufficient evidence that our current president gave the former president a blowie in a way that was memorialized in a photo. That's not something I believe.
November 15, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
andrewavit.bsky.social
Spanberger should remove Sheridan ASAP. The bar to do so is legally is really low and she, as governor, is the sole judge. Call an investigation, put all these people under oath, and get them out of here.
November 14, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Rolando Valdés Aguilar
bencollins.bsky.social
It’s been a year to the day we bought (and then didn’t, for reasons we still don’t fully know) InfoWars. We’re still trying. In the year since, we built The Onion into one of the biggest newspapers in the United States. I’m so proud of this place. I’m proud we do hard stuff. Thank you for caring.
November 15, 2025 at 12:12 AM