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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)

@themodsisyphus.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.7K following 8.2K posts

Settler. Religion, media, & culture scholar. Writing on digital hate & extremism, ritual, & Hindu/tva publics. Animal lover, anti-caste, anti-racist, anti-hate, anti-fascist. No response to trolls. RP ⍯ Endorsement; BLM, FREE PALESTINE all posts personal

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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 5h
Not sure “Orwellian” is enough to describe this www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
wsj.com
Exclusive | Decades After Watergate, Justice Department Reviews Whether Nixon Got a Raw Deal
A revisionist historian went to the DOJ headquarters to present his case that the former president and his associates weren’t treated fairly.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
@nbcnews.com: LSU student says she was raped by a football player who is still on the team By Corky Siemaszko “LSU does really protect their athletes, especially their football players,” says the woman, whose claims are being investigated by the local district attorney.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Michael Karlik @michaelkarlik.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
ICE arrested a man in Colorado, then showed him an arrest warrant. His notice to appear had the immigration prison listed as his address. Judge Philip Brimmer noted that a notice to appear must come *before* the warrant--so ICE obviously arrested first, then generated the NTA. Brimmer released him.
Turning to the substance of petitioner’s claim, he alleges that “ICE gave [him]
the form I-200” six hours after his arrest on June 9, 2026. Docket No. 1 at 6.
Petitioner also attaches a copy of the Notice to Appear, which is not dated, but
reflects that petitioner currently resides at 3130 Oakland St. Aurora, Colorado 80010,
which is the Denver Contract Detention Facility. Docket No. 1-2 at 2. Respondents
do not dispute petitioner’s assertions. Therefore, the Court finds that petitioner was
not served the Form I-200 until after his arrest and detention. Juan J.M.E. v.
Easterwood, 2026 WL 1746672, at *3 (D. Minn. Jun 8, 2026), report andFederal regulations state that a Form I-200 arrest warrant cannot be issued
until the time that a Notice to Appear is issued or any time thereafter. Ramirez
Ovando, 810 F. Supp. 3d at 1216 (citing 8 C.F.R. §§ 236.1, 1236.1). Thus, given
petitioner’s unrefuted claim that the Form I-200 and Notice to Appear were not issued
until after his arrest, the Court finds that the Form I-200 warrant was invalid.
Therefore, petitioner was not arrested pursuant to a valid warrant, in contravention of
8 U.S.C. § 1226(a).
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Important read “Twitter served as an indispensable tool as the BLM movement swelled in the 2020s—but the chatter on Threads was uniquely charged for Wells…the latest bit of evidence showing that the platform has emerged as a vital artery of the Black social media ecosystem…” shorturl.at/8IZxC
shorturl.at
Black Twitter Is Thriving—on Threads
From outrage over Nolan Wells’ death to analysis of HBO Max’s “Lanterns,” Threads has transformed into a vital artery of the Black social media ecosystem.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Public Books @publicbooks.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“In a mediascape of neural activation and invisible images, however, indexicality becomes nothing more than an aesthetic to be borrowed from.” @versobooks.bsky.social www.publicbooks.org/the-treacher...
publicbooks.org
The Treachery of Machine Realism - Public Books
“The bombed elementary school in Iran appears to have become a target thanks to satellite imaging. In this case, what the image represented — and to who — was a matter of life and death.”
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
David King @cityplanning.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
its.ucla.edu
The Religion of Parking: How Land Use Planning Enables Anti-Muslim Prejudice - UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
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BlackskyNews 🗞️ @blackskynews.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026
“While the administration is unlawfully eroding protections for trans students under the guise of ‘protecting women and girls,’ they are systematically weakening the very laws that keep students safe and schools accountable.” newrepublic.com/post/215920/... #BlackskyNews
newrepublic.com
Trump Weakens Title IX Rules Amid Cornell Gang Rape Investigation
The Education Department has just weakened protections for sexual assault victims in schools.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 28/09/2026
It bears mentioning that Microsoft just shut down its Microsoft Research Social Media Collective…because why should they care about the social consequences of their products, right? Including worker harms.
404media.co
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI...
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My cat, live her best life, on the dog’s bed. 😻🐈😂 #catsky
A reddish-brown cat with black stripes and white in the front and on the paws lying on her back on a purple blanket looking very chill.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Wow. Congrats Wisconsin!
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Western Michigan probably: FAFO eventually
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This #ND defense is nasty and only getting better. Being moderately efficient on offense seems to be enough in this game. #Irish☘️ ☘️ ☘️
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ksarshelter @ksarshelter.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It's #Caturday-Saturday and some of the KSAR cats 🐱 have called a meeting. The agenda? BREAKFAST! 🥣 #animalrescue #allpawsmatter #catsofbluesky #charity #Caturday
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Hindus For Human Rights @hfhr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hindus for Human Rights rejects the use of anti-terror laws to silence religious minorities and peaceful dissent. USCIRF highlights the cases of Jagtar Singh Johal, Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam. Johal’s bail is welcome. All three deserve freedom and justice. buff.ly/x3uVa70
buff.ly
India Continues to Weaponize Terrorism Laws to Detain Religious Minorities
Sep 24, 2026
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/09/2026
"ChatGPT says"?! please make it stop
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Michael Jacobs @abogadomike.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Wait what?
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
damn. that is some resignation letter.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
BREAKING: SCOTUS allows DHS to use its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database with Social Security info, staying a district court order that had vacated the new policy. Justice Jackson dissents for the three Dem appointees. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The per curiam opinion notes that, given the timing, this will only involve "individualized inquiries" for this election.
The plaintiff organizations argue that the Federal Gov-
ernment will not suffer irreparable harm because federal
law currently prohibits state and local election authorities
from clearing their voter rolls in the weeks leading up to
federal elections. The organizations point to the National
Voter Registration Act (NVRA), 52 U. S. C. §20507(c)(2)(A),
which provides that “[a] State shall complete, not later than
90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for
Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to sys-
tematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the
official lists of eligible voters.”2 To be sure, that moratorium
limits the potential impact of staying the District Court’s
order in this case. Still, all agree that the order prevents
the Federal Government from using the modified SAVE
program to conduct individualized inquiries, which are per-
mitted under federal law during this period. The District
Court’s order thus inhibits the Federal Government’s ef-
forts to assist state and local agencies in the proper admin-
istration of the midterm elections. Under these circum-
stances, the equities weigh in favor of a stay.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Reupping for the EU crowd. Trump's DOJ is going to try to veto a DSA judgement against Elon, basically forcing the EU to adhere to US pro-Nazi social media policies.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 25/09/2026
Yes, this is true in both observational data (correlating the impact of media coverage of deportations on Trump's approval rating) and a survey experiment we ran last year (priming voters about deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia) www.gelliottmorris.com/p/kilmar-abr...
gelliottmorris.com
Media coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia hurt Trump, not Democrats
Public opinion on immigration has shifted — and pundits need to catch up
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Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 25/09/2026
Not for nothing, but @aoir.bsky.social now has some pretty awesome tee-shirts.
shop.aoir.org
All Products | Association of Internet Researchers
The official All Products collection for Association of Internet Researchers. Shop products like: 'Yes, Internet Influencer is a Job' - Unisex Tee, 'I am an AoIR Influencer' V2 - Unisex Tee, and more.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Dr Anathpindika S.V. @anathpindika.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Anant Ambani, son of an oil baron in #India has been appointed a Professor of sustainability by Newcastle university in the UK! Besides being a son of an oil baron, does he have any other qualification to deserve this appointment? www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Backlash as Indian oil heir made professor of sustainability by Newcastle University
Role for Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest person, who also runs a controversial mega-zoo, met with incredulity
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
100 people over 6 months created this quilt with 11,000 squares to represent the people ICE stole from MN. ❤️‍🔥
Image of a long multi colored quilt laid out across the steps in front of a tall white ornate buildingCloser images of a long multi colored quilt laid out across the steps in front of a tall white ornate building. To the left and right of quilt are several people holding signs protesting ICE. At the far end of the quilt and top of the stairs, a few people are holding a red banner with the white lettering and the words “Sanctuary Now!” in English and Spanish.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Propublica took the extraordinary and unusual step of fact-checking the response by Collins to the criminal bribery allegations against her. PP called the response “a series of incorrect and misleading claims.” www.propublica.org/article/debu...
propublica.org
ProPublica Debunks Susan Collins’ Claims About FBI Anti-Corruption Probe
ProPublica revealed that the FBI was circling Sen. Collins over a defense contractor’s donations — until President Trump gutted the unit in charge. Collins has since mustered a defense with a series o...
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
lol, of course. “WH singled out 6 [POLITICO] stories…including an…article that cited a ‘senior admin official’ who put the odds of…U.S. striking a deal w/Iran to end the war at…80 & 85 percent…[this] was…JD Vance speaking on a background call w/reporters authorized by the WH.” shorturl.at/FhpRw
shorturl.at
The Source Behind The Ban
The anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning POLITICO was none other than Vice President JD Vance, Status has learned.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
really, npr? platforming white supremacists like tucker carlson?
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
jeez, wtf
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Indrapramit Das @indrapramitdas.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Vantara, the Ambanis' 'controversial mega-zoo' as described below, is a zero-oversight private exotic/endangered animal playground for the family, and has been under suspicion as a major animal trafficking hub (and cleared by the regime's pet institutions, of course).
drilled.media
75,000 Endangered and Exotic Animals, SLAPP Suits, and Zero Oversight
How oil and coal billionaires with close ties to the Modi government escape judicial and media scrutiny in India.
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Donna Ladd said what she said. 😘 @donnerkay.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My God.
Clip about the Anchorage Press newspaper using AI to draft more than 4500 stories and then interviewing its lead AI, “Walter.”
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
lol, of course. “WH singled out 6 [POLITICO] stories…including an…article that cited a ‘senior admin official’ who put the odds of…U.S. striking a deal w/Iran to end the war at…80 & 85 percent…[this] was…JD Vance speaking on a background call w/reporters authorized by the WH.” shorturl.at/FhpRw
shorturl.at
The Source Behind The Ban
The anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning POLITICO was none other than Vice President JD Vance, Status has learned.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Association for Asian Studies @asianstudies.org · 23/09/2026
Call for Applications: “Rethinking Dissent: Power and its Limits in South Asian Studies” Dissertation Workshop 
asianstudies.org
Call for Applications: “Rethinking Dissent: Power and its Limits in South Asian Studies” Dissertation Workshop 
Keywords: dissent, popular politics, censorship, governance, power, political violence, law, legality, rights, literature, arts   March 16-18, 2027 Boston, MA Application deadline: October 27, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern Time The Association for Asian Studies, with funding...
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
More of this in general by Dems in general about all war criminals, foreign and domestic.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Texas folks: check your voter registration now. A little under two weeks left to register. www.kxan.com/news/texas-d...
kxan.com
Texas DPS failed to send voter registration applications to county election officials
Just weeks before the pivotal midterm elections, Texas election officials have discovered that an unknown number of voter registration applications have not been processed due to an error by the Te…
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A majority of Americans (56%) say the rule of law in the US is weaker now than a decade ago, when Trump was first elected president, according to a massive new survey of more than 23,000 adults. @margarettalev.bsky.social www.axios.com/2026/09/23/p...
axios.com
Poll: Americans see rule of law declining in U.S.
Just 28% believe political leaders will be held accountable if they don't follow the rule of law..
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What?
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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Like all universities do the “get the 5 minorities on campus in the frame for the brochure” shit but this is the first tilly norwood style shit ive seen
san.com
Stanford University admits AI was used to ‘race swap’ student photo
Stanford University admits AI was used to replace a white male student with a Black woman in an image used in its student newspaper.
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Inkstick Media @inkstickmedia.com · 23/09/2026
"The United States cannot, in good faith, claim to care about religious freedom while it privileges and promotes a certain theology from the Pentagon podium."
inkstickmedia.com
From Pulpit to Pipeline: How Religious Nationalism Captures a Military
Designed to serve soldiers of every faith, the US military chaplaincy is being reshaped around religious nationalism—with implications far beyond the barracks.
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Reposted by Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her)
Dr. Divya (🔔 logged out) @divyampersaud.com · 23/09/2026
Help is gone, but hope isn't. This is a one-stop way to help 12 families, 2 displacement camps, and a community center in Gaza, starting with the least-supported. It's still survival. Pledge a weekly/monthly five: tiny.cc/divyafunds
A colorful graphic decorated with an illustration of an Arabic coffee cup and paint streaks. Text: today’s most stagnant fund. Filling each cup gradually builds stable help, especially if you click “weekly/monthly” on a coffee. Build solidarity. tiny.cc/divyafunds
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Project Salt Box @projectsaltbox.com · 23/09/2026
Thanks to Jasmine Garsd at NPR for taking the time to talk to us about ICE’s solicitation for “mobile detention facilities” across Pennsylvania.
npr.org
ICE is looking into 'mobile detention facilities'
Buried in the paperwork for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's expansion in Pennsylvania is a document requesting "mobile detention facilities."
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Feels like it should be a bigger story that “Big Balls” of DOGE fame is the son of a Russian double agent.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Oh
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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The newly discovered cuneiform tablet fragment contains text from a section of the Treaty of Kadesh related to the treatment of Hittite and Egyptian refugees in the Bronze Age (circa 1269 BC). 🧪🏺
livescience.com
'We have found traces of peace, thousands of years old': Fragment of world's oldest known peace treaty found in Turkey
Archaeologists excavating in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusha have uncovered a fragment of the world's oldest peace treaty, signed around 1269 B.C.
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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 23/09/2026
I realized something this morning. One of the reasons right wingers pinkwash colonialism and genocide, especially as concerns trans people, is so people subtly start to consider transness and queerness as a colonial or Western artifice.
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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 23/09/2026
I’ve watched too many grieving Black mothers take their grief public, in search for answers and justice, but I’ve never seen what Nolan Wells’s mother does here — stopping and correcting an NBC News interviewer about how to refer to her son. Rightfully so, the interview ended shortly thereafter.
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The City Reporter @thecityreporter.nyc · 23/09/2026
The settlement is notable not only for its scale, but because of the company’s explicit admission that it did not comply with the city’s pay rules.
buff.ly
‘We Screwed Up’: DoorDash Agrees to Pay $131.5 Million to NYC Delivery Workers
The settlement is the largest of its kind in New York City history.
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doom boy @doomboy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
hilarious and insane article. full of the sorts of people you meet all the time in left activism, who combine neuroticism and narcissism to bring down any institution they're allowed into.
bostonglobe.com
A Western Mass. lesbian bar required KN-95 masks. When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose. - The Boston Globe
Last Ditch Bar in Greenfield wanted to build community. They got a firestorm instead.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A lot going on here. But the freak-out over the mediator was something.
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Dheepa Sundaram, PhD (she/her) @themodsisyphus.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Oh no…😂
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