Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by annamm

Beau Baumann 🍏 @beaubaumann.bsky.social · 22h

This cannot just be about healthcare. The existing constitutional system hangs in the balance. The rule of law is now baked into this shutdown in a huge way.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 23h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

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Sigrid Ellis @sigridellis.bsky.social · 23h

Quick cultural lecture time, from Sigrid Ellis:

As we are in Spooky Season, why do so many horror movies of the 80s and early 90s feature extremely creepy homeless people?

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Sam Halpert @samhalpert.bsky.social · 1d

Exactly! I don’t have the time but I’ve been imagining a piece looking at this bit of Federalist 69 in the context of this moment. 2 things separate a President from a King wrt military power: declaring war & raising armies. 1/4

Secondly. The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy
of the United States. In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would
amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces, as first General and admiral of the Confederacy; while that of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets
and armies, all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.l The governor of New York, on

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annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 16h

He is a demi-god for these lost souls.

bsky.app/profile/bike...

em cassel @biketrouble.bsky.social · 1d

"enjoyed" is not exactly the right word, but i did... devour this piece by @usefulnoise.bsky.social, who spent a day at the big christian MAHA convention in alexandria this weekend:

What I Saw at This Weekend’s Minnesota MAHA Fest Scared the Hell out of Me - Racket

Over 1,000 Christian opponents of modern medicine descended on Alexandria, MN, to testify that drugs, doctors, and Satan were making us all sick at the 7th annual Freedom Summit.

racketmn.com

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16h

RFK Jr. keeps repeating this ridiculous, ignorant bullshit.

Trust in expertise is literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.

I wrote a whole-ass thread about it last time around; maybe worth revisiting.

bsky.app/profile/carl...

Barbara Sobel @barbarasobel.bsky.social · 1d

RFK Jr: We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

We got $20 billion for Argentina though.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 1d

The wet tropical rainforests of Queensland are now a carbon source because CO₂ emitted from trees dying and decaying outstripped the CO₂ taken up by trees growing. 😕

Australia's tropical trees emit more carbon than they absorb: study

Climate change is killing trees faster than they can be replaced leading to greater carbon emissions, according to a new study.

www.abc.net.au

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annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 1d

I love Rob Martinez’s food diary—he brings amazing places and people to the forefront.

This one stood out for several reasons.
Especially in contrast to the current US policy on immigration and asylum.

original at: www.instagram.com/reel/DPzbwYy...

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Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · 1d

Aside from losing many Democratic seats, Black representation in Congress will probably drop from around 14% of seats (nationally representative) to maybe 7 or 8% (not representative)?

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans

www.nytimes.com

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annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 1d

“"With those new seats added to the ones Republicans already seem poised to gain, the House would not be competitive in most election years."

While state laws restricting gerrymandering have mostly been enacted by Democrats in blue and purple states, Section 2 is the main legal limitation on gerrymandering in many red states, particularly in the South. It bans voting practices that discriminate based on race, which has been interpreted to require the creation of majority-minority districts in areas with racially polarized voting and where minority groups represent a majority of the population. Without Section 2, many state legislatures would be free to eliminate majority-minority congressional districts, which mostly vote Democratic.

It’s hard to say exactly how many districts Republicans would eliminate if Section 2 falls. It’s also hard to say whether Republicans would be able to eliminate those districts before next year’s midterms; the Supreme Court’s decision is likely to come after many state primaries. The full fallout from the decision might not come until 2028 or even after the next census in 2030.
But even on the lower end of the estimate, Republicans will probably eliminate around a half-dozen districts: the majority Black districts in otherwise overwhelmingly Republican states and regions of the Deep South. In these reliably red states, Republicans could eliminate every Democratic-held majority-minority district while ensuring that the new districts remain relatively compact and overwhelmingly Republican.

annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 1d

Hoi Nederlands KamerOrkest, that is not Mozart on your Mozart Requiem concert poster.

Is Johnny Depp going to play Mozart’s Requiem?!

annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 1d

"We didn't do it, but the agents deserve a medal if we did." How very Soviet of Lázár, who oversaw intelligence services.

Gossips circulate in Brussels about Vásárhelyi. People with firsthand experience could spill the beans about when he was HU's Ambassador to the EU. It is only a matter of time.

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Ben Winters @benwinters.bsky.social · 2d

sam altman has never cared about you or kids or safety and never will

interesting to see him speed-run the Zuck arc in the public eye of "wow cool smart guy, he is the future and cares abt connection and love and safety this is cool" to "oh wow masks off -- profit and power and exploitation only"

The Verge @theverge.com · 2d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Chunkin’ Deuces✌️ @thiccceywicket.bsky.social · 2d

Are you having trouble making money from your AI super intelligence that will cure all diseases and replace all workers? Pivot to porn

The Verge @theverge.com · 2d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Dhruv Mehrotra @dmehro.bsky.social · 2d

Legendary work from @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social.

He and a team uncovered a trove of data from a surveillance firm — location data from thousands of phone numbers from nearly every country on Earth.

The firm had been tracking everyone from Erik Prince to journalists to Jared Leto.

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

motherjones.com

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annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 2d

As always, John and his team did solid public service.

The ‘If books could kill’ podcast dedicated a July episode to her, the alleged free press gig (mainly fundraising, little writing), & the fake university now accredited in TX. Pity it is behind paywall.
Weiss is a grifter, none else.

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John Q. Public @publius24.bsky.social · 2d

For many young men, edgy comedy can often be a way of floating trial balloons among peers.

The inevitable result of normalizing this kind of constant chatter is that eventually it stops becoming a joke and starts representing what you believe.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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VSquare.org @vsquare.bsky.social · 2d

🔎🇷🇺 Our new analysis reveals the scale of Russia’s massive propaganda offensive in Moldova:

134 activists managing 30 Telegram channels, receiving €2.8M until the first half of 2025.

9,900 AI-generated TikTok videos with over 93 million views.

24/7 Russian Propaganda Blitz Hit Moldova Before the Elections - VSquare.org

Moldovans had faced months, if not years, of an information onslaught at levels beyond what just about any society has faced. In the end, the pro-European ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won 50.2% of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc managed only 24.2%, despite well-documented foreign interference, mainly from Russia and pro Kremlin actors.

vsquare.org

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annamm @anmle.bsky.social · 2d

6:3 is a reminder to listen to the 5:4 podcast.

www.fivefourpod.com
“5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.”

5-4

5-4 is a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. It’s a progressive and occasionally profane take on the ideological battles at the heart of the Court’s most importan...

www.fivefourpod.com

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 3d

I don't know how many times to point out that is absolutely ghoulish and non-consensual and disgusting behavior.
To exploit the image of a dead woman who was also exploited in real life so you can live out your momentary fantasies of "what is possible" with AI is bad science journalism, also.
Sick.

October 10, 2025

4 min read

Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Happen Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Screenshot includes an AI generated image of what looks like a human cross between Daenaerys Targaryen and Marilyn Monroe on the back of a dragon.

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 2d

The govt is also saying that DC's MPD has better evidentiary standards than the Eff Bee Eye, which would suggest Kash has been destroying things even faster than we suspected.

ICE? That I believe. Which is why everyone arrested by ICE should immediately get a preservation order.

3 The government disclosed over the weekend that neither the FBI or ICE have rules or procedures
governing the preservation of evidence. In contrast, MPD has a general order that requires officers to
preserve all potentially discoverable material, including any material which “may be favorable to the
accused.” MPD General Order 602.02 at 4.

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JimmyJames @thejimmyjames.bsky.social · 7d

Either a case of lightning actually striking twice, or that liberty is fragile enough (especially now) that enough people have had their rights violated for there to be a large enough sample size that it's not unlikely for two people named Miranda to have had their rights denied

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GenderQueeries 🇨🇦 @genderqueeries.ca · Nov 18

The papers will be "lost" by police in the same way homeless sweeps regularly destroy all of a homeless person's ID.

Then they will deport anyone without citizenship papers.

Replacements available if filing within the US near location of your birth.

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Patrick De Klotz @patdeklotz.bsky.social · 7d

American citizen, read this. www.koin.com/news/portlan...

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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 2d

Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

- Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Towns may have to be abandoned due to floods with millions more homes in Great Britain at risk

Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds

www.theguardian.com

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