Author | Lightnews

@benfranklinsaid.bsky.social

560 followers 570 following 2.1K posts

The Founders are appalled. Loves checks and balances, functional markets, boring banks, anticorruption and Lina Khan.

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · Feb 17

All these MAGA preppers out here paranoid about EMPs knocking out large areas of critical infrastructure… They’re busy lining rooms with tinfoil while the richest man in the world up and fires the specialists who maintain their grid. Turns out your vote for Trump was the EMP bitches

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 1h

The way he rubs his inhumanity in Americans” face never ceases to stun me.

He’s illegally refusing to pay food stamp benefits…

…while he throws a ridiculously over the top Gatsby party for his right wing millionaire and corporate friends.

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Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 6h

So there were some AI-generated videos that purported to show Black women ranting about SNAP benefits, and... Fox News is reporting on this like these are real people. They're not! They're AI!

This is truly insane. Total unreality. www.foxnews.com/media/snap-b...

CULTURE TRENDS
SNAP beneficiaries threaten to ransack stores over government shutdown
One mother claims taxpayers must feed her children as
SNAP benefits face cuts
By Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi • Fox News
Published October 31, 2025 2:16pm EDT

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Griff "Grza" Sombke @grza.bsky.social · 3h

And they just designated "ANTIFA" as a terrorist organization...

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 17h

"Ms. Jacobs said Pentagon officials said they needed to prove only that the targeted people were connected to designated terrorist organizations, even if the connection is 'as much as THREE HOPS AWAY FROM A KNOWN MEMBER' of a designated terrorist organization."

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/u...

Democrats Condemn Trump Administration for Secrecy on Boat Strikes

www.nytimes.com

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The Steady State @steadystatevets.bsky.social · 4h

The U.S. government is now using occult fear to justify domestic power. DHS’s “Season of the Witch” video dehumanizes migrants and protesters as monsters. This is authoritarian propaganda, and we cannot ignore it.

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 2h

but where did the scary fingernails your husband hated go lol

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Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Court filings reveal that states using the Trump administration’s untested citizenship verification system to purge voter rolls may be mistakenly flagging eligible voters at an alarming rate, risking the chance of voters being disenfranchised.

Trump’s Voter Citizenship Database Is ‘Flawed’ and Could Lead to Disenfranchisement, Election Administrator Warns

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 3h

At this point the data is in, yeah.

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Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 6h

This guy's video explains what's happening.

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 5h

I don’t get it I thought they would be so inspired by this golden age of meritocracy lol

benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 5h

I’d die of embarrassment if words like Pete’s ever came out of my mouth

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The Steady State @steadystatevets.bsky.social · 6h

Democracy depends on structures like laws, separation of powers, and pluralism. This frames Trump as the only effective institution.

#authoritarianism #SteadyStateAssessment

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 6h

Dems actually have some decent communicators if you look hard enough, but Schumer and Jeffries aren’t meeting the moment

benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 6h

I don’t think they should be cutting AWS right now just saying

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Andrew Mueller @andrewmueller.bsky.social · 10h

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 8h

A lot is happening right now. Make a note to yourself to remember, heading into the midterm elections in a year, that GOP senators & reps asking you to vote for them were willing to starve their constituents—your friends, family, maybe even you—for Trump.

Mindfield @mindfield.bsky.social · 10h

Judges rule that Trump must fund SNAP immediately. Now the question remains, will Trump simply ignore the courts like he's prone to do? This is the biggest lever the GOP has to try and force Dems to cave on extending ACA subsidies and they're hammering on it like a child with a noisy new toy.

Live updates: Trump administration must fund SNAP payments during the shutdown, judges rule

Two federal judges ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP, the nation’s biggest food aid program, during the government shutdown.

apnews.com

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Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 9h

FBI: "We didn't zip tie children."

REPORTER: "Here's a photo of a zip tied 14 year old."

FBI" "OK, we didn't zip tie YOUNG children."

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 10h

this is insane.

www.kivitv.com/canyon-count...

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 8h

And grabbing people at the courthouses who were working the process like they were supposed to…

The entire approach reads more like an excuse to abuse other human beings. MAGA has so many sadists

benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 9h

Thread 🧵

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 9h

New from Bellingcat: “‘Pattern of Extreme Brutality’ — Tear gas, pepper balls among weapons used by federal agents at Illinois immigration protests.”
Read the full investigation:
www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/10...

Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Illinois Protesters

A judge recently issued a restraining order on crowd-control tactics by federal agents in the state, including those involved in Operation Midway Blitz.

www.bellingcat.com

benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 12h

The right claims their media censorship and control is par for the course set by Democratic precedent. It’s a lie. But they’ve been worked up for years (see Musk/Taibbi Twitter files) and constantly use it as an excuse for false equivalence and ‘vengeance’. Setting the record straight is important.

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WIRED @wired.com · 12h

The interviews come from several years of conversations with Youtube employees focused on policy and health, and in trust and safety roles; they appear to undercut years of GOP accusations of the Biden administration censoring social media platforms during the pandemic.

Republicans Claimed Biden Censored YouTube. 20 Employees Seem to Say Otherwise

Lawyers for Alphabet, Youtube's parent company, recently alleged that the Biden administration tried to “influence” the company. Interviews with employees don't appear to support their claim.

www.wired.com

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 13h

Money is pouring in to connected people who know how to make stupid propagandistic ads, run private prisons, and build ballrooms. As well as big tech donors. Absolutely they are running a huge scam. One giant frat party to fiscally ruin America and enrich themselves as much and as fast as possible.

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 13h

If there is any possible way, ANY WAY AT ALL, for them to piss away massive amounts of money, they will do it. the Trump tax cuts alone are ruinous.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 14h

But in the upside-down phantasmagoria of 2024 US politics, nothing Trump did counts, but Russia attacking Ukraine and Hamas attacking Israel were somehow Biden starting wars.
Meanwhile, Trump cheering Russian imperialism, and criticizing Biden for restraining Israel too much, somehow became antiwar.

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The Steady State @steadystatevets.bsky.social · 1d

Investigators didn’t “wait for Trump to run.”
Fed & state probes into Jan. 6 + fake electors began in 2021.

1876/1960 involved lawful state processes.
2020 was fake certificates to overturn an election.

Calling accountability “persecution” is a tactic to normalize an anti-democratic conspiracy.

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benfranklinsaid.bsky.social @benfranklinsaid.bsky.social · 1d

I really hope we get the biggest fvcking reform era in US history after this. Antitrust action. Overhaul of SCOTUS. Hardened rebuild of checks and balances. Every possible legal action against the abuses of these frenzied days of corruption and lawlessness.

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