Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1h

Fighting corruption is not some wonky distraction from defending democracy; it's a core part of it. ICYMI @davidsirota.com:

How Anti-Corruption Can Be a Winning Issue for Democrats

It’s a powerful, unifying theme—and it’s tied to the crisis of democracy under Trump.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 32m

“Salis told the Guardian that Hungary’s use of the term ‘antifa’ was a way of ‘stigmatising whoever dissents, whoever doesn’t agree with the regime’. She added: ‘If being anti-fascist means dissenting with his regime, of course I am an anti-fascist.’”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

European far right follows Trump in calling for antifa to be declared terrorists

Netherlands and Hungary move towards designation as draft resolution reportedly backed by 79 MEPs in 20 countries

www.theguardian.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 57m

“Border Patrol agents, along with other federal agents, conducted a military-style immigration raid of an apartment complex in Chicago. Video showed agents indiscriminately bursting through doors. ‘All the evidence suggests egregious violations of rights…’”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Cavalier and aggressive’: why are border agents flooding into US cities?

Border agents have become a key force in Trump’s migrant crackdown – operating far from their traditional rural range

www.theguardian.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1h

Portland, the lies vs. the reality.

youtube.com/shorts/BSkDJ...

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised. #dailyshow

YouTube video by The Daily Show

youtube.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2h

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2h

“And there’s just a real, existential question of how do you write down a law that binds an actor who’s already demonstrated willingness to disregard the law?”

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...

The OTHER Democratic Demand for Reopening the Government

It’s about stopping Donald Trump and Russ Vought—and it can’t happen soon enough.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2h

“IT’S HARD TO OVERSTATE just how much Trump has expanded presidential power over government spending, and in the process remade the relationship between the executive and legislative branches.”

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2h

“Friday’s actions are a reminder that stopping Trump’s power grabs is also an urgent cause—and one where Democrats could, if anything, be seeking to do even more.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/the-other-...

The OTHER Democratic Demand for Reopening the Government

It’s about stopping Donald Trump and Russ Vought—and it can’t happen soon enough.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 9h

"In an authoritarian context, all journalism will tend toward propaganda unless it is explicitly formulated as anti-authoritarian. Unless an institution is explicitly designed to counter authoritarianism, it will end up aiding the authoritarians."

The Washington Post and CBS News are dying. The Bulwark is the future.

We drink their milkshake.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 10h

“The Biden FBI”

Who was President on January 6?

Donald J. Trump * © @reaDonaldTrump • 1m
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM - DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

27909.bsky.social @27909.bsky.social · 15h

The silver lining for MAGA of the failed 2020/21 coup was that it revealed all the points in the system that prevented them from succeeding, and they and their allies have spent the last 5 years slowly buying, winning, or destroying each and every one of them

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 17h

“The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are, arguably, the two greatest American films ever made, a portrait of America told from the perspective of outsiders peering in. But that works in large part because we see the Corleones through the eyes of Keaton’s Kay.”

www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

Diane Keaton, 1946–2025

The leading lady of the 1970s.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 17h

One feature or authoritarian movements: They get more extreme.

"The highly unusual request appears to have originated from a letter sent from 25 Republican members of Congress asking [the EPA] to investigate how mifepristone might be contaminating the water supply."

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

The E.P.A. Followed Up on an Unusual Request About Abortion Pills

www.nytimes.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 18h

“The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply.”

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices

U.S. farmers face labor shortages and potential food price hikes due to Trump’s immigration policy, the administration acknowledged in a Federal Registry document.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 20h

Illinois law requires all registered vehicles to display front and back license plates, without exception. But to evade accountability, masked federal immigration agents are driving around in unmarked cars without plates.
chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/10...?

Federal immigration officers wear masks, no name tags — now some drive cars without license plates

The Sun-Times has documented four unmarked cars carrying federal officers without required plates, offering another way to shield their identities. Federal officials say they’re meeting regulations.

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“.. Inside the White House, top advisers joke that they are ruling Congress with an “iron fist,” according to people who have heard the comments. Steve Bannon, the influential Trump ally, likened Congress to the Duma, the Russian assembly that is largely ceremonial.”

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

The shameless GOP lying about the No Kings gatherings scheduled for next Saturday reveals how deeply hostile much of the Republican Party is to “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” I look forward to our local No Kings event, and urge my fellow Americans to attend in their communities.

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"It is truly sickening to speak to somebody who raised three boys to go into the Marines because of how much he loved and believed in this country, only to be treated like that."

@jacobsoboroff.bsky.social discusses Narciso Barranco, ICE, and more with @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Pod

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

When Trump came along—a fellow oligarch, looking to use the power of the American presidency to enrich himself and his cronies as much as possible—these figures jumped at the chance to share in the spoils. www.thebulwark.com/p/why-our-te...

Why Our Tech Overlords Took a Hard Right Turn

A new book tells the story of how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs became angry admirers of authoritarianism.

www.thebulwark.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"To focus on the 'woke left' as a threat to liberalism in America in late 2025 while soft-pedaling the threat from the authoritarian/populist right that now holds the levers of power is a sign of either extraordinary myopia or bad faith."

Bari Weiss, CBS News, and the Triumph of Faux Balance

The record of the Free Press shows her journey from independent to MAGA fellow traveler.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

“‘It breaks your heart,’ Bart Giamatti said. ‘It is designed to break your heart.’ I love that quote, but I’ve never really believed it. Yes, baseball will break your heart — but baseball is designed to give you hope. Spring training will come again.”

www.joeposnanski.com/p/baseball-w...

Baseball Will Break Your Heart

But, even though it doesn't always feel that way, its real design is to make you believe again.

www.joeposnanski.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

“So we fight on just the same. With Dylan Thomas, we refuse to go quietly into that good night, but rather rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Or, as another poet put it, ‘Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.’”

open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Is This What ‘Late-Stage Democracy’ Looks Like?

What if the Constitution *is* a suicide pact?

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Bill Kristol

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"In the U.S. the risks of stepping forward pale compared to those faced by dissidents elsewhere. Surely it’s not too much to hope that some heretofore timid Americans could find inspiration from the example of María Corina Machado and 'refuse to stay silent.'”

www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...

The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare

This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.

www.thebulwark.com

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 2d

"Indeed, the sounds we’ll hear today will be the pitter-patter of GOP feet scurrying as fast as they can to cameras to curry favor with their neon god by complaining loudly that he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize they have to say he deserved."

www.thebulwark.com/p/insidious-...

The Insidious Effort To Rationalize Trump’s Lawfare

This is not a president justified in going after those who went after him. It’s a person making a mockery of our justice system.

www.thebulwark.com

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