Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Bill Reed

Duncan Jones @manmademoon.bsky.social · 33m

Sorry… the USAID budget was LESS than the US is now chucking Argentina for giggles?!
Jesus…

Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 37m

The fact that Republican “fiscal conservatives” in Congress aren’t saying a word about Trump’s $40 billion bailout of Argentina (“America first!!!”) just shows that they’re complete hypocrites.

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Eric Klinenberg @ericklinenberg.bsky.social · 1h

For those of you keeping score, 18-22 year-old students calling for an end to slaughter in Gaza are so racist they need to be expelled or deported, but 24-35 year-olds celebrating Hitler, rape, and, um, racism are just kids being kids so chill.

Also, racism is over so no need for Voting Right Act.

JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as ‘what kids do’

Vice-president downplays messages such as ‘I love Hitler’ in chat by 24 to 35-year-olds to ‘stupid jokes’

www.theguardian.com

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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 1h

BREAKING from PP

We found immigration agents have held more than 170 *citizens*

The govt doesn't track citizens held. So we did. We tallied:

Nearly 20 kids, two w/ cancer

More than 20 citizens held for day or more, incommunicado

www.propublica.org/article/immi...

by @nicolefoy.bsky.social

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

www.propublica.org

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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 2h

Rev. Kardon “said she has been shot multiple times with pepper bullets, including while she was praying with her eyes closed and hands lifted, wearing a clerical collar and stole,” Religion News Service reported👇🏽

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 2h

“Every time we have been attacked w/pepper bullets or tear gas or pepper spray that I have been present, it has felt like it came from anger that we were there, and not from any determined safety need or protocol,” said The Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist pastor. “They are unhinged.”

Clergy Member Shot With Pepper Ball Outside ICE Facility Says He Could Hear Agents ‘Laughing’

Rev. David Black, who has since joined a lawsuit against the administration “alleging violations of the First and Fourth Amendments,” says he protests to let immigrants know “that they are not alone."

americasvoicecnn.substack.com

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 17h

BREAKING via WSJ

The Trump administration is planning sweeping changes in criminal division at the IRS.

Full Story: on.wsj.com/3LbVFtK

The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter.
A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors, some of the people said.
The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations, officials said. The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 18h

There's literally no reason for Congress to exist if any random freak in the presidential orbit can nullify laws and seize federal funds. All of this is plainly illegal, but Mike Johnson leads the most corrupt Congress in US history (and by a wide margin.)

Reuters @reuters.com · 23h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Asha Rangappa @asharangappa.bsky.social · 19h

🧵 This reporting confirms my suspicion on why, based on reporting last week, the CIA's Deputy Director, Michael Ellis, installed himself as the agency's general counsel. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Trump Administration Authorizes Covert C.I.A. Action in Venezuela

www.nytimes.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 19h

“The Defense Department has confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America,” the Pentagon Press Association said

Oct. 15, 2025
PENTAGON PRESS ASSOCIATION
STATEMENT
Today, the Defense Department confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America. It did this because reporters would not sign onto a new media policy over its implicit threat of criminalizing national security reporting and exposing those who sign it to potential prosecution.
The Pentagon Press Association's members are still committed to reporting on the U.S. military. But make no mistake, today, Oct. 15, 2025 is a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon and to free speech for all.
PPA

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 19h

The Supreme Court’s majority right wing indicated in oral arguments that they think racism is over on the same day that the vice president defended the “I love Hitler” guy, and that the NYT reported that the current administration plans to accept only white, English-speaking refugees.

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 19h

the president using the office to punish americans that didnt vote for him should really be one of the biggest scandals in americas history

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Trump is upfront in saying he will use the shutdown to punish Democrats, and here are the receipts. About $27.2 billion cut from Dem districts compared to about $0.7 billion in GOP districts.
We all complain about the media, but need this type of in-depth journalism.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Halts Billions in Grants for Democratic Districts During Shutdown (Gift Article)

The Trump administration has frozen or canceled nearly $28 billion primarily located in Democratic-led districts, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

www.nytimes.com

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Lauren Ashley Davis @laurenmeidasa.bsky.social · 19h

"I want to thank Stephen Miller... I love watching him on television. I would love to have him come up and explain his true feelings. Maybe not his truest feelings. That might be going a little bit too far." Trump said.

www.rawstory.com/stephen-mill...

'Absolute psycho': Trump's 'revealing' Stephen Miller comment buried in mockery

President Donald Trump's comment about Steven Miller during a press conference Wednesday had people mocking the president and his deputy chief of staff, saying "well, that's pretty revealing" and call...

www.rawstory.com

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 20h

ICE agents kidnapped a US citizen in Chicago because she didn’t “look” American to them. She even had her US passport on her. 🤬

ICE Detains Citizen After Saying She Doesn’t “Look Like” Her Last Name

She even had her U.S. passport on her.

newrepublic.com

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La La La Llorona @marisasandlin.bsky.social · 17d

He stopped at my door and looked me in the eye, and I’ll never, ever forget this. I repeated it recently. He said, “Jim, our job is to protect empathy at all costs, and to live groovy lives.”

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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 19h

The NBC Asian America crew regularly covered so many of my films, comics, and books over the years. One of the very few big, mainstream venues to give a damn. This is a kick in the teeth.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 21h

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 20h

BREAKING: Journalists exited the Pentagon after refusing to agree to the Trump administration's new restrictions on access.

Journalists turn in access badges, exit Pentagon rather than agree to new reporting rules

Journalists at the Pentagon turned in access badges and cleaned out their workspaces on Wednesday, the price for refusing to agree to new restrictions on their jobs being removal from being at the seat of U.S. military power.

bit.ly

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Hend Amry @libyaliberty.bsky.social · 20h

Remember when this kind of thing would have been unthinkable? How many other unthinkable things will become the new norm.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 21h

UPDATE: Following the firing of the director of the student newspaper, Indiana University has now cut the print edition of the newspaper entirely.

www.idsnews.com/article/2025...

Indiana University cuts IDS print entirely, hours after firing student media director
By IDS staff
Oct 15, 2025 1:23 pm · Updated Oct 15, 2025 1:23 pm

IU previously directed the Indiana Daily Student to stop printing news coverage in our newspaper. Upon pushback, the university fully cut print, including our special editions. The IDS was not involved in the decision.

Media School Dean David Tolchinsky sent the order to IDS leadership in an email responding to its appeal that the school not censor the newspaper. And the dean attributed the decision to “the campus.” He has not yet responded to a message for clarification.

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Blue Georgia @bluegeorgia.bsky.social · 1d

These are some of the leaked messages Young Republicans were sending in group chats.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

I don't think I've seen a network TV news report more transparently full of shit since maybe 2003, right before we invaded Iraq

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22h

white reactionaries disenfranchising black voters to secure political power? that’s a jim crow. 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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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 22h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 21h

The Supreme Court's Republican appointees sound ready to transform the 14th and 15th Amendments into a weapon against the very racial minorities they were meant to protect—handing Republicans 15-19 additional House seats in the process. A disaster for democracy.
slate.com/news-and-pol...

Is it racist to remedy racism? That’s the question at the heart of Callais v. Louisiana, which the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act gives Black Louisianans too much political power—and if so, whether the landmark law violates the Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the Republican-appointed justices seem eager to rule that it does. Throughout oral arguments, they suggested the VRA protects minority voters too effectively, dragging the government into race-conscious considerations that offend the equal protection rights of the white voters who sued in this case. And they floated various ways to gut what remains of the statute by twisting it beyond recognition or striking it down altogether. The result would be a windfall for Republicans, who stand to gain at least 19 seats in the House of Representatives if the Supreme Court frees them to gerrymander Black communities into oblivion. Such a decision would also devastate minority representation in Congress, eliminating up to 30 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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Board Game Today @boardgametoday.bsky.social · 1d

IDW and Hunters Entertainment announce a Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Tabletop Game #tabletopgames @idwpublishing.com @patrickhorvath.bsky.social @huntersent.bsky.social

IDW and Hunters Entertainment announce a Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Tabletop Game

The Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees - A Storytelling Mystery Game launched on Kickstarter this week.

graphicpolicy.com

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Nox…just another figment of your overactive imagination. @eatenbypotchky.bsky.social · 1d

If you’re not aware, Hunters Entertainment is launching a campaign to fund a new game, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. Based on the @IDWPublishing comic by @PatrickHorvath, I was honored to design this dark ride! Your support is to die for. www.kickstarter.com/projects/hun...

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees - A Storytelling Game

Based on the comic by Patrick Hovarth of the same name. Dexter meets Arthur in this insanely dark and intimately charming game.

www.kickstarter.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

“the constitution forbids race conscious remedies” would be news to the people who wrote the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments

Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 1d

Griem goes there, arguing in response to Justice Jackson that there can be no race-conscious remedy absent a finding of intentional discrimination.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Topics Mike Johnson thinks are serious:

- Super Bowl halftime entertainer
- getting a Nobel Prize for Trump
- terrifying naked bike riders

Topics he thinks are not serious:

- Epstein Files
- domestic violence
- being able to keep the govt open
- the neutering of Congress

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: This has been reported for a while. Cory Mills was accused of beating a girlfriend in his DC apt. Are you concerned about these allegations?

JOHNSON: You have to ask Rep. Mills about that. He's been a faithful colleague. I don't know the details. Let's talk about things that are really serious

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