Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 17m

Oh, it's from the USSR. That's rich. Say Russia, out of curiosity, where did you get your permanent seat on the UN security council? Was it lying in the gutter?

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 19m

Russia celebrates... independence? From whom, the Golden Horde? I'm looking into this nonsense.

Russia celebrates independence, what the hell does that mean???

1

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 25m

It happened to me working for the Census in 2020 where my (admittedly temporary) job disappeared from under me for pandemic reasons. It feels like I gave up years ago but I don't even know what career I was giving up on until it was already out of reach. Kind of a weird place to be.

1

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 30m

There's a kind of chicken and egg issue with that in my community (public opinion polling) wherein you need a job or academic position to participate and you need to participate to get a job or academic position. Grad school didn't do it for me either.

1 2

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 54m

An underrated effect is that Johnson's position becomes more and more untenable if the filibuster is abolished.

Issues like a national abortion ban go from theoretical to very real. The moderates in his caucus would be forced to take a stand on it should the Senate pass such a thing.

2

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 57m

Yes. I desperately want them on the record on issues like a national abortion ban. They have skated by for decades without having to endorse their own policies.

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Bill DiFilippo @billdifilippo.bsky.social · 7h

????? www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/15/g...

12 6 69

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 6h

Wait really? We're getting into some bullshit territory.

2

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 7h

IMO if we can't hold people accountable because the president will pardon them, there is simply nothing we can call law anymore in this country.

There are forms of justice through which the pardon of the monarch does not apply, and I would encourage Americans to consider them carefully.

ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 12h

to temper that a hair, i think people generally need to start wrapping their head around what prosecutions into a likely field of pocket pardons look like, because it's not going to be anywhere near as satisfying as you want it to be

1 1 4

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 7h

Indeed, elected Democrats and their cheerleaders are not the only group accountable to their actions.

1

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 12h

sirota and turner are two of the people im talking about when i say sanders hired terrible staffers. they have skills in other venues but running a campaign is not one of them. theyre the progressive equivalent of hillary's mark penn. total campaign failures.

👻Teleportnow👽💀🎃 @teleportnow.bsky.social · 17h

What you neglect to say, but people like David Sirota and Nina Turner will attest to, is that Dem establishment prevented Sanders from hiring Dem campaign staff and consultants. They were black balled for working for him. And on election day in 2016 Sanders polled significantly higher than Trump.

10 9 87

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 7h

50 years of history, and axed by Elon Musk without Congress

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 8h

Still find it wild how they shut down USAID with no Congressional approval

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9h

would love to know where vought got the authority to shutdown a government agency established by statute

3 41 310

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 7h

Where I depart with the liberal consensus, and where I (sadly) agree with the far right, is that a small group of radicals will more than likely lead this country for the foreseeable future. It is almost a foregone conclusion.

Who those radicals are is not yet decided.

2

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Sam (ABeardedPanda) @abeardedpanda.bsky.social · 8h

It's honestly funny as fuck that the US government is being run by podcasters so they also have Discord server drama

Doc Revan @docrevan.bsky.social · 9h

Oh they mad

Aidan @aidanxitter
Follow
A friend of mine got blackmailed into leaking these chats. A total fucking coward and a useless piece of shit
One of the people in here, he attended his wedding with me and still sold him over to the devil
All over some useless YR beef
And then the GOP condemned them
Fuck these people
The GOP treated to fire my friend and vice chairman from his AG job because of tiktoks I posted about immigration
I wasn't allowed to talk about "replacement theory" or any mainline immigration stans They asked me to resign over Trump's gr card diploma mill comments

8 93 420

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 8h

This may be a pivotal moment in the future of the GOP: will these Nazis get the axe or will they get the green light? Vance seems to say green light. If they are not purged now they probably will never be purged.

Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 8h

Oh now the floodgates open on GOP staffer land

1

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Ezra Levin ❌👑 @ezralevin.bsky.social · 11h

Is this a joke. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

America Needs a Mass Movement—Now

Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades.

www.theatlantic.com

110 75 610

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 9h

In part they weren't like this because more people did not want them to be like this.

1

Reposted by Erich Luepke

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 10h

this ballroom is the best evidence that trump doesn’t intend to leave

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 10h

Exclusive: More than three dozen organizations and individuals are expected to attend a dinner with Trump on Wednesday after opening their checkbooks to support a $250 million White House ballroom.

Trump Invites Ballroom Donors to Glitzy White House Dinner

The dinner is set to include representatives from Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon and Palantir Technologies.

on.wsj.com

190 880 4.2K

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 11h

To steal a term from @unavaleable.bsky.social, the enshittification cycle seems like it's just going to keep getting worse.

Aubrey Gilleran @aubreygilleran.bsky.social · 11h

Even if they are, we have now normalized redistricting every cycle. So if some exurban Charlotte seat flips in a blue wave, the (also gerrymandered) state legislature can just go back to the drawing board and try again. 2016-2018 was the last time an NC map survived two consecutive cycles.

3 18 110

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 9h

Every single bad thing we could say about Trump we could say also about Congress, specifically the Republican Congress. They are a stain on the nation perhaps more indelible than even the president himself.

3

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 9h

So when you layer the whole "actually state legislatures can choose who they want to elect, it's not up to the voters" well, they've got nothing left. They are the voice of nobody, saying nothing, heard by no one.

1 3

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 9h

Congress is in a legitimacy crisis, arguably the worst in history. Nobody watches them to determine govt policy, their leadership is atrocious, they can't pass legislation, their laws are moot, they don't block appointments, they threw away their fiscal powers, they hardly use their informal powers.

1 4

Reposted by Erich Luepke

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11h

a real question for the roberts majority is what in their view distinguishes jim crow disenfranchisement from majority-minority districts? a related question is what in their view made the typical jim crow law — which was facially neutral — unconstitutional?

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12h

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

30 270 1.3K

Erich Luepke @erichluepke.bsky.social · 10h

What? That's insane.

2

Reposted by Erich Luepke

Emma-Rose DeLeon 🔞🏳️‍⚧️ 4HS Solis Year @emrosedeleon.bsky.social · 1d

The thing is, Republicans have been red baiting since Eisenhower.

Dan in Kansas City @daninkc.bsky.social · 1d

The media smeared Mitt Romney as Hitler. Then Republicans thought, well we might as well run Hitler.

2 2 11