Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3h

The Trump administration wants us to believe that they are all-powerful forces who control everything and can be reined in by neither Congress nor the Supreme Court, but if anything goes wrong, it's Mastermind Chuck Schumer's fault.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

BRENNAN: CBS confirmed the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of CDC scientists. Some were involved with the federal measles response. How does a mistake like this happen?

VANCE: The govt shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos. It happened because of Schumer

B: But this was a WH decision

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 1d

Careful and powerful analysis by @gregsargent.bsky.social of the New York Times treating Trump's propagandists as "provocateurs" and decision to treat MAGA's ideologically-driven lies as part of a legitimate clash of perspectives in describing Portland.
newrepublic.com/article/2016...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.com

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 13h

“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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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 7h

'From making comparisons to ...'

It's ... domestic comparorism!

Adam Harris @adamhsays.com · 22h

The distance, between the claim that “advocates are actually engaging in violent and dangerous behavior“ to the reality that “bystanders reported seeing children zip-tied to one another,” tells quite the moral story.

Read @caitlindickerson.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

“Many of these so-called advocates are actually engaging in violent and dangerous behavior,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, told me in a statement. She added, in reference to Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker: “From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This rhetoric is contributing to a more than 1000% surge in assaults of our ICE officers.”

And yet this comes at a time when ICE itself has become more violent toward immigrants, protesters, and unlucky bystanders alike. In recent weeks, agents have shoved to the ground a journalist trying to document an arrest and a woman who was crying because her husband had just been taken into custody. Both were hospitalized. And in Chicago, they shot a woman who they say rammed an agency vehicle—a claim that the woman’s lawyer said body-camera footage disproves. Alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the FBI, ICE also stormed an apartment building in the dark of night, breaking down doors and detaining scores of people, including U.S. citizens. Bystanders reported seeing children zip-tied to one another.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 10h

digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/toten...

Heidelberger Totentanz (Heidelberg: Heinrich Knoblochtzer, nicht nach 1488) [GW M47257]

: Heidelberger Totentanz; Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 10h

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 10h

Death is always a reply guy.

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Cole Moore Odell @colemooreodell.bsky.social · 1d

Conan the Exposition

Speaking to a villain, Conan relates “I had made a vow to your wife—whose name is Annia, in case you’ve forgotten—“

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 14h

If you've ever wondered what Charlemagne looked like, here's a contemporary sketch of him from circa 800.

A drawing thought possibly to represent Emperor Charlemagne (c 800) in the inside front cover of the Fulda codex of the Aix capitulary, Wolfenbuettel Cod. Guelf. 496a. Artist unknown.

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gelbach @gelbach.bsky.social · 23h

This post by @fishkin.bsky.social about the Trump/Mailman/Rowan “compact” letter is excellent. I hope journalists will read and understand it balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 1d

ICE is an armed gang, and they’re only going to get worse. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Opinion | The Chicago raids send a worrying signal about the ideal ICE agents in Trump's America

The agency is on a hiring spree. But we know what that kind of breakneck expansion of the workforce can result in because we’ve seen it before.

www.msnbc.com

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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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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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 20h

Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it's to establish personalist control over the FUCKING MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine

Via: www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.

A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

m.youtube.com/watch?v=4GE7...

-12 Dollar Bill

YouTube video by Raven A. Dayton

m.youtube.com

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2d

By contrast, JB Pritzker told me that people should flood the No Kings protests precisely in order to let the American people know that something is deeply amiss.

More Dems should be doing this, to send the message widely that we are in real trouble right now.

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 1d

Bari WeissBot: "The left says Trump's promise to fire only Democratic federal employees is a form of McCarthyism, but it's actually just an effort to foster greater viewpoint diversity."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: How many layoffs have you authorized?

TRUMP: It'll be a lot. And it'll be Democrat-oriented.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Once again, American conservatives insist American values mandate Orwell. All men are equal but some are more equal than others.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Few points to Douthat for pushing back on what 'libertarian theocracy' means: namely, domination. But add insult to injury by calling it 'liberty'. Notable he wants it to be illegal to insult Christians - but fine for Christians to insult others. Good stuff. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

"Douthat: So that’s the first purpose of your political project, for America to stop making God angry.

Wilson: Yes. And most people think that when they are confronted with that project, they think that we want to get our tentacles into everything and start controlling everything. I actually think we need limited government. The government should be significantly smaller than it is, and we need to curtail a lot of the busybodyness that we have. That’s why I would call myself a theocratic libertarian. There is a true libertarian element in this, and yet, the transcendent grounding for what we’re talking about means that we acknowledge the authority of God.

We have racked up quite a body count of awful crimes, and I believe the only way out is for us to repent and turn to Christ. This would be things like no more Pride parades, no more drag queen story hours, no more abortion on demand, no more legalized same-sex unions — all of that, done. That’s the repentance part."

"Wilson: Nineteenth-century America was a monkey house of communes and different things — that’s all true. But the 90-foot statue, those sorts of things, are taunts. It’s not, “Here’s our freedom, we’re just trying to worship in our own quiet little way.” It’s sort of, “I wonder how far we can push this before somebody says something.”

Douthat: OK. So there’s a “no taunting the Christian majority” soft policy.

Wilson: Right."

"Douthat: Well, no, no, I mean, don’t act demure. You have an entire style, and you have defended this style at length, saying basically that it is perfectly Christian to speak the language of insult, to call people — I just wrote down a few — “lumberjack dykes,” “small-breasted biddies,” “gaytards,” and then some other phrases that I’m not going to use. And that’s part of the appeal too, right?

Wilson: That is, that’s correct.

Douthat: You are, in your own distinctive way, very online and speaking some of the language of that kind of world.

Wilson: Yes. [Long pause.]

Do you want me to defend it? I’m not trying to be politically incorrect for the sake of being politically incorrect. And I’m not resorting to that kind of language — the language that you referred to — because I want to be an ecclesiastical Howard Stern or some sort of shock jock.

Douthat: That actually was in my notes. I am not joking. The Howard Stern comparison.

Wilson: Yeah. So what I’m doing when I use — I’m a wordsmith. I write a lot. I use words. And when I take certain words out with a sharp pointy edge or a blade, it’s a weapon to be used in a particular situation for a particular purpose in a particular time. It’s not for the — [gasps] — he said a naughty word. That’s not ——"

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

I miss the days when every billionaire was a policy failure - but not obviously a psychiatric breakdown.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

My first thought was “wow I hope this guy didn’t give out his name because he could absolutely be charged” and yup, he is correct to stay anonymous.

This man’s account is shocking. His neighbors’ situation is shocking. The entire Chicago raid is shocking.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.
"I wasn't planning on letting her stay, but I didn't know what the hell was going on," the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.
"I didn't want them to take her," said the man, who didn't want to be named because he fears he'll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.
"I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her,
'Just stay there. Don't open, don't, shh, just stay quiet," he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Big 'Rally-whose-name-cannot-be-spoken' energy.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Emmer: "This is about one thing and one thing alone -- to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold a hate America rally in DC next week."

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Too slow: "Gregor Samsa awoke to find himself transformed into ..."
On the go: "Here's why it matters that Gregor Samsa awoke to find himself transformed into ..."

lindsey adler @lindseyadler.bsky.social · 5d

...

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John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

"Off, worm, I'm looking for bigger stuff than you! I'm looking for Mr Mind, the most slippery customer Captain Marvel ever got after!"