Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 20h

October 2025
AI gooning is the master of the Internet
Only Claude stands against it
Waifus are now battlefields

10 50 380

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

☠️deadward niedermurder☠️ @niedermeyer.online · 20h

"you can't just call the people you disagree with nazis"

oh no?

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 20h

Oh hey, check this out. They talk the same way in their private chats as they do on Twitter www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

12 61 360

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 22h

In 2020 conservatives were outraged by this picture of an armed cop deporting a child who came to the US illegally.

Today, conservatives would cheer it. What happened? I have a theory . . .

www.thebulwark.com/p/elian-gonz...

Elián González, Trump, and What Happened to “True Conservatism”

Toward a quantum theory of politics.

www.thebulwark.com

17 79 260

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 1d

I am curious whether that outlet has ever issued a correction. They have no obvious process, two emails bounced, and they never responded to another. So the lie told by their intern - that SIO somehow censored (or wanted censored) Hunter Biden’s laptop & the lab leak hypothesis - is still up.

3 12 170

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 1d

Promoting the editor-in-chief's personal side project. Zero named sources in a story that promotes the editor-in-chief's personal political position. Misspelling the subject's name. It took one day for CBS News to become a conservative blog.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

CBS News: Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming NYC mayor the Free Press reports.

160 1.8K 6K

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

This is what this “Antifa” bullshit is all about. It’s about coming for you and anyone who would stand up to the authoritarians.

Read today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social

Are YOU Antifa?

Plus: Hostage releases and prisoner swaps.

www.thebulwark.com

84 400 1.3K

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 4d

This piece about Bari Weiss is devastating because it's relentlessly fair. DO NOT MISS. www.thebulwark.com/p/bari-weiss...

20 130 560

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 4d

Everyone knows the Constitution isn't a suicide pact. What this newsletter presupposes is . . . what if it is? www.thebulwark.com/p/is-this-wh...

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

What if the Constitution *is* a suicide pact?

www.thebulwark.com

9 21 98

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 7d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

87 2.5K 5.2K

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 6d

This is capitulation. It is not the "Department of War." If CNN concedes on this point, they'll concede on any point.

Jon Passantino @passantino.bsky.social · 6d

CNN is now using the Trump preferred “Department of War” name in its official statements

150 600 2.8K

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 6d

The obvious question here is how you can indict when you're "just getting your hands around" the evidence.

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 7d

At one point during the hearing, the judge asked the prosecution why the case can’t be tried before mid-December.

Lemons replied: We are “just getting our hands around” discovery in the case.

There’s lots of it, he added, and it includes a “significant” amount of classified information.

23 140 900

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 7d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

190 4.9K 11K

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 7d

As alarmed as people may be, they aren't alarmed enough. Trump just escalated this crisis from a fight between the federal government and a state, to a situation where one state is deploying armed forces to impose its will on another state. www.thebulwark.com/p/emergency-...

Emergency Triad: The Chicago Rubicon and What Comes Next

We aren’t at the worst-case scenario yet. But if you squint, you can see it looming out there, just over the horizon.

www.thebulwark.com

83 600 1.7K

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 7d

I’ll take the over.

Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 7d

80/20

TomB @tdb011235.bsky.social · 7d

Given the trend, what do you guess are the odds of seeing military at polling places next year? At the moment I'm giving it 1:3 odds.

18 5 89

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 7d

Bunch of tubbies with facial hair and zero muzzle discipline. Don’t tell the SecWAR.

50 60 310

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 9d

Talked A FEW GOOD MEN on the Movie Club this week with @jvl.bsky.social and @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social, which remains one of the all-time "Oh yeah, he's in this" movies. Cruise/Nicholson/Moore, yes, but also Kevin Pollack, JT Walsh, Noah Wyle, Josh Malina, Cuba Gooding Jr, etc. Off the charts!

A Few Good Men: Why Today’s Leaders Sound Like Col. Jessup

YouTube video by The Bulwark

www.youtube.com

9 7 64

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 10d

This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.

1.5K 7.4K 24K

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 11d

This is a must-read by @jvl.bsky.social.

You don’t have to agree with every particular — I’m not sure I do — to appreciate how helpful this is, how essential it is, to thinking seriously about the present moment.

BLUF. Memo to Democrats: It’s the power, stupid.

www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

Here’s How Trump Loses the Shutdown

God help us but Gavin Newsom is the only Democrat who understands power.

www.thebulwark.com

34 140 490

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 11d

comic book authors: we invented the punisher as a cautionary tale about vigilante crime fighting
the director of the fbi: at long last, we are implementing the ethos from the classic comic book the punisher

Sam @samd.bsky.social · 12d

reddit occupied government

Ken Dilanian
@DilanianMSNBC
Follow
The challenge coins being handed out by @FBIDirectorKash. Seems someone put a lot of thought into this.

220 1.2K 5.3K

Reposted by Jonathan V. Last

Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 12d

Bari Weiss, a mediocrity, built a lucrative career by riding the online right’s grievances, many of which are fictitious.

On the right, incessant whining and whataboutism pays.

Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 12d

In case it wasn’t clear, the anti-DEI crusade has never been about merit. Zero news experience. Never been a reporter. Elevated to Editor in Chief of CBS News, one of the most storied news institutions in the nation. www.mediaite.com/media/news/p...

Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, accordin...

www.mediaite.com

22 130 610

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 11d

How is it that Gavin Newsom is the only elected D who understands that power, not policy, is the game right now? fin/ www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

Here’s How Trump Loses the Shutdown

God help us but Gavin Newsom is the only Democrat who understands power.

www.thebulwark.com

10 24 110

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 11d

You say that's not realistic? Fine. Ask for reductions of exec power. Eg: 5/

5 23 110

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 11d

Here are some things D's should be willing to bail Trump and R's out in exchange for:

* DC statehood
* Release of ALL the Epstein files

Period. The end. 4/

3 11 78

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 11d

Does anyone think that if D's succeed in getting Trump to restore Medicaid cuts *they* will get credit form voters? B/c that's delusional. 3/

2 9 60

Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 11d

Dems are willing to help Trump avoid an unpopular shutdown if he will stop doing the things that are going to make him unpopular? AYFKM?

D's should *want* ACA subsidies to lapse and R Medicaid cuts to hit. Voters need to see what Trump is doing to them.
2/

4 10 55