Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 13h

I've been teaching Bentele and O'Brien's "Jim Crow 2.0" since 2013 and it really lands differently with students in 2025.

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Ida B Wells' Winchester Rifle @dytsras.bsky.social · 23h

Today is the 59th anniversary of the creation if the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

Founded by Huey P Newton (RIP) and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther was actually a symbol from the 761st Tank battalion and the Bloody Lowndes Democratic formation.

Bobby Seale turns 88 one week from today

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Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 13h

One fun thing about being a political scientist during fascist consolidation is wondering basically every day "Is this the day I lose my job for teaching empirical research about racial discrimination in the United States? FUN TIMES

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Transformative Justice Alliance @tjalliance.bsky.social · 20h

The Transformative Justice Alliance is building survivor-centered systems of justice grounded in healing, accountability, and transformation in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

Learn more at transformativejusticealliance.org

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

I just checked and this is real. It's on Border Patrol's official Instagram (I don't see it on Facebook) and is being celebrated by Nazis on Twitter, as you can see in the screenshot.

The clip is just 13 seconds long too, so it's a very intentional thing. We've got a Nazi government.

Twitter account: Uncensored @HmanQuotes1945: Official border patrol Facebook page is posting with the banned lyrics of Michael Jackson's song.
"Jew me sue me... Kick me k*ke me."
Epic

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Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 1d

These young Republicans are being sacrificed by older, more entrenched Republicans not because they disagree, but because it’s strategic. They can point to this largely symbolic ouster as evidence that their party “isn’t racist” while the Republican Party is quite literally doing fascism.

‘It’s revolting’: More Young Republican chat members out of jobs as condemnation intensifies

POLITICO report on private Telegram chat filled with racist slurs and tropes ignites debate from New York to Washington.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Davis @thatbaba.bsky.social · 1d

We used to own the house next to ours and participated in the Stable Homes program. The inspector who signed off on the house being ready for move in SPECIFICALLY said that a fixture on the exterior needed a lightbulb "in case the mayor wants to come by for a photo." He uses the program for clout.

David Brauer @dbrauer.net · 1d

If I’m reading Kyle right, Frey admits failing to issue 100 housing vouchers *that are funded this year because he wants to kill the program next year.* (This is not Stable Schools, but for single folks.) This is unallotment Trump-style, especially since county/MPHA are in.

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Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 1d

I had a student who chose to intern with the Republican Party in Minnesota. He was distraught listening to what the other young interns were saying. They were straight up arguing for a return to monarchy and chattel slavery. Young Republicans in Minnesota.

Erin Maye Quade @erinmayequade.bsky.social · 1d

I’m only thinking about this article in the content of SCOTUS rehearing the Voting Rights Act case. This is what Republicans say in private. Republicans who are elected. Republicans who serve within their party apparatus. Republicans who work for the Trump administration & work in state government.

Erin Maye Quade @erinmayequade.bsky.social · 1d

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Erin Maye Quade @erinmayequade.bsky.social · 1d

I’m only thinking about this article in the content of SCOTUS rehearing the Voting Rights Act case. This is what Republicans say in private. Republicans who are elected. Republicans who serve within their party apparatus. Republicans who work for the Trump administration & work in state government.

Erin Maye Quade @erinmayequade.bsky.social · 1d

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

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Liz Renzetti @lizrenzetti.bsky.social · 2d

"They got along really well – they were bros hanging out. Over time, there was this atmosphere of: ‘These crazy feminists, these extremists who want to have us punished for something that we didn’t do." Brilliant interview with Manon Garcia on the Pelicot trial www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘These men think they’ve done nothing wrong’: the philosopher who tried to understand Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists

When 50 men went on trial in France, accused of raping a woman who had been drugged by her husband, Manon Garcia was in the courtroom – and in the prosecutors’ closing arguments. How does she make sen...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 4d

Mamdani talking lucidly and passionately about trans rights and history in a video that should frankly shame every politician who has hemmed and hawed and triangulated and said, "Well, but sports..." It's not that hard to tell the truth and stand for what's right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEvV...

Until It's Done: Sylvia Rivera

YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC

www.youtube.com

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 4d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 6d

Editorial Board Endorsements (so far)

MAYOR
DeWayne Davis

COUNCIL
Ward 10: Aisha Chughtai
Ward 7: Katie Cashman

PARK BOARD DISTRICT 4
Jason Garcia

PARK BOARD AT-LARGE:
Tom Olsen
Michael Wilson
(3 seats, I endorse 2)

BOARD OF ESTIMATE
Eric Harris Bernstein
Steve Brandt

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Red Emma’s @redemmas.org · 7d

Because certainly there's no reason why this history might be terrifyingly relevant right now, here's a link to preorder @stschrader1.bsky.social's "Blue Power" on how police in the US organized to exempt themselves from democratic oversight and control: redemmas.org/titles/48838...

Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves

Buy from Red Emma's, a worker-owned radical bookstore

redemmas.org

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Matt Henry 🥄 @matthenry.fyi · 25d

When the nazis were coming into power, there was a lag before local law enforcement was fully on board. People were able to get police protection from nazi-aligned paramilitaries. Here, today, police look at rising fascism and say “Finally. We’ve been waiting for this.” www.notus.org/democrats/me...

Democrats' New Fear: They Can’t Rely on Local Law Enforcement for Protection

“They called the local sheriff; they showed up and were going to arrest me,” said Rep. Steven Horsford.

www.notus.org

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Paul Fairie @paulisci.bsky.social · 8d

A Brief History of Men are Becoming Less Manly

🧵

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Ryan C. Smith @rcsmitheco.bsky.social · 9d

That's a bubble and one that's four times the size of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Expect to see everyone promise to stay in the room while finding quiet ways to edge towards the door before the stampede begins. It's how every bubble ends.
#EconSky #AI

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 9d

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

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Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 9d

So excited you’re moderating! Looking forward to this event!

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Kathleen Cole @kcolempls.bsky.social · 9d

Attn: American Political Science Association

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 9d

Weird thing where people say “no one could have predicted it” when really what they mean is their political commitments and orientation were such that they ignored everyone who was predicting it

Sorry but “no one could have“ and you having your head stuck up your ass are two different situations

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Reposted by Kathleen Cole

Andrew Weinstein @andrewjweinstein.com · 10d

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

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taylr @taylordahlin.com · 11d

dewayne davis and kareem murphy have adopted the first bench of the eric harris bernstein / local human fundraiser and intend to take it to north commons park

@dewayneforminneapolis.com @dewayneskareem.bsky.social @ehbinmn.bsky.social @locallhuman.bsky.social

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 12d

MSF staff are universally understood to be engaged in an essentially sacred form of work. For a state to nonetheless continuously murder them is a testament to a truly unthinkable degree of depravity.

msf.org/msf-denounce...

This morning, an attack carried out by Israeli forces killed Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff member, Omar Hayek, and seriously injured four others. The attack took place on a street where our teams were waiting to take a bus to the MSF field hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza.

All staff were wearing MSF vests, clearly identifying them as medical humanitarian workers.
We express deep sorrow and outrage over the killing, which occurs less than two weeks after another MSF colleague, Hussein Alnajjar, was killed by the Israeli forces, in Deir Al Balah.

Our thoughts are with Omar’s family and colleagues at this tragic time. Omar, 42 years old, is the fourteenth MSF colleague to be killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 12d

once again, it's a race between whether centrist elites can capitulate faster than these fucking imbeciles can step on their own dicks

Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 12d

The messages show high-level officials in the Trump administration discussing the possible deployment of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, an infantry force that has dropped into combat zones in both World Wars, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Trump officials discussed sending elite Army division to Portland, text messages show

A high-ranking White House official was indiscreetly texting about the Portland, Ore., planning last weekend, according to messages shared with the Minnesota Star Tribune.

bit.ly

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Sep 2

When your “superpower” as a country is self-delusion about upward mobility it enables the status quo. Because nobody is demanding substantive change if the majority believe they’re just temporarily embarrassed millionaires, as the saying goes.

"It sort of saddens me," said Neale Mahoney, a Stanford University economics professor who has studied economic sentiment. "I think one of our superpowers as a country is our relentless optimism...It is the fuel for entrepreneurship and other exceptional achievements."

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Wedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 13d

Something is wrong in the "moderate" DFL universe when the new norm is taking money from Trump megadonors, running a coalition of candidates propped up by millions from PACs, and participating in this Minneapolis-bashing propaganda doc to be aired on Hubbard-owned KSTP.

ryan @rkmpls.bsky.social · 13d

Okay we all know about how Rick Kupchella is airing this secretly-funded propaganda movie about how Minneapolis sucks (it’s NOT the two-term Mayor’s fault!!!) - but did we know that it will prominently feature local crackpot and conspiracy theorist Carol Becker?!

Precarious State @precariousstate.bsky.social · 13d

Tonight, #APrecariousState reveals Minnesota’s turning point—and how a small bloc of DSA-endorsed members gained outsized influence on #Minneapolis City Council.

7 p.m. CT on ABC MN + precariousstate.com
Live Q&A follows on the website.

#APrecariousState #Minnesota #TwinCities #Documentary

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