Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 16m

FWIW most of the College Republicans I knew when I was in College Democrats ~15 years ago are all Democrats themselves now. Make of that what you will.

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 13h

For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this.

That’s why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed — because Young Republicans weren’t radical enough.

Politico @politico.com · 19h

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

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Reposted by Matt Fulton

Josh Campbell @joshscampbell.bsky.social · 23h

The Supreme Court just declined an appeal from right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He was seeking to overturn a $1.4 billion libel judgment over his lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/p...

Supreme Court rebuffs Alex Jones’ effort to overturn $1.4 billion Sandy Hook judgment | CNN Politics

The Supreme Court declined an appeal from Alex Jones on Tuesday, brushing aside the right-wing conspiracy theorist’s effort to overturn a $1.4 billion libel judgment a lower court ordered against him ...

www.cnn.com

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 1d

Guy’s got jokes.

Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 1d

NATO Secretary General Rutte:
…Now there is hardly any Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean left

There is a lone&broken Russian submarine limping home from patrol.What a change from the 1984 Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October.Today, it seems more like The Hunt for the Nearest Mechanic

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 1d

They’ve since deleted it, but how does this keep happening?

By the way—happy birthday to the US Navy! I’m sure glad our carriers can cross open water without the help of a tug and none of our guided missile cruisers are now apartments for fish on the bottom of the Black Sea.

Reposted by Matt Fulton

H I Sutton @covertshores.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t know who needs to hear this, but Russian Navy KILO class submarines transiting to/from Mediterranean on the surface are routine. NATO of course watches them closely, as in this photo.

Russia does have increasing difficulty maintaining a presence in Med but this in itself isn’t a big deal

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Jake @jakeythesnakey.bsky.social · 2d

This is such an astoundingly bad idea that I kinda think it’s a false flag or an op of some sort

Merits aside, it is insanely easy to be caught if you do this and the punishment for doing this is much more severe than you’d guess.

(@faineg.bsky.social often writes on stuff like this)

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 2d

If I’m in someone’s passenger seat and they randomly start talking like that, I want out.

Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 2d

President Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One that he doesn’t think he’s going to get into heaven.

“I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me into heaven.”

(I isolated Trump’s voice)

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Reposted by Matt Fulton

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

Solipsism as a service. www.wsj.com/tech/persona...

With Sora, you can do exactly that, in 10-second increments. Soon, your phone might be filled with hundreds of fond memories of things that never happened and places you never went, moments you can sit back and “relive” when there’s nobody else around except your AI pals.

Generative AI already has the power to put us in little boxes, isolated from one another. Why wait for a friend to answer your text when ChatGPT will cheerfully answer right away? Why go through the trouble of making a new friend when you can turn to digital companions embedded in apps like Instagram or X?
These new forms of entertainment are becoming the lake to our Narcissus: You can gaze into your phone and see yourself staring back, having all kinds of thrills, spills and chills.

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Reposted by Matt Fulton

Secrets & Spies Podcast: Current Affairs | Intelligence @secretsandspies.bsky.social · 2d

If you need a podcast for your Sunday check out our latest episode with @jaketapper.bsky.social

Secrets & Spies Podcast: Current Affairs | Intelligence @secretsandspies.bsky.social · 4d

On this weeks episode, @mattfulton.net is joined by @jaketapper.bsky.social to discuss his excellent new book “Race Against Terror”

Listen via links below 👇👇👇

Audio: pod.fo/e/33b7d5
YouTube: youtu.be/xgvzA0bCOKw

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 2d

In case you ever wondered how Bond villains managed to accumulate their immense wealth and influence all while being openly evil and psychotic on main.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 2d

Coup against Schumer when?

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2d

Sen. Mark Kelly on Chuck Schumer saying "every day gets better for Democrats" during the shutdown:

"For me, this is not political...I don't think this is better for anyone...It's not about that. It's protecting people from crazy increases in the cost of their healthcare."

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 3d

Yeah, they haven’t figured out that this will just kill TikTok. The whole point of the app is the militant belief that you should only ever see what you want to see and to betray that is a grave sin.

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Jack Murphy @jackmurphyrgr.bsky.social · 3d

That we accept this behavior is an indictment of our entire country and society.

Laguna Beach Democratic Club @lagunabeachdems.bsky.social · 3d

Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams “I’m 15!” as Man Kneels on Her Neck

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 3d

He doesn’t.

Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 3d

Thrilled that @jaketapper.bsky.social joined me on @secretsandspies.bsky.social to discuss Race Against Terror, his new book on the decade-long pursuit of al-Qaeda terrorist Spin Ghul and what the case reveals about America’s forever war.

🎧 pod.fo/e/33b7d5
🎥 youtu.be/xgvzA0bCOKw

Jake Tapper on Race Against Terror and the Legacy of America’s Forever War

YouTube video by Secrets & Spies: Global Issues & Intelligence

youtu.be

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LauraD-in-Indy @laurad-in-indy.bsky.social · 4d

I've said it dozens of times. City government should put up live cams around the ICE facilities, the downtown area, and have them broadcast live feed, 24/7, on the city's website so people can go look for themselves whenever they wish.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 4d

If I lived in Portland I’d be filming daily videos of the reality there and sending them to every single person in my contacts.

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 4d

it’s said all the time but I think we should continue to hammer home how insane it is that we got dead-eyed bros trying to sell us robots that will free us from the supposedly cruel burden of “creative careers” instead of the actual cruel burden of “doing menial household chores”

Assistant HR Director of Antifa @sethdmichaels.bsky.social · 4d

AI HUCKSTER: "i built you a machine that reads books for you."

ME: "can you build me a machine that unloads the dishwasher for me so *i* can read a book?"

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Matt Fulton @mattfulton.net · 4d

Out tomorrow on @secretsandspies.bsky.social…

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spooky tim dewey @tjdfotographist.bsky.social · 4d

If I were a DC reporter, I’d consider maybe pressing Johnson on how he reconciles these two statements.

@atrupar.com

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, l'm a very patient guy, but l've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ..."

@atrupar.com

Mike Johnson: "People have got to stop framing simple policy disagreements in terms of existential threats to our democracy. You can't call the other side fascists and enemies of the state and not understand that there are some deranged people in our society who will take that as cues to act."

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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 4d

Virginia Dems are going to get Saddam Hussein style election numbers

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FEDERAL LAYOFFS WILL BE IN THE THOUSANDS: WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL
October 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM @ Everybody can reply

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Reposted by Matt Fulton

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 5d

Sure but also he and his government engaged in a taxpayer funded lengthy, multi-pronged, deeply corrupt and imo scandalous attempt to threaten and shake down a friendly nation, including by threat of senseless economic warfare, into making our leader feel good about himself by giving him a trinket…

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 5d

The widespread media decision to frame international affairs as "will Donnie get the prize he wants?" is pathetic.

He's not the protagonist of human events. And to the extent he's a significant character in world affairs, whether or not he gets a prize is one of the least important things about it.