Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Noah Rosenblum @narosenblum.bsky.social · 43m

Demagogic president seizes money to pay standing army, arrogating to himself legislative power, while his cronies keep Congress out of session is honestly more or less exactly how the Founders thought this would end

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The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 52m

MAGA thought they elected Trump to save America, but instead he’s saving Argentina. $40 billion now going to Trump’s buddy Javier Milei, while Americans can’t afford groceries, gas, or basic healthcare.

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Sean Mullen, Ph.D. @drseanmullen.bsky.social · 1d

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

“We may be witnessing the emergence of a population-level acquired immune deficiency — not sexually transmitted, but airborne.”

That line isn’t from a tweet. It’s from a peer-reviewed paper in AJPM Focus (2025).

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 5h

The Supreme Court's Republican appointees sound ready to transform the 14th and 15th Amendments into a weapon against the very racial minorities they were meant to protect—handing Republicans 15-19 additional House seats in the process. A disaster for democracy.
slate.com/news-and-pol...

Is it racist to remedy racism? That’s the question at the heart of Callais v. Louisiana, which the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday. The case asks whether the Voting Rights Act gives Black Louisianans too much political power—and if so, whether the landmark law violates the Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the Republican-appointed justices seem eager to rule that it does. Throughout oral arguments, they suggested the VRA protects minority voters too effectively, dragging the government into race-conscious considerations that offend the equal protection rights of the white voters who sued in this case. And they floated various ways to gut what remains of the statute by twisting it beyond recognition or striking it down altogether. The result would be a windfall for Republicans, who stand to gain at least 19 seats in the House of Representatives if the Supreme Court frees them to gerrymander Black communities into oblivion. Such a decision would also devastate minority representation in Congress, eliminating up to 30 percent of the Congressional Black Caucus.

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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 1h

Medicare has stopped paying physicians due to the shut down. Standing right on the third rail www.statnews.com/2025/10/15/c...

Medicare payments to doctors paused as government shutdown drags on

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is pausing Medicare payments to doctors, as negotiations tied to the government shutdown drag on.

www.statnews.com

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 51m

The Founders tried to construct a government that featured all kinds of guardrails to protect liberty. They didn’t want to count too much on uncommon courage or wisdom from the people. And yet that's what it's coming down to.

It’s Getting Worse.

The Trump administration’s assault on the rest of us is intensifying.

www.thebulwark.com

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Jenn Burrill @jennburrill.bsky.social · 17h

"Trump has always backed brutal crackdowns on visible homelessness and disability, part of a lifelong pattern of hostility to poor people, disgust for disabled people, obsession with 'good genes' and cleanliness"

Reports @motherjones.com

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Ugly laws: The blueprint for Trump’s anti-homeless crusade

DC’s crackdown is just the latest in a long war on being poor and disabled in public.

www.motherjones.com

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Pppatticake @pppatticake.bsky.social · 48m

Brilliant

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trick van treat @derek.bike · 51m

tuning into the baseball game like

2 panel meme of trent reznor

panel 1: trent reznor is standing on stage and holding a microphone. he is saying "we're here to have a bad time."

panel 2: trent reznor is standing on stage and holding a microphone but turning his attention away from speaking. the caption says "(organ playing)"

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Janet R Weil @janetrweil.bsky.social · 2d

"Since October 8, 2023, every 10 minutes on average, a child has been killed in #Gaza.

"Will you say Kaddish for them, Rabbi Cosgrove? Will you read the list of their names?"
janetweil175049.substack.com/publish/post...

Sign in to Janet Weil

janetweil175049.substack.com

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David @daverino.bsky.social · 56m

“A 1.5-million-year-old set of hand bones, unearthed from a lake bed in Kenya, are the first to suggest an ape-like cousin of humans could use tools.While the owner of the hands was a relative of modern humans called Paranthropus boisei, it was not a direct ancestor”

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

Archaeologists discover 1.5-million-year-old hand fossils in Kenya

The first set of ancient hand fossils from an ape-like cousin of humans discovered in Kenya suggest a number of species were capable of making tools 1.5 million years ago.

www.abc.net.au

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Ian S. Pumpkins @icpetrie.bsky.social · 56m

They sold the naming rights at the Mann to a *Pittsburgh* company??!

Mann Center lands sponsorship deal — and a new name

Now it'll be known as the Highmark Mann, after naming rights went to the Pittsburgh-based insurance company for an undisclosed sum.

www.inquirer.com

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John Collins @logicallyjc.bsky.social · 6h

What the fuck are we doing?

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Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 3h

As a historian, I can certify that we are in the bad times. But bad times eventually end.
In the meantime:
• Figure out a small way to help someone
• Figure out a small way to fight back
• Figure out a small place to find joy
• Figure out a small way to grow and thrive

And do it often.

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2h

Reminder that any political party trying to make it harder to vote is sending a clear message: they can't win on their ideas alone.

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Gloria Pan @glopan.bsky.social · 2h

Ahead of Virginia's bellwether elections, Gov. Youngkin is hiding the scale & details of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants blocked by the Trump administration -- hiding the economic pain coming to Virginians instead of focusing on how to respond to it.

#MomSky #VoteBlue

Youngkin administration keeps details of paused federal grants under wraps

The governor's office has twice cited "working papers" in response to records requests.

www.vpm.org

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James Belcher @jamesbelcher.bsky.social · 1h

Is it ok to start talking about abolition again?

The Abolition Movement

What we talk about when we talk about addressing the savage roots of policing: justice and safety for everyone.

www.vanityfair.com

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Anthrodiva La Chatte @anthrodiva.bsky.social · 1h

INSANE

Ilhan Omar @ilhanmn.bsky.social · 3h

Trump found another $20 BILLION to give to Argentina, totaling their bailout to $40 BILLION.

Yet we can’t afford to prevent millions of Americans from losing their healthcare.

Shame.

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KennyGoo @kennygoo.bsky.social · 1h

Netflix's inflated stock valuation is based on the false belief that they'll someday kill the entire theater business, so they intentionally set money on fire by refusing to put things in theaters that would otherwise generate tens of millions of dollars in supplemental revenue.

Capitalism, baby!

DiscussingFilm @discussingfilm.net · 8h

Netflix’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria says the ‘STRANGER THINGS’ series finale will not be released in theaters.

“A lot of people have watched ‘Stranger Things’ on Netflix... I think releasing it on Netflix is giving the fans what they want”

(Source: wp.me/pc8uak-1lGryT)

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Pppatticake @pppatticake.bsky.social · 59m

Prolly a vampire 🧛‍♀️

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Pppatticake @pppatticake.bsky.social · 59m

Was he stalking some poor Uber driver? Yipes

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 1h

Remember, brown 13-year-olds are hardened menaces to society, but 30-something Republican Hitler afficionados in positions of power are just li’l guys.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 1h

These. Were. Men. In. Their. 30s.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

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Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · Jul 19

Not everyone you meet in this life will use the things you say or the information you share as a handle to manipulate you or a cudgel to keep you in line, but I guarantee you the corporate office will. Every time.

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William Easley @williameasley.bsky.social · 1h

I would say a very good sign with Hegseth making life miserable for everyone at the Pentagon. You now have more people willing to leak and a press that isn’t concerned by having access to that they Pentagon as an org wants out

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Patrick De Klotz @patdeklotz.bsky.social · 1h

This is so disturbing. And I don't think the public really has much sense of the degree of Maxwell's depravity, which there is a lot of in this excerpt.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 3h

1/ The first excerpt of Virginia Giuffre's posthumus memoir is out and it is gutting: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother

In an extract from her posthumous memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre remembers the day an ‘apex predator’ recruited her from Mar-a-Lago, aged just 16; how she was trafficked to a succession of wealthy a...

www.theguardian.com

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