Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 59m

They very much do. I see Bill Kristol as being very much in the tradition of Churchill or De Gaulle: someone on the right-wing of things who also fully understands the need to build a Popular Front to stop the facists.

1

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 1h

Even De Gaulle knew the center-right and the reasonable left had to work together to sustain liberal democracy and keep the far right out. De Gaulle embraced dirigisme and the welfare state. Macron fights to undo it. You can't have neoliberalism as well as keeping the far right out. Gotta pick one.

1 10

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 1h

The problem is Macron isn't actually respecting democracy. He called an election, the left-wing NUPES alliance won the most seats, but rather than work with them in a coalition to keep the far right out, he tries keeping NUPES out. Those actions erode support for liberal democracy.

France is not alone in its political crisis – belief in a democratic world is vanishing | Simon Tisdall

The populist right offers a solution in the form of turning back the clock. Macron and his counterparts need to find a different answer fast, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

www.theguardian.com

2 14 33

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

If Harrell is re-elected, he will take it as vindication of his governing style, and it will be the death knell of the CARE team.

7

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

It's also widely known that Harrell and his leadership team, particularly Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess (a former cop), have slow walked the CARE team at every turn and have never shown a commitment to ensuring its viability and success.

1 2 8

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

The CARE team's limitations are caused by two problems for which Harrell is directly responsible: 1) the MOU that gave SPOG the ability to undermine the CARE team, and 2) SPD's interpretation and implementation of that MOU, which undermines the CARE team in ways that go beyond the MOU's limits.

1 3

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

The Times is also wrong that "she has no authority under labor contracts to order police to do anything without going through a bargaining process." Wilson chose her words carefully and correctly. The "full latitude of responsibility" means "what they can do under the MOU."

1 4

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

I'm not surprised the Times endorsed Harrell. But I am surprised and appalled that they completely misrepresented Katie Wilson's comment about the CARE team's "full latitude of response." Wilson knew what she was talking about and spoke accurately, as Erica points out in this thread:

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 1d

I was at this debate. The Seattle Times is totally misrepresenting what happened to further the false narrative that Katie Wilson is a nitwit. Wilson was talking about the fact that the CARE team has not been allowed to exercise "its full latitude of responsibility" under the existing contract.

At a recent Seattle University/KOMO TV debate, Harrell’s opponent, activist Katie Wilson, didn’t appear to recognize that she has no authority under labor contracts to order police to do anything without going through a bargaining process.

“As mayor, I will absolutely be working with SPD to make sure that they’re allowing the CARE team their full latitude of response and also to make sure that the CARE team can respond without police when appropriate,” she said.

It’s not that easy.

1 4 17

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

My list is in chronological order, not order of importance; if it were I'd probably put the Fall of the Berlin Wall as #1 for the far reaching repercussions it had (including directly triggering the SoCal recession, by initiating massive cuts to the defense spending that underpinned SoCal's economy)

3

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

Gordon Padelford @gordonofseattle.bsky.social · 1d

Seattle: we’re the most educated and least religious city in the country

Also Seattle: so there’s this baseball salmon mascot who has never won a race right?

Always sunny in Philadelphia Conspiracy meme

2 22 88

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

I will be very curious to hear from my 11-year old in 30 years what his answer will be to this. I would assume the pandemic would be in there, but we shall see

2 4

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

1. 1984 LA Olympics
2. US release of the NES
3. Fall of the Berlin Wall
4. Early ‘90s SoCal recession
5. Parents brought home a desktop computer c. 1993

Travels With Brindle Takes Manhattan 11/9 @travelswithbrindle.bsky.social · 19h

What 5 events defined your childhood?

1. My parents’ divorce
2. Stranger Danger (I had nightmares about Adam Walsh)
3. Satanic Panic
4. Michael Jackson’s popularity (and not in a good way)
5. The Gardner robbery

Ghoul-jin Rondo @gaijinrando.bsky.social · 20h

What 5 events defined your childhood?

1. Constant nuclear war anxiety
2. Star Wars mania
3. The MOVE bombing in Philly
4. Reagan
5. The debut of Scrappy Doo--This is when it dawned on me that adults sometimes despise kids and are not to be trusted

1 8

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

Qagggy! @qagggy.bsky.social · 2h

Fortunately, Jacob and Emily Erikson just take the route 40.

The Needling @theneedling.com · 2d

Archaeologists Find Leif Erikson Also First Explorer to Discover Parking on Market Street on a Sunday: tinyurl.com/yc6h57ur

3 19

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2h

Wow. Quite the journey from 10 months ago when he narrowly lost the semifinal. Firing him is obviously the right call but still, a stunning shift.

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 3h

Yes!!

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 4h

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

1 11

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

Katie Wilson for Seattle @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social · 3h

We are facing an affordability crisis in our city that is worse than any that we have ever seen before. More people have died outside in the last four years than in any previous term. It doesn’t have to be this way.

2 13 66

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

spooky mental haunted house @jesseltaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Imagine if you did this in any other journalistic context

"Did the Tigers or Mariners Win Game 5? In Detroit, Depends on the Narrator."

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 1d

A classic case of irresponsible both-sidesism from the NYT. The story is that Trump and MAGA propagandists are lying about Portland to incite a conflict, not that there are different views of the matter.

14 160 530

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 4h

Well I would very strongly oppose that suggestion! Scrapping either West Seattle or Ballard lines is a terrible and unnecessary idea. We need to figure out how to get US construction costs down to European levels, or just down, and then pay the difference, because these projects are essential.

1 2

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 4h

And it was Bruce Harrell and his deputies who stopped sending people there because they were beefing with the leader of the effort to get these people housed. If Harrell wins a second term he will take it as validation of these kinds of games.

ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

Early last year, Seattle signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using rooms as shelter space at the Civic Hotel and other buildings.

Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.

By @ashleyhiruko.bsky.social, with @kuow.org

Seattle Spent Millions on Hotel Rooms to Shelter Unhoused People. Then It Stopped Filling Them.

Early last year, the city signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using a hotel's rooms as shelter space. Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.

www.propublica.org

4 18

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 4h

👀 they are really struggling with that $50,000 question.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5h

STEPHANOPOULOS: Did Tom Homan give the $50,000 back?

VANCE: He did not take a bribe. It's a ridiculous smear

STEPHANOPOULOS: You didn't answer the question

VANCE: Did he accept $50,000? I'm sure that in the course of Homan's life, he's been paid more than $50k for services.

(So, no, he didn't)

53 160 1K

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 4h

This is good. The next step is to impeach him or defund his office.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 5h

Sens. Schumer, Merkley, Murray, and Peters are calling for the resignation of OMB Director Russell Vought.

"By impounding billions of dollars … and aggressively pursuing the illegal use of pocket rescissions, Vought has done everything in his power to gut the federal government piece by piece."

1 14 59

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 6h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 7h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

240 2.7K 11K

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 5h

This isn’t pushing anyone left. That’s not how that works.

1 2

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 5h

Why on earth is anyone protesting Kamala Harris here in October 2025? What possible good does that achieve? In what world is Harris, not Trump, the main threat to freedom and justice?!

Paul Eric Scannell @pauleric70.bsky.social · 14h

Harris slams protestor during book tour.

“You want to talk about legacy? Let’s talk about the legacy of mass deportations, of not voting, and Donald Trump.”

4 16

Reposted by Robert Cruickshank

Ron Davis @ronpdavis.bsky.social · 14h

rondezvouswa.com/p/mike-elias...

1 1 14