Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 4h

Like at a certain point it's not at all clear what the precedential effect even *is*. One of many reasons TvUS was a disaster is the idea you can create a "rule for the ages" about presidential misconduct in some abstract way divorced from the facts of that misconduct is obviously nonsense.

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Dead Carl @deadcarl.bsky.social · 3h

“The federal agency alleges cartels are offering $2,000 for intelligence gathering and doxing of agents”

Seems like this is a scheme to justify masks and prosecute anyone who tries to ID ICE agents

Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 4h

hrm. abcnews.go.com/US/cartels-i...

Cartels issuing bounties up to $50,000 for hits on ICE, CBP agents: DHS

Drug cartels have "disseminated a structured bounty program to incentivize violence against federal personnel," according to a press release from DHS.

abcnews.go.com

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 13h

And the craziest part is this was needless. Congress would've passed a military pay bill with near unanimous support! Congressional Ds have been begging Rs to bring a bill to pay the military to the floor! But Johnson refuses to gavel in because he doesn't want an Epstein vote.

Johnson wearing a jacket that's photoshopped to say "this has nothing to do with epstein"

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 13h

That is profoundly illegal. You may not spend money on a purpose without funding. The constitution expressly forbids it, as does the ADA.

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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 13h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

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CeeJay Johnson-Yellow Hawk @adriftalchemist.bsky.social · 6h

alaska national guard transporting evacuees in western alaska to safe, warm shelters outside of the region

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Shoe + @shoe.bsky.social · 4h

The Trump administration weaponizing the IRS tells me they are all themselves knee deep in tax evasion. Of course we already knew that about the Trumps.

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Barchart @barchart.com · 21h

U.S. Housing Market has reached its most unaffordable level in history 🚨🚨

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 17h

Trump administration cut funding floods to Alaskan villages bc “DEI” and now some of those villages have been inundated by floods.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 9h

AP: “Though 🇺🇸 only spends around 1% of its budget on foreign aid, Trump declared USAID — once the world’s leading donor of humanitarian assistance — a waste of💰and dissolved it.”

(But his pal Milei gets $40 Billion for Argentina) apnews.com/article/myan...

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Justin Garrett Moore @jgmoore.bsky.social · 5h

MacKenzie Scott Gives $40 Million to Help Preserve Black History www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/r...

MacKenzie Scott Gives $40 Million to African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

The gift is twice the amount Ms. Scott contributed to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in 2021.

www.nytimes.com

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Nicholas Slayton @nslayton.bsky.social · 10h

Coast Guard put out this release yesterday boasting about successfully seizing and interdicting 100,000 lbs of cocaine in the Pacific. Notably no drug boats were bombed. The WH had made the case that strikes in the Caribbean were needed to stop drugs. And yet this
www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releas...

www.news.uscg.mil

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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 8h

Whatever you think about CFPB, it was created by Congress (as part of the Dodd-Frank Act) and can only be abolished by Congress, not by the President acting as a dictator.

Reuters @reuters.com · 14h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 4h

The entire Republican Party strategy for achieving what are comprehensively & wildly unpopular policy objectives now consists entirely of bypassing Article I of the Constitution through wildly illegal abuses of both Article II and Article III.

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 8h

Whatever you think about CFPB, it was created by Congress (as part of the Dodd-Frank Act) and can only be abolished by Congress, not by the President acting as a dictator.

Reuters @reuters.com · 14h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 2h

The nation’s military and defense journalists exited the Pentagon in unison Wednesday, having had their accreditation revoked after refusing to agree to the Defense Department’s new restrictions on their newsgathering activities.

Reporters leave Pentagon en masse after refusing to sign on to new rules

After turning in their press credentials, journalists covering the Defense Department walked out rather than comply with its restrictive new policies.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 8h

No Kings is a good slogan but if we're being pedantic then it seems important that Trump is claiming much more expansive powers than any English king ever had.

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Don Zeko @donzeko.bsky.social · 8h

This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 8h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 5h

You’re right, but it’s not hard to see how an anti-Trump protest movement that turns out nearly 2% of the US population is both historically notable and has massive potential energy, if highlighted and harnessed by leaders and institutions instead of largely avoided by them

Kronos @progressiveknife.bsky.social · 5h

you should consider how you framed things; did no Kings turn out more than the civil rights movement? mostly likely. it being more historically notable remains yet to be seen.

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Suburban Dad @suburbandadstuff.bsky.social · 5h

lol nothing matters is the national ethos of a majority of Congress, the president and his whole team, media owners, billionaires, and legions of the fucking press

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Suburban Dad @suburbandadstuff.bsky.social · 5h

The utter lack of consequences despite clear and obvious culpability for crimes, misdeeds, and outright intolerable behavior for Trump and the whole nu GOP crue has just broken the country. It is speed running us to the nihilist fate of Russia.

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Suburban Dad @suburbandadstuff.bsky.social · 5h

The total failure of any accountability, besides him being forced from office by a narrow election loss which he tried to stop by a fucking insurrection mob and vast conspiracy to defraud the count.

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Suburban Dad @suburbandadstuff.bsky.social · 5h

I think “anti-constitutional” may have more salience to normies, but yes

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Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 9h

There's literally no reason for Congress to exist if any random freak in the presidential orbit can nullify laws and seize federal funds. All of this is plainly illegal, but Mike Johnson leads the most corrupt Congress in US history (and by a wide margin.)

Reuters @reuters.com · 14h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers

White House budget director Russell Vought said he wants to close the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and expects to do so within the next two to three months.

reut.rs

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 6h

‼️ this is one of the reasons why the Musk shutdown of USAID broke me, like

Congress said 'we're allocating these funds to save lives'

a random asshole with too much money and unresolved bitterness about the end of Apartheid said 'no you're not'

so the funding disappeared??

and people are dying??

Hunter @hunterub.bsky.social · 9h

There's literally no reason for Congress to exist if any random freak in the presidential orbit can nullify laws and seize federal funds. All of this is plainly illegal, but Mike Johnson leads the most corrupt Congress in US history (and by a wide margin.)

Reuters @reuters.com · 14h

White House budget director Vought plans to shut down CFPB within months, says it's no longer protecting consumers reut.rs/4qjMIyT

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Suburban Dad @suburbandadstuff.bsky.social · 5h

Going on 6 weeks with another 5 to go to get in for my first appointment since relocation and am told not to make any ancillary care appointments til I see the doc. Love it!

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