Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tracy Baim

@tracybaim.bsky.social

2.9K followers 3.7K following 350 posts

lgbtq+ \ journalist \ advocate \ chicago lesbian \ feminist\ she\her 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🦄 Windy City Times cofounder 1985 \ author Skeets my own.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Tracy Baim @tracybaim.bsky.social · May 3

Just out. Liberating Healthcare: 50 Years of Resistance, Resilience, and Healing at Howard Brown Health, is the longest of my 14 books, and perhaps the most difficult birth. #booksky

4 7 58

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Rachel Maddow @maddow.msnbc.com · 15m

20 billion dollars from the US Treasury **was not enough**. So now it's 40 billion dollars! And why stop there?

All while the US government is shut down.

"America First," amirite?

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Bessent says bailout for Argentina will double to boost U.S. influence in region

The Trump administration is working to arrange private sector financing for Argentina that would double the total U.S. financial lifeline for the embattled Latin nation.

www.washingtonpost.com

89 270 670

Reposted by Tracy Baim

John Collins @logicallyjc.bsky.social · 4h

What the fuck are we doing?

1.1K 2.7K 6.4K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1h

last i checked these young republicans were like 25 years old. but this is a classic case of infantilization to diminish the significance of the offense. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Vance downplays group chat messages: ‘Kids do stupid things, especially young boys.’

The vice president called the texts "edgy, offensive jokes."

www.yahoo.com

220 610 3.1K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 50m

“The Defense Department has confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America,” the Pentagon Press Association said

Oct. 15, 2025
PENTAGON PRESS ASSOCIATION
STATEMENT
Today, the Defense Department confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America. It did this because reporters would not sign onto a new media policy over its implicit threat of criminalizing national security reporting and exposing those who sign it to potential prosecution.
The Pentagon Press Association's members are still committed to reporting on the U.S. military. But make no mistake, today, Oct. 15, 2025 is a dark day for press freedom that raises concerns about a weakening U.S. commitment to transparency in governance, to public accountability at the Pentagon and to free speech for all.
PPA

140 960 1.9K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Governor Tim Walz @governorwalz.mn.gov · 1h

Insurance rates up $2000.

Food benefits cut off.

Farmers unable to sell their crops.

Skyrocketing national debt.

$40 billion to Argentina.

America First!

220 1.6K 4.1K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 12h

“.. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) posted .. a potential [health insurance] premium increase, sent to him by a constituent, from $307 per month to $964 per month.

“.. The post has 6.5 million views.”

@axios.com
www.axios.com/newsletters/...

19 410 990

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 5h

This Supreme Court case in Louisiana is about one thing, and one thing only: reinstituting Jim Crow by way of ensuring that Black Americans are taxed without receiving representation in Congress.

Everything else is noise and bluster.

This stolen Supreme Court is going to send us back to the 1860s.

110 1.2K 2.9K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 19h

Debbie Brockman of WGN in Chicago has hired an attorney and plans to fight back against her unlawful arrest and detention by ICE.

Freedom of the press is under attack.

Tackling and arresting journalists is another step towards state run media.

Bring on the lawsuits.

WGN-TV producer hires attorney to ‘pursue all legal avenues’ after ICE detention

Debbie Brockman and her legal team “adamantly deny” allegations that she assaulted federal officers during an immigration enforcement action.

www.chicagotribune.com

7 120 420

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Kyle Whitmire @warondumb.bsky.social · 2h

If you don’t believe Alabama would do this, you haven’t been paying attention to how hard Alabama has been fighting the last three years to do this. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans

www.nytimes.com

8 31 63

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22m

“.. Pentagon reporters in Arlington, Virginia walk out of the building carrying their belongings after turning in their press badges. Reporters from nearly every major news organization would not sign new rules viewed as an infringement on First Amendment rights ..”

@gettyimages.com

13 98 310

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 3h

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.

24 210 370

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 6h

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

35 7K 24K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 4h

Bessent’s friends have huge investments in Argentina.

Elon Musk does too.

Bessent is sending $40 billion of our money to Argentina with more to come.

There is zero oversight. Congress not involved.

One unelected man is sending a fortune to Argentina and nobody will stop him,

200 1.7K 3.5K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Margarete Rosalind Weidenhammer @margareterosali.bsky.social · 3h

TheRealThelmaJohnson
💯💞
My name is Thelma and I'm old as hell. My story is as #American as you get and I can't believe what is happening to my country. I am going to the #NoKings march Saturday for the same reason those fellas in Boston dumped tea in the harbor. This one is important, love you all.

2 32 71

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Pilsen Community Books @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social · 4h

We've been spending most of our time in the streets and organizing meetings this month, but we still have a few amazing upcoming events on the books. Check them out: pilsencommunitybooks.com/events

An events calendar with a list of events that can be found at https://www.pilsencommunitybooks.com/events.

1 4 18

Reposted by Tracy Baim

JoeinNJfightsfordemocracy @progavalanche.bsky.social · 4h

The baseless indictment of New York AG Letitia James is simply another part of the 47 regimes corruption of our justice system using it against anyone who has sought to hold him accountable.

It’s also another reason to turnout this Saturday to say
No Dictators
No Autocrats
#NoKings

4 110 260

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 19h

It feels like the political overton window has shifted far to the Right because the wealth class controls our media and owns our politicians.

Meanwhile, the vast, vast majority of people belong to what would now be portrayed as “the extreme Left.”

It’s a perception game and narrative control.

34 290 1.1K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

asylum but only for racists apparently www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People

www.nytimes.com

52 250 1.2K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 3h

white reactionaries disenfranchising black voters to secure political power? that’s a jim crow. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans

www.nytimes.com

85 1.3K 4.1K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 6h

We got $20 billion for Argentina though.

970 6.2K 13K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 6h

“the constitution forbids race conscious remedies” would be news to the people who wrote the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments

Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 7h

Griem goes there, arguing in response to Justice Jackson that there can be no race-conscious remedy absent a finding of intentional discrimination.

83 1.4K 6.7K

Reposted by Tracy Baim

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 5h

Oh, by the way, I wrote in @thenation.com about how Trump is condeming millions of Americans to hunger this Thanksigiving with his accelarated timeline of adding work requirements for SNAP benefits.
I also discussed how work requirements provably don't work, for the neoliberals in your life.

Trump Has Just Condemned More Americans to Hunger

The administration’s decision to fast-track a bunch of changes to food stamps—including new work requirements—is as stupid as it is cruel.

www.thenation.com

21 240 690

Tracy Baim @tracybaim.bsky.social · 5h

Tonight: Gerber/Hart Library Oct. 15 free event, Latinx Activism and Journalism Panel, gerberhart.org/latinx-activ... ... Join us at Gerber/Hart at 6:30 PM for a panel discussion about Latinx Activism and Journalism with Robert Castillo, Mona Noriega, and Manuel Hernández-Nuñez moderated by me.

Reposted by Tracy Baim

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 9h

Yesterday, white nationalist paramilitary forces attacked another Chicago neighborhood with chemical weapons. Families and at least one infant were gassed. This morning, they are kidnapping more immigrants both here and in other metros (D.C., L.A. still being terrorized).

6 240 580

Reposted by Tracy Baim

DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 8h

Jacob Soboroff is doing a great job investigating and debunking the claims that ICE is making about their arrests targeted worst of the worst

Congress can help reign in ICE- IF we get a Democratic majority. That will be more likely if California passes Proposition 50. #YesOnProp50

[Image of Uncle Sam holding California oranges]

SAVE DEMOCRACY FROM GOP ELECTION RIGGING

CALIFORNIA

VOTE YES ON PROP 50

30 500 980