Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 25m

It presumably reflects the values of at least one of his staff.

Politico @politico.com · 1h

EXCLUSIVE: Capitol Police are investigating a swastika found in GOP Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.

“The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms," Taylor said in a statement.

Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office

An American flag altered to include an image of a swastika was found in Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.

www.politico.com

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Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 55m

Holy shit. This is Angelo Elia, a legislative correspondent for Congressman Dave Taylor.

According to @rooster.info, during a Zoom meeting today, he had an American nazi flag displayed in the background.

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 1h

Some of these "young boys" are in their mid-late 30s. Vance himself is 41.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

“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 · 4h

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

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Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 5h

Hi! I was sick for over a week but I finally wrote and published my piece on appropriations and this specific Tariff WIC issue which was already on my radar!

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Nathan Tankus @nathantankus.bsky.social · 5h

NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social piece: I take a look at the government shutdown by focusing on the big picture constitutional issues. I go on to assess the White House's claim to use "tariff money" for WIC. Then I connect this up with the ongoing impoundment crisis

www.crisesnotes.com/what-the-hel...

What the Hell is a Government Shutdown Anyway? The Accounting Gimmicks at the Heart of the Federal Budget

Subscribe Today! So the federal government is shut down. I’ve been late to covering this story because of my focus on events at the Federal Reserve. Well, that was true when I first wrote tha...

www.crisesnotes.com

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 6h

"I have been reliably informed that the Wallet Inspector has almost completed his work and is prepared to announce his findings."

Rep Luna tweet:

My office just received word from the @RusEmbUSA
that the ambassador from Russia to the United States will be hand delivering the @GovernmentRF
’s findings on who assassinated JFK to my office.

This is a 350 page document.

We will be uploading these documents as soon as we receive them working with @jeffersonmorley
to ensure that the American people have direct access to them immediately.

It is important to note that Congress attempted to obtain these files in the 90’s and was denied. We have been given access to them now for the first time in history.

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 6h

Let me guess: Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden?

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 6h

NEW — I dug into the story of ICE abducting a 13-year-old boy in Massachusetts and moving him 500 miles across state lines without notifying his mother, local cop's complicity, and how the federal government's justification for such cruelty is already falling apart:

ICE took a 13-year-old they said had a gun. Local cops say he didn’t.

Now he's detained 500 miles away from his Massachusetts home.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 12h

kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school

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Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 8h

The thing is that the modern GOP (not to mention its basement-confined moron stepchild, the Mises Caucus libertarian “party”) is accurately depicted by this language and a critical mass of the party is absolutely fine with it.
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 9h

It’s incredible that the VT State Senator wrapped up in this hasn’t resigned yet — every major GOP leader in the state has called for his resignation. Fixing democracy requires restoring shame to public life. And accountability. Lots of accountability. vtdigger.org/2025/10/14/v...

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Jonty @fairless.xyz · 9h

Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.

Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 12h

The whiplash from 'we are going to build responsible AI' and 'were worried about the addictive nature of these tools'

To:

'Were going to build a porn bot', 'were building a additctive, endless scroll social media app' and 'were bringing back the addictive model'

Is pretty big

The Verge @theverge.com · 1d

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults

ChatGPT is about to get flirty.

buff.ly

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 12h

no, the Israel-controlled zone is large but military positions are points that aren't all right on the line. I don't know how well demarked the line is. Probably not well, given the speed of the withdrawal.

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 23h

Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one

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Glen 🇨🇦 part owner of Canada* @honestcanadian.bsky.social · 1d

This is huge news!
UBC has developed an enzyme that can convert donor organs to type O, making them universal.
Normally a using organs of the wrong blood type causes the recipient's immune system to attack the organ, leading to failure.
❤️🇨🇦⚕️
news.ubc.ca/2025/10/univ...

UBC enzyme technology clears first human test toward universal donor organs for transplantation - UBC News

UBC-developed enzymes successfully converted a kidney to universal type O for transplant, marking a major step toward faster, more compatible organ donations.

news.ubc.ca

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 15h

Oh my fucking god, this fucking asshole

THE COURT: Except not complete relief, that's what the plaintiffs say. You're right, I have been able to, but --

MR. KHOJASTEH: I mean, complete relief from the plaintiffs' perspective would be he's a sitting U.S. Congressman and citizen of the United States.

THE COURT: Okay. You know what?

MR. KHOJASTEH: I mean, but candidly.

THE COURT: If that's -- if that's where you are at this point, you can sit down. That's not what the plaintiffs are saying. That is hyperbole. It's rhetoric. It doesn't help me. It doesn't advance the analysis. And you know that you need to catch a train home, so we don't need to go there.

MR. KHOJASTEH: I appreciate that, Your Honor. I apologize for the outburst.

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TKarney @pecunium.bsky.social · 18h

Damn... but The Judge is having none of it.

This is the kindest thing which gets said for the next several pages... and that's after the Gov't was warned their actions had voided the presumption of regularity.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

THE COURT: Mr. Khojasteh?

MR. KHOJASTEH: Yes, Your Honor?

THE COURT: You're making the plaintiffs' point. The point is the utter refusal of your clients to engage in any conversation about what's going to happen on Wednesday despite the extraordinary facts of this case. So they do need the preliminary relief precisely because you won't give any information about what's going to happen

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Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 16h

Korol is a US citizen. Her family hasn’t heard from her since she was taken, public charges haven’t been released—what crime did she even commit? 2nd-Degree Woodwinding?—and there has been no explanation for her “renditioning” across state lines.

We’ve moved into a new phase of Trump lawlessness.

Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 16h

A musician, Oriana Korol, was peacefully playing clarinet with her protest band outside ICE facilities in Portland, OR.

When the band started playing “Ghostbusters,” ICE thugs suddenly poured outside, slammed her into the mud, arrested her and took her to a jail 9 miles away in Vancouver, WA.

Musician playing ‘Ghostbusters’ outside ICE facility is arrested by agents

‘Taking us citizens out of state to detain them without charge is a new action from the Feds and should be opposed,’ her band said

www.independent.co.uk

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 15h

Sadface Tom Homan

CNN @cnn.com · 18h

New car buyers can expect to shell out an average of more than $50,000 for the first time, according to a report from Kelley Blue Book. https://cnn.it/4odLnaO

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Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 1d

Thousands of posts from a private Young Republican Telegram chat reveal a culture of casual racism/antisemitism, rape jokes and celebration of Hitler/Nazism.

Some of the ringleaders are below: We live in a world where 4chan types now occupy positions of real power.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Peter Giunta, chair of the New York State Young Republicans

Bobby Walker, vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans

William Hendrix, communications assistant for Kansas’ Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 1d

We had this with my wife's caesarean. And dehydration can bring on early labour too. Not fun. Good luck!

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 1d

They claimed that they were responding to a group of men moving towards an IDF position in the Israeli-controlled zone who ignored warnings to stop. Hamas claimed that the attack was outside the Israel controlled zone.

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dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 1d

A must-have, for every home.

Clare Clarke @clareclarke.bsky.social · 1d

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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 1d

Maybe lead poisoning makes them violent but they'll also be swole... hang on, that's worse.

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 1d

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 1d

Oh good, ChatGPT is getting "erotica for verified adults" later this year

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.

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