Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 10h

Important to note that this isn’t a problem for the billionaire buying media properties. If they make them into successful rightwing propaganda? Cool more money. If it fails? Cool they’ve destroyed one of the few outlets with the resources to investigate them. Either way they achieved their goal

karl rove knausgård @uhactually.bsky.social · 1d

Lmao WaPo has fewer than 100K circulation now. It turns out “alienate your liberal subscriber base” is not a good strategy when the Republicans also hate you. www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay

Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

www.forbes.com

21 350 1.5K

Brendan Boerner @bboerner2332.bsky.social · 8h

He is acting very much like George III.

We didn't put up with that then and we're not putting up with it now.

Brendan Boerner @bboerner2332.bsky.social · 1d

And Newt was building on 20 years of preparation -

threadreaderapp.com/thread/12039...

Thread by @RVAwonk on Thread Reader App

@RVAwonk: Yes, absolutely. But it goes beyond Fox News. This story can be traced back to the creation of right-wing think tanks, which were founded for the explicit purpose of helping conservatives wi...

threadreaderapp.com

1 2

Brendan Boerner @bboerner2332.bsky.social · 1d

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The Man Who Broke Politics

Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise. Now he’s reveling in his achievements.

www.theatlantic.com

1 1

Brendan Boerner @bboerner2332.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, the GOPAC memo of 1990 -

www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/...

1 1

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

James Petruzzi @hawaiianimages.bsky.social · 1d

There's always an xkcd

xkcd cartoon, three people standing before a redwood tree, one of them says "Did you know the mighty redwood is actually the same species as broccoli and kale? It's just a different cultivar!" Other person: "wow!"

14 160

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 1d

The level of kleptocratic corruption in this regime is breathtaking, e.g.:

—Selling off Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae to big banks

—Bribes from ABC & CBS

—TikTok sale to Ellison

—Everything Qatar: the plane gift, the Idaho military base

—Whoever has bribed him by buying his scam meme coins

170 1.8K 5K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

David @dkuofu.bsky.social · 1d

"Laughtivism" is very successful in undermining autocrats. It was used by Otpor! in the Serbian Revolution, and then by revolutionaries in the Arab Spring. Making fascists look ridiculous weakens them and is also a powerful recruiting tool. Keep it up.

6 39 240

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Jacob Shamsian @jayshams.bsky.social · 2d

The Wall Street Journal reports that Ghislaine Maxwell had a meeting with an unknown person in her new prison camp, during which the entire prison was on lockdown.

Inmates say she's getting unusually favorable treatment by the prison.

75 780 1.8K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

Border Patrol “attempted to arrest a plumber working inside a Logan Heights home but left empty-handed after the homeowner refused them entry.

The homeowner told agents she would not allow them inside because the warrant they presented did not include her address and lacked a judge's signature.”

Federal immigration operations target San Diego neighborhoods, sparking community resistance

Federal immigration agents conducted operations in Logan Heights and Southeast San Diego on Friday, with community members capturing footage of the enforcement actions.

www.10news.com

250 3.9K 13K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 1d

Trump's insistence that Joe Biden was president on January 6 raises new questions about Joe Biden's memory.

18 240 1.7K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

D. Earl Stephens @dearlstephens.bsky.social · 2d

📌“The fact that I am American means, among other things, people can’t say, like they did about Francis, ‘he doesn’t understand the United States, he just doesn’t see what’s going on.’
“Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed?”

-Pope Leo in a direct rebuke of the hideous Trump

64 1.2K 4.9K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

God @thegodpodcast.com · 2d

"Conversion therapy" is a polite name for something that isn’t conversion and isn’t therapy. It’s abuse.

280 2.6K 13K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d

The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.

The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.

Read that back.

When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

800 9.1K 24K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Caitlin G. DeAngelis @caitlindeangelis.bsky.social · 2d

ICE kidnapped a 7th-grader with a pending asylum claim and spirited him out of state without notifying his parents, seemingly with the cooperation of the local police in Everett, MA.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/12/m...

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility
By Marcela Rodrigues Globe Staff,Updated October 12, 2025, 44 minutes ago

31
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by ICE in Everett and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Everett after an interaction with members of the Everett Police Department and sent to a juvenile detention facility in Virginia, according to his mother and immigration lawyer Andrew Lattarulo.

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested. After waiting for about an hour and a half, she was told her son was taken by ICE, Berto told the Globe in a phone interview.

“My world collapsed,” Berto said in Portuguese.

From the police department, the boy was taken to ICE’s holding facility in Burlington on Thursday evening, where he spent a night before being transferred by car to the Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Va., on Friday morning, his mother said. The juvenile facility is more than 500 miles away from Everett.

The boy is a 7th-grader at Albert N. Parlin School in Everett, his mother said. The teen and his family, who are Brazilian nationals, have a pending asylum case and are authorized to work legally in the United States, Lattarulo said.

490 5.9K 10K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 2d

Courtesy of colleagues at Penn

A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities

34 830 3.9K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 2d

There's no "regular politics" anymore because you can no longer maintain the idea that we all agree on common goals but we only differ about the means of getting there or whatever. The guys in charge now are plainly amoral, sadistic nihilists. They delight in it! You can't civilly disagree with that

81 3.3K 15K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 1d

the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 3d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”

580 5.6K 21K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Molly Fisher @fisher-studio.com · 2d

Everyone. Picayune nonsense like this got no beat can’t dance

A dance party cannot be mistaken for a riot. Even the scariest 80s mosh pit was just fun, you’d get lifted if you fell—that’s how crowd surfing started.

If Nazis came in, you wouldn’t kick their asses, you’d stop the music

LETS DANCE

4 33

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

bjkeefe @bjkeefe.bsky.social · 3d

Scowling Donald Trump with added longer hair and caption: "We have found Aunt Tifa".

3 5

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Glenn Storm @glennstorm.bsky.social · 4d

To add to your vocabulary: "Super Voter"

Political campaigns refer to constituents who consistently vote in every election, and vote in a consistent manner, "Super Voters".

These voters form a reliable foundation to build a campaign upon, and often become a source of voter momentum and volunteers.

Pin on Thoughts for Pennies

Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest.

pin.it

6 17 26

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 2d

NEW: Trump meant to send a Truth Social DM to Pam Bondi about indicting his rivals. That sounds like official business, so I'm filing a FOIA for her DMs, plus those of five other cabinet members. My latest: www.muellershewrote.com/p/my-latest-...

My Latest FOIA: Trump's Truth Social DMs

Recently, Trump posted a message to Pam Bondi that was meant to be a direct message. I want to know what other official messages he's sending to cabinet members.

www.muellershewrote.com

240 2K 8.3K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 2d

The most dangerous form of government is theocracy.

Because the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they're on a mission from God.

140 1.5K 4.8K

Reposted by Brendan Boerner

Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · Aug 13

Someone left this in the little free library and I’m just going to throw it
in the street for cars to run over because who needs to hear about character from the guy who, at age 52, left his family for his 24 year old research assistant *on this very book*.

A red book with the words “The Road to Character” in white, and a black stick figure.

36 73 510

Brendan Boerner @bboerner2332.bsky.social · 2d

IMHO he's still acting as an apologist for the regime / movement.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Why Do So Many People Think Trump Is Good?

The work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre helps illuminate some central questions of our time.

www.theatlantic.com

1 4