Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 46m

The gaslighting of Americans by the Republican Party and their enablers in right wing media has been an incredible success.

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 47m

Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 1h

Donald Trump and everyone who either supported or excused the January 6th insurrection is a traitor to this country.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Mike Johnson: "They berated a Capitol police officer, screamed at him. He was merely standing his post. It shows, again, their disdain for law enforcement, the Democrats, screaming, assaulting officers."

Reposted by Ben Dillon

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 1h

Almost like we founded the entire country on opposing this exact sentence.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2h

Bessent: "No kings equals no paychecks"

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 1h

GOP’s labor market policy is market protectionism for white men.

Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 2h

"For the first time since the 1960s, the earnings gap between men and women has widened two years in a row...with women earning 80.9 cents for every dollar a man earned in 2024. That compares to women earning 84 cents for every dollar a man earned in 2022."

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

Women are taking pay cuts as companies mandate return to office

Researchers are identifying several key factors behind why gender pay gap – which had narrowed steadily over the years – has suddenly widened.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 1h

John Roberts is the most successful white supremacist in modern American history.

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 5h

Donald Trump and the Republican Party have done generational damage to America.

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 14h

Here are the little darlings they’ve created. Horrifying.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

Reposted by Ben Dillon

Michelle Wu 吳弭 @wutrain.bsky.social · 14h

Boston looks forward to welcoming the world to our beautiful city, the cradle of liberty and city of champions.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Trump on moving World Cup games from Boston: "We could take them away. Your mayor is not good."

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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 15h

There is no conceivable argument that these ships, even if we assume they were carrying narcotics, could not be dealt with in some other way. I think we can just drop the caveats and say: This is mass murder.

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 20h

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 20h

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 14h

Needs to workshop a turning point joke in with this new material.

Steve Mullis @stevemullis.net · 16h

Is this a memorial event or a Comedy Central Roast?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

Trump at the Charlie Kirk memorial event: "They fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me. But I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. Charlie couldn't believe it, actually."

Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 17h

The mainstream media collectively clutched their pearls when Hillary said some of Trump’s supporters were deplorable.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22h

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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Reposted by Ben Dillon

Chuck Schumer @schumer.senate.gov · 18h

Sickening. Revolting. Vile. This makes you want to throw up.

This is the kind of garbage that the worst kind of people say when they think nobody is watching.

And where are Republican leaders from Trump on down condemning these comments swiftly and unequivocally!?

I’m waiting to hear it.

A headline from POLITICO reads: "‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat"

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Reposted by Ben Dillon

digby @digby56.bsky.social · 18h

I'm sure the Supremes won't have any problem with this. It's what the founders certainly intended. Trump will be irreparably harmed if he can't ruthlessly punish his political opponents and any innocent collateral damage.

Just don't try to forgive student loans. That's where they draw the line.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

After bragging about permanently cutting "Democrat programs," Trump says "we're not closing up Republican programs."

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 21h

Imagine the media reaction if a single Democrat ever said anything like this ever once in history.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

After bragging about permanently cutting "Democrat programs," Trump says "we're not closing up Republican programs."

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 19h

"I do think he needs help, and I don't think anybody around him on a day-to-day basis wants to get him any help, because they have more power based upon his diminished capacity."

@jbpritzker.bsky.social joins @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast:

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 20h

The Trump administration is attempting to normalize its extrajudicial killings in international waters and justify it as killing terrorists. It will use the same approach in America.

Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 20h

Donald Trump and his puppet masters at the WH have demonstrated they will:
1. Label those who oppose him as Antifa and call it a terrorist organization
2. Kill people and justify it by claiming without evidence the recipients of the extrajudicial killings were terrorists

We are in dangerous times

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 20h

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 20h

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

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Reposted by Ben Dillon

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 20h

Unless and until some kind of compelling legal and moral argument is presented as to why this is a legitimate use of deadly force, this is just…mass murder.

Amarnath Amarasingam @amaramarasingam.bsky.social · 20h

The military has now killed 27 people as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone and not criminal suspects. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

U.S. Military Kills Another 6 People in 5th Caribbean Strike, Trump Says

www.nytimes.com

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 20h

Weakest president in history.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Trump: "I don't take questions from ABC fake news after what you did with Stephanopoulos to the vice president of the United States."

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Reposted by Ben Dillon

Clean Observer @hammbear2024.bsky.social · 23h

“Donald Trump and Stephen Miller will probably get the blood in the streets they want eventually…
[N]o matter how it unfolds or is perceived, it is already their fault, and everyone who cares about the future of the country should be prepared to blame them.”

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 1d

Trump and Miller will probably get the blood in the streets they want eventually. We don’t know when or how it will unfold, or how the public will come to perceive it. But we do know that no matter how it unfolds or is perceived, it is already their fault. All we can do is our best.

It'll Be Trump's Fault

Donald Trump created this unstable equilibrium; no matter how it breaks down, it will be his fault.

www.offmessage.net

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 21h

Serial killer vibes.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 22h

Trump announces another strike "just off the Coast of Venezuela" that killed 6 people

Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route. The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!

Reposted by Ben Dillon

Pé 🍺🧿 @forevernever.bsky.social · 22h

Hey, Israel is collectively punishing Gaza again over the inability of Hamas to do something which Hamas has repeatedly made clear it cannot do.

Glad everybody agreed that the hostilities are over and Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, though.

Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 23h

🚨In blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has announced it will slash agreed aid shipments in half and keep the Rafah crossing closed, after Hamas returned four of the 28 bodies of Israeli captives believed to be in Gaza.

Hamas officials had repeatedly told mediators...

Video below⬇️

According to Reuters who cited three Israeli officials, the Rafah crossing will remain closed through Wednesday, and aid deliveries will be sharply reduced. And Israeli outlets are claiming Hamas violated the deal, with Channel 12 citing an official alleging Hamas is “in severe breach” by not releasing more bodies. Egypt has reportedly deployed teams in Gaza to help locate them.

In a formal COGAT communication, Israel tied humanitarian aid directly to the return of bodies — a move amounting to collective punishment of a famine-stricken population:

“Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement… As a result, political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement. Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 — will be allowed to enter, all belonging to the UN and humanitarian NGOs. No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for limited humanitarian needs.”

Senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk told Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill last week that a prisoner exchange “would be impossible” while Israeli forces remain in Gaza’s population centers:

“We don’t know exactly where the prisoners are. Even the negotiators don’t know their locations. There cannot be an exchange if Israeli forces remain.”

Marzouk warned that Israel’s refusal to withdraw proves it “does not want Trump’s ceasefire plan to be implemented.”

As early as October 3, when Hamas first delivered its response to Trump’s plan, Marzouk said on television that locating remains “would take months” after Israel destroyed and blocked off delivery of desperately needed heavy machinery. It would be “impossible” in 72 hours.

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Reposted by Ben Dillon

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Speaker Mike Johnson just said he's completely fine with ICE agents shooting priests in the head with pepper balls and roughing up journalists.

I'm sure he'll tell us soon about how it's the Democrats who are waging a war on religion and free speech though.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: We've seen images out of Chicago of federal agents shooting faith leaders with pepper balls and arresting journalists. Where's the limit for you on what's acceptable conduct by federal agents?

MIKE JOHNSON: I've not seen them cross the line yet.

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Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 1d

If I were a Mainer, and I'm not a Mainer, and the Senate election were today, I'd vote for Graham Platner to take on Susan Collins. Simply put, I can't think of a metric by which Janet Mills would be better against Collins, better for Maine, or better for the Democratic Party than Platner. THREAD.

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Ben Dillon @benjdillon.bsky.social · 1d

The country (and world) is being overtaken by fascists and the mainstream media is pearl-clutching over profanity.

Solomon @solomonmissouri.bsky.social · 1d

This is not the problem of American political life

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Politicians Aren’t Cool Enough to Curse This Much

Political leaders once watched their language. Now they delight in using obscenity.

www.theatlantic.com

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