Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 3h

What's your rewrite? "President Trump on Wednesday issued a document claiming he could grant himself powers not granted to him to snatch up federal funds the Constitution grants Congress jurisdiction over, in a move sure to meet with legal challenges."

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 4h

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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Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 2h

Everyone please call your local TV and radio stations and ask them to send a crew to the protests and report on them. Much of the media would prefer to ignore them like they did last time, even claiming they didn't know it was happening. Make sure they know this time and that we want to see it.

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Scott Dworkin @dworkin.bsky.social · 2h

Congressional offices are closed, but their inboxes aren't. Demand Congress pass this bill to release the Epstein files--YOU CAN DO IT NOW HERE:
actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...

Tell Congress: Pass the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act

Contact Congress today!

actionnetwork.org

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 2h

Collins: Speaker Johnson that Republicans are actually the party that wants to fix health care by addressing issues with it, as he says they did in the one big beautiful bill.

Sanders: Did he really say that? They're trying to fix health care by throwing 15 million people off of it?

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Billie @billieo2.bsky.social · 2h

That’s not too bad. I don’t much like gambling…guess if one is lucky it’s much more fun. 😀

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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 2h

oh come on how much land will a bunch of pop-up books take

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2h

A Florida judge has temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for Trump's future presidential library.

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Billie @billieo2.bsky.social · 7h

It does make sense. He really doesn’t know half of what’s going on.

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 7h

You have to wonder if White House staffers are simply showing him AI videos at this point and he thinks it's reality.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8h

Trump: "The people of Chicago are walking around with MAGA hats. You have women, beautiful Black women, walking around with MAGA hats. 'Please let the president in and we don't care how he does it ... bring in the Marines.'"

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 7h

Yep. Wormtongue keeping Theoden captive with AI.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 7h

You have to wonder if White House staffers are simply showing him AI videos at this point and he thinks it's reality.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8h

Trump: "The people of Chicago are walking around with MAGA hats. You have women, beautiful Black women, walking around with MAGA hats. 'Please let the president in and we don't care how he does it ... bring in the Marines.'"

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Kaine: "We should not be allowing the president to create a secret enemies list and make the unilateral decision about whether to kill people without sharing that information at least with the Armed Service and Intel committees. So this is very troubling."

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 7h

a real question for the roberts majority is what in their view distinguishes jim crow disenfranchisement from majority-minority districts? a related question is what in their view made the typical jim crow law — which was facially neutral — unconstitutional?

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 8h

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

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Left Voice @leftvoice.bsky.social · 1d

Trump has doubled down on an authoritarian agenda designed to preemptively weaken working-class organization in a period of capitalist uncertainty and crisis.
www.leftvoice.org/is-trumps-au...

Trump's Authoritarian Turn and the Limits of Liberal Democracy - Left Voice

Trump has doubled down on an authoritarian agenda designed to preemptively weaken working-class organization in a period of capitalist uncertainty and crisis.

www.leftvoice.org

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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 7h

I honestly cannot believe the whole center console on cars thing isn’t illegal and stigmatized. The messages, the alerts, the notifications — it’s all absolutely, positively dangerous and unnecessary.

joesferatu🦇🔱 @24fps.bsky.social · 9h

i love that my car flashes a message to keep my eyes on the road on a screen in the center console that i have to dismiss

"sorry officer, i didn't see that pedestrian there. my car was yelling at me to keep my eyes on the road"

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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 7h

The forces of white Christian nationalism are ascendant all over and our newsroom leaders are not only refusing to call it out, they are acquiescing.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 8h

tfw your 1,000-word tweets aren't working

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Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 7h

Don’t let them tell you this was planted there. It wasn’t.

Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 9h

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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Billie @billieo2.bsky.social · 7h

Seems that way. Quotas and no warrants is rotten.

Did you win anything at the casino?

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Phil @darkphil.bsky.social · 16h

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 8h

I can't stress enough how young staffers working for Republicans are basically all groyper Nazis now. The leaked texts yesterday saying "I love Hitler" and now swastikas on congressional offices.

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

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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Liz Szabo @lizszabo.bsky.social · 8h

139 unvaccinated students quarantining after measles exposure at South Carolina schools
www.cbsnews.com/news/unvacci...

139 unvaccinated students quarantining after measles exposure at South Carolina schools

More than 130 unvaccinated students exposed to measles in South Carolina schools are quarantining, according to local health officials.

www.cbsnews.com

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kkmbol @kkmbol.bsky.social · 8h

Contrast this with how healthy the Israeli hostages appeared to be as they returned. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of torture and execution, say doctors

Almost all had been blindfolded and had gunshot wounds between the eyes, says medic at Nasser hospital in Gaza

www.theguardian.com

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Andrea Devon @andreadevon.bsky.social · 9h

Republicans are losing it over the “No Kings” protest. Deep down, they want a king. 👑

#NoKings ✊🏽

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 8h

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.

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Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 8h

JD Vance: I, also, love Hitler

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 9h

Vance on public outrage over the "I love Hitler" group chat: "Grow up! Focus on the real issues. Don't focus on what kids say in group chats... The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys — they tell edgy, offensive jokes. That's what kids do."

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Jim Drastic @jimdrastic.bsky.social · 8h

This is absolutely spot on!!

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