Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Cheryl Rofer

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 14m

💯 CO-SIGN 👇🏽

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 17m

I really want to go to this pumpkinfest.

Block Club Chicago @blockclubchi.bsky.social · 17m

14 things to do outside in Chicago this October: blockclubchi.co/4gSkdnj

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 20m

Simply calling people names is not effective. You have to be specific about what they're doing wrong.

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 24m

We came so close

Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 26m

Today in 1986, unprecedented negotiations in Reykjavik, Iceland, to verifiably eliminate _all_ US and Soviet nuclear weapons collapsed when Ronald Reagan rejected Mikhail Gorbachev’s stipulation that research on ballistic missile defenses be restricted to laboratories (per the 1972 ABM Treaty).

A color photograph of presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev leaving Hofdi House at the end of the summit. Reagan, waring a tan overcoat, looks stunned and a little angry. Gorbachev, waring a blue overcoat and a hat, looks disappointed, wistful at the enormous missed opportunity the summit provided.

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Paul Rosenberg @paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 26m

🎯🧵"When the output of the highest court in the land wouldn't pass muster coming from first-year law students, it discredits the institutional legitimacy of the entire legal system."

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 17h

The thing about the Roberts Court is they're not evil geniuses, because they're not geniuses.

Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 1d

“More than three dozen federal judges have told The New York Times that the Supreme Court’s flurry of brief, opaque emergency orders in cases related to the Trump administration have left them confused about how to proceed in those matters and are hurting the judiciary’s image with the public.”

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 26m

Longer, and very good analysis here.

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 40m

There's one huge difference between the 2025 Portland protests & the ones in 2020. Today, the ~100 anti-fascist protesters at the ICE facility are sandwiched between the feds who have MAGA-friendly media embedded w/ them, and ~15 MAGA-friendly content creators/counter-protesters out in the crowd.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1h

As President Trump tries to send the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, conservative influencers are working to support his claim that the city is burning with viral clips from one block. https://wapo.st/4q5HM0n

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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 32m

Our future is being shaped to a terrifying degree by people who have just … completely lost their marbles…

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

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Charlie Thomas @cthomasjamh.bsky.social · 31m

To steal the metaphor, a whole movement of dudes frothing at the mouth while tearing the copper out of the walls, trying to find the off switch to “The Cathedral.”

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 31m

I love OPB, but I am in a Mood this morning.

The federal government enlists rightwing liars to spread their propaganda in the service of consolidating dictatorial power.

See? Fewer words!

OPB @opb.org · 1d

Right-wing media influencers are now being welcomed into the federal government to promote its messages. This kind of media access shows a deepening alliance between the Trump administration and an online world willing to misrepresent facts if it means furthering political goals.

Right-wing influencers shape nation and Trump’s understanding of Portland protests

Social media personalities, conservative media outlets and the Trump administration itself are blending online content to serve the administration’s policies.

www.opb.org

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 42m

It was not an "error." I don't know why the Times caves to administration's framing that it was an oopsy daisy, or why it has to give an official anonymity to press this claim.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/h...

Among the workers whose firings were revoked were members of the elite corps of “disease detectives” who are typically deployed to the sites of outbreaks. The team that puts together the M.M.W.R., which communicates the agency’s recommendations and research, has also been brought back.

The employees “were sent incorrect notifications, which was fixed last night and this morning with a technical correction,” a senior administration official said. “Any correction has already been remedied.”

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 43m

We have to keep in mind that every word Vance emits is a lie.

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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 50m

I feel like we’re going through a crisis of credulity as a culture. You can see it with this, you can see it with woo, and you can see it with AI. Nobody’s willing to stand up and say “this is stupid, what are you talking about?”, so people keep spinning out of control.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3h

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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Clios Fan Boy🗽🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇹🇼 🇨🇦 @cliosfanboy.bsky.social · 45m

Looking for a No Kings Day protest on October 18? Here is the website. Look for a protest near you! #nokings

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

www.nokings.org

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 49m

The @nytimes.com , @washingtonpost.com & the rest treat #RussellVought like he's a run-of-the-mill small government conservative. The man is a religious zealot that wants to bring down the state & replace it with an American theocracy out of Margaret Atwood. It's the biggest story no one is telling.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 1h

New @nejm.org
One-shot gene therapy for a type of congenital deafness enabled some children to hear for the first time, and 3 of 12 kids achieved normal hearing
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2400521

DB-OTO Gene Therapy for Inherited Deafness | NEJM

Genetic deficiency of otoferlin, a protein critical to synaptic transmission by the sensory hair cells of the ear, causes congenital deafness. Medicines to treat the condition are lacking; children...

www.nejm.org

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 1h

Thanks!

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 1h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 1h

Go get some sleep. It always feels so good to be horizontal after a trip like that.

But Riga! Cool!

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 1h

Whoawhoawhoa

I'm seeing news reports that 200 are going soon!

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

WELKER: Can you guarantee that no US troops will ever be sent directly into Gaza?

JD VANCE: We're not planning to put boots on the ground

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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 1h

"Rafa" is a Merced county farm worker. He does 2 shifts in 2 different jobs as rent is so expensive. He harvests tomatoes in the am. Then he sorts sweet potatoes under a hot sun - working 13 hours total. He worries about driving home because of lack of sleep. #WeFeedYou

A sweet potato field and the place workers sort the potatoes

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Kyle Mizokami @kmizokami.bsky.social · 10h

Can we stop and talk for a minute about how ridiculous the idea that an adversary would launch just one missile is? ‘Cause it’s kinda really important. It’s like “vampires and zombies exist” level of belief suspension but nobody calls Twilight an important movie to watch.

NPR @npr.org · 1d

A single nuclear warhead, of unknown origin, is heading toward the U.S. mainland in Kathryn Bigelow's new Netflix film. It's an unnerving scenario — but it's also thrilling to watch. n.pr/48przga

Every moment pops in the nuclear thriller 'A House of Dynamite'

A single nuclear warhead, of unknown origin, is heading toward the U.S. mainland in Kathryn Bigelow's new Netflix film. It's an unnerving scenario — but it's also thrilling to watch.

n.pr

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Simon Frankel Pratt @simonpratt.bsky.social · 11h

Catch me on BBC News in about 15 minutes, talking about the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 11h

I find it powerful even though I am a no longer believing Protestant.

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Cheryl Rofer @cherylrofer.bsky.social · 11h

Thread. Read the preceding background to understand this better.

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 13h

Yeahhhh I just found a local news org with video (starts here: bsky.app/profile/unra...) and just, wow.

Notice how Fr Dowling has his hands covered with a veil of silk while he's holding the monstrance? It's so holy that you do not touch it with bare hands.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 21h

Father Larry attempts to walk toward the detention center.

ISP prevent people from moving forward. Lieutenant Col Bradley says he's making a call and dialing the ICE facility, but also says people may be waiting a while.

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Tedra Osell @tedos.bsky.social · 12h

This is a terrific protest idea

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 13h

This Is Fascism

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