Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 6h

Let's not be hasty, there's definitely a few "In memoriam" news segments I'm looking forward to.

Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 8h

I do not want to see a Supreme Court justice’s face on cable news, period

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 12h

You should absolutely, 100% bet against Bari Weiss. She has zero experience in broadcast news, she's never run an organization anywhere near this large, and CBS employees are well aware of her record and her obvious bias against the work they have spent years doing. It's a recipe for failure.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 12h

"I'm not owned! I'm not owned!"

Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · 16h

Ratio me. Please. It's a badge of honor. If you don't like a link, go follow some chicken-heart who needs the approval of the thought-police. Caitlin Flanagan of @theatlantic.com is a tremendous writer and this piece is an excellent read. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss

The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.

www.theatlantic.com

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 12h

That screams for so much follow-up about why, then, they aren't leaving the status quo in place in these cases.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 17h

Finally, a mainstream show treats Vance's bullshit with the contempt it deserves.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 20h

When your AI chatbot has even less game than you do.

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 1d

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, I'm normally not inclined to attribute to malice what looks like incompetence with these guys, but that's a good argument.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 1d

They have been planning these layoffs for eight months and still fucked it up.

Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 1d

The Trump administration on Saturday scrambled to rescind layoffs of hundreds of CDC scientists who were mistakenly fired on Friday night in what appeared to be a substantial procedural lapse.

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

Trump Administration Is Bringing Back Scores of C.D.C. Experts Fired in Error

www.nytimes.com

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

Extremely happy I don't root for either of these teams, I'd be dead right now.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

The National Guard is not trained to be cops, that's one reason it absolutely should not be getting called up to serve as such. Jesus, being a billionaire rots your brain.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

"What cameras? What are you talking about? I think you just ate a stale bagel off the craft services table."

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

As best I can tell, no one on Joe Dirt ever told Kid Rock he was in a movie.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 2d

Kid Rock: Do you know what is stupid… these chicks running around on campuses with blue hair, five nose rings.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

Douthat is basically Stupid Chotiner.

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 2d

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."

Douthat: So that’s the first purpose of your political project, for America to stop making God angry.

Wilson: Yes. And most people think that when they are confronted with that project, they think that we want to get our tentacles into everything and start controlling everything. I actually think we need limited government. The government should be significantly smaller than it is, and we need to curtail a lot of the busybodyness that we have. That’s why I would call myself a theocratic libertarian. There is a true libertarian element in this, and yet, the transcendent grounding for what we’re talking about means that we acknowledge the authority of God.

We have racked up quite a body count of awful crimes, and I believe the only way out is for us to repent and turn to Christ. This would be things like no more Pride parades, no more drag queen story hours, no more abortion on demand, no more legalized same-sex unions — all of that, done. That’s the repentance part.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

I just finished insulting Mike Johnson for being short.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

Also, jeez, how short is Mike Johnson? It looks like Take Your Nephew to Work Day over there.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

I appreciate Thune cutting campaign ads for Democratic candidates.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Thune: "If the Democrats had won the majority, they probably would've tried to nuke the filibuster. And then you'd have four new senators from Puerto Rico and DC, you'd have a packed Supreme Court, you'd have abortion on demand ... "

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

"He'd obey the law as Jesus obeyed the law." Um...

Media Matters for America @mmfa.bsky.social · 2d

A Newsmax host defended ICE agents shooting a minister in the head with a pepper ball by falsely claiming he was “actually an antifa member masquerading as a pastor.”

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

IIRC, even Obama himself seemed embarrassed to have won.

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 2d

One of the only things Trump has ever been right about: Obama had no business winning the Nobel Peace Prize for what amounted to the accomplishment of being a US president who was not George W Bush. (Remember, he had been in office for eight months at the time.)

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

The theme of the rally is No Kings, and it's hard to think of a more pro-American sentiment than that.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

I didn't watch this last night because Winsome Earle-Sears is such a wingnut that she makes my blood pressure spike to dangerous levels, but it sounds as if she lived down to my expectations.

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

8 takeaways from the Spanberger and Earle-Sears debate in Virginia

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears talked over Democrat Abigail Spanberger in a chaotic debate in the Virginia governor’s race that touched on trans students, Trump and more.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 2d

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 3d

I bet we could get Trump to believe that the Nobel committee gave the peace prize to an inanimate carbon rod.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 3d

Smooth.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 3d

"30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination" cancelled his colleague's hotel room so she would be forced to stay with him.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room.

Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 3d

On the other hand, Alito is probably sick over it.

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Gary Legum @glegum.bsky.social · 3d

What a dumb fucking way for your season to end.

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