Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Micah Coffee

No true bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 10h

This has been bothering me all day because the obvious point of No Kings is to show we have the power to do a color revolution if they don‘t honor the results of future elections.

The other point is to radicalize fence-sitters by having people who are *clearly doing nothing wrong* be tear gassed

Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 21h

This is exactly backwards, the no kings protests are a mass movement of regular people that have every republican politician in the country raging about "hate America rallies," and the online protest industry weirdos who say shit like "radlib" to each other are the ones skimming off the top of them

it is no wonder that 50501, a movement of radlibs who are very upset but don’t want to get in trouble, would be boosting superficial activism.

superficial activism has its place, but if that place is front and center, it kills whatever movement it is skimming off the top of.

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Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · 10h

BREAKING via WSJ

The Trump administration is planning sweeping changes in criminal division at the IRS.

Full Story: on.wsj.com/3LbVFtK

The Trump administration is preparing sweeping changes at the Internal Revenue Service that would allow the agency to pursue criminal inquiries of left-leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter.
A senior IRS official involved in the effort has drawn up a list of potential targets that includes major Democratic donors, some of the people said.
The undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS lawyers in criminal investigations, officials said. The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 12h

Lincoln on Dred Scott and (not) relinquishing all constitutional authority to a narrow majority that messes a lot of important things up

msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa...

If this important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public expectation, and with the steady practice of the departments throughout our history, and had been in no part, based on assumed historical facts which are not really true; or, if wanting in some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had there been affirmed and re-affirmed through a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary,
to not acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as it is true we find it wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite
established a settled doctrine for the country

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Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 11h

"a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority"

The phrasing you're looking for is that he's suspending parts of the Constitution by decree.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 11h

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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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15h

Mamdani: "I just want to speak directly to the president. I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams who will call you to stay out of jail. I won't be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own."

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 13h

The "anti-woke" backlash was always about white collar labor competition from nonwhites, not hr bullshit. bsky.app/profile/phil...

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 14h

NBC News has reportedly eliminated its NBC BLK, NBC Asian America, NBC Latino and NBC OUT teams

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams

The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

www.thewrap.com

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Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 18h

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

Screenshot of a Facebook post featuring three of the Portland protesters wearing inflatable frog costumes with the following text:

Episcopalians on Facebook
Elizabeth Rose Elrod • 22h •
Exodus 8:2-6
"But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs...
The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials."

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

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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Micah Coffee @jewcoffee.bsky.social · 14h

We are far enough away from the 19th century that there can be a flavor of Conservatism that seeks to conserve the spirit of liberty of Lincoln-era Republicanism (laudatory).

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 18h

two big things happened imo: Trump winning in 2016 apparently proved they could utterly wallow in all their worst instincts and still win, and Elon buying Twitter and turning it into a) the default conservative comms platform b) an openly Nazi sewer

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14h

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 · 15h

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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Micah Coffee @jewcoffee.bsky.social · 14h

David Taylor (R, OH-2)

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 15h

Trump: I want to thank Stephen Miller I would love to have him come up and explain his true feelings. Maybe not his truest feelings. That might be going a little too far

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Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 15h

So Nazis. They want to give refugee status to Nazis.

OK, maybe not JUST Nazis. Also certain other white people who hate non-white immigration. But Nazis can definitely come.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.”

That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.

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ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 15h

to temper that a hair, i think people generally need to start wrapping their head around what prosecutions into a likely field of pocket pardons look like, because it's not going to be anywhere near as satisfying as you want it to be

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Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social · 14h

The reason why the lower levels of the GOP are infested with outright Nazis is because the highest echelons are as well.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15h

asylum but only for racists apparently www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People

www.nytimes.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15h

Feels like this will be a useful meme for the next few years

Peacemaker looks at a mural embedding Hitler into American symbols

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Joshua Holland @joshuaholland.bsky.social · 15h

“The content of that image [which my staffer placed on a wall behind him where nobody found it objectionable until this story came out] does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

Gonna be quite an investigation, I'm sure.

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.yahoo.com

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 15h

Quite a day.

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Matt Binder @mattbinder.bsky.social · 18h

CNN is covering prediction market odds from an online casino as if it’s actual polling data

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Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 18h

ICE arrested comedian Robby Roadsteamer for singing a parody of Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” in a Jeffrey Epstein the Giraffe costume outside their facility.

He sings “If you hate brown people / and you are a Nazi” and ICE thugs grab him and drag him into detention. No violence—just speech.

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Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 1d

Korol is a US citizen. Her family hasn’t heard from her since she was taken, public charges haven’t been released—what crime did she even commit? 2nd-Degree Woodwinding?—and there has been no explanation for her “renditioning” across state lines.

We’ve moved into a new phase of Trump lawlessness.

Jeff Yang @originalsp.in · 1d

A musician, Oriana Korol, was peacefully playing clarinet with her protest band outside ICE facilities in Portland, OR.

When the band started playing “Ghostbusters,” ICE thugs suddenly poured outside, slammed her into the mud, arrested her and took her to a jail 9 miles away in Vancouver, WA.

Musician playing ‘Ghostbusters’ outside ICE facility is arrested by agents

‘Taking us citizens out of state to detain them without charge is a new action from the Feds and should be opposed,’ her band said

www.independent.co.uk

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 16h

Jeffries: "It's perplexing to us that Rs refuse to spend a dime to protect the healthcare of the American people, but somehow the Trump admin found $40b to bail out a right-wing wannabe dictator in Argentina in ways that are also going to continue to hurt our soybean farmers in Iowa & the Midwest"

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Anonymous Spooky Bureaucrat 💀 @charlesdeguava.bsky.social · 17h

Federal level the picture is more mixed, but to me a repeal of Section 2 almost guarantees Democrats never come close to flipping a state legislature in the South. Even if NC, GA, and (maybe) TX remain competitive statewide, they’re never gaining in the legislatures there or elsewhere

Aubrey Gilleran @aubreygilleran.bsky.social · 17h

The only question to me is if the ruling is written in such a way that this happens in 2026, 2028, or after the 2030 Census. The "solid South" is back, just with the color swapped.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 17h

damn

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