Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

WIRED @wired.com · Mar 18

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow

As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

freedom.press

1.6K 24K 92K

Reposted

steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 9h

Over on the bad site, the House Homeland Security Committee Democrats account said "If you praise Adolf Hitler you shouldn’t be allowed to work in the federal government" in response to my latest story about an ICE prosecutor who runs a white supremacist X account—and may still work for the agency

7 61 390

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 6h

Shameless self-promotion, but I literally found a new one the other day. bsky.app/profile/kyle...

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 3d

I know that "Whoa, JD Vance is following a nazi account" is barely noteworthy anymore, but this one made me do a double take. All of the other nazi accounts he follows are over 100k followers, I'm wondering how he even became aware of this one.

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 7h

Original thread if you missed it. bsky.app/profile/kyle...

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, Micah Bock follows pretty much every prominent Twitter nazi. I think he's a pretty decent guess for the person behind the DHS Twitter account.

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 7h

I found yet more white supremacist accounts followed by DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications Micah Bock. Starting to get a bad feeling about this guy.

2 4

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 8h

Ha! You could've said Burzum, but I feel like that's seeped into the mainstream enough for non-music nerds to understand.

1

Reposted

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 11h

Someone has not been watching Mitchell and Webb

3 28 230

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 12h

How was Lindsey Halligan not aware of the Scaramucci/New Yorker debacle from 2017? Ideally, she'd know to say "this is off the record" regardless. It's just especially alarming that she's unaware of another Trump surrogate making the exact same mistake less than a decade ago.

1

Reposted

Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 1d

Lecturing active soldiers about being too fat while dropping standards so low for the ICE deportation force that a third of their recruits can't handle the easiest PT test I've ever heard of www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

More than a third have failed so far, four officials told me, impeding the agency’s plan to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 deportation officers by January. To pass, recruits must do 15 push-ups and 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes.
“It’s pathetic,” one career ICE official told me, adding that before now, a typical class of 40 recruits had only a couple of candidates fail, because the screening process was more rigorous.

330 1.5K 4.9K

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 1d

This seems plausible. I think Trump likes pardons and commutations because he just likes the ceremony of signing stuff, and they don't get him jammed up in the courts the way that EOs often do.

He's like someone who goes to the movie theater without really caring what's playing. But with pardons

Mueller, She Wrote @muellershewrote.com · 1d

According to TMZ (so take that how you will), Trump is considering commuting Sean Diddy Combs’ sentence as early as this week.

1

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 1d

lmfao isn't this what happened to Scaramucci

1

Reposted

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 1d

Oh my GOD.

At 4:10 p.m., she texted me: "By the way-everything | ever sent you is off record. You're not a journalist so it's weird saying that but just letting you know."
I responded: "I'm sorry, but that's not how this works.
You don't get to say that in retrospect."
Halligan was unpersuaded: "Yes, I do. Off record."
"I am really sorry. I would have been happy to speak with you on an off the record basis had you asked," I said. "But you didn't ask, and I still haven't agreed to speak on that basis. Do you have any further comment for the story?
To my surprise, she kept going: "It's obvious the whole convo is off record. There's disappearing messages and it's on signal. What is your story? You never told me about a story."
I didn't respond. It was time to publish my story. I'II text it to her.

12 72 420

Reposted

Politico @politico.com · 1d

EXCLUSIVE: Embattled Trump nominee Paul Ingrassia told Republicans that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and that he has “a Nazi streak,” according to a group chat viewed by POLITICO.

Trump nominee says he has a ‘Nazi streak,’ bashes MLK Jr. Day, according to texts

Paul Ingrassia’s bid to lead a whistleblower agency is set for a Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

www.politico.com

230 1.4K 3.1K

Reposted

Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 1d

“There’s a lot of secrecy and game playing right now. I’m sick of it.”

New from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: The Observer has repeatedly requested an update from ICE about James Rodden’s employment. Three members of Congress have also demanded answers, without results.

ICE Still Won't Answer Questions About Prosecutor with White Supremacist X Account

Congressman Marc Veasey arrived at an ICE facility Monday in his latest attempt to follow up on the Observer's reporting.

www.texasobserver.org

2 74 210

Reposted

steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: ICE remains mum regarding prosecutor exposed as white supremacist.

"They want to signal to the other white supremacists...out there that under this administration things are going to be different and you’re not going to have to worry about losing your job"
www.texasobserver.org/ice-white-su...

ICE Still Won't Answer Questions About Prosecutor with White Supremacist X Account

Congressman Marc Veasey arrived at an ICE facility Monday in his latest attempt to follow up on the Observer's reporting.

www.texasobserver.org

9 200 450

Reposted

steven monacelli @stevanzetti.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Congressman Marc Veasey just arrived for an unannounced visit at the Dallas ICE field office to demand accountability regarding multiple unanswered congressional inquiries his office has sent to the agency.

Congressman Veasey walking up to the Dallas ICE facility

11 170 830

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 1d

I have some thoughts on this. bsky.app/profile/kyle...

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, Micah Bock follows pretty much every prominent Twitter nazi. I think he's a pretty decent guess for the person behind the DHS Twitter account.

4

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 1d

I'm definitely moving into the "D-list" of Twitter nazis, but that really just bolsters the point. He's in the fucking weeds of online naziism, he's not just a casual observer. Also JD Vance follows this "Beachstud" guy who I hadn't even heard of.

1

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 2d

Still more. I'm probably gonna go to bed before I finish this. If anyone remembers some Twitter nazis I forgot, feel free to continue it!

1 1

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 2d

I followed Micah Bock for the sake of this little experiment. Not sure if I'll keep following him. And yeah there's still more.

1 2

kylebazgo.bsky.social @kylebazgo.bsky.social · 2d

I'm literally just going down a list of prominent far-right Twitter personalities. There have been maybe three that Micah Bock does not follow. He works at DHS. I strongly suspect he's behind the posts saying "Remigrate" and other nazi shit.