Kat O’Brien
LightNews LightNews
lavidagata.bsky.social
Kat O’Brien
@lavidagata.bsky.social
2.6K followers 560 following 7.6K posts
Iowa-born, NYC-influenced, Spain living. Former sports journalist working in sustainability. Runner, traveler, pro-democracy, love to read. My own opinions. Signal @Democracy.23
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
lavidagata.bsky.social
Kat O’Brien @lavidagata.bsky.social · Oct 12
I’m thrilled to announce - ahead of this week’s World Football Summit - that I am launching a business of sports tourism in Spain: Gata Sports Tours. This combines a few of my great loves: sports, España, travel, storytelling and helping people love España almost as much as I do. 1/
Poster and business launcher in an España jersey at a Real Madrid match
lavidagata.bsky.social
Mbappé tied it with a penalty, but Girona gets a 1-1 tie, which was a welcome outcome for the home crowd.
Kylian Mbappé scores on a penalty
November 30, 2025 at 10:04 PM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Gata Sports Tours continues the club visits, with a trip to Estadi Montilivi for Girona vs Real Madrid. At halftime, it’s a big surprise with Girona up 1-0.
Girona fans celebrate taking a late first half lead against Real Madrid A play between Girona and Real Madrid in the first half A play between Girona and Real Madrid in 1st half Estadi of Girona Football Club
November 30, 2025 at 9:08 PM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Did you know there are still some ToysRUs stores outside the U.S?
A ToysRUs store in Girona, Spain.
November 30, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Five-byline alert: 🚨

David Sacks “has 708 tech investments .. that could be aided directly or indirectly by his policies, according to a New York Times analysis

“The tech bros are out of control,” said Steve Bannon.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/t...
November 30, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
eddieperez.bsky.social
I am still enthusiastically looking forward to the moment akin to the fall of Joe McCarthy, when magically, suddenly, most of political society realizes that our president has no decency.

None.

“Have you no sense of decency, at long last?”

And then he is alone.

Completely alone.
November 30, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
gilduran.com
"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism.

Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.
donmoyn.bsky.social Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23h
News media has to do better with headlines that present false and unverified public health claims.
List of headlines from media covering FDA, most emphasizing the claim that covid killed children
November 30, 2025 at 1:10 AM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Una amistad entre dos líderes sin escrúpulos, para quienes la amistad significa “quid pro quo”: Trump y Infantino.

elpais.com/deportes/202...
El oportuno idilio entre Infantino y Trump para que el mundo MAGA ame el fútbol
La relación de amistad entre el ejecutivo de la FIFA y el presidente estadounidense genera críticas entre los que creen que el organismo debe ser neutral
elpais.com
November 30, 2025 at 9:24 AM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Russia is after Ukraine now, but Europe next. By Lluís Bassets in @elpais.com.
Putin is testing the strength of NATO commitments and trying to weaken solidarity with Ukraine. His biggest strength is having conquered Trump, who he now controls via remote from Moscow.
elpais.com/opinion/2025...
mayor fortaleza que ha asaltado y tomado Putin no se halla en Donbás ni en Crimea. Está en la mente de Trump, conquistada sin tanques ni misiles, solo a través de una paciente acción persuasiva, con acciones especiales sobre sus intereses económicos y sus debilidades personales —su vanidad, su pánico ante la derrota, su admiración por los dictadores—, así como la infiltración y la intoxicación del campo republicano, hasta convertirlo en un obediente agente a su servicio. Son varias las inquietantes preguntas que ningún Gobierno europeo podrá eludir ante el control remoto de Trump desde el Kremlin, comprobado estos días con los 28 puntos del plan de paz que lleva su nombre. ¿Tendrá Ucrania suficientes capacidades militares y financieras para aguantar la embestida rusa solo con la ayuda europea y sin contar con Estados Unidos? ¿Puede extenderse la guerra como mancha de aceite a otros países fronterizos e incluso más allá? ¿Está preparada Europa en su conjunto para una guerra abierta con Rusia?
November 30, 2025 at 9:03 AM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Un reportaje iluminador en @elpais.com sobre “el magna criminal que asfixia a América Latina.”

elpais.com/mexico/2025-...
El magma criminal asfixia a América Latina
​​Mientras aumentan en el continente la producción y el tráfico de drogas, nuevas y antiguas, grupos criminales de todos los tamaños diversifican sus economías e incrementan su capacidad de fuego fren...
elpais.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:25 AM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Spain’s @lavanguardia.com: Trump turns immigration agents into his own national police body, one with a budget larger than that of all of 15 militaries in the world, despite it not being a military force. www.lavanguardia.com/internaciona...
Trump convierte a los agentes migratorios en su cuerpo policial nacional
El presupuesto del Servicio de Control de Inmigración (ICE) se multiplicará casi por cuatro a partir de enero
www.lavanguardia.com
November 30, 2025 at 8:20 AM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Trump in decline plays the tough guy at home.
Mario Platero in Corriere della sera.
www.corriere.it/opinioni/25_...
www.corriere.it
November 30, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
anildash.com
We are still, I assure you, New York Fucking City.
taliajane.bsky.social talia jane ❤️‍🔥 @taliajane.bsky.social · 1d
600 ICE agents were supposed to be deployed to Canal Street. Hundreds of New Yorkers gathered instead.

Quick summary by me:
November 29, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
rgoodlaw.bsky.social
Former US military lawyers speak out:

"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes

1/2
• If the U.S. military operation to interdict and destroy suspected narcotraFicking vessels is a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump Administration suggests, orders to “kill everybody,” which can reasonably be regarded as an order to give “no quarter,” and to “double-tap” a target in order to kill survivors, are clearly illegal under international law. In short, they are war crimes. • If the U.S. military operation is not an armed conflict of any kind, these orders to kill helpless civilians clinging to the wreckage of a vessel our military destroyed would subject everyone from SECDEF down to the individual who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder. Highlighted sentence at the end of the document reads: Again, the bottom line is that, since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are “patently illegal,” anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both.
November 29, 2025 at 8:10 PM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Recommendations for books related to fútbol/soccer - bonus if on women, as there’re not so many, or to do with Spain? Also for interesting ⚽️/sports brands - esp if they take political stands or are vocal on causes?
Inspiration and research for my coming-soon sports tourism business.
November 29, 2025 at 10:03 PM
lavidagata.bsky.social
Casi agotadas las entradas para la vuelta de la final de la Nations Cup en Madrid este martes para España contra Alemania (femenino) ⚽️

tickets.rfef.es

amp.sport.es/es/noticias/...
La caldera del Metropolitano debe impulsar a España hacia el título
Alexia Putellas destacó que 'ahora sí que es una final a un partido' en la que el ambiente 'caliente' debe ayudar a revalidar el martes la UEFA Nations League
amp.sport.es
November 29, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
lgamboa.bsky.social
Resistance to democratic backsliding is in many ways a fight to buy time. Not caving is key in that regard. It allows a very slow legal battle to play out.
November 29, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
walterolson.bsky.social
From my Cato colleagues in February: "We find that all immigrants consumed 21 percent less welfare and entitlement benefits than native-born Americans on a per capita basis... Noncitizens were 7.3 percent of the population and consumed just 3.5 percent of all welfare and entitlement benefits."
Immigrants Used Less Welfare than Native-Born Americans in 2022
Rather than reaching toward expensive mass deportations as a solution to fiscal issues, the more free-market, libertarian, and fiscally responsible solution is to build a higher wall around the welfar...
www.cato.org
November 29, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
asharangappa.bsky.social
Creating a military conflict with Venezuela gives this administration a legal "hook" to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. In other words, the foreign war is being manufactured in order to facilitate court deference for its domestic mass deportation policy. It's a Stephen Miller Special.
November 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
tusk81.bsky.social
That tired old lie about immigrants being job-stealers? Pfft. Immigrant-led businesses employed nearly eight million Americans, according to 2019 data from the New American Economy👇🏽 open.substack.com/pub/americas...
Immigrants are job creators, employing millions of American workers: Immigrants are job-stealers? Pfft. Immigrant-led businesses employed nearly eight million Americans, according to further data from the New American Economy. Additionally, the 2022 study cited by MIT News further found that “immigration to the U.S. is associated with a net gain in job availability, contrary to the common perception that immigrants fill jobs that U.S.-born workers would otherwise have.” The study authors say the findings “suggest that immigrants act more as ‘job creators’ than ‘job takers’ and that non-U.S. born founders play outsized roles in U.S. high-growth entrepreneurship.” This likely stems from immigrants creating their own businesses after encountering road blocks in their own job searches. Relatedly, creating a long-overdue pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants would add 200,000 new jobs to the economy, as well as “increase Americans’ income by $791 billion and generate $184 billion in additional state and local and federal tax revenue from currently undocumented immigrants,” FWD.us said in a 2020 report.
November 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
espnfc-m.bsky.social
RAPHINHA AT IT AGAIN WITH THE ASSIST TO OLMO!

WHAT A RETURN TO THE STARTING LINEUP FOR THE BRAZILIAN 👏
November 29, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
espnfc-m.bsky.social
LAMINE YAMAL SCORES HIS FIRST GOAL AT THE NEW CAMP NOU 🔥
November 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
mediaanddemocracy.bsky.social
#Remigration
#ShouldBeFrontPage but isn’t

First they came for…
-the undocumented
-then those seeking asylum
-then those w/ongoing applications
-then those w/TPS status
-then those w/birthright citizenship
etc..
The fascists aren’t stopping. They must be stopped.
h/t @marisakabas.bsky.social 5/2025
The Handbasket > Posts > State Department set to launch 'Office of Remigration' State Department set to launch 'Office of Remigration' The concept of remigration has explicitly neo-Nazi roots and has been popularized in Europe. Marisa Kabas May 29, 2025 Donald J. Trump & @realDonald Trump As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala's illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration). I will save our cities and towns in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and all across America. MAGA2024! 2.19k ReTruths 7.01k Likes 9/14/24, 6:25 PM Remigration Article Talk From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Not to be confused with Return migration. Remigration, " also called repatriation, 23) is a far-right and Identitarian political concept referring to the forced or promoted return of non-ethnically European immigrants, often including their descendants who were born in Europe, back to their place of racial origin, typically with no regard for their citizenship. 41[5) it is popular especially within the Identitarian movement in Europe 6117) Some proponents of remigration suggest excluding some residents with non-European background from such a mass deportation, based on a varyingly-defined degree of assimilation into European culture. 8191(101 Homeland Security @DHSgov The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear: Remigration now. 8:38 AM • Nov 28, 2025 • 241.1K
November 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
lavidagata.bsky.social
I love this story so much (gift link). I missed it last year. It would be my dream come true if the sports experiences company I’m launching, Gata Sports Tours, could also support positive impact, progressive causes. For anti-sportswashing, anti-dictator fans.

www.nytimes.com/2024/03/02/w...
November 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
guillermofesser.bsky.social
Mientras presume de luchar contra la droga bombardeando barcos en el Caribe, Trump anuncia que va a perdonar al ex presidente Hernández de Honduras condenado a 45 años de cárcel en Nueva York por aceptar millones de “el Chapo” a cambio de hacer la vista gorda. 👇
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/28/w...
Trump Announces Pardon for Honduran Ex-President Convicted in Drug Case
www.nytimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Kat O’Brien
eduardosuarez.bsky.social
Trump's family and friends are selling Ukraine in exchange for Putin's bribes. Sickening and yet unsurprising at this stage
bgrueskin.bsky.social Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 1d
Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments.

🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...
WSJ Gentry Beach, a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and campaign donor to his father, has been in talks to acquire a stake in a Russian Arctic gas project if it is released from sanctions. Another Trump donor, Stephen P. Lynch, paid $600,000 this year to a lobbyist close to Trump Jr. who is helping him seek a Treasury Department license to buy the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from a Russian state-owned company. One sign that he may be serious is that some of his most-trusted friends, sanctioned billionaires from his St. Petersburg hometown-Gennady Timchenko, Yuri Kovalchuk and the Rotenberg brothers, Boris and Arkady-have sent representatives to quietly meet American companies to explore rare-earth mining and energy deals, according to people familiar with the meetings and European security officials. That includes reviving the giant Nord Stream pipeline, sabotaged by Ukrainian tactical divers, and under European Union sanctions. Earlier this year, Exxon Mobil met with Russia's biggest state energy company, Rosneft, to discuss returning to the massive Sakhalin gas project if Moscow and Washington gave the green light.
November 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM