Author | Lightnews

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 21h

11% in NINE MONTHS! #inflation

'Trump said on the campaign trail he would “cut the price of energy and electricity in half”...The president has also waged a war on wind and solar power, despite soaring electricity demand driven by AI datacenters.'
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US electricity bills increased by 11% in Trump’s second term, data shows
New analysis prompts letter to Trump from Elizabeth Warren: ‘Your administration has no answers for families hit by high energy costs’

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 22h

' a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the government must continue to fund the program...in a case brought by the Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia and three governors who sued the administration.'
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump administration blocked from suspending Snap benefits for millions of Americans

One judge issues temporary restraining order while another judge rules the government must continue to fund program that helps low-income households

www.theguardian.com

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 22h

'A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday afternoon blocked the Trump administration from suspending all food aid for millions of Americans amid the ongoing government shutdown, in a case brought by a group of US cities, nonprofit organizations and a trade union.

'At almost the same time... /1

Trump administration blocked from suspending Snap benefits for millions of Americans
One judge issues temporary restraining order while another judge rules the government must continue to fund program that helps low-income households

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 1d

Close enough for Crowley!

Political cartoon. Two witches, one stirring a cauldron. The other, holding a recipe book, says "It says if you can't get Satan's wart, you can substitute with Stephen Miller."

1 4

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 1d

Cool story.
'Several people asked which superhero I was. I said, “He’s really more of a super jackass” – helping people is not something Homelander typically does'

I dressed up as a superhero for Halloween – and then saved a man’s life
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Experience: I dressed up as a superhero for Halloween – and then saved a man’s life
The man was unconscious but there was no time to wake him, the smoke and flames were closing in

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 1d

I think morale is down in the Russia fighting forces!

'...commanders had appointed “execution shooters” to open fire on refusers...officers allegedly ordered drone operators to drop grenades on their own men, disguising the killings as battlefield strikes.' www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Russian army chiefs torturing and executing soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine, report says
Investigation lists 101 superiors accused of tactics such as using drones to ‘finish’ off retreating troops and sending soldiers on death missions

1 2

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 2d

Worth a read and a save for the next time some MAGAt says "both sides."🤬

108 Steps the Trump Administration Has Taken To Destroy America
'This is documentation of policies implemented between January 20 and October 29, 2025 that caused measurable harm' cmarmitage.substack.com/p/108-steps-...

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 2d

“The crisis has many components, but I think the eruption recently of political violence in this country is a sign that there is a crisis." Please note that all the violence has been perpetrated by right wing zealots, not the "woke people."
#WestVirginia

Morrisey picks first director of WVU’s Washington Center, says he’ll ‘push back on woke ideology’ • West Virginia Watch

Dr. Patrick Lee Miller will serve as the first director of the Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship at WVU.

westvirginiawatch.com

1

Reposted by Mike Keller

Jacob Rosenberg @jacobrosenberg.bsky.social · 3d

10 29 120

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 3d

Rising global heat is now killing one person a minute around the world...the world’s addiction to fossil fuels also causes toxic air pollution, wildfires and the spread of diseases such as dengue fever
#climatechange

Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals

Biggest analysis of its kind finds millions are dying each year because of failure to tackle climate crisis

www.theguardian.com

2

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 4d

The Hunger Games Begin
40 million Americans are about to lose food stamps
The pain from lost food aid will, if anything, hurt Republican voters worse than Democrats #SNAP #shutdown
paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-hunger...
via @pkrugman.bsky.social

US map showing percent of households with SNAP

1 2

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 7d

The Shining #EpsteinBallroom

Photo of crowd in ballroom from movie "The Shining"
"If Stephen King has taught us anything, it's that nothing good can happen in a ballroom"

2

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 8d

#NoahsArk #drugmules
Cartoon by Mike Luckovich

Cartoon by Mike Luckovich showing Noah's Ark with animals aboard and a missile speeding toward it. One of the animals aboard says "Trump thinks we're drug mules."

1

Reposted by Mike Keller

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 10d

The GOP-led Congress has been out of session for too long. The House is not shut down. They’re getting paid and should be working.

A tweet from Tim Walz reads: “18,000 Minnesota federal employees are facing unemployment while you’re sitting on your ass. Get back to Washington.” It quotes a tweet from Pete Stauber that says: “No better way to end a beautiful weekend in Northern Minnesota!” with an attached photo showing a cozy outdoor fire pit surrounded by chairs, wood stacks, and string lights at sunset.

150 1.5K 5.4K

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

And I reposted as fast as I could!

stat-monkey.bsky.social @stat-monkey.bsky.social · 10d

I stole this as fast as I could

1 1 3

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

How stupid is this?😡 #WestVirginia

Cannabis is still illegal at the federal level.
Treasurer's Office: “The money in the fund will remain unallocated until federal law changes."
But other states with legal #cannabis markets, including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are spending their tax revenue.

West Virginia collected $34 million in cannabis taxes. It hasn’t spent a penny.

West Virginia’s cannabis program has generated $34 million for research, addiction help and law enforcement. None of the money has been used.

mountainstatespotlight.org

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

Look at the anti-semitists! #sarcasm

“We do not forget that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel
Exclusive: In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

The article now claims that the marshal was hit by a ricochet. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

3

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

At least three GOP senators on the homeland security committee indicated they will vote against Ingrassia.
“I don’t plan on voting for him,” Scott told reporters. “I can’t imagine how anybody can be antisemitic in this country”.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
via @theguardian.com

Trump’s nomination of Paul Ingrassia loses Republican support following racist text messages
Ingrassia, Trump’s pick to lead the office of special counsel, allegedly described himself as having ‘a Nazi streak’

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

“By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, [Johnson] is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation." - Kris Mayes, Arizona attorney general
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
via @theguardian.com

Arizona sues Mike Johnson over refusal to swear in Democrat who could sway Epstein vote
Attorney general Kris Mayes files suit over House speaker’s delay in letting Adelita Grijalva start her job

2 6

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 10d

American Oligarchs: The Media Consolidation Timeline
cmarmitage.substack.com/p/american-o...

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns 178 television stations reaching 40% of U.S. households. The stations display ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox affiliate logos. None display Sinclair branding. This matters because research shows 71% of Americans trust local news compared to 61% who trust national news. The ten-point trust differential allows corporate-produced content delivered through local anchors to receive credibility that identical content from national sources would not. Sinclair requires all 178 stations to air corporate-produced segments. In 2018, dozens of local news anchors across the country read an identical script: “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. Some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.” The compilation video showing trusted local anchors in different cities reading identical corporate messaging went viral with over 30 million views. Viewers saw their local anchors, trusted for decades, speaking in unison with anchors thousands of miles away, reading words none of them wrote. Sinclair Chairman David Smith told Trump in 2016: “We are here to deliver your message.”

Democratic accountability operates through a feedback loop. Voters elect leaders. Those leaders implement policies. Voters experience the outcomes. Voters attribute outcomes to the leaders who caused them. When outcomes are negative, voters replace those leaders. This mechanism creates self-correction. Bad governance produces electoral consequences, incentivizing better governance.

The mechanism requires one condition. Voters must be able to connect outcomes to causes. When economic conditions worsen, voters must determine which policies produced the deterioration and which leaders implemented those policies. When constitutional violations occur, voters must recognize them and identify who committed them. When foreign policy fails, voters must understand what failed and why. Without accurate causal attribution, voters cannot hold leaders accountable.

Research conducted by King’s College London examined how authoritarian propaganda operates. The researchers ran experiments with 3,000 Russians. They found that propaganda’s power lies not in making citizens believe specific false claims but in creating confusion about causation. When audiences encounter what the researchers called an “avalanche of opposing claims and disinformation accusations,” they cannot determine what caused negative outcomes. They cannot attribute responsibility for regime policies. Blame becomes redirectable.

This finding connects to research from the University of Chicago examining when propaganda achieves maximum effectiveness. The researchers found propaganda works best when citizens consume similar information. When everyone in a population gets information from sources telling consistent stories, contradictory facts cannot penetrate. Oxford studies documented the mechanisms authoritarian propaganda provides: mobilization of regime allies, strategic signaling, diversion from regime failures, and pacification of dissent. The researchers found these mechanisms reinforce each other into self-…

1

Reposted by Mike Keller

David Rothschild @davmicrot.bsky.social · 12d

Republican Leaders are simultaneously saying that the Jews funded No Kings rallies AND No Kings rallies were promoting antisemitic h/t @atrupar.com

38 270 840

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 12d

The #Snapchat outage is likely a result of the widespread problems that Amazon Web Services — which hosts much of the internet — is also suffering. The likes of #Ring, Coinbase, Roblox and #Fortnite are also reportedly down at the moment.

Snapchat outage live — latest updates as social media app hit with widespread blackout

Snapchat has stopped working for a lot of users

www.tomsguide.com

1

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 13d

The IRS recently filed notices of a federal tax lien against Republican Sen. Jim Justice of #WestVirginia — the latest example of ongoing financial troubles...

One of the documents from the IRS lists Justice and his wife as having a total balance of more than $8 million in unpaid assessments.

IRS files tax lien against Jim Justice

The former governor, who joined the Senate in 2025, has repeatedly brushed off questions about his finances.

www.politico.com

2

Mike Keller @realitytourist.bsky.social · 14d

Not attending the rally today, but I'm out wearing my "No Caesars" shirt from @bsky.app 😎
#NoKings

Black T-shirt that says no Caesars in Latin