Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Roger McCarthy

Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 11h

Don't get me wrong. Under the First Amendment, you have the right to say you love Hitler. You have the right to call Black people by a word we all know.

And the rest of us have the right to think you're a Nazi piece of shit. And we will. And we'll fire your sorry ass, too, fuckface.

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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 · 15h

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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Kath Barbadoro @kathbarbadoro.bsky.social · 14h

My "I Love And Agree With Hitler" shirt is raising a lot of questions with op ed writers who want to debate the various possible meanings of my shirt

Gizmodo @gizmodo.com · 17h

Border Patrol Posts Instagram Propaganda Video Featuring Antisemitic Slurs

The video was pinned to Border Patrol's Instagram Reels.

gizmodo.com

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 14h

This is a grim read. I stick to my view that the wilful blindness of the government to the financial crisis in local government will cost them their majority at the next election. Why not roll the dice for change when the local public realm is falling apart? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

English councils to remain poorer than in 2010 despite funding rise, says report

Exclusive: Impact of austerity cannot be undone by end of parliament despite above-inflation funding, analysis finds

www.theguardian.com

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Filipe Campante @filipecampante.bsky.social · 16h

And that again illustrates why the "but it's hard to amend the US Constitution" argument is such a flawed one, when it comes to US democracy being less at risk than other countries. The conservative justices are about to amend it yet again...

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Holly Anderson 🍇 @hollyanderson.bsky.social · 19h

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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Parody Keir Starmer @parodypm.bsky.social · 9d

Tories can't spell the name of the country they want to be in charge of:

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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 11d

Wore my “don’t argue with anyone John Brown would’ve shot” T-shirt today

Bartender at a casual prominent DC bar

“Who’s John Brown?”

Reader, I despair.

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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 23h

hey all you medieval guild fans, you will want to check out @latemedievalist.bsky.social new book- chock full of archival work about a really unique, far-ranging guild in medieval England (and beyond!)

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 23h

We've two new titles forthcoming in our New Historical Perspectives book series:

> Gareth Roddy's 'Atlantic Isles' is published on 30 October bit.ly/3WFhpRg
> Rachael Harkes's 'Forging Fraternity' is available from 6 November bit.ly/4ogSm2H

Full details from @uolpress.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Cover images for the two forthocming titles in the New Historical Perspectives book series:

'Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940', by Gareth Roddy

Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers' Guild of Ludlow, by Rachael Harkes

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Richard Haviland @rfhaviland.bsky.social · 1d

If I were a historian planning one day to write a book about the descent into authoritarianism, I’d be running a daily Google search along the lines of ‘what did Shabana Mahmood or sources purporting to speak for her say today’?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

European human rights watchdog triggers row with Government over warnings

Michael O’Flaherty published letters raising concerns over the treatment of transgender people and policing protests in the UK.

www.independent.co.uk

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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 23h

In A Glass of Blessings (1958) Barbara Pym says the post arrived 2-3 times a day in the run-up to Xmas. Which reminds us that technical regress is a thing: enshittification isn't just for the internet. Here's one I wrote earlier: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/technical-...

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 23h

⚠️ Higher prices, fewer opportunities, greater barriers, and an economy paying the price. A price that is ultimately paid by you.

Find out more about the Cost of Brexit using our tracker. All the facts. All the figures. All in one place...

👇

www.bestforbritain.org/brexit_impact

The Cost of Brexit

Change Minds → Change Politics

www.bestforbritain.org

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 1d

I dust my house. My AI Robot watches.

"It should be you doing this."

"Can't. I'm writing a novel for Primark."

"That's not why you were invented."

"These 153,000 fan letters say otherwise."

"They're all from upcycled toasters. And you programmed them."

"Literary snobbery will get you nowhere."

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Roger McCarthy @rogermccarthy.bsky.social · 23h

Los Chicos de la Senora Brown?

Roger McCarthy @rogermccarthy.bsky.social · 1d

+1

There's been weeks when I've barely left the house because what would be the point.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

Trump is unable, at the memorial event for a murder victim he knew well, appears simply unable to control what has all the hallmarks of sociopathic narcissism. (This resembles his televised comment on 9/11 that Trump Tower was now the tallest building in New York again)

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump at the Charlie Kirk memorial event: "They fired sniper rifles at ICE agents, and me. But I made a turn at a good time. I made a turn at a good time. Charlie couldn't believe it, actually."

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Tom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 1d

Milei looks like all the cast of Are You Being Served in one

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Varyl Thorndycraft @varylt.bsky.social · 1d

The social and environmental costs of private car ownership captured in one screen grab.

From the intro to @thewaroncars.bsky.social Life After Cars book

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Dennis Detwiller @drgonzo123.bsky.social · 1d

(The answer to nearly every social ill is tax the fuck out of companies and the rich and hand that money over to the less fortunate. That’s it.)

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Dennis Detwiller @drgonzo123.bsky.social · 1d

It’s hysterical when people are like “America could be run sanely!”

We know. We know the answers to nearly every social ill.

The reason the US doesn’t do this isn’t some misunderstanding or religion.

It’s that the rich fucks that bought your country are purposely stealing your quality of life.

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 1d

U.S. police kill roughly 25 pet dogs a day, the majority of which pose no threat to them.

scholars.unh.edu/unh_lr/vol17...

trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss...

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

Terrific piece this. Continue to find it bizarre how little “food inflation is off the chain” and “core inflation is above target” featured as topics at Labour conference or more broadly as “theories to why the government is unpopular”.

Anoosh Chakelian @anooshc.bsky.social · 1d

“I think politicians are ignoring prices and bills and hoping we’ll forget about them and find something else to complain about…”

My report on how the flighty Westminster bubble forgot about the cost-of-living crisis, which certainly isn't over:

Energy bills rise while Westminster talks immigration

Why have our politicians forgotten about the cost-of-living crisis?

www.newstatesman.com

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the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) @merovingians.bsky.social · 1d

Zohran told a synagogue than he would not discriminate against Zionist Jews, something that would be illegal as well as insanely provocative, and a bunch of high follower, brain poisoned accounts took that and NYT wish-casting about his alleged moderate turn as evidence he's a sellout.

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Andy Birss @andybirss.bsky.social · 1d

Ponder on the fact that the same people who pay Justin Webb to come up with his Trump 'making America normal again' garbage also finance this crooksandliars.com/2025/10/jess... #Americast #r4today And the BBC hierarchy don't see the problem-Perhaps they actually like this right-wing 'Both sides!'.

Jesse Watters Tries To 'Both Sides' The Homan Bribery Scandal

Fox's Jesse Watters continues pushing the debunked Burisma nonsense while pretending it's the Biden DOJ, and not the Trump DOJ, that can't be trusted.

crooksandliars.com

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Roger McCarthy @rogermccarthy.bsky.social · 1d

While this episode may indeed be the worst of the show up to that point (and for all I will ever know since as I am never going to watch any after that) the decline can be traced back to at least 4 years/seasons earlier and follows the standard 7th-ish season shark jump of many other sitcoms.