Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2h

Seriously. Free the avocado priest, @safety.bsky.app.

Russ Frankenstein (no relation) @russ41.bsky.social · 19h

What in the absolute fuck did Leonid Baezhnev get suspended for?

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2h

Border Patrol has ~20,000 agents.

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Reposted by Travis Mason-Bushman

Nathan (TBI era)🌲 @never-say-die.bsky.social · 2h

I appreciate that this dude is running at like a 10-12 minute per mile pace and just dusts these dudes because they’re so encumbered by all of the unnecessary bull shit they’re wearing to look tough.

The Cigaverse @thecigaverse.swifties.social · 1d

ICE agents try to catch an activist, fail miserably

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Reposted by Travis Mason-Bushman

The Ass is the father of the legs @internethippo.bsky.social · 3h

Starting a trade war and then spending every day thereafter publicly crying when the other side fights back. That's true Alpha Male Strength

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 3h

“We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution.”

Trump: I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution. As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don't need to purchase it from China.
173 ReTruths 753 Likes
10/14/25, 12:37 PM

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Reposted by Travis Mason-Bushman

K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · 9h

Thanks to Obamacare health insurers can no longer refuse to sell you health insurance nor deny coverage for your illnesses discovered in the 2-3 years before you got insurance. But you can't wait until you're super sick to buy insurance. You have to buy in during open enrollment. Here's how to pick.

K. Chen @tznkai.bsky.social · Oct 28

It's open enrollment time so here's a convenient peg to hang a little tutorial about how to choose your health insurance.

Most of the advice you get is bad. Most of your instincts are bad. I however used to work for a health insurance company and I do arithmetic for a living so I can help.

Bionic Woman @batmansrobyn.bsky.social · Oct 28

Personally I think it's great that my company's HR sends out an official looking tool where they even ask you to pre-populate your healthcare providers and instead of being the actual insurance enrollment process it's just some bullshit checklist to try and convince me I actually don't want a PPO

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 15h

Thinking fondly of all the pre-election fact-checks that said we couldn’t possibly know whether Republicans wanted to get rid of pre-existing condition protections.

• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, "want to ... repeal the Affordable Care Act and elim nate protections for preexisting conditions." It's unclear what Trump would do, since he hasn't released a plan to replace the ACA. He said he would do so, if "we can come up With something that's better."

Schumer, meanwhile, was wrong to
say, as he did on the Senate floor April 28, that the bill goes "back to the day when insurance companies could deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions."

perorats and Republicans have made
competing claims on whether the latest version of the GOP health care bill maintains protections for people with preexisting medical conditions. President Trump has said, "Pre-existing conditions are in the bill. And I mandate it." Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer has said that
"insurance companies could deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions."
Neither of those comments quite gets it right. The latest version offers lesser protections than the Affordable Care Act, but it doesn't allow insurers to deny coverage to someone with a health

Who's right? Like everything else in health care, it's complicated.

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grimely.bsky.social @grimely.bsky.social · 19h

"The executive has usurped the power of the purse to pay for a standing army" is something that the Founders very explicitly wanted to prevent from ever happening but, ah, well, nevertheless

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 1d

The problem is that without factory farming, billions of people would starve because it's what's enabled most of the world to not worry about putting food on the table.

Don't get me wrong, there's things about it which are problematic. But it's also completely indispensable to modern human society.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

Congress could, at any time, stop this shitshow by telling Vought to end the RIFs and impoundments. It has very clear institutional reasons to do so. But obeying to Trump rules all, and instead the Speaker of the House will pretend he does not know what is happening while opining on Bad Bunny.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

REPORTER: We know the president moved forward with mass layoffs. We're also learning there were significant cuts to staff at special education services. Are you comfortable with those cuts?

MIKE JOHNSON: I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know

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Stacy Fahrenthold @sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 1d

I've been watching AAUP v. Trump, the lawsuit by @uofcalifornia.bsky.social faculty, students, staff, unions to stop Trump's illegal use of funding threats to stifle free speech.

The latest: Trump's lawyers have been furloughed, are asking the court for a stay because they aren't getting paid.

American Association of University Professors v. Trump, 3:25-cv-07864 - CourtListener.com

Docket for American Association of University Professors v. Trump, 3:25-cv-07864 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information.

www.courtlistener.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

obviously john roberts and the trump majority aren't going a little thing like "history" or "the written text of the constitution" get in the way of their ideological drive to remake the (republican) presidency as an elected dictatorship.

Originalist ‘Bombshell’ Complicates Case on Trump’s Power to Fire Officials

www.nytimes.com

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 1d

I'd spend the next five years in Cancun, tbh.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 1d

There are two types of Americans with any moral authority to talk about being "native-born" - Indigenous people and those whose ancestors were brought over in chains.

Not one of those groups? Then you're descended from an immigrant who came here for a better life, shut the fuck up.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 1d

note Stoller's use of "native-born Americans" there.

othering immigrants just like ICE. very leftist, much workers' rights.

Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 1d

Holy shit Matt Stoller is a public embarrassment. Anyone that follows @dieworkwear.bsky.social knows that he frequently promotes US-made manufacturers. Matt is a weird, lying asshole and it amazes me that people still give him a platform

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Reposted by Travis Mason-Bushman

Zach Schermele @zachschermele.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: These are all the Education Dept. offices that staffers and managers say have been impacted by layoffs since Friday, according to the union for the agency’s employees.

They include workers that supported HBCUs, tribal colleges, charter schools, civil rights reviews, special ed & more.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

Because there's no actual liquidity in the markets, and selling any substantial amount would immediately tank the value... which is what happened. None of these valuations were real. Funny money, all of it.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

ngmi, have fun staying poor

warrior cop @wyattprivilege.bsky.social · 2d

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

Please don't make shit up. Not a single Democrat voted to confirm Russ Vought. Straight party-line vote.

U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 119th Congress - 1st Session

www.senate.gov

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

And the safety of modern cars is insanely better than even 20 years ago. Both in crash avoidance tech like automatic braking and structural integrity/occupant protection.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

My shoebox-sized subcompact SUV has a turbo I4 with 250 horsepower and 320 foot-pounds of torque, while getting 30mpg with 75mph highway cruising. Those are sports car numbers from not long ago.

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Reposted by Travis Mason-Bushman

Lee Casebolt @leecasebolt.bsky.social · 2d

Look, if you'd rather have Digital Blowup Doll than Digital Erika Ishii that's your business but I wish they'd stop making it everyone else's problem.

Ana Valens | 🔞 | Comms Open @acvalens.net · 4d

Gamers’ brains are so cooked dude. The woman on the right is gorgeous and beautiful. Straight gamer men literally can’t find normal women attractive anymore.

Designed With
Gamers In Mind Designed With
Activists In Mind

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

Vought openly boasts about putting hard-working public servants "in trauma" - but he didn't use the F word, so that makes it all OK, according to Michael Barbaro.

again with apologies to the many great journalists at the NYT, but I won't subscribe until there's a wholesale management change.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

Vought, we are told, is a pious man who never curses. Ok! Not a word about his Christian nationalism; instead, one of the most influential political platforms in the world chooses to perpetuate the number one fallacy about the modern Right: That this is all about “small government.”

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 2d

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Travis Mason-Bushman @snarkranger.bsky.social · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Cave lights failed again.

Viola Smart 🦇 @smartvpants.bsky.social · 2d

You're administering the ACT.

badly-drawn boo! 👻 @soapachu.bsky.social · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"I've added some notes"

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