Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted

TrumpsTaxes @trumpstaxes.com · 2h

Kristi Noem has been holding up FEMA funding for Americans in need all year.

But now she wants to spend $172M in taxpayer money on luxury jets for her own use.

Sheer corruption.

www.thedailybeast.com/ice-barbie-k...

ICE Barbie Ripped For Splurging $172 Million on Luxury DHS Jets

The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly shelled on two high-end Gulfstream jets for Kristi Noem and other top members of the department.

www.thedailybeast.com

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 1h

Body Cam Footage Shows Alleged ICE Officer Pulled Over for Drunk Driving Racially Profiling Arresting Officer | Common Dreams

Newly released body camera footage shows Florida man claiming to be federal immigration official racially profiling officer during DUI arrest.

www.commondreams.org

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 1h

AGI will never happen. It is impossible. LLMs are inherently defective. The problem of hallucinations is absolutely intractable. It is unlikely that LRMs will be any better. Agents are impossible. AI will never be anything but blunt force algorithms.

Game over. AGI is not imminent, and LLMs are not the royal road to getting there.

First slowly, and then all at once, dreams of LLMs bringing us to the cusp of AGI have fallen apart.

open.substack.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 1h

Everybody Around Trump Hates the Unhinged Laura Loomer. Except Trump.

She has zero qualifications, zero experience, zero talent except self-promotion. So how’d she get the national security adviser fired?

newrepublic.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 1h

The Trump Administration's steps toward a Military Occupation of America

( Tomdispatch.com ) - Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to unleash the armed forces on more American cities during a rambling address to top military brass. He told the hundreds of...

www.juancole.com

Reposted

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2h

Stop us if you've heard this one before. ICYMI @citizencohn.bsky.social on the GOP's new-old argument: www.thebulwark.com/p/something-...

There’s Something Weirdly Familiar About This New GOP Argument

Republicans’ latest attempt to win the shutdown fight shows they still don’t get it on Obamacare.

www.thebulwark.com

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 3h

White House’s Bluesky Debut Epically Backfires With Immediate Trolling

The White House has joined the left-leaning social media site—and has been made thoroughly unwelcome.

www.thedailybeast.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 3h

Why War on Venezuela?

Oil, maybe? BILL ASTORE OCT 17, 2025 I wonder why the Trump administration is so interested in Venezuela? Oh, so that’s why. A barrel of oil is selling for about $60 this morning. 303 billion barre…

bracingviews.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 3h

Creepy Israeli Spyware Vendor NSO Group Reportedly Sells to U.S. Company at the Worst Possible Time

Journalists beware.

gizmodo.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 3h

The Young Republicans’ Leaked Chat Isn't the Future—It's Now

It's our racist, fascist reality. And it's not going away anytime soon.

gizmodo.com

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Reposted

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 9h

A congressman’s ex got a protective order against him. His boss has little to say about it | Arwa Mahdawi

This isn’t the first time Cory Mills has faced allegations of misconduct – but the House speaker wants to talk about ‘serious’ things

www.theguardian.com

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 3h

AI Is Killing Wikipedia’s Human Traffic

Wikipedia’s human traffic is declining as more people rely on AI tools for answers.

gizmodo.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 4h

"Cryptocurrencies are a manifestation of The Greater Fool Theory of investing. A justification for cryptocurrencies is that they are unmoored from any government-regulated currency. Their primary utility, it turns out, is funding criminal activities."

Unstable coins - Angry Bear

Read about Unstable coins

angrybearblog.com

Reposted

Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 5h

Political parties must shift immediately and dramatically to the left to avoid alienating these frustrated and abandoned young women. Am I doing this right?

19thnews @19thnews.org · 5h

Our recent poll found that women 28 and younger skew substantially more left than the national average. Nearly 80 percent of Gen Z women want abortion to be legal and seven in 10 want gender-affirming care to be accessible for trans adults.

Gen Z women are the most liberal group in the country

On issues like abortion and gender-affirming care, women 28 and younger skew substantially more left than the national average.

19thnews.org

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Reposted

Paul Graf @paulginva.bsky.social · 9h

Peter Thiel, certainly one of the weirdest tech bros, gets a very nice send up by the The Economist for all of his recent blather about the End Times and the Antichrist.

What the hell-in a more literal sense than usual-is going on? Over the past few weeks, in a series of off-the-record lectures and on-the-record interviews, Mr Thiel has argued that the world has submitted to a doctrine of "peace and safetyism" for the past 50 years. It has also submitted to the rule of organisations such as the European Union. As the Bible, Mr Thiel says, states that "the slogan of the Antichrist is 'peace and safety," it follows that the world risks the rule of the seven-headed one.

Mr Thiel's science is worth treating even more cautiously than his theology. He argues that the world's (and arguably the Antichrist's) enthusiasm for safetyism has led to "50 years of stagnation" in many areas. He is concerned about artificial intelligence (AI) and the Antichrist stymying the technology's potential. Mr Thiel has called Nick Bostrom, a philosopher who writes about the dangers of AI, a "legionnaire of the Antichrist". Others demur. The idea of widespread scientific stagnation is "nonsense", says Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal. Mr Bostrom is more charitable. "I understand his frustration," says Satan's supposed operative.

There is an august tradition of talking twaddle about the End Times. Everyone from the emperor Nero to Bill Gates has been accused of being the Antichrist. Medieval crusaders saw the Antichrist's footsoldiers in their Saracen enemy. Protestants during the Reformation felt the pope was the Antichrist. For others he was embodied in property-owners who must thus be massacred. (Generation Rent might feel some sympathy.) Each incarnation of the Antichrist is less indicative of demonic power than personal pique. Mr Thiel, who has invested in AI, sees the Antichrist in anti-AI regulation. The Antichrist has always been less anti-Christ than anti-you.

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

Exorbitant Privilege Gained and Lost: Fiscal Implications | Journal of Political Economy

We study three centuries of fiscal history. Dominant safe asset suppliers issue more debt than future primary surpluses can justify, even after accounting for seigniorage revenue from convenience yiel...

www.journals.uchicago.edu

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

How MI6 Built Syria's Extremist Police

All my investigations are free to read, thanks to the enormous generosity of my readers.

www.kitklarenberg.com

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

Since he's the offspring of a monarch, his title of Prince can't be taken away from him. The reigning monarch can't take it away from him. An act of Parliament can't take it away although tn act of Parliament could take away his dukedom. He can't give it up. He'll be plenty miserable even still.

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

Why Pakistan and the Taliban are at war with each other

Islamabad needs Kabul to clamp down on militants targeting Pakistan, but the Taliban can’t do that without endangering itself

www.middleeasteye.net

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

Well, Peter Thiel thinks she might be the Antichrist.

Israel Tortured And Sexually Humiliated Greta Thunberg

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

caityjohnstone.medium.com

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socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

The Eurofighter is MUCH more reliable than the F-35 Joint Strike Force Paperweight, it's nearest direct competition. The F-35 spends time in the shop like a 1970s Jaguar. And the Eurofighter doesn't glitch when carrying out missions. The F-35 is the biggest boondoggle in US military history.

Germany Orders 20 Eurofighters as Program Continues to Fail on Foreign Markets

The German Defence Ministry has signed a contract to procure 20 new Eurofighter combat aircraft, with the agreement concluded at Airbus’s final assembly site in

militarywatchmagazine.com

socrates17.bsky.social @socrates17.bsky.social · 9h

"A couple days ago I discussed the Dutch taking over Nexperia, a Chinese owned but Dutch domiciled company making commodity semiconductors. The company became Chinese owned because it was almost bankrupt, the Chinese bought it, fixed it and kept many jobs in Europe, including the headquarters."