Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 10h

I guess we're back to that $10 million payment that was being investigated before the investigation got closed down?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

Trump: "There was a reason we chose Egypt because you were very helpful. Everybody wanted to have this. You are a great leader. You have very little crime. I want to thank you. He's been my friend right from the beginning during the campaign against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Have you heard of her?"

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 17h

Wednesday is gonna be a rough day:

The Supreme Court will be hearing oral argument in a pair of cases that threaten what little remains of the federal government’s ability to protect voters from racial gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/louis...

Louisiana v Callais: The Republicans Justices Are Getting Ready to Finish Off the Voting Rights Act

In Louisiana v Callais, John Roberts will have the chance to finish his decades-long war on. voting rights.

ballsandstrikes.org

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C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 21h

What The Hell Is Going On, a thread:

I’ve seen some thinkpieces and posts about Portland protests that fail to understand the long-term hyperspecificity of Portland culture/humor, and frame it as a sort of shitposting meme-pilled ironic thing. Which is wrong.

So I’m gonna give you my breakdown.

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Jonah @anotherjonah.bsky.social · 21h

This morning I was filming ICE abducting sometime in Petworth. One of the agents told me "the last US citizen that did this he put in cuffs all the way to the courtroom".

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Zach Everson @zacheverson.com · 1d

“More than $6 billion in DeSantis ‘emergency’ contracts are missing legally required public documentation”

Daniel Ducassi for Florida Bulldog

More than $6 billion in DeSantis ‘emergency’ contracts are missing legally required public documentation

By Daniel Ducassi, FloridaBulldog.org - More than $6 billion in DeSantis ‘emergency’ contracts missing legally required public documentation.

www.floridabulldog.org

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 20h

James Michael Johnson, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is fanatically devoted to Donald Trump and expresses his adoration by endeavoring to give Trump everything he wants, despite never having heard a word Trump has written or said or any specific account of anything Trump has done.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

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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wombatsquid.bsky.social @wombatsquid.bsky.social · 1d

Baseball has a lower risk of injury, longer average career, and stronger union / better benefits

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Luigi de Guzman @ouij.bsky.social · 1d

The fact that protests now feature people who don’t normally have to worry about what might happen to them in an adverse encounter with security forces is a HUGE DEAL.

It means that the “real” victims don’t have to suffer alone. It means that some people care about something more than themselves

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Matt Stoller being very Matt Stoller, calling someone else a "classic left poseur snob"

Matt Stoller being eviscerated by @dieworkwear.bsky.social

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Texas Paul @realtexaspaul.com · 1d

Narrative matters in political warfare. We are winning this. MAGA are reduced to begging each other to be scared of the dancing frog.

Michael Edison Hayden @michaelehayden.bsky.social · 1d

“They are highly organized … [they] have purchased their own animal costumes”

Andy ngo mad about muppets again — this time in Chicago

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David Bier @davidjbier.bsky.social · 3d

ICE agents to US citizen: Turn around or you're getting the dog.

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 1d

This seems true, but it has pretty dark implications, because the consistent historical trend is for radicals of this sort, when stymied, to ramp up the violence in an effort to break through.

I think some folks are expecting a 'soft' Hungary-style tyranny and I don't think that's in the cards.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

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 · 1d

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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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 1d

A new chapter in the Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies story.

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

Out of shape goon squad 🤣

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

At first i thought the majority on the court was just a bunch of hardcore gop partisans with brains pickled in right wing propaganda but after seeing them do these softball book tour interviews with right wing outlets I'm convinced they're just neutral arbiters doing their best.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 1d

The people willing to go out over their skis on this despite the fact that Weiss has zero experience running a broadcast newsroom and the reporting she has done herself has been littered with holes are just telling you they agree with her ideologically

Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · 1d

Ratio me. Please. It's a badge of honor. If you don't like a link, go follow some chicken-heart who needs the approval of the thought-police. Caitlin Flanagan of @theatlantic.com is a tremendous writer and this piece is an excellent read. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss

The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.

www.theatlantic.com

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

This two-parter below is exactly why it's hard to make clothes in the United States.

Let's look at how much it costs to produce a button-up shirt in the US. 🧵

Someone on Twitter replies to me: "meh. buy american or stfu."

Two hours later, in a separate thread, the write: "$30 for a single button-up is ridiculous unless it is decent quality silk."

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wombatsquid.bsky.social @wombatsquid.bsky.social · 1d

This (via @annelaurie.bsky.social at www.balloon-juice.com) is pretty wild. It's great that priests are doing this. But the description sounds like something out of D&D. The undead fled from the cleric's holy water. . .

Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · 2d

Chicago priest Fr. Larry Dowling describes procession to ICE facility: “No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ.”

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 1d

We fired people we had no reason or budgetary need to fire and we actually screwed up and fired the wrong people and then rehired them the next day and all because of Chuck Schumer

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

BRENNAN: CBS confirmed the Trump administration rescinded the layoffs of CDC scientists. Some were involved with the federal measles response. How does a mistake like this happen?

VANCE: The govt shutdown inevitably leads to some chaos. It happened because of Schumer

B: But this was a WH decision

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Clean Observer @hammbear2024.bsky.social · 1d

Fuck you too for your equivocal bullshit last year.

I’ll never forget and I’ll never forgive.

Pop Crave @popcrave.com · 2d

“F**k ICE forever.”

— Chappell Roan at her show in Pasadena

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Some of the layoffs at CDC are being REVERSED.
Here is my updated story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

More than 1,000 CDC staff receive layoff notices during government shutdown

Another round of mass layoffs has struck CDC. The agency had already been cut during a reorganization this year, and more employees are now being shed amid the government shutdown.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 2d

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 3d

More judges speak to the press (the NYT) about what a disaster the Supreme Court (specifically the shadow docket) has been - “incredibly demoralizing & troubling”; a “judicial crisis”; a “slap in the face to district courts.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 2d

RFK fired the CDC official (w/decades of experience) leading the measles outbreak response. It's been decades since we've had such a large outbreak. And just to ensure they they can spread the measles outbreak even farther, they also fired the leadership for the center focused on immunization.

Figure showing the largest measles outbreak in the US in decades. There are over 1500 cases as of October 7 2025

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Laguna Beach Democratic Club @lagunabeachdems.bsky.social · 2d

Northwest Chicago Suburb: ICE Agents Rip 15-Year-Old Girl from Car, Slam Her to Ground She Screams “I’m 15!” as Man Kneels on Her Neck

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