John Light
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johnalight.bsky.social
John Light
@johnalight.bsky.social
I’m an editor at TPM.


signal: johnalight.99
email: [email protected]
TPM's Golden Duke Awards: coming soon.

talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/its-t...
November 26, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by John Light
Emmanuel, a 15-year-old with intellectual disabilities, wandered away from his mom’s fruit stand in October.

She reported him missing to Houston police. But instead of reuniting them, the city turned him over to ICE.

“They’re failing all of us,” his mom said.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/11/24/d...
A Disabled Child’s Mom Reported Him Missing. He Was Locked Away by Federal Immigration Authorities for 48 Days.
Emmanuel, a 15-year-old who has an intellectual disability, walked away from his mom’s fruit stand in October. Houston Police called ICE.
thebarbedwire.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Bolsonaro apparently tried to destroy his ankle monitor with a soldering iron while under house arrest.

He claimed his medicine caused him to become paranoid and attack it.
How a Sabotaged Ankle Monitor Ended Bolsonaro’s House Arrest
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by John Light
The fun thing about being a longtime reader of @talkingpointsmemo.com is that as soon as I saw this headline I knew @joshtpm.bsky.social was incorporating by reference the whole previous series he did on "The Brittle Grip" more than a decade ago.

Since then, the oligarchy got somewhat more grippy.
The Brittle Grip of Ultra-Wealth
Just before I began writing this post, I saw this article from...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 23, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by John Light
Trump's anti-DEI crusade hit healthcare when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, under Dr. Mehmet Oz, removed race questions from its kidney failure patient form. The problem is, those questions weren't about DEI. That data informed actual medical breakthroughs talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-m...
The Trump Admin’s War on Data Is Compromising Major Health Advancements for Black Americans
Thanks to a 2009 medical breakthrough, researchers could be on the precipice...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by John Light
Jack Posobiec, one of the primary influencers behind the Trump administration's claims that its enemies are all "antifa," notes that "antifa" was founded during the Weimar Republic. (His point is that it makes sense for the Trump admin to target German antifa groups.)
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Data on race and ethnicity has put us on the cusp of breakthroughs in treating kidney failure, which disproportionately affects Black Americans. But the Trump administration has halted that data collection as part of its war on supposed "DEI." Important new story from @laylaayanna.bsky.social
The Trump Admin’s War on Data Is Compromising Major Health Advancements for Black Americans
Thanks to a 2009 medical breakthrough, researchers could be on the precipice...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by John Light
Seconding this! It's so so impressive and admirable.
Thriving in independent media for 25 years, without a) getting hoovered into some larger media org & subsequently axed, b) getting ruined by some hedge fund guy, c) falling afoul of any short-lived "pivot to video" style trends, or d) going broke...

... is a genuinely remarkable achievement! Kudos.
PHOTOS: TPM Celebrates Our 25-Year Anniversary in NYC talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/phot...
November 19, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by John Light
Josh really doesn't get enough credit as a digital journalism pioneer — and as an entrepreneur who built something meaningful and lasting.
November 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by John Light
Thriving in independent media for 25 years, without a) getting hoovered into some larger media org & subsequently axed, b) getting ruined by some hedge fund guy, c) falling afoul of any short-lived "pivot to video" style trends, or d) going broke...

... is a genuinely remarkable achievement! Kudos.
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"In the short term, no enforcing mechanism exists that would incentivize Justice Department officials or the Trump White House to abide by Congress’ demand. [...] Practically, there’s no real way for Congress to know if the Trump administration buries damaging documents or files."
Trump Gives Himself an Enormous Out on the Epstein Files
Epstein Politics Shift on the Hill President Trump’s absurd effort to avoid...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by John Light
Big news: Indiana Republicans signal they still do not have the votes to re-gerrymander the state, and that the Senate won't convene the Senate after all in December.

Getting 1-2 seats out of Indiana was central to the GOP's redistricting-war math.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Indiana redistricting push likely dead despite White House pressure
It’s a massive blow to the White House’s efforts to shore up a Republican House majority next year.
www.politico.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Reposted by John Light
NEW: Before the recent Epstein disclosures, Larry Summers was poised to lead the economic policy plank for the Democrats' "Project 2029" effort at the Center for American Progress. He signed off on a housing policy paper CAP was prepping for next week.
prospect.org/2025/11/14/e...
Epstein Confidant Larry Summers Guiding Democrats’ ‘Project 2029’ - The American Prospect
Summers was overseeing the economic policy plank of the Center for American Progress’s effort. Emails released this week show him in regular contact with Jeffrey Epstein.
prospect.org
November 14, 2025 at 5:04 PM
For my money, Rod Dreher — the man who is, somewhat ironically, sounding the alarm about Groypers in @hunterw.bsky.social's piece here — is one of the most bizarre figures in right-wing politics.
JD Vance Received a Dire Warning About the Groyper Takeover of the GOP From a Strange Source
The call warning of a dangerous tide of extremism in Donald Trump’s...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by John Light
Some are mulling taking money out of the US. Others are beefing up security. A look at how the Trump admin has intimidated the progressive nonprofit world:

talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-n...
How the Trump Admin Has Sown Fear Among Progressive Nonprofits
Private security details. Lawyering up. Moving assets overseas. Keeping comms on encrypted...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
“Today, a media conglomerate led by Orbán’s allies, known as the Central European Press and Media Foundation, or KESMA, controls nearly five hundred outlets, all of which echo the government’s every utterance, be it state propaganda or the nastiest smear campaign against Orbán’s enemies.“
Viktor Orbán’s Hail Mary.
I was editor in chief of Hungary’s most-read independent daily until a pro-government media network bought the newspaper. It’s the fifth time in thirty years that politics has cost me my job—and it’s ...
www.cjr.org
November 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by John Light
The right has become essentially a big propaganda apparatus; that's scary but also a weakness.
www.unpopularfront.news/p/operation-...
Operation Drumbeat
The Right is Loud but Hollow
www.unpopularfront.news
November 12, 2025 at 12:22 PM
"A YouTube page linked from the Facebook account shows a real video uploaded of a car in Cyprus nearly two years ago before any other content was uploaded, suggesting that the person behind the account may live in Cyprus (though the account banner on Facebook includes both a U.S. and Indian flag)."
AI-Generated Videos of ICE Raids Are Wildly Viral on Facebook
An account is spamming horrific, dehumanizing videos of immigration enforcement because the Facebook algorithm is rewarding them for it.
www.404media.co
November 12, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by John Light
Very proud to contribute to @talkingpointsmemo.com’s 25th anniversary retrospective. My entry is about my slow realization that COVID-era doomscrolling hastened the triumph of algorithm-optimized nonsense and propaganda over professional fact gathering and true story telling.
The Fitness Influencers Who Tried to Make Me Like Trump
It was March 2020 and suddenly I had much more free time...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:33 PM
How Talking Points Memo lasted a quarter century
How Talking Points Memo lasted a quarter century.
Josh Marshall reflects on building “a tabloid for smart people” and how his politics blog survived in a “chaotic and unstable and bad business.”
www.cjr.org
November 12, 2025 at 12:54 PM