Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brian Beutler

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 32m

It's going up to $40 billion.

USAID's budget last year was $28 billion.

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 2h

28 230 660

Reposted by Brian Beutler

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2h

"Expanding his authority"?

Jesus H. Christ.

There are people at the NYT who know better than this. Lots of them.

Some of them should check the headlines, sub-heds, and "social sells."

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

21 60 280

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

JD Vance’s unwillingness to condemn the Nazi GOP groupchat provides the press corps yet another opportunity to probe his personal associations, and take note of how the whole administration exists to please them and make sadistic content go viral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

9 140 480

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 3h

Remember, brown 13-year-olds are hardened menaces to society, but 30-something Republican Hitler afficionados in positions of power are just li’l guys.

Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 4h

These. Were. Men. In. Their. 30s.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

No one in the GOP Hitler chat was a "kid"

We checked. Sorry, JD Vance.

www.motherjones.com

14 900 2.9K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Zach D Roberts @zdroberts.bsky.social · 6h

Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office

An American flag altered to include an image of a swastika was found in Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office

An American flag altered to include an image of a swastika was found in Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.

www.politico.com

53 190 470

Reposted by Brian Beutler

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 6h

Politico received an initial tip that a Taylor staffer had a swastika neatly pinned to his cubicle during a zoom call. When confronted, the congressman’s press office pretty implausibly sought to present the situation as a police matter, and Politico went along with that in its headline and lede.

Zach D Roberts @zdroberts.bsky.social · 6h

Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office

An American flag altered to include an image of a swastika was found in Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Capitol Police called to investigate swastika in GOP congressional office

An American flag altered to include an image of a swastika was found in Rep. Dave Taylor’s office.

www.politico.com

70 420 1.5K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Patrick Finnegan @pfinns.bsky.social · 11h

A lot of good insight here from @brianbeutler.bsky.social and @gregsargent.bsky.social. Worth the read, but I'll post some screen-grabbed nuggets.

newrepublic.com/article/2017...

4 8 28

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 7h

Reminder: the House recess isn't because of the budget, the House adjourned before the shutdown because the GOP doesn't want to hold a vote to release government files on a pedophile because everyone knows those files implicate Trump. Republicans are doing this to protect their pedophile President.

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 8h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/10/national-security-presidential-memorandum-nspm-8/

9 130 410

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 8h

Trump's mechanism to pay the troops during the shutdown is by far the most illegal budgetary action he's taken as POTUS, potentially setting the stage to break everything.

It's also needless because Congress would easily pass a troop pay bill if Johnson were willing to gavel in.

Long thread.

58 1.3K 3.1K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser.bsky.social · 7h

the good news is the Trump administration knows they don't have enough U.S. Nazis to retain power.

the bad news is they're recruiting Nazis from abroad to help.

Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 7h

So Nazis. They want to give refugee status to Nazis.

OK, maybe not JUST Nazis. Also certain other white people who hate non-white immigration. But Nazis can definitely come.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.”

That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.

10 130 300

Reposted by Brian Beutler

The Last Bastion... @twainspatriot.bsky.social · 8h

The Republican coalition has shrunk itself into a corner, where they can’t afford to lose any element of it— no matter how corrupt or detestable they may be.

The rest of us should see that as a weakness to exploit, and act accordingly.

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

JD Vance’s unwillingness to condemn the Nazi GOP groupchat provides the press corps yet another opportunity to probe his personal associations, and take note of how the whole administration exists to please them and make sadistic content go viral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

4 17 94

Reposted by Brian Beutler

paulalj.bsky.social @paulalj.bsky.social · 10h

This is what the Republican Party is now. If you vote Republican this is who you are. Own it. You can no longer pretend ignorance.

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

JD Vance’s unwillingness to condemn the Nazi GOP groupchat provides the press corps yet another opportunity to probe his personal associations, and take note of how the whole administration exists to please them and make sadistic content go viral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

5 28 85

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

They are going to egg each other into worse and worse atrocities until they are checked and stopped. The more depraved they are, the more viral they go, sending the country into a downward spiral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

2 16 71

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

People like that are no different from Vance’s parasocial friends. They deliver North Korea-style praise for Dear Leader, and in return the administration delivers them gutter rhetoric and state violence, refracted through #content www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

1 18 68

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

They are going to egg each other into worse and worse atrocities until they are checked and stopped. The more depraved they are, the more viral they go, sending the country into a downward spiral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

2 16 71

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

People like that are no different from Vance’s parasocial friends. They deliver North Korea-style praise for Dear Leader, and in return the administration delivers them gutter rhetoric and state violence, refracted through #content www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

1 18 68

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 11h

JD Vance’s unwillingness to condemn the Nazi GOP groupchat provides the press corps yet another opportunity to probe his personal associations, and take note of how the whole administration exists to please them and make sadistic content go viral. www.offmessage.net/p/governing-...

Governing For The Gram

Republicans are obsessed with finding non-existent connections between Democrats and "the violent left" Meanwhile...

www.offmessage.net

9 140 480

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 12h

Come and listen to me comment on Trump’s unusually labial neck wattle.

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 14h

"No amount of appeasement of Trump will work short of turning yourself into a lapdog. So news outlets have to choose. And if you go halfway, you’re basically going to lose everyone."

On the pod, @brianbeutler.bsky.social is great on the failure of Trump appeasement:
newrepublic.com/article/2017...

Trump Erupts at ABC over Vance On-Air Fiasco as Presser Goes Off Rails

As Trump’s exchanges with reporters appear more power-crazed than usual, a sharp observer of our slide into authoritarianism explains why the Resistance must find a new kind of response before it’s to...

newrepublic.com

11 19 110

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Jesse Dollemore @dollemore.com · 1d

Currently on a flight to Japan watching a Pentagon Assistant Press Secretary (Riley Podleski) work on a document in the open on her laptop. She spent the last hour copy and pasting headlines from articles critical of the Administration’s hostility toward the 1st amendment.

96 870 2.9K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 14h

"No amount of appeasement of Trump will work short of turning yourself into a lapdog. So news outlets have to choose. And if you go halfway, you’re basically going to lose everyone."

On the pod, @brianbeutler.bsky.social is great on the failure of Trump appeasement:
newrepublic.com/article/2017...

Trump Erupts at ABC over Vance On-Air Fiasco as Presser Goes Off Rails

As Trump’s exchanges with reporters appear more power-crazed than usual, a sharp observer of our slide into authoritarianism explains why the Resistance must find a new kind of response before it’s to...

newrepublic.com

23 190 550

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Annette Gordon-Reed @agordonreed.bsky.social · 18h

1)You may remember the articles criticizing liberal students for their hesitancy to make friends with conservative students—alleging that they were less open-minded than their conservative counterparts.

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

Here are the little darlings they’ve created. Horrifying.

www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

57 1.2K 4.4K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 1d

To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.

Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids

Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.

abcnews.go.com

280 7.7K 20K

Reposted by Brian Beutler

George Spies @georgespies.bsky.social · 1d

For sure, this. We need to keep calling their bullshit and keep the blame on them, and not on the angry and alienated 22 year old who does something dumb.

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 1d

Trump and Miller will probably get the blood in the streets they want eventually. We don’t know when or how it will unfold, or how the public will come to perceive it. But we do know that no matter how it unfolds or is perceived, it is already their fault. All we can do is our best.

It'll Be Trump's Fault

Donald Trump created this unstable equilibrium; no matter how it breaks down, it will be his fault.

www.offmessage.net

1 9 56

Reposted by Brian Beutler

Patrick Finnegan @pfinns.bsky.social · 1d

Extremely important point. The bile spewing from Miller, Trump, and their supporters make their bloodthirstiness crystal clear. They are desperate to invoke the Insurrection Act and will manufacture a pretext to do so eventually.

What happens next is on them.

👇👇

3 21 73

Reposted by Brian Beutler

TheEggOne @theeggone.bsky.social · 1d

This. Anyone with eyes can see it coming. This is not a "call to arms". It is simply an observation that Trump thinks that chaos on the streets works to his favor and he and his admin are doing everything they can to provoke it. Humans, being what we are, means someone will eventually take the bait.

Brian Beutler @brianbeutler.bsky.social · 1d

Trump and Miller will probably get the blood in the streets they want eventually. We don’t know when or how it will unfold, or how the public will come to perceive it. But we do know that no matter how it unfolds or is perceived, it is already their fault. All we can do is our best.

It'll Be Trump's Fault

Donald Trump created this unstable equilibrium; no matter how it breaks down, it will be his fault.

www.offmessage.net

1 29 100