Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 4h

The federal courts have degenerated into places for far-right charlatans to bypass democracy, and democratic reforms must start there.

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Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 6h

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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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4h

New, from me:
Trump's 3 step plan to create a military omniforce
1. Purge - those deemed disloyal
2. Merge - different parts of law enforcement/military
3. Surge - impose the omniforce on Dem cities; instigate unrest; assert dominance; silence dissent
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/purge-merg...

Purge, Merge, and Surge

Trump is creating a omniforce of armed loyalists to establish his police state

donmoynihan.substack.com

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Dr. Tara L. Conley @taralconley.com · 4h

for active military or if you know someone in the military:

“The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may not be legal.”
www.nimj.org/top.html#/

Orders Project

The Orders Project is a non-partisan program created by the National Institute for Military Justice to assist military personnel in understanding their options when faced with orders they believe may....

www.nimj.org

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Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 3h

I hate profiles of conservatives who are worried that their country is changing and would welcome profiles of liberals and leftists who are afraid of same thing from the opposite direction and treated their concerns the same kind of reflexive deference

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

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 · 5h

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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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy

steady.page

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 4h

He fundamentally does not believe liberalism or "the Left" could authentically exist in America without some sinister "globalist" elites propagating these essentially foreign ideas from the institutions (federal agencies, universities...) they have taken over and turned into "leftist" power centers.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4h

and this is in turn tied to what they think america is supposed to be: a rigidly hierarchical and patriarchal society dominated by a religious and business elite

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 4h

As Vought sees it: The "natural"/divinely ordained order manifests in sharp hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth; this "natural" order was enshrined in the nation's founding; therefore any attempt at leveling hierarchies is unnatural, un-American, and fundamentally illegitimate.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

But there is nothing noble or respectable about what Vought is doing, about his vision for the country. He is a fully competent, utterly committed radical ideologue. He lusts for counter-revolution and radical measures. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

Russell Vought embodies the radicalization of the conservative movement; his example captures how far removed from democratic politics the Trumpist Right is. Vought is convinced to be fighting a noble war against a vast leftist conspiracy that has supposedly taken over the country.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

Vought is singularly focused on bending the entire government machine to Trump’s will. He believes that any check on the power of Donald Trump, who Vought literally describes as a “gift of God,” is illegitimate. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

Vought is not interested in “normal” democratic politics: He seeks to “traumatize” civil servants, use the military to suppress protests, and sees Trump as an agent of God’s will. He is convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend his “real America” of white Christian patriarchal rule.

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Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 5h

Vought is at war with large swaths of the population, with the very idea of a society defined by democratic pluralism. If you have correctly identified that this guy is now in a really powerful position, that people like him are in control of the government, how is that not the main story?

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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 19m

I wish I followed you so I could unfollow you for this BS

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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 26m

META AI is deeply integrated into Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp and helps determine the content you see.

A key Meta AI adviser spreads lies about shootings, vaccines and trans people and pushes extremism. META is so toxic and dangerous.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Meta AI adviser spreads disinformation about shootings, vaccines and trans people

Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for ‘peddling lies and pushing extremism’

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 4h

JD Vance blames Chuck Schumer for the fact that the White House mistakenly laid off key public health officials, including those dealing with measles and ebola.
The Trump regime's message is: We demand total power, but we're not responsible for anything.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

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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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 1h

JD Vance is still Peter Theil's intern. His only success was getting himself into Yale Law School with his bullshit DEI essay about his Appalachian family.

bsky.app/profile/wals...

Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 3h

JD Vance is a coward. He sold his soul for a seat of power. He sold his soul to someone he called “Hitler” to advance his own career. JD Vance is everything that’s wrong with our politics today.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4h

WELKER: Is the DOJ acting on orders from the president to prosecute his political opponents?

JD VANCE: No ... You know who we haven't prosecuted? Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton ... he's allowed to have opinions about law enforcement

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🧛‍♀️🎃~Bindi~🎃🧛‍♀️ @bindiatthebeach.bsky.social · 2h

'Verbal jujitsu:' ABC host ends interview as JD Vance refuses to answer bribery question

ABC's George Stephanopoulos, a host and former White House Communications Director, shut down an interview with JD Vance after the vice president refused to answer a question about a reported bribery ...

www.rawstory.com

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Home of the Brave @ofthebraveusa.bsky.social · 2h

Sen. Chris Murphy: "Republicans are boycotting negations to reopen the government because they're desperate to raise premiums on people in this country by 75% to finance tax cuts for the wealthy...JD Vance and Donald Trump's number one priority is raising healthcare premiums."

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2h

JD Vance is the worst. Luckily, he’s also dumb as a rock and has the charisma of that rock.

I, too, would like to interview JD Vance, primarily to tell him I’m done with him.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3h

STEPHANOPOULOS: I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50k as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 2024. You did not answer the question. Thank you for your time.

VANCE: No, George, I sai--

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll be right back

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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 1h

SNL with Pam Bondi & Kristi Noem

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Saturday Night Live: Amy Poehler is Pam Bondi and Tina Fey is Kristi Noem in standout episode

The former cast members reunite for a historic night, airing 50 years to the day of the first ever episode

www.theguardian.com

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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 2h

"over the past eight months, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court have acquiesced to Trump’s lawless and authoritarian actions, often without offering any explanation."

We're not helpless - history shows what we can do about this.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

www.nytimes.com

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Buckleup36 @buckleup36.bsky.social · 2h

More importantly, instead of fact checking who was President and spreading Trump's lies, it's better to shout that the FBI was responding to a TERRORIST ATTACK INCITED BY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP.

bsky.app/profile/nich...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 7h

“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 7h

That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.